Our Strength in Christ

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. 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, 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 three years as we felt called to give generously to the Lord so that we could reach more people with the gospel. 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 three-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 going to 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. 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 we took several of our leaders to a conference gathering in Raleigh of collaborating churches that are collaborating together to plant churches. And we set aside and prayed over sixteen church planters. We brought them up on the platform and prayed for them. I got to meet with several of them. This past year, we’ve been giving a percentage of what the Lord gives us to plant churches. And then next year, we’ll be praying for— maybe it’ll be one of these sixteen that presented their case for what God’s doing in their life, their calling; 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 want to 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 in 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 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 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 says, “For this reason,” verse 1, chapter 3, and then he did like a “BTW” (by the way.)

He went off, but it was important that he did. He talked about the mystery of the church and our mission as a church. 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. 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.” Do you know what I mean? It’s usually an area where you feel strong. 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, because 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? You see them on the internet all the time – Do these 5 things for a healthy life.

Do these 5 things, and then we say, ‘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 that 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. 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. Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV) 14 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

1. By empowering us inwardly through His Spirit.

We’re looking for 3 ways that God’s power strengthens us in Christ. Here’s the first way: 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 when 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, in verse 14. Now, he’s going to pray ‘and if I’m locked up, I’m asking you guys to pray for me. I sent a letter to you. My 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, can’t we? He prays for their inner self to be strengthened. It’s a Trinitarian prayer; don’t miss it.

He prays to the Father, he prays in the Spirit, he prays to 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 a prayer sitting in your recliner.

It wasn’t a prayer 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 on both knees, it’s a little more challenging. Not so much getting on my knees as getting up from my knees.

But getting on your knees might inform some humility in your heart. The Jews often prayed standing up. We sometimes pray bowed over. Paul gets on his knees, verse 14, “…I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,”

What’s that? It’s a play on words in Greek. You’ll miss it in 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.” 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, “…every family in heaven and on earth is named,”
has the idea in heaven and on earth is from Him.

And then He begins four 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 if you were putting a schematic diagram of it together on your page,each one would keep going. Here’s the first “that,”

in verse 16, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” 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. It’s not a loan that you have to pay interest on and pay back. It’s 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’s this power going to land? It’s going to 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, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,” He’s praying that we would be strengthened in our inner being. Here’s why he really wants 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 because 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, but that He’s come to dwell in you, which is what it means to be a Christian. You’ve invited Jesus to be your Lord and Savior to come and dwell is the word that we see here. 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. Then you check out the next morning. But that’s not the word used here. John Stott, in his commentary on this, points out that Paul uses a word describing permanent residence rather than a temporary visit. He’s using the word that has to do with making 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. Lord help, you haven’t let Him see what’s in your closet. So here’s Paul saying that I pray 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, 2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV) “So 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 I could put that basketball up there. It’s kind of like a fisherman who caught a fish that keeps getting bigger.

And they look at me; yeah, I see you, Papaw. You can barely get up out of your recliner.

But may I say to you 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 are temporary, and there’s an eternity that awaits us that the inner self is preparing for in Christ. 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, Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) “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. I remember growing up hearing about Zacchaeus. Do you remember this? If you grew up going to Sunday school, you probably knew the song:

“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see…” Do you remember that song? Some of you are thinking, we didn’t go to 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.

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, “Zacchaeus, come down from there. I’m going to go and dwell at your house today. I’m going to come stay with you for a little while.”

Zacchaeus jumps down and he prepares. As Jesus is sitting there with him in his house, Zacchaeus stands up and he says, “I’m going to give back fourfold what I’ve taken.” Jesus says to him, “I tell you the truth, you’re one of Abraham’s sons and salvation has come to your house today.” What did he mean, “Salvation has come to your house today?” 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. 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.

2. By enabling us to grasp the greatness of His love.

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, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” 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 two metaphors.

He uses an agricultural metaphor, “rooted,” and an architectural metaphor, “grounded.” And he says that 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. 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. 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 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 four dimensional expression of this love, the breadth and length and height and depth. Richard Coken in his commentary says, “Wide illustrates his accepting love… Long his lasting love… High, his exalting love… and Deep, his sacrificial love.”

John Stott says this, he says that His love is “Broad enough to encompass all mankind, long enough to last for eternity, deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and high enough exalt him to heaven.”

As I was contemplating this–this breadth, this depth, this height, 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. 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 love of Chris. The word, “know,” there is “ginōskō,” 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 says, in verse 19, “and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”

He is praying that we 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 two together surpasses knowledge.

It’s the idea of His love going past knowing. And so it seems that Paul here is praying that 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, Romans 8:38-39 (ESV) 38 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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, Galatians 2:20 (NLT) “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is 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, 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 was selfish, whatever. You have those days, right, where you just beat yourself up. 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 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 prays 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?

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? Get 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 third 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. Gary, where do you see that?

3. By growing us into the likeness of His Son.

Well, it’s in the fourth prayer request that he prays. It’s in verse 19, “and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” You see, each one of these prayer requests proceeds out of the previous one. I said it was three ways, I could have said steps. I was trying to figure out how to describe it to you because each prayer request emerges from the previous one— 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; every aspect of your character.

And then he bursts into a doxology. So verses 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. Verse 20, “Now to Him…” I feel like he was down here like this, just praying for them, and then he says, in verse 20, “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,” Now look, I can think of some “asks.”

What are you asking for 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.

He’s praying for that which is impossible on our own, but all things are possible with God. Verse 20, “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.

Paul’s not making much of himself. To Him be glory; 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 should this go on? Verse 21, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” 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. In Romans chapter 8, we see this, what God’s working on, what His purpose is for us. Romans 8:29 (NLT) “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son…”

The word, Christian, we see in the book of Acts. It 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, Philippians 1:6 (ESV) “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” 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 pray, 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 that 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 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 and 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. But, 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 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.