comes from the Heidelberg Catechism, which is a confession that's used in Presbyterian churches and certainly consistent with our theology. And this is the question that we would be asked today. What is your only comfort in life and in death? that I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has pulled out my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation because I belong to him. Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. I was listening to a recording by gentleman by the name of D.A. Carson. And Dr. Carson is a New Testament professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in greater Chicago, and he made an observation about prayer that I never thought about. We've been discussing prayer, and we've been studying some of the prayers of the Bible. We've been considering what the Bible says about prayer. One of the great privileges of ours as believers is to enter into the very throne room of Almighty God, our King and our Creator. And he made this observation, and as I applied it to myself, I found that what he said was true in my own experience. This is a remarkable thing, this thing we call prayer. And prayer, or at least the style that we bring to prayer, something that we learn by example and illustration. I've listened to hundreds of people pray over the years and stylistically prayer is many and varied. And each one, each prayer is as precious as folks express to Almighty God the thoughts and intents of their hearts. And each one, each one learned to pray, each one of these individuals learned to pray during formative times in their spiritual journey. And I've heard people pray what I regarded as powerful prayers. in very good King James English, where God is addressed as thee and thou. And I've also heard people pray so casually that I had to listen hard to make sure that it was a prayer directed to God. You know, some people came up through college ministries, and during their college days, they came to faith in Christ. And so during those times, they learned to pray with other college kids who were just doing that. And so they're a little bit more casual in the way they address God. And so, you know, you listen hard. You make sure, yeah, that's really a prayer. And I've heard everything in between those two extremes. And I've heard people pray loudly. And I have been with folks who express their thoughts silently or so quietly that you had to lean into them. And some people pray with fast words when they're praying. Some people pray very slowly. Some people are quite thoughtful about their prayers. Others are very spontaneous. Some people struggle for words in their prayers. For others it just seems to roll out. But a common denominator is that it's likely that they all learn to pray by listening to somebody else. wondering if that's true in your experience. It was true in mine. I did come to faith when I was in college and I did learn how to pray by listening to other people pray. It's praying out loud is a hard thing isn't it? I find it very easy to find people who are happy to read with me, read the scriptures, read for me here on Sunday mornings. I'm wondering maybe if those people who read this morning would be willing to pray up here next week. I don't think so. I think maybe I wouldn't be able to find anyone to take those sheets anymore if I did that. I'm not gonna do that, I'm just kidding. Well, you know, you think about it, the disciples followed Jesus around, and one day they noticed that there was something about Jesus' prayers that were just different. They were different than anything that they'd ever heard before. They'd gone to the temple. They've heard people chant prayers in the temple that came right out of the scriptures. On the festivals in Jerusalem, people would walk up the hill to Jerusalem and they would sing and chant prayers that came from the Psalms. Praying was an intimidating thing back then. And then Jesus came on. And his disciples noticed that when Jesus prayed, it was just different. He talked to God like he was someone with whom he could interact. And so they asked Jesus to teach them to pray, that is to open up the door and let them in the room so that they could hear what went on between Jesus and his father. And so Jesus gave them a template of prayer. Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, That's the way we say it on Sunday mornings when we say it, isn't it? Jesus did not use King James English. We use King James English because that's what we all memorize it in, so we do it in King James English, which is fine. I'm certain that God knows who we're addressing when we do that. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Oh, that's a hard one. Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. That was the template that Jesus gave us. I didn't have any experience with prayer prior to my conversion. Well, except for the prayers that were made in church, in which I was completely disinterested. and the rote prayer that we prayed before our meals, and that was the sum and substance of my experience with prayer. Then when I came to faith in Jesus Christ, things were different. I actually started thinking about prayer. started thinking about the words that I was using when I addressed God, probably in large part because for the first time ever I was thinking about God as a living person. And prayer was my channel of communication. And as I said, my first experience with prayer after conversion was in prayer meetings that surrounded an evangelistic effort that was going into the community. And the style of my prayer mimicked the people in that group. And it's evolved since that time. And now I know some of you scratch your heads when I pray sometimes, because sometimes I'll say things to God like, I know you're up all night preparing for this. You know I heard that one time and I thought you know that's a great line. I love that because God was up all night preparing for this time for us. It's an acknowledgment of what God is about. But that was my experience with prayer. public prayer. Privately, my prayers are more like dialogues seasoned with Scripture as I discuss things with God. And they're more or less running conversations. They're not They're not lists of things, lists of people that I want to pray for, lists of concerns that I might have, lists of things that I might need or want. My prayers are more like a conversation, just like you had someone walking next to you. Wait a minute, we do. And that conversation goes on and on. It's more of a stream of consciousness. And it involves listening for God. Yeah, I mean that. Listening for God. I'll tell you this, I've never heard God audibly. Not that I know of. Not that I recognize. But I never heard God audibly. But I listen for God and sometimes a scripture verse pops into my head that's on topic. Sometimes that happens when I'm conversing with God on untangling a problem or how I can bless somebody. Now, I don't depend on this for stock tips or help with my golf swing. But with issues that I'm dealing with, very often as I'm having this conversation, I'll stop and listen for God. A couple weeks ago, I was in a mentoring relationship with someone, and as he laid out a problem, I had nothing to offer on that situation on the spur of the moment. But after I left and I was having a conversation with God about that, a verse from the book of Nehemiah popped into my mind. And as I thought about that verse, I thought, why, that's quite on point. That's very relevant. So I emailed that verse right off to this person, and I got an email back. And they remarked that Where did I get the idea of Nehemiah from? I said, it just came into my head. And he said, well, you know, Nehemiah came to my mind as we walked away from each other the other day as well. And so God put us on the same page. Sometimes God will give impressions to you. God will convince you in your minds might begin thinking in a way that I hadn't thought before. but you're listening for God. You know, a lot of times we steam on on our way, same things may happen, but we say, well, it was my remarkable memory that helped me to remember that verse in Nehemiah. And we ascribe that to other people, other directions, and yet, maybe it's God that's putting that idea in your mind. So when we're talking about prayer, whether it's out loud or whether it's quietly, we listen for God. But prayer, especially praying out loud, stylistically is a learned behavior. So we study the prayers of the Bible. They don't tell us how fast or how slow we should pray. They don't tell us how loud or how soft our prayer should be, which incidentally tells me that those things are relatively unimportant when it comes to prayer. Whether we speak loud or soft, fast or slow, how long our prayers should be, how short our prayers should be, that's relatively unimportant. But the prayers in the Bible tell us what subjects to take up and the relative importance of some issues. They tell us, for instance, when we should pray. The Bible says, pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5.17. What? without ceasing, what about lunch? See, my style lets me have lunch while I'm having a conversation with God because we talk to each other and we converse with one another. You can do those things as you're praying silently. But the Bible says that we should pray without ceasing. Jesus went off to pray in the morning. Now, I'm not sure that that means the only time you can pray is in the morning. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean that. But the fact of the matter is Jesus went in the morning before the day got too busy and prayer got lost in the day. That's a good idea. So you can adopt that idea. It's a good thing to study the prayers and praying people in the Bible. And the study of prayer gives us context and a framework for prayer from which we extrapolate meaningful, powerful, and personalized prayer. And such is the case of Ephesians chapter 3 and verses 14 through 21. I want to read this prayer. It'll be on the screens, I think. Do we have that whole thing up? OK. And it's in your bulletin if it's not on the screens. Ephesians 3.14 says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far abundantly, then all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory. in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3, that's one of my favorite scripture passages because it gives us such a high-minded view of Christ. And it says that Christ is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think. I can ask or think of big things. And Christ can go past that. What is the context from this prayer? What is prayed? And what do we take away from this prayer that Paul prayed for us and that the Holy Spirit then opened the door so we could listen in Paul's prayer closet? First of all, what is the context of prayer? Well, this week I'm going to Haiti on Wednesday I leave for a pastor's conference, and I've been asked to lead this pastor conference. This is really an honor and a surprise. You know, when you do something one time, people don't know what to expect of you. When they ask you back, that's amazing. And I had the opportunity to speak to about 50 or 60 pastors this fall. And I'm told we should have that same bunch back, maybe a few more, at this conference. And very few, probably none, will speak English with any facility at all. And I know three words in Creole. Two of them are saucepoix, which is lunch. So this one is going to be done with translators, and I hardly know what to expect when I go into this. And it was exciting to hear that some of the people had talked together and they wanted me to come back and expand on what I talked about before. So with great honor and humility, I go to Haiti. Now, this is about the fifth or sixth time I've been to Haiti. My first trip to Haiti was rather frightening. for me, at least the airport piece of it. As I cleared customs, I got my passport stamped in the Port-au-Prince Airport, and as I walked out of the booth there, I stopped to wait for the rest of my group, who was just entering into the customs booth. Now that was the part that was trailing. There was a part that was leading, and they disappeared around the corner. Well, these people behind me didn't see where these people disappeared to. I was the middle man, so I was responsible to get this group hooked up with this group. So I stopped and waited for this group to catch up so that we can go around the corner and find the other group. As I did so, There was, oh, maybe 20 feet, 25 feet away from me, there was a very official looking man with a tie, and a white shirt, and a patch here, and a badge here, and a very, what looked to me like a very large sidearm strapped to his hip. And my anxiety is growing as it is taking longer in customs than I thought it should take. And my anxiety grew into full bloom when this young man with a badge and a big sidearm, he's maybe say maybe early 20s, decided that I wasn't moving fast enough and he began to raise his voice at me and he was animated. I knew that a situation was growing and I wished I knew more than sauce poire in the Creole language at that moment. I was an outsider and I would have been greatly helped if I had been an insider at that point. He began to yell at me, and I tried to explain to him with motions that this group and this group, I needed to get together with them. It didn't work. So I felt responsible to get the rest of the group together, so I held my ground to the growing agitation of this official-looking man. Whoa. Man, oh man, that was a frightening moment. It was resolved after a tense standoff when my party then was released from customs. I was able to get them connected with the others, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Continuing my journey was a great time. But that's what occurred to me at the time. If only I had been an insider, that would have helped. Now, I tell you that story because, first of all, I want you to pray for me. Whether it's loud or soft, I don't care. Whether it's a lot of words or a few words, I don't care. I'd love for you to pray for me. It should be a great time, a great trip. But there's a second reason why I'm telling you that, and that is because the church in Ephesus at this time was a heterogeneous church. Some of the early churches that were established, particularly in Jerusalem, were homogeneous, which is to say they were all Jewish believers who were gathered together. They all looked alike. They all sounded alike. I don't mean identical, but I mean culturally they were the same. In the Ephesian church, it was a heterogeneous church. Hetero is a Greek word, it means other. And genius means, for all practical purposes, born. So they were other-born. So there were people who didn't look like each other that were sitting together in church. That church included Jews and Gentiles. And Gentile is a biblical word to describe a couple of things. First of all, ethnicity. These were non-Jews, these Gentiles. And it also was used to express religion. In its purest form, Gentile meant pagan. Worshippers of God other than Jehovah, they were idolaters. It didn't embarrass them. That's just the way they were. Now, of course, since their gods were made of wood and rock and a variety of metals, their gods were deaf, dumb, and blind. And among those Gentiles were some that really wanted to make right with their god. But their gods gave them no relief. They couldn't. They were made-up gods. They didn't exist, only in the mind of the artisans who chiseled or carved out an image. And in their heart of hearts, these people probably knew that there was a true God, somewhere. They probably knew that there was a judgment coming at some point. And their realization was a frightening thing, just like I was frightened in the airport in Port-au-Prince. These people were probably frightened as they contemplated the end of life, the end of years, and having to meet their God unprepared. And then Paul went to Ephesus, and he spent three years in Ephesus, longer than he spent in any other church. And while he was there, he would preach in the marketplace, and Gentiles by the droves became believers in Christ. And they were moved from the outside, being outsiders, to being moved to the inside, so that they were insiders. Their anxiety was resolved when they heard and understood the gospel, that God could take someone hetero, other than a Jew, and make him into a believer in Jehovah God. But even though they were on the inside, their history had been that they were on the outside. And their perception of who they were in this whole new thing, this church, it was that we're second-class citizens, outsiders brought to the inside but really don't know our way around. And I want you to look at how Paul describes their desperate condition before they became believers in Christ. It comes from Ephesians 2, verses 11 and 12, where the apostle says, therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh with hands, remember that you are at that time, before you came to faith in Christ, you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, without hope and without God in the world. Now, I will tell you that that is a more desperate situation than was my situation in the Port-au-Prince Airport. Their situation was very desperate. Jehovah, the living and true God, had been historically regarded as the exclusive domain of the Jews, and yet Paul preached there is salvation in no other name. But look what happened. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 through 18. The apostle writes this, but now, now that you're on the inside, in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. It applies to everybody with that regard. For he himself is our peace who has made us both. parenthetically, Jew and Gentile. One, and he's broken down in the flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the laws of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. You are on the inside, Paul says. And he, that is Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far off, the Gentiles, and peace to those of you who were near the Jew. For through him, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access in one spirit to the Father. Now, this was amazing. No pagan religion, no gentile religion, offered this kind of relationship. They generally, the relationship between the adherent and the god, small g god, of the pagans, of the gentiles, typically, they generally took the form of subservience. You walked on eggshells around your god if you were a pagan. You worked so hard to try to achieve your God smile and you could lose it at the drop of a hat. It was a hamster wheel. But Jehovah, Jehovah was different. Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament and the emerging New Testament was He was a father. He was Abba, Father. Father was used not just in the titular head of a family sense, but Daddy, the one whose strong arms kept you safe, the one who made sure there was food on the table, the one who made sure that your little league team had a coach and gave directions and guidance for your life, God. Paul said, is a father. We relate to God as a father, not someone who we have to serve with blind obeisance. So Paul says, in this buildup to the prayer for the Ephesians, in Ephesians 3, 14 and 15, for this reason, I bow my knees. out of love before the father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, the Gentiles. In earshot of this letter, how to be doing the wave. Not only are my transgressions forgiven by this God, But I have a Father, a glorious Father, Creator, Master, King. One to whom I can relate on a personal and intimate basis. That is the context for the prayer that Paul is going to pray right here. It is the context in which we pray to a father with whom we have relationship. A father who takes care of us and provides for us. That changes the nature of prayer. Prayer isn't chanted. Your only recourse in prayer isn't just chanted by rote because these were the only approved words. No, we have a relationship with the Father. We can bring to him anything. Well, what is prayed? What is it that Paul prays? And at the core, Paul prays for one thing before he bursts into doxology. He prays that the Ephesians, particularly the Gentile Ephesians, would be strengthened through His, that is, God's Spirit in their inner being. Ephesians 3.16, that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being. I find it interesting that Paul goes to the one great need everyone has. the strengthening of the inner being. The flesh is so strong, and the apostle knew this. He says, the things that I want to do, I don't do. In fact, he says, I do the very things I hate. He knows that the inner man is something that needs to be worked on and changed. So he prays for strength in your inner being. So much does our inner man want to turn back from the gospel, from being a follower of Jesus. Paul says, I pray that you could be strengthened in your inner man. And to what end? Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. And that word that he uses there, that word dwell, it's used a couple different ways in the Bible. First of all in John 1 and verse 14, John tells us the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now that dwell in that case simply means he resided among us. He made his residence here with us. But Ephesians 317, when Paul uses the word, he uses a different word than that. He uses a word that means to rule and exercise power within. So Paul is praying that, number one, Christ would dwell with continual rule in the hearts of the people of Ephesus. that they would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. I suppose it is the case that we will struggle with sin as long as we wear skin. But I think that there's a task that's even more impossible than our struggle with sin, and that is to know the depths, the breadth, the length, the width of the love of Jesus Christ. It is incomprehensibly large. We can never get there. And I say that categorically. We can't get there. We can't get there because we are never fully conscious of all our sin. You have sin patterns in your life that you don't even know about. You may be pretty good with the ones that you do know about. You may be knocking them down and making progress in your spiritual life. Terrific. But there are sin patterns in your life that you don't even know about. There are in mine. And yet God knows all about us. God knows that deep dark secret that you've been hiding from everybody. And God's love reaches down to that depth. He loves us and ever working for the best for us, which is why Paul says to the Romans, and we know, that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purposes, Paul prays that they might become conscious of the depth of God's love and experience, and experience it in an ever increasing fashion. And then Paul breaks into this beautiful doxology, which means simply a word of praise, and call it worship as he reflects on the love of God in Christ Jesus. It's a marvelously magnificent high statement of God's glory and power that he concludes his prayer with. So what's our takeaway? What's our takeaway from this? First of all, We were the Gentiles, not just ethnically, but culturally. Even though to most of everyone here it's true that we are Gentiles and that we're not Jews. But by religious standards, once we were unbelievers. We were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. Read the faith community there. We were strangers to the covenants of promise. We had no hope and we were without God in the world. Why? The Bible says it's the consequence of our sins, our crimes against God. And the Bible says that no one is exempt. All of we like sheep have gone astray, Isaiah says. And worse yet, one day we're gonna have to meet our maker and have to give an account of our lives. Where will we stand if there is no hope? And the worst news is there's nothing that we can do about it in and of ourselves. Our default mechanism is to be like our Gentile or pagan that we read about here today. We get on the hamster wheel, trying to grind out enough good deeds to earn God's favor, trying to cancel out the bad things that we did. But let me ask you a question. How good do those works have to be in order to gain that standing? And how many is enough? No one knows. So you have to stay on the hamster wheel if you choose that fashion. But God doesn't work on that system. The Bible says, by good deeds, read Hamster Wheel, shall no man be made right with God. I think Hamster Wheel is my own translation. That's not up there, is it? That creates a dilemma. We're separated from God by our crimes, our sins against him, and there's nothing we can do about it. But there's good news. The good news is It has to do with the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. God, knowing the deepest, darkest secret of your life, hatched a plan. Jesus, who is the second of the Trinity, would come into this world in the fullness of time. He would live a perfect life, only righteousness. And then at a time and a place of his choosing, he would surrender himself to the authorities. He was sentenced to the cross. And while his lifeblood drained from his body, The father made he who knew no sin to become sin. Jesus was credited at that moment with the sins of all his people. And then God would pour out his wrath and fury on Jesus. For your ambivalence towards God, not his. For your unjust anger. For your impure thoughts and your bad attitudes and my inappropriate deeds. And Jesus took the fall and suffered, quite literally, hell for them. But death couldn't hold him. And on the third day, he emerged from the tomb to the consternation of his enemies, but the delight of his followers. And he overcame our last and greatest enemy, which is death. In doing so, he demonstrated his power at work within us to bring about reconciliation, restoration. and resurrection in us. I think that's the first takeaway. I think there's a second takeaway. The second takeaway is you have the privilege of talking to the one who overcame death, created the scriptures and spoke the universe into existence. I think we either take that for granted or we don't even think about it. We just throw our prayers up. I do. Hoping someone will grab them. But this God to whom we pray is the same God who spoke and the Milky Way appeared. Whoa. There's some power to our prayer. And God, this God, this Creator God is yours. Number three, when you pray, keep in mind that God does not know limitations. He does for me more abundantly than I can ask or think. Pray big kingdom prayers, not just for broken legs or arthritic elbows or whatever it is. We tend to move in that direction where our greatest felt needs are, but Those things are not unimportant, but make it your business to pray for wounded and broken souls. Pray that a hundred pastors this week would learn to live the gospel and preach the bad news and the good news so that would infect Haiti. Can you imagine what a hundred preachers could accomplish if they were on the same page that way? You pray for that. Pray for New Horizons, a ministry that we help locally. We're going to have a team of people take 65 backpacks out to those children, 65 children. We're gonna pray with them. Pray for those 65 children, for the Super Kids Club. Pray big kingdom prayers. Pray that God would dwell in your hearts through faith. Not like John used the word dwell, but as Paul used the word dwell to rule the heart. Pray that your consistent surrender to Almighty God so that you would die to yourself and live to him. for this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through that you, being rooted in grounded love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and the length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you indeed are our Father. Creator, Master, King, our God. Thank you that we can relate to you like that. God, help us to be people of prayer, to take advantage of the relationship that we have, that of a father. Help us, God, to be followers of Jesus and prayers like Jesus. Hear us, God, because we pray in his name. Amen. you