Sermon Manuscript073006
Sermon Manuscript – 7/30/2006 Robert Hutcherson, Jr.
Sermon: “IN IT TO WIN IT”
TEXT
Ephesians 3:14-21
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Listen to these first two verses in Ephesians 3:
"For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the
sake of you Gentiles-- Surely you have heard about the ad-
ministration of God's grace that was given to me for you..."
There is a sudden change of thought between these verses. There is an interruption in Paul's thinking. It seems as though he was beginning to explain something ("For this reason....") and then something else crossed his mind. This "something else" is described in verses 2-13: “Have I told you lately what a privilege it is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you?” After expressing these thoughts, he returns to his original thought in verse 14, For this reason....
I have wondered why Paul felt that he had to stop in the middle of his thought to share these personal comments about the privileges of being a servant of Jesus Christ. I wonder if he recognized that too few people were experiencing and enjoying the God-given privileges in their lives; that, they were living “lives of quiet desperation”? Could it have been that Paul had observed too many believers going through the motions of their everyday lives as if their Christian faith made no difference whatsoever? Could it have been that he had seen many people were falling away from the faith out of frustration, disappointment and defeat? Could it have been that they had seen Paul suffer for his faith and figured that it was not worth the effort. That they did not want to be that religious!
Nominal Christianity has been around for a long time. By "nominal" I mean people who are Christian in name only. There is no real joy or evidence that faith in Christ and membership in the church make any difference in their lives. Someone said that nominal Christians have just enough religion to keep them out of jail, but not enough to give them peace with God. One of the best illustrations of nominal Christianity I have come across is a "Far Side" cartoon. The setting is Hades with the flames all around and people hard at work. One of the workers looks over to another and says, "And to think of some of the sins I could have committed."
Church, we are better than that! One of the most profound thoughts that has come to me in recent times is something I wish I had understood better many years ago: It is wonderful for US to believe in GOD; it is powerful to know that GOD believes in US (REPEAT). God truly believes in us. He believes in us so much that he gave his only Son so that by trusting in him we can discover our life. If you grasp that thought, you understand the passion out of which the apostle Paul wrote the Ephesian letter. He believed that we are “in it to win it” – not merely endure it.
That is why Paul returned to his thought in verse 14: For this reason I kneel before the Father.... You can tell that Paul's prayer was focused and offered with passion because of his posture. Generally, Jewish religious leaders STOOD when praying, but Paul bowed himself humbly, prostrate before the Lord, begging God to bless the church at Ephesus, the church down through the ages, the church located on the corner of 9th and “C”. Here is what he prayed for them and us:
FIRST – That we might have spiritual power.
Listen to this prayer in verse 16: “ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.” When someone fails or falls, the comment usually is made, “Well, I am only human.” Exactly! That is the point of this prayer. Because we are only human, we need divine strength and power. From God’s glorious, unlimited strength, we find the power to do whatever is necessary.
It was New Year’s Day. The place: Pasadena, California. The event: The annual Rose Bowl Parade, the granddaddy of all parades. Thousands were gathered on the streets and millions of others sat in front of their televisions to watch the pageantry of the floats, the bands, the celebrities. Suddenly, one of the most beautiful floats in the parade sputtered, spattered, and came to a screeching halt. Everything behind the float stopped dead in its tracks. As the officials investigated the problem, it was discovered that the motor driving the float had run out of gas. What made it so bad was that this float had been sponsored by the Standard Oil Company, one of the largest oil companies in the world at that time. With all its vast resources, the truck underneath the float did not have enough gas to complete the parade. Someone had forgotten to check the tank. How is your spiritual tank this morning? Running on empty? Doing too much in your own strength and beginning to hate it? There is no shortage in God’s unlimited resources.
This prayer is for all who need spiritual power.
SECOND – That we might be Christ-centered. Vs. 17 – And, I pray, that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Robert Boyd Munger wrote a small tract years ago that has become a classic entitled, My Heart, Christ’s Home. I had the privilege to see the video version of it. He tells in first person the story of asking Jesus Christ to be his Savior and Lord.
Munger describes his heart as his home, and Christ was invited to come into his heart. Munger shares the joy of those first days, meeting with Jesus in a favorite room, reading and talking together before work began. As the pressures mounted, those times together became less frequent, and soon they stopped altogether. There were certain rooms in the house that Munger did not feel very comfortable having Jesus around, especially the playroom and the library. After all, he was a guest; he needed to stay in his own space.
One day, Jesus mentioned to Munger that there was a smell in the house, and it seemed to be coming from a closet upstairs. Munger knew immediately what Jesus was referring to: there were old things stored in that locked closet, things no one else knew, things he certainly did not want Jesus to know about. At that point, Jesus said that either those things had to go or he would go; he could not tolerate the smell. He also offered to clean out that closet if Munger would give him the key. Here is the point of the story: Jesus wants to be more than a guest in our lives; he wants to be the host. Paul prayed that Christ would become more and more at home in our hearts; that every room would be available to him; that he can be in charge.
This prayer is for all who need the strength of Christ to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
THIRD – That we might be a community of love.
Vs. 17-18 - And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge.
I took my then 8-year old son Aaron to a Creighton basketball game a couple of years ago as part of a Cub Scout outing, his first opportunity to go to a college ballgame of any type About halfway through the game, I leaned over to Aaron and asked him if he was having a good time. He smiled and said, "It's just too much fun to be true."
I believe the apostle Paul wrote these words with the same joy and enthusiasm. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. 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 really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. The immeasurable, limitless love of God. The only way we can begin to understand that is to look at Jesus Christ. Think of the way Jesus accepted that woman of the streets who crashed the party of Simon the Pharisee. He didn't accept her lifestyle, he abhorred it, but he looked deep into her life and recognized her as a person made in the image of God. Think of how Jesus made himself available to all classes of people. He confronted the prevalent attitude of prejudice in the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus stopped to help a beggar obnoxiously crying out, counseled a rich man worried about his soul, reached out to a fisherman worried about his luck fishing, stooped to touch an untouchable and unapproachable leper, hugged the children and comforted the aged......whoever needed him was not denied.
“Then on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin.”
The limitless, immeasurable love of God.
This is a prayer for all who wonder if their lives really matter.
How will we know if this prayer is answered? There will be a church to be filled with God. Vs. 19 –Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
In writing about, Lytton Strachey wrote, "The Sunday before he started for the Sudan, a British general named Gordon drove around London to a number of churches to take Communion as many times as possible, 'In order,' he says, 'to start this brim full of God.' Would six Communions in one day supply more of God than one Communion? Hardly. But to begin every day and very enterprise "brim full of God."
Wouldn't that be something! To begin every day and every enterprise "brim full of God"! Let your mind go for a moment and think of the possibilities of that. Not that you and I will ever get totally beyond sin and temptation and frustration and sorrow and grief, but to experience the full life of God right now, here on earth. This is what is meant by the Spirit-filled life: to live in a relationship with God, yielded and open and in fellowship with Him, so that we are continually discovering and enjoying the things God intends. I’m not talking about "pie-in-the-sky" theology. This is the privilege of every believer. Pray to have a "brimful of God.” Ask for and receive EVERYTHING God wants for you. The greatest waste of our natural resources is the number of people who never achieve their potential. Get out of the slow lane and into the fast lane. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, there’s a good chance you will. Even just making the effort will make you feel like a new person. Reputations are made by searching for things that can’t be done and doing them. To aim low is to be boring. To aim high is to be soaring. Another quote says: “Don’t go into anything just to test the waters…go into it to MAKE WAVES!”
Is all this really possible? Does God really answer prayers like these? Listen to the DOXOLOGY Paul shared as a benediction to this prayer of his:
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen!"
Repeat after me:
He is able!
He is able to do!
He is able to do exceedingly abundantly!
He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above ALL that we ask or think!
Lets make waves for the Kingdom of God! Lets BE “in it to win it!” (“On The Battlefield”)