Good Morning
Stand with me and lift up your bible and repeat after me.
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.
Today I will learn more of the word of God.
The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.
I will never be the same.
I will never be the same.
In Jesus Name
I have a question?
Do you need some strength?
Turn with me in your bible to the book of Ephesians Chapter 3 and say, “Amen” when you are there.
Read with me starting at verse 14
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; 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 depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Can you use a little loving right now?
Is life not quite headed in the direction you had hoped for?
With all that is going on in the world right now if you said, “Yes”, you might want to look in the mirror at yourself and say, “Whoa.”
Things probably are not exactly going the way we want right now.
Some of us need to realize that it might be time to start spending a little more time with the One who loves us more than we will ever know. And will help us get through the tough times in life.
Here is an example for you to think about.
If you are member of a certain faith you spend time in ritualistic meditation and prayer five times per day. You also spend time in fasting several times during the year. It requires dedication and the willingness to give up time every day to get in the habit of doing this on a regular basis.
Many people in the world stop what they are doing and do this every day.
Members of this faith pray to a God that is not alive.
Our God is alive and well and loves being part of our lives even though we have free will to choose what we do with our relationship with Him. Your life and mine can change drastically when we take the time and work to start changing our lifestyle and our habits by putting Him first in our daily life.
Amen?
Our God is a loving God and He sent His son, Jesus, to be a part of our daily lives. Not just a quick prayer kind of like going to the express line at our local Walmart to pick up some milk or some bread and asking Him to get you out of there quickly.
He wants what we just read in the book of Ephesians;
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man
When we are in times of turmoil in our lives, He gives us strength. We just need to talk to Him during our day and He will give that inner piece even when it is not one of our better days.
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
We need to love others. And we need to love the person in the mirror.
When you are driving in your car and someone cuts in front of you into that parking place you were waiting for, just move on. God already has another spot picked out for you.
It is part of the plan. I am not the same person that I was before I accepted the love of God and asked His son, Jesus Christ to forgive me of my past to live in me forever and ever. Neither are you.
Some of us should not even be alive today with some of the things we have gone through but He wants us to be.
We also see changes in our life when we make a true commitment to Him.
Amen?
Let's look at the next two verses.
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what [is] the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
I knew love from the day I was born because I was blessed with two wonderful parents who loved me from day 1. They did everything they could to make my life one of the best times growing up. But I made their life miserable several times by being independent and doing foolish things that some kids do while growing up. Skipping school, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and other things that moms and dads don’t like their kids to do. But after loving me with the proper discipline I saw what love they always had for me.
When I leave this earth, I know they are both in heaven and I will say thank you again in person.
That is just a partial bit of love from God. Some of us have not had those blessings and have had a very hard life from day one but, what is in the verses we just read is what we need to strive for.
To know and live the life through Christ which we need to be striving for.
To be filled with a oneness with God.
How do we do that?
It actually is quite simple but it may be a new habit that we need to strive for or an existing habit that we need to work on.
It is putting God first in our daily lives.
Putting God first. Praying and thinking first before doing.
What would Jesus do?
Remember that?
WWJD
What would Jesus do?
It was very popular for quite a while.
A few years ago, I got piece of paper and printed. ‘WWJD” in very large letters and took it with wherever I was ministering. In a prison, a jail, or at a local homeless shelter. It was interesting the reaction when people saw it.
People remembered what it meant and some actually thought about what type of person that really meant to become and started thinking about going back to that type of attitude in everyday life.
What would Jesus do?
To know the fullness of God.
Wow. Pretty hard to imagine.
Many of those that we have read about in our bibles got to know the fullness of God;
Moses
Abraham
Sarah
Jonah
The 12 disciples
Ruth
Steven
Joshua
Mary
To name a few.
They all got to know and see the fullness of God in their lives.
You may be thinking, wait a minute, they were people in the Bible. Yes, they were but the Bible shows us how those that were just regular women and men like you and I were called to go through life with God.
Let’s go to verse 20.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
Let me ask you this. Has God ever done exceedingly or abundantly in your life?
He has with every breath you take. You and I were created in His image to live life here on this planet Earth because He has had a plan for us from before we were even conceived.
I met a man named Eddie Long a while ago who was a pastor at a church in Atlanta and he shared a message to a group of us at a meeting I attended a while back. He called it “Switch on”.
It was about the control box that heating and air conditioning systems in homes, offices, and other buildings have here in our world. When they came out people did not know what to do with them as far as controlling them.
People just set it at one temperature and left it alone. It always maintained the building at the temperature that it was set at. The heater or air conditioning would just come on as needed. Eddie stressed that sometimes we just get in the habit of leaving our thermostat at the same temperature with being able or willing to make a change.
We are not willing to set it higher or lower for fear that it might not work properly. The change scares us. As we grow in our relationship with the Lord, He prepares us by just changing the thermostat on His own or by making us think about making a change. A thermostat can be adjusted from time to time.
So can life’s thermostat.
Sometimes it just needs to be. But the best part is the hand that you use to make the adjustment is shadowed or directed by God.
Let’s go to verse 21.
21 to Him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen
What I see in this verse and I hope you may also know is that we need to go through all things in this life for His glory. Many years ago, before I got to know the Lord personally, I would have gotten out of my car and yelled and screamed at the person who took my parking spot. Now I just move on.
Maybe we should move on a little bit from what is going on in our lives and spend a little more time with Him in prayer and in worship and in thanks.
Let’s go to Him and spend time in prayer.
Close your eyes and talk to Him. Thank Him.
Amen?
