R355 Meaningful Prayer

God has an encouraging word for you. Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 3.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 3. I am more convinced today as a pastor, as a husband, as a father, that the weakest area of my life is my prayer life. I have become more convinced today that until I come personally to the point at which I not only preach about prayer, but that I practice it in the annals of my heart, that God will not and cannot do with me what God wants to do. I have become more convinced in my own heart and life, beloved, that the future of the United States of America is not going to be determined by the ballot box in November. The future of these United States of America are going to be determined by the prayer closet.

I'm more convinced than I have ever been before that marriages are not going to find their solutions to the problems that come up through the wise counsel of a psychiatrist upon the counsel of a psychiatrist, a pastor, or any other means in any way that would be greater than upon one's knees. I'm more convinced than ever that the needs that our young people have as teenagers, our communities, our schools, our churches, that the key that God's Word sets before us is that we should be found upon our knees in His presence. I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14, because here in this incredible chapter, the Apostle Paul begins to revisit and rekindle what perhaps could be termed as the central focus of everything that he believed as a believer.

I want to read it for you again, and I will pause from time to time. Verse 14, for this reason I kneel before the Father. The immediate question I began to ask myself was what reason did Paul have to want to kneel before the Father?

And so I began to go back into the preceding chapters just of this particular prison epistle, and I began to discover some things. There were six major and yet general reasons why Paul found a compelling evidence to kneel before the Father. Number one was his own unworthiness. Paul many times speaks about that in his ministry. Paul regarded himself as the chief of sinners.

He regarded himself as being totally unworthy of the calling that God had placed in his life, let alone his salvation. Second, his appreciation of the enormity of the task that God had set before him. Paul had an enormous job of work to do. As I look at the United States of America today, and as we hear all the political rhetoric ringing around from one state to another, we are reminded yet again of the enormity of the task that lies before us to keep America beautiful, to keep this country on the moral principles and precepts upon which she was founded and grounded, to keep us where God wants us to be, to pray for revival to come upon our land, to get God's people to turn back to him and to see our people turn to him for salvation. What an enormous task. It's an enormous thing to rear children.

It's an unbelievable thing to be joined together in matrimony. It boggles the mind to even contemplate 1997 at First Baptist Church of Spartanburg. How can we be involved in all these ministries?

How can we keep on doing what we're doing? Paul fell to his knees because of his own unworthiness, because of the appreciation of the enormity of the task that God had given to him, because of his sense of wonder, at the sense, at the message of redemption. He talks about it in chapter one, God's redemptive work. In the fourth instance, he fell to his knees because of the scope of God's redemptive purpose. I was just fellowshipping this morning with Carl King, our missionary through the Foreign Mission Board in Brazil.

God has anointed their lives, and what a precious couple. And as we began to talk about Brazil, and as I began to think about our own church's involvement and the churches that have been built and the teams that go down there, I began to think again of the scope of God's redemptive purpose. But then in the fifth place, the unique task that God assigns to God's people. What an unbelievable thing Paul came to grips with, even here in the third chapter. He fell to his knees because I think that Paul gave us a refreshing glimpse, if you please, into the special nature of God's unique assignment upon the lives of different people, that God would come upon us and he would instruct us and he would equip us and he would give to us the keys that unlock the key to the work of his redemptive purpose upon earth. But then finally, but not conclusively, I'm convinced that Paul fell to his knees because of the wonderful nature of the gospel of grace.

There's not one of us in this place who could ever stand and say we are what we are outside of anything but the grace of God. Paul understood that. And so it is here in these few verses from verse 14 to verse 21 that he revisits a subject that was and is close to the hearts of all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's read it for this reason. I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven, isn't that a remarkable statement, and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches 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 God. And furthermore, to know this love that 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 in the authorized text, we find the word exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or even think. Very expressive, the descriptive language that the Apostle Paul drags up from within his very soul inspired by the Spirit of God to try to give us an understanding of the height and the depth and the width of God's love. And he says, now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could even ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory, and here it is again in the church. We talked about the church last week.

There's something very special about the church, about God's church, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and forever. And then he even uses the word amen. Amen means so be it. God has spoken. Thus it is written, thus it has been spoken.

There is nothing more to argue about. Amen, said the Apostle Paul, meaningful prayer. I remember several years ago, sitting in my study in New Orleans, and all of a sudden being impressed to pray for a man by the name of Clyde, he is in charge of all youth ministry.

Seth knows him very well, has worked with him many times before, as I have. All our youth ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention, and on this particular day, it was a Friday sitting in my study for no reason. I just felt impressed to pray for brother Clyde.

Well, sometime later, we were in a meeting at Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin, just outside of Green Bay. And I'll never forget Clyde coming up to me and saying to me, Don, I want to tell you something. You see, when I had got through praying for Clyde on that Friday, some months before, I got out a piece of paper and I wrote down something. I said, dear brother Clyde, I just wanted to pray for you today.

I just wanted to pray for you today, I felt this overwhelming need and I prayed for your protection and your safety, and I just want you to know that. He walked up to me and he said to me, Don, he said on that particular Friday, I was in Manila in the Philippines. And he said, a friend of mine and I went out into an area we were told not to go into, which is quite typical of brother Clyde. And he said, I went roaming around and the next minute, a group of bandits, people with machine guns and whatever, came and captured us, blindfolded us, took us into someplace underground and we just knew that they were going to execute us.

They tied us up and put us up against a wall and they were very abusive to us. And he said, at exactly 12 o'clock on the Friday, all of a sudden, the leader walked in and told us to get out of there and so we left in a hurry. And he said, when I got back to Nashville, there was a letter from you to say, you had prayed for me at 12 o'clock, the very moment we had been released. Some people, no doubt, would say, well, that's just a coincidence. Other people would say, well, these terrorists might have just been smitten with a little goodwill. Clyde would have said it was because he was so good looking.

There would have been some kind of reason why we could have found some kind of reason or some kind of excuse that defied the parameters that God had given to us out of the riches of his grace. But I believe, as does Clyde, in the power of prayer. I remember July 7th, when this church called me to be your pastor, 1993, immediately following incredible service, I remember leaving South Carolina and flying to Mozambique in Africa to fulfill an obligation that I had had on my calendar for many years. One of the first white people as Christians to go into that country and I remember getting into Mozambique and being in Maputo and I remember the day so clearly that a group of 12 black pastors from Mozambique got hold of me and took me about 100 or 200 miles outside of Maputo into the jungle to go and visit Trance World Radio. It was quite an experience. We got out there somewhere where nobody is in a war-torn country and all of a sudden there they were, 20, 25 terrorists with machine guns and hand grenades and they held us up and my heart began to thump and I began to think of all things and say, Lord, I know I shouldn't have come to Mozambique. I thought about Spartanburg and my family and I remember them getting us out of that vehicle and hurting the driver very seriously and I remember the words they used because I could speak a little Zulu many years ago and they were speaking Shongon and I kept hearing the word, Bulala, Bulala, which means kill them, kill them and all of a sudden after a lot of arguing and carrying on for no reason at all, after a number of hours, they put us back in the vehicle and I knew they were going to throw hand grenades in there and just kill us all and that would be the end of that and we would have gone to heaven to receive our award but for some reason they didn't.

We drove out there the best you've ever seen anybody drive out of any place. When we got back, my wife looked at me and she said to me, what were you doing on Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock? And I told her, she said, I got on my knees on Wednesday morning for no reason, I just felt a burden to pray for you and that was the exact time that those terrorists had let us go. Now some of you may say, well pastor, that's just a coincidence, these things just sort of happen.

I'm going to say to you, beloved friends, because I know that so many of you believe it. I believe in the power of prayer and here the Apostle Paul, writing in chapter 3, he falls upon his knees and what does he pray for? He prays first of all that God would strengthen you. You'd say to me today, well pastor, why do we need to pray? What is so meaningful about prayer? The Apostle writing in verse 16 here says, I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you. What he's saying here is I'm going to guarantee you that when you get upon your knees, you're going to find a strength that will come from nowhere else but from the heart of God. I wonder if there's anybody in this place this morning who has ever wished that you didn't have to get up in the morning.

I wonder if there's anyone here today who said enough is enough. I wonder if there's anyone here today whose marriage is so weak that you would say nothing could ever come of it. He says, how am I going to strengthen you? Verse 16 tells us out of his riches, who is going to strengthen you? His spirit is going to strengthen you. Where is he going to strengthen you? In your inner being, he's going to dive into the very annals of your very heart and soul. And God is going to give to you through prayer.

A strength that no man can give to you. If you feel more comfortable online, meet us online. Our website is filled with opportunities to connect, to find prayer resources, and to share your prayer request. That's online at tewonline.org or on the phone. Jot the number down, store it in your cell.

866-899-9673 will connect with one of us 24 hours a day. Have you talk and listen and pray and connect with resources that will help you grow in your faith. Now let's dive back into today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. But he also believed with all his heart that God would not only strengthen you, but that he would dwell in you. Look at verse 17.

I love this. He says, I pray that Christ may dwell in your heart. I began to go back and look at this word dwell and the best description that I could understand it in terms of what Paul is saying is that God is going to, as it were, take up residence in your life.

I like that, don't you? There is a sense in which God says, when you get upon your knees, says, I'm going to literally, I'm going to step over there and I'm going to arrive at your heart's door and then I'm going to step inside your very being and I'm going to take up residence. And the word there dwell inside of you is the same word that we find right throughout the Old Testament where God speaks about the dwelling place of God, the sanctuary of God, the central focus of where God is. And God says, I'm going to come and I'm going to dwell. I'm going to take up residence.

I'm going to unpack my bags. I'm going to make my self at home in your life. That's what Paul says God does. That's why he got on his knees. But he also says, if you get on your knees, you're going to be established in love.

Verse 17 doesn't finish at the point of dwelling or taking up residence. He uses two words juxtaposed together that basically are synonyms that I'm going to be not only established in you, but I'm going to be rooted. I'm going to be your anchor. I'm going to hold you down. I'm going to keep you steady.

I'm going to keep giving you confidence. It's as it were that the apostle may be painting a picture here of life's boat experience in which we find ourselves in the middle of a tumultuous sea and our marriages and our children and politics and morality and all the sin of our life and the boat is rocking terribly. And we say, what are we going to do? How are we going to cope?

How are we going to be able to do things now that we've been diagnosed with cancer? And Paul says, get on your knees because when you're on your knees, you're going to discover that God has anchored you. He's going to hold you firm. He's going to keep you solid right there where you need to be. But he also says that if you get on your knees in the fourth place, you're going to have joint power, joint power.

Look at verse 18, marvellous verse. He says that you may have power together with all the saints. It seems to me here, beloved friends, that Paul keeps coming back to this question of spiritual unity.

He comes back to this question. The Dutch have a phrase that goes like this, in drach, mach, mach. It means unity means strength. It means what you can do together is far greater than what you can do by yourself. That's the greatness of a football team, folks. That's why South Carolina won yesterday because they played as a unit. That's why Clemson won yesterday. They played as a unit.

Yes, they weren't ranked as high as the other team, perhaps. But when they come in and they play as a team and they get together and that huddle becomes far more than a huddle, it is an absolute meaning. It is an anchorage. What's happening? Paul puts it like this. He says, listen in the church, when you get upon your knees as a church, you have joint power. That's why it's so important for us to pray together. That's why we believe when we ask you to stand for prayer on a Sunday morning or to come down here and ask the church to pray for you, my friends. If you don't believe in prayer, then don't come. But if you believe in prayer, God is going to do something.

Why? Because the Word tells us that when we're upon our knees together with all the saints, listen to what happens. We all of a sudden come to a fresh understanding of how wide and long and deep is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in our height is and to know that this love surpasses all knowledge.

Isn't that amazing? We have joint power. But finally, but not conclusively, he says when we get on our knees that we will be filled to overflowing. That's it right there in those verses.

In verse 19, he says to know that this love surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I'm going to ask you a question this morning. Do you believe in the power of prayer? I want you to bow your heads with me all across the congregation.

And before anybody leaves, anybody goes anywhere, we're going to pray as a congregation. This morning, I'm convinced in my heart, friends, that there are people who would stand in this congregation and say, Pastor, it's a physical thing. It's an emotional thing.

It's material. It has to do with my work. It has to do with my children.

It has to do with my marriage. But I believe in the power of prayer. Maybe you've been diagnosed with some terrible disease and you're struggling with it. Maybe there's another struggle in your life and you cannot describe it. And you'd say today, as I acknowledge God, and I'm going to ask folks if I know that everybody here this morning could stand.

I've got no doubt about that. I'm saying if you've got a specific need this morning, I want you to allow God's people to pray for you. And if we believe what the Bible says is true, my friends, we believe that when we as a group of people come before his throne, he's going to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. What a powerful teaching today from Dr. Don Wilton. Actually, what he would be quick to say, it's from God's word. He's just a messenger. And as he's carried this message today from God's word, it's our prayer that none of us move from this point forward the same, that we're all open to what God wants to change in us and through us by the power of his living word, the Bible itself.

But some of us need to make some course corrections, some new adjustments as to who we're following and who's in charge of our life. Would you open your heart as Dr. Don comes back into the studio? You've heard him from the pulpit now in the studio to share his heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin.

I confess my sin to you. And I invite you to come into my heart and into my life, I pray in Jesus' name, I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey.

And in just a moment, I'm going to come back with a final word. If you just prayed to receive Christ or prayed to rededicate your life to Jesus, welcome to the family of God. Welcome back to the family of God. We have resources that Dr. Don wants you to have absolutely free. If you'll call us at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673, or you can meet us online as well. Our online presence is something that's 24 hours a day connecting you to Jesus Christ. Connecting you with great resources, with great teaching. You can hear today's message again.

Share it with a friend. Watch some of the video of Dr. Don. Again, it's all online at www.tewonline.org, where we stand to connect with you and connect with great resources that would change your life on a daily basis. 1 Timothy 1-2 says, I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peacefully in quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. In the times that we live, our lives are anything but peaceful and quiet. How can we find peace? We can find it in daily prayer and Bible reading. God wants to give us his peace.

We just need to ask for it. We would be honored to pray for you. We would be honored to pray for his peace in your life. The Encouraging Word has a 24-hour live prayer line. You can call 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 and talk to a real person who will be glad to pray with you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. It's been a wonderful day, a wonderful week of broadcast here at The Encouraging Word. And before we get away, our pastor would like to share one closing final thought. Thank you for your partnership with The Encouraging Word.

God's doing great and wonderful things. And I want you to know that I pray for you. I want to pray for you right now.

In fact, you can see that number on the television screen. We've got people 24-7 praying for you. You can call in your prayer requests at any time. Let me pray for you right now. Dear God, I want to pray for my precious friends right now and for someone, especially in need of prayer. Lord Jesus, please touch them. Touch their lives and be a blessing to them today in every way. And I pray this in the strong and wonderful name of the Lord Jesus.

Amen. Again, the numbers to stay connected is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Or meet us online at www.tewonline.org. And yes, I got a text during the program asking about Dr. Wilton's book called Saturdays with Billy. It's continuing to be available.

It's really a record setting book. Such a powerful insight to the time that Dr. Wilton got to spend with Dr. Billy Graham over the last 20 years. Again, the details are online at www.tewonline.org. Again, thank you so very much. This program is sponsored by The Encouraging Word and your generous prayer and financial support.