October 12, 2025 • 51 mins
How do you love your people when words feel thin and life is loud? Mark Medley answers by taking us back to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 and showing how intercession becomes the most practical form of love. He begins with a raw, hopeful testimony of wandering and return from Ben Smith, then opens the Scriptures to build a simple, sturdy way to pray that anyone can use. This message continues the In Christ series and grounds prayer where Paul does: “For this reason.” Because God has already chosen, redeemed, sealed, and seated us in Christ, prayer is not striving to get His attention; it is partnership with His willingness. That reframes persistence—“I keep asking”—from pressure to participation. And it sets the tone: thanksgiving first. Before we request anything, we give thanks for our people and for the grace already at work in them.
Mark then teaches the posture of prayer Paul models: to the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the empowering help of the Spirit. Relationship gives boldness, the name of Jesus gives authority, and the Spirit supplies wisdom beyond our understanding. When words run out, the Spirit helps our weakness with groans too deep for words; when we can’t see the path, He prays according to the will of God. Parents carry unique spiritual authority for their children, friends bear one another’s burdens, and churches can shepherd on their knees.
From there, Mark borrows Paul’s language and gives seven clear requests to pray over your people: that God would work at the level of the spirit; give wisdom; grant revelation so the eyes of the heart are enlightened; restore living hope; make His calling loud and clear; open our eyes to the riches of our inheritance; and reveal the power at work in believers—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Isaiah 61 becomes a living prayer map: good news to the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, liberty for captives, comfort for mourners, and beauty in place of ashes.
Along the way, Mark names a quiet thief of our age: the algorithm. It pastors attention, shapes emotions, and drains hope. The answer isn’t shame; it’s a better diet. Curate your inputs, root yourself in Scripture, and let worship interrupt worry. The message ends where Paul ends—seeing Jesus as He is: risen, enthroned, and near. When people truly see Him, everything else takes its proper size. Watch, take notes, and try the seven-point prayer tonight for those you love. Share this with someone who needs courage to keep asking.
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Episode Transcript
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Mark Medley (00:02):
I'm so excited to open the word from Ephesians 1
with you this morning.
But before I do, I want to um,as an intro to the sermon, I
want to invite a friend and nowrelative to come up.
His name is Ben Smith, and he'sa real follower of Jesus.
And he's got a great story ofhow the Lord has reached him.
And I think it's going to behelpful for what we're going to
(00:25):
see in the scriptures today.
So would you welcome Ben?
Ben Smith (00:37):
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Isn't it wonderful to be in thehouse of the Lord today?
It's such a good thing to behere and worshiping with you
guys.
Really just felt such a uh ajoy celebrating the good news of
who he is in our hearts,through us, in us, for us.
And um, I'm here today as afriend.
I see a couple friends in theaudience.
(00:58):
There's Buddy Walker in theback in the middle.
And uh it's just wonderful tobe here.
I come from enemy territory.
I was once an enemy of God, buthe's made me a friend and a
brother.
He's called me friend.
And so he's even, you know,Romans chapter 8, it says heirs
(01:19):
too.
unknown (01:20):
Yeah.
Ben Smith (01:20):
That we would suffer with him and know him and his
suffering.
And that's really through thelove that he's offered us and
extended to us.
And so it's just such apleasure to be here.
And uh, I'm also from Alabama,which from what I understand is
also enemy territory.
Roll tide, isn't anybody?
No, okay, just one or two, onecousin in the room.
Oh, we got somebody that abrave soul in the back who was
(01:41):
once part of the body and in theback as well.
So I hope hopefully I won'ttake up too much time.
Um, just wanted to share withyou guys a little bit of a
story.
So uh in 2023, I came intorelationship with Jesus.
He revealed his love for me, heset me free, praise the Lord.
And um I had grown up going tochurch, actually, I knew many,
(02:05):
many of the people that areconnected through this body,
through master builders, NeilSilverberg and Shelley, um, and
also just so many of theindividuals that were there.
And so I heard the good news, Iheard of the gospel.
I even had encountered God'slove for me in different times
and places through his gracethat he's poured out for all
humanity.
But I didn't know him, I didn'thave a relationship with him.
(02:28):
And it wasn't until many, many,many years later, two years
ago, in May of 2023, that I cameto the absolute end of all of
my own effort and all of mypride.
And Jesus was there to pick meup and save me and set me free
and make me whole.
And that came through a longjourney of a lot of a lot of
(02:49):
wandering, all the wanderingthat I could do, but it was also
through the faithfulness andthe kindness and the gentleness
and the longsuffering and theprayers, which I think which
Mark's gonna talk today about,of family, of friends, of
individuals in my life thatloved me with the love of Jesus.
And uh I'll just give you asmall example of that.
(03:09):
In 2020-ish or so, I had beenmarried, I went through a
divorce, made a lot of mistakesin that.
I was unfaithful to my wife.
And my parents came and theyvisited me that weekend.
And my my father gave me acoat.
He said, Hey, this is a bigcoat, it's too big for me.
Would you like to have this?
And I was heartbroken and justreally discouraged.
(03:32):
But I was like, Okay, I'll takethe coat.
Throughout the week, I found inthe coat, my dad had left some
handwritten notes.
And one of the notes that justreally struck me then was one
that he wrote.
He said, Your mother and I areproud of you.
And so he had shared thegospel.
(03:53):
Blessed is he who comes in thename of the Lord, because he
looked at me as a son.
He looked at me as his in theidentity of a son that didn't
earn my place with him, but wasestablished in who I was because
he had said I was.
And that's the heart of God forall of us.
And that's the heart of God forthose who don't believe yet.
(04:13):
And so when we were worshipingthis morning and we were talking
about how God has called us tolove as he has loved, that's the
message to the lost.
You know, when we're called togo out and disciple the nations,
baptizing them in the name ofthe Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, it's done throughthe power of his spirit and his
fruit that is able to come forthin our life and bear fruit in
the lives of others.
(04:34):
So those people that you knowin your life, if they're
wandering away from God, if theydon't know him, if they've if
they've mocked him, I was one ofthose people.
And so, you guys, in yourprayers, you just break the roof
off and lower them down toJesus in your prayers.
Break the roof off and lowerthem down through the acts of
service and the kindness and thelove and the gentleness and the
(04:55):
self-control that you show themand the testimony of God who's
overcome heartbreak.
Things that would break mortalman don't break those who are
filled with the Spirit.
And so I just I call you guysto lift yourselves up in prayer
and in faith and strengthenyourself in the life and the
truth of who he is and what he'sgonna do, because he said, Ask
anything in my name and it willbe done.
(05:16):
And so when we cry out tosalvation for those that we
love, we know that it's in hiswill.
Cry out, believe, hold fast infaith.
I love you guys.
Thanks for having me today.
Mark Medley (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, you use that microphone to heckle me.
That's right.
That's that is correct.
Wow.
Praise God.
And I know, you know, I wasmarried into this family, you
know.
I know there is a lot offollowers of Jesus.
I mean, Amy's family has 11kids, and Ben's family has eight
kids, and so there's a lot ofpeople praying and and a whole
(06:01):
church praying.
And uh I think we all probablywould agree that prayer changes
things, right?
But sometimes we we feel kindof paralyzed because we're not
really sure how to pray for ourloved ones, especially the ones
that are close to us, and wedon't sometimes we don't it
feels like we don't see thingsmoving uh when we're praying for
(06:23):
our family and friends andacquaintances.
And but our passage thismorning really gives us hope and
it helps us with practicaldirection for how to pray for
our people.
So uh let's look at uhEphesians 1, verse 15.
Let's learn how Paul is prayingfor his people.
Starting in verse 15, he says,uh, for this reason.
(06:47):
Now stop right there.
Okay, when whenever wheneveranybody says for this reason,
you have to think a minute,right?
For what reason?
What reason is he talkingabout?
You can't we can't start therebecause he's told us something
before, and we need to go backand kind of review that.
(07:08):
So let me just give you aflyover of what we've talked
about and what Paul wrote in thefirst few verses of this
chapter.
So so here's what he said.
He opened this whole booksaying, we bless God because God
has blessed us with allspiritual blessings in Christ,
(07:28):
and God has chosen us.
It means he has set us apart asdear to himself.
He chose us in Christ, he choseus before the foundations of
the world.
He chose us to be holy and setapart unto him because of his
love, and he determinedbeforehand that we would be sons
and daughters of his throughChrist.
(07:49):
He made us accepted in hislove, accepted in the beloved
one, because this is what hewanted all along, resulting in
the praise of his gloriousgrace.
And we've been bought back toGod with the precious blood of
Jesus Christ, released from ourbondage, pardoned from our sins,
(08:12):
because of his overwhelminggrace, which he poured on us in
Christ.
In Christ.
We in him, our anchor, he inus, our engine.
It was God's plan from thebeginning to conform all things
to his will through Christ,resulting in the praise of his
glorious grace.
(08:32):
And we've been included inChrist since we've heard the
gospel, and there's fullredemption coming.
And we've been sealed, marked,and kept by the Holy Spirit as a
down payment, as a surety ofwhat's to come, to live in the
fullness of his redemptionbecause of Jesus, which results
(08:53):
in the praise of his gloriousgrace.
All right?
Yeah, that's good news.
Okay, now we can keep going.
That's what he told us for thisreason.
So let's keep reading.
For this reason, because I'veheard of your faith in the Lord
Jesus and your love toward allthe saints, I do not cease to
(09:15):
give thanks for you, rememberingyou my prayers, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, theFather of glory, may give you
the spirit of wisdom and ofrevelation in the knowledge of
Him, having the eyes of yourhearts enlightened, that you may
know what is the hope to whichhe has called you, what are the
(09:35):
riches of his gloriousinheritance in the saints, and
what is the immeasurablegreatness of his power toward us
who believe who believe,according to the working of his
great might that he worked inChrist when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at hisright hand in the heavenly
places.
(09:55):
So, Father, this morning we askyou to open our eyes, help us
to see what it is you want us tosee from this passage.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
So Paul founded this church inEphesus, he's the one that
fathered it.
And not only that, but hestayed there for three years,
(10:18):
laying a foundation there, andhe loved those people, and he
loved them, and he continued toshepherd his flock even when he
wasn't with his flock.
He shepherded them by writingletters like this, but he also
shepherded them through hisprayers.
You know, we can shepherd, wecan actually pastor our flock by
(10:39):
praying for them.
And in his prayer, we can findwisdom as to how to pray for our
loved ones.
And this is really the questionfor this morning.
How can I pray for my people?
I think this is, you know,these are pretty heady words
that he has here.
I actually read this passage uhfor many years, and I thought,
wow, that's so deep.
I'm not sure what it says.
Uh, but it's really uheminently practical.
(11:04):
He he prays for his people incertain ways, and we can grab
those ways and start praying forfor our people as well.
So, how do I pray for mypeople?
And maybe the the firstquestion we ask is, what is
prayer?
And prayer is communion withGod.
It's a form of communion withGod.
It's talking to him, it'slistening to him, it's telling
(11:24):
him the desires of our heart,it's listening to his heart as
well.
And it includes thanksgivingand praise and confession of
sins and requests for needs andfor protection and for
direction.
But the definition that'shelped me the most in my walk uh
for prayer, and you've you'veheard this from this pulpit
(11:46):
before, is prayer is aninvitation into the heart and
the mission of God.
It's an invitation.
God invites us to know him intohis heart, and then from that
place of knowing him into hismission, to join with him in
what he wants to do.
To know him and then also tomake him known.
(12:09):
So, what is the what is God'sheart for my people?
That's a great place to startfor prayer.
And you know, your people arethe people that are on your
heart, the people that who whoyou love, the people you're
concerned about, the people thatyou pray for.
It could be your family, itcould be your friends and
acquaintances, whoever, whoever,it doesn't matter.
But what does he want to do intheir lives?
(12:29):
How can I partner with him tosee that come to pass as Jesus
prayed, your kingdom come, Lord,your will be done here, right
here, right here in my lovedone, as it is in heaven.
So let's focus on a few phrasesthat Paul uses that can help
guide us as to how we can prayfor our people.
(12:49):
Uh, first, of course, what westarted with for this reason,
for this reason, he startsthere, all the things that God
has done.
So we pray for people becauseof all the things that God has
already done in Christ.
So far, in this letter, thereis nothing for us to do.
We've read, this is 20 verses.
We've read 20 verses so far,zero commands for us, except
(13:12):
maybe you might want to say it'sa command for us to thank him
for what he's done.
But everything that he's saidso far is uh is for what is what
God has already done for us inChrist.
And what he has done, he hasdone not because of anything we
have done, right?
Zero contribution from us.
It is God, which is why Godgets the glory.
(13:37):
Everything is from him,everything is through him,
everything is to him.
To him be glory forever.
So all the focuses on what isGod, God has done in Christ to
fulfill his purposes, resultingin the praise of his glorious
grace.
And I think that's a reallyimportant point to make in
prayer, that it's what God hasdone already, it which motivates
(14:03):
us and energizes us for prayer.
What God has done in Christ isour motivation and our energy
behind our prayers.
So it's not something that weare like trying to whip up
within ourselves.
It's not something that we'retrying to bring, bring God down
because he doesn't want to behere.
But if we whip him up enough,he'll come down.
(14:27):
Or if we whip ourselves enough,he'll come down.
No, he's already come in theform of Christ.
He's already interacted withus, and he wants to continue,
and he's inviting us to partnerwith him.
So, because of this, for thisreason, Paul says, I have not
stopped praying, or I cease notto mention you in my prayers, or
(14:50):
I keep asking, I keep asking, Ikeep asking.
There's a perseverance toprayer, there's an endurance,
there's a tenacity to prayer,and and it's compelled by love.
Our love causes us to continueto pray for those people we
(15:10):
love.
So and model is basicallyPaul's just modeling what Jesus
taught.
And you remember in in uh Lukechapter 18, Jesus told a parable
that all men should pray andnot give up.
And that's what he was doing.
Paul is saying in other placeshe said, I uh pray without
(15:32):
ceasing.
He said, in later in this book,in the book of Ephesians, in
chapter six, when he's talkingabout spiritual warfare, he
says, keep on praying in thespirit at all times with all
kinds of prayer.
And this uh urge to pray is allthrough the scriptures.
Like Hannah prayed for a sonwith desperation, like the
(15:58):
prophets prayed for Israel withgreat burden, like Elijah prayed
to God to show his power withgreat zeal, like the psalmists
pray about everything in lifewith all of the emotions of
life, like Solomon prayed overthe temple with great dedication
to God, like Jesus prayed overJerusalem, weeping, weeping with
(16:23):
burden, like Paul prays for hisfriends without ceasing.
I keep asking, I keep asking, Ikeep asking.
When we don't see the answerswe want, I keep asking.
If we don't see things happenwhen we want them to happen, I
keep asking.
(16:44):
Even when it looks like nothingis going on at all, I keep
asking.
There's something to thispersistence in prayer.
And I want to just uh play youa little story here, very quick
story, about what the importanceof keeping on asking.
Jenessa Wait (17:02):
This is why you cannot stop praying for your
unbelieving friends and familymembers that have walked away
from Jesus.
There was a time in my lifewhere I totally turned away from
the Lord and was living in sinand was okay with it.
But then one day I was walkinghome, and I the best way I can
describe it is like the lightsturned on and something lifted
off my eyes, and I realized inthat moment I need God.
(17:24):
I need to get out of thislifestyle.
And later on in life, I askedthe Lord, why was it just like
an and suddenly moment?
Like it just felt like thelights just turned on.
And he told me it was theprayers of the saints.
It was hundreds of peoplepraying for me to come back to
him.
And then he showed me a pictureof the bowls in heaven filled
with prayers.
And just one more prayer justtipped that bowl out and brought
(17:47):
breakthrough in my life.
So, this is to encourage you todon't stop praying for that
person.
It can feel redundant, but itis not purposeless.
There is purpose in everyprayer, and all it takes is one
more prayer.
Mark Medley (17:59):
Amen.
One more prayer.
Tip the bowl.
You know, there is a such thingas that last prayer before
something happens.
Right?
Don't stop.
I keep asking, I keep asking.
Your prayers are notpurposeless ever.
(18:20):
God has burdened you to prayfor these people for a reason,
because he wants to partner withyou to bring his kingdom into
their lives.
So he says, I never stop, Ikeep asking, I cease not, I
don't stop.
What is he don't stop?
He doesn't he doesn't stopgiving thanks.
I know, I never stop givingthanks for you.
So prayer is begins, or Paulbegins his prayer for his loved
(18:43):
ones with thanksgiving.
He thanks God for them.
So there's something reallypowerful about being uh about
starting this whole thing withthanksgiving.
And so before I ask forprotection or for before I ask
for provision or for purpose inmy loved ones, I just thank God
for them.
Lord, thank you.
I thank you for my children,God.
(19:04):
I thank you that we prayed forthem and you gave them.
I'm grateful for their presencein my life.
I'm grateful for what they meanto me and how you've blessed my
life through them.
I thank you for the giftsyou've given to them.
God, I thank you for whatyou've already done and how
you've worked in their livesalready, and how you've been
faithful to them, how you'veprovided for them, for your
calling on their life.
(19:25):
I thank you, Lord.
I thank you.
And that like recalibrates me,like sets me right.
It puts my mind in the rightposition to hear the other
things that God wants to speakto me about them.
It's like a springboard intohearing the voice of the Lord
for them.
So start with thankfulness.
I keep on asking, and I don'tstop praying for you.
(19:49):
And then Paul begins to seehimself as partnering with God
in prayer.
In fact, Paul has such anunderstanding that he's working
with God in prayer that heincludes the entire Trinity in
this prayer.
That the God of our Lord JesusChrist, the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father, theglorious Father, would give you
(20:10):
the spirit, capital S, of wisdomand revelation in the knowledge
of him, Father, Son, and Spiritin this prayer.
He's working with the wholeTrinity here to bring something
into existence.
And so Paul's prayer life hasthis growing knowledge of and
relationship with the entireTrinity, the glorious Father,
(20:34):
the saving Son, and theempowering spirit at work with
me when I'm praying, really, andwith you when you're praying.
God is at work.
So he prays, first of all, toGod the Father, the Father of
glory, he says, the most high,exalted, glorious God above all
(20:56):
gods, who is loving, providing,protecting Father, God most high
with us in relationship.
So we are praying from aposition of relationship.
The first word in Jesus' prayeris Father.
When they said to him, Jesus,we've seen the Pharisees pray
(21:20):
and we've seen you pray, weprefer yours.
So would you please teach ushow to pray?
And he taught him how to pray.
And he said, When you pray,pray like this.
What?
Father, you start with Fatherbefore you're asking for the
forgiveness, before you're evenpraising him, before you're
(21:40):
asking him to deliver you, orasking for your needs to be met
before anything.
Father relationship.
It's from a place ofrelationship, it's from a
position of being beloved sonsand daughters that we're
praying, which is why we canpray with boldness.
Because we're sons anddaughters, and we're able to
(22:03):
partner together with thispurpose as I pray to God the
Father in the name of Jesusthrough Jesus Christ, right?
So we have a name beyondcompare.
I love what we sang thismorning.
I love everything we sang thismorning.
It was great about it, it wasso focused on Christ and His
name and His power and Hisposition in the heavenlies.
(22:26):
We have a name beyond compareabove every name to which every
knee bows, to which every powersubmits because of the work of
the cross.
All authority, Jesus says,given to me in heaven and earth,
therefore go.
I have all authority, so takeit and go.
Let's work together.
(22:46):
Let's work together in prayer.
So we're praying from aposition of power, a position of
relationship with the Father, aposition of power, because
there's a name that we wield,this name of Jesus.
And Jesus is seated above inthe heavenly places, chapter one
of Ephesians.
(23:07):
We are seated together with himin the heavenlies, chapter two
of Ephesians, where all therulers and principalities are
working in chapter three ofEphesians, and we're wrestling
in the heavenlies, chapter sixof Ephesians.
But we're there with him whohas the name above every name.
(23:27):
There's power in these prayers.
You're not just muttering tothe ceiling, brothers and
sisters, when you're praying.
You're not just speaking tothis guy.
There's power here.
We're praying from a positionof power, raised up with Christ,
praying with authority,especially for those you have
(23:49):
relationship with and those youlove.
Those you have authority over,you have authority in the spirit
over too.
For your prayers, parents, yourprayers for your children have
authority.
They're special prayers.
I can pray for your children,but I think your prayers are
even more powerful for yourchildren than mine, than mine
(24:11):
would be.
So we pray to the Father, aplace of relationship through
the Son, in the place of power.
And then we pray by theempowering help of the Spirit.
This is the beautiful thing, iswe don't pray by ourselves,
even in our own wisdom.
We have the help of the HolySpirit.
So we pray from a position ofwisdom beyond our understanding.
(24:32):
You know what?
The Holy Spirit is the only onewho knows what to do.
I don't know what to do.
Most of the time when I'mpraying, I'm not sure exactly
what to pray for, but the HolySpirit does know.
And he helps us.
And here's what Paul said inRomans 8, 26 and 27.
(24:53):
Likewise, the Spirit helps usin our weaknesses.
For we do not know what to prayfor as we ought.
But the Spirit Himselfintercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words.
And he who searches the heartsknows what is the mind of the
Spirit.
Because the Spirit intercedesfor the saints according to the
will of God.
(25:14):
He helps us in our weaknesses.
And maybe you remember, wetalked one time about that Greek
word.
He helps us in our weaknesses.
It's a you might rememberbecause it's a funny word.
Does anybody remember that?
I tried to get y'all to say it.
You can say it, right?
(25:35):
Sunanti lambonomai.
It's a great, it's a greatword.
It's a great and the word meansto take a hold of something
opposite of together.
In other words, the Holy Spiritand I are carrying this thing
together.
He on that side, me on thisside.
That's the picture here.
He helps us in our weakness.
I can't do it by myself, but heand I together are carrying
(25:58):
this thing.
We're working together with theHoly Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is workingtogether with us.
He helps us in our weakness.
I'm not sure how to pray, buthe does.
He does.
In 1 Corinthians 14, verses 14and 15, Paul says, If I pray in
a tongue, my spirit prays, butmy mind is unfruitful.
(26:20):
What am I to do?
I will pray with my spirit, butI will pray also with my mind.
With my mind also.
I will sing with the spirit,but I will sing with my mind
also.
He's talking aboutunderstanding your prayers and
not understanding your prayers.
He's talking about the gift oftongues in terms of praying to
God.
And so the Bible speaks ofpraying in the spirit versus
(26:42):
praying it with yourunderstanding or in your mind.
And also it says that we'reable, that prayers, when we're
unable to think of adequatewords, we're helped.
So in those times when we don'tknow how to pray, the spirit
himself helps us.
Sometimes it's with no words atall, just deep burden.
(27:03):
Sometimes it's with strongcries and tears.
And sometimes it's with prayingin the spirit, praying in an
unknown tongue.
And when we pray in an unknowntongue, the the first
Corinthians 14 says we speakdirectly to God.
It says that we speak mysterieswith our spirit.
(27:23):
It says that our spirit ispraying, not merely our mind.
And it says that we're givingthanks well.
And this is why we're able topray perfect prayers with the
help of the Spirit.
In Romans 8, he who searchesthe hearts knows what's the mind
of the Spirit because theSpirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
(27:45):
The Spirit prays according tothe will of God.
So you don't have to speak intongues to receive the help of
the Spirit in prayer.
Okay?
You don't have to.
But if you don't yet pray intongues, I want to encourage you
to ask for this gift.
It's a help.
It's been such a help for me.
I don't know how to how to doit.
(28:07):
Ask, earnestly desire thespiritual gifts.
You know, that same chaptersays.
And ask God for it.
Or let us pray for you thismorning for it.
It's a gift that God gives tostrengthen you, to help you to
pray.
But don't think that you'reinadequate to pray if you don't
pray in tongues.
The Spirit makes intercessionfor you and empowers you to pray
in English too.
(28:28):
English is a language.
Okay.
It's a good one.
And God speaks it.
So it's okay.
But there's but there's also agift that you can be given.
No, so you can we can pray forthese and earnestly desire these
gifts.
Point is we're not alone whenwe pray.
The entire Trinity is active inour prayer life.
We join in partnership with themost powerful being in the
(28:51):
universe, and we're helped inprayer.
He invites us into his heartand into his mission.
This is beautiful.
Okay, so now we understand, asPaul understood, we're working
together with God in prayer.
He empowers us to pray and heworks with us.
So let's get practical.
Let's talk about what does heactually pray?
What is Paul doing here?
(29:12):
When he's praying for us andpraying for the saints, praying
for his people, what does he do?
How is he praying specifically?
Well, he says that the God ofour Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give youthe spirit of wisdom and
revelation.
Okay, so first of all, he'spraying for God to work on the
level of the spirit.
I want so, because you see,what he's talked about up to
(29:34):
this point is so mind-blowing,he has to stop in the middle of
it.
All the things that God hasdone for us in Christ and the
ramifications of what God hasdone for us in Christ.
And the position that God'slifted us up into with Christ,
He's He has to stop and say,God, just open their eyes.
It's too much for any of us toreally grasp on our own.
(29:55):
It's beyond our understanding.
So God, in the in on the Levelof the spirit, on the level of
the spirit, work in their lives.
And you know, we don't wrestleagainst flesh and blood, but
honestly, what we see is fleshand blood.
This is reality in our livesday by day.
(30:15):
We see real life, and sometimeswhat we see in the natural
causes us to falter in ourprayer lives because we don't
always see it changing at ourtempo.
But God is moving in the spiritrealm, which affects the
physical realm.
(30:35):
So Paul says, God, would youpray?
Paul says, God, work at thelevel of the spirit in my loved
ones' lives.
Second thing is he prays forwisdom.
unknown (30:45):
Yeah.
Mark Medley (30:46):
Beautiful thing to pray for.
If you don't know anything elseto pray for your loved one,
there you go.
Pray for wisdom.
Wisdom that they would comeaway from the foolishness of
man, the foolish ways of theworld, and they would open,
their eyes would be open to seethe wise ways of God.
There's two ways, right?
(31:06):
And in Proverbs, it says thatthere's a way that seems right
to a man, but it ends in death.
And in James it says we canpray and ask for wisdom if we
don't have wisdom.
And he gives it.
And he doesn't hold it back,but he pours it out liberally.
So we can pray for wisdom onour behalf.
(31:27):
We can pray for wisdom for ourloved ones too.
God, open their eyes and helpthem to see.
Help them to see your ways.
Take them out of their ownthoughts and what they think is
right.
The ways that seem right butare leading to death.
Lord, would you help them tosee?
(31:48):
Which is the next thing hesays, that their eyes and their
understanding would beenlightened.
The word here is apocalypse.
Give them an apocalypse.
Open their eyes, a revealing.
It literally means to strip offwhat is hiding something from
seeing.
(32:08):
Make the truth seeable, Lord.
Like on the Isle of Patmos,John was just seeing things that
were already there, but wecouldn't, he couldn't see
before.
And suddenly there's arevelation, an apocalypse, and
he can see things that are real.
And so this is what Paul issaying, God, just strip off all
(32:31):
the things that distract or umor hide what's true.
God, open eyes, open the eyesof their heart.
Do you know that your heart haseyes?
Do you know that the heart ofyour loved ones have they have
eyes?
Those hearts have eyes.
It's interesting, isn't it?
(32:52):
He says here, your loved one'sheart has eyes.
So it's a word that literallymeans physical eyes, but it's
also used for eyes of your mindor eyes of your heart.
It just means to give them thefunction of being able to see.
That's what it means.
Open the eyes of their heart.
God, I ask you to work on theheart level so that at the very
(33:15):
core, my loved ones get it.
They get it.
They get what you who you areand what you want to do.
Lord, open their eyes.
But you don't understand, myloved ones.
They don't have any desire forGod.
That's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
You understand.
(33:36):
They have never laid eyes onthe interior of a church in
their life.
It's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
But they've never seen a realChristian example lived out
before them.
It's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
And God can open the eyes ofthe blind.
Blind hearts He can open up.
(33:58):
And so, and then He uses thisword.
I'm asking for you to opentheir eyes so they can see the
hope of their calling.
Hope.
Hope.
God, give my loved ones hope.
Man, hope is a big one, guys.
It's a big one.
We forget it.
It's one of the big three,right?
(34:19):
Faith, hope, and love.
We know love's important.
We know faith's important, butright up there with it is hope.
Hope is so important.
Hope is just confidentexpectation that tomorrow is
going to be better than today.
That's one way to think of it.
Tomorrow can be better thantoday.
And all around us, people arelosing hope.
(34:41):
And I think it's, I think it'snot so much that we don't have
hope, it's just that we have ourput our hope in the wrong
things.
You know, like the psalmistsays, Why are you so downcast,
my soul?
Put your hope in God.
We've just put our hope in thewrong things.
And life can drain you.
(35:02):
He can just drain the hope outof you.
Because the economy fluctuates,jobs disappear, your house
breaks down, your pipes leak,your team loses.
I don't know.
Even your even like stars burnout.
This world is like burning out,you know?
(35:23):
It's like this is not, if youjust look at what you see with
your eyes, you can lose hopereally quickly.
But the scripture says that aman or woman who puts their hope
in the Lord will never be putto shame.
There's a place for, there's adestination for your hope.
There's a place it's supposedto be set on.
It's a living hope.
It's Jesus Christ, it's aperson.
(35:44):
And so we pray for our peoplethat they would realize things
can change, that they wouldrealize they can make decisions
today that can change thetrajectory of their tomorrow.
We ask God to open theirhearts.
And I think it seems to me eachgeneration has its own um
(36:07):
challenges to hope.
But I I can tell you what Ithink our generation's biggest
hope crusher is, in my opinion.
And it's called the algorithm.
Our hope is stolen, and ourexam anxiety is swollen by what
(36:34):
we're seeing over and over andover on our socials.
We we you you understand,right?
Algorithm means that there's aalgorithm is a data tracking
system that looks at what you'redoing online and keeps feeding
you the same thing, right?
So whatever you're clicking on,it starts you you're aware of
this?
It keeps it keeps sending youwhat you're clicking on, and so
(37:00):
it's analyzing and it's pouringthis stuff into you so that you
are force-fed what you'recraving.
And fear and sensationalismsells, and so part of this is
market-driven, but also oursouls are kind of bent that way,
(37:23):
and so part of it isflesh-driven.
And you put those two together,and it can be a real mess.
What what are you feeding yoursoul?
What are you feeding your soul?
When uh Melissa died, and I wasworking through um this grief
and process and learning how tohow to go forward, and what is
(37:45):
what is next steps and what isfuture look like.
And the Lord was being graciousto me and showing me some
things to help me.
There's some things I knew Ineeded to do.
You know, one thing is I neededto keep myself plugged in to my
church and my family becausethere's my strength and there's
my anchor.
I also knew I needed to move mybody because this is this is
(38:11):
gonna help me.
I also knew I needed I neededto fuel my body with the right
things.
I needed to eat the rightthings physically, eat the right
things so that my body doesn'tgo into this this despair.
Okay, this is just somethingthat was important to me.
I had to fuel my body forhealth, okay, physically and
(38:36):
emotionally.
And I'm telling you, we have todo the same thing.
We have to watch what we'reeating, and we have to watch
what's being force fed to usthrough the algorithm.
Because, and here's what werealized last night at our we uh
last night, last week at our umat our pastor's retreat, and it
was we had a we had a greatpastor's retreat.
But what we realized is that ina lot of ways the algorithm is
(39:00):
pastoring our people.
Yeah, you know, you may getmore care from the algorithm
than you do from us.
Because you're paying moreattention to it.
And we realize that we'resometimes pushing back against
what the algorithm isforce-feeding you because you're
(39:21):
clicking on things.
We're pastoring against youronline content.
And it's tough.
It's real, though.
This is our generation'sdilemma, right?
But we're praying for your eyesto be enlightened by the word
of God, that you will fix youreyes on Jesus, the living hope.
We're praying that the word ofGod will be the loudest voice,
(39:43):
the most compelling voice inyour life.
That you'll get off Facebookand get your face in his book.
We're praying that you hear thecall of the Lord.
Yeah.
Because the hope can come whenyou hear the calling.
Lord, open their eyes to seethe hope of their calling.
(40:04):
There's the next thing, thenext thing to hear the calling
of the Lord.
God's invitation to eternallife, God's invitation to
abundant life, God's invitationas Jesus is standing with his
arms open and saying, Come tome, if you're laboring and
you're heavy, you're heavyladen, if you're burdened, I
(40:24):
will give you rest.
And we can exchange a yoke, andI and you can learn from me.
And I'm gentle and I'm lowly.
There's a calling.
There's a calling to Christ,there's a calling deeper in
Christ, there's a call to knowhim more.
So pray, pray for your lovedones to hear the calling of the
(40:46):
Lord.
And then he says, to see thehope of his calling, their
calling, and also the theglorious riches, the inheritance
of the saints.
Okay.
So to see the incredible richesthat God has for us because
we're sons and daughters.
This is what Paul is asking.
The unrivaled eternal beauty ofthe full consummation of the
(41:10):
kingdom of God that is ready,that's being prepared for us as
saints.
We pray for this for your lovedones.
That you can they can see abovewhat's going on here.
They can see beyond just thisworld.
They can see what is to come,they can see that serving Jesus
is worth it.
It's so much greater to followJesus in the long run.
(41:33):
That eternal things will bemore valuable than temporary
things.
God opened their eyes to theincredible riches that you have
for them.
Number seven, to experience thepower of God.
The power of God, the powerthat he worked in Christ when he
raised him from the dead.
Okay, Lord, unleash your powerin their lives.
Let them see your power.
(41:55):
However, you need to do it,however, you need to show
yourself strong.
Reveal the risen Christ seatedwith authority in their lives,
whatever you need to do.
And I think of what Jesusopened when he opened the
scroll, when he was introducinghis own ministry, and he opened
the scroll and read from Isaiah61.
And he talked about the powerthat would come through his
(42:19):
ministry.
Good news to the poor.
God, give them good news.
Open their eyes to see goodnews.
Bind up the brokenhearted.
God, where they're hurting,would you heal them?
By your power, liberty to thecaptives.
God, set them free wherethey're bound.
By your power, open the prison,those who are bound.
God, where they have beenstruggling in chains.
(42:43):
Break those chains.
God, give them an understandingthat this is a year of favor
for them.
This is a year of change forthem.
God, comfort them when they'remourning.
God, give them beauty for allthis ashes that they've created
in their lives.
Oh man, this is great prayer.
This is good stuff.
Open the heaven and show yourpower, Lord.
(43:06):
Release your power in theirlives so they cannot deny your
existence, cannot deny yourlove, cannot deny their place
with you.
And then the last thing is totruly see Christ as he is.
The power that he worked inChrist when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at hisright hand in the heavenly
(43:27):
places.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God inpower, the Savior of the world,
raised from the dead, seated inheavens, full of authority, the
judge of heaven and earth.
God opened our eyes to seeJesus.
Because when you see Jesus,everything changes.
Everything.
(43:48):
Whatever way you know it needsto happen, Lord.
Release your power.
Release the revelation ofJesus.
Paul pastored his flock bypraying these things for them.
And we can learn how to pastorand pray for and really
(44:11):
practically love our people,even if if even if they're
holding us at arm's length, orif there seems to be distance
between them, you know, there'sno distance in the spirit.
We can pray for them, and it'spowerful, and we can love them
through these prayers.
So so I want to close today bydoing two things.
You know, the first thing Iwant to do is I want to pray for
you.
This congregation really is notjust my prayer, but this is
(44:35):
like a prayer from all of theelders over this church, and I
want to pray these things overyou guys.
Okay, and then the second thingI want to do is I want to close
by having a time where we cangather together in with a couple
of people or a few peoplearound you and pray these things
for your loved ones.
(44:55):
I mean, we should my we shoulddo these things, right?
I mean, we should just hearthem and say, Oh, that was a
sermon.
We should actually do it.
So let's practice this morning.
Is that okay?
All right, good.
We can go beyond theory thismorning, we can actually do it.
This is good.
Okay, so let me pray for youthe prayer that we have as your
(45:18):
elders.
Oh Father.
We come to you this morning asbeloved sons and daughters, just
in awe of what you'veaccomplished through your son
Jesus.
And we stand before you in thefinished work of the cross,
(45:43):
where your grace abounds andyour purposes unfold.
Lord, not by our efforts, butby your sovereign will, we stand
here, Lord.
And for the this reason of whatyou've done for us, God,
partnering with you, Father ofglory, saving son, empowering
(46:04):
Holy Spirit, we don't stopgiving thanks to you for this
congregation.
We thank you, Lord.
We're grateful for each personhere, for the way you've woven
their lives into our lives, forblessing us through their
presence and their gifts, theirservice, their faith, their
(46:25):
love.
We thank you, Lord, for thegift of community.
We thank you for the sharedjourney of knowing you more
together.
And Father, we pray in the nameabove every name, Jesus, that
you would pour out your spiritof wisdom and revelation on us
as a congregation.
Open our eyes, Lord, of ourhearts, that we could see you
(46:48):
clearly, and somehow we canunderstand the truth of who you
are, Lord.
We ask you to strip away allthe distractions and all the
deceptions that hide you fromus, that cloud our vision, and
let your word be the loudest andmost compelling voice that we
hear, Lord.
(47:09):
Speak louder than the word thanthe noises of this world, God,
we pray.
May we find in Jesus the hopethat changes our future, Lord.
What we pray for thiscongregation to hear your call,
Lord, the call to eternal life,the call to rest in you, the
call to know you deeply.
(47:29):
Let us all see the riches ofwhat you have prepared for us.
That eye has not seen, that earhas not heard, that has not
entered into the heart of man,those things you've prepared for
us.
And let that be our strengthand our hope for future, Lord.
May you help us experience yourgreat power, the same power
(47:54):
that raised Jesus from the dead,that seated us with him in the
heavenly places, Lord.
Work that power in us, Lord,mightily, Lord, in ways that are
unique to each of our heartsand our families.
Holy Spirit, our helper, guideus when we don't know how to
(48:18):
pray.
Empower us to pray, God, withboldness and authority and
wisdom and with love for thosewe love.
Lord, we pray those among uswho feel lost in fear or swayed
by the noise of this world orhopeless, Lord.
I pray that you would let yourtruth drown out all the
(48:41):
algorithms, Lord, of anxiety andturn us toward hope in Christ.
Lord, may we see Jesus as hetruly is, Son of God, Savior of
the world, full of authority,full of love, release your power
in our lives, Lord.
(49:01):
Heal the broken, lift theweary, God, draw us to you.
And these things we bring toyou as sons and daughters, Lord,
in the mighty name of Jesus,with the help of the Spirit.
In Jesus' name, our risen King,we trust you, Lord, to work
(49:22):
this into our lives for yourglory, resulting in the praise
of your glorious grace.
This is our prayer.
Amen.
Amen.
Okay, so now why don't we dothe same thing for those people
that we love right now?
What I want to do is um I wantus to close the service uh by
(49:45):
just joining with one or twopeople around us, maybe a few
people around us, and justpraying for each other's loved
ones.
We have we have the the eightthings all together here on a on
a uh a slide.
If you forget, you can look upand you can just pray.
Pray these things over yourloved ones.
You can pray as long as youwant.
I'm gonna speak a blessing overyou, and I'm gonna be down
(50:06):
here.
But you know what?
I realize you might be one ofthe people who people have
prayed for so long.
And this more, this morningmight be the tipping point.
Maybe this morning is the time,it's your time.
Maybe they've been praying foryou.
Maybe you don't know the Lordor you knew the Lord, you've run
(50:28):
in from the Lord, whatever.
Maybe today's your day.
And I'm gonna stay right downhere.
If today is your day and youwant to respond to Jesus, I'm
gonna stay here and I want youto come down.
I want to pray for you.
And I want us to pray for eachother.
And when you're finishedpraying, uh you're dismissed.
Maybe you could dismiss alittle quieter than normal and
maybe be loud in the coffee baror something, and allow people
(50:51):
who are still praying to pray.
But let's just practice this,okay?
Well, Lord, I just pray you youwould bless them and keep them,
and may you cause your face toshine upon them.
Be gracious to them, Lord.
(51:11):
You would lift your face up onall of them and you would give
them peace in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, if you just kind ofgather with a few people around
you and let's let's pray for ourpeople.
I'm so excited to open the word from Ephesians 1
with you this morning.
But before I do, I want to um,as an intro to the sermon, I
want to invite a friend and nowrelative to come up.
His name is Ben Smith, and he'sa real follower of Jesus.
And he's got a great story ofhow the Lord has reached him.
And I think it's going to behelpful for what we're going to
(00:25):
see in the scriptures today.
So would you welcome Ben?
Ben Smith (00:37):
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Isn't it wonderful to be in thehouse of the Lord today?
It's such a good thing to behere and worshiping with you
guys.
Really just felt such a uh ajoy celebrating the good news of
who he is in our hearts,through us, in us, for us.
And um, I'm here today as afriend.
I see a couple friends in theaudience.
(00:58):
There's Buddy Walker in theback in the middle.
And uh it's just wonderful tobe here.
I come from enemy territory.
I was once an enemy of God, buthe's made me a friend and a
brother.
He's called me friend.
And so he's even, you know,Romans chapter 8, it says heirs
(01:19):
too.
unknown (01:20):
Yeah.
Ben Smith (01:20):
That we would suffer with him and know him and his
suffering.
And that's really through thelove that he's offered us and
extended to us.
And so it's just such apleasure to be here.
And uh, I'm also from Alabama,which from what I understand is
also enemy territory.
Roll tide, isn't anybody?
No, okay, just one or two, onecousin in the room.
Oh, we got somebody that abrave soul in the back who was
(01:41):
once part of the body and in theback as well.
So I hope hopefully I won'ttake up too much time.
Um, just wanted to share withyou guys a little bit of a
story.
So uh in 2023, I came intorelationship with Jesus.
He revealed his love for me, heset me free, praise the Lord.
And um I had grown up going tochurch, actually, I knew many,
(02:05):
many of the people that areconnected through this body,
through master builders, NeilSilverberg and Shelley, um, and
also just so many of theindividuals that were there.
And so I heard the good news, Iheard of the gospel.
I even had encountered God'slove for me in different times
and places through his gracethat he's poured out for all
humanity.
But I didn't know him, I didn'thave a relationship with him.
(02:28):
And it wasn't until many, many,many years later, two years
ago, in May of 2023, that I cameto the absolute end of all of
my own effort and all of mypride.
And Jesus was there to pick meup and save me and set me free
and make me whole.
And that came through a longjourney of a lot of a lot of
(02:49):
wandering, all the wanderingthat I could do, but it was also
through the faithfulness andthe kindness and the gentleness
and the longsuffering and theprayers, which I think which
Mark's gonna talk today about,of family, of friends, of
individuals in my life thatloved me with the love of Jesus.
And uh I'll just give you asmall example of that.
(03:09):
In 2020-ish or so, I had beenmarried, I went through a
divorce, made a lot of mistakesin that.
I was unfaithful to my wife.
And my parents came and theyvisited me that weekend.
And my my father gave me acoat.
He said, Hey, this is a bigcoat, it's too big for me.
Would you like to have this?
And I was heartbroken and justreally discouraged.
(03:32):
But I was like, Okay, I'll takethe coat.
Throughout the week, I found inthe coat, my dad had left some
handwritten notes.
And one of the notes that justreally struck me then was one
that he wrote.
He said, Your mother and I areproud of you.
And so he had shared thegospel.
(03:53):
Blessed is he who comes in thename of the Lord, because he
looked at me as a son.
He looked at me as his in theidentity of a son that didn't
earn my place with him, but wasestablished in who I was because
he had said I was.
And that's the heart of God forall of us.
And that's the heart of God forthose who don't believe yet.
(04:13):
And so when we were worshipingthis morning and we were talking
about how God has called us tolove as he has loved, that's the
message to the lost.
You know, when we're called togo out and disciple the nations,
baptizing them in the name ofthe Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, it's done throughthe power of his spirit and his
fruit that is able to come forthin our life and bear fruit in
the lives of others.
(04:34):
So those people that you knowin your life, if they're
wandering away from God, if theydon't know him, if they've if
they've mocked him, I was one ofthose people.
And so, you guys, in yourprayers, you just break the roof
off and lower them down toJesus in your prayers.
Break the roof off and lowerthem down through the acts of
service and the kindness and thelove and the gentleness and the
(04:55):
self-control that you show themand the testimony of God who's
overcome heartbreak.
Things that would break mortalman don't break those who are
filled with the Spirit.
And so I just I call you guysto lift yourselves up in prayer
and in faith and strengthenyourself in the life and the
truth of who he is and what he'sgonna do, because he said, Ask
anything in my name and it willbe done.
(05:16):
And so when we cry out tosalvation for those that we
love, we know that it's in hiswill.
Cry out, believe, hold fast infaith.
I love you guys.
Thanks for having me today.
Mark Medley (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, you use that microphone to heckle me.
That's right.
That's that is correct.
Wow.
Praise God.
And I know, you know, I wasmarried into this family, you
know.
I know there is a lot offollowers of Jesus.
I mean, Amy's family has 11kids, and Ben's family has eight
kids, and so there's a lot ofpeople praying and and a whole
(06:01):
church praying.
And uh I think we all probablywould agree that prayer changes
things, right?
But sometimes we we feel kindof paralyzed because we're not
really sure how to pray for ourloved ones, especially the ones
that are close to us, and wedon't sometimes we don't it
feels like we don't see thingsmoving uh when we're praying for
(06:23):
our family and friends andacquaintances.
And but our passage thismorning really gives us hope and
it helps us with practicaldirection for how to pray for
our people.
So uh let's look at uhEphesians 1, verse 15.
Let's learn how Paul is prayingfor his people.
Starting in verse 15, he says,uh, for this reason.
(06:47):
Now stop right there.
Okay, when whenever wheneveranybody says for this reason,
you have to think a minute,right?
For what reason?
What reason is he talkingabout?
You can't we can't start therebecause he's told us something
before, and we need to go backand kind of review that.
(07:08):
So let me just give you aflyover of what we've talked
about and what Paul wrote in thefirst few verses of this
chapter.
So so here's what he said.
He opened this whole booksaying, we bless God because God
has blessed us with allspiritual blessings in Christ,
(07:28):
and God has chosen us.
It means he has set us apart asdear to himself.
He chose us in Christ, he choseus before the foundations of
the world.
He chose us to be holy and setapart unto him because of his
love, and he determinedbeforehand that we would be sons
and daughters of his throughChrist.
(07:49):
He made us accepted in hislove, accepted in the beloved
one, because this is what hewanted all along, resulting in
the praise of his gloriousgrace.
And we've been bought back toGod with the precious blood of
Jesus Christ, released from ourbondage, pardoned from our sins,
(08:12):
because of his overwhelminggrace, which he poured on us in
Christ.
In Christ.
We in him, our anchor, he inus, our engine.
It was God's plan from thebeginning to conform all things
to his will through Christ,resulting in the praise of his
glorious grace.
(08:32):
And we've been included inChrist since we've heard the
gospel, and there's fullredemption coming.
And we've been sealed, marked,and kept by the Holy Spirit as a
down payment, as a surety ofwhat's to come, to live in the
fullness of his redemptionbecause of Jesus, which results
(08:53):
in the praise of his gloriousgrace.
All right?
Yeah, that's good news.
Okay, now we can keep going.
That's what he told us for thisreason.
So let's keep reading.
For this reason, because I'veheard of your faith in the Lord
Jesus and your love toward allthe saints, I do not cease to
(09:15):
give thanks for you, rememberingyou my prayers, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, theFather of glory, may give you
the spirit of wisdom and ofrevelation in the knowledge of
Him, having the eyes of yourhearts enlightened, that you may
know what is the hope to whichhe has called you, what are the
(09:35):
riches of his gloriousinheritance in the saints, and
what is the immeasurablegreatness of his power toward us
who believe who believe,according to the working of his
great might that he worked inChrist when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at hisright hand in the heavenly
places.
(09:55):
So, Father, this morning we askyou to open our eyes, help us
to see what it is you want us tosee from this passage.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
So Paul founded this church inEphesus, he's the one that
fathered it.
And not only that, but hestayed there for three years,
(10:18):
laying a foundation there, andhe loved those people, and he
loved them, and he continued toshepherd his flock even when he
wasn't with his flock.
He shepherded them by writingletters like this, but he also
shepherded them through hisprayers.
You know, we can shepherd, wecan actually pastor our flock by
(10:39):
praying for them.
And in his prayer, we can findwisdom as to how to pray for our
loved ones.
And this is really the questionfor this morning.
How can I pray for my people?
I think this is, you know,these are pretty heady words
that he has here.
I actually read this passage uhfor many years, and I thought,
wow, that's so deep.
I'm not sure what it says.
Uh, but it's really uheminently practical.
(11:04):
He he prays for his people incertain ways, and we can grab
those ways and start praying forfor our people as well.
So, how do I pray for mypeople?
And maybe the the firstquestion we ask is, what is
prayer?
And prayer is communion withGod.
It's a form of communion withGod.
It's talking to him, it'slistening to him, it's telling
(11:24):
him the desires of our heart,it's listening to his heart as
well.
And it includes thanksgivingand praise and confession of
sins and requests for needs andfor protection and for
direction.
But the definition that'shelped me the most in my walk uh
for prayer, and you've you'veheard this from this pulpit
(11:46):
before, is prayer is aninvitation into the heart and
the mission of God.
It's an invitation.
God invites us to know him intohis heart, and then from that
place of knowing him into hismission, to join with him in
what he wants to do.
To know him and then also tomake him known.
(12:09):
So, what is the what is God'sheart for my people?
That's a great place to startfor prayer.
And you know, your people arethe people that are on your
heart, the people that who whoyou love, the people you're
concerned about, the people thatyou pray for.
It could be your family, itcould be your friends and
acquaintances, whoever, whoever,it doesn't matter.
But what does he want to do intheir lives?
(12:29):
How can I partner with him tosee that come to pass as Jesus
prayed, your kingdom come, Lord,your will be done here, right
here, right here in my lovedone, as it is in heaven.
So let's focus on a few phrasesthat Paul uses that can help
guide us as to how we can prayfor our people.
(12:49):
Uh, first, of course, what westarted with for this reason,
for this reason, he startsthere, all the things that God
has done.
So we pray for people becauseof all the things that God has
already done in Christ.
So far, in this letter, thereis nothing for us to do.
We've read, this is 20 verses.
We've read 20 verses so far,zero commands for us, except
(13:12):
maybe you might want to say it'sa command for us to thank him
for what he's done.
But everything that he's saidso far is uh is for what is what
God has already done for us inChrist.
And what he has done, he hasdone not because of anything we
have done, right?
Zero contribution from us.
It is God, which is why Godgets the glory.
(13:37):
Everything is from him,everything is through him,
everything is to him.
To him be glory forever.
So all the focuses on what isGod, God has done in Christ to
fulfill his purposes, resultingin the praise of his glorious
grace.
And I think that's a reallyimportant point to make in
prayer, that it's what God hasdone already, it which motivates
(14:03):
us and energizes us for prayer.
What God has done in Christ isour motivation and our energy
behind our prayers.
So it's not something that weare like trying to whip up
within ourselves.
It's not something that we'retrying to bring, bring God down
because he doesn't want to behere.
But if we whip him up enough,he'll come down.
(14:27):
Or if we whip ourselves enough,he'll come down.
No, he's already come in theform of Christ.
He's already interacted withus, and he wants to continue,
and he's inviting us to partnerwith him.
So, because of this, for thisreason, Paul says, I have not
stopped praying, or I cease notto mention you in my prayers, or
(14:50):
I keep asking, I keep asking, Ikeep asking.
There's a perseverance toprayer, there's an endurance,
there's a tenacity to prayer,and and it's compelled by love.
Our love causes us to continueto pray for those people we
(15:10):
love.
So and model is basicallyPaul's just modeling what Jesus
taught.
And you remember in in uh Lukechapter 18, Jesus told a parable
that all men should pray andnot give up.
And that's what he was doing.
Paul is saying in other placeshe said, I uh pray without
(15:32):
ceasing.
He said, in later in this book,in the book of Ephesians, in
chapter six, when he's talkingabout spiritual warfare, he
says, keep on praying in thespirit at all times with all
kinds of prayer.
And this uh urge to pray is allthrough the scriptures.
Like Hannah prayed for a sonwith desperation, like the
(15:58):
prophets prayed for Israel withgreat burden, like Elijah prayed
to God to show his power withgreat zeal, like the psalmists
pray about everything in lifewith all of the emotions of
life, like Solomon prayed overthe temple with great dedication
to God, like Jesus prayed overJerusalem, weeping, weeping with
(16:23):
burden, like Paul prays for hisfriends without ceasing.
I keep asking, I keep asking, Ikeep asking.
When we don't see the answerswe want, I keep asking.
If we don't see things happenwhen we want them to happen, I
keep asking.
(16:44):
Even when it looks like nothingis going on at all, I keep
asking.
There's something to thispersistence in prayer.
And I want to just uh play youa little story here, very quick
story, about what the importanceof keeping on asking.
Jenessa Wait (17:02):
This is why you cannot stop praying for your
unbelieving friends and familymembers that have walked away
from Jesus.
There was a time in my lifewhere I totally turned away from
the Lord and was living in sinand was okay with it.
But then one day I was walkinghome, and I the best way I can
describe it is like the lightsturned on and something lifted
off my eyes, and I realized inthat moment I need God.
(17:24):
I need to get out of thislifestyle.
And later on in life, I askedthe Lord, why was it just like
an and suddenly moment?
Like it just felt like thelights just turned on.
And he told me it was theprayers of the saints.
It was hundreds of peoplepraying for me to come back to
him.
And then he showed me a pictureof the bowls in heaven filled
with prayers.
And just one more prayer justtipped that bowl out and brought
(17:47):
breakthrough in my life.
So, this is to encourage you todon't stop praying for that
person.
It can feel redundant, but itis not purposeless.
There is purpose in everyprayer, and all it takes is one
more prayer.
Mark Medley (17:59):
Amen.
One more prayer.
Tip the bowl.
You know, there is a such thingas that last prayer before
something happens.
Right?
Don't stop.
I keep asking, I keep asking.
Your prayers are notpurposeless ever.
(18:20):
God has burdened you to prayfor these people for a reason,
because he wants to partner withyou to bring his kingdom into
their lives.
So he says, I never stop, Ikeep asking, I cease not, I
don't stop.
What is he don't stop?
He doesn't he doesn't stopgiving thanks.
I know, I never stop givingthanks for you.
So prayer is begins, or Paulbegins his prayer for his loved
(18:43):
ones with thanksgiving.
He thanks God for them.
So there's something reallypowerful about being uh about
starting this whole thing withthanksgiving.
And so before I ask forprotection or for before I ask
for provision or for purpose inmy loved ones, I just thank God
for them.
Lord, thank you.
I thank you for my children,God.
(19:04):
I thank you that we prayed forthem and you gave them.
I'm grateful for their presencein my life.
I'm grateful for what they meanto me and how you've blessed my
life through them.
I thank you for the giftsyou've given to them.
God, I thank you for whatyou've already done and how
you've worked in their livesalready, and how you've been
faithful to them, how you'veprovided for them, for your
calling on their life.
(19:25):
I thank you, Lord.
I thank you.
And that like recalibrates me,like sets me right.
It puts my mind in the rightposition to hear the other
things that God wants to speakto me about them.
It's like a springboard intohearing the voice of the Lord
for them.
So start with thankfulness.
I keep on asking, and I don'tstop praying for you.
(19:49):
And then Paul begins to seehimself as partnering with God
in prayer.
In fact, Paul has such anunderstanding that he's working
with God in prayer that heincludes the entire Trinity in
this prayer.
That the God of our Lord JesusChrist, the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father, theglorious Father, would give you
(20:10):
the spirit, capital S, of wisdomand revelation in the knowledge
of him, Father, Son, and Spiritin this prayer.
He's working with the wholeTrinity here to bring something
into existence.
And so Paul's prayer life hasthis growing knowledge of and
relationship with the entireTrinity, the glorious Father,
(20:34):
the saving Son, and theempowering spirit at work with
me when I'm praying, really, andwith you when you're praying.
God is at work.
So he prays, first of all, toGod the Father, the Father of
glory, he says, the most high,exalted, glorious God above all
(20:56):
gods, who is loving, providing,protecting Father, God most high
with us in relationship.
So we are praying from aposition of relationship.
The first word in Jesus' prayeris Father.
When they said to him, Jesus,we've seen the Pharisees pray
(21:20):
and we've seen you pray, weprefer yours.
So would you please teach ushow to pray?
And he taught him how to pray.
And he said, When you pray,pray like this.
What?
Father, you start with Fatherbefore you're asking for the
forgiveness, before you're evenpraising him, before you're
(21:40):
asking him to deliver you, orasking for your needs to be met
before anything.
Father relationship.
It's from a place ofrelationship, it's from a
position of being beloved sonsand daughters that we're
praying, which is why we canpray with boldness.
Because we're sons anddaughters, and we're able to
(22:03):
partner together with thispurpose as I pray to God the
Father in the name of Jesusthrough Jesus Christ, right?
So we have a name beyondcompare.
I love what we sang thismorning.
I love everything we sang thismorning.
It was great about it, it wasso focused on Christ and His
name and His power and Hisposition in the heavenlies.
(22:26):
We have a name beyond compareabove every name to which every
knee bows, to which every powersubmits because of the work of
the cross.
All authority, Jesus says,given to me in heaven and earth,
therefore go.
I have all authority, so takeit and go.
Let's work together.
(22:46):
Let's work together in prayer.
So we're praying from aposition of power, a position of
relationship with the Father, aposition of power, because
there's a name that we wield,this name of Jesus.
And Jesus is seated above inthe heavenly places, chapter one
of Ephesians.
(23:07):
We are seated together with himin the heavenlies, chapter two
of Ephesians, where all therulers and principalities are
working in chapter three ofEphesians, and we're wrestling
in the heavenlies, chapter sixof Ephesians.
But we're there with him whohas the name above every name.
(23:27):
There's power in these prayers.
You're not just muttering tothe ceiling, brothers and
sisters, when you're praying.
You're not just speaking tothis guy.
There's power here.
We're praying from a positionof power, raised up with Christ,
praying with authority,especially for those you have
(23:49):
relationship with and those youlove.
Those you have authority over,you have authority in the spirit
over too.
For your prayers, parents, yourprayers for your children have
authority.
They're special prayers.
I can pray for your children,but I think your prayers are
even more powerful for yourchildren than mine, than mine
(24:11):
would be.
So we pray to the Father, aplace of relationship through
the Son, in the place of power.
And then we pray by theempowering help of the Spirit.
This is the beautiful thing, iswe don't pray by ourselves,
even in our own wisdom.
We have the help of the HolySpirit.
So we pray from a position ofwisdom beyond our understanding.
(24:32):
You know what?
The Holy Spirit is the only onewho knows what to do.
I don't know what to do.
Most of the time when I'mpraying, I'm not sure exactly
what to pray for, but the HolySpirit does know.
And he helps us.
And here's what Paul said inRomans 8, 26 and 27.
(24:53):
Likewise, the Spirit helps usin our weaknesses.
For we do not know what to prayfor as we ought.
But the Spirit Himselfintercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words.
And he who searches the heartsknows what is the mind of the
Spirit.
Because the Spirit intercedesfor the saints according to the
will of God.
(25:14):
He helps us in our weaknesses.
And maybe you remember, wetalked one time about that Greek
word.
He helps us in our weaknesses.
It's a you might rememberbecause it's a funny word.
Does anybody remember that?
I tried to get y'all to say it.
You can say it, right?
(25:35):
Sunanti lambonomai.
It's a great, it's a greatword.
It's a great and the word meansto take a hold of something
opposite of together.
In other words, the Holy Spiritand I are carrying this thing
together.
He on that side, me on thisside.
That's the picture here.
He helps us in our weakness.
I can't do it by myself, but heand I together are carrying
(25:58):
this thing.
We're working together with theHoly Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is workingtogether with us.
He helps us in our weakness.
I'm not sure how to pray, buthe does.
He does.
In 1 Corinthians 14, verses 14and 15, Paul says, If I pray in
a tongue, my spirit prays, butmy mind is unfruitful.
(26:20):
What am I to do?
I will pray with my spirit, butI will pray also with my mind.
With my mind also.
I will sing with the spirit,but I will sing with my mind
also.
He's talking aboutunderstanding your prayers and
not understanding your prayers.
He's talking about the gift oftongues in terms of praying to
God.
And so the Bible speaks ofpraying in the spirit versus
(26:42):
praying it with yourunderstanding or in your mind.
And also it says that we'reable, that prayers, when we're
unable to think of adequatewords, we're helped.
So in those times when we don'tknow how to pray, the spirit
himself helps us.
Sometimes it's with no words atall, just deep burden.
(27:03):
Sometimes it's with strongcries and tears.
And sometimes it's with prayingin the spirit, praying in an
unknown tongue.
And when we pray in an unknowntongue, the the first
Corinthians 14 says we speakdirectly to God.
It says that we speak mysterieswith our spirit.
(27:23):
It says that our spirit ispraying, not merely our mind.
And it says that we're givingthanks well.
And this is why we're able topray perfect prayers with the
help of the Spirit.
In Romans 8, he who searchesthe hearts knows what's the mind
of the Spirit because theSpirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
(27:45):
The Spirit prays according tothe will of God.
So you don't have to speak intongues to receive the help of
the Spirit in prayer.
Okay?
You don't have to.
But if you don't yet pray intongues, I want to encourage you
to ask for this gift.
It's a help.
It's been such a help for me.
I don't know how to how to doit.
(28:07):
Ask, earnestly desire thespiritual gifts.
You know, that same chaptersays.
And ask God for it.
Or let us pray for you thismorning for it.
It's a gift that God gives tostrengthen you, to help you to
pray.
But don't think that you'reinadequate to pray if you don't
pray in tongues.
The Spirit makes intercessionfor you and empowers you to pray
in English too.
(28:28):
English is a language.
Okay.
It's a good one.
And God speaks it.
So it's okay.
But there's but there's also agift that you can be given.
No, so you can we can pray forthese and earnestly desire these
gifts.
Point is we're not alone whenwe pray.
The entire Trinity is active inour prayer life.
We join in partnership with themost powerful being in the
(28:51):
universe, and we're helped inprayer.
He invites us into his heartand into his mission.
This is beautiful.
Okay, so now we understand, asPaul understood, we're working
together with God in prayer.
He empowers us to pray and heworks with us.
So let's get practical.
Let's talk about what does heactually pray?
What is Paul doing here?
(29:12):
When he's praying for us andpraying for the saints, praying
for his people, what does he do?
How is he praying specifically?
Well, he says that the God ofour Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give youthe spirit of wisdom and
revelation.
Okay, so first of all, he'spraying for God to work on the
level of the spirit.
I want so, because you see,what he's talked about up to
(29:34):
this point is so mind-blowing,he has to stop in the middle of
it.
All the things that God hasdone for us in Christ and the
ramifications of what God hasdone for us in Christ.
And the position that God'slifted us up into with Christ,
He's He has to stop and say,God, just open their eyes.
It's too much for any of us toreally grasp on our own.
(29:55):
It's beyond our understanding.
So God, in the in on the Levelof the spirit, on the level of
the spirit, work in their lives.
And you know, we don't wrestleagainst flesh and blood, but
honestly, what we see is fleshand blood.
This is reality in our livesday by day.
(30:15):
We see real life, and sometimeswhat we see in the natural
causes us to falter in ourprayer lives because we don't
always see it changing at ourtempo.
But God is moving in the spiritrealm, which affects the
physical realm.
(30:35):
So Paul says, God, would youpray?
Paul says, God, work at thelevel of the spirit in my loved
ones' lives.
Second thing is he prays forwisdom.
unknown (30:45):
Yeah.
Mark Medley (30:46):
Beautiful thing to pray for.
If you don't know anything elseto pray for your loved one,
there you go.
Pray for wisdom.
Wisdom that they would comeaway from the foolishness of
man, the foolish ways of theworld, and they would open,
their eyes would be open to seethe wise ways of God.
There's two ways, right?
(31:06):
And in Proverbs, it says thatthere's a way that seems right
to a man, but it ends in death.
And in James it says we canpray and ask for wisdom if we
don't have wisdom.
And he gives it.
And he doesn't hold it back,but he pours it out liberally.
So we can pray for wisdom onour behalf.
(31:27):
We can pray for wisdom for ourloved ones too.
God, open their eyes and helpthem to see.
Help them to see your ways.
Take them out of their ownthoughts and what they think is
right.
The ways that seem right butare leading to death.
Lord, would you help them tosee?
(31:48):
Which is the next thing hesays, that their eyes and their
understanding would beenlightened.
The word here is apocalypse.
Give them an apocalypse.
Open their eyes, a revealing.
It literally means to strip offwhat is hiding something from
seeing.
(32:08):
Make the truth seeable, Lord.
Like on the Isle of Patmos,John was just seeing things that
were already there, but wecouldn't, he couldn't see
before.
And suddenly there's arevelation, an apocalypse, and
he can see things that are real.
And so this is what Paul issaying, God, just strip off all
(32:31):
the things that distract or umor hide what's true.
God, open eyes, open the eyesof their heart.
Do you know that your heart haseyes?
Do you know that the heart ofyour loved ones have they have
eyes?
Those hearts have eyes.
It's interesting, isn't it?
(32:52):
He says here, your loved one'sheart has eyes.
So it's a word that literallymeans physical eyes, but it's
also used for eyes of your mindor eyes of your heart.
It just means to give them thefunction of being able to see.
That's what it means.
Open the eyes of their heart.
God, I ask you to work on theheart level so that at the very
(33:15):
core, my loved ones get it.
They get it.
They get what you who you areand what you want to do.
Lord, open their eyes.
But you don't understand, myloved ones.
They don't have any desire forGod.
That's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
You understand.
(33:36):
They have never laid eyes onthe interior of a church in
their life.
It's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
But they've never seen a realChristian example lived out
before them.
It's okay.
Their heart has eyes.
And God can open the eyes ofthe blind.
Blind hearts He can open up.
(33:58):
And so, and then He uses thisword.
I'm asking for you to opentheir eyes so they can see the
hope of their calling.
Hope.
Hope.
God, give my loved ones hope.
Man, hope is a big one, guys.
It's a big one.
We forget it.
It's one of the big three,right?
(34:19):
Faith, hope, and love.
We know love's important.
We know faith's important, butright up there with it is hope.
Hope is so important.
Hope is just confidentexpectation that tomorrow is
going to be better than today.
That's one way to think of it.
Tomorrow can be better thantoday.
And all around us, people arelosing hope.
(34:41):
And I think it's, I think it'snot so much that we don't have
hope, it's just that we have ourput our hope in the wrong
things.
You know, like the psalmistsays, Why are you so downcast,
my soul?
Put your hope in God.
We've just put our hope in thewrong things.
And life can drain you.
(35:02):
He can just drain the hope outof you.
Because the economy fluctuates,jobs disappear, your house
breaks down, your pipes leak,your team loses.
I don't know.
Even your even like stars burnout.
This world is like burning out,you know?
(35:23):
It's like this is not, if youjust look at what you see with
your eyes, you can lose hopereally quickly.
But the scripture says that aman or woman who puts their hope
in the Lord will never be putto shame.
There's a place for, there's adestination for your hope.
There's a place it's supposedto be set on.
It's a living hope.
It's Jesus Christ, it's aperson.
(35:44):
And so we pray for our peoplethat they would realize things
can change, that they wouldrealize they can make decisions
today that can change thetrajectory of their tomorrow.
We ask God to open theirhearts.
And I think it seems to me eachgeneration has its own um
(36:07):
challenges to hope.
But I I can tell you what Ithink our generation's biggest
hope crusher is, in my opinion.
And it's called the algorithm.
Our hope is stolen, and ourexam anxiety is swollen by what
(36:34):
we're seeing over and over andover on our socials.
We we you you understand,right?
Algorithm means that there's aalgorithm is a data tracking
system that looks at what you'redoing online and keeps feeding
you the same thing, right?
So whatever you're clicking on,it starts you you're aware of
this?
It keeps it keeps sending youwhat you're clicking on, and so
(37:00):
it's analyzing and it's pouringthis stuff into you so that you
are force-fed what you'recraving.
And fear and sensationalismsells, and so part of this is
market-driven, but also oursouls are kind of bent that way,
(37:23):
and so part of it isflesh-driven.
And you put those two together,and it can be a real mess.
What what are you feeding yoursoul?
What are you feeding your soul?
When uh Melissa died, and I wasworking through um this grief
and process and learning how tohow to go forward, and what is
(37:45):
what is next steps and what isfuture look like.
And the Lord was being graciousto me and showing me some
things to help me.
There's some things I knew Ineeded to do.
You know, one thing is I neededto keep myself plugged in to my
church and my family becausethere's my strength and there's
my anchor.
I also knew I needed to move mybody because this is this is
(38:11):
gonna help me.
I also knew I needed I neededto fuel my body with the right
things.
I needed to eat the rightthings physically, eat the right
things so that my body doesn'tgo into this this despair.
Okay, this is just somethingthat was important to me.
I had to fuel my body forhealth, okay, physically and
(38:36):
emotionally.
And I'm telling you, we have todo the same thing.
We have to watch what we'reeating, and we have to watch
what's being force fed to usthrough the algorithm.
Because, and here's what werealized last night at our we uh
last night, last week at our umat our pastor's retreat, and it
was we had a we had a greatpastor's retreat.
But what we realized is that ina lot of ways the algorithm is
(39:00):
pastoring our people.
Yeah, you know, you may getmore care from the algorithm
than you do from us.
Because you're paying moreattention to it.
And we realize that we'resometimes pushing back against
what the algorithm isforce-feeding you because you're
(39:21):
clicking on things.
We're pastoring against youronline content.
And it's tough.
It's real, though.
This is our generation'sdilemma, right?
But we're praying for your eyesto be enlightened by the word
of God, that you will fix youreyes on Jesus, the living hope.
We're praying that the word ofGod will be the loudest voice,
(39:43):
the most compelling voice inyour life.
That you'll get off Facebookand get your face in his book.
We're praying that you hear thecall of the Lord.
Yeah.
Because the hope can come whenyou hear the calling.
Lord, open their eyes to seethe hope of their calling.
(40:04):
There's the next thing, thenext thing to hear the calling
of the Lord.
God's invitation to eternallife, God's invitation to
abundant life, God's invitationas Jesus is standing with his
arms open and saying, Come tome, if you're laboring and
you're heavy, you're heavyladen, if you're burdened, I
(40:24):
will give you rest.
And we can exchange a yoke, andI and you can learn from me.
And I'm gentle and I'm lowly.
There's a calling.
There's a calling to Christ,there's a calling deeper in
Christ, there's a call to knowhim more.
So pray, pray for your lovedones to hear the calling of the
(40:46):
Lord.
And then he says, to see thehope of his calling, their
calling, and also the theglorious riches, the inheritance
of the saints.
Okay.
So to see the incredible richesthat God has for us because
we're sons and daughters.
This is what Paul is asking.
The unrivaled eternal beauty ofthe full consummation of the
(41:10):
kingdom of God that is ready,that's being prepared for us as
saints.
We pray for this for your lovedones.
That you can they can see abovewhat's going on here.
They can see beyond just thisworld.
They can see what is to come,they can see that serving Jesus
is worth it.
It's so much greater to followJesus in the long run.
(41:33):
That eternal things will bemore valuable than temporary
things.
God opened their eyes to theincredible riches that you have
for them.
Number seven, to experience thepower of God.
The power of God, the powerthat he worked in Christ when he
raised him from the dead.
Okay, Lord, unleash your powerin their lives.
Let them see your power.
(41:55):
However, you need to do it,however, you need to show
yourself strong.
Reveal the risen Christ seatedwith authority in their lives,
whatever you need to do.
And I think of what Jesusopened when he opened the
scroll, when he was introducinghis own ministry, and he opened
the scroll and read from Isaiah61.
And he talked about the powerthat would come through his
(42:19):
ministry.
Good news to the poor.
God, give them good news.
Open their eyes to see goodnews.
Bind up the brokenhearted.
God, where they're hurting,would you heal them?
By your power, liberty to thecaptives.
God, set them free wherethey're bound.
By your power, open the prison,those who are bound.
God, where they have beenstruggling in chains.
(42:43):
Break those chains.
God, give them an understandingthat this is a year of favor
for them.
This is a year of change forthem.
God, comfort them when they'remourning.
God, give them beauty for allthis ashes that they've created
in their lives.
Oh man, this is great prayer.
This is good stuff.
Open the heaven and show yourpower, Lord.
(43:06):
Release your power in theirlives so they cannot deny your
existence, cannot deny yourlove, cannot deny their place
with you.
And then the last thing is totruly see Christ as he is.
The power that he worked inChrist when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at hisright hand in the heavenly
(43:27):
places.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God inpower, the Savior of the world,
raised from the dead, seated inheavens, full of authority, the
judge of heaven and earth.
God opened our eyes to seeJesus.
Because when you see Jesus,everything changes.
Everything.
(43:48):
Whatever way you know it needsto happen, Lord.
Release your power.
Release the revelation ofJesus.
Paul pastored his flock bypraying these things for them.
And we can learn how to pastorand pray for and really
(44:11):
practically love our people,even if if even if they're
holding us at arm's length, orif there seems to be distance
between them, you know, there'sno distance in the spirit.
We can pray for them, and it'spowerful, and we can love them
through these prayers.
So so I want to close today bydoing two things.
You know, the first thing Iwant to do is I want to pray for
you.
This congregation really is notjust my prayer, but this is
(44:35):
like a prayer from all of theelders over this church, and I
want to pray these things overyou guys.
Okay, and then the second thingI want to do is I want to close
by having a time where we cangather together in with a couple
of people or a few peoplearound you and pray these things
for your loved ones.
(44:55):
I mean, we should my we shoulddo these things, right?
I mean, we should just hearthem and say, Oh, that was a
sermon.
We should actually do it.
So let's practice this morning.
Is that okay?
All right, good.
We can go beyond theory thismorning, we can actually do it.
This is good.
Okay, so let me pray for youthe prayer that we have as your
(45:18):
elders.
Oh Father.
We come to you this morning asbeloved sons and daughters, just
in awe of what you'veaccomplished through your son
Jesus.
And we stand before you in thefinished work of the cross,
(45:43):
where your grace abounds andyour purposes unfold.
Lord, not by our efforts, butby your sovereign will, we stand
here, Lord.
And for the this reason of whatyou've done for us, God,
partnering with you, Father ofglory, saving son, empowering
(46:04):
Holy Spirit, we don't stopgiving thanks to you for this
congregation.
We thank you, Lord.
We're grateful for each personhere, for the way you've woven
their lives into our lives, forblessing us through their
presence and their gifts, theirservice, their faith, their
(46:25):
love.
We thank you, Lord, for thegift of community.
We thank you for the sharedjourney of knowing you more
together.
And Father, we pray in the nameabove every name, Jesus, that
you would pour out your spiritof wisdom and revelation on us
as a congregation.
Open our eyes, Lord, of ourhearts, that we could see you
(46:48):
clearly, and somehow we canunderstand the truth of who you
are, Lord.
We ask you to strip away allthe distractions and all the
deceptions that hide you fromus, that cloud our vision, and
let your word be the loudest andmost compelling voice that we
hear, Lord.
(47:09):
Speak louder than the word thanthe noises of this world, God,
we pray.
May we find in Jesus the hopethat changes our future, Lord.
What we pray for thiscongregation to hear your call,
Lord, the call to eternal life,the call to rest in you, the
call to know you deeply.
(47:29):
Let us all see the riches ofwhat you have prepared for us.
That eye has not seen, that earhas not heard, that has not
entered into the heart of man,those things you've prepared for
us.
And let that be our strengthand our hope for future, Lord.
May you help us experience yourgreat power, the same power
(47:54):
that raised Jesus from the dead,that seated us with him in the
heavenly places, Lord.
Work that power in us, Lord,mightily, Lord, in ways that are
unique to each of our heartsand our families.
Holy Spirit, our helper, guideus when we don't know how to
(48:18):
pray.
Empower us to pray, God, withboldness and authority and
wisdom and with love for thosewe love.
Lord, we pray those among uswho feel lost in fear or swayed
by the noise of this world orhopeless, Lord.
I pray that you would let yourtruth drown out all the
(48:41):
algorithms, Lord, of anxiety andturn us toward hope in Christ.
Lord, may we see Jesus as hetruly is, Son of God, Savior of
the world, full of authority,full of love, release your power
in our lives, Lord.
(49:01):
Heal the broken, lift theweary, God, draw us to you.
And these things we bring toyou as sons and daughters, Lord,
in the mighty name of Jesus,with the help of the Spirit.
In Jesus' name, our risen King,we trust you, Lord, to work
(49:22):
this into our lives for yourglory, resulting in the praise
of your glorious grace.
This is our prayer.
Amen.
Amen.
Okay, so now why don't we dothe same thing for those people
that we love right now?
What I want to do is um I wantus to close the service uh by
(49:45):
just joining with one or twopeople around us, maybe a few
people around us, and justpraying for each other's loved
ones.
We have we have the the eightthings all together here on a on
a uh a slide.
If you forget, you can look upand you can just pray.
Pray these things over yourloved ones.
You can pray as long as youwant.
I'm gonna speak a blessing overyou, and I'm gonna be down
(50:06):
here.
But you know what?
I realize you might be one ofthe people who people have
prayed for so long.
And this more, this morningmight be the tipping point.
Maybe this morning is the time,it's your time.
Maybe they've been praying foryou.
Maybe you don't know the Lordor you knew the Lord, you've run
(50:28):
in from the Lord, whatever.
Maybe today's your day.
And I'm gonna stay right downhere.
If today is your day and youwant to respond to Jesus, I'm
gonna stay here and I want youto come down.
I want to pray for you.
And I want us to pray for eachother.
And when you're finishedpraying, uh you're dismissed.
Maybe you could dismiss alittle quieter than normal and
maybe be loud in the coffee baror something, and allow people
(50:51):
who are still praying to pray.
But let's just practice this,okay?
Well, Lord, I just pray you youwould bless them and keep them,
and may you cause your face toshine upon them.
Be gracious to them, Lord.
(51:11):
You would lift your face up onall of them and you would give
them peace in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, if you just kind ofgather with a few people around
you and let's let's pray for ourpeople.
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