Welcome And Personal Update

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Well, good morning and welcome to Cop Hell Bible Today. My name is Michael. I am one of the pastors here. And if you're with us last week, uh Barkef mentioned at the beginning of his message a little congratulations to my family because we did, in fact, 10 days ago have our fourth child, a little girl. And what I heard was Mama is going to be here. She may be running just a little bit late, but the reason she's going to be here even 10 days ago with the baby is because the baby is doing excellent. I mean, we have to wake the baby up to feed. And by we, I mean Allie. But just wake the baby up to feed. The baby's sleeping great. In fact, Allie, uh by her own mouth, has said this is the best recovery she's ever had. So she feels great. And so they're going to be here in a little bit and then they're probably going to leave a little bit early. But um she also is a supportive wife and wants to be here when I preach. And so I just love that about her. So yeah, we have sweet little Juliet Marcianne Hewitt, and uh, we're all Jay names as the girls are in our family. And Marcianne, that's Allie's mother's name. And if you know her, she's a salt of the earth, and uh there's no one like her. And so we just knew we need to give that namesake to one of our kids. And so anyway, she's precious, 10 days old, head full of hair, cute as can be, just like her other sisters. And I also got to say thank you to Barkef because Barkef asked me many, many times, are you sure you want to preach this weekend? Are you sure you want to preach? Even if you call me on Sunday morning, I'll preach for you if you have baby stuff going on. And I said, No, I I knew I was preaching, I was trying to prepare, I knew we had a baby coming, but also I want to preach this message because this message and the text that it covers is my favorite text in the Bible at this point in my life. And if you know me, you know it's hard for me to pick one favorite of anything. I'm an options guy. I see possibilities. It's a blessing and a curse. And so for me to be able to go, no, this is it with where I'm at in life right now, I truly mean it. And the reason is simple. This passage is just life-giving. I mean, it answers questions that I've asked about the purpose of life and how full life is found and where it's found, and how do you get it? And this passage answers that, but not just that, it also shows us what's possible in our life with us allowing God into it. Like it's what can he do in my life? He talks about life to the full in John 10, 10. How do we have it? How do we receive it? How do we live it? This passage, and by passage, I mean prayer, shows us exactly how to do that. And so I'm excited for this one. But in order to start, I actually want us to go on

Two Houses Inner Life Metaphor

SPEAKER_00 3:03

a little journey. Imagine we're standing on a sidewalk and we're looking out and we see uh two houses, and our eyes instantly go to this one because this one is immaculate. It's absolutely beautiful on the outside. I mean, it the painting, it just fresh coat, the landscaping, exquisite. The grass is the greenest grass ever. You don't even want to walk on it. And you and you're walking up to this wraparound porch, and there's even on the doormat a verse, and you're just thinking before you walk in, whoever's in this house has got life figured out. They've figured out the answer, they've got it going on, they must be doing awesome, and you're excited, and you open the door, and to your dismay, the inside tells a different story than the outside. In fact, the first thing you notice is the lights aren't really on, but there are a couple that are flickering, and you kind of get this feeling of dread, and as you step in, you look and you realize that there's cracks all along the wall, and they've been painted over in hopes that it could just cover them up enough. And you take a couple more steps, you look down the hallway, and the doors to the bedrooms are closed because they don't want you in there. But you walk down and you open a door and you realize why the room's not furnished because it's not even finished. It's just a shell. But you go to open the closet and the closet's locked because they don't want you seeing what's in there. And you begin to feel uneasy, and you walk out to the hallway and you feel this dread over you, and you realize that this is there's no nothing about this is life-giving. There's no joy here, there's no peace here, there's no loving kindness, there's no life in this house. And so you walk back out to the sidewalk with me, and you're looking at it going, but it looks so beautiful on the inside on the outside. But the inside told a different story. So you look at this other house and you go, okay, well, there's nothing really that great about that house. It's a nice house, it's average. It's not trying to keep up with the Joneses like the next door neighbor. But there's a couple places that need some touch-up paint. Uh, the landscaping's average. Grass could have been mowed a week ago. And as you walk up to the porch of that house, you realize there's toys kind of thrown around, kids must live there, and it's not organized, a little chaotic. But the porch light's on, that's inviting. And so I don't know, let's see. And now you're hoping it's not like the inside of the other one. And you open it up a little bit slower, and as you open the door, you realize it's not like the other house. You instantly notice the lights are on in this house. It's furnished, it's organized, it feels well lived in but peaceful. It feels inviting. And you walk into this house and you look down the hallway, and all the doors are open because they're inviting you in. And you walk into one of those rooms and you open up the closet and you realize there's nothing to hide. Now there's clothes on the floor, it's not perfect, but there's nothing to hide, and there's no darkness. And as you walk to the other side of the house, you hear some springtime jazz being played by the living room. You smell the fresh aroma of a home-cooked meal coming from the kitchen. You see these rays of sunlight coming through the window, and you step in that and you feel the warmth of it, and it just hits you. You're like, this isn't a house, this is a home. This, there's something about it that I want more of. Because there is joy here, there is peace here, there is some sort of life here that I want a part of. It feels good, it's inviting, and I want more of it. And so we walk back out and we look at these two houses and we just say, Oh my gosh, that one has everything going on on the outside, but the inside is nothing. But this one over here, there's something about it, and I want more of it. What the Apostle Paul is gonna pray in the prayer this morning is that you and I would become the second house. He's gonna pray that the Holy Spirit would do a work inside of us to renovate all the areas of our life that are filled with darkness or are hiding, that his light and life can come into us, renovate the inside of our house, and bring everything that God is into that house. The fullness of God is what he's gonna pray to come into your inner self. And I'm excited for us to get into this.

Reading Ephesians Prayer

SPEAKER_00 7:00

What we're gonna see this morning as we go through uh Ephesians 3, 14 through 21 are really three different movements that I want us to look at. The first that we're gonna see is the door, the door that opens up for the renovation to happen. The second thing we're gonna see is the renovation itself. Well, what things could be renovated? How is he gonna do this work? What does it look like? And then the last thing we're gonna see is the guarantee of the one doing the work. And so I'm gonna I'm just gonna read it. It's not gonna be on the screen. I just want to read this passage to you. I want you to hear how beautiful it is, how life-giving it is. This is what the apostle Paul writes. This is Ephesians 3, 14 through 21. He says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This is such a life-giving text. I'm excited to get into the first thing I want us to see. Well, actually, let me ask a question. This is rhetorical, though. Kudos for you if you answer out loud. Do you want a renovated inner self? You have to answer that first. Like, think about the inner you, the you that only you and God Almighty know. Are there areas in that person that need to change? And if you say no, that's a lie, and that's an area that needs to change. We all have them, but you have to answer that question first. So now let's see the door that opens up the possibility of the renovation to even happen. It's found

The Door Of Surrender

SPEAKER_00 9:16

in verse 14. Look at the beginning of verse 14 with me. Paul says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father. He says, He bows his knees. This is the posture, I believe, that opens the work of the Lord to be done in you. Now, why bow? That's not the norm. You need to know that's not the norm in their day. We're not commanded anywhere in Scripture to have a certain posture every time we pray, a physical posture, that is. In fact, if you remember Jesus in Luke 18, he shares a parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector, and Jesus says, both men stood to pray, because that was the norm. You can even go back to Genesis 18, and you have Abraham standing before the Lord as he's praying over the city of Sodom. Standing really was the natural posture. So this is not a natural thing for Paul to do. So why bow? Well, obviously, I think there's a little respect, reverence, awe for God Almighty, for the ability to go before the throne of grace to him, understanding who he is and who you are. I actually think more importantly, though, is Paul understands the posture of surrender. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1, the beginning of this chapter, he calls himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus. What we're gonna see after Easter in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, is he calls himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus. If you were to go to Romans 1.1, Titus 1.1, Philippians 1.1, in his intro statement in these letters, he calls himself a bondservant, literally a slave of Christ Jesus. So Paul has this surrender, not out of defeat, out of a willing submission to the Father. Because Paul's a man like most of us here, who has lived life outside of the will of the Father, and we've also lived it in the will of the Father, or should I say, under the will of the Father. And Paul has realized through counting the costs that living under the will of the Father is better than living outside of it. He understands submitting the Lord that submitting and surrendering to him is going to be better for him. He's counted the cost and he says, Jesus, you're worth it. You're worth it. And so he has this posture here, I believe, of surrender. And he's about to talk about what we can receive if we do this. Now, here's the deal: you can't receive anything with closed fists. But if you open up your hands, you release, you let go, now you're in a posture to receive. And it's my belief that the posture starts in the heart and it just made its way to his physical posture and his prayer. See, the heart of the heart posture is what matters in prayer. What's your heart saying? It doesn't matter what physically you look like in that prayer, but I think for Paul, his heart's in a place where he understands who God is, what he's done in Paul's life, and what he wants to do, which, by the way, is why he's praying on behalf of the Ephesian church and by extension us, that all believers would experience this. Because he himself has experienced this. He knows it's better to be surrendered to what God wants to do than to be outside of the will and do what you want to do. And so surrender is the door that opens, I believe, the renovation to start. And from this, everything else will flow. So, what does it look like when we give God access? What does it look like when we say, All right, Lord, you can have all of me? Well, he tells us what we're going to receive in verses 16 through 19, but let's look at verses 16 through 17 to begin. He

Strengthened By The Spirit

SPEAKER_00 13:01

says this, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. When you open the door for the Lord to work, Paul's gonna show us four ways, four things, four areas that the Lord wants to renovate inside of you. Again, from the basis of surrender, though. The first way we're gonna see here is God wants to renovate by strengthening your inner man, inner woman, inner self. Look at what he says. He first says, grant. This is gift language. He said that he would grant it, meaning you can't just go get it on your own. It's only something you can receive from the Father. So he prays from a place of surrender, knowing that's the place to be, that God would in fact grant this to happen. Okay, but where is God going to get it from? Well, he tells us it's according to the riches of his glory, innumerable, infinite riches of his glory. God's not up in heaven going, well, you know, I don't have much to give today, so let me just ration it out a little bit. Who needs it the most? Who wants it the most? That's not it. It's an infinite, abundant amount of the riches of his glory that he is giving freely from. So he grants it. It's from his riches, nothing you've done. And then it's through the Holy Spirit strengthening your inner person. The Holy Spirit that's in you. He tells us in Ephesians 1 that we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. If you've placed your faith in Jesus for everlasting life, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit. The problem is, a lot of us don't live in that power. We literally have the Holy Spirit. We're sealed forever, but we have a dormant Holy Spirit. We've pushed the Holy Spirit to a room and shut the door. Or maybe we've just allowed the Holy Spirit to be in the living room. Because you know, when you have people coming over to your house, you're like, clean up the living room and and and maybe the kitchen and dining area. Throw everything in the other rooms and shut the door, they're not going in there anyway. And we do that, we we do that with God. We do that with the Holy Spirit. Hey, on Sunday I'll open the door up for you, Lord. On Sunday, I'll let you, hey, have at it. Okay, it's Sunday night. Get back in there, shut the door, lock it, throw the key. Gotta find it next Saturday night. Get ready for Sunday morning. We do this. But God will grant this to the riches that He has, to the Holy Spirit that's in you to strengthen, literally, to get into the areas that you need someone to get into. The closets that have stayed locked for too long. The basement that you don't even want to think about. The attic that you threw stuff up there and thought, man, I don't want to deal with it. He needs to get in those areas. This is the first way he wants to renovate you. And he can strengthen you through the power of the Holy Spirit in you. Now, uh, there's a theologian, um, his name is John Stott and a commentator, and this is what he writes about the Holy Spirit, and I love it. He says, the power for Christian living does not come from gritting our teeth or from trying harder. It comes from the Spirit of God working in the depths of our being, in the inner person where our real life is lived. And then Tony Evans piggybacks off that. He says, You will never live the Christian life in your own strength, because God never intended you to. That's why he didn't just save you and leave you, he moved in to you. The Holy Spirit's in you. The question is, are you letting them work? Are you giving them access? Or are you pushing them to the side? Or just giving them the front room, or the exterior of the house that looks so beautiful for all the passerbys, but inside is tore up. So there's a result that can happen. This is the second thing. The first thing is to strengthen you, but there's a result when you begin to be strengthened. The result of God granting this and the Holy Spirit strengthening you is Christ begins to dwell in your heart. Dwelling literally means to be completely at home, not stopping by, not a Sunday only experience with him, or a Christmas Easter only experience with him, but at every moment, every day, experience with him. That's what's possible. And here's what I know. We're talking about, I heard you talking about mission trips earlier today. You go on a mission trip, you experience the power of the Holy Spirit literally every moment, from the moment you get to the airport and you get through the crazy construction at DFW and you need the Holy Spirit for patience in that, to the time you get back, and you're like, this is the best experience of my life. It wasn't just because you hopped on a plane and went somewhere, it's because you allowed the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you. You open up yourself to the Holy Spirit to move however he wanted to move. And then we come back here and we get comfortable again, we get complacent, and we go to our job on a Monday, and we come home and we get in this rhythm, and and we totally just push the Holy Spirit to the side. But the Holy Spirit is a gift given and is in you. But for a lot of us is dormant. But if we open up the door of surrender and we say, No, no, no, I need you in my life to do this work, then God can grant it. And then all of a sudden, Christ begins to dwell. Now, this does not mean, oh, this is salvation. No, Paul's writing to believers in Ephesus. They already have the Holy Spirit, they're already saved through faith. They get all of that. But he's talking about this new nature you have. He's talking about this new renewed spirit that you have. This is the access that you give to Christ. And when you give it him the access, then he makes home in every room in your heart, every room in your inner being. So here's here's something I want to kind of, if you can just go with me for a couple minutes, this way, just aside, because I think this is important to know.

Christ Makes A Home

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Jesus tells us how this is possible. How do we actually do this then? I'm praying it, I'm seeing it, but is there something else I need to do? Yes, Jesus tells us. In John 14, he has discipleship language here. And in verse 21 and 23, he basically says the same thing, but he says this in John 14, 21. He who has my commandments, the Bible, and keeps them. That's John 14, 21. Meaning, oh, and he goes on to say, uh, it is he who loves me. Meaning, love is you obeying the commandments of Christ. And when you do that, you're opening up yourself literally to use the Holy Spirit to be able to follow and obey the commands of Christ. And when you do that, Christ begins getting in areas that you didn't let him before, and now you start to experience more of him. But then in verse 23, he reiter reiterates this, but it speaks to Christ's dwelling in our heart. In John 14, 23, he says, If anyone loves me, which is that it's if you're going to obey him, he will keep my word. My father will love him, and we will come to him and we will make our home with him. This is not salvation language, this is discipleship. Let me give you an example. You're like, wait, God will love me if I follow him. That's I got to earn it. I thought we free grace church here. I thought we don't earn it. No, no, no. Positionally, we are it's free grace. We trust in the Lord, we have it, we have salvation, nothing we can do, unmerited favor given to us by God and Christ and the work he did on the cross. But to experience a discipleship life, for him to appreciate the disciple you're being, you obey him, you follow his commands. Look, I now have four daughters, okay? By that I mean I need a wedding fund started yesterday, so I'll send you my Venmo later. But here's the deal all parents know this. You love all your kids the same. And my kids are all great because the oldest is 11, so they haven't really had time to mess that up too much. But the 11-year-old is the firstborn. If you know anything about firstborns, they obey. Okay. If you know anything about any of the others, they don't. Does that mean you love them less? No. You love them all the same. But do I appreciate the fact that Jubilee is obedient and will do what I say the moment I tell her? Yes. This is what Jesus is saying here about God. That when we actually obey him, we do what he says, then we're allowing through the door surrender him to come into our heart and renovate it. And look, so many of us haven't even allowed him to go into rooms. We we've left him untouched, and we door locked. Man, he wants to light it up. And I pray that we would let him do that. So don't you want Christ to make his home in your life? Yeah, how sweet would that be? It's house number two versus house number one. But the reality is, is we've kept some doors off limits.

Unlocking Secret Rooms

SPEAKER_00 22:17

I wonder if any of these speak to you. Maybe there's some rooms in your house, like the room of secret sin. It's a thing that nobody knows about. It's the habit. It's the pattern. It's the vice or thing you just needed. The private life that you're so good at hiding, no one knows. Maybe it's the room of shame. It's not just sin, but it's the weight of who you've been. Literally the actions you've done, things done to you, the things you've done to other people, and that room just feels too dark, too heavy. I locked it for a reason, and I don't want to go back there. It's too far gone for God to want to go in there. And maybe for all of us, because we live in DFW, it's actually the room of control. That for us, it's the part of your life. It could be your finances, it could be your future, it could be your relationships. It's where you've decided, hey God, you can have everything else, but this part's mine. And that's how you're living this life. But every room you surrender to him is a room he can fill. You choose what you want. It's your choice. The rooms you that you keep locked, though, guess what? They stay locked. They stay dark. They stay heavy. They stay unchanged. But if you want to experience life, fullness, freedom, light, love, joy, all of these things, you gotta let God come in. The Holy Spirit do the work to strengthen you and to renovate. Now let me share some good news. In Revelation 3, verse 20, Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. And if you want to hear my voice and he opens the door, I will come into him and I will dine with him and he with me. So look at the hands doing the knocking on the doors you don't want to open. They're nail scarred. Meaning he knows what's in there because he paid for it. He's not going to open the door and be shocked by it. He's not going to open the door and think, ooh, ha. I shouldn't have opened this one. He's not going to think that. He's paid for what's in that room, and the moment you crack the door open, the darkness can't stay. The darkness won't be able to stay. And what comes in its place? Him, Christ, his love, his joy, his light comes into that place and brings life in you that nothing else can give you. John 1, 4, and 5 says, In him was life. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overtake it. That's a promise. And we have dark rooms in our inner self. And Paul is praying, you don't have to keep it that way. The power is already in you if you're a believer in Jesus. So surrender that area. Open the door up, let him come in, and let the light flood into the darkness. Be free. That's what he's praying here. Some of us have spent years asking God to make life easier. Hey, Lord, I need help with my situation. I need you to change these circumstances. And those aren't bad prayers. Always pray them, no doubt. But I believe this is a deeper prayer Paul's praying. It sounds like this God, would you strengthen my inner person? Even if you have to work in the areas I don't want you to touch. Would you strengthen my inner person? Now that's a scary, scary prayer because we know the wounds, I mean rooms he'll go in. We know the places that he wants to come light up. But it's going to be better for you if you let him come in. Then you hold on to this your entire life and not get the chance to experience the life he came to give you, the freedom he came to give you. Now, here's the good news.

Rooted In God’s Love

SPEAKER_00 26:21

No matter what comes from the renovation God wants to do in you, you're already built on a foundation of his love. And that won't change what he sees in the room. This is what Paul prays next. In fact, this is a third renovation work. Look at Ephesians 17 through night verses 17 through 19. He says, so that Christ may do on your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Look, the renovation is going to uncover some things. It's going to bring some things to light. And you're nervous and you you trust you more than the Lord in this, and you're like, but that could hurt other people. Yes, there are consequences to the actions you've had. But there's freedom. And the foundation you're on is God's love for you. And that will not crack or shake with whatever comes out. This is what Paul's saying. He uses these two illustrations, rooted and grounded, obviously tree language, building language. And he's being specific here for a reason. He's mixing metaphors on purpose because he wants you to understand this from two different directions. A tree without deep roots can easily get pulled up the moment wind picks up. You just throw a tree on ground and you don't even root it, it just falls over. It just takes off with the wind. The same thing that happened with a building without a solid foundation. It will crack whenever the ground begins to shift. Because it wasn't strong enough. But Paul is saying your life has both deep roots and a strong foundation. A solid foundation. What is the foundation? What are the roots sunk into? God's love for you. His love is already there for you. It's what your life is already built on if you're in Christ. And so Paul already described this in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 15. He begins talking about how you're chosen, you're adopted, you're forgiven, you're redeemed, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. These are all things based out of his love for you, that he's already given you positionally. That no matter if you let the Lord renovate or not, it's yours no matter what. But how much of a missed life would it be if you don't live in that, if you don't grow in that, if you don't experience that deeper and deeper in the love that he has for you more and more. And you may go, like, okay, well, I'd like to know a little bit more about his love. Well, let me just read a few verses for you from Ephesians chapter 2. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Sounds about right. He says, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in all the sons of disobedience. And among them we too all formerly lived with the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and by nature we're children of wrath, even as everyone else. Yeah, it sounds about right. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ, and by grace you have been saved. This is the foundation of this new life, new experience. It's love. His love for you will never go away. He won't open a door and go, oh, you know what, one too many wrong things in your life, and take the foundation out. Positionally, this is our foundation with Christ. And he wants to remind us of that. Because renovations are hard. Renovations usually aren't pretty. There's a part that is real ugly before it gets real beautiful. But you're always loved by God in the middle of it. Whoa, what a beautiful truth of that. And then as we get to the next part, he's praying that we would experience this. In verse 19, he talks about the idea that we need to know the love of Christ, but it's a love that surpasses knowledge. There's an oxymoron there. You're like, I'm supposed to know something that is beyond knowledge. How am I supposed to know that? He's talking about the experience of it. To be able to dive deeper into the love of Christ, to be able to look at the height and the breadth and the length and the depth of it and go, man, I can feel it. And as you open up these rooms in your life, in your heart, in your inner self, what one thing it does is it helps you understand and experience how much God really loves you. That whenever you have an area that you don't want anyone to know about, but you know God needs to deal with, and he gets in and deals with it, and people start finding out about it, and you're already going, man, maybe they don't like me because of this, maybe they're gonna hate me. There's gonna be repercussions, there's gonna be consequences the whole time. The only thing you have is God and his love for you. And unlike people who may go, Yeah, you're right. I can't I can't hang out with you anymore, I can't be around you anymore. I need time to think about what you're just telling me. It's not the same with God. God has arms open and he's wanting to surround you and hug you and show you and shower you. He loves you. This is the truth, but we still hold on to these things. We trust ourselves when we trust him in this. But he wants us to experience it. And his love, when he says the height and the breadth, and the depth and the length, all these things, his love is simply, or this is simply the thought that it stretches everywhere, past every sin, deeper than any shame. It goes beyond what you could imagine. This is the love of God for you. There's no direction that it can go that doesn't cover you, that doesn't take care of you, that doesn't touch you. This is the love of God. And so when we experience Christ's love, the fourth thing we see is we get filled. It's found at the end of verse 19. He says that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. This means you're filled. You know, a cup has to first be emptied in order to be filled. The door has to be opened in order to be filled. And Paul is praying that you would be filled, not the outside of your house looking beautiful for everyone driving by to think you got it going on. That matters for nothing. The inside where it really matters, that it would be filled, and be filled with what? Well, he tells us. Up to the uh all the fullness of God, up to all the fullness of God that you become more like him in this process. Christ is at home in your life. You can't help but become more like him. His character, his nature, the way he thinks, the way he wants you to act, these things will naturally begin to happen because you've let him have access inside of you. So you get filled up, and he's praying that you would get so filled with him through the power of the Holy Spirit that the difference between who you are and who you've been is unmistakably him. It couldn't have been anything else. I couldn't have made myself this way if I had every chance in every life and every day of eternity past to try to make myself that. I just can't do it on my own. But the thing is, we don't have to because it's what he wants to do. Only he can grant it from the abundance of his riches for you to be strengthened to the power of his spirit in your inner person. So Christ may dwell in you so you can experience the depth, a width, a breadth, a length of his love, be changed by it, to be filled up by it. And if that's the case, you can't help but look like Christ. That he literally says, You are gonna do greater things than me. And the same spirit that raised him from the dead is in you, so the possibility is there. So what Jesus is saying is you're now called to be little Christs. That's what you're called to be. But so many of us, again, just have the Holy Spirit dormant in our life. The power's there, we just gotta activate it. We just gotta surrender and let these areas come in and read his word. And when we go, oh, I don't like that, we don't just shut the Bible and go, that's for another day. No, that's for right now. That's for today. Let him come in and let him renovate. This is what it means to be filled with all the fullness of

God Can Do Beyond Imagination

SPEAKER_00 34:44

God. And as we come to the end of this prayer, um, Paul ends with this astounding declarative doxology that guarantees this work is possible. It's a guarantee. Look at it with me, verse 20 and 21. It's so fun. Listen to these words. Now to him who is able to do far abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. After praying this most seemingly uh like unimaginable prayer, he looks up and he goes, Oh, and by the way, what what we're praying could happen in you? That's just the ceiling. The possibility of who you could become and what God wants to do in your life is beyond what you think. Literally, this phrasing is so fun to me because it says, You're gonna be able to do abundantly beyond. This is a made-up word. Did you know Paul made this word up in the Greek? It didn't exist before he coined it here. He coins this word because he's trying to encapsulate what God could do. And he realizes every human word is finite, it just doesn't do it justice. So he took three different words and he put them together. And he's trying to get us to understand that what God wants to do and what he has the possibility of doing is beyond what you can imagine. No, no, no. It's beyond, beyond. No, no, it's beyond the beyond of beyond. This is what he's saying. It's infinite. That's the power available to us. That's what God wants to do in us. But we just stay like this. House number two, or house number one, I look good on the outside, though. That must matter for some. Yeah, kicks and giggles. Not real life. But it's possible that we could live more like house number two, that we would allow him to work in us, through us, to us, renovate, take out things, put things in, move stuff around. He has all access. We're gonna bow before him, and we're gonna say, This is yours, I'm yours. What do you want to do? Yeah, but that's gonna be hard. And I I don't want people to know, and and I just I can't give you this yet. You gotta trust me because my love goes beyond this. You're solid on the foundation of my love. Will you trust me? So, this is what he's saying here. The power is already in you. The same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead has taken up residence in your inner house. So here's the question. One question I want you to leave you with, and I want you to answer. The question was never can God renovate you. The question is whether you'll open the door. Will you open the door and allow the Lord to work and bring light and life into your life? It's possible, because that's this prayer, but it only happens through his power and your surrender.

Wayne’s Next Step With Scripture

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Now, there's a man in the room who I want to acknowledge for a moment. Uh, he started coming to church here about six months ago. I've talked to him about this, by the way. This isn't like I'm just gonna call him out in front of everyone. And he started going to church about six months ago, and he was kind of at a breaking point. I figured I'd try church. November 2nd, he comes to faith in one of our services. February 22nd, he gets baptized just a few weeks ago. And he's met with me, he's called me, he's met Barketh and I, we've had lunches with him, we've talked to him. And honestly, this is not a dig at him. He's kind of clueless at where to begin. But the truth is, he wants to surrender his life to the Lord. Like he wants to have all of these areas in his life be renovated by him. And so he called me one time and he goes, Hey, I need a Bible. Like, I think I need what's called a study Bible. And he goes, What would you recommend? And so I give him, I tell him two different study Bibles, probably Charles River's study Bible or Tony Evans study Bible, New King James Version, or maybe New American Standard Version. Like those that you go with those two, you'll be good, you'll be set. He goes, Okay. And he sent me a picture text about 10 days later, and he had the Bible in his hand, and it has on the front, Wayne, November 2nd being the day that he got saved. And he has a picture on the side showing me the binding, and it says, Charles Riley Study Bible, King James Version. And I was, he's so excited. And I was like, Wayne, I'm so sorry, buddy. King James Version is gonna be hard for you to understand. The good news is Ryrie's notes aren't in the King James Version, they're in it regular English. That's gonna be good. And he goes, Oh, I just thought it wasn't that big a deal to go from New King James to King James. I don't know. He just doesn't know, but the thing is, his heart's in the right place. And the Lord's already done a great work. And so I said, Let me tell you what, buddy. Let me go find the Bible and buy it. And let me get you one. And he's here this morning, and I'm gonna give you your Bible. Wayne, I've used it this morning to preach this sermon. And I have Wayne, November 2nd, 2025, on here. This is, and this is uh not New King James Version. This is the NASB. And I just want you to know I'm so grateful for your vulnerability. And I love the fact, and I hope everyone here understands the fact that your posture of your heart is exactly what God's calling us to be, all of us, to be searching. We don't have to have all the answers. Yeah. We don't have to have all the answers. Do you realize this? We just have to be in a place that says, Lord, I'm I'm yours. What do you want to do in me? And the Lord's doing some stuff in him. And is it easy? No, no. But is he good? Yes. Amen. Here you go, buddy. Thank you so much. Love you. Now the rest of you are happy because I don't have a Bible up here, so I can't preach anymore. And you're like, the time, Michael, the time. It's true. I'm so grateful for you, Wayne. Um, what I love about this section of scripture is Paul doesn't end with you, he ends with the possible with God in you. It's all about him. And your life could represent that. It's about what he could do in your life.

Questions To Take Home

SPEAKER_00 40:40

And so, what I want to do is um just ask a couple things, not because I know what's in your house, but because I think it can maybe bring some thoughts that you need to think about. Have you painted over cracks in your house because you hope maybe that's good enough to cover up the past? Do you have some closets or a closet that you've locked up and no one knows about? And it weighs on you daily. You have some places in your life that you've said to the Lord, maybe out loud, definitely in your heart and your mind, nope, can't touch that. If you've done that, you're gonna miss out on the best possible life that you could live. What God wants you to do in that area is to open the door. Surrender that room to him, that closet to him, that basement to him, that attic to him, that experience to him, that shame to him, and let his love flood in. This is what he wants. If you do this, you become the second house. Not perfect, but full of his presence, which is exactly what he wants. I want

Final Prayer And Worship

SPEAKER_00 41:56

to end by just reading this prayer over you, and then the team's gonna come on up and um they're gonna do some worship for us. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives this name, that he would grant you, he's praying this over y'all. He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, in every room, through a daily lived-out faith. And that you, who are rooted and grounded in love, you would be able to comprehend with all the saints, we're all in this together, what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of this love, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, so that we can be filled up to all the fullness of God. And thank you, Lord, that you're more than able, because to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.