WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.820 middle of between series. He just finished Daniel, which having done that before myself, 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:09.720 that's exhausting. And he's about to start another series. So I want to commend your elders for 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:15.000 encouraging Matthew to take a Sunday off between series because it is a lot of work getting ready 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:20.039 for the next series. And for him to be able to do his job well and to serve you faithfully, 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:24.240 I'm sure that's just a real gift to him. We're going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 4, 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:31.779 excuse me, Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 to 21. You know, why is change so hard? 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:36.879 Why is it when you want to change something, it is so difficult? So a few years ago, 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:42.179 I decided I was going to get into shape. And so I joined Planet Fitness, $10 a month, great deal. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:47.820 First week, I went four times, which was my goal. Second week, I went four times, which was my goal. 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:54.099 Third week, not so many. Fourth week, not so much. Soon, I found that I was going less and 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:59.760 less. And then when I would go, I would go and I would kind of like do a few reps on a machine and 00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:04.480 I hated it. And I moved to the next machine and then I'd hate that. Then I'd get on the dreadmill 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.879 and I was going to run for 30 minutes and I'd only run for 20. And soon I found that I wasn't going 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:14.680 at all. You know, I wanted to be in shape. I just didn't want to work out. Another time, 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:18.760 I decided I was going to learn Spanish. And it's really not that hard now. I mean, 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:23.560 they have these incredible software programs. You have Duolingo, which is free. You have Rosetta Stone. 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:29.920 And all you have to do is spend 20 or 30 minutes a day and you can learn a new language. First day, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.640 I'm like killing it. I'm getting after it. Second day, same thing. And I'm learning and I can say 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:40.420 buenos dias and everything. And so, you know, donde esta el baño? And all the key things you need to 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:46.140 know. And so, I'm getting after it. And after a while, I just get busier and busier. And I find I'm just 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:52.760 too busy to learn Spanish. I really wanted to learn Spanish. I really wanted, I should say, 00:01:52.819 --> 00:01:58.260 I really wanted to know Spanish. I didn't really want to study Spanish. And it's a different thing. 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:03.719 And it's very hard to change. I mean, proof of that, I think, is the diet industry. 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:11.599 The diet industry is a $40 billion industry in the United States. We're actually paying people to help us 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:17.460 not eat. And it's not like, you know, it's rocket science to figure out how to lose weight. It's 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:23.620 pretty doggone simple. Eat less, exercise more. There it is. I could write a whole book, two chapters. 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:30.900 First chapter, eat less. Second chapter, exercise more. And we all know how to do it. But it is so 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:36.759 hard if you've ever had to really do it. So hard to actually do that thing. I mean, nobody looks at a 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:43.239 bag of Oreos and goes, I bet those are good for me. No one says that. No one drives by Amy's Donuts 00:02:43.239 --> 00:02:48.739 and thinks, you know, I need a little healthy pick-me-up. I mean, we know what to do. We do 00:02:48.739 --> 00:02:53.739 not have a knowledge problem. We do not have a knowledge problem. It's just very hard to change. 00:02:54.379 --> 00:03:00.840 And I think many of us approach our life in Christ the same way a dieter approaches a diet. 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:08.800 We think that the key is simply more discipline. So we determine we want to change. We force ourselves 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.140 to stop doing the wrong things. We're just going to will ourselves. I'm just not going to do it 00:03:14.140 --> 00:03:19.180 anymore. And I'm going to do the right things. And we just make a determination we're going to do those 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:27.659 things. And then we soon find that just like the diet, you start binging on the Oreos of sin once again. 00:03:27.659 --> 00:03:33.759 We find ourselves getting back into the same old patterns over and over again. And then you come 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:38.659 to church and you look around and it seems like everybody else is doing it because I'm looking at 00:03:38.659 --> 00:03:44.199 you guys and you look like you have it together. So why am I the only one who's struggling like this? 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:53.039 Maybe something's wrong with me. Well, maybe the problem is not you. Maybe the problem is the way we 00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:00.060 approach this. What if living the life in Christ and living a life faithfully to God was more like 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:08.780 a Thanksgiving feast than a diet? What if it were more like a dinner with friends than sitting alone 00:04:08.780 --> 00:04:17.100 eating rice cakes and kale? What if it were actually a delight and a joy? In this prayer that we're about 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:23.000 to read, we find that that's what the Apostle Paul actually teaches us, that God's life-giving power, 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:29.740 His transforming power, is something that we can all know and experience in our lives. And as it's 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:34.420 transforming us, it changes us. And here's the good news. To experience God's transforming power, 00:04:34.540 --> 00:04:40.760 God doesn't just say to you, suck it up, buttercup, and get on with it. You know, He actually tells us 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:48.279 how we can change and gives us the power to change. And so we see this in Ephesians 3, verses 14 to 21. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:54.180 In fact, we're going to spill over, I think, and go ahead into chapter 4, verse 1, because it shows 00:04:54.180 --> 00:05:00.480 you a little bit more of the context. So Ephesians chapter 3, 14 through 4.1. This is God's Word. 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:07.120 For this reason, I bow on my knee before the Father, from whom every family on heaven and on earth 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:12.060 is named, that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:17.899 the power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:24.340 that you may be rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what 00:05:24.340 --> 00:05:29.899 is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, 00:05:29.899 --> 00:05:36.280 that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:41.500 abundantly than all we could ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 00:05:41.739 --> 00:05:47.559 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen. 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:55.359 I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which 00:05:55.359 --> 00:06:01.139 you have been called. This is God's Word. Let's pray. Fathers, we come to your Word this morning. 00:06:01.299 --> 00:06:06.019 We continue to pray the prayer we sang just moments ago. Open the eyes of our hearts, 00:06:06.019 --> 00:06:11.120 that we would see Jesus. We know that that vision of Him is what will change us, is what is 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:16.279 transforming. We know that is how the Spirit works. But Lord, today we come as your people who tried to 00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:23.639 change ourselves, and we're discouraged at times by that, and so we know we need something more. So 00:06:23.639 --> 00:06:28.159 Holy Spirit, open our eyes. Help us see Jesus. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:34.760 Amen. The first thing that we see in this passage, or we will see in this passage, is the weakness of 00:06:34.760 --> 00:06:41.280 willpower. You know, the weakness of willpower. And we see this really in the context, because over the 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:48.460 past two and a half chapters of, or really three and a half chapters of here, or two and a half chapters 00:06:48.460 --> 00:06:54.400 of Ephesians, Paul has been celebrating the kindness of God. He says, before the world was ever formed, 00:06:54.399 --> 00:07:01.759 before you did anything good or bad, before you were even a thought, God set His love upon us, His people, 00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:08.399 and cherished us. And He did this knowing who we are. Even though we had sinned against Him, even though 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:13.819 we had spurned His love, even though we would live according to the pattern of this world, as Paul says 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:20.859 in the previous chapter, God, out of love, chose to save us and call us as His own. And furthermore, 00:07:20.860 --> 00:07:26.319 He took us, all of us who were hostile people, and He takes us from every family of the earth, 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:31.759 as he says, and He brings us all together into one united family, into a redeemed humanity, 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:37.280 people from every race, every tribe, every ethnic group, every culture, and He unites us into the 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:42.240 family of God. Now, as Paul reflects on this, and as he thinks about all that God has done for us, 00:07:42.280 --> 00:07:47.879 he is so amazed that he just all of a sudden stops his letter and breaks out in this effusive prayer 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:55.719 of praise. He is astonished by God's grace. He is absolutely amazed by it. And so, he prays this 00:07:55.719 --> 00:08:02.379 prayer. And notice that in this prayer, he prays to every person of the Trinity. And God is one. He 00:08:02.379 --> 00:08:08.000 exists in three persons, three persons, same in substance, equal in power and glory. And he prays 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.740 to each of them. He prays that the Father will strengthen you in the power of the Spirit, 00:08:12.740 --> 00:08:19.160 so that Christ the Son may dwell in your hearts. The Father and the power of the Spirit, Christ the 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:25.259 Son. And the ultimate result of this Trinitarian blessing is found in verse 17. You see there in 00:08:25.259 --> 00:08:32.639 verse 17, it is that you may be rooted and grounded in love. So, to sum it up, what Paul is praying 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:39.519 is that we and his other readers will experience the strength and the power of God. How we experience 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:44.600 the strength and the power of God? We'll experience the strength and the power of God by coming to know 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:50.199 the magnitude of the love of Jesus Christ. If you want to have the power of God in your life, you 00:08:50.199 --> 00:08:55.399 want to see the power of the Holy Spirit unleashed in your life, it comes through understanding and 00:08:55.399 --> 00:09:02.299 knowing the love of God. Here's the key to the Christian life. Here it is. The key to life itself 00:09:02.299 --> 00:09:09.159 is found in grasping, as Paul calls it, the breadth and length and height and depth of the love that 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:15.980 God has for you in Jesus Christ. And this love that he has for us, as Matthew told us earlier as we 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:22.379 confessed our faith together, is a love that is given to us by grace and by grace alone. And it's 00:09:22.379 --> 00:09:26.759 what Paul said just in the previous chapter. He says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, 00:09:26.959 --> 00:09:32.939 and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, the gift of God not of the result of works, 00:09:32.940 --> 00:09:39.700 so that no one may boast. We did nothing to earn it. We did nothing to deserve it. He gives that to us. 00:09:39.700 --> 00:09:46.240 So what Paul is saying, the key to living in the power of the Spirit, the key to having the power 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:51.960 of God unleashed in your life, is basking in the grace of God that you're loved and you're cherished 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:57.460 by God, not for anything that you do. Your performance has absolutely nothing to do with it, 00:09:57.460 --> 00:10:02.560 but strictly based on what Christ has done for you. Now, immediately when we hear this, 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:07.960 there's some of us saying, but we got to do something, right? I mean, yes, grace gets you in, 00:10:08.259 --> 00:10:13.060 but at some point, we got to stop talking about this grace stuff, and we got to tell people, come on, 00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:20.300 get it together, right? I mean, you know, grace, grace, and you're using us as license, you're just 00:10:20.300 --> 00:10:25.780 using us as an excuse. And so don't we eventually have to tell people, okay, grace, that's good, 00:10:25.779 --> 00:10:32.379 but now it's time to move to maturity. And so you need to get busy working. That is a version of 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:41.279 what we might call Nike theology. What's the Nike slogan? Just do it, right? And that's the way 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:49.339 many of us approach the Christian life. It's just do it. You know, and some use this as a theology of 00:10:49.339 --> 00:10:55.139 life. And so here's what the Bible says, just do it. The Bible says, don't lie, just do it. 00:10:55.139 --> 00:11:02.659 The Bible says, don't lust, just do it. The Bible says, be holy, just do it. What is it about, 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:07.819 thou shalt not commit adultery you don't understand? Just do it, right? I mean, it's pretty 00:11:07.819 --> 00:11:14.899 clear. It's pretty clear. Just do what it says. That was my approach to living the Christian life 00:11:14.899 --> 00:11:22.299 for a long time, even after I became a pastor. And I actually taught people that approach. 00:11:22.299 --> 00:11:28.099 And here's how I would do it. I'd be struggling with some sin, habitual sin, which, you know, 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:34.659 obviously we constantly do. And after I'd sin, I'd feel guilty. And I'd pray and I'd say, Lord, 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:41.519 forgive me. I promise I'm going to do better next time. I'd make a vow. I'd say, God, help me. If you 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:49.019 help me, I will do better. I will not do this again. And so for a while, just like working out or 00:11:49.019 --> 00:11:55.600 learning Spanish or anything else, I would do it. And then the sin would come back and I'd do it 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:01.779 again. And I'd pray again. And this time, my prayer would go along with some self-flagellation. I'd 00:12:01.779 --> 00:12:05.179 have to feel guilty for a while, have to feel bad for a while, you know, beat yourself up a little 00:12:05.179 --> 00:12:09.879 bit. And then after I beat myself up enough, I would come and say, okay, Lord, I mean it this time. 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:16.539 I really, really mean it. Please forgive me. And I promise I will not do this again. I'd make 00:12:16.539 --> 00:12:23.679 another vow. And of course, I'd break the vow. And so what happens after a while of doing this, 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:32.059 how do you feel? You feel like a failure. And I'm a pastor. So not only do I feel like a failure, 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:38.120 how else do you think I feel? Like a hypocrite. And that's not even the worst part of it. 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:45.220 And now I go to pray. And I go before God, this holy God, and I'd be praying. And I go, 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:48.379 I messed up again. And my image of God is sitting there in heaven going, 00:12:49.659 --> 00:12:56.840 come on, Bates, get your act together. Do you ever feel that way? You feel like you can't even pray 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:03.700 because you're so ashamed and you're afraid that God is so disappointed in you that he just doesn't 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:08.379 even want to see you. He's like, okay, I love you because I got to because you're my kid. But really, 00:13:08.420 --> 00:13:15.500 I'm kind of sick of you at this point. And I felt that way. And I think many Christians feel that way. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.820 Of course, I wasn't doing poorly in every area of my life. I was doing pretty well in other areas. In 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:23.759 fact, I was doing a lot better than other people. And so in those cases, I would look at other people 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:28.560 and going, why are they struggling with that sin? What is wrong with them? Why can't they get their act 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:35.139 together? And so you have this mixture of shame on one hand for my failing and pharisaical arrogance 00:13:35.139 --> 00:13:40.339 for where I was succeeding. And I think many people come into the church for those two things. 00:13:41.079 --> 00:13:45.739 They've got shame over their sin where they are struggling, and they look at other people either 00:13:45.739 --> 00:13:51.179 in the church or in the community, and they go, what's wrong with these worldly people? What's wrong 00:13:51.179 --> 00:13:55.879 with all these non-Christians out there? Why can't they get their act together? And the implication is, 00:13:55.879 --> 00:14:03.659 like I have my act together. And we find ourselves either feeling like failures or become self-righteous, 00:14:03.779 --> 00:14:10.759 arrogant Pharisees. And it's not because we're not trying hard enough. You know, focusing on your sin, 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:18.620 focusing on your sin will never lead to godliness. We see this, and we don't have time to look at it 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:24.419 extensively, but you see this in Romans chapter 7 and Romans chapter 8. The Apostle Paul says there, 00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:30.000 actually, if you use the law of God, all the rules, say, I'm going to follow those rules as a means by 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:36.099 which to get holy. Paul says what happens is the law actually enslaves you. It actually makes you sin 00:14:36.099 --> 00:14:43.059 more, not less. The law incites the flesh, your sinful nature, so that you actually sin more. It 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:47.279 stirs up sin in your heart. And he goes on to say it's not because the law is bad. The law of God is 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:51.699 actually good. It's beautiful. If you want to know how to live a good and beautiful life, 00:14:51.700 --> 00:14:56.320 the law of God describes that for you. It's what the good and beautiful life looks like. 00:14:56.660 --> 00:15:00.940 So the problem, though, is that the law is powerless. The law gives you information, 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:08.240 but it cannot bring about transformation. The law of God is like Bubba. Bubba is sitting there on 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:13.680 Saturday afternoon watching his football game. And I'm from the south, so it's an SEC football game 00:15:13.680 --> 00:15:18.140 where they really know how to play football. And so Bubba is there, and he's on the couch, 00:15:18.139 --> 00:15:22.059 and he's watching the football game, and he's got his beer in one hand and his Doritos in the other 00:15:22.059 --> 00:15:28.360 hand. And there's this young kid who reaches out to catch a pass, and he drops it. And so what does 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:34.139 Bubba do? Come on, boy, you got to catch that ball. I mean, he just gives it to him, right? He just 00:15:34.139 --> 00:15:41.799 yells at the TV. Not that I've ever done that. And he just yells at the TV. Now, is Bubba right? 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:48.000 Of course he's right. But do you think the kid doesn't know that already? You know, he goes to 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:53.319 football practice every single day. He's been doing this his whole life. He wants to catch the ball. 00:15:53.479 --> 00:15:59.319 He's trying to catch the ball. He dropped the ball. But Bubba is there yelling at him, but he's not 00:15:59.319 --> 00:16:04.579 any help at all. That's what the law of God does. It tells you what you ought to do. It tells you what 00:16:04.579 --> 00:16:10.059 things you ought to do, and it shames you when you fail to do it. It becomes crushing to you. 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:16.719 The problem is the law is right, but it can't bring about transformation. It can only give you 00:16:16.719 --> 00:16:24.079 condemnation. That's because the law of God has no power. It appeals only to the will. 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:30.599 And the ultimate problem is not one of the will, but one of the heart. There's an early American 00:16:30.599 --> 00:16:37.319 pastor theologian named Jonathan Edwards, and Jonathan Edwards observes that in every situation, 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:43.060 whenever you have a choice about what you will do and what you won't do, you will always inevitably do 00:16:43.060 --> 00:16:49.940 what you most want to do. In fact, Edwards goes on to say this. It says, ultimately, you cannot but do 00:16:49.940 --> 00:16:56.220 whatever you want to do the most. In any situation, you always do what you most want to do. Now, the 00:16:56.220 --> 00:17:04.019 problem is we oftentimes have conflicting desires. So let's have our desire to be healthy. You know, 00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:07.660 who doesn't want to be healthy? I mean, nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, I hope I feel 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:13.639 miserable today. I mean, we want to be healthy. And so we have that desire. So you have that desire to 00:17:13.639 --> 00:17:22.119 be healthy. And so, but you have this other desire. I have another desire that I like to stay up late 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:28.319 watching Netflix, and I like to eat only things that are either fried, baked, or sugary, and maybe an 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:36.159 occasional steak. So I have this one desire, be healthy, eat donuts. And the problem with those 00:17:36.159 --> 00:17:41.720 two desires is they conflict each other. Now, how do you decide which one of those desires you're going 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:47.779 to do? What Edwards points out is this, that at the moment you're trying to decide what to do, at that 00:17:47.779 --> 00:17:54.819 very moment of decision, whichever inclination is the strongest, you will do. He's not just saying you 00:17:54.819 --> 00:17:59.679 have a choice. Here's the fascinating thing about this. Edwards is saying you actually have no choice. 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:06.579 You will do always inevitably, and you can do nothing else other than what your strongest desire 00:18:06.579 --> 00:18:13.599 is at the moment. So if I desire good health, and I also desire the donut, if my desire for good health 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:18.819 is stronger than the donut, then I'm going to forego the donut and go for a run. But if my desire for the 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:22.720 donut is stronger than good health, then I'm going to eat the donut, and I'm going to lie to myself about 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:35.360 running tomorrow. That's how it works. And so, yeah, I can't top that. So, you know, the point is, 00:18:35.620 --> 00:18:42.579 we're not rational creatures. You don't do what's logical. You don't do what you think. You do what 00:18:42.579 --> 00:18:48.559 you feel. We are creatures who are ruled by our passions. University of Virginia psychologist, 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:54.779 Jonathan Haidt, uses this illustration to get at the point. He talks about a rider on an elephant. 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:59.919 So you have this image. You may have seen a picture. It's a picture of a man in India, and he's riding on 00:18:59.919 --> 00:19:04.839 an elephant. And the rider's probably 120, 140 pounds. And then there's elephant, which is a lot 00:19:04.839 --> 00:19:11.359 more than 120, 140 pounds. And it looks like the rider is in control, because wherever he steers the 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:17.879 elephant, it goes. But if at any point, the rider and the elephant have a clash of wills, 00:19:18.740 --> 00:19:25.359 who's going to win? The elephant. The elephant. And he says that the comparison is this. He says, 00:19:25.439 --> 00:19:31.599 the rider is like your intellect. It's what you're thinking. The elephant is like your emotions. 00:19:32.419 --> 00:19:38.559 And your will, you can superimpose your will on your emotions for a time. But whenever the two 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:45.980 come to battle, ultimately, your affections are what are going to win. Whatever controls your 00:19:45.980 --> 00:19:52.399 affections controls your actions. Whatever controls your affections controls your actions. And the 00:19:52.399 --> 00:19:59.519 reason we struggle to live godly, selfless, sacrificial lives is because we're appealing to 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:06.720 the rider when we should be appealing to the elephant. And that's what Paul does here. He shows us the 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:13.180 place where living the Christian life cannot be one merely of duty. Ultimately, it has to be one of 00:20:13.180 --> 00:20:20.380 delight. And that comes by understanding our second point, that willpower is powerless. Secondly, 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:27.360 we see that love is powerful. Love is the key to change. Notice the connection between love and power 00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:32.819 in Paul's prayer. He prays in verse 16, that we'll be strengthened by the power of his spirit, 00:20:32.819 --> 00:20:39.119 strengthened with power through his spirit. And how will we be strengthened? He answers that in verse 17, 00:20:39.579 --> 00:20:45.819 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And then in verse 18, he prays that we might have 00:20:45.819 --> 00:20:51.879 strength. Strength to do what? He says we'll have strength to comprehend, that is to fully grasp the 00:20:51.879 --> 00:20:57.220 breadth and length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, 00:20:57.220 --> 00:21:05.880 that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He's saying simply this, more love, more power. 00:21:06.579 --> 00:21:13.440 More love, more power. The more we grasp the love of God, the more power we will have in our lives. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:22.400 And that's because grasping the love of God does not merely change your will. It addresses your heart, 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:29.120 your affections. The Puritan hymn writer, William Cooper, put it this way, said, to see the law of Christ 00:21:29.120 --> 00:21:37.040 fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:44.759 So you will do things for people you love that you would never do out of duty for anyone else. 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:50.500 You will do for love things you would never do out of duty. And so here's where faith comes in. 00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:55.579 What is faith? Once the Bible talks about faith and many things, but ultimately we talk about faith in 00:21:55.579 --> 00:22:01.019 Scripture, ultimately we're talking about faith in Christ. What is that? We believe that Jesus, 00:22:01.859 --> 00:22:08.140 through his life, death, and resurrection, did everything necessary to earn the Father's love for us, 00:22:08.299 --> 00:22:15.059 so that by his death, he fully paid the penalty of our sins, so that when the Father looks at you, 00:22:15.059 --> 00:22:21.039 if you're in Christ Jesus, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:29.179 Now my question is, do you really believe that? Do you really believe, do you honestly believe, 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:35.399 as you stand before God, there is therefore now no condemnation? When you're lying awake at night, 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.980 and you think about what you've done throughout the day, when you think about your interactions with 00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:46.620 family and friends, is there really no condemnation? Do you believe that? Paul writes that. 00:22:46.860 --> 00:22:54.220 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That's the gospel truth. 00:22:55.079 --> 00:23:00.960 Faith is believing that the gospel is true. And so, and not only is there no condemnation, 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:04.460 but the Bible actually goes further than that. If there's no condemnation, you're at the point of 00:23:04.460 --> 00:23:09.140 being a pardoned criminal. But that's not all. But because you've been united to Christ, 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:15.319 and by the way, the number one way the New Testament describes a Christian is someone who's 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:22.400 in Christ, in union with Christ. Because you've been united to Christ, that means all of his righteousness 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:30.559 has been given to you. Which means then, when you stand before God, your sin is gone because Christ 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:37.399 has taken that away. And Christ has given to you his robe of righteousness. So he sees you with all 00:23:37.399 --> 00:23:43.919 of the righteousness of Christ. That is who you are. That is who you are through your union with Jesus 00:23:43.919 --> 00:23:51.859 Christ. And so, that means then that the Father doesn't just tolerate you, he adores you. I think of 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:58.799 it like times I've been down at the front of a church like this, and you look back, and you see the 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:03.919 bride coming down the aisle. And I, as the pastor, I'm standing right here by the groom. No groom ever 00:24:03.919 --> 00:24:14.440 goes, he's never disappointed. I mean, he looks and goes, wow, she's marrying me? I mean, you've never 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:22.839 seen an ugly bride. They're beautiful. And when the Father looks at us in Christ, he sees us as 00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:28.039 gloriously beautiful because of what Christ has done. The faith is believing that. Faith is actually 00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:34.019 believing that God loves us, not based on our merit or our performance, but based on what Christ has 00:24:34.019 --> 00:24:40.359 done. Now, the problem is, as another Puritan, Walter Marshall, says, your heart is addicted to 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:46.859 salvation by works. You actually believe, your natural human tendency is to believe that your 00:24:46.859 --> 00:24:52.200 acceptance with God is predicated on your performance. And so, we end up with this, what we 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:58.620 call a legalistic mentality. Legalism says that you earn God's approval by keeping the rules and 00:24:58.620 --> 00:25:04.319 performing well. So, the better you perform, the more he loves you. The worse you perform, the less 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:11.059 he loves you. And so, what happens is this, is that the more you think that God's love for you, 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:16.779 his acceptance for you, the way he views you, is based on your performance. If that's your view, 00:25:16.779 --> 00:25:22.940 you're always going to be insecure, always going to be insecure. That's because your behavior will 00:25:22.940 --> 00:25:31.960 never, ever be good enough, ever before glory, ever before glory. And if you're thinking that you 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:37.579 have to reach a certain standard in order to be accepted and approved by God, you can't do it. 00:25:37.980 --> 00:25:45.259 After all, what does God say the standard is? Be holy, even as I am holy. That's a pretty high bar, 00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:50.839 right? And if you think you're meeting that standard, if you think you're doing well enough, 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:54.539 then you obviously do not have a proper appreciation for the holiness of God. 00:25:55.220 --> 00:26:00.720 Because God is far more holy than you can imagine. And so, then if you think that you have to do that 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:05.480 to a disciple, then what's going to happen then? If you have a proper appreciation for the holiness of 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:10.559 God, and you think that you by yourself and in and of yourself have to be holy to meet that approval, 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:16.220 then you're going to grow to the point where you actually hate God. Because what's going to happen 00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:22.240 is you're going to see God as a tyrant whom you can never please, because you can never meet that 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:30.319 standard of holiness. And so, that's why the only way we can see the love of God is through Christ Jesus. 00:26:31.099 --> 00:26:36.659 That Jesus, through his life, his death, his resurrection, and through our union with him, 00:26:36.660 --> 00:26:44.300 we now stand before him, holy, blameless, without spot, without blemish. But the Father looks at us, 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:49.600 loves us, and adores us, not because we're performing so well. That has nothing to do with it, 00:26:49.860 --> 00:26:57.440 but because Christ has performed so well. So, when we begin to grasp this love, it changes us. Now, 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:06.200 now, you cannot earn the love of God. Does that mean we do nothing? You know, if trying harder 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:13.340 is not the answer, does that mean we just stop trying? Well, no. No, again, the Bible still calls 00:27:13.340 --> 00:27:20.500 us to obey. It calls us to pursue holiness. But we do not do those things so that the Father will love us. 00:27:20.500 --> 00:27:28.619 We do those things because the Father loves us. And so, we seek to obey because we already have 00:27:28.619 --> 00:27:36.400 the Father's love. And when that love grabs your heart, then the Holy Spirit empowers you and works 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:45.579 in you to live in a way that's pleasing to him. And so, as God's people, we find ourselves transformed 00:27:45.579 --> 00:27:51.319 by this. And so, we see that Paul then says in verse 20, when we begin to grasp the love of God, 00:27:52.099 --> 00:27:58.960 he says, then God is able to do abundantly more, far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:05.619 according to the power at work within us. So, he's saying God is able to do exceedingly abundantly 00:28:05.619 --> 00:28:10.699 more than you can ask or think. What's he talking about? He's not merely talking about you can pray 00:28:10.699 --> 00:28:15.559 and God can do something miraculous and supernatural. Certainly, he can. But what he's talking about 00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:20.679 is the work that God can do in you and through you and transforming you as the Holy Spirit is 00:28:20.679 --> 00:28:27.500 unleashed in your life. And so, what that leads us to is a life, ultimately, of obedience. But beyond 00:28:27.500 --> 00:28:35.500 simply being moral, what happens is when the Holy Spirit grips your life, it transforms you and enables 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:41.740 you to live in a way that you otherwise would not be able to live. That you're actually able to live a 00:28:41.740 --> 00:28:50.500 life out of love for God rather than merely out of duty. You can actually sacrifice your own joy 00:28:50.500 --> 00:28:57.799 for the joy of others. That when you love someone, and this is true, when you love someone, you actually 00:28:57.799 --> 00:29:04.579 find greater happiness. Edwards said this too. You find your greater happiness in their happiness than 00:29:04.579 --> 00:29:11.120 you do in your own. That's how you live sacrificially. Now, recently, Trish and I heard, while we were at 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:16.699 General Assembly, some of our missionaries who are working among the Kurdish people in northern Iraq. 00:29:17.339 --> 00:29:20.379 I know some of you probably have been to that region of the world, but not as missionaries. 00:29:21.419 --> 00:29:26.699 But they're working among these people in northern Iraq. Several different people groups, all in this 00:29:26.699 --> 00:29:32.099 area, many different religions, all of them part of what we would call an unreached people group, 00:29:32.099 --> 00:29:38.419 where less than 2% of the people of that ethnicity know anything about Christianity or Christians. 00:29:38.420 --> 00:29:45.320 And in that, among that people group, there was a doctor, a woman who was serving as a doctor there, 00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:50.820 not as a missionary, but in a relief form, and a young man who was there who was, I think, doing some 00:29:50.820 --> 00:29:56.960 sort of international aid. And they end up leading some of these people to Christ. The problem is, 00:29:57.140 --> 00:30:03.700 there's no church. There's no pastor. There's no missionary. And so here are these people, 00:30:03.700 --> 00:30:09.120 they're coming to faith in Christ, where the people never heard about Jesus before, and they're hearing 00:30:09.120 --> 00:30:14.980 about the work of God, hearing about the gospel, and they have no one to teach them about what's 00:30:14.980 --> 00:30:21.200 going on. And so we're saying, we need people who are willing to go to northern Iraq and tell these 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:28.000 people more about Jesus, to disciple them. They're longing to know. And so, and not only northern Iraq, 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:33.519 actually, over the next 10 years, as I've mentioned before, at Mission to the World, we need 1,000 new 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:41.240 missionaries over the next 10 years. Now, why would someone leave Colorado Springs to go to northern 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:45.859 Iraq, which looks roughly like Palmer Park if it had been set on fire and there's nothing green left? 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:54.220 Why would you do that? Duty's not going to do that. Duty's not going to do that. Duty's not going to call 00:30:54.220 --> 00:30:59.440 you to sacrifice. Then you think about 1,000 new missionaries. Who's going to pay for all that? 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:09.980 We are, right? What's it going to take to pay for 1,000 new missionaries? You can't keep living at 00:31:09.980 --> 00:31:15.100 your same lifestyle and still get those missionaries over there, right? It's going to require incredible 00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:23.720 sacrifice. What's going to cause that? Duty? Scolding? Berating? The only thing that's going to cause us 00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:29.799 to be aligned with the heart of God is knowing the love of God in our lives. That's what transforms 00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:35.660 us. See, you'll do for love things you would never do for duty. As Samuel Bolton, another Puritan said, 00:31:35.900 --> 00:31:43.600 it's my Puritan Sunday, things impossible to others are easy to them that love. Things impossible to 00:31:43.600 --> 00:31:49.220 others are easy to them that love. You know, we see this in parenting. Before Trish and I had children, 00:31:49.220 --> 00:31:54.740 we knew we wanted them. We just didn't want them. Because we saw everybody with them, 00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:59.339 and that just looked like way too much work. You know, think about the job description of a parent. 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:03.620 I mean, first, you've got to go through the pain of having the child. Then you've got to, you know, 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:07.240 diapers, which are expensive. Then you've got to change the diapers, which are smelly. 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:13.620 You've got to be available 24-7. You've got to clean up their messes. You've got to sacrifice your 00:32:13.620 --> 00:32:17.440 money that you could use for a vacation and spend it on them. You've got to educate them, 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:21.100 drive them to ballet, drive them to soccer, drive them to the orthodontist, drive them to... 00:32:22.500 --> 00:32:28.240 Who's going to sign up for that? Who...I mean, you could not pay me enough money to be a parent. 00:32:29.100 --> 00:32:36.380 Could not pay me enough money. You can't afford me. But man, there's been no greater joy in my life 00:32:36.380 --> 00:32:44.279 than having my three daughters. Right? No greater joy. You'll do for love things you would never do for 00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:51.740 duty. And when the love of God grabs our heart, when the love of God grabs our heart, it causes us 00:32:51.740 --> 00:32:58.339 to want to follow Him in obedience. By the way, this is rather revealing, isn't it? We wonder why we 00:32:58.339 --> 00:33:03.980 struggle to live a life of obedience. We wonder why we struggle to want to sacrifice for Christ's 00:33:03.980 --> 00:33:11.399 mission. We wonder why we don't want to give or work. And here's the bad news. The problem is not 00:33:11.400 --> 00:33:18.300 you lack discipline. The problem is that we lack love. It's not that we don't love God. As St. 00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:23.500 Augustine said, we might love the right things. The problem is we love them sometimes in the wrong 00:33:23.500 --> 00:33:29.940 order. We have disordered loves. And ultimately, all sins then go back to the greatest commandment. 00:33:30.500 --> 00:33:35.340 The great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 00:33:35.339 --> 00:33:40.480 and with all your strength. And every single sin we commit ultimately flows out of that. 00:33:41.379 --> 00:33:48.000 Well, then what do we do? How do you change what you love? Well, to experience God's power, 00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:54.259 we must comprehend God's love. So what do we do? Well, we do what Paul does. What's Paul doing? 00:33:55.439 --> 00:34:02.179 He prays that we might know the love of God. Again, look at verse 18. He prays that we may have the 00:34:02.180 --> 00:34:07.580 strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 00:34:07.900 --> 00:34:12.380 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the 00:34:12.380 --> 00:34:17.840 fullness of God. If the apostle Paul thought that it was important for him to pray that for us, 00:34:18.200 --> 00:34:23.539 don't you think it'd be appropriate for us to pray that for us, right? If Paul saw this as key and 00:34:23.539 --> 00:34:28.920 critical, then we begin to pray that prayer. And so it's not enough just to try harder and say, 00:34:28.920 --> 00:34:34.680 Lord, you've got to change my heart. You've got to show me your love. And the interesting thing, 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:40.340 too, is he prays that we might have the strength to comprehend that which surpasses knowledge. 00:34:41.180 --> 00:34:46.059 That seems contradictory. But what he's saying is the love of God is like an ocean, 00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:50.960 and you can dive into it, and you begin to know its depths, for you're never going to reach the 00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:57.639 bottom. And so we begin to pray, Lord, grip my heart with your love. Help me understand the 00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:04.440 gospel in a much deeper way. So that's the first activity we do. First thing we must do is pray 00:35:04.440 --> 00:35:10.960 that God would change our hearts, that God would grip us with his love. Secondly, we engage in 00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:16.460 exploring the love of God. Now, as I mentioned earlier, you know, your heart is addicted to 00:35:16.460 --> 00:35:22.059 salvation by works. Well, the way we overcome that addiction is by reminding ourselves of the grace of 00:35:22.059 --> 00:35:28.259 the gospel. Or as some have said, we have to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. And to do that, 00:35:28.860 --> 00:35:33.759 God has given us means. He's given us worship. It's what we're doing here. It's why every Sunday 00:35:33.759 --> 00:35:38.679 you hear the gospel at this church, to be reminded of God's love. It's why every Sunday you hear that 00:35:38.679 --> 00:35:45.400 we confess our sins and we remember that we're forgiven, to be reminded of God's love. So the word, 00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:52.079 worship, prayer, and the communion of God's people, the relationship with God's people. And so we're to 00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:58.760 make diligent use of those means that God has given to us in this church. Now, early in my Christian life, 00:35:59.180 --> 00:36:07.220 I did all those things. I'd read my Bible. I would pray. I was in accountability groups. All those things. 00:36:08.200 --> 00:36:14.139 But, and I'm not just saying it didn't help. I think it did help. But I was doing all those things 00:36:14.139 --> 00:36:20.359 as a religious duty. Like, if I miss my quiet time, God's not going to bless my day today type thing, 00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:25.319 right? If I, oh, if I read my Bible and pray, maybe God will bless me, and that sort of thing. 00:36:25.759 --> 00:36:30.579 Instead of thinking that I was a child of God already loved by Him. And so I would do those 00:36:30.579 --> 00:36:35.920 things merely as a duty, and it became just another means of legalistic self-righteousness. 00:36:36.139 --> 00:36:41.299 But that's not what the means, we call these means of grace. We turn them into means of works. 00:36:41.300 --> 00:36:46.400 They're means of grace. And by means of grace, that means they're not means by which we earn 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:51.720 the Father's love. They're means by which we remind ourselves that we are loved. We engage in worship 00:36:51.720 --> 00:36:58.360 and the sacraments and fellowship and prayer to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of 00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:03.660 Christ. And here's how the Christian life is more like a Thanksgiving dinner than a diet. 00:37:03.659 --> 00:37:13.339 Instead of focusing in on sin management, which appeals to the flesh, we focus in on the love that the Father 00:37:13.339 --> 00:37:21.719 has for His children. What a joy, what a delight to remember how much He loves you. We appeal to our heart 00:37:21.719 --> 00:37:30.519 that God so desperately wants. So God does not call us as Christians to be stoics and deny our passions. 00:37:30.519 --> 00:37:37.800 Rather, He's calling us to bring your passion to life by loving that only thing that will satisfy 00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:43.920 your hungry heart. Larry Crabb told a story about a girl who was in adolescent rehab. 00:37:44.860 --> 00:37:49.519 She'd been there for quite some time, and she was going through this rehab program. Well, on this 00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:55.179 particular Saturday, the parents had not been able to see her for several weeks. On this particular 00:37:55.179 --> 00:38:00.739 Saturday, the family was welcome to come, and they had a rope in the back, and the family had to sit 00:38:00.739 --> 00:38:06.419 behind the rope, and all the people in the rehab program were up at the front. And one by one, 00:38:06.819 --> 00:38:11.599 different ones who were in the rehab program would step to the microphone and tell the truth about 00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:18.859 things that they had done. And so this young woman went to the microphone, and with much fear, 00:38:18.860 --> 00:38:25.180 trembling, and great shame, she confessed right there in front of her family and everyone else, 00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:31.099 how she'd stolen, how she'd been an addict, and actually how she'd even sold her own body 00:38:31.099 --> 00:38:34.800 as a way to get the drugs that she so desperately wanted. 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:44.940 As she said these things, her father got up from a seat, and he walked down the aisle, 00:38:46.460 --> 00:38:51.039 broke through the ropes, and in tears he looked at her, and he said, 00:38:52.320 --> 00:38:59.300 I don't, when I see you, I don't see a prostitute. I see my beautiful daughter. And in tears she responded, 00:38:59.300 --> 00:39:06.200 Daddy, I've forgotten the joy of being your little girl. Christian, I think many of us have forgotten 00:39:06.200 --> 00:39:14.019 the joy of being children of God. You're a child of God. You're loved by Him, and therefore, 00:39:15.019 --> 00:39:19.039 you can live with a new power because we know the love of God. Let's pray. 00:39:20.240 --> 00:39:27.820 Our Father, we do thank you that you are a good and gracious God, that you do not treat us as our sins 00:39:27.820 --> 00:39:36.340 deserve, but instead you treat us in the way that Christ deserves and what He has earned for us. 00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:43.100 We thank you, O Lord, that that is ours through faith alone, in Christ alone, and by grace alone. 00:39:43.100 --> 00:39:48.220 And so, Lord, we pray that we would live out of the love that you've given to us. 00:39:48.840 --> 00:39:50.100 And Father, I pray for those...