Mark Medley: I'm so excited to open the word from Ephesians 1 with you this morning.
Mark Medley: But before I do, I want to um, as an intro to the sermon, I want to invite a friend and now relative to come up.
Mark Medley: His name is Ben Smith, and he's a real follower of Jesus.
Mark Medley: And he's got a great story of how the Lord has reached him.
Mark Medley: And I think it's going to be helpful for what we're going to see in the scriptures today.
Mark Medley: So would you welcome Ben?
Ben Smith: Good morning, everyone.
Ben Smith: Good morning.
Ben Smith: Isn't it wonderful to be in the house of the Lord today?
Ben Smith: It's such a good thing to be here and worshiping with you guys.
Ben Smith: Really just felt such a uh a joy celebrating the good news of who he is in our hearts, through us, in us, for us.
Ben Smith: And um, I'm here today as a friend.
Ben Smith: I see a couple friends in the audience.
Ben Smith: There's Buddy Walker in the back in the middle.
Ben Smith: And uh it's just wonderful to be here.
Ben Smith: I come from enemy territory.
Ben Smith: I was once an enemy of God, but he's made me a friend and a brother.
Ben Smith: He's called me friend.
Ben Smith: And so he's even, you know, Romans chapter 8, it says heirs too.
unknown: Yeah.
Ben Smith: That we would suffer with him and know him and his suffering.
Ben Smith: And that's really through the love that he's offered us and extended to us.
Ben Smith: And so it's just such a pleasure to be here.
Ben Smith: And uh, I'm also from Alabama, which from what I understand is also enemy territory.
Ben Smith: Roll tide, isn't anybody?
Ben Smith: No, okay, just one or two, one cousin in the room.
Ben Smith: Oh, we got somebody that a brave soul in the back who was once part of the body and in the back as well.
Ben Smith: So I hope hopefully I won't take up too much time.
Ben Smith: Um, just wanted to share with you guys a little bit of a story.
Ben Smith: So uh in 2023, I came into relationship with Jesus.
Ben Smith: He revealed his love for me, he set me free, praise the Lord.
Ben Smith: And um I had grown up going to church, actually, I knew many, many of the people that are connected through this body, through master builders, Neil Silverberg and Shelley, um, and also just so many of the individuals that were there.
Ben Smith: And so I heard the good news, I heard of the gospel.
Ben Smith: I even had encountered God's love for me in different times and places through his grace that he's poured out for all humanity.
Ben Smith: But I didn't know him, I didn't have a relationship with him.
Ben Smith: And it wasn't until many, many, many years later, two years ago, in May of 2023, that I came to the absolute end of all of my own effort and all of my pride.
Ben Smith: And Jesus was there to pick me up and save me and set me free and make me whole.
Ben Smith: And that came through a long journey of a lot of a lot of wandering, all the wandering that I could do, but it was also through the faithfulness and the kindness and the gentleness and the longsuffering and the prayers, which I think which Mark's gonna talk today about, of family, of friends, of individuals in my life that loved me with the love of Jesus.
Ben Smith: And uh I'll just give you a small example of that.
Ben Smith: In 2020-ish or so, I had been married, I went through a divorce, made a lot of mistakes in that.
Ben Smith: I was unfaithful to my wife.
Ben Smith: And my parents came and they visited me that weekend.
Ben Smith: And my my father gave me a coat.
Ben Smith: He said, Hey, this is a big coat, it's too big for me.
Ben Smith: Would you like to have this?
Ben Smith: And I was heartbroken and just really discouraged.
Ben Smith: But I was like, Okay, I'll take the coat.
Ben Smith: Throughout the week, I found in the coat, my dad had left some handwritten notes.
Ben Smith: And one of the notes that just really struck me then was one that he wrote.
Ben Smith: He said, Your mother and I are proud of you.
Ben Smith: And so he had shared the gospel.
Ben Smith: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, because he looked at me as a son.
Ben Smith: He looked at me as his in the identity of a son that didn't earn my place with him, but was established in who I was because he had said I was.
Ben Smith: And that's the heart of God for all of us.
Ben Smith: And that's the heart of God for those who don't believe yet.
Ben Smith: And so when we were worshiping this morning and we were talking about how God has called us to love as he has loved, that's the message to the lost.
Ben Smith: You know, when we're called to go out and disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it's done through the power of his spirit and his fruit that is able to come forth in our life and bear fruit in the lives of others.
Ben Smith: So those people that you know in your life, if they're wandering away from God, if they don't know him, if they've if they've mocked him, I was one of those people.
Ben Smith: And so, you guys, in your prayers, you just break the roof off and lower them down to Jesus in your prayers.
Ben Smith: Break the roof off and lower them down through the acts of service and the kindness and the love and the gentleness and the self-control that you show them and the testimony of God who's overcome heartbreak.
Ben Smith: Things that would break mortal man don't break those who are filled with the Spirit.
Ben Smith: And so I just I call you guys to lift yourselves up in prayer and in faith and strengthen yourself in the life and the truth of who he is and what he's gonna do, because he said, Ask anything in my name and it will be done.
Ben Smith: And so when we cry out to salvation for those that we love, we know that it's in his will.
Ben Smith: Cry out, believe, hold fast in faith.
Ben Smith: I love you guys.
Ben Smith: Thanks for having me today.
Mark Medley: Yeah, yeah, you use that microphone to heckle me.
Mark Medley: That's right.
Mark Medley: That's that is correct.
Mark Medley: Wow.
Mark Medley: Praise God.
Mark Medley: And I know, you know, I was married into this family, you know.
Mark Medley: I know there is a lot of followers of Jesus.
Mark Medley: I mean, Amy's family has 11 kids, and Ben's family has eight kids, and so there's a lot of people praying and and a whole church praying.
Mark Medley: And uh I think we all probably would agree that prayer changes things, right?
Mark Medley: But sometimes we we feel kind of paralyzed because we're not really sure how to pray for our loved ones, especially the ones that are close to us, and we don't sometimes we don't it feels like we don't see things moving uh when we're praying for our family and friends and acquaintances.
Mark Medley: And but our passage this morning really gives us hope and it helps us with practical direction for how to pray for our people.
Mark Medley: So uh let's look at uh Ephesians 1, verse 15.
Mark Medley: Let's learn how Paul is praying for his people.
Mark Medley: Starting in verse 15, he says, uh, for this reason.
Mark Medley: Now stop right there.
Mark Medley: Okay, when whenever whenever anybody says for this reason, you have to think a minute, right?
Mark Medley: For what reason?
Mark Medley: What reason is he talking about?
Mark Medley: You can't we can't start there because he's told us something before, and we need to go back and kind of review that.
Mark Medley: So let me just give you a flyover of what we've talked about and what Paul wrote in the first few verses of this chapter.
Mark Medley: So so here's what he said.
Mark Medley: He opened this whole book saying, we bless God because God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, and God has chosen us.
Mark Medley: It means he has set us apart as dear to himself.
Mark Medley: He chose us in Christ, he chose us before the foundations of the world.
Mark Medley: He chose us to be holy and set apart unto him because of his love, and he determined beforehand that we would be sons and daughters of his through Christ.
Mark Medley: He made us accepted in his love, accepted in the beloved one, because this is what he wanted all along, resulting in the praise of his glorious grace.
Mark Medley: And we've been bought back to God with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, released from our bondage, pardoned from our sins, because of his overwhelming grace, which he poured on us in Christ.
Mark Medley: In Christ.
Mark Medley: We in him, our anchor, he in us, our engine.
Mark Medley: It was God's plan from the beginning to conform all things to his will through Christ, resulting in the praise of his glorious grace.
Mark Medley: And we've been included in Christ since we've heard the gospel, and there's full redemption coming.
Mark Medley: And we've been sealed, marked, and kept by the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as a surety of what's to come, to live in the fullness of his redemption because of Jesus, which results in the praise of his glorious grace.
Mark Medley: All right?
Mark Medley: Yeah, that's good news.
Mark Medley: Okay, now we can keep going.
Mark Medley: That's what he told us for this reason.
Mark Medley: So let's keep reading.
Mark Medley: For this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Mark Medley: So, Father, this morning we ask you to open our eyes, help us to see what it is you want us to see from this passage.
Mark Medley: In Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: So Paul founded this church in Ephesus, he's the one that fathered it.
Mark Medley: And not only that, but he stayed there for three years, laying a foundation there, and he loved those people, and he loved them, and he continued to shepherd his flock even when he wasn't with his flock.
Mark Medley: He shepherded them by writing letters like this, but he also shepherded them through his prayers.
Mark Medley: You know, we can shepherd, we can actually pastor our flock by praying for them.
Mark Medley: And in his prayer, we can find wisdom as to how to pray for our loved ones.
Mark Medley: And this is really the question for this morning.
Mark Medley: How can I pray for my people?
Mark Medley: I think this is, you know, these are pretty heady words that he has here.
Mark Medley: I actually read this passage uh for many years, and I thought, wow, that's so deep.
Mark Medley: I'm not sure what it says.
Mark Medley: Uh, but it's really uh eminently practical.
Mark Medley: He he prays for his people in certain ways, and we can grab those ways and start praying for for our people as well.
Mark Medley: So, how do I pray for my people?
Mark Medley: And maybe the the first question we ask is, what is prayer?
Mark Medley: And prayer is communion with God.
Mark Medley: It's a form of communion with God.
Mark Medley: It's talking to him, it's listening to him, it's telling him the desires of our heart, it's listening to his heart as well.
Mark Medley: And it includes thanksgiving and praise and confession of sins and requests for needs and for protection and for direction.
Mark Medley: But the definition that's helped me the most in my walk uh for prayer, and you've you've heard this from this pulpit before, is prayer is an invitation into the heart and the mission of God.
Mark Medley: It's an invitation.
Mark Medley: God invites us to know him into his heart, and then from that place of knowing him into his mission, to join with him in what he wants to do.
Mark Medley: To know him and then also to make him known.
Mark Medley: So, what is the what is God's heart for my people?
Mark Medley: That's a great place to start for prayer.
Mark Medley: And you know, your people are the people that are on your heart, the people that who who you love, the people you're concerned about, the people that you pray for.
Mark Medley: It could be your family, it could be your friends and acquaintances, whoever, whoever, it doesn't matter.
Mark Medley: But what does he want to do in their lives?
Mark Medley: How can I partner with him to see that come to pass as Jesus prayed, your kingdom come, Lord, your will be done here, right here, right here in my loved one, as it is in heaven.
Mark Medley: So let's focus on a few phrases that Paul uses that can help guide us as to how we can pray for our people.
Mark Medley: Uh, first, of course, what we started with for this reason, for this reason, he starts there, all the things that God has done.
Mark Medley: So we pray for people because of all the things that God has already done in Christ.
Mark Medley: So far, in this letter, there is nothing for us to do.
Mark Medley: We've read, this is 20 verses.
Mark Medley: We've read 20 verses so far, zero commands for us, except maybe you might want to say it's a command for us to thank him for what he's done.
Mark Medley: But everything that he's said so far is uh is for what is what God has already done for us in Christ.
Mark Medley: And what he has done, he has done not because of anything we have done, right?
Mark Medley: Zero contribution from us.
Mark Medley: It is God, which is why God gets the glory.
Mark Medley: Everything is from him, everything is through him, everything is to him.
Mark Medley: To him be glory forever.
Mark Medley: So all the focuses on what is God, God has done in Christ to fulfill his purposes, resulting in the praise of his glorious grace.
Mark Medley: And I think that's a really important point to make in prayer, that it's what God has done already, it which motivates us and energizes us for prayer.
Mark Medley: What God has done in Christ is our motivation and our energy behind our prayers.
Mark Medley: So it's not something that we are like trying to whip up within ourselves.
Mark Medley: It's not something that we're trying to bring, bring God down because he doesn't want to be here.
Mark Medley: But if we whip him up enough, he'll come down.
Mark Medley: Or if we whip ourselves enough, he'll come down.
Mark Medley: No, he's already come in the form of Christ.
Mark Medley: He's already interacted with us, and he wants to continue, and he's inviting us to partner with him.
Mark Medley: So, because of this, for this reason, Paul says, I have not stopped praying, or I cease not to mention you in my prayers, or I keep asking, I keep asking, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: There's a perseverance to prayer, there's an endurance, there's a tenacity to prayer, and and it's compelled by love.
Mark Medley: Our love causes us to continue to pray for those people we love.
Mark Medley: So and model is basically Paul's just modeling what Jesus taught.
Mark Medley: And you remember in in uh Luke chapter 18, Jesus told a parable that all men should pray and not give up.
Mark Medley: And that's what he was doing.
Mark Medley: Paul is saying in other places he said, I uh pray without ceasing.
Mark Medley: He said, in later in this book, in the book of Ephesians, in chapter six, when he's talking about spiritual warfare, he says, keep on praying in the spirit at all times with all kinds of prayer.
Mark Medley: And this uh urge to pray is all through the scriptures.
Mark Medley: Like Hannah prayed for a son with desperation, like the prophets prayed for Israel with great burden, like Elijah prayed to God to show his power with great zeal, like the psalmists pray about everything in life with all of the emotions of life, like Solomon prayed over the temple with great dedication to God, like Jesus prayed over Jerusalem, weeping, weeping with burden, like Paul prays for his friends without ceasing.
Mark Medley: I keep asking, I keep asking, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: When we don't see the answers we want, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: If we don't see things happen when we want them to happen, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: Even when it looks like nothing is going on at all, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: There's something to this persistence in prayer.
Mark Medley: And I want to just uh play you a little story here, very quick story, about what the importance of keeping on asking.
Jenessa Wait: This is why you cannot stop praying for your unbelieving friends and family members that have walked away from Jesus.
Jenessa Wait: There was a time in my life where I totally turned away from the Lord and was living in sin and was okay with it.
Jenessa Wait: But then one day I was walking home, and I the best way I can describe it is like the lights turned on and something lifted off my eyes, and I realized in that moment I need God.
Jenessa Wait: I need to get out of this lifestyle.
Jenessa Wait: And later on in life, I asked the Lord, why was it just like an and suddenly moment?
Jenessa Wait: Like it just felt like the lights just turned on.
Jenessa Wait: And he told me it was the prayers of the saints.
Jenessa Wait: It was hundreds of people praying for me to come back to him.
Jenessa Wait: And then he showed me a picture of the bowls in heaven filled with prayers.
Jenessa Wait: And just one more prayer just tipped that bowl out and brought breakthrough in my life.
Jenessa Wait: So, this is to encourage you to don't stop praying for that person.
Jenessa Wait: It can feel redundant, but it is not purposeless.
Jenessa Wait: There is purpose in every prayer, and all it takes is one more prayer.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: One more prayer.
Mark Medley: Tip the bowl.
Mark Medley: You know, there is a such thing as that last prayer before something happens.
Mark Medley: Right?
Mark Medley: Don't stop.
Mark Medley: I keep asking, I keep asking.
Mark Medley: Your prayers are not purposeless ever.
Mark Medley: God has burdened you to pray for these people for a reason, because he wants to partner with you to bring his kingdom into their lives.
Mark Medley: So he says, I never stop, I keep asking, I cease not, I don't stop.
Mark Medley: What is he don't stop?
Mark Medley: He doesn't he doesn't stop giving thanks.
Mark Medley: I know, I never stop giving thanks for you.
Mark Medley: So prayer is begins, or Paul begins his prayer for his loved ones with thanksgiving.
Mark Medley: He thanks God for them.
Mark Medley: So there's something really powerful about being uh about starting this whole thing with thanksgiving.
Mark Medley: And so before I ask for protection or for before I ask for provision or for purpose in my loved ones, I just thank God for them.
Mark Medley: Lord, thank you.
Mark Medley: I thank you for my children, God.
Mark Medley: I thank you that we prayed for them and you gave them.
Mark Medley: I'm grateful for their presence in my life.
Mark Medley: I'm grateful for what they mean to me and how you've blessed my life through them.
Mark Medley: I thank you for the gifts you've given to them.
Mark Medley: God, I thank you for what you've already done and how you've worked in their lives already, and how you've been faithful to them, how you've provided for them, for your calling on their life.
Mark Medley: I thank you, Lord.
Mark Medley: I thank you.
Mark Medley: And that like recalibrates me, like sets me right.
Mark Medley: It puts my mind in the right position to hear the other things that God wants to speak to me about them.
Mark Medley: It's like a springboard into hearing the voice of the Lord for them.
Mark Medley: So start with thankfulness.
Mark Medley: I keep on asking, and I don't stop praying for you.
Mark Medley: And then Paul begins to see himself as partnering with God in prayer.
Mark Medley: In fact, Paul has such an understanding that he's working with God in prayer that he includes the entire Trinity in this prayer.
Mark Medley: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, the glorious Father, would give you the spirit, capital S, of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, Father, Son, and Spirit in this prayer.
Mark Medley: He's working with the whole Trinity here to bring something into existence.
Mark Medley: And so Paul's prayer life has this growing knowledge of and relationship with the entire Trinity, the glorious Father, the saving Son, and the empowering spirit at work with me when I'm praying, really, and with you when you're praying.
Mark Medley: God is at work.
Mark Medley: So he prays, first of all, to God the Father, the Father of glory, he says, the most high, exalted, glorious God above all gods, who is loving, providing, protecting Father, God most high with us in relationship.
Mark Medley: So we are praying from a position of relationship.
Mark Medley: The first word in Jesus' prayer is Father.
Mark Medley: When they said to him, Jesus, we've seen the Pharisees pray and we've seen you pray, we prefer yours.
Mark Medley: So would you please teach us how to pray?
Mark Medley: And he taught him how to pray.
Mark Medley: And he said, When you pray, pray like this.
Mark Medley: What?
Mark Medley: Father, you start with Father before you're asking for the forgiveness, before you're even praising him, before you're asking him to deliver you, or asking for your needs to be met before anything.
Mark Medley: Father relationship.
Mark Medley: It's from a place of relationship, it's from a position of being beloved sons and daughters that we're praying, which is why we can pray with boldness.
Mark Medley: Because we're sons and daughters, and we're able to partner together with this purpose as I pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus through Jesus Christ, right?
Mark Medley: So we have a name beyond compare.
Mark Medley: I love what we sang this morning.
Mark Medley: I love everything we sang this morning.
Mark Medley: It was great about it, it was so focused on Christ and His name and His power and His position in the heavenlies.
Mark Medley: We have a name beyond compare above every name to which every knee bows, to which every power submits because of the work of the cross.
Mark Medley: All authority, Jesus says, given to me in heaven and earth, therefore go.
Mark Medley: I have all authority, so take it and go.
Mark Medley: Let's work together.
Mark Medley: Let's work together in prayer.
Mark Medley: So we're praying from a position of power, a position of relationship with the Father, a position of power, because there's a name that we wield, this name of Jesus.
Mark Medley: And Jesus is seated above in the heavenly places, chapter one of Ephesians.
Mark Medley: We are seated together with him in the heavenlies, chapter two of Ephesians, where all the rulers and principalities are working in chapter three of Ephesians, and we're wrestling in the heavenlies, chapter six of Ephesians.
Mark Medley: But we're there with him who has the name above every name.
Mark Medley: There's power in these prayers.
Mark Medley: You're not just muttering to the ceiling, brothers and sisters, when you're praying.
Mark Medley: You're not just speaking to this guy.
Mark Medley: There's power here.
Mark Medley: We're praying from a position of power, raised up with Christ, praying with authority, especially for those you have relationship with and those you love.
Mark Medley: Those you have authority over, you have authority in the spirit over too.
Mark Medley: For your prayers, parents, your prayers for your children have authority.
Mark Medley: They're special prayers.
Mark Medley: I can pray for your children, but I think your prayers are even more powerful for your children than mine, than mine would be.
Mark Medley: So we pray to the Father, a place of relationship through the Son, in the place of power.
Mark Medley: And then we pray by the empowering help of the Spirit.
Mark Medley: This is the beautiful thing, is we don't pray by ourselves, even in our own wisdom.
Mark Medley: We have the help of the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: So we pray from a position of wisdom beyond our understanding.
Mark Medley: You know what?
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit is the only one who knows what to do.
Mark Medley: I don't know what to do.
Mark Medley: Most of the time when I'm praying, I'm not sure exactly what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit does know.
Mark Medley: And he helps us.
Mark Medley: And here's what Paul said in Romans 8, 26 and 27.
Mark Medley: Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses.
Mark Medley: For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
Mark Medley: But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Mark Medley: And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.
Mark Medley: Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Mark Medley: He helps us in our weaknesses.
Mark Medley: And maybe you remember, we talked one time about that Greek word.
Mark Medley: He helps us in our weaknesses.
Mark Medley: It's a you might remember because it's a funny word.
Mark Medley: Does anybody remember that?
Mark Medley: I tried to get y'all to say it.
Mark Medley: You can say it, right?
Mark Medley: Sunanti lambonomai.
Mark Medley: It's a great, it's a great word.
Mark Medley: It's a great and the word means to take a hold of something opposite of together.
Mark Medley: In other words, the Holy Spirit and I are carrying this thing together.
Mark Medley: He on that side, me on this side.
Mark Medley: That's the picture here.
Mark Medley: He helps us in our weakness.
Mark Medley: I can't do it by myself, but he and I together are carrying this thing.
Mark Medley: We're working together with the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit is working together with us.
Mark Medley: He helps us in our weakness.
Mark Medley: I'm not sure how to pray, but he does.
Mark Medley: He does.
Mark Medley: In 1 Corinthians 14, verses 14 and 15, Paul says, If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
Mark Medley: What am I to do?
Mark Medley: I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray also with my mind.
Mark Medley: With my mind also.
Mark Medley: I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
Mark Medley: He's talking about understanding your prayers and not understanding your prayers.
Mark Medley: He's talking about the gift of tongues in terms of praying to God.
Mark Medley: And so the Bible speaks of praying in the spirit versus praying it with your understanding or in your mind.
Mark Medley: And also it says that we're able, that prayers, when we're unable to think of adequate words, we're helped.
Mark Medley: So in those times when we don't know how to pray, the spirit himself helps us.
Mark Medley: Sometimes it's with no words at all, just deep burden.
Mark Medley: Sometimes it's with strong cries and tears.
Mark Medley: And sometimes it's with praying in the spirit, praying in an unknown tongue.
Mark Medley: And when we pray in an unknown tongue, the the first Corinthians 14 says we speak directly to God.
Mark Medley: It says that we speak mysteries with our spirit.
Mark Medley: It says that our spirit is praying, not merely our mind.
Mark Medley: And it says that we're giving thanks well.
Mark Medley: And this is why we're able to pray perfect prayers with the help of the Spirit.
Mark Medley: In Romans 8, he who searches the hearts knows what's the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Mark Medley: The Spirit prays according to the will of God.
Mark Medley: So you don't have to speak in tongues to receive the help of the Spirit in prayer.
Mark Medley: Okay?
Mark Medley: You don't have to.
Mark Medley: But if you don't yet pray in tongues, I want to encourage you to ask for this gift.
Mark Medley: It's a help.
Mark Medley: It's been such a help for me.
Mark Medley: I don't know how to how to do it.
Mark Medley: Ask, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
Mark Medley: You know, that same chapter says.
Mark Medley: And ask God for it.
Mark Medley: Or let us pray for you this morning for it.
Mark Medley: It's a gift that God gives to strengthen you, to help you to pray.
Mark Medley: But don't think that you're inadequate to pray if you don't pray in tongues.
Mark Medley: The Spirit makes intercession for you and empowers you to pray in English too.
Mark Medley: English is a language.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: It's a good one.
Mark Medley: And God speaks it.
Mark Medley: So it's okay.
Mark Medley: But there's but there's also a gift that you can be given.
Mark Medley: No, so you can we can pray for these and earnestly desire these gifts.
Mark Medley: Point is we're not alone when we pray.
Mark Medley: The entire Trinity is active in our prayer life.
Mark Medley: We join in partnership with the most powerful being in the universe, and we're helped in prayer.
Mark Medley: He invites us into his heart and into his mission.
Mark Medley: This is beautiful.
Mark Medley: Okay, so now we understand, as Paul understood, we're working together with God in prayer.
Mark Medley: He empowers us to pray and he works with us.
Mark Medley: So let's get practical.
Mark Medley: Let's talk about what does he actually pray?
Mark Medley: What is Paul doing here?
Mark Medley: When he's praying for us and praying for the saints, praying for his people, what does he do?
Mark Medley: How is he praying specifically?
Mark Medley: Well, he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Mark Medley: Okay, so first of all, he's praying for God to work on the level of the spirit.
Mark Medley: I want so, because you see, what he's talked about up to this point is so mind-blowing, he has to stop in the middle of it.
Mark Medley: All the things that God has done for us in Christ and the ramifications of what God has done for us in Christ.
Mark Medley: And the position that God's lifted us up into with Christ, He's He has to stop and say, God, just open their eyes.
Mark Medley: It's too much for any of us to really grasp on our own.
Mark Medley: It's beyond our understanding.
Mark Medley: So God, in the in on the Level of the spirit, on the level of the spirit, work in their lives.
Mark Medley: And you know, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but honestly, what we see is flesh and blood.
Mark Medley: This is reality in our lives day by day.
Mark Medley: We see real life, and sometimes what we see in the natural causes us to falter in our prayer lives because we don't always see it changing at our tempo.
Mark Medley: But God is moving in the spirit realm, which affects the physical realm.
Mark Medley: So Paul says, God, would you pray?
Mark Medley: Paul says, God, work at the level of the spirit in my loved ones' lives.
Mark Medley: Second thing is he prays for wisdom.
unknown: Yeah.
Mark Medley: Beautiful thing to pray for.
Mark Medley: If you don't know anything else to pray for your loved one, there you go.
Mark Medley: Pray for wisdom.
Mark Medley: Wisdom that they would come away from the foolishness of man, the foolish ways of the world, and they would open, their eyes would be open to see the wise ways of God.
Mark Medley: There's two ways, right?
Mark Medley: And in Proverbs, it says that there's a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death.
Mark Medley: And in James it says we can pray and ask for wisdom if we don't have wisdom.
Mark Medley: And he gives it.
Mark Medley: And he doesn't hold it back, but he pours it out liberally.
Mark Medley: So we can pray for wisdom on our behalf.
Mark Medley: We can pray for wisdom for our loved ones too.
Mark Medley: God, open their eyes and help them to see.
Mark Medley: Help them to see your ways.
Mark Medley: Take them out of their own thoughts and what they think is right.
Mark Medley: The ways that seem right but are leading to death.
Mark Medley: Lord, would you help them to see?
Mark Medley: Which is the next thing he says, that their eyes and their understanding would be enlightened.
Mark Medley: The word here is apocalypse.
Mark Medley: Give them an apocalypse.
Mark Medley: Open their eyes, a revealing.
Mark Medley: It literally means to strip off what is hiding something from seeing.
Mark Medley: Make the truth seeable, Lord.
Mark Medley: Like on the Isle of Patmos, John was just seeing things that were already there, but we couldn't, he couldn't see before.
Mark Medley: And suddenly there's a revelation, an apocalypse, and he can see things that are real.
Mark Medley: And so this is what Paul is saying, God, just strip off all the things that distract or um or hide what's true.
Mark Medley: God, open eyes, open the eyes of their heart.
Mark Medley: Do you know that your heart has eyes?
Mark Medley: Do you know that the heart of your loved ones have they have eyes?
Mark Medley: Those hearts have eyes.
Mark Medley: It's interesting, isn't it?
Mark Medley: He says here, your loved one's heart has eyes.
Mark Medley: So it's a word that literally means physical eyes, but it's also used for eyes of your mind or eyes of your heart.
Mark Medley: It just means to give them the function of being able to see.
Mark Medley: That's what it means.
Mark Medley: Open the eyes of their heart.
Mark Medley: God, I ask you to work on the heart level so that at the very core, my loved ones get it.
Mark Medley: They get it.
Mark Medley: They get what you who you are and what you want to do.
Mark Medley: Lord, open their eyes.
Mark Medley: But you don't understand, my loved ones.
Mark Medley: They don't have any desire for God.
Mark Medley: That's okay.
Mark Medley: Their heart has eyes.
Mark Medley: You understand.
Mark Medley: They have never laid eyes on the interior of a church in their life.
Mark Medley: It's okay.
Mark Medley: Their heart has eyes.
Mark Medley: But they've never seen a real Christian example lived out before them.
Mark Medley: It's okay.
Mark Medley: Their heart has eyes.
Mark Medley: And God can open the eyes of the blind.
Mark Medley: Blind hearts He can open up.
Mark Medley: And so, and then He uses this word.
Mark Medley: I'm asking for you to open their eyes so they can see the hope of their calling.
Mark Medley: Hope.
Mark Medley: God, give my loved ones hope.
Mark Medley: Man, hope is a big one, guys.
Mark Medley: It's a big one.
Mark Medley: We forget it.
Mark Medley: It's one of the big three, right?
Mark Medley: Faith, hope, and love.
Mark Medley: We know love's important.
Mark Medley: We know faith's important, but right up there with it is hope.
Mark Medley: Hope is so important.
Mark Medley: Hope is just confident expectation that tomorrow is going to be better than today.
Mark Medley: That's one way to think of it.
Mark Medley: Tomorrow can be better than today.
Mark Medley: And all around us, people are losing hope.
Mark Medley: And I think it's, I think it's not so much that we don't have hope, it's just that we have our put our hope in the wrong things.
Mark Medley: You know, like the psalmist says, Why are you so downcast, my soul?
Mark Medley: Put your hope in God.
Mark Medley: We've just put our hope in the wrong things.
Mark Medley: And life can drain you.
Mark Medley: He can just drain the hope out of you.
Mark Medley: Because the economy fluctuates, jobs disappear, your house breaks down, your pipes leak, your team loses.
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: Even your even like stars burn out.
Mark Medley: This world is like burning out, you know?
Mark Medley: It's like this is not, if you just look at what you see with your eyes, you can lose hope really quickly.
Mark Medley: But the scripture says that a man or woman who puts their hope in the Lord will never be put to shame.
Mark Medley: There's a place for, there's a destination for your hope.
Mark Medley: There's a place it's supposed to be set on.
Mark Medley: It's a living hope.
Mark Medley: It's Jesus Christ, it's a person.
Mark Medley: And so we pray for our people that they would realize things can change, that they would realize they can make decisions today that can change the trajectory of their tomorrow.
Mark Medley: We ask God to open their hearts.
Mark Medley: And I think it seems to me each generation has its own um challenges to hope.
Mark Medley: But I I can tell you what I think our generation's biggest hope crusher is, in my opinion.
Mark Medley: And it's called the algorithm.
Mark Medley: Our hope is stolen, and our exam anxiety is swollen by what we're seeing over and over and over on our socials.
Mark Medley: We we you you understand, right?
Mark Medley: Algorithm means that there's a algorithm is a data tracking system that looks at what you're doing online and keeps feeding you the same thing, right?
Mark Medley: So whatever you're clicking on, it starts you you're aware of this?
Mark Medley: It keeps it keeps sending you what you're clicking on, and so it's analyzing and it's pouring this stuff into you so that you are force-fed what you're craving.
Mark Medley: And fear and sensationalism sells, and so part of this is market-driven, but also our souls are kind of bent that way, and so part of it is flesh-driven.
Mark Medley: And you put those two together, and it can be a real mess.
Mark Medley: What what are you feeding your soul?
Mark Medley: What are you feeding your soul?
Mark Medley: When uh Melissa died, and I was working through um this grief and process and learning how to how to go forward, and what is what is next steps and what is future look like.
Mark Medley: And the Lord was being gracious to me and showing me some things to help me.
Mark Medley: There's some things I knew I needed to do.
Mark Medley: You know, one thing is I needed to keep myself plugged in to my church and my family because there's my strength and there's my anchor.
Mark Medley: I also knew I needed to move my body because this is this is gonna help me.
Mark Medley: I also knew I needed I needed to fuel my body with the right things.
Mark Medley: I needed to eat the right things physically, eat the right things so that my body doesn't go into this this despair.
Mark Medley: Okay, this is just something that was important to me.
Mark Medley: I had to fuel my body for health, okay, physically and emotionally.
Mark Medley: And I'm telling you, we have to do the same thing.
Mark Medley: We have to watch what we're eating, and we have to watch what's being force fed to us through the algorithm.
Mark Medley: Because, and here's what we realized last night at our we uh last night, last week at our um at our pastor's retreat, and it was we had a we had a great pastor's retreat.
Mark Medley: But what we realized is that in a lot of ways the algorithm is pastoring our people.
Mark Medley: Yeah, you know, you may get more care from the algorithm than you do from us.
Mark Medley: Because you're paying more attention to it.
Mark Medley: And we realize that we're sometimes pushing back against what the algorithm is force-feeding you because you're clicking on things.
Mark Medley: We're pastoring against your online content.
Mark Medley: And it's tough.
Mark Medley: It's real, though.
Mark Medley: This is our generation's dilemma, right?
Mark Medley: But we're praying for your eyes to be enlightened by the word of God, that you will fix your eyes on Jesus, the living hope.
Mark Medley: We're praying that the word of God will be the loudest voice, the most compelling voice in your life.
Mark Medley: That you'll get off Facebook and get your face in his book.
Mark Medley: We're praying that you hear the call of the Lord.
Mark Medley: Yeah.
Mark Medley: Because the hope can come when you hear the calling.
Mark Medley: Lord, open their eyes to see the hope of their calling.
Mark Medley: There's the next thing, the next thing to hear the calling of the Lord.
Mark Medley: God's invitation to eternal life, God's invitation to abundant life, God's invitation as Jesus is standing with his arms open and saying, Come to me, if you're laboring and you're heavy, you're heavy laden, if you're burdened, I will give you rest.
Mark Medley: And we can exchange a yoke, and I and you can learn from me.
Mark Medley: And I'm gentle and I'm lowly.
Mark Medley: There's a calling.
Mark Medley: There's a calling to Christ, there's a calling deeper in Christ, there's a call to know him more.
Mark Medley: So pray, pray for your loved ones to hear the calling of the Lord.
Mark Medley: And then he says, to see the hope of his calling, their calling, and also the the glorious riches, the inheritance of the saints.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: So to see the incredible riches that God has for us because we're sons and daughters.
Mark Medley: This is what Paul is asking.
Mark Medley: The unrivaled eternal beauty of the full consummation of the kingdom of God that is ready, that's being prepared for us as saints.
Mark Medley: We pray for this for your loved ones.
Mark Medley: That you can they can see above what's going on here.
Mark Medley: They can see beyond just this world.
Mark Medley: They can see what is to come, they can see that serving Jesus is worth it.
Mark Medley: It's so much greater to follow Jesus in the long run.
Mark Medley: That eternal things will be more valuable than temporary things.
Mark Medley: God opened their eyes to the incredible riches that you have for them.
Mark Medley: Number seven, to experience the power of God.
Mark Medley: The power of God, the power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.
Mark Medley: Okay, Lord, unleash your power in their lives.
Mark Medley: Let them see your power.
Mark Medley: However, you need to do it, however, you need to show yourself strong.
Mark Medley: Reveal the risen Christ seated with authority in their lives, whatever you need to do.
Mark Medley: And I think of what Jesus opened when he opened the scroll, when he was introducing his own ministry, and he opened the scroll and read from Isaiah 61.
Mark Medley: And he talked about the power that would come through his ministry.
Mark Medley: Good news to the poor.
Mark Medley: God, give them good news.
Mark Medley: Open their eyes to see good news.
Mark Medley: Bind up the brokenhearted.
Mark Medley: God, where they're hurting, would you heal them?
Mark Medley: By your power, liberty to the captives.
Mark Medley: God, set them free where they're bound.
Mark Medley: By your power, open the prison, those who are bound.
Mark Medley: God, where they have been struggling in chains.
Mark Medley: Break those chains.
Mark Medley: God, give them an understanding that this is a year of favor for them.
Mark Medley: This is a year of change for them.
Mark Medley: God, comfort them when they're mourning.
Mark Medley: God, give them beauty for all this ashes that they've created in their lives.
Mark Medley: Oh man, this is great prayer.
Mark Medley: This is good stuff.
Mark Medley: Open the heaven and show your power, Lord.
Mark Medley: Release your power in their lives so they cannot deny your existence, cannot deny your love, cannot deny their place with you.
Mark Medley: And then the last thing is to truly see Christ as he is.
Mark Medley: The power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Mark Medley: Jesus Christ, the Son of God in power, the Savior of the world, raised from the dead, seated in heavens, full of authority, the judge of heaven and earth.
Mark Medley: God opened our eyes to see Jesus.
Mark Medley: Because when you see Jesus, everything changes.
Mark Medley: Everything.
Mark Medley: Whatever way you know it needs to happen, Lord.
Mark Medley: Release your power.
Mark Medley: Release the revelation of Jesus.
Mark Medley: Paul pastored his flock by praying these things for them.
Mark Medley: And we can learn how to pastor and pray for and really practically love our people, even if if even if they're holding us at arm's length, or if there seems to be distance between them, you know, there's no distance in the spirit.
Mark Medley: We can pray for them, and it's powerful, and we can love them through these prayers.
Mark Medley: So so I want to close today by doing two things.
Mark Medley: You know, the first thing I want to do is I want to pray for you.
Mark Medley: This congregation really is not just my prayer, but this is like a prayer from all of the elders over this church, and I want to pray these things over you guys.
Mark Medley: Okay, and then the second thing I want to do is I want to close by having a time where we can gather together in with a couple of people or a few people around you and pray these things for your loved ones.
Mark Medley: I mean, we should my we should do these things, right?
Mark Medley: I mean, we should just hear them and say, Oh, that was a sermon.
Mark Medley: We should actually do it.
Mark Medley: So let's practice this morning.
Mark Medley: Is that okay?
Mark Medley: All right, good.
Mark Medley: We can go beyond theory this morning, we can actually do it.
Mark Medley: This is good.
Mark Medley: Okay, so let me pray for you the prayer that we have as your elders.
Mark Medley: Oh Father.
Mark Medley: We come to you this morning as beloved sons and daughters, just in awe of what you've accomplished through your son Jesus.
Mark Medley: And we stand before you in the finished work of the cross, where your grace abounds and your purposes unfold.
Mark Medley: Lord, not by our efforts, but by your sovereign will, we stand here, Lord.
Mark Medley: And for the this reason of what you've done for us, God, partnering with you, Father of glory, saving son, empowering Holy Spirit, we don't stop giving thanks to you for this congregation.
Mark Medley: We thank you, Lord.
Mark Medley: We're grateful for each person here, for the way you've woven their lives into our lives, for blessing us through their presence and their gifts, their service, their faith, their love.
Mark Medley: We thank you, Lord, for the gift of community.
Mark Medley: We thank you for the shared journey of knowing you more together.
Mark Medley: And Father, we pray in the name above every name, Jesus, that you would pour out your spirit of wisdom and revelation on us as a congregation.
Mark Medley: Open our eyes, Lord, of our hearts, that we could see you clearly, and somehow we can understand the truth of who you are, Lord.
Mark Medley: We ask you to strip away all the distractions and all the deceptions that hide you from us, that cloud our vision, and let your word be the loudest and most compelling voice that we hear, Lord.
Mark Medley: Speak louder than the word than the noises of this world, God, we pray.
Mark Medley: May we find in Jesus the hope that changes our future, Lord.
Mark Medley: What we pray for this congregation to hear your call, Lord, the call to eternal life, the call to rest in you, the call to know you deeply.
Mark Medley: Let us all see the riches of what you have prepared for us.
Mark Medley: That eye has not seen, that ear has not heard, that has not entered into the heart of man, those things you've prepared for us.
Mark Medley: And let that be our strength and our hope for future, Lord.
Mark Medley: May you help us experience your great power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, that seated us with him in the heavenly places, Lord.
Mark Medley: Work that power in us, Lord, mightily, Lord, in ways that are unique to each of our hearts and our families.
Mark Medley: Holy Spirit, our helper, guide us when we don't know how to pray.
Mark Medley: Empower us to pray, God, with boldness and authority and wisdom and with love for those we love.
Mark Medley: Lord, we pray those among us who feel lost in fear or swayed by the noise of this world or hopeless, Lord.
Mark Medley: I pray that you would let your truth drown out all the algorithms, Lord, of anxiety and turn us toward hope in Christ.
Mark Medley: Lord, may we see Jesus as he truly is, Son of God, Savior of the world, full of authority, full of love, release your power in our lives, Lord.
Mark Medley: Heal the broken, lift the weary, God, draw us to you.
Mark Medley: And these things we bring to you as sons and daughters, Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus, with the help of the Spirit.
Mark Medley: In Jesus' name, our risen King, we trust you, Lord, to work this into our lives for your glory, resulting in the praise of your glorious grace.
Mark Medley: This is our prayer.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: Okay, so now why don't we do the same thing for those people that we love right now?
Mark Medley: What I want to do is um I want us to close the service uh by just joining with one or two people around us, maybe a few people around us, and just praying for each other's loved ones.
Mark Medley: We have we have the the eight things all together here on a on a uh a slide.
Mark Medley: If you forget, you can look up and you can just pray.
Mark Medley: Pray these things over your loved ones.
Mark Medley: You can pray as long as you want.
Mark Medley: I'm gonna speak a blessing over you, and I'm gonna be down here.
Mark Medley: But you know what?
Mark Medley: I realize you might be one of the people who people have prayed for so long.
Mark Medley: And this more, this morning might be the tipping point.
Mark Medley: Maybe this morning is the time, it's your time.
Mark Medley: Maybe they've been praying for you.
Mark Medley: Maybe you don't know the Lord or you knew the Lord, you've run in from the Lord, whatever.
Mark Medley: Maybe today's your day.
Mark Medley: And I'm gonna stay right down here.
Mark Medley: If today is your day and you want to respond to Jesus, I'm gonna stay here and I want you to come down.
Mark Medley: I want to pray for you.
Mark Medley: And I want us to pray for each other.
Mark Medley: And when you're finished praying, uh you're dismissed.
Mark Medley: Maybe you could dismiss a little quieter than normal and maybe be loud in the coffee bar or something, and allow people who are still praying to pray.
Mark Medley: But let's just practice this, okay?
Mark Medley: Well, Lord, I just pray you you would bless them and keep them, and may you cause your face to shine upon them.
Mark Medley: Be gracious to them, Lord.
Mark Medley: You would lift your face up on all of them and you would give them peace in Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: Okay, if you just kind of gather with a few people around you and let's let's pray for our people.