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Ephesians 3:20-21
IMMEASURABLY MORE FOR YOUR LIFE
A number of years ago I overheard a parent say to a child, who asked “who is God, Mummy? The response: “God can be anyone or anything you want him to be” In other words whatever you imagine God to be, whatever you want him to do, however, you want him to act, whatever YOU feel is right and the truth, God will do
How does this portray God? Firstly it means that God is at my beck-and-call. Such a belief of God means God is within my control, that he behaves and does what I want him to. And, such a belief sets us up for a huge disappointment when God doesn’t meet my expectation, or hasn’t come through the way I wanted him to. I know I’ve been there, but I’ve come to realise God doesn’t disappoint, my disappointment is because I haven’t quite caught all that God is.
I’ve come to realise, Faith is not God doing what I want, faith is trusting God in all circumstances to do what he wants. What we believe of God is the way we will live our lives, however, the way we live our lives is fruit (evidence) of what we believe about God.
Claim back reverence, awe of God, majesty of God, I’d like us to lift our eyes to him today, and give him his rightful place…
Thankfully Paul helps us adopt a right perspective on God.
(Text) 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, forever and ever! Amen.
What does, that he is able to immeasurably more, mean for us today? What does, to him be the glory, in the church, look like for us today?
…1st here’s how a few of you responded to that question…(play video)
What does a church practising the immeasurably moreness of God look like? What do the prayers sound like? What does the worship look like?
Here’s what I’m believing for this morning, that these words of scripture, will be like an infusion of encouragement to your spirit. I want to ask you right now to consider your spiritual life, circumstances you each are facing; your son or daughter not currently following the Lord, your health, your worry, your financial issues, your business, family life, the way you view God, ministry you’re involved in, your work, and begin to apply this prayer right now, that he is able to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine.
God is NOT who we want him to be. God is, well, God! What Paul has given the church, first Ephesus, now us, is a statement of fact about who God is and what he is able to do, and is for us to grab a hold of in faith, believe and put to practice. Faith, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen….is our modus-operandi!
Yes, I was one of the kids who absolutely believed that if I put the red cape on and jumped off the garage roof, I would swoop over the grass and the clothesline and land safely in Dad’s vege garden. I was the guy at primary school who tried to “fly” over the bamboo stick in the high jump, with my version of the fosbury flop only to break my arm in the process. Now I was a little foolish, but there’s a point. We’ve all being young and perhaps had similar experiences, kids of our own perhaps where we’ve been amazed at their level of uninhibited, uncomplicated, and uncluttered, simple belief. Not necessarily and always faith as we know it, but belief nonetheless….
I’m asking you this morning for those things I listed earlier, to lay down your doubts, your “mountains”, even your unbelief, your uncertainty, and encourage you to say in faith, you God, can do it!
Would you agree that sometimes we get spiritually stuck, dry, the intensity and language of our prayer changes, we find it a chore to worship and fellowship, to get ourselves to Small Group, etc, we don’t want to hang out with other Christians, we are easily offended and/or ticked off by others, etc…because somewhere along the way, take back control, my focus has deviated…we’ve drifted away from, Him, His glory, His greatness …what we need is to shift our pre-occupation of self towards attentiveness and responsiveness to God.
We all have ebbs and flows, but if Paul in today’s verses has captured accurately what God can do, they, like for Paul, become our focus. These words carry the same impetus and power for us as they did for Paul. They are the fuel in the tank that motivates our praying, our belief, our faith, our trust.
One thing I love about Paul’s prayer here is that it models a way of praying that transcends our human-limiting-tendencies. What do I mean by that? It takes our: Will he really? Does he really? Can he really?…to a new level of audaciousness and faith to trust in him to do what only he can do. Because he, is God.
How often do the scriptures encourage us...look to the Lord and his strength; fix your eyes on him; I lift my eyes to the hills…and, the language in Paul’s prayer is similar to that of Isaiah 55:8 – 9: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine”
That he, is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…is not a question of him being able to, it’s statement of fact that he has, he can, he does and he will.
I’ll get to our 2 key verses shortly but a few comments on the prayer that precedes these…
14 For this reason, I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every 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 Lord’s holy people, 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.
There are four adjectives Paul gives us that are a measure of the love of Christ: wide, long, high and deep. Paul wanted Christians to grasp the full dimensions of Christ’s incomprehensible love (v. 18)…we cannot comprehend it, but not comprehending doesn’t change who God is, so it’s best we believe it, and allow that truth to change the way we pray and worship!
Our response to this prayer, our answering of this prayer, is to live this Christian life in the depth, height, width and breadth of God, living daily in and out of the resurrection power (at work in you!) of Jesus. That’s church 101.
I want to speak to two statements today…statements that exalt the majesty of God, and what he is able to do
- Statement of God’s glory (to God be the glory) (20a, 21)
These last two verses of this chapter are a “doxology”…“a word of glory.” It is simply a statement of praise that honours the Lord’s majesty that ascribes glory to Him, which exalts His name. Here’s the second part again…
Now to him…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
Why does Paul offer such words? In response to all Paul has previously taught in describing what in many ways the condition is and blessed position of the church all because of Christ…a few examples:
- We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world – 1:4.
- We were dead in our sins; we have been brought out of death into life, saved by His grace and seated with Him in heavenly places – 2:1-7.
- Saved by grace through faith, it is nothing we have done – 2:8-9.
Paul’s emphasis is, because of God’s saving work, through Christ…we are driven to our knees as an expression of thankfulness and gratitude. That was certainly Paul’s response: “For this reason, I kneel before the Father”….
If we think about the way we behave, act and speak sometimes it is as though it were our right to be a part of this magnificent, body…if only we saw this…as the greatest privilege, humbled, blessed, as we realise, condemnation that was rightly ours was stopped by Jesus sacrifice for us…he died for you!
Our glorifying of God, in our personal space and corporately, is in a manner then that is befitting who he is and what he has done.
As I’ve said here a number of times, we are not reliant on music, the worship team, the pastor, strip all that away and it’s just me and the Lord, the audience of one. If we are totally reliant on other things, beyond who he is, his sacrifice and name alone, we have business to do with God.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
Notice more specifically what Paul says about God and His glory.
The place he receives his glory
“To him, to him be glory in the church”…the core business of the church is to, glorify Him. Christ is honoured in the church, as we live obediently to him, following him, his word and his commands. From the most menial to the most important things, we do for his glory. Every decision, every dollar spent, every ministry position assigned, every conversation, meeting, mission project, for His glory and for no other reason.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,” 1 Corinhians 10:31.
The person who receives glory
“To him …be glory in Christ Jesus”...God is glorified when we glorify his son, the person of Jesus. It is him and in whose name we gather, we preach, teach, disciple and worship and in whose name we pray, see the sick healed and people saved…
There is no end, to his glory
“to him be glory….throughout all generations, forever and ever!”...for how long will he be glorified?…! We might only have a glimpse now of his glory, and what to give him glory means but one day that will be fully realised…
(Rev. 5) Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!”13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, forever and ever!”
That’s in heaven, in the meantime, best we get a head start…being a church that lifts up the name of Jesus, as our core business…claim back reverence
- The second statement is…of what God is able to do
….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
“Your God is too small”…it seems absurd doesn’t it that someone should need to write something with that title, but that’s exactly what JB Phillips did. In it he addresses many of the misconceptions we have of God, and goes on to teach how through the person of Jesus Christ we get a right understanding of God’s nature.
He says…“We can hardly expect to escape a sense of futility and frustration until we begin to see what He is like and what His purposes are”
So Paul gives the church an invitation to consider how great God’s power is. Let’s remember, that as he does, God’s power is not limited to our expectations or our limitations. We, are limited and prohibit ourselves from applying that power and immeasurably moreness, how? Through unbelief.
The man with the son having a seizure in Mark 9:24 says to Jesus “if you can”…Jesus says “if you can? Everything is possible for the one who believes”. Man says: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” It acknowledges that without God we cannot believe as we ought to believe
My limitations don’t limit God, they limit me, limit who I am and what I can become in God. I am only limited in entering into Gods immeasurably moreness, by my own doubts and unbelief. Turn that around. Accept, believe, and implement Gods immeasurably moreness into each and every aspect of our Christian lives.
I can come to church, wear the T-shirt, pray the prayers, have the number plate on my car and “do” a lot of stuff for God, we can give the appearance of being a Christian, but at some point in my Christian life, because I call him God, I’ve got to allow him to 100% champion and captain my life …otherwise it’s like…
…Phillips again: “God will inevitably appear to disappoint the man who is attempting to use Him as a convenience, a prop, or a comfort, for his own plans. God has never been known to disappoint the man who is sincerely wanting to cooperate with His own purposes.
My default position isn’t I can’t because I’m sinful and I fail, it is I can, because of his grace and his Spirit in me
I wonder if we (maybe it’s just me) forget sometimes that the miracles and evidences of God’s power at work we read of in scripture; same God today.[1] Remember God did not cease to be able to do immeasurably more when the final full stop* was put on the last letter or epistle written.
What does a church practising the immeasurably moreness of God look like? What do the prayers sound like? What does the worship look like? …to me, this is a church that trusts God to do what he wants to do and relinquish my wants for his will?
These are words of Paul designed to stretch us beyond ourselves to who and all that God is. That God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…is our modus-operandi! It’s not us on our own; his power is at work within us. What power? Power of the Holy Spirit who “helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26)
What is required from us is the openness to allow God to work, the willingness to hear and the obedience to act…
Conclusion
(Matthew 17:20) This teaching of Jesus fits beautifully with Paul’s prayer.
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus here is not referring to the amount of faith (little) rather the focus of their faith. They had faith, but it was defective (little) rather than effective. The smallest (hold mustard seed) amount of effective, God-directed faith can move “mountains”, large misdirected faith, can do nothing!
TAKEAWAYS
Direct our faith on him
Trust him
Live for him (relinquish my wants for his will)
Glorify him
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
[1] Think Elijah and Elisha, Peter, Paul, Jesus himself.