Ephesians 3:14-21

We are together, this is the end of chapter three. Pastor Jeff, you're going to finish up our identity section.

Yes. Because next time we get together, starting in chapter four, it's basically, having taught you all of this, now what are you going to do about it?

He says, I urge you to walk in a manner. That's a tease for next week, but Pastor, looking forward to you bringing us this message on what

God has given us. Would you mind opening us in prayer? Our Lord God, we have been given from the riches of your glory that you've strengthened us with power through the spirit.

Right in the depths of our inner being, we get to know the love of Christ and how that changes our view of the world, how that empowers us to walk with you, with the

Holy Spirit, with the knowledge of your love. Be with Pastor Jeff as he brings us this message in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Amen. In 2009, my wife and I were expecting our second child, but by God's providence in how he would see life unfold for us, that child was lost in miscarriage.

And it was a deep, deep wound for me and for my wife, and very painful.

We wrote about it in a newsletter and told our mission -supporting people to please pray for us.

It was the very next year then that we had Timmy, so praise God, it was all in his sovereign plan.

But that wound was very deep, and it was painful in the inner man. Do you know what the inner man is?

Soul. It's your soul. It's who you are once your body goes into the grave and your inner being lives on for all eternity.

It's that immaterial part of you, the soulish man that can either be strong or weak, right?

In that loss, I felt the inner man wounded. I felt the pain on the inside.

Deeper than an outer wound. You know, you would take an outer wound over an inner wound, right?

For my child, yes. Yes, absolutely. Well, a mission team came up to visit us that year, and they were from Indian Rocks Baptist Church down in Florida.

They came up, and I was driving the church van from the airport, and evidently they had read my newsletter and had decided that they were going to be an encouragement to me.

So one of the girls put on a song called How He Loves Us. It was David Crowder, and the lyrics are about, it's about like a, he is jealous for me.

Loves like a hurricane, and I am a tree. Bending beneath the weight of his wind and his glory.

And then the song goes on to say, he loves us. And then it repeats that refrain over and over again.

Oh, how he loves us. How he loves us. And the girl who played the song said, listen to this.

And then she said, what did that say? And I said, he loves us. And I said, I know, I know. And then she said, no, hear it again.

And she kept repeating, hear it again. And I said, I know, I know. Did you ever see the movie

Good Will Hunting? Which, by the way, I wouldn't necessarily recommend because some inappropriate scenes, but there's a very profound moment in there where Will Hunting is being counseled by this character played by Robin Williams.

And he's talking about abuse from his past, his father abusing him. And he said, it's not your fault.

And Will Hunting says, I know. And then he says, it's not your fault. And he says,

I know. And the third or fourth time he says that, he breaks down and he really feels that on the inner man.

It hits him, I know. And then he needed to hear that again and again.

Well, that was the same kind of moment for me. As I heard that song again, he loves us, he loves us. It was just like a breaking in me that even though I'm experiencing this wound,

I'm loved by the God who made me, who gave his son for me.

And it was the love of God reiterated to me again and again that strengthened me on the inside.

I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that commitment.

Yes, oh boy, help me. Committed to me against that day. Against that day.

Amen. She'll be there to greet you. Amen, or he or she, we don't know if it was a boy or girl.

But that child is in heaven. And that's the hope that we have. You know, that was a moment where the love of God and thinking about the love of God, contemplating, really thinking about it.

Beyond like, yeah, I know, he loves me, I know. To the point of, he loves me.

He gave his son to die for me. Whatever I'm suffering, he loves me.

That love overwhelmed me and it strengthened me in the inner man. Just like an earthly wound can weaken you and cause you to be discouraged and to lose heart.

It is his love that strengthens us. And it's a prayer. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter three, verse 14.

Last week, John taught us from Ephesians three, one to 13, which is an interesting passage because in the first and the 13th verse, you have a continuation of thought.

And what comes in between is a parenthetical, right? So the thought is

Paul being a prisoner. He's in jail. He says, for this reason,

I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. And when he says on behalf of you

Gentiles, it gets him to thinking. And so he goes down a rabbit trail. You and I are both prone to that, right?

Something goes, squirrel, now we're going over here. Go, we're chasing. Well, that's what

Paul does here. So, hey, we're in good company. Paul himself does it. Paul goes down the rabbit trail from verses two to 12, talking about himself as an apostle to the

Gentiles and how they're brought into this one family. He talks about how

God used him to do it, that Paul would go and by the grace given him, look at verse seven, this is

Ephesians three, seven. He says, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

He's talking about the power that was on his life to bring the gospel to the

Gentiles and bring them into the covenant. Amazing ministry that Paul was given.

When we come back to verse 13, we remember, here he is suffering in prison. So, there's a paradox.

The powerful apostle in prison, the one upon whom

God has given grace and gifting and favor, stuck in jail.

Power and weakness, dunamis power and suffering.

In verse 13, so I ask you not to lose heart.

When the believer sees Paul, Paul does not want them to be weakened by his imprisonment and say, wait a minute, how can we, if even

Paul is thrown in jail, how can we ever be victorious? To lose heart because the great apostle is suffering?

No, he says this suffering is your glory. Interesting thought there.

Well, that prompts a prayer because what we had in the 13 verses leading in to verse 14 is about Paul.

He talks about I again and again. I have written briefly, he says, of this gospel, verse seven,

I was made a minister. Verse eight, I am the least of the saints. He's talking about his ministry and the grand things that God is doing through him.

Why does God do it this way? On earth, well, in verse 10, we learn it's for a manifold display of God's wisdom in heavenly places.

I mean, God has a cosmic purpose, a grand metaphysical purpose for what

God is doing through Paul. And again, it's I, I, I, because Paul is the one that God is using there for this ministry.

In verse 14, we have a transition to you. From what

God is doing in Paul to what God is doing in you. And that verse happens at the end of 13, which is your glory.

He's connecting his suffering to their glory. And now it triggers in Paul's mind a desire to pray for the

Ephesians, for their strengthening. He doesn't want them to lose heart. He wants them to become strong.

So the big idea here is inner strengthening. As Christians, each of us has an inner man, the essence of who we are, the heart of our being.

And that Christian self on the inside can be either weak or strong.

And really it's a continuum. In sanctification, you ought to be growing stronger and stronger on the inside, even if your outside is wasting away.

The inner man can be made new day by day, renewed and made stronger. There are really two senses in which this power comes.

One is character and the other is gifting, spiritual gifts.

The sanctificational self, the person that you are should be progressing in godliness.

Your character should be becoming more and more like Christ. And that's a steady progress that happens.

But in the realm of giftings, spiritual power can be a gift that is on you.

There are people who have spiritual gifts that outrun their character.

They might be a very gifted teacher and they might be powerfully used of God, maybe a great evangelist, but they're sleeping around.

They don't have the character that matches this spiritual gift. The grace gifts of God are the working of the

Holy Spirit in the life of a believer for the benefit of the church. What we have here in Ephesians 3, 14 to 21, and we're just going to have

John read it in just a second if you can get ready, if you're good to read. What we have here is the character, not so much the grace gifts.

We're going to get into that in chapter four. But here we have the inner man itself, the who you are on the inside.

Someone has defined character as who you are when no one's looking, right?

It's not the appearance, it's not the outward manifestation of gifts or talent or what kind of church face you can put on on Sunday.

It is the inner man that God sees. It's the true self.

This is the kind of strength that comes into view. Paul wants for them Christian maturity, this kind of strength, inner strength.

So let's read about that and the prayer that Paul offers because ultimately he's praying for us as well as for the

Ephesians. Ephesians was a circular letter meant to be intended not just for this local church, but for all believers to have and to read.

So this is for us as well. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from 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 inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the 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.

Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever, amen.

Amen. Amen. So this is the concern at the end of chapter three.

It's your inner man. Who you are on the inside, the power of God at work to change you into the image of Christ, that you would become stronger.

The big verse, if you really want, now by the way, this is all one sentence from until the doxology in 20 and 21, but from 14 to 19 is one of eight long sentences in the book of Ephesians.

We saw one earlier in Ephesians one, three to 14, these run -on ideas.

And so it's kind of hard to unpack. What's the thrust of what Paul is saying? Well, here it is found in verse 16, when you really parse down, what is he going for?

That is, that God may grant you to be strengthened.

That's where we arrive at, with power, strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

That's the thrust of what everything's getting at. So let's get there. Beginning in verse 14.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the

Father. What comes to mind when you hear that verse? What is in view?

Humility. Humility? For God's good. The posture of kneeling is a humble posture.

Right. What's he doing on his knees? Submitting. Worshipping.

Worshipping, submitting, praying. That's the key word,

I think. Praying. John, since you read that, would you mind reading for us

Mark 1 .35 off of your notes? I've got it there printed for you.

He was rising very early in the morning. While it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place to pray.

Jesus Christ, omnipotent God, would wake up before the sun came up and he would go off by himself and pray.

There's a sermon in and of itself. Just think about that. The humility of the

Savior or God to God. His desire to talk to his Father. Yeah.

The second person. Talking to the first person in eternity, yes. And by the third person in eternity.

That communion that Father, Son, and Spirit have always had was not broken during his life. But it also gave us the greatest example.

Here he is, God, speaking to God, but gave us the example of what we should be doing getting up early in the morning.

There it is. And going on our knees before God the Father. You said it, Stan. So paradoxically, here's where strength on the inner man.

You want to be strong enough to overcome miscarriage and cancer and the death of a loved one.

The suffering of prison. What if we have to endure that, John? We were just talking before we came out here that now the house is debating taking out the religious protections from the

Respect for Marriage Act, which is really a profaning of marriage act. So if they take out the protections, they can kick it back to the

Senate, which is now run by the Dems and pass it again there. And now churches supposedly would be mandated to do gay weddings or whatever.

Which obviously, we'd go to jail first, right? So Paul's in prison writing these words.

Maybe we end up in prison one day. It's the trajectory of this country. Will your inner man endure?

All of us would like to say, of course, I'm easily strong enough for that. I'll never bow the knee. And I think that's true.

But when you talk about, remember that Turkish guy, the Turkish -American who was in prison for all those years?

We were praying for him here at Cornerstone. Andrew Brunson. Good memory. Andrew Brunson.

Boy, he hung on. But he tells us as he came out, it was by a thread. I mean, he almost broke a number of times.

Not almost renounced his faith, but almost emotionally broke down. The tears he wept, the endurance it required, it stretched him to the limit.

And his inner man was just strong enough to endure. Where does our strength come from?

I don't know that we take this seriously enough. It begins paradoxically, not by flexing, but by dropping to our knees.

And I take this literally. Stan, do you take that literally? For this reason, I bow the knee to the

Father. I do it every morning. And that starts my day. Without it, if I don't do it, then

I'm lost. Yep, yep. And maybe someone has a physical reason they can't physically be on their knees, but then their heart posture still needs to be there.

Who was the guy in England? The name escapes me. You're gonna know exactly who it is. The guy who had orphaned children.

Mueller, George Mueller in England. I said, something to the extent that I am so busy, I can't afford not to spend eight hours a day in prayer.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was on his knees. You know, they used to call James the Lesser, you know, you have the two

James apostles. James the Lesser was called Old Camel Knees. Because he had spent so much time on his knees that they were deformed.

Looked like a camel, the way he would walk. That's how much time he spent on his knees in prayer.

We need it to be strong in the Lord, to endure the trials of this life. The inner man needs to get strong.

We need to start every day in prayer on our knees. Well, in prayer, you know, on your knees, and I start the morning off like that.

But as I'm driving down the highway, I'm in prayer. On your knees? No. Okay. With your eyes closed.

I don't know if there was that in there. But, you know, you can constantly be in talking with the

Lord wherever you are. Yes. When I was born, I went in to see a business account. I was in the car and I would be,

I would take two or three minutes in prayer before I walked in that door. God was always with me.

Very well. Amen. You know, whatever the outcome was, it was for his glory. Right.

Amen. It's the addition of your heart. First I salute you five times. Pray unceasingly. Unceasingly. So here, let's make this point and then move on to the next verse.

We should be praying unceasingly. There have been times in my life where I've used that as an excuse not to set a dedicated time of prayer because I'm praying all the time while I'm driving, while I'm making breakfast.

But you need both. According to Mark 135, Jesus would rise and go. That's a consecrated, dedicated time of prayer.

You need to take that every morning and then pray all day in your spirit as thoughts come and as you relate to him.

Well, the spirit will speak to you wherever you are. Yes. And I'm driving down the highway, all of a sudden, the spirit speaks to me, oh, you need to pray for such and such, you know, whatever it is.

As the spirit leads and you obey, you follow that command. Jeff, there were years ago

I couldn't, being in prayer, I was so focused on the small prayer part, prayer time and things like that, that now, though, as I grow at that time,

I will have to get a special dispensation from you because I can't sleep in my knee braces, so I have to pray lying down.

All right, well, that's even a prostrate. That's true. Yeah, that's a position of worship, too. Just prostrate before him.

Nehemiah's got the picture of both of these. In Nehemiah chapter one, he heard about the condition of the walls.

And in verse four of chapter one, it came to pass when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the

God of heaven. This is a big, big, big time of prayer. Then you go into chapter two, in verse four, he's been called in front of the king and the king sees him and he doesn't have a happy face.

He never did that. And the king said to me, why did you make this request to me? So I prayed to the heaven of God and I said to the king,

I don't think that he got down on his knees at that moment, but he immediately shot a dart up to the

Lord. Right, yeah, in his spirit. Yeah. Amen. So the first point is to have this strength on the inside.

It comes from time on your knees, alone with the Lord in prayer and praying all day long.

Secondly, verse 15, relating to God as father. It says here from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

Now that word family in the Greek is patria. What does that sound like?

Patria. Yeah, patria is coming from the previous verse. So there's a play here on words.

For this reason, verse 14, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family or every fatherhood, every family with the father as the head is an example of the fatherhood of God.

As you looked as a child to your earthly father, for provision, for what you needed, you're a little type running around.

You reach up your arms to daddy and he grabs you. You look to your daddy for food, for everything that you need.

That's how we relate to God. That's the idea here. Every father, every fatherhood is representative of the fatherhood of God.

So in other words, he's the source. And if he's the source of where we came from, right, we come from the father.

Everything comes from the father, right? That's where strength comes from. The inner strength that you need comes from your father.

You need to relate to him as a father. Now you'll notice a Trinitarian theme emerged. We'll get to it in a minute.

Of course, because Paul is Trinitarian, he's not teaching on the Trinity. He is a

Trinitarian who's teaching, right? He doesn't have a didactic section on the

Trinity anywhere in scripture. He just is thoroughly Trinitarian from whence he comes because the

Trinity is revealed in the person of Christ and the spirit in time. And the New Testament is written from that perspective.

Easy. That's why the word Trinity is not in the Bible. It's not taught that way. They're just Trinitarian. So it says in verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened.

Strengthened. The word in Greek is kraiteath anai. It means be strong to overcome resistance.

Your spirit, your soulish man, the interior part of who you are will encounter resistance, temptations, trials that are common to man.

But with those trials, there is a way of escape that the man of God can stand up under those things.

Where does your strength come from? Comes from God the

Father by the infilling of the spirit and the conforming by the spirit into the image of Christ.

Look what it says. To be strengthened with power through your own ability.

Is that what it says? What does it say, John? His spirit. His spirit. You need the spirit.

This is the Trinitarian emphasis here. You need the spirit of the living God. In you.

And that happens at regeneration when he comes to dwell inside of you. But here we have an idea that the spirit isn't just sealed like a stamp and he's only there to make sure you get to heaven.

No, he's indwelling you to strengthen you. He is alive in you. The same spirit that raised

Jesus from the dead, we learned earlier in chapter one, now lives in you. He's alive in you to make you strong and you need to be aware of that.

Now, is it automatic? Is the strengthening automatic or is there some cooperation or synergy between the inner man and the spirit?

Well, you gotta be walking with it. Walk, it says, in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Do not grieve the spirit. There's interaction. The man who is dead in sin is not free.

He's a slave to sin. But what happens when you come to Christ? You are set free.

Now you have free will, get it? Before you were a slave and you were dead, but when he makes you alive together with Christ and he sets you free, now you walk in freedom.

You are not controlled by the lusts anymore. You don't have to be controlled by them. Yeah? Any stamp that's put on any parcel or anything doesn't have any power in and of itself.

It's the announcement that it has at its will the power that lies behind the stamp.

Correct, yeah. It's a stamp of authority from the king. Yeah, yeah. And that metaphor though is not the extent of the spirit's ministry.

The same one who seals you will keep you and guarantee your redemption. That's Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.

He's also the one that regenerates you and baptizes you and indwells you. All of these ministries are of the spirit.

He is far more important than we often think. He's a member of the trinity.

Right there with the father and with the son. One of the big guys. Yeah, I'll say, one of the big guys.

So yeah, not to put it crassly, but yeah. He is powerful.

The power of God in you. He is God's empowering presence. That's how

Gordon Fee describes the spirit. God's empowering presence. God in you.

And that's what we're told here. It's through his spirit in your inner being. Now, the reason I ask, is it automatic?

Paul is not saying, giving a teaching here that this just automatically happens. No, what is he doing?

Verse 14, I bow the knee. He's interceding that this would happen. So he sees his prayers as somehow instrumental to this happening in your life.

He's pleading with the spirit to take over and to sanctify and to bring to maturity.

So there is a cooperation in this. We don't understand the dynamics of that as it relates to God's sovereignty and predestination of everything.

That's the banner over it all. But from our perspective, listen, when you obey, you're strengthening the spirit man.

And conversely, yeah. Well, the spirit, once you become a child of God, the

Holy Spirit now enters in and lives within. The Holy Spirit now, to me, it does.

If something, you know, there's resistance, the spirit is already speaking to me. I am already involved in saying no, no, you don't go that route anymore.

So the spirit is constantly 24 -7 living within me and guiding and directing me, you know, down the path that God wants me to be in.

Whereas before, living in sin, now I just did whatever I wanted to do. So the spirit is with you 24 -7.

It never leaves. It will guide. It will guide your mind, your thoughts, everything that's going on.

And when you go into prayer, the spirit also leads you into prayer. Yes, amen.

In addition to that, you have to exercise faith and trust in God's word and God's promises.

You guys are using a word fairly consistently, and it's the word exercise. Yeah. This is not a spectator sport.

Right, man. Finish this sentence. It'll come to you, Frank. First Timothy 4 .8.

Physical training is of some value, but godliness is of value in every way.

Holding promise not only for this life, but also for the life to come. John's saying exercise, right?

Just like we work out. When I was a basketball player, then I'd work out a lot to be fit. Now, I'm more concerned about exercising the spirit man.

But I still think there's some value, right, John? You're doubling down on your exercise. But how much more should we exercise spiritually?

How strong can we get? Well, hold on, let me answer that.

I'm coming to Frank. That'd be - I've got a question. No, you've got to wait. No, wait. It's your question.

Wait, let me finish the thought. All right, I'm gonna finish my thought, and then I'm coming to Frank, then you, if that's okay.

Okay, how strong can you get? The answer is how rich is our Father. Because it says here, according to the riches, if it's according to, so corresponding and flowing out of His riches, how rich is our

Father? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He's infinitely rich. So there's no limit really to how strong we can become.

It's a matter of growing. Now, Paul had grown beyond any of us, right?

Probably nobody since. Maybe there have been some missionaries and people who have reached that level of sanctification. But the point is, we've only grown so far, and there's so much more we can do.

So much more growing. Yeah, Frank. I was thinking, when the disciples couldn't deal with the man they were possessing, and Jesus said to them, and they asked

Him, why couldn't we have a man? And He said, well, because prayer and fasting leads to being able to handle this.

So I was struggling, particularly as I was meditating.

I couldn't get it clear right through. And I said to them,

I said, Lord, you're telling me ask, seek, and knock. And I'm doing it. I said, well, I think you need a revelation in ask, seek, and knock.

And maybe prayer and fasting will help you with this. And I said,

Lord, maybe I missed a few meals to get this. And He said, no, you have to fast, but not necessarily the traditional food fasting.

You're watching too much TV. Mm, it's true. If you're in a TV, you spend more time meditating on the

Word than you have in prayer. I believe that. I think very often we're weak because we're just entertained by this little electronic box.

And more so nowadays, these little phones, like just have you glued. Do you wake up and the first thing, you're just Facebook, Twitter, laying there?

No, put that away. Fast from that. Decide, I will look at that thing more than an hour a day or whatever the case may be because you need to devote yourself.

That's spiritual discipline. Yes, back to you, Bob. Did you hold your thought?

I was trying to tell you, I didn't have an answer. I wanted to hear, so I heard the answer, thank you.

So all of that rigmarole I put you through for no reason. What am I doing? Amen.

So the strengthening comes by prayer. You hit your knees, you look to the Father, and you need to be strengthened according to his riches.

And this is not an automatic thing. It's a discipline thing. Paul's praying for that. You're looking to the riches of Christ to be strengthened.

Okay, verse 17, John, would you read that again? So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

I have to go on. Yeah, stop there actually because I'm just gonna comment on the first part of it. So it says, and notice the third member of the

Trinity who's generally regarded as the second member, but the third one mentioned here,

Father, Spirit, now we have the Son. Verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

This is a Trinitarian work. So when I hit my knees before the Father, I am to pray by the

Spirit who is in me through the Son. Your prayers should be addressed generally. I mean, sometimes you can just say,

Jesus, help me. But generally, you should pray to the Father through the mediation of the

Son. He's the one that tore the veil that kept us separate and made a new and living way through his body. And by the

Spirit who's helping you, teaching you what to say. With groans sometimes, you don't even know what to say.

You just cry to him. The Spirit helping you, you're talking to the Father. And Christ is in you.

It says here, Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now, did you want to go on? Because that's the next point. Grounded in love, you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.

What is the breadth and length and height and depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Trinitarian. That's what he says, fully Trinitarian. Yes, so the next big idea here is that mentally grasping the love of Christ is the key to this strength.

The emphasis now has moved to Christ. And by the way, does the Spirit want the spotlight on himself?

No. No, he wants the spotlight on Christ. And that's why it culminates here in Christ now, the hope of glory.

He's the one we center our devotion on here. It says that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.

What is the breadth? Look at the dimensions he goes. Breadth and length, height and depth.

What are we talking about though? Four dimensions instead of the typical three. Yeah. Love. Yeah.

Wide, deep. Well, it says breadth and width, and then it says height and depth.

So it's just going up and down, out and to either side. But the comprehension of that is the love of Christ.

That's what's being described as being so ever wide, right? And so ever high and so ever deep.

Remember that old hymn? Yes. Deep and wide. Oh, there's that one. Yeah. I was thinking of the one where it talks, it's called the love of God is greater still.

And then it describes if the whole earth was, all the seas were filled with ink and all the skies were a parchment made.

And if every tree was a quill, to write the love of God on that parchment would drain the oceans dry.

That's how much his love. You can't, it's too big. You can't even describe it.

That's what's being said here. And that's a whole new quote. Yeah, that's it. He could fill every ocean and every planet with ink and the love of God is bigger still.

The idea, it just blows your mind, but that's where you need to think. When I was hurting and my inner man was wounded because of miscarriage, it was the love of God that strengthened my inner man.

How often do we need to think about and how do we know the love of God? Where do we see it?

Stay communicating with it. Yeah, we think about the cross. We think about if God has given his own son, then how will he not also give everything that I need?

He gave me his son to die in my stead. He loves me. Let's read that passage because you can never do it too often.

Romans 8, 31 through the end. It's about the love of Christ, the love of God. Would somebody like to read that for us?

Romans 8, 31 to 39. Thanks, Bob. Romans 8, 31.

What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, what could be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also, along with him graciously, give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died. More than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

And here it comes. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered a sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all of these things, we are more the conquerors to him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death or life, neither angels or demons, neither present or the future, or any powers, neither height or depth, or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Amen. Amen. We'll close with the benediction of Ephesians three at the end.

Notice also that in Ephesians three, it doesn't say that you would know, but it says that you would go beyond knowing.

So you would know it mentally, but also emotionally, like at the level of the heart.

It says, and to know the love of Christ, that what?

Surpasses knowledge. It's beyond just knowing it intellectually, but to let it go to that aha moment where it hits you and you feel it.

Well, if it's beyond, and I was getting ahead of you a little bit, if it's beyond understanding, that would seem to me that that's where the love portion would morph.

You get to the part where you can't understand it. You just gotta gather it in and say, that's it.

Amen. That's right. That's what I'm saying. So the benediction now, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.

Now, pause right there. We love that part, right? And listen, I think that does have to do with what we're able to do, what this church can accomplish in Mount Laurel and Hainesport and all around.

Right now, we're sort of in a battle over this wokeness issue, and we've been as a church with books written in.

But there's been much opposition to that. Will we overcome or will they overcome us?

We'll overcome. We will overcome because we're more than conquerors and because we're on the side of truth, right?

But notice the second part of verse 20. What really matters here, and what's gonna determine if we win this war, is not how good we are at arguing, how smart we are, but there's something spiritual underneath.

It's really about how much resolve and how much maturity and sanctification on the inside.

Look what it says. According to the power at work, where? Within us.

If we're in a battle over wokeness, and I'm sure there'll be many other kinds of battles come along.

That's the one of the day. But it'll come in another facade. There will be so many battles we'll have to fight.

What really matters is if we are strong enough to hold to the word and not be moved.

And as we plant churches, will the rock succeed? It depends on the inner man, especially of Ben as their pastor, and of their elders, and their leaders, and each person in that church.

They will stand because God is able to make them stand, Romans 14. But that inner strength.

I've seen church plants fail. And looking back, you say, yeah, I can kind of see why it did.

I don't think that pastor was ready for what he bid off. You know what I'm saying? Verse 21, when this happens, when we see

God do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could ask, think, or imagine, there's a temptation in that.

Well, see how strong I was? See what we did? No. Give all glory to God.

To him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen.

Even our strength comes from him. It's where we started. It's where I took humility. Yes. We got down on our knees to begin with because we don't have the resources.

We were down on our knees long enough that he made us strong, and then he used us in the world. But we have to remember where that came from.

It did not come from us. How does Paul describe himself? A jar of clay. A jar of clay.

To show that the all -surpassing power comes from God and not from us. We have a treasure in the jar of clay.

He's Christ, the hope of glory. He's in us, and we are strong in him. We need to be growing in him.

Ultimately, where does this end? Giving him all the glory for whatever he brings to pass. Amen.

Let's pray for that strengthening of the inner man. Lord God, our strength comes from you through the

Holy Spirit into our very inner man, won by the blood of Christ, given by God our

Father. We are not weak when we are with you.

But when we try to do it on our own, Lord, that's all that we are. So we surrender to you,

Lord, knowing that you are our power. You are the love that you give us.

We are growing in you. Every day we pray, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Wow.