R877 When Your Prayers Have Purpose

There is so much in God's Word about the power of prayer, and we'll discover that in today's message with Dr. Wilton, When Your Prayers Have Purpose. This is The Encouraging Word, featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, and pastor.

And again, today's message, When Your Prayers Have Purpose, will take us straight to the book of Ephesians, chapter 3, as we gain insight from God's Word about how we can literally empower ourselves in fresh new ways to the power that is God's alone, the power of prayer. As we study the Word, know that we're available for you. We'd love to connect online at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, while you're there, follow Dr. Don on some of his socials. If you're on social media, we'd love to connect with you there. Again, it starts at our website www.tewonline.org.

Let's get connected. And now today's message, When Your Prayers Have Purpose, with Dr. Don Wilton. Now friends, this morning we're going to be looking at a subject that's very close to my own heart. It ought to be close to all of our hearts. When your prayers have purpose. When your prayers have purpose. If there is anything that I struggle with as a believer, it's in my conversation with my Heavenly Father. I struggle. It's not just about praying. Just praying and talking to God sometimes is the easiest part of prayer, if I could say that, even though we all struggle sometimes just to talk to God. But what I want us to speak about today is this matter of purpose, praying with purpose, because so many things disrupt us. Sometimes it's easy to focus and other times it's not. You know, life can be awfully good. Sometimes we win that state title or that national championship. Sometimes our coffers are full.

Life is just good. But there are many times that we are so beset by the things that go on in life and we cannot focus. And our prayer has no focus. And it seems to have no purpose to it.

It's just something we do or we don't do. I want you to open your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 3, the book of Ephesians in chapter 3. Here's Paul the apostle writing to a group of people not unlike ourselves. Well, they were at a place called Ephesus and this congregation gathered together at Ephesus, much like we gathered together in our own cities and our own communities all across America and all across the world.

Well, he was writing to a group of people, no different to you and me. And here's what he said, verse 14 of chapter 3. I love to hear the pages of God's word rustling like that.

Reminds me of the wings of angels I should imagine. So we're in Ephesians chapter 3 in verse 14. Paul said, For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derive its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches that He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to know that this love surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and forever.

Amen. I want to speak to you this morning about when your prayers have purpose. And I'm going to submit to you today that if you're a believer, if you know Jesus Christ, that all prayers have purpose. No prayer is wasted and all prayers have purpose. Just think for a moment about a little child, a boy or a girl. How much we love to hear our boys and girls pray. That childlike prayer has great purpose in the eyes of God. Think about a drunk on the streets.

He has a person who is drunk. They're at the end of their rope. They're in the worst possible condition and they begin to pray. Does that prayer have a purpose? I believe it does.

Absolutely I believe it does. We pray all different kinds of prayers, you know. They're prayers that we pray for salvation. We pray prayers for forgiveness, prayers of confession. We pray to God, we pray prayers for deliverance. Many of us pray prayers for healing. We had Kelly in our earlier service today and she and her family came to unite with our church. And I told the middle service congregation that just a couple of months ago, she was supposed to be dead.

I'm one of many who stood at her bedside. It was over. Doctors made it very clear, nothing we could do.

It's over. She's dying. She's going to die.

Today she was sitting right here in the third row. Prayers for healing. We pray prayers of intercession. Did you know that right now that there are people praying for you?

You didn't know that, did you? Most wonderful gift God gives to us. What a purpose. All prayers have purpose. But I'm going to tell you that when Paul told us what he did, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, God began to speak to my heart and I believe He's going to speak to your heart today, perhaps in a way that He's never spoken before. I want to speak to you about when your prayers have purpose, based upon what took place here as Paul prayed for a group of people, not unlike ourselves.

Number one, I want to show you something. When your prayers have purpose, your motive will dictate your posture. When your prayers have purpose, your motive will dictate your posture. Look at verse 14 there. I'll show you what Paul was doing. This is where Paul was when he wrote this, when he said this, when he did this. He was on his knees. He said, for this reason I kneel before the Father.

So why did Paul kneel? I've had people many times and I'm sure you've asked that and maybe your sons and daughters have asked you about whether you should kneel or stand when you pray. Perhaps whether you should sit. You know, what about praying with your eyes open? Should you pray and hold your hands up? Should you pray and sing at the same time? Should you lie down?

Should you roll over? What ought to be your posture when you pray? I truly believe that when your prayers have purpose, your motive will dictate your posture.

It's not about your posture. It's about your motive. And Paul made a statement here that means so much to me personally. He said in his context, he said for this reason. Well, what reason? Well, he had a bunch of reasons. He's about to talk about a whole bunch of reasons.

But just look for example where I didn't read. Perhaps chapter 3 and verse 12. He said, in Him, through faith in Him, we may approach God with both freedom and with confidence.

Now watch this folks. Now if my motive is to communicate with God who loves me despite myself because He is God, God is telling me that I have, because of my faith, both the freedom to pray and to seek His face and the confidence that accompanies that freedom to expect that God is going to honor and validate for you the motive with which I am praying. I believe Paul was on his knees because his motive drove him to his knees.

Being on his knees didn't make him any more special or more spiritual than anybody else. But the motive behind what he was doing drove him to his knees. What is your motive? If you want to pray and seek God's face and you want to pray with purpose and hear what God has to say and how He's going to answer you, you've got to go back to your full reason. You've got to go back to your motive. You've got to examine yourself before the Lord and ask the Lord. And so God search me and know me and try me and see if there'd be anything in me that would be anything other than a motive that would drive me to my knees to stand up to sit down to pray with my eyes open, to walk around, to pray while I'm driving my motor car down the road. But I want you to know that my motive is pure before you and I am praying with purpose. When you pray with purpose, your motive will dictate your posture. Now folks, you think about us in a church like this.

You think of how churches prescribe to people. I cannot come to you today as your pastor and say we need to stand up, we need to sit down, we need to do this, we need to do that, we need to do the next thing because what we've got to do is we've got to examine our motive before God. When we examine our motive before God, we begin to connect and communicate with God because of our motive and our motive will dictate our posture. Number two, when your prayers have purpose, now listen to this, your theology will drive your conviction.

Oh, I love this. Watch what Paul says here in verse 15. He says, For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

Wait a minute here. What is theology, that word theology? It literally means that which is about God. The word theos means God. It is the study of God. It is an effort to know who God is.

Now watch this. Paul here is about to show us something through precept and example in verse 15. That what we know to be true about God will drive the conviction with which we pray to God. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on the Encouraging Word broadcast. And in a few moments, Dr. Don will complete this message and complete this week of broadcasting when your prayers have purpose. But as we study prayer, just know that we're available to pray as well. We would love to pray with you anytime. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. 24 hours a day we're available to talk or listen or pray or connect with great resources.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. Here's what Paul was doing here in verse 15, folks. As he began to find himself because of his motive to know God and to plead the case of God's people before God and to present himself before God, as he was driven to his knees because his motive dictated his posture, his theology began to drive his conviction. And what he knew to be true about God was in direct proportion to the conviction with which he prayed with a singular purpose in mind, believing that God is God and that God will do what only God can do because he's God, that's why. He looked up into the heavens and he saw God.

Who did he see? He saw God the Father, God the Son and he saw God the Holy Spirit. And then he looked upon the earth and he saw God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and you and me. All of a sudden, Paul who was driven by his motives, who found himself upon his knees began to examine who God is and how we relate to God. And if he were living in today's day and age, he would have broken out in song and perhaps sung, I'm so glad to be a part of the family of God. And all of a sudden, his theology opened the window of his understanding, it sharpened his focus, it gave his purpose, feet to walk in a direction and a meaning and he began to pray out of a heart of conviction, knowing that he had been adopted into the family of God and that God indeed was and is his heavenly Father and because he was and is my heavenly Father, guess what my heavenly Father does for me?

He listens to me, he provides for me, he protects me, he loves me, he's interested in me, he values me. You see folks, his theology began to drive his conviction. You see, beloved friends, conviction is that which will determine your focus when you pray. Conviction is that which will enforce your humility when you pray because you'll have a fresh understanding based upon your theology about who God is in all of his glory. Your conviction will elevate your determination to pray without ceasing, not to grow weary in well-doing, to pray believing in your heart and to take God at his Word. If your theology is right and you know who God is and you affirm who God is, driven to your posture by your motive because you know that you must talk to him but the one to whom you talk is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and there is none like unto him.

Your focus will be determined and your humility will be enforced and your determination will be elevated way beyond human comprehension. Maybe one of the reasons why you and I don't pray with purpose, maybe one of the reasons why we become so weak in our prayer lives is because our motive is no longer dictating our posture and our theology is no longer driving our conviction. We just don't get it.

We talk about it but we're not willing to believe it. My God said to me and to you, ask anything in my name and I'll do it. Now what part of that do we not seem to understand? Well, if I'm praying with purpose and if you pray with purpose, your motive will not only dictate your posture and your theology will drive your conviction. But watch this, number three, your need will determine your request.

I've got a problem here, folks. My motive determines, dictates my posture and my theology is driving my conviction. But what determines my requests?

Paul is about to show us here and I'm about to show this to you, folks. Your need will determine your request. Someone asked me one time, said to me, pastor, how do you define spiritual need? I define spiritual need, my friend, as something that you cannot live without spiritually.

Let me run that by again. Spiritual need is something that I as a believer cannot live without. There are lots of things that I can live without, but I cannot live without basic spiritual need. And my spiritual need will determine my request. It will focus me. It will make me pray with purpose.

Well, what kind of need did these people have? It was pastor Paul praying for a group of people, not unlike you and me. He was praying for me. He was praying for you.

He was praying for the church of God. And there was a threefold need that he identifies here in verse 16 and verse 17. First of all, the need for strength. He's talking about spiritual strength here, folks.

He's talking about the help me, I can't get up. He's talking about the kind of strength, folks, that you and I need when we know about God and our motive is driven, our posture and dictated to us and our theology is in place, but we just don't have the strength to carry it out. Look what he says here in this passage, folks. He says, I pray that out of his glorious riches that he may strengthen you. Folks, that's my need.

So my need is going to determine my request. Need number two, not only strength, but power. He talks about that power. He says here right in this word that you should be strengthened with power by his Spirit. That little word there, power, the word dunamis or dynamite, literally means that Paul identified that the need in every believer is to have the power of the dynamite of God himself exploding within us because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Somebody say Amen today. I need that power.

That is something that I cannot live without. But there's a third need that he identifies here, indwelling. Verse 17, he says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. By the way, you say, wait a minute, I thought that God was in me and I'm in him.

Absolutely. Folks, what Paul is talking about here, he is identifying a basic, fundamental, necessary need of every believer to be continually indwelt by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit because Paul of all people knew what it was to be weak in the flesh. Paul was the one who said, if I could, I would, but I can't, so I won't.

The good that I would, that I do not, that the evil that I would not, that I do, he identified spiritual warfare and circumstances and all the things that so easily beset us and he identified three spiritual needs, strength and power and indwelling. And when he came to the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God, he said, Oh God, I want you to unpack your bags, move in and stay there. It's like when those relatives come for Thanksgiving and you love them to bits and it's the most exciting thing.

But when Thanksgiving's over and they decide, it's not time to leave. Paul here is contextualizing this. He's saying, I want my relatives. Now who are my relatives? God my Father, God the Son and God my Holy Spirit. I want them to move into me because I'm part of the family of God and I want them to unpack their bags and take up evidence and never leave me, never forsake me because I need thee every hour. Oh, I need thee every hour. I submit to you that when your prayers have purpose, your motive will dictate your posture and your theology will drive your conviction.

Your need will determine your request. By definition, your spiritual need, that which you cannot live without. But number four, your desire will direct your heart.

Now watch this folks, verse 18 and 19. I believe Paul moves from need to desire. If spiritual need is that which you and I cannot live without, spiritual desire is that which we dare not live without. Let me give you an example.

Paul made this statement. He said, I want to know you more. All right, what is the need part and what is the desire part? The need part of that statement is I want to know you. That's a basic fundamental. How can you and I as Christian people live without the need? That ought to drive and direct my request.

It needs to determine what I'm about to say. That's my need. I want to know you more.

That's my desire. Folks, a desire is what I dare not live without. When you and I get married and we look at each other and say we love one another, that love is a basic need, but the desire is to grow in love. And Paul here is saying, if you're going to pray with purpose, not only will your desire direct, will your need determine your request, but your desire, that which you dare not live without, will direct your heart. And he identified three desires. Well, in the preceding verses, he identified three needs.

What were they? Strength, power, indwelling. Here are the three desires. This is the more part. Give me more.

Give me more. Number one, to grasp the love of God. That little word there that we read in verse 18, to grasp, literally means to take a hold of. Paul said, I just want, I have a desire to take a hold of this love, which is the love of God, to take a hold of its height and depth and its vast expanse.

I just want to be able to take a hold of it. That's my desire. Number two, to know the love of God. And that word there, love, he says to him right there in verse 19, not only do I need to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, but I want you to know that this love is that which surpasses all knowledge and human understanding.

Why is that a desire, folks? It is not only a desire to grasp, to take hold of the love of God, but it is a desire to know. In other words, to understand that my human endeavor can never be enough to match or to relate to the pure, inestimable, sovereign, majestic love of God. I want to know that I'm engaged in a lifetime pursuit after the heart of God. And the third desire is to be filled. Right there, he says in verse 19, that you may be filled to the measure of all, watch this, the fullness of God. Paul here says, my desire is to be filled with the fullness of God's love. Lord, you've set the brew in place.

You died upon a cross. You are love. My desire is not to just receive your love, but I want you to fill my cup. And I want my cup to be so filled with the love of God that it just leaks out and pours out all over the place. That everywhere I go, people get impacted by the overflow and the fullness of the love of God. And everywhere I walk, that people would say, oh, wow, man, that aroma, you just have an aroma about you. You're just covered in the aroma of the love of God.

But I want to show you something, folks. Number five, when your prayers have purpose, your request will be delivered by His power. Verse 20 and 21, now to Him, He was able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or even imagine. According to His power, that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and forever.

What a great week of studying God's Word. And as we study the power of prayer, when your prayers have purpose, we gain insight to know that it's not just about knowing about prayer, but practicing prayer. We would love to pray with you and for you at 866-899-9673. And right now, I pray that you'd open your heart to what Dr. Don's going to say next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you've given your heart to the Lord today, oh, how we'd love to celebrate that and put some resources in your hands. Maybe you've rededicated your life. Let Dr. Don know what God's doing in your life. You can email him, Don at T-E-W online dot O-R-G.

He would love to hear from you. We corporately would also pray with you and for you. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G, our website. And Don's address is just Don, D-O-N at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. We'd love to hear from you.

You'll find that, our phone number, and more all on our website at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Our nation is in crisis. The devil is working overtime. How do we counteract the evil all around us? How do we overcome? We must learn to be quiet, to be still and listen for the voice of God. We must listen and obey. With your gift of support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's timely messages on the teachings of Daniel. Messages include hearing God's voice in the crowd, the power of obedience, and the story of conviction. These messages on CD or DVD will be sent to you for a gift of $20 or more in support of the encouraging word. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request Dr. Wilton's teachings on Daniel, a man of courage, conviction, and immovable faith. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Have a blessed weekend. Don't forget to be in church on Sunday virtually or otherwise. If you're looking for a place to worship, we'd love to celebrate with you in our video version of The Encouraging Word. Details are online at www.tewonline.org.