Good morning everyone. It's a great day to see everyone
who's here. It's a great day to worship.
I'm thankful for the chance to lead our study today and we have
a wonderful set of passages and Ephesians chapter three that
we're going to study. I remember this is 1 continuous
letter that was written by Paul and we've had to break it up in
the study after study. And this overall book is broken
into two sections. This book was broken into.
The first section was to give teaching to the Ephesians.
We learned it was it was a letter that was going to be
broken into some teachings and and the other half of the
application. So we're finishing up the last
chapter of teaching that's going to ultimately remind Christians
of our spiritual blessings in Christ and we're finishing that
section today. The next section we're going to
get into is exhorting Christians to have a walk that is worthy of
the calling that we are called by.
And that's going to start in the next chapter.
This third chapter is going to be Paul's kind of second prayer,
and it's going to be a prayer for enablement for them to give
a quick overview of the outline of this book, if you have not
been with us already. The first chapter was talking
about our spiritual possession in Christ.
It is from the Father, from the Son, from the Spirit, and we
read it a beautiful prayer Paul had for them.
It was a prayer that I hope we all take.
And is that prayer that we will be enlightened, that the
understanding of our minds will be open, so we can see the
realities that God has for us? He reminded us in chapter two of
our spiritual position in Christ, that we are raised and
seated on the throne, that we are reconciled and set into the
temple. And now he's going to give us a
give a prayer for enablement, and we'll talk about the call to
walk. It's going to be OK.
So you got to get up now. You got to move, You got to
respond to this. We'll talk about that later.
OK, so let's get a running start from Ephesians chapter 2, verse
14, where we were kind of coming up to at the last point he was
saying for he himself, Speaking of Jesus is our peace, who has
made both one and has broken down the middle wall of
separation. We talked about in the Old
Testament how that middle wall separated the Gentiles from the
Jews, having abolished in His flesh the enmity that is the law
of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create and
himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that
he might reconcile them both to God and one body.
Through the cross. Therefore, therefore, thereby
putting to death the enmity, He came and preached peace to you
who are far off, and to those who are near.
For through him we have both have access by 1 Spirit to the
Father finishing up that last chapter.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
your fellow citizens, with the Saints and members of the
household of God having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted
together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you
also are being built together for a dwelling place of God and
the Spirit. That was kind of the the last
thought he left off on. And he's going to continue with
a because of this. So he wanted to leave us with
the thought that we are being built together as a dwelling
place for God himself. That's a big deal for a group of
people who who maybe we're distracted with the week we had
before. Maybe you're just coming in here
trying to get your mind right for worship.
We have a great responsibility today.
We have a great honor today that we are being built for this
purpose. And what a great commitment we
should have to his body. OK, Ephesians, Chapter 3.
I'll admit to you Frank told me before I did this study.
He was like, man, this is a great chapter.
He said that donkey one time was talking to Lynnwood Smith about
these verses, And Linwood, while he was talking about it, just
started crying. These verses are beautiful.
And to be honest with you, that was intimidating for a speaker
like I I better have something good to say about these verses
that they'll bring up a man who's heard this his whole life
to tears. And so my prayer was that I
would have something to say that would do that, you know, to to
make it meaningful in the way that needs to be.
But that's my prayer changed because it's not about what I
have to say. God said it.
My prayer changed to that we will have hearts that will hear
God's work. That I will have a heart to hear
this for the beauty that it holds, for the power that God
intended it to hold for us as Christians, to the Ephesians.
And when he was trying to motivate and strengthen these
Ephesian brethren who may have been getting weak, who may have
needed that uplifting, here's what he had to say for this
reason. So because of the fact that
you're being built up together as a dwelling place for God here
in this place, for this reason, I pull the prisoner of Christ
Jesus for you, Gentiles, if you indeed you have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for
you. It's hard to break up Paul
sentences because he gives a lot of, he's throwing a lot of
information in there, but we're going to pause it right here.
He says because of this I pull the prisoner of Christ Jesus for
you Gentiles. Paul was remembered in prison in
Rome and somehow through all of his struggles, he sees that he
is not a prisoner of Rome. He doesn't say I'm a prisoner of
of this king at this time. He's not worried about that.
He is a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles, because of the
message that he was preaching to the Gentiles, and primarily to
spread this gospel is why he's in prison and he has the the
place in his mind. He's decided in his mind he's
not going to be a prisoner man. He's going to be a prisoner of
Christ Jesus for the benefit of others.
Oh, that we could have a mind to look at our life's challenges
like Paul did. It's not about the affliction.
It's not about Rome that had him in prison.
It's not about what he was going through.
He could have looked at this imprisonment as the only thing
that was keeping him from doing what he really wanted to do.
God, I just want to preach the word.
Why am I stuck in prison? Of all the people in this world,
why am I the one who's in prison?
Why am I the one who's locked up to guards and can't go anywhere?
He could have had that mentality.
But you know what? He said.
I'm in here. I'm a prison preacher.
I'm going to share the word. I'm going to write letters.
I'm going to preach to the guards around me.
I'm going to do whatever I need to do.
May we may have, may we have that mindset in our own life
that we could look at an imprisonment as simply an
imprisonment for God, as whatever we're going through as
an opportunity to glorify God in our situation.
You know, and and Paul was at one point said he had no one
like minded to care for a certain set of brethren.
So it wasn't like Paul was just one in a million.
He was one of the few people that was doing this work.
He could, he could have looked at this differently.
He felt alone. He felt alone, maybe like you
do. But he had this mentality.
He says, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the
grace of God which was given to me for you, He's implying that
he knows these Ephesians know something about the God
dispensing a gift that was previously withheld from them
and now God is giving them this gift which is a of the grace of
God for you. How that by revelation he made
known to me the mystery. This word revelation just means
an opening it up and revealing to to make it known.
It's not a complicated idea it's it's making it clear how that by
opening up to them he made known to me the mystery as I have
briefly written already by which when you read you may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
OK, so he's going to talk for a minute about this mystery and
and he used that word multiple times.
He's very specific about what he's about, what he's saying
here. This word mysterion in the Greek
has an interesting history and background.
Now, he's not saying a mystery in the sense that that it can't
be understood. Let's look into this word.
This word Mysterio was often used during this day and time to
discuss secret teachings. So there were things called
mystery religions in which you couldn't know what their
religion had to offer until you were initiated.
These mystery religions said, if you want to learn our special
enlightenment, our special knowledge, be initiated into our
what we call a cult and you'll be able to know what we know
today. They had, you know, in Ephesus
in this city. They had Diana or she was also
called Artemis who would have fit this bill.
The Greeks had their mystery religions of the Elysian and
Orphic. You had the Persians who had
myth, realism, Egyptian had Isis and therapists.
These religions were mystery religions.
And in the sense that you got to join us to know this spiritual
knowledge that we have that you don't.
And Paul here is being clear. He says we're writing to you so
that you can read, so that you can understand my knowledge in
the mystery of Christ, this is the difference in our religion.
God doesn't ask you to join to know, he says.
I want you to know so that you may join.
I want you to know what you're getting into.
I want you to have a head on your shoulders, that is, that is
circumspect, that is wise in his understanding.
And Paul wanted them to know this mystery because it used to
be a mystery. It's not a mystery anymore.
Paul's opening it up to them. He says it which in other ages
in time past was not made known to the sons of men as it has now
been been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and
prophets. In other ages we get so focused
on today we think a long time ago is 100 years ago, 200 years
ago. I think that's natural for every
generation. But if you look back, there were
people who lived for 900 years in the Old Testament.
We have thousands of years of history before Gio's even came
into this world. So the fact that sometimes we
get so caught up in here and now, I think it can be easy to
forget how many people, how many lives went through this world
without an understanding of what you and I know today.
This wasn't always revealed in other ages.
Think about the promises made to Abraham in the beginning, that
he would bless Abraham seed, that he would see the the this,
his generation would be like the stars in heaven, like the sand
by the sea. Think about Moses.
With the Israelites, all Moses went through in the wilderness.
Think about every story you can remember from the Old Testament,
every wonderful accounting of events.
Those are history lessons. All those people, they didn't
know what you and I know today. They didn't know what Paul was
revealing to them. Think about Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Jonah, Obadiah, Amos, Joel, Hosea,
NAIA, My back of Zephynaya, Hagai, Zachariah, Malachi, and
the list goes on. Who had lives, Who were
spreading the gospel or trying to teach a nation that was
rebellious to God? Come back to God.
This is what you've done wrong. Come back to him.
This is the God that wants you to repent and change your life.
All these prophets had their lives lived in faith, yet they
didn't know. But you and I know today who in
other ages was not made known to the sons of men that has now
been revealed by the Spirit God's Spirit revealed.
The scriptures inspired the scriptures to the apostles and
prophets and what you and I have today.
These prophets were not Privy to that.
The Gentiles should be fellow heirs.
This is what they did not know back then that the Gentiles
would be fellow heirs. We've already established you
and I are Gentiles. No one in this room can prove
that you were a Jew by by by your your lineage.
OK, They destroyed all his records.
We can't do it. You and I are called to be
fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in
Christ through the gospel. This is what was not made known
to them. They had, they were told this in
the Old Testament, but they didn't have a full picture.
And they thought about things like maybe an Isaiah, how it
said that he was going to be a light to the people in darkness,
that this Jesus that would come would be a light.
He was going to be good for the Gentiles, but they didn't really
grasp why. I mean, think about it once.
Once these people, these Jews, were taught that the Gentiles
are going to be brought in, they said OK, but they still have to
be circumcised. After they're baptized.
As Christians, they were still trying to hold the old law after
they were taught what was really supposed to happen.
Imagine how they thought about the Gentiles before they were
even taught. From some of the research I did,
there were some pretty intense views of the Gentiles.
Their merit may have been even certain groups of people who
said things like God made the Gentiles to fuel the fires of
hell. They had some pretty serious
views of the Gentiles where they didn't think they were on the
same level as the the rest of the Jews and it was always going
to be that way. The scriptures tell told them
about what would happen with the Gentiles, but not in full.
They're going to be met, fellow heirs.
They're going to be family members together of the same
body. Not of when the Jews come into
God's family. They're going to be coming in
and limousine through maybe the High Road and the Jews and the
Gentile was going to come in, you know, ball and chain into
this Kingdom. Maybe that's the mentality they
had, but that's not it. They're going to be the same
body. That's what the Church is today.
We are the body where Jew and Gentile, those who are
historically God's people and those who are not, are one in
Christ Jesus. You know what?
You know what else? We're partakers of His promise.
These Gentiles are going to get the same promise, this promise
that was promised to Abraham long ago of a blessing.
The Gentiles are going to get the same promise that the Jews
thought was only protected for them.
How? In Christ through the Gospel,
this gospel that we teach is how it all comes together.
It's how it all happens of which I became a minister.
A minister means a servant. That's another word for a
servant. Paul saying I became a servant
or a minister according to the gift of God-given to me by the
effective working of his power. Who walk?
Who willingly walks right into servitude?
Sure, we'll walk into a job if it's worth it or we get paid for
it. But who walks into servitude
willingly? This is back to the mentality
Paul has. He willingly became a servant
and he considered it according to the grace of the gift of God.
How did Paul see this? How is it that someone could
voluntarily give themselves, and to call it an honor?
Shame on me when I fail to see what an honor it is, what I'm
carrying with me when I seek to glorify, as the New Testament
calls it, a clay pot that's just holding treasure.
I am the clay pot. The treasure is the word of God.
Shame on me when I look to glorify the clay pot.
When I look to glorify myself, when I look to put myself first
in life, instead of putting attention to and giving glory to
God and putting his message at the forefront of my life because
it is a treasure. Paul willingly became a servant
and called it a gift because he knew the reality of what God
could do and what God's word had to bring the God of this world
effectively working his power in Paul.
To me, whom less than the least of all the Saints, this grace
was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, that I have
the ability of all these people. I'm the.
I consider myself to be the worst.
But I have all these people. I'm the one who gets to do this,
that I get to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. He when he says unsearchable, he
doesn't mean that you can't look through it.
You can't look into it, you can't stay out.
It's a mystery. We've already been told that the
mystery was revealed. So even though it's
unsearchable, it doesn't mean you can't look into it.
The word unsearchable means it's past finding out.
Go ahead. But you're never going to
understand fully. You're never going to grasp the
depth. You're never going to see it all
in this life. It's incomprehensible.
Not that we shouldn't look into these blessings, not that we
shouldn't look into these riches, but whatever we do to
look into them, it's never going to scratch the surface.
We will never be able to fathom what has been given.
Sometimes I feel pretty bad that my mind can't fully appreciate
this. I want to fully appreciate what
God has done for us, and I want to fully appreciate these
riches. But he's going to tell us in a
little bit. That's kind of the point.
This life. You can't fully appreciate it.
That's how awesome it is. That's the point.
And to make all see this is Paul's goal, to make all see.
What is the fellowship of the mystery?
Do I want everyone to see this? Do you want everyone to see
this? If this is that, great, that is
unfathomable. This beyond our ability to
comprehend it. Do you want to see, You want all
to see it? Look, I know there are things
that distract us, that discourage us, that distort our
focus. But that's why we're in this
book, to get that focus, that goal back, that intentionality
back. I want you to put yourself on
the edge of eternity, looking into the most beautiful home you
could ever imagine. All of your life's work is done.
You're standing on the edge of eternity looking in, and you
have all these wonderful blessings.
But did you in your life want to make all see?
There's going to be a time where our chance to tell people is
gone, where our chance is over. We had our shot to tell people
and where we may ever want to look back and try to do it over
again. But we can't.
This is our one shot, Paul said. I want to make all see.
He later says I'm innocent of the blood of all men because I
try to make everyone see what is the fellowship of the mystery?
There's fellowship in this mystery.
There's a fellowship that we all have.
As brothers and sisters that we are sharing the best thing that
anyone's ever thought of, there is no better thing in this world
to think about than the mystery that has been revealed to us,
where the Gentiles get to be saved in a part of God's family
which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who
created all things through Jesus Christ.
This message was hidden for a time.
Why? Why was this hidden to the
intent that now the manifold wisdom of God, the word
manifold, just means variegated. It's many colored, it's many
faceted. That this many colored wisdom of
God might be made known by the church to the principalities and
powers in heavenly places. This has a purpose.
Who it's going to, Who's going to do it and who's going to
receive it? And it's interesting.
The purpose is that God's wisdom is going to be shown.
God's wisdom was it was hidden. For a time.
There were people who wanted to see that, but it was hidden.
It was hidden. But now there's a group that's
going to share it. Who is that?
It's us. We're the group that gets to
share this hidden wisdom of God. We're going to show this hidden
wisdom of God to who? To the principalities and powers
in the heavenly places. That's interesting.
So what's the deal with these principalities and powers in
heavenly places? Basically, the church is showing
and proving God's wisdom to the angels.
That's interesting. I don't have all the answers.
The Bible doesn't give us all the answers, but somehow you and
I are teaching angels or showing angels, or proving something to
angels. If you go to Luke chapter 15
verse 10, part of the other hints that we know that this is
going on, something's going on. And Luke 15, verse 10, it says
likewise. I say to you, there is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner who repents.
You know what that tells me? Angels are aware of what's going
on here. That's interesting.
We're not going to do an exhaustive study because there's
not a We don't know everything. But angels are somehow aware of
what's going on here. Think about that for a second.
That's your Our eyes are always here.
Sometimes we need to look up. First Corinthians are 11.
Verse 10 gives us another clue. For this reason, the woman ought
to have a symbol of authority on her head.
That's a discussion about something women get to do
regarding her own physical makeup.
You can study into that chapter if you wanted to Low.
But he says because of the angels.
He doesn't give us much more than that.
But there's this reason in the background going on that we
don't always see. And first, Peter one verse 10
says this of this salvation. The profits have inquired and
searched carefully. It's very similar to the the
grain of the the grain of thought we're in here.
These prophets inquired and searched carefully, who
prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching
what what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, who is in them
was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glories that would follow these prophets.
The when, how? What's going to happen to them?
It was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were
ministering the things which have now been reported to you
through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy
Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look
into. You know what you are listening
to right now? Angels have wanted to like, get
they want to see, they want to see.
What's this all about? That begs the question.
Wood said this the angels desire may be indicative of the fact
that the angels for whom no provision for salvation has been
made are outside the realm of redemption.
Maybe they're angels who are curious for their own who when
they rebelled against God and fell from from good graces in
heaven because of their own rebellion.
Maybe these angels are curious. For can our fellow angels get
this salvation? Maybe that's what they're
curious about. Hebrews 2 verse 16 tells us no.
For indeed he who he who for him deed, he does not give aid to
angels, but he does give aid to the seat of Abraham.
So angels aren't getting the same blessings from Jesus that
we are. And Glenn Osborne said this in
his commentary, How fortunate are we to be the objects of
God's unmerited love? Sure.
You know, angels are probably not all together like us.
OK? You know, they they're heavenly
beings. And I would probably equate
angels, since they are in God's presence in some way to be like
someone who, when Jesus said these people are are going to
be, they're committing an unforgivable sin.
When people see one of God's miracles here on earth and they
say, oh, that's the power of the devil, the Bible says there's
nothing we could do for that person.
They're going to say God's work is the work of the devil.
There's nothing we can do here. If they're angels who sinned in
heaven, I compare that to them in my mind, to people who would
be in God's presence, see his glory, and rebel against it
anyway. So they're a little bit
different than us before we give God, oh God, you're so evil to
you're you're so hard on these angels.
They saw things maybe that we don't get to see.
But how fortunate are we to be the objects of God's emeritted
favor? What if God looked at us with no
grace? What if God didn't give us a
chance, but he did? How fortunate are we?
And angels desire to look into what we get to see and be.
So it's to be made known by the Church to the principalities and
powers in the heavenly places. I've heard it described as kind
of a graduate course for angels. Angels have been in God's
presence. They get to see God for all he
is, but there's stuff today they don't even know about.
And getting to watch us, they get sort of a graduate course.
Interesting thought, but the point is the Church teaches the
physical world. Here we teach people, but we're
also involved somehow in teaching angels powerful,
powerful thoughts. Verse 11 According to the
eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our
Lord, in Him we have boldness and access with confidence
through faith in Him. We've already established in
this letter that this was all part of God's plan the whole
time. It wasn't Plan B, it was His
eternal purpose through Jesus our Lord, and we have boldness
and access with confidence through faith in Him.
God didn't use this word by accident.
He wants us to access him with confidence, not with timidity,
not with doubt, not with angst, not timidly.
Sometimes our world gets so consumed with self that even our
own failures look bigger than God.
So like when? Like if if we really think that
our failures are bigger than God, that's arrogance.
God is so much greater. Maybe we not look at any of our
past as greater than God's grace, but then when we repent
and change our lives, we have confidence through faith in Him.
God didn't stutter when you use that word, confidence.
He intends for you to be confident before His throne.
He intends for you to come before His throne with boldness
through faith in Him. Therefore, because of all this,
therefore, Paul says, I ask that you do not lose heart and my
tribulations for you, which is your glory because of all this.
Look at all this great stuff that's happening.
Look at your responsibility and the privilege you have to do
these wonderful things to be a part of these wonderful things,
he says. Don't don't worry about me,
Don't get discouraged. Don't lose heart.
And my tribulations, things I'm suffering for you, which is your
glory. Paul's suffering has resulted in
them getting the gospel. They get to glory because of
that. They are receiving glory because
of Paul's suffering. So he says don't worry about it.
My suffering is worth it for your benefit.
Again, what a mentality. For this reason, I bow my knees
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a it's a physical and an internal disposition.
I bow before gone for this prayer he's going to describe.
I bowed before this God in prayer from whom the whole
family and heaven on earth is named.
We all come from God. We are named from his initial
lineage. God created this all.
I bow my knees that he would grant you according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might.
There it is. We're starting to see that vein.
Paul is trying to teach them things of the beauty of their
reality so they will be strengthened, not just
strengthen, strengthen with might.
He wants them to be strong people, not couch potato.
Christians, Strong Christians, Christians.
They have a reason to live. Christians who have a reason to
be in the fight. Christians who are ready to do
his work with might, to be strengthened with might through
his spirit and the inner man. God's word teaches us and we
draw strength from God in our inner man, one person said.
I'll get there in just a second. He says strengthen in the inner
man that Christ may dwell in your heart.
Through faith. We learn from Galatians chapter
four that Paul would Christ to be formed in them.
What does it mean for Christ to be formed inside of someone
except when our lives promote and give evidence of the mind of
Christ inside of us? So he's saying he wants Christ
to dwell in our hearts. We know that it's a it's a mind
thing that makes its way out in action, in our in our heart that
Christ would live inside of us through faith.
And it's through faith because we may have faith in God and His
word because his word is trustworthy where it's been
tested. We don't have to go into all
that God's word has produces faith because it's trustworthy
where tested. But there are things you cannot
do a scientific test to figure out, and that requires faith for
what is yet to be tested. He wants Christ to dwell in our
hearts through faith. Sometimes we overcomplicate it.
One man said this. You have your Bible, you have
your knees use them. Sometimes we don't need to
overcomplicate it. The Christ would dwell in our
heart through faith that you being rooted and grounded in
love. So he's he's praying this prayer
for them that they would be strengthened and that they will
be rooted. Being rooted means a a tree is
holding on to something that can't be moved.
And God, we are holding on to something that cannot be moved,
that cannot be shaken. He wants them to be rooted,
strong and grounded in love. Being grounded simply means
basically the same thing as being rooted.
You're attached to the ground. The ground is going to give you
security strength and it cannot be moved.
Nobody moves the ground. That's why they put anchors in
the ground, because you can't move the ground.
But he wants them to be grounded in God.
How? In love, in love, you know,
that's very specific. He says that he didn't say in
fear. There's there's a place in the
Christian life for a reverential fear that we would see God's
greatness and his power and and tremble before him like Moses
did his greatness. But it's interesting he didn't
say that's what he wants them to be grounded in.
You know, if I told all of you, I'm going to go for another 3
1/2 four hours. I want to talk and I have pulled
out a gun. None of you are going to leave.
But the second, if I were to say I got to go do something, I'll
be right back. All of you would bolt.
Fear is a very temporary is a very specific kind of
motivation. Now, if I told you all I really
need you right now and I'm asking you to do this for me as
someone who loves you, would you please stay here for three,
eight, 3, 1/2 more hours? Most of you would probably stay.
Fear will keep people somewhere until that threat, whether
reality or imperception, is lifted and the reality is in our
faith. There may be times where you've
been motivated by fear. Your fear will only hold you
somewhere as long as you see that threat as imminent.
Once you see or think that God's not a threat anymore and that's
sane, can deceive us, you can make us, we told them in the
garden, Is God really going to do that to you?
Our minds can be twisted to think that God's not there all
the time and as powerful as he is and as present as he is, And
so it's only a matter of time until our minds don't see God as
someone to be feared. And where you say, OK, I could,
I could go now, I could do this God.
I'm not thinking about God right now.
Fear will only last our face so long without love because love
will ground us. If you've seen people try to
pull a a tree out with a truck, there's these videos all over
the place. Because people try all kinds of
things to remove a stump and people will hook their truck up
to a tree and drive away with all those.
All those horsepower and the truck will break apart a lot of
times before the tree does. If you are grounded in love,
people aren't going to have to, aren't going to be able to pull
you away from God. They're not going to be able to
deceive you, to think of God's not really here right now.
You can do this because you're going to be grounded in love and
rooted to where no one can rip us away and no one can deceive
us into leaving him. He wants us to be rooted and
grounded in love. That you be able, this is, this
is just beautiful that you may be able to comprehend.
So to comprehend this, we have to be grounded in love.
To comprehend what to may be able to comprehend with all the
Saints. Saints just means God's people.
It's faithful people. What is the width and the length
and the depth and the height. He's saying this the massiveness
of this thing of what? To know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge. There it is again.
It's past finding out you can't fully grasp, but you can know
it, he says. If you are grounded in love, you
will be able to comprehend. You may not fully grasp it, but
you will know the love of Christ, which passes the
knowledge that we have, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. That's part of the issue with
being teacher or preacher. Knowledge won't give you things.
Knowledge. Living inside of you and
creating a change will. I can't say things up here.
They're going to give you the right knowledge.
Because I've had knowledge and I've used it and and I've made
mistakes and there are things that my my heart knew at one
time that it has drifted away because I didn't stay in that
thing. Just knowing something will
always last on your heart. It passes beyond what I can tell
you and give you knowledge about.
Or I can try to get knowledge about is beyond knowledge that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
What a statement that we could be filled with all the fullness
of God. How do I, how do I even describe
that he was describing the dimensions in width and height
and depth? How wide is God's love?
It's wide enough to include every person who would come to
him. How long is God's love?
It's long enough to last through all eternity.
How deep is God's love? It's deep enough to reach the
worst Sinner, to reach into the lowest places to save.
How high does God's love go? It's high enough to take us to
heaven, to know the love of Christ with Pat, which passes
knowledge. This knowledge gives us a sense
of groundedness. And you know, I think about the
ancient religions as you study. If you look at ancient religions
like the Native Americans, they would make sacrifices to a God
where they didn't really know where they stood.
They'd be reeling because they're in a famine, they're in
a drought. What do we do?
We got to make a sacrifice. It would make human sacrifices
on their altars because they didn't know where they stood
during the Old Testament. God, I told you all the prophets
God was teaching through them to say This is why I'm upset at you
Change and I will take care of you.
God has always been clear with his people.
He's given them a sense of groundedness to know where we
stand with him. How great is that?
That we don't have to wonder and worry about where we stand, but
then we can know where we stand. We can know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge. Part of the question is if God's
fullness is to fill us, are we ready to make room, to empty
ourself, To make room for God's fullness?
I have to empty myself. John said it this way.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
He who comes from above is all. And Are you ready?
Even today? Like I said, it's we forget
stuff. You may have known it at one
point. Are you ready today to empty
yourself, to be filled with the fullness of God, beyond self,
beyond selfishness, beyond anything else that might stand
in our way, even me, even you? Now to him finishing up these
last verses. Now to him who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, he didn't
have to use all of these. Repetitive.
Seemingly. Yeah, we get the point
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask her Think.
But he did, because he's making a point He's able to do.
Above all that we ask her Think You know how awesome that is.
That means there's hope, because you haven't seen, nor have I,
how great the things are God has planned for us.
How many billions of people have walked this earth?
How many millions have followed him with sincerity of heart, And
none of them, none of us have ever come close, because it's
exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ever ask God
for or beg God for on our knees when we're struggling.
It's above all of that. Anything we could ever think
it's above that he only has one response according to the power
that works in us. To him, the glory in the church
by Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen. And that's the only thing there
is left to say. May we glorify him this morning
because of the wonderful things that we can't even grasp our
minds around today in this place.
But the church is a people. It's not a place.
When I leave here today, When you leave here today, what are
your motivations? Why are you alive?
Why do you get up in the morning?
What gives you peace at night to him be glory here and wherever
we go? Because he is worthy of all
praise. That's the lesson today.
And if you have not been added to this glorious body, who he
said was once a mystery, you have a chance to see it now.
How could you not want to? How could you not see this and
want to follow him? We learned that today that he
wants us to have faith. Well, faith's not complicated.
You have to hear the Bible says to have faith.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
We hear, we believe, we repent. We have to follow God if we want
Christ to dwell in us. That means repenting to change
our life. Because I sure didn't come in
and go, Hey, Jesus, I'm doing the same thing you're doing.
I'll just go with you. No, he said.
You better. You better change everything
you've ever thought, everything you may have ever done.
We're repenting, confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
that we can be saved by no other name, the name of Jesus and the
blood of Jesus, that we be baptized.
Not because we're doing some great work to to save ourselves,
but because we are submitting. When you're baptized, you get
lunged underneath the water and buried in that water to rise and
walk a newness of life. If you've already been added to
the Church, what a wonderful thing.
But if you've done that, and you need to make something right, if
you need the prayers of the church, that's why we're here
together. We're ready to support take care
of one of either case while we stand and what we say.
We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church
of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
If you would like any additional information or you would like to
receive a free Bible correspondence course by mail,
please e-mail us at info@churchofchristbakersfield.com.
Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.