Ephesians 3v14-21

Prayer for Power

At the end of my first year at St James we did a survey as the ministry leaders

to assess how the church was doing. And one of the questions we asked to

assess whether or not we a healthy church was this: Is there evidence that

God’s power is at work in our church?

If God’s power isn’t at work, then we’re a dead church. There’s no life.

I wonder what you would say: Is God’s power at work at St James?

Well of course, in order to be able to answer that question. You need to know:

what are true signs of God’s power? Where do you look?

Imagine you were looking for a powerful church? A place where God’s power

was at work. What would you look for?

Healings? Lots of money? Impressive buildings?

Are those the signs of God’s power?

Well in our passage this morning we looking at a prayer for power.

There two main prayers in the book of Ephesians. We’ve already looked at the

first one in chapter 1. And now we looking at the second one in chapter 3. And

there’s a link between these two prayers. If you can look back to chapter 1

verse 18. Paul prays that we will know God’s power for us as Christians. Verse

18.

I pray that your eyes might be enlightened in order that you may know the

hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the

saints, AND His INCOMPARABLY GREAT POWER for us who believe.”

He prays that we’ll know God’s power. And I don’t think he’s just talking about

knowing it intellectually. But also in our experience. That we’ll be able to say:

God is working powerfully within us.

Don’t you long to be able to say that? Hands up if you wanna know more of

God’s power in your life?

We all long for that.

But Paul hasn’t yet told us how that power is expressed. And so that brings us

to the second prayer which we looking at this morning. This prayer shows us

how God’s power is expressed. What will God’s power do for us when it works

in our lives?

And so look again at our second prayer in chapter 3. Notice once again, Paul

prays for power.

Look at verse 16.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power.

Look at verse 18.

“I pray that you may have power.”

And obviously that Pauls praying for something way above our human strength

or ability. Because look at how he ends his prayer. Verse 20.

“Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

according to His power that is at work within us,”

This is a prayer for power.

And so I wonder If you had access to the immeasurable and unlimited power of

God. What things would you be asking for?

Well actually you don’t have to imagine. If we born again, then we do have

access to God’s immeasurable power. It is available for us.

What should we be asking for?

Well lets see what Paul asks for. There two main requests. The first one’s in

verses 16-17. The second one’s verses 17-19.

Look at verse 16.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power

through His Spirit in your inner being.”

Lets stop there.

Notice that this power comes from the glorious riches of God. So you not

asking someone weak to give you power. You asking the most powerful,

wealthy person in the universe.

Normally when Paul talks about the glorious riches of God, he’s talking about

God’s grace. That He’s poured out in Christ. So he isn’t asking here for

something we deserve. This is only available for us because of Jesus and what

He’s done.

Then notice that it’s the Holy Spirit Who applies this power in our lives.

Our church has sometimes been accused of not believing in the Holy Spirit. Its

quite a common accusation that’s used against REACH churches. People say we

believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible.

Well now we’ve got an opportunity to put that accusation to the test. We

looking at the work of the Holy Spirit this morning. When He works powerfully

in a person’s life. What things will He do? We gona see.

But first notice also that this power gets applied in our inner beings.

And so we not talking about outward demonstrations of power. Like being

healed of some disease or like being promoted in your work to a position of

influence or like earning a lot of money and becoming wealthy.

Maybe those are the things you would ask for if you had access to God’s

immeasurable power.

But that’s not what Paul asks for.

Paul asks for strength in our inner beings. You know that inner part of you.

deep in your heart. Where you think your deepest thoughts. The source of who

you really are. What you really believe. What you really think. That’s where we

really need God’s power.

2 Corinthians 4 verse 16 says: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though

outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by

day.”

That’s what Paul is thinking about.

You might be wasting away physically. You might be dying. You might be

wasting away materially. You poor.

That doesn’t mean you weak. God’s power works in our inner being.

Have you noticed with some older people. As they get older and older. It

becomes increasingly difficult for them to mask what’s really going on inside.

You know what I mean? When you young and strong, uv got the energy to put

on a mask. To put on a pleasant face. To be enthusiastic and friendly with

people. To hide what you really feeling.

But as you get older. Or as you get closer to death, that becomes more

difficult. You weak. You tired. You might living in constant pain. And so you just

don’t have the energy. The mask comes off.

And so Iv noticed. Some older people. As they get older, they become

increasingly irritable. And bitter. And angry with life. The smallest thing sends

them off in a rage.

But then Iv also known other older people who’v become increasingly gentle

and loving. And patient. And content.

Even though they wasting away outwardly. They’ve been strengthened in their

inner being. They’v been inwardly renewed. And I wanna say: That is real

power. Its easy to be kind and joyful and content when things are going well in

your life. When you feel outwardly strong.

But when you weak. When you tired. When you wasting away. That’s when

God’s power is displayed as He works in your inner being.

[PAUSE]

But we still haven’t reached the climax of this request.

We praying for power. We praying for the Spirit to be at work. We praying for

strength in the inner being.

So this is power Christianity. Agreed?

This is Holy Spirit Christianity. This is Power and strength in the inner being.

And what does it look like? What’s the climax of this request?

Verse 17. It might seem like an anti-climax to you.

I pray that out of His glorious riches, He might strengthen you with

power, through His Spirit, in your inner being…

verse 17.

So that Christ might dwell in your heart through faith.

[Pause]

Is that it?

After all that build up?

The Power and the glory and riches and strength and the Holy Spirit in your

inner being.

All of that …. simply so that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith.

Isn’t that an anti-climax?

I mean isn’t it true that Christ already dwells in our hearts by faith?

Remember Paul’s praying for Christians here. They’ve already been saved.

God’s already entered their hearts. In chapter 2 he says: God is living in you by

His Spirit.

And so hasn’t this already happened? Isn’t Christ already dwelling in our

hearts? Why is this Paul’s great request? That Christ will dwell in our hearts by

faith

Well the first thing to realize as we try and answer this is that there are two

words in Greek for “dwelling”. To dwell in a place. There two Greek words to

express that.

The first word is paroikew. It’s a weak word. It simply means to inhabit a place

as a stranger. Or as a tenant or as a guest. You not the owner of the house.

You haven’t settled down in that place.

The second Greek word is katoikew. And that’s a much stronger word. It

means to settle down. To reside. You the owner. This place is your home. You

make it your permanent residence.

And in this verse. Paul uses katoikew. The stronger word. He’s praying that

Jesus will make our hearts His home.

And so Don Carson illustrates it like this. in his book. A call to spiritual

reformation.

“Picture a couple carefully raising enough money to buy a house. They put

together a downpayment. And they buy this house recognizing full well that its

gona take quite a lot of work. They cant stand the black and silver wallpaper in

the main bedroom. There piles of rubbish in the basement. The kitchen is more

suited for a plumber than a cook. The roof leaks in a couple of places. The

lighting in the bathroom is poor. But still this is the couple’s first home. And

they grateful.

The months slip past. Then the years. The black and silver wallpaper gets

replaced with beautiful pastel patterns. They redesign their kitchen, doing

most of the work themselves. The roof no longer leaks.

Better yet, as the family grows, this couple completes a couple of extra rooms

in the basement and adds a study and sewing room. The garden is neatly

trimmed and includes new formations.

Twenty five years after the purchase, the husband one day remarks to his wife,

“you know I really like it here. This place suits us. Eveyrwhere we look we see

the results of our own labour. This house has been shaped to suit our needs

and tastes. And I feel really comfortable.”

Well that’s what Paul means in this prayer. when He prays for Christ to dwell in

our hearts. Its more than just that He will move in. Its that He will make our

hearts His home.

You see, When Christ moves into a person by His Spirit, He finds our hearts in a

bad condition. full of rubbish, black and silver wallpaper, leaking roofs. Theres

lots of cleaning up to do. Lots of repairs. Lots of renovations and expansions. It

requires a lot power. But Christ’s aim is clear: To turn us into a place

appropriate for Him. That we’ll be shaped to His suit His preferences and

tastes. That our hearts will become His home.

That someone walking past will be able to look and say: wow! Clearly that is a

person indwelt by Jesus

That’s Paul’s first request.

“Make my life a bright outshining

Of Thy life, that all may see

Thine own resurrection power

Mightily put forth in me

Ever let my heart become

Yet more consciously Thy home.”

If you wanna talk about the power of God. Don’t focus so much on outward

things. Things going smoothly in people’s lives. Talk about people’s inner

beings. And about Christ entering in and dwelling in people’s hearts.

Let’s move on to Paul’s second request at the end of verse 17.

Once again it’s a request for power. And once again it might seem like an anti-

climax. Why do we need power this time?

Look at the end of verse 17.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power,

together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is

the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you

may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Why do we need God’s power?

So we can know His love.

But you say: I already know God’s love.

The first verse I learnt in the Bible was John 3:16. For God so loved the world

that He gave His One and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not

perish but have eternal life.

I already know God loves me. And I received it when I became a Christian.

Well Paul isn’t ignorant of that. In fact he acknowledges it. Look again at the

end of verse 17.

And I pray that you, (literally it says) having been rooted and established in

love.

So Paul knows we’ve already received God’s love. He’s praying for people

who’v received it.

And he uses two illustrations here to express it.

One for Dalphene. And One for Ed. Our gardener and our builder.

He uses a gardening illustration. He says we’ve been rooted in God’s love.

The picture’s of roots that go deep into the soil and suck up all the nutrients

and water supply. So that the plant becomes healthy and strong and firmly

secure in the ground. That’s what happens to us when we rely on God’s love.

Then Paul uses a building illustration.

Not only are we rooted in God’s love. We also established in that love. And this

word is the same word that’s used for the foundation of a building. Just like a

house needs a strong foundation. So it doesnt fall over in the storm. So it

stands firm and secure. In the same way, our foundation is the love of God in

Christ.

And so what a powerful statement!

We are rooted and established in love

And what a great need this is for the world in which we live.

Isn’t it true that we build our lives on self? That’s where we build our

foundations. That’s where we look for strength and stability. We are rooted in

our sense of self. We so performance orientated. So driven around

accomplishment and achievement

What have I done? How do I compare to those around me?

We build our lives on self-love and self accomplishment and self indulgence.

That’s where we look for meaning and purpose.

And then when we fail we filled with self-hatred and self-despising and self-

disappointment

No wonder we go through life struggling and confused

No wonder our emotions fluctuate up and down.

Tossed back and forth by our circumstances and achievements and failures.

Like a plant without roots. Like a hosue built on sand.

According to Paul the way for us to be stable and secure and strong. And full of

joy and peace.

Its not by spending hours and hours training for a race. And being able to finish

and say: I am an iron man! And getting a medal to hang up next to your bed.

That sense of accomplishment will fade.

If you wanna find real joy and contentment and a sense of security and well-

being. You need a heart deeply rooted in God’s love.

And maybe you someone here this morning who’s never received this love.

You know that God loves you. You’ve been told that many times. But uv never

put your trust in it yourself. I wanna invite you today to find a firm foundation.

Receive God’s love.

[PAUSE]

But Paul’s praying for people who’ve already received God’s love. He’s praying

for people who are already rooted and established in love.

And yet He still prays this prayer: may we have power to grasp God’s love.

And the reason why he still prays it is because there’s no limit to this love. It

doesn’t matter how much we understand it, there’ll always be more.

Look at verse 18 again.

“may we have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long

and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses

knowledge.”

You see, no matter how much you know about it. It’ll always surpass you.

There’ll always be more.

And it involves more than just learning facts. Paul doesn’t pray that we’ll

simply learn more facts about God’s love. He prays for power to be able to

grasp it. In other words, Paul is asking for more than just an intellectual

knowledge. Its possible to know lots of facts about God’s love. He chose me

before the creation of the world. He saved me in spite of my sin. He suffered

for me. He died on the cross. He calls me His child. He’s given me His Spirit.

And a home in heaven. Those are glorious truths

Of course we need to keep reminding ourselves of those truths. But it is

possible to state all those facts and to be able explain them intellectually

without really grasping them in the depths of your heart. That’s why we need

power. So that these truths will affect us and transform us in the depths of our

hearts. That we’ll have this deep sense that we are loved by God. So that we’ll

stop looking for meaning and security from ourselves and our own

performance. That we’ll find it in the deep knowledge of God’s love.

And we shouldn’t think we’ll find this on our own. As we’ve been seeing in

Ephesians, God is present amongst us in a special way when we gather as His

people. And so you not gona discover the fullness of God’s love in your private

quiet time in your study.

That’s why Paul prays “may you have power together with all the saints to

grasp how long and high and wide and deep is Christ’s love.”

As John Stott says, “It takes the whole people of God to understand the whole

love of God”

And so don’t miss church. set aside time for it. Don’t miss it for some race. Or

so that you can study. Rather miss your breakfast and your lunch. Than this

experience of being gathered with God’s people and being reminded of His

love.

And as we start to grasp God’s love more and more, then we won’t be empty

people. Full of insecurity. And anxiety. And distrust of other people. and fear of

what people think.

Trying to serve God out of an empty tank.

Instead we’ll be full people. Filled With all the fullness of God.

Look at verse 19 again.

‘and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the

measure of all the fullness of God.”

Don’t you want this for yourself? That you’ll be full of God and His great love.

Don Carson tells the story about friends of his: Perry and Sandy Downs. They

are foster parents. They take new-born children and care for them until the

time when they ready to get adopted. Normally they take in newborn babies

But the one time they were asked to look after twin boys who were already 18

months old. That’s a year and a half. And the first night, they put these boys to

bed, tuck them in, say goodnight. And then they leave them. But after half a

hour there isn’t a single sound coming from their bedroom. And so they begin

to get worried. And so Perry, the father, creeps into the room to see whats

going on. And he finds both boys, still wide awake. Their pillows wet with tears.

But neither of them making a sound.

And when they investigate a bit more they discover that these boys have

already been sent to 8 different homes. This is their ninth home. And in many

of their previous homes they were beaten for crying. And so here were these

18 month babies, wide awake, crying and afraid, but too scared to make a

sound. And so they send them for tests and the doctors conclud that they are

irreparably damaged. The emotional and intellectual scars will never be

removed.

But Perry and Sandy agreed to keep these boys for two whole years. And they

provide these boys with a loving and secure environment. And by the time

they eventually adopted, they sent for tests again. And amazingly they now

judged to be normal. Intellectually and emotionally stable.

And that’s just one of many of examples: if we want children to grow up to

become mature and stable and healthy human beings. They desperately need

love. A secure and loving home.

And the same can be said for us as Christians: If we wanna become mature and

healthy and full Christian people, then we need to grasp more and more of

God’s limitless love.

[PAUSE]

And so these are two requests for power:

Power! – so that Christ might make His home in our hearts

Power! So that we might grasp more and more of His love.

You wanna talk about power? Talk about these things.

Is God’s power at work in St James church?

Well is Christ dwelling in our hearts? And are we grasping more and more of

His love?

And I wanna close this morning with just one application: its very simple and

its very practical. Will you pray for these two things?

After all that’s what Paul does here. He doesn’t challenge us or give us any

commands or corrections or rebukes. He simply prays.

Did you notice how he prays in verse 14?

He says, “I kneel before the Father”.

This doesn’t mean that we have to kneel every time we pray to God. There are

other references in the Bible to people standing when they pray. What’s

important here is the attitude of our hearts. We need to kneel before God in

our hearts. Its an attitude of submission. Its an attitude of dependency.

Recognizing that He is the Sovereign God. The ruler. The King. He’s the One

with power to do what we are asking.

And so it doesn’t matter whether ur an unsaved person here or a saved

person. We all need these same two things. We need to pray for Christ to

dwell in our hearts. And we need to pray for Him to reveal to us His love.

I’v set myself a “beginning of the 2nd term new year’s resolution”: for the rest

of this year: I wanna pray for these two things every day? Maybe you’ll do the

same? Can you imagine what a change this will make to our church? If God

does this for each one of us.

James 4 verse 2 says you do not have because you do not ask.

May that not be true of us.

Lets pray

There’s a prayer up on the screen based on these verses. Lets pray this prayer

out loud together.

“Heavenly Father we bow humbly before you.

We appeal to Your glorious riches of grace.

Please may You strengthen us with power in our inner beings.

Please work in us through Your Holy Spirit

May Christ might make His home within us.

By Your power may we grasp the limitless love of Christ.

May we know and enjoy your love which goes far beyond any knowledge.

And may knowing this love give us a security and a fullness that can only come from You.

We know that You are able to do what we ask. Not primarily for our sake. But that You

might be glorified through us.

To You be the glory forever and ever.

Amen”