Battle Ready: "Is Christ Settled?": Ephesians 3:14-17 Pastor Daniel Reese

We're gonna jump right into our text this morning.

If you have your Bibles Ephesians chapter three,

we're going to continue our journey through Ephesians.

Four verses this morning, here we go.

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

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of his glory,

he may grant you to be strengthened with power

through his spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,

that you being rooted and grounded in love.

Now, the beginning of this passage

probably sounds familiar to you.

If you have been memorizing Ephesians,

would like the rest of us.

You'll remember that Paul began chapter three

with the very same phrase,

for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus,

for the sake of you Gentiles.

Now, what he did then is what he's done before.

He starts this long, parenthetical text

for the next 12 chapters, 12 verses.

And in those verses, he describes how God is carrying out

his eternal purpose through the body of believers

called the church.

And now as we come to verse 14,

Paul picks up with the thought that he began in verse one.

Now, why does Paul mention that he bows his knees

before the Father when he could have just said,

hey, I'm praying for you?

I don't think that Paul is indicating here

that this is the only way that we ought to be praying.

He has given us a picture of reverence

and submission before God.

He is making a request to God,

similar to what someone would do before a king.

This is different than just making a request to a friend,

okay?

The other day our staff was going to lunch.

Now, I had at the time this really big desire

to cruise around town in a minivan.

So I asked Paul if I could get a ride with him.

So we all jumped in the van and went into town.

Not one of us bowed our knees before Paul

to make that request.

He might have liked that, but we didn't, right?

We just said, hey, can we get a ride?

Can we get a ride to lunch?

The point Paul is making here is that when we come

before God to pray, we need to come with a right heart.

We can come boldly as we saw last week

because our access to God is based

on what Jesus has already done for us.

But we also need to come with reverence and awe.

When we come before God, we need to come

with the right attitude.

We are speaking with the creator of the universe.

We're speaking to the one whose name

is above every other name.

This isn't a discussion of posture,

it's a discussion of attitude.

So let's look at Paul's prayer together.

He says 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.

Paul's desire is that Christ would dwell

in the hearts of his readers.

The word translated dwell in the Greek

means to settle down, to be at home.

Now, Sina and I have lived in many different houses

over the years.

People say home is where the heart is.

False, home is where my bed is.

As I've gotten older, I realize how important

a good mattress is.

If I'm in a hotel or sleeping somewhere else,

I just don't sleep well.

I usually wake up sore.

Now I've lived in many different houses,

many different colors on the walls,

many different pieces of furniture,

and houses that make different sounds at night.

But the one thing I look forward to the most

when I am out of town is getting a good night's sleep

in my bed with my wife next to me.

Even when she tries to beat me senseless

because she thinks she's getting attacked

by spiders in her sleep.

That's where home is for me.

Paul's prayer for us is that we would be able

to do the same thing spiritually with our hearts

that most of us do with our homes.

To make it a place where Christ can take up

permanent residence.

Even though Jesus comes into the life,

at the moment that I commit my life to him,

Paul's prayer here makes it clear that my life

is not quite ready at that point for Jesus

to settle down and make it a home.

So as we've seen throughout our study of Ephesians,

we embark on the process of having our lives transformed

so that we can become more and more like Jesus

and to prepare our hearts, to prepare our lives,

to be a place where he can settle down and be at home.

Now in John 14,

in John 14, Jesus tells us that he is going to go

and make a prepared place for us.

If you grew up in the 90s, you know the song.

It's a big, big house.

With lots and lots of room, right?

Like that, it's based on this text.

There will be peace and joy,

and it will be better than anything

that we have ever experienced before.

Later on in John 14, after that verse,

Jesus says that anyone who loves him and obeys him,

he will make his home with them.

So while Jesus is preparing a home for us,

are you preparing a home for him?

Are you renovating your life

so that he can dwell in comfort?

If I know anything about renovations for a home,

it's that they never end.

There is always something that has to be done.

We are usually living in our own home.

We are usually living in our home during renovations.

We've never had the luxury of being able to just gut

the whole house and live somewhere else

while those things are happening.

We're usually living in the home at the time.

And how we do it is we do one room at a time.

So maybe we do a bathroom.

And when that's done a year and a half later,

we move on to another room.

And then maybe the kitchen.

So think of these renovations that way.

Start somewhere in your life

and begin to make renovations.

The chances of you being able to do everything at once

is probably not likely.

Start somewhere.

Do the things that are in your mind honor him.

If not, begin to take every thought captive.

Fill your mind with Scripture.

Don't watch things that are going to cause you to sin.

Or start with what you do.

Do you work hard as if you were working for the Lord

and not men?

Do the things you touch bring glory to the Lord

or are they always for your benefit?

What about your leisure time?

What needs renovating in that area?

Are you spending time with him?

Are you finding rest in him?

Or are you too busy by being distracted by life?

My point is you can't do everything at once.

So start with one thing and let's make it better.

Then we can move on to the next room.

As Christ is preparing a place for us in his kingdom,

we need to be preparing a place for him here in our lives.

Does he feel at home?

Or does he feel like he's staying

in some hostel in a foreign country?

Renovations can start today.

They can happen today.

So let's look at some of the things

that we need to rely on for those things to happen.

The first thing Paul mentions here is God's riches.

When Sinai and I tackle various projects around our home,

we're limited to whatever resources that we have available,

whether that be time or money or the physical ability,

thank God for YouTube, right?

But the great thing about preparing our hearts for Christ

to take up permanent residence

is we are not dependent on our own resources.

As Paul writes, we have access to the glorious riches of God.

We've been reading about the glorious riches of God

throughout this whole entire book so far.

We've been chosen by God and predestined

to be adopted into his family.

That's a rich, that's riches.

Jesus has redeemed us from an empty way of life

through his death and resurrection.

That's a part of the riches.

The Holy Spirit lives in our lives

as a guarantee of both present and future spiritual riches.

We've been joined together with other believers

in the church for the purpose of revealing God's wisdom,

both here on earth and in the heavens.

Those are riches of God.

And if God has already done that for his children,

don't you think that he is capable of equipping us

with everything we need in order to prepare our hearts for him?

Paul reinforces principle in another of his letters.

In Philippians 4.19 he says,

and my God will meet all your needs

according to his glorious riches and Christ Jesus.

That verse isn't about wants, but needs.

Do you want what he has to offer you

or do you need it?

I want a steak, but do I need it?

I've seen their survival shows.

I've seen those things and when someone needs something,

they're desperate for it, right?

Like your quality level goes down.

They will eat bugs for protein if necessary.

I've never been that desperate.

Never.

When I cook a steak, it's because I,

it's not because I'm desperate for protein.

It's because I want a steak.

We need to get to the point in our lives

where we need his riches.

We are desperate for his riches.

And he will be faithful to meet us in our desperation.

We have his riches at our disposal,

but some of us aren't.

Some of us aren't desperate enough for them.

Now renovations don't usually happen overnight.

They can, but for, this is an extreme home makeover usually,

but for most of us, they take time.

Most addicts have a relapse.

Some aren't healed overnight.

But how am I able to plug into that power that God provides?

That's where these next three principles come in.

We need to follow and we need to submit to the spirit.

He says through his spirit.

Now we very clearly see all three aspects of the Trinity

at work here in Paul's prayer.

He prays to God the Father,

who is the source of the glorious riches,

and is the power made available to us.

And the purpose of that power is to enable us

to prepare our hearts so that his son can come

and take up residence in us.

And it is the Holy Spirit who is the conduit

through whom that power and those resources

flow into our lives.

The Holy Spirit has a number of functions in our lives.

We've already seen in Ephesians that he serves

as a guarantee for our future inheritance.

For the future inheritance of the riches of God.

But one of his other important roles

is to point us to Jesus Christ.

Just before he went to the cross,

Jesus described that role in John 14.

He says, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you all things and will remind you

of everything I have said to you.

So at least one of the ways that the Holy Spirit

is the conduit for the riches of God

is that he reminds us of the teachings of Jesus

and helps us apply those teachings to our lives.

Although we get all the Holy Spirit

that we'll ever get at the very moment,

we become a follower of Jesus.

The Bible is very clear that we can impede

the work of the Spirit in our lives.

We'll look at this first later on when we get to Ephesians,

but in Ephesians 4 verse 30, Paul says,

Ephesians 4:30

and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

Another verse in 1 Thessalonians, that's a hard word.

1 Thessalonians 519 says, do not put out the Spirit's fire.

Do not put out the Spirit's fire.

Although we don't have time this morning

to explore these verses in great detail,

they both make it very clear that the Holy Spirit

will not force us to respond to the revelation

that he brings to our lives.

We can grieve the Holy Spirit

and we can quench his work in our lives.

Whenever the Holy Spirit leads us

and reminds us of the teachings of Jesus,

we can either choose to respond by submitting our lives

to the work of the Spirit and make the changes needed

in order to get our lives in line with what revelation,

or we can choose to ignore that revelation.

Are you going to submit to him?

I mean, we submit to our bosses.

We submit to our spouses.

We submit to the police when they turn those lights on,

don't we?

We submit to our calendars.

But do you submit to the Spirit's voice in your life?

Next, we need to think about eternity.

Paul uses the phrases inner being.

He also uses the phrases hearts in this prayer.

This principle is so important to Paul

that he uses two different phrases to describe

the idea of developing our inner lives.

Both our inner being and our hearts

describe the very center of our being.

That includes our personality, our thoughts,

our will and emotions.

And it is that part of our lives that we need to develop

in order for Jesus to come and to be at home in us.

Houses can look great on the outside, can't they?

They can look beautiful when you walk inside.

They can be decorated well enough

to be featured in a magazine.

But what if the plumbing's a mess?

What if the electrical's a mess and it's a hazard for fire?

What if the foundation is in bad shape?

All of that beauty is not going to last very long, is it?

The same thing is true for our lives.

We can spend all the time we want on the outside.

But if we don't take care of the inner man, our hearts,

then all the work you're doing won't last very long.

This is why people leave the church.

They get tired of having to look good all the time.

They get tired of putting on a show,

and they never deal with what's below the surface.

So how do we make sure that we develop that inner man?

Paul gives us some hints in another one of his letters,

in 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse 16, he says,

therefore we do not lose heart,

though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly

we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving

for us an eternal glory that far outweighs the mall.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,

but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal.

Paul makes it quite clear that the way that we are renewed

inwardly day by day is to fix our eyes

on the unseen things that are eternal,

rather than the temporary things that we do not see.

In other words, I need to focus on developing those things

in my life that will last for eternity.

My character, my convictions, my thought life, my devotion,

rather than those things that will pass away,

my body and my material possessions.

I'm not saying, and I don't think Paul is either,

I'm not anti anything here,

that I'm not saying we don't need to take care of our bodies

and be good stewards of the material goods

that God has entrusted with us.

And in fact, the Bible is very clear later on in scripture

that we do need to take care of those things.

But he is saying here that our main focus should be

on developing those parts of our lives

that will last for eternity.

It only makes sense that if Jesus is to be at home

in our hearts, that is where we ought to focus our time

and attention and our resources.

I love baseball.

I love watching my boys play baseball,

but it's temporary.

Even if they make it to the majors, it's temporary.

Their souls are eternal.

I love to watch my daughter dance.

She is far more graceful than I will ever be.

But it's temporary.

Her soul is eternal.

Money is great and it can do a lot of good things,

but it is not eternal.

Don't make things that are temporary.

A priority over things that are eternal.

Don't make temporary things a priority over your soul.

Finally, we need to have faith.

When Paul writes that Christ dwells in our hearts

through faith, the faith that he is describing

is much more than just some intellectual belief.

In fact, it is even broader than what we normally think of

as faith.

It's more than just trusting in Jesus alone

as the means to being made right with God.

That's certainly a part of faith,

but it's really only just the starting point.

If we want Jesus to be at home in our hearts,

we need to have a much more encompassing kind of faith.

James is really helpful in describing that kind of faith

in James chapter two.

He says, but someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds.

Show me your faith without deeds,

and I will show you my faith by what I do.

You believe that there is one God?

Good.

Even the demons believe that and shudder.

James is pointing out that real faith

will be demonstrated by our actions.

As he points out, even the demons have an intellectual

belief about God and his son.

They're aware of who he is.

And I think we'd all agree that that kind of faith

is totally inadequate as a basis for our salvation

and for making our heart a dwelling place for Jesus.

It's not just knowing.

It's how has your faith transformed your life?

Is Christ settled in your heart?

What renovations need to take place?

Where are you going to start?

Do you need to start with your mind?

Your hands?

Your time?

What commitment will you make today

to begin the process of making your life a place

where Christ is welcomed and at home?

What is the spirit of your life?

What is the spirit prompting you to do this morning?

I need somebody to stand up.

Thank you.

Why'd you stand up?

You can sit down.

If you're able to, I need all of us to stand up.

You can sit down.

We're not Catholics, actually.

Did it feel differently the second time

when everybody stood up with you?

Awkward the first time?

A little bit?

Why is it that way?

Do you think?

It's...

Sometimes it's hard, right?

It's hard to follow the prompting of the spirit in our life.

Because not everybody's doing it.

Not everybody's responding.

Now I'm not comparing my voice to the spirit of the Lord.

I'm not comparing my voice to the spirit of the Lord.

I'm not saying that.

But what would our church look like?

What would this community look like?

If every single one of us in this room began renovations today.

What would this church look like?

What would this church look like?

What would this church look like?

What would this church look like?

And what would this community look like?

If everybody in this room bowed our knees before the Father.

Because I think sometimes when we respond to the Lord,

we want to respond,

but we don't want to be the only one.

That's why when I asked one person to stand,

I had, it was a little slower response, right?

And only, Carlos, I saw you back there, but you were a little late.

I asked one person to stand and one and a half people stand up.

But when I ask everybody to stand,

it's easier, isn't it?

So we're going to sing a song.

And we're going to respond.

And the reality is that every single one of us in this room

needs to begin renovations today.

Every single one of us.

How do we do that?

How do we do that?

How are you going to respond?

Are you going to wait for somebody else to respond?

Or are you just going to trust the Spirit in you,

is leading you and guiding you?

I don't get to make it every Wednesday to our youth services.

But there's been many, many times that I've gotten done with Bible studying

on the Bible study.

And there's just kids laid out here on the altar.

Now, I understand it's

middle school girls a lot of times and

and emotions are, I get it.

I'm not asking everybody to come wail at the altar.

But I'm going to challenge the youth.

Ryan is right.

You are the church.

You don't need to wait on your parents.

You can lead today.

How are you going to respond?

If that's here at the altar, fantastic.

If that's laying out on the floor where you are, fantastic.

If that's bowing your knees before God, fantastic.

But I'm just saying the goal here,

let's get everybody to respond and see what the Lord does.

Let's get everybody to respond.

And make some renovations and see what the Lord does in this place.

So I'm going to pray and then I'm done.

All right. Let's pray.

Father God, thank you for this day.

Thank you for this day.

Thank you for how good you are to us.

So Father, I pray right now.

I pray that you will be able to respond to this.

So Father, I pray right now that your spirit will move

powerfully in this place.

I pray Father that you will soften our hearts to be sensitive to your voice.

I pray God for obedience.

Not because they're responding to something I've asked,

but God they're responding to you.

This is not about Cornerstone.

This is about your kingdom.

And I pray God that as we begin the renovation process

to make our lives more comfortable and more inviting for you,

I pray Father that the Holy Spirit will not be quenched in this place.

I pray that it will move freely.

So Father, as we're seeing, I pray that you will move powerfully.

I pray that you will lead us to repentance.

I pray that you will lead us to obedience.

And I pray God that we will begin to see the changes in this church

and in this community as we seek after you with our whole hearts.

So for those individuals that need to take everything that we need,

I pray that you will be able to respond to this.

I pray that you will be able to respond to this.

So for those individuals that need to take every thought captive,

God, I pray that you give them what they need.

I pray that we get to a point where we're so desperate

for what you're offering us that we need it to get through.

May we honor you with our hands.

May we honor you with our bodies.

May we honor you with our time.

So I gotta pray that you'll start knocking down some walls today.

I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.