Ephesians 3:14-21 - Paul's Prayer for Strength

Well, good morning.

Turn with me, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

And today we will be looking at verses 14 through 21, which is Paul's prayer for spiritual strength and comprehension.

I think that we would all agree that prayer is vital in the Christian life.

Martin Luther once said, To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Oswald Chambers once said, prayer does not fit us for the greater work.

Prayer is the greater work.

John Piper says, Nothing is more vital than prayer in the Christian existence, and few things are more vulnerable to neglect.

Church, as we look at Scripture and the quotes of these saints, our collective response is yes and amen.

Yet many of us still struggle with prayer.

We find it difficult to pray.

And when we do pray, we're unsure of what to pray for.

We forget how crucial it is for ourselves and for others.

And if we're brutally honest, most of us maybe would admit my prayer life is not where it needs to be.

We forget the great reality that God accomplishes his will through the prayers of his people.

So we've reached a point in this letter, in the letter of Ephesians, where the Apostle Paul finds it necessary to stop and pray for these believers.

He's already done this once back in chapter one, but he does it again here.

And rightly so, he just dropped some serious spiritual bombs on them.

He knows that this is a lot for them to take in.

Anyone with a pastoral heart understands this.

It's not enough to just give people data and information.

I dare even say it's not enough for a preacher to preach, but to pray for those whom he is preaching to.

That they wouldn't just know the truth, but that they would be transformed by it.

So what will Paul pray for?

Will he pray for a happy life with sunshine and rainbows?

Will he pray that they become experts of debate and apologetics?

What requests will Paul make on behalf of these believers?

It is this.

He prays for spiritual strength, power from above, and comprehension of Christ's immeasurable love.

This is what he considered most vital.

This is what our passage is all about: the importance of prayer, the posture of prayer, and how to pray for other believers.

So after teaching them about the nature of salvation back in chapter 2, after teaching them about the blessed reality of the church at the end of chapter 2, and comforting these believers concerning his suffering at the beginning here in chapter 3, he now takes the time to pray for them.

In verses 14 and 15, he starts by saying this.

So Paul first shows us the posture of his prayer.

As he looks back at what he wrote in verses 1 through 13, he has a physical, bodily response.

Here he is, by the way, he's writing from a Roman jail cell in chains, and he drops to his knees on a stone floor.

He is brought to his knees as he ponders these glorious divine realities.

This is a sign of reverence.

Paul knew who he was praying to.

This wasn't just, you know, the big guy upstairs, some genie in the sky.

This was, look at verse 15, the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

This phrase refers to the father of creation.

This is not to be confused with salvation.

Okay, if you're unsaved, God is not your father, and you are not his child.

Jesus makes that very clear in John chapter 8, verse 44.

John 8:44

But in a creational sense, God is the father of all creation, the one who made everything out of nothing.

This is the God in whom we live and move and have our being.

So right off the bat, Paul teaches us a few things.

One, prayer is to be taken reverently.

We need to have a better grasp on who we're actually praying to.

Although God is our friend and he meets us where we're at, let us not become flippant with our attitude or our approach.

God is not our homie, he's not our buddy, for he is the father of all creation, the one who made everything out of nothing.

Another aspect to observe is don't quench a physical response.

If the Holy Spirit is laying something profound on you.

Listen, I've got two big issues.

Okay, one, I'm introvert, and two, I'm a Baptist.

Okay, look, I'm not a very emotional guy.

I don't put my hands up a lot during worship.

I'm not expressive.

Plus, I think there's a lot of people out there who, you know, they do these things to be showy or look at how spiritual I am.

A lot of bad motivations, drawing attention to themselves.

But my goodness, let us not quench the spirit if the Lord is overwhelming you.

God has given you the instruments of your body, your mouth, your hands, your feet to worship him.

Don't be afraid of being expressive towards God in genuine worship.

Obviously, don't do it if your motivation is for attention, and don't do it in a way that it's going to disrupt public worship.

But in honest devotion, don't be afraid to worship God by shouting praise, by lifting holy hands, or like Paul, kneeling in prayer.

That's biblical.

So after revealing the posture of prayer, holy reverence, Paul now begins interceding for these Ephesians in verses 16 through 17.

He says this 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.

So what is Paul's request here?

He prays for spiritual strength.

And there are three big things to note here: the origin of spiritual strength, the source of spiritual strength, and the goal of spiritual strength.

So starting with the origin, spiritual strength comes from, look at verse 16, the riches of God's glory.

That is the only place where you will ever find spiritual strength.

There are many people today and around the world, Christians even, that try to find spiritual strength within themselves.

You won't find it there.

As Paul says in Romans 7, for no good thing dwells in me, that is in my natural man, right?

Others try to find spiritual strength by dieting and exercising.

Although that's good and healthy, and I'm a huge advocate of those things, those things cannot give you spiritual strength.

Spiritual strength only comes from the riches of God's glory.

That is where it originates, that is where it is stored, and that is where it comes from.

Paul understood that, which is why he prays for it.

And notice Paul says that he may grant you.

God is the one who grants us spiritual strength.

And he's generous with this.

If there's anything that God really wants to give his children, it's power from above to strengthen our inner being.

He has infinite power, endless resources, and he is eager to share that with us.

It comes from God and it is granted by God.

Next, Paul prays for the source or the application, if you will, of this power.

God gives us spiritual strength through the Holy Spirit who empowers our inner man.

As Christians, this is our power, the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

In the New Testament, when someone comes to a true saving faith in Jesus Christ, they are permanently sealed with the Holy Spirit.

God's Spirit comes and indwells them.

Now, according to the Bible, the Holy Spirit does a lot of things for us.

The Holy Spirit helps believers by interceding for us.

We see that in Romans 8, verse 26.

Romans 8:26

The Holy Spirit guides us into truth and understanding God's word, that's John 16, 13.

He empowers us to live righteously by providing strength and enabling obedience.

That's Philippians 2.13.

He comforts us with a sense of peace and hope through his presence, Romans 15, 13.

And the list goes on.

Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot live the Christian life.

It's impossible.

The Holy Spirit brings the power into our lives.

As Paul thinks about the Ephesian church, the church in Ephesus, this is what he wants for them.

Not comfort, not a life without difficulties, not bigger programs, not more consumeristic activities.

He wants them to be spiritually strong.

And spiritual strength, by the way, is not to be confused with external fame or power.

A lot of people hear this and they're like, yes, I want to bring millions to Christ.

I want to be make a name for myself within the church community.

I want to write a Christian book and I want just hundreds of thousands of people to buy it.

No, Paul is not talking about spiritual strength in the sense of external.

He's talking about inner spiritual strength in the sense of godliness, holiness, righteousness, peace, and joyful obedience.

Listen, what God is most concerned about is your spiritual condition on the inside.

God is more concerned about your heart than he is about what you can do for him.

He can do ministry through rocks and donkeys.

The inner is the priority.

You could be winning souls every day.

You could be crushing atheists online in theological debates.

You could be serving at every homeless shelter in Ohio.

You could be memorizing entire books of the Bible.

But if you are spiritually numb and unhealthy on the inside, none of that stuff really matters, does it?

Often when we struggle, we think it's an outward problem.

If I could just do more, if I could just set my alarm earlier, if I could get into a better routine, if I could change my circumstances, if I could fix my wife, if I could get the new job that I want, if I could get into cold water plunging, I would feel better spiritually.

And look, some of these things may be helpful, but they are not the solution.

The problem is our heart.

Our inner spiritual man needs nourished and strengthened.

We need power from above that only comes from God.

We need God to reach deep within our souls and infuse in us spiritual energy and power and strength.

Paul knew this, which is why he prays for it.

And to what end?

What's the goal of spiritual strength?

Well, look at verse 17.

That Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith.

The main purpose of spiritual strength is not so I can crush life and drop kick demons.

Okay, do you remember Luke 10, verse 20?

Luke 10:20

The disciples came back after being sent by Jesus two by two, and they're rejoicing, saying, Jesus, the demons, they obeyed us.

We told them to leave and they left.

And Jesus says, Don't rejoice in that.

Rejoice in the fact that your name is written in heaven.

The main purpose of being spiritually strong is that Christ would live in me and through me, that I would rejoice in my sonship.

That is what God wants for us, that we would be a people who go about our day with Christ just dwelling so richly in my heart.

In all that we do, whether it's going to work or visiting family or changing a diaper, shopping at the local grocery store.

We're walking around, treasuring Christ in our heart.

We are most satisfied.

We are most effective.

We're most content.

We are most bold.

And God is most glorified in our lives when the forefront of our minds is filled with Christ and He is sitting on the throne of our hearts.

We are most effective for the kingdom.

We're most unaffected by the storms of life when Christ is dwelling abundantly in our hearts through faith.

This church is true spiritual strength.

Now I want to ask the question: why is Paul even praying for this?

Because it's difficult sometimes, isn't it?

I don't know about you, but I fall into idolatry.

There are seasons in my life where I deliberately choose sin over Christ.

And when this happens, I've got panic, I've got shame, I've got guilt, I've got fear dwelling in my heart through unbelief.

Then I'm hyper-focused on myself and what I can do.

I'm consumed with my own self-interest.

Now I'm having weird, crazy thoughts, crazy speculations with no sense of God's presence.

Our tendency is to operate in the flesh and have anxiety and depression and darkness consuming our thought life.

Can you not relate?

Is this not human tendency?

Which is why Paul prays this prayer.

We need God's help, church.

This is a prayer that we need, that I need, because we are prone to wonder.

We're still in fallen flesh.

We are so easily distracted and deceived.

We are compulsive, we're forgetful, we're stubborn.

Church, pray this prayer for yourselves and for others.

It's a prayer that is aligned with God's will.

It's a prayer that He wants to answer and give.

Lord, help them.

Help me from the riches of your glory through the power of your Holy Spirit to be strong inwardly so that Christ would overflow in my heart through faith.

So after praying for spiritual strength, Paul next prays for spiritual comprehension of Christ's love.

Look at the end of verse 17 to the end of verse 19.

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 of the fullness of God.

Paul first mentions that we need to be rooted in grounded in love.

Okay, that's that's kind of the starting point.

If you're not doing that, how in the world can you comprehend with all of the other saints the immeasurable love of Christ?

You have no chance of comprehending Christ's love or growing in it if you're not rooted and grounded in love with other believers around you.

There's a reason why Jesus says time and time again, forgive those who hurt you.

Be patient with difficult people.

Don't become bitter towards others, because such things can stunt us from seeing the love of Christ.

If I'm unable to give and receive love of those around me, if I'm unwilling to forgive and overlook offenses, how in the world is my brain and my heart ready to further comprehend Christ's love?

In fact, I think what Paul is saying here is that we encounter greater comprehension of Christ's love through the experience of being rooted and grounded in love together with other believers.

Things like unforgiveness, divisiveness, envy, jealousy, malice, evil suspicions is like putting a blindfold on.

We cannot see properly.

It limits us.

But when we rid ourselves of such things and choose to be rooted and grounded in love, together with other believers, the blinders come off, and we are able to see clearer and learn more about the immeasurable love of Christ.

You know, love, especially love towards the body of Christ, is actually a mark of maturity in the Christian walk.

1 Corinthians 13 literally says that you can have spiritual gifts, you can give all of your money to the poor, you can even be killed for your faith with a right confession of Christ, but if you don't have love, you gain absolutely nothing.

It's all void.

If love is not present.

And so love for God and for people is also a good indicator, by the way, of where we are at spiritually.

When you find yourself getting easily frustrated with others, envious when others succeed, constantly suspicious towards authority, wanting to complain about other people.

That's a red flag that's just shouting, hey, you are operating in the flesh and you need spiritual strength from above.

Paul prays that we would be anchored in love so that we would have the strength through that experience to comprehend together Christ's love.

This is collective language that we would comprehend with all the saints the love of Christ.

It's a collective prayer.

Look, personal devotion is great.

Seeking God alone in your prayer closet is absolutely vital.

But let us not forget that the Christian life is to be lived together with other believers.

We actually learn more about Christ's love and we comprehend it more in the context of being gathered, living life together, bearing burdens together collectively.

And next, Paul shows us the vastness of what we're trying to comprehend.

Christ's love, is it something that we can understand and then move on from?

Is it something that we can obtain and graduate from?

Not at all.

Christ's love is so wide, it's so long, it's so high, it's so deep that it's incomprehensible to us finite beings.

The love of Christ cannot be measured or exhausted.

Which is why he uses phrases width, length, height, depth.

What's he doing here?

He is metaphorically representing the vastness of Christ's love.

Width signifies the scope, it reaches all nations, all cultures.

Length indicates the eternal nature of his love.

It's forever, it's unchanging.

Depth reflects the profound nature of love.

It reaches so deep in the hearts of believers, even in the midst of their struggles and failures.

It is love, look at the verse, that surpasses knowledge, meaning it cannot be fully understood by human minds.

The love of Christ is considered too great and deep and divine to be contained by mere human thought.

It is a love so great that it will take an eternity to unravel and understand.

Tell me what other love in existence says this.

And I will continue to love you, even though you continue to give me countless reasons not to.

What kind of love is this?

It's not one that a calculator or a measuring tape or AI processor can measure.

If you gave me all of your love for your children, all of your love for your family and friends, all of the love you have for anything for that matter, and comparatively, it falls infinitely short of Christ's love towards you.

And it is Paul's prayer and mine that as believers we would continue to grow in our understanding of Christ's love.

Ultimately, this is the root to all of our spiritual problems.

You don't mistreat your wife because you have anger problems.

You don't refuse to forgive someone just because you feel justified in it.

You don't keep getting drunk because you have an addiction.

You don't keep looking at porn because you're lonely.

You don't keep neglecting the Bible in prayer because you're busy.

Ultimately, the problem is this: you are lacking the love of Christ.

That's our problem.

If we understood, not perfectly, but to a greater degree, the unending, the overwhelming, the all-sufficient, eternal, steadfast love of Christ, it would kill our affections for sin, idolatry, and rebellion.

That is what keeps us running to Christ.

That is what cultivates spiritual fervor.

When we are constantly drawing from the well of Christ's love.

When we are constantly seeking and receiving his love.

This statement signifies spiritual maturity and completeness in Christ.

A lot of Christians ask, what do I need to do to be more spiritually mature, to have more of God in my life?

What do I need to do?

Is there a formula?

Is there a curriculum?

It is this bask yourself in the love of Christ.

Delight yourself in his love.

Grow in your understanding of it.

Receiving and giving Christ's love equals being filled more with God.

Now there's a lot of confusion out there about what this verse actually means.

Some Christian camps suggest that this verse implies that we can reach a point in our Christian life where we no longer willfully sin.

Some Christians actually go further, suggesting that we can reach a point of sinlessness.

Paul, obviously, he's suggesting something here that we can reach a point in our Christian life where we are filled with the fullness of God.

But what exactly does that mean?

Let me first say that it doesn't imply sinlessness or perfection here on earth.

No Christian will ever be perfect until the day they die and they receive a glorified, sinless body.

And it doesn't imply that we will become somehow equal to God in essence.

Believe it or not, some people believe that, but that's heresy.

What this means is believers, as they love each other and grow in their understanding of Christ's love, can experience all that God has for them.

Again, not perfectly, but as we operate in love, as we grow in our knowledge of Christ's love, we are granted the capacity to reflect and embody God's character and virtues.

The idea here is maturity, not perfection.

We can be spiritually obedient in mature people.

You cannot be perfect, nor can you be sinless on this side of heaven, but you can be full of God and filled with Christ, receiving more and more of Christ's love as we keep giving more and more of it away.

This is true Christian maturity and development, which is why Paul prays for it.

Church, this is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, that they're spiritually strong, loving each other, comprehending the love of Christ together, being filled with the fullness of God.

What a powerful prayer.

We get so distracted sometimes from the heart of Christianity.

Our minds are scattered, making everything so complex, but the primary objective is clear.

Go to God for spiritual power.

Allow Christ to live in your heart through faith.

Be grounded and rooted in love with other believers and grow in your understanding of Christ's love.

Now, Paul could have just ended this prayer at this point and said, I pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

Right?

But he doesn't.

He concludes his prayer by instead proclaiming a glorious doxology.

He ends it in verses 20 and 21, saying, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

After dropping to his knees before the God of all creation, after interceding in prayer on behalf of the Ephesians, Paul now points to God in bold declaration, praise, and adoration, and says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think.

This is a declaration that God does far more than your best prayer, and God does far more abundantly than your best thought.

In our limited, finite brains, we know that God can do some pretty amazing stuff, right?

We know that he can save, he can rescue, deliver, transform people.

We know in the future that he will recreate an entire new heaven and earth and give us new heavenly bodies that are built to last forever.

But even as we imagine these things, our brains literally cannot comprehend all that God is going to do.

We can't even imagine it.

God will do far more.

Look at the verse, far more than all we could ever ask or think.

You know, I thought when I came to Christ initially that God would enhance my life.

But he did far more than that.

He gave me an entire new life.

I thought when I first became a Christian that God would just deliver me from this addiction.

That was my main struggle.

Just get rid of this addiction.

Apparently I was thinking small.

Because he keeps on delivering me from all kinds of things.

When my mother prayed for me.

In many sleepless nights, she told me she should always pray, Lord, please just don't let my son die in his addiction.

Could you at least give me that, Lord?

God did far more than what she asked or could ever imagine.

However, great you think God's plan is, it's so much better.

And whatever you think God is doing, he's doing far much more.

And this is all, look at the verse.

According to the power at work within us, you by yourself cannot do what God wants you to do.

In fact, you can't even think it because we all have SLBs, we all have self-limiting beliefs.

So our brain is small, your flesh is sinful, and you don't have a good track record.

Just be honest.

But God, because He has begun a supernatural work in you, is going to accomplish things in you and through you and for you.

It's according to that power, God's power inside you, that you will experience things and do things and witness things that are far more than what you could ever think or imagine.

Look at Abraham.

Look at Moses.

Look at King David.

Look at Joseph, look at Gideon, look at Esther.

All of these people were fearful, timid, full of doubts and insecurities.

In some ways, they were kind of pathetic.

But God accomplished massive ministry through them.

How?

Because of God's power that was at work within them.

As Paul Washer, a preacher, once said, there's no such thing as a great man of God.

There's only weak, pitiful, broken, doubtful men who are sustained and empowered and kept by an ever-faithful and powerful God.

However great you think God is, however glorious you think heaven is, however amazing you think God's plan for your life is, it's so far greater than you could ever think or imagine.

On that last day, when you stand before the Bama seat of Christ and He shows you the totality of your life lived on earth, you will see how much of His power sustained you.

You will see that He did far more than what you ever imagined or thought.

And what is the whole purpose of this?

Look at the verse.

That God would be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

The goal of all of this isn't that we would look at faithful saints and be like, man, they're so awesome.

They're so diligent, they're so smart, what awesome and great men these were.

That's what the Jews did with Abraham and Moses.

They idolized the person as if these people gained wisdom and had ministry success based on their own grit, merit, and intellect.

The whole point of our salvation, of God using us, of God blessing us and giving us his promises is that we would glorify him.

Because we know that we deserve none of it.

In case you didn't know this, the main purpose of salvation is not you.

Of course, it includes you.

You are a benefactor, you play a part, but the whole purpose of the Bible, the Christian faith, your salvation, Christ crucified, Satan's defeat, is that God would be glorified, that his creation would be restored in its proper place of loving him and honoring him and glorifying him.

The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

Of course, salvation includes us.

It includes us maturing, being restored, growing in our knowledge of Christ's love.

But beyond that, all of these purposes serve one greater purpose: the glory of God in Christ Jesus and in the church.

The end of all things is that all of creation would gaze upon their creator and shout with all their being, God, you are famous.

God, you are the highest good.

You are above all and you are worthy of all possible praise.

So, proclamation church, in light of Paul's prayer and his doxology, what is our personal application here?

The first is this the importance of interceding for others.

If Paul felt it necessary to stop in this letter twice and pray for these saints, how important is it for us to stop and intercede for others?

Prayer's not meant to just be selfish, just you praying for you all the time.

As James 5, 16 tells us, pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Paul even asks for prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5.

He says, brothers, please pray for us.

Grab a church directory, make a prayer list, be super practical about it, and pray for other believers.

Secondly, learn how to pray for others.

The content of our prayers, if someone was to record them, are often self-centered.

They're shallow, they're focused on earthly things.

Notice, okay, bear with me here.

Notice Paul doesn't pray for John's upcoming doctor's appointment.

He doesn't pray that Joe's business would grow.

He doesn't pray that the Ephesians would take over the Roman court and overturn societal laws.

These things are not bad things to pray for, by the way.

But they're not Paul's focus here.

Why?

Because Paul profoundly understood that if they have no spiritual strength, none of these things matter.

If John has spiritual strength, he will glorify God no matter the results of his doctor's appointment.

If Joe has spiritual strength, he will trust and honor God, whether his business flourishes or fails.

If the Ephesians are spiritually strong, whether they overturn sinful government laws or not, they will continue to proclaim the gospel and make disciples and sing for joy, whether in religious freedom or in the face of persecution or immediate death.

It's not that we don't pray for these things.

Yes, pray for finances, pray for health, pray for success, pray for all these things.

God delights in the fact that we do pray these things.

They're not bad things to pray for.

But don't pray for these things at the expense of praying for true spiritual power.

Because first and foremost, that is what we need.

Church, I need a lot of things.

I need a retirement fund.

It's got me worried.

My wife has a kidney disease.

Pray for her healing.

Seriously, pray for her healing.

Pray that Lazarus Life Ministries would get a bigger house and more finances because we need it.

As I read the news, things are just crazy in our government.

Like, pray for our government.

These things are just wild, right?

But above all these things, and before all these things, pray for spiritual strength.

Pray that I would be so filled with Christ, so overwhelmed by Christ's love, so rooted and grounded in Christian love that whatever comes my way, even if I lost my house, if Molly's kidneys got worse, if I had to close the doors at Lazarus Life Ministries, guess what?

I'm okay.

I'm okay.

My faith isn't shaken.

Why?

Because I'm spiritually strong in Christ.

I'm so dearly connected and in tune with my Savior, my comforter, my redeemer.

Lastly, church, glorify God in all that you do.

That's the whole purpose of literally everything.

The purpose of your marriage, your parenting, going to work every day, interceding for others, is to glorify God.

That through your testimony, your actions, your words and relationships, God would become more famous.

Can you say, church, with confidence, that your ultimate goal in life is to glorify God.

That is the chief end of all things.

That is what Paul's doxology here is all about the glory of God.

And if it was his priority, let it be ours as well.

Church, let's pray.