will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depthmay be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
7 sermons cite this verse
… that I read earlier. It's Ephesians 3.14-21. And I just feel like as Paul penned these words, it is so appropriate for every mom here to pray. And I would like if you are seated near or close to a mom, just reach your hand toward the mother, maybe the mother in your life or one on your row, and pray this earnestly with us. for this reason I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love 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. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. …
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul here contrasts two ways to deal with inner chaos, inebriation or celebration. Many face their struggles with inebriation. They numb themselves, if not with liquor, with work, with busyness, with play, with entertainment, with shopping. Those of us who have tried this approach know its falsehood. We have learned, have we not? Happy hours do not make us happy. They just don't. Indeed, they do the opposite. And we find that waiting on us when we come off the bar stool are those problems we tried to drink away. The better option, Paul says, celebration. celebration, worship. Fill the air, he says, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Paul used a verb tense which caused one translation to state, ever be filled and stimulated with the Holy Spirit. Constant worship clears the debris from our hearts. Praise is the cleansing element that flushes the trash of worry and anxiety. …
… may you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know, to have insight into the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Our people, and many of them don't know this, are hungry for us to gain this impossible insight and tell them about it. feed it to their souls they need us to do the impossible it is true they have the Holy Spirit your people have the Holy Spirit and yes many of the mature among them can see these things can experience this miracle some of them better than you can but if that were the primary way or the only way by which God had appointed for people to see, to gain insight into God, he would not have appointed shepherds and teachers for the church. He wouldn't have. This is our job. The longer I live, the more I believe in preaching. …
… He is the one who is able. Note, there's only one who is able to do what we're about to see. So it's not to those who are able. There's only one who is able. And this word in the Greek, so the original language of the New Testament, is dunamai. So just to make a note here, dunamai. and it means power. We get the English word dynamite from this Greek word. Hold on to that. We're gonna come back to it later. So we're talking about the one who is able, has power to do. Now that's an interesting little word because it's the same word we see in both the stories I mentioned earlier where we see Jesus amazed at lack of faith and at faith. Back in Matthew chapter eight, the centurion said to Jesus, I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, go. He goes, that one come and he comes. I say to my servant, do this and he does it. …
… down, be at home in your hearts through faith, and then this, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." In chapter 5 he says, be an imitator of God. That's a command. Here it's an indicative. You can be filled up to all the fullness of God if you know fully the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. So again, imitating God is about having love the way God loves. And we looked at that last time. How does God love? Verse 2 explains it. Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. And we said this, that primarily divine love is known for its forgiveness, for its forgiveness. …
… 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now, what we were talking about last week when we looked at this was that Paul is holding out for us a prospect. We described it, and I'll just briefly describe it again. He is talking here not simply about believing God or even just obeying God. He's saying there is something for Christians that's available beyond just believing and obeying God, we can actually experience God. And in the letter, it's really saying we can experience his presence, we can experience his love, we can experience his glory, the sum total impact of his excellence. We can experience his glory, the accumulated perfections of his being. We can actually experience God. We saw that because, you see, in verse 17, it says he is praying that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, but he's praying to Christians. And we wrestled with that a little bit last week, and we said a thoughtful person …
… 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, I know that a first run through that thing does not look all that unusual. It looks like a typical Pauline prayer, kind of high and lofty and kind of vague in general. I tell you that Paul is asking for something from God for all of us. Don't forget, of course you've forgotten, As I said when we started the book of Ephesians back in the mid-50s or whenever it was, that the book of Ephesians was almost for sure a circulatory letter. …