EPHESIANS 3:14-21 PRAY THAT I LIVE MY IDENTITY IN JESUS2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ephesians 3:14-21 Pray That I Live My Identity In Jesus

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Ephesians chapter 3, we'll be finishing up the chapter. And, uh...

Finishing up really that first half of the book of Ephesians where Paul has been dealing with a lot of doctrine and talking specifically about, or we've been focused on rather, the identity that we have in Christ. And we are a new creation. And he's shared that repeatedly that we have something new in the Lord.

And we need to understand what that is so that we can now, as we head into chapters 4, 5, and 6, begin to live according to the way that he has created us to be and all that he has given to us. But Paul wraps up this half of the book, this section of the book, with a prayer for the Ephesians. And so let's read through this prayer. It's in verses 14 through 21.

We'll read through that together and then jump into what the Lord has for us. So Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14, Paul says,

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, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Here we have another incredible prayer of the Apostle Paul. Now, it's interesting, you know, on Sunday we got to look at the prayer of David as he was in that place of distress. And I mentioned on, you know, Sunday that there's lots of different prayers recorded for us in the Bible. There's great insights we can learn from each of them. Here we have this prayer of Paul for the Ephesians. And

And it's the second that's found in this book. The first prayer we saw, we went through it together back in Ephesians chapter 1. And I just want to take a moment and remind you of that prayer that he prayed for the Ephesians because it feeds into this prayer that he prays for them as well. So back in Ephesians chapter 1, we looked at verses 15 through 23 and

And the title that I gave it at that time was, Pray That I Would Know My Identity in Jesus. And so Paul's prayer for the Ephesians there in chapter 1 was about their knowledge, about their understanding and their awareness of who they are in Christ and all that God has given to them.

And so the first point we talked about was praying that I would know that I would grow in my relationship with God, praying that I would, you know, understand who I am and that then I would develop and that I would go forward in knowing God and relating to God to a greater degree. Then we went on to see the second point, pray that I would understand the future God has promised me.

And there is a future, there is an eternity and it needs to be in my mind. It needs to be something I'm considering and contemplating and I need to be reminded of it. And the more and more that I understand the future that God has for me, the greater impact that that will have in my life. And then thirdly, we saw that,

the prayer that I would understand how excited God is about me. And that one's always fun to consider and to think about. The reality of, you know, God being more excited to be with us than we are to be with him. And that's always been the case. That's why, you know, God...

made provision for us to be redeemed and to have salvation is because we weren't chasing after him. We weren't pursuing him and there was no way for us to do so. But because he's so excited about us,

And because we are his beloved and because he is passionate about us and desires to have that fellowship and that intimacy with us, he is excited about me. He's excited about my life and what he has in store for me and spending eternity with me. We need to be reminded about that attitude that God has towards us when we feel like God's, you know, fed up with us or tired of us or, you know, just tired.

done with us. It's just not even close to being the picture of what we see in the scriptures. Well, then fourthly, pray that I would understand how much God is working for me. He's passionate about me and he is working

He is doing with all his strength, with all his might, he is accomplishing in my life what is best for me continually from wherever I'm at, whatever point I'm at, whatever attitude I have, wherever my mind's at, wherever my heart's at, God is working for my good continually. And so we see this work of God in this prayer that Paul gives of the Ephesians. Now, as we jump now to chapter three, we're looking at his second prayer. And this one has a little bit different focus.

So this, the first prayer, I titled it, Pray That I Would Know My Identity in Jesus. Tonight, I've just changed one word, Pray That I Would Live My Identity in Jesus. And so there's a different focus, a different emphasis, and it's really a transition from

to the application that we're going to dig into as we head forward into chapters 4, 5, and 6. That Paul is transitioning from the doctrinal emphasis of the book now to the application emphasis of the book of Ephesians. And as he makes that transition, he prays this prayer that is not so much about what they know,

but it's more about their enabling or their empowering of God that they would receive from the Lord all that they need to be able to live the life that God has called them to live. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way. In the first prayer, the emphasis is on enlightenment.

But in this prayer, the emphasis is on enablement. It is not so much a matter of knowing as being. Laying our hands on what God has for us and by faith, making it a vital part of our lives.

It's important, going back to the first prayer, for me to know and understand my identity, as I've been sharing over the weeks, that there is a lot of different identities that are being pressed onto us, that we are being pressured into accepting and believing and receiving and walking in. And so we do need to know our identity. We do need to recognize who we are in Christ and where God is in relationship to us and all that he is doing for us. And then finally,

the closing half of the book, we do need to actually like get to work and live out now the life that God has called us to live. And so here Paul is transitioning those two and he's praying that we would be empowered to live that out, that we would have what we need to be able to take what we know and then put it into practice in our lives. And so Paul is praying that for us, that we would be able to live out

our identity. And I would encourage you to pray for me, that I would live my identity in Jesus. And in turn, I pray for you, that you would live your identity in Christ, that it wouldn't just be something we know, something we're familiar with, something that we, you know, intellectually understand, but that it would be something that impacts and changes our life.

Now, before we dive into the actual prayer, Paul says in verse 14, for this reason, I bow my knee to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's interesting as you follow that passage

that phrase for this reason, because we also see it in verse one of chapter three. And I mentioned that last week that Paul seems to be intending to go into prayer in verse one of chapter three, but then he kind of gets sidetracked in himself and he says, let me reiterate this doctrine for you again, all that we have in Christ, the unity of the church and Jews and Gentiles, and that mystery that the gospel is for all that,

Jews don't become Gentiles, Gentiles don't become Jews, but both become Christians and believe in Jesus Christ. And it was this was the plan of God from the beginning that there would be one new thing, the church, which would unite all believers in Jesus Christ, no matter what their background was, no matter what their history was or their nationality was.

And so Paul began to pray this, it seems like, in verse 1. For this reason, I, and then got sidetracked. And then back in verse 14, now goes back to the prayer. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father. But because of that connection, I want to back up for just a moment. And for what reason? So for this reason, what is Paul talking about? Well, if you go back to chapter 2 for just a moment,

In verse 19, Paul says,

And there Paul is kind of summarizing a bit the doctrine that he was sharing about who we are in Christ. And he says, as Gentiles, we're no longer strangers. We're not far off from God. We're not far off from the people of Israel, but we're fellow citizens with the saints. We are united together with the saints, with the best of the best, as you think about those who have walked with God. We're united together. We're fellow citizens with them. We're members of the household of God.

We truly are members. We are sons and daughters, children of God in a unique way, not in the creation type of way. All things are, or all people are God's children in the sense that he is the creator, but there's also those who are members of the household of God by faith in Christ. And there is a being a child of God as we've been adopted in, and we dealt with that earlier in Ephesians as well. But so Paul says, because this is who we are,

Well, we are being built together. We're being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. And so God is doing this work in us because we're his children, because we're fellow citizens. We're all in this same place, the same category of being those who have been brought near to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And so God is doing a work in us to dwell in our midst together.

to be a dwelling place of God in the spirit. And for that reason, because that's the work that God is doing in us, Paul says, for that reason, I'm praying for you. And he goes on to give the prayer in verses 16 through 19. And there's four things we'll see as we look at this prayer. The first one we find in verse 16, Paul says,

is praying for them that they would be strengthened within by the Holy Spirit. And so I would encourage you, pray that I would be strengthened within by the Holy Spirit. And again, I share these things from a personal perspective because that's the emphasis that the Lord laid upon my heart. And I need this prayer, but also I recognize you need this prayer. And so I pray for you, you pray for me. That's the way that God has designed us to function as the body of Christ. Pray that I would be strengthened within by the Holy Spirit.

And so here's Paul's prayer, starting in verse 16. So the first thing indicated by the word that, and you'll see that four times as we work our way through. So 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, this is another passage where Paul's words are just really dense with meaning. And we could, you know, break down each segment of this. That God would grant you according to the riches of his glory. And you can think about the glory of God. How much glory does God have? He has a wealth of glory.

He has a wealth of everything that is needed for us. And so according to the riches of his glory, in other words, for God to strengthen you, it's not going to like really drain his resources. You know, it's not going to be like a burden on him. It's from the riches of his glory that he has all that is needed for you and I and for what we need.

And what do we need? Well, we need to be strengthened with might in the inner man. Now, Paul here is addressing and praying for not the physical needs of the Ephesians, not their external needs, but he's praying for really their spirit, that by the Holy Spirit, they would be strengthened within.

And this is an important thing to pray. This is an important need for each one of us, that we would be strengthened within. There is a lot of battles that we will face, as I have been sharing over and over again, that we have our identity declared here, but there's all these different opinions and ideas about who we are. And there is an inner strength that is needed to be able to resist that,

Those persuasive arguments, those forceful ideas and those things being pressed upon us. There is a strength within, an inner strength that is necessary to be able to hold fast and say, no, that's not who I am. This is who God declares me to be. There's an inner strength that is needed for temptations and battles that we face.

And it's easy for us sometimes to just be weak internally, to be weak and to be pushed around, to be bullied by however we feel, by the enemy, by society, that we can compromise on things. It is easy to find ourselves in a place where we are religious in form,

And we practice, you know, things, but we're not really being strengthened within by the Holy Spirit so that we are strong internally. Pastor J. Vernon McGee says this, the spiritual nature of the believer needs prayer as well as does the physical. How often the spiritual is neglected while all the attention is given to the physical side.

Prayer is needed to live the Christian life, to grow in grace, and to develop into full maturity. This is an important aspect of our life and our walk with God, that there needs to be that strength within. And in order for us to go on and experience what God has for us, we need to develop strength. And so,

It would be good if people were praying for us, that we would be strengthened within. And the way this strength comes is by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us and ministers to us and empowers us to be able to be strong, to be able to hold fast to the things that God says.

And so we can strengthen ourselves by walking in the Spirit. We can strengthen ourselves by yielding to the Holy Spirit. We can let the Holy Spirit do the work in us that God wants to do in us. Over and over throughout the scriptures again,

We are encouraged, we are called, we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Later on in Ephesians chapter five, Paul is gonna say, don't be drunk with wine, right? But be filled with the Holy Spirit instead. And so pray that I would be strengthened within by the Spirit of the Holy Spirit.

You can pray for that strength, but also specifically, you can pray that I would be filled continually, that I would be filled regularly, that I would allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life because as the Holy Spirit works in my life, there is going to be a strengthening. There is going to be a building up, a working out of those spiritual muscles, that inner man, that I would be strong within, that you would be strong within as the Holy Spirit works within you.

And there's great, great things that God can do as we have strength within. Because we get to say no to things that are not of God. We get to keep ourselves in line with God. We get to be in that place of receiving from the Lord all that he has for us. And so his prayer begins with the prayer for strength.

that they internally, that they spiritually would be strong, that they would have a solid relationship with God, that they would be allowing the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. Well, continuing on into verse 17, we get the second point of Paul's prayer. Point number two is pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me. Pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me. Verse 17 says this,

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And then it goes on to say other things, but that's part of the next point. So I'm not going to get into that yet. So verse 17, the first half, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So first of all, that you would be strong internally, and then also internally, that you would have the indwelling of Christ, that you would have the indwelling of Jesus dwelling within your heart. Now, this word to dwell is

There's a couple of different words that express this idea of dwelling within something in the, in the Greek language. And I'm, you know, don't really know these things, uh,

as a scholar or anything like that. But as you look into these words, the idea of dwelling that's communicated here, the word that's used is not a temporary dwelling, not like a tent type dwelling or not like a, I'm a guest in your home type dwelling. You know, if I went to go and live in your home for three months, you know, like you could describe it as I was dwelling there, right? I lived there with you for three months, right? Right.

It's a temporary, it's not a permanent thing. But this idea of dwelling is a more permanent type of word, that it's a permanent residence. It's a permanency that Christ would dwell in our hearts as a ongoing, continual, not come and go, not temporarily, not we're just trying this out, but that this would be a solid relationship that we have with God.

that there would be this dwelling within of the Lord in our hearts. What does that mean? There's a lot of things that we could maybe think about and explore in our minds or imagine as we try to work through what that means, you know, because it's spiritual, it's internal, right? So there's a lot of...

It's not as clear as if it was, you know, a physical thing or a practical thing. But this idea of having Christ dwell in your hearts through faith is, well, I like the way that Pastor Warren Wiersbe describes it. He says,

but an ever-deepening relationship. Paul is praying not for them to just be stronger in the Lord internally, but also that their relationship with God would be deeper, that there would be this growth, this depth that is demonstrated by Christ feeling comfortable. You could think about the illustration of Abraham and Lot in the Old Testament.

Remember Abraham and Lot, they were hanging out together for a while, but then there was some problems because there was too many people with them and they started to have conflict and

So Abraham said, you know, we need to part ways. And so I'll go one way, you go the other way, you pick. Which way do you want to go? And it tells us that Lot lifted up his eyes, right? And it's often been observed that that fleshly choice that Lot is making, he's basing it upon what he can see. He's walking not by faith, but by sight, right? And so he picks and he chooses the land over by Sodom and Gomorrah and he goes that route, right?

And then you have Abraham who, well, the Lord showed him, I'll show you, you know, your place. And it was the faith of Abraham that enabled him to walk with the Lord and to follow the Lord in the way that he needed to go and that God wanted him to be. Well, it was the faith of Abraham that enabled Abraham to be referred to as the friend of God. It was the faith of Abraham that enabled him to entertain God. It's a little bit after that split that

The Lord himself shows up to visit Abraham. You remember that? And he has a couple angels with him and Abraham makes them a meal and they fellowship together. And then the two angels that are with the Lord, they leave and Abraham and the Lord just have a conversation together. And God looks over at Sodom and Gomorrah and he says, I can't withhold from Abraham what I'm about to do, right? Abraham, here's what I'm about to do. I'm going to deal with Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham intercedes and they go back and forth, right? There's this

this relationship. There's this communion that they have. Now, Lot, on the other hand, is over in Sodom and Gomorrah during this time. And in Sodom and Gomorrah, God was interested in preserving Lot. In the New Testament, we have a description of Lot as a believer. So he's a believer, but God didn't visit him personally. He sent a couple angels to go get Lot.

And their task was to get Lot out, right? But notice, think about the contrast, right? So Lot had a couple angels visit him. Abraham had a couple angels and the Lord himself visit him. And I think this goes back to this concept of this feeling comfortable, this feeling at home, this dwelling within their hearts, that Abraham...

He walked with God in a way, he had a relationship with God, he had a faith in God that gave him an opportunity to have fellowship with God in a way that Lot didn't. And Lot, because, well, he walked by sight instead of by faith, he still believed in God, he still was considered and counted as a believer, you know, there was...

there was, you know, not a loss of salvation in that sense, but there was a loss of that opportunity, that fellowship with God that Lot didn't have because of the condition of his heart, because of the state of his faith. And I think it's an important illustration for us to consider as we think about our own lives and our own hearts, that we need that close relationship with God. But

Here's the temptation for us, right? So you look at the example of Abraham and Lot.

You can think about Sodom and Gomorrah. You can think about all the wickedness and the compromise and all that, right? And it would be easy for us to go, okay, so in order for Christ to have, you know, to feel at home in my heart, to dwell within my heart, that what I need to do then is, and then we come up a list of rules, right? So I need to keep that rule. I keep that rule and do that thing and do that thing and do that thing all the time. And if I do that three times a day and four times a week and, you know, and we can easily jump to this legalism thing

to try to make Christ feel at home in our hearts. But I think it's interesting that Paul points out here in verse 7, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. What makes Christ comfortable in your heart? What makes Christ comfortable in your life? It's not your works. It's your faith. It's your faith that enables the Lord to do in your life all that He wants to do. And so we can...

have this close relationship with the Lord, just like Abraham did. And, and we can do that even if we're not perfect as, you know, well, Abraham wasn't perfect either, but even if we're not, you know, quite there in practice as Abraham was, but, but we can, it's, it's about faith. It's about believing God at his word.

Going back to the doctrine of grace in the book of Galatians, that means approaching God and dwelling with God and calling out to God, even in our weaknesses and even in our failures, not just in our victories, that we don't keep ourselves away from God, that we always continue to draw near to God. That's faith, to believe God at his word and to walk with him. And when we believe Jesus, he makes himself at home in our hearts. He is God.

made comfortable by our faith. And so this prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians is an important one. Pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me, that I would believe God at his word. And it's by faith that we're able to approach God and have this kind of relationship with God. Well, moving on to the rest of verse 17 and on into verse 19, we get the third point.

Point number three is pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more. Pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more. In verse 17, Paul says, while reading that first part again, that Christ may dwell in 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, the first couple of points, we're just looking at one little line, you know, of the prayer. Here is a few lines of the prayer and full of thoughts, full of depth, but all centered around the subject of love. And so his prayer is that you being rooted and grounded in love, that you would be established lovingly,

Not moved away from love, not shaky in your understanding of God's love of you. And as he's talking about love, he's talking about the love of Christ, as you can see in verse 19. So the love that Christ has for you, this is a love to be rooted in and grounded in. This is a love to have your foundation on, that you would know no matter what happens in your life and no matter the condition of your day, your mind, your heart, your thoughts, whatever, Jesus loves me.

That you would be rooted and grounded in love. That you would never be shaken from that. That you would never have to question or worry or doubt or wonder, does Jesus love me? No, no. Paul prays that you would be rooted and grounded in love. And part of that, flowing into verse 18, is that you would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. One of the ways that we understand

to develop that root, that groundedness in the love of Christ is to begin to understand how much the Lord loves us. Now, he says in verse 18 that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints. And all the saints is an important aspect of this love as well because we are in the same place as all the other saints. Sometimes we can feel like

You know, God loves some people more than he loves other people. That there are the saints that God really loves and he cares for them. He pays attention to them. He does what they need and all of that. And then, you know, here we are less than saints. But Paul's point repeatedly throughout Ephesians is that we're the saints, right?

And just as much as God loves Abraham, God loves you, God loves me. Just as much as God loved Billy Graham or Chuck Smith or Gray Laurie or Richard Bueno, you know, God loves us together with all the saints. He loves us. And it's as we begin to understand that love of all the saints, it's when we begin to comprehend the width, the length, the depth, and the height.

And I don't think that we need to get like super technical and okay, so what is the width of the love of God mean? And what is the length of the love? You know what I mean? Like, I don't think Paul's trying to express something super technical here. I think he's trying to express something overwhelming that God loves you so much, just like the rest of the saints, that there is this incredible width and length and depth and height that

To the love of God that you can't reach. I can't remember the song off the top of my head, but there was a song a while back. I always liked how it pictured how the love of God, you know, goes before us and covers us behind and is above us. And, you know, it pictures like this. Every which way you look, you're encompassed by the love of God.

That there's no way that you can, nowhere that you can go. There's no, you know, escape that you can have away from the love of God. That there is this width and length and depth. And I like how Pastor David Guzik talks about this. He says, to come to an understanding of the dimensions of God's love, we must come to the cross. The cross pointed in four ways, essentially in every direction, right? It went wide, deep, long, high, all four directions, right? And the cross pointed in four ways, essentially in every direction, right?

And he goes on to say, God's love is wide enough to include every person, all the saints, right? Every person. God's love is long enough to last through all eternity. We're not going to just, you know, have a good couple of good years in the love of God. And then, you know, then there's the next election and then, okay, now we're out of God's love. And, you know, that was fun while it lasted, but it's over, you know, no. God's love is long enough to last through all eternity. God's love is deep enough to reach the worst sinner.

And so, you know, it reaches you, it reaches me that God's able to dig down deep enough, right? To find us and love us and God's love is high enough to take us into heaven or eternity. And so you can kind of think about it in those ways, right? That no matter where you go or how wide you go or how far you go or how long you go or how deep you go, that you are surrounded with, you're encompassed by the love of God, right?

He says in verse 19, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. This is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. This is a prayer I would encourage you to pray for me. And I will pray for you. Pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more. It has that ongoing idea to it. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. How do you know something that passes knowledge? Well, you don't know it fully, but you know it more and more.

And that's what Paul is praying here, that more and more they would be rooted and grounded, that they would be solidly convinced Jesus loves me. No matter what's going on in my life, no matter where I'm at, I need to understand the love of Jesus more and more. And it's when I understand his love, again, talking about the enabling, talking about heading into the application of chapter 4,

It's when I understand his love that I'm able to relate to him and have the resources that I need, have the relationship that I need, relationship with him that I need to be able to walk with him in the way that he's called me to. We are always responding to what God has done. And so the more I understand of his love, when I understand his love more and more, I respond better and better. He's the initiator. And we respond, we respond.

we respond because of his love for us. That's what happened with the initial, you know, salvation experience, but that's the ongoing work of God in our lives as well. And so, pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more, that I would be rooted and grounded, that no matter what happens in my life, no matter where I'm at, I would always have this foundation, Jesus loves me. Well, finally, verses 20 through 21, it's

kind of an addendum on Paul's prayer, a little bit of a doxology, you might say, of what Paul ends with here in verse 20 and 21, but it gives me point number four this evening, and that is, pray that I would experience more and more of God. I skipped the end of verse 19, I apologize. So that you may be filled with all the fullness of God is the last part of verse 19.

So that was the fourth part of the prayer. And that's meant to be 19 through 21 in the points there. Sorry about that. So starting in verse 19, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, talking about being filled with the fullness of God, talking about being, you know, grounded and founded in the love of Christ, talking about having Jesus be at home with us, talking about being strengthened within by the Holy Spirit, that's

Some of these could be perhaps perceived as very challenging depending on different conditions that people are in or different positions of your heart. But Paul wraps up this prayer saying,

With verse 20 and 21 to kind of remind us to kind of set a cap on it and say, hey, whatever doubts you may have about any of these things, doubt no longer. Verse 20, he says, 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, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

And so there's a couple things to think about as we consider this last part of Paul's prayer in the conclusion of chapter three here. So he prays that we would be filled with all the fullness of God.

I like the way that Warren Wiersbe described this. He says, look, when you think about this prayer, don't think about it as like, here's one thing and then here's a separate, you know, unrelated point that's, you know, different than the first. And then here's another point that's unrelated. But he described it as a telescope. And so each piece of this prayer is a furthering of the telescope that we would get to the conclusion here of being filled with the fullness of God.

That there would be more and more of God in our lives. That we would know God more. That we would experience more of his nature and his character. That we would experience more of a relationship with him. That he would be revealing himself within us and working within us to a greater degree. And so Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is,

The prayer for you, the prayer for me is that we would have the fullness of God dwelling within us, filling us, becoming more like Christ. This is God's will for us, right? Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 that we have been chosen, right, from the beginning to be transformed into the image of Christ. And this is the work that God wants to do, that His fullness is

would be within us more and more. That we would have more of the nature of God and character of God. Not in a weird way that we become gods, but that we would have his heart, his mind, his nature, his character. Pray that I would experience more and more of God. Now, how can that happen when I am sinful? When I am not always faithful or not always diligent? How can that happen when

How can I have that strength within? How can I have that understanding of the love of God? How can I have that dwelling of Jesus within where he's comfortable and feels at home with me? How can I have any of that? When I'm wishy-washy and I fall short and I'm not up to the standard of righteousness that is needed, how can all of that happen

Well, as Paul is praying this, again, he caps it off with a reminder. 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, to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

This prayer, although it's not super complex or difficult in some senses, it is in many ways, like it's going to require a mighty, miraculous work of God for us. We need to be strengthened within it. And it's not just, you know, you go lift some weights or, you know, you pray this prayer. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's a supernatural work that's needed, right?

And sometimes, especially if we haven't been, you know, that strong within, it can feel like I'm never going to be strong. How is this? How would that ever happen? How could that ever happen? I don't think I'll ever get there, right? But Paul says, We pray for this. And sometimes we pray for things that we just don't know if God actually could do, right? But he says...

Think of the greatest things that you could pray for and God, he's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that. What's the ideal strength internally that you could think of? What, like, if you could be, man, if you could just have the spiritual strength within, what would that look like? How strong would that be?

That as much strength within, as much internal strength as you can imagine, strength in your relationship with God and so that you, you know, you wouldn't waver and that you would be able to stand fast in the midst of temptation or persuasion or all those things that, you know, come against you. If you could, how much strength would that be? Well, God is able to do more, to give you more strength than you could even imagine.

Not just a little bit more, not just like, you know, just fill it to the top and then just like overflow it just like a tiny bit. But this idea here of exceedingly abundantly, it's superlative, superlative, right? It's extra, extra, extra. That this is above and beyond by huge amounts, God is able to do above all that we ask or think. All that we pray for, God's able to do even more.

Now, this is important, especially talking about, you know, pray that I would experience more and more of God, right? So I need that strength, and I need more strength than I know, and I need God to do a bigger, you know, work of strength within me than I can even ask or think of, right? But sometimes, too, we get discouraged in prayer, don't we? That we get discouraged that, okay, we're praying for somebody. Yeah, they need strength within, but boy, they're just so far from it. I mean...

I didn't even know. Maybe it's just too big of a prayer. Maybe it's just never going to happen. And we can find ourselves in a situation where we're talking out of praying. We're talking ourselves out of praying for that person because it seems too impossible. And so we give up before we even start. And that's one of the things I love about Paul's verses here that we're reminded that God's able to do well above and beyond what we could ever imagine or think of.

And so that person that we're praying for that's struggling, that person that we're praying for that is weak internally, that needs to be strengthened in the Lord, we feel like it's just they're too far gone or they're far away perhaps. But it's not beyond the reach of God. And God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.

And so pray that I would experience more and more of God. Pray that I would experience that strengthening within by the Holy Spirit, but pray for others also that maybe you gave up on praying for, that they're not beyond the reach of God and the work of God, that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than what you could imagine. He says, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations. I spent a lot of time

Just in the past couple of minutes talking about the strength, right? But you can go on to apply that to point number two. It can be easy to not pray, to give up on prayer, to struggle in prayer because I just don't see how Jesus could ever feel at home in me. I just can't see how Jesus would ever feel at home in that person that I'm praying for. Like, I don't know. It just seems like there's some big things that need to happen. Yes, and Jesus can do those and more exceedingly abundantly above that.

Well, we ask, pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me. Pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more. You know, sometimes you wish you could just kind of help people make better decisions, right? You wish you could make their decisions for them or you wish you could just, man, can't I just say it some way so that you get what I'm trying to tell you? Like maybe there's some sequence of words that you would understand how much God loves you.

And it just feels like they're just, I try, I try, I'm blue in the face trying to explain to you how much the Lord loves you. You just don't get it. You just don't accept it. You don't receive it. You don't believe it. We can talk ourselves out of praying for that person. But pray. Pray that they would understand the love of Jesus more and more. Pray that I would.

But pray for those around you as well that perhaps, again, you kind of gave up praying for. You kind of, you don't, it's like, it feels like, ah, that's just kind of, you got to be realistic, right, in your prayers. Hey, don't be realistic because he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. God can help them understand the love of Jesus more and more. He can help them understand the width and the depth and the height and the breadth that he can, he can help them

Come to that understanding, the incredible love that he has poured out for us. To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. The power that works in us, the same power that resurrected Christ from the dead, the same power that spoke the universe into existence. That power is at work in us.

There is never a time that we have to like wrestle with or like, I don't know if I, you know, have what I need or have what it takes to do what God's called me to do or live the life that God's called me to live or take the steps of faith that God's called me to take. Like the power of God is at work within us, able to accomplish exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think of. But notice in verse 21, he says, to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations.

So this is all about the glory of God. This is all about his glory within the church. And this is tied into all the things that Paul has been sharing over the past couple of chapters. Because the church is not the building. The church is the people. You're the church. We're the church, right? And Paul has been dealing with that in the sense of Jews and Gentiles.

So whatever your nationality, whatever your background, whatever your culture was, whatever your upbringing was, you are the church by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's in the people of the church, right? The people that God is glorified to all generations forever and ever. And so it's not just a temporary thing, not just in this lifetime type of thing, but God is going to be glorified in his people forever.

For the rest of eternity. We saw that in Ephesians chapter two. Remember when we talked about us being trophies of God's grace, right? For the rest of eternity, we're going to be giving God glory. Not just in like praising him, you know, and worshiping him in that way. But the very fact that we are there with him in eternity will be giving God glory for the rest of eternity.

And this is why God works to the degree that he works. This is why he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Because, well, first of all, of his glory, of his power, of his omniscience, omnipotence, because of who God is and how great he is, he's able to do that. But he's also able to do that because he is glorified in the work that he does. And so we think about sometimes, you know,

we're discouraged in prayer. We think about how difficult it would be or how, but think about it from a different perspective. How much would God be glorified if I was strengthened within by the Spirit? It's not so much how hard would that be, you know, for it to happen or how hard would it be for that to take place, but how much would God be glorified? The power, that's not the limit. God is not, you know, without strength, without power, without ability to accomplish His purposes.

Listen, if being strengthened within by the Holy Spirit would be a total miraculous work of God that would bring him glory, oh, that's all the more reason to pray. That's all the more reason to pray. Because as he's glorified, it's his name that's being known through his people. Pray that I would be strengthened within by the Spirit. Not that Jerry would be glorified. Not that you would be glorified. Not that, you know, somebody else would be glorified. But that God would be glorified in his people.

That it would be a testimony of, wow, that is the work of God. They used to cave every time there was that temptation or every time there was that deception or every time there was that, you know, they used to just, they used to have that weakness internally, right? But God is glorified when I'm strengthened within by the Holy Spirit. Pray that I would be strengthened within. Pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me.

that I would have that kind of faith, that I would believe in the Lord to such a degree that there would be this union, this fellowship, this communion with the Lord. And he is glorified when that happens. It's not like, whoa, look at Richard. He's so holy and so spiritual and Richard gets the glory, right? No, no, no. When Jesus feels at home in me,

I reflect his face. I shine his nature, his character. I point to him. He is glorified. Pray that I would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home in me. Pray that I would understand the love of Jesus more and more. Again, it's not like, okay, look at my degree, you know, and I have a PhD in the love of Jesus and aren't I great, right? No, no.

The more I understand the love of Jesus, the more he is glorified by me and through me and in my life more and more. God is able to do that. If you wrestle with the love of the Lord and wrestle with that, hey, pray and invite others to pray that you would understand the love of Jesus more and more, that he might be glorified. But again, notice it's

to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations. That it's in the people that he does this. It's through the people of the church that God brings glory to himself in this way. God doesn't, I forget when, it's in my mind, like I know I talked about it recently, but God doesn't send angels, right, to teach on Wednesday nights. He doesn't send angels to teach on Sunday mornings. But he uses the people to do his work

to bring him glory. And as we pray for one another, we get to participate in that. And as we allow God to do a work in us, as we walk in the spirit and are strengthened within, he is glorified through our lives. And so these are prayers that, well, we can have great confidence in, that God is able to do, not just what we ask, but well above and beyond what we ask, beyond what we could even imagine.

And so pray. Pray that I would experience more and more of God. It's what I need. It's what I need for your sake. It's what I need for the glory of God. I pray it for you. You pray it for me. This is the way that God has called us to be to one another. Again, to him be the glory in the church. We're the church. Paul prayed for the Ephesians, but he sets the example for us to pray for one another. And all throughout the New Testament, we have those one another commands. Praying for one another is one of the commands.

It's one of the ways that the Lord calls us to be the church, to be the body of Christ, to be part of God's work in each other's lives in that way. And so we, well, we need to pray for each other that we would live out our identity in Christ, that we would be strengthened by the Spirit, that we would have faith that makes Jesus feel at home.

that we would understand the love of Jesus more and more, and that we would experience more and more of God. And so, as I think is appropriate, let's just finish off the service this evening by praying. And it's kind of simple because there's four of us, so you two girls can pray, and me and Richard will pray, and let's just pray for one another. You don't have to follow the exact things, the exact points, if you're

The Lord leads you in some other way, that's fine. But let's just take a few moments and pray for one another. Be the church and pray that God would do then exceedingly and abundantly even more than what we ask. Amen.