Filled with the Fullness of God
Ephesians 3:14-21
Intro
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Do you ever feel that you just can’t do what God wants you to do?
I mean, you know what He wants, but it is just too hard.
Have you ever felt that way?
I am sure we all have at times.
I know Paul has and he knows that the Ephesians have as well.
That is why Paul is about to pray for the Ephesians for the second time in this letter.
If you remember last week’s message, I spoke about how Paul was just about to pray for the Ephesians, but paused to talk about the administration of God’s grace through him and we learned how God wants to administrate his grace through us as well in the gifts He has given each one of us.
And now, Paul, having finished telling them about that grace given to him, returns again to pray for them for the second time.
In Paul’s first prayer for the Ephesians, Paul prayed for them to be enlightened, to know God more. We find that prayer in
Ephesians 1:17-19
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17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
In this second prayer, in our text today in Ephesians, 3:14-21
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Paul prays for their enablement so they can accomplish the things that the Lord wants them to do and the life that the Lord wants them to live, a life worthy of the calling they have that Paul is going to outline for them in the last half of his letter.
So let’s read Paul’s prayer so that the Ephesians and you and I will be enabled to live the life worthy of our calling.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Pray
Ok, so this prayer of Paul’s for the Ephesians is just what I think Christians in America need.
Much of our experience, or lack of experience, of Christ’s fullness in our lives is a result of lacking the things that Paul is praying for the Ephesians.
So what are these things that he prays for so that the Ephesians, as well as us, can experience the fullness of God?
Well,
To start he emphasizes what he has been talking about throughout the first part of this letter.
And that is our need to be united in Christ.
To be filled with the fullness of God, we need to be United as Family with Christ
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Ephesians 3:14-15
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
Who is “his whole family in heaven and on earth”?
It is those who have been “adopted” as he tells us in Ephesians 1, into his family.
It is those who have received Him, who have believed in the name of Christ, as John tells us in John 1:12, that are children of God.
So it begins with trusting and receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, but it goes beyond just that to being united in the body of Christ, the church.
So have you received Jesus as your Savior?
Are you part of the family of God?
And are you united together with His family as part of the church?
Those things, receiving Christ and connecting with a church are absolutely essential if you are going to be filled with the fullness of God in your life.
There is no hope apart from that.
Be united as family with Christ by receiving him and taking steps to connect to a church and to truly be part of the church.
Illustration – VBS serving
And if you think that serving in the church can’t possibly bring joy and fullness of Christ into your life, ask those who spent this past week serving at our VBS.
We had people coming and serving all week long, some taking vacation from work to be here. And it was an awesome time. It was not only a great time for the kids, but I will tell you that those who served were blessed as well.
Serving is what connects you to the church and to others in the church, not just attending or being on a membership list.
Connect and serve along with the body of Christ and begin to be filled with the fullness of God.
Transition
A second thing we see is that
To be filled with the fullness of God,
we need to Focus on our Spiritual Self
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Ephesians 3:16-17a
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
What Paul doesn’t pray for
I think it is important to notice what he doesn’t pray for.
He doesn’t pray for their outer being for physical health.
He doesn’t pray for a change in their circumstances
He doesn’t pray that out of God’s riches that they may be materially rich.
He doesn’t pray for any of those things. Now, I am not saying that at times, that it is wrong to pray for our physical or material needs, but I think it is far more important to pray for and focus on our spiritual self.
So let’s think about this a second.
If an improving and growing spiritual life has more to do with us being filled with the fullness of God than an improving physical life, let’s ask how much time we spend on improving our spiritual selves vs. our physical selves.
How much time do you spend getting ready for your day?
Showering, shaving, working out, picking out nice clothes, going shopping, getting our hair done, etc.
Now believe me when I say, I want you showering and taking care of your physical selves, but I think it is helpful for us to compare the time we spend on our outward appearance and the time we spend growing spiritually.
How much time are you spending praying, studying God’s word, meditating on God’s word, talking to others about what God is doing in your life or asking them what God is doing in their life?
If a growing spiritual relationship with the Lord is more important for us in experiencing being filled to the fullness of God, then we should be spending at least as much time caring for our inner, spiritual life as we do for our outer physical life, shouldn’t we?
Apply
So if we are not, what should we do?
Take a step,
Start a reading plan – begin a reading plan on your smart phone.
I will give you a reading plan to start.
Set a side a set time to pray. Get up 15 minutes early. Turn off the radio in your car and pray.
Listen to the Bible on your car ride or train ride.
Make a decision and plan out how you are going to fill it and pray to be strengthened with power in your inner self.
If you do not consciously take steps to focus on a growing spiritual life, it will not happen.
Mowing the lawn - Illustration
Consciously make a decision and take a step to focus on your spiritual life.
That is what is going to help you to be strengthened with Power so that Christ may continually dwell and strengthen you through faith.
But it is not just being strengthened in our spiritual self by faith that is going to help us experience being filled to the fullness of God, but
To be filled with the fullness of God,
we need to Grasp God’s Limitless Love
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Ephesians 3:17b-19
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Here Paul speaks of the limitless love of the Lord.
The Ephesians that Paul is writing to have already understood the gospel message, and that the Lord loved them enough to send His one and only Son to pay for their sins by dying on the cross.
But now, Paul wants them to grow in truly grasping, knowing inside of themselves, the love God had for them so that they would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
When better grasp God’s great love for us, we are strengthened to live in light of that love.
So, how do we realize His love more?
I think we realize his love more when we grow in our knowledge of our own self and better recognize our need for Christ.
What does that mean?
It means, that when we truly look at our lives, examining our motives, looking at our desires, seeing our own selfishness and pride, we see in greater ways our own depravity, and recognize in greater ways our own need for a savior, and realize more and more the depth of God’s love for us when we recognize how truly unlovable we are!
Illustration – False summit
Let me try and illustrate this.
Have any of you ever been on a hike up a pretty large mountain. Not necessarily even a real mountain that you need to use ropes, but just a regular mountain.
For those in Ecuador or if you have ever hiked up Camelback in Arizona you can know what I mean.
When you are on a hike and you keep looking at the top seeing how far you have to go, and then when you get to what you thought was the top on this journey, you realize that it was a false summit. It in fact is not the top but it is all you could see at that time and you have much further to go.
Apply illustration
Early on in my Christianity, I want to tell you that what I could see of myself at that point did not look all that bad. Of course I recognized that I was a sinner and needed a Savior, but I did not think I was that bad of a person, at least compared to others.
But as I journeyed with the Lord and he grew me, I began to see the reality of my own sinfulness and how truly it is much more than we ever thought.
I saw the sin of my thought life, and selfishness and impure motives!
What I thought was only a small mountain of sin in my life, turned out to be only a false summit when I grew in my understanding of sin and of my life. As I realized more of my own sinfulness, I grasped in greater ways how much God truly loved me.
Oh how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ!
And as we recognize His unbelievably great and limitless love for us, His love fills us more and we are empowered in greater ways to continue on in our journey experiencing the fullness of God more and more!
And as we realize His great love, we are less prone to live for ourselves and our own pride, but to give the glory for our lives to the Lord.
To be filled with the fullness of God,
we need to Give God the Glory
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And that is what Paul ends his prayer with. It is a great benediction to truly recognize Who it is that empowers and enables us to live life fully!
Ephesians 3:20-21
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
It is a recognition of the power that the fullness of God brings into our lives and the purpose of his filling us and enabling us to do what He wills and works through us.
It is for God’s glory!
And as we recognize that, as we live for His glory, He fills us even more and uses us in even greater ways.
Conclusion
Are you being filled with the fullness of God?
No, you are not.
How do I know, because we never fully are filled, and we leak even when we are being filled.
So we need to continually
be uniting with the family of God through the church
focusing on our spiritual self to grow in Christ
realizing our own sinfulness to grasp in greater ways the limitless love of Christ
and
Give God the Glory for His work in and through us vs. taking credit for ourselves regarding what God is doing.
As we do those things and live for the Lord, we will be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Close
I want to pray for us as we close
For those here who are newer to Hickory or to Christianity or to understanding the Bible, perhaps the step you need to take in being filled with the fullness of God is to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, to truly enter into relationship with Him to be adopted into His family.
If you believe that Jesus is really the Lord, God in the flesh
And that He died for your sins
And that He rose from the dead, overcoming death to give you life,
Then confess that belief to Him today.
Romans 10:9
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tells us that “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
For those who are struggling with experiencing being filled with the fullness of God,
then be united as family as part of a Bible believing and teaching church,
spend some more time focusing on your spiritual self rather than your physical appearance by making a plan to pray, read, meditate, journal, or discuss the Lord with others.
As you do that, you will grasp God’s love in a greater way.
And finally recognize that it is God who is doing the work in you and through you and give Him the glory for your life and work.
As you do that, you will be able to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
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and to experience the work of a God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Let’s pray
