Sermon Tone Analysis

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This morning we are going to be in .
This is the prayer that Paul began in verse one and then got side tracked into talking about his ministry to the gentiles and God’s grace which has been extended to the nations.
Praying the bibe
Praying written prayers
One thing we have done in our home since Karis was born is to have a time of songs and prayers before bed.
Prayer lists
Every night we gather together and sings a few songs together, talk about the day, we pray together and then sing the doxology together.
And a few weeks ago I was thinking how this time together as a family is very important.
And it is important because it is formative, during this time I am teaching my children how to pray.
And I felt somewhat convicted because though it is a good thing for us to do, I had not used that time to teach my kids how to pray well, how to mature in their prayers, or how to pray the way the bible prays.
So since then we have changed the way we do our evening songs and prayers...
Now we sing a few songs, we then read a psalm together, we pray a psalm together and then we pray the Lords prayer together.
You see, the prayers in the bible are prayers for us, prayers we should pray, and prayers that apply to us.
So when we look at Paul’s prayer here in we should look at it as a prayer we should be pray as our own.
Let us not fall into thinking that this prayer is just a historical record of Paul’s prayer, but this is indeed a prayer for the church today.
Ephesians is the most poetical of Paul’s letters
He indeed writes from the mountain top of Christian thought and theology,
and now this prayer is one where Paul is taking so many of the great theme of the bible and bringing them together in this one glorious prayer
Lets start with vv.14-16
For what reason?
In Christ God has taken Jews and gentiles and has brought them together thus creating one new family, a new city, a new race.
Because of this great work, for this reason, Paul bows his knees before the father.
and then in verse 15 he introduces the Father by saying, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”
Paul’s prayer life was one done mostly standing.
Jews only bowed down on their knees when praying with an unusual passion.
Bow my knees before the father...
The opening statement — “For this reason I kneel before the Father” — may not get our attention, especially if kneeling is part of our normal prayer discipline.
But in fact it is remarkable because it was not customary for Jews to kneel in prayer.
The ordinary posture was standing, just as we see pious Jews doing today before the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, rocking back and forth as they intone their prayers.
Kneeling indicated an extraordinary event or an unusual passion.
For example, when King Solomon prayed at the dedication of the Temple, he knelt on a wooden platform before all the people and lifted his hands to Heaven in prayer (2 Chronicles 6:13).
In Gethsemane on the eve of his death Jesus fell to the ground in agonized emotion as he prayed to his father (Mark 14:35, 36).
And when Paul made his tearful good-bye to the elders of Ephesus, he knelt with them and prayed (Acts 20:36–38).
The ordinary posture was standing, just as we see pious Jews doing today before the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, rocking back and forth as they chant their prayers.
Kneeling indicated an extraordinary event or an unusual passion.
).
During the exile, Daniel prayed three times a day on his knees
In Gethsemane on the eve of his death Jesus fell to the ground in agonized emotion as he prayed to his father (, ).
So for Paul to say that he bows his knees in prayer communicates that this prayer is one full of passion.
So Paul says he bows his knees to the father, and then in verse 15 he introduces the Father by saying, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”
What Paul is doing here is exalting the one whom he is praying too.
You see, the Ephesians were well aquatinted with deities and prayer rituals.
Yet, they have been brought out of the life by the power of the gospel.
And Paul is saying that the one he is praying too is supreme, majestic, above all.
You see, to name something in the Bible has great implications.
its not the same as naming your your child, your dog, or your boat.
to name something in the Bible is to have and exercise complete dominion over that thing.
As Adam named the animals, and had dominion over them so God has named every family in heaven and on earth.
He has complete dominion over the angles of heaven and every person on earth.
So it is to this God who has cosmic dominion that Paul bows his knees before and calls father.
And he prays to the Father for the Ephesian Christians.
He prays for three things, Power, Love, and Maturity.
Prayer for Power
16-17
Paul prays that they will be strengthened with power through the Spirit in their inner being.
One question we need to ask is what does Paul mean when he talks about the inner being?
He has used the phrase in other letters which will help us understand what he means
In 2 cor 4 Paul speaks of the work of the holy Spirit in the lives of believers and says this in verse 16
2 cor
In our society we value the outer self as being of utmost importance.
Physical care is a multi-billion dollar industry.
We spend so much time and money trying to maintain the outer self
prov 29
There is a time in our lives where our physical strength for men, and beauty for women, is our glory.
When we feel our bodies starting to slow down we get gym memberships to try and maintain our strength
to make-up to try and keep the glory of the young as long as possible
to Rogain trying to keep hair on your head
yet, as we get older both strength and beauty fade, and we move from one degree of glory to the next.
when our skin starts to loosen we spend money on beauty products trying to keep our skin looking young
when our hair starts to turn gray or fall out we try and reverse this course by coloring it or trying to help it grow back.
Our society
Now, there is nothing necessarily wrong with any of this, but the question is, “do we spend as much time and effort trying to keep our inner selves healthy?
Think about your life as a house, which Paul encourages us to do at the end of chapter 2
If you spend all of your time working on the outside of your house, the landscaping, the painting, the curb appeal, yet neglect the inside of the house what are you really accomplishing?
If the inside of the house is filthy with spoiled food laying around, mold and mildew growing in the corners, sump pump hasn't worked in years and there is water damage throughout the house…
Thou
The house may seem nice on the outside, but as soon as you step inside you discover that the house should be condemned.
This is the sort of hypocrisy Jesus charged the pharisees with when he called them “white washed tombs”
It is so easy for us to live this way, we think if we can convince people that we are spiritually heathy, that we are faithful followers of God than we have lived rightly before God.
27
However, we serve a God who sees through our white washed lives into our hearts and our souls,
and he wants not only our outward selves to bow down before him, but our inward selves as well.
You see, Christ is not only interested in the curb appeal of your life, but he wants a tour through each and every room of your house.
And as Jesus opens up doors that have been crusted shut with unconfessed sins, and lusts, and selfishness we feel significant shame.
We experience a shame and doubt that no matter how nice the lawn looks it does nothing to help the pain of our inner selves.
And to be honest, as Jesus walks through our house opening each and every door, we soon discover that the work it takes to clean this up, to make this new, is impossible for us.
And every time we try we just fall short.
So what are we to do? this is what Paul address in his prayer
So the strength and power Paul prays for in
Look back with me at 3:16-17
Pauls prayer is that the one who has all dominion in heaven and earth will grant, or litterally “give”, you strength with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
this strength Paul prays for is not an active strength as in you are able to conjure it up on your own, but rather its passive, its given to you, you are made strong with the power of God’s spirit.
You see, you are not able to strengthen your inner being on your own, you cannot clean up the rot and decay of your life on your own, but rather the Spirit of God enters into your life and empowers you to do the work.
The Spirit wants to go into every room of your house and fix, repair, recreate, and clean it all up… and he does this for a reason
Look at verse 17
“so that Christ (the king) may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
You see, Jesus does not want to just come and visit, he wants to move in, take up permanent residence in your house.
And what the Spirit does is create a space for Christ to live.
The Spirit of God works in your life so Christ may reside in your house.
Its as if the Spirit goes before Christ into every room of your house and destroys what needs to be destroyed and fixes what needs to be fixed.
He prepares your hearts, mind, emotions, will, habits, affections and every part of your being to be the temple of Christ.
Church this is what God’s Spirit is doing, and this is what we should pray for him to do.
We should pray that we would be strengthened with power through the Spirit of God in our inner selves.
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