Far More Abundantly

Far More Abundantly

Introduction

• Youth ministry – Hundreds of people made decisions for Christ – almost a third of those who attended. (Salvation, Baptism, Pastor, Missionary)
• Truly amazed, what causes us to be so surprised by these things happening?  
• We serve a big God, and because of that, we should be shooting for big targets!
  • Our text this morning tells us exactly that!  “God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!”

Ephesians 3:14-21

Context/Story

• • I am in my 30’s and I am starting to feel my body stop working.  (softball)
  • Ephesians 3:14-21 is a prayer from Paul in Jail.  (60’s)
  • Paul is a man who has been repeatedly beaten, flogged, shipwrecked, and stoned for his faith. On one occasion, an entire city attacked him, thought they killed him, threw his body out of the city, then when the believers gathered around him, he got back up and went back in the city to preach some more.   He says that he bears on his body the marks of Christ.  Here he gets on his knees to pray.  Can you imagine how hard that must be for him?

• This isn’t some Karen on Sunday morning who says, “I’ll pray for you” to get out of an uncomfortable conversation.

• • What is the purpose of prayer? Why pray?
    • Prayer is primarily to change us.  It aligns us with God and His will.  It encourages us when we are discouraged.  It strengthens us to endure the challenges we face.  It grows us in humility and maturity.  
      • The very act of prayer fights against our self-sufficient nature.  We recognize that we are not enough.  
      • This is why God tells us to pray for our enemies. Its not always so that our enemies will change, but so that our attitude toward our enemies would change.

• Prayer does sometimes change things

• • • God does sometimes act 
      • Prayer of Abraham outside of Sodom and Gomorrah 
      • Prayer of the king of Nineveh
      • Prayer of Moses and the golden calf.
      • Elijah prayed for the drought to end.
    • How does this play into the sovereignty of God found in the rest of the book?  (God has ordained both the end and the means)

Pray for Strength (vs 14-16)

• Explain
  • The text begins with Paul’s prayer to the Father for the church family to be strengthened in their inner beings by the power of the Holy Spirit.  
  • 1. Prayers to our Father
    • God is not this impersonal force, a being that doesn’t care about you.  
      • He is deeply personal.  (Me holding my first baby – Levi)  God Is like that.  He cares deeply for you.
    • You can ask anything of your father. (he may not respond with a yes) but we can always ask!
  • 2. This prayer is for the church family.  
    • The church is not a business.  It is a family. Sometimes we think that the church is a purveyor of religious goods and services…  We treat the church like a grocery store and the congregants are the customers and consumers.   So when a church or a ministry doesn’t live up to our expectations, instead of rolling up our sleeves and fixing the problem, we criticize and complain, and leave a negative review on google.   
      • In a consumer relationship you are always trying to get the most by giving the least.  (biggest bang for your buck).  But with a family, you give generously so the whole family would be blessed!
      • But we are not a business, we are a family! God doesn’t call you to pray for your grocery store, but he does call you to pray for your church family.  
  • 3. Paul is praying for strength (what kind of strength?) Supernatural strength!
• Prove
  • Romans 8:26 – Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
  • Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
  • 4. Praying for strength in the “Inner man”
    • This is where we need strength and power – On the inside!
      • This is how we fight temptation, have courage to witness, Forgive as we have been forgiven, Love those who are difficult to love.  It is internal strength! 
        • The Pharisees were perfect externally, but corrupt inside.  The same can be true of us.  Don’t be so focused on the external that you miss the cultivation of the even more important inner man!
  • Here is the big idea I want us to get out of this passage.  There is no such thing as a faithful, successful, thriving church, without a people who are deeply committed to prayer.  It is impossible to have a healthy church without healthy prayer.
  • Prayer is what sustains the forward progress of the health, growth, and life of the church.  Without prayer, there is no power, no ability, no strength to be found here.  
    • With this in mind, I would ask for you to humbly prioritize prayer in your life.  
      • Every morning, every day, Pray for your pastors pray for your deacons, pray for your ministries, pray for your family!
    • Prayer can be intimidating (John Wesley – 2 hours a day), (Charles Simeon – 4am to 8 am),  (Luther – 4 hours every morning)(grooves in the floor)  
      • Don’t focus on the historical greats in prayer, don’t try to follow their example.  Follow the example of children toward their dad.  

Be Grounded in Love (vs 17-19)

• Explain
  • Vs 17 – “Accept Jesus into your heart” – It says that once in the whole Bible, right here.  
    • It is not in relation to salvation. – He is speaking to those who are already believers.  This call is for you! And it reminds us that there are degrees of connection with Christ. (more and less)
      • The difference between a hotel and a home.
        • Jesus doesn’t want you to live your life separated from Him, but to live intimately connected to Him, and that we are his home, and he wants to change some things. 
  • Rooted – Botanical – Love is  the source and sustenance of the Christian
  • Grounded – Structural – Love is the foundation of everything we strive and work to build
  • Paul prays that the Ephesians may have the power to understand the vastness of God’s love and be filled with the fullness of God.
    • Width, Length, Height, Depth
      • John Stott – “The love of Christ is broad enough to encompass all mankind, Long enough to last for eternity, Deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and high enough to exalt him to heaven.”
• Prove
  • 1st John 4:9-12 – In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
• Apply
  • Practically speaking – How does this love work?
    • Love for Christ – our love flows out of His love for us.  He was the one who drank the cup of God’s wrath without Mercy, so we could drink the cup of God’s mercy without wrath
    • Love for one another – family, friends, neighbors, even enemies.  We show the love of God through our words and actions.
  • Story of Steve Watt 

Power Beyond Imagining (vs 20-21)

• Explain
  • Paul ends this section with a wonderful Doxology that reminds us that God is not like us. His power is not like human power
    • The Story of the scientist who challenged God. (we don’t need you – We have science to determine truth, Medicine to heal, laws to provide order, We can do it all!)  (okay then, how about a contest to see which of us can make the best man from the dirt) “Get your own dirt”
  •  God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine in us and through us.
    • Vs 20 – He doesn’t say… To him who is able to do “All that we ask or think”
      • “More than all that we ask or think”
      • “Abundantly more than all that we ask or think”
      • No, He says, God is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY THAN ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK.
        • This should stretch our minds to even attempt to comprehend the scope of God’s power and work in us and through us.  
• Prove
  • Matthew 19:24-26 – Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
• Apply
  • Don’t we sometimes give up on some things?  “Well that is never going to happen”… “that guy is never getting saved” “I am never going to impact the world for Jesus”  
    • Abraham – Offspring like the sand, or the stars
    • Moses – Let my people go, Plagues
    • David – Shepherd to king, eternal lineage
  • the limitless power of God to accomplish great things in and through His people, 
  • Trust Him for the Impossible, and get to work!

All for God’s Glory (Conclusion)

• Vs 21 – Why does God do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think? For His glory.
  • Glory in the church at Ephesus
  • Glory in Celebration Church throughout all generations 
• God gets glory by showing his love to his people.

Could we with ink the oceans fill,

And were the skies of parchment made, 

Were every stalk on earth a quill 

and every man a scribe by trade.  

To write the love of God above 

would drain the oceans dry: 

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, 

though stretched from sky to sky.

~Author Unknown