Pastor: Dr. Terry Carter
Sermon: Praying for the Church
Reference: Ephesians 3:14-21
Key Takeaways:
Ephesians 3:14-21 teaches three things we should pray for the church. We should pray for the church to be empowered by God, filled with God’s love, and to be full of mature Christians.
1. Pray for God’s power to be evident in each member of the body.
If church members try to run a church on their power alone, they will get blessings that won’t be blessed. A church must be powered by Christ.
2. Pray that each member will grasp and be filled with God’s love.
All church members need to have an “inner power” that comes from God. Our emotions and hearts must be controlled by God moving in the direction He wants each of us to move. The heart of Christ is what brought each of us to Christianity, and that heart should be on full display in all that we do. We are simply practicing legalism if we aren’t expressing the love of Jesus every time we talk to someone. When our church is rooted in God’s love, His love helps feed and nourish the church. When it is grounded in God’s love, it has a firm foundation that will make it stable.
Answer the door every single time with the thought, “Thanks be to God that you have come here.”
3. Pray that every member will grow to full maturity in Christ.
Every Christian has a role to play in the ministry of the church. The real evidence of spiritual maturity is “Christ-likeness”. If every member of the church reflects this kind of maturity, we are able to influence more. Shallow Christianity has very little influence. Fully mature Christians act like mature believers.
****Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)****
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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