As we look at these verses we are going to consider four requests the Apostle Paul made of God for this church at Ephesus. I believe it is important to remember that he is writing to a church and putting forth an example of requests we need to make in relation to this church. First I will say that there is nothing wrong with making requests for physical needs, especially in relation to one’s health and well being. However, often our prayer requests for physical health outnumber and overshadow our requests for spiritual needs - individually and as a church. Dr. Vance Havner: “So many of our prayer requests sound like an organ recital. Pray for my liver, my heart, my lungs, etc.” It is my experience that (at least) 75-80% of prayer requests made in church are for physical needs. Where are the requests for our spiritual needs? James 5:16: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” In vs. 14 Paul gets back to the prayer he began in vs. 1. “For this cause” = goes back to what he has said in chapter 2. Because both Jew and Gentile can be one body in an authentic, New Testament church. He further reveals the unity that is in Christ in vs. 15 as he says, “(14) our Lord Jesus Christ, (15) Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named . . . ” Here Paul declares that all of the saved of every age, both “in heaven and earth” are in the “family” of God. Here is a clear distinction between the “family” of God and a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. FAMILY = (patria) It is from the word for “father” and refers to paternal descent. CHURCH = (ekklesia) Speaks of an assembly called together for a specific purpose. The “family of God” has existed since the first person in the Old Testament was saved (Adam), but includes those saved in the New Testament all the way through to those who are saved today. You become a family member by birth or adoption. You become a church member, after salvation and Scriptural baptism, by being fellowshipped into the church. “The church and family of God are never synonymous in the Scriptures” (Dr. Albert Garner). And now because through Christ God has made it possible for both Jew and Gentile tobe one in the same body (an authentic ekklesia), the Apostle is going to make four requests of God for them.

I. A PRAYER FOR STRENGTH - VS. 16.

II. A PRAYER FOR STABILITY - VS. 17.

III. A PRAYER TO SEE AND SEIZE - VV. 17b-19a.

IV. IT IS A PRAYER FOR SUFFICIENCY - VS. 19b.