in ephesians 3 verse 14
we'll be looking at ephesians 3:14 through 19 today and i know you've been in the book of ephesians
So you understand the context of this
But he says 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?
Lord please open this up to us and help us understand this passage this morning
By the power of your almighty, holy, spirit in jesus name amen
This, passage is very much, about the holy spirit and his power and the power he can
Give you, but typically, when i think holy
Spirit i think power its power to do this power to do that power to perform miracles
Power to change people's lives and yet here he's talking about something different
He's talking, about this this inner power for us a strength that he gives us a power that he, gives us
So that we can know and understand the love of christ
Which is beyond knowledge and at the very end if so that
you could be filled with all the fullness of god
Now the goal is clear that the goal here is is is the goal that i've had for you and i have from my
own life
it's to be filled with all the fullness of god right, we just want to be
Full i mean you know
We preach against being shallow right that's the opposite of being full or being empty and sometimes in our lives
We feel empty and we would look at in people's lives in the ganache it seems like, he or she has a very shallow
Relationship with, god it's there's not a depth to it and there's other times you look
in someone's life and go wow he or she gets it they're just full of the spirit full of this fullness of god
they're
Filled with it and and and in this passage you understand at the very end he says so that
You, may be filled to all of everything he says is towards this end goal
All of this is so that, we wouldn't be shallow? That, we wouldn't live empty lives?
But that when people looked at us they saw
A fullness a fullness of god a depth in us and the very core of our being
And that's why i says so that in a few times he says, so that so it's his progression
Like he gets on his knees and he prays to god he, bowels before god why, so that christ might
Dwell in their hearts, why, so that
They might!
Be rooted and grounded in love and why, is that so that you can know
This love of christ, why, is that so that
At the end you're just a, some ature complete person and you're filled with the fullness of christ
And and what i learned from this, is that?
If you notice in this passage
Paul is dealing with the inner man
he's dealing with heart issues and this is one of my regrets i think that a lot of times i
didn't
To the heart of the issue and i would deal with the symptoms or the
byproducts
click right now i have a cold
Okay, and so i drink my equal every night i just do you know i don't even use the little cap
Thing i just you guys, do that it's like i'm cool, my, bottle cap fold you know and it just puts
Me out to sleep you know
Because the symptoms is i coughed and whatever alice it but nyquil takes care of all of that and and i'm you know
Sucking on you know. Cough drops, even during, worship i'm just you know. Cough drops blowing, my nose
Dealing with it but but but probably, what i need to do is eat some vegetables
You know and and work on the core the overall health and so my body can actually fight
Off this thing but instead you know. Night was fine and it just gets me through the night and
And and when i i look at?
Ministry i i think a lot of times i would look at external issues like
man
Why, don't you serve, why, don't you give more, why, don't you
Do you, love the people in your neighborhood, why, don't you share your faith you know, why, do you, keep looking at pornography
Why, don't you, guys just get along, why, do you guys, keep fighting in your marriage, why are you holding on to all this stuff
Why, you know, you're so greedy and you just want more and more and more see but
These are all symptoms of a deeper heart, issue of you don't understand how. Much you have in jesus christ
You, don't understand this love
relationships if you
Don't understand if you understand who it is that loves you
And how much he loves you if you got that you look at
Your stuff and go i don't care i don't care about this i don't care, about that
And then it's at the poor, issue paul prays for that it goes man i'm praying for your inner man
not these external things
Not these, physical things not these, symptoms but there's something
About the core of your being because if you really understood the love of christ you would with great, joy
sell everything you have and go man i gotta have, this love of
jesus, and
And as i looked i go, well?
The problem is we don't understand how. Good god is?
And some of us in this room don't understand the love of god like, we should and the depth of that
How wide and long, and high and people kind of do
We kind of get it and so, we kind of follow?
And if we really understood?
Yeah, we would?
It changes us. And that's the miracle that paul's praying for here is
Not a miracle of a. Physical healing
Or, some manifestation that way but of your the core of your being that you would understand this love
and
paul
Prayed for this
Because he note he knew there, was nothing he could, do
physically
To, cause this to make it happen
see him, while i see some of the things i did wrong, was that paul dealt with the heart and
Really got to the core and sometimes i dealt with, symptoms the other thing, was paul
really, committed to pray
Whereas i often time committed to work and try harder and maybe i can, craft the perfect
Sermon or maybe through this
counseling session i would really get it across or this program and and i need to confess that to you, that i
Look, at this passage i go i did not pray hard enough for you the beautiful thing
Is that i think i've been praying harder for you
This, week than when i was actually living here and the beautiful thing, is that this can
still happen, and
i praise
God for that that i could get on my knees and i i picture your faces and oh god i want them to get?
The depth of your love and i want them to understand see chris paul notice what, he
Says he goes for this reason i bow, my knees i get on my knees and then that's not the only, way?
That we pray i mean there are other times in scripture when, someone stands and prays other times when they're?
Sitting and then they pray but there's something
About bowing getting on your knees and we it's it's do in our culture?
We don't bow. Before anyone you know in their culture they, did they would bow, before kings bow
Before monarch but but, maybe it's a good thing that, we don't bow. Before people
So that this, is the one instance in which we do?
You know it's not like all we bow before a king without for this guy, we bow before god no?
We don't really bow for anyone
But but this is pretty cool, don't we see we could do this gesture
This is this posture of prayer where, we just get on our knees and say? Okay i've met my match
That is not even a?
Clue i surrender, who in the world am i i am getting on my knees i'm getting on my
Face you're almighty god i bow before you and paul says and i bow before this is the reason you wonder, why
Bow, he, was i'm bowing on your behalf i'm bowing in prayer
For you for this reason i bow
My knees before the father from every family and heaven on earth his name and i'm bali
Before the creator of everyone i'm bound
Before our god the one that saved us and gave us his name christian
You know that we've all taken on this name no matter what background
Denomination you came from yeah you know the bottom line, is right now
You really take on the name of christ, and we've become a part of this family, we bow, before him and he says according
To the riches of his, glory he may grant you see that's like such a key word there that
He may grant you to be strengthened
see paul understood this it was something that god does grants to a person i
can't i no matter how hard i work i can't make you
Understand and how much jesus loves you, god has to
supernaturally, do that by the power of his holy spirit and
As someone you just get it and in while we waver in and out of that it's it's the holy?
spirit that keeps you getting it
It's granted to you and it happens through prayer that
means if you come in here and you do not love jesus christ and
you, do not understand that jesus christ really loves you i
Am not gonna talk to you into that right now
It's something god's gonna just do and that's why i polished it i think it on my knees
It's like this, well when lisa and i lived in simi valley we always? Had people living with us and
We had this one gal that lived with us a long time
rochelle and
so, we tried to marry her off and
And we would always this kind of fun to us?
We try to set her up even all our kids prayed then rochelle, would get married you know. And we were just
We try to set her up with some of you you know it was just you you know
And some guys are nodding your heads and it's just like
Anything you know and it was like hey michelle we got a plumber coming over they he's single you know
After he fixes sink come out with cookies you know, and i'll go holler so you're always baking you know
You're, not at the gym or praying you're baking yeah. Oh what a great wife you'll be you know. And and?
You know we'd embarrass the heck out of her you know
But just always trying to set her up and you know it's like, hey
What do you think of rochelle you know and it's great isn't she don you're, gonna marry her you know and and you know
And it's sometimes you know
They, be like i know, she's she's nice she's nice you know, where sometimes rochelle would go he's fine he's nice
But, we can't, make, them fall in love right
It's like it's just these are there now she ended up falling in love on her own. You know, and i'm getting married
and she's pregnant now great great you know, but um
But it's it's almost like that, where
It's the same thing here i can't make you fall in love with. Jesus i can, make the introduction
okay, you can, walk in this room and i can, tell you listen god
the creator of the world the only one that matters
he so
loves you
More than your wife more than your kids 1 your mom your, dad any friend any girlfriend
Boyfriend he's crazy, about you so loved the world so much that he gave
His son and do you understand how
Wicked you were how much you rebelled
Against him he loved you in the midst of that while you were a sinner he gave
His son can
You, believe that his son and he watched his son on a cross i mean
Who, does that what kind of love, is that watches
His son die for someone else and then his son
Rises from the grave after being buried for 3. Days he just gets up
By the power of the spirit, and he's just talking and you know
A sense back into heaven, and then he can
Put his spirit inside of you he'll change everything, what an amazing. God and some of you, ago
That's nice?
and i can, make that introduction and
Seriously nothing
Will happen until
Somehow here like paul says
The holy, spirit gives you, a strength
to know
To know an interesting phrase that you may know
the love of
Christ that surpasses knowledge
He lets you know something that you can't know
You get to a depth of this real
understanding your inner man
there's knowledge
If god loves us, oh?
He loves us and we sing these, songs with his depth and this understanding of all i get that, oh?
how he loves us
See i can, make the introduction but for you to get that love
That happens as i get on my knees and pray for this and say god would you grant this
to them
Because if they got your love
They, wouldn't love, their sins so much
If they got your love they, wouldn't fight with, each other
You, realize, there has never been never in the history of this earth a
spirit-filled couple that has divorced
never
So the issue is not about. His knees or her needs or love languages or this or that the issue is
somehow
As individuals you don't understand the love of jesus
you, don't understand him you don't get him, you've been filled with, that love and
So that's, why, you start fighting and arguing
Quarreling it's because of that emptiness
If you, want that other person to fill it all goes back to the sea that's the core, issue i think about how
Many, hours i've wasted
Counseling in marriages when it really, wasn't about the marriage and
It's like now you don't really understand how. Much god loves you, do you
You, don't really understand this love of christ that surpasses knowledge to you you understand how
Much you, would just be filled just in him to where you'd be overflowing and so you need this and need
This, from other people so let
me just get on my knees and pray that you would really understand the love of christ that you'd be
Strengthened into the in the inner man
not the outer
And we all understand the outer uses something i've spent a lot of time this morning looking at the outer man or out a woman
Fixing it up looking right and everything else and how much time but you spend on that inner man
Just praying now it's about, my soul, my soul is ugly right now
And i want this i need this love of christ to get it
So, we work and we work and we work?
Man's do something
Because it's, about knowing the love of christ that surpasses knowledge
are you sure
right now
are you sure
don't quickly answer this one
Don't nod your head this is just between you and god no one needs to know. You can, keep the facade going
But between you and god are you sure right now
That jesus christ is crazy, about you
Are you a hundred percent sure
Not that he so loves the world
But that he soul ups you as an individual do you can
You really come with that type of security before god and go i know i know before on a shadow of a doubt that you
love, me or is there a part of you that's insecure i don't know i
think, he loves me i
Never told it my little life has been a part of this church
But right now
Was i have to confess to you, that i go in and out of this sometimes
and there have been times as i look, back i go because the lord is revealing to me that i
Minister to some of these symptoms because i have some of these issues
and and
There are times i'm so sure of the love of christ, that he loves me and i can sing that, oh how
He loves me but the way that i wandered the way that i am prone to wander is i wandered toward?
Insecurity and i wander back toward trying to earn it somehow and i thank you guys have seen some of that pattern in my life
and
So, no doubt that reflection is gonna come into some of your lives too
Of this coming in and out?
Of this assurance and so i gotta, ask. You again right now
Are you, sure that god loves you
a
Friend of mine was just sharing, about his
Own life just yesterday and he he quoted a verse that i preached two years ago but, i haven't preached in a long time it's
It's john 15 9, where we're before, we even turned there let, me, ask you something
How much do you think god the father loves his son
To, try, to try to imagine that
Just right now how much you think right now. God the father loves jesus
Pretty, good amount pretty much a perfect, love right
That's why, john 15 9 is one of the most
difficult passages for some of us like me
to, embrace
Because in john 15 9. Jesus, says just as the father has loved me
So have i loved you
Know remain in that love
Think, about that just as
In so much as in the same way as the father loves you, that's how. Much you love, me
come on
Shouldn't the verse rain just as the father has loved me
cut that in half
You know or 1/3 or i'm if that's the way i feel sometimes right
Yeah, you you some of you hear that verse i mean you
Some of you guys get the love of god and praise, god for that i am so grateful for your not learn from
Some of you but some of you struggle like i do and believing that first and going, no way
That much as
Much as the father loves you
That's what you think of me?
And it's even going back to the john 3:16 that god so i thought i had that word so
I believe he loves but soul of the world, like, that much jesus i believe you loved
Me but just as the father loves, me yeah that's
why for us to comprehend that i cannot physically
Comprehend that it is a knowledge and it's a love that i can't know
Just physically i can't just study and know that i can't just say you know
Check it off on an exam something has to happen through the power of the holy spirit to where i get it
It's a power that it's a strength that is required for us to get love of god and that only comes through the holy
spirit and
So, we try try, try many of you you know, talk to me and you say, hey how can i help my husband
Understand the love of god how can i share with
My friend at work to get the love of god and every time i touch i come here that's the million-dollar question
You, can't you can't make, someone else fall in love
But unlike a, physical relationship and this one you can, actually pray like paul doesn't get on his knees on behalf of that person
and
so i say you know i i
do know that god loves me and
There have been times and there are periods when i am so secure in that and
there are other times when i am not, and
that's me
Different people have different issues this is mine and i also realize i have not prayed
About that issue as much when i pray for the power of the holy spirit
i
Pray for times like, this god give me a power so that i can impact other people's lives that i'd love
Empower, me gift me for the common good these are all biblical good prayers
And yet i've neglected this one in my, own life and for that for others i don't pray enough, okay?
God now in how were me strengthen, me so that i can understand your love for me and
Empower these people in this room whom i love
Strengthen them right now, by the power of your holy, spirit so that they can know your love and rest
securing it
Security that's what i'm praying for this morning
security
Debating without i share something is it's kind of weird but i think i'm supposed to share it yesterday
Yesterday i woke up with a, weird weird dream you know
You have you, wake up in the mid and you normally don't remember
Your dreams but i remembered mine from yesterday yesterday morning i woke dup, woke up it was a
weird one of those dreams that didn't make sense i am i
Was playing with a
Buddy, of mine jesse and we're competing in something and he was winning which right then i should have known it was a dream and
But it you knows. How. Suddenly you're in a room, and then suddenly it's
Weird like that you were actually in an airplane you know
But you thought it was a room, like this and you're playing basketball, and suddenly he says, hey, you know let's go to my
Uncle's and get some avocados and the innocent you know. How. Random things and but it makes sense in your dream you know
oh, yeah of course avocados, would come next and
and
Then he opens, the door like it would've been, like, this, door and that's when i found out
Why, were is in midair you know in an airplane and he has this yellow
Backpack thing, and he's getting ready to jump out. And throws one to me and
Then he's like, you know so i strap this thing on and and i'm going, what is this is a parachute didn't look?
Like a parachute you know with, some crazy, weird yellow
Backpack thing and he goes just trust, me i'm like, where do i go
Where do i pull and he just jumps out of the plane and he start stumbling backwards and i just remember, going there i?
Know this thing works i don't know
he's like trust, me but i think jesse he says that all the time and he's that wrong at the time you know i
Don't know i don't know, what do i pull something, what do i do and right then i woke up you know, oh?
good good you know i
Don't know if you ever do this when you, wake up and you think, okay cuz
you're, so confused in the dream then you figure out the solution and
And so i think okay, okay, and you try, jump, back in the dream cuz
they're, still early in the morning, so i'm gonna fall back asleep, and dream that the parachute worked and and
But i never could fall back, asleep, yeah it's tranquil
it's just
But but, but it's it's it's, uh
But but then, i woke up and i just kept thinking, about that dream yesterday morning and in the car
Case, was there a point to it you know
Um nothing on a big dream guy, whatever but it's whatever it whatever the point then it probably, wasn't anything
What i got from it was?
There's some things you don't, want to screw around with
you're, right
And i woke up because there, was just this nervousness of i am about to risk my life
Jumping out not sure if this is a backpack or a. Parachute
And not sure if i'm gonna figure out on the way down
What to pull because there were no straps or there were no instructions there was nothing and?
And i share that because you know, what this this thing, about the love of christ and the
security is
Is is not something, we mess around with right
you, don't want to go i think he loves me i
think i get the love of christ i
i think i understand his grace
it's something, we all want to be secure and right and and i apologize if i
because i
I'm still growing in this area in a big way
in a big way
Not a little way and i you guys know i confess, my stuff to you
but i i don't think i really understood the depth of this one of
how, my insecurity can then come out and
some of the results of that it can be
pushed on to other people and
And when i don't really get the security at times then, i will minister out of insecurity and?
Treat symptoms rather than the heart issue
And so even right now, my tendency, would be to?
Try to fix everything with the sermon, and what i learned from this is you you don't do that?
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