GOD DOES MORE THAN WE ASK OR IMAGINE (Outline)
April 3, 2011 - Lent 4 - EPHESIANS 3:14-21
INTRO: People pray knowing what they want. Too often we may pray with only our own interests in mind. Too often we ask and ask and ask for more and more for ourselves. It would or could be a great disaster if God gave us everything that we wanted. Thankfully our loving Lord answers with what we need rather than what we want. Rejoice that our Lord God Almighty knows our needs and perfectly provides. "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (MATTHEW 7:11). We will examine a powerful prayer of the apostle Paul. We are reminded:
GOD DOES MORE THAN WE ASK OR IMAGINE.
I. Christ dwells in our hearts. II. Faith grasps God’s great love.
I. GOD DOES MORE THAN WE ASK BY HAVING CHRIST DWELL IN OUR HEARTS.
A. Paul is in Rome in prison. His prayer is not for himself but for others.
1. Verse 14. Paul uses God’s great power to help the believers in Ephesus and beyond.
2. Verse 15. The believers were called Christians, followers of Christ and of God.
B. Verse 17a. Paul prays that Christ would live in the hearts of every believer. This is their faith.
1. Verse 16. God’s riches for the believers are the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is strength.
2. Faith is the Holy Spirit’s gift to these believers. Faith is Christ dwelling in their hearts.
C. Verse 18a. Paul uses the word “saints”. This word refers to believers in Christ everywhere.
1. This was of a great comfort for Paul. He was alone in Rome separated by hundreds of miles.
2. Paul did not feel alone. He was united with these believers by faith. Christ lived in them all.
D. The apostle Paul learned of God’s great power in a very dramatic way. Paul was traveling to Damascus to persecute the followers of the Way. The Lord stopped Paul in his tracks. The Lord dramatically changed this persecutor Saul into the apostle Paul. This is the miraculous power of God to convert any unbeliever into a believer. Every Christian has been changed just as miraculously and powerfully. To have Christ dwell in our hearts takes the divine power of the Lord God Almighty. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but be-cause of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (TITUS 3:4, 5). In baptism God washes us clean with the water and His Word. At baptism our gracious God snatches us from the grip of Satan and makes us members of his kingdom as his children.
E. Too many today try to make eternal salvation the crowning glory of ones’ efforts or works. Time and again God’s Word reminds us that left on our own we are lost and condemned creatures. Consider Adam and Eve. In their perfect world they made the wrong choice. They sinned. Eternity is so very important that God places this responsibility on himself. "To them (the saints) God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (COLOSSIANS 1:27). Christ dwells in our hearts . God’s glory mysteriously lives in us.
F. Only by grace alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone can anyone become a believer. Eternal salvation does not depend on our own desire or will. God gives each of us the gift of faith purely out of his divine, free grace. It is a mystery why God has saved us. We still sin. We still disobey. We still turn away from God. God still forgives. God still brings us back into his kingdom. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (EZEKIEL 36:26). Plant seed on a stone or rock and it will not grow. Birds of the air eat that seed. But plant the seed of the word of God in hearts of flesh and everything changes. Seed sown in hearts of flesh will take root, spring up, and bear abundant fruit.
GOD DOES MORE THAN WE ASK OR IMAGINE.
God’s grace and power works faith in hearts.
II. GOD DOES MORE THAN WE ASK WHEN FAITH GRASPS GOD’S GREAT LOVE
A. These verses of Ephesians are the heartfelt prayer of the prisoner, Paul. He prays for believers.
1. Paul does not pray for himself. He does not feel sorry for himself. He is innocent, yet in jail.
2. Verses 16, 17. These believers need to remember God’s great love for them,
B. Verse 18. God’s great love is wide, long, high, and deep. God’s love encompasses all things.
1. Verse 19a. Human knowledge cannot and does not understand God’s great love for the world.
2. Verse 19b. By faith be filled with the full knowledge of God. Grasp God’s great love for all.
C. Verse 20. God does more than any human can ask or imagine. This is God’s power in every believer.
1. Verse 21. Naturally, all praise, honor, and glory belongs to God forever and ever.
2. These two verses are God’s iron clad guarantee that what God says he does. We agree, amen.
D. God’s great love truly does surpass human understanding. We have faith in our hearts. Each time we hear God’s word that faith in our hearts grows. We also realize that a lifetime of hearing, reading, and studying God’s Word will only scratch the surface of understanding God’s great love. Thank God that the Lord gives us his grace to grow in faith to love him who first loved us. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 CORINTHIANS 8:9). Christ left the perfectness of heaven to live on this imperfect globe we call earth. The perfect Creator was put to death by imperfect creatures. Christ had everything and gave it all up. We who had nothing have everything, even the riches of heaven.
E. How can we fully understand the height and depth and width and length of God’s great love? God reveals his great love to us through his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord God Almighty reveals his love to us by not treating us as our sins deserve. "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (PSALM 103:11, 12). When God forgives he also forgets. This is not always true with human forgiveness. We can find in difficult to forget. God’s love forgives, forgets our sins.
F. How great is God’s love for each and every one of us. God sacrificed his Son so that we would live with him forever in heaven. Christ died for us willingly. Christ died for the sins of the whole world. The death of Christ only makes a difference in the life of believers who know God’s great love. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me"(GALATIANS 2:20). Christ died for us. This is God’s great love. Do you know of anyone that you would sacrifice your life for? Or do you know of anyone that would be willing to die for you? Such is the greatness of God’s love to die for us and even for his enemies. God does not ask if we deserve to be forgiven. God sent his Son to take our punishment.
CONC: How very true that GOD DOES IMMEASURABLY MORE THAN ALL WE ASK OR IMAGINE. Our prayers may underestimate God’s power and God’s great love for us sinners. Too often we selfishly pray for what we want for ourselves here and now for this life. God wants us to have all that we need forever in heaven. Be thankful and rejoice that our Lord God Almighty freely gives us what we need rather than we our sinful nature wants. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (JAMES 1:17). Christ dwells in our hearts so that our lives may grasp God’s great love for us and others. GOD DOES IMMEASURABLY MORE THAN ALL WE ASK OR IMAGINE. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
LENT 4 rdgs:
HOSEA 5:15-6:3;
ROMANS 8:1-10;
MATTHEW 20:17-28; (
PSALMS 42-43)
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