Ephesians 3:14-17 – Berris Patience – 2025 10 26

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

Turn your attention now to the book that we’ve been studying for this past while Ephesians chapter three. And there’s so much, so much in this text, such rich, rich passage of scripture. And again, we will see this richness in chapter four as well. But the Paul begins or continues, if you will, what he started in verse one as I mentioned last week or and a few weeks ago as well. Uh, Paul starts off this chapter with praying for this reason. That’s a hallmark of Paul’s prayer. That’s how he normally starts his prayer and then he just branches off into something completely different and started to talk about the Gentiles and how this mystery of God was made known because of him and he was used and God used him for that verses 14 to 21, verses 14 to 20 or 19 rather basically encapsules. The second aspect of his prayer 20 and 21 are is a doxology praising God for who he is and for what he has done. And of course the plan and the intent was to wrap up chapter three today, the plan and intent failed. So we will not be wrapping up chapter three. In fact we’ll be going to verse 17 this afternoon, this morning into this afternoon. So chapter three, verses 14 to 17. For this reason, I bend my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven on an 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 self. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love. I’ll read through verse 80, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ with surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Father, we are grateful for your love, your mercys towards us. Thank you for your word. And God I pray you’ll speak through me as we, as I deliver this message Lord, and speak to me as well. May we be encouraged, may we be comforted from the things that we’ll be hearing. May we be cha, may we be challenged by your word Lord. And may we not just take this, these words as head knowledge, Lord, but may we apply what we’ve learned to what we’ve heard and what we will hear to our lives. So God, I pray your spirit will lead and direct my thoughts, my words, and may stir the hearts of your people to love you more, to love each other more and to seek to grow more and more in our into the image of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. So this is paused as I mentioned second intercessory prayer in the letter. And of course if you study both, you’ll notice that this one differs from the, from the first one in that it ends as I mentioned in verse 20 and 21, with a doxology which is just praising God. And this serves as a fitting conclusion to the, to the contents of the first half of the letter. So chapter three is a closing, the end of chapter three is the first half of the letter where pause focuses more on doctrine, more theological truths. And then verses four or chapter four to chapter six, he gets into the practical aspects. So based on the theology, based on the doctrine that you have heard, what I’ve been teaching you, this is how you live in light of the theology and the doctrine that you have been taught. The introductory phrase for this reason is a repetition of the same one that he used in verse one where he began the prayer and again mentioned he wanders off and talks about the responsibility that God gave him to be herald of this mystery of the gospel to the Gentiles. And again, this expression links the prayer closely to the contents that we see. We saw in chapter two verses 11, 2 22 and especially the nearness that the believers now experience with God. Paul concludes the that section which is chapter two by affirming that believers are, are now constitute or believers now constitute the new covenant people. And this is both Jew and Gentile. So the new covenant people, the new covenant, the new temple of God, which is the holy habitation for God. Paul resumes this thought, thought here by this prayer that Christ and he asks and he said this is what he desires, that Christ may dwell in their hearts richly. And when we get to that, we’ll see what Paul is talking about there because the first thing that should jump in your mind is about Christ is already in dwelling in us. This prayer also has significant continuity with the first prayer of chapter one verses 15 to 23, in that they both contain requests for God to reveal the vastness of his power, the vastness of his greatness, to the belief to the readers, to those recipients, the church in Ephesus. And by default to us this prayer goes beyond the first one. However, the second prayer that we’re gonna D dive into by appealing to God to impart his power. So not only is Paul asking in verse chapter one that God reveals his power to the church in Ephesus, but now he’s asking that this power will be imparted in the lives of the believers in Ephesus. And it’s something that we’re going to be seeing throughout the Book of Acts, the enablement of the power of the Holy Spirit. And that was Promis in verse eight of chapter, chapter of chapter one in Acts where God, Christ remind them and Christ promise that you will receive power. And we see the enablement of this power as we make our way through the chapters proceeding in the book of Acts. So this prayer, Paul is asking that this power will be imparted, they God will, they’ll be enabled with this power. The second prayer also picks up on the theme of the love of God and seeks divine revelation into the magnitude of Christ’s love. Paul prays that his readers will experience such a love in such a way that will provide a firm foundation for their lives. So Paul, what’s in essence is being said here. Paul is praying that the church in Ephesus will realize how much God really loves them, how much Christ really loves them and that should be impacting in their lives, how they live their lives. The love of Christ should be manifested in their practices basically. So this prayer also prepares the way for what follows Again in the rest of the letter, Paul requests for divine enabling power is precisely what the readers is precisely what the church emphasis needed. And it is precisely what we need, especially for us today. And we’ll need, we’ll continue to need to live our lives in accordance with the demands that we’re going to be seeing in chapter four through to chapter six. Not only in terms of getting rid of unhealthy, this is why we need these requests, right? Not only to see, not only to get rid of unhealthy sinful practices in our lives, but we need to be reminded and we need to experience God’s love. We need the enablement and the power of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives to be firm in our faith, to stand against what Paul describes as the wildes of the devil because we’re not fighting a battle with people. It goes beyond that. It’s not against flesh and blood. And uh, chapter six will go in depth with that. It’s against principalities and against powers, against rulers of dark places. He especially appeals to us to exercise love in the same unselfish self-giving way that Christ showed is love for us. And we’ll see this in chapter five verses one and two. So this supernatural empowerment is also essential because of the supernaturally p, the supernatural power that we’re facing. So we need supernatural power to fight against supernatural power. That’s in essence what Paul is trying to get at here. We can’t fight this in and of ourselves. In fact we can’t even fight sin in and of ourselves. So we need enablement from the Holy Spirit of God and we have him. This is, this is what is fascinating. We have the Holy Spirit of God in us. The fact of the matter is, and the problem is we do not act upon the power that we have within us and that’s why we struggle on a daily basis in our spiritual lives. Paul’s addition, additional petition rather that Christ may extend his reign in their lives or in the lives of the believers in our lives. Verse 17 is particularly relevant for summarizing the transforming work of Christ that un, that Christ work undertakes within every single believer in the church and not just individually but on a corporate level as well. And again, this is something that he’ll flesh out more in chapter four. So let me say this before we even get into the text, this kind of prayer that we read here that you’ve read before coming here if for those who did this kind of prayer, and this is my, if you take nothing from this sermon today, I hope this is something that you take away from this. This kind of prayer ought to be prayed by believers every single day. This is a verse, this is a, and this struck me while I was preparing. This is a passage of scripture that we should either read through everything and personalize it and make it our own daily or we print it out and we put it as a constant prayer in our minds just like we used to when we were kids, our father prayer it. It is so vital, it is so essential. And this is not something that we pray for once in a blue moon. It is something that we ought to be praying for every day. And I’m challenging you as I’m challenging myself to make it a point of duty, to pray this, go through it daily, make this word, make this passage of scripture verses 14 to 21 because we need to praise God at the end of the matter. Make this a point of duty daily and practice this as a prayer in your life, not just as a portion of scripture, but as a prayer, personal prayer that God will grant you these things that we’re going to be looking at today and next week as we continue this Christian walk here on earth. Whether it’s paraphrasing it, using it verbatim as it is written in the text for us, pray prayed. And I want you to do this for two re reasons. One, we need to experience the power of God and the love of God through his Holy Spirit on a daily basis to live our lives in such a way that it brings glory and honor to God. This is why I’m convinced that this needs to be a daily prayer. The battle to live holy lives is not fought and won once. It’s not a once all thing like salvation is. It’s not a once all thing like the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is. It’s a daily battle and we have so many scriptures that attest to this. It is a daily battle and a daily battle that must be won. We are required to win this battle on a daily basis. The power and the love of God in the forefront of our minds will aid us in this. Secondly, we need the power and the love of God daily in our battles against principalities and the powers of darkness. I mentioned this earlier, none of these battles can and will be won in our own might in our own strength. We need the power of God to aid us daily, not just a once one off thing. So as we enter into these few first two verses, verses 14 and 15 under the heading, praying for spiritual strength, let us look then at the recipient of your prayer. And this is who do we pray to or who are we praying to? Who are you and I praying to? And of course there’s no question, no doubt in our mind this is God that we’re praying to the one true living God. But this will serve as a reminder to us of who God is in his being and in his actions towards us. Paul says for this reasons, for so, for the things that he was saying and the fact that he has been entrusted with this mystery that he himself thinks he’s not worthy to be entrusted with. And the fact that God has incorporated a body of people, gentiles, into his plan of salvation for his will, for his purpose process. For this reason, I bend my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. The first thing that strikes us here is pauses. Posture pauses. I bow my knees or I bend the knees. And this must have must have been quite the experience. Remember Paul was in prison and perhaps was in stocks. He probably either that or he was chained to soldiers who was watching him night and day. And Paul said he bows his knees. The Bible nowhere commands any kind of special posture in prayer. The Bible just commands us to pray for examples. Abraham stood before the Lord when he prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 1822. Solomon stood when he prayed to dedicate the temple in one Kings 8 22. David sat before the Lord in one Chronicles 17, 16 when he prayed about the future of his kingdom. And Jesus Christ, our savior fell on his face, especially in the context of when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Again, the point is there’s no command about a certain posture for praying. For some people bowing the knee or bending the knee would be a rather difficult one to do. And even for myself, it’s my knees are bad from playing soccer for for all these years and getting injuries. So kneeling down is rather challenging for my, for me, regardless of the age, my age, it’s challenging you. You can stand, you can see, you can lay down. I would not recommend because that tends to drift off into sleep. So that is the one that would speak again. So I would recommend not practicing unless again you can do it without do dozing off into dream world. But if you notice the emphasis on spiritual posture, this emphasis on spiritual posture in Ephesians as lost sinners, we are buried in the graveyard according to Ephesians chapter two. But when we trusted in Christ through faith, he raised us up from the dead and he seeded us with Christ in the heavenly places or in the heavenly Ephesians chapter 2 46. So because we’re seeded with Christ, we can walk to please Jesus Christ and we can stand against the devil. So there’s this idea of posture that is constant in the book of Ephesians, but the posture that links this, sitting with Christ in the heavenlies and walking with Christ and standing with Christ is the posture of bowing the knee. And again, this does not have to be a physical bowing because of your condition. It doesn’t need to be a physical condition. The idea is we need to be praying, bowing our hearts before God in prayer, the Pharisee and the TA and the uh, the tax collector that went up to pray, he bowed his head and wouldn’t even look up to heaven. They were standing. It’s praying that is the important thing that we need to take from this. But it is through prayer that we lay hold of God’s riches. Folks, it is through prayer that God enables us to live this life that he has called us to live. It is through prayer that we win the battles that comes through, come our comes our way, comes in our lives. Whether we bow physically is not the important thing is that we bow our hearts and we’re constantly bowing our hearts to the will of our Lord and our savior, asking him for what we need to live this life as he called us to live. In Ephesians one, verse three, Paul calls God or describes God as the Father of our Lord and our savior, Jesus Christ. He was the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was on earth here on earth as a man. And Jesus Christ lived in a life, lived a life rather in total dependence on God the Father. He was constantly before God in prayer. If you look at Jesus’ entire earthly ministry, he did nothing without praying to God at the start of his earthly ministry. 40 days he went into the wilderness to be tempted. The Holy Spirit led him there for that purpose. But I guarantee you he was fast. He was fasting and praying. And right after that we noticed that he came and he chose 12 men. He prayed for those men. He didn’t just randomly pick people that looks like a good individual that I can use as a disciple who will later turn into an apostle. He prayed about that his entire life. Even at the garden the night before he was killed, before he was so crucified he prayed. Ernest is sincerely. Mark paints a perfect and vivid picture of Jesus’ prayer for us. And Ma and Lou or John, sorry, gives us a detailed description of some of the things that he prayed for in John 17. He constantly relied on the Father. He was constantly independent on God the Father. And of course this title God, him being the Lord or God being the Father for Lord Jesus Christ is a reminder to us of the humanity of Christ. But God is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ because Christ is eternal, he’s also God and he reminds us of his de deity. But let me remind you of this. Lemme remind you who you and I are praying to ’cause sometimes I do believe we forget, Gordon mentioned some very potent pointers in Sunday school this morning. We love to highlight these, these attributes and these aspects of God. He’s faithful, he’s sovereign and we say it. And so I know he’s sovereign. But then we live our lives in a manner in which it doesn’t seem like God is sovereign at all. And in the same way we pray to God and we go to him. But it’s as though we we’re uncertain that God is faithful to give us his, give us what we ask for according to his will. And I think we forget so many times, even while we’re praying who we are actually praying to. Yes he’s God. Well he is the God and the Father for Lord Jesus Christ. And here Paul calls him, I bow my knees to the Father, to my father, father. An interesting word in the Greek, also family, which is a spinoff from the word Father. But Father in the Greek, the the Greek means one who provides it means one who protects it means one who supports. So by calling God the Father, you get where I’m you get where I’m going with this. You by calling God the Father. We’re saying that you are the one who is providing for me. You are the one who’s supporting me. You are the one who protects me. But do we often act? Do we always act like he’s providing, protecting and supporting us even while we call him Father? It’s similar to Peter in Acts chapter 10. He sees the sheet comes on rise Killy not so Lord, not so Lord. Lord means master. And you are given a direct defiance to your master. That’s how sometimes it is the word for an adult son in the family. The word Father, it was lo. It was Jesus’s favorite word in terms of him referring to God. It is the preeminently, although not solely in the New Testament, the word for God. So in most often in the New Testament, this is the word that refers to God. It is a word that constantly is constantly on the lips. As I mentioned earlier on this, on the lips of our, of our savior, Jesus Christ. It was the word that he taught us, taught the disciples how to pray. However, we need to observe that the Lord never associated himself with his disciples by using the word our. He always employed the singular my He made it personal. He’s my father. He’s taught the disciples to pray our Father. But we can personalize and say My Father, because he is your father, he is your provider. He is your protector. He is the one that supports you. He is the one who blesses you with every spiritual blessings in the heavens. We saw that in chapter one. He is the one who chose you in Jesus Christ before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless before him. That’s chapter one again. He’s the one who predestined you and as an adopted son because it is pleasing to him. He is the one who made redemption possible through the blood of Jesus Christ, forgiving our wrongdoings through Christ. He is the one who has lavished upon you, lavished upon us. All these spiritual blessings, this folks, this is the same father who gave us an inheritance and sealed us with his Holy Spirit who is a guarantee that we are going to obtain the inheritance that God has promised for us. That is just to come. And the list goes on and on in chapter two and chapter three. It’s the same father we’re praying to. And Paul says for this reason, he bows his knees to the father. Remember these truths ought to serve as a source of comfort and a source of confidence for those of us who go to God in prayer. Paul says we have full access. He reminds us that we have full access to God if he did all these things for us. Surely, surely he’s more than capable of of granting to us the things that we’re going to ask for in verses 16 to 19. He certainly can grant us these things. Surely we can be confident to go to him, the one who has granted us unlimited full access to the throne of grace. Surely we can be confident that God the Father, God our Father, will grant us all things that will make us more and more like his only begotten son, our Lord and our savior Jesus Christ. He is your Father. He’s our father. He is my father. And not only is God your Father, the one who provides and protects and supports. But in verse 15, Paul’s stress is a very important attribute of God, which is the main point that he wants to bring across in verse 15 is that God is sovereign. And there’s that word again. He’s sovereign. He said the name Father. And it’s interesting Father in the Greek is patter and the the Greek for family is Pat or Patria, sorry. So it’s saying that the name Father and family, there is no father earthly father. There is no earthly family apart from the one true father, the one true God. That is speaking of the sovereignty of God, he’s in control. Paul tells us, or Luke rather tells us in acts that he sets the boundaries and the places for every human being, every family on this planet, the naming of every family of humans and angels is a way of stressing God’s might is a way of stressing the sovereignty of God as the one who created the powers in heaven and gave them their classification and identity. God is shown to be supreme. He is their creator who gave them their life and their strength. And Lincoln, one author rightly notes that the term evokes some of the Old Testament connotation of naming in terms of exercising dominion over even bringing into existence. And that is what Adam was tasked with, have dominion. And Adam gave names, and this is well illustrated for us in Isaiah 40, verse 26, lift your eyes and look to the heavens who created all of these. He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls each of them by name because of his great power and mighty strength. Not one of them is missing. And Isaiah is saying is there’s that God. All of these multitude of stars that we see in our sky that we can see with our eyes, every single one of them is named by God and not one of them is missing because God is the one who is sustaining his creation. Paul therefore bows his knee to the one true God, the one who is omnipotent all powerful over all his creation, including all the rebellious powers. And that is important for us to remember. ’cause when we get to chapter six, we’ll remember that God is the one who created these powerful beings that we’re wrestling against. And he’s still all powerful over them. He’s still sovereign over them and they still need to submit and surrender to the God and the Father for Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, that is who we’re praying to. That is the God that we pray to. There is no force in heaven or on earth that can sever the line of communication to our almighty God. Nothing. Paul tells us that in Romans nothing can separate us from God, the love of God. No principality or power or authority can keep God from supernaturally strengthening us as his people through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. May we forever be known. May we forever be known as a church of prayer. May we forever be known as a people of prayer. May we never take praying for granted. And we often do. May we never forget that God who has commanded us to go to him boldly to ask for spiritual strength and sustenance to live a life that is in accordance with his will. He will grant us. He will not turn us away and say, look, I don’t have time for that right now. May we never, may we always be known. May we forever be known as a people of prayer. May we always go to him constantly in prayer. We need constant and consistent prayer in our lives. Every single one of us. It is essential. It is an essential part of the life of the church. And again, something that we’ll see fleshed out constantly in the book of Acts. Praying is absolutely was absolutely essential in the life of the early church. It is an essential part of the lives of the believers today, The adversary. He doesn’t want us to pray. The devil does not want us to pray because he knows the power that comes through us praying and going to God. He knows so he’ll do everything possible to keep us from praying. Why would he want us to pray when he realizes that this is how he will be defeated by human beings through the power of God in, in, in, in our lives through prayer. So he finds ways to hinder us from praying business inconvenience, irrelevant things that occupy our time. Guilt From Sinning. And that’s a huge one. We just feel I can’t, I can’t do it. But that’s the time we need to go to God. Confess as John tells us, John one, John one, nine, confess. And then make your petitions and your requests be made known to him. Let us pray for each other. Let us continue to pray for each other. Let us continue to pray for our church because in this, in prayer lies our greatest source of power, our greatest source of victory, our greatest source of growth and spiritual maturity. Pray down the power from one high. Remember who you’re praying to. And again as I encourage you to make this prayer part of your daily lives, remind yourself of who you’re praying to by going back to chapter one, two and and the earlier parts of chapter three. That’s the God that you’re praying to the same God that Jesus prayed to the same God that the early church prayed to the apostles prayed to is the same God. And he’s the all faithful God. He’s the all powerful God. And we can trust him, we can rely on him, we can be confident in the God that we’re praying to let us not shy away when we go to him in prayer that is the recipient. But let us now look at some of the requesters. We’re not gonna make our way through all of these for today verses 16 to 19. And as I said, we will stop at verse 17 that he may, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner self. 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 with the length, the height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, The request of your prayer. So this is what You pray for or what you pray about praying is in and of itself talking to God. And of course this talk to God takes different forms, comes in adoration and praise, which we should do every time we pray to God. It comes with thanksgiving. Again, something that we should do every time we talk to God. The fact that we can talk to him directly is reason for adoration and praise and it’s reason for thanksgiving. We don’t have to go through a mediator, we have a mediator. He is sitting right next to God and we have one that’s indwells us. Paul tells us that even when we don’t know what to pray for, the spirit is making groanings that cannot be ordered. The King James version put it. So basically it’s translating, say this is what they actually want to say, God. So we’re covered. So that should cause us to give thanks. Then we have petition requests, supplication, which interchangeably are interchangeable. An intercession which is making a request for others. So those are the different forms. So we have adoration, praise, Thanksgiving, petition requests, application, which I see as interchangeable terms ’cause it’s the same asking for something on your behalf. And then intercessory prayer, which is you’re asking on behalf of the church and other believers, there are four requests in Paul’s prayer and they must not be looked at in isolation as individual petitions. These four are in are united and it’s one that leads to the next and so on. So when we ask for one and we go and ask for the next, and they’re, they’re connected, he prays that the inner man might have spiritual strength, which will in turn lead to a deeper experience in Christ. And this deeper experience in Christ will enable us and enable them, the church at Ephesus to apprehend or to get a hold or to get a better understanding of God’s great love for them, which will en result in their being filled unto all the fullness of God. So then Paul is praying for strength, depth, apprehension, and fullness. So let’s look at the strength in verse 16. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers is evidence of salvation. Paul tells us this in Romans chapter eight, verse nine, but the power of the spirit is enabling, is enablement rather for Christian living. So the Spirit in our lives is a sign that you’re saved, but enablement is what we need to ask for. And power of the Spirit is enablement for our living as believers and living the life that we’re called to live. And it is this power that Paul desires for his readers and it’s a power that we should desire for ourselves. I quoted Acts one, eight, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and they did receive power, but we can quench the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus performed his ministries on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke reminds us in Luke four and Acts chapter 10, and this is the only resource that we have for Christian living today. The power of the Holy Spirit of God along with the word of God. And as you read the book of Acts, you will see the importance of the Holy Spirit. Again, just like prayer was, you will see the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. There are 59 references to the Spirit in the book of Acts 59 references or this is one fourth of the total references of the Holy Spirit in the entirety of the New Testament. He was essential in the early church, the late a w taser said if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and this is a very, very, I hope this strikes chord in your heart as it did and it still does. Even me reading it now in your hearts as it did, did mine. If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, and I, I may never be said of Bowmanville Baptist Church, by the way, if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 90 per 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. He continues. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament Church, 95% of what they did, and you can even add a higher percentage of what they did would stop and everybody would know the difference. So in essence, what he’s saying here is if the holy pre were to be taken or we know it’s not possible, but a hypothetical situation, you wouldn’t know the difference in the churches today. Things would go on as though everything is a fine and dandy. But this wasn’t the case. And it’s emphasizing the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church here now and in the life of the early church. The power of the Holy Spirit is given to us according to the riches of his glory. In three 16, Christ returned to glory and sent the spirit to indwell and to empower his people. And this power is available for the inner man and this means a spiritual part of man. This inner man is a spiritual part of man where God works and God dwells the inner man of the lost sinner is dead. Ephesians two verse one. But it becomes alive. When Christ is invited through faith in their lives. The inner man can see, according to Psalm one 19, verse 18, it can hear according to Matthew 13, verse nine can taste according to Psalm 34 verse eight and feel according to 17 verse 27 of Acts. And he must be exercised. One Timothy Timothy 4 78. He also must be cleansed. Psalm 57, verse one or 51, verse seven, sorry, the the inner man must be fed. Matthew four, four, the outer man is perishing, but the inner man can be renewed spiritually despite the outward physical di decay. Paul reminds us of this in second Corinthians four 16 to 18. It is the inner power that makes him succeed. It is the inner power, the power of the oh Holy Spirit, the enablement of the Holy Spirit of God that enables us to be renewed on a daily basis in the inner man. What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit empower the inner man? It means that our spiritual faculties are controlled by God, not by the flesh, not by self, not by sin, but their control. They’re under the ruling. They’re under the leading of God, the Father and the lo and the who’s the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It means they’re controlled by God and we’re exercising them and growing them in the word of God. It is only when you and I folks yield to the spirit and let him control the inner man that we succeed in living for the glory of God. If we do not yield to the Holy Spirit, yes, he indwells us. Yes, he’s there permanently and we can’t lose him. But as I said earlier, we do quench the working of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives and we all sin at some point in time or somewhere or another. And what is that that is showing us that we’re not always led by the Holy Spirit. And that’s why Paul will say in Ephesians chapter five, verse 20 and be filled, be continually filled. It’s an ongoing thing. It’s a daily thing to continually be filled, be controlled, be ruled by the Holy Spirit of God. Not the flesh, not self, not sin. It’s not a one time thing, but it’s only when we yield, when you and I yield to the spirit and let him have his way in our lives. Let Him rule and reign in our lives. Let him rule and reign the inner man our inner being, that’s when we’re gonna have a successful Christian life. That’s the only way we’re gonna have a successful Christian life. Combination of the Holy Spirits enablement and empowerment in our lives and our constantly feeding and feasting on the word of God. And those two things incorporated in our lives will allow us to be able to stand as Paul will later tells us in chapter six against whatever the devil will throw at us and he will throw and he is throwing a lot of darts, arrows, I might even not, not even darts at us. This means then we need to be feeding and feasting on the word of God. The inner man needs to be feeding on the word of God. Paul talks about that to nature that is at war within him in Romans chapter seven. We need to be feeding on the word. We need to be praying. As I mentioned, prayer is too vital for us. It’s too essential for us to praying on the word of God. We need to be worshiping, which is why we gather here on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. We need to be exercising the inner man in loving obedience to God’s word. So ask folks, ask. Ask for strength. Ask that God will strengthen you. He has already provided the power source to give us that strength. And all we need to do is act upon the power source that he’s given us. Think of it this way. Can you imagine walking in here? We have light switches, we have lights and light bulbs at work. Nobody thought or or see the necessity of turning the lights on and we’re complaining that it’s too dark, it will go turn the light switch on. It’s been provided and the electrician has worked and made sure that you flick a switch, lights the bulbs work, turn the light, switch on. The power of the Spirit is available to us. God has given us the Holy Spirit And we need to allow him to work in our lives, allow him to work in our lives, not quenching him, not ignoring him, not avoiding him. Ask then for strength. And our final point, we look at today, verse 17, ask for depth 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 width, the length and height and depth. Paul uses three pictures here in this verse to convey the idea of spiritual depth. And the three pictures are hidden behind the verbs, dwell, rooted and grounded. The verb dwells means, and I love, I love these meanings. It means to house permanently, it means to reside. It means to inhabit. So what Paul is saying here, then that Christ, so that Christ may inhabit, may be housed permanently, may reside, may inhabit your lives. And again he does. Christ is already residents in our hearts. Those of us who have been saved by the grace of God and in the hearts of the church and Ephesus, the believers there or else Paul would not have addressed them as saints. In verse one of chapter one, what Paul is praying for here then is a deeper experience between Jesus Christ and his people. Not surface rudimentary A, B, C stuff about Christ. He wants them to have a deeper experience of Christ in their lives. And so should we. It’s the same Paul in Philippians three 10 that he said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable to his death. Paul wanted a deeper relationship with his Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And that is what he’s requesting on behalf of the church here. And that is what we need to do because as I said earlier, we, we grasp the gravity of what Christ did and who he is in our lives. It makes living for him easier. It’s not gonna be easy, but it’s gonna be easier, deeper experience between Christ and his people. We saw or have too many nominal Christians in our world today, too many superficial Christians who just think and are content with God and Jesus Christ saving them. And that is enough because that’s their meal ticket to heaven. And that’s all it is. No desire for growth, no desire for depth in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. No desire for a constant prayer life, no desire to have the Holy Spirit rule and reign in their lives. In other words, they just want a surfaced relationship with Jesus Christ. And that should not be any of us here. We shouldn’t just be content with a surface relationship with Jesus Christ. The verse that I just quote, it always baffles me that this is Paul who knows so much about Christ, who literally saw Jesus Christ and was commissioned by him. And Paul right in Philippians when he was coming close to the end of his life, still said, man, I still want to know more about him. That should be our desire. Abraham’s life was an illustration of this truth. God was going to bless Abraham with a son. So the Lord himself came down and visited Abraham’s tent and he brought two angels with him. You remember the story, Genesis nine, 18 and 19, and they came to the tent and they talked with Abraham and they even ate a meal with him. They felt very much at home in Abraham’s tent because Abraham’s faith, because Abraham was a man of faith, a man of obedience. But the three guests of course had another task. You know the story. They had to investigate the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. And this is because God has planned to destroy this wicked city lot who seemingly was a believer, was living in Sodom and God wanted to warn him to get out before judgment comes down or came down. But what you notice in these verses is that unlike with Abraham, God didn’t go, the Lord himself did not go to Sodom. He send the two angels. So he was there with the two angels with Abraham, and he just sent them go, just go to lot. The Lord did not feel at home in lot’s home. And you can see why he was indulging in that kind of lifestyle. And there was a distance between him and his Lord and his savior. And we see this in the church, in, in, in, in, in revelation where they have shot Jesus Christ out of the church, his own church. And he said, I’m standing at the door and I’m knocking. I know many preachers use that as a invitation to the gospel. It’s not contextually, it cannot be obligatory, it can’t be. It’s talking to church people, Christians, believers who have have no one and want nothing to do with Christ and, and who is the head of his church. Christ felt distant from that church. And Paul is saying, I don’t want this of you have a deeper closer relationship with your Lord. The tree must get its roots deep into the soil for it to have both nourishment and stability. And when the Christian, the Christian must have his or her spiritual roots deep in God for us to have nourishment and stability. Psalm one, verses one to three is a perfect picture of this, the description of the righteous man in Jeremiah 17 verse five to eight, good commentary on this kind of life. Thus say the Lord curse is the man who trust, trust in mankind and makes flesh his strength And whose heart turns away from the Lord for he will be like a bush in the desert. And you get the picture already, for he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wa wastes stony waste in the wilderness and a land, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord for he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its Ruth roots by a stream. I will not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green and will not fear and, and its leaves will be green and it will not be anxious in the year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. The great compare and contrast there between what two spiritual beings, if you will. One of the most important questions a Christian can ask himself is from what do I draw my nourishment from? What or who? Where do I draw my stability? If there is to be power in our lives, there must be depth in our lives. The roots must grow deeper and deeper in Christ Jesus. Paul is praying for a deeper experience of God’s love that will result in him abiding in the lives of the believer in a sense of knowledge and experience. This will prepare the readers well for living the ethical demands in the second part of the letter, the far most, the foremost of which is the call to live a life of love and imitation to God. If we are gonna imitate Christ, we are gonna have to go deep in Christ and know more about Christ in order for us to imitate him. It just makes sense. You can’t imitate me if you have no idea who I am, anything. No, you don’t know anything about me. The desire on Paul’s heart for his readers is to have a deeper spiritual experience based on what they’ve already experienced in Christ. Grounded is another architectural term and it refers to foundations on which we build the trials of life, test the depth of our experience. And if two roommates in college are having a falling out, they may seek new roommates for after all they’re just living with a roommate. And this is just a passing experience. But if a husband and a wife who love each other have a disagreement, the trial only deepens or should only deepen their love for each other as they seek to solve the problem. Not to say, you know what, let’s part ways because we can’t agree on this simple matter, the storm that blows reveals the strength of the roots. Jesus told the story about the two builders, one of them who didn’t go deep enough in their foundation in Matthew seven. And Paul prayed that the believers might have a deeper experience with Christ because only a deeper experience could sustain them during the severe trials of life. And in the next chapter, verses 14 and 15, Paul tells us and states that unity, knowledge of the Son of God will make us mature and allow us to discern false teaching and so that we will not become swayed by every doctrine that comes our way. This comes from maturing in Christ. It only comes from maturing in Christ. There’s a reason folks, there’s a reason why so many churches are anything but churches and don’t look anything like church, even though they might name and call themselves a church of Christ. There’s reason, there’s a reason why so many professing Christians are constantly on the move from church to church because there’s something that they didn’t like in the church, that they’re the former church in some cases, they’re looking for something that they want to hear. Those are the people with itching ears. There re there’s a reason why people, men like Joel Oldstein and Benny Hen and Kretlow dollars and the the, um, the one that I swear his demon possess, I can’t remember his name, Kenneth Copeland. It’s funny how you guys knew who I was referring to is a reason why these men have a captivating, enormous audience. This folks is a result. This is a result of people having itching, ears, no roots, no foundation whatsoever. And a lot of them have, they don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul knew the environment in which the believers in Ephesus live. We are aware of the environment that in which we live. And I want you to listen to his final charge to the elders in Ephesus as he, Luke records his verse in Acts chapter 20, verse 28 to 32, acts chapter 20, verse 28 to 32. And after this, we will close. So Paul addressing the elders in Ephesus, verse 28 of chapter 20 says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves, not just wolves, savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. So these are men like the atrophies in one John three where he just wants the prominent figure in the church and forget that Jesus Christ is the prominent figure, therefore be on the alert remembering that that night and day, that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish, admonish each one of you with tears. And now I I now I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Paul left a stern warning. Of course, the the conversation goes deeper and it starts before verse 20. But Paul is saying, be on guard. Be on guard. Because many false prophets, many are gonna come and they’re gonna try to deceive. And don’t just be on guard for those that are coming from without. Be on guard for those that are within. Be careful. We need God’s strength. We need depth if we’re gonna walk this Christian life. We need depth. We need strength. Next week we’ll continue to look at the other requests that Paul made and then go into doxology a time of praise. Father, as we’ve just saw in the text, we ask for enablement. The power through your Holy Spirit to live as you’ve called us to live, to live in unity, to live as mature believers, to live firm on your word. When the various doctrines of the world comes our way, that we’ll stand firm because we are rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. God, may we make prayer an absolutely essential part of our life. May we allow your Holy Spirit to work in our lives the way in which you intend, the way in which you want him to work in our lives, for our good and for your glory. So Lord, strengthen us and give us depth. And may we continue to seek to honor you, to be constant in prayer, to be constant in your word, where we’ll draw our source of strength and energy from as we faith face the trials of life for Christ’s sake. Amen.