Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul’s Prayer For The Inner Man

you know in the book of Ephesians the first three chapters Paul's focuses on belief in the last three chapters he's going to focus on behavior if the first three chapters are about doctrine the last three chapters are about duty so here at the end of chapter 3 Paul is going to pray for the inner man and we're gonna pray but I think it would behoove us to pray Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 through 21 Heavenly Father we commit this evening to you Lord in humility Lord we want to bow our knees to you the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named Lord we pray that you would grant to us the riches of your glory we pray Lord that we would be strengthened with might through your spirit in the inner person Lord we pray that Jesus would dwell in our hearts by faith and that we would be rooted and grounded in love so that we could comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the high Lord that we would know the love of Jesus the love of Jesus which passes knowledge Lord we pray as boldly as it sounds to be filled with the fullness of God and now Lord to you who can do exceeding abundant above all that we ask or think according to that mighty working of the power of the Holy Spirit within us we pray that all glory would be yours in the church by Jesus in every generation forever and ever amen Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 through 21 Paul writes therefore I ask that you go and verse 13 he says therefore I ask that you don't lose heart at my tribulations for you which is your glory for this reason in verse 14 I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us in him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen in this passage Paul prays Paul prays that the Spirit of God would strengthen his readers inner being in verses 14 through 16 he prays that the son might find his home in their hearts in verse 17 Paul prays that the Ephesian believers would be able to grasp the dimensions of God's love that in verses 18 through 21 years ago we had a pastors conference for Calvary pastors all around the one of the speakers at that conference was Alan Redpath who is one of the great great Bible teachers of all time and he made a lasting impression on me during the course of the conference he was asked this question he he was said he was asked the question how do you recognize a spiritual man and his answer was short and simple he said bent knees wet eyes Alan Redpath didn't simply preach on the subject of prayer he prayed while he preached he used to say let's keep our chins up and knees down we are on the victory side in an earlier passage Paul prayed for the believers empowerment have you ever started to pray and then all of a sudden you found your mind wandering in different directions I take comfort that Paul starts to pray in Chapter 2 and he gets sidetracked he wants to talk about God's revelation and the commission that's been given to him by the Holy Spirit and now he returns back on track he's back praying with focus he prays Paul is a good pastor Paul is not content that the Ephesian believers simply know all that they have in Christ he desires that the Saints not simply no but they begin to live in all that they have in the Lord Jesus Paul is his wants them to spend the unreachable the unsearchable riches of Christ I want you to grasp that for just a moment in other words the currency that's been given to you is meant to be spent and so Paul prays for God's fan in heaven and on earth and verse 15 he prays for strength through God's Spirit in the inner person in the inner man and I think I think it's possible to know a lot about cars and never drive very far I think it's possible to know only a little about cars like me and be able to drive far distances many Christians know about the great truths in the Bible but they fail to take advantage of the riches that are in Christ so Paul is going to combine the knowledge of the truth of God with a powerful prayer to God he prays for the Ephesians to be strengthened with my and verse 16 so that they can be rooted and grounded in love and verse 17 so that they would know the love of Christ and verse 19 so that they would experience the fullness of God in verse 19 this is impressive I think it's important to note that we pray about those things if we're honest that's important to us we will begin to pray for our husbands for our wives for our children for our church for its leaders for its resources for our impact we will pray for what we care about and I want to bring something to your attention the Bible gives us permission to pray for physical needs and financial needs but I think Paul knew that if the inner spiritual condition of the inner person is addressed the outer conditions the physical and the material circumstances would be met in all of Paul's prayers he never or rarely prays for anything for himself and when he does pray for something for himself it's only in order for him to be a more of to Pastor a more effective minister Paul's prayer is more than just simply a lesson on prayer it should prompt us to ask the spiritual question what's going on inside of me what's going on inside of my life how would I characterize my spiritual health in our look at Paul's prayer for the inner man we lay our hands on some of the unsearchable riches and the knowledge of Jesus that's bit past understanding look what it says in verse 14 to be strengthened with mine he says for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when he says for this reason what is Paul making reference to in part he's making reference to what was said in verse 13 therefore I ask that you don't lose heart at my tribulations for you which is your glory remember Paul has been given a commission by God for the Gentiles he has been called by God to preach the gospel to bring people into God's forever family that they would know and understand their need for power by the Holy Spirit to live the life of a believer to be a follower of Jesus he understands this for this reason in our culture the words enable and empower have become quite popular words Paul is praying to the Father in the name of the son and when he says for this reason I bow my knees it becomes the position of humility and dependence in the Bible we find Solomon kneeling as he dedicates the temple in second chronicles 613 Daniel kneels continually three times a day in Daniel chapter 6 verse 10 the psalmist kneels in worse and and before is God and his maker and Psalm 95 6 remember it says that he comes before the Lord and he kneels before the God his maker Jesus kneels in submission to the Father in the garden of gethsemane in Luke 22 41 Stephen kneels in prayer as he forgives those who are stoning him in acts 7 60 in acts 20 36 Paul kneels for the faithful in the church at Ephesus and so as he's kneeling it becomes this paradox of both confidence and knowledge of dependence and humility as he makes an appeal to heaven because I'm going to tell you that the normal position of the observant Jew isn't kneeling its standing but Paul prays and humility he prays on the basis of his knowledge of God's will and purpose he prays for the knowledge of God's will before we get into the heart apart Paul's prayer again were given a peek into his heart he's on his knees and I want you to recall where he is on his knees he's in a Roman incarceration center he's under house arrest awaiting trial before Caesar Nero there's something remarkable about the prayer in and of itself but I don't want you to disconnect from the circumstances of the prayer he's about to face charges of treason and he's going to be before a guy who's arguably either insane or demon-possessed and what that person decides is going to determine the outcome of his life he kneels when a Jewish person gets down on their knees it's a sign of urgency and humility we as Christians are allowed to pray standing up sitting down laying down with our eyes closed with our eyes open if you're riding a bike recommend that you close your eyes while you're praying or if you're driving a car and you're praying keep your eyes open keep your eyes on the road so it isn't the position that you're in standing sitting kneeling it's the circumstance of the heart that I want to draw your attention to so the bended knee represents first and foremost the yielded heart and then he says from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named in verse 15 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man now think about this it begins with humility and then he continues with the expression from whom the whole family it translates a root word patria it comes from another root word Potter which means in Latin Father and in Greek father we have words like paternity from that it means lineage or ancestries Herodotus uses this word in the sense of lineage or ancestry but in ancient Greek it was used to describe a tribe or a people group so when we use the term my peeps my people my background this is what this means he's speaking of a group in verse 16 we get into the substance of Paul's prayer he pleads with God that the Ephesians would be granted according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by the power of his spirit in the inner person when he uses the the expression according to the riches of his glory verses out of the riches of his glory in verse 16 when he says according to the riches of his glory do you understand what that means let me give you an example if Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon if Bill Gates or Warren Buffett gave you $100 they would be giving out of their riches but if they gave you a million dollars they would be giving according to their riches it's fairly easy for them to give a hundred dollars for them to give a hundred dollars is like you giving a dollar but to give a million dollars that's a significant gift and so again it prompts the question how wealthy is God we know that the earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof the universe belongs to the Lord I remember one pastor would pray lord I know that you have a cattle on a Thousand Hills could you just sell a couple and send it our way but Paul doesn't do that almost every prayer again Paul prays in the New Testament isn't for himself he is beaten he is mocked he's imprisoned he devotes the lion's share of his prayers even then to others and like I said when he does pray for himself it's always in the context of becoming a better pastor servant Paul's praying for answered prayer Paul is praying that God will answer his prayers according to the riches and glory these are the resources that are without measure and without comprehension and so he's saying he's praying with the full expectation that his prayer is going to be answered and and note the source of the strength it's the Spirit of God the source of his strength isn't his self it isn't what he does or fails to do the Lord is the source of the power of might in the inward person when we are subject to our limitations were subject to fail when we rely on our own strength than we're in trouble the very act of prayer becomes an acknowledgment that I can but that the Lord can and so the Holy Spirit provides the power for our lives it's the Spirit who begins the lifelong process to make us more like Jesus in 2nd Corinthians 3:17 you'll remember in Romans 8 where Paul says for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate every morning you wake up you do your routine in the morning you look in the mirror and you might say to yourself Lord what do you want from me but God's goal is always the same every morning that you wake up every morning every morning that you wake up he wants to make you like Jesus every morning he has one goal and one goal in mind to make you more like Jesus and he has the resources of the universe to bring about his goal and so the Holy Spirit aids us in prayer in Romans 8:26 and Ephesians 2:18 and again in Ephesians 6:18 the Holy Spirit inspires us to worship in Ephesians 5:18 and Philippians 3:3 though the Holy Spirit imparts gifts to us and makes it possible for us to become more and more like Jesus in Galatians 5:22 and 23 so the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to live the lives that he's called us to live to be obedient to remain United with other believers and so again this was one of the things that so disturbed me because I thought that Christianity meant that I had to be a better person and I knew that I was not a good person I'm a bad person I'm good at being bad and I'm very bad at being good in order for me to be good I'm gonna need help I'm gonna need a supernatural provision and that's what the Holy Spirit does and by the way when he uses the term strengthened in the text in the Greek language the way that I want you to think about this word for just a moment to be string than by the Holy Spirit is to understand the word by giving you the definition of the opposite of the word the opposite of the word in the Greek language here is discouraged so the word here is the opposite of discouraged and you and I might use the word strengthened but we also might use the word encouraged in other words went what he's talking about is that the Spirit would encourage you in every way possible in your life in your love in your walk with Jesus in 1540 Martin Luther had a good friend named Frederick my co Gnaeus and his friend was very very sick and he was expected to die and from his deathbed my Konya strode a tender note a farewell to Luther he wanted to say his goodbyes and Luther wrote back quote I command thee in the name of God to live because I still have need of thee in the work of reforming the church the Lord will never let me hear that you are dead but will permit me to survive me listen to his note for this I am praying this is my will and may my will be done because I seek only to glorify the name of God unquote you might read that and think man this sounds like health and wealth this sounds like prosperity doctrine this sounds like he's naming and then claiming it this is pretty bold this seems very selfish but you know what happened God honored this man's prayer my Konya survived he got up from his bed of affliction he lived six more years and died two months after the death of Luther I'm not suggesting that we name it and claim it or that we create our own reality but what I am saying is God honors his prayer because I suspect that he prayed according to God's will even though he was praying out of desperation Paul wants the believers and Ephesus to appreciate their spiritual riches the source of their power Paul cares for the church and then he cares for the people in the church and when the sick suffered Paul prayed for their recovery when the Jerusalem church church was suffering severe financial setbacks he took an offering in the Macedonia Church in order to provide relief for the hurting Church in the end it's only the Spirit of God that can give us meaningful spiritual strength it's the Spirit of God that energizes empowers and enables us but there are so many voices in our culture there's so many other people who will tell you that the source of power or the source of strength is going to come from drugs or self or personal empowerment or personal enrichment and Paul calls us to make a surprising disconnect from the culture and to recognize that the true source of spiritual power for the inner person is only going to come by the Spirit of God and so the inner man is a reference to our true selves this is the deep person this is the inner person this is that person that makes you you but we also might think of this as the spirit that is inside you by the born-again person made new by the gospel of grace and the Holy Spirit of God and the presence of Jesus in your heart this is the inner person in the book of Corinthians Paul talks about how the outward person is perishing but the inward person is being renewed day by day Paul actually uses that expression in 2nd Corinthians 4:16 he says don't you lose heart even though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day I was visiting a lady in our church on Monday at the hospital she's only been given a few weeks to live and when I walked into the room she was sitting up in her bed she was listening to her headphones and surprising she was listening to one of my teaching tapes and her eyes lit up and so did her smile and we prayed and she said I was praying that you would come she says I know this is a difficult subject but I want to talk to you about my funeral and I want you to talk about what you're gonna say to my children and to my grandchildren her heart was full of joy at the prospect of going to heaven her inward person was filled with the love of Jesus and the joy of Jesus even though the outward person was perishing she she was being renewed day by day so what does Paul recommend what does Paul recommend he says in verse 17 that you would be rooted and grounded in love he says in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you may be rooted and grounded in love that the Lord Jesus would dwell in your hearts through faith and you might be thinking we'll wait a minute pause timeout I thought Jesus came to live in my heart the moment I was saved and you would be right here Paul isn't denying the biblical truth that Jesus comes into our heart or that the Holy Spirit changes us here Paul is making a reference to a quality of presence there's an interesting story in the Old Testament you'll remember that when the Lord came to visit Abraham he was accompanied by angels in Genesis chapter 18 it becomes clear that Abraham and Sarah are entertaining Jools unaware the Lord makes himself comfortable he's at home with Abraham he isn't he's comfortable in Abraham's tent a little while later the Lord sends an angel to retrieve lot and his family from their home in Sodom lots of believer do you think that when the angel went to Sodom and he was sleeping out in the open that even though lot invited him over to his home do you think he felt comfortable in that home especially when people were knocking on the doors and as horrible as it sounds in the text the residents want to sexually assault this angel how more perverted could it possibly get so here's part of the point the presence of the Lord is at home and comfortable with Abraham in his tent Paul's prayer is like a telescope that allows you to see further and further when he says that Christ may dwell in your hearts the word dwell isn't just simply living it means the place where you take up permanent residence it actually means to make yourself at home or to to dwell permanently so Jesus makes his home in the believers heart through faith but remember how it begins in humility and then transparency being strengthened by the Spirit Jesus comfortably makes his residence in the believers heart through faith and this faith is a reference to the believers faith that is that Christ takes up residence in the heart of the believer who accepts him by faith who receives him by faith who believes in him by faith Paul's prayer like I said is a telescope it opens further and four and further how being strong in God's Spirit makes it possible for Jesus to live in your heart and then he makes your heart his home and then the presence of Jesus in your heart leads you to being rooted and grounded in love when we yield to the spirits power when we submit to the lordship of Jesus in our life the end result love in your heart for God and for others we become rooted and grounded in love were strengthened God by God's Spirit in order to love we submit to the lordship of Jesus in order to love the spirit's empowerment and then the sons enablement equip the believer for this foundation of love and so paul takes two metaphors he mixes metaphors and then he joins these two metaphors together one is from the world of agriculture the other is from the building industry from the construction and industry being rooted doesn't that make you think about a tree and grounded this is a word that describes a foundation that's being laid these are the tell-tale signs of a mature church and a mature believer they are they have deep roots they have a firm foundation since the beginning of our church since the beginning of our church when we had our first Bible study it's always been my goal that the roots of our church be as deep as as wide as the as the branches are wide because deep roots will mean a deep church a spiritually mature church we yield to the power of the Spirit we submit to the lordship of Jesus the end result is love we become rooted and grounded and he uses these two terms are your roots as deep as your branches are wide is your Christian life marked by a firm foundation because the firm foundation of course is Christ himself it's the love of Jesus himself it's the presence of Jesus himself love is the soil that allows the roots to grow deep the love of Jesus serves as the strong foundation on which to build our individual lives and then build the life of the church here the text literally reads this is what that literally reads having been rooted and having been founded the emphasis in the Greek text is the present result of a past action Jesus has done this in the past this is the present result in the here and now and so the clause connects verse 18 that this rooting and founding makes possible understanding the magnitude of God's love and then in verse 18 he says may that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes understanding Paul prays that this foundation of love will give the Saints the ability to grasp or comprehend or lay hold of and not let go of the vastness of Christ's love here comprehend again what means to lay hold of it means to grasp the understanding of God's love in Christ and then he's going to go on and say as if that could have it really can't really happen you'll never really know it but you should be able to experience it you should be able to experience it because you've experienced his love you've experienced his grace you've experienced his mercy there's a song that we sing how deep the Father's love for us how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure we we sing the songs we search for for things that will reflect our experience we reach out look what he says that you will be able to comprehend with all the saints do you know why I think he says all the saints because no single individual will be able to understand it but you'll understand a little and you'll understand a little and you'll understand a little and you'll understand a little and you'll understand some and you'll understand some and then collectively we'll begin to know more and more and more and more because as the saints combined together begin to relate the combined experience of what it means to know him and to love him but I'm gonna suggest to you that even if we took the rest of the service and I gave each and every one of you and I said tell me in just a few sentence about what the love of Jesus means to you and you spoke and you spoke and you spoke and we would know a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more the life application Bible commentary adds quote no single believer can assimilate the mystery chapter three verse nine the wisdom chapter three verse 10 the riches chapter three verses six and eight by himself or herself it takes all believers unquote I love that the commentary continues quote Christ's love is total complete eternal all-encompassing it reaches every corner of our experience this passage shows that even as we seek to grasp and understand an understanding of Christ's love we will never understand it completely for it's beyond our comprehension it is wide covering the breadth of our experiencing reaching to the whole world it is long continuing the length of our lives and then on into eternity it is high rising up to the heights of our celebration inhalation his love is deep reaching into the depths of discouragement despair and even death think about that for just a moment I'm going to pause from the commentary and just plumb that for just a moment reaching into the depths of our discouragement our despair our depression when you go into this dark rabbit hole of dark difficulty God's love follows you there in the pain and the sorrow in the loss how far does it go as far as he has to go how far does it go it goes even to death and then beyond death because the Bible says precious in the in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints the commentary says quote various attempts have been made to identify the four dimensions wide long high deep with the four arms of the cross with the four dimensions of the heavenly City in Revelation 21 16 or the four dimensions of the universe we happen to know that the universe if we are to believe modern science is fourteen and a half billion light-years across so imagine if you could travel up a light year and then another year and then go a hundred thousand miles and then a hundred million miles and then billion miles and then a billion more and a billion more and let's say you could go 14 and a half billion light-years across the stretch of the universe you could go as high as it is as low as it is as wide as it is and God's love goes further he says most likely they should all be taken together as a reference to the all-encompassing mystery of the love of God so imagine you came up with an amount remember when you say to your children how much do you love me I love you more so come up with a point and God's love is further how big is the love of Jesus how vast beyond measure how do you measure that which cannot be measured do you measure it by the outstretched arms of Jesus on Calvary's cross do you measure it in terms of his righteousness and our sinfulness do you measure it by his suffering and our reward is Christ's love big enough to accommodate the worst sinner in there worse sin then that means it's big enough to accommodate you in your worst sin Paul prays Paul prays he prays that we would know something that we can't know and you might be thinking what's pretty hypocritical of him I mean look at the butt it's full of contradictions why in the world would Paul pray a prayer that cannot ever be answered it's because it's a literary device Christ's love is unfathomable but yet we can experience it for ourselves you can experience it and you can experience it to a small degree or a greater degree or to the greatest degree we can grow in this experience we can grow and grow in the experience John Owen the Puritan writer said we are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in the holy amazement of his unspeakable love and that's exactly right and then he talks about the fullness of God I remember when I first read this when I first became a Christian that you may be filled with all the fullness of God I read that and it was shocking I thought what in the world does this mean what could it possibly mean what in the world does this mean and once again we connect the dots of Paul's prayer connect them with me being strong in God's Spirit makes it possible for Jesus to make us home in your heart the presence of Jesus in your heart leads to being rooted and grounded in love being rooted and grounded in love we experience God's love as we experience God's love were filled with the fullness of God this fullness of God the only way I can possibly define it is again by its opposite fullness means lacking nothing there's nothing left there's nothing lacking in our relationship with the father there's nothing lacking in our relationship with the father through the son by his Spirit because the fullness of God is found only in Jesus it's only found in Jesus it's found nowhere else Colossians 2:9 Paul talks about it again he says in cautions 2 9 and 10 for in him that's Jesus for in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him who is the head over every principality and power you don't have to look any further there's nowhere else to go you don't have to go anywhere else you have nowhere else you could possibly go we appropriate this power we appropriate the presence of Jesus by faith and personal prayer we experience it moment by moment and our ultimate goal is to be like Jesus and Jesus is then seen in us Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is Paul's prayer for you and for me we can ask the Holy Spirit to fill our lives in every way we have the fullness of Jesus now here's the paradox we have the fullness of Jesus and there's still room to grow we have the fullness of Jesus it literally means to be dominated by that filling there's nothing left of self the old man is gone this is the fullness of grace this is the fullness of love this is the fullness of his presence and whatever else it means whatever else it means it must mean that the presence and the perfection of Jesus in us means that there's nothing left to need I suspect that Paul has our final state of perfection in mind but this isn't removed the reality that God is at work God is at work God is molding God of shaping God is forming us he's he's making us into the image of God we're back to Romans 8:28 for whom for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son God is at work working working working I want you just for a moment not just to consider the content of this prayer but the audacity of this prayer the outrageousness of it Paul isn't asking for something as crass as money or power or influence or possession or even ministry power Paul's praying for strength in the Holy Spirit Paul's asking for the ruling presence of the king of the universe in his heart Paul is asking for the fullness of Jehovah Elohim and to experience the love of Jesus and once he's done praying for that he concludes the matter look what he says now to him that's the father and the Son and the Spirit yeah I don't know who he's making reference it might be one or both are all he says but now to him - is able to to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen I remember Paul Smith Chuck's brother teaching on this passage he he preaches this passage he says this verse he lifts his head and he asks the question does God answer prayer and then he just simply said does he ever God's ability to answer prayer his ability to answer prayer is found in these seven things number one he is able to do what we ask he's not inactive he's not idle he's not dead someone told me today a definition of sin they said sin is the hope that God is dead but God isn't dead he isn't idle he isn't inactive he is every ability to answer your prayer number two he is able to do what we ask for he hears our prayers but it's more than that he longs to answer them number three he's able to do what we ask for think because he can read our thought he can read our mind he can even sometimes understand that we imagine things we imagine things that we dare not say out loud we don't even dare say it out loud so we don't dare even ask and so he knows about what you are fearful of asking afraid to ask because it is so outrageous it is so beyond belief that you can't even bring yourself to do it but he knows what it is because we imagine things that we don't dare ask for and therefore we don't ask for number four he's able to do all that we ask all that we think because he knows all and he can perform all and number five he is able to once he's done that he can do more now unto him was to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask her thing he can do more the Greek word more you know this word hyper you use it in everyday language hyper it means beyond hyper beyond all that we ask or think because his expectations are hyper beyond all that we ask or think his expectations are higher than our expectations his thought is greater than our thought number six he's able to do more and then Paul says much more more abundantly the Greek word is para sauce he can do more abundantly para sauce than all that we ask our thing for he does not give His grace by calculated measure so you pray and you go I need grace I'll give you more than you need I need to know your love I'll grant that to you I need forgiveness not only will I forgive you your sin but I will declare you righteous by gift by imputing my righteousness to you what no I'll do more number seven he's able to do how much more very much more Paul uses the superlative of the superlatives he invents a Greek word that I don't think exists in any other ancient writings that we can find far more abundantly than all that we ask or think because God is the overflowing abundance he uses the term hyper beyond paresis abundance so there's beyond and then there's abundance and then he creates a whole new word by linking these two words together a super superlative immeasurably more vastly more infinitely more I'm trying to think of ways to say this major but beyond major beyond the imagination beyond the belief this is the infinite ability of God to work beyond anything that you could say anything that you could imagine anything you could think anything that you could hope for anything that is beyond beyond your wildest dreams the application Bible Commentary again says quote our thoughts include more than we dare ask in our prayers our dreams exceed what we consciously desire God answers prayer he even answers unspoken prayers God can act beyond our ability to ask or even imagine Paul uses three superlatives to drive the point home God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything that we would dare ask think imagine God is not just above far above beyond our finite minds God is able because of his awesome power to the unfathomable depths of Christ's love is added the exceeding abundance of his power believers can claim Christ's great love read it in verse 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge and know that his power works in us through His Holy Spirit unquote Paul writes these words he prays this prayer under arrest in Rome facing trial before arguably the most powerful human being on the earth Caesar Nero he writes and he prays from his experience in that cell he writes and he prays chained to the soldier Paul's words he writes them he praised them he he writes them down and these words in the book of Ephesians is put together it's sent by a courier to the people in F and Nero is dead and every Christian in every generation have read these words studied these words prayed these words Agustin read this passage Aquinas read this passage Luther read this passage Calvin read this passage you've read this passage you've read it and studied it what a prayer to him be the glory the word glory remember I've told you this one word is the one word that if you were to take every attribute of God imagine glory is a pot and imagine you're putting in God's omniscience is I'm the presence his majesty think of any attribute that you can think of his self-sufficiency his self-existence everything that you can imagine about God everything that he is everything that he is you put it in this pot and that's the word that comes up glory it's the one word that describes the sum and the substance of God's holy attributes it's a reference to his wonderful all inspiring presence glory is what you were designed to give him you exist to glorify him our church exists to glorify him so the ability to clarify God comes only only only through Jesus Christ the Lord his sacrifice on Calvary's cross his resurrection from the dead all that Jesus has done has made it possible for us as individuals and us as a church to glorify Him and so the prayer closes with this doxology some Bible teachers scholars have suggested that this doxology was a song that they sang that it was originally intended to be inserted at the of the letter but here it's inserted right here I am gonna suggest to you that they're wrong Paul sings these words of praise out of the prayer he sings it because of the prayer in the first part of Ephesians Paul describes the timeless role of the church and in the closing chapters in chapters 4 through 6 Paul is going to explain how the members of the church can live together in unity and submission to his perfect will based on everything that he is sang and sung and preached in the first three chapters Jay will J Wilber Chapman tells the story at one of his services he's I never forget it he said quote I got off at the Pennsylvania Depot as a and for a year I begged on the streets for a living one day I touched a man on the shoulder and I said hey mister can you give me a dime as soon as I saw his face I was shocked because it was the face of my own father I said father father do you know me and throwing his arms around me tears in his eyes he said my son my son at last I found you I found you you want a dime but everything I have is yours think of it I was a I stood begging my own father for $0.10 win for 18 years he was looking for me so that he could give me everything that he had J Wilber Chapman says when the Holy Spirit empowers you and Jesus no this isn't J Wilber Chapman this is me when the Holy Spirit empowers you and Jesus Christ is at home in you and his love has mastered you and God has filled you with all of his fullness so that he can do exceeding abundant above all that you could ask or think what is it that you want what is it that you want God to give you because I guarantee you whatever it is he wants to give you more you want something and he wants to give you everything let's pray Heavenly Father Lord we don't even pretend even for a moment to understand all that this passage says and all that this passage means Lord I know that it has to mean even more than I've been able to say even more than I've been able to share but lord I just pray even just for a moment for that person who has been struggling to comprehend even for a moment the height the width the depth the dimensions of your love which which begins to disappear in every direction Lord we know that you're committed to us you've given us everything that pertains to life and godliness in Jesus Lord you've demonstrated your love you've proven your faithfulness you've revealed your power Lord I pray that you would cause faith to well up inside of us as we begin to ask for the impossible and we begin to dream dreams that seem absurd but lord I pray for these men and women I pray that their lives their ministry and the love of Jesus inside of their hearts would be so evident and attractive that it would compel others to quite literally say to them I want to know this Jesus that you know I want to serve this Jesus that yous I want to experience the love that you've experienced and so Lord again I pray for that person who in the depths of despair in the darkness of the dungeon of the depression that they might find themselves that your love would find them there and that your love would speak to them there and that you would redeem them and take them out of the pit and place them on a rock in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary South Denver

Views: 25,448

Rating: 4.8507462 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Gino Geraci, Christianity, Bible Study, Ephesians, Answered Prayer

Id: nNdDeE5Q7qw

Length: 60min 59sec (3659 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 12 2017