Ephesians 3:14-21 - Strengthened by Love

Encouraging Hilary

This week, Hilary and I were talking about our spiritual gifts

Hilary is a great host.

Come to our house—She’s going to bake cookies, have fresh sweet tea, and make sure you don’t need anything.

I affirmed that she has the gift of hospitality—and that just filled her lungs with air.

A simple word of encouragement filled her sails.

Paul tells the Ephesians what he prays for them.

The main thing he prays for them is our big idea.

Big Idea: We are strengthened by love.

Stand to read

Ephesians 3:14–19 ESV

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 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, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Leader: This is God’s Word

Everyone: Thanks be to God

Explanation

Paul is returning to his thought he interrupted in 3:1.

Paul is telling Him what he’s praying for them for.

He understands that the church is dependent on God for everything.

He presents a knelt posture of prayer.

His whole demeanor and prayer is dependence.

He is appealing to the Lord’s name and power on behalf of the church.

Paul prays for them to be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 16-19)

So that Christ may dwell in their hearts (v. 17)

As believers, they are already indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

This is the fundamental truth of their lives—they love Jesus.

These people walk by the power of Christ in their every day lives.

He is their foundation—”rooted in love”—they are anchored/secured in Christ.

So that they could understand the measure of God’s love (v. 18)

Being rooted in Christ’s love leads them into godly living, which produces a clearer understanding of God and His works.

He wants them to have the strength to comprehend the depths of God’s love.

Paul holds God’s power up like a diamond—our imaginations fail to comprehend the measure of God.

He’s so much deeper, wider, higher, longer than we could ever imagine.

Wide - God’s accepting love.

Anyone from any background who comes to him for mercy will never be cast out.

If you feel beyond what His love can reach

If you’re too immoral, too poor, too privileged, too idolatrous, too dysfunctional—you’re need to know just how wide Jesus’s love is.

If you trust in Jesus, there’s nothing you can do to put yourself beyond His reach.

Long - God’s lasting love

Some of you have been painfully abandoned in the past by someone who promised to love you.

This world is full of people who say “I love you” but don’t mean it.

This may cause you to think “Surely God will give up on me because I’m not changing enough, or I’m not good enough, so he’ll be fed up with my constant failure.”

You need to see just how long His love it—It’s permanent. However badly or often you disappoint Him, He will never let you go.

He is committed to loving us from eternity past to eternity future.

High - God’s exalting love

Paul already addressed how God raises us up with Christ.

If you ever wonder if being a Christian is worth it or if Jesus really has much to offer, you need to grasp how much He has in store for us when He returns.

He gives us every privilege in heaven.

Christ’s love lifts us up from the gutter into His palace.

Christ’s love lifts us up from hell to heaven.

Deep - God’s sacrificial love.

Have you ever took time to consider the depths of the agony of Christ when He suffered on the cross?

Not only the physical tortures/the beatings, the nails, the public humiliation of being strung up naked as a criminal.

But the spiritual trauma of suffering in His soul.

He experienced our hell that we deserved.

Have you stopped to consider that His personal love for you is so deep that He underwent LITERAL hell for you?

This is just how far God’s love is willing to go.

Paul wants us to understand the dimensions of Christ’s love.

So that they can know the love of Christ (v. 19a)

To know the love of Christ surpasses anything else you can learn anywhere.

This is the privilege of the Christian—We can know the love of Christ.

To know the love of Christ surpasses all human wisdom and knowledge.

So that they can be full of God (v. 19b)

This is the supreme goal of Paul’s prayer.

That they would be filled—Not partially full. Not lacking anything.

He wants our cups to overflow with the presence and power of God.

Christians who settle for a limited amount of the Lord miss Him entirely.

Those who do not surrendered the entirety of their lives to Him miss it all.

When we lay our lives down before God, He fills us with His infinite life.

Everything that Paul is praying for is a direct act of God empowering and strengthening us.

This same prayer is for us.

Church,

We are strengthened by love to know God (vv. 14-19)

You can be strengthened by God to know God truly.

He doesn’t just want us to “be rooted and established in love” like when they initially became Christians, nor does he just want us to “grasp” deep theological concepts.

He wants us to “know the love that surpasses knowledge” (v. 19)

Christ’s love is too big for us to ever fully comprehend, but we can live in the knowledge of His love.

It is so out of our depth.

The deepest part of the ocean is the Challenger Deep Gorge in the Mariana Trench.

It’s seven miles deep—A mile deeper than Mt. Everest is tall.

No submersibles are able to survive the crushing pressures at the bottom.

There are creatures down there bigger than our imagination.

The ocean is a profoundly intimidating place with gigantic animals.

The blue whale is the largest animal on earth and can get up to 98ft. long.

Even though we can’t fully comprehend the depths of the ocean, we still enjoy swimming in it—not just standing on the beach.

We still enjoy seeing the beauty, bathing in Caribbean waters, marveling at just how big it is.

Paul wants us to think deeply about the measures of Christ’s love and then live in the daily reassurance that it’s for us.

Despite your guilt/shame, despite how ungodly you are

You can be confident in the gospel of Jesus Christ—Swimming in the bottomless ocean of His love, and exploring more of the unknowable.

It takes God’s power to live in such a confident faith.

There is a way to know things about God and not know God.

Perhaps you know the Bible stories you grew up with.

Perhaps you’ve heard and know “I should trust God in hard moments” or “I just have to have faith.”

Perhaps you have an unmatched church attendance.

But do you know God?

There is nothing more amazing than knowing God.

To know Jesus is an absolute gift that’s better than anything else God could give you.

Knowing the Lord intimately doesn’t merely change what you think about HIm, but how you experience God.

Paul knew a lot of things about God, but then he met Jesus and now knows God.

This changes the way you see everything.

Paul had an impressive resume.

Philippians 3:8 ESV

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

When we know God, our “losses” don’t matter anymore.

Can you honestly say with Paul, “You can have the rest of my life, because I know that Jesus is better”?

Is Jesus truly your worship?

If you got to heaven and Jesus wasn’t there, would you want to stay?

This is the difference between knowing God and knowing about what God offers.

Those who know God want Him more than anything.

This world is cruel, dark, strange, painful, and disappointing, especially for those who don’t know God—the One who fixes our brokenness.

We can know the One who comes to rescue us, to forgive our sins, and give us our lives!

We can have an intimate relationship with God!

Transition

Knowing God leads us to actual praise.

We need a big God theology.

We need better thoughts about God—We need to know God more.

Paul is praying our capacity to know God expands and grows.

He’s praying these amazing things for them that he gets caught up in worship!

Paul’s big-God theology becomes doxology.

True things about God inevitably lead to celebration of God.

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Explanation

The God to whom Paul prays has the capacity which exceeds our capacity of asking—or even imagine.

God is able to do far more than what we ask or think.

Silas use to have a hard time putting on his shoes.

He has no problem asking for help on anything.

He said, “It’s so harddd.”

Then I did his velcro shoes.

In amazement: “Dad, you can do hard things!”

This is a joyful indictment on us—We pray too small and think too little of God.

Our thoughts are too small—He’s so much bigger.

Our prayers to too little—He can do SO MUCH more!

We ask so little and expect so little—when He can do anything!

Paul recognizes that even his prayer for the Ephesians is incredibly small compared to the awesome power of God.

So Paul invokes glory (v. 21)

He emphasizes an eternity of glorifying God by piling one synonym on top of another—”throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen.”

The Church will keep expanding our capacity to bring glory to God for all eternity.

God is so worthy of praise, honor, and glory, that we will never be able to reach capacity.

There will always be more to praise Him for!

Paul prays this exact thing for us.

We are strengthened by love to glorify God (vv. 20-21)

Paul prays for them to grow in their capacity to know the love of God, to be strengthened in mind, and for their imaginations to comprehend so that it would lead them to praise God with their whole lives.

The Christian life is a wholistic life.

Jesus is not an add-on to your okay life.

Jesus is the foundation of everything

When we surrender our lives to make much of Jesus, God is glorified.

We are God’s people who are to live in light of God’s glory.

Have you considered how different your life would be if you lived it God’s way?

How much better would we see the world if we yielded everything to Him?

How much more free would we be if we were humble enough to recognize that we don’t have it all together?

How much happier would we be if we truly approached God with the empty hands of faith?

God freely gives us His love, presence, and power to glorify Him.

We don’t have to do the white-knuckled religion.

We can simply enjoy being God’s person.

This changes everything.

God uses His people to do extraordinary things through His people by His power at work in Him.

The Lord takes banged-up, broken people, redeems them by the blood of Jesus, fills them with His Spirit and uses them with His power to do things in the world our imaginations couldn’t imagine.

That’s how powerful our God is.

You are not too insignificant for God to use you in His world to glorify Him.

Will you simply be willing to enjoy Jesus and trust Him with your life?

He is able to to do far more than we can ask or think.

He is able to do things in and through you that will leave you amazed.

Not because you’re impressive—Just because you trust Him to do in you what you can’t.

When we trust God to use our lives to do amazing things, He will lead us to glorify Him in our lives which leads us to praise Him for what He is able to do in and through us!

So let’s get started.

Take the Next Step

Take the next step.

Trust God with your life.

Repent/baptism/Starting Point/serving.

Plan to grow.

You need a growth plan for how you’re going to grow in knowledge

Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Pick a time, pick a place, and show up.

Read and pray.

Start in the book of John if you’re not sure where to start.

Live strengthened by the love of Christ.