Ephesians 3:

If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find Ephesians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3 as we continue in our series, Real Council.

The story is told of a town that was sort of built nestled right into a mountain… beautiful setting. In fact, if you walked up the pathway of the mountain you would come to a cliff that sort of jutted out overlooking the town, giving all the visitors who would go up there this breathtaking view of the town. And the only problem was it was quite a precipice off that cliff, and people kept falling and getting injured. And so it happened so often that the town decided that they should have an ambulance coming quite often to make sure that those who were getting injured would be taken quickly to the hospital. And they eventually… the city council met together because it was happening so often. They made a decision that the best solution was to put an ambulance permanently at the bottom of the hill. (laughing) That way, the people who broke their legs and arms wouldn’t lay there forever, you know. So after a while, a wiser man raised his voice to the city council and he said, ‘You know, maybe we could construct a fence on the top of the hill.’ And hence, the expression or the metaphor, ‘build a fence on top of the hill and you’ll prevent the need for an ambulance at the bottom.’

This message in our Real Council series is an attempt to construct a proverbial fence at the top of your precipices in your life. And so would you just pray with me? Let’s pray together.

God for this reason, I bow my knees before you, the Father of every family in heaven and on earth, that you, according to the riches of your glory, would strengthen us with power by your Holy Spirit in our inner being. And that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith, and that we being rooted and grounded in love might be able to comprehend with all of the saints Lord what is the length and the width and the height and the depth of the love of Jesus, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge and that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 through 21. I actually just prayed verses 14 through 19.

[Ephesians 3:14-21

14 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

16 that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”]

Several years ago, I tore my right knee out wrestling, and I had to go to a surgeon, and he was looking over my knee. I’d lost all my ability, the lateral part of it and this and that. So my ACL was ripped out, and he said, “You know, I’m going to have to do surgery on this, but I need to know, you know, your occupation is important to me. What do you do for a living?” And I said, “Well, I’m a pastor.” He said, “Oh.” He’s like, “I suppose you spend a lot of time on your knees, huh?” And that’s what I was thinking. Do I spend that much time on… Do you spend that much time on your knees? This message, on the other hand, is not a message on the outward position in prayer, but the inward condition in power.

One of the concerns when we began this series on Real Counsel was that it would overwhelm our counseling ministry here. But if the prayer in this passage is answered, some of the very issues that might cause you to seek counsel could actually go away. And I know what some of you are thinking. ‘You mean all of my relationships will be cleared up?’ ‘My health will be better?’ ‘Those who trouble me are going to go away?’ No. None of the above. In fact, if you listen to that prayer, none of those things come up. The Apostle Paul is praying for the Ephesian church, but he, himself, is in jail while he prayed this! And there’s no evidence that he’s asking for prayer for his release, or protection over the adversaries, or, if you remember, to the Corinthians he said, ‘I’m in Ephesus, and a great door is open to me, and there are a lot of adversaries.’ He doesn’t pray against them, and he doesn’t pray against those he predicted in Acts chapter 20 were gonna creep in unaware like wolves and scatter the flock. He doesn’t… listen, he doesn’t pray their outer circumstances will pass, but that their inner being would have power. And I’m gonna say that again. Paul did not pray that our outward circumstances would pass, but that our inner being would experience power. And he uses the word power in one shape or another, and one form or another, repeatedly in this passage. Power, namely, that comes through the fullness of the knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ. Real counsel declares if you strengthen yourself in the knowledge of the love of Christ, if you strengthen yourself there in your inner being, your problems might not go away, but your power from God will sustain you in whatever this life has to hurl at you. That’s the promise. This prayer is not only one of the most beautiful you’ll find in the scripture. It’s one of the most revealing.

A.W. Tozer, who wrote the Knowledge of the Holy famously says in the very first page of that book:

“What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.”

A.W. Tozer

And that is so true! And some of you have really weird thoughts about God. The reason that’s true is because how we think about God shapes our worldview. It shapes our values. It shapes how we look at wins and losses, how we look at our greatest thrills and our deepest heartaches. Everything gets filtered through your view of God. Right thoughts about God won’t prevent things like we’ve talked about over the last couple of months, like the battle in your mind. It won’t prevent the struggle with jealousy or bitterness. It won’t prevent anxiety and depression necessarily or a half a dozen other things we’ve yet to address. It does mean when you begin to plumb… listen to this, It means when you begin to plumb the greatness of the love of God in Jesus Christ, all of life’s circumstances get in line, because if you think about it, our responses in those very circumstances, good and bad, demonstrate how real our relationship to God is. And I never assume that everyone here has a genuine relationship. In fact, I assume the opposite. I assume that a number of you do not have a relationship with the living God. And oftentimes it’s those trials and vicissitudes that come into our lives that demonstrate you don’t really know Him! And these trials also test those of you who do know Him how deep your knowledge goes in your love for Christ.

Many years ago, a young man in our midst died, and his family, otherwise known as a very solid, theologically solid family was devastated. Anybody would have been grieved deeply over what took place, but their reaction to his death, the family’s reaction to his death, as a pastor was very hard to take. If you are cultivating your inner being, you will see even tragedy much differently and potentially avoid being overwhelmed with those stressors that come into all of our lives and threaten to sink us.

Now many of you have stressors right now. You’re dealing with something heavy right now. You should know that the stressors in your life are by design. God allows them into our lives for our own personal sanctification. In fact, I love what Charles Spurgeon once said. He said:

“Easy roads make sleepy travelers.” Charles Spurgeon

That’s true, isn’t it? You know, we all want life to go swimmingly, right? But it doesn’t always go that way, and that’s by design.

Who do you admire? What Christians do you admire? Do you admire the Christians whose lives are just smooth? Everything’s going great? — Got this beautiful marriage, got this Norman Rockwell family. Everything’s just hunky… No! No you don’t, and I don’t either by the way. The ones I most deeply admire are the ones who go through hard roads, but their inner being, the beauty of their inner being is fleshed out, and it’s a wonderful thing to behold, amen?

And so, Paul’s actual prayer for these Ephesians and the prayer I just prayed from the text is found in verse 16. Here’s what it says, and then we’ll put another translation up. In verse 16 it says, it says:

[Ephesians 3:16, ESV] “…that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being…”

Here’s how the New English translation puts it.

[Ephesians 3:16, NET] “I pray that according to the wealth of His glory, God will grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner person.“

… the “inner being.” The old translation says, “the inner man,” strengthened with power by virtue of the Holy Spirit. That’s his prayer. The rest of this passage tells us what the answer to that prayer actually looks like, which is what makes this so revealing. The prayer is for power to be exhibited in your life through the love of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, and this is what it looks like.

What happens when you cultivate the inner… your inner being? The first thing that happens is God’s Son finds a home. Look at verse 17,

[Ephesians 3:17] “…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—”

Now some of you are thinking, ‘I thought He already lives in those who know Him.’ He does, but that’s not the point. Is He at home? That’s the point. Have you ever been somewhere where you weren’t welcome? Awkward! It’s pretty weird, isn’t it? It’s awkward. It’s difficult to be somewhere where you’re not welcome. This word “dwell,” “…that Christ made dwell in your hearts…” — the word literally means “to settle down permanently.”

Have you ever rented… How many of you have ever rented in your life? Raise your hand if you’ve rented. Don’t you love renting? It never quite feels permanent, does it? You want to know why? — because it isn’t permanent. That’s the point. The same word “dwell” is used in Colossians 1 and verse 19 to describe Jesus just gloriously. It says, it says:

[Colossians 1:19, “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”]

… that “in Him (that is, in Christ) dwells (there’s the word, settle down permanently) all the fullness (of deity in bodily form)…” Have you ever read that? So in Jesus… so that means our Lord Jesus Christ, who is 100% God and 100% human, united together in One forever, is totally at home as a human and as God. Totally at home! That’s not the question. The question is, is He totally at home in you?

Now keep in mind the apostle Paul is talking to Christians. He’s talking to believers. He’s talking to those of you here that are actually following Him. He’s not praying for Jesus to come to live in you. He’s praying for Jesus to come and be at home in you. Is He at home in you?

Remember, to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, that famous passage where Jesus says to the church:

[Revelation 3:20] “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.]

“Behold, I stand at the door and…” what? I’m knocking. I’m on… I feel like an outsider looking in.’ —And that’s the way He feels about some of you right now. He’s not at home. He lives in you, but He doesn’t feel at home. Feels like He’s kind of renting. Is that you? Think of somebody… Remember in that patio… ‘I want to come… If you open the door and invite me in, I’ll sit down and I’ll, I’ll have supper with ya.’ Think about somebody in your life that you are totally at ease with sitting down and having a meal. It might be a couple. They immediately came to your mind just now or one individual. It’s probably not many, but that’s the idea here, because if Christ is at home in you, your world can be spinning, it can be swirling, but your heart will be at peace, because Jesus is at home right there.

Paul said to the Galatians, he said… Remember how frustrated he was? They had trusted Jesus and they went back to the Law. Remember that? And he said in Galatians 4:19:

Galatians 4:19, “My little children,” (my little teknion, my little born ones) in whom I labor in birth pangs (again, until Christ is morphe?) “until Christ is formed in you!”

“Formed in you.” He was already in them, but He was deformed, not formed. And that’s the way it is in some of your life. We’re “More People (what?) More like Jesus.” Look at it a little bit more. Is Christ, fleshing out? Is it real? Is He at home? Is He being formed in you? If you want to look like Jesus, you better be spending some time with Him.

So how do we cultivate the inner being, or putting it differently, what happens when you’re cultivating the inner being? God’s Son finds a home.

Secondly, God’s love captures your heart. So look again. He says, “you” in the middle of verse 17, “… being rooted and grounded in love.”

[Ephesians 3:17, “… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love…”]

Now, after the first service, I met a guy who trusted Christ as his Savior one week ago! — And we were talking in the Coffee Cove. And what if I had walked up to him… ‘Dude, you need to be rooted and grounded!’ I’m thinking “in the love of Jesus” wasn’t going to come to his mind. Probably wouldn’t have come into your’s either. You think, ‘Rooted and grounded in good theology.‘ ‘Rooted and grounded in truth.’ All that’s important, but this text says, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, ‘Mine for you is that you would be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.’ And this should not surprise us. Jesus said in John 14:21,’he who has My commandments and keeps them, He’s the one who what loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I’ll love him. And I will manifest, I’ll show, I’ll declare, I’ll reveal Myself to him.’

[John 14:21, “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”]

And Paul said later to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:14:

2 Corinthians 5:14 (ESV), “For the love of Christ controls (compels) us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;”

It’s the love of Christ that compels me. The word “compel” means “presses me on.” Does it press you on?

Just the other day I was at a wedding, I was doing the wedding, and I saw a guy I hadn’t seen for a while. He was a Christian, a young man, married only about two years, and now his wife is expecting. So we chatted and so I said to him, I said, “What did God teach you today?” I asked him that because last time he saw me, he asked me the same question. So I put it right back on him. I said, “What did God teach you today?” You know what he said to me? He said, “You know, my wife and I were having our devotions this morning and we looked at our cat.” I thought, “Where is this going?” “And we thought, man, God made that cat, and he has brought us such pleasure. Thank you, Lord! Imagine how wonderful it’s going to be when we have our kid!” What was he doing? He was telling me he’d been captured by the heart of God, by the love of God. God’s love had captured his own heart. Verse 18, that you…

[Ephesians 3:18-19]

18 “… may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ…”

So you need to know the apostle Paul is looking at the entire scope of our love for Him. He says that Christ’s love is wide enough that it encompasses all people.

(John 3:16a) “For God so loved (what?) the world…”

That means He loves you! Just take that in for a moment. It means that the love of Christ is long enough to last forever.

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have (what?) eternal life, ever lasting life.”

It’s long enough to last forever. And it’s high enough to take us to heaven, right? — because when you die, and you will die, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

[2 Corinthians 5:8, “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”]

Hallelujah! That’s the love of Jesus!

And one more thing. It’s deep enough to reach the lowest sinner. And so the writer of Hebrews says that the reason we come to Him by faith is because He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him by faith.

[Hebrews 7:25, “Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.“]

In 2010, the country of Chile… Chile! — captured the world, and I say the world. Every… every nation on earth was honed in on the nation of Chile. Why? — because in 2010, 33 gold mine workers were trapped 2300 feet below some of the hardest rock on the face of the earth. They thought they were dead, but they found out within hours they weren’t dead! —but how to get through this rock to get to these 33 workers trapped down there? And they brought in every resource, every drilling equipment. Nothing was working! They were trying everything they could to try and rescue them. They went a week, two weeks, four weeks, eight weeks. They went nearly three months to get to those 33 men, and, finally, they were able to cut a hole about the circumference of what you’re looking at here into that rock, down to those men, and one by one, by one, by one, by one… every single one of them lived! And the world rejoiced!

Let me tell you something. Some of your hearts are like… the rock that they were trying to cut through for two and a half months. They’re so hard! I don’t know why they’re hard. Let Jesus break through the hardness! He will go… there’s no level that you’re at… I don’t care how low you are, I don’t care how sinful you are… I don’t care how alienated you are… Christ loves you! — and He will cut through the rock to get to you and rescue you for His glory! Is that not wonderful to know? And yet we can’t know it. Because the next verse… look at verse 19:

Ephesians 3:19, “… and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

“… and to know the love of Christ…” that we can’t always completely know. “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” It surpasses knowledge. To be filled with all the fullness of God. It surpasses knowledge.

Sometimes knowledge causes me to scratch my head and so do you. When you look at what’s happening in the world… floods sweeping children away, fires destroying property and lives, hurricanes and tornadoes and horrible acts of violence, we look at Ukraine, we look at Gaza, and we wonder, ‘Why? Where is the love of God here?’ And my answer is, I don’t know, but I know it’s there, because every act God does… His love is involved. And I know that in the love chapter, itself, [1 Corinthians 13] we’re told very specifically that until the glory, until glory, until we see Him face to face like we just sang, we know (what?) in part, and we will always know in part. We will never fully know until we fully know. And it won’t be on this side of eternity. It’ll be on the other. So what is that saying? What does that mean? It means this. It means that I have to have the attitude of one who only knows in part. I have to have the attitude of one who’s like a child. I have a child like… God wants me to grow. He wants me to know. He wants me to mature, but He also wants me to understand I will never know everything. It’ll always be in part until it’s no longer in part, and I know as I am known. And I’m like a child. Like the Psalmist said:

[Psalm 131:1-3 ESV

1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.”]

‘I’m like a child. He says, Lord, my eyes aren’t haughty. I’m not proud. I don’t exercise myself in great matters or things too wonderful for me. I’m like a weaned child with this mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.‘ And that’s the way we should be. Then we can trust and be captivated by the love of God.

One of the matriarchs of our church, the mother of Dick Ober, Ellen Ober, most of you don’t know who she was. I knew her for years, into her 90’s she would come through and say, “Oh, I’m so convicted about that. I so need to change in this area. I so need to memorize that truth!” … Ever knowing, ever growing.

By the way, have you ever noticed that the Bible never calls us adults of God? Never are we called ‘adults of God?’ We are children of God, and as such, like a child, we trust our Father. Amen? — and be captivated by His love.

Finally, when you cultivate your inner being, as is Paul’s charge, that’s his prayer. God’s answers will exceed your asks. I didn’t read this. I didn’t pray this when I prayed earlier, but here it is, verse 20.

[Ephesians 3:20-21]

20 “Now, to Him… Now to Him who’s able… Now to Him who’s able to do far… Now to Him who’s able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. (and all God’s people said…) Amen.”

“Far more abundantly…” The old translation says, “exceeding abundantly,” right? This is a super-superlative in the Greek, by the way. And Paul is repeatedly pointing to God’s power. He did it in verse 16. That’s where the prayer is, verse 16, and now here again:

[Ephesians 3:20] “Now unto him who’s able…”

(That’s the word for “power,” And he actually uses the word “power” in our English Bible.)

“… according to the power at work within us.“

Same root word by the way. And it’s used a couple times earlier. Same one.

We had a missionary that we supported in Brazil many years ago in my former church. It was actually Jim Leonard. That’s John Leonard, our missionary’s… this is his brother, Jerrod Leonard’s uncle. And I remember him telling this story… it was like 100 years ago, so I got ahold of him on WhatsApp the other day in Brazil, and he confirmed it. He… he… many years ago, he and a friend of his, were commandeered to clear out what would become an airstrip for light planes to come in. And so they’re clearing out all the wood and everything, but it was full of boulders, huge boulders. And it was a laborious task, and they’re wincing and cranking and trying to roll these boulders off, and it was going to take them forever to get it done. And one Brazilian came up with an idea… dynamite! And they stuck dynamite under those huge boulders and just blew them out of there! — And within a couple hours, all clear.

That’s the word. That’s the word used for “able” and “power.” It’s the Greek word, “dunamis.” That’s right. That’s where we get our word, “dynamite.” And when you cultivate the inner being, the dynamite of God is evident in your life and your prayers will be answered beyond your wildest imaginations!

What does more abundantly? — What does exceedingly abundantly? — What does that look like? Well, personally, it looks like a church that would love to just be able to plant another church, and we ended up planting seven going on eight. That‘s exceedingly abundantly! It looks like a father with two rebellious sons who’s hoping, “I just hope they get saved!” — and, today, they’re pastoring churches! It looks like a widow with three kids who’s put on ice for six years and asking God to give her a godly husband, and God, seven years later, gives him to her with seven more kids! That‘s exceedingly abundantly!

And just the other day, I was at a patriotic event. Thousands and thousands of people out on the 4th of July, celebrating the 4th of July. And while I was there, a man came up behind me and he said, “Are you Pat Nemmers?” And I said, “I am.” I shook his hand. He goes, “I just want to thank you.” I said, “You’re welcome! What are you thanking me for?” He said, “15 years ago, I attended a funeral…” the one that I referred to earlier in the message… “And I heard you preach the Gospel and I trusted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. That made my night! I rejoiced with him, thanked him and he walked off, and another guy goes, “Do you know who he is?” I said, “No. He gave me his name. I know it.” He said, “That man has almost single-handedly been used of God for the last several years to reach the Iowa legislature with hundreds of pastors and for Christian causes, all kinds of legislation has occurred because of him. And in fact, his own… he’s the founder of an organization that is now in nearly 20 other states!” Why do I share that with you? —because the family of the deceased were very political, very political, and they were disappointed that I wasn’t more political. But at the funeral of their own son came a man who trusted Christ and would do exceedingly, abundantly, above all they could ever dream or imagine!

I don’t know what it looks like in your life. I just know that if you cultivate the inner being, you can expect these things! And this is the crazy thing! Look at the end. He says, in verse… at the end of verse 20:

Ephesians 3:20b… according to the power at work (where?) within us.“

Within us! Power in us! I’m not trying to sound like Robert Schuller here. “Power!” I just dated myself. The guy’s been dead for years! But there is power and it resides in us via the Holy Spirit of God!

Peter tells us God, by His “dunamis,” by His power and His glory has given you all things, all things that pertain to life and to godliness.

[2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence…”]

It’s all tapped into by faith. And Jesus said,

[John 15:7] “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, (you can) ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you.“

Do you believe it? Do you believe it? — Because if you do, I want to guarantee you on the basis of truth that you will then get a breathtaking view of God, and a divine fence to keep you from falling. Let’s pray together.

Our Father in heaven, thank You for this prayer that we might cultivate our inner being, our inner person, and in the course of so doing we will invite Jesus not just to live in us but to be at home. Captivate us, Lord, by Your love and the love of Jesus and cause us, Lord, to believe that, because You’re able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or think, Your answers will exceed our ask, and we’ll get great vistas of You, great view, great breathtaking views of You as you disclose Yourself to us. And You’ll protect us in the process from the ambulance below with the fence above. I pray for those who are here who have never invited Christ to be their personal Lord and Savior. You know who you are and those watching online, you’ve never humbled your heart. Lord, in the last service, as You know, a woman came to me and said, “I want to be saved,” and trusted You! Would there be somebody in this room, Lord, that would trust You today, believe that Christ died and rose again? Would you make that happen and save them? And for the rest of us, Lord, may we be committed out of the love of Jesus to cultivate our inner beings, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand.