Sermon Tone Analysis

Recap of Series

Many Christians fail to fully understand the vast spiritual wealth that is available to them in Christ.

Others have a great deal if Bible knowledge yet fail to live by the truths they claim to believe.

A Christian life that seeks to just get by on crumbs is a tragedy.

I order for God to receive the glory that He deserves and for us to fulfill the purpose we were created, we need God to move in our hearts.

We need illumination and motivation.

(Now in a passionate pastoral prayer Paul gives us a glimpse of the kind of rich existence that is possible when we are.)

“Filled with all the Fullness of God.”

Living out fully that which we already fully possess in Christ Jesus.

It means to be so strong spiritually and so compelled by divine love, that one is totally dominated by the Lord, with nothing left of self.

Human comprehension of the fullness of God is impossible because even the most spiritual and wise believer cannot completely grasp the full extent of God’s attributes, and characteristics - His power, majesty, wisdom, love, mercy, patience, kindness, and everything He is and does.

Last week we talked about the mystery that at one time had been hidden so that now through the Church manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the world and displayed those in the heavenly places.

We talked about how you are the paint brushed that God has chosen to use to spread His manifold wisdom across the canvas of His creation.

Paul’s 2nd Prayer

“Whole Family”

Paul is praying for all those who have been grafted into the family of God.

(Gentiles and Jews)

“Is Named”

Note: Our name identity is as children of God.

Everyone is not a child of God, only those who are a part of his family.

The Father has a family and the family is called children of God.

Remember in chapter 1 that all of this was planned from the foundation of the earth.

For This Reason: That they might not lose heart over Paul’s imprisonment (1:15; 3:1)

2:17-3:1 We have access now through one Spirit to the Father; 3:1 “For this reason I pray.”

Paul pray’s because we have access to the Father, no longer strangers or aliens but members of the household of God.

For this reason I Bow my knees before the Father:

So that you may be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So that you may have Christ dwelling in your hearts.

So that you may be rooted and grounded in God’s love.

(modifies “in order that)

So that you may have the strength to comprehend the love of God.

So that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses human knowledge.

Main Idea: That we might be filled with all of the fullness of God.

How is God’s love understood?

To comprehend the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love for us.

To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

Do I know the love of Christ?

Have you felt it.

Do you understand it?

Do you feel it now?

What is the Love of Jesus?

The Love of Jesus is the distinguishing mark of all of God’s people that they truly know the love of God.

Paul tells us that the greatest of all the virtues is Love

Every child of God knows the love of Christ.

All of the children of God do not know God’s love to the same extent.

There are in the body of Christ people at all different levels of spiritual growth.

You have those who are babes, young men, strong men, and a few who are fathers.

So, as you grow and advance in the faith your love increases to a more perfect state of Christ’s love.

You start to walk, then walk faster, then you get up to a jog, then by the end of your journey you will be straining towards the finish line.

We all love at different levels of our growth and maturity.

A child loves like a child in a childlike understanding of love.

Someone much older has a different perspective on love and loves differently.

God’s masterpiece of Spiritual Growth begins with Spiritual Geometry

Note: Any educator knows that the study of and math builds upon the previous study that has been taken.

You must take pre-Algebra before Algebra, and Algebra is a prerequisite for Geometry.

You get the idea.

Paul suggests a fourfold measurement to be used.

The infant cannot yet fully compute the distances or fathom the depths, this is the work of a skilled mathematician; the child will think as a child and understand as a child until further instruction is given to develop his powers.

Therapy: Is the treatment of a disease or disorder to cultivate change and ultimate healing.

1.

We need immersion therapy.

immersion therapy: immersion therapy is a psychological technique which allows a patient to overcome fears (phobias), but can be used for anxiety and panic disorders.

What is the “inner man”

There are several places in scripture which speak of this inner man for example; 2 Corinthians 4:16 “though the outer self is wasting away, the inner self is being renewed; Romans 7:22 “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being.

People were created by God with a spirit, soul, and body.

We are not bodies with souls, we are souls with bodies.

The body is the outer man which is wasting away, the physical housing through which we experience the physical world.

Our bodies therefore, function through five senses by meeting innate needs that drive us to eat, drink, and sleep.

Our bodies are not evil but gifts from God.

He desires that we surrender those bodies to him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).

When submit our lives to Christ and receive His gift of salvation through Christ, our bodies become temples of the Holy Spirit.

Our souls are the personality centers of our beings from which our mind, will, and emotions operate.

With our souls we choose either to listen and obey the lusts of the flesh or the desires of the Holy Spirit.

The soul of a person is the courtroom where life decisions are made.

It is the seat of the self-life and the fountain from which character traits such as self-confidence, self-pity, and self-affirmation originate.

Our spirits contain the inner man about which Paul speaks of in Ephesians 3:16.

Our spirits are where the Spirit of God communes with us.

Jesus said “God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.”

(John 4:24).

The inner man contains our conscience upon which the Holy Spirit can move and convict us of sin.

Our Spirit is the part of us that is most like God, with the knowledge of right and wrong, 1 Corinthians 2:11 says “for who knows persons thoughts except for the spirit of that person that person, which is in him.

This immersion therapy begins in our way of thinking that Paul mentions in Romans 12:2.

This is where our actions, motives, and desires get a major makeover.

What are the means of our immersion therapy?

we spend time in the word.

we commune with christ.

we listen to sound spiritual wisdom.

We are strengthened by experience.

We are strengthened by prayer.

* Immersion therapy gets you off of the bottle and onto the steak

Brethren, I trust you are not among those who think it quite enough to be barely alive unto God; I trust that you wish to be not only babes in the family, but young men and fathers in the household; and that you even aspire to be strengthened by the Holy Ghost with might, that you may become powerful men, men able to enter into the soul and marrow of divine things, and to discern between things that differ.

I would have you not mere milk-fed infants, but men able to crack the nuts of the gospel, and to digest the strong meat, because by reason of years you have had all your senses exercised

2. We need Obsession therapy.

Obsession: Is a complete persistent preoccupation with something

We all have obsessions of one kind or another

The question is not “are your obsessed” the better question is “what are you obsessed with?”

If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries.

And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying.

How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us?

To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.”

— Oswald Chambers