Epheians 3:14-21 — Spiritual Strength - Week 7

‘//Opener:

I’ve got an old fishing boat. It’s a 15 foot aluminum boat.

It was my granddad's and when he passed away my Dad gave it to me.

I’ve had it since I was 15.

I’ve always loved taking it out.

It makes fishing more fun because I get bored easily so I need to move around a lot when I fish.

Lately, I’ve been having some problems with the motor.

I’ll get out on the water, open the motor all the way and cruise across the lake…

What’s happening is a little bit after I get going the motor starts (act it out) struggling and then cutting out.

It’s make a running out of gas sound/feel.

I throw it in neutral, prime the engine again, and start it up…

Same thing happens over and over.

I’m still working on the specific problem and replacing hoses, but ultimately it’s not getting the fuel it needs in order to work.

The motor is in great shape, it’s about a big as it can possibly be for the boat I have, but unless it is consistently getting the same it needs, it’s going to be useless…

Segway:

In the same way, Paul is going to begin a prayer in these verses for spiritual strength.

What we’re going to see in the passage is our need to be fed and strengthened spiritually by God.

Because nothing else matters in our spiritual lives if we’re not getting the spiritual fuel/food needed to grow in our faith and faithfulness to God.

Context:

One of the cool things in this passage is that we get a look into who Paul is PERSONALLY.

Paul is EXCITED about everything He is writing.

These first 3 chapters have been filled with run-on sentences as if he is just talking so fast that he forgets to slow down and take a breath!

NOW Paul sidetracked himself and is getting back on point.

In verse one, Paul starts by saying “for this reason…” and then talks about the mystery of the gospel and what God has given to us through that for several verses.

His brain is all over the place that he makes a whole different sermon in the middle of his primary thoughts.

NOW Paul is getting back on track in verse 14 with what he started talking about in verse 1…

Paul is going to begin a prayer for the believers at Ephesus to be given spiritual strength by God…

Passage Breakdown:

Truth 1: Humility is Required for Spiritual Strength (V14-15)

Passage:

Paul is remembering His NEED for God, He is remembering everything God has done for Him.

He’s laying aside his pride, he’s gotten rid of arrogance, Paul is getting on his knees before God and saying, “God everything I have is because of you and is yours, please hear my prayer.”

Relate:

In order for you to experience spiritual growth in your relationship with God, you MUST show humility.

Remembering God has given you everything you have, that God is in complete control, that you are not, and that you need Him and not that He needs you.

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, Humility is thinking of yourself less.

Approaching Him remembering that.

Truth 2: God Gives Spiritual Strength (V16)

Passage:

Paul comes before God with humility, remembering the greatness of God and the riches of His glory and that God is the one who gives strength through His holy spirit.

Relate:

We can’t grow in our relationship with God without God strengthening us to do so.

You can learn all the head knowledge possible about the Bible, theology, or have near perfect attendance at church, but those things do not grow you relationship with God any more than having a boat motor with no gas will get you across the lake.

You need God to reveal Himself to you and to strengthen you through His Holy Spirit.

So make that your humble prayer towards Him.

The Purpose of Spiritual Strength

Read V17-19

Truth 3: Spiritual Strength is Rooted & Grounded in God’s Love (V17)

Passage:

“Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,” V17

Relate:

The spiritually strong Christian is defined by the love of Jesus.

Illustrate: When you think about a strong tree, you trace its strength through its roots. If it has strong and deep roots it is going to continually grow and continually get stronger.

The same thing is true with us as believers, the more we grow spiritually the more the root of our lives is going to get bigger and stronger, the root of our lives as Christians is defined by love.

The spiritually strong believer is someone who loves.

Practical:

The truth is you can’t be faithful to God if you’re not loving towards people.

Think: Whether it's your friends groups, random people, or people that you don’t like that much…

How loving are you towards them?

Are your interactions often defined with gossip? Drama? Lies? Bullying? Rudeness? Inappropriate language? Letting anger and resentment sit without addressing it?

…ask yourself this question… What would the people around or near you say about how loving you are?

Would they say that your words and your actions reflect Jesus?

My guess is that most of us in this room cannot say that.

I’m not saying you have to be best friends with everyone…

But how loving are you towards the people you don’t like? How loving are you towards the people you do like?

If you’re not loving others the way Jesus loves then you are not being faithful to God and you don’t really understand and experience His love for you…

When praying for spiritual strength, ask God to help you love everyone like Jesus loved you…

Truth 4: Spiritual Strength Seeks to Understand the HUGENESS of God’s Love (V18)

Passage:

Paul asks God to help the Ephesians understand how BIG God’s love is.

Paul asks to understand the width, length, heighth, and depth of God’s love

Relate:

A bible scholar, Kent Hughes, wrote this about these 4 points of God’s love:

WIDTH: A love which is wide enough to embrace the world. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

LENGTH: A love which is long enough to last forever (1 Corinthians 13:8). As Spurgeon said, “It is so long that your old age cannot wear it out, so long your continual tribulation cannot exhaust it, your successive temptations shall not drain it dry; like eternity itself it knows no bounds.”

HEIGHT: A love which is high enough to take sinners to Heaven (1 John 3:1, 2).

DEPTH: A love which is deep enough to take Christ to the very depths to reach the lowest sinner (Philippians 2:8).

Practical:

Understanding just how immeasurable the love of God is is how we fall more in love with Him because he understands how much He loves us.

Truth 5: Spiritual Strength Understands and Experiences God’s Love (V19)

Passage:

Paul says to understand what’s not able to be understood…

Paul says to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge that we may be filled with the goodness of God…

Relate:

How do we do that? We can’t.

It’s impossible for us to truly know everything there is about God.

We are always going to have questions… We’re always going to be in the dark on some things…

Practical:

What we can see is that the key in spiritual growth is EXPERIENCING God’s love.

Not just knowing everything there is to know, not being able to answer every question, not being able to defend every aspect of the Bible and your faith… (these are all important things)

But experiencing what God has done for you is what makes everything else REAL.

Illustrate: Relationship with Katie

Katie and I have been married for over 5 years now… We’ve been together for over 7 years.

We met by the ice cream machine at school and that just defined our friendship and relationship honestly! We love ice cream and anything like that.

If I tell Katie that I love her, does that mean she knows I love her?

What if all I do is say “I love you” and never do anything else?

She won’t truly know that I love her because she hasn’t seen or experienced my love for her without me showing her through my actions as well as my words…

Segway:

Paul is saying, don’t just KNOW that God loves you because I’ve said He does, know He loves you by seeing and experiencing what He has done for you.

That’s why Paul is able to endure prison, torture, and beatings; he knows and has truly experienced God’s love.

Ask God to continually understand and experience His love for you.

Truth 6: Spiritual Strength Means Giving All Glory to God Alone (V20-21)

Passage:

Paul finishes this passage by giving every praise He possibly can to God.

He begins with humility and ends with humility.

That’s because…

…he is rooted & grounded in God’s love

… he Understand the Vastness of God’s Love

… he Understands and Experiences God’s Love

Practical:

Let that be your prayer for spiritual strength in your life.

Ask God to help you grow spiritual in these ways.

You can’t just pray once every now and then, you can’t just come to church once or twice a week to experience spiritual growth, you must consistently be filled up by God through His word and through prayer.

Just like I’m not going to be able to do much on with my boat if It can’t get enough gas, you won’t be able to grow in your faith if you’re not consistently seeking to be filled up by God.

Make this prayer from Paul a consistent prayer in your life.

It’s not just a one and done prayer, this must consistently be your prayer to God.

Gospel:

There are several in here tonight and you haven’t put your faith in Him…

The truth is this…

Every person in this room right now is a broken sinner…

We are all sinners and because of our sin we have separated ourselves from God.

But what makes all of this so real is that God, despite our sin and rebellion against Him, He made a way for you and me to be forgiven and know Him.

He gave up His one and only Son Jesus to sacrifice His life for mine…

He gave up His life for you.

Jesus died a physical death so you wouldn’t have to experience spiritual eternal death.

All you have to do is put your faith in Him.

As Ephesians 2:8 says, it is by God’s grace that you can be saved and know Him.

Are you ready to experience the love of God in your life?

If you are ready, maybe you’re not sure, or maybe you just have questions, please come talk..