SPEAKER_00: If you have a copy of God's word, go ahead and grab it.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Ephesians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 3 is where we'll be.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at this mystery of the gospel that has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus, that through Christ Jesus one may be made right before the Lord by his death, burial, resurrection, we can have life in him.
SPEAKER_00: We can have forgiveness of sins in him.
SPEAKER_00: And so we looked at that last week.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul would say, as he would continue through the book of Ephesians, it's this mystery that he is called to make known.
SPEAKER_00: He's been given this ministry to talk about this mystery of the gospel that God has given him a stewardship over.
SPEAKER_00: And that the church is a declaration of that mystery to not only the world around them, but even the prince, principalities, even these uh heavenly beings or these spiritual realms, uh, as we saw in the book of Colossians, uh, the church is to declare the manifest glory and honor and and mystery of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is this is what the church is called to be, to go out and to share this mystery.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at that last week, but Paul is going to continue in talking about the church and and how it was a mystery or this mystery revealed now that the church has now been made one, but also he's gonna give a prayer for the church as they would continue to go forward in this declarating of who Christ Jesus is, especially when they face seasons and times of weariness and struggle.
SPEAKER_00: So we are gonna read Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 14 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you some brief observations and then we will conclude our service.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 14, this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: May God add his blessings to the reading of his word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you this morning and we ask, Father, that you would speak to us from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we see in your word a desire of the Apostle Paul, but also it is your desire, through the work of your Holy Spirit in his heart, that your church may be strengthened through the work of the Holy Spirit, according to the riches of your grace, as we look at the love that you have for us, which surpasses knowledge, Father, would we see this morning you and your fullness?
SPEAKER_00: Father, may you may you call us this morning to pursue after you, to be filled with your fullness.
SPEAKER_00: Father, so that we may bring you honor and glory, number one, but but God also, so that me we may delight in you.
SPEAKER_00: As we delight in you and we see satisfaction in you, our lives will be lived faithfully, devoted to all that you've called us to, and will bring you honor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, help us to see that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that you would be with me, that you would give me clarity of thought, that you would give me the words to say, but that we be your words and not mine.
SPEAKER_00: And that God, you would receive all honor and glory this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There was a popular television program.
SPEAKER_00: There still is a popular television program that would make you question is this family heirloom that has been passed down to me from my grandparents actually worth something?
SPEAKER_00: Or is this just a sentimental item that my grandparents have passed down?
SPEAKER_00: And so you would turn on the TV and you'd turn on PBS and you would watch Antique Roadshow to see if you had any of the possessions that someone brought that was worth a lot more money than they thought it was actually worth.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that since 1997, here on the in the in the US through PBS, Antique Roadshow is about to enter its 30th season?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who still watches Antique Roadshow.
SPEAKER_00: It might be you, uh Alan over there.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Alan is the one viewer of Antique Roadshow that's still happening now.
SPEAKER_00: Because Alan's wondering, is this is this item actually gonna be worth a lot?
SPEAKER_00: Is this how my retirement's gonna be even doubled by by selling this one piece of piece of art?
SPEAKER_00: You laugh.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lady that that that went on Antique Roadshow, and she said, I have this piece of art that I just gotta know.
SPEAKER_00: And so the, you know, the whatever, I don't even know what you're they're called, the guy that's in the that's in the suit that usually always has a pocket watch.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he said, Well, you know what, what what is this?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's a painting I got for my grandmother.
SPEAKER_00: It's been sitting in my closet the last 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: And so the guy takes it out, and of course, you know, you're you're excited with them, and you're kind of on the edge of your seat as this guy goes, Oh wow, this has been in your closet, and you're like, uh oh, something big's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is actually worth something.
SPEAKER_00: She she brought this painting in, and after he examined it, uh her her mentality about this painting had completely changed.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this painting that she had turned out to be a work from NC Wyeth.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know who NC Wyeth is?
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't either.
SPEAKER_00: Only this guy knows.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes, This is a famous American painter, and this painting is an original.
SPEAKER_00: This is a museum piece of artwork.
SPEAKER_00: It is worth a million dollars.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're sitting there going, Well, my granny gave me that painting, and it's just sitting.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Antique Roadshow is so crazy to watch because you you just want to know, well, how much is this piece of art?
SPEAKER_00: And and most of the time it's things that people would say, well, it's kind of sitting in storage, and I just thought about it when you guys were coming through, and so I figured I'd bring it and see really how much it's worth.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things in our life that we don't know the worth that it has until we actually go and either examine it for ourselves or have someone else examine it.
SPEAKER_00: For the second time, Paul is going to tell the church at Ephesus that he is praying for them, and he's gonna say exactly what he is praying for them.
SPEAKER_00: And in this particular prayer, he says that he's gonna pray that they comprehend and be filled with the fullness of God, something that they as a church already possess yet do not fully take in.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not praying that they are filled with more of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get some basic theology out of the way because there's sometimes where we get confused with this or we hear worship songs that say, Oh, Father, fill me, uh, we need more of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not technically true.
SPEAKER_00: Upon salvation, the fullness of the Holy Spirit has been given to you because on behalf of your faith in Christ Jesus and the work of Christ Jesus, when the Lord gives his Holy Spirit to that individual who turns from her sins and trusts in Christ for salvation, he doesn't just give you a little bit of himself, he doesn't give you even partial of himself, he fills you completely with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether or not you are submissive fully to the Holy Spirit is one thing.
SPEAKER_00: But he has given you all that you need of him.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is not, do I have all of the spirit that I need?
SPEAKER_00: The question is, is am I allowing the fullness of the Holy Spirit that I have to mold me and shape me and to reveal to me all the good things of God that has been given to me?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what Paul prays in this particular prayer, that we would be able to comprehend and be filled with the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying for an increase in personal and intimate knowledge and understanding of God, of the love of Christ, and how that satisfies the heart and brings God honor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look really quickly at this passage.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that I want you to see this morning, again, Paul prays for their spiritual well-being.
SPEAKER_00: Paul doesn't pray for specific situations to be taken from them, he doesn't pray for suffering to be removed from them, he doesn't pray that different things would happen.
SPEAKER_00: He he prays for their spiritual well-being.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 14 again.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth are named, the Father, whom all who are his children have access to him and have been grafted into his lineage because the wall of hostility has been taken down, and now there's no longer Jew or Gentile, but he has made one body.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we talked about that a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: So this one body that he has made in Christ Jesus, he is the Father of in heaven and on earth, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are his children, and the church at Ephesus are his children, Paul is asking God to give his children the good gifts of God, which are himself.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed with a church member this morning, and I prayed with him, and I reminded him of what I've been reminded of this week is that you and I have been incredibly blessed by God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not because we live a certain lifestyle, it's not because of the zeros in your bank account, it is because we have received every spiritual blessing where in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's prayer is that the church in Ephesus would take hold of those spiritual blessings.
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing is the desire of the church since this time is that followers of Christ Jesus would take hold of the spiritual blessings that they have received in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This prayer is similar to the prayer that that John uh told us about in chapter 1, verses 17, that the Lord of our the God of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's praying this again.
SPEAKER_00: He he started this section of the book of Ephesians, which Ephesians is broken down really into two parts.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's desire for the church and his teaching of the church, and then chapter through, I'm sorry, that begins in chapter one, goes to chapter three, chapter four to chapter six, talks about the application of what Paul just talked about and how they live and how the church operates, how the church loves one another.
SPEAKER_00: So he he begins this section with his prayer for the church, and he ends this section with his prayer for the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what we also know about these prayers, we know that they're for his children, and we know when Jesus tells us as children of God to seek after the Father, he gives us three different imperatives that we are to pray.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, he tells us to ask, seek, and knock.
SPEAKER_00: This is for children.
SPEAKER_00: So, those of you with children in the room, when you're in the room, it doesn't matter if you're sitting right beside your child or you walk in, the first thing that you are gonna get is a question.
SPEAKER_00: They love to ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to answer all those questions.
SPEAKER_00: But just like a child, God says, if you're if you have a question, ask me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if if you don't feel like you can ask me, then then the next imperative is to seek after me.
SPEAKER_00: What did you tell your kids when they were in the house and they wanted you?
SPEAKER_00: Don't yell for me, come and find me, so we're not just screaming from one end of the house to the other.
SPEAKER_00: So so seek after me.
SPEAKER_00: And then if you get there and it feels like they're that you're just hitting this wall, then the next imperative is to what?
SPEAKER_00: Knock, and the door will be open.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's asking his children to pray, and the same theme of that is to seek after the Lord, to pray unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's desire for the church that he would they would seek after the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus tells us in that is which one of you who knows how to give good, or which one of you can give good gifts to your chids or kids, or would give a bad gift to your kid?
SPEAKER_00: You know the difference between a bad gift and a good gift.
SPEAKER_00: So if you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more so does your heavenly father know how to give good gifts to his children?
SPEAKER_00: And the gift that God gives to his children is himself.
SPEAKER_00: A comprehension and an understanding of his wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God gives.
SPEAKER_00: That's why James tells us in James 1:5, if any of you lacks wisdom, what is he to do?
SPEAKER_00: Ask.
SPEAKER_00: You are filled with all the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but there are elements and things of God that you need guidance from, you need direction.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we always pray every Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: God, I didn't, I don't think I prayed at this time, but God give us ears to hear and eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: Father, through your Holy Spirit, work in us so that we can know you more.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's prayers that God would grow his children there in Ephesus, they're in Ephesus, and that they would be strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same desire for God for us today, but not just that, and we'll see and dive in a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: He desires that they would be overwhelmed by God and filled with the fullness of him.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing for your spiritual walk with Christ is to constantly be growing and seeking that spiritual walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there is enough of God to keep you satisfied yet still desiring for the rest of your life?
SPEAKER_00: You do not reach an age where you go, I know enough.
SPEAKER_00: I saw an interview a couple of days ago, and John Piper is being interviewed, and he's now in his 80s, and he goes, I am so, he goes, I love this season of life because God is more nearer and closer to me than he ever has before.
SPEAKER_00: And that's because in the last 60 years I have sought after him.
SPEAKER_00: The benefit of seeking the Lord after 60 years is I get to know him more.
SPEAKER_00: This is the desire of God, but this is what you and I have been called to seek after, to thirst after God, to desire more of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you went to our men's event, Pastor DJ took us to a great psalm in Psalm 63, and he and it reads, Oh God, you are my God.
SPEAKER_00: Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
SPEAKER_00: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
SPEAKER_00: So I will bless you as long as I live in your name.
SPEAKER_00: I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the cry of your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Is that your desire in life?
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly what the apostle Paul is praying for the church in Ephesus to come to a knowledge of, and it's exactly what you and I are called to by God to seek after.
SPEAKER_00: That leads us to our second thing.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's desire here for them is a desire for them to know Christ more.
SPEAKER_00: So we saw in the first one Paul prayed for their spiritual well-being, and part of that prayer, or the essential emphasis of that prayer, is that they would desire to know Christ more.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: These words that he uses in verses 14 through 16, he uses the riches or abundance of his grace to be strengthened or to become strong.
SPEAKER_00: But he gives us more solid words here to be rooted and grounded.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I have seen both of those words in the sister epistle of this book, which is Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us in Colossians to be rooted in Christ, Colossians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding.
SPEAKER_00: There's that that that word again or that theme again, overwhelming, abounding in thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Tells us to be grounded, stable.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 1, verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's desire for the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is the desire of God for every single child, that they would grow in a knowledge of him, that they would have Christ dwell in their hearts through faith, so that being rooted and grounded in love.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's that love?
SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes, if you're like me, we we say, Well, that's our love for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is not, it is his love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know why, and I can't answer this for myself either.
SPEAKER_00: But I would there are some parts where I would much rather talk about our need to love the Lord, and we skip over the most important element of our love for the Lord, which is his love for us, because John tells us we love because why?
SPEAKER_00: He first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God and be fulfilled with the fullness of Christ, then seek to know the Father's love for his children.
SPEAKER_00: Because in there you will see all the spiritual blessings that God has blessed you with in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You will see what you have access to as a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: You will be reminded and know that this thing that you have possession of is much more valuable than you think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because this love of God is not just freely given out, and it it is not, or this love of God is not just handed out to anyone, and it did not come without a cost.
SPEAKER_00: This love is given freely to all who believe in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we I've told you this over the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is exclusive while at the same time inclusive.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is exclusive because it is only for those who have trusted in Christ Jesus that they are called children of God, but it is inclusive because the invitation to become a child of God is for every person.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether every person by faith repents of sin and trusts is a different story.
SPEAKER_00: But those who have received this salvation by grace through faith, and through faith have trusted in Christ Jesus, have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it is through that blessing and the love with which they have received from Christ that satisfies their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Paul even says that this love controls us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: That his love controls us, it hems us in.
SPEAKER_00: It's like borders to a river.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the next question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you being reminded daily and meditating on daily the love of God for his children, which includes you?
SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes I would bet when you wake up and you go to read your Bible, it is it is done so kind of by going, well, here's the sinner just coming before the Lord, asking him for help.
SPEAKER_00: That is true, but that's not how God sees you.
SPEAKER_00: God sees you as his child purchased by his blood that he has lavished his love upon.
SPEAKER_00: His desire is for you to come to scripture, not to learn how to or try to be better at at following after him.
SPEAKER_00: That's an element of it.
SPEAKER_00: His desire for you is to know him and that your knowledge of him, this intimate knowledge of him and his love, would be what motivates you or has transformed your life to live for him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why opening up scripture simply and just reading it, go, what can what can I gain from this to apply to my life today?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't seem as impactful as when you open that scripture and it's one verse that hits you between the eyes that you go, man, look how awesome God is.
SPEAKER_00: Look how gracious and merciful He is.
SPEAKER_00: Look how much He has loved me as we saw last week.
SPEAKER_00: He loved me so much, He died on the cross for my sins, so that I could understand and know that love.
SPEAKER_00: To be able to comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: This word is used in two senses in both the Old Testament and New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Its double meaning appears in two Hebrew and two Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: This word comprehends, and it means this: a mental or spiritual perception, and also a capacity to hold or contain, to know it and to hold fast to it.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's desire for you when it comes to your comprehension of who He is, to not just know it on a theoretical level, but but to hold on to it on a personal level, to hold fast.
SPEAKER_00: That's why John tells us, Jesus tells us in John 15 that we are to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: To abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: And as we abide in him, he abides in us.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love, and my love will abide in you.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in me, so that your joy may be complete, so it may be full.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God has called us to from the beginning, even when Christ Jesus was on earth.
SPEAKER_00: All who abide in him in his love have the love of God abide in him, and the joy of God put into them so that it may be completely full.
SPEAKER_00: So the third question Is your joy completely found in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, is it full?
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's desire for the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's desire for his children.
SPEAKER_00: There is more to be had of God than you can comprehend right now, in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: There is another passage in scripture that Paul busts out into a psalm-type song as he's thinking about the greatness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And in Romans chapter 11, verse 33, Paul says, Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same kind of verbiage here, the height and breadth and depth, the vastness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, How unsearchable are his judgment and how inscrutable his ways.
SPEAKER_00: For who has known the mind of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: This is a psalm that he's quoting, or who has been his counselor?
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what God is thinking on his same intellectual level, or who can give him spiritual or any kind of guidance or wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can.
SPEAKER_00: Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: This is how vast and great and grand God is.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what leads Paul to say this last line in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: For from him and through him and to him are all things, so therefore to him be glory forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God's desire for you is not just to know about him, but it is to know him intimately.
SPEAKER_00: And not just to know him intimately enough to get by, but to know him intimately enough to be fully satisfied in all that he is.
SPEAKER_00: Now you you're sitting there going, well, how do I I want to honor the Lord with what do I with what I do?
SPEAKER_00: So now I need to honor the Lord with what I do and also find full satisfaction in him.
SPEAKER_00: You're taking this and making it a dichotomy, which it's not.
SPEAKER_00: They're married together.
SPEAKER_00: A heart that desires to know all and experience all and comprehend all about God will be a heart that desires to faithfully bring him honor and glory every day of their life.
SPEAKER_00: The third point I have for you, and I know it's not on the screen, so I'll try to say it very slowly.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is fully honored in our lives when we are fully faithful to him.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is fully honored in our lives when we are fully faithful to him, when we are faithfully pursuing after him, when we are faithfully devoted to him, when we are faithfully following him, when we are faithfully learning more about him.
SPEAKER_00: God is honored in that.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing what happens when you take the Christian life away from behavior modification and fix your eyes on Jesus, how the behavior comes with it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you in here have been trying to, well, I'm trying to follow the Lord, but it's just hard because you know I have a really bad controlling my tongue, or I'm really bad at doing these things.
SPEAKER_00: God is calling you to fix your eyes on him, not on all the things you do wrong, fixing your eyes on him, and he'll help you, give you the strength to take care of those things.
SPEAKER_00: What did David, what did David pray in his psalm in Psalm 51?
SPEAKER_00: Restore to me the joy of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say restore to me good self-confidence, he didn't say restore to me a better grip on my uh struggles and my vices.
SPEAKER_00: No, he said, in order for you to create a clean heart in me, God, restore to me the joy of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I find joy in who you are and what you have done, all these other things just seem empty.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we have we ask or think according to his power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what you have in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: On top of that, do you pray like you know what you have in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are your prayers, God, keep me from strength, keep me from can temptation, God, give me strength, or are your prayers, God, fill me with your joy.
SPEAKER_00: Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and Father, give me a deeper knowledge and understanding and intimacy with you.
SPEAKER_00: If the Bible tells us to ask, seek, and not, that's that might be the most righteous prayer that anybody could pray.
SPEAKER_00: That might be the most honest prayer that you prayed your whole life is not God, heal me of this, not God, uh, give me this, not God, give us, you know, take me out of this situation.
SPEAKER_00: It's God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me love you, help me to love you more, help me to delight in you more.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't pray that because you're like, well, I don't know, uh maybe I might not get it, I don't know if that'll really come about.
SPEAKER_00: What did Paul say now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think?
SPEAKER_00: Even if you're the smartest person in the room or the most spiritual person in the room, God desires to do more.
SPEAKER_00: God desires that you love him more and there's more to be loved.
SPEAKER_00: God desires for you to have your joy complete because there's more joy to be had in him.
SPEAKER_00: Are your prayers bold or weak?
SPEAKER_00: Do you desire God more than anything else?
SPEAKER_00: If not, then you will find that your prayers are weak because your desire for him is weak.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't save you to just be this distant deity that changed your heart and then sets you off to go.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: He saved you to delight in him, and through that delight in him, your life brings him honor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, let's not live like we've forgotten that we were dead before.
SPEAKER_00: All that we have spiritually, we have because God has saved us and regenerated our heart and taken us from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: And what he asks of here is not to pretend like we before just needed a little bit of help as a dead person to live, but to fix our eyes on him to live as a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: And as we live as a new creation, we will quickly forget and we will quickly move on, and we will quickly run from this dead person that lies behind us.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said it this way, though.
SPEAKER_00: It would seem our Lord finds our desires, desires for him, desires of the things of him, too, not too strong, but too weak.
SPEAKER_00: We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
SPEAKER_00: We are far too easily pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Are you pleased with the fullness of God in your life, your knowledge of Him?
SPEAKER_00: If you are not, that's not an indictment against the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is an indictment against us who have not sought after it more than we seek after other things.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I are really good at seeking after other things.
SPEAKER_00: We seek after money, we seek after relationships, we seek after sex, we we we seek after position or status.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing that we don't talk about in here that I just realized we don't, that that probably is the thief of all of our joys, we seek after a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live like this, and I want my home to look like this, and I want my family to look like this, and I want my lifestyle to be like this.
SPEAKER_00: And if it all of this is done, then everything in my life would be great.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that that the greatest blessing of God is that all of those who find total satisfaction in him, they could have everything taken away from them and they still delight in him?
SPEAKER_00: That's what God desires from your life.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't desire to give you a cushy life or everything he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: You, you, or I'm sorry, everything that you want.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to give you what he wants to give you, which is more, a deeper knowledge and love and understanding of his love for you.
SPEAKER_00: What God is offering you is what your soul truly longs for.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens is we find we find other things that give us temporary pleasure rather than permanent pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: What happens is that we we seek other things.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when we actually find pleasure in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We find abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, verse 9, Jesus says, I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who comes through me like a sheep will be able to go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us in verse 7 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: He he's he gives us that verse in the middle of saying that he is the door, that all who enter through him, all sheep who come into his fold through him, through that door, they get to go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: They get to find what their soul longs for.
SPEAKER_00: They get life, but not only life, they give abundant, they get abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is not being hyperbolic when he says abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: He is being descriptive of the life that he offers you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't feel that it's abundant, again, that's not an indictment on him, that's a calling from God to pursue after him more because there still is not a delight in all of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that God is honored more properly in your life when you dwell in the abundant life that he has offered you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you enjoying the abundant life that that Christ has offered you?
SPEAKER_00: Just a quick point of application and illustration, and then we'll keep going.
SPEAKER_00: There are people willingly not enjoying abundant life because they refuse to fully embrace what the shepherd has to offer.
SPEAKER_00: They refuse to fully take hold of all that God offers in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now we would we would say, man, what a foolish thing to do, but you and I do it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how we do it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me use an illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say you get married.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a person that's not choosing to enjoy all of the life that God offers them in Christ Jesus is the same person that says, All the preacher told me I had to do was say I do, and now I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: Anything extra is just going above and beyond what was required of me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the relationship with my spouse, the intimacy with my spouse, uh, everything that the their love, their joy, uh the happiness that I have with my spouse, all of those things is extra.
SPEAKER_00: What would we call that person?
SPEAKER_00: Say it in your, you can say it in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'm uh a fool, dumb.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're not fully benefiting or experiencing all of the goodness of marriage that God has designed it for.
SPEAKER_00: You've just done the bare minimum in thinking that that's gonna be satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you received faith in Christ Jesus by grace doesn't mean you fully jumped into all God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's called you from more than just a temporary moment, he's called you to abundant life in Him.
SPEAKER_00: When you choose to not seek after that life, you then at that point can't then sit back and go, it just doesn't bring me any joy like these other things do.
SPEAKER_00: When simply you you don't allow it to.
SPEAKER_00: Because in your mind, you've gone, that's all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just supposed to say I believe in Jesus and then everything's good.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: When we read his word, we brothers and sisters, we we read our Bibles, we gather together, we seek to worship the Lord in all that we do and tell others about Jesus because that is where abundant life is found.
SPEAKER_00: When we read his word, when we seek him in prayer, when we worship him with our lives, when we tell others about Jesus, that is where we begin to see the benefits of Christ Jesus and the character of God so clearly that it leads us to fall on our face and wonder why he would even choose us to give this abundant life to.
SPEAKER_00: Or are you seeking to comprehend all that you have in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We we have a church member who is nearing the end of their life.
SPEAKER_00: I I got to go sit and visit with them a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife sometimes says I ask intrusive questions.
SPEAKER_00: But I sat there and she had said over and over again that that time was probably running near, and so I said, I I I want to know something.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what sticks out to you now that you read scripture, knowing that it's coming?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Oh, I love him more than I ever have.
SPEAKER_00: I see his grace and mercy as something so real and true to me.
SPEAKER_00: I I see death as an as just something to pass on through until I get to be with him.
SPEAKER_00: I see his love as how he's kept me all of my life, and I read more about his love, he is sweeter and dearer than he ever has been.
SPEAKER_00: This is the result of a heart that desires to find joy and delight in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in this room, friend, and you have sat here the whole time going, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know, I just don't know.
SPEAKER_00: The question for every single person who has ever lived is do you believe that Jesus is who he said he was?
SPEAKER_00: And who he still is, that he is the Son of God who died to pay for your sin on the cross to give you this abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, everything else that you chased after will leave you wanting more, and you will spend your whole life like an addict trying to find the fix that satisfies but never does.
SPEAKER_00: And he offers you this life freely with two conditions that you repent and turn from your sin, to stop seeking after those things, to stop acting and being a dead person, and to believe upon him and receive the abundant life that he offers, taking you from spiritual death to spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: He freely offers you that.
SPEAKER_00: If not, learn from our passage this morning, which tells you to what?
SPEAKER_00: Ask for it.
SPEAKER_00: He can do it.
SPEAKER_00: He can do far more than you think that he can do.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna just struggle with this until I see him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna have to deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: And no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Far more abundantly than anything you ask or seek.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him for it.
SPEAKER_00: And don't ask him weakly, Father, if you if you would do this and be certain.
SPEAKER_00: No, Father, give it to me.
SPEAKER_00: Give it.
SPEAKER_00: I want it.
SPEAKER_00: I need it.
SPEAKER_00: I need it as nourishment.
SPEAKER_00: I need it to comfort me.
SPEAKER_00: I need it to where put my full joy in.
SPEAKER_00: I need it to get me through all of these horrible seasons of life that I find myself in and the suffering that I'm going through.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need it.
SPEAKER_00: Would you give it to me and give it to me overwhelmingly?
SPEAKER_00: Father, help me to desire you more than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And that we would be a church that wouldn't just continue to fumble around, but that we would thirst after God and seek him intimately.
SPEAKER_00: The question is on the table for you today.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know him?
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, would you believe upon him?
SPEAKER_00: Would you repent of your sin, which he has purchased on the cross for all who believe?
SPEAKER_00: And would you trust in him and allow him to save you?
SPEAKER_00: Number one.
SPEAKER_00: And number two, are you seeking after him, desiring to know him more?
SPEAKER_00: And if not, then today would you start?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in here this morning and you're like that spouse that just said, all I had to do is say I do, and you've been living your whole life going, I just don't get the point.
SPEAKER_00: There is more to be had in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Would you seek after him?
SPEAKER_00: As we go into a time of response, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we pray right now that you would work in our hearts.