Paul's Petition for Us to be Filled With God's Fullness

Our Old Testament scripture reading is from the book of Psalm, chapter 17, verse 15.

If you would please stand. As for me,

I shall behold your face with righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Our New Testament reading is John 1, 1 through 18. In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was

John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, neither of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only

Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out,

This was he whom I said, He who comes after me reigns before me, because he was before me.

For from the fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.

Please remain standing. Well, good morning.

Good morning. I thought it seemed darker up here, and it is, there's no lights up there.

Open your Bibles to Ephesians 3, please. Ephesians 3. Oh, there it is.

Let there be light. All right.

Thank you for your singing. It's a blessing to my heart, and I pray that the fellow saints around you, their singing was a blessing to your heart.

These Lord's Days that we are to come together and to remind ourselves that we are not isolated or islands, but rather we are the community of the

Church of God, it is a blessing. I'll read the text, and we'll go to the

Lord in prayer. Let's start in verse 14, and we'll end in the end of the chapter.

So Ephesians 3, verse 14. 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 that we 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.

Let us pray. Oh God in heaven, you do abundantly more than we can ask or think, truly.

And Lord, I'm relying upon that promise that we even just read now, that you would do abundantly more even here and now.

Lord, that the preaching of your word would go forth, and I'm all too aware or not even fully aware of how it comes forth from weak lips, but I am thankful that it is the power of the

Spirit that works with the word in the hearts of those who hear. And so Lord, I pray that even my weak message here, as I try to expose your word,

I pray that even in weakness you would make it strong, that the people would hear the truth that's found in it, and it would cause them to see

Jesus more clearly. And for those who have never seen Jesus, perhaps it would even cause them to see Jesus for the first time, so that they will,

Lord, grow in comprehension, that they would grow in their inner man, strengthen, that they would strengthen in their understanding of the love of Christ that has come to us unworthy people.

Lord, in heaven, this is such a high and mighty and lofty thing that we proclaim.

So I just pray, God, that you would help us to have reverence, but also to understand our weakness, to proclaim and receive, and to rely upon the

Spirit of power to do so. Lord, thank you for this promise that you have given to us in Scripture.

May Christ be glorified. Now and forever, in Jesus' name, amen. So I graduated high school in 2008, in which

I went on to community college. And on my way to community college, there was a, in my hometown, there was a new neighborhood that was being put up, a street filled with, and for my, the sermon's sake,

I could say very nice and beautiful homes, but really they're your typical cookie -cutter homes, and they're being built, and they're being built right prior to the housing crisis that happened around that time, if you remember the great recession that happened, in which there was a great fervor to make houses and to buy them, things were hopping, but then it suddenly crashed right around that time period.

And so what you saw there was a new neighborhood, a new street being put up, and maybe a few houses, you could tell there was supposed to be more that was put up, and you could tell that they abandoned the project.

And so you have these houses that are structured and put up, but yet no one living in them. And for years, I would pass by it, and it was just an empty wasteland, and it was kind of sad to see houses being built, the structure being built, put together, ready, but yet they aren't able to be sold, and so there they are, empty and lifeless, so to speak.

And I think here, what we have with what Paul has done in these first few chapters of Ephesians, as we're closing in on the end of the doctrinal part, or what

God has done part of Scripture, what we are faced with is a structure that has been put up.

This is what God has done, and the sad reality is that we, as the readers, as Christians, we can look at it and not live within the structure that's been built.

There could be a truth set up for us of what God has done, but yet it has no place in our home, in our heart, and so therefore it's indeed lifeless.

And that's always the temptation or possibility that we would have the great truths of God laid up for us, for us to behold, and yet it finds no place in our heart, and so it becomes lifeless to us.

And so with that mindset, I think it's only fitting that Paul would then go from these lofty doctrines that we've seen, the lofty truths of what

Christ has done for his people, and then he goes straight to his prayer.

He goes straight to his knees. He goes straight to the secret closet of prayer as he has this wonderful ending to this part of the letter of prayer.

If you notice in verse 14, he says, for this reason, that structure that's been put up that I proclaim, the truth that I just said, for this reason

I bow my knees before the Father, he says in verse 14. Now that prayer, of course the bowing of the knees, he's talking about prayer, and we've got to understand that it wasn't a typical way for Jews or that time period for people to pray with bowed knees.

It wasn't like all the time when you prayed you had to go on your knees. In fact, this denotes a certain urgency of Paul.

Even today, typically when you pray, it's sitting down in your favorite chair or standing up behind the pulpit, but to be on a bended knee denotes a certain urgency.

Paul has just laid out, for this reason, that structure that's been laid out, the doctrines of what Christ has done, and now there's an urgency to then go to prayer in light of it so it finds its home within our hearts.

It's a very vital importance. We talked about this while we went through the Psalms. Prayer is vital for your life.

Prayer is like the plow that loosens up the hard soil of your heart.

It loosens it up so that you can then have the seeds put on so that fruit can then grow forth.

Or prayer is like the early rains that makes the seed germinate within your heart. If you have no prayer, these doctrines will lay lifeless as a structure and not be lived with it.

And so it's important, it's a good example that the Apostle Paul would go from the loftiness of doctrine, of these truths that Christ has done, down to his knees in prayer.

And what is the heart of this prayer that we're looking at this morning? Well, really, how you can look at this is that it's three petitions.

You can understand that you've gotten to a new petition when he says, that you. If you notice, there's three that you's in this prayer.

And it's not three different petitions that kind of don't have anything to do with each other.

There are two petitions that then culminate in the third one. Or maybe another way to think of it is it's like a ladder, right?

When you climb a ladder, you need to climb each rung to get to the top, right? And so I think there's three rungs here.

The two bottom ones help you to get to the third one, which is found in verse 19, the culmination, the climax of this prayer.

That is, that you, the third petition here, may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This is his petition. This is his prayer, that you would be filled with the fullness of God. Notice it's present tense.

That's something that needs to be done right now. And again, if you're being mindful of this letter, if you're being mindful of the main thesis of this letter, if you remember in chapter one, it can almost seem to contradict that petition that we'd be filled with God currently.

Well, what do I mean? Look at chapter one, verse three. Do you remember what the main theme of the doctrinal or what

God has done portion of the letter, what it was? You remember in chapter one, verse three, blessed be

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

That's the structure that he just laid out. But notice it's past tense. This is something that he has already done.

He has blessed us already. We have all the blessings as Christians already laid up for us in the heavenly places that he's already done.

Yet now, what do we have? That he may fill you up with the fullness of God now. And so there can be like a hard thing for us to understand is that if he's already done it, it's past tense.

Why is there now a petition in the present tense for us to be filled up with the blessings? Don't we already have it?

Well, if you remember and go back to chapter one, verse four, we said,

So remember, all the things that God has done is so that you would then walk in holiness and blamelessness.

Right? Now, that's like, there's two parts of holiness and blamelessness. That's like a standard that he has set.

You are now forgiven. You are holy. You are blameless for Christ's sake. But then there's also an aspect that we talked about where now we have the life of walking in that holiness and blamelessness that Christ has established for us in the gospel.

And so this is what's going on here is that as we're transitioning in this letter from this is what Christ has done to make you holy and blameless, that we rely upon to be forgiven and to be right before God.

Now there's this great transition. And now my petition is that you would then grow in this fullness in light of what

Christ has done. You would grow in fullness of God. And that's going to then influence four through six, chapters four through six.

And this is what you should do. We'll get to that more later. So the heart of the prayer here is that petition that you would be filled with the fullness of God in your day today.

Right now, in light of what God has already done for you already. This is the heart of the prayer.

God has made a beautiful house for you. He's made this beautiful come and behold and see what

God has done in Jesus, right? And you are the saints who have said, I behold it. I believe it.

I am Christ's disciple. I am his. Come behold, I beheld, I believe.

And now he says, and now my petition is that you would live in the house and find your joy there.

And perhaps another good analogy is that God brings you out of the slums of your slavery and sin and all the filth and death that's found there.

And he brings you into a beautiful estate, a home filled with many rooms, with many acres of beautiful land set before you.

But without God then dwelling with you in that home, you will not even know how to enjoy the estate.

And so not only does God bring you into a new home and say, you belong here, but I'm going to dwell with you in here all the days of your life.

And this to a Christian is something that we earnestly desire with everything within our soul.

Being filled with the fullness of God, this great petition and this prayer is living a life of all spiritual blessings in Christ today.

This prayer is dominated with this petition. With the two petitions set before it, with that great culmination will tell us and show us how we are to live with all the fullness of God today.

These two petitions leading up to it shows us, reveals how that is to be done. But first before we get there, he then in verse 15, he describes the universality of this petition.

In other words, this is a universal need that everyone needs, right? He says in verse 15, from, so again, verse 14, for this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, right?

God is the God of all people. He created all people. Now there's a good chance or a good reality or whatever you want to call it, that Paul has in mind that we do not serve a regional

God. Because you got to imagine that he is right into the church in Ephesus and probably the region around it.

And that area was known for the God of Diana or of Artemis, this goddess who was their regional

God. That's who owned them. That's who they were a child of, so to speak. And Paul says, we don't just have a regional

God here. We have a God that has created all people throughout all the earth, and there is a universal need for this

God to be filled up by him. There is a universal need for him.

And indeed, this is what we see in the scriptures, Romans 11, 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things, right?

For from him, he created all things, are all things from him. And it's also to him.

All things are being created from him, they ought to go back to him. And so we are from him and we ought to give him the glory back to him.

This is the whole purpose of our life. And it's the purpose of everyone's life. God is not a regional God. He's a

God of all creatures. All creatures are to glorify him. This is what he's saying, that everyone needs to be filled up by God, the fullness of God being brought in them.

This is the longing of everyone's heart, is what he's saying. In fact, if we're not living a life of being filled up with the fullness of God in light of Jesus Christ, we are like a fish out of water.

We're like a fish out of water. This is exactly what we're made for. And if we're not fulfilling that purpose, we are simply as if not even in our proper element.

Sin is not our proper element. Glorifying our God, being filled with him is.

We, when we're not being filled up with the fullness of God, every one of us, we're like a spring that brings no rain, a summer that produces no fruit, a quick fall into a winter that never ends.

Depression after depression. No, this is a universal need. All families were made from him and all families are to then be filled with him.

This is our whole purpose. In fact, just for an interesting note, he actually, you don't see it in the

English, but he uses a play on words there, or he uses similar words in both verses 14 and 15.

He says, for this reason I bow my knees before the father, which is a similar word to from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

It's potter versus patria, right? Potter is father. In Greek, patria is family.

It's a similar word. He's using a play on words. Again, I think he's showing the universal desire of every heart that they'd be filled, this great petition that he has filled with the fullness of God.

What are these two petitions? What are these two petitions? If this is the longing of every heart, if this should be the longing of your heart today more than anything else that you could consider, what are these petitions that lead us up to the great summit of the view of the fullness of God?

Well, before we get there again, notice before he, I told you that each petition, the three petitions, you can locate them by how he says, that you, and then petition, that you, petition, that you, petition.

But the first petition has a that and a you, but then there's something in the middle that describes the power of that petition to happen, okay?

So notice he says, again, in verse 16, that, there's the that, but the you, he holds off for a second, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant, and then you.

And so that first petition, before we get to it, we must see that he's actually underlining the power, where the petition, where the ability to do it comes forth from.

And it's not going to surprise us it comes from God, whom he is praying to. He says, that you, verse 16, where does the power of these petitions come from?

That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant to you.

This should sound familiar, because he says it a few times now, and he's going to say it, but you remember when he talks about where does the power of the ministry come from?

Remember when he was talking about that in chapter three, verse seven of this gospel, chapter three of Ephesians, verse seven of this gospel,

I was made a minister, how? According to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power.

It is a powerful God who grants the blessings of being a minister to him.

And this is the same thing here, this petition that he has all the fullness of God to be filled in him, he says, before he even gets to the first petition, he says, the power is found according to the riches of his glory, and that he would grant you coming forth from it.

So God, again, is rich in glory. You can never out -petition his power to give.

You can never ask too much from God. Again, you can never out -petition his power and desire to give to you.

What a comfort that is, that we would begin our Christian walk with this mindset that I must go to the one who's rich in mercy, rich in glory, and ask, oh, give me

Jesus' forgiveness of sins. And you can never then ask too much from him your whole

Christian life. In fact, God takes pleasure in you consistently petitioning to him, oh, give me more of Jesus.

Give me more of him. Let me be more full of you, oh God. You can never ask too much from your father in heaven who loves to give you good gifts.

Never allow you being in the disruption, the deceitfulness, the cloudiness of sin.

Never let the sin that you're in cause you to stop you to know that you can never ask too much from God.

You can never ask too much forgiveness. He is always like a loving father, more than willing, from the riches of his glory, to give you the forgiveness in Christ.

And so, with that power found petition, because we're going to see, to be filled with the fullness of God is no easy task in this capacity.

We're going to see that, so you've got to keep in your mind, in your head, this is only possible because God is rich in glory, and he grants it, and he loves to.

And so what is that first petition? Look at verse 16, and we'll call it, we'll call it strength, strong inner man, or the strengthening of the inner man.

That's the first petition. Verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you what?

To be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

So that's the petition, the first one. That you'd be strengthened in your inner being. Now the inner being is as opposed, or is, you know, you are made, you are a human being, and you're made both outer being and inner being.

You have an outer being, that is your body, your physical frame. Your inner being is a spirit, or your heart, within you, right?

There's those two things going on, that's what makes you a human, that's what makes us different from all the creatures on this earth, is that we are made both body and soul.

And Paul here is saying that your inner man, your inner being, would be strengthened.

Now it's easy for us as physical creatures, we can understand what it means to have an outer being that is strengthened, right?

That is to have a physical body that is fit, right?

That's in shape. We just evangelized at the Arnold Classic, and that conference there in Columbus is all about people who are strong on the outer man.

This is a strong outer body, and indeed, a petition of Paul being in a prison of Rome, we could understand why he would get caught up in just simply the physical, right?

Pray that I would have a strong outer man, pray that I would get out of here, right? All these outer stuff.

But instead we see that Paul is enamored with the idea of all the fullness of God, it looks like being strong in the inner being.

1 Timothy 4 .8, 1 Timothy 4 .8, Paul tells Timothy, he says, for while bodily training, think of outer man training, is of some value, there's value in being fit, there's value of eating right and treating your physical frame well, there's some value there.

But he then says godliness is of value in every way. There's a greater value of godliness or inner man strength, which he says, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

And so we can see there the contrast, that there's the outer strength, the outer man strength, that is our physical frame, there's value there, but the inner strength, the inner being strength, he calls godliness, and that is practice.

So being strong on the inside is just as visible, so to speak, as outer man strength.

You can see when someone is strong on the outside and you can see someone who's strong on the inside, how? By whether or not they're living godly or not.

Godliness is inner man strength. It's something that's going on from within that then shows itself from without that shows whether you have inner strength or not.

The ability to be godly comes from something without going within, right?

Notice what he says in chapter three, notice what he says, that the petition is that you would have inner strength, but notice where it comes forth from in verse 16.

He says, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit and your inner being.

And so the point being said here is that we would have inner spirit strength, that within our spirit we would have godliness that reveals itself in the way that we practice our lives, and this is only possible by the power

God gives us through the spirit within us. If you remember in chapter one, verse 13, remember what he says, in chapter one, verse 13, he says, in him, in Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you believed in Jesus, you were then sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

Our inheritance is righteousness, is godliness, is being perfectly right before the

Father, and he says the Holy Spirit then applies that to you and is a guarantee that you're going to receive the whole thing now.

And how does he guarantee that? He grows us in godliness now. And so this is what the spirit does, and this is what his petition is, is that we'd be strengthened from a foreign entity or from God who gives us the spirit to strengthen the inner man, the spirit within us, the heart within us, so that we would practice godliness.

This is what his petition is. And so how can you know if you have a strong inner man or a strong spirit within you?

It's when the spirit has dwelt within you and he's causing you to walk in godliness. And this is the promise of the gospel.

This is the promise of Christ, that I would give, he says, Jesus says, I'm going to return to the Father, but I'll give you of my spirit,

I'll give you of my spirit within you, and it will empower you. Empower you to do what?

To be strong within your inner self, to walk in godliness. That you would choose obedience, no longer disobedience.

That you would reject the passions of the flesh, the weakness therein, which is a cancer that kills you, instead you walk in newness of life.

This is what inner strength means. This is how you can practically know, is my inner self strong?

Well, are you walking in new obedience by the power God provides in his spirit?

Now we can get even more practical though. We can get even more practical because Paul does, when he says in verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

How do you know when you have a strong inner man? When you are dominated in this life that I want to walk by faith in Jesus.

That every single thought, every single desire of your heart is I want to bring this captive to obey

Christ. Faith is not just mentally assenting up to the truths of God.

That will not save you. There are many people who will mentally assent and say yes, I have faith,

I believe. But faith is a full -bodied faith in which you not only agree with your mind, but you also everything within you, you ditch all your flesh, all your sin, you deny all yourself and you follow

Jesus as Lord and Savior and you obey him. Faith is all -encompassing with that.

And so how do you know if you have a strong inner man? Is that when your inner man is dominated with the thought, the desire, the inclination, what does

Jesus say I am to do here as my Lord? I shall obey Christ, my

Savior. This is what it means to have a strong inner man. Is that you're living a life of faith.

A faith that has not this sort of focus on obedience and godliness as Paul's describing here.

It's like a home that's been constructed, but yet not lived in. It's like having all these things that God has provided in Jesus and you're saying

I believe in it, but yet you're not living in it. You are not finding the life found there.

Faith is a trust, a confidence, an obedience to Jesus with all your inner man that reveals itself practically in the outer man or what you do.

Your thoughts, your desires, your emotions bow the knee to Jesus and the actions then follow suit from there.

Jesus says you want to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. We talked about this recently.

And Paul says we take every thought captive to obey Jesus. So that inner strength is involved with that faith in Christ.

It's not some abstract principle that we can't witness, but rather it is something that can be experienced in your life today.

That my life would be lived as an act of faith and obedience to my Savior. This is my dominant desire.

So that it helps you to avoid sin and when you fall into it, you repent of your sin and you give it forth to your

Lord saying forgive me of this and grant me by your power new obedience in light of this.

And as hard as it is to get your outer man into shape, especially if you are really out of shape, it is even harder to get your inner man in shape, especially as your depravity runs deep.

And so it can only be done by God's power through his spirit as you strive to bring your entire man under faith or in faith to Jesus.

So this is the fullness of God being experienced in your life today is a life of faith in Jesus today.

Not just simply I agree, but also I'm bringing everything to him. My sins, my obedience, everything is to him.

So this is why when someone proclaims faith in Jesus, they're saying my inner man has been changed by the

Holy Spirit, by Christ, and yet they walk in disobedience. We do not wink an eye at that.

We don't just say okay, we'll just ignore that. But we say you are not actually living a life that Christ provides in the gospel.

This is what should dominate you in your prayer life. Oh Lord, show me the different ways that my inner man is filled with weakness and may your power overshadow me through Christ Jesus and may

I then obey him for the graces that's found in his work. You got to understand this sort of dominates your mind and all that you do and the very even minor stuff, minor stuff, the big stuff, everything, it just dominates.

I want to please my Lord. My inner man has been changed by him. I just want to please him. I want the fullness of God to be found in me through him.

I was thinking about this. It's amazing how just the most little detail of your life can be dominated by this beautiful reality.

I've been getting a water tote ready for my garden and for my chickens and everything, a big water tote, and I'm getting the

PVC piping all together to make sure it drains in there right and it comes out where it needs to come out. So I got to put the, if you ever mess with PVC piping, you got to get the primer on there, the purple, and then you got to get the glue on there and you got to put them together.

You probably don't need to do it as quick as I feel like you have to do it, but I feel like it needs to get done now and if it doesn't, everything's going to be ruined and it's all done.

So when my kids are there and I know I should as a father want to show them these things,

I'm just looking at if you do it, you'll screw it up and everything will be lost. Right? But then there's that thing, it's like, well, what will obey

Jesus here? What does powerful or inner strength man look like here?

That is patience and to show them and let them do it, right? If they screw up, oh well, I cut it off and I do it again.

Even if it was the worst case scenario, right? I trust that what Christ has called me to do, I'm going to do here, right?

I'm going to deny what I naturally want to do and say, just let me do it. I'll get it done fast and everything. I just so caught up in it.

I'm going to say, I'm going to let, I'm going to reveal. I'm going to actually take joy in seeing my child do this. Right? I'm going to be honest with you.

I let him do a few and then I just did the rest. So maybe next time I'll let him do a couple more. But I just say that just because if you really are mindful of this, that this is the petition that Christ or that Paul has for us, that this doctrines of what

Christ has done in forgiveness and sins and everything is to actually come down to the most minute and minor detail of your life, that your inner strength through Christ would be revealed in that.

In fact, you should be thinking that way. How can I reveal the inner strength that Christ provides in this right here?

And it's a joy to live that way because this is how we live a life of fullness to God.

The second petition comes off of that, right? That's that one rung that we now stepped on, right?

Inner strength and the inner man. And then the next petition comes forth from that, right? It's not disjointed from it.

And we'll call it strong comprehension of Christ's love. Look at what he says in verse 17.

Again, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, right? Strong inner man. That you, there's that second petition, you notice that?

That you, by his power, don't forget the interruption of the last petition, right? The power that's found of the riches of God's glory that he gives grants to us.

You can never ask too much from God. There's the second petition. Now that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend.

With all the saints, what is the breath, length, height, depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

So notice strength in the inner man comes from your strength to comprehend the love of Christ. Strength in your inner man only comes forth from your strength to comprehend the love that Christ has for you, if you are a believer upon him.

We're talking about obedience here. We're talking about living righteously. And it can be very easy for us to think of God as not so much a father, but a distant king that demands obedience of his subjects, right?

And that's how we can picture obedience to him. Instead of picturing it as a gift from God to be a strong inner man so we can be filled with the fullness of God, we can picture obedience to God as something just very distant from him.

But we need to attach it with a love that Christ gives us, that he displays to us.

The way I considered this is that there's a difference in my home, in my personal home.

When my children are obeying me out of fear of a spanking versus a love for me because they know that I want their best.

They know that obedience to my parents is going to be for my good. And especially as they get older and I can communicate these things deeper, right,

I can't communicate that to Owen as well, my little one, as much as I can communicate it to my eldest one.

But that's where, as a parent, I want them to see that it's not just about you're going to get spanked if you don't obey me, but it's about that this is actually,

I love you and this is for your good. And there is a really, I can tell the difference of the atmosphere in the home when obedience is happening because they love mom and dad, because we love them, versus I'm just simply fearful of a spanking.

A home with obedient children for fear will be a cold and lifeless home, but a home with obedient children driven by love is warm and filled with life.

And so notice this obedience of the stronger inner man that we were talking about is rooted and grounded, he says.

And it says in love, not so much our love for him, for surely we don't have the love for Christ that is needed to root us and ground us in this sort of obedience.

We just don't have it. So what do we mean when we say in love? Well he says, we may have strength to comprehend with the saints what is the breadth, length, height, depth, and to know the love of Christ.

We're rooted and grounded, comprehending the fullness of Christ's love for us in the gospel.

And so our obedience that we are to do as strong with the inner man needs to come forth from the comprehension that Christ loves me more than I can even comprehend.

That what he has done for me is so filled with love for me that I am compelled to obey my master.

My master who loves me and has cared for me and has died for me. It's rooted and grounded in this love that he has for me.

And when you think of something that needs to be rooted and grounded, it needs to be protected from the storms of life, it needs to be protected from things that would want to tear it out and provide you no longer to be in that life of the roots.

You look at new trees, it's amazing how they can just withstand the winds and the storms most of the time.

And so the idea here is we need to be rooted and grounded in the love that Christ has for us. And what's amazing is that that means in the storms of life.

That means in the hardships of life. That means in the sunny times of life. That means in times in which we want to doubt his love the most.

That's the times that we are to then desire, let me comprehend how you're showing your love for me the most in this situation.

You see, everything that God, that Christ allows in your life is so that you can comprehend the love he has for you in that difficult situation.

We are to be rooted and grounded in his love. Not easily shaken when temptations or trials or even good times come.

Every day God gives you to live is to experience his fullness and love through obedience to him.

So when we want to ask, why would you allow this, God? The answer, we need to be grounded is, is so that we can experience the love of Christ more in it.

And if you're like, I don't see how the love of Christ is revealed in that, that's a petition. That we would comprehend that.

In fact, he says strength to comprehend that. Because we are too weak to comprehend that in the situation.

Our petition is, oh God, give me the strength to comprehend how you're revealing your love for me in this time, this hard time.

The analogy I thought of with this is like a, I think I've used it before, but you think of a newlywed.

They declare their love for each other, the newlyweds, they declare their love for each other at the ceremony, in the marriage.

That's when they declared their love for each other is at the wedding. But the love is experienced in the years of marriage, right?

You can declare your love all you want in the ceremony, but the experience of it, right?

The comprehension of it, the experience of it is found in the years of marriage through the hardships, through the good times, right?

You can tell a marriage, right? Your growth in marriage comes more from the storms of the marriage than from the good times of the marriage.

And that's not much different to the comprehension of the love that we have for our husband. That surely he's declared his love for us in the gospel, but then we get to comprehend that more in our daily experience of being filled up with him.

That he reveals his love in the day to day, that we can comprehend it more, and that fills us up with the fullness of God.

So fullness of God, it means to have inner strength that is obedience from the heart, from the spirit, driven by Christ's love for you.

This is what fullness of God means, and to experience that each day of your life. And there's a little phrase that he uses here that you can almost miss it.

Notice he says, with all the saints, with all the saints. So again, he says in verse 18, that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.

What is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. And when he says that, some, like Augustine, he has these really interesting things for each one of those.

What is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. I think Paul is just simply saying, it is massive, the love of Christ for you.

That just when you think you've got your arms around it, you're not even close. As he reveals it more to you in your walk with him.

It's massive. But notice again, that phrase that you can almost skip.

He says that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints. What is this massive love of Christ, to know the love of Christ that even surpasses any understanding knowledge that we can have.

Notice that you're growing in your inner strength, you're growing in your comprehension of God's love for you, even in the thick of it.

Notice that it comes forth with all the saints. Notice it comes forth in fellowshipping and locking arms with your brothers and sisters around you.

How easy it is for you to go through a hard time, oblivious to the love of Christ that he's revealing to you in that, but how good is it to be within the fellowship of the saints that challenges you to that very end.

The world will just tell you it's okay to feel like this. The world will just confirm you in what you're doing. Your saints, the fellow saints, a proper church, a healthy church, will say, do you remember the love of Christ?

Don't you remember the promises of scripture here? Don't forget it. Don't be weak in the inner man. Don't say, oh no, those are all lies.

Remember what he has promised. He's revealing his love for you here. And then you're on a path of obedience to say, yes, he is, and this is how he's doing it.

It is impossible to have this sort of growth, to have this sort of inner strength, inner man strength that God provides in the spirit, if you're not doing it in lockstep with your fellow saints.

We are to be open to them. One thing I hear often is that she or he is a private person.

I used to hear that a lot more than I do now. That makes my head want to explode. There is no private

Christian. You are to fellowship with the saints, and that's not just talking about the weather.

That is grabbing hold of the promises together, being reminded when we want to forget and be weak, and being strengthened because God has offered it to us, or has enabled us, has empowered us, and the means he uses are to saints.

How do you view obedience to God? How do you view the completion of the doctrines that God has done for us in Jesus?

How do you view all the spiritual blessings found in Christ? Surely we should consider the love of Christ he has done for us at Calvary.

Surely we consider the fact that he's chosen us before time began, that all these blessings would come down to us, to those who have faith.

But may you then complete that thought as Paul goes down and bend in knee, oh

Lord, may you fill them up today with the fullness of God. May you take hold of these doctrines that you see in chapters 1, 2, and 3.

May you go down and bend in knee, and may you join in the petition of Paul, oh that I would be filled with this in my life today.

May the actions that I do, may I see it as an opportunity for me to display the fullness of God that he's done for me in the gospel.

The crying babies, the annoying co -workers, the list goes on. May you turn the murmurings and the complainings of those things and say,

God, you have given me this love for you to display what you've done for me, the love that you've shared or shown to me.

This is how lofty, beautiful doctrines need to find its rest in our souls, in our hearts, to strengthen it in their man so that we can live a life, fullness of God, i .e.

godliness to our Christ, to our Savior who has done all things well.

Let us pray. Oh God in heaven, Lord, help us not to be a people in which we hear, we listen, we hear just enough so we can do well on the exam and then after the exam we forget everything we've learned.

Help us to know, God, that everything, all these doctrines, all these truths that even Paul lays out for us here, it all has a purpose that it would then have its way in our lives today to fill us up with the fullness of God.

Lord, how often I marvel at the hardness of my heart each morning as I get up.

I consider this life that you've given me not as a gift for me to be able to comprehend the love of Christ more in the day -to -day, but instead

I see it as curses, as things I must do. I grumble and I complain. Forgive me,

Lord, that I am so forgetful. But I'm thankful that you've given us prayer, you've given us the bend in knee, the earnestness going to prayer and bringing these petitions to you.

The one who's filled with power, the one who started this work of salvation in us, Lord, we are to continue relying upon you that you would fully reveal this life of salvation to us each day, that we would fully comprehend your strength in us.

God in heaven, for those who are weak before me today, for those, God, who have believed upon you and trusted upon you, but yet they aren't consistently looking to you for power to live the life of enjoyment, of fullness of you, may you reveal that to them now.

May they then, right now in this moment, start seeing the particulars of their life and they hear the petitions of Paul and they say, yes, this is for my good, this is for me to experience the fullness of God.

May they not then finish that thought with murmuring or complaining. We thank you for the means of your grace that you give us, the preaching of your word, the prayers, the singing, the

Lord's table, these are all to remind us of what Christ has done and is doing today in our weak souls to make us strong in the inner man by his spirit.

Thank you for being so kind to us in him. May we then worship him as a living sacrifice to our great