Bill Nye, “I’m a speck, on a speck, orbiting a speck, among other specks, among still other specks, in the middle of specklessness. I am nothing. I am insignificant. I s….”
God’s Word says we are not specks! We are saints among other saints, in a world God created, in a marvelous mystery God is now revealing, to people and angels, in the church. We are something. We are God’s workmanship made significant by the riches of His grace which He lavishes upon us. (Ephesians 1-3)
The theology of Ephesians 1-3 lifts our souls in spontaneous praise (doxology) and that is exactly what happens at the end of Ephesians 3. Paul takes the church to greater heights in his prayer.
- Praying for inner strength by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 3:16, “...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”
• The key to inner strength is in v17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
- Praying for comprehension of Christ’s love.
Ephesians 3:17, “… that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…”
• D.A. Carson, “Paul clearly assumes that Christians do not adequately appreciate the love of Christ. He now wants them to have the power to grasp just how great the love of Christ is.”
• John Stott, “It needs the whole people of God to understand the whole love of God.”
- Praying for the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:19, “...that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.”
• Adam Clarke, “To be FILLED with God is a great thing; to be filled with the FULLNESS of God is still greater; but to be filled with ALL the fullness of God utterly bewilders the sense and confounds the understanding.”
• Fullness here refers to full maturity.
• This prayer points to the ultimate goal of Christian maturity – to be conformed to the image of Christ.
CONCLUSION
• R.A. Torrey, “Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power.”
Ephesians 3:20 (NASB), “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
A 7-fold Doxology:
- God is able to do.
- God is able to do all that we ask.
- God is able to do what we think.
- God is able to do all that we think.
- God is able to do above all that we ask or think.
- God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think.
- God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
Hymn by Annie Johnson Flint
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
.jpg)
