Rooted in God’s Immeasurable Greatness
Rooted in Christ, Reaching in Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsBeing rooted in Christ means praying together in order that we may have the hope of our calling, know the richness of the church body, and recognize His power at work in us.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Opening Theme
I have have a music room in my house. Early in the morning after I study and pray I will slip into the music room to practice. Not the drums, obviously but I have a guitar set up as well. I have an effects board that is amazing, I love messing with all the features. But if you want to hear what it can do it needs to be plugged in and in my case you have to plug in the headphones. When I do, it beautiful! it challenges my mind engages all my physical senses (minus taste, I don’t like the guitar) and it engages my emotions as i play all types of styles.
Need
We have a power issue with us. we need to tap into that power inorder to fully appreciate what we have in the grace of God as sons and daughters.
Outline
1. We Must be Rooted in Spiritual Knowledge Through Prayer
1. We Must be Rooted in Spiritual Knowledge Through Prayer
This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.
Explanation
Paul talks about two words, faith and love, and they are connected to what he’s been saying in the chapter so far.
You are a saint called by Grace
full of peace for a purpose, the Great Commission.
He then talks about
being adopted by God,
Predestined before the foundations of the Earth,
Given forgiveness of our sins and trespasses through Christ,
Sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise from God to you that you can have eternal life.
We talked about the faith to believe for that eternal life is also provided by God.
Everything pertaining to your salvation was by God, from God And for God’s glory.
Now, Paul is rejoicing because those truths are taking root within the people of Ephesus.
He has heard of their faith, which is a gift from God
He has heard of their love, which is a result of the Spirit’s work in the believer for salvation.
Those who are in Christ Jesus grow and mature in a love that is supernatural and easily recognized by both Christians and non-Christians.
By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
But the Christian’s faith also is paramount because the two work together to make a person complete. Faith being a belief in a teaching or truth, and love being the application or result of that teaching.
You can find lots churches In the US that focus on one of the two, but it’s rare to find a church set on being rooted in both.
One church might be into sensation and experience and mystical and lack biblical understanding, and therefore not pleasing to the Lord because their motives aren’t aimed at truth.
But you can also find churches that are so biblical and yet I have no earthly good because they make participation with their group or the community impossible. Unless you agree upon every theological statement they insist on. This isn’t pleasing to the Lord either.
One would say like the Beatles all you need is love
The other would say it’s the truth that sets you free.
And they’re only wrong because they’re not the full truth.
They’re both partial truth Which J.I. Packer believes “Partial truth is always no truth.
In the lives of the Ephesians Paul complements them for both having faith, rooted in the Word of God, and the great doctrines contained in it, but also by their love and their willingness to extend love because love has been extended to them.
Not just a natural love, where we love those who love us, but a supernatural love.
We, as God’s Church love far beyond our ability because God has given us the ability to love at a greater supernatural level.
“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
We love because He first loved us.
Illustration
Erica Kirk; She was responding in faith, because of the love and forgiveness extended to her by God, she was not waiting for a feeling she was opperating in the power of God to do what is right.
What I love about Paul in this prayer is that he doesn’t ask the Lord for them to have
Forgiveness,
For them to be given boldness,
The Holy Spirit,
Spiritual gifts,
Influence into the community,
What he asks is that they would have the knowledge of God Specifically in wisdom and revelation
And it’s not that those things aren’t good things to pray for,
However, Paul goes to the root rather than the symptoms.
Here Paul is saying if you really had the knowledge of the wisdom and revelation of God; meaning beyond yourself- supernatural,
you wouldn’t struggle for boldness
you wouldn’t struggle to know your spiritual gifts
you wouldn’t struggle to influence your community
Paul goes right to the heart of what we all should be praying not just for us, but for everyone here.
Paul asks for knowledge. Remember, Paul is Jewish. The meaning of knowledge to a Jew was far more than just our understanding of truth.
We view knowledge is information acquired or downloaded,
but the Hebrew society viewed knowledge as truth, plus relationship.
Adam and Eve were created and Adam knew Eve and she conceived his son.
Aren’t you glad you didn’t have a child the day you learned the Birds and the bees?
In vs 17, Paul says this relationship experience based on truth would impact “a spirit.”
ESV adds a definite article “The” to imply the Holy Spirit.
Pneuma is the word which can mean the Holy Spirit, but also, your soul, but also your will and emotions.
I think it’s the later because Paul just mentioned being sealed with the Holy Spirit in verses 13-14 from God as a promise. He is in the believer already so it wouldn’t make sense to ask for Him twice.
It could be that it means your spirit as you are given a new spirit in Christ, but that is a generalization of how sanctification works.
The third definition would make the most sense that the relationship experience with God [based on His Word and prayer would transform your emotions, will and desire to a righteous attitude/lifestyle.
Meaning, that my attitude, heart and volitional will would be totally changed by the information Paul is praying for us to know.
What is it that Paul is wanting them to know, perceive, and experience?
What is he wanting us to experience?
Three things:
1 That you would know the hope of his calling
A calling is an interruption
Called to the Army
God’s calling for you was out of sin and certain death into eternal life secured by Him.
Therefore Paul wants you to know, trust and experience eternal hope (aka expectation or assurance)
Voddie Bachman a dear brother and theologian in the world went to be home this week receiving fully what he hoped in on or expected on earth.
Application:
If you truly knew how secure you are in Christ for the assurance of your salvation, you’d share that information with everyone, but when we doubt or question it’s possibility for our own lives, we spend our energy worrying about our performance before God and the Devil wins because we lose sight of our purpose.
2. What are the glorious riches of his inheritance among the Saints.
At a fast glance it appears as if Paul is telling us he wished we knew how much riches God Has for the believer.
But he’s not, he’s actually saying that you are the treasure of God.
For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.
By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the firstfruits of His creatures
You are a saint, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a prize for the Lord to obtain.
This isn’t to give you a overinflated ego that says we must be pretty awesome for God to want us and therefore start to develop a God complex.
Instead, Paul wants you to know that what is true. We are sinners and not worth what God paid to have us
All the same. He chooses to see us as we are without sin. We often hyper-focus on our sin
Illustration
An illustration of this would be like finding a lottery ticket, the winning lottery ticket, and it would be a big one, and you would never have to worry for anything financial ever again, but then upon discovering the taxes owed you become enragged over the small percentage owed, you forfeit all of it.
You are not a sinner that occasionally gets it right.
Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, you became his righteousness, a saint, who is capable of sin.
God will not throw you away because you are a saint,
but He does excluded is the sinner who occasionally does good from heaven
Again, Paul is saying if you knew in both a understanding and relational experience God’s truest calling on your life, how he fully views you and loves you. It wouldn’t lead to your sinning more. It leads you to sending less.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
This understanding would also well up within you!
such confidence and boldness like Paul had to go and take on the demonic world head on.
Application:
Has God confirmed those truths to you in both your mind and your heart?
Has God confirmed those truths to you in such a way that you are confident that He is for you, He loves you and He treasures the relationship He has with you?
This is why Paul says we pray. Because in our own broken sinful hearts, we reject the notion that we could be loved and treasured so deeply.
Unless GOd reveals that to us, we will never fully know or understand.
3. The immeasurable greatness of his power to us who believe us threw him according to the working of his vast strength.
Sometimes when we hear of the words like possession and power, we tend to view them in a negative sense.
God possesses us as though like his slaves, and he has the power to crush us if we don’t do as he says.
That again is due to our limited and sinful view of ourselves.
Paul says that the only way to experience the greatness of God's power at work in you through Christ's death and God's vast strength to raise Him from the dead is to pray for a supernatural revelation that everything He claims to do, according to 1:3-14, is in fact reliable.
There are four different words in these eight verses describing a power. And how those words of power are used are to describe an inward power, external power, a heavenly power, and an explosive-type power.
Paul wants the reader to experience knowledge, with absolute certainty.
To have relational confidence that God can deliver on his promise through the resurrection of Jesus.
How does one experience this power? When you witness to others.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
And the apostles were giving testimony with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.
Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Christ’s power from heaven comes to you, goes before you, flows out of you and impacts those whom you are sharing with. It is immeasurable!
Application
But once again, when we have a view that we have barely made it into the kingdom of God, and while we temporarily remain on his good side, we should avoid upsetting him because we don’t really deserve to be in there, and if we mess something up, he might change his mind Then this kind of power cannot go with you
Application
Once again, the devil wins, and that is why we are to pray that God would help us see the hope of our salvation how the worth that we have in God’s eyes. Because if we have that wisdom and revelation, and we trust that he has the power to provide that salvation, we would tell it to the whole world, so they too, could receive the power of salvation.
2. The Church is Rooted in God’s Power
2. The Church is Rooted in God’s Power
He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens —
far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church,
which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.
Paul then uses versus 20- 23 as a illustration of God‘s power at work in the Ephesians and the people in that region. That same power is at work in those who pursue it.
The worship of Artemis was central to Ephesus.
Artemis was believed to be a powerful protective figure honored as a goddess of the city
The people in that region believed their identity, and prosperity was linked directly to the worship of Artemis.
The city was a major hub for a cult, practices, and magic; sorcerers resided there.
These practices were often in linked to powerful forces believe to be associated with Artemis.
This is why Paul speaks so pointedly to the demonic, and the powers of the spiritual realm. The people were enthralled with that type of worship.
It was what they had come to reject as followers of Christ.
Paul reassures them that Jesus went to the very depths where those spiritual beings are held a waiting punishment, and he bought with his own death their freedom.
He was raised by the power of God to show that the demonic world; while more powerful than us; is not greater than he who is in us.
Furthermore, he says that power rests on the church so that we can advance God’s purpose for the church (The Great Commission), knowing that our success comes from the One greater than anything in the heavenly or earthly realms.
Closing Worship Team up
You see, all of those powers, the demonic forces, the forces of nature, the forces of mankind, they are all centered Or focused in one thing, death.
The reality of death all around us shapes so many of our fears.
We fear the demonic because we don’t want our lives to be lived in constant torture in the afterlife.
Nature is constantly bringing destruction in death to the world.
Even our human bodies are working against us and our efforts to stay alive through aging.
And therefore, all of our focus, efforts, knowledge and attention as humans is spent worrying about death or trying to avoid it at all costs.
But that’s what makes Jesus so much different than all of these other false gods and spiritual powers is He came to give life not take it. Jesus died so that his people could live. By defeating sin and death, we can have assurance or hope that there is nothing but life ahead of us, with God, in glory, For His glory.
Application
If you’re here today and you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you know that you are forgiven of your sins, and you know that His spirit dwells within you, Paul says that we are to pray that we would know these truths because it is not a universally accepted truth.
It only comes through deep prayer and time in the Word where God washes these truths over our souls.
We need to be interceding in prayer on behalf this church.
Faith is given by the Lord to believe for salvation
Love grows out of our relationship with God
Hope allows us to fulfill the mission knowing we will succeed and all that is promised will be given because we are rooted in Christ
So my challenge to you is this,
I want you to spend time every day this week praying.
Lord, would you give me the knowledge of your wisdom and revelation to the hope of your calling?
Would you help me to see How you view me?
Would you give me the power lord, to accept that truth and declare your goodness to someone this week?
But if you’re here, and maybe you know the truth of the gospel. You have the knowledge understanding of the story of Jesus and what he did for mankind, but you don’t know him in a relational, personal, experience, you are what the Bible calls a sympathizer.
However, that’s not the same as someone
who is a child of God.
who is adopted and given a personal relationship with himself.
If the Lord is putting a conviction on your heart about your relational status to the Lord,
I’m pleading with you to respond.
Admit that your sins are not yet paid for that the wrong you have done in your life is still waiting to be judged by a holy God,
Follow His prompting to respond by faith and entrust your life to him,
Give yourself fully over to him as your Lord,
If he has prompting your heart that way, I want you to come forward I want to pray with you specifically that the Lord would make his presence known to you today and can leave here rooted in Christ.
