God's Great Plan

Scripture Reading

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21, ESV)

JB Phillips

Cookbook Bible

When I think of the greatness of this great plan I fall on my knees before the Father (from whom all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly, derives its name), and I pray that out of the glorious richness of his resources he will enable you to know the strength of the Spirit’s inner re-inforcement - that Christ may actually live in your hearts by your faith. And I pray that you, firmly fixed in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ - and to know for yourselves that love so far beyond our comprehension. May you be filled through all your being with God himself!

Now to him who by his power within us is able to do infinitely more than we ever dare to ask or imagine - to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever, amen!

(Ephesians 3:14-21, JB Phillips)

Intro

Thank you for having me back here again

Pastor Geoff shares with me regularly updates of what is happening here at Harbor

And I’m grateful to be with you and to give Pastor Geoff the opportunity to be away with his family for the weekend

You just heard our Scripture passage this morning, but before we dive into the text, let’s stop and ask the Lord to lead us and teach us this morning

Pray

Opening Illustration

There are, in my opinion, two ways for us to think about the past

Reminiscing at God’s faithfulness and how far you’ve come

Last weekend Kim, my wife, and I were up in the Philly area where I grew up

Drove past our first apartment when we got married

Now, this place was special - 450 square feet for a 2 bedroom!

Master bedroom was 8x10

We literally couldn’t fit two nightstands in our room

Had one and it was holding door propped open

One day there was a terrible snow storm - 18” or so

Nowhere to go, nothing to do

Domino’s was literally next door so we walked over there and got a pizza

And then we decided we should do some laundry so we put our laundry baskets in trash bags and stomped through the snow to the laundromat a couple building down

Every time we think of that apartment, we laugh and remember how God has been faithful to us at each step of our relationship

But there is a second way of remembering and reminiscing

Reminiscing with regret because that’s as good as it ever got

Next Saturday night will be my high school graduating class is having our 20th reunion

Never mind that it’s tough to believe I have been out of high school for that long

I won’t be there, but even knowing it’s coming causing reflection on high school

Each year, the senior class in my high school put on a variety show with a bunch of random music, dance, skits, etc.

The theme of our variety shows was Glory Days, the Bruce Springsteen song

Listen to the words of the second verse

Well there’s a girl that lives up the block

Back in school she could turn all the boys’ heads

Sometimes on a Friday I’ll stop by and have a few drinks after she put her kids to bed

Her and her husband Bobby well they split up

I guess it’s two years gone by now

We just sit around talking about the old times,

She says when she feels like crying, she starting laughing thinking about

Glory days, well they’ll pass you by

Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye

Glory days, glory days

It’s a song about how great life used to be, it’s all gone, and all we have left now is to sit and tell stories of what was

And then to drink to numb the pain of a joyless existence now

Now knowing a little of how life has gone for some of them, I find the song sadly ironic

In particular, several of my former classmates took to a private Facebook group to share about what has been going on

I was shocked as several students shared about how life turned out - from failed suicide attempts to drug and alcohol addiction

The song is sadly ironic because it is exactly where so many people find themselves today

Amuse Ourselves to Death / Numb the Pain

Not only my former classmates, but maybe even you

Maybe you are caught in a vicious cycle of trying to remember when you were happy and drowning out the sadness of today

We want to be happy, but we are hurting

And the temptation is either to try and numb the pain or to amuse ourselves to death

Numb the pain

We are pain-averse people

We do whatever it takes to avoid pain or to mitigate it

So many turn to things like pills or alcohol to numb

Amuse ourselves to death

For me, I tend to fall on the side of trying to amuse myself to death

Go from one activity to the next

One form of entertainment to the next

From scrolling through Facebook to “turn off for a while”

To TV and movies and sports

We flitter about attempting to amuse ourselves so that we don’t ever have to deal with what is really going on

Even my 3 year old daughter has said to me, “Daddy, I’m bored. I need something to entertain me."

Transition

The sad thing here: in seeking fleeting amusement, we miss abiding joy

True confession time: for me, and I’m sure for many of you, my temptation is, in my search for joy, to look at everything the world has to offer, and not to the one who created the world

Who created me

Who alone can offer me the abiding joy my soul longs for

And that brings us to our Ephesians passage today

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I start to find that abiding joy when I rest in the truth of God's Word

This passage is the one God is using in my life even right now to teach me about where to find joy

Paul is captivated by God’s incredible saving work through Christ, and he is going to find there an overflowing joy

Greatness of God’s Plan

I love that phrasing - “the greatness of this great plan"

It’s this picture of Paul being overwhelmed

It’s not just that God had a great plan

But think about just how great that great plan is!

So what, exactly, was so great about this great plan?

Well, look at what came before it in Ephesians

God the Father chose you before the foundation of the world to be adopted as his children (1:4-6)

God the Son died on the cross for you who were dead in your sins and now you are made alive with Christ (2:1-9)

God the Holy Spirit opened your heart to the gospel and drew you in so that no longer are you an outsider, but are a citizen of heaven and a member of God’s household (2:19)

God has made the worst of sinners into messengers of this great plan (3:8-9)

God has invited us, through faith in Christ, to approach God with confidence (3:12-13)

It’s almost as if reflecting on that incredible plan causes Paul to burst forth

When Paul reminisced on God’s great plan and God’s saving work in his own life, it leads him to amazement

Transition

And how does that bursting forth play out for Paul?

Look at his response here:

“I fall on my knees before the Father (from whom all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly, derives its name)"

He falls on his knees in prayer and in worship

And the invitation for us is the same: as we think about the greatness of God’s great plan, we too can fall on our knees in prayer and worship

Prayer

Paul begins praying for the Ephesian church

Specifically, there are three things he prays for

And I pray that out of the glorious richness of his resources, he will enable you to know the strength of the Spirit’s inner reinforcement - that Christ may actually live in your hearts by your faith

The first thing that Paul prays for is that believers - both the church in Ephesus and for you and I - that we would know the strength of the Spirit’s inner reinforcement

You, believer in Jesus Christ, have the very power of the Holy Spirit inside of you

I like that picture of inner reinforcement

This imagery of something that is weak and frail and easy to crush or collapse

But the Holy Spirit goes back through and puts up this inner reinforcement to make you stronger

And he is not doing this by hitting the scrap yard to see what he can find or picking up some spare parts on Craigslist

He is strengthening out of his own glorious riches

And I pray that you, firmly fixed in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ - and to know for yourselves that love so far beyond our comprehension

The first thing that Paul prays for the believers is that they would know the strength and power of Christ

The second thing here that Paul prays for is that believers would know the extent of the love of Christ

He says that they are “firmly fixed in love” - they have a strong foundation in the love of Christ

What he longs for them now is to know that the love of Christ is not just a foundation

He wants them to know how big it is - how wide and deep and long and high

He wants them to be overwhelmed at the bigness… at the extent… of the love of Christ

Somehow, as we “mature” as Christians, we think we can move past the love of Christ

yeah, we’ve got that - we understand God loves us

Yet the invitation here is to bask in the hugeness of God’s love

A love that is beyond even your ability to comprehend

May you be filled through all your being with God himself!

Paul prays that believers would know the strength of Christ within them

Paul prays that believers would know the extent of the love of Christ for them

And finally here Paul prays that believers would know the fullness of Christ with them

He said it earlier - “that Christ may actually live in your hearts by faith"

He says it again - “may you be filled through all your being with God himself"

Paul wants believers to experience the fullness of Christ’s presence with them

Christ’s presence isn’t just something we acknowledge intellectually

Christ’s presence isn’t merely something to feel

Christ’s presence is something to be consumed by

Our whole being is being filled with Christ

The way we think

The way we feel

The things we do

Our desires

Our longing

All of these are transformed as God himself fills us with his presence

Transition

The greatness of God’s great plan of salvation leads Paul to pray for believers

He prays that they would know the strength and power of Christ in them

He prays that they would know the extent - how wide and deep and long and high - of Christ’s love for them

And then he prays that they would experience the fullness of Christ in them

And all of that leads Paul to worship

Look what comes next

Worship

Now to him who by his power within us is able to infinitely more than we ever dare to ask or imagine - to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever, amen!

Paul breaks out in doxology

He is overwhelmed by God’s great plan and there, still on his knees, he cries out in worship

Verses 20 and 21 here might be my 2 favorite verses in the Bible

I love the imagery - God is able to do more than we can even think of - more than we even dare to imagine

And what is it that God is doing? He is working out the greatness of his great plan to draw believers to himself and fill them with his very strength, love and presence!

Conclusion

One of the first songs I remember learning as a kid is “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart?”

Where?

Down in my heart

And I’m so happy, so very happy, I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart

It’s a simple song

Probably many of you learned it as kids as well

But it is glorious gospel truth

A friend of mine who is a pastor in Orlando shared a quote a couple of weeks ago: “God is not the enemy of joy. I am."

That was a convicting statement

I think I want joy, but really I spend much of my time seeking amusement and distraction

But as we think about the greatness of this great plan, my prayer for you is that you would find the joy of knowing that you are being strengthened by the Holy Spirit, that you are being overwhelmed with the extent of God’s love and that you are being filled through all your being with God himself

That you would have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart - because Christ actually lives in your heart by your faith!

Close in Prayer