Have you ever seen this verse in Ephesians 3:12 (NIV) that reads, "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
When I was in grade school, there was this really popular junior higher named Dave. Dave was one of the coolest guys in school. Like his older brother Matt, who was a high school football star, Dave was a tremendous athlete. Everyone wanted to hang out with him, to talk with him, and to be amongst his inner circle of friends. All of us grade schoolers were kind of star struck by his presence.
One year, I attended a family reunion and was shocked to see both Dave and Matt there. Shocked, I asked my parents, "What are they doing here?" They said, "Didn’t you know? You're related! They’re your cousins. Go talk to them! "From that day on, whenever I would see Dave or Matt around school it was, "Hey Dave, what’s up?" and "Hey Matt, what’s going on?" And they’d address me by name. My friends would be shocked, "Whoa! How do you know Dave? Why do you just go up and talk to him like that?" And with great confidence I’d say, "We're cousins. We're related. How cool is that?" Something even cooler is being able to approach God with that same freedom and confidence.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, that freedom and confidence is ours. We don’t have to worry about God personally rejecting us. We have instant access to him. We can hang out with God. He acknowledges us. We can talk to him and he talks to us. We're part of the inner fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is our Father. We're related to one another through Christ’s blood. How cool is that?!
When I began preaching I worked part-time at Lewis Memorial Christian Village. One of the girls working there was concerned about a situation in her life. When she learned that I was a minister, she asked me to pray to God on her behalf. I prayed for her, but evidently she did not have that same freedom and confidence to approach God that I had. She had never trusted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. I remember thinking, "What a privilege to have the freedom and confidence to approach God."
So many people do not trust God. They have no relationship with him. They’re not related to God through Christ’s blood. They have uncertainty. They fear rejection. They’d rather relate to God through angels than approach him face to face. But not the Christian. The Christian has freedom and confidence to approach God directly.
For some of you this news comes as a complete shock. All this time you have been passing by God in the hallways of life when you could have been talking with him. What does it mean to have the freedom and confidence to approach God directly? It doesn’t mean that we can disrespect God and somehow take the relationship for granted. But neither does it mean that we should hesitate to come before God. We can kneel in his presence and gain immediate access to the power of his throne, at will! You don’t have to be in a church building. You don’t have to go a priest or a holy man. You don’t have to wait till a sacred time, like Sunday. Wherever you find yourself, at whatever time, you can drop to your knees and pray.
If you have your Bible this morning, I want draw some connections for you. We just talked about how, in Christ Jesus, the Christian has freedom and confidence to approach God. Notice how Paul uses his new found freedom in Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)."For this reason I kneel before the Father, rom whom his whole family in heaven 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 Christ, and 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 more than all we 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, for ever and ever! Amen."
This morning I want us to zero in on these verses and consider some of what they teach us about approaching God directly in prayer.
Approaching God with humility.
In Ephesians 3:14 (NIV) Paul says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father…" Kneeling is an act of humility and submission. As proud Americans, we don’t know what it means to kneel in humility and submission. Think about it. Who or what do we kneel before? We don’t kneel before anyone or anything! We rarely submit to any authority beyond ourselves. Children disrespect parents. Students disrespect teachers. Employees disrespect their employers, and vice versa. People disrespect authority figures. Authority figures disrespect ultimate authority.
From an early age it seems ingrained in us to see ourselves more highly than we ought. Confidence to approach God does not imply overconfidence or arrogance. Freedom to approach God does not imply freedom to disrespect God. Humility is acknowledging the goodness and greatness of the one we approach.
We approach God by kneeling in submission and acknowledging that, as Paul writes in Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV) God exalted Christ, "to the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Approach God in Community
In Ephesians 3:15 (NIV) Paul kneels before the Father, "from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name." We don’t approach God in isolation, as lone-ranger Christians. We approach God in community with others, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and with the family of God. This isn’t to suggest that we should never pray to God privately when we are alone. That would be utterly ridiculous. But when we pray, we should acknowledge that there is community within the Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit exist together in an eternal relationship. Just as God exists in the community of the Godhead, so he wants us to live in community. We are strongest when we come before God not as individuals, but together as a family.
One of the primary purposes of our Life Groups is to see Christians gathering together in order to pray for one another. Prayer is a terrific way to encourage one another, to inspire, to strengthen, to uplift, to love, to serve, to teach, and to admonish one another. The early Church met together constantly in prayer. Jesus regularly invited his disciples to pray with him, which is why we have records of Jesus’ prayers. In Matthew 18:20 (NIV) Jesus says, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Some of the times when I have felt the most connected with God is when I have been on my knees praying with others and for others.
Approach God with a Pure Heart.
What are the things closest to your heart when you approach God in prayer? What are the reoccurring themes or the reoccurring requests in your prayers? What do you think about? What do you most desire? Here are a couple of questions to ponder when you approach God in prayer.
Ephesians 3:16-17 (NIV) says, "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."
It's one thing to pray, "God, help me cope. Help me get me through another day. "It's one thing to pray, "God, I’m a sinner. I’m sorry. Forgive me of my sins." It's one thing to pray, "God, change my spouse. Change my children. Change my boss and coworkers. Change my circumstances. Change my fortunes." But it is quite another thing to pray, "God, change me. Fill me with the life-changing power of your Holy Spirit. Strengthen me in my inner being to live for you. Dwell within my heart as I daily trust in you." The chief reason that we succumb to the power of sin is that we don’t seek the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives! The one thing that God has a rich abundance of and that he gives freely is his power!
Praying for Love
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV) says, "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 Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge..."
There are a couple of words of interest to us in this prayer. The first word is "rooted." There is so much religious superficiality these days. We can fit our whole theology on a bumper sticker or tee-shirt. Like consumers, we shop from one church to the next, looking for a church that will entertain us and say what we want to hear. We rarely become rooted deeply in our faith or in our understanding of Jesus Christ. Another word of interest is "established." This word has the idea of a home being established on a foundation. What kind of foundation are you building your life on?
A foundation is something that should be able to withstand any storm you face in life. The foundations we build our lives on get tested throughout life. Paul is praying that the believers will be rooted and established in God’s love. They will need to sink their roots into that which will nourish and sustain them during dry times. They need to build on a trusted foundation that will endure whatever storm or hardship comes their way. Bad news, chronic frustrations, peer pressure, marriage troubles, parenting dilemmas, health crises, personal losses, unemployment, and natural disasters are some of the storms of life.
There is no better foundation to build your life on than an accurate knowledge about God. One of the first things we do in times of distress is to question God’s character, his intentions, and his purposes. Paul prays for us to be rooted and established in love. He prays that we may have the power to grasp how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of Christ. He prays that we will know this love that surpasses knowledge.
In Romans 8:28 (NIV) Paul says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
In Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)Paul continues, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
I don’t know about you, but God’s love sounds like a pretty good foundation to build on. It sounds like something all of us should want to sink our roots into as deepas is possible. It sounds like praying for depth in our knowledge of God’s love is a pretty good thing, wouldn’t you agree? It will sustain us through times of drought and hardship.
Pray for Fullness
Ephesians 3:19 (NIV) continues, "... that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Colossians 1:19 (NIV) tells us, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ)." Colossians 2:9-10 (NIV) says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity (God) lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ..." Our heavenly Father’s greatest desire is for his children to come to him and say, "Abba, Father. I want to be holy just as you are holy. I want to follow your example. I want to imitate you. I want to be just like Christ. Fill me with your goodness, your mercy, your grace, and with the fruit of your Holy Spirit."
I think the ultimate purpose for our prayers isn’t that God would be changed into our likeness, but that we would be changed into his likeness. It's not that God would exist for us, but that we would exist for him. It's not that God would learn to do our will, but that we would learn to do his will. It's not that we would walk away hungry, thirsty, and empty, but that we would be filled with all the fullness of God, just as Christ was filled with all the fullness of God. Approaching God with a pure heart means seeking strength, seeking depth, and seeking fullness. These things need to become themes in our prayers and things that we should feel proud asking of God.
Approach God with Anticipation
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NIV) says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we 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, for ever and ever! Amen."
One of the exciting things about being able to approach God with freedom and confidence is the knowledge that we will never be the same after doing so! When we approach God, he does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. He works his power in our lives in amazing ways. He achieves glory for himself by showing off his power in our lives and in all the generations that follow us. Kind of makes you want to pray, doesn’t it?