Trouble
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so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
The first three chapters of this Ephesian letter described the resources of the believer and the last three describe how the believer is to live.
So you have all of these resources, all of the potential, all of the power, all of the riches, all of the energy, all that is ours in Jesus Christ in the first three chapters.
A true family is when its ones Pains for Promotion
It will be Trouble when we Lay Down so that another can Cross
So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
So I ask you not to lose heart [not to faint or become despondent through fear] at what I am suffering in your behalf. [Rather glory in it] for it is an honor to you.
If Paul had not dispensed to the Gentiles the stewardship of God’s grace, then Jews would not have been hostile to him and he would not have been imprisoned.
His preaching brought salvation to the Gentiles, but it incurred the wrath of many Jews on him. However, many others became members of the church, Christ’s body, and this was their glory.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
For this cause: The Eternal plan of God, The Life of a Christian believer in Chapter 2
Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
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For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
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assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles.
As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me.
As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ.
God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets.
And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.
By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.
Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ.
I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
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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.
If Paul had not dispensed to the Gentiles the stewardship of God’s grace, then Jews would not have been hostile to him and he would not have been imprisoned. His preaching brought salvation to the Gentiles, but it incurred the wrath of many Jews on him. However, many others became members of the church, Christ’s body, and this was their glory.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
*Prayer: The prayer was for a specific cause, a specific purpose
For this reason [seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Prayer: The prayer was for a specific cause, a specific purpose
My prayer, Your Prayer must be Specific and Purposeful
*Prayer: The prayer was for a specific cause, a specific purpose
My pray must be passionate enough that it pushes me to a posture...
This Prayer drove the Apostle to his knees :
Knees Sense of utterly being dependent upon God
Reverence God
Majesty
Humble before God
Sense of Compassion
It is said that true love is when the other persons happiness is more important than yours
Its an act of the will, a conscience decision to do what is best for the other person instead of myself.
God didn't add another day on your life because you needed it, but rather because someone needed you.
Ep
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
This does not mean every single person who has ever lived throughout human history because He didn't say the family named in Hell
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So this is The Universal Church all the Saints “Dead and Alive”
Family :people linked over a relatively long period of time by line of descent to a common progenitor, family, clan, relationship
a relatively large body of people existing as a totality at a given moment and linked through ancestry and sociopolitical interests, people, nation
a division of a total people entity existing at a given moment, family
We are the Family of God, The Church of the Lord Jesus
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 788). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Prayer for Inner Strength
Prayer for Inner Strength
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 788). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
He prayers for Strength: to be made strong, tough, enduring it means to have energy or force, to act, endure to resist.
Power : Force energy ,might;
Now listen, beloved, you cannot experience inner strength and the Greek there is to be powered with power, to be dynamited with dynamite, to be strong with strength, to be mighty with might. That’s the idea. You’ll never know that on your own. You’ll never be able to stand firm and solid and unmovable. You’ll never know maturity until you allow the Spirit of God to do His renewing work. Until you allow God’s Spirit to strengthen you.
Now watch this, the outer man decays, the inner man accelerates and ascends. Keep that in mind. As a Christian, as you get older, your outer man declines, you can’t avoid it. It just happens.
The older you get the further it declines. And the older you get as a Christian and the more you grow as a Christian and are refreshed every day, actually, spiritual growth leaving the base say of your outer man does not go like this … spiritual growth does not ascend up like that, it goes like this.
Because the outer man diminishes, declines and decays while the inner man ascends. Which means the older you get in Christ, the older you get as you’re renewed by the Spirit the further away you come from the outer man. The less concerned you are about it. But you see, the Lord has a way of allowing us, when we’re saved at this point, to then begin to grow away from those things as they descend and we ascend.
So Paul says the outer man, I admit it, is perishing all the time. It’s declining. But in proportion to the decline of the outer man is the renewal of the inner man so that I ascend in the inner man to Christ, and to God. And the more I come to Christ and the closer I come to God and the more I’m strengthened in the inner man, the less I’m concerned about the declining of the outer man.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.
We need to be strengthened in our inner man, that is the deepest part of our being in our heart , in our soul, in our spirit.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
2 cor 5
There will always be a descending or ascending everyday
I’m either Growing and Dying or Dying and Growing
Prayer for the Habitation of Christ
Prayer for the Habitation of Christ
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
To dwell — to inhabit or live in; be an inhabitant of. = PERMANENT DWELLING, to enter in to settle down , to take up residence
Paul's second request is that Christ would Rule and Reign in our hearts.
Not for Jesus to come in, He’s already in, but to fell at ho,me, to take up residence, to live in a permanent condition.
There must always be in the front of my mind as being a Child of God that Christ lives in me
Where I’m I taking Jesus ?
What I’m I saying that Jesus can hear?
What I’m I pouring on Jesus?
I’m I fumigating Jesus ?
What I’m I making Jesus watch ?
The more conscious I’m the more I should want to strive...
Rooted: to be established ⇔ be rooted v. — to be established, conceived of as if a plant being or becoming fixed in the ground.
To be grounded: To be strengthened ⇔ be foundation-laid v. — to be or become strengthened, conceived of as a foundation that is laid.
Love — a strong, non-sexual affection and regard for a person and their good as understood by God’s moral character; especially characterized by a willing forfeiture of rights or privileges in another person’s behalf.
To be established, to have a foundation of Love
To be grounded: To be strengthened ⇔ be foundation-laid v. — to be or become strengthened, conceived of as a foundation that is laid.
Prayer for Capacity
Prayer for Capacity
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
2 a: the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating 〈a large seating capacity〉
Capacity : the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating
capacity
Capacity
■ noun (plural capacities)
1 the maximum amount that something can contain or produce.
▶ [as modifier] fully occupying the available space: a capacity crowd.
2 the ability or power to do something.
The Great Blessings of God
The Knowledge and Power of God
The Mercy and Grace of God
Peace brought by Christ
God has done more for us than we can measure.
We must understand all that God has done for us.
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
We will never be able to Fully Grasp all of God
But we should ask God to help us learn about Him.
Prayer for Power
Prayer for Power
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Exceeding: to surpass, to go beyond any request to overcome and do anything
Abundantly: to overflow and do more than enough.
Above: to go over and beyond any need.
All that we can think:
Power of The Spirit Strengthening us
Power of Christ dwelling in us.
The Power of Love Working in us
The power of understanding what God is up to
The Power of the fullness of God
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.