Thursday, March 6, 2014

another sermon I wrote a few years back...


Ephesians 3:14-21

Laura and I met many years before we dated, not because there was no spark, but because the kindling and logs hadn’t yet been gathered and set into place. Neither of us were ready yet. In fact, Laura never even considered me because I was not what Laura thought she needed and, truth be told, she was not what I thought I needed either. Now, after almost ten years of marriage, I can truly say that she is more than I could have asked or imagined. I didn’t know what I needed, but God did, and I am forever grateful. 

PRAY (End prayer with scripture)

Ephesians 3:20,21
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.


I have always used these verses in isolation when looking at my life, and while I believe there is truth here even if taken as a small chunk, I found something much deeper as I studied the chapter this week. So I started my study thinking that I would focus on how God can and has already given us more than we could ask or imagine and that it would many times be hard to see because of the simple fact that it was “more than we could ask or think.” I wanted to preach that we simply needed to look at our lives from that perspective in order to see it. We needed to ask ourselves questions like “How is my wife more than I could ever ask or imagine? How is my situation more than I could ever ask or imagine?” but as I read the chapter preceding these verses, I realized I would only be creating a “Self Help” list. While I think that it is good to see things from this perspective, and should be something to strive for, a push in this direction would only leave us feeling defeated after trying to maintain something that our hearts couldn’t support. This isn’t something that comes naturally, and as it is with all heavenly mindsets, unless it was able to come from some place deep within, it would eventually be forgotten. What I found this week, was that the point that Paul is making here is much deeper than pushing myself into a certain mindset, it’s much bigger than that, it’s a transformation inside my very soul. 

These verses are the cumulative ending of a prayer that the ESV titles “Prayer for Spiritual Strength”. As a former English teacher and a writer, I see these two verses as a conclusion statement from Paul. I can almost see him reading over this section of his letter to be sure that the last line summed everything up and gave it the punch he was looking for. This means that if we are to fully understand his intent, we need to back up a few verses to see his heart.

Ephesians 3:14-16
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 -

Paul is praying for the people of Ephesus. They were the model church who really understood the Gospel, and as such, they were beginning to realize what he called the “Mystery of the Gospel” and were finding that the impact of this unveiling was demanding a response both personally and communally. What they were discovering was so counter-culture and contrary that they needed strength. This Gospel was for both Jews and Gentiles and thus called them to love those that they always thought they should hate. This Gospel was calling them to give even when their culture told them to hoard, to worship one God instead of many and to put others before themselves. This Gospel was requiring the impossible.

So as not to get lost in the trap that would lead us to claim cultural irrelevancy on account that most of us are not anti any race or people group, lets look beyond the outward manifestations (symptoms) and look at the real disease that was in their hearts... and in ours as well. 

Maybe I feel personal superiority in my abilities at work or in how I am able to keep up with the style police even on a modest budget. Maybe I am a better mother or keep my house cleaner. Maybe I am going through a trial that I don’t think I deserve because of what a good person I am. This list can be endless, but really ends in one place. We lack something in our “inner being” and we are trying to find significance in order to make up for what we lack.

I see this in my three year old as he learns that he is able to do more and more. “Daddy, I have three shirts on today!”
“That’s awesome!! But I would go take off two of them because it’s pretty hot outside and you are going to be very uncomfortable.” 
To this response, he whines about wanting to wear them because he knows that he needs these three shirts and usually I don’t argue, and I let him discover the fallacy of his thought process. His desire is not to disobey directly, but rather to display to me that he knows more than I do and to make himself feel powerful and significant.

Just like my three year old, our need causes us to want to prove that we know better than the God who made us. When our attitudes toward God shift to this prideful way of thinking, weakness is revealed that manifests itself through our thoughts and actions. We need to see others as lesser, or we need to see ourselves as undeserving of our circumstances because on a very deep level, we don’t really know what to want. This attitude stems from the garden of eden where we turned our backs on God and only later realized that we couldn’t never make it on our own.

The problem is not that we desire, but that we desire without direction of what to desire. We know there is something we need, but aren’t sure what it is, so we grab on to things that seem to work. Maybe it’s a feeling of superiority, maybe it’s being the best at what we do every day, or maybe it’s the pursuit of that special someone. These are all things that can be pursued and provide focus while we are in pursuit, but once they are attained, they are not enough. Paul is telling us that the pursuit of the love of Christ is the only that has no end and is the only thing that will be enough.

Matthew 20:30-34 
And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

It must’ve been awesome to see Jesus heal and even better to be healed, but I wonder what happened to those people who were directly healed by the hand of Jesus as they continued on living life. Some may have forgotten about the one who healed them while others may have pursued him and as a result become changed on a deeper level forever. The difference is in the answer to Jesus’ question. “What do you want me to do for you?” We are not wrong in praying for love, healing, or to be removed from a bad situation, but once these prayers are answered, we are always left to face another new situation. I think a better answer to the question of “What do you want me to do for you?” is the answer that Paul provides.
Paul’s prayer is for us to be “strengthened with power through his spirit in our inner being.” He wants us to know that the spirit who is already at work will continue to work inside our hearts, tearing out our rebelliousness and replacing it with his strength.

Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, had a good friend and assistant by the name of Friedrich Myconius. In 1540, Myconius became sick and was expected to die shortly. On his deathbed he wrote a tender farewell message to Luther. When Luther read the message, he immediately sent a reply: “I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church. The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.” When Luther’s reply came, Myconius had already lost the ability to speak but soon recovered from his illness, and lived six more years. He finally died two months after Luther did.

This was a prayer for the impossible, that was seen as possible through the eyes of someone with a heart that had been transformed through the power of the Gospel. It is bold, it is almost offensive, but it is a perfect example of how “spiritual strength” is the root of what we need in order to receive more than all that we ask or think.

Let’s look at that memory verse again
Ephesians 3:20,21
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.

When someone moves into your house or apartment, it usually starts with them bringing in the basics. Bed, nightstand, dresser, desk, and of course bicycle. There will probably be a different car in your driveway. But over time, you notice that the silverware drawer has some new stuff. The bathroom countertop is slowly filling up and eventually, the house shows evidence of the new person in every corner. Sometimes this causes painful conversation as we feel that they may be overstepping their bounds. Other times (as hopefully it is with a spouse) this is welcomed until the entire house is filled with the presence of the person you love. This is what it means for Christ to “Dwell” in our hearts. Paul is saying that as the spirit strengthens us, Christ will take up permanent residence. It is because of this that we can be strengthened in our inner being. As we stop resisting and start embracing his presence, Christ becomes the dominating factor of who we are. 

How does this dwelling and subsequent strengthening happen? 

Ephesians 3:17
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - 

It happens through faith.

It is only by having faith that he is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do and loves the way he says and displays that he loves that we will gain strength. 
Here’s where most people give up. We have been in too many conversations where someone says something like “well, that’s where faith comes in...” or “this is one of those areas where you just have to believe...” Though these statements are often true, I think they leave us with an unanswered question that is like someone handing you a bowl of unset jello and expects you to be satisfied. 

But this isn’t an unfinished or unanswered concept. Belief in Christ’s work on the cross is to believe that somewhere inside our souls, we have an empty place. In the church we recognize that emptiness as the wall created between us and God because of our desire to make it on our own. In effect, we have rebelled against our loving creator who made us. Our faith is one that recognizes our inability to fill that empty place in our hearts no matter how hard we try, but it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that takes an impossible situation and provides an answer that that same loving God that we turned our backs on provides for us. The gospel message is the act of the creator God of everything seen and unseen sending his own son out of love for us, and a desire to see us restored to a relationship with him. It is this same God who allowed his son to be killed on a cross to provide payment for the situation that our rebelliousness had caused and that because of this, we can actually know the God who created the universe. An awareness of this unexplainable love is the beginning of what then becomes a process of strengthening in your “inner being” as Christ dwells in your heart.

Like loving your spouses’ presence in your home, having Christ dwell within you as a welcome guest can only happen through deep conversation with your Savior. I think that when we first believe, it is easy to feel satisfied. It’s like getting to know someone for the first time. Like a first date. Conversation is moderately surfacy, but still exciting. We are still in a state of shock that this person is actually interested in us, and are reveling in the fact that our admiration is reciprocated. But as we continue in the relationship, we need to start being able to read behind the lines of that person’s facade before intimate closeness becomes reality. Getting to really know them takes time. It takes asking good questions and accepting the answers that make us uncomfortable. 

Unlike human relationships however, conversation with God must necessarily be accompanied by scripture or it is simply a one-way conversation. Without accompanying my prayers with the word of God I am talking “at” God instead of engaging in dialogue with him. Without the scriptures, there is no way I can know what to pray for or be sure that it is “his voice” when he speaks. Like Fred talked about last week, I am finding that the more I know his word, the more that his “word dwells in me richly”, the more my love for God is enriched and strengthened. The more I love Him, the more I am able to see others the way he sees them and in turn am able to love them more like he loves. This is why this is much bigger than just seeing our lives and situations from a different perspective. This is an ongoing thing that has to stem from the heart to be permanent, or like any good new-years resolution, it soon goes the way of the dinosaur. There is a strengthening in my inner being that results in Christ taking up residence, and this is where life is different, my perspective modified, and the I am changed. 
Let’s continue on with verse 18
Ephesians 3:18,19
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 which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

As I am filled, I become rooted and grounded in love, just like Christ. The impossible becomes possible. Paul even says “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge”. To know that which surpasses knowledge is a contradictory statement. It is an impossibility, but I am learning that God works best in the places I think are impossible, to show me the possibility that lies within my finite definition of impossible. If I internalize and believe in the possibility of this impossibility, I am told that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. How exciting is it to see something like this in the scriptures! To know that eternal life is just another plus of the Gospel! That at this very moment, you and I are being filled with the fullness of God! Think about that for a moment and all it’s implications. The fullness of God is his character and his character is personified in Jesus. This means that as we get to know the Jesus of the bible more and more that we actually become more and more like him! Now that is more than I could ever ask or think!

Now Paul’s closing statement. A statement that we could end all of our prayers with as we push forward believing in a God who knows that whatever we pray for won’t even scratch the surface of what he has in store for us. A God who knows us better than we know ourselves and has promised to fill us with all of his fullness according to his riches in Glory (which is again more than we can imagine!)

Let’s look at that memory verse again.

Ephesians 3:20,21
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.

So what do we take away from today?
  1. Do I really believe that he can do more than I can ask or think? The easy answer is yes, but we need to test ourselves and ask the second question.
  2. What is my current desire? Is it a desire for success or love, or maybe just that I would be a good parent or student. If I find that these are the dominating desires in my heart, I am putting a limit on what God can do. 

Let’s change our prayers this week to reflect a heart that longs for Christ to dwell within us and to strengthen our inner being. Let’s pray that through his presence we may be grounded in the love of Christ and may be filled with the fullness of God. It is an impossible prayer, but through the work of the cross, it can become a reality.

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