Ephesians 3

Intro

We are going to continue our Ephesians series

We have a reading plan for you to go through as we Go through this book.

Here is the cool part

If you go through the reading plan, and get a parent to sign it for you.

I will give you some candy

So make sure you grab a sheet

I think it applies so well to some of the things that we talked about at retreat

For those who remember a couple of weeks ago when we started this series

I did a little trivia for y'all about the book of Ephesians

So if you remember the book of Ephesians is believed to be written between 60-62AD

It was written by who? Give away

it was written to the Ephesians who are from the city of where? Give away

Paul was writing the letter because of the persecution that the Ephesians were facing

However one thing that was different about this letter compared to many of Pauls other was that he wasn’t addressing a bunch of problems in the church

But instead he gave encouragement and simply just wanted to motivate

That being said, very often the book of Ephesians is known as the letters of what?? Love giveaway

Today we are going to talk about 4 prayers.

Paul talks about 4 key things that I got out this passage that I think would be good for us to pray for

1. Pray that we would display wisdom

Ephesians 3:10–13 “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored.”

Have you guys ever been somewhere and you have seen something that is for display only?

This stuff is every where TV’s

Back in the day there used to be video game displays

I tell you though the ones that always got me when I was a kid was the toy ones

You know what I am talking about?

You got to see the super cool toy

But even cooler you get to see it in action

So why do I share this about displays

Paul shares in the scripture that God’s purpose and plan is for the church to display wisdom

Other translations say for “Wisdom to be made known”

And love this because truthfully this should be a prayer of ours

We are called to show Jesus to people

So that when we have interactions with other. in our convos. people see the wisdom of God

And so the question is are we seeking after that

Is that something that we truly want when we pray

Here is something big for you guys to hear this morning

When we display the Lord to others it gets peoples attention

The truth is the Lord is captivating

For some he is offensive. God exposes the sin that we live in

And we don’t want to face that truth it can be hard for us

But for others he can be just like that toy display

He can become something that is captivating, and something that we want

The second prayer that Paul shows us

2. Pray for the Strength of God

Ephesians 3:16–17 “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

Who knows what this is?

This is known as the Survivor tree

It is a callerey pear tree

In New York City

right next to what once was the 2 world trade centers

So why does it have the name Survivor tree?

After the events of 9/11

Both towers had fallen right where the tree was standing

The tree was severely damaged, however because of its roots that were so strong

The tree was able to remain standing

Why do I share all of this about some tree?

I say all of this because Paul explains the need for the strength of God

But he doesn’t just leave it there

He says that:????

New Living Translation Chapter 3

“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong”

When we continually pray for the strength of the Lord

in grows our roots

And so why does that matter

I don’t know where you are at today

But there points in life that we will face pain

There will be catastrophe

There will be loss

There will be Pain that we will face

And what will determine whether we stand or fall is going to be dependent on our roots

And so my question to you this morning is

What do your roots look like?

Are you in a spot where your walk with God is healthy?

Are you growing with him

If you are honest with yourself

If trouble came your way right now

If catastrophe struck

Would you be able to stand?

I don’t ask you that question to freak you out:

Am I okay?

But ask you it to remind you that there is strength in the Lord

Because the reality is that we aren’t strong enough, and that okay

Put your faith in the one that is

3. Pray to see God’s Love

Ephesians 3:18–19 “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

I need a volunteer

I need you to open this up for me.

Why did I make them do this

Because If you notice I said get to the center

Right get to the end

End when she starting to open a layer up

There’s another one

And more and more

And once you get to 3rd 4th 5th layer

You start to wonder

1 how many layers are there

But also is there ever going to be an end to this lol

Here is what I want you to hear this morning.

There is no end to the love that God has for you

And I wanted to show to show you with this illustration this morning

Because some of you have heard so many times in your life that God loves you and it has become mute

its an idea that you believe, but it doesn’t really have much weight behind it

But think about it from this perspective

Think about the times that you and I have sinned

The times that you and I have fallen short, and yet just piles on more layers of love

You and I don’t deserve it, we didn’t do anything to achive

and Yet he keep offering more love, more forgiveness, more grace

Because just as Paul shares there is no heighth, depth, width of God’s love that he has for us.

I want to take this one more step further for you this morning.

Not just that you would see how much God loves you but…..

Would you also see that you need be chasing after his love as well

Because here is the thing

You can’t walk in the freedom of a love you don’t trust

So we are going to be a people that want to experience the Love of God are we willing to peel by the layers to get to it

To say “I don’t just want this one layer of God’s love”

“I want to go deeper”

“I want to see more of him”

Our last prayer

4. Pray to see God’s power

Ephesians 3:20–21 “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.”

If you didn’t know

This same scripture is one that we have been using as a whole church for our new building project.

We as a church have been believing that through God this building project is going to be possible

Through moves that he has made in people heart to give

Through the right people helping us along the way

Little fun fact about Winter Retreat that you might not know

Almost everything that we have when it comes to

Stage

Sound

Lights

We bring ourselves

And so we have small team that can kind help us get everything where it needs to go

One person who was on the team this year was a guy named Judah Keller

How many of you guys know Judah?

There was one specific moment

We unpacked everything

We were trying to figure out how to set up the lights on stage

He was telling me how the set up was going to look

And it got to the point where I basically told him

Look you are the expert you do whatever makes the most sense

I Share this story

because in his mind He has a vision right

Not only did he have a vision he had the ability and knowledge to know how to make it happen

to see it through

I think there many times in our lives when we pray to see God’s power

We say God I want to see you move

God I don’t want to just have emotional highs

God I want to see the miraculous

And he saying are you going to have the humility enough to say that you can’t do it

to say “God I don’t get this, but I know you do”

“God I don’t know why this is happening to me, but I give it to you”

“God this person keeps saying these things to me that I don’t like, but I am not going to lose my cool. you take care of it”

“God my family is really struggling with this right now, but I believe that you have a plan in this situation”

And why does that matter so much?

Here is the thing

Don’t let your impatience and inability distract you from God’s capability and control

Guess what God is so unbelievly capable to make anything happen in our lives

But even more guess what. Hes got a plan

God has control

He is the one that is sovereign

He see’s into our futures, and he knows what is best for you and I

Here is how I want to end today

I shared 4 prayers this morning

I want us to actually pray through of these things

Find a partner and pray through each of the

New partner for each prayer