to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
14 sermons cite this verse
… Christians. He said, now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. I want you to notice and write down just real briefly these three statements that come from that prayer. They may be an encouragement to you. First of all, God is able to do. Now to him who is able to do. Remember that chorus we used to sing, God is able, he is able. God is able. God himself said it this way, is there anything too hard for me. I am the Lord, your creator. God is able to do. Ladies and gentlemen, the only limit to what God can do in your life is according to the working of his power, Paul said. Now to him who is able to do according to the working of his power, the miracles God wants to do in your life, the only limit to them is the limit to the power of God. Is God's power limited in any way? No. …
… 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. I know there's none of you here. They're online. But I want to say it to every person that says it can't be done. I want to say it to everyone that I possibly meet and know, to him who is able to do exceedingly above what we can even ask or think of. And look, I'm not minimizing trauma. …
… 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. …
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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. That's Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. So, summarizing strand number one. Running through the Bible concerning the glory of the church, there is this insistence that her existence and her mission is to show that God is supremely glorious. Above all created glory, especially the glory of her grace. So your church will be glorious. to the degree that she does that, declares the excellencies of the one who is infinitely glorious. Now strand number two. she is being made glorious with the very glory of God. So the first strand is the church exists to glorify God, to make him look like he really is, namely supremely glorious above all created glory. That's her glory. And the second strand is as a way of doing that, as a way of glorifying God, she is being made glorious with the glory of God. …
… that will make you bolder in prayer, all based on Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 and 21. So we're just gonna walk through these two verses word by word and let the simple power of God's word do the work. May God in his word just cause faith to rise in you as you hear his word. Faith to rise you in your individual life, for your family, for our church family, for our city, for the world. So follow along. Let's just go in. Word by word, soak it in. Now to him. All right, we'll pause there. Him is obviously talking here about God, the triune God. You look back at this whole prayer, you see the whole trinity here. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So the one true God. And notice how verse 21 picks up this phrase, to him, and then verse 21 says the same thing, to him. So what you've got is each verse starting this way, which here's how I would summarize it. The way Paul is starting is he's telling us who God is, and then he's gonna pick up that same phrase in a minute to tell us what God deserves. …
… He's able to do more. We read in Ephesians chapter three, verses 20 through 21. 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. You see, God is able to do so much more than we can imagine. The second question that I oftentimes get is, were there any obstacles? Were there any barriers or any challenges? Because it just seems like this story is kind of up and to the right. And I just kind of laugh. I'm like, man, it has been nonstop challenges and barriers and obstacles. In fact, we had obstacles before we even got started. And the first obstacle was that we needed to get permission to be able to use the Bible text in the website. I don't know if you know this. I certainly didn't know this. I was pretty ignorant at the time, but I did not know that people own the Bible. …
… Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Amen? Amen. Matthew 5, verse 6, in the Amplified Version, which is a version that describes what the words are saying, and it just says it more flourishingly and fully, and I just love this version. But in the Amplified, Matthew 5, 6 says, Blessed, joyful, nourished by God's goodness, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who actively seek right standing with God and for they will be completely satisfied. Psalm 8411, for the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 8110. This is God speaking. I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. …
… And then he comes with this big, beautiful benediction, and he says, 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 to him who is able to do immeasurably more. This is above and beyond language. This is above and beyond thinking. This is an above and beyond benediction. This is above and beyond praise. Now to him who is able. Can we just pause right there for a minute today? And celebrate once again that God, our God, the God we're worshiping today is able. I might not be able, but God is still able. I might not have the ability to change this circumstance, but God is able. I might have run out of my strength, my energy, my resource, my ideas, but God is able. He's still able. He's able for your family. …
… In the church is where the glory is. And in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. The church isn't going anywhere, people. Because in the church, God is bringing glory to himself. And in Christ, he's bringing glory to himself. This church, yes, we are enriched and better for it, but it exists. We are here today for God's glory. Man, let that get in on the Sunday that you're like, I'm just not feeling it today. I'm just not feeling it today. I don't know if I can make it today. Well, let that sink in and say, you know what? I don't want to go today, but it's not about me. So I'm showing up and giving praise to God. missions about his glory we're we're almost there all the nations you have made every single tribe and tongue will come and worship before you and they will bring glory to your name every mission effort ends in God's glory he lights eternity there was no need for the sun or the moon in heaven because the glory of God gives it light. …
… of chapter 3, now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all we can ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." That doxology is the capstone to the doctrinal section of Ephesians. And then we move into the practical, therefore, and we come face to face with, based upon our identity in Christ, based upon regeneration, based upon our new life, we live differently. When you come to Christ, you're not adding religion to your life. Your life is being totally transformed. The language that is used in the Bible to describe it is new birth, regeneration. You become a new creation. Old things pass away. Everything is new. So coming to Christ is not simply adding Christ to your life or adding religion to your life. It is the complete, radical, top-to-bottom, side-to-side transformation of your life, and all aspects of your life are changed. …
… 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 have Christ dwell in their hearts by faith, and yet everywhere in the New Testament, it's assumed that a Christian, by definition, is somebody who already has Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, through faith. …
… 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. It was not a letter that was written strictly for the Ephesians. It was probably a very general letter. You notice there's very few references to individuals like the other letters, very few references to specific problems. Instead, it's a very general letter, and probably it was sent out to all the churches everywhere, and the one that came down to us happens to be the one that went to Ephesus and had the Ephesian name put at the top. …
… 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. He takes a detour. It says, for this reason, for this reason, now, what is he referring to? I have to remind you, chapter 2 is what he's referring to. And he's referring to the fact that Christ and the gospel unites diverse kinds of people who otherwise could never get along in any other way. Christ, the gospel, destroys divisions between human beings that can't be eradicated any other way. …