Strengthened by Divine Riches so that Christ can dwell in us - Eph 3:16-17

Music.

Good morning. Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, our goal is to help us all learn

the Word of God so that we can grow as disciples of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ together.

My name is Pastor Simon, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

Let us pray.

But also, in your resurrection and death, the Holy Spirit now brings Jesus Christ

to live and dwell with us.

Thank you for your church being the temple of God.

Help us today as we go to your word to understand your word,

to know your word, because we can't know your word without you, without your power.

So please, Lord, grant us your power to walk according to your ways and to live

according to your truth.

And to let Jesus operate our lives. Thank you, Father.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

When I was a teenager, my dad would take our family on two-week or a month trips around the U.S.

Or Canada, and we would drive and we would camp along the way.

On one such trip, we were driving in Nova Scotia, Canada, on a sunny day when,

out of the corner of his eye, my dad spied the glint of sun shining off of something

on the other side of a secluded highway.

Well, my dad was an amateur treasure hunter, and he turned our van around,

and he drove back to take a better look.

And as we got out of the vehicle and made our way to the beach,

we could see what looked like thousands of diamonds, rubies,

emeralds, sapphires, blazing in the bright sun.

Unfortunately for us, on closer inspection, the articles were just glass.

Yet not sea glass like we have around here, but a whole beach of expensive crystal

clear glass and in varieties, colors that look very much like jewels had washed ashore.

Now we do not know where all that specialized glass came from,

but I will tell you that for my dad, who was always looking for treasure, he was disappointed.

My point with using the story is to explain that although the sea glass we found

was not real treasure, there is a very real treasure that is beyond imagining

that belongs to God, one that is found in His glory.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The focus of Paul's letter is the unity of God displayed through the Church of Jesus Christ.

Last week, in Ephesians chapter 3, we began studying Paul's prayer for the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

In this prayer, we learned about who God is as the Father, the Source,

and Sustainer of all life.

God is Yahweh, the great I Am, who is to be hallowed as holy over every aspect of our lives.

We also looked at the concept of God as our Heavenly Father,

who loves us as His children with the love of the perfect Father.

And today in Ephesians chapter 3, we are going to take a look at the second

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, but we're going to read the entire

prayer in order to get the whole context.

Let's go to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 and 19 where Paul prayed,

Ephesians 3:14

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in

heaven and on earth derives its name.

And this is where we're studying today in verse 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,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted

and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the

breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which

surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

The first truth I want to bring to your attention today is that the Father gives

according to the riches of his glory.

One day this winter I was driving down the road here in Dillingham during the

sunset when I rounded the corner and I was blinded by the radiance of the setting sun.

I couldn't see the sun was so bright and to be able to see I put the visor down

to the point that it mostly blocked the sun's rays.

I could not see everything through the windshield but I could view enough to

be able to drive and to keep the car on the road.

I share this example with you to point out that although the sun's rays can

be brilliant, and it is, God's glory is the most radiant in all the universe.

And it's out of the splendor of his glory that God gives to his people.

Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter three, verse 16, that he would grant you according

to the riches of his glory.

I want you to see in this passage and.

That Paul was communicating to the Ephesian believers the nature of prayer and

the source of all blessings.

The God who Paul was praying to was not just a human-made God that gives according to his petty whims.

No, God is Yahweh, the great I Am, the one who is and was and always will be.

There is none in all of the universe or any other universes that there may be

who is like our God holy and set apart from everything.

Yahweh is the only God. Yet in His majestic gloriousness, Yahweh loves His children

with a love so unimaginable that He sent His only begotten Son,

Jesus Christ, to die on the cross.

The idea of the Greek word that Paul used for grant meant to cause to be,

meaning that all gifts, possessions, blessings that we have are the results

of God out of his merciful grace, causing us to have them.

It is not by our own work or effort that we receive spiritual blessings and gifts from God.

It is God who chooses to give the blessings of the Spirit when and to whom he chooses to give them.

The next word I want to bring to your attention is the word that Paul used for

riches, which meant an abundance of material possessions and resources.

It's essential that we understand that God does not give us our physical and

spiritual blessings out of a little bit of excess that he has left over after

using most of his grace for himself.

May God forbid, as Paul frequently said. No, God overwhelmingly grants us his

spiritual gifts out of the infinitely abundant treasure of his unending resources.

God proclaimed through Asaph in Psalm 50, verse 10 through 12,

Psalms 50:10–12

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is

mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, as well as its fullness.

God, through Asaph, was explaining that everything in the world belonged to

him, to God, and God's resources are limitless.

Moses went even further in Deuteronomy 10, verse 14, explaining that heaven,

Deuteronomy 10:14

the heavenly dimensions, that somehow coexist with our realm unseen to our earthly eyes.

All the universe, the entire earth, all belong to Yahweh God.

And this is what Moses wrote and spoke.

Behold to Yahweh, your God, belong heaven and the highest heavens,

the earth and all that is in it.

We must understand that God does not get resources from someone else like we as human beings do.

Rather, everything in the universe belongs solely to him. And it's out of Yahweh's

unlimited resources, which are all his possessions, that the Lord gives to whom he chooses.

And this is what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 3, verse 16.

Ephesians 3:16

That the power and strength that Paul goes on to teach further about in this

verse, all comes from the unlimited riches of the glory of God.

The Father who is Yahweh, the great I am The Lord of all Is the source of where all glory comes from.

Now, and this is where I'm going with this Glory meant the condition of being

bright Or shining Brightness,

splendor, radiance God's glory is his absolute radiant brightness In the darkness

of this world My point is that Yahweh God is the source of all light He is brighter

than our sun and more brilliant than anything in the universe.

The splendor and radiance of who he is as Yahweh God is what Paul was teaching

in Ephesians chapter 3 as the unlimited source from where God gives us his gifts from.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

There are two key takeaways from this verse that I want to show you.

The first application is that as humans and as Christians, you and I do not

deserve or have any right to have our prayers answered by God.

God gives us what he decides out of his riches that is derived from his glory.

For example, lately I've been counting prayers that God has answered.

Now, this is a good exercise to grow in faith in God.

However, since our human nature is still so tainted by selfishness,

that over time, if we're not careful, this good exercise in faith can be focused on us.

It can be about what God is doing for us rather than about His glory.

The second truth that we can take away from these two verses is that God's ability

and resources to answer prayer is limitless.

So often we pray for things and we pray in such a way that we truly do not believe

that God can answer our prayer or whether he has the ability to do so.

God doesn't just have the resources of an entire planet at his disposal.

God is the creator, sustainer of everything, everywhere, at every single second for all time.

Matthew 17, verse 18 says this, And Jesus rebuked them, and the demon came out

Matthew 17:18

of him, and the boy was cured at once.

And then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why couldn't we cast that?

And he said to them, This is what I want you to hear. because of your little faith.

For truly I say to you, if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed,

you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and

nothing will be impossible to you.

But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Now I'm not using this scripture to suggest that we should be looking for demons

everywhere and attempting to cast them out.

The point of this passage is that when we pray, we are to pray with faith in

what God can do for what God wants to be done.

This is not praying for our own personal wants or desires, but confidently praying

according to the will of God and trusting that God's will will be done.

So far, God, through Paul, has been teaching the Ephesians and us that God grants

his people, his gifts, out of God's unfathomable riches that come from his glory.

The second overarching truth I want to show you today is that God's people are

to be strengthened with power so that Christ will dwell in our hearts through faith.

According to the U.S. government, the United States uses and produces different

types and sources of energy.

Primary energy sources include fossil fuels, petroleum, natural gas,

and coal, nuclear energy, and renewable sources of energy.

In the United States, the British Thermal Unit, or BTUs, is a measure of heat

and energy, which is commonly used for comparing different types of energy to

each other. Now, bear with me, please.

In 2023, the total U.S.

Primary energy consumption was equal to 94 quadrillion BTUs.

Put this so that we can understand it. One quadrillion is equal to 1,000 billion.

So 94 quadrillion is 94,000 billion BTUs.

This is the amount of energy that we in the U.S. consumed in 2023.

Now, where I'm going with this is that the Sun produces the equivalent of 384.6

septillion watts per second.

384.6 septillion watts is approximately 3.846 times 10 to the power of 26 watts,

more than 94 quadrillion BTU. Now, please listen to this.

The 94 BTU is so insignificant in comparison that the AI didn't even want to calculate it.

All of that to say that the amount of power that our country consumes in a full

year is insignificant to the energy that the sun puts out every single second.

And our sun's power is only a tiny, minuscule fraction of God's glorious might.

According to scientists, there's an estimated 100 billion suns in our galaxy

alone, and there are at least a hundred billion galaxies in the universe,

and there may be even more universes.

All controlled by God's majestic power at every single second and at all times.

And this, I believe, is just part of what Paul described when writing about

God's power that comes from the riches of the glory of God.

Paul continued on in Ephesians 3, verses 16-17,

Ephesians 3:16–17

that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened

with power through his spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

When we think of power, what do we think of? We may think of armies or weapons

or money or physical strength or maybe personal determination.

Or we think of creation's power as in the power of the sons.

But where Paul asked God to strengthen the believers with power.

The word power or dynamos meant power, strength. This word is where we get the English word dynamo.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dynamo is a machine by which

mechanical energy is changed into electrical energy.

The word to be strengthened meant to become strengthened or gain strength.

So Paul was asking that the Ephesian believers would be given by God the energy-producing

power, so that we can be strengthened.

And where does all this power come from?

From the riches or the unlimited resources of God, the Father's radiant glory.

I think that the closest way we can imagine the riches of glory that we can

get out of such power is by thinking about the power that it takes God to operate

the universe for a single second.

All those trillions of suns and stars and planets.

And then remember, the scripture tells us that God is so colossal and immensely

large that he has to stoop down to reach the universe.

Or that God can hold the entire universe between his index finger and his thumb.

The riches of God's glory are beyond the possibility of calculating.

This is the kind of unimaginable power that it takes for us as believers,

as humans, to be able to receive Christ, God Almighty, to dwell in our hearts.

And even though God gives us his amazing power so that we can have the strength

and the ability to receive Christ,

Christ will not live in us unless we respond by surrendering our life to him in faith. it's,

Faith is like a dam that holds back a large reservoir of water,

and there's a button that operates the machinery that opens the gate that allows

the water to flow through.

Faith, which is belief, trust, and surrender, which then works,

is the button that opens the gate to let Christ, through the Holy Spirit,

live in us and work in our lives.

Paul in Galatians 2, verse 20 stated, I have been crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2:20

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

In this life, I live in the flesh. And here it is.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

It is faith that allows Christ to access our beings to live in us.

But it's also faith that allows Christ to live through and operate our bodies.

It was Paul's earnest expectation and hope, whether by life or death,

that Christ might be magnified or made larger in him.

Paul wanted Christ to be everything in him, to think, feel, and act as Christ

would, because it was Christ living in Paul.

Paul didn't care about comfort or having houses and boats and vehicles,

pursuing careers and recreation, physical beauty, and all the things that we

spent a lot of money on to enjoy.

Paul didn't want anything of himself left, but everything of Christ Jesus his Lord.

For Paul, this was the heart of Christian life, and this is what Paul prayed for others to have.

I believe that the reason for the times when I am not living with the resurrection

power is because I am not living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I'm not believing in God's promises. I'm not trusting in God's Word as I am called to be.

I'm not believing that Christ truly is in me.

I'm not believing that I truly am dead.

And I believe that one of the main reasons why we, you and I as Christians,

don't live with the incalculable power of God is because we still believe in

our hearts that we're still alive, that we are in control.

But the truth is that Christ is in control. It is now his life. It is his body, not ours.

We live his way, not ours.

We are to have his view on life, just as Paul did, not ours.

Christ is to be operating us as a driver operates a skiff or a snow goal.

But this is not a feat that can be performed by ourselves. We must be strengthened

by God in order for Christ to live in us.

And the Holy Spirit uses our faith to allow Christ in.

Christ is God. He has all power and all strength. and he is living in you and me.

Do we truly believe this? We have access to this power and how Jesus works and

lives through us is by trusting and believing the truth that Christ actually

is welling in us and that we are dead,

but it is no longer us living, but Jesus Christ.

And this is Paul's prayer, that we be strengthened with God's incalculable power

so that God lives in us through faith. We pray for a lot of things.

Health, safety, for material provisions, for protection, for healing of our relationships.

Not that these things are wrong in themselves, but Paul's prayers are not focused on these things.

Please listen to this. Paul prayed that we as believers live by faith so that

Christ lives in us by the immeasurable power of God.

So what has God, through Paul, been teaching us today? The first truth that

God has taught us is that God grants His people His gifts out of God's unfathomable

riches that come from His glory.

We also learn that the heart of prayer is that others would be strengthened

with power so that Christ may dwell in them and that they may live by faith

so that Christ does live and act in and through them.

I will encourage you today to rethink how we pray to God and to be mindful of

Christ living and working in ourselves,

but also how he is working and living through other believers.

May you and I truly surrender to Christ living and operating our lives. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday. And Lord, we pray that you are our God,

our King as we know you are.

We thank you that you are the Most High, that you are the great I Am,

the one who is and was and always will be.

And so, Lord, we come, Lord, and we pray that you would strengthen us with your

unimaginable power so that we would know you.

That we would live according to your ways, oh Lord, so that you,

your son Jesus, may live and dwell in us and through us.

Lord, I pray, Lord, for the church here in Dillingham, in Alaska,

and in this world, that you would raise us up as we believe and trust the truth that we are dead.

And that your Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

is living and dwelling in us so that we will do what you asked us to do and

live according to your ways.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and may the Lord bless you.