Calvary Chapel Wenatchee
Sunday Service - Ephesians 3 Pt2
  • Rising Sun
  • Arms Of Love
  • How Can I Keep From Singing Your
  • To God Be The Glory
  • Made Me Glad
  • How Great Is Our God
  • How Great Thou Art
  • Last week:
    Paul talks about his ministry to the Gentiles… repeatedly calling it grace.
    Its an attitude that is produced by living a life of grace in the Spirit, not the Law.
    Today, Paul uses that attitude to spring board into his second prayer for the Ephesians, and that is what we will cover.
    Illustration:
    Years ago, before I was married and had kids, I was helping out with our youth group at Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens. During the summer time, we would always do a fun week of camping and craziness on the Stilliguamish river. We would spend the first half of the week with the middle school kids, and the second half with the High school kids. My prayer was always the same, that the kids would have an experience with God, that the Lord would move in them in a powerful way.
    I remember one time specifically during the time with the middle school, we went tubing down the river. It wasn’t very deep, nor any rapids, but we had probably 30 kids that we were taking with us. At one point, some kids started roughing around in an area where it was maybe 24-30 inches deep, and while doing that, one of the boys fell into the water, and his brand new eye glasses fell into the water. Mind you, the river was about 50 yards wide at that area, lots of rocks, and it wasa river, so even though there weren’t rapids, the water was still moving.
    The kid was freaking out, because his mom had just bought these glasses and school was going to be starting back up in a couple weeks. Plus, he was a newer kid, this was his first time really spending anytime away from home. So probably about 10 of us stayed back looking for his glasses. We were scouring the whole area, especially near where he fell. About 15 minutes later, we were so far behind, I decided we needed to move on. So I gathered everybody up, and I said, “Look, we can’t stay here all day, we need to move on. Let’s pray, ask the Lord to help us find those glasses, we will look for another minute, but we have to go.”
    So we circled up, I prayed, asking the Lord to help us find these glasses, but also thinking in my head that those glasses were gone and nowhere to be found. I really wanted the Lord to show these kids that He is able, that maybe this could be that one experience these kids needed to have a greater faith in Jesus. But, I will admit, I sure this kid would be explaining to his mom why his brand new glasses were gone.
    As I said amen, one of the other leaders, said “Hey, are these it?” And right where she was standing, she reached down into the water, and pulled the glasses out. I couldn’t believe it, no one else could believe it. The gal that found them say about half way through my prayer is when she spotted them, just below her feet. Not broken, not scratched, but those brand new glasses right at her feet.
    As cool and incredible as that moment was, this prayer that Paul has for the Ephesians is for the same thing, that they would experience and know God in a more deeper and intimate way than they ever thought they could. And that is why I am excited to go through this today, because it is just as much of a prayer for us as it was for them. That we would know the power of God, that our inner man would be strengthened through Him, because Lord knows, that is something we all need today.
    Paul’s Prayer (V.14-21)
    V.14
    Ephesians 3:14 NASB95
    14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
    For this reason:
    Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, the fact that it is grace, it is his stewardship, grace for him
    I bow my knees before the Father:
    Prayer
    Humility: Paul comes before God bowing, a sign of humility, prostrating himself before Him.
    Coming before the Lord, acknowledging your weakness, your shortcomings, your inadequacy
    James 4:6 NASB95
    6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
    Submission: Submitting to God’s will
    Paul has submitted Himself to the calling that God has placed before him, and not only taken it, but thrives in it
    V.15
    Ephesians 3:15 NASB95
    15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
    From whom: God Himself
    Derives its name:
    God is the one who establishes all things, gives purpose and identity
    Not just the Jews, but everyone of us.
    He is the One that establishes, not based on our merit or bloodline
    V.16
    Ephesians 3:16 NASB95
    16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
    That He would grant you:
    This is what Paul is praying for… the purpose of His prayer. He will then get into what that means for them
    according to:
    This would be given according to the riches of His glory… not the lack of nor the leftovers, but the riches of His glory.
    Imagine showing up to a dinner party late. Everyone has eaten, the food is just about nearly gone. Now imagine, the host sees you, and what most would expect is that they would scrape enough to have even a little something for you to enjoy, but that is not what they do. Instead, they prepare the whole meal for you, without any reservation or thought, so that you can enjoy fully what has already been offered to others.
    This is according to His riches, not according to what is left
    To be strengthened with power:
    Paul is talking about strengthening the inner man, the soul, the person of who we are.
    Strengthen with what?? Power!!
    How are we strengthened with power?
    Through His Spirit
    How does this work? Peter explains in 2 Peter 1:3
    2 Peter 1:3 NASB95
    3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
    Think of Micah 3:8
    Micah 3:8 NASB95
    8 On the other hand I am filled with power— With the Spirit of the Lord— And with justice and courage To make known to Jacob his rebellious act, Even to Israel his sin.
    Or Jesus to His disciples in Acts 1:8
    Acts 1:8 NASB95
    8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
    Peter to the Gentiles in Acts 10:38
    Acts 10:38 NASB95
    38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
    Paul says in Romans 15:18-19
    Romans 15:18–19 NASB95
    18 For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
    Then again in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
    1 Corinthians 2:4–5 NASB95
    4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
    and then 1 Thessalonians 1:5
    1 Thessalonians 1:5 NASB95
    5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
    Power of the Spirit in us gives us
    comfort
    words to say
    working of miracles
    use of Gifts
    Who are gifts for? To build up the body. So that means God works in power by using others in the body of Christ using their gifts.
    Inner man:
    There is a fight for the inner man, to strengthen it with medication or therapy. There is a real benefit for doing it the way Christ intended.
    V.17
    Ephesians 3:17 NASB95
    17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
    Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith:
    Dwell- to live, to reside
    heart- the center of, the core of
    That Christ can be the center of your life.
    To dwell there, means that He would be at the heart, the center, the midst of your inner man.
    Faith would be the means of Him being there.
    Not through works, not through your efforts, but through faith.
    When we are strengthened by power through the Holy Spirit, it puts Christ as the focus, it puts Him at the center of our lives, and we see His word and power prevail, and it builds faith.
    V.18
    Ephesians 3:18 NASB95
    18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
    Comprehend:
    To grasp, to lay hold of
    breadth , length, height, and depth
    I like this, because it is 4 dimensional, which is all we can understand anyway.
    Length, Height, width, time
    That we can lay hold of, to grasp fully His love, His grace, His power working in and through us
    V.19
    Ephesians 3:19 NASB95
    19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
    know the love of Christ:
    The Agape love of Christ
    This is especially true for Husbands with what we will see in Ephesians 5:25
    Ephesians 5:25 NASB95
    25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
    Our perception of this love is tainted by our perspective of “love”.
    Think about Romans 5:8
    Romans 5:8 NASB95
    8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
    surpasses knowledge:
    It isn’t just something you have knowledge about, but rather, something you know and experience.
    Consider 1 John 4:16-19
    1 John 4:16–19 NASB95
    16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.
    Filled up to all the fullness of God:
    This is going deeper, not just a “See you on Sunday” type of thing, not just a “fireproof from Hell” idea, but to be filled up to all the fullness of God.
    This is what happens when we are strengthened in Power through His Spirit.
    Going back to 1 Corinthians 2:10-13
    1 Corinthians 2:10–13 NASB95
    10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
    You will never know the fullness without the Spirit of God
    You will never know the fullness by turning to worldly idealogies and philosophies
    V.20
    Ephesians 3:20 NASB95
    20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
    Far more abundantly beyond all we ask or think:
    God is able to go beyond what we can even think.
    Remember at the river, losing glasses and finding them as we prayed. Never expected to find them, but God did a work in all of us and especially the kid.
    according to the power that works within us:
    That same power is working within us, powerfully changing and transforming
    V.21
    Ephesians 3:21 NASB95
    21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
    To Him be the glory:
    For God to receive the glory, not us
    Sometimes we can glorify ourselves, look where I came from, look who I was. It isn’t about us, it is about Him
    In the church and in Christ Jesus:
    God’s workmanship, God’s temple, the church, to be the one in where God gets all the glory.
    All the misfits, all the down trodden, all the weak, all the hostility between Jew and Gentile, God receives the glory.
    Conclusion: Moving on, we will see next week, the first word is “therefore,” which means that what we saw today, really what we have seen the last 3 chapters, is going to conclude in these last 3 chapters of the book.

      • Ephesians 3:14NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:15NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:16NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:17NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:18NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:19NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:20NASB95

      • Ephesians 3:21NASB95

      • James 4:6NASB95

      • 2 Peter 1:3NASB95

      • Micah 3:8NASB95

      • Acts 1:8NASB95

      • Acts 10:38NASB95

      • Romans 15:18–19NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 2:4–5NASB95

      • 1 Thessalonians 1:5NASB95

      • Ephesians 5:25NASB95

      • Romans 5:8NASB95

      • 1 John 4:16–19NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 2:10–13NASB95

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