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    May 07, 2017

    Two Prayers for God's People

    Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: Prayers in the Bible

    Category: Prayer

    The prayers in the Bible are numerous – confession, intercession, thanksgiving, celebration – much like our own prayers today. And, as you would guess, the pray-ers are just as diverse – Jesus, prophets, the psalmists, mothers, fathers, pastors, apostles, priests, and on and on.

    The prayers in the Bible are numerous – confession, intercession, thanksgiving, celebration – much like our own prayers today. And, as you would guess, the pray-ers are just as diverse – Jesus, prophets, the psalmists, mothers, fathers, pastors, apostles, priests, and on and on.

    Today we actually have 2 prayers before us, both of them prayers for the people of God, one a prayer of confession and plea for help, the other a prayer to strengthen the church so that the Body of Christ will have unity.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #1 – Timeline   READER - the slides are attached as a file
    The more ancient of the 2 prayers is from about 444 BC and the later prayer from about the year 62 AD – about 500 years apart. Nehemiah is praying for the Israelites who had been returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple in about 539 BC. As the scripture says, which you will hear in a moment, Nehemiah had just learned from his brother that though the temple had been rebuilt in the intervening period, the city was completely unprotected because the Jerusalem wall was all but destroyed. After re-building the temple, the people of God seem to have just lost steam and gotten stuck without the energy to re-build the wall.

    Paul’s prayer (if, indeed, Paul was the author of Ephesians) is the second prayer we will consider today, written to the young church at Ephesus in about 62 AD.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #2 
    Three Persian kings and roughly 100 years after King Cyrus sent the Israelite priests and builders home to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, Nehemiah was serving two kings: King Artaxerxes and Yahweh, the one God of Israel. Nehemiah grew up in Persia, the child of devout Jews, who reared their son to be a worshiper of Yahweh, despite the fact that their grandparents were removed from their home in Jerusalem. If you remember just a bit of the story of the exile, the Babylonians conquered Israel and scooped up the brightest and best and wealthiest, taking them to Babylon and leaving the poorer and the less gifted folks behind. By the time of Nehemiah, many of the Jewish families had mixed with Persian families, so Nehemiah’s strong connection to God is very significant.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #3
    In about 444 BC, Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Persian king – the guy who tasted the wine before the king so everyone was sure it wasn’t poisoned. There is evidence pointing to this being the highest place of honor in the king’s court – the most trusted servant – and so, scholars believe Nehemiah had the king’s ear.

    That’s the background. Now let’s hear the first scripture for today: Nehemiah 1:4-11
    TECH: Sermon Slides #4-7 – Whole Scripture reading

    When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.  I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.

    Nehemiah’s prayer is a prayer of confession and a plea for help. TECH: Sermon Slide #8:  Verse 6 -  Nehemiah acknowledges that whole people of Israel sinned – and he goes all the way back to the time of Moses, not just to the prophets who warned them, trying to change their hearts and minds when they saw their sin leading up to the Exile. They did not walk in the ways of the Lord, and found themselves unable to defend themselves or their holy places from the Babylonians. Hence, the Exile – the darkest period in the ancient history of Israel. Make no mistake, Nehemiah does not blame the Exile on God.

    He acknowledges – confesses – the sin of the people – the people as a whole. Notice that, even though he himself was raised to be a servant of Yahweh, Nehemiah confesses for his own family, owning that the sin of the people of God was shared sin – sin that went back generations – sin that was overt and covert – sin of intention, of omission, sin that was deep and part of the fabric of life. As an Israelite, Nehemiah’s prayers would seldom, if ever, confess the sins of others without confessing his own sin.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #9 - Then Nehemiah reminds God of the promise to gather the people when they return to the ways of the Lord – and that the Israelites are God’s redeemed people.
    TECH: Sermon Slide #10 – Then, in a strikingly reverent and humble way, he ends his prayer with a humble plea for God to hear, by asserting that God’s servants delight is revering God’s name and then asks for mercy in the sight of this man. In that subtle way, Nehemiah acknowledges that no matter how powerful he has become, Nehemiah is completely dependent on the power of Artaxerxes, the king, and he is expressing his faith and plea that God can shape the heart of the king. And just in case they have forgotten, Nehemiah reminds the people – the readers – of his political power by reminding them of his position in the court.

    There are plenty of voices warning that the people of God are under attack. Beloved, it is far more important to emulate Nehemiah. He is looking inward – and so should we – considering how the walls are broken down – where we are not walking in the ways of the Lord and thereby bringing the walls down around us. I think we all know that it isn’t hard to be destructive or self-destructive. Nehemiah was talking about the destructiveness of the people – destructive to the Body.

    When have we said things about other people – even about brothers or sisters in Christ – that are mean-spirited or inhospitable? When have we judged others – seeing the splinter in our brother’s eye and ignoring the log that we trip over again and again and again? When have we excluded or insulted or gossiped or made a comment framed in such a way as to pretend to be helpful when in reality it is meant to degrade or dismiss or denigrate? When have we been impatient or insisted on our own way to the exclusion of others? When have we been arrogant or rude?

    So, as we come to the Table of the Lord today, I encourage you to bring your confessions with you – and bring your pleas for the upbuilding of the Body. Come in humility, following the example of Nehemiah.

    The second prayer for today is in stark contrast but has a similar purpose. Hear the scripture from Ephesians 3:14-21.
    TECH: Sermon Slides 11-13 – Scripture Reading

    For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

    For this reason. As Pat noted last week, it is often necessary to go back a little bit in the scripture to really understand the context of a passage. For this reason. What reason? Pat, I didn’t have to go back 3 chapters like you did – just to the end of the previous chapter.

    Paul is talking to Gentiles – who not everyone thought should be allowed to be Christians because they had not been Jews, the Chosen People. That was a huge problem in the earliest church that took a great deal of prayer and holy conversation to work out.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #14
    At the end of chapter 2, Paul reminds the Ephesians that they may have at one time been strangers and aliens, but that is no longer true because they have come to faith and become one with other Christians. They have embraced the teachings of Jesus and have become part of God’s family.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #15
    It is for that reason – their being part of the Body – that Paul prays that “you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

    Paul knew that it is not always easy to live as disciples – that it would take time to fully comprehend and live into their new identity and calling. When I read this letter, I feel as though Paul was very fond of the Ephesian Christians, and this prayer for power and strength to live out their faith is filled with affirmation and encouragement.

    TECH: Sermon Slide #16
    He finishes it off with a great flourish. Having prayed for strength and power and the knowledge of the true depths of God’s love, Paul proclaims his expectation that through God the church will be able to “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” He has high hopes for the witness of the Ephesians!

    So, again, as you come today to the Table of the Lord, come in prayer. Bring your confessions of our individual and corporate brokenness. And don’t forget to bring your petitions you’re your high hopes for the Body of Christ – and your prayers of thanksgiving for all that God has accomplished and will accomplish through this particular branch of God’s family because Paul is also speaking to us today, encouraging us to feel the depths and heights of the love and grace of God – and affirming our place in the Body from which we can accomplish amazing things for God!