FROM INFORMATION TO APPLICATION (Eph 3:14-19)

Check check check check check check Keith. How does that sound pretty good? Loud I'm sorry

I'm waiting for my counterpart Let's all stand and sing this together.

Forever. Sing of the victory. Sing of the victory.

The hope of the world. The Savior has risen. The Spirit has come to reign.

Let's sing this together. Forever. We are the people.

Oh, we are the people of God. We are the people.

Open our hearts. How great is the love of the

Father. Lifted from darkness and into the light.

The sons and the daughters are loved. And the Christ our God has made us

His. Forever. Oh, we are the people of God.

We are the people. Open our hearts. How great is the love of the

Father. This is the song. This is the song of the redeemed.

The ransomed and the free. In life at such a price.

Oh, this is love. Oh, this is love. And when the

Father calls us home. And we see Him on the throne.

And we hear the voices sing as one. Oh, this is love.

Oh, this is love. Oh, we are the people of God with the freedom.

Open our hearts. How great is the love of the

Father. Oh, we are the people of God with the freedom.

Open our hearts. How great is the love of the

Father. Testing.

If you would, please look over here. Sorry, it sounded like a thunderstorm was about to take off there.

Today is a really exciting day here at 12 .5 Church. This is Baptism Sunday.

Our very own cameraman, Aaron Agee, we've been talking over the past couple weeks, haven't we, brother?

Now, before we get into the importance of baptism, is there anything that you would like to share with your church family about what

God has been doing in your life? Sure. You know, when the

Agee family pulled up to 12 .5 at first, we didn't know what to think.

We thought that this was your average, basically, okay, no offense, but a country club -ish church.

But then we heard Pastor Nathan, and we heard what he was preaching on.

Then we compared it to, you know, central stuff, the church we went to before.

And I was like, how could I understand this if I don't even understand the basic concept of salvation?

And that's when I was like, have I even been serving the

Lord correctly? Do I even care?

And, you know, that's when I went on to the Living Waters YouTube channel, and I pulled up one of their videos, and they said that the concept of salvation is so simple, a child could understand it.

It's that if you repent of your sins, turn away from them, and if you love and trust the

Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And I went into prayer, and I said,

Lord, I know if it might seem too late, and if it might seem hopeless, please just give me hope.

Be gracious on me. Even though I don't deserve any of your mercy, please bestow it on me.

And that's when I received the Holy Spirit. That's whenever he gave me new desires, new motives.

And I'm glad that he brought me to 12.

Amen! Yes, sir! Well, Aaron has been an absolute blessing in the youth group, and so we've been talking a lot over the past weeks and months about how can we know we're saved.

And I was like, Aaron, what a wonderful question for someone who is pursuing Christ, who wants to be made right with God.

And we started talking about a little faith, a little faith in the perfect Savior.

That's what justifies a person before God. It's by faith alone, apart from our works. But this gets into baptism.

Baptism is a ceremony, but it's a picture of the gospel of grace. This signifies how we have been so united together with Christ and his death.

We've been buried with him, and we've been raised to walk in newness of life. And so we've talked about, hey, if you love

Jesus with that little faith, then we want to show the world in baptism that you identify with him as his disciple.

So we started having that conversation, and we said, let's do it. We understand that we're saved by grace through faith, not anything that we've done, not by works, because then we could boast about it.

So this is a mere demonstration pointing to the fact that Jesus is a perfect Savior. You ready, brother?

All right, let's hop in here. All right, if you would just sit down.

I'm just gonna ask you one question. Aaron, have you received Jesus Christ by faith?

And have you received him as your Lord and Savior? Well, Aaron, based on your profession, it is my honor to consider you as my brother.

And I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yes, sir!

Right here. I'm not afraid of getting wet. Amen.

What a good way to start the service off, singing to our Lord and then seeing a brother in Christ being obedient through the ordinance of baptism.

What a glorious time. Let's stand as we prepare and start our service with a call to worship.

And our call to worship comes from Romans chapter 11, 33 through 36, this morning, where the

Apostle Paul says, Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

Praise to you, Lord God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable

His ways. Glory to His name. For who has known the mind of the

Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?

To Him be glory forever. And all God's people said,

Amen. Amen. Let's pray together now our prayer of adoration.

Father, we praise You for being here, God. Your Word says, two or more are gathered there.

I am in the midst of them, Father. We come to worship You and honor You. We prayed this morning before the set that You would take these.

It's like a child scribbling a drawing for their parent. I just pray, God, that You accept this offering of praise this morning,

God. That You would take these and that You would just be pleased and happy. Honor, God, because You are worthy of all praise.

That we can give so much more. This is just a small... Everything that we do is tainted with sin,

God. We just pray that we thank You, God, that through the blood of Christ You see through that and You accept these offerings this morning,

God. We thank You, Jesus. In Your name we pray. It is our hope in life and death

Christ alone, Christ alone It is our only confidence

That our souls to Him belong

Holds our days with His hands

What comes apart at His hand

What will keep us to the end

The love of Christ on earth we sing

We sing Hallelujah Our hope to be deterred

We sing Hallelujah Now and ever and always

Christ alone, Christ alone The truth can come, the troubles go

God is good, God is good

His grace in goodness known

In our grave, between those wounds

He holds our faith, He heals our lies He stands above us, don't

He try He sends the waves to clean the sky

He's to destroy the rock of death We sing

Hallelujah Our hope to be deterred

We sing Hallelujah Now and ever and always

Christ alone, Christ alone Now and ever and always

Christ alone, Christ alone Now and ever and always

Christ alone, Christ alone

To the grave what shall we see

Christ He lives, Christ He lives In what we hope will heaven bring

An everlasting life for Him There we will rise to meet the

Lord When sin and death will be destroyed

The peace will endure

When Christ is ours for evermore We sing

Hallelujah Our hope to be deterred

We sing Hallelujah Now and ever and always

Christ alone, Christ alone Now and ever and always

Christ alone,

Christ alone When I fear my faith will fail

Christ will hold me fast In the tent of the

Lord He will hold me fast

I could never keep my hope Through life's fearful path

For my love is all to know He must hold me fast

He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

As He saves our hearts at night Christ will hold me fast

Flesh, blood, sin, and soul in time

He will hold me fast He will not let my soul be lost

His promise is just Come by Him at such a cost

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

For my life in death and death

Christ will hold me fast Justice has been set upon Him He will watch us within He waits with Him to end the time

He will hold me fast Till my pain is turned to song

And He comes at night

He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast For my

Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

Hallelujah All I have is

Christ Hallelujah Jesus is my light

I once was lost in darkest night

Yet far I knew the way

The sin that promised joy had led me to the grave

I had no hope that You would hold a rebel to Your will

And if You had not loved me first I would refuse

You still But as I went my help was indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless self

And led me to the cross

And I beheld God's love displayed

You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath You suffered for me

Now all I know is grace

Hallelujah All I have is

Christ Hallelujah Jesus is my light

And I thought I would be over now

And wait so long while I see

The strength to walk through the darkness

Could never come Oh, I would use my best of life

In any love You choose

And in my soul would never be

My only host is You Hallelujah All I have is

Christ Hallelujah Jesus is my light

Hallelujah All I have is

Christ Hallelujah Jesus is my light

And I thought I would be over now And wait so long while I see

The strength to walk through the darkness Could never come Oh, I would use my best of life

In any love You choose

Hallelujah All I have is Christ If we lose our freedom and are imprisoned like the

Apostle Paul was in the book of Ephesians, then we still have everything because we have

Christ. And that's all we need. Praise the Lord. Let's open our copy of God's Word.

If you've got a copy with you to Ephesians chapter 3, we're going to be looking at verses 14 through 19 today as we continue our study through the book of Ephesians.

I believe today is week 26 through this beautiful epistle, this letter from the

Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus. And I actually preached this, or a form of this sermon, at our one -year anniversary as a church.

This has been a couple of years. How many of you were at this church at our one -year anniversary?

There's a few of us, but not too many. And so as I came to the text, and as I come to this verse 14,

I went back to my notes and thought, okay, this is applicable for us today. I'm going to preach a very similar message that we need as a church,

I believe. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we trust in His providence. Amen? Well, let's read our text this morning, where Paul says there in verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 3,

For this reason I bow my knee before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory

He might 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 the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, what is the length, what is the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

These are the words of God, aren't they? These beautiful words penned by the

Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit. So let's stop now. Let's pray. Would you bow your heads with me as we ask the

Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds to this great truth? Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You now and we acknowledge our frailty once again.

God, we know that we are sinners, that we struggle, and that we fall, and that we are finite in our minds, and Your Word is infinite.

Your Word is true because it is Your Word. And Your Word is so clear, Father. Thank You for that, but we don't understand it sometimes.

So we need the Holy Spirit that indwells in each one of us that are in Christ today.

We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate these truths to our minds. Help us in our short -sightedness to see glorious spiritual truths.

Guard me from error, guard their ears from hearing untruths, that it would all be according to Your Word.

In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Well, this letter that the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus is broken into six chapters.

If you see the headings there, now, mind you, you know that the Apostle Paul didn't make these headings.

The Apostle Paul is simply writing a letter. We put the headings in there and the verse numbers so that we know where to reference things, and it helps us go to certain passages.

But it's broken into six chapters, and the structure is essentially split right in half.

As the Apostle Paul writes this letter, he writes it in a way that is pretty common for him, but the first three chapters are basically indicatives.

This is just a word that means conveying information. So as you've been with us, if you've been with us in the study, as we've looked at these previous three chapters, it's so theological, right?

It's information, and that's what the Apostle Paul's doing. But then the last three chapters, almost right dead center of the book, we see the

Apostle Paul make a switch into imperatives. And what is this?

This just simply means application. He's going from theology, information, to theology, application.

And that's how he's transitioned. And this structure, as I said, it's a common way for the Apostle Paul to communicate.

This is similar to how he wrote his letter to the church in Rome. If you've studied the book of Romans, you know this is the

Apostle Paul's kind of magnum opus. This is the biggest chunk of theology. This is how we come to our conclusions about salvation and how

God is working out in the lives of people. This is theology, and Paul writes this.

But when you look at it, you see that the first 12 chapters of the book of Romans, it's all information.

It's theology. And then in the last four are application.

So he spends 12 chapters dealing with information, theology, and then wraps it up with four chapters of application.

And I believe there's a principle here. I believe it's a Holy Spirit -inspired principle, and it's that you must have a firm grasp and a firm foundation of information about God before you can ever apply it.

Some of you are thinking, Thank you, Captain Obvious. That seems like a given.

This seems like common sense, right? But unfortunately, many Christians today, many churches today, we get this backwards.

We get it backwards because we long to do the things. We long to do the ministry.

We long to do outreach. We long to go and do and be obedient to God in ways that he's called us to be, but rarely, if ever, diving into the depths of the knowledge about God.

We keep that at a surface level. We move through that quick so that we can get to the application. And what happens?

You see it in the American church right now. You see a shallowness. Look at some of the surveys that have been done of people being asked within the church, quote -unquote, evangelical church, if Jesus is truly

God or if he was just a created being. And many, many, many churchgoers don't know.

So we see this producing fruitlessness and misguided ministry philosophy.

Now, I got to say, this is not the focus of today's sermon. I'm building on that. I'm simply pointing out this fact in order to affirm and emphasize the structure of this letter to the church in Ephesus.

Because I want us to see how the apostle Paul transitioned between these two structures.

How does Paul make the switch from the information to the application?

What does this look like? Because I believe we see here that this gives us some insight as to how to mold these two things together.

This is pivotal. This is pivotal for the life of believers, but specifically within our context here as 12 .5.

This is a crucial time for our church. We're getting ready to sign a lease and be in the dead center of town, right in the middle of everything as we've prayed for so that we're a city set on a hill that everyone sees and can come and hear the truth of God's word and can fellowship.

We long for that, and God's placing us in essentially that very thing as we've prayed.

And here's the thing. We are by nature a doctrinally driven church, aren't we? Very doctrinally driven.

We draw people who have a desire to mine the depths of God's word.

We draw a people that are done with the mile -wide, inch -deep sermons and theology. Am I wrong?

That's what we draw here and praise God for, and we're going to continue to do it. We're going to continue to teach systematic theology on Wednesday nights.

We're going to continue to preach messages as we walk through the word of God without skipping words, without skipping meanings, without skipping deep, hard truths.

We're going to continue to do that, but let's be honest. With that comes a propensity to neglect the application.

That's the accusation thrown at us often. Oh, you guys love the theology, but you never really do anything for the kingdom.

As a matter of fact, I've got to share with you, it's been a couple of years now, but last time I preached this text, I had just heard a local preacher, two weeks prior to me coming up and preaching that one -year anniversary.

I heard a local preacher say to his congregation, and this is a quote, the people in our church that have the most theological knowledge do the least for the church and ministry.

And I remember hearing it, it's been a couple of years now, but I remember hearing it and yelling at my phone going, what are you doing?

Don't you know that that's going to discourage weaker saints from diving into the depths of God's word? Don't you know that that's going to distract them from what's most important and growing in the knowledge of God so that they can apply it?

But then I stopped for a moment and I realized that in his context, and unfortunately, this is usually the case.

It is. It's usually the case that usually when you have a family in a church or a person in a church that loves theology and they're listening to all the

John MacArthur sermons and all the R .C. Sproul sermons and all the this and all the that and the podcast and reading all the books and they're growing and they're knowing all this theology, they come into the church and they just sit there and they don't ever do anything except complain that the church isn't teaching those things.

That's all they ever do. So from their point of view, this is what's happening. So the question is for us as a church that is doctrinally driven, how can we as a church guard from or rectify this in our own lives?

Well, from the only place that we can, right? The only place that will.

The only place that does give us everything for life and godliness, as Paul said, right? Gives us everything, not some things, not part things, and then you need to figure out the rest.

It says everything for life and godliness and that's God's word. That's why that is what we fixate on here.

And in these verses, verses 14 through 19, we see the apostle Paul, he's making a transition, as I said, from this information to application.

But notice, notice he doesn't do that by going to the church in Ephesus and telling them, hey, hey guys, you've got the information now.

I spent three years with you. I poured into you. I preached to you. I've given you all this theology.

I just wrote you three whole chapters worth. You have the information. Now guess what Ephesians?

That information is going to automatically lead you to right living. He doesn't do that.

That's not how it works. The apostle Paul knows that this is important because this right here, what

Paul's doing in these verses gives us some insight into how Paul knew that this could be accomplished. How can we go from information to application as a people?

How can we obey the precepts of God? How can we grow in the knowledge of God and be doers of the word and not hearers only?

So I want us to see four things that Paul identifies here. I rarely have points, but today

I have points. The first one I want you to see is that applying

God's word requires prayer.

Applying God's word requires prayer. I'm not going to try and get creative with my points here like a Southern Baptist preacher.

I'm just going to point out what I see here. It requires prayer.

Praise God. Adam. Where's Adam? There he is. Adam preached on this last week, so I encourage you to go listen to that sermon if you weren't here on the topic of prayer.

But this is where Paul starts. Look at verse 14 with me. Paul says, For this reason.

For what reason? What's he leading into? Well, look back at verse 13. He says, So I ask you not to lose heart over what

I am suffering for you. Remember the Apostle Paul, he's writing this letter from prison.

He's chained to a Roman guard as he's writing to them, and it's on behalf of his ministry to them, the

Gentile Christians. He's being arrested. He's being detained because he is bringing this good news of Jesus Christ to a

Gentile world. And he says, Hey, this is your glory. This is your glory.

He's already built up all this stuff that we've been talking about, that he's chosen them before the foundations of the world, that Christ has redeemed them, that they are sealed by the promised

Holy Spirit until the day of glory. All of these things building up. The fact that Pastor Jeremiah preached a couple of weeks ago, that the manifold wisdom of God is now seen through the church, and that church is unified,

Jew, Gentile, male, female, all together in unity into the body of Christ.

And he says, This is for your glory. So for this reason, because of this, look at it, he doesn't say,

Not by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. He doesn't say, For this reason, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Now you have the information, go on. He doesn't do that. What does he say? He says, I bow my knees before the

Father. I bow my knees before the Father. Notice how often the

Apostle Paul prays for the saints in his letters. In all of Paul's writings,

I went back and looked at all the prayers that he writes down. The things that he's praying for, or the prayers that he actually prays as he's writing.

46 prayers. 46 prayers, in which many of them are directly for the saints that he's writing to in the moment.

And mind you, 46 prayers within 13 letters. 14 if you consider

Hebrews as the Apostle Paul as I do. But within 14 letters, he prays 46 times.

And the Apostle Paul, he always is specific with what he is praying for.

He's praying very intentionally, very specifically. And you know, even though we see this example in the

Apostle Paul, we can't help, we read through his letters and we see him praying over and over again. He's going to the Lord and he's praying.

And we see this. We even see this example in our own Savior, Jesus, right? We see in Jesus' earthly ministry, what does he do?

He's often going to be alone to pray, to commune with the Father. And we see this.

He even teaches the disciples how to do that. He teaches them specifically, hey, you need to pray.

Pray with me. Go to the source. And we see this example in Paul. We see this example in Jesus.

Yet we often make prayer the last resort. Has it come to prayer?

We've done all that we can do. Now we have to go to prayer. We are lax, unfortunately, in our intentional and specific prayer life.

We don't pray as we ought to. And then we wonder why we have such a difficult time applying

God's Word to our life. We're like, I've been studying.

I've got the theology down. I've been reading Calvin's commentaries. I know the stuff, right?

I've got this down. I know that this is what I need to do, but I can't seem to apply it in my life.

Those imperatives, the application, just seem to elude us.

Yet if we as a church, if we as individuals want to see

God work through and in us, it must start.

It must continue in, and it must end with prayer. Going to God and asking

God to change our hearts. Not to change God's will, as we've said around here quite often.

We're not changing God's mind. God's mind's already made up. His will is perfect. He's changing our hearts, and aligning our hearts to His will as we pray and as we go to Him.

We do this in our private lives, because I don't just mean here in our service. We do that when we gather here.

As a matter of fact, I've had good, godly people come and visit us, people that I love. One of the big things that I hear a lot from them is they're kind of evaluating our service.

They're like, y 'all pray quite a bit. I'm sitting there like, what?

I sometimes am really convicted that we don't pray enough during our services. I feel like maybe 45 minutes of this service should be dedicated to prayer.

Maybe we need to do that. Everybody's like, okay, I'm not coming back next week. Because we struggle with it, right?

But it's not just in the corporate, I mean in our daily lives, because if we're praying, if we're spending time in the closet, in communion with God, the

God that has brought us into union because he chose us, and he redeemed us, and he purchased us, and he sealed us, and we are in communion with him, when we do that throughout the week and we seek the

Lord, then what happens when we come together and we pray for 45 minutes? It's like a blip on the radar.

It just overflows out of us because we're so accustomed to communing with God. And this is what

God's called us to. I want to share a quote with you. I know Brother Adam actually shared a quote by a gentleman by the name of E .M.

Bounds last week. I want to share a different quote from him today. If you want to study prayer,

I cannot encourage you enough. E .M. Bounds' complete works on prayer. It's a really thick book, very worth reading, and his prayer life is bar none.

I've been highly encouraged by him. But I want to share a quote from him about this. He says, what the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the

Holy Ghost can use. Men of prayer. Men mighty in prayer.

The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men.

He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer. This is so true.

And this quote doesn't just apply to the pragmatic churches. We can sit here on our high horse and look over at churches down the road that do every single means, like, oh, we're going to have dirt bikes on the stage on Sunday to get everybody to draw them in, and we're going to use every means possible, and we're going to have the big light show and the fog machines and all that.

And we can look at them and go, see, that's who E .M. Bounds is talking about. That machinery, that better plan, all of the structures, all the things that they're putting together.

We can do that, but it's also us. We can trust in our liturgy, can't we? In the structure of our service, we can rely on that.

We can rely on our intentional discipleship and think that that is what's going to change this church.

That's going to change the people. We can facilitate the most inviting environment that you can imagine.

We can have every outreach imaginable that you can even think of. Everything and everyone involved in all of this ministry, we can follow all the church growth plans, yet without fervent, spirit -filled,

God -honoring prayer, it would all be for nothing. We might gain people.

Oh, but lives aren't being changed. Not really changed. There may be a momentary fix in their life, but it's just a

Band -Aid on a gunshot wound. It's of no value.

So we must follow the example of Paul. We must start with prayer, intentional and specific prayer.

But not only that, it has to be in humility. Look at verse 14 again. For this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father. You see, this is why we need the information first.

We need to know who God is. We must know the

Father. When we know God as He's revealed

Himself, what does it lead us to? What does it lead you to?

When you start to see the God of the Bible, and you go, this God is sovereign, this God is holy, this

God is just, this God is perfect, and He requires perfection. What does it make you do?

Repent. It takes you down to your knees. It makes you want to fall on your face. I've had moments of prayer where I felt like my face couldn't get through that concrete far enough.

Because I needed to get lower because I knew who God was. That's what it leads to.

It leads to humility in our hearts. Because He is God and I am not. Because He is sovereign, all -knowing, fully sufficient, the

Creator who sustains all things. And that Paul is writing about here over the past three chapters.

He's been telling us who this God is. The one that had chosen you and me before the foundation of the world, before He had ever even spoken anything into existence.

He had a perfect plan and He carried it out. And Paul is showing this.

He Himself is the source that we must run to in humility, bow our knees before Him.

This is why it's so important. You must have the information first. And then the application will come.

So applying God's Word requires prayer. Secondly, applying God's Word requires the church.

Applying God's Word requires the church. Look at verse 15 with me.

He says, From whom, from who? The Father, whom

He is bowing His knees before and going to. From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

You see, when Paul says every family, Paul's obviously not speaking of every family unit that's ever existed or ever will exist.

That's not who Paul's speaking of. No, when he says every family, the

Apostle Paul is obviously speaking of saints. He's speaking of us.

Those of us who are in Christ. That's who he's speaking of. The Greek word that Paul uses here for family is patria.

Patria, I think, is how it's pronounced. But you can hear our word, patriarch. This is a collective term for descendants of the same

Father. And Paul uses this word very specifically because here's something that we also know from elsewhere in Scripture.

God's not the Father of everyone. Some of you may be saying, well, wait a second, pastor.

I thought we were all children of God. I thought every human being, he's the creator, we're children of God, right?

That's not how the Bible speaks of it. Not according to Scripture, we're not. In John 1 .12,

it says, but to all who did receive him, speaking of Christ, who believed in his name, we call on his name, the name of Christ, he gave the right to become children of God.

To all those who did believe in him and who are called on his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

We even see this presented early on in the book of Ephesians, back in chapter one and verse five.

When Paul says, for he, God, the Father, predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.

Meaning we were previously not children of God. And when we're brought into the household of faith, we are made children of God.

We are adopted as children of God. And this is why Paul says here in verse 15, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named.

You see, there's meaning in a name, isn't there? My children carry my name.

My four kids carry the name Hargrave. And they do because I carry my father's name.

He carried his father's name. And there's meaning. You know us as the angry hobbits, right?

Short, little fiery. You call me a dwarf, right? I know. From Lord of the

Rings, it's a joke. But there's meaning in a name. You know me by that name.

But you see, for us, for us, that's just a placeholder in this very moment because we've been stripped of that name.

We've been stripped of that name because we've been adopted. When you adopt a child, that child doesn't keep the last name that it previously had.

It carries a whole new dynamic because it's brought into a family.

And you know what that means, right? That means that this is our real family.

We've been brought into something far bigger, far greater than what we've experienced previously.

The oneness that we share as children of God goes infinitely deeper than blood because we've been given a new name.

We carry the name of our Savior, don't we? It is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives in me and through me. Praise God, right?

I know it's hard for us to comprehend the significance of that because we live in such an individualistic culture.

But see, back then, to lose or to detach from your physical family meant tremendous difficulty.

They kind of had a beautiful picture of what the household of faith was and being adopted into that family.

They understood it better than us because so much so, back then, if you identified with Christ and then went through that act that Aaron just went through, the ordinance of baptism, then your family would disown you in many cases.

They would hold funerals for you because you were dead to them. You no longer inherit anything.

You are no longer invited to the family events. You no longer are a part of anything. You are detached.

You lost your business. You lost your home. Sometimes you lost your spouse. Sometimes you lost your children.

Everything was stripped from you in many cases. And that's why the church rallied around each other in a beautiful way that pictured the beauty of what it means to be in community and be adopted by God.

It's the church. The point is, you cannot and you will not be able to apply

God's word without the family, without the church. You cannot and you will not be able to because just like in the early

Christians, they would be extremely handicapped without their family. We are left extremely devoid, devoid of what we need as Christians without our family, without the church.

You cannot be out there and be a lone Christian. Scripture refers to us as sheep, right?

Sheep are dumb. That's why it refers to us as that, right? We're all sheep, right? What happens to a sheep that wanders away from the flock and goes out in the middle of nowhere and roams around and tries to live out their life and eat the green grass?

The wolves devour them, don't they? They have access to them. They're not near the shepherd any longer.

They're not near the flock. They're not where they're supposed to be. And you cannot have lone

Christians. I see so many men, especially young men, they love theology.

They eat it up. They're reading A .W. Pink and they're reading Luther and they're reading all this stuff and they really wanna go evangelize and they wanna do all the things, but then you're like, oh, what church are you a part of?

Well, just kinda hop from church to church. Well, how's the body of Christ utilizing you and your gifts and your abilities?

How are they benefiting you? You're not a part of the body. You're a sheep in the middle of a field acting like you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, but that's not what it is.

Now, here's the beautiful part is every time I see that kind of thing, I know if they're really a sheep, the

Savior will go get them. You won't go long. You show me somebody that goes their whole life without being a part of the local church and then dies,

I cannot preach their funeral and have any confidence that they're in Christ because a believer will persevere and Christ will chase in those that he loves and you will be a part of a local church because you cannot live without it.

You cannot apply God's word without it, without community. It's imbalanced and it's not healthy.

So this is a requirement. Thirdly, applying God's word requires the source of strength.

It's very connected to both of the previous statements, prayer and the church, right?

But this is the source of strength. Look at verse 16 with me. Paul says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

Well, back in chapter one, Paul's already talked to us about the indwelling Holy Spirit, hasn't he? That he sealed us for that day of glory and that each one of us has been sealed and marked by this

Holy Spirit. But notice this isn't about us. Paul never makes scripture about us.

Even the application isn't about us. What's it about? Look at what he says. He says that according to the riches of his glory.

It's not according to our obedience. It's not according to our wherewithal and ability to do and to act a certain way.

It's according to the riches of his glory. And look, it says that he may grant you.

There's the prayer, right? We're pleading with the Father. Grant us this.

That's what Paul's doing for the saints right now. He's praying. Oh, Father, grant them this. Give this to them because you're the source.

You're the only one that can. They can't find it in the theology. They can't find it in no theology and just trying to live the

Christian life. They must find it in you using the renewal of the mind through the theology that leads to the application.

And he prays for this. That he may grant you to be strengthened with power.

Oh, this is what we need, right? So often, we desperately need power and strength to live the

Christian life. There's so many times that I feel myself falling prey to sin and I'll talk to a brother about it and now

I'm like, I can't seem to defeat this sin. I need power to. I need the strength to.

I feel it weak. I feel like I just need something. I need something outside of myself to help me overcome this sin in my life and I struggle with it.

That's what Paul's praying for. To be strengthened through his spirit.

Strengthened with power. So where does this strength come from? Let's look at the text.

Through his spirit. Notice spirit is capitalized. Why is that? The Holy Spirit.

Through his spirit in your inner being. Paul said in Romans 8, 9, he says,

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. The Holy Spirit is the one that is actively working in and through us, isn't he?

He's the power. He's the source of this strength. I want you to notice something.

We don't have time to dive into the depths of pneumatology today.

We'll save that for another day. The study of the Holy Spirit. But I do want you to see something. That what

Paul is praying for, as I've pointed out throughout this entire three chapters, is what he is praying for is a

Trinitarian work. Notice he starts off by praying to who?

The Father. Strength and power are applied by the Holy Spirit.

Now look at verse 17. So that Christ, the triune

God, is accomplishing this. This is the source. He knows when Paul is praying this, he knows he must pray in the power of God, a triune

God, a God that is the only one that could accomplish this. God the Father, God the Son, and God the

Holy Spirit. So he says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now I know some people read this verse and find it confusing, but we go, well,

Paul's speaking to believers only, isn't he? And doesn't Christ already dwell within believers?

So what's Paul asking for in this prayer? Why is Paul asking for Christ to dwell in them in that way?

Look at verse 17, that first phrase, so that. This is a purpose clause, okay?

He wants us to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.

I love how John MacArthur said it. I'm not even gonna try and rephrase it in my own words, I'm just gonna read his words, okay?

Maybe it'll be clear. He says, in the context of this passage, the connotation is not simply that of being inside the house of our hearts, but of being at home there.

Settled down as a family member. It's not that he's not there, dwelling in each one that is a child of God.

It's as he home there. Is he at home there? When we have received strength through the power of the

Holy Spirit, strength to fight sin, communion with God, studying and learning the truths of God's word, applying those truths to our lives, then

Christ is dwelling in us in a very special and unique way. He's comfortable there.

We're communing with him there. There's something special about that in the

Christian life. Have you ever felt far away from Christ?

Let's be honest, right? I'm getting some holy looks here. No, I'm in perfect communion with God.

No, no, you have. You've felt far away from Christ before. You felt like, where is he? Then you realize,

I've got unconfessed sin in my life. I've not been obedient to what he's called me to be.

I've not been reading the word. I've not been in prayer. I've not been in communion with the Father. I've not been living the life that he's called me to live.

I've not been obedient to him. Christ isn't just gonna sit there on the couch of your heart and be comfortable.

And allow you the privileges of just staying in that space. You're bringing in garbage into that home.

You're bringing sin into that home, and Christ is holy and perfect. We want communion with Christ, and that comes, we enjoy it when we're obedient to Christ, when we're communing.

Now, I'm not talking about perfection. None of us will ever achieve perfection. All of us are sinners. We're all gonna fall.

That's the beautiful part, is that even when we fall, Jesus doesn't leave. Jesus is still there, and he will work in you through the power of the

Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit will convict you and bring you to repentance every single time. That's the beautiful part, is we don't have to worry about losing our salvation because we can't.

When we are disobedient to God, to what God has called us to be, we are grieving the Holy Spirit, aren't we? This is a work that's only accomplished by a triune

God. The triune God is the source of this power. That's why we pray to him.

That's why we come and be a part and submit ourselves into the context of the local church, which is the bride of Christ, the very body of Christ here on earth, the representative of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Fourthly, lastly, applying God's word requires our eyes on Christ.

Look at the second part of verse 17. That you, being rooted and grounded in love.

This is not some vague concept of what love is, right? We always carry this idea of what we think love is.

You hear 1 Corinthians 13 read at weddings all the time, even of lost people.

As a matter of fact, I heard a practicing homosexual reading that not too long ago that was saying, hey, this is how we should act.

This is who we are. But it's because we're carrying our concept of what love is. But he says we must be rooted and grounded in love.

So what is that love? It's a love that we only see through theology.

Our minds are distorted by the sin of this world. Our flesh distorts what

God makes good. And when we come to the table and go, I want to define what love is, what happens?

We bring our distorted version of that love to the table. We must have theology.

We must have the information. Who is God? Well, God's word says that God is love.

What's the character of God? If God is love, he's the source of love. He's the only reason love exists because he is love.

What is that love? Let's define that love, right? And we don't have time to do that today, but we've done it in previous settings and we'll do again.

But that's how we must define it, with the information about God. Paul said in Colossians, As you received

Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him. This simply means that we are firm and secure in the love of Christ, that deep abiding agape love, this love that is never ending, this love that is perfect, that isn't distorted by sin, but a perfect love.

We are firm and secure in this. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even ourselves.

I can't pry myself from the hands of Christ. I can't. Because everything he says is true and he says,

I've not lost one of them. He said, Father, all that you give me, I've not lost one of them.

He never will. And that love is what's holding us. The fact that God is true, that God is love, he is holding us dear.

I mentioned a moment ago, there are times when Christ dwells in us in a very special way, yet during those times, he doesn't love us any more or less.

Right? Because his love isn't fickle. His love doesn't change.

He may chasten us, but he's doing it in love.

When you fall back into sin, when you disobey the precepts of God, the worst thing you can do is go,

I can't go to my father. He's angry. God's mad at me because I didn't obey him again.

You ever felt that? I have. Because we all had earthly fathers who were sinners.

Right? And now how we view God is distorted at times. And we think, well, God's got to be angry with me because I failed him again.

He told me to obey, and I didn't obey. So I can't go to him. Oh, but we're misunderstanding who

God is. Again, theology. We must know who God is. And when we know who

God is, we know that his son has paid for even that sin. And he threw it as far as the east is from the west, and there is no anger.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. And we can rest.

And what does that do to us when we fall prey to sin? It doesn't make us just keep wallowing in that sin and staying in it because we feel this sense of not coming before God, but it causes us to run to our

Father. Because we know who our Father is, and we know that our Father is going to hold us in his arms once again and bring us into that perfect communion, the expression of that communion once again.

And so it keeps us from having to just wallow in our sin. We are rooted, grounded, established, eternally secure.

This is the key to applying the truth that we know intellectually. And it's that you, look at verse 18, 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.

When he says that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, Paul is not talking about theological knowledge here.

What he's speaking of is the infinite nature of Christ's love. Some read this passage and say, love

Jesus, just love Jesus. That's far more important than the knowledge. See, it surpasses it.

It means that we don't need the knowledge. We can just love Jesus. You don't know who

Jesus is if you don't have the knowledge, so that doesn't make any sense. Not to mention the apostle Paul told us to study to show ourselves approved, right?

So he's not gonna contradict himself. What is he speaking of? He's speaking of the simple fact that when we try and comprehend the love of Christ, it's far beyond our mental capability.

We can't even begin to fathom the immensity of Christ's love for us. You take

Christ's love to the farthest reaching point of your mind and soul that you can even begin to fathom might exist, and it goes further than that is what

Paul's saying. That's comforting, isn't it? Is it not?

This is a beautiful truth. The love of Christ that surpasses our ability to comprehend, and that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

You wanna grow into mature manhood to the measure of the status of the fullness of God, as Paul wrote in chapter four?

This is what it's gonna take. This is what it's gonna take for each one of us in our lives and as a church to go from information to application.

Do we wanna be a church of hearers and not doers? Or do we want to be obedient hearers and doers of the word of God?

Then we must diligently pray to the Father that the Holy Spirit would give us the strength to live in light of and continually be reminded of the love of Christ.

That love that led him to be obedient to the Father, to condescend from his rightful throne, to live the life that you and I could not and to die a death that we deserved, and that power that raised him from the grave to defeat death.

Whenever our study of theology is outside of that truth, it becomes dead orthodoxy.

You try and study theology outside of the context of the gospel, and you're just like every other religion.

All you're left with at that point is condemnation and hopelessness. You read

God's word outside of the context of the gospel of what Christ has done and accomplished at the cross, then you are left with condemnation and hopelessness.

You are left with the law, and the law can only condemn. But when we keep our eyes on Christ and his righteousness that he's imputed onto us, we look to him, we will joyfully and gladly apply the truths of God's word within our lives, won't we?

It's looking to Christ. And Paul closes this out here as he says in verse 20 and 21.

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

Amen. What a glorious prayer. We as a church, we as followers of Christ, we must look to Christ.

We must obey Christ. We can only do that through the power of the

Holy Spirit. And that comes through prayer, through study.

So as we get ready to make this transition in this letter and start preaching every week on application for the most part, by the way, theology in application, we must keep rooted and grounded in what we've studied over the past few months.

That is what leads into the application. Well, let's now prepare to go to the

Lord's table in light of this. What a beautiful picture of that gospel in our lives.

I encourage you as we do this every single week, you're gonna have to guard yourself from this table becoming habit.

I can't do that for you. I can't do that for you.

I can't conjure up emotions in all of you and try and get you to keep this fresh and new every single week.

That's not my job. But I can warn you, when we make this just another act, we're robbing ourselves and we're dishonoring our

God. When we come to this table, the purpose of it is to every week point our focus and our attention back to what

Christ has done. In light of whatever truth I preach up here, again, all of it's through the lens of the gospel, right?

This keeps our focus on it. We're looking to Christ. We're not making penance here. We're coming and we're showing the oneness that we have in Christ and remembering the sacrifice that He made on our behalf.

But there's also something uniquely special. As I mentioned a moment ago, Christ is in each of us if we're in Christ.

But He's at home there in a very special way when we are obedient to Him. The Lord's Supper is very similar.

This isn't just a remembrance. This isn't just us remembering. Jesus is with us in a very unique, special way whenever we go to this table.

He is present and He is saying, Child, I did this for you. I love you. I love you.

There is no condemnation any longer because my blood was spilled for you. I paid the price.

Now you rest in it. That doesn't get old, does it? That doesn't get old.

So if you are in Christ today, you are welcome to this table. But I encourage you, search your heart. If there's any unrepentant sin in your life,

I ask you be cautious. In Matthew chapter 26, as Jesus establishes this ordinance, the upper room with His disciples says that Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said,

Take, eat. This is my body. And He took a cup and when

He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, Drink of it, all of you.

For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Notice He doesn't say for all. He says for many. Those that are His. He shed that blood for it.

And we get to rest in it. Amen? So let's pray that God would bless this time, this ordinance, this wine and this bread and that we would honor

Him in it. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You. Thank You, Triune God, for making a way for us where there was no way.

For redeeming us. And You've done so through the blood of Your Son. And now we get to come and be obedient to You through the ordinance of the

Lord's Supper as Jesus commanded for us to do in remembrance of Him. And we know,

Lord Jesus, that You are expressing Your presence with us in a unique way as we come to this table.

So thank You. Help us to worship You through this. Please do not allow us to become numb to it.

Help us to remember, to love, to adore, to worship.

In Christ's name, amen. The way it works, if you're not familiar, is we come around the outsides, take of the elements here and go back to your seat through the middle.

And then you can pray individually, pray as a family, pray as a group, however you desire to pray and partake of those elements.