SPEAKER_00: Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be reading verses 14 to 21.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find the text printed in your bulletin as well.
SPEAKER_00: As many of you know, this year we're going through the promises of God one each month, the first Sunday of the month.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we looked to the promises of God found in the Apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this prayer that the Apostle Paul had for the Ephesians, but also for us here today.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask for the Spirit's help.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for giving us your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us your Son.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us your Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, enlighten us.
SPEAKER_00: Open us up to see what you have put in your holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Change us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: By the power of your spirit we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This new sermon series that started this past September.
SPEAKER_00: The theme is praying in and living out the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been doing that, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00: We've been taking the Word of God into our heart, asking the Lord to teach us, to convince us that these promises are true and that they're for us.
SPEAKER_00: It takes the spirit to believe that.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are new, and many of you have joined us since last January, we begin every new year at APC, we've been doing this for many years, with a week of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we we have corporate prayer meetings where we come together.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight we're going to come together at 5 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you'll join us tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to come together and we're going to begin this new year by asking for God to lead us.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking for his guidance.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking for his direction for 2026.
SPEAKER_00: We have our ideas, we have our plans, but he wants us to pray and live according to his plans, not ours.
SPEAKER_00: We're also going to pray for the Spirit's empowering.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we won't do it.
SPEAKER_00: This week of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's so important in this church that we suspend all the other ministries this week.
SPEAKER_00: No covenant fellowship groups are meeting this week.
SPEAKER_00: The children and the teenagers are not meeting this week.
SPEAKER_00: That's how important we take prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Paul takes it seriously too.
SPEAKER_00: Our text today is Paul's prayers for the Ephesians and for us, Alexandria people.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul closes the gospel of the epistle of Ephesians, the first half, and many of you are familiar with his style.
SPEAKER_00: Generally speaking, the first half of every epistle is about what Christ has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second half of every epistle is how we live out these truths by his power.
SPEAKER_00: The same way here.
SPEAKER_00: The first three chapters of Ephesians, get this.
SPEAKER_00: There's one command.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking you to do anything, he's asking you to believe that what he tells us about himself is true.
SPEAKER_00: What's that one verb?
SPEAKER_00: Remember.
SPEAKER_00: Remembering is important what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Remember who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is our identity, who we really believe ourselves to be.
SPEAKER_00: Our practice follows our understanding of our position in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How we live has everything to do with what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: How you're going to live in 2026 is going to be exactly correspondent to what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: It's always that way.
SPEAKER_00: We need to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We need to preach this gospel to ourselves every day in this new year.
SPEAKER_00: Five times in the epistle to Ephesians, this is one of Paul's favorite sayings in this epistle, especially.
SPEAKER_00: Seated in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you become a Christian, the moment that you pass over from death to life, you are seated spiritually by faith in heaven, the heavenlies.
SPEAKER_00: Five times he mentions that.
SPEAKER_00: So my question right now is do you see yourself right now?
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: 9.26, Sunday morning, January 4th.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself in heaven by faith?
SPEAKER_00: Lifted up, raised with Christ when He was raised from the dead, as you've been raised from the dead spiritually with him, or do you see yourself mainly here on earth?
SPEAKER_00: Are you an earthly creature?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Do you live?
SPEAKER_00: Do you act?
SPEAKER_00: As though you're seated in heaven, looking down, or as you're on earth, looking up?
SPEAKER_00: I read a Bible commentator years ago who described it as: do you see yourself seated in the top of the Himalayas, looking down over God's creation?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you see yourself at the bottom of the Himalayas looking up and thinking, oh, I could never climb that.
SPEAKER_00: I could never ascend to that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it matters where you see yourself seated.
SPEAKER_00: Our view of ourselves, our views of this world has everything to do with where we sit, where we stand, what we see.
SPEAKER_00: What glasses are we looking through?
SPEAKER_00: This is an important question.
SPEAKER_00: We are now seated in the heavenlies by faith in the finished work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul is saying, verse after verse in the first three chapters of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul considers all that Christ has done for us, he can't help but break into a doxology.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Praising God.
SPEAKER_00: So what is Paul's prayer?
SPEAKER_00: In a sentence that we would see our exalted status, specifically the love of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that we would be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The definition of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: It is a profound, often gradual process, a significant change in our character, our mindset, and our identity.
SPEAKER_00: Moving from an old self to a new, more evolved version, driven by growth, new experiences, overcoming challenges, affecting our beliefs, our behaviors, and how we relate to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite a definition.
SPEAKER_00: This is about transformation this morning, we're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, Paul says in verse 14, I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family on earth is named.
SPEAKER_00: We are just a speck of his whole family.
SPEAKER_00: We're an important speck.
SPEAKER_00: We're part of his family.
SPEAKER_00: But do you sometimes just does a hair stand on the back of your neck when you think about all of God's people all over the world worshiping him in every language?
SPEAKER_00: Right today.
SPEAKER_00: This is how great he is.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's doing throughout the kingdom that he's building.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family on earth is named.
SPEAKER_00: So he's literally kneeling.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where he's kneeling?
SPEAKER_00: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He's in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I or you were in prison, if we would be praying these kind of prayers.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of prayers would we be praying?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be self-absorbed?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be self-focused?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is horrible.
SPEAKER_00: I've lost my freedom.
SPEAKER_00: I've lost this.
SPEAKER_00: I've lost that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've got you on my mind.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the kind of prayer I'm praying.
SPEAKER_00: He's kneeling out of gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: He's kneeling in humility in prison.
SPEAKER_00: This is how Paul prays for other Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Is this how we pray for ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Is this how we pray for others?
SPEAKER_00: This is how we're going to pray tonight.
SPEAKER_00: You come and pray with us.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you're going to learn, maybe, maybe you're going to learn how to pray in a different way in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: It's important how we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Does this seem like a selfish prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Quite the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: The more we pray, this kind of prayer is going to make us more effective in God's service and it's going to make us more helpful to other people if we pray this kind of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Let me break this down.
SPEAKER_00: I've been saying this for 35 years here.
SPEAKER_00: But there's always people, new come people coming.
SPEAKER_00: And there's still people who've heard it again and again, and the penny hasn't dropped yet.
SPEAKER_00: The penny hasn't dropped.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, may the penny drop this year.
SPEAKER_00: Is it there are two kinds of prayer Jack Miller taught me?
SPEAKER_00: Two kinds of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: There is what we call maintenance types of prayers that most Christians and most churches are, that's what they're focused on.
SPEAKER_00: Maintenance.
SPEAKER_00: Praying for the status quo.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, just give me enough.
SPEAKER_00: Give me enough money.
SPEAKER_00: Give me enough health.
SPEAKER_00: Give me enough family.
SPEAKER_00: Give me enough friends.
SPEAKER_00: Give our church just enough.
SPEAKER_00: Can we please make our budget this year?
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way we pray here.
SPEAKER_00: Maintenance types of prayers are focused mostly on our physical needs.
SPEAKER_00: They tend to be short prayers, they tend to be mechanical prayers, often focused on our needs inside the church.
SPEAKER_00: We're not looking out, we're not looking up.
SPEAKER_00: What's the second kind of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Jack called it frontline kingdom-centered prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Outward-focused, kingdom-centered prayers for our spiritual growth, for our growing faith, for our city, for our world, for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Not just preserving the status quo.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying for our repenting hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I think we talked, we looked at this like three years ago as we began the new year.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite phrases from African tribe in East Africa.
SPEAKER_00: It was about 70, 80 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I read this and I just can't forget this.
SPEAKER_00: Always repenting, always rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful way to live.
SPEAKER_00: Always saying, God, show me, show me what's getting in the way of my love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Show me what's getting in the way of my not living for you.
SPEAKER_00: Always repenting, but always rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Not some glum, despondent person.
SPEAKER_00: Always rejoicing because the Holy Spirit is showing you more and more what you have in Christ Jesus, who you are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I want to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Praying for our gospel transformation.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these kinds of prayers because only God can bring about these kinds of changes.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these kinds of prayers because only God could ever get you to pray this way.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit could get you to pray this way.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're going to fall back to your default of praying and living a shrinking little life that's mostly focused on yourself.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for me.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation comes through prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see in the text this is exactly what Paul's praying for?
SPEAKER_00: Second point, transformation requires Holy Spirit empowering.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that out of God's glorious riches, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful truth this is.
SPEAKER_00: There he is on his knees in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking about you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that out of God's glorious riches, you know, God's got a bigger bank account than any of us put together, right?
SPEAKER_00: Think of God's treasure chest.
SPEAKER_00: Think of all the riches in his treasure chest, his vast wealth and inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want to give you this.
SPEAKER_00: Here, take some.
SPEAKER_00: Take some.
SPEAKER_00: Are we?
SPEAKER_00: Do we actually believe this?
SPEAKER_00: I pray that out of God's glorious riches, he may grant you.
SPEAKER_00: What does that verb suggest?
SPEAKER_00: That's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a work, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: That God will open your eyes to see all the riches that he wants to give you in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: To be strengthened with power, dunamis, through his spirit in your inner being.
SPEAKER_00: Let's break that down.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is no outward teaching alone will be sufficient without the inward empowering of the Holy Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen with power through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The only way you get this is by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is not natural to any of us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't work it up ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It comes down from the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see these things, to give us energy and power to live out these things.
SPEAKER_00: Three things that Paul prays for specifically in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the Spirit's power.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Christ's indwelling.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, fullness, the fullness of God in us.
SPEAKER_00: But right now we're thinking about the Spirit's empowering.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul really prays for one thing primarily, that we may receive power to know intimately Christ's love for us and his presence in us.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what we all need?
SPEAKER_00: To know more intimately, the presence of Christ and the power of his love, that is not a selfish prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: John Kelvin put it like this.
SPEAKER_00: He argues in his institutes that Christ's gifts for his people are not experienced by many Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians miss all this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians don't really believe that this kind of treasure God offers his people.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this enjoyment, he says, can happen only through communion with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to this phrase: the secret energy of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard that phrase before?
SPEAKER_00: This is what Calvin taught.
SPEAKER_00: Only through the secret energy of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For the word of God is not received by faith as if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart, we will not settle for an informed mind without an engaged heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's asking.
SPEAKER_00: Happens through communion with Christ in the secret energy of the Holy Spirit, by which we come to enjoy all of his benefits.
SPEAKER_00: Calvin wasn't the only one that understood this.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Martin Luther, who knew that sometimes the Holy Spirit begins immediately to preach to you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he doesn't, though.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't always do this.
SPEAKER_00: John Owen, the Puritan, chimed in on this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, sometimes we don't.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what we do, we simply don't concentrate or we don't find our thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Our thoughts don't become big and affecting, but rather we find ourselves in our prayer time even feeling bored and hard and distracted.
SPEAKER_00: Then Owen goes on to say, we must turn to God and make brief, intense appeals for help.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's all you will do in your time with God that morning or afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the very cries to help to concentrate the mind and soften the heart seem distant.
SPEAKER_00: Owen writes, when after all the preparation you do, you find yourself yet perplexed, not able to consist or persist in spiritual thoughts, say, God help me.
SPEAKER_00: God give me these desires.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have these desires.
SPEAKER_00: Out of your treasure chest, would you give me these riches?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give me the want to?
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Luther goes on to say he calls prayer, praying believers to essentially keep a lookout for the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you live like that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you keep a lookout for the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: If as we are meditating or praying, an abundance of good thoughts all of a sudden come to us, we ought to disregard all the other petitions.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what do you say?
SPEAKER_00: Let me paraphrase.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just, in your prayer time at home, don't just bring your list, like a laundry list or a grocery list.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do this in some mechanical way as a ritual because you're trying to be good, a good Christian, and so you're going to say your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Let me paraphrase.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, don't just come saying your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Come saying, Holy Spirit, please show me everything that Christ has given me.
SPEAKER_00: Please show me, open me up to your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Show me new sights of your beauty, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Awaken my dead heart, awaken my sleeping heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then when the Holy Spirit does that with that secret energy, forget your list.
SPEAKER_00: Forget your list.
SPEAKER_00: You'll come back to your list.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I'm saying right now?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever experienced this in your prayer life?
SPEAKER_00: Where the Holy Spirit just overwhelms you and Jesus looks so beautiful to you.
SPEAKER_00: That is not about finishing your list.
SPEAKER_00: This is how he wants us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Luther is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Kelvin is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's what John Owen is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes an abundance of good thoughts come to us, and all of a sudden we're lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit Himself preaches here.
SPEAKER_00: This is Luther's words.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit himself preaches to you here.
SPEAKER_00: And one word of his sermon is better than a thousand of our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: One word of his sermon is better than a thousand of my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: You know what this is about?
SPEAKER_00: This is about learning how to pray in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this is about.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever started learning that yet?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you just mostly saying your prayers?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, friends, this is Paul's prayer for you.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how different your life is going to be if you start praying this way?
SPEAKER_00: With a growing faith, with a repenting heart, living for the glory of God?
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be different.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be different.
SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God, I'm different.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the same pastor that called me 35 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the same preacher that called me 35 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the same husband.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the same father.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't arrived.
SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly not perfect, but I've been transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how I've been transformed.
SPEAKER_00: This is for you too.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I wish you would believe that.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just for clergy.
SPEAKER_00: This is for every man, woman, and child that dares to take the promises of God to heart, to pray in, to live out.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritans used to talk about prayer as oiling the wheels of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of praying is oiling the wheels of our souls.
SPEAKER_00: The powerful appropriation of divine power.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the last point.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation works from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to the text.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you may be strengthened through the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: Look at it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: In your inner being.
SPEAKER_00: God wants this truth to go to the heart of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want any of us to paint by numbers Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want any of us to get caught up with just doing things mechanically, ritually.
SPEAKER_00: He wants these truths to grab us, awaken us, empower us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
SPEAKER_00: That word dwell means to settle down and take up residency and to get more comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: The indwelling of Christ is a thing of degrees.
SPEAKER_00: That's how theologian, Princeton theologian Charles Hodge put it.
SPEAKER_00: The indwelling of Christ is a thing of degrees.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we call theologians call sanctification, growing in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That we so sense the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to the prayer, just right?
SPEAKER_00: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is always fixing metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: He's the master of this.
SPEAKER_00: Rooted, a botanical reference, our roots, that your roots in Christ would go down deeper.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer is that your spiritual roots will go deeper into the soil of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, grounded.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's an architectural reference.
SPEAKER_00: A firm foundation so that you're unshakable.
SPEAKER_00: What would it look like to be unshakable in 2026?
SPEAKER_00: I want to be that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be unshakable.
SPEAKER_00: So that I'm not up and down all over the waves.
SPEAKER_00: That the indwelling of Christ is taking root in me more and more.
SPEAKER_00: To comprehend with all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see this?
SPEAKER_00: This is a communal prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just, this is not God saying, okay, all you super spiritual people, this is for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, no, this is for all Christians.
SPEAKER_00: This is a communal prayer to grasp with all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put it like this.
SPEAKER_00: This is what grows a church to be healthy.
SPEAKER_00: A healthy church is not just a few people who are super spiritual, who really know how to pray, who really believe God's word, who really know God's word.
SPEAKER_00: There's a few in your church that are like that, and all the rest are just like, yeah, we're, you know, we're glad to be along for the ride.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: This is a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: That with all the saints, we all of us are after this.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Spirit is doing a new work in us.
SPEAKER_00: This is a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: To comprehend with all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Let's camp out on that word for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: To comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's the best word.
SPEAKER_00: I actually prefer the NIV translation.
SPEAKER_00: To grasp.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't mean by comprehend, just understand in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Apprehend, I think, is a better word.
SPEAKER_00: But I think grasp is the best word.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Greek word can mean.
SPEAKER_00: To grasp.
SPEAKER_00: To grasp what?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to it.
SPEAKER_00: That you may have strength to grasp with all the saints what?
SPEAKER_00: The breadth and the length and the height and the depth of the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's a beautiful prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful way to live.
SPEAKER_00: To actually believe that Jesus loves you that much.
SPEAKER_00: And to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Let me come back to this word grasp in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word that was used in Paul's day of an army that would break through the walls of an enemy city and wrestle down the enemy, rob them of their possessions, taking what they had.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're if you're still with me, you're wondering, what in the world does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: In this context, how does that apply to prayer?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Let's break it down.
SPEAKER_00: So that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us wrestle down these truths so that they take possession.
SPEAKER_00: Here, Paul says, meditating on God's love until it hits you in powerful ways, but it only happens with the Holy Spirit's empowering.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying, may it catch fire.
SPEAKER_00: Did you pray that in 2026?
SPEAKER_00: May the love of Jesus catch fire in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bold prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Would you dare to pray such a bold prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I pray you will.
SPEAKER_00: But you're going to need the Holy Spirit to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You're never going to get there without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, this is an example that I heard Tim Keller say one time.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine somebody leaves you money.
SPEAKER_00: Let me back up.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read stories of people that were had low-income jobs and then they die and all of a sudden you realize that they were multimillionaires?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We've seen stories, read stories.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's got a not a particularly high-paying job.
SPEAKER_00: I've read this so many times.
SPEAKER_00: And they die and they leave their inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, wow, this person had a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00: This person was a great saver.
SPEAKER_00: Keller tells a story about it would be like somebody like that, maybe a friend of yours, who you thought to be of a modest income, and their attorney called you one day and said, Oh, by the way, you're in the will.
SPEAKER_00: They've left you an inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: And you think to yourself, well, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe it's maybe it's a few hundred dollars.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a few thousand dollars, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get around to it.
SPEAKER_00: And you never get around to it.
SPEAKER_00: Because your perception is wrong, but your perception is probably not that much.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day you say, no, I really ought to check this out further.
SPEAKER_00: And you discover that this person left you a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00: It blows your mind how much they left you.
SPEAKER_00: All this time, all this time, you were actually rich, but you were living as if you were poor.
SPEAKER_00: Does that describe you?
SPEAKER_00: I think it describes a lot of Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly what Paul's praying in Ephesians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Living as if we're poor, as if God did not call you from the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, but for the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Though you were dead, he made you alive in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All these beautiful blessings.
SPEAKER_00: And we can live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_00: You're not reading it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not believing it.
SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
SPEAKER_00: Is that how you're living?
SPEAKER_00: Are you depressed?
SPEAKER_00: Are you discouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going through the motions?
SPEAKER_00: May the Holy Spirit wake you up today.
SPEAKER_00: May the Holy Spirit awaken you to what's really true.
SPEAKER_00: Because you really are rich.
SPEAKER_00: You are rich beyond rich.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit indwells you.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up.
SPEAKER_00: May it catch fire.
SPEAKER_00: We have all of our college students back with us.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have you all back.
SPEAKER_00: Take this back to your campus.
SPEAKER_00: Students, take this back to your school.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of you, take this back to your office.
SPEAKER_00: Take this back to your work.
SPEAKER_00: Take this back to your family.
SPEAKER_00: Let 2026 be a good year.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not done.
SPEAKER_00: So that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the what is the breadth and the length and the height and the and the depth of Christ's love.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This prayer that Paul is praying.
SPEAKER_00: What is the height, the depth, the length, the breadth of Christ's love?
SPEAKER_00: You're never going to exhaust it.
SPEAKER_00: You're never going to figure it all out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to figure it all out.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is it's true.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is that's how much he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: That's how much he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Give us eyes to believe this.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't get pulled down by our circumstances in life.
SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to do it far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power of God at work within us.
SPEAKER_00: And many sometimes are thinking about the circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly, exceedingly more.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I would love that new car, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know the house on that street.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to live.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my career.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the context?
SPEAKER_00: You know what he's praying.
SPEAKER_00: To him who is able to do far more abundantly than whatever I could ask or think.
SPEAKER_00: What if that was a prayer for your soul?
SPEAKER_00: What if that was a prayer?
SPEAKER_00: God, will you give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to believe that you want to enrich my heart like this?
SPEAKER_00: That's a different way to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Immeasurably more.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder, as I've been praying and preparing this sermon this week, I've been wondering, and I've been asking God, I wonder what the immeasurably more is for Alexandria Presbyterian Church in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: It was 2025 was a good year for this church.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what, Lord, I wonder what you have in mind.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, pray for these things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just sit back and say, well, God will do what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: No, pray.
SPEAKER_00: Pray these in.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna do tonight.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna do Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna do Saturday morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray this in.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I close with a story out of church history.
SPEAKER_00: I read a lot of biographies, church history.
SPEAKER_00: This is Daniel Rowland from Wales.
SPEAKER_00: He was born the son of a pastor preacher.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest preachers ever, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Lloyd Jones, said George Whitfield was the greatest preacher England ever produced.
SPEAKER_00: Notwithstanding Whitfield's name, he considered Daniel Rowland was the greater of the two.
SPEAKER_00: This man saw thousands and thousands of people converted and saved through his preaching and his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He uh he got saved in 1735.
SPEAKER_00: His um he grew up in a Christian home.
SPEAKER_00: I guess it was, I'm not sure if it was a Christian home.
SPEAKER_00: It was a religious home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure it was a Christian home.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't a Christian until he was in his twenties and he heard the gospel for the first time, and he was changed.
SPEAKER_00: And then he started preaching.
SPEAKER_00: But his preaching, I guess he was a dynamic personality.
SPEAKER_00: His preaching got people's attention, but it was mostly preaching the law, like a lot of preachers today do.
SPEAKER_00: It was really just preaching the law.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you need to live.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: Until one day, one of his friends who understood the gospel better came up to him and he uh he said, Sir, you need to learn how to preach the gospel to your people.
SPEAKER_00: Roland felt a deficiency in his understanding and experience of what the gospel means when it comes alive.
SPEAKER_00: His friend, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Pugh, urged him to preach faith in Christ until he felt his own power, its power personally.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Reverend Roland, if you keep on preaching the law in this manner, you're gonna kill half the people in the county.
SPEAKER_00: For you thunder out the curses of the law and you preach in such a terrific manner that nobody can stand before you.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody leaves just feeling guilty all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the preaching of Daniel Roland had to be accompanied with great blessing.
SPEAKER_00: He continued to warn sinners of the wrath to come, but he began lovingly calling them to Jesus in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: People came from many miles away.
SPEAKER_00: It's told that the souls of the people were often filled with the joy of their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: They seemed irresistibly led to prolong the time of worship.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't looking to get out, they were looking for reasons to stay, to linger.
SPEAKER_00: On one occasion, an entire afternoon was occupied in worship.
SPEAKER_00: People didn't want to leave, they didn't want to go home.
SPEAKER_00: Time seemed to stand still as he preached, and people were wrapped up in the glory and the grace of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One eyewitness said, I was there last Sunday when Brother Roland prayed and preached, and I saw and I felt and I heard things I can't send out on paper.
SPEAKER_00: People were crying out with heartbreaking groans, silent weeping, and holy shouts and joy.
SPEAKER_00: I heard the amens of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: People were wounded and pierced by the law, yes, but also the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Sights of beauty of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's transformation.
SPEAKER_00: That's transformation in a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: God desires that kind of transformation in every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And it happens as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see just how beautiful Jesus is and his glory and his majesty.
SPEAKER_00: And we're being changed on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Please pray with me, Lord Jesus, please open our eyes to see your love, to grasp how long and wide and deep is the love of Jesus for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, when we think of all that you endured for us to see this, to believe this, we want to thank you again this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you please empower us, enlighten us, open us up to see what we have not seen.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we've been Christians for six months or six years or sixty years, wake us up.
SPEAKER_00: May our souls catch fire of these very truths, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we pray this in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.