Top 10 Prayers of the New Testament #6

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Speaker 1: Top ten prayers. Number six comes from Paul the very heart of its important letter to the Ephesians. If you want to understand Ephesians, you need to have digested this is the prayer. It's the core, it's the power plant of it. It's that important and by the way, that life changing. You'll see what I mean. What if we've made prayer harder than it needs to be and seeing way too little fruit. What if experiencing even ten percent more of God's deep love for you right now, or five percent more for your neighbors, or seven point five percent more of His pride and favor, and you flowed not from your performance, but Jesus has finished work. Wouldn't that change how you pray? Wouldn't it change how often you pray? Wouldn't it change what you pray, the content and tone. Yeah, and Paul models that exactly. Welcome to the Gospel Podcast and Doctor Bill Senyord YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Sindard. We're free wherever you get podcasts. Of course we're on YouTube as well, Doctor Bill Sinyard, please subscribe as always, that's one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below, on YouTube or emailing me at Bill at gospel dash app dot com. Thank you for that. Also, thanks for making Gospel Rant podcast one of the top ten percent of the world. Yeah, thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, love the unlovely, the unworthy, and unlikely. And that is all of us, that's me and you on any given day, if we're just a little bit honest, Well, I'm going through my list of the top ten prayers of the New Testament. Where we're here. I did my top ten prayers of the Old Testament last summer. It was a big hit, lots of discussion, dialogue, a lot of fun, and so we moved forward into the New Testament. And look, there's a purpose to this. I know it's a little bold to try to pick ten of all of the prayers of the New Testament, but there's a purpose. For all those who have been following me for a long time, you'll see, I'm staking my lane, proclaiming the love of God for the unlovable, the love the unlovely, and worthy and unlikely. And these are all favorites of God, all the prayers right. The list is just my highly subjective assessment, but I would love to hear your opinions. Bill at gospeldsh app dot com or comment on YouTube. The top five are from the lips of Jesus himself. We'll begin on that next week. Welcome to top ten prayers of the New Testament. I want to get right into it after this brief, brief, brief word from our spots or so, I'll be right back. So here's the prayer itself. For this reason, Paul says that iph Heesians three fourteen. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth arrives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power. He'll mention power three times through His spirit and your inner beings, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's Holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. All right, let's unpack all of this, particularly commenting on the power. Is your prayer life powerless as a reason? Maybe? Right? So Paul begins for this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven or on earth drives its name. This is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, and by extension, for you and me. Today we could call it prayer number six, But in many ways it's the heartbeat of the whole letter to Ephesians. Everything else in this letter mayor parenting, spiritual warfare. The armor of God flows from this prayer being answered. Without God strengthening us inwardly, husbands won't love their wives like they should, wives won't respect their husbands as they deserve, children won't honor their parents, and so forth, and the armor is just going to feel like empty metal. But when God answers this prayer, man, something a lot more becomes possible. The word name here carries the weight deep weight, identity, worth, purpose, value, everything you're looking for the core of who you really are. Paul is saying that our deepest sense of significance as security, belonging doesn't come primarily from our achievements, family, background, choices, gender, religion, moral record, bank account. It comes today, tomorrow, the next day, from the Father's hand open to you. This is what every human heart is searching for, whether we want to admit it or not. And here's the crucial insight. We don't just need God to tell us our true name and worth, you know, like you see in sci fi films. We need his power to break through our defenses so we can actually receive it and begin to feel it. Our minds and hearts have been battered by life, by rejection, trauma, failure, cynicism, fear, chemicals in our brain. We've built walls consciously and subconsciously to protect ourselves, especially relationships, because that's where we've been hurt the most. Attachment wounds, core wounds, parenting wounds, anxious patterns, mid brain defenses. They operate beyond the reach of your choice, mere rational effort, or willpower, so you just can't choose to feel better in this area. And that's why Paul praised for something supernatural that out of God's glorious riches, he may strengthen us with his power through the spirit in our inner being, And Paul didn't stop there. He connects this inner strengthening directly to experiencing Jesus's love, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and may have power to grasp o wide and long and high and deep as the love of Christ. And wouldn't that be something? And to know this love that surpasses knowledge is bigger than you can imagine. You can't explain it or rationalize it, or why am I feeling it? It's too big. There's not a formula. Because of what Jesus did two thousand years ago, every believer already stands in the full tsunami of God's love, his affection, honor, desire for intimacy, acceptance. It surrounds us completely, but right so often we don't feel it. It doesn't mean you're broken. That means you're human. And Paul seemed to understand that we need a power to actually begin to feel it. We need His power, meaning we can't without it. Our brains are wired for self protection. They're on constant guard against abandonment or rejection or overlook the pre funnel cortex. Our rational mind can affirm the doctrine, but the deeper fear driven parts of the brain. They got to remain barricaded. So, yeah, Jesus loves me, but I'm not feeling it. So accessing and resting in that love requires divine power. Boy, we don't want to admit that. I don't want to admit that. But that's the fact, Paul says. So is power that only God can supply through his spirit in your inner being. This is for Christians. That is why Paul asked for ongoing strength, power today, tomorrow, the next day. It's not a one time event. John Calvin calls this the secret workings of the Spirit. I love that the spirit's hidden in powerful ministry that actually makes us feel not just intellectually assent to, but makes us feel the height withidth LinkedIn depth of Christ's love right now and an increasing measure. Well, here's the simple, astonishing part. All we're asked to do is open empty hands, Paul are striving and ask ask, ask what's with us that we won't A child could do it. We don't earn this power, we don't choose this power. We can only receive it by faith. It's part of discipleship. Ask today, ask later today, ask tomorrow morning. Yeah, even now, there's something pushing back in your pray no doubt. Let me ask you honestly, no judgment here. Do you feel that overwhelming, unimaginable love of God for you as you are right now? I mean, have you said it recently, in the last month, last year, the last decade. And if the answer is not sure, or not really or not enough, don't despair. I'm asking you just stop and ask for it out loud, use words. Dare to pray something like the prayer that I'm going to say in a little bit. Keep asking. You're not begging for something God is reluctant to give. You're asking your Father to do what he most wants to do. As this prayer is being answered, even in small noticeable increments, people around you will see the difference. You'll smile more, easily, serve without keeping score, think of others first, release preferences, easier, complain less, give more freely. You'll want to pray more, worship more freely, dive into scripture with fresh hunger, and share your faith more. Naturally, fear cycles will loosen their grip. I mean not perfectly that's heaven, but meaningfully and noticeably because perfect love casts out fear first John four eighteen, and you can keep asking for more of that perfect love to press in. You don't need to be fixed first before you ask. You don't need to perform better first before you ask. All you need is need, and of what little courage it takes to ask. And the key is don't neglect the supernatural power available through the whole spirit. Ask boldly, ask repeatedly, and watch what God does when he strengthens you from within no charge. Yeah, Well, what this prayer number six tells us about God? God sources identity, God supplies power for a reception. God's love surrounds completely. God delights and ongoing strengthening. God fills to fullness. So what does this prayer say about us? We're walled in against love. We strive, but we don't receive. We need supernatural help, small increments transform and need itself qualifies us. Just need courage to ask and that's not a lot yep. All right, So here's that Ephesians three prayer. We're doing this for my top ten prayers that will be in the book. I'll talk about that in a minute. This is prayer for that inner power through God. All right? Here we go, Father, out of your glorious riches, strengthen be with your power through your spirit in my inner being right now, Please help me grasp, make me grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ right now for me and for the people that surround me. Let me know this love that surpasses knowledge. Fill me with all the fullness of you. I'm in ask repeatedly, counseling community. You know, keep keep going to that, don't skip that. But you need spirit power. I do watch fear loosen, service, flow, prayer, hunger, grow, perfect love cast out fear, and he needs to keep asking. As I mentioned earlier, the top five prayers on my ranking all come from our Lord and Savior Jesus, his very lips. Each is worth considering and leaning into. And I'll show you why. Here's one of the discussion questions that will be in my book, my upcoming book hopefully out later this year. Good enough prayer. Here it is Paul, praise for spirit power to grasp Christ's surrounding love, not just know it intellectually. So where do trauma, fear, or self protection block you from feeling God's wide, long, high, deep affection? How does this validate needing supernatural help? Well, what's next. I'll let you know after this brief word from our sponsors. What's next? As I mentioned, the entire top five come from the lips of Jesus himself. The number five one could easily be number one, maybe the one that we need most in today's chaotic, self focused world. You'll see what I mean. By the way, as I mentioned, I'm finishing up a book that's going to include all the twenty top prayers old in New Testament sometime later this year. Good Enough Prayer. Email me Bill at gospel Dasha app dot com if you want to know exactly when it will be released. Great for devotions or groups, discussion questions will be included. We'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God.