Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn our attention to God's word
in Ephesians, Chapter Three, verses fourteen
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through twenty. Ephesians three, versus
fourteen through twenty one. Actually, that's
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on page nine hundred and seventy seven
of the black bibles. Through the words
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of the Apostle of God, take
them to heart. For this reason,
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I bow my knees before the father
from whom every family in heaven on earth
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is named, that, according to
the riches of his glory, he may
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grant you to be strengthened with power
through his spirit, in your inner being,
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so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, that you,
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being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend, with all
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the saints, what is the breadth
and the length and the height and the
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depth, and to know the love
of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you
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may be filled with all the fullness
of God. Now to him who is
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able to do far more abundantly than
all that we ask or think, according
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to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the Church
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and in Christ Jesus, throughout all
generations, forever and ever. On men.
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You maybe see. I hope that
you're familiar with this verse, a
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Verse Twenty and twenty one, these
two verses, this word from the spirit
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of God about the great power of
God, particularly is it relates to prayer.
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Verse Twenty, listen to get listen
again to what it says. Now
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to him who is able to do
far more abundantly than all we ask or
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think, according to the power at
work within us. To him be the
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glory in the Church and in Christ
Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and
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ever on men, to him who
is able to do far more abundantly than
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all we ask or think. I'll
admit that I often think of this verse
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in very silly and Mundane situations.
I'm looking for my car keys and I
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pray and I ask to find them
and then I find them and I say
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wow, and he answered this and
he's able to do far more abundantly than
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even the things I ask or think
to ask. Right, nothing wrong with
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that. But in light of the
things that we often pray for, listen
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to the things that Paul Prays for
in Verses Fourteen through nineteen and then consider
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what he says in verse twenty now
to Him who is able to do far
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more abundantly than all we ask and
think. So what does Paul pray for
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in versus fourteen through nineteen? Well, look at Verse Sixteen. He praised
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that God may grant us to be
strengthened with power through his spirit. In
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verse Seventeen, he asks that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith.
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In verse a teen, he says
that we would have the strength to comprehend,
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with all the saints, what is
the breadth and length and height and
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depth to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge. And he continues on
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that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God. And then he
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says now to him who is able
to do far more abundantly than then all
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that we ask or think, that's
an amazing thing to say. After may
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you be filled with all the fullness
of God. What else could there possibly
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be asked for? What else could
we possibly think of? What could we
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desire more than that? What could
be more remarkable, more spectacular, more
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mysterious, grand, glorious, powerful
then to be filled with all the fullness
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of God? And yet he still
sees it fit to say now to him
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who is able to do far more
abundantly, far more abundantly than all we
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the all that we ask or think. What could even be included? I
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don't know, but I think that's
the point, right, more than we
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can even think, more than we
can say, more than we can ask.
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That is how bitch God's blessings are
toward us. It's in that amazing
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in one of the commentaries I'm reading
Steve Bob, my friend and informer professor,
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he gets he does his commentary and
that the end of each section he
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has this point where he has kind
of applications. He starts off that section
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by saying, I'm a little hesitant
to try to apply this because it's all
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right there, that the applications are
right here, right. These are the
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things that Paul is praying for,
right, the ways in which we would
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be strengthened, the things that would
happen in us. It's all a very
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plain but at the same time it's
all very wonderful, isn't it? This
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passage is really a continuation of something
Paul began in Chapter Two, and I
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want to point that out to you. Notice in verse fourteen it says for
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this reason I pray. Well,
what is the reason that it's built on?
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Well, it's a concluding thought.
In Chapter Two, in Verses Nineteen
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through twenty two, he says this. So then you are he's concluding and
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he says so. Then you are
no longer strangers and aliens, but you
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are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, of
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God built on the found fundation of
the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
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being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure being joined together, grows into
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a Holy Temple in the Lord.
In Him, you also are being built
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together into a dwelling place for God
by the spirit men. In the verses
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where between where I just stopped and
where we picked up, in three fourteen,
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he has a small digression which he
talks about his ministry and how that
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applies to this work that God is
doing, building on the foundation of the
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Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus
himself as the cornerstone, and then he
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picks this up again. Because of
this work that God has done, because
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you are you, you gentiles,
are no longer strangers and aliens to the
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promise and to the covenants and to
the temple, but are being brought in
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and made part of these things.
For that reason, I now bow before
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the father from whom every family,
Jew and Gentile and heaven and earth is
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named, and now I'm praying for
something more than that. Right. This
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is how Ephesians is from the beginning
of the book up to this point,
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and it continues on this way.
There's this sort of end, this and
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this and this and this. If
this book isn't helping you to have a
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bigger vision, a bigger perspective of
what God is doing, you're missing the
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point. You're missing what he's saying
here. There are ways in which we
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think about our world, things that
we ask of God, ways in which
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we frame our lives that are simply
not in accord with scripture. They're not
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in accord with the kinds of things
he's saying here. What are the things
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that he's saying here? What is
Paul's grow up prayer for Christian growth?
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Right, that's a common prayer.
Right. Can I grow as a Christian?
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Can I be strengthened as a Christian? How does Paul Frame that?
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How does the spirit of God,
speaking through his servant, want us to
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understand that request, that growth?
That's amazing what he says. Well,
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one thing he says is that,
on the basis of this work that God
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is done in bringing, through the
preaching of the Gospel, the gentiles into
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this House of God, God is
going to continue this work in you.
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Sometimes people think that becoming a Christian
is about sort of doing something at the
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beginning and then that's it, but
it's about God doing something at the beginning
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and then God continuing to do something
as he works in us. It's not
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as though our regeneration is from God, but then the ongoing renewal in us
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is not from God, or that
our justification is from God, but our
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sanctification isn't from God. No,
it's all from God and that's why he
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called. He talks about it in
Verse Sixteen. Is being granted something.
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We are being a given a gift
according to the riches of his glory.
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May He grant you with what,
with strength, that you may be strengthened
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with power through his spirit in your
inner being. This is the work that
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God desires to do in you,
having made you a part of Christ,
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to strengthen you. And a lot
of times when we think about strength,
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we think about bodily strength, or
financial strength or job security. That's not
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what he says. When Paul envisions
a flourishing, lively, healthy Christian,
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and praise that for these new Christians, these former pagans. What does he
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ask? He says that grant you
to be strengthened by his power, through
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his spirit, in your inner being, which is way of saying your your
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your soul, the inward man,
right as opposed to the outward man,
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the external man. He sees a
need, he expresses a need for strength
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in the internal part of us.
Now, of course we need strengthen the
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external part as well, and God
provides that in our daily bread. But
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our body is should the Lord Terry
are going to die, they're going to
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pass away, as will this world. It's wealth, that's power, it's
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kingdoms that will all go, even
the bad bodies in heaven, The Sun
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and the moon and the stars,
the earths are said to be in scripture
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to be dissolved, the sky being
rolled up like a scroll. These kinds
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of things, these external realities,
are going to change. But something has
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begun inwardly. That's a part of
the new creation that's already here, and
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God wants this, wants that to
be strengthened in us, and that's why
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his apostle was praying for that,
that we would be strengthened in our inner
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man through his spirit, and this
is made parallel with Christ dwelling in our
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hearts. This is an amazing thing
and it's worth asking so that we might
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understand the work of God well.
Which is it? Is it the Holy
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Spirit who dwells in me, or
is it Christ who dwells in me?
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How am I to understand these things? One passage worth looking at in this
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regard is Romans chapter eight, Romans
eight versus nine. Through love and listen
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to what Paul says. He says
you, however, are not in the
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flesh but are in the spirit,
if in fact, the spirit of God
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dwells in you. Anyone who does
not have the spirit of Christ does not
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belong to him. But if Christ
is in you, although the body is
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dead because of sin, the spirit
of is life because of righteousness. If
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the spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, he
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who raised Jesus from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies through
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his spirit who dwells in you.
So who dwells in you. Well,
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the spirit of God dwells in you, the spirit of Christ dwells in you.
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Christ dwells in you, the spirit
of him who raised Jesus from the
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dead dwells in you. He who
raised Christ, Jesus from the dead,
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then will also give life to your
mortal bodies. Eventually, the outward man
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will be renewed, and will happen
in accord with the principle that has already
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begun. That's why we talk sometimes
about the resurrection life. There is a
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bodily resurrection that we are waiting for
on the day of glory, but it's
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something that's already started. You,
who have been buried with Christ, have
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been raised up with him. That's
how he talks in Romans Chapter Six.
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If he raised Jesus, Christ from
the dead in his mortal body, he
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will also give life to your immortal
bodies. And so the answer is yes.
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When we think about the external works
of God, there is a unity
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in them, the unity than which
we can speak of all a persons of
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the Trinity, God dwelling in us. And isn't that the Great Covenant Promise?
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I will be with you, I
will be your God and you will
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be my people. There is a
unity in God and a unity in all
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his works, and that's why Paul
speaks in this way. Christ does dwell
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in us because his spirit dwells in
us. His spirit dwells in US because
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Christ dwells in us. The fullness
of God is that with which we are
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filled amazing things. So this is
Paul's prayer. How does Paul think about
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growing as a Christian? He prays
that we would be strengthened with power through
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his spirit in our inner being.
The Christ would dwell in our hearts through
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faith, and then, being rooted
and grounded in this love of God,
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something would happen. What is going
to happen? Right? What is the
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thing that Paul thinks, but or
not thinks, but what is the thing
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Paul is praying for all at according
to the will of God, that will
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happen when we are rooted and grounded
in the love of Christ? What he
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says, I think, is surprising. He says that we may have strength
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to comprehend the love of Christ,
see how it's just sort of swirling with
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God, if I could put it
that way, every aspect, every way
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you turn this thing that you would
call our salvation. Every way you look
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at it, you see another aspect
of God and his glory and His grace.
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To him, who is able to
do far more abundantly than this.
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Be All the glory. He roots
us in love, not so that we
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can be separated from him and go
be busy doing other things. He roots
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and grounds us in the love of
Christ so that we can know more of
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the love of Christ. We don't
come into the knowledge and fellowship with Jesus
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so that we can have something else. We come into the knowledge and fellowship
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with our Savior, Jesus Christ,
so that we can have more of him.
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As the dear pants after water,
so my soul pants after you,
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the psalmist says. I think of
songs, a song of songs, Song
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of Solomon, this language of just
wanting to belong, to be loved and
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to be caught up in love.
That's what this is about. That's what
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the Christian life is about. It's
about being caught up in knowing and belonging
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and living in the fullness of God, who is love. When God does
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this work of love in us,
through the sun and through the spirit,
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it leads to our ability to comprehend
something that we could not comprehend without it
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takes strength to comprehend. Isn't that
a remarkable thing to think about? It
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takes strength to comprehend these amazing things. They're not light things, they're not
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small things, they are mysterious and
wonderful things, things beyond our imagination,
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things that we can even begin to
think of, and yet here they are.
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How do we come about understanding them? How do we come come about
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understanding something that is he says in
Verse Nineteen Surpasses Knowledge. Strength of God.
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I don't know what else to say. And that's what he says.
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You see, how Grand Faull's prayers
for Christian growth and strength. He has
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a vision for what God is doing
that is, I think, much bigger
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than most of us, and I
think me included, we really live in
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in a regular basis. But we
can grow in that individually and together as
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a church, coming to understand more
and more these things. How because they're
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written for us right here. We
can go to God's word as it is
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given to us and come to understand
these things more and more. Because this
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prayer that Paul Prais is something we
can all pray, something that we can
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all ask God for. We don't
have to make this stuff up and wonder
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about some kind of fantastic thing.
It's right here, given for us to
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seek the Lord in. We of
course, need to be a people that
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are busy about doing the things of
love, a loving one another, of
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serving God and all of these things, but we ought never to do them
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in a way that is separated from
God and the grace that he gives to
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us in Jesus, because apart from
him we have nothing. Apart from him.
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You remember, as he says in
chapter two, you were dead in
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your trespasses and sins in which you
once walked, following the course of this
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world, following the Prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that
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is now at work in the sons
of disobedience. Ephesians paints a picture that
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reminds us there is a war at
hand, a war between the Prince of
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darkness and the Prince of Light.
There is a winner of this war,
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and we already know who that is, the resurrected, glorious lamb of God.
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But that battle still, all,
is ongoing, and we need to
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pray for spiritual strength and, as
we will see in chapter six, Paul
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will talk about this more when he
tells us to be strong in the Lord
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and in the might of in the
strength of his might. That's how we
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find strength to love and to live
for him. He'll go on to say,
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put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand
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against the schemes of the devil.
The Lord knows, as the Lord knows,
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that the struggles that you have,
the temptations you have, the inabilities
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you have, the weaknesses that you
have, he knows that you need strength,
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strength to fight, strength to fight
even the devil himself. But here
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he promises you that strength. You
don't have to go out and fight by
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your own power, but you can
fight and you can live in the glory
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of God and according to his might. I want to end by reading to
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you a little bit from Ezekiel,
Ezekiel, chapter forty three. I want
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to read here because here the Prophet
of the Lord is given a vision of
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the very things that Paul is talking
about in Ephesians. Remember, he is
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said that we are the Temple of
God, the Temple in which God is
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dwelling in, Christ is dwelling in. This is the result of a plan
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that as we have considered and from
other parts of Ephesians, that has been
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in place for a long time.
And here, a long time ago in
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the Old Testament, Ezekiel speaks of
this cut day that will come. A
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time had happened when the temple,
the physical temple in Israel, was abandoned
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by God. Why? Because the
people were disobedient. The people are idolatrous.
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The people were eventually exiled out of
the nation, vomited out of out
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of the Holy Land. Ezekiel talks
about that at the beginning of the book
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and he has this vision, terrifying
vision, of the spirit of God lifting
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up and leaving. This is the
opposite of I will be your God and
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you will be my people. This
is God saying I will not be your
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God and you will not be my
people. Why? Because of their disobedience.
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But then in Ezekiel forty three,
we have these promises about a new
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covenant that he will make and think
the things he will do, and he
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says this. Then he led me
to the gate, the gate facing east,
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and behold, the glory of the
God of Israel was coming from the
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east. Remember what Paul says in
Ephesians about all these things according to the
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riches of his glory, so Ezekiel
says. And behold, the glory of
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God of Israel was coming from the
east, and the sound of his coming
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was like a rush of many or
the sound of many waters, and the
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earth shown with his glory, And
the Vision I saw was just like the
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vision that I had seen when he
came to destroy the city, and just
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like the vision that I had seen
at the chebar canal. And I fell
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on my face as the glory of
the Lord entered the temple by the gate
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facing east. The spirit lifted me
up and brought me into the inner court
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and behold, the glory of the
Lord filled the temple. While the man
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was standing beside me, I heard
one speak to me out of the temple,
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and he said to me, son
of men, this is the place
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of my throne and the place of
the souls of my feet, where I
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will dwell in the midst of the
people of Israel forever. And the House
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of Israel shall no more defile my
holy name, neither they nor their kings,
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nor their wharring and by their dead
bodies of their kings at their high
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places, by setting their threshold,
by my threshold and their doorposts beside my
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doorposts, only a wall between me, and with only a wall in between
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me and them, they have defiled
my holy name by their abominations that they
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have committed, so that I have
consumed them in my anger. Now let
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them put away their horring and their
dead bodies and their of their kings far
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from me, and I will dwell
in their midst forever. God says,
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I have come, I have come
in glory, I've come in power,
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and now respond with repentance and put
away these things. And that's what Paul
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is saying to the Ephesians. The
glory of God, the spirit of God,
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Christ himself has descended down into you, the Temple of the Lord,
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you who once walked in these ways, that Israel was walking. Here is
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the Prophet condemns them, you who
once walked in these ways and we're dead
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in your trespasses and sins no longer. Now walk according to the newness of
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life, the resurrection, the things
that are come, the new creation.
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So that's Paul's prayer for Christian growth. What a boring word describe, or
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boring way to describe the things that
are described here in Ephesians for us.
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Let's think about this more, let's
come to understand this more, even things
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that surpass our knowledge. Let's learn
to look to this God father's son and
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Holy Spirit and the grace that he
has poured out on us. When we
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look for the things that we need, when we pray for our daily bread,
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when we pray for the things and
the needs that we have in this
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life, let us look to him
who is able to do far more abundantly
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than all we ask or think,
according to the power that is work at
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work in us. Let us pray
