Eph 3:14-21 = Exceeding Abundance

Intro

We all pray for and want to experience the power of God but have we ever been taught how to attain it?

Confidence in His power in our lives…?

The family that prays together stays together !! Here is a good prayer for us today, tomorrow, forever!!

PRAYER

Message

Pray With Humble Confidence.

Eph 3.14-16 “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,”

Gratitude

Dependance

Confidence

Trinity [16-17]

Pray in the Context of the Love of Christ.

Eph 3.16-19 “16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Strength of His might [16b-17a]

Act 1.8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

inner man

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Get Your Hands on Your Wealth (Ephesians 3:14–21)

This power is available for “the inner man.” This means the spiritual part of man where God dwells and works. The inner man of the lost sinner is dead (Eph. 2:1), but it becomes alive when Christ is invited in. The inner man can see (Ps. 119:18), hear (Matt. 13:9), taste (Ps. 34:8), and feel (Acts 17:27); and he must be “exercised” (1 Tim. 4:7–8). He also must be cleansed (Ps. 51:7) and fed (Matt. 4:4). The outer man is perishing, but the inner man can be renewed spiritually in spite of outward physical decay (2 Cor. 4:16–18). It is this inner power that makes him succeed.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Get Your Hands on Your Wealth (Ephesians 3:14–21)

What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit empower the inner man? It means that our spiritual faculties are controlled by God, and we are exercising them and growing in the Word (Heb. 5:12–14)

Heb 5.12-14 “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Get Your Hands on Your Wealth (Ephesians 3:14–21)

It is only when we yield to the Spirit and let Him control the inner man that we succeed in living to the glory of God. This means feeding the inner man the Word of God, praying and worshiping, keeping clean, and exercising the senses by loving obedience.

fortified / braced / invigorated

dwell = rather than simply visit

Rooted and Grounded in Love

Jhn 13.35 “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

Reconciliation - One Body - Jew / Gentile

Tree / Plant | Building = unseen cause of stability

both Radical and Foundational …

Know the love of Christ

Breadth - encompass all or any

Length - last for eternity

Height - up to the heavens

Depth - the most degraded sinner

Rom 8.37-39 “37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

With All the Saints… community of love

Comprehension = grasping through experience

Filled up to God’s Fullness

Col 2:9-10 “9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

Room for Growth… Ephesians - filled, growing, maturity

1 Jhn 3.2 “2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Jhn 17.26 “26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.””

2 Cor 3.18 “18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Pray with Great Expectation.

Eph 3.20-21 “20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

How much can God do?

more than we ask

more then we imagine

How will God do more?

Sovereignly

Personally

What then is His Due?

Personal Glory

Public Glory

Perpetual Glory

Close

PRAYER

Group Questions

What was your relationship with your Father? How do you think that has impacted the way you view God as Father?