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Jan 01, 2023

Livin’ on A Prayer

Livin’ on A Prayer

Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21

Speaker: Andrew Kerhoulas

Series: Song & Dance - The Gospel Melody that Moves in Ephesians

Keywords: length, fullness of christ, inner being, depth, breadth, height, riches of his glory, bowing our knees in prayer

"New Year New Me.” However well-intentioned, this self-improvement mantra usually eventuates little to no lasting change. Thankfully, the Bible’s recipe for personal transformation has more to do with God’s steely resolve to change us. From Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 we hear the good news that God comes to give us a limitless supply of inner strength, power, and fullness.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Based on Psalm 95:1-3, 6-7
LEADER: God is here with us! The Messiah has come! All glory be to Christ!

ALL: Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods... Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

CORPORATE PRAYER/THE LORD’S PRAYER:
LEADER: God of love, open our hearts and minds this Christmastime to the good and saving news of Jesus Christ, that all whose lives are insecure, or empty, or aimless, may find in the one born at Bethlehem all we need today— and much more besides. And together, we pray together in the manner in which he taught us, saying,
ALL: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

CENTRAL TEXT: Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 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,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

BENEDICTION: Psalm 16:11
LEADER: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

ALL: Thanks be to God.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • 1 Kings 8:54 
  • 2 Chronicles 6:13
  • Psalm 95:6
  • Luke 22:39-42
  • 2 Corinthians 4:17
  • Philippians 4:19
  • Colossians 1:19

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Here’s a thought exercise: Can you recall a New Year’s Resolution from a bygone year that has stuck with you? Discuss.
  2. Read and reflect on this quote from Dave Zahl: “We are divided in every conceivable category but it turns out we are united in our confusion, in our inability to control.”
  3. What is Paul’s prayer focused on? How does it challenge the way you pray?
  4. If Christians already have the Holy Spirit, why do you think Paul prays that the Holy Spirit would dwell in our inner being and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith? Hint: The verb translated “dwell” in verse 17 means “home” in its noun form. A better translation might be that Jesus has come to make his home in our hearts. 
  5. Read verse 17. This is not a prayer to love Christ more but to more fully know his love for us. How might that comfort weary souls?
  6. Paul’s prayer shows us that true fullness only comes in relationship with Jesus. How can you practice being “filled with all the fullness of God'' (v. 19)? What (new) habit might you employ to that end?

Illustrations

QUOTES: 

 

  • We are divided in every conceivable category. But it turns out, we are united in our confusion, in our inability to control. Dave Zahl
  • Let’s ask our Lord, ‘Is there anything in my life that makes you feel not at home?’ Our human nature likes to crowd Jesus out of the rooms in our hearts even after we’ve given him full authority. That’s where prayer comes in. We need to regularly surrender the various areas of our lives to him. Tom Carter
  • The world tells us we can have fullness without relationship. But Jesus says fullness is found only in relationship with him. Jon Tyson
  • Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. C.S. Lewis
  • All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,
    Rose from a root invisible to all.
    We knew the virtues once of every weed,
    But, severed from the roots of ritual,
    We surf the surface of a wide-screen world
    And find no virtue in the virtual.

    We shrivel on the edges of a wood
    Whose heart we once inhabited in love,
    Now we have need of you, forgotten Root
    The stock and stem of every living thing
    Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,
    For now is winter, now is withering
    Unless we let you root us deep within,
    Under the ground of being, graft us in.
    - Malcom Guite, O Radix

BOOKS / DOCS

  • The Bible Project’s Video on Ephesians and their 5 episode podcast
  • Tom Carter, They Knew How To Pray 
    • Starting on January 18, a discipleship group will study this book on biblical prayers. Contact Rick Hebert to learn more ( ). 

SERMONS / TALKS