WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.259 We've been working our way for a couple months through the first half of this letter of Paul 00:00:06.259 --> 00:00:08.519 the Apostle to the Ephesians. 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:12.460 And today we'll finish up with the first half into chapter three. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:18.300 We'll come back around to it in the spring time looking at chapters four to six in a 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:19.300 lot of detail. 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:23.179 So 2025 we'll be back in Ephesians, Lord willing. 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:25.480 This is Paul's second prayer. 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:30.519 So he's already prayed once in this passage and he comes and prays again at the end of 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:31.719 the first half. 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:35.799 And it's, as we've seen in Paul, a very long sentence. 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:39.039 So verse 14 to verse 19 is all one sentence. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:44.000 This is the third time he's done that where in Greek it's been a lot of words without 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.000 any punctuation. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:47.400 We have that again. 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:50.500 It's a powerful prayer, a very powerful prayer. 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:52.900 We cannot do it justice this morning. 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:57.879 We would need to go for a long time word by word to really get the depths of all that's 00:00:57.879 --> 00:00:58.879 here. 00:00:58.879 --> 00:01:04.159 So, for instance, we're not going to be able to really think hardly at all about the doxology 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:05.159 at the very end. 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:10.239 So we'll have to just look at verses 14 to 19 mostly and think once again, what does 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:11.759 Paul pray for? 00:01:11.759 --> 00:01:13.959 What does Paul pray for us? 00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:18.280 And from that we can learn what we can be praying for, how we should be praying. 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:19.280 So let's think about that together. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:21.319 First, what is it that Paul's praying for here? 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:22.319 That's the question. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.759 Very obvious question, very important question. 00:01:24.759 --> 00:01:26.559 What is it that Paul prays for? 00:01:26.559 --> 00:01:28.239 Let's think about that. 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:35.959 And if you look at verse 14, he says in verse 14, for this reason I bow my knees to God 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:36.959 the Father. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:40.479 And if you have a Bible, you can look back at verse one. 00:01:40.479 --> 00:01:45.239 And in verse one he said, for this reason, and then he interrupted himself to talk about 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:46.239 his own ministry. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:51.159 And so now what you have here in verse 14 is him coming back to the prayer that he had 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:53.799 started in verse one, but never prayed. 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:55.000 So now he's actually going to pray it. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.319 He's going to pray the prayer that we began to look at last week. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:01:59.319 And so what is it? 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:00.819 What is he asking for? 00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:02.479 Who's he talking about in this prayer? 00:02:02.479 --> 00:02:04.359 Who is he praying for? 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:07.479 That's one of the questions that the commentators will bring up. 00:02:07.479 --> 00:02:12.639 And there's a bit of a debate about this because of what he says here in verse 15. 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:19.199 So it says, I pray I bow my knees before God the Father from whom every family in heaven 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:21.000 and on earth is named. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:26.080 And the reason there's a question about who exactly is Paul praying for here is because 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:31.879 of that line, every family in heaven and on earth named by the God. 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:37.199 And you can't see this in English, but in Greek it looks really similar. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:46.080 We know, you probably know that the word father in Latin is pater, Greek patera, right? 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:52.560 In English we have father from fader, old English, and if you look at Italian or Spanish 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:57.880 and German, all these different, you have Padre, you have all sorts of names, and they all, 00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:00.840 you can see, you don't have to know any other language, and you can see the word father 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:03.080 typically and recognize it. 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:05.640 And that all comes from Greek, patera. 00:03:05.640 --> 00:03:11.600 And then right after that in verse 15, it says, from whom every patria is named. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:18.639 And so there's a real connection in the original language between father and family. 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:22.000 Father and fatherhood is basically one way you could read it. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.039 And so what, it's hard to see in English, but what Paul is saying here is I'm bowing 00:03:26.039 --> 00:03:32.639 my knees before God the Father, and I'm talking about I'm praying for every single person 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:35.039 that's part of the household of the Father. 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:36.840 That's really the way to translate the word. 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:41.240 Meaning he's praying for the church in heaven and on earth, every single person that's part 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:42.400 of the church. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:43.920 And that makes total sense. 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:45.800 What's the for this reason I pray? 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:49.600 If you've been with us the past few weeks, you know that Paul has been saying over and 00:03:49.600 --> 00:03:55.400 over again that Jews and Gentiles because of the cross are all part of God's family. 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.240 And now he's saying, and now, because God has established this family, this church that 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:05.800 did not exist, that finds its ground, its existence in the cross, I'm going to pray for all of 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:06.800 them. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:11.200 Every single Jew, every single Gentile, that's a part of God's family that believes the Gospel. 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:17.319 And we've said a number of weeks that this letter is a circular letter, which means that 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:21.800 Paul meant for it to be disseminated beyond Ephesus. 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:26.680 So even in some of our Greek manuscripts, there is a blank where Ephesus or Ephesians 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:30.560 is written so that a church could put in their own name. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:33.519 So this was meant to be shared around with everybody. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:38.680 And because this is God's word, because Paul is an apostle of Jesus, this is for us. 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:43.959 He's saying, I pray for every single person in the household of faith, Jew and Gentile, 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:47.959 wherever that church might be, meaning he's praying for you, he's praying for us. 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:52.319 This is Paul's prayer for the whole church all the way into 2024. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:58.360 And what that tells us is here, you can have what he prays for. 00:04:58.360 --> 00:04:59.759 This is for you. 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:02.800 What he's about to pray for is a prayer for you. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.720 It's our prayer for ourselves. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:05.879 And we can actually have this. 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:07.280 And so what is it? 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.599 And it's in verse 16, see it in a couple places, verse 16. 00:05:10.599 --> 00:05:17.319 He says, I pray that the Holy Spirit would give you strength with power. 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:21.199 He says it again down in verse 18, that you may have strength. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:26.079 So here's Paul's prayer, lots of detail we could talk about, but to make it as simple 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:31.199 as possible, Paul prays that you, if you're a believer today, a Christian, and the whole 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:37.099 church, that you would have strength, strength and power. 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:41.000 And he adds the little phrase in your inner being at the end of verse 16. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:42.600 Okay, so what is he praying for? 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:44.200 He is praying for you. 00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:45.200 He's praying for us. 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:46.200 We pray for ourselves. 00:05:46.200 --> 00:05:47.680 He teaches us how to pray here. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:55.280 We should be praying for spiritual strength in the inner life, in the soul. 00:05:55.280 --> 00:05:58.800 If you were with us a while back, we looked at the first prayer of Paul, and I noted that 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:00.240 it's interesting. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.640 He doesn't have a single prayer about his circumstances. 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:07.199 If you were here last week, you would have remembered that Paul said, I'm a prisoner under 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:08.399 Nero. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:12.199 He calls himself prisoner of Christ Jesus, but Paul is in chains right at this point 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:15.599 when he writes this, under the evil emperor Nero. 00:06:15.599 --> 00:06:16.719 And he doesn't pray about that. 00:06:16.719 --> 00:06:19.079 He doesn't pray about his circumstances, not at all. 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:24.479 The only thing he prays for in the book of Ephesians is for our souls, our inner lives, 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:26.399 our inner being. 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:31.120 And that's just to say that, so important, I think people who are Christians, of course, 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.759 know this, but more and more people who aren't are becoming more and more aware of this, 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.120 that the most important thing to deal with in this life is your soul. 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.319 Your inner life is so important. 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:47.240 It's so much more important than your outer life, than your circumstances. 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:52.280 You can have really great circumstances. 00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:55.680 And if your inner life is a mess, it doesn't matter. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:56.879 You're a mess. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:58.079 You're not okay. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:06:59.079 You can be a celebrity. 00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:00.079 You can be so wealthy. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:02.439 You can have achieved everything you wanted to achieve in life. 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:06.399 But if your soul is a mess, none of that matters. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.159 And you can have horrible circumstances. 00:07:09.159 --> 00:07:11.919 The floor can give way beneath your feet. 00:07:11.919 --> 00:07:16.560 And if your inner soul is steady and okay, if you have strength in your soul, you're 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.159 okay. 00:07:18.159 --> 00:07:20.479 And so Paul does not pray for the outer life. 00:07:20.479 --> 00:07:21.479 He prays for the inner life. 00:07:21.479 --> 00:07:24.319 And he says that you really can have spiritual strength. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:27.439 That's the prayer from him for us today. 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:30.039 And we have to think what that is. 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:35.040 Spiritual strength, if I could summarize it in one way in this prayer, what is it? 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:39.160 Spiritual strength according to Paul is that you would be close with the Lord. 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:41.680 So it's very simple. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:46.400 But he's just praying that you would have real communion with the living God in your 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:47.400 life. 00:07:47.400 --> 00:07:48.400 That's spiritual strength. 00:07:48.400 --> 00:07:51.000 Communion, abiding with God. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.680 That you would actually know God's presence in your life. 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.200 That you would have communion with the living God. 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:01.079 And he's praying this, remember, for the whole family of God, the whole household of faith, 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:02.079 the whole church. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:06.759 And I think what we have to say is that the best way for us as a group, as a church family 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:10.199 here at St. Columbus, and if you're visiting today and you're a Christian from somewhere 00:08:10.199 --> 00:08:15.319 else, the best way you and your church and us and our church and all the churches of 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:20.519 the world can have real spiritual strength, corporately, is if we seek spiritual strength 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:22.240 individually. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:26.039 So we have to be seeking spiritual strength in our individual lives. 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:29.160 Communion with the living God in order that we would feel that together. 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:32.519 Okay, so, all right, that's what he prays for. 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:33.680 What does it mean? 00:08:33.680 --> 00:08:35.600 What is spiritual strength exactly? 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:36.960 Let's think about that briefly. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:38.639 What is spiritual strength? 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:45.840 One of my favorite passages in Paul is 1 Timothy 4-8, where he says, physical training is 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:47.080 of some value. 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:50.519 All right, so Paul tells you it is not bad. 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:52.759 It can be a good thing to go to the gym. 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:58.319 Spiritual training is of some value, but godliness, he says, is of value in every circumstance. 00:08:58.319 --> 00:09:02.200 Now, he's talking there about physical strength and spiritual strength. 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:06.919 And he says, we all know that it's good to be physically strong and not good to be physically 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:09.039 weak in the sense that you can lack health. 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:10.319 You can be sick. 00:09:10.319 --> 00:09:13.519 You can have physical weakness or strength. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:18.000 And he says, and in the same way and even more important, it's a very real thing to talk 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.919 about spiritual strength and spiritual weakness. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:28.719 Peter says, I desire and long for all of you to drink spiritual milk and go beyond that. 00:09:28.719 --> 00:09:34.120 So he says that we, when you come to faith, you're a baby in the faith and you need to 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:35.959 grow. 00:09:35.959 --> 00:09:40.479 Paul is saying that it's very real to grow as a Christian, that you can have come to 00:09:40.479 --> 00:09:48.959 faith in Christ and not yet experienced spiritual strength, not yet grown, not yet been strengthened 00:09:48.959 --> 00:09:50.799 in your inner life, in your soul. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:55.679 And so he tells us the way to get that is to abide with the Lord, to come near to God, 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:56.679 to commune with God. 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:58.479 And he talks about it in a few ways. 00:09:58.479 --> 00:10:00.679 I'm just going to highlight them very quickly. 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:02.319 One, the first one is in verse 19. 00:10:02.319 --> 00:10:07.079 He says, my prayer is that you would have spiritual strength by what? 00:10:07.079 --> 00:10:11.639 That you would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:12.639 Think about it. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:18.599 He says that you would know the love of Christ in your life that goes beyond knowledge. 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:22.399 That you would know something that is above knowing, that is above knowledge. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.040 And so he's talking about knowledge in two different ways there. 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:29.920 And he's saying, I pray that you would know that's the verb of intimacy, that you would 00:10:29.920 --> 00:10:35.040 have intimacy with God that surpasses your intellectual knowledge of God. 00:10:35.040 --> 00:10:36.040 That's what he's talking about. 00:10:36.040 --> 00:10:40.440 Now, look, if I think about, I wonder if I asked you, why are you a Christian if you're 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.279 a Christian today? 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:47.399 One of the things I think we probably would all say for the believers in the room today 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:52.439 is you would say, I'm a Christian because I do think that it makes rational sense. 00:10:52.439 --> 00:10:56.799 So Christianity makes better sense of life for me than any other worldview I've ever 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:57.919 looked at. 00:10:57.919 --> 00:10:58.919 So I like what C.S. 00:10:58.919 --> 00:10:59.919 Lewis says. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:03.600 He says, I believe in Christianity like I believe in the sun, not because I go out every 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.799 day and stare at the sun. 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:07.179 Don't do that. 00:11:07.179 --> 00:11:11.759 And instead, I believe in Christianity because by it, I see everything else in the world. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:15.840 In other words, Christianity makes so much sense for me of everything else that I see 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:16.960 in this world. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:21.720 I can't understand Christianity, sorry, the world apart from God. 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:22.720 And that's rationality. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.639 Paul is not saying that he wants you to become so spiritually strong that you get beyond 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.639 the intellect. 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:29.139 No. 00:11:29.139 --> 00:11:34.120 He's saying that, of course, Christianity should make sense, that it is rational, but 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:38.720 he's saying, but his prayer for you is that you would reach a level of spiritual strength 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:42.800 where Christianity is more than just the intellectual ascent to you. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:48.519 It's more than just rational fact that you would know something that's beyond knowing, 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:53.279 that you would have an intimacy that takes you beyond that spiritual strength. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:56.759 The second thing he says here is that you would be rude at verse 17, that you would 00:11:56.759 --> 00:12:00.240 be rooted and grounded in love. 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:01.439 That's a metaphor. 00:12:01.439 --> 00:12:05.519 Rooted and grounded, it immediately makes us think of plants, right, trees, something 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.839 like that, flowers. 00:12:07.839 --> 00:12:11.359 Whose love is he hoping that you would be rooted and grounded in? 00:12:11.359 --> 00:12:12.519 He's not saying at all. 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:16.360 I hope that you and your heart would have more and more love, more and more love for 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:18.079 God, more and more love for people. 00:12:18.079 --> 00:12:20.559 Of course, he wants that for us all. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:26.199 But he's talking about being rooted and grounded in God's love and knowing deeply, intimately, 00:12:26.199 --> 00:12:28.240 the love of God for you. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:31.439 Rooted and grounded all the more in that. 00:12:31.439 --> 00:12:32.679 Let me think about it this way. 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:36.879 I don't know if you've, probably all of you have had the experience at some point of planting 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:40.199 a tree or something like that, a plant. 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:46.920 And if you get a tree, a little baby tree, and it's too tall for its width, it can't 00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:49.360 hold itself up. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:56.360 And so you plant it and you have to try to root it down deeper, and then you have to 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:01.560 try to pack the soil and ground it, root it and ground it. 00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:04.440 Because if you don't, what's going to happen to it, it's going to tilt. 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:07.800 And so then if it does that, you've got to get a stick, and you've got to prop it, or 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:13.159 you've got to get strings and make sure that it doesn't tilt and grow at an angle. 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:14.159 That's the metaphor. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:19.000 He says, I want you and your soul, spiritual strength, to be rooted and grounded where the 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:24.879 soil of God's love is packed down on your heart so that your roots are bedding down 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:28.679 deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the dimensions of God's love. 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.079 That's spiritual strength, that you would have intimacy with God in knowing more and 00:13:32.079 --> 00:13:35.039 more of how much God loves you. 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.480 Not just rational knowledge, but more than that, deeper than that, it's rooted and grounded. 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:44.839 And then the third thing, last thing, as he says in verses 16 and 19, he says, the only 00:13:44.839 --> 00:13:49.199 way that you can have this is if the Holy Spirit gives you that strength to comprehend 00:13:49.199 --> 00:13:50.919 that love, to know that love. 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:55.559 He says that in verse 16, verse 19 he says that you would be filled with all the fullness 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:56.559 of God. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:02.439 So that spiritual strength becomes something where the Holy Spirit so fills your heart, 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:08.200 that you're so rooted and grounded in a consciousness of God's love that you feel the fullness of 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:12.320 God in your life by the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:14.200 Now that's spiritual strength. 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.080 That's what he says it is. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:17.520 Let's be as simple as possible. 00:14:17.520 --> 00:14:23.760 He says that his prayer for us all is that we would be constantly growing in a deep 00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:27.240 awareness that God loves us and that God's with us. 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:29.120 That's spiritual strength. 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:34.879 You can know so much, you can be a theologian, you can do systematic theology, you can do 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:36.360 it all, and that's very good. 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.200 I like that stuff. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:43.399 And he says, but I want you to know something that's beyond knowing, and that's that God 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:48.440 loves you more than you can ever imagine, and that God is with you in a way that you have 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:53.120 not fully yet grasped the depths of, that you would commune with God, that you would 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.879 have God's presence in your life, and that you would be aware of it. 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:57.000 He says that's spiritual strength. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:02.000 Now if you're a Christian today, Paul has been saying to us over and over again, you 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:03.679 already have that. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:05.840 You already have God's love. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:08.759 You already have the presence of the Spirit in your life. 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:12.919 And his prayer is not that you would get it, you have it if you're a believer. 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:17.679 He's saying that you would grow in the knowledge of who you already are more and more. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:21.559 That you would, what's the language he uses, that you would reach out and grasp it. 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:24.840 That you would take it, that you would own it. 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:28.879 We'll move on to the final point, but I think one way to illustrate it would be like this. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:35.920 Imagine that you are utterly poor, utterly poor, and you are starving to death. 00:15:35.920 --> 00:15:37.080 You've got no food. 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:39.560 You don't have any resources at all. 00:15:39.560 --> 00:15:45.639 And somebody comes and fills your, fills, gives you a kitchen, a kitchen's worth of 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:46.639 food. 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:50.000 You know, just loads you down, fills up these cabinets, gives you a place to live, puts 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.120 all this food in your cabinets, fills your fridge up with good food. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:57.720 You've got a microwave, you've got a cooker, you've got everything you need. 00:15:57.720 --> 00:15:59.679 And you're starving to death. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:04.960 And anybody who looks at you from the outside end would say, you know, you are actually, 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:10.960 you have truly, objectively, legally become very wealthy in food. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:14.440 But you never go into the kitchen and open the fridge. 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:16.399 You never go and open the cabinet. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:21.120 You know, you never go and take anything out and cook it or eat it or open the box. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:28.240 And on the one hand, we could say legally, objectively, truly, you are wealthy in food. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:30.399 But you're not grasping it. 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:31.399 You're not using it. 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:32.399 You're not taking it. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:33.399 You're not eating it. 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:38.480 Now, Paul is saying to you, if you're a believer today, you are so wealthy in the riches of 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:43.000 Christ, truly, objectively, legally, it can never be taken away from you. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.159 You're united to him forever. 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:50.000 But he's saying, my prayer is that you would actually be grasping that and reaching for 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.679 it and taking and eating and communing and reaching new depths of spiritual strength all 00:16:55.679 --> 00:17:00.440 the time, spiritual growth, spiritual strength, moving from milk to solid food. 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.120 That's the prayer that he's praying for us here. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.160 Thirdly, lastly, how can we do that? 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:07.319 How can we grow up in that? 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:10.359 How can we reach out and grasp it and take it? 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:16.279 I think that the simplest way to put it in brief is to say, Paul is praying for us here 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:24.000 that we would have the strength to stare at God's love, that we would every single day, 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:30.680 the way to grow is to look at God's love for us, to look at God, to stare at God in a way. 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:34.720 I think that's what he means when he, in verse 18, he says, I want you to comprehend it, 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:38.319 to stare at it with the eye of the heart, a deep comprehension. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.319 I want you to know it, a verb of intimacy. 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:45.799 I want you to really look at it and consider it and let it soak over your heart every single 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:46.799 day. 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:48.119 I think that's the basic way. 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:53.000 The intimacy that comes by seeking it and looking at it and looking for communion with 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.399 God every single day. 00:17:55.399 --> 00:17:59.480 I heard this from another pastor recently, a guy in the States named Brian Haybick. 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:05.000 He pointed out this sociological experiment that I went on YouTube this week and watched 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:07.440 over and over again. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.720 There was a guy in the middle of the 20th century, a sociologist in the States, a psychologist 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:17.039 that said that he could make any two people fall in love with each other. 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:20.839 He would take, of course, he's talking about emotional, emotional affection there. 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:25.880 He would take a man and a woman and he would put them in a room and he would sit them basically 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:27.880 knee to knee facing each other. 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:31.319 They would stare in each other's eyes for four minutes. 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:34.519 Then he had 36 questions that they would ask each other. 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:40.039 He said, by the end of that, there would be a deep emotional connection. 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:45.079 Since then, that was 1950, 1960, since then, a lot of people have done this experiment 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:49.480 with other groups, with people who are not like each other at all, that are typically 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:54.399 against one another in the public sphere, maybe separated by political persuasion or 00:18:54.399 --> 00:18:55.399 whatever it may be. 00:18:55.399 --> 00:18:57.039 They put them in a room together. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:01.399 They sent them knee to knee across from each other, nothing in between them. 00:19:01.399 --> 00:19:07.000 They say, now I want you to stare at the other person's eyes for four minutes, no talking. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.839 Some of you would hate this beyond imagination. 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:12.960 Most of us, I think, probably would. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:14.680 Actually, you can go watch this. 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:16.079 This has been done in different places. 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:19.359 When you see it happening, what happens is when they're staring at each other's eyes 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:24.039 for four minutes, there are these moments of breakthrough that actually do take place. 00:19:24.039 --> 00:19:29.799 You can see it, nonverbal communication, where people who had no clue about each other all 00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:33.799 of a sudden are clearly becoming friends. 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:35.519 You can see it in the face. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.680 Sometimes, people will start weeping in these videos, just from staring at another person's 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.879 eyes for four minutes. 00:19:41.879 --> 00:19:42.879 It's without fail. 00:19:42.879 --> 00:19:47.319 You watch every single one of them that they get up, the guys are doing this thing, side 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:48.960 hugs. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.079 Everybody's giving each other hugs at the end. 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.759 They never talked. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:56.400 Then at the end, they start communicating. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.720 Sometimes though, in the videos, you'll see people who start weeping and looking away, 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.319 as if they're experiencing deep shame of some kind. 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:08.159 You don't know what it is, but it's as if somebody is staring down into the depths of 00:20:08.159 --> 00:20:11.319 their souls and they feel that. 00:20:11.319 --> 00:20:12.399 You can see it taking place. 00:20:12.399 --> 00:20:16.399 You can see that when somebody really looks at you, even though they don't know your thought 00:20:16.399 --> 00:20:19.599 life, they don't know your inner life, it does feel as if somebody is peering into the 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:26.119 depths of your soul and knowing you in a way that almost feels like it's beyond a boundary. 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:29.960 You know what the good news is, the gospel? 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:31.519 What Paul's praying for you. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.960 He's saying that the good news is that God stares at you. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:35.960 He looks at you. 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:36.960 He sees you. 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:40.960 You watch a four minute video of somebody staring into another person's eyes and you say, it 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:43.000 feels like they're looking into my soul. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:47.400 God sees all the way down to the very bottom of who you are. 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:51.160 God sees you and he knows you. 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:57.240 He knows the depths of your soul to the point where the secret sins and misdeeds dark cannot 00:20:57.240 --> 00:20:58.799 be hidden from him. 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.480 He knows everything about you. 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:03.000 And we all struggle with sin. 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.680 We all have things that are hidden from other people that we think about that we know that 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:09.519 we've done. 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:11.960 God knows the things that people don't know about. 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:16.640 He knows the things that everybody knows about in our lives where your family and your friends 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:22.400 can say of you, oh, this person, you know, I love that they're impatient. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:23.559 They lack joy. 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:25.160 They don't have peace. 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:29.360 They suffer in all these different vices and you say, well, you know, that's just my personality. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:32.439 God sees the little stuff and the big stuff and here's the gospel. 00:21:32.439 --> 00:21:33.519 He sees it. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:36.839 He knows it and he loves you anyway. 00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:39.599 That's what makes the good news, good news. 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:44.119 Jesus Christ goes to the cross knowing the depths of who you are, staring into the heart 00:21:44.119 --> 00:21:46.759 of your soul and he loves you right through it. 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:48.479 He loves you anyway. 00:21:48.479 --> 00:21:49.479 He sees you and he loves you. 00:21:49.479 --> 00:21:54.679 Now, Paul is saying when you've gotten the beauty of that, the reality of that, the depth 00:21:54.680 --> 00:22:01.360 of that love, his prayer is that you would turn around and stare back at God. 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:02.360 God stares at you. 00:22:02.360 --> 00:22:03.560 He sees you and he loves you anyway. 00:22:03.560 --> 00:22:07.519 Will you turn around and look at God and look at the love he asks for you and the presence 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:09.080 of God in your life? 00:22:09.080 --> 00:22:10.960 That's the depth of communion that you can have. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.000 That's the way to grow. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:15.240 Another way to express it. 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:19.880 In the 19th century, there was an author by the name of Edwin Abbott. 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:21.080 May have come across this book. 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:27.919 He wrote a book called Flatland, a romance of many dimensions. 00:22:27.919 --> 00:22:29.679 It's a laugh out loud. 00:22:29.679 --> 00:22:30.919 You pick up 19th century books. 00:22:30.919 --> 00:22:32.279 You don't expect a laugh out loud. 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:35.599 This one will make you laugh out loud. 00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:40.960 It's about, it's actually a satire about Victorian aristocracy in the United Kingdom is the point 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:41.960 of the book. 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:45.720 But in the book, it's in a world where everything's in two dimensions. 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:50.679 So the protagonist, the main character is a square and he lives on a flat plane and he 00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:52.680 can only move like this. 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:57.960 And a sphere comes along, a three-dimensional sphere comes along and tells the square there 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:00.720 is a three-dimensional world. 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:02.840 And the square doesn't know what to do with that. 00:23:02.840 --> 00:23:04.720 He doesn't believe it. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:05.920 He's never seen three dimensions. 00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:09.080 He can't imagine what three dimensions could possibly be. 00:23:09.080 --> 00:23:14.880 And he says to the three-dimensional sphere, the 2D square says, you're a monster. 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:17.640 Be thou juggler, enchanter, dreamer, devil. 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:20.240 No more will I endure thy mockery. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:24.839 Is this madness or hell these three dimensions you speak of? 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:29.400 And the sphere says neither, it's knowledge. 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:33.480 You see, the two-dimensional square could never imagine that there are three dimensions. 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:34.720 He couldn't see it. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:38.720 The scientists tell us that there are more than four dimensions, but we can't imagine 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:41.480 that because we live in a three-dimensional world. 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:44.839 Einstein said the fourth dimension is time. 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:46.680 I don't understand all that. 00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:50.480 But the scientists tell us there are many more dimensions than that that go beyond our 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:51.880 ability to see and grasp. 00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:56.200 Now, what does Paul say about you staring at the love of Christ? 00:23:56.200 --> 00:23:57.200 What does he say? 00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:05.000 Verse 18, he says, I pray that you would grasp the breadth, length, height, and depth of 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:06.200 the love of Christ. 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:09.799 He puts the love of Christ in four dimensions. 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:13.759 And four dimensions is beyond our imagination. 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:18.079 And I think what he's trying to get us to do there is to say, do you know that God loves 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:21.720 you in ways that you have not yet discovered? 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:25.160 Do you know that God loves you in ways you've yet to experience? 00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:30.200 The depth of that love, the height, the breadth, the length, the depth, it's beyond what you 00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:32.720 can measure God's love for you. 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:36.039 And that the more and more you'll enter into that and the more and more you'll dive into 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:40.359 that, the more and more communion you will experience with the living God and the more 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:42.759 and more you'll have strength. 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:48.000 Paul's telling us we have yet to plumb the depths of God's love. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:53.240 As we start, as we close here, let me, I don't know all the depths of the love of Christ 00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:55.680 for us, the height, the length, the depth, the width of it. 00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:59.240 Let me give you 25, just 25. 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:04.000 25 ways that I know God, that I know Jesus is for you if you're a Christian and God's 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:05.000 love you. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:07.279 Christ is your sin-bearer. 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:09.240 He is your shalom, your peace. 00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:12.720 He is your temple, the true presence of God in your life. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.819 He is your victor over all principalities and powers. 00:25:15.819 --> 00:25:21.680 He is your elder brother, your redeemer, your covenant keeper, your healer, your crown and 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:22.680 glory. 00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:27.440 He is your holiness, your reconciler to the Father, your atoning sacrifice. 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:32.400 He's the one who gives everlasting life, justification, sanctification, glorification. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:33.400 He removes your guilt. 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:34.900 He throws away your shame. 00:25:34.900 --> 00:25:36.799 He promises immortality. 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:41.980 He is resurrection life for you and the promise of resurrection for your physical body. 00:25:41.980 --> 00:25:44.759 He is your king, your priest, your prophet, your hope. 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:46.920 There's 25 ways. 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:48.559 I don't know the rest. 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.160 There's so many more dimensions of the way that Jesus loves us. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:57.279 And Paul is saying, I pray that the Holy Spirit would give you strength to dive into that 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:02.440 and to know more and more that God's love for you is beyond your imagination. 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:07.360 And if you can experience that, you'll begin to grow in heart more and more in communion 00:26:07.360 --> 00:26:10.880 with Jesus Christ himself. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.280 Let me close with this. 00:26:13.280 --> 00:26:15.960 You believe in Christ today, many of you. 00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:18.800 You're a believer. 00:26:18.800 --> 00:26:23.200 But maybe functionally, you're still living in the flat land. 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:26.720 You're living in a two-dimensional reality instead of saying, well, there's three, four, 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:28.240 five, there's 11 dimensions. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:29.840 There's more than I can count. 00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:30.840 There's a multiverse. 00:26:30.840 --> 00:26:32.800 I don't know. 00:26:32.800 --> 00:26:37.320 And don't stay in the flat land. 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:42.399 Stay here at the love of Christ for you, explore it in ways that you have yet to find. 00:26:42.399 --> 00:26:46.359 Don't be a functional flat lander, I think, is what Paul's praying for us here. 00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:48.720 Pursue God this week. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:53.759 It could be the case that you're a Christian believing on the promises of Christ, believing 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:56.599 that Jesus Christ died to wash away your sins. 00:26:56.599 --> 00:26:57.599 And you know that. 00:26:57.599 --> 00:26:59.000 Rationally, you know that. 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:01.119 Intellectually, you know that. 00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:06.079 But you have yet, it could be the case that you are truly a believer, but you have yet 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:10.879 so far in your life, Christian life, to ever have deep communion with God. 00:27:10.879 --> 00:27:16.480 You've never taken the next step to have deeper abiding communion with the living God. 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:19.399 And one of the things you could try this week is what Paul talks about in verse 14. 00:27:19.399 --> 00:27:22.439 He says, I bow my knee before God the Father. 00:27:22.439 --> 00:27:25.759 You could try praying, kneeling. 00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:26.759 That's what he says he's doing. 00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:28.779 I bow my knees. 00:27:28.779 --> 00:27:34.279 So that way your physical outward posture is trying to spur along your internal posture, 00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:37.000 kneeling before the Lord. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:38.920 Let me give you a picture of what this is. 00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:40.920 Blaise Pascal. 00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:47.519 Blaise Pascal was the French mathematician of the 17th century, an absolute genius of 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:48.519 a person. 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:53.639 He invented one of the earliest calculators, mechanical calculators that we have. 00:27:53.639 --> 00:27:56.079 He invented the syringe. 00:27:56.079 --> 00:27:57.599 We use those quite often. 00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:00.639 He invented the hydraulic press. 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:05.360 He is very famous for all of that, but more famous for something that's called Blaise 00:28:05.360 --> 00:28:07.200 Pascal's memorial. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:14.200 His memorial was a little piece of paper that he wrote one night in November in 1654, and 00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:17.040 he sewed it into his jacket pocket. 00:28:17.040 --> 00:28:20.840 And every single time he would get a new jacket, he would rip it out and sew it into 00:28:20.840 --> 00:28:23.200 his new jacket pocket. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:24.960 This is what he writes. 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:25.960 This is what happened to him. 00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:30.920 He moved from mere reason to deep abiding communion. 00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:40.720 The year of Grace 1654, Monday, the 23rd of November, from 10 to midnight, fire, God of 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:48.039 Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers, not the God of the learned, 00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:54.400 certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ, forgetfulness of the world 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:57.360 and of everything except God. 00:28:57.360 --> 00:29:04.440 He is only found by the ways taught in the gospel, grandeur of my soul, joy, joy, joy, 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:05.440 tears of joy. 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:11.240 God, I left him, I fled him, I renounced him, he was crucified. 00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:13.680 Let me never be separated from him. 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:15.640 Complete submission to Jesus Christ. 00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:17.840 May I not forget your words. 00:29:17.840 --> 00:29:18.840 Amen. 00:29:18.840 --> 00:29:23.400 He sewed it into his jacket pocket so he would never forget the night of fire that came down 00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:26.680 into his life. 00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:29.240 Seek the face of the Lord this week. 00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:31.040 Kneel in prayer before the Lord. 00:29:31.040 --> 00:29:36.200 Seek communion with the living God. 00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:40.160 If you're a Christian, and this is the last thing I'll say, you're a Christian today, 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:45.840 Paul says, verse 18, I pray that you would have the strength by the Holy Spirit to comprehend 00:29:45.840 --> 00:29:48.200 the love of God for you. 00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:52.600 That means that he is assuming you don't always have that strength. 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:57.599 He's assuming that sometimes you are weak in soul, and sometimes strong in soul. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:01.199 That's his prayer, that you would have the strength by the Spirit to grasp this. 00:30:01.199 --> 00:30:06.480 That means that we've got to go forward today knowing that there are absolutely stages of 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:08.240 the Christian life. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:12.240 Where sometimes we are weak in the soul, and sometimes we are strong. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:15.359 That we don't tend to move from strength to strength to strength. 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:19.079 We tend to move from strength to weakness back to strength again. 00:30:19.079 --> 00:30:23.960 And so maybe today, if you're struggling right now in weakness of soul, not feeling the presence 00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:27.439 of God in your life, stale. 00:30:27.439 --> 00:30:28.759 Stale with your relationship with God. 00:30:28.759 --> 00:30:31.599 Stale in your relationship to your local church. 00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:36.759 Just know that Paul is saying to you, that will change. 00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:39.000 It will change. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:42.439 You will move back to a place of strength. 00:30:42.439 --> 00:30:44.559 And seek the face of the Lord this week. 00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:46.759 Seek communion with the living God. 00:30:46.759 --> 00:30:49.440 Know the dimensions of God's love for you. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:50.440 They are never ending. 00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:51.440 Let's pray. 00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:56.240 Father, we thank you that you love us and you abide with us. 00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:59.240 And so we ask now that you would be our strength. 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:03.799 Holy Spirit, give us the strength to seek communion with you. 00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:09.319 That we would know the depths of the love of Christ beyond all imagination, beyond dimensions. 00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:12.039 That we would not be functional flatlanders. 00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:17.159 That we would not be mere materialists, that we would see that there is so much more than 00:31:17.159 --> 00:31:18.159 we yet know. 00:31:18.159 --> 00:31:19.559 And we pray for this in Christ's name. 00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:45.559 Amen.