EPHESIANS 3:14-21

14 For this reason I kneel before the

Father, 15 from whom every family 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,

EPHESIANS 3:14-21

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,

EPHESIANS 3:14-2119 and to know this love that surpassesknowledge—that you may be filled to themeasure of all the fullness of God. 20 Nowto Him who is able to do immeasurablymore than all we ask or imagine,according to His power that is at workwithin us,

EPHESIANS 3:14-21

21 to Him be glory in the church and in

Christ Jesus throughout all generations,

for ever and ever! Amen.

WHAT IS PRAYER?

PERSONAL

EPHESIANS 3:14

14 For this reason I kneel before the

Father

Kneeling in prayer was actually fairly uncommon in the Bible, but you think about it, it really is an

act of surrender.

Prayer includes silent prayer because God knows your thoughts. A prayer can be silent because God knows your thoughts. It can be out loud where you’re just talking to God. It can be alone, all by yourself. It

could be in a group with other people.

GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS.

What happens when we pray?

1. We change.

Sometimes prayer is us talking to God so that our will aligns with God’s so

that we’re the one who changes.

This is why God sometimes tells us in the Bible to pray for our enemies, so that our hearts

wouldn’t get embittered toward them, that we’d still have love and affection toward them.

The prayer there is not necessarily just to change our enemy, but it’s to change our

attitude toward our enemy.

2. God acts.

Sometimes prayer does cause God to act. He will hear and in love He will

respond and He will act, and so sometimes, prayer is to have God

respond and to act.

Prayer keeps us from grumbling and gossiping. Grumbling is when we’re

unhappy and we’re just sort of leaking and talking about it.

GRUMBLING

Grumbling is where we leak, and we complain, and our attitude is sour, and our

disposition is dour. And prayer is where we’re talking about the exact same things, but we’re talking to God about them and

working them out in relationship with Him.

GOSSIPING

It keeps us from grumbling, it also keeps us from gossiping, and gossip is when you talk about someone rather than to them. And you may be frustrated, not know what to say or to

do, or you’re annoyed. Let God be your lightning rod in prayer.

RELATIONAL

EPHESIANS 3:14-15

14 For this reason I kneel before the

Father, 15 from whom every family in

heaven and on earth derives its name.

FAMILY

Church isn’t a business, it’s a family. You should pray for your family. The

people you pray those you feel like family to you.

Be praying for our family, be praying for the whole family, be praying for more people to join the family. Pray for the

strength, health, well-being of our family.

If you pray for the church, you’ll see the church as family, and if you don’t pray for the church, you’ll see the church as

business.

And what happens in a consumer relationship, a transactional relationship is you’re always trying to get the most

by giving the least. That’s business. Family’s not like that.

Family is you give generously so that the whole family would be blessed, and so you really need to understand when he

uses that language of family, it’s really important that we all see our church that

way.

FATHER

EPHESIANS 3:14-17

14 For this reason I kneel before the

Father, 15 from whom every family 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,

EPHESIANS 3:14-17

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts

through faith.

What that means is that God has love and affection, conversation, communion, and union in

and of Himself. So because our God is a God who speaks and a God who listens, we’re made in His image and likeness to speak to Him in prayer and to listen to Him through Scripture,

and that’s why we pray.

And when it comes to prayer, we are to pray to the Father, through the Son,

by the Holy Spirit.

God’s a Father, God’s a Dad, and so when we pray, we’re talking to our Dad. So, here’s

my big idea. Don’t focus too much on prayer; get to know your Dad. If you get

to know your Dad, talking to Him is going to be pretty easy.

Jesus said pray like that. So, if you want to understand prayer, don’t look at the most religious, devout people. Look at kids who really love their dad and have a dad who

really loves him, and see how they interact and communicate.

Some of you didn’t have a dad; some of you had a dad that was a bad dad. Start with God and what the Bible reveals about God, and then judge your earthly father by your Heavenly

Father, but don’t assume that there’s a correlation necessarily between your earthly

father and your Heavenly Father.

But for those of you who don’t have a dad or a good dad, the Bible says that God is, quote, “a Father to the fatherless.” Here’s

your identity. Here’s your identity: you’ve all got a great Dad. We’ve all got a great

Dad.

ASKING

EPHESIANS 3:16-17

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.

Here’s the big idea: God is independent. He doesn’t need anyone or anything. We are dependent; we need God for everything. Here’s the big idea: God doesn’t need you, He wants you and He loves

you. That’s even better. It’s like a family that adopts a child. They don’t need the child, they want the child, they love the child. God’s a Dad like that.

And what he’s praying is that the people would understand that Jesus does not want

to live in us like a hotel but a home. He doesn’t want to just check in, be with you for

a couple hours, and then move on.

What he’s saying is that Christ dwells in us, Jesus dwells in us through the person, and

the presence, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and that God wants our life to be His

home. Jesus wants to move in to your life, and He’s going to start working on all of it.

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, when He dwells, when He stays, when He resides at

the center of your being, He is doing a renovation project on every aspect of your

whole life.

YEARNING

EPHESIANS 3:17-1917 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,

EPHESIANS 3:17-19

19 and to know this love that surpassesknowledge—that you may be filled to themeasure of all the fullness of God.

God wants you to experience His love, and for some of you, this means you need to sing,

you need to pray, you need to raise your voice, you need to raise your hands, you

need to get a little emotional.

God wants us to know of His love in a way that surpasses knowledge. This doesn’t

mean that it’s contrary to the truth, but that it’s the truth of Scripture exploding in the heart of

the child of God—joy.

There are not a lot of people that probably love you, and there’s no one who loves you as much as Jesus, and there’s nothing as

important as knowing that Jesus loves us.

It becomes, as he says, the root that nourishes the totality of our whole life, and

the Holy Spirit wants you to be filled with the fullness of the experience of the love of God, how high, and wide, and deep, and long is

the love of God.

EXPECTING

EPHESIANS 3:20

20 Now to Him who is able to doimmeasurably more than all we ask orimagine, according to His power that is atwork within us,

Whatever you can ask for, God can do far more. Whatever you can think of, God can

do far more. Not just more, far more. This is an invitation to ask.

Prayer is expecting. God doesn’t want to just do things for you, God wants to do things in you. This power of God unleashed through the Holy Spirit, it’s not just God at work in the

world, it’s also God at work in us.

If you’re in Christ, you are changed. If you’re in Christ, you are changing. If you’re in Christ,

you’ll constantly be changing. Your thinking will change, your desires will change, your appetites will change, your habits will change because the

power of God is at work in you.

REVEALING

EPHESIANS 3:21

21 to Him be glory in the church and in

Christ Jesus throughout all generations,

for ever and ever! Amen.

You have a personal relationship with God, but it’s not solely a personal relationship with God. You’re also, if you’re a Christian, part of

the church. You’re part of the church.

This is where Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” He is the image of the invisible God. Glory is reflected. When the sun comes out, right, and then it reflects off of a lake, or off of a windshield, or off of a

mirror.

It’s reflected glory is what it is. Our lives, individually and collectively, are to reflect the glory of God, to show the glory of God, to

show the world the difference that Jesus makes.

And so when we pray, what is revealed is, what is the glory in our life? Who do we live for? What do we live for? Why are we here?

What are we doing? What’s the point of it all? And it’s to reflect the glory of God.

“Once the issue of glory is settled, all

the issues are settled.”

- St. Augustine

It’s about the glory of God.

When you live for the glory of God, you have joy because that’s what you’re

made for, and when you’re doing what you’re made for, you’re joyful.

There’s always an opportunity to glorify God, and even if you’re suffering, it’s an opportunity

to glorify God. Once the glory issue is settled, all the other issues are settled. Let us

together covenant by the power of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us to ask the question,

“What would glorify Him?”

If you ask the question, “What will glorify God?” you’ll end up with a very different

answer to most of the questions that you ask in your life, but it’ll always be the right answer.

Stephen Curry, a devout

Christian NBA player, played in

his first NBA All-Star game on

Sunday. Curry is the league's

5th highest scorer this year

(24.6 PPG) and 2nd in assists

(9.0 APG).

The sharpshooter is StephenCurry, a 6-foot-3, 185-poundpoint guard for the NBA’sGolden State Warriors whoscorched the Heat last monthwith 36 points, 12 assists andfour steals.

It was enough to give a guy abig head.

But not Stephen (pronouncedStef-en, Steph for short). He’sa Jesus-loving husband andfather known for a humilityforged as a young boy growingup in Charlotte, N.C., withdevout Christian parents whobegan each morning with arequired family devotional timebefore school.

Since then, Steph has evolvedfrom being a lightly recruitedhigh school player to amercurial collegian who almostled tiny Davidson College tothe 2008 Final Four to nowbeing nothing short of anemerging NBA superstar.

Sometimes he points his rightindex finger upward aftermaking one of the long, high-arcing rainbow jump shots thathave become his trademark.

It was a practice he began atDavidson, at his mother’ssuggestion, as an outwardsign and internal reminderthat God gets all the gloryfor his success.

“I know why I play the game,and it’s not to score 30 points anight, but it’s to use the stageI’m on. I’ve been put here fora specific purpose: to be awitness and to share mytestimony as I go throughit.”

In a column last year for theFellowship of ChristianAthletes website, Steph wrotethat he loves to point peopletoward “the Man who died forour sins on the cross. I know Ihave a place in Heaven waitingfor me because of Him, andthat’s something no earthlyprize or trophy could ever top.”

Steph grew up a church kid,but points to a youth servicewhen he was 13 as the timewhen he accepted Jesus ashis personal Lord and Savior.

“It was a big decision thatmy parents couldn’t makefor me,” he said. “It’s been agreat walk since then. Hemeans everything to me.”

“He’s a calm, cool, collectedcustomer who has tremendousfaith,” said Warriors coachMark Jackson, who co-pastorsa church in Van Nuys, Calif.

“He’s playing and acting likehe’s the best player on thefloor night in and night out. It’sreally fun to watch. It takeseveryone else [on the team] toa different level.”

Curry and Jackson have aunique player-coachrelationship because of theirshared passion for Christ.“He’s the type of guy you lookat and say, ‘That’s how I wantmy son to be,’” Jackson said.“It’s a great testament to whohe is and the God he serves.He comes from a greatbackground and has a greatfoundation. I made sure to goto his parents and thank themfor the way they raised him.

“It’s been a tremendousblessing to me and my familyto be able to coach him andtrust this basketball team tohim. If I’m going to bet thehouse on somebody—which isreally what I’m doing—it’sgoing to be a guy like that whohas tremendous character.”

Teammates describe Steph asa model of consistency off thecourt as well as on. “He’sprobably one of the mosthumble superstars I’ve evermet,” said Warriors forwardHarrison Barnes. “A lot of thatis based on his faith. He’s aguy who not only talks it; helives it. I think he garners alot of respect in this lockerroom because of that.”

Steph and his wife, Ayesha, metin church as teenagers and havebeen married for almost 2½years. He proposed to her at thesame spot on the driveway wherethey had their first kiss. Ratherthan registering for gifts, theyasked their wedding guests tomake donations to anorganization that supportsspouses and children of soldiers.They have an 18-month-olddaughter, Riley, and Stephfrequently sings Disney songswhile holding her.

Steph’s father, Dell, said thetrip helped remind Steph not totake anything for granted.

“He understands thateverything is given by theLord and that it can be takenaway, too,” Dell said.

Dell readily admits that Stephis a much better player than hewas.

Regardless of his health orhow he plays on a given night,Steph is known for having aconsistent, even-keeledtemperament rooted in one ofhis favorite Bible verses,Philippians 4:13: “I can doall things through Christwho strengthens me”(NKJV).

“I love to play the game, and Ilove when good thingshappen,” he said. “But when Iget home, it’s about my familyand just enjoying the blessingsin my life without letting[basketball] define mypersonality or my character.“The time with my wife ishuge so we can continue togrow and not be complacentwith where we are in ourwalk with Christ. Obviously,we can all be better at that.”