Gospel Driven | Ephesians 3:14-19 (July 10) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's pray, church.

Father, you are truly great.

And Lord, even if the whole world were to proclaim it for all of eternity, God, we would not even begin to scratch the surface of your greatness.

And so, God, it's been such a delight for us as a church this morning to gather here and to praise your name, to give glory to you.

And God, we are eager as we open up your word to hear of more of your greatness.

And yet, Lord, we know that we could never know the fullness of it.

And so we pray for your help of your spirit this morning.

God, help us to know the greatness of your name.

Lord, I pray that all the distractions would be cast aside this morning.

Lord, that the exaltation of our hearts would be Jesus Christ and his glory and his cross.

God, thank you for this morning.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can grab your seat, and as you're grabbing it, you can take your Bibles and open them up to Ephesians.

We're gonna be in chapter 3, verses 14 to 19, as we continue our series called Gospel Driven.

And I want to begin our time together this morning thinking about imagination.

Asking this question, what is our imagination?

We can answer this question maybe two different ways.

One way is we could just talk about the definition, and so I did that.

If you were to look up the word imagination in whatever dictionary I Googled, you would find that it means this the faculty or action of forming new ideas or images or concepts or external objects not present to the senses.

And so we can think about imagination from a definition standpoint, but we also just experientially know what imagination is, don't we?

We scratch our heads at the imagination, the wild imagination of our kids who try to explain to us whatever little dream world or playland they're currently in as we try to condescend to their level and understand their world.

We scratch our heads at the imagination of our dreams, of our subconscious when we're sleeping and our dreams take us to these wild places.

Like this dream I had this past week as we were thinking about setting uh redoing the setup in our worship center.

And I had this dream that I was visiting another church and the preacher was preaching from his bed, and half the church was sitting on his bed, the other half was sitting on the floor, and they were listening, and I woke up and it was one of those dreams where we're like, did this really happen?

And I was reminded of the absurdity of our imaginations.

But we also know the beauty of imagination, don't we?

We know the beauty of a the innovation of an inventor who out of thin air invents a product that changes maybe the course of history or at least changes our lives.

We've all seen the beauty of an artist who, from their imagination, paints this picture out of mid-air or creates this beautiful song.

For better or for worse, each of us experimentally know the power of our imagination.

That's why the phrase, more than you can ever imagine, should be really mind-blowing because to say more than you can imagine is to say like it's more than you could ever possibly dream of.

That's why Ephesians 3, 20 and 21, for the whole of my Christian life, have been one of those verses that the more I've meditated on it, the more I've been shocked by what Paul is saying here.

And really, this is the end of what our the verses we're going to be studying this morning is getting to, but sometimes it's good to start at the end, isn't it?

Sometimes it's good to begin with the goal in mind.

And so look at what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 20.

Ephesians 3:20

He says, Now to him who is able, that is God, the one who created all things, able obviously to do anything, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or hear this church or think, according to the power at work within us.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

If we truly consider the weight of these verses, we should be left in awe because God is saying this because of who God is, the God who is powerfully at work in you, God is both able and willing to accomplish more through that power that is at work within you than you could possibly imagine.

This is the God who's working within us.

So powerful, Paul says, is this God who is working within us that through us he could accomplish more than we could possibly imagine.

And so we ask this morning, God, how much are you willing to accomplish through my life?

And the answer is right here far more than you could possibly imagine to ask or to think.

And we ask as a church, God, how much are you willing to accomplish through the life of this church?

And God responds to us, through the power that is at work within you, I am willing to accomplish more than you are able to ask, and more than you are able to think.

This is the willingness of our God to work this unfathomable power through us all for his glory.

And so you need to know as a Christian, I have no greater desire for myself than to see this power of God flowing through me, accomplishing unimaginable work through me for his glory.

And as a church, I have no greater desire for a place to lead us than to a place where God is working in our midst with such a power that he is accomplishing these works that we could never have imagined to think of or to ask for.

I want to know how do we get this power?

How does this power flow through us?

And in Paul's prayer in verses 14 to 19, he really answers that question for us.

He shows us what must happen in our life in order for the power of God to work in us.

And so I want you to see three things that must happen in your life in order for the power of God to be at work in your life in this way.

The first thing I want you to see in this text is that God's power is at work in me when I am dependent on Him.

God's power is at work in me when I am dependent on Him.

If God's power is going to be flowing through us to accomplish this unimaginable work, then our heart posture must be a posture of complete and utter dependence.

Paul's desire is that God's work is accomplished through this church, the church of Ephesus, through the power that God has placed by faith in this church.

This is Paul's desire as he writes this letter.

And so our question is: what is Paul going to do in order to see that the power of God is working in the midst of this church?

What instrument does Paul turn to to get the power of God flowing through the life of this church?

Notice that it's not the work of small group that Paul turns to.

Small groups are really good.

Small group's a great thing, but Paul doesn't turn to tightening up how your small groups are working.

Paul doesn't even turn to the power of preaching.

He doesn't say if you want to see God's power flowing through your life, then listen to really great sermons.

I wish he did as a preacher.

I wish he said that, but he doesn't turn to that.

You know what Paul turns to?

When he wants to see the power of God working in the church of Ephesus life, he turns to prayer.

Paul turns to prayer.

He says in verse 14, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named.

Paul's showing us that if we want to see God's power working in our life, accomplishing unimaginable work through us, then we must turn to the work of dependent prayer.

That's why we have a saying around here that nothing of eternal significance happens apart from prayer.

Because really, if you want to see God working through your life, the work that you need to commit to yourself to is this dependent heart that leads to prayer.

And so this was Paul's deep conviction that the most important work he could do in a day was the work of prayer.

This is why I think Paul was probably kind of like a startling person to meet, because in almost every one of Paul's letters, he says, Hi, I'm Paul, and then he says, Let's pray.

And if Paul were to meet you this morning, he might shake your hand, but beyond that, there's not going to be many words that you get to get in with the Apostle Paul before he's praying with you, because Paul believes that the work of God is accomplished through the prayer of his people.

And so Paul was deeply committed to dependent prayer, trusting that if God was going to work in the life of these churches, he needed to turn to prayer.

This was exemplified in Jesus' ministry as well.

This is something that can be really powerful for you to do, is to read through the Gospels, especially Luke or Mark, and take note of the times where Jesus gets away from his disciples, sometimes at great cost to the disciples.

Like whenever Jesus leaves the disciples, it turns to their ruin.

And yet Jesus frequently, in the time that he spent with his disciples, would get to these isolated places to be with the Lord and to pray.

Prayer is the most important work that we can do.

Prayer is not taking a break from other important work.

Prayer is committing to the most important work.

That's why some of us neglect time in prayer.

Because we want to prayer, pray.

We think prayer is good, but the problem is that we just think other things are better.

And so it's hard for us to commit this time to prayer because we just feel the pull every minute that we're praying.

Oh, I could be doing this.

The to-do list is calling my name.

I could be finishing this, I could be accomplishing this.

And really at the heart of our being, we believe that prayer is good, but we don't believe that prayer is the most important work.

But God's teaching us this morning that if I want his power to work in me, that I must depend on him.

And that the language of dependence really is prayer.

If I'm depending on God, I'm going to be turning to him in prayer.

It's the most important work I could do.

I love this quote from Spurgeon.

Every time I run into this quote that he written it, wrote in his autobiography, I just am reminded of what we need to be as a church.

Spurgeon writes this He said, I always give glory, give all the glory to God.

But I do not forget that he gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to the pray to a praying people.

We had prayer meetings in New Park Street that moved our very souls.

Every man seemed like a crusader besieging the New Jerusalem.

Each one appeared determined to storm the celestial city by the might of intercession.

And listen to this church.

Soon the blessing came upon us in such abundance that we had not room to receive it.

Here's a church that believed prayer was the most important work, and so they committed themselves to it and saw God's blessing.

And the same is true in our lives in this very moment.

That the moment you turn to dependence in the Lord is the moment that God's blessing pours into your life.

It's the moment that God's power is available to you so that his work can be accomplished through you.

To pray is to say that we are dependent on God.

Prayer is the language of dependence.

When our heart is dependent, it turns to God in prayer.

Because prayer is saying this, Lord, I need you for this.

See, the things, this is very practical and it's very simple.

The things that we pray about are the things that we know we need the help of the Lord with.

The things that you fail to pray about, very practically are the things that you feel you can do in your own strength.

You know what the problem with this is?

The problem is that Jesus' words are, apart from me, you can do some things, that's not it.

Jesus says, apart from me, you can do the really easy things.

That's not it either, church.

What Jesus says is, apart from me, you can do nothing.

The flesh is of no help at all.

And prayer is this language of dependence that says, God, I need you in this.

God, if anything of eternal significance is going to happen in this area of my life and I'm praying, I need you to act.

Isn't this why it's so easy to pray when things go drastically wrong in our life?

Prayer is easy when we're faced with a sickness that might take our life.

Prayer is easy when we're praying for a child who has gone astray in the Lord.

Prayer is easy when we're walking in the deepness and darkness of suffering.

And we feel at our wit's end like there's nothing that we can do.

There's no way I can get myself out of this situation.

And so then we turn to prayer, because finally we've come to a place where we believe God's got to work.

And the work that God wants to do in our hearts this morning is to show us that every area of our life requires dependence.

These are the ones who bring glory to God, or God are the ones who express their dependence through the commitment to prayer in every area of life.

It's the mother who day in and day out clothes the mundane tasks around the house with prayer because she desires it for her kids to see the glory of God working through her.

It's the father who prays with earnestness for the sin of their children, knowing that no amount of discipline, no amount of amazing fathering, parenting technique could ever save their child, that if their child's going to be saved, it requires a heart work by Jesus Christ himself.

This is why change in your prayer life, it needs to happen at a heart level because you can never just get disciplined through grit.

You cannot discipline yourself to prayer.

If you are going to have a life of committed prayer, it needs to happen at this heart level where you come to recognize that you need the Lord.

You need the Lord.

This is why when Paul prays, he reveals so much of his heart for prayer in the words that he says.

And what Paul is doing in verses 14 and 15 is showing us where this dependent heart that leads to prayer comes from.

See, for Paul, this dependency comes from this heart belief.

You see what he says in verse 14?

He starts these words by saying, For this reason I bow my knees.

There's a reason why Paul is bowing his knees.

What is that reason?

Well, you go up a few verses and look what Paul's talking about in verse uh in verse 8.

He says, To me, though, I'm the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

He begins talking about the gospel to bring to light for everyone what is the plan for the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Paul's been expounding the work that God has done in reconciling the church to Jesus Christ.

And now, over the out of the overflow of Paul's heart, he prays because this God who's willing to do a work of salvation in the church is also a God who is willing to do a work of sanctification in the church.

Paul prays because he has this heart belief that the God who was able to work in creation to create the world is able to sustain your life.

And so he prays for the church.

This is what must drive our dependence on God.

It's this heart belief.

It's a belief in who God is.

If I believe that God is creator, if I believe that he's sustainer, if I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that He's done a work to save me, then I can pray knowing that my God is a God who accomplishes work.

A dependent heart comes from a place of heart belief, but notice that this heart belief leads to a heart posture.

Do you know, see what Paul says in verse 14?

He says, For this reason, this heart belief I have, I bow my knees before the Father.

I bow my knees, it leads to this heart posture.

To pray with bended knees would be an odd position for the Israelite, for the Jewish person, who was often instructed to pray standing.

To kneel was a posture that was revealed a heart of dependence.

It revealed a heart of desperation.

And this physical posture of kneeling comes from a place of heart posture that is bowing before the Lord.

It doesn't matter what you're doing physically if the heart isn't driving you to be in that physical posture.

And so our physical posture when we pray or read scripture or listen to sermons or worship God matters because it reveals our heart posture.

Now it doesn't always do this because it's really possible to fake a physical posture, isn't it?

It's really possible to raise a hand in worship when your heart really isn't in worship at all.

Your mind is distracted by other things.

But all this to say that physical posture is important because it comes from a place of heart posture.

So there's some really practical things here.

If you pray laying in your bed, the reality is that you're much probably much closer to sleeping than you are to depending on the Lord.

If you listen to sermons, slouching on the couch or sitting on the chair like you're almost asleep, your head's back, the reality is that you're probably much closer to apathy than you are to dependence.

And so I can look around this room, you won't believe this.

You don't really think about this when you're sitting in a worship center, but I can see you all.

And so sometimes I I can see that you're very not engaged, and you can talk to any preacher and they know this.

You can see the people who are sleeping, you can even see the head bobbers.

Probably more than anyone else, you can see them.

They're not the most encouraging people to see.

But I know that because of your heart posture, or because of your physical posture, the reality is that there's very likely little happening in your heart that is of significance.

The same is happening when we worship.

If your worship is like this, well, I can tell you that there's likely not much worship happening in your heart.

And some of you say, Well, I just don't physically express myself when I worship.

But in my heart, I am worshiping.

I want you to know that I'm really praising the Lord in my heart.

And if that's the case, then I would say to you, to what one pastor has said to me, that you need to tell your heart, your heart needs to tell your face to worship.

Because when you are worshiping, it at least, the very least, should show in a smile.

If you were talking to your wife and you were looking the way that some of us look when we're worshiping, your wife would be very disappointed.

Are you listening, honey?

Yeah, I'm listening.

No, when you love someone, your physical posture reveals your heart posture.

And it's like that in worship.

It's not the most important thing, and it doesn't reveal any everything, but it does reveal some things.

Physical posture matters.

Physical posture matters because it shows a heart posture of dependence.

And so Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.

But I want you to see that this place of dependence lastly came from a heart confidence.

It came from a heart belief, it came from a heart posture, and it comes from a heart of confidence.

You see what he says, that he's praying, bowing his knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named.

Another way you could translate this is that God is the father of fatherhood.

That is to say, there's nobody on earth who derives their authority from anyone other than God.

God is the highest of all beings.

He is the Father of Father, He is fathers, He is the Lord of Lords, He is the King of Kings.

And we see this all throughout Scripture that the authority of the highest kings are like a draw.

In the bucket compared to who God is, that no one compares to God, no one has the authority, that nothing can happen apart from God's sovereign will.

And so if you truly believe in God's power, if you truly believe in God's authority, then you cannot help but to bring everything to Him independent prayer.

Why would you work in your own power when the God of the universe who created the universe is here this morning saying this to you?

I'm willing to work through you.

And you say, No, thank you, God.

I'll do it myself.

I do not need you.

And he says, I created the heavens and the earth.

I'll work through you.

And you say, Nah, I got this one, God.

Don't worry about it.

And he says, I'm the Lord of lords and the king of kings and the father of fathers.

I can do this through you.

We say, Don't worry about it, God.

It's very much like going to rent a car and you're renting like a Toyota Corolla, and they say to you, Would you like this free upgrade to a Mustang?

And what do you say?

You say, Yes, of course.

You don't say, no, thank you, I'll take the Corolla.

Don't even clean it, just give it to me, I'll take it.

It's like when you go to the airport and they offer you an upgrade to first class and you're in economy.

You don't say, no, thank you.

I almost want to serve someone else.

You can put them up in first class.

You take first class, and this is what God is offering you through your dependency, through your dependent prayer, He's offering to work through you.

Church, this is who God is.

Depend on him.

Depend on him.

Second thing that must happen, Paul's showing us through this prayer, if we want to see the power of God working in unimaginable ways through us, is that we must be filled by him.

We depend on him, and we are filled by him.

And so look at what Paul says in verse 16 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 the height and the depth?

Paul prays that God would work according to the power that is at work within us.

And in these verses, he shows us exactly what that power is that is at work within us.

Our power, the power of one who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ, is the power of the Holy Spirit and the dwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ within us.

This is where the power comes from.

The call of the Christian is not to be strong in and of themselves.

The call of the Christian is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and dwelt by the spirit and dwelt by the Spirit of Christ.

And so Paul's prayer in these verses is really twofold.

First, that you'd be strengthened with power from the Holy Spirit, and second, that the Spirit of Christ would dwell in you.

And so look at what he says.

First, that if God is going to work through you, it must be through a power that's not your own.

And so he prays for the church that they would be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

Paul's prayer is that we would depend on a power that is not our own, that we would be strengthened very practically by the power of the Holy Spirit in our inner being.

God's prayer is that as children we would first be dependent, but then second that we would be filled by Him with His power.

God Himself working within us.

This is the power that we plug into as Christians.

This is our constant battle as Christians.

It's the battle to live according to the power of the flesh, which is weak, or the battle to live according to the power of the spirit that is within us through faith, which is strong.

This is the battle that the people of Israel fought, to whom the prophet rebuked, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit.

This is the way that the Christian life is to be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so the call for us then is to, instead of trying to fill ourselves with our own power, instead of trying to do things in our own strength, instead of trying to do things with our own might, the call for us is to be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, to accomplish his work through his power.

The problem is, instead of being filled with God's power, we're often filled with our own power.

Instead of God's power, we live our lives in a frantic and prayerless scurrying.

Instead of living with God's power, we fill our mind with the news of the current day or the worries of the present day.

Instead of memorizing the promises of God in Scripture, instead of being filled with the power of God, we and setting our mind on the things that are above, we worry about the things of today.

Instead of meditating on God day and night, we meditate on our hobbies or our pleasures.

And God's desire for us this morning, as He speaks to us through His Word, is that we would disconnect from the powerless source of our flesh, the powerless source of the world.

Stop trying to just summon strength and might from anything other than the Lord.

Disconnect from the powerless source of the flesh and connect to the power of the Holy Spirit.

I wonder if you've ever had a technological problem.

We all have, haven't we?

Haven't you found that 50% of the time that we have these technological problems?

Really the problem is that it's not plugged in.

The only real hope that you have is that you find that out before you ask someone else for help.

Because when you ask someone else for help and you haven't plugged it in, that's a very embarrassing thing.

On Friday, half of Canada, more than half of Canada, was out of internet.

We wondered how we would live.

I wondered if we were going into the post-apocalyptic era.

We survived somehow.

But that's that was our mind.

Did someone forget to plug something some big router in or something?

What happened here?

In order to work, just like that piece of equipment that you're trying to work in your kitchen, we need to be plugged in.

You cannot live the life that God has called you to live.

You cannot do the work that God has called you to do.

You cannot please God apart from the power of God.

This is such a word for those who are burnt out by life and ministry.

There's a lot of reasons for burnout.

And if that is you, then I think it's really wise in that case to seek individual biblical counsel because the heart is a complex thing and needs to be drawn out at times.

But let me suggest that the leading cause for burnout is that the people of God are trying to do the work of God apart from the power of God.

And God's calling us this morning to plug in to the source of our power, to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The second aspect of Paul's prayer is that we might be filled, is that we are indwelt by Christ.

And so look what he says in verse 17.

He says that the reason he wants the Spirit to strengthen us in verse 17 is so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Now the presence of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, it's not like there are two separate gods working within us.

Our God is a triune God who is one God and three persons.

And so for the Spirit of Christ to be in us is for the Holy Spirit to be working in us.

This is speaking of the same power.

It's to be full of the Holy Spirit, what Paul is saying, is to be full of God Himself.

It's not like the Holy Spirit is doing like this rogue mercenary work in your life.

Well, God the Father is like, do not empower him that way.

What Paul's saying is that as the Spirit works, this is a triune working.

The whole counsel of the triune God is working in you to empower you.

To be full of the Holy Spirit is to be full of God Himself.

But notice here that the reason the Spirit strengthens us in verse 17 is so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

What does it mean for Christ to dwell in our hearts?

Well, the heart in Scripture is the control center of the human being.

This is where your will happens.

This is where your desires are.

This is where your emotions are.

This is what the heart is.

And so for Christ to dwell on the heart is to say that Christ is Lord of my heart, that my will is entirely for him, my desires are all for him, my affections are entirely for him.

This is the spirit that the work is, that this is the work that the spirit is seeking to accomplish in our lives.

This may be maybe another reason why so many of us fail to experience the power of Christ in us.

It's because our heart really isn't for Christ's kingdom.

When it boils down to it, when our heart is exposed, our wills, our desires, our affections are for our own kingdom, not for the kingdom of Christ.

And what the what God promises us is the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish his work in us for his kingdom.

The power of the Holy Spirit isn't in you so that you can accomplish your goals, so that you can accomplish your will, so that your desires can be fulfilled, so that you can love yourself.

The power of the Holy Spirit is within you so that you can work for Christ's kingdom.

This is why the prosperity gospel, the gospel of health, wellness, and prosperity is a foolish gospel, because it preaches this message that God will fill you with power so that you can have great things for yourself, so that you can have health, wealth, and prosperity.

God's power is not about your health, wealth, and prosperity.

God's power is about God's glory, him working in you for his glory.

That's why Paul says in verse 16 that you are strengthened with the power of Spirit.

You see this in verse 16, according to the riches of his glory.

The church is strengthened by the Spirit of God for the glory of God to accomplish the work that he has set out for us to do.

You're strengthened so that, Paul says, Christ may dwell in your heart so that you have a new master, you have a new will, you have a new desire, you have a new affection.

It's all for Jesus Christ.

This is what it means to be a spirit-filled church.

It means the Spirit is filling us in such a way that the glory of Christ is our driving desire.

Have you ever asked that?

What's it mean for Redemption Church to be a spirit-filled church?

What would it look like for this church to be spirit-filled?

Often we ask that question, and I wonder what the metrics are for you.

Are the metrics just that our worship is maybe a bit wilder?

Maybe there are some people speaking in tongues, maybe someone's breaking out their flag and starting to assemble it, then we know that the spirit is working.

Is the spirit only working when maybe there are some sort of prophetic visions or messages from the Lord?

Paul very practically is telling us what it looks like for the spirit to work.

He says, when the spirit is strengthened, strengthening you, Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith.

The spirit-filled life very practically happens at the heart level.

When the heart, instead of living for its own kingdom, lives for the kingdom of Christ.

This is the spirit-filled church to be a church filled with Christians who are on fire for the glory of Jesus Christ, who are driven for the mission of God.

This is the work that the Spirit is doing in your life.

Filling you with the Spirit of Christ so that Christ dwells in your heart by faith.

This is the work the Spirit's accomplishing in our church as we seek to be filled with Him.

The last thing I want you to see, as we are seeking God's power at work within us, so that we can see the unimaginable work of God's power through us, is that we must be in love with Him.

We must be in love with Him.

Paul's saying to us this morning that if we want to experience the power of God in our daily life, we must know the love of God.

Do you see that in verse 17?

That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the 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.

This is what you're called to.

It's a love for Jesus Christ and a knowledge of Jesus Christ's love for you.

Paul says it's a strength to comprehend Christ's love that surpasses knowledge.

Now, this isn't just a head knowledge.

It's not enough for the Christian to just fill their mind with thoughts of God's love.

It's a knowledge that must be felt in the heart.

It starts with a head knowledge, it drives to the heart.

But it's also just not a heart knowledge.

This is why I really struggled with making this point that we need to be in love with him, because that's kind of like a worldly way to describe love, isn't it?

Like the heart, the worldly kind of love that we experience is this kind of wishy, washy love.

I'm in love with you.

It was love at first sight.

We hear songs on the radio that talk about love, and it's missing this true meaning of commitment.

It's missing this head level knowledge.

This isn't the love that Christ is calling us to.

This is a love greater than anything we could ever know.

And what we're being told here is that growth and the intimate knowledge of this love is the aim of the Christian life.

This is the aim of the Christian life is to dig deeper into that which you are already experiencing.

Do you know this, Christian?

That the fullness of God's love has already been lavished on you in Jesus Christ.

You are not missing an ounce of God's love.

You are not missing a milliliter of God's love.

Through Jesus Christ, God has poured his love exceedingly over you.

It's not as though God is in heaven holding back some of his love from you.

Sometimes we feel like that.

Like God, you're being kind of stingy in your love.

If you would just do this, then you'd really show me that you love me.

But God, through the gospel, through the work that He's done in Jesus Christ, is saying this.

I've already lavished it all over you.

All of my love has been given to you through Jesus Christ.

The problem is not that God hasn't given us all of his love, the problem is that we will spend all of eternity trying to plumb the depths of his love for us.

The love of Christ is limitless.

This is what Paul's calling us to dig into.

And so he says that we need the Spirit in us so that we can have, see this in verse 18?

Strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, what is the length, what is the height and to and the depth.

Paul calls us to know the depth and the height and the length and the breadth of his love, but then look at what he says about his love.

He says that his love surpasses knowledge.

And so what Paul is saying is that your aim is to know a love that is limitless.

Your aim is to know a love that cannot be known.

When I used to work at camp, we would do these drills every week where you had to go and search for a lost kid.

And a majority of the people would have to search in the water in case the kid had gone down at some point, no one had seen him and went swimming and was at the bottom of the lake.

And I was given the task of diving to the deepest part of this river.

And this river was deep.

I would dive down, and I'm an alright swimmer.

I would swim as far as I could, and I found that once I got to the bottom, I was completely out of breath.

The pressure of the water was pushing against my head.

I felt like my head was about to explode, and as soon as I was out of breath, I found that the timing was perfect for me just to feel the bottom.

And I would touch the bottom and I would start swimming up and I'd see the surface, but I'd feel like I could never get to the top.

And I mean, I don't think I was doing a very effective job at looking for kids because I was feeling maybe like one inch of mud.

And unless it just happened that the kid was there, I would have found him.

But I did like the way that it made me looked.

It was like kind of like Baywatchy to dive off a dock into the deep end.

I really like the way it made me feel.

However, that's regardless of the illustration, I just wanted you to know that.

I would swim to the top, my lungs feel like they're bursting.

I'm as deep as I can go.

I'm it just feels like I'm never gonna make it to the top.

I was probably like maybe 20 feet.

I don't even know, maybe less than that.

Honestly, it's I was a teenager at the time, so it's probably like 10 feet, and I probably thought it was really cool.

Think about for a moment the Marianna's trench in the ocean, the deepest part of the ocean.

The water is black because it goes so deep.

You could put Mount Everest, if you were to put the base of Mount Everest on the top of the water, pointing down, there would still be more ocean.

That is what Christ is calling us to.

He says, You've experienced a level of my love, you've swam deep in my love, but there is so much more to know.

And you will spend all of eternity plumbing the depth of my love for you.

As a Christian, this is the call of Christ to you, to know his love more, to dig deeper in your understanding of it.

So can I just ask you this really practical question?

Do you know more of Christ's love this week than you did last week?

Do you know more of it this year than you did last year?

Do you know more of it this decade than you did last decade?

See, the problem with many of us is we we come to this very basic understanding of doctrine and of Christian living and of Christ's love, and we feel like we've plumbed the depth of all that there is to know about Christ's love for us.

You say, ah, there's nothing new to know.

And I hear this from time to time about preaching.

Like there should be like this new revelation that I have for you.

And I want you to know that this book is 2,000 years old and I have nothing new to say from it.

But what we're doing here on a Sunday morning, what we're doing here when we open up God's word is we're plumbing the depths of his word, which we're gonna spend all of eternity in heaven doing.

And there are gonna be much better preachers than I, plumbing the depths of God's love, and we will still never even come close to knowing the limitless love that Christ has for his church for all of eternity.

We will worship him because we are knowing more and more his love.

See, growing in the knowledge of Christ's love, it's like it's like climbing a mountain.

It's like every Sunday, this is what we're doing together as a church.

We're climbing a mountain and we we think we're about to get to the top.

We think we're about to understand fully Christ's love for us.

We say, there can't be any more.

I'm so overwhelmed by Christ's love for me.

But then we get to the top of that peak and we look farther, we see there's more mountain ranges that go up into the sky.

And so we climb that mountain range.

We get to the top, we think we're almost at the top, we get to the top, we look, there's more mountain ranges.

And for all of eternity, Christian, this will be your pursuit of the knowledge of the love of Christ.

You will never get to the top of it.

It is limitless Christ's love for you.

And the call of your life today is to know that love.

To dive deeper into the things that have already been given to you.

If you're an unbeliever, can I ask you if you know of this love that Jesus Christ has for you?

Can I call you to place your faith in Jesus Christ to understand that you, because of your sin, deserve eternal punishment.

But God has done the most loving thing that he could possibly do.

He has sent his own son for you.

That if you believe in his son, if you repent of your sins and believe in the work that Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross, in that moment, the floodgates of God's love open up and all his love pours onto you as he's done the most loving thing he could possibly ever do.

He has taken care of your eternal problem, he has saved you for eternity.

Christ this morning is calling you to experience and to embrace that love through faith.

And it can happen in a moment in your seat right now.

If in your heart you will just believe in the Lord, believe that Jesus has saved you from your sins, believe that he is Lord of your life, and live your life for him.

If you're in Christ, what Paul is telling you to do is to grow in the knowledge of his love for you.

And we ask, well, how do we do this?

Well, Paul tells us two things that we need to do in order to grow in the love of Christ, and it's really striking.

Both these things are striking in such a way that I feel the need to really point your eyes to Scripture because if I were to say this, you would say, You're making this.

Either you'd say you're making this up, or you'd say, you are a heretic for saying this.

So can you look at God's word with me?

Because this is astounding of the ways that we were to grow in Christ's love.

Look what he says in verse 18.

He says that we he's his prayer is that we may have strength to comprehend, and look at these words.

These four words are so important as we pursue the love of Christ with all the saints.

With all the saints.

I gotta tell you, I read this this week, and those words jumped out at me like I had never read them before.

Do you know that the love of Christ cannot be experienced apart from the community of Christ?

The church of Christ is called his bride.

And Christ loves his bride.

And you need to know that you cannot love, you cannot know Christ's love without the church.

We need the community of Christ.

And it's really important this day and age post-COVID.

It's really important for us to remind us of this, that this is what we need.

We need to be together, that this is crucial.

Because what's happening this morning is we are a bunch of beggars, aren't we?

Telling other beggars where to find bread.

We are a bunch of people who have not experienced the fullness of, or do not know the fullness of God's love, telling other people about the fullness of God's love.

This is part of what's happening when we sing corporate worship.

Isn't it kind of weird that we sing songs together?

Like if you just take a moment, I mean, we're kind of like bathed in church culture, so it's become normal for us, but just take a moment to think about corporate singing together.

If you were to walk in here not knowing anything about church and we started singing songs together, you would be like, these people are kind of weird.

Like, do they think they're at a hockey game or something, singing the anthem at the start of the game?

We just don't sing together.

Why do we do this thing together?

Like, let's be honest, we do not have don't look at anyone when I say this, but we don't have great voices, do we?

We try our best, but we're not a choir of any sort.

Some of us have better voices than others, but we're called to sing.

Why?

Because when we sing these songs, we are declaring these truths to each other, to God, to worship him, but to each other to remind each other of God's love for us.

This is what happens in small groups.

This is why we need to be plugged into a community of believers who are walking with Christ together.

Because in small group, you know what happens?

You start to share the way that you're experiencing God's love to inform another person of the way that they can experience God's love.

And you need to know that if that in order to know God's love, this church needs you, and you need this church.

Because God's love, Paul says, is meant to be comprehended with all the saints.

You cannot do it alone.

This is why I think there is no such thing as online church.

There's a time and place for live streaming, and we have it up, and I'm really thankful for that, but it is only a temporary thing.

It's a poor substitute for what is meant to be experienced in church.

The very word in Greek means the gathering.

Because something very specific happens when we are called out from our homes and gather here.

We, together with all the saints, comprehend the love of Christ.

This is how it was meant to be.

But you need to know that it is possible to be in the worship center and not a part of the church.

It's very possible to be to be here without plugging in.

And that's not the kind of fellowship that Paul is calling us to here.

He's calling us to a very practical fellowship where with the saints we are working, striving together to know in community the love that Christ has for us.

We need each other, and we need to be pouring into each other because the love of Christ is experienced in the community of Christ.

Last thing that Paul says, and the words really should astound us, is that at the end of verse 19, he says, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Listen, the the way that you know Christ more is by growing in Christ more.

To the point, what's the end goal here?

Paul says, you need to grow until you are completely full of God.

Not that you are God Himself, but that in every way you image and reflect God, your creator.

This is your goal.

That all sin is rooted out of your heart, and you are living in complete and utter Christ-likeness.

This is the way that we experience the love of Christ.

Paul finishes his prayer, and it's where we begun.

It's fitting that we read it again.

Now, knowing how God wants to work in us, look what Paul says in verse 20.

Now to him, the redemption church, 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.

Let's pray together, church.

Father, we want this power.

And more importantly, Lord, we don't want it for our glory.

We want it for your glory.

Lord, we want to be instruments in your hands used by you.

And so, God, we pray for your help.

Lord, we need you.

You said apart from you, we can do nothing.

And God, we're here this morning to say that we believe these words, that we can do nothing apart from you.

That we must depend on you.

That we need to be filled with your Holy Spirit.

And Lord, that we need to grow in the knowledge of the limitless love of Christ for us.

That as these things are accomplished in us, Lord, that we will experience your power working through us for your glory.

And yet, God, we know that none of it's possible apart from your work.

And so, God, this is our response.

Lord, we sing it now to you, Lord.

That our heart is yours.

Or we commit our our entire lives to you.

I pray that that would be our heart's cry this morning as we respond to you and worship, God.

Lord, we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.