of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
10 sermons cite this verse
… to grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ. And to know that this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be able to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. But I love verse 20. It sets it all up. That's just the bases are loaded and here's the grand slam, verse 20. Now to him who is able, whatever you are asking for, whatever you're dreaming for, whatever you're hoping for, he wants to do immeasurably more than we all 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. And we could close service right there. and I want to tell you maybe I'm getting older I don't know what it is I'm 42 I don't know if it's a lack of sleep eating bad low testosterone or I'm just getting an I'm beginning to be an old grumpy man I don't know I there's a lot of multiple factors okay I'm trying cold plunge and sauna but it's not really working but I'm getting grumpier with age and and to be honest this verse is how I want to end every single conversation that I'm in this is how I want to end every single prayer every single conversation, every single service, everything that I do. And in fact, I want to say it to every negative, critical, backbiting, pessimistic, dream-killing Christian in the room. …
… 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. …
… 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. People arrive on Sunday morning. I arrive on Sunday morning. expecting a miracle to happen because one has already happened if he's done his job. …
See, it says to know the love of Christ, Ephesians 3.19, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. To know what's beyond knowing. to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge it can be translated this way to know by experience what is beyond comprehension Wow. Busyness is artificial significance. it insulates us from being still enough to be loved. I don't mean he doesn't love you when you're running. I just mean you don't realize or discover the true dimension of his love until there's stillness. I'm not saying you can't learn through hectic activity. All of us have. But there's something about being still and know that I'm God. That's what he says. Be still. There's something about stillness. I come into a place of stillness. It's the reason why so many in this room are, you receive some of your best insights, inspirations, moments in God when you're sleeping or just waking up. Defenses are down. Anxiety hasn't kicked in yet. Your agenda hasn't come to mind, which are... …
… Believe this power dwells in you. Believe it so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. All the power of God, strength of God, joy of God, peace of God, all of his resources given to you. This is the power that's at work inside. Where is it? Here we go. Back here. There it is. Work inside, within us. So the whole thrust of this prayer is that we would realize and we would experience the ability, the power of God to do for us far more abundantly than all we can ask or think through, follow it, his power at work within us. Now, you might be thinking, okay, I think this sounds awesome, but what does this mean for my life? And here's the good news. For everyone in whom Christ dwells, like this is the story of your life that characterizes, that frames your entire life. You say, what do you mean? I think about conversations I've had just this last week with Todd Peters. Many of you know his story. His dad was out of his life early in life, creating a void that a couple of granddads stepped in to fill in how to, well, one, to introduce him to Jesus, and two, to teach him so much in the outdoors about how to live off the land in a way that would lead him to Jesus and prepare him for 26 years of service with all kinds of stories on Navy SEAL teams all around the world. …
… 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. That is the simplest definition of divine love. God loves us enough to offer us unconditional, self-sacrificing, forgiving 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 studying this would immediately be confused because he's praying that Christians would …
… 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. …
… 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 unto 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, we said if you look, and it wasn't that hard to see, wasn't it? The chapter consists of two parts, Paul's detour and Paul's prayer. You see, he starts off, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard. Now, it's pretty clear that Paul starts to say something and he breaks off and he does what's called a digression, a detour. …