Neil Silverberg: Well, for several weeks now we've been walking through the book of Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: Paul wrote this letter to a first century congregation.
Neil Silverberg: We call this series in Christ because Paul never called believers Christians.
Neil Silverberg: That's never on his lips.
Neil Silverberg: He only refers to them as in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Believers are in Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And we've heard that repeated again and again.
Neil Silverberg: And it's important because that's how Paul identified believers.
Neil Silverberg: But this letter is not only about being in Christ, it's a treasure trove of instruction and how believers ought to pray for other believers.
Neil Silverberg: It's amazing.
Neil Silverberg: Remember the lengthy prayer that closed the first chapter?
Neil Silverberg: I think Mark spoke to that.
Neil Silverberg: Well, this section, this first section of Ephesians ends as well with a prayer of Paul.
Neil Silverberg: And it's so powerful.
Neil Silverberg: I've been praying this prayer for years over the believers that I work with, and I love to pray this prayer.
Neil Silverberg: So we're going to go through it tonight.
Neil Silverberg: And these are apostolic prayers.
Neil Silverberg: We want to notice how Paul and the apostles, how they prayed for people.
Neil Silverberg: It's important to take note of that.
Neil Silverberg: When Paul came to a region and preached the gospel, he didn't leave them with Bibles.
Neil Silverberg: They couldn't do that.
Neil Silverberg: They didn't have it.
Neil Silverberg: But he prayed for them these apostolic prayers that were powerful.
Neil Silverberg: And so this morning we're going to impact the apostles' second prayer in chapter 3.
Neil Silverberg: Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and we'll plunge into this.
Neil Silverberg: Hallelujah.
Neil Silverberg: I'm excited about it.
Neil Silverberg: Ephesians 3, verses 14 through 20.
Neil Silverberg: And this message is entitled Rooted and Grounded in Love.
Neil Silverberg: Would you mind standing with me as we read God's word?
Neil Silverberg: Ephesians 3, 14 through 20.
Neil Silverberg: Verse 14, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, 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 depth, height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Neil Silverberg: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: Let me read that one more time, verse 20.
Neil Silverberg: What a powerful statement.
Neil Silverberg: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
Neil Silverberg: To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: And everyone said, Amen.
Neil Silverberg: You may be seated.
Neil Silverberg: Praise God.
Neil Silverberg: One of the things I've enjoyed doing over the years that I've been teaching is studying carefully church history.
Neil Silverberg: I've been so enriched by becoming acquainted with how brothers and sisters throughout the ages interpreted the scriptures and lived out their faith.
Neil Silverberg: And church history is a compendium of teaching on that regard.
Neil Silverberg: One group of believers I became familiar with as I've studied church history is the 17th and 16th century Puritans.
Neil Silverberg: They are called Puritans because they sought to purify the church.
Neil Silverberg: And they were a specific group.
Neil Silverberg: The pilgrims that we're familiar with were a part of the the uh Puritans, but they they were called separatists because they believed that the Church of England was not redeemable and they should separate.
Neil Silverberg: And they came over to these shores with that intention.
Neil Silverberg: Other Puritans were known as non-separatists.
Neil Silverberg: They wanted to reform the Church of England from within.
Neil Silverberg: All of these Puritans were known for their sound Bible exposition and their theological preciseness.
Neil Silverberg: But along with their emphasis on theological correctness, they were known for their intimacy with God.
Neil Silverberg: And this is something we see in when they are when we read a certain document that the Puritans left us called the Kisses of God.
Neil Silverberg: I don't know if you've ever heard it, the Kisses of God.
Neil Silverberg: What did they mean by the phrase the kisses of God?
Neil Silverberg: Listen, the Puritans, for Puritans, the Kisses of God meant a profound, intimate experience of God's love and favor, a feeling of heightened divine communion that was both spiritual and emotional.
Neil Silverberg: It wasn't long before seeking an experience, it wasn't seeking an experience over doctrine, but about a holistic, heartfelt engagement with God, where doctrinal truth was meant not only to be understood, but deeply felt and enjoyed.
Neil Silverberg: I love that.
Neil Silverberg: It represented the intense, joyful connection a believer could have with God, much like the intimate and loving uh greetings in biblical stories or the love shared between spouses.
Neil Silverberg: Now, where did they get this idea of the kisses of God?
Neil Silverberg: As the story goes, a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin was walking down a road one day, and ahead of him was a father walking with his son hand in hand.
Neil Silverberg: And they continued to walk hand in hand, but suddenly the father stopped and he scooped up his little boy in his arms and started profusely kissing him.
Neil Silverberg: And this went on for about a minute.
Neil Silverberg: And he then placed him back on the road, held his hand, and continued to walk.
Neil Silverberg: And the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, who observed this, realized that his father didn't love the son more when he scooped him up and profusely kissed him with kisses.
Neil Silverberg: He just wanted a moment where he could demonstrate the depth of his love for his son.
Neil Silverberg: And the Puritans called this the kisses of God, based on the verse in Song of Solomon 1, verse 2.
Neil Silverberg: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
Neil Silverberg: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Neil Silverberg: I don't know how many men can relate to that in this room, but they saw it as a valid experience for both men and women.
Neil Silverberg: Jonathan Edwards was considered to be a Puritan, and it says of him, Jonathan Edwards, one of the leaders of the first great awakening, reported profound spiritual experiences in which he perceived the glory and grace of Jesus as overwhelming and indescribable.
Neil Silverberg: How many want that?
Neil Silverberg: He viewed these encounters as moments of divine revelation, during which he all intensely sensed God's majesty, love, and beauty, often accompanied by deep emotion, tears, and a heartfelt longing to be emptied and annihilated before God so he might be filled with Christ alone.
Neil Silverberg: Now, Jonathan Edwards is considered to be the greatest intellect that America ever produced.
Neil Silverberg: Many believe that.
Neil Silverberg: But look at what he says.
Neil Silverberg: He viewed these encounters as moments of divine revelation, during which he intensely sensed God's majesty, love, beauty, and accompanied by deep emotion, tears.
Neil Silverberg: You can be intellectual and you can be emotional.
Neil Silverberg: Did you know that?
Neil Silverberg: I believe that what Paul was praying for these believers at Ephesus will experience.
Neil Silverberg: That's what he's praying.
Neil Silverberg: He's praying that they will experience what he has talked about in theology.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, Randy Alcorn, an author, said in the following letter to the Colossians, which has a similar prayer to that of the Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: He says, as we look at this prayer, I want to take notice of what Paul didn't pray for.
Neil Silverberg: Please note this.
Neil Silverberg: This is what Paul didn't pray for.
Neil Silverberg: An elder's bout with cancer, the flu bug going around Colossi, an Asia Minor recession, kidney stones, back problems, good weather for the church picnic.
Neil Silverberg: No.
Neil Silverberg: Did they not have those problems?
Neil Silverberg: They did, sure.
Neil Silverberg: They had diseases, discomforts, financial strains, bad weather.
Neil Silverberg: And did they pray for them?
Neil Silverberg: No doubt.
Neil Silverberg: But scripture records that uh prayers that seldom concern such things.
Neil Silverberg: They involve intercession for people's love for God, knowledge of God, walk with God, and service to God.
Neil Silverberg: That's what they were concerned with praying.
Neil Silverberg: No, essentially, there are two position positions, two petitions, I'm sorry, that Paul prayed in this prayer.
Neil Silverberg: I want you to consider them with me.
Neil Silverberg: First, he prays that God may strengthen them with power through the Spirit in the inner man.
Neil Silverberg: And I hope to persuade you of how much that is needed.
Neil Silverberg: And then, secondly, they might have they might have power to grasp the limitless dimensions of the love of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, I've heard it said and I agree with it, that the best way to understand a person's theology is by listening to him or her pray.
Neil Silverberg: What a person prays about the nature of God, the nature of man, is revealed by the way they pray.
Neil Silverberg: So we need to be reminded when we pray, when we read these words, that Paul isn't writing a theological treatise.
Neil Silverberg: He is praying for God's people.
Neil Silverberg: You know, a number of years ago when I was living in Alabama, somebody brought me a book, and it was called The Odes of Solomon, a small little book, The Odes of Solomon, and it purports to be a prayer book and prayer lyrics to songs the early church sang, especially in the late first century, early second century.
Neil Silverberg: And it blew my mind when I read it because they were so theological.
Neil Silverberg: They didn't just pray, I'm being blessed, I hope you're being blessed too.
Neil Silverberg: They they prayed deep.
Neil Silverberg: It was intellectual, it was theologically sound.
Neil Silverberg: And this is what apostolic prayer is it's how the apostles prayed for their converts.
Neil Silverberg: And again, when Paul came to a region and preached the gospel, he didn't leave a Bible with them, he had no Bible to leave with them.
Neil Silverberg: Instead, he prayed for them, and these are the ways he prayed for them.
Neil Silverberg: We should be students of these prayers.
Neil Silverberg: Amen.
Neil Silverberg: Now, this prayer has four requests which flows out of it.
Neil Silverberg: I want you to follow this, but before we look at the four requests, let's look at how Paul resumes his original prayer, which actually starts in verse one of this chapter.
Neil Silverberg: But we notice first his posture when he prays.
Neil Silverberg: He prays on his knees, he bows his knees.
Neil Silverberg: And the normal notion posture in prayer was to stand.
Neil Silverberg: Remember in Mark 11, it says, whenever you stand praying, so Jesus said that.
Neil Silverberg: So standing was a Jewish form of prayer, posture towards prayer.
Neil Silverberg: And he remember the Pharisee in Luke 18, the Pharisee was standing before the Lord and in the temple.
Neil Silverberg: And remember, but also uh there was uh moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus fell on his face and prayed.
Neil Silverberg: Remember that?
Neil Silverberg: Matthew 26.
Neil Silverberg: In Scripture, bowing the knees, though, signifies that they may have prompted Paul to mention it.
Neil Silverberg: The kneeling posture represents an attitude of submission, of the recognition that we are in the presence of someone who is much greater than us.
Neil Silverberg: This is why the psalmist said when he proclaimed in Psalm 95, Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Neil Silverberg: Remember how when Ezra heard of the intermarriage of the Israelites with foreign women, he fell on his face, on his knees, rather, and stretched out his hands in confession to the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: So, and then when Daniel heard that King Darius had signed the edict forbidding anyone to pray to any God but the king, remember he continued kneeling three times a day and giving thanks before God.
Neil Silverberg: And not only does Paul tell us his posture is to bow, but he also tells us that his prayer is directed to the Father.
Neil Silverberg: And this is critical.
Neil Silverberg: This is the Father of whom all fathers in heaven and earth derive his existence, all fathers.
Neil Silverberg: This highlights that all relationships and structures, both seen and unseen, are rooted in God's fatherhood.
Neil Silverberg: The family in heaven and earth is often interpreted to refer to the family of God, which includes both Old Testament and New Testament saints who are united as join heirs in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: This is why the Lord taught us when we pray to begin our prayer saying, Our Father.
Neil Silverberg: We must know that the God we are praying to is not some uh distant, impotent being.
Neil Silverberg: He's a God that is Father who has forgiven us our sins, and now he has made us children of God.
Neil Silverberg: So let's look at these four parts of the request that Paul offers to God for.
Neil Silverberg: Number one, the first request is for inner spiritual strength.
Neil Silverberg: Take notes of these.
Neil Silverberg: You need these in your life.
Neil Silverberg: Inner spiritual strength.
Neil Silverberg: That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in his inner being.
Neil Silverberg: At its core, this is a prayer for power.
Neil Silverberg: And already in this letter, Paul has actually asked for believers for power for believers.
Neil Silverberg: Remember in chapter one, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might?
Neil Silverberg: In Philippians, he he asked that he might know uh the power of his resurrection.
Neil Silverberg: That was Paul's prayer for the believers.
Neil Silverberg: They would know the power of his resurrection.
Neil Silverberg: And by the way, this is not a prayer for naked power, like some invisible force that's going to take us by surprise, although in revival that does happen.
Neil Silverberg: The sphere in which this power is to be known is in the inner being, deep in our hearts.
Neil Silverberg: What exactly does he mean by that phrase, the inner being?
Neil Silverberg: To answer that, look at another passage where Paul uses the same phrase, the inner being, in 2 Corinthians 4 16.
Neil Silverberg: He says, So we do not lose heart, though our outward man is wasting away, our inner being is being renewed day by day.
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: When he says our outer self is wasting away, he is referring, no doubt, to the many years of physical hardship and persecution Paul endured.
Neil Silverberg: For example, he was beaten five times.
Neil Silverberg: Five forty lashes, but except for one, 39 was the limit, and he five times was uh experienced that pain.
Neil Silverberg: But that's not all what Paul means when he plays says that our outer man is wasting away.
Neil Silverberg: He is no doubt referring to the simple fact that he's aging.
Neil Silverberg: How many have discovered you're aging?
Neil Silverberg: And don't you love it?
Neil Silverberg: I'm sold.
Neil Silverberg: I did that intentionally.
Neil Silverberg: If you were if you were sleeping during the sermon, you're up now.
Neil Silverberg: The best way to describe the aging process is wasting away.
Neil Silverberg: Our outer self is wasting away.
Neil Silverberg: But while that's going on, at the same time, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Neil Silverberg: The believer alone lives out this dichotomy of the outer self wasting while the inner man is being renewed.
Neil Silverberg: Paul points out this dichotomy, not only here in 2 Corinthians 4 and in the scripture in Ephesians, but he is uh talks about it in 2 Corinthians 12, how he was given a messenger of Satan to buffet him, remember?
Neil Silverberg: So to keep me from being conceited, 2 Corinthians 12, keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation.
Neil Silverberg: Thorn, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a pet messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited.
Neil Silverberg: Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me, but he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Neil Silverberg: Someone recently asked me what that means.
Neil Silverberg: It means exactly what it says: Grace makes anything uh tolerable and gives us the ability to deal with it.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, I will boast the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Neil Silverberg: For the sake of Christ, I am content with weakness.
Neil Silverberg: Listen to this man.
Neil Silverberg: For the sake of Christ, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
Neil Silverberg: For when I am weak, then am I strong.
Neil Silverberg: The second request is that Paul prays for a deepening of their faith.
Neil Silverberg: First he prayed for power, now he prays their faith would be deepened, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith.
Neil Silverberg: Such an important request.
Neil Silverberg: This is more than resident faith that comes with salvation.
Neil Silverberg: Paul is writing to Christians, and Christ took up his residence in their hearts when they accepted him.
Neil Silverberg: Right?
Neil Silverberg: And this is Christ being at home in one's heart.
Neil Silverberg: Two words translated by the one English word dwell.
Neil Silverberg: The one means a temporary dwelling, like staying in a hotel.
Neil Silverberg: But the other means permanent residence.
Neil Silverberg: Which one do you think Paul uses?
Neil Silverberg: The Holy Spirit doesn't come just to bless you and leave, he comes up to take permanent residence and to dwell in your hearts forever.
Neil Silverberg: In his book, My Heart, Christ's Home, author Robert Munger describes, pictures the Christian life as a house through which Jesus goes from room to room.
Neil Silverberg: He says, in the library, which is the mind, Jesus finds trash and worthless things, which he proceeds to throw out and replace with his word.
Neil Silverberg: Thank God.
Neil Silverberg: In the dining room of appetite, he finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu.
Neil Silverberg: In the place of such things as prestige, materialism, and lust, he puts humility, meekness, love, and all other virtues for which believers are to hunger and thirst.
Neil Silverberg: He goes through the living room of fellowship, where he finds many worldly companions and activities through the workshop, which where only toys are being made, into the closet where hidden sins are kept, and so on through the entire house.
Neil Silverberg: Only when he has cleaned every room, closet and corner of sin and foolishness could Christ settle down and be at home.
Neil Silverberg: To have Christ dwell in our hearts through faith means for him to be at home in every corner of our life because we believe his promises and therefore become obedient to his word.
Neil Silverberg: The third request is that believers be rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: Rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: And I want to focus on this.
Neil Silverberg: Being made strong inwardly by God's Spirit leads to Christ being at home in our hearts, which leads to love that is incomprehensible.
Neil Silverberg: Love is incomprehensible.
Neil Silverberg: The result of our yielding to the Spirit's power and submitting to Christ's Lordship in our hearts is love.
Neil Silverberg: When He freely indwells our hearts, we become rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: 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.
Neil Silverberg: We are to be settled on a strong foundation of love.
Neil Silverberg: He was not asking that they would love God more, he was asking that we would apprehend God's love more.
Neil Silverberg: It took divine strength to be rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, this is a prayer for the corporate church, not for individual believers alone.
Neil Silverberg: It's for the corporate church.
Neil Silverberg: We need to remember that.
Neil Silverberg: Believers will personally benefit from this prayer, but we best understand it if we approach it from a corporate perspective.
Neil Silverberg: It's not about me and Jesus, it's about us and Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: I remember when I was a new believer and I first read Acts 1.8, you shall be my witnesses, and I started my individual career for God.
Neil Silverberg: But it's not a personal prayer for me alone.
Neil Silverberg: It's for us.
Neil Silverberg: The promises were for us and Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: We cannot comprehend the fullness of love until we are totally immersed in love, unless it is the very root of our being.
Neil Silverberg: Someone asked famous jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to explain jazz.
Neil Silverberg: And he replied, Man, if I've got to explain it, I ain't got it.
Neil Silverberg: That's a theologian.
Neil Silverberg: Same thing applies to love.
Neil Silverberg: It can't truly be understood and comprehensive until it is experienced.
Neil Silverberg: Yet what Paul is talking about is not simply an emotional or subjective.
Neil Silverberg: It is to be rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: It requires being rooted and grounded in God.
Neil Silverberg: When we are saved, God's love is poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
Neil Silverberg: What seems to be a contradiction, Paul says that to know the love of Christ surpasses knowledge.
Neil Silverberg: This is an experience that passes knowledge.
Neil Silverberg: Knowing Christ takes us beyond human knowledge because it is from an infinitely higher source.
Neil Silverberg: Again, Paul is not speaking here of knowing the love we are to have for Christ, but the love of Christ, his very own love that he must place in our hearts before we can love him or anyone else.
Neil Silverberg: We are commanded to love because he has given us love.
Neil Silverberg: God always gives us what he commands in return.
Neil Silverberg: And love is one of the greatest gifts that's been given to the church.
Neil Silverberg: The fourth request is that he would be filled, they would be filled with all the fullness of God.
Neil Silverberg: Think about that.
Neil Silverberg: Paul's praying for believers to be filled with all the fullness of God.
Neil Silverberg: What does that mean?
Neil Silverberg: It means the inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit leads to the indwelling of Christ, which leads to the abundant love, which leads to God's fullness in us.
Neil Silverberg: This is an indescribable request.
Neil Silverberg: To even begin to grasp the magnitude of that truth, we must first think of every characteristic of God.
Neil Silverberg: Paul is not exaggerating when he prays for this fullness because he asks for it repeatedly throughout this letter.
Neil Silverberg: The Greek word for fullness is the word plero, P-L-E-R-O, and it means to make full or be filled to the full.
Neil Silverberg: It's used throughout the New Testament, and it speaks of total dominion, total dominance by another force, total dominance.
Neil Silverberg: To be filled to the fullness of God means to be totally dominated by God.
Neil Silverberg: It is to be emptied of self and filled with God.
Neil Silverberg: How many want to be filled with God so that he has dominant control over your life?
Neil Silverberg: That should be our prayer for all of us.
Neil Silverberg: This is clearly stated in the Ephesian letter.
Neil Silverberg: Here, Paul talks about the fullness of God.
Neil Silverberg: In Ephesians 4, 13, he talks about the fullness of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: In Ephesians 5.18, he talks about the fullness of the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: And we are to experience all three of those: the fullness of God, the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: This is to be totally satisfied with God alone.
Neil Silverberg: And the only way it'll happen is if we ardently pursue Him.
Neil Silverberg: That's how it will happen.
Neil Silverberg: If we pray for Him to strengthen us with power by His Spirit, by the inner man, Christ will be at home in each room of the heart, like we read earlier.
Neil Silverberg: If Christ occupies our heart, we will have confidence and security and we'll be able to love others.
Neil Silverberg: The ability to know God's love and thus love others leads to the fullness of God in us.
Neil Silverberg: What a God we have who loves us so much that he will not rest until we are completely filled with Him.
Neil Silverberg: Now, Paul ends with a doxology, an ending that is completely sufficient for this passage.
Neil Silverberg: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: Amen.
Neil Silverberg: There is one way to conclude this apostolic prayer, but with an anthem of praise.
Neil Silverberg: And we see three things in the doxology: God's sovereignty, God's omnipotence, and God's glory.
Neil Silverberg: God's sovereignty, omnipotence, and glory.
Neil Silverberg: Let's start with God's sovereignty.
Neil Silverberg: It means that God can do more, far more abundantly than we ever ask or think.
Neil Silverberg: Has God ever blown your mind with what he does?
Neil Silverberg: It's good to have your mind blown.
Neil Silverberg: He says our prayers can be answered far beyond even what we ask or think.
Neil Silverberg: I got a couple examples of that, from the old one from the old, one from the New Testament.
Neil Silverberg: First, from the old.
Neil Silverberg: Israel escapes Egypt in the Exodus, and they come, and where does God lead them to?
Neil Silverberg: Right against the Red Sea, where they are up against the sea on one side, and there's no way they can get for go forward.
Neil Silverberg: And to make matters worse, when Pharaoh sees and hears that they're now caught, he musters his chariots and goes after Israel.
Neil Silverberg: And so Israel sees their enemies coming from one angle and the Red Sea blocking the way.
Neil Silverberg: And you know what God does?
Neil Silverberg: He does what no one imagined, exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or think.
Neil Silverberg: He opened the Red Sea.
Neil Silverberg: You think Israel said, We know, we're standing here, we know what God's going to do.
Neil Silverberg: He's going to open the Red Sea.
Neil Silverberg: We're his people.
Neil Silverberg: They had no idea.
Neil Silverberg: And God did something far more abundant than they could ever ask or think.
Neil Silverberg: A similar water story appears in the New Testament when Jesus is taking a snooze on the boat.
Neil Silverberg: He had told the disciples to go to the other side.
Neil Silverberg: He's taking an afternoon nap.
Neil Silverberg: And suddenly, which is common into the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee is a storm comes up on it, and they're about to be capsized.
Neil Silverberg: And Jesus is super superfluous.
Neil Silverberg: And they wake him.
Neil Silverberg: And remember how they waked him?
Neil Silverberg: They said, Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?
Neil Silverberg: It was an indictment against God.
Neil Silverberg: Do you not care?
Neil Silverberg: And he woke up and said, Why are you afraid?
Neil Silverberg: And he said, literally in Greek, he said, Shut up to the wind and the rain.
Neil Silverberg: The one who controls the rains and winds can do that.
Neil Silverberg: And then what happened?
Neil Silverberg: A great calm came over, and they were uh delivered from the storm.
Neil Silverberg: Again, God did what was far more abundant than they could ask or think.
Neil Silverberg: But we need to be clear where Paul says this power operates.
Neil Silverberg: He says, according to the power that works within us.
Neil Silverberg: It's not out there only, but it's in here that the primary place that G Paul tells us the Spirit is working.
Neil Silverberg: It's primarily sanctifying prayer.
Neil Silverberg: God doesn't work from without to within, but starts within and works without.
Neil Silverberg: And we see that in the Philippian epistle.
Neil Silverberg: You know, Paul says in verse 12 of chapter 2 of Philippians, therefore, my beloved, as we have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work at your salvation with fear and trembling.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Neil Silverberg: It's God.
Neil Silverberg: So Paul speaks in this passage of God's power working with us.
Neil Silverberg: It's not a power we control, it's a power that controls us.
Neil Silverberg: If we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we have the most powerful force in the universe dwelling in us.
Neil Silverberg: Do you know that?
Neil Silverberg: And then Paul says it's also God's omnipotence is revealed in the doxology.
Neil Silverberg: Here's a theological definition of omnipotence that I love.
Neil Silverberg: God is an omnipotent, means God possesses unlimited power and is all-powerful, capable of doing anything logically possible and consistent with his own nature.
Neil Silverberg: This concept implies divine control over the physical and spiritual realm, the ability to create, and the power to fulfill his will, which is understood to be good and wise.
Neil Silverberg: For believers, God's omnipotence is a source of great comfort.
Neil Silverberg: We should be comforted by his omnipotence because it signifies that he is in complete control.
Neil Silverberg: And he will use his power for good according to his love and wisdom.
Neil Silverberg: He used his omnipotence to bring Jew and Gentile together, as we saw in chapter 2 and 3, and form them into a dwelling of God through the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: And then God's glory is revealed in this doxology.
Neil Silverberg: His sovereignty, his omnipotence, now his glory.
Neil Silverberg: The Greek word for glory is the word doxa.
Neil Silverberg: It means glory, majesty, and honor.
Neil Silverberg: Ultimately, everything God does.
Neil Silverberg: How many know everything God does is for his glory?
Neil Silverberg: The power of God displays his glory.
Neil Silverberg: All that God has done is to resound to his glory forever.
Neil Silverberg: When we worship, we are giving God the glory that is due to Him.
Neil Silverberg: We don't come to worship to receive something only.
Neil Silverberg: We come to because God is getting the glory, and we want to join in with every created being in the universe to give him glory.
Neil Silverberg: Notice how Paul puts God's glory in the church before Christ Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: He says, Paul does not put the church before Christ in Ephesians 3.21.
Neil Silverberg: Rather, he connects them in a single unified expression of glory.
Neil Silverberg: The phrase in the church and in Christ Jesus indicates that God is glorified through the unified community of believers.
Neil Silverberg: And we are in union with Christ.
Neil Silverberg: This highlights how the church is God's masterpiece of grace, a testament to his glory throughout the generations, visible in uniting all believers under Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: Notice the phrase all generations, to all generations in the doxology.
Neil Silverberg: That's a long time.
Neil Silverberg: We talked much in this church about how God is a generational God.
Neil Silverberg: Why do we talk about it?
Neil Silverberg: Because God is a generational God.
Neil Silverberg: Why is that important?
Neil Silverberg: Because He wants every generation to receive the glory to his name.
Neil Silverberg: Every generation.
Neil Silverberg: And this is followed by the phrase forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: If you thought to all generations was long, how about the phrase forever and ever?
Neil Silverberg: It's even longer.
Neil Silverberg: This means there will be no end to God receiving glory.
Neil Silverberg: There is no end.
Neil Silverberg: Fourteen times in the New Testament, it says, to Him be the glory forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: To Him be the glory.
Neil Silverberg: But it appears prominently in the Psalms.
Neil Silverberg: Psalm 145, Psalm 145, 6, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: And how about Psalm 145?
Neil Silverberg: I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: His glory is in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: You know what God glories in?
Neil Silverberg: Glorifying Himself.
Neil Silverberg: That's what He glories in.
Neil Silverberg: And there are a number of places in the New Testament that reveal how the glory of God is seen in Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: But my favorite is the book of Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 3.
Neil Silverberg: It says, He is the radiance of his glory.
Neil Silverberg: He is the radiance of it.
Neil Silverberg: You know what the Greek word for radiance is?
Neil Silverberg: It's the Greek word for shining or brightness.
Neil Silverberg: What the rays of the sun are to the sun, so it is that God shine.
Neil Silverberg: The Son of God is the brightness of the Lord shining.
Neil Silverberg: How many of you have ever seen the sun?
Neil Silverberg: You've not really seen it.
Neil Silverberg: I mean you can glance up in a moment for a moment and look at it, but go out sometime in June or July in Knoxville, and at noon look up and stare at the sun for 30 minutes.
Neil Silverberg: You've never seen the sun, nor have I.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: It's too bright.
Neil Silverberg: But the sun is seen by its rays.
Neil Silverberg: And it this tells us not only about the sun, but tells us what the Christian life is, essentially.
Neil Silverberg: The Christian life is like getting a tan.
Neil Silverberg: I'm serious.
Neil Silverberg: Because you just lay there and let the sun's rays bake your skin.
Neil Silverberg: And when you get back, everybody knows in the office that you were in Fort Lauderdale.
Neil Silverberg: Which I was just there.
Neil Silverberg: Can you tell?
Neil Silverberg: But he goes on and says, He is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature.
Neil Silverberg: The exact representation.
Neil Silverberg: Now I want to blow your mind.
Neil Silverberg: The word in Greek, there's one single word that's translated in the English Bible by the exact imprint of his nature.
Neil Silverberg: It's the Greek word character.
Neil Silverberg: And it was used of the imprinting of coins.
Neil Silverberg: You know, I have a quarter in my pocket.
Neil Silverberg: I've never seen the original, but I don't need to.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because the original was stamped by the uh imprint by the original.
Neil Silverberg: And when it's stamped, it was the the uh imprint was permanent, and it was therefore uh no need to see the original.
Neil Silverberg: Remember how Jesus said in the upper room, I'm going back to the Father, and Philip said, Show us the Father and we'll be satisfied.
Neil Silverberg: Remember his response?
Neil Silverberg: Have I been so long with you, Philip, and yet you've not known me?
Neil Silverberg: All that has seen me has seen the father.
Neil Silverberg: How do you say then, show us the father?
Neil Silverberg: Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?
Neil Silverberg: So he is the imprint of his nature.
Neil Silverberg: The character of God is fully revealed in one place, and it's in the Son of God.
Neil Silverberg: So this morning, we are blessed to be rooted and grounded in love.
Neil Silverberg: We are blessed to be strengthened with power by the Spirit in our inner man.
Neil Silverberg: Now I want to pray this prayer as a prayer, and as Jordan comes and plays, I want you to stand.
Neil Silverberg: We're gonna pray this prayer together.
Neil Silverberg: Take a moment and let's consider what it means to pray this prayer by faith.
Neil Silverberg: How many of you believe if we pray this prayer because it's biblical, God's gonna hear an answer?
Neil Silverberg: So join with me and follow with me.
Neil Silverberg: Verse 14 of Ephesians 3.
Neil Silverberg: 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.
Neil Silverberg: Now to him who is able to do far more abundant than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
Neil Silverberg: To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Neil Silverberg: Amen.
Neil Silverberg: Lift your hands.
Neil Silverberg: Let's worship.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, Father.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you that you've heard this prayer because you inspired it by your Holy Spirit hundreds thousands of years ago and we prayed it in faith.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, we know you're going to do it.
Neil Silverberg: We trust you to fulfill that which you we've just prayed.
Neil Silverberg: And Lord, not let it not just be a one time prayer.
Neil Silverberg: Help us to live this prayer out by praying it daily for those we love in Christ, for brothers and sisters that we don't know.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, help us to pray this prayer faithfully in Jesus' name.
Neil Silverberg: Amen and amen.