Ephesians 3 - Reason to kneel

Paul prays a prayer for the Ephesians that is so deep and profound, we need to be praying it for one another.
        
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:55

God, thank you for your word. Especially this passage is so dear to my heart today. As we study and as we learn and we look at it, Lord, let us walk away changed. Let us be people that present our concerns and our hearts before you, Lord. Hide me behind your message and behind what you want to say. Stir in our hearts action towards you, Lord. It's your son's name that we pray. Amen. So Ephesians 3 and 4 are just packed, and especially this section of 3, it's just, it's packed with so much different things, just imagery, and it's just this richness and striking language that makes you just kind of it's full of conviction and encouragement at the same time. Paul manages to pack into these couple chapters, and especially this particular one, so much different things, and so many things that when I read, especially this section today, it's one that I read it and I just set my Bible down and place my head in my hands. And because it brings about my understanding, my own shortcomings in the face of the greatness of God and how great and graceful He is and how rich in mercy he is towards us. And I just love this passage so much. If you've got a Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter 3. We're going to be in verse 14. Because we're going to, this is the prayer for the Ephesians. Now, Paul, before this, actually let's just read Ephesians 14. It says, For this reason I kneel before the Father. And so Paul puts this connective sentence together, the sentence first, for this reason. And anytime you see a statement like that, or therefore, for this reason, because it's connecting what he's going to say to what he just finished talking about. And so what he's just done is talked about the mystery of Christ. And the mystery of Christ is how, through Christ's dearth, burial, and resurrection, both Jews and Gentiles, every person, can become part of Christ's body. And how is that possible? This great mystery that has been revealed to us. And because of that great mystery, Paul says he kneels before the Father. Now, kneel is just, you know, one of the many attitudes or the postures that we see in Scripture of praying. There's other ones that, you know, they stand in the presence of God or we lay prostrate. You see David do that in the Old Testament, or Paul says that we should lift our hands in praise or raise our eyes to the heavens. So there's many different ways. It's not that kneeling is the only right way to pray, but these postures sometimes do affect the way that we approach God or convey a reverence, and especially kneeling, is a way to relay a reverence towards God and a submission also. In Romans chapter 14, 11, Paul, or I'm sorry, Romans says, and there he says, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow and every tongue will acknowledge God. Paul is referencing a scripture in the Old Testament and talking about how eventually everyone is going to acknowledge and kneel before God. And yet Paul says, he understands that, wow, God did this thing, it revealed this mystery, therefore I kneel before him, I submit myself before him on your behalf. And he says in verse 10, from whom, and this is talking about God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray out of his glorious riches that he may strengthen you. Now, what's interesting about this is that verse, glorious riches, is very easy to overlook. If you're a note taker, I didn't put a space in there, but I would just write riches down if you're doing that online. Just write riches down. And lately this became really impactful for me because of something my wife has shared with me, and that's something that she's adopted. She's adopted this idea of using the language of wealth when dealing with people. Let me explain. She talks about sometimes when she deals with people, whether it be, you know, strangers or her parents or our kids or me, when she deals with them, she used to become impatient. You know, we would start to tell her something. Our kids would tell her a story and share something about her day, and her mind would be on, wait a minute, I get I got stuff to do. I need to get this done, so hurry up this story. We got to get going. Or she, you know, people would take up her time or do different things, and she was like, no, no, I got important things to do. Don't you understand? But then she started to realize, she told me, that God, every moment of her lit life is a gift from God. And every moment, God is so patient with us that He's given patience to her because of the richness of patience He has. And so now it's almost as if she's rich and patient. She can afford to be patient with us. And so she started using this language of abundance or wealth towards other people. And if you think of the richness of God, you know, he has so much patience and he's shown us so much patience. We can afford to show patience to other people. Or God is so rich in love. While we are still sinners, Christ died for us. I can afford to love somebody that may be a little more hard to love or a little irritating because we are so rich in love. We can afford to do those things. Or God is so full of grace to me, is so rich in grace, I can afford to show grace to someone else. I can afford to forgive that person because I've been forgiven so much. And it goes on and on. God is so rich in mercy and has shown me such mercy that now I can afford to forgive that person. I can afford to let that grudge grow or go. I can afford to let things slip away. And so Paul is here saying, out of his glorious riches, may he strengthen you with power. So God is rich in mercy and love and grace, of course, all of those things, but he's also extremely rich in power. Because, I mean, we're talking about the God who created the universe, an ultimate demonstration of powerful. He's all powerful. Everything is created by him and through him and for him. And he demonstrates this power to people throughout scriptures, doesn't he? In Exodus, as the people are leaving Egypt, he's setting them free, the Jewish people free from the Egyptians, and how'd he do it? I mean, he'd easily just magically transport them or miraculously transport them into the promised land. But instead, he demonstrates his power through plagues and different things. And it wasn't just a demonstration to the Egyptians, he was demonstrating to the Israelites, your God is a God of power. Not a weakened God, but a God who is rich in power. And Job, if you read Job, I love the last section of Job, Job 38 through 40. It's just this poetic imagery of the power of God. God talks to Job and he says, Are you the one? You know, aren't I the guy that aren't I the God that bound play these together? Who takes the constellations and puts them through the sky, who leads out the bear and her cubs? What about the waves? Have you ever tried to stop a wave? And yet I'm the one that says, This is where your waves stop, they shall go no further. It's beautiful imagery. And it continues throughout the New Testament. Matthew. Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is on the boat, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 8, is on the boat with his disciples, and they're going across a lake, and this storm comes up. And don't forget, a bunch of his disciples are fishermen, and so they've probably dealt with storms, and yet they are afraid for their life in this moment. And Jesus is asleep in the boat. And they're so panicked in the middle of this storm that they wake him up and they're, Lord, Lord, save us, we're going to drown. And Jesus gets up and he speaks to the waves and he calms the wind. He calls, just tells them to stop. And it says in verse 27 of chapter 8, who is this man? The disciples said to each other, that even the wind and the waves obey him. This is the God who is rich in power, the God that can speak to the wind, to the storms, in real, the real ones, and also the metaphorical ones in our lives. This is the God that we worship. And this is the God that is Paul is praying to. That you may be strengthened. In verse 16, I pray out of his glorious riches that he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, in that deepest part of you, in the most inner part. And then he takes it even a bit further, and I love this in verse 17. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now, I don't know if it's just because I grew up in the Southwest, I grew up in Flagstaff, and as a kid, we had to go on so many field trips to Indian ruins, right? And they were always listed. And I like going, it's very interesting, and to see how ancient civilizations lived. But every one of them, you go and you dig it up, and it's this pit house, and all the signs say the same thing. This ancient dwelling. And so whenever I hear the word dwell or dwelling, I don't think of a home, I think of a broken down pile of rocks, right? That like some guy with a stick got bored enough and like made a little stick man or some symbols in the rocks next to it. Like I think of this, like this hole in the ground, or this is a cliff dwelling, or this is a broken down dwelling, or this is where they dwelt. And so in my mind, I've always sold short the place of dwelling. It's like that's just kind of where somebody passed time till they died. Right? But to dwell, and to dwell in the Greek, especially is it to be at home. I remember going away on vacation as a kid, you know, we'd go to camp for a week, or I'd go, you know, we our family is always going to fishing, we'd go fishing for a week. And when we would come home, we'd get home and we'd open up the door, and all of a sudden, and maybe you've experienced this, where you after you've been gone for a while, and you open up the door, and that smell hits you. And you don't even know your house has a smell. But all of a sudden you're like, oh, now I can rest. Right? And you get all your stuff put away, and then isn't that night the best night's sleep? You're back in your own bed, right? You got the pillow that has the right dent in it, right? From your head. I mean, everything. And you just, I mean, you can sleep well at a hotel sometimes or wherever it may be, but when you get home, it's a whole different place. See, when Paul says that Christ may dwell within your hearts, it'd be more for me, I should read it, Christ be at home in your heart. Your heart, he's praying that your heart is a place Christ is happy to be at. That he feels that sense of peace, that place, that oneness and that excitement to be there. And then he continues on in the second part of 17. So 17, so Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and I pray that you being rooted and established in love. Now he kind of mixes metaphors here, right? He mixes a biological metaphor and an architectural metaphor. First he says, rooted, right? But you may be rooted in love. Rooted, and this is a reference back to John 15, right? Where John, or Jesus tells the people, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Be rooted in Christ. Dig deep. Get those roots in there and draw from his strength. The other metaphor that he uses is architectural. The NIV says established in love, which conveys the message, but the actual verse should say founded in love. And founded like a foundation. That a foundation we are built upon, his teaching. In Matthew 7.24, Jesus said, Everyone who hears these words of mine and put them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, whose foundation is the rock of my teaching. So Paul says, be rooted and be foundationed. Have your foundation on his teaching and be rooted in love, that you may have power together with all the Lord's people, this holy people. And now he's built up. He's telling us that he's praying, and he's telling us all these ways that he's praying. Now he's going to tell us why he's praying. All of these things, these are things I've been praying for you, so that you can do what? And he's right on the verge, and this is what he tells it. Explanation why he's praying all these things. He says, to grasp how high, I'm sorry, how wide, how long and high and deep is the love of Christ. See, you've prayed all these things that you can be rooted and established in love. He kneels before the Father, so that out of his glorious riches, you can be rooted, you can be established for this reason, that you can know how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of God. Job chapter 11 says, in verse 7, it says, Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above. What can you do? They are deeper than the depths below. What can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. The psalmist relays something very similar. For as high as the heavens in chapter 103, verse 11, for high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far that he has removed our transgressions from us. And so this immensity of the love of God is what Paul is telling him. I pray that you begin to grasp, that you begin to understand how immense his love is. And the truth is, it's something that we can think we understand, and then we over and over it's revealed to us how much bigger it is than we understood. My dad lives up in Williams. And anybody know what Williams tagline is? The gateway to the Grand Canyon, right? And so it's in that they it's all about that. And it's true, everybody has to like goes through Williams pretty much to get to the Grand Canyon. And so one day he was at the gas pump and he's filling up, and there was a guy filling up his truck and he's pulling a trailer. And the guy goes, Hey, I've got my trailer. Is there any way I'm gonna go up to the canyon? Is there any way I can like pull off side of the road and camp? And my dad talks to him, he said, Yeah, anywhere up there, you know, in Arizona it's called disperse camping, it's on BLM land. You can just park for the night. You can't dump anything, but you can park and just camp for the night and you'll be fine. He's also, you know, you could go halfway up there, park anywhere, and then go see it in the morning. And the guy, this was in the afternoon, late evening, and the guy goes, Oh, actually, I'm gonna go up there tonight and check it out, and then on the way back, I'll camp. And my dad's like, Well, um, if you get up there, it's gonna, you, it's gonna be dark. And the guy looks at him incredulous, goes, they don't have it lit up. And my dad did something I could never do and held a straight face. Right? And he he kind of he did chuckle and he said to the guy, I'm sorry for laughing at you. You'll understand when you see it. There's no way you could light it up, right? This guy had seen pictures, and so in his mind, he was thinking, Oh yeah, we'll get some orchium sodium lights, blast this thing, I'll be able to check it out at night, it'll be great. Right? He had no concept. Could you imagine him getting up to the edge the next day? Whoa. Now I understand a mile deep. And the funny thing is, when you go to the South Rim, it's impressive. But it doesn't even grant you the scope of how long it is. We can experience or think that we experience the love of Christ, and yet every day when we experience more, we begin to understand just how much deeper it is than we thought it was, how much wider it is. Could you imagine if that guy hiked rim to rim? This thing's a lot bigger than I thought, right? Or have you ever flown over it and it just keeps going from Glen Canyon Dam down to Lake Mead? I mean, it's just you can't even grasp it. And yet, God's love, and this is what Paul is praying for, that you may begin to grasp how wide, how deep, how high, and how long is the love of Christ. Now he keeps going in verse 19, and he says this. Oh, I keep turning the wrong page. And to know the love that surpasses knowledge. Think about that. To know the love that surpasses knowledge. I want you to know the unknowable. To know the unknowable. I want you to grasp how high, how deep, how wide. I want you to start to understand the things that are unknowable because they are so immense, so much greater than we can understand. Uh the book of Revelation, sometimes it's hard to read and hard to understand, but in Revelation chapter 4, John is taken up into heaven in spirit, he says. And he goes into the throne room. And if you read it, it starts to describe it. And I saw there was a throne and it was surrounded, and it was an emerald surrounded, it was like a rainbow and a jasper. And he uses the word like four times in chapter four, just because he can see it, but he can't convey it. It was like this. It was like this because of how great it is. So when we read that, we can start to say these are the things that Paul is praying. We can start to understand how great, and these things that are puzzling and difficult to understand, we can get a glimpse and start to know the unknowable. And again, he goes on further, which I didn't think you could take it further. You can know the unknowable, but he goes farther. You can know this love that surpasses knowledge, and for this reason, that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. That you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now, the thing is, our life, like this towel, is actually really full. Right? I mean, this towel, if you look at it, you it's full of air. We could put it in a vacuum and draw air out of it and suck everything out of it, right? But the thing is, it wouldn't last. If you take it out of that vacuum again, it'd just fill back in with air. Our lives, we try and fill with things. Whether it be grandkids or money or just self-indulgent or gulf or you know, other whatever it is, we try and fill it with activities or fun or pleasure. And none of those things are really filling or satisfying. And yet, God says he wants to fill us to the fullness of his measure. And this this is a great image of baptism, too. That when we are baptized, we are no longer ourselves, but we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And what's cool about this is think about it, when life has those days that squeeze you, you know, you get those days where it's just they put you through the ringer. What comes out when you're full of the Holy Spirit? What's God rich in? Mercy. Grace, love. And so when you hit that traffic spot or you have that coworker that you want to take out back, or whatever it is, instead of anger and the things that you have in yourself, love, mercy, peace, because it's things that we can afford, because they've been given to us. And this is what Paul prays for. That we can know the love of Christ and be filled to the full measure and the fullness of God. So my question to you guys, too, is this oh, be filled with the fullness of God. Is do you know? Do you know the love of God? Maybe somebody dragged you here to church or you've been coming for a while, kind of checking things out. And have you ever understood or started to know his love that Paul describes here? And you want to make that decision in a moment, we'll have a time. If you want to make that decision, say, yes, I want to know Christ and know him fully. I want him to fill me up because what I've been doing isn't working. We're going to have a decision time in a moment, but also my question for you guys is that maybe you made that decision a long time ago. And you've you've got to the point where you're like, yeah, I've made that decision. I believe in God, but I don't know his love. Maybe for you, if that's where you're at this week, you need to just sit down and highlight this passage and come before God and say, God, fill me with your richness, with your power, with your grace, with your mercy, so I can know how wide, how deep, how long, and how high your love is. Or maybe you're here and you're like, yes, I know Jesus and I know how much He loves me. And you need to ask yourselves, who do you need to pray for? I have to confess, I pray for you guys a lot. But honestly, I pray, and I'm guilty of praying shallow prayers. I go through our prayer requests and I pray, God, let them just have a good day. I pray for my kids, let them have a great day at school today, Lord. And those are okay things. I pray, yeah, let them be healed, Lord. They've got a cold, let them get over it. Help them to be safe, whatever those things are. And those are good prayers. But they're a little bit shallow. Who is it that we've been praying that way for? That we need to start praying that they may know the love of Christ to its complete fullness, that they can begin to understand how wide, how high, how deep, how long his love is. Let's go ahead. I'm going to ask the worship band to come on up. As you spend a moment thinking about who is it that you need to be praying for? Who is it that in this moment you need to set aside? Maybe it's yourself, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's somebody that you just know needs to know the love of God. But let's go ahead and pray for those people right now. Lord, there is nothing better than knowing you. I pray in this moment as we kneel before you, God. In our hearts, we kneel and we submit ourselves to you. Lord, we just ask that we can know your power, that we can know your love, and that we can be in awe and stunned, like just that first look at the Grand Canyon. That our hearts can be made a place where you dwell and that you want to call home, Lord. We just pray this in your son's name. Amen.