Being Filled To Your Measure
Ephesians 3:14-17
“that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
By Chris Nerreau – 03/27/06
ILLUSTRATION:
· One New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas.
· At one point or another most Christians find themselves in the same place, although created in the very image of God, with the ability to tap into the endless possibilities and power of God, (Ge. 1:27) they are left stalled out and sputtering.
INTRODUCTION:
· In today’s passage Paul prays a prayer of intercession (vs. 14 kneel) for Christians just like that, Christians in Ephesus who were sputtering and stalling out.
· If you look at vs. 19 you will get the gist of the prayer - “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
· You see, it was Paul’s prayer that the believers in Ephesus be filled to their measure and made complete.
PROPOSITION:
And the reason Paul prayed this prayer was because he knew it was possible for Christians to be filled to their full measure with God.
PREVIEW:
So today, We will see that being filled to our measure with all the fullness of God has (3) requirements:
I. God’s Strength - Vs. 16 “Strengthened with Power thru His Spirit In your inner being (so that) Christ may dwell in your heart thru faith”
II. God’s Insight - Vs. 18 “power, together with all the saints, (to grasp) how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
III. A God Moment - Vs. 19 “and (to know) this love that surpasses knowledge.”
TRANSITION: Jesus spoke of having eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to understand, lets pray that this be so for us as we begin…
I. God’s Strength vs. 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 ”
EXPLAINATION:
· Paul’s prayer is that God’s strength would meet the inner beings of the Ephesians, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts.
o Lets take a closer look at the passage:
· “I pray” – Paul spent most of His time praying for others even when he himself was in need. (Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:4; Col. 1:3, 9)
· “God’s glorious riches (vs. 16)” - For God to give according to the riches of His glory is absolutely staggering, because His riches are limitless, completely without bounds! Yet that is exactly the measure by which Paul implores God to empower the Ephesians.
· “Strengthen you” – The point is that we are weak and God is strong, thus being filled to our measure means God does the filling, you cannot strengthen yourself, you cannot give yourself faith.
· “Through His Spirit” The mechanism. The deliverer of all that is good. (Joy Given - Luke 10:21, Rebirth and Renewal given – Titus 3:5)
· “Inner being” –The inner man, is where God most wants to work. His work begins with salvation, and after that His main field of work is still the inner man, because that is where spiritual life exists and where it must grow.
· “That Christ may dwell in your heart” – Paul has already made clear that all believers are in Christ (1, 3, 10, 12; 2:6, 13). He is therefore not here referring to Christ’s indwelling believers in salvation but being strengthened in the process of sanctification.
· This is not a prayer of salvation or “if Jesus” is in your heart but rather one of sanctification “to what measure Jesus is in your heart”.
ILLUSTRATION:
Have you ever considered a seed, you can plant it and water it but something has to happen to it in order for it to grow and only God can do it! The same is true with us, In order for us to grow in the fullness of God, even if we have all the right conditions we still require Gods strength.
APPLICATION:
· Thus today I am calling upon you to pray that God would strengthen you that you may be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God.
· The result will be a deeper and more intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
TRANSITION: In order to be filled to our measure with all the fullness of God, we need to be filled with God’s strength but we also need to be filled with…
II. God’s Insight “vs. 18 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”
EXPLAINATION:
· XX Paul is confident that God will answer his first part of the prayer for strength and now moves on to the second God’s insight into Christ’s love for humanity.
· XX “Being rooted and established in love” – Notice the process: apart from God’s strength we cannot have Christ in our hearts and without Christ in our hearts we cannot be rooted and established in love.
· Paul is praying that the church, unified in Christ may receive power leading to a Godly insight of the depths of Christ’s love.
· Paul prays for power “To grasp” – To lay hold of with the mind. (ëáìâÜíù)
· “Wide, long and high and deep” – Paul having a keen understanding of Christ’s love describes it by pointing in opposite directions, straight lines that will never meet but travel on forever, like Christ’s love.
ILLUSTRATION:
· A certain monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lit a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the cathedral. There was nothing else to say.
· Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesians would understand that sermon. It’s my prayer that we would also. (Manger scene with crucifix)
APPLICATION:
· Have you ever attempted to ponder the love of Christ? (Yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly Romans 5:8)
· The fact is that we cannot understand the depths of Christ’s love apart from God’s insight.
· Thus today I am calling upon you to pray for insight to grasp what Christ has done for you that you may be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God.
TRANSITION:
So we have seen that being filled up with the fullness of God includes receiving God’s wisdom and insight but lastly it includes…
III. A God Moment – Vs. 19 “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge”
EXPLAINATION:
· Notice how the process continues, having been given strength to know Christ more intimately, having been given insight or knowledge, Paul now prays that you would experience Christ’s love in a way that surpasses knowledge.
· Lets take a look:
o To “Know” this love - has to do with experiential knowing. Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good”
o Paul’s prayer was not only that they know about Christ’s love but that they know experientially God’s love.
o This is seen clearly in his use of “Surpasses Knowledge” – To know runs deeper than a simple cognitive, it’s experienced.
o Christ’s love surpasses any cognitive understanding of it; it is not ever fully comprehendible in this life but it’s not even partially comprehendible apart from experience.
ILLUSTRATION:
· When I was a kid, I had begged my father to let me taste His beer. I was always given the same answer, No! I would continue to beg for years to taste just a single sip of his beer, until finally when I was about 9 or 10 he said ok, one sip. Now I had stared at the tall glasses of beer for years, I had held the cold glass on a hot summer day and smelled it, but it was in tasting that beer that I realized how satisfying it was. (Now I know Church is not the place to be advertising for beer, but when I was a kid that one sip was like magic to me.)
· My point is that there is a big difference between knowing about something and having tasted it. Once you understand what goes into it, you’ve got to take a bite!
· The same is true with Christ, we can be given divine insight (as Paul prayed for) into the love of Christ, but it’s through a divine moment that we taste and experience Him.
APPLICATION:
· In order to be filled to our measure with all the fullness of God, we have to experience Christ’s love; again this comes through a presence that surpasses knowledge.
· Have you ever experienced the depths of Christ’s love (John 8:7 the woman caught in adultery received a taste of Christ’s love)
· Thus today I am calling upon you to pray for a God moment in your life that will allow you to taste and “see” the love of Christ, which leads to being filled with all the fullness of God.
TRANSITION: So in closing…
CONCLUSION:
· What all three requests of this prayer have in common are God. Please look at vs. 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…
· Paul closes this prayer with an amazing statement that God is able to do even more than he has asked. Have hope in the Lord!
· When we feel like we are stalled out and sputtering as Christians the answer is not more good works, more guilt and better behavior! The answer is Christ.
· Today we have seen that in order to over come sputtering and stalling out we need to be filled to our measure with all the fullness of God (vs. 19).
REVIEW OF MAIN POINTS:
The way we are filled with all the fullness of God is through:
I. God’s Strength - Vs. 16 “Strengthened with Power thru His Spirit In your inner being (so that) Christ may dwell in your heart thru faith”
II. God’s Insight - Vs. 18 “power, together with all the saints, (to grasp) how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
III. A God Moment - Vs. 19 “and (to know) this love that surpasses knowledge.”
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
· God does all the work, not us! It’s God’s strength, God’s insight and a God moment that delivers us from sputtering and stalling out of stagnant Christianity.
· When each of these three things comes together, God’s Strength, Insight and a God moment what you end up with is a Peter who would gladly be crucified upside down! A Paul who said “for me to life is Christ and to die is gain”, a John who continued to write about the faithfulness of God from the island of Patmos in Captivity.
· You get early church fathers who charged the lions and not the other way around.
· You get Luther’s who say “Here I stand, I can do no other”
· You get Mother Teresa’s who dedicate the entirety of their lives to serving the destitute.
CALL TO ACTION:
· Repeat Paul’s prayer…
· Encourage the people to do the same in their private time…
