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- Good morning family and friends. My name is
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- Pastor Ben. I am the associate pastor at Wooden Memorial Baptist Church and this is another time out from your day.
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- This is a wonderful day, a beautiful day, another day to be alive in Jesus, another day to bless the
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- Lord, rejoice in the Lord. So the scripture for today is from Ephesians 3 20 through 21.
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- So I'm gonna read 14 through 21 because I want to get the whole gist of Paul's prayer.
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- It's really kind of hard to, it's not hard, but I want you to get the context.
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- In Ephesians it's kind of hard to get the context without reading a couple of chapters ahead because he always says for this reason, for this reason, therefore, and every time you see that word therefore you always got to read ahead to find out what it's there for.
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- And whenever he says for this reason, you know, you got to read ahead to find out what he said before so that you know the reason he's talking about.
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- And in the beginning of chapter 2 he's talking about, you know, why we are all sinners.
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- You know, we're all, as Christians we were once separated before we knew
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- Christ. We were once separated from God. We were once alienated and separated from the covenant of God, from the relationship, from a relationship with God.
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- And so he goes over how we as Gentiles were separated from the covenant with God that the
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- Jews had. And so he goes over how later he is now a an apostle to the
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- Gentiles. And so then he further goes on in chapter 3 and shares about how not only is he an apostle to the
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- Gentiles, but he shares about the mystery of the gospel.
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- How the gospel is the good news that the
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- Gentiles are accepted into the the covenant through Christ.
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- And how how Christ is the the
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- Messiah and how he is the mystery from long ago.
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- So then he comes to verse 14 in chapter 3 and he says in verse 14 he says after saying he's an apostle, he prays, and he is a minister.
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- He says for this very reason I bow my knees before the
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- Father for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inward being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strengthened or may strengthen you may strength may have you may have strength to comprehend with all the
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- Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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- Then we come to the text in that I want to focus on in verses 20 and 21.
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- He says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly, what's up Richard, far more abundantly, what's up Josiah, far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think according to the power it work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen.
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- So there's two things I want you to kind of focus on okay this is kind of to the the church to the believers out there.
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- It says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ask or think according to the power it work within us.
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- Now a lot of times when we struggle with things and we go through different trials or situations we tend to want to pray that God will bring us out of the situations by by changing the the the situations oh
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- God remove this person or oh God please don't let this happen. Well I want you to think about this.
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- It says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think according to the power it work within us.
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- Now God is working within us so think about this God might not be changing those outward circumstances but he is changing your heart he is working within you so God is
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- God is working in you to change your attitude your motives your outlook your perspective you know all these other things within you.
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- God is changing everything within you already so God is more focused changing inside of you than just your outward circumstances okay
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- God is more concerned about your spiritual growth and your inward focus than your outward circumstances so a lot of the times we pray for a new car or them not to have this person working next to me or this person's really annoying please take him out you know please don't put me in the situation
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- I really don't want to work with that person or I don't want this to happen you know
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- God please don't let this happen. When God is most likely more focused on helping you operate have the right perspective have the right attitude have the right moral attitude and focus than just those circumstances
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- I'm hoping this makes sense so God is more work in that area than just changing your outward circumstances and so he says he says this too but he says he is he is able to do far more abundantly than we than all that we could ask or think according to the power that is work within us so we can ask and think all these things but God is it worked within us and he can do abundantly more than what we could ever ask or think we can't put
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- God in a box we can't we can't say God can only do this so don't think that he can just change our inward circumstances our outward circumstances
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- God can do anything okay but I'm just saying don't focus on just those outward circumstances changing
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- God is more concerned about your inward growth than anything else so I hope that makes sense so it says to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever
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- God is about bringing glory to himself through the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever throughout all generations
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- God is about bringing glory to himself he wants to bring glory to the church and through Christ in John it says that we beheld his glory we beheld his glory and the word became flesh and we beheld his glory the only begotten of the
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- Father full of grace and truth so he's about bringing glory to himself through the church and through Christ now to sum up God can do more than we can more than we are able to even comprehend or ask or think okay so he can do out he can focus on outward change and inward change but don't don't try to focus in on on you know what what
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- God can do on like removing a person from a situation or are giving you more money or things like that God is
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- God is more concerned about what your your inward change and your your inward growth than anything else not outward circumstances so let that be an encouragement to you
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- God is about growing you and developing you as a person as his child and and what we need to do is to dig into the word daily and obey it obey what you read whether that's a verse or a phrase from Scripture you know whether that is a chapter a book whatever write down things that you're reading write down things you want to study and obey them obey them that's the key we can't look into Scripture and just walk away unchanged or not not willing to obey what we read we have to open it up read it and be willing to obey or change what we see needs to be changed and pray about it what's up Lisa what's up Adam what's up Elena so being encouraged
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- God is willing to do more than you then we are able to ask or think and he was willing he wants to bring glory to the church and through Christ so glorify
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- Christ today you know 2nd Corinthians 5 9 says whether you're at home or out and about seek and let your ambition be to please
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- Christ and with that comes a phrase I've learned seek to obey
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- Christ to to please Christ more than you want to breathe seek to please
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- Christ let your ambition be to please Christ more than you want to breathe let that be your ambition let that be your focus and he will be more than willing to do more than you are more than you are able to ask or think and he will bring glory to himself through your life so guys let me pray for you
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- God I thank you for today I pray that you help us just remember the truth of Ephesians 20 through 21
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- God help us just obey your word and realize that you are willing to do more than we are more than abundantly what we are able to ask or think and you want to bring glory to your church
