Our Strength in Christ
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Good morning, church. Good morning. It’s great seeing all of you this morning. We’re going to be finishing up with chapter 3 in Ephesians in just a moment, but before we dig into that, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our calling to make disciples and plant churches and to saturate Eastern North Carolina with the gospel, which is our calling. And last year we started a generosity initiative, a 3-year generosity initiative called its time.
We based it on the book of Haggai where we see that the prophet Haggai was preaching to the church, or to the church, to the land of Judah to rebuild the temple. And the Lord told the people of Judah to be strong, do the work, and to be fearless. And we took that up as our marching orders during these 3 years as we felt called to give generously to the Lord so that we could reach more people with the gospel. And already we’ve seen some amazing things. We’ve seen more people attending our church as a result of our outreach, more first-time guests, more faith commitments, more baptisms, more changed lives.
And on top of that, we’ve been able to add staff to both of our campuses, both a new staff member here in Wilson and in Rocky Mount. In addition, we were miraculously able to obtain a new home for our Rocky Mount campus. And that’s just the beginning of what God’s been doing because of your faithfulness to give out of what God is so blessing you with. And so we’re at the midpoint of the 3-year generosity initiative, so we’re halfway there. And it seemed appropriate, and you’ll see it in your bulletin that you have an insert that we’ve been sticking in there the last couple of weeks, just to let you know that next month we’re gonna take a break from our studying Ephesians, and we’re going to dig in again to a time of renewing our commitment to Finish Well, and also for new people that have started attending since last year, so you get informed and have an opportunity to get on board.
And so our goal in this is 100% commitment together. Our goal is not so much the money goal as it is that we go on a spiritual journey together and grow in our generosity, which is God’s will for all of us. And we’re not just trying to raise more money, we’re trying to reach more people, and it requires resources to reach more people with the gospel. And, and growing our church has never been the real goal. We want to grow this church, we want to grow Eastgate Church, but we want to grow the Kingdom, capital C, Church.
And that reminds me that this past week that we took several of our leaders on a conference gathering in Raleigh of collaborating churches that are collaborating together to plant churches. And we set aside and prayed over 16 church planters, and we brought them up on the platform and prayed for them. And I got to meet with several of them. And, and, uh, you know, last— this past year, we’ve, we’ve been giving a percentage of what, uh, the Lord gives us to plant churches. And then next year, we’ll be praying for— maybe it’ll be one of these 16 that presented their case for what God’s doing in their life, their calling, and and we prayed for them.
And so our desire is to plant churches. And what we know is that new churches reach new people. And so it’s our desire to be part of that because we wanna saturate Eastern North Carolina. That’s why we call our church Eastgate. Our dream is to saturate Eastern North Carolina with the gospel so that every man, woman, and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel.
And so take that insert home from your bulletin, read over it, pray over it, and prepare your hearts and minds for next month when we’ll be going through it with more detail. There are more people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. And we want to be strong. We want to do the work and be fearless.
Well, let me pray for us and then we’ll dig into our, our study in the book of Ephesians. Lord, thank you for your people that are gathered here now under the hearing of your word. I pray that you would open our hearts and minds to receive. And Lord, I pray that your word would go forth from from this pastor, from this preacher today, so that people don’t hear me, but they hear Your very Word being spoken. And I pray, Lord, that You would speak through me, and I humbly desire Your Spirit to use me and to open all of us up now to the hearing of Your Word, that it would saturate our souls and our hearts.
In Jesus’ name, amen. We’re looking at our series today. We’re finishing up chapter 3. And as I’ve been telling you, we’ve spent 6 weeks now going through the first 3 chapters of Ephesians, and the repeating phrase that we’re seeing throughout the book of Ephesians is in Christ. It’s in there 36 times in those 6 chapters of Ephesians, in Christ, because being a Christ follower is not about dos and don’ts, it’s about Christ living in you, empowering you and strengthening you.
And so we’ve entitled this particular sermon Our Strength in Christ. Because that’s the source of our strength and it’s having Christ living in us. And that’s the key phrase in this whole book of Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus. And he begins this last part in verse 14 by picking up where he kind of took a detour last week. As he began chapter 3, he goes, for this reason, verse 1, chapter 3, and then he did like a BTW.
Like, by the way, and he went off, but it was important that he did. He talked about the mystery of the church and our mission as a church and our mission as— and then, but now he’s getting back to what he meant to do, which was he meant to pray for us. So for this reason, I bow my knees, he begins. And this is the second prayer in the book of Ephesians. The first one is in chapter 1, and now he’s praying again.
It’s a beautiful prayer. It’s a powerful prayer. He’s praying for strength for believers, spiritual strength, and I believe we need that today. Yet sometimes we slip into thinking that we can live the Christian life on our own strength. How do we get there?
Well, we just slip into it sometimes, don’t we? We start thinking we got this. You know what I mean? It’s usually an area that you feel strong, you feel like, you know, Lord, I desperately need you over here. And you know what that is, right?
You know it’s that struggle, that area. But over here, I got this. I got this over here. And may I say to you, the place that you’re most at risk, where we’re all most at risk, is not over here where we’re desperate for God’s help. It’s over here where we think we got it.
It’s over there. And so Paul is praying that we would be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ, and so that we would no longer live according to our own strength, but according to His. And this is where the gospel continues to matter to us as believers. Sometimes we mistakenly think that the gospel is just the entry point to following Christ. Okay, I got the gospel, Jesus died for our sins, He was buried, He was raised from the grave, I believe that, and now let’s move on to the deeper stuff.
Well, you can’t get any deeper hear me, than the gospel, the good news. See, ’cause the gospel is good news, not good advice.
Good advice is do this, this, and this, and then you’ll have this. If you’ll do these 3 things, you’ll be happy. We love those kinds of lists, don’t we? Like you see ’em on the internet all the time. Do these 5 things for healthy life.
Do these 5 things, and then we go, okay, okay, okay. The only problem with those lists is you have to do them. That’s the problem. You have a list, but what will empower you to do them? And so the gospel comes to you saying, not only are you saved by grace, but you’re kept by grace and you’re being grown into the person of Christ by grace, which is God’s free gift.
And we mistakenly think we can live the Christian life on our own strength. The gospel says God has already done this. Good advice says you need to do this. The gospel says God’s already done this, and we don’t need better advice, we need God’s power. And as we look at the text today, Paul’s praying for the church at Ephesus that they would be strengthened by God’s power in Christ.
And I believe today you can receive power You can be strengthened, and as we look at the text, we’ll see 3 ways that God’s power strengthens us in Christ. So let’s dig in, we’re finishing up chapter 3 today starting at verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen. We’re looking for 3 ways that God’s power strengthens us in Christ. Here’s the first way. It’s by empowering us inwardly through His Spirit. This is the first way that God’s power strengthens us in Christ.
It’s by His Spirit empowering us Within, in the inward person, on the inward self. I’m reminded, as I mentioned a moment ago, that Paul begins this prayer with, for this reason. That’s how he started chapter 3 before he took his segue and said, by the way, you know the reason I’m locked up, it’s because of you Gentiles. I’ve been preaching the gospel to you Gentiles and it got me in trouble with the Jews, but God has removed that wall of hostility between the races so that now there’s only the church, Jew and Gentile. The wall of hostility has been erased.
And so, now we are one. He talked about that. So, that was the earlier part of chapter 3, that that’s God’s purpose. And you remember me saying there’s only one race, that’s the human race. And this is not a black church, this is not a white church, this is a red church because of the red blood of Jesus.
And so we’re one church. That’s what he took the little BTW, right? Like you do when you’re texting somebody. By the way, I’m locked up. I’m imprisoned in Rome because I was preaching to the Gentiles and it got me in trouble, okay?
And so now he’s back to for this reason. He started it again, verse 14. Now he’s going to pray. And if I’m locked up and I’m asking you guys to pray for me, I send a letter to you, First prayer request on that list for me is going to be, can y’all pray I get out?
That’s not what Paul prays. That’s not what Paul prays. Paul prays for them, and we can learn much from Paul’s prayer, couldn’t we? And he prays for their inner self to be strengthened. It’s a Trinitarian prayer, don’t miss it.
He prays in the Father, he prays for the Spirit, he prays in Christ Jesus, he prays in the Son. It’s a Trinitarian prayer. I think it’s a good reminder that when we pray, we address it to the Father. That’s how Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Our Father which art in heaven.
So He prays to the Father and He prays in the name of the Son and He prays for the Spirit to move. He prays a Trinitarian prayer. And He says, I pray to the Father. He didn’t just pray, it wasn’t just one of those, you know, prayers like that. It wasn’t a prayer sitting in your recliner.
It wasn’t a prayer like laying in your bed. Not that the position of your body gets you closer to heaven somehow. We are close to heaven because of Jesus. But the position of your body might inform your attitude. When’s the last time you prayed on your knees?
Have you ever prayed on your knees? Has there ever been anything in your life that you desperately wanted bad enough to get to your knees? Now, for some of us like myself who recently had knee replacement, both knees, it’s a little more challenging. Not so much getting to my knees as getting up from my knees.
But getting on your knees might inform some humility in your heart. The Jews often prayed like this, standing up. We sometimes pray bowed over. Paul gets on his knees. I bow to King, I bow to my King, I bow to the Father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named.
What’s that? It’s a play on words in Greek. You’ll miss it in the English. I pray to the Pater whom every patria is named. It’s a play on words.
The word family in Greek comes from the Father, pater, patria. In heaven and on earth, He’s the origin of all things, the Creator of all things. All things find their being in and from the Father. That’s how He prays. That’s every family is named, has the idea in heaven and on earth is from Him.
And then He begins, 4 prayer requests. Each of them begins with the phrase or the word that. This is another one of Paul’s run-on sentences. Every subordinate clause comes out of the previous one, and so that, that, that, that, and if you were putting a schematic diagram of it together on your page, it would, each one would keep going like that. And so here’s the first that.
Verse 16, that according to the riches of His glory, which are unlimited, according to His riches, according to the Father’s riches of His glory, that He may grant you, not a loan that you have to pay interest on, pay back, a grant, a gift. I pray that the Father who is the originator of all things, the Creator of all things, over all things, that He would give you a grant, a gift that you would be strengthened with power. It’s like a double dose of power here, strengthened with power. The Greek word for power is dunamis here. It’s where we get the word dynamite, dynamo, dynamic.
It’s best illustrated by the resurrection of Jesus, the dynamic power that raised Christ from the grave, that you would be Granted to be strengthened with power through His Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. Where? Where’s this power gonna land? In your inner being.
He’s praying that they would have an inner strength because this world is temporary. And there is suffering and struggle, and there’s joy and there’s wonder, there’s happiness and there’s not, there’s all these different seasons. And what we need that will stay with us is an inner strength that’s not really ours, an inner strength that’s from the Spirit granted to us from the Father. That’s what it means to be a Christ follower, that’s what it means to be a Christian, is that you are, being strengthened from within, although many things from without may be difficult.
And then he goes on, he gives us a second that, it’s in verse 17. He’s praying that we would be strengthened in our inner being so that, so here’s why I really want you to be strengthened in your inner being, it’s so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Now he’s not talking about the original entry of Christ into your life ’cause he’s praying for people that are already believers. So what is he praying for here? I think he’s praying for not just that you have an awareness that you’ve received Christ as Lord and Savior, that He’s come to dwell in you, which is what it means to be a Christian, is that you’ve invited Jesus to be your Lord and Savior to come and dwell, is the word that we see here. Of interest is there are a couple of different words in the original Greek for the idea of dwell. There’s one word that has the idea of to visit.
And so you check into Motel 6, they keep the light on for you if you’ll be reminded. And then you check out the next morning. But that’s not the word used here. John Stott, in his commentary on this, he said, of interest here is he’s using the word that has to do with make it your home, to make it your residence.
And so Paul, it seems to me, is saying not that you need to invite Him in for the first time, you’ve already done that, but that you need to invite Him into every room.
You’ve invited Jesus in, but you still have some spaces in your life that you think you got this. You’ve invited Him into the front room, What the people in a previous generation used to call the sitting room. You know, that’s the one where Grandma left the plastic on the sofa.
But you haven’t invited Him into the breakfast nook. You haven’t invited Him into the bedroom. You haven’t invited Him— Lord help, you haven’t let Him see what’s in your closet. And so here’s Paul saying, I pray that you would be strengthened with the power so that you could fully trust Him to give every arena of your life over to Him so that He makes His home, His dwelling with you. And so Paul’s praying for that.
He says something similar in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and he distinguishes between the spiritual and the outward physical. He says, we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Can I get a witness on that one?
I’m not what I was.
When I tell stories about what I was to my children and grandchildren, I might exaggerate from time to time. Man, you should have seen how I used to— I could put that basketball up there. I could, you know, you should have seen. And it’s kind of like a fisherman who caught a fish that keeps getting bigger.
And they look at me like, yeah, I see you, Papa. I don’t think you can— you can barely get up out of your recliner.
But may I say to you, I pray, and I pray this for myself and I pray it for you, that even though the outer self may be wasting away because these are temporary tents that we live in, given to us for this season of life, which is temporary, and there’s an eternity that awaits us that the inner self is preparing for in Christ, and God’s doing that work in you, so we pray for that. And we ask for it and we yield to it.
And we put more of our focus on that rather than putting lipstick on this outer wasting away.
Paul said that he had learned a secret. He said in his letter to the Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How many things did he say he could do? All things through Christ. Not Paul.
Paul’s not bragging on Paul. Paul’s making little of himself and much of Jesus. I’m reminded of a little Sunday school story that I remember growing up hearing about Zacchaeus. Y’all remember this? If you grew up going to Sunday school, you probably knew the song.
Oh, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the good Lord wanted to see. Y’all remember that song? Some of you’re like, we didn’t go to that Sunday school. Seems like a swell song though, Pastor.
What’s your point?
Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a Jewish man, and so the Jews hated him because he collected taxes for Rome. He didn’t have a lot of friends. He was short of stature. He climbed up a sycamore tree because he heard Jesus was passing through the town. The city of Jericho.
And Jesus, who knows your name, He knows your name, knew his name. And as He was passing through, Zacchaeus thought he was up there in a secret place up there in that tree. He looked up there and He said, hey, Zacchaeus, come down from here. I’m gonna go and dwell at your house today. I’m gonna come stay with you for a little while.
And he jumps down and he prepares. And as Jesus is just sitting there with him, he’s in his house, he stands up and he says, I’m gonna give back fourfold what I’ve taken. And he says, I tell you the truth, you’re one of Abraham’s sons today, and salvation has come to your house today. What did he mean salvation has come to your house today? Because salvation has a name, the name is Jesus.
His name literally means God saves. Salvation has come to your house today. When you receive Jesus, You don’t receive Him as a visitor, Christian. You receive Him as one who takes up ownership of your house, of all that you have, all that you are. This is what it means to be a Christ follower.
Here’s the second way. The first way is by this indwelling Spirit, and the second way is by enabling us to grasp the greatness of His love. Paul’s still praying. For us, and he’s praying that we would grasp the greatness of the love of Christ. This is the second prayer request he has here, and it begins as his earlier ones did.
It begins with that. You see it in verse 17, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And so now he prays for something unusual. He says, I pray that you would have strength to comprehend. It’s an unusual combination.
We don’t usually put strength with comprehension, but that’s how he prays, which gives me the sense of taking hold of it, which literally is what the word comprehend in Greek has the idea of. It means to grasp, To apprehend, to take hold of, to get a grasp on. And he says, I pray that you would have the strength to comprehend the love of Christ. And he begins by pointing out though that having Him dwell in you means that you’re already rooted and grounded in that love. He uses 2 metaphors.
He uses an agricultural metaphor, rooted, and an architectural metaphor, grounded. And he says, when you have Christ living in you, sink your roots down into that well of love, agape love, unmerited, Sacrificial, unconditional love. And so you’re rooted, and so your roots are in that love of Christ. And in your foundation, the house that you build called your life is grounded in His love.
So that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints. Paul doesn’t leave out the community of the church. He says that this comprehension, this grasping of God’s love, it’s necessary that you do it together because Christianity is a team sport. It’s something we do together. This is, you don’t go off and learn to comprehend the love of Christ over in a corner by yourself.
You do it with all the saints. And so the saints gather on the first day of the week, and we gather. And because I think what helps us to understand the love of Christ is when we encounter the love of Christ in one another. And so love has flesh on it for us because we see Christ in others, and we see them loving us, and we love them back. And so we begin to get a a foretaste of it, like an idea of it.
As you’re being rooted and grounded in love and I’m being rooted and grounded in love, which is in Christ, and we put it on display for one another, expressing it for one another, we begin to grow in it together and comprehend it better. And so don’t think that you can do this by yourself. He’s calling us, may they have strength to comprehend with all the saints. And then he gives us a 4-dimensional expression of this love, the breadth and length and height and depth, so that Richard Coken in his commentary says, wide illustrates accepting love, long His lasting love, high His exalting love, and deep His sacrificial love.
John Stott says this, he says, His love is broad enough to encompass all mankind. It’s long enough to last for eternity. It’s deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner. And it’s high enough to exalt that same sinner to heaven.
As I was contemplating this, this breadth, this depth, this height, this all the— I started thinking about the dimensions of the cross and how the cross is the highest expression of His love. Maybe Paul had that in mind as he was laying this out. And then he says, not only does he pray that we’d be rooted and grounded in love together with all the saints, that we could comprehend it, that we could take hold of it, that we could grasp it, but that we would know the love, that we would know the agape of Christ, And that word know there is ginosko, which is another kind of knowing word than comprehend. It’s the actual intellectual knowledge, but even more than that, it lends itself towards experiential knowledge. But then he puts together a paradoxical prayer for us here, and he goes, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
I want you, I’m praying that you would know that which is Unknowable. Why is it unknowable? Because it’s the love of Christ, which its depth and its height and its width is too great to comprehend, but let’s try. Let’s dive into the deep end and let’s ask Him to show us what it’s all about. And so he puts these 2, together surpasses knowledge.
It’s the idea of His love goes past knowing. And so it seems that Paul here is praying, you might not be able to fully identify it, it’s too deep, it’s too grand, but I pray that you could get a taste of it so that you experience His love.
Paul seems to be talking about the same topic in Romans chapter 8 when he says, for I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Oh, to know this love, this love that no thing, no one can separate us from His love. And when we begin to grasp Christ’s love for us, we begin to live the crucified life, and what I mean by that is the life that’s less about us and more about Him. Less of me, more of Him, more of Jesus. So Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, my old self has been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
And so this love, when we comprehend it, That there’s nothing that can separate me from it, including myself, including my imperfections, including my unworthiness. Especially on those days when I feel like a worm because I blew it again, I lost my temper, I was impatient, I, whatever, I was selfish, whatever. Y’all still out there? Y’all have those days, right? Where you, and you just beat yourself up and He doesn’t love you any less.
And when we’re with Him for 1,000 years in heaven, He won’t love us any more than He loves you right now.
Oh, to comprehend that, to be fully accepted. His love is like an ocean. Here’s a photo I took back in January. When we, my wife and I were at the beach, I like to get up early and watch the sunrise, and you can see the vast horizon. You can’t see past it.
And you can’t imagine how deep it gets very suddenly as you look at the Atlantic Ocean. And humanity’s been alive for many, many years, many millennia, but we’ve never fully explored the ocean.
We probably know more about space than we do our own ocean in some ways, and Christ’s love is like an ocean. You can stand on the shore and take photos of it, or you can dive in. And Paul says, I pray that you’d have Christ so dwelling in you, that you’d be so rooted, that you’d be so grounded, that you would dive into the deep end. Of the ocean of Christ’s love, that you would know that you know that you know that you’re loved. Do you know, do you really believe that Jesus loves you?
That He, not merely that He loves the world, but He loves you.
He loves the church, sure, I know that, but He loves you. Do you grasp that? A grasp on that. And don’t try to grasp His love in isolation. Let’s do it together with all the saints.
And so much of what’s troubling us today, so much anxiety, so much hurt, is because we don’t fully believe. I’m talking to Christians right now. I’m not talking about people far from God. I’m talking about people who have Christ. You don’t fully get it that He loves you.
Oh, He loves you. Grow in that understanding alongside other believers as we grow together in love, rooted and grounded in His love. And that leads us to the 3rd way that God’s power strengthens us in Christ, strengthened in the inner person. Life, grasping the love of Christ, and then by growing us into the likeness of His Son, by growing us into the likeness of His Son. Gary, where do you see that?
Well, it’s on the 4th that prayer request that he prays. It’s in verse 19, and to know the love of Christ. You see, each one of these prayer requests proceeds out of the previous one. I said it was 3 ways, I could have said steps. I was trying to figure out how to describe it to you because each prayer request emerges out of the— if you don’t have the first, you don’t have the second.
He’s praying them in the order of necessity. But now that you have been strengthened by the Father through the Spirit in your inner man and you are rooted and grounded in the love of Christ so that you know that which is unknowable, Now be filled with the fullness of God. What’s that? I think he’s speaking now about our maturity in Christ. I think he’s speaking now about God’s purpose for the church and for each of us individually, that we would become more like His Son, which was always His plan.
He made us in His own image.
Let us make man in our own image, He says in chapter 1 of Genesis. Male and female He made them. He made us to be the imago Dei, the image of God, the glory of God to this world so that we’re the crown of creation and we were to show forth who God is to the heavens and to the earth. And because of sin, that image was marred and fell.
But then the second Adam came. Paul calls Him the second Adam in his letters, Jesus. And He brought life. In Adam, all things die, but He brought life. And all those that are born again in the Spirit of Christ, born in Christ, are made alive in Christ.
And so, this new life now that’s in us, that’s strengthening us and rooting us and grounding us in love, is now Paul’s praying that we would fully express Him in our lives, in our character, that you would be filled with the fullness. I spent way too much time studying filled with the fullness this week. You don’t want to know how long. Filled with the fullness.
And then I got the idea just studying in the original language here that fullness had the idea of completeness. So that every inch, every room, going back to my earlier metaphor, is now affected by the presence of Christ living in you, so that every aspect of your character.
And then he bursts into a doxology. So 14 through 19 is a prayer with very specific prayer requests for believers, and we could learn much from Paul how to pray here, couldn’t we? And then he breaks into a doxology. I don’t know if he stayed on his knees for 20 and 21. It’d be hard for me to stay on my knees here.
I’d have to lean back and fall back. I don’t know. Now to Him. You can see, I feel like he was down here like this, just praying for them, and then he goes, now to Him who is able to do far more Abundantly than we can hope to ask. Now look, I can think of some asks.
What are you asking today? He can do more than that. He can do more than you can think of that you could hope to ask or to think. Now to Him, according to what? According to the power that’s at work within us, church, that lives in us.
How are you praying? What are you asking for? These little things, these little temporary things? What are you asking for? Now to Him, Paul knows who he’s praying to, man.
He’s praying for that which is impossible on our own, but all things are possible with God. And to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To Him be glory.
Paul’s not making much of himself. To Him be glory, for that’s why— that’s his purpose in the church. The church is not here to glorify itself, it’s to glorify Him. Glory in Jesus Christ. How long?
How long should this go on? Throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This is how Paul closes this amazing, perhaps one of the greatest doxologies in all of Scripture, and he prays it from his knees.
By what ability? God’s ability. He’s able. By what power? It’s the very power, the very dunamis, dynamic, dynamic dynamite power that already lives in you because Christ lives in you.
It’s for what purpose? That you would become more like Jesus.
He’s able for us to live a life that glorifies Jesus. Romans chapter 8, we see this, what God’s working on, what His purpose is for us. God knew His people in advance and He chose them to become like His Son.
The word Christian, we see it in the book of Acts, that was first used there at the church at Antioch, and they meant it as a diminutive idea that all these people talking about Christ all the time, they’re little Christs, little Christians. And we took that up and said, yeah, we like that. That’s what we are. Christ lives in us. It’s not about dos and don’ts, it’s about Christ in us, the hope of glory, and the strength from Christ is what enables us to live for Him.
And as Paul writes to the believers at Philippi, he says this, I’m sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. He said it’s God doing the work in you, so it’s not just the gospel saving you, it’s also the grace of God keeping you, and it’s the grace of God building you into what Christ is in your character. Making you like Jesus. It’s like a sculptor working on a large block of rough marble, and little by little, he’s carving away that which is not of Christ.
And so sometimes that hurts. Sometimes you’re going through suffering or struggle or difficulty and you go, Lord, get me out of this. But don’t waste the pain.
Sometimes you’re going through a thing and he led you there. You didn’t sin to get there. It wasn’t you did something wrong. He led you there because he’s working on you.
You’ve heard me say it before, you can become bitter or you can become better. You can decide to turn it over to Jesus and say, I’m, I’m not in charge of my life, you’re in charge of my life. I don’t know why I’m going through this. But I trust you, strengthen me from the inside out.
I may be wasting away on the outside, but I’m growing stronger on the inside.
I wonder if you look back on your life today, would you say you’re becoming more like Jesus?
As you grow older, are you becoming more like Jesus? Do you lose your temper like you used to, or are you more patient? Are you a grumbler and a complainer like you used to be, or are you more joyful and happy no matter the circumstances now? And more key than any of those is, are you more loving and less judging?
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, Self-control, are these attributes of the fruit of the Spirit growing in you? Are you becoming more like Christ?
Friends, it’s good to know that that’s not something you have to achieve on your own, but you can yield to it. You can yield to it and you can pray for it and you can pray for one another. Lord, strengthen us. In the inner man. Help us to get a grasp on your love.
Grow us to the fullness of completion in Christ Jesus. Oh, come on, church, let’s be that kind of church that gives glory to God in Christ Jesus. We started off by saying that the gospel is good news, not good advice.
Do you know this good news? Are you here this morning and you’ve never given your life to Jesus? That’s what it means to be a Christ follower, to be a Christian, is for Christ to come by his Spirit and to live in you so that your sins are forgiven and you’re set free and you’re a child of God. Have you given your life to Jesus so that he dwells in you?
And if you have not, well, I want to give you an opportunity to pray with me in just a second. And then there are many of us here today, many believers, and he lives in you, but you’ve been stumbling along in your own power. Would you turn it over to him today? That place, especially that place where you’re saying, I got this. You’re single, maybe it’s your date life.
You think, yeah, I don’t want God picking out that. That’s on me. Yeah, you better watch out. You better let God pick that. Especially you making financial decisions because, you know, I got a good head for numbers.
No, you don’t. No, you don’t. Like those places, you know those places, you know where it’s at. You know that place that you’re not trusting him. Let’s go to the Lord now.
Let’s pray and let’s pray for strength and love and wholeness in Christ. Lord Jesus, I pray first of all for that one that’s here today in my hearing You’ve never surrendered your life to Jesus. You can do that right now. It’s an expression of faith. That’s what prayer is.
It’s you’re talking to the Father and you’re asking for the Son to come and dwell in you. Let’s do that. Dear Father, I’m a sinner, but I believe that Jesus died for my sins, that he was raised from the grave, and that he lives today. I believe that.
And now I invite Christ to come and live in me by His Spirit and to forgive me of my sins and to make me born again, make me a child of God. I surrender my whole life, every arena of my life to Jesus today. And if you’re praying that prayer of faith believing, in this very moment, He’ll save you. He’ll make you his own.
Others are here, and, and you know the wonder of that. You know that you’ve received Jesus, but you also know today the place that you’re saying, I got this. What is it? Holy Spirit, confront, convict, show. And now, Lord, we surrender that arena.
That place to You.
For it’s in the matchless name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
Read transcript
Good morning, church. Good to see all of y’all this morning. Thankful you’re here. I want to start with just a couple of minutes of vision, if I can, just a few minutes. I want to talk about our church’s calling as well as our individual calling to make disciples and plant churches and saturate our city and our region with the gospel.
Last year we started something together called It’s Time. Some of you are newest are new enough at our church to where you’ve never heard of this. Others of you have heard about it so much that you’re like, oh boy. And so I want to, I want to inspire for just a moment that we’re going to dig back into this for a couple of weeks together starting next week. The reason being we’re halfway.
We’re halfway through our It’s Time initiative. And I want to remind you of our 3 phrases. You can pop up this image. It’s be strong, do the work, and be fearless. And church, I got to admit, we’ve already seen some really amazing things at our church.
Um, for one, we’re sitting in one of those really amazing things. Uh, some of you have been on the journey long enough to remember the many years we were over on 301, and God was good to us and blessed us there. Uh, but this was a miracle that he provided over here on Old Mill Road. And so we’ve added staff. Uh, Josh, we’re thankful to have you, brother.
He’s— if, if y’all like Josh, then Uh, it’s time I caused it. If you don’t, then it’s time caused it. So, uh, we’re, we’re thankful for you though, Josh. I appreciate you, brother. Um, and we’ve added, uh, new staff at our Wilson campus.
And guess what? Our church up here at the Rocky Mountain campus, we have pretty much doubled in size since we’ve moved into this building, which is all the Lord and just a miraculous wonder. And it’s not about the numbers, with the exception of numbers represent people and people matter. And we’re thankful that many of you are in the room because of what God did over the last year. And so I want to just inspire you for just a minute that we’re going to hop back into a few weeks in the book of Zechariah together.
You probably saw this in your bulletin. For a couple of weeks, we’re going to be together talking about it’s time, kind of getting you supercharged again to celebrate what God’s done. Part of what we’re going to do is simply to just have joy for what God has done for us, to renew those commitments, and then to invite others who want to be a part of what God’s doing at our church for the next 18 months. And so you’re gonna notice a few important dates there on the back. We’re gonna launch next week, and then we’re gonna celebrate right as we’re heading into Thanksgiving.
And so all of this is about reaching more people for the gospel. Our vision has never been, it has never been to simply grow one church. It has been to grow the big C Church, and first in Rocky Mount, and then Lord willing, Eastern North Carolina and beyond. So that’s our goal. If you’re new around our church, I want you to hear that’s our goal.
We believe that God is going to use our church to reach our city along with a bunch of other great churches in town. When I was first moving to town, we— there was somewhere around 50,000 people in Nash County that claimed they did not go to church. I want you to hear that number’s not changed much, at least not according to the 2020 census, which I know had some flaws, but I think it was close enough to where somewhere around 40,000 people in our county don’t go to church. That’s that’s enough for all of our churches to grow a lot. And so what I want, what I desire, and my ambition, if you will, my expectation is that God is going to use our church to reach many more because we believe the gospel matters and that it changes lives, and we want to be a part of that.
So I want to remind you of something else. We joined the Mercy Hill Collaborative this past year. You can pop up this image. This past week we celebrated with our collaborative churches that we are launching 16 new church planters this year. 16.
16 new churches being started in 2027 that are going to help reach the nations, going to help reach North Carolina and beyond. Some are in Oklahoma, there’s some in South Carolina, there’s some going north, there’s some going overseas. We heard from a guy going to South Africa. I’m pumped. I pray you’d be pumped.
You know what God’s about? He’s about reaching one more, and we get to be a part of that too. And that, that little bit of effort that we put into it allows us to make the name of Jesus famous. I can’t wait to be more about that. And so I want you to take this home with you.
Take your bulletins home. All I’m asking you to do this week is read it, pray about it, Pray over it and ask God, what would he have you do in this season? What part are you to play in this? Am I to be a voice reaching the nations? Am I to help in some other way with my time, talent, and treasure?
It’s time to be strong, do the work, and be fearless. Let me pray, and then we’re going to dig into God’s Word this morning. Heavenly Father, I thank you for all that you’ve done already in our church. A little over 10 years, we’re in our 12th year now as a church, and God, many people have come to Christ because of your work here. And I can’t take any credit for that.
You get all of the glory, all of the credit. But Lord, what we can do is be faithful. And God, help Your people, this congregation, help us to be faithful in the way that we represent You in our community, in the way that we worship together, in the fellowship that we have as believers. Help us to be faithful, that we would do the work, be strong, and be fearless. We love You, Lord Jesus.
Help us as we read Your Word and understand it this morning that it would dig deeply into our hearts move us to true life change. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right, we’re going to be in the book of Ephesians chapter 3. We’re, uh, we’re going to pause here in the middle.
I’ve been saying that for a couple of weeks now. Uh, we’re taking Ephesians in 2 bites. We’re going to come back to it next year, uh, but we’re finishing up Ephesians chapter 3 right now. And the series has been called Life in Christ. Life in Christ is going to come back up in 2027.
We’ll finish the book. But today, I’m, I’m thankful to say that we’re going to end on such a glorious note. Paul has prayed twice. This will be his second prayer in the book of Ephesians already, and this one is so powerful. I want to remind you of where we’ve been.
We’ve talked already about our identity in Christ, our worth in Him, how Christ affects our relationships and our purpose. All of that has been transformed in Christ. And as we conclude chapter 3 today, I think what we’re going to see is Paul through this prayer explaining all that God is capable of in Christ Jesus, the strength, the power, the glory. It’s going to be a phenomenal prayer as we read it. And this second prayer, in so many ways, Paul returns to his knees in prayer, and though he’s writing from a Roman imprisonment where you and I might pray— I have to admit, I might pray, Lord, free me, He doesn’t pray that.
He prays, Lord, let them know the love they have in Christ and the power and the glory and the wonderful majesty that they have in Christ Jesus. Let them know it. He doesn’t pray for freedom. He prays for our freedom more than anything. And so, as we dig into this, I want you to consider something that I, as I imagined this this week, I thought that perhaps everybody struggled in a certain way that I struggle, and that is this feeling that we’ve promised God at some point in our life that we would do better.
Maybe we’ve promised a loved one, a spouse, a friend. There’s probably been promises we’ve made in our life. I’m going to do better. We’ve probably told God many times, I won’t do that again. I’m sorry about that, Lord.
I’ll be better tomorrow. And so many times we’ve probably said to the Lord, hey, I’ll do better. And then we fall right back into our same patterns. A lot of us start the new year like this. New year’s coming in just a few months, 2027.
And you might say, I’m going to do better this year. And then 6 weeks later, you’re like, I haven’t done better yet. And the problem with that is that we often slip into thinking that Christian, the Christian life, what it means to follow Jesus, is a list of things we must do. We must do better. And I want you to hear this.
Follow me for just a moment. We think that praying more, reading the Bible more, loving more, being more patient, sharing our faith more— we think all of that would please God. And I want you to hear, those are all great things. You should be about those things, but not in order to please God, not in order to somehow live the righteous life. What we’ll discover is as we do those good things that knowing what we ought to do never gives us the power to do it.
It never will. The desire to do right will never empower you to do right. And so, that’s where the gospel is necessary today just like it was many years ago. Some of you have been believers in the room for a long time. I came to Christ when I was 6 years old, and I got to tell you something, The gospel is just as important, if not more important, to me today than it ever was because the power that I need for Christian living is in the gospel and coming back to the fact that the Lord Jesus did everything necessary to make me well.
And if I would but yield to Him and lean on Him, then I’ll have power to live the way He’s instructed. But if I just make this rote obedience— God, I will please You. God, I will do better— and I forget the gospel, I will never. Do better. Instead, I’ll be guilty.
I’ll be ashamed. This is the great word today from Ephesians chapter 3. Paul, on his knees in prayer, says, Lord, let them know. Let them experience the love of Christ day in and day out. That would change— totally change their lives.
So we’re going to dig in. We’re in the book of Ephesians chapter 3. We’re seeing Paul’s prayer here, and we’re seeing him basically encourage first the Ephesian believers and now us to know this love, to be strengthened by it. So let’s read together Ephesians 3:14 through the end of the chapter. Paul writes this: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may He may grant you to be strengthened with power.
Church, do you hear it? He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have faith, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth And to know the love of Christ. I love this sentence. It’s so funny to me. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. I’ve made that my memory verse this week, y’all. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or think.
Whoa. According to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This is God’s Word. Amen.
Boy, I hope this encourages you this morning. It was meant to do so. Paul on his knees said, let the people be encouraged by the love of God. Let the power of the Holy Spirit be upon them. I pray that over you.
I’ve been praying it over you all week. I pray over myself, Lord, let, let us experience this today first. By empowering us inwardly through the Holy Spirit, empowering us inwardly through His Spirit. Paul comes back to the prayer he began at the beginning of chapter 3 Ephesians. He says, for this reason, I’m about to pray, and then he pauses and tells us a little more.
Now he’s coming back to it in verse 14 and says, all right, let me get on my knees now in humility and reverence and total dependence to God, and here’s how I’m going to begin my prayer. To the Father of the nations, to the Father of every family. Now, why in the world would he start there? Here’s my honest opinion. I think Paul has begun his prayer here because he wants to remind us that no one is left out.
Before you go on saying, oh, I’m not so sure God’s had any part of my life so far, Paul says and writes and prays, the Father of every family. Every is named. Oh, Jonathan, you don’t know my family, boy. We’re a mess. You ought to meet some of my family members.
Ain’t— there ain’t no God in the house. Well, Paul begs to differ. The Holy Spirit begs to differ, that God is Father of every family. The pater to every patria is the wordplay that Paul uses here. He reminds us that every family owes its existence and identity to God.
And to this Father Paul prays, and he wants to remind us right away, this includes you. This isn’t just for Ephesus in the first century. This is you, friend. You want to hear a prayer someone prayed for you? Here it is: that he may grant you to be strengthened.
Now Paul is going to give us 4 purpose clauses here. 4. The first right here is, that He may grant. Every time you see the word that, you’re going to see these purpose clauses. That He may grant that you be strengthened.
Verse 16, let me remind you of what he’s written here, that according to His riches He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Holy Spirit in your inner being. So his desire is that the people of God would experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their innermost being. That means before anything begins to happen externally, Paul is praying that God would do something amazing internally, that the power of the Holy Spirit in your life would begin to change the way that you feel, think, react, that suddenly the more you spend time with Christ, the more that you pray, the more that you are diligent in His Word, the more you walk with Jesus, It’s actually shaping you. And this is why he says in verse 17, the second clause, that He may dwell in you. Now, I want you to hear something.
He’s not talking to nonbelievers primarily here in Ephesians. He’s primarily talking to believers. Now, I could say to those of you in the room who have come in here and you do not yet walk with Christ, you have not yet said yes to Jesus, you can hear it this way. Paul is praying that you might let the Holy Spirit, that you might let the gospel of Christ Jesus dwell in you for the first time. You could hear it that way, and you should.
But primarily, he’s speaking to the church saying, hey, I want that God would dwell in you in such a powerful way. What does that mean? He’s not talking about for the first time. He’s talking about this idea that a lot of believers make the mistake of receiving the gospel as, all right, this thing is done. It’s It’s permanent.
It’s done. But it becomes this temporary effect. He says, no, I want Him to dwell on your life. That you would let Him into the house and that He would live there.
We have to be honest with this, believers. We need to be honest. We like a lot of things about the Gospel. We like this thing that Christ has died for us and saved us and set us free and that we know, okay, there was nothing I could do to be made right and Christ has done it. I like that part.
He has forgiven me of my brokenness and he will continue to forgive me. I like that part. He has heaven in store for me, eternity. I like that part. That’s all true.
The part we don’t love is this old phrase I used to hear growing up, which is either Christ is Lord of all or he’s not Lord at all. The part that we often resist is the fact that Christ says, I want not just to be a part of your life, I want to be your life.
My goal is not to just come sit in a corner of your house, but to be in every room. Yeah.
And before you go, as you go through the house saying, oh, there’s a couple of closets in here that I don’t open to Jesus, he’s not okay with that.
This is what Paul is writing, that he would so dwell in your life that, that Christ would increasingly make himself at home in your hearts. And guess what will happen, believer? When that happens, when Christ starts taking up the room in your heart, He starts pushing out some stuff because there’s some stuff in there that you might be clinging to, you might think you need, and it’s the very stuff you need to let go. And as He grows, as your walk with Christ becomes more determined and more part of your life, all that other stuff begins to be put aside. I’ll tell you where it’s often going to start.
It’s going to often start with the way you think. There’ll be that little voice in your head that says, you probably shouldn’t have said it that way to her or him. That little voice that says, hey, you know what? You need to cut out all of that foul language in your life. You know what?
You might want to rethink the things that you do with your spare time.
It just starts working in every way.
And when you resist it, it’s agonizing. But when you give in, that the Holy Spirit may dwell fully in your life, you’ll experience life change like you’ve never imagined. And then, then you’re going to be an absolute weapon against the evil one. Oh, he hates this. Our adversary wants nothing for you and everything from you.
Paul is distinguishing this inward spiritual person from this outwardly physical person. In 2 Corinthians, he writes, we do not lose heart, though So our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Great news, friends! We are getting older while at the same time Christ is growing in our hearts. So it doesn’t matter that the bodies over time— this is news, I know it’s hard news, some young people in the room don’t believe it, I didn’t believe it for a long time— the body’s breaking down.
Alright? Metabolism’s going to eventually slow down and it’s a sad day when it happens. It’s a sad day. I loved Mountain Dew Code Red, y’all, but no more. That season is over, and my teeth don’t like it either anymore.
They don’t hold up to it. The body’s breaking down, but guess what?
I love Jesus more today than I did yesterday. Something crazy is happening in my life the more I walk with him. I didn’t used to be much of a crier. There’s some men in the room that are like, I don’t know about if I want this Jesus thing.
I listen to worship songs in the car sometimes and just start crying. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The Lord’s moving. He’s moving pieces around in my life. He’s moving stuff, and I need him to move it.
Paul had learned the secret of depending on Christ’s strength. Very famous verse. Y’all love it. You probably put it on your— you probably put it under your eyes or something back in football. But Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Paul recognizes something. I can do stuff when I lean in on Christ. I want to remind you of a story that I loved as a kid. Absolutely loved it as a kid. This little dude named Zacchaeus.
Y’all remember little Zacchaeus? No hands. Oh my goodness. Well, I’m about to drop some knowledge today. I bet all of you have heard of Zacchaeus and you’re just being mean to me right now.
Okay. Zacchaeus, he even had a song growing up. Y’all know the song? Y’all know the song? Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.
Climbed up in a sycamore tree. The Lord, he wanted to see.
Oh, and at the end Jesus goes, for I’m coming to your house today. Yes, man. I dug that song growing up. Father Abraham. I loved all those jingles, man.
They’re great. They’re great. This is a— this is an amazing story about the human heart. There’s a reason it’s in your Bible, because most of us in the room are like Zacchaeus. We’re happy to get up in a tree and peer at Jesus from a distance.
I like the gospel. I like everything you provide. And Jesus says, I’m coming to your house and I’m going to invade your space and I’m going to change everything. And he says of Zacchaeus, he says, salvation has come into your home today.
I don’t want to give you a watered-down gospel today. I want you to hear something. When you say yes to Jesus, his desire is to change everything.
And so if that’s not what you want, you don’t want Jesus. You want some watered-down fake thing, and I can’t give it.
I pray today, believers in the room who have received Christ, that you would say maybe for the first time, Lord, you are Lord of everything in my life. I give you my wallet. I give you my calendar. I give you my relationships. I give you my wife, my husband, my kids.
It is all yours. And then finally, we can face every trial, everything that comes our way, because the strength of God is with us. Are you carrying all these burdens that nobody else knows about? Paul here says Father would strengthen you and empower you. Ask.
When’s the last time you just said, Lord, help me?
We were reading with the brothers this week, James chapter 1. He says, if you lack wisdom, you should ask. There’s a novel thought. You lack strength?
Ask. Are you watching Jesus from a distance, or have you let him in your house? That’s the first. The second way that we can be strengthened in Christ Jesus is by enabling us to grasp the greatness of his love. Now, I got to admit, this is my favorite part of the text this week because it’s funny.
It’s funny what he says. He begins by saying that we would be rooted and grounded. Now, those sound like the exact same words. Why has he said the same thing twice? I want you to hear they’re not exactly the same.
One is an agricultural term and the other is meant to be an architectural term. He is saying that you would have your feet planted in the ground. And begin to take root in love in Christ Jesus, but at the same time would be grounded in such a sense that you have a foundation to build on. These are 2 different ideas that have incredible meaning. I want you to be— your feet planted in the gospel, in the love of Jesus, and I want your life to be built on it.
That’s what he’s saying. And then he goes on to tell us that then you might comprehend with all the saints. Hey, good news! He’s coming back to the theme. Everybody gets this.
He’s been telling us for 3 chapters, guess what? In Christ Jesus, He no longer sees boundaries. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. James seems to be really dealing with that. Paul seems to be dealing with the racial issue.
Both men are basically telling us it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, rich or poor, male or female. Guess what? You have the same gospel and it’s equally as powerful in both. This greatness of this love, that you might comprehend it with all the saints. And then he says, breadth, length, height, depth, like somehow Paul has taken us into a 4D world.
I like what one commentator writes about this. I don’t remember if I have this on the screen, but this is a great quote from John Stott when writing on this. He says, it’s broad enough to encompass all mankind, It’s long enough to last for eternity. It’s deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and it’s high enough to exalt him to heaven. Boy, I like that picture.
This 4-dimensional, powerful love of Jesus. And then verse 19 is where he cracks me up. He says, I want you, I want you to know the love of Christ, which you cannot know. Now, you might not have read it that way, but that’s basically what he said. He says, I want you to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge.
How can I know something that surpasses what I can know? In fact, it’s the same word in the Greek, in case you were looking at it going, oh, he’s making much of nothing. No, it’s this word ginosko, which means to know. And when I was studying this in Greek, I always remembered in the middle is the word no. Ginosko.
All right, anyway, you don’t need to know that.
He says, to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. This surpassing word has to do with throwing beyond. That this is out of range. Here’s what I believe he’s saying to us: that we can truly know the love of Christ and at the same time never fully exhaust it.
You can know it, and you can keep knowing it, and keep knowing it, and you’ll never reach the bottom. That’s what he’s saying—that this is some kind of vast well.
That you can swim in but never hit the bottom. Isn’t that cool? Isn’t that amazing? That, that in a sense we have a fresh amount of love every single day from the Lord Jesus, that every single day there are, there are wonders beyond compare every moment. I read just this morning this, this one devotional thought.
This guy said that we would all experience The monotonous joy of infancy. Follow me for just a moment. The monotonous joy of infancy. Have you ever played peekaboo with like a baby? Like a baby that’s just starting to recognize faces?
You know what’s crazy? They never get tired of it. You can literally do this all day and it’s like, whoo, and they never tire. Y’all like it too, you know, maybe it works for all. It works for all parties.
But you can never— a kid will never get tired of it. In fact, when I was a little kid, I remember I watched the cartoon Ninja Turtles movie. I watched it almost every day.
I loved that movie.
The monotonous joy of the infant. This is what Paul is drawing us back to. There’s a well of in the gospel that you can’t hit bottom, so jump in every single day. It never grows old. Paul said nothing can separate us from this love.
In Romans chapter 8, he says, I’m sure that neither death nor life, angels nor rulers, things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Someone needed to hear that today. You think you’ve done something that has separated you from the love of Christ? You never had the power to do that. You never had the power to make him love you, nor do you have the power to make him stop loving you.
He loves you in spite of it. Galatians chapter 2: My old self was then crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in the earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Pop up this image for me.
This is kind of what I’ve been talking about. I pictured, as I pictured this surpassing knowledge this week, I pictured the beautiful— I’m a beach guy, not everybody’s a beach guy, but I really love, especially when the sun is going down at night, and something you’ll notice when you stand at the edge of the beach is the horizon seems never-ending. Now, you know, geographically there’s something out there, there’s more land out there, but when you look, it just like It looks like never-ending sea. And you can jump in and you can dive in and swim out. Most of you would never do this because the farther you go out, the creepier it gets.
Because it gets to depths that you can’t imagine. This ocean, this thing is the thing that Paul is describing to us, that the love of Christ is like this never-ending sea, this depth you cannot mine. So today I want you to hear Christ Jesus really does love you. He really does. Every single one of you.
He doesn’t just merely love the world. He doesn’t just merely love the church. When he writes John 3:16, he doesn’t— he’s not just talking about Pastor Jonathan. He’s talking about you. He loves you.
And when you feel alone, I pray you might grasp this never-ending love, that you might grow in the understanding along with other believers as they worship, pray, serve, and encourage one another. You are loved. And then lastly, we can be strengthened by growing into the likeness of His Son. This is how he concludes his prayer.
Growing into the likeness of His Son. In verse 19, he says that you would be filled to the fullness of God. Now, what he’s not saying is that we’re going to become gods. There’s definitely some cults out there that think that’s the case. That is not what Paul is talking about here.
Rather, that we would come into such spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus that we would look more like Him today than we did yesterday. This is why Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. I know I won’t attain it, but it is my goal.
And I’m aiming at Jesus until He takes me home. And so he says, I pray that you would be filled to the fullness of God. I pray that you would be as I am and just desire to have more of God tomorrow, more, more of Him today, more of Him tomorrow. Lord, let my life look more and reflect more like You than ever before. And then he concludes with this powerful doxology.
Maybe my favorite verse in the Bible right now. I think it’s okay, church. I don’t know if you have a memory verse or some kind of life verse. I think it’s okay to pick a new one every once in a while and just dwell there. Right now, I keep reciting over and over in my head the NIV version of Ephesians 3:20.
Now to him who is able to do increasingly more than we can ask or imagine. The ESV says, think Both great translations, but I like that the NIV says, more than you can ask or imagine. He says in this, really this 3-part doxology, that Christ, that God is able to do far more. He is able, and His power is already at work in us, and His purpose is glory.
Apparently a bit of shared glory, which blows my mind. God has no need to share any glory with me or with you, and yet for some reason he writes here, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. So God is going to not only glorify himself, he’s going to glorify his people. Man, thank you.
God chose us to become like His Son, and increasingly more every day. Romans chapter 8, God knew His people in advance and He chose them to become like His Son. God is still working in us. He’s bringing this to completion. He’s not done with you.
Sometimes life looks like one step forward and 3 steps back. Other times it goes differently, and you might think in those seasons, I’m not sure God is still at work in my life. Oh yes, he definitely is, especially in those valleys. This is why Paul writes to the Philippians in chapter 1. He says, I’m sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
So I want to ask you something as we’re coming to a close here. When did you stop dreaming?
Maybe some of you didn’t. Praise God for you. But some of you did. When did you stop dreaming?
Because here Paul writes from a prison cell on his face, he says, the God who’s able to do more than we can ask or imagine.
Boy, I limit that God. How about you?
I rarely get on my face before him and say, God, I know you can do anything. You can do beyond even what I can imagine to ask for. It’s rare that I think of Him that way, and I should. It causes me to stop dreaming. He says, immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.
There have been seasons in my life that I really thought God had called me to do something, but then things got hard and I began to think maybe I misheard Him, or He can’t use me. Maybe he can use someone else, but I’m not the guy.
Y’all remember this really dumb time called COVID? Y’all remember that? I hated that. Some of you liked it. Those super introverts in the room were happy to not have to go anywhere anymore.
I’m an introvert, but I got to tell you, I didn’t like what it did to the church. I didn’t like not seeing you face to face, and we did that for a season. 2020 and ’21, that was a season where I asked the Lord many times, let me do something else. A lot of people don’t know that, but I’ll be honest with you, I stopped dreaming. I stopped dreaming.
I stopped believing that God could do something not only in my life but in this church that we had started.
And then God did some amazing things over the last few years that I quite frankly now look at and go, boy, I didn’t deserve them, but I’m super thankful for them. And the greatest of which, I want you to hear this, church, the greatest thing He did for me was pull me out of the pit. He didn’t have to do any of this building stuff, none of this other stuff, none of the many baptisms. It’s been so thrilling to see more and more people coming to Christ and being baptized in front of us. We have baptized more people in the last 2 years than the last 8 years combined.
And all that’s sweet, but I got to tell you, my favorite part is that God said, get out of that hole, Jonathan. That’s my favorite part.
So that I might start dreaming again. I might have real expectation again because God is able to do far beyond what we can ask or imagine. And here’s what I know about him. He loves people and he wants that every man would come to salvation. You know how I know?
He wrote it. And first, either 1st or 2nd Peter, he says, I desire that none would come to condemnation, but that all would come unto salvation. All. So guess what? Your neighbor, your friend, your family member, the one that’s so far from God that you’re like, there’s no way.
Oh yes, there is. He can do beyond what you can imagine. So just don’t stop praying. Don’t stop asking. Don’t stop interjecting when you can the wonderful gospel.
So I want to ask you just a couple questions as you think about areas why you stopped dreaming. What sin did you once believe God could help you overcome, but you are now living with it? I’m going to live with it. God can’t change it. Oh yes, he can.
You just stopped believing. You stopped dreaming. What friend or family member have you stopped praying for because they’ll never come to Christ, you say?
Really, it’s a miracle that you and I did, and yet he, he provided that miracle. What relationship have you stopped believing God could ever restore?
What opportunity or burden did God put on your heart that you’re slowly giving up on?
Church, I want you to hear this: don’t let what God has not yet done persuade you to think God can’t do it.
Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop pursuing holiness. Don’t stop believing that people can change. Don’t stop dreaming.
And then more and more, he will make you into the likeness of his Son. When you look back then over your life, you’ll begin to see evidence of God’s transforming work. This is why Paul writes in Philippians 4, whatever’s pure, whatever’s noble, whatever’s praiseworthy, think about such things, because we’re terrible at forgetting. But when we begin to remember, look where God has taken me, look who he’s already rescued— I can list people, and it’s a long list of people that God has rescued that I thought there’s no way, and he’s done it already, and I know he’ll do it again.
So as we conclude these first 3 chapters of Ephesians, I pray you would just Understand these incredible blessings you have in Christ Jesus.
He, he ends this section on his knees praying that God’s power would work in us. I want you to hear as we close, God has already done an incredible work in your life, and his desire is to strengthen you all the more day by day. Some of you in the room need to hear this plainly today. Perhaps you’ve heard it before, but I want to— I want you to hear it with fresh ears today. As Jesus once said, he who has ears, let him hear.
He died for you. For your sin, he paid on a cross. He was buried and he rose again.
The center of Christianity is that Christ died and rose again, and he did that for you and I. Have you received this new life? And having received it, now have you decided he can have all of me and not just a part? Believer in the room, are you trying to live the Christian life in your own strength while not submitting to him in every area? It’s no wonder that you struggle.
He has a hard time blessing you when you keep saying, no, that’s mine. No, that’s mine. You can’t have that.
When you start living like this, all of a sudden your spiritual biceps will grow. Here you go, Lord. Show me how it’s done.
Let’s end now in prayer together. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you’re a good God who loves us. Beyond anything else I could pray, Lord, you are amazing. And I wanna pray like Paul for just a minute, Lord, if I might. I know that you like it when we read and pray your word back to you, so I’m gonna do it.
Lord, You are able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. I believe that. And You are going to bring glory not only to Your people, to Your church, but also to Your Son. And in the end of things, Lord, every tongue will confess, every knee will bow that You are King of kings. Lord, thank You for who You are to us.
And we’re asking now, as Paul once asked for the Ephesians, we ask, Lord, help us to comprehend the love of Christ. And that we would dive in and never be able to reach the bottom, this all-surpassing love. And Lord, would You strengthen us with the power of the Holy Spirit in our innermost being, that we would know that we know that we know that we know that Christ has saved us.
And not only that, He has empowered us to live a new life.
God, change us. Powerfully transform us. I pray for that believer in the room right now who’s been watching Jesus from a distance like little Zacchaeus, that they would invite him in totally into their home, into every relationship, into every area where they think they’ve got to have this comfort, the area where they drink too much, where they talk out of line, where they Mispend their money, where they make appointments they should— they— every area, Lord, that you would be King. Would you do that?
I pray for that person who’s come in today and who’s never said yes to Jesus. Dear friend, would you pray simply with me? Jesus, I believe today that you are Lord of all things and Lord of my life. I believe, Jesus, that you died on the cross for my sin. And that you rose from the grave to conquer death for me.
Lord, I’m thankful, and I’m asking now, Lord Jesus, would you strengthen me with the power of the Holy Spirit that I would walk in you, that, that you would begin to transform the way I think, the way I act, the way I communicate. God, transform me in every way, I pray. And we pray right along with you, dear friend. Transform us into your— the image of your Son, that more and more we would look like Jesus in a fallen world. We pray this in Christ’s name.
Amen.
Paul is writing from Roman imprisonment. Yet he doesn't pray for the prison doors to open. He prays for the believers' hearts to be strengthened! Why? Because he knows that the Christian life requires a power greater than anything we possess in on our own.
Yet sometimes, we slip back into thinking of the Christian life as a list of things we must do. Pray more. Read our Bibles more. Be more loving. Be more patient. Share our faith more. And while these are all good things, we soon discover that knowing what we ought to do doesn't give us the power to do it.
This is where the gospel continues to matter for us. The gospel isn’t merely the entry point for the Christian life. It's the sustaining message for living the Christian life. It’s the promise that God will finish what He started in us.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he prayed that believers would be strengthened by God’s power in Christ Jesus.
