The Fullness of God

Good Morning and welcome to another week of church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that we are able to come together and join together as a body of believers.

I was thinking after last week that it was such a heavy sermon that at times when we talk about things like the state of our world and what is going on around us that it weighs heavy on the heart. With that i wanted to start with a question for all of you.

Half Empty or Half Full?

Its an age old question that i think we all have experienced at one point in our lives. Is the glass half empty or is it half full. Now this question is designed to see how you are looking at the world in the current moment. I say the current moment because some people can change their answer based on other factors in their lives. Yet, for the most part it does reveal if we are pessimistic or optimistic.

Pessimistic is defined as tending to see the worst aspect of things or believe the worst will happen.

Optimism is defined as Hopefulness and confidence about the future.

The Worst or the best. How do you see the world? It is an an unfortunate reality that we can even slip into a pessimistic view as Christians as we live our lives. We see the world as bleak and hopeless. It is hard sometimes to see the hope among the presence of evil in our world and the hardship in our world.

Last week felt like a sermon that was very much a half full kind of week. It was a week that felt like we are just living in this bleak and dark world. I hope though that this week we can see a move to seeing why we can see the glass as half full or maybe even overflowing. Let’s turn to the word.

Ephesians 3:14–21 NIV

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What a Poweful passage of scripture. This prayer of Paul is an amazing one. I don’t know about you but i hope someone out there is praying this for me. It actually challenged me to start wanting to pray this prayer for each one of you. Let’s look closer though this morning at this prayer.

Paul’s Prayer

Paul begins his this passage with the fact that he is kneeling in his prayer. Now for us today as Christians this is not a foreign idea. We often kneel for prayer because we see it as a sign of respect of submission to God and this has become the normative practice for us as Christians.

Yet, for Paul and others at the time Kneeling was not the norm. They would often pray standing up. If someone knelt for prayer it was an expression of deep emotion or earnestness. This helps us better understand the significance of what Paul was trying to do and say in this passage when he is communicating with the Ephesians.

This is a prayer that Paul is taking very seriously and wants desperately for the people in Ephesus.

God as Father

A second significant point that starts this prayer is the recognition of God as Father. Now i know that many people would not be surprised by that. It is normative for us to think of God as Father.

Yet, when we talk about God as Father this is not always a positive experience for everyone. We need to understand what Paul is trying to communicate in this passage by referencing to God as Father.

The truth is that God exists outside of our understandings of Gender. Remember if you think that is a controversial statement that God is not bound by our human understandings.

Yet, the term Father is used because Paul is living in a society that is built upon patriarchy and this helps us gain an understanding that God is being shown here as the creator or the head of all things. He is the one we all descend from in his fatherhood.

This is powerful because it allows us to recognize his authority and the position he should hold in our lives and what it means for us to have him guiding us. It is here that this prayer begins. It is with recognizing the authority and position of God that this all starts. It is what connects us to him and it also helps us connect to each other as his Children when we come to faith in him.

Paul’s Prayer Request

These next couple of verses are really Paul’s request of God for the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:16–19 NIV

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul’s Prayer Request

Paul is requesting these things for the Ephesians and it is an amazing list of requests if we start to look at it. The first thing that Paul requests is

God’s Riches

This is a powerful request because it requests that God not just give ‘out of the treasures of his glory’ but according to them. This means that God is able to give without limit. This is because he is far greater than anything we can possibly imagine. It is according to the fact that God’s strength and power is limitless that we are being gifted this power. This is amazing to wrap our minds around and this make the riches of God an amazing and powerful request that only the creator is able to achieve.

These riches come in many forms but Paul specifically asks for strength.

Strengthen you with Power

This idea of God providing us with Power or Might is an amazing thing. For some when we hear this we might think that we are this mighty and powerful force in the world now and that is an amazing thought yet, we realize that strength, power, or might can come in many forms.

God may gift us with strength in love, or knowledge, or some other gift or quality that we need to share with the world. It may change at times what we need in the moment to be able to be the people that God calls us to be. Yet all this is done through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is to be a part of who we are and dwells in our inner most being. This is the core of who we are. This is to be a deep part of us. Think of 2 Corinthians 4:16

2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Our physical being may be wasting away but that is not where the Spirit is dwelling he dwells deep within us at the place that we are truly defined and is the core of our being. It is at this point that we can see the renewing of who we are day by day that is strengthened by God through faith in his Son and supported by the Spirit of God.

Paul knew that all this power and strength is all possible when we rely on God and we allow him to work inside us in ways that is absolutely amazing.

Paul also prayed for the Ephesians to be established and rooted in love...

Established and Rooted in Love

This is where the real joy comes in. One of the things that has been the most challenging things I have been thinking about in my personal faith is the depth of God’s love and forgiveness. I think of the story of David, I think of Peter, I think of Paul, Jonah, and so many others in the story and history of the Bible and i see how God worked and moved an forgave these men and women of our heritage as Christians and it is awe inspiring.

it makes me draw upon passages like this and i am in awe

Ephesians 3:18–19 NIV

18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

This love surpasses all understanding, all reason, and Knowledge. It is at times hard to wrap my mind around. Yet, when i dwell my thoughts on it it gives me hope. it gives me joy it gives me a peace.

Established and Rooted in Love

This is why the idea of being established and rooted in love is so powerful. We can be rooted in the love of God and that is the source of our strength and hope. It gives meaning to the world and gives me joy to know that we can look at that and be optimistic about the world.

In fact i think it sparked some of the most amazing lyrics that i have ever read.

He left His Father’s throne above— So free, so infinite His grace— Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race: ’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For, O my God, it found out me!

And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

or

How deep the Father’s love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure

We have tried our best to put this love into song and it still falls short. Weather it is a song From Charles Wesley written a couple hundred years ago or from Stuart Townsend a couple of decades ago we do our best to express the love that God has for us but it is beyond measure. it is beyond our understanding. All this though is for one thing.

Ephesians 3:20–21 NIV

20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

For his Glory!

WE recognize this love and these gifts and strength that he provides and see that it is not for our gain it is the opportunity for us to praise God for what he is doing in our lives. To testify to the power and majesty of the God of this universe. To see that he is the one we long to be with and we want to live our lives in honor of. It is here that i find hope and it is here that i lift my praises to him and it is here that i go from this place smiling knowing that his grace and love is such for me that is beyond my reason and understanding.

That is the hope i want to share with you this morning. To always remember that his love for us is absolutely amazing and i think him for that.

Let’s Pray.