Strengthened in the Inner Being

Introduction: The Rooms of Our Lives

I want you to imagine your life as a house. Not the house you live in now, but the house of your heart, the place where you really live.

In this house, there are many rooms. There's a library where you keep your thoughts, your beliefs, what you know to be true.

There's a dining room where you feed your appetites what you hunger for, what satisfies you.

There's a living room where you entertain your relationships and friendships.

There's a workshop where you spend your energy and creativity. And then there are the closets those dark corners where we keep the things we don't want anyone else to see.

Now, here's the story Paul wants us to understand: Jesus doesn't just want to visit your house. He wants to move in. He wants to be at home there.

But imagine what happens when Jesus starts walking through your house. In the library of your mind, he finds things that need to go lies you've believed about yourself, about God, about others. Old grudges taking up shelf space. Fears stacked in the corners. And he begins replacing them with his Word, with truth that sets you free. As Jesus himself said in John 8:32, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

In the dining room, he looks at the menu of what you've been feeding on maybe it's the approval of others, maybe it's material things that promise happiness but never deliver, maybe it's the need to be in control.

And Jesus says, "I have better food for you." In Matthew 5:6, he declares, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Not filled with what the world offers, but with what truly satisfies.

He walks into the living room and sees who you've been spending time with, what's been influencing you. Into the workshop where he sees what you're building with your life. And yes, even into those closets where you've hidden your shame, your failures, your secrets. Remember what Psalm 139:23-24 says: "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

The question Paul is praying for us today is this: Will we let Jesus be at home in every room? Because that's what it means for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith not that he's locked in one room we visit on Sunday mornings, but that he's comfortable, settled, at home in every corner of who we are.

Paul's Prayer: Three Requests

Paul gets down on his knees before the Father and you need to know, in that culture, men didn't kneel to pray. They stood. But Paul is so desperate for us to receive this that he kneels. Verse 14 says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father." And he makes three requests:

1. Pray for Strength in the Inner Being

Paul prays in verse 16 that God would "strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being."

Not outer strength though we need that too. Not the strength to impress people or appear like we have it all together. But inner strength. The strength in that hidden place where nobody else can see. Because here's what Paul knows: Christianity is an inside job.

in 2 Corinthians 4:16, he writes, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

Jesus spent his whole ministry trying to get people to see this. The religious leaders of his day, the Pharisees, they had the outside looking good. White robes, long prayers, Bible verses memorized. But inside? Jesus said in Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

We still struggle with this today. We can manage our outward behavior pretty well. We know how to act at church, what to say, how to look the part. But who has control of the inner person?

The inner person, that's where faith lives, or fear. Where humility grows, or pride. Where love takes root, or bitterness. That's where we're weakest. That's where we need God's power most.

Even in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus kept bringing people back to the heart. In Matthew 5:27-28, he said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." It wasn't the outward action alone that created the sin, it was the inner attitude.

And Paul is saying God wants to strengthen that place in you. Not with your own willpower. Not with religious duty. But with the Holy Spirit's power.

This is where the gospel becomes good news: What you cannot do for yourself, God will do in you.

When Christ is strengthened in your inner being by the Spirit, something beautiful happens: Christ becomes at home in all the rooms of your heart. He's not a visitor anymore. He's family. He's comfortable there. And when Christ is at home in you, you begin to know the vast dimensions of his love.

2. Pray to Be Rooted and Established in Love

Paul prays in verse 17 that we would be "rooted and established in love." Rooted, like a tree with deep roots that can weather any storm.

And what are we rooted in? Love. Not fear. Some people build their relationship with God on fear. They serve God because they're afraid of what he'll do if they don't. They see him as an angry judge, a harsh taskmaster. Their faith is like making friends with the bully, you don't necessarily want to be around him, but it's better than getting beat up.

But that's not the gospel. That's not the story Jesus told. The story Jesus told is about a Father who sees his rebellious son coming home from a long way off and runs to meet him.

About a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to find the one that's lost.

About a God who loves us so much that he died for us while we were still sinners.

Paul wants us to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (v. 18).

How wide? Wide enough to reach across every nation, every tribe, every tongue. Revelation 7:9 gives us a glimpse: "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne."

How long? Long enough to stretch from eternity past to eternity future, through every generation, never running out. Jeremiah 31:3 says, "The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.'"

How deep? Deep enough to reach into the lowest pit of human sin and misery, into the darkest closet of your shame, and pull you out. Psalm 40:2 testifies, "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."

How high? High enough to lift you to the throne of God, to seat you with Christ in heavenly places, to give you a glory you could never earn. Earlier in Ephesians 2:6, Paul already told us, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."

This is the love that Paul says in verse 19 "surpasses knowledge." Now that's a strange thing to say, isn't it? He prays that we would know the love that surpasses knowledge. How can you know something that's beyond knowing?

Here's what Paul means: You can't fully understand it with your mind. You can't measure it. You can't master it.

But you can experience it. You can know the way you know someone you love not because you've figured them out completely, but because you've lived with them, walked with them, been held by them.

The knowledge Paul is talking about is from experience. Knowledge of God is grounded in love. You know him by experiencing his love.

And where do we see this love most clearly? At the cross. God's love measured in cosmic dimensions the Creator dying for creation. The Holy One taking our sin. The Judge declaring the guilty righteous.

1 John 3:16 makes it even more personal: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us."

Love going to the absolute limit of crucifixion so that we could be brought home.

When you stand at the foot of the cross, you realize: I can spend a lifetime studying this love and never exhaust it. I can experience it every day and still discover new depths. It's a love that fills you up and yet remains beyond you. It satisfies and yet keeps calling you deeper.

3. Pray That Christ Will Dwell in Our Hearts Through Faith

This brings us full circle to where we started, the house metaphor. Paul prays in verse 17 that "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

Jesus himself talked about this intimate dwelling. In John 14:23, he said, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."

But here's the thing: Christ can't be at home in a heart that's still full of other tenants. He can't settle into a room that's locked against him. He won't force his way into the closets where you've put the "Do Not Enter" sign.

Revelation 3:20 paints the picture: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." Jesus knocks. But we have to open.

Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. And faith means trust. Faith means opening the doors. Faith means saying, "Lord, this room is yours. This part of my life is yours. Even this closet, especially this closet, is yours."

What I am saying to you church is that Christian life is a life that is surrender. Daily trust. Ongoing invitation. James 2:19 warns us, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." Real faith is more than mental assent.

When Christ is fully at home in you, something transformative happens. Your heart becomes the center of your inner being, the source of a new way of living, a life characterized by love arising from faith in the gospel.

The Outcome: Filled to All the Fullness of God

Now Paul gets to his final request in verse 19, and it's audacious: He prays that we "may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." How can finite people contain an infinite God? How can a jar hold the ocean?

Paul is praying for our completion, our perfection, our ultimate fulfillment. Here's how it works:

The Holy Spirit strengthens your inner being → Christ becomes at home in every room of your heart → You experience the boundless love of Christ → You are filled with the fullness of God

It's a chain reaction of grace. One leads to another. And it all starts with prayer with asking God to do what only he can do.

Colossians 2:9-10 explains it this way: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness."

Being filled with God's fullness means this: You're satisfied with God. You're complete in him. His presence, his power, his love, his very life inhabits you. You're participating fully in his kingdom right here, right now.

Jesus promised this in John 10:10: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Not just existence—abundant life! Not in your own strength. Not through your own effort. But because you've opened every room of your life to the One who loves you beyond measure.

Conclusion: The God Who Does Immeasurably More

Paul ends with a benediction in verses 20-21 that takes your breath away: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

This is the God we're praying to. Not a God who barely meets our needs. Not a God who gives us just enough to get by. But a God who does immeasurably more than we can even dream of asking for.

The incomprehensible God makes himself known through experience. The immeasurable God fills our finite lives. That which is beyond us comes to live within us. That which is within us connects to that which is beyond.

So here's my question for you today:

What rooms in your house have you not let Jesus enter?

Where is the "Do Not Enter" sign still hanging?

What part of your inner being needs the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit?

Maybe it's the library of your mind—thoughts and beliefs you've never surrendered to his truth.

Maybe it's the dining room of your appetites—what you hunger for, what you think will satisfy you.

Maybe it's the living room of your relationships—who you let influence you, who you're becoming through your friendships.

Maybe it's the workshop of your ambitions—what you're building, what you're pouring your life into.

Or maybe it's one of those closets—the shame, the addiction, the secret sin, the old wound that's never healed.

Jesus wants to be at home there. All of it. Every room. Every closet. Every corner.

And the way he moves in is through faith. Through you saying, "Lord, I can't clean this room by myself. I've tried. But I'm opening the door to you. Come in. Make yourself at home. Do what only you can do."

This is Paul's prayer for you. This is my prayer for you.

That you would know—really know, experientially, intimately—the love of Christ that's wider than you can imagine, longer than you can measure, deeper than your deepest failure, and higher than your highest hope.

That Christ would be comfortable in every room of your life. That you would be filled up to all the fullness of God. And to the God who can do this—who is doing this right now by his Spirit in you—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, in this generation and in every generation, forever and ever. Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you on our knees like Paul did, not because we deserve your power but because we desperately need it. Strengthen us in the inner being—in that hidden place where only you can see. Send your Spirit into the rooms of our hearts that we've kept locked. Help us to know, to really experience, the love of Christ that's beyond all understanding. Make us into your dwelling place. Fill us with your fullness. Do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.