How to Pray for Others: Part 2 | Chris Chadwick | Ephesians 1:15-21 — Chris Chadwick

Would you take your Bibles tonight and turn to Ephesians chapter 1? If you did not receive a Bible study handout and would like one, would you raise your hand? If you didn't get one and would like one. Is there anyone at all? Raise it quick and high. Looks like you guys did a great job. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, James. Appreciate it. Ephesians chapter 1 in your Bibles tonight. Ephesians chapter 1 in your Bible this evening. And I told you this morning it was verse 13 to 15, and man, I'm just glad I got Ephesians chapter 1, because it is verses 15 to 19. So you'll just have... Those of you that studied 13 to 15, you were edified, but we're not studying that. So, I apologize in advance for that. as we come to this message, there's a couple of things that I just wanna give some insight on. over the next few weeks, you'll probably notice that our Sunday night messages are a bit shorter than our Sunday morning. and that is by design.

I desire for our Sunday night service to focus really intently on prayer. and that doesn't mean that we will equate thinking that the messages are unnecessary or simplistic. Just simply a bit shorter somewhere. My target is 25 to 35 minutes of preaching time on Sunday night. a little bit longer on Sunday morning, and then there'll be those that are memorable, like you can journal this morning's, length of service. But, that is the desire there. And tonight will be relatively short because of the weekend, and ladies, I know that you're tired. When our men have men's retreat, we won't worry about that. we'll just tell the guys to, you know, man up. But ladies, we don't want to tell you to man up, so we'll just be shorter. And then in this series, I had, a question or two about this, and that is, like, Pastor, your Sunday night series on how to pray for others is different than your Sunday morning style of preaching. Right.

Expositional preaching, which is to expose the Scripture, that's why we're big believers in it. I have a responsibility to take the text that God has burdened, me with and the book, that we're in and to expose what is in that scripture. And when you go, like, in a verse by verse way, you expose ostensibly everything that is in there that time will allow for. The Sunday night topic on how to pray for others is a little bit different in this, that it is not a verse by verse study, but it is more getting the overall sense of the idea as to how we're supposed to pray for others. So when we come to Ephesians chapter one tonight, verses 15 to 19 that we'll study, or probably 15 to 21 that we'll look at, we're not trying to go verse by verse or word by word and define every part of it.

I want you to walk away tonight being built up in this, knowing how to pray more deeply for those that you sit next to, those that you love, those, your children, your parents, your friends, your neighbors, your family, whatever the case may be. Our prayer is that you would grow more deeply in that understanding and that it would be helpful. So let's dig into the Word of God, Ephesians chapter 1. Now, the purpose of the Book of Ephesians was... It's a very positive book. it was to strengthen believers in Ephesus. By the way, we'll be preaching on Ephesus next Sunday morning. It's the first church that John talks to in the Revelation 2:1, I think it's to 8, that we'll be looking at next Sunday morning. the strengthening of believers in Ephesus in their faith by explaining the nature of the church, the purpose of the church, the purpose of the body of Christ. That's Paul's fundamental desire as he is writing this church family.

It was not written, this book, to confront any heresy. Other books were, this one was not. It was not written to confront any major problems in the, in the church. It was sent by Tychicus to strengthen and encourage the church simply in understanding what the church is and what the church does, and it is vital that we as Christians grow in our understanding of that. There are so many things that vie for our time. I appreciated Christian's testimony where he said that there are a lot of Bible clubs in San Diego where young people go to them, college kids, young adults go to them, and it becomes a substitute for the local church. Can I be super bold and say there is no substitute for the local church? Yeah. There's just not I love Hunter Greenlee. Have l-- we've been friends now for a long time, I think before you had any kids. And, he and Esther, wonderful, godly people, just love the Lord.

And Hunter is a Navy chaplain, and I'm thankful for his chaplaincy, and I'm thankful for every good Bible preaching chaplain in the military. It does my heart very good. There are some that aren't very good, but I'm thankful for every one that is good. But folks, I don't care how good a chaplain may be, the chaplain or the chapel is not a substitute for the church. Right. And you can have a great chapel, and that's awesome and wonderful, and sometimes that's the best that it gets. And those of you on a ship, please don't start a church on the ship. It probably won't go well. but understand it's not a substitute for the church. It's kind of a workaround until you can get back home. I like substitutes. I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. I like sugar substitutes. Some of you people are like, "Pastor, you'd die if you're gonna use that Sweet'N Low." This body has been on Sweet'N Low since it's six years old. I'm just telling you right now.

We-- I don't know what real refined sugar looks like until I sit down in Burnie's office. I wouldn't know what it's like. It's a substitute. It's a good substitute. There are some bad substitutes. I've got a friend in Hawaii who pastors a church and has a beard. And I love him to death, and he likes his sugar substitute so much so that when we go out to eat, he'll always order iced tea, and he'll put, like, three Stevias in there. And then he pulls out, those of you that have ever eaten with Pastor King, he'll pull out, no lie, a little bottle of liquid Stevia and put 10 drops in it. Right. Yeah. And then he'll drink that, and I... Like, I'll just take it, and I'll take a sip, and I'm like, "Oh, my word. This is a horrible substitute." He's like, "No, it tastes like Chick-fil-A tea." I'm like, "No, it's a really bad substitute. Doesn't taste good at all."

There is nothing in this world that is a substitute for the local New Testament church. Amen. That's good. Nothing. Well, Paul is writing them here, and he gives us guidance. And, let me pull back and say this. Again, if you're on deployment and all you have is the chapel, please go to the chapel, and take people with you, and share the gospel, and listen to preaching, and encourage the chaplain, and help people, and set up chairs, and in the Navy, be a, be a unofficial RP, and run the sound, and do everything you can for the gospel to go forward wherever you are, because that's the best thing that you could do for the cause of Christ when you're underway. Please do that. if you don't know what an RP, it's a religious person. It... He's an assistant pastor for chaplains, or she is, or they are, or whatever the key is. But please get involved. I don't wanna speak negatively at all about that.

I'm simply conveying that you cannot replace the local church with some man-made organization that God does not authorize. That's right. That's the whole point. Well, Paul is writing these people that he loved. He's helping them, and we see in verse number 15 and 16 where he says, "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith" We're just jumping in here. "After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." I want you to notice that Paul praised God for the church. Paul had been the pastor there for three years, and now he's gone, and he's getting word back that the church is doing well, and people are growing in their faith. In verse number 15, the church's faith in God. The word faith here means, subjectively a firm persuasion, conviction, a belief in the truth, veracity. He hears of their faithfulness Their conviction.

And man, Paul is pumped with the faith of the church at Ephesus. There's a subjective feeling or thought that he has, but there's an objective, the meaning of this, and it means that which is believed, doctrine received, the articles of faith. So the people at Ephesus came in, they heard the objective truth of the gospel, that you're a sinner, you need a savior, only Jesus can save you. They put their faith and trust in Him, and then they began to grow in ways that are distinct and a little bit different from one another, but all with that bigger idea and belief in the truth and the veracity of the gospel, and faithfulness to the Word of God. And every time Paul hears of that, he is motivated, he is encouraged, and he ceases not to give thanks to God for this church. They truly got saved, and they truly grew in the Lord.

And by the way, growing in the Lord, in salvation being a surrender of my will to Christ's will, is replete throughout scripture. We don't have time to study it all, but you could read about it in Acts 16:31, Romans 8:9, Romans 10:9, Romans 14:9. I wanna be clear, when folks truly come to Christ, there is very little they may know about Christ, even though they, though they understand just the simplest idea of God's sovereignty and salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Very little that you have to know to come to Christ. If you're here tonight and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, you don't have to be a theologian. You don't have to know the big words. You don't have to be able to define everything that we define. You just simply have to understand that you're a sinner. You failed God's standard of perfection.

You have failed just like everybody in this room has failed, and Jesus loves you, and He died for you, and He will give you eternal life if you will, by faith, accept Him as your Savior, repent of your sin, and trust only Him for salvation. He'll give you eternal life. He'll give you eternal life. And then Paul praised God for the church's love for the saints. We prayed for that earlier. He says, "Wherefore," verse number 15, "I, wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus," notice this phrase, "and love unto all the saints." The church's love for the saints. He said, "I'm just thankful that you love one another. I'm just thankful that this church at Ephesus has a deep love unto all the saints." John 13:35, Charlie quoted it in his prayer, "By this shall all men know you're my disciples, if you have love one toward another." We can read about it next chapter four verse 32 to 35, or 1 John 2:10.

He that loveth his brother, 1 John 2:10, I'm just gonna quote this one. Bring it up, if you would. "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." I'll be honest with you. in, well, when I preach I'm gonna be honest with you, but while on sabbatical, I didn't call the pastoral staff very often. But when I did, like, "Hey, how is the church doing?" And, you know, Zane's from Ohio, and Burnie's an engineer. So I would call John "Hey, JC, how's the church doing?" You say, "Why?" Well, a guy from Ohio and an engineer like, "How's the church doing?" I think we're doing okay. I will probably make it till you come back. not sure, but I think we're doing okay. It they were kind of discouraging, to be honest with you. I don't even like talking to them normally, and then I have to talk to them there. If you're a guest, I love these guys. They're... We truly have a wonderful relationship.

But when I talk to John's like, "Oh, Pastor, things are great. This brother's doing this, and this is happening over here." And man, my heart would do well, and they would do that as well. I'm just being facetious. But whenever I would hear of the good things while away that God was doing, or through my daughters or through my sister, man, I'm telling you, it was incredibly encouraging. In a sense, I feel like I understand this passage a little bit better where Paul was away, but he heard of the people's love for the Lord and the people's love for one another, and that was incredibly encouraging to him Your love for one another is incredibly encouraging. I was talking to one of our missionary church planters yesterday. We were just visiting and he said, he said, "I just can't wait to be back at Canyon Ridge." I was like, "Oh, great. Why? I mean, I can't wait to be at Canyon Ridge either, but why do you wanna be at Canyon Ridge?"

And he goes, "Because we're just welcomed and loved like family." And I pray that's how everybody feels after being here, like, three times. Amen. It takes a little bit of while to work through some of that. It does take work. And when we have guests come to church, we... Debbie and I were amazed at the number of churches we went to on sabbatical and nobody ever spoke to us. The number of churches, and I'm not talking one or two, it was one or two churches that spoke to us while we were on sabbatical. And I am memorable Like, you see this walk in, you're like, "That guy doesn't go here. He doesn't go here." I mean, it just, it, you just know. I mean, and just people would stare and nobody said hi. And I was just kind of amazed, so I started going and looking grouchy just to see if somebody would come, maybe tell me about Jesus. Nobody told us about Jesus, nothing. I just, man, I just...

Debbie and I walked away and I thought, "Man, when we go home, I'm tell-" I'll... You wanna know the only church that was super kind to, that was kind to us? You wanna know? Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, Joel Olsteen. I went there because somebody told me, "You gotta go and experience just the first 10 minutes." So I went. I made it seven, God's perfect number, and then I left. but I'm telling you, the only church, the only church that was, that, where we didn't already know people, that was gracious to us and kind and welcoming was Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. We couldn't believe it. Man, we've got the truth. Why are... why would we be anything other than loving and kind and gracious? And Paul hears that, and he's loving what he is hearing that is going on at the church at Ephesus.

And Canyon Ridge, I compliment you and I exhort us as a church family to make sure that you're loving one another, and that your love is demonstrated and your love is stated. Yes. Demonstrated and stated. "Well, they know I love them for what I do." Well, they might think you're manipulative. Make sure they know that you love them. Amen. And those of you from the Northeast, tell us twice, 'cause we didn't believe it because of your tone Those of you from Alabama, it was so good, to preach, or preach, just to be in the service, men's prayer, this morning, with Tim, and it was so great to hear his Alabama accent. I tell you hear somebody from the South, it's like hearing Kali talk. You hear somebody from the South, and you just think, "They're closer to Jesus." You hear somebody from Massachusetts or Maine, and you're like, "I don't even know if they know who Jesus is." And they're like, "I'm a preacher." No, it doesn't matter.

We you gotta, you gotta be sure if you're from the Northeast. From the South, we already know that you love us. Am I right? Like, that's fantastic. Northeast, I'm looking at Anthony Vert over here, and he's looking at me all mad 'cause of his accent, but, he's got a pock the ca. So, - I want you to notice Paul's prayer for the church, verse number 16 to 19. "I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." I'm gonna be brief as I go through these. "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power."

So there's this introduction, there's this first idea of Paul's praising God for the church, and then Paul's prayer for the church. We see firstly in verse number 17. And we see the Trinity here, by the way. I love it. Amen. I love the Trinity as you see it throughout the Bible. You see God of our Lord, that God, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Well, Pastor, where do we see the spirit, the spirit of wisdom? Is that the Holy Spirit? Well, the only way to get true wisdom is through the Spirit. Right. And so we see that, and I just love it. But I would, I'd like to encourage you when you pray for others, verse number 17, to pray as Paul prayed. Paul prayed that the church would grow in their spiritual understanding. Yes, sir. Amen.

Paul prayed that the church would grow in their spiritual understanding So if you're a member of Canyon Ridge, not next week-- yeah, next week during our members meeting, you're gonna get a new members directory, and you can put the main points of last week's message in there, and then you can put the three or four three points of this week's message in there just so that you're not praying only for what you can think of Our prayer is that Josh and Vicky would grow in spiritual understanding That we all would. Right. Zane and Kali. And then I pray for their boys to be saved and grow in spiritual understanding. Sure. And I'll pray for them tomorrow on the staff page, and then the first page through the directory that I pray for. depending on which prayer I'm at, it won't be this one 'cause I go week by week, where I pray for the entire church the same prayer and take time to think about needs and all of that.

Pray that people would grow in spiritual understanding. Paul says this to the church at Philippi in another super encouraging book, in Philippians chapter 3 verse number 10. He says, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death." I love this first phrase, "That I may know Him." It's the same idea. That we would grow in our understanding of who Jesus is. We would, we would understand biblical things. We would understand biblical truths. That we would, we would grow in them in every area of our life. Paul said one commentator felt like, felt that they might make still higher. And the idea is that however far Christians may have advanced in knowledge and in love, there is an unfathomed depth of knowledge which may they may still explore, and which they should be exhorted still to attempt to fathom. What is, what is the or the commentator saying of that?

That no matter where you are in your walk with Christ, there's still room to grow. Yeah. Yeah. There's still new depths to explore. There's still more grace to be received. There's more knowledge about God to be had. Some of you that are older, I'm gonna challenge you to get around some younger people and just listen to them Incredibly grateful for Brad Allen last week being here. And Brad, I mean, he's just, he's just really, like, he's passionate. I love that. And man, he's sitting in my office and we're talking about books back and forth, and I'm giving him books, and I get to my office and he's sent me books and, I'm just...

I'm helped by things that he says and things that he's reminded me of, and there's new depths to explore and different areas conveyed in different ways, that if I was a dodgy old person that thought I had to be the only one that ever talked, I would have not enjoyed some things of God this week that I was able to enjoy that affirmed and encouraged my walk with Christ. Amen. So why did I say all of that? Because, brothers and sisters, we have always an objective as a believer, and that is that we would grow in our spiritual understanding. It is so interesting to me that at times I'll meet believers who profess to have been believers for a good length of time, and everything that you talk to them about they already know, and they find the things of God boring. Friends, there is nothing boring about our creator God. Amen. Nothing Number two, verse number 18. I promise we're almost done.

The Bible says in verse number 18, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Number two, Paul prayed that the church would have correct thoughts about God. "Your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Understand, to be intellectual, to have an intellectual mind and be enlightened, illuminated. God wanted intellect and illumination, that we would have correct thoughts about God I never forget, I was at a doctor's office one time, and we walk in-- I walk in and I'm sitting down and it's a consultation and the doctor said, "So what do you do?" I said, "I'm a pastor." And he goes, "Oh, so you tell people about God?" I'm like, "Yeah, I tell people about God." He said, "I like her too."

He-- then he looked at me and he goes, "I like to refer to God as a woman. What do you think of that?" Other than you being completely wrong and we're not going much further in this consult, we're fine. I mean, you're just wrong. People often have incredibly flawed views about God, even in the local church. And so my prayer is not one of condemnation, but it's encouragement, and Paul's prayer is one of encouragement that the church would have correct thoughts about God. In a world that is attacking everything that is good and right and holy and just, it is imperative that we have the right view of God. That's right. Amen. Yeah. So much in modern Right... just teaches it's Yeah... thoughts about God. There's this guy I follow on YouTube 'cause he makes me laugh, and he's a Christian, and he's a theologian, and it's called-- I don't wanna say it, but I'm gonna say it 'cause it's funny.

It's called the Holy Nope And so he shows videos of people preaching like on some of your Facebook feeds, stuff that people say, and then he's like, "Nope. Nope." And I'm like, yeah, I feel like I live most of my life going, "Nope. Nope. That's not what the Scripture says. Nope. Nope. Flawed view of God. Nope. Nope, they can't be right. Nope." So in an effort to prevent you from having that, we wanna be very careful to preach the word, but we also need to pray for one another and hold one another up that we would have spiritual understanding, the correct spiritual understanding about who God is and correct thoughts about Him. 'Cause if you have correct thoughts about Him, then when you meditate on Him, your meditation on Him will be right and encouraging as it should be. Amen. And then I want you to notice verse number 19 and we're done.

Verse number 19, really to 21, "What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe according to the working of His mighty power. Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." Finally, Paul prayed that the church would understand God's power That the church would understand God's power. And to help the church understand God's power, verse number 20, Paul brought them back to, yet again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen. Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.

Paul prayed the church would understand God's power, most clearly seen and demonstrated at the resurrection of Jesus Christ Our prayer is that we would understand this same power. It's the same power, the resurrection power is the same power that works in us, the same power that's available to you. Pastor, there's no way around this situation. Oh, no, friends, you remember how Jesus raised people from the dead? Yeah. And you remember even more than that how Jesus raised himself from the dead? Good Lord, yes. Let's be very clear that we understand there is nothing beyond the omnipotent reach of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. And we need to pray that we would understand and live in the joy of God's power. So Paul gives us three things to pray for one another. Without trying to stretch it out, here are three things that we could pray for this week, or you learned three next, last week. You could carry this forward.

So three weeks from now, you could start praying that the church would grow in spiritual understanding, that the church would have correct thoughts about God, that the church would understand God's power. And you say, "I'll just do the whole church." Look, no, pray for individuals, which is why we give you a directory with their picture on it. And right now you can divide five, by 138 members. I think it's 27 members a day to pray for is what I'm praying for right now, and then our missionaries on Saturday. And you could just pray for every single person every day. It won't take you too long, probably 10 minutes, and you pray that each person would grow in their spiritual understanding. And if they have additional needs, like health needs, financial needs, a job, marriage issues, you could pray for those as well.

But pray biblical prayers for people because you know that those are the prayers that God truly desires to answer in their life. I'll give this final illustration, and I'm done. There are things that probably most folks do that I really don't like, but few things that folks do irritate me as much as this, and that is people at Canyon Ridge Baptist Church who root for the Texas Longhorns. I hate that. I just hate it. Casper and Mindy root for the Longhorns. I don't know why. He's from El Paso. He should root for UTEP, but he roots for the Texas Longhorns. And so rather than praying that he would get right with God and stop rooting for the Longhorns Which I'm being silly to prove a point. Sometimes that's what we pray for is stuff like that. Not specifically that. Who cares who they root for? That's silly. But you get the idea. Like, Lord, help them not to wear the color.

I mean, I, it just stuff that irritates us, that there's no guarantee, and we live in a frustrated state. Why don't we pray for God's to help them grow in spiritual understanding, or have correct thoughts about God, or the Holy Spirit, that He would give us understanding about God's power? Because I'm gonna tell you this, every one of those powers are within the construct of Scripture, and God desires that we would grow in every one of them. Every one of them.