Grosey's Messages

Ephesians 3:1-13 The Mysterious Value of the Church
Secrets fascinate us. All of us want to be privy to secrets. Have you ever gotten interested in thoe old mummy movies set in the Egyptian desert, where the hero discovers…the Secret of the Lost Ark” or something like that. I recall an old television show called “I've Got A Secret.” No doubt the producers of that show picked that format because they thought people would not be able to resist watching it. Secrets are fascinating.

Did you know that God has a secret which He kept for thousands of years? It's true. In the passage of Scripture under consideration, Paul calls this secret a mystery. It was a mystery which was once hidden but is now revealed. In other words, the secret which God kept hidden for thousands of years has now been fully communicated. Simply put, the secret which has now been revealed is the centrality of the Church in God's plan.

Do you really know what Church is? Do you understand the place of Church in the plan of God? Do you know what place Church ought to have in your life? These are important questions for which every Christian ought to have answers. The way we answer these questions will determine the extent to which we fully enter into God's plan for our lives. It is possible to come to know Christ as your Saviour and miss the plan of God for your life. The church is central to God’s plan for your life. Today many denigrate the role of the church. They have a low view of God’s people gathering together in a given place. They feel that it is optional. That it is up to where they can best get what they want to have their selfish needs fulfilled. The Church is far more than that. If you ever make the church subject to your selfish whims, then you have destroyed church for yourself and for all others that are gathered there. Church is not about your ego. Sadly, we seem to have come to a place of biblical illiteracy in our world today. There is very little understanding of the great doctrines of the Bible. And, unfortunately, this is even true in our churches. It is somewhat ironic to have to say that in the Church there is little understanding of Church. I'm not talking about the elementary things like understanding that the Church is not merely buildings and holy furniture. Most of us understand that. We understand that the Church is not the structure located at the corner of Laman and Dawson Streets. We have come far enough to know that the Church is people. But that may be the extent of our understanding.

Among many people the Church is viewed as an organization like a small business or large corporation depending upon it's size. You see, to say the Church is people is to say too little. Some people therefore assume the Church is to be run like a business where everyone is a general partner. They reduce the Church to a democratic society where the least offensive course of action is pursued --- assuring the lowest common denominator of spirituality to prevail. The Church is reduced to a social institution where the needs and preferences of the members are its focus. But that is not Church!

The Church is a living organism of God's people --- placed together by God's wisdom --- led by spiritual leaders of God's choosing --- committed to doing God's will --- living out its life together in community --- submitting to one another and God's authority in its midst --- and revealing God's grace and wisdom to all around.

The Church is central to what God is doing in the earth today. It is true that God deals with individuals, but generally God chooses to deal with them through the Church. And unless we come to this understanding of the Church as central to what God is doing in the earth today and in our own individual lives, then we will never understand why God does things the way He does. So let's look together at the mystery of Christ which is His Church.

There is a progressive presentation of this mystery. The word Paul uses for mystery is the Greek word musterion. The word mystery in English is used to translate this Greek word. But our English word mystery sometimes gives us an incorrect idea of what Paul is talking about here. Sometimes we view a mystery as being an enigma --- something that we cannot understand or figure out. But the word musterion referred to a secret hidden from all but those who were initiated into it. Those who had the secret knowledge could understand the mystery. Those who did not could not. In Paul's day there were many “mystery religions.” They were much the same as the Masonic Lodge is today. Only the initiates, those inducted into the mysteries of the Lodge, understand them. So when Paul uses the word musterion, he is referring to a secret which was hidden that is now made known.

Paul says that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. He goes on to say, in verse 4-5, that it is the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. In other words, the secret which God is revealing has not always been plain. God had always intended to reveal His plan, but until this time He could not reveal it. Throughout all the Old Testament, God was bringing His people to this place. Now He has reached the point where the mystery can be unveiled. It is a progressive presentation through His holy apostles and prophets.

And what is it? In verse 6 he says, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Is he saying that the mystery is that now Jews and Gentiles are both blessed together? Is that the mystery? It might help us to look at what the mystery is not. The mystery is not simply that the Gentiles were blessed. God had already revealed that throughout the Old Testament. The mystery was not that the Kingdom of God would include the Gentiles. God begins the Old Covenant with His promise to Abraham that “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). So that is not the mystery. Neither is the mystery the sufferings of Christ. In Isaiah 53 we read in great detail about how Christ would come and suffer and die for our sins. These are not the mystery.

MOST OF US IDENTIFY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AS THE WOULD-BE CONQUEROR OF EUROPE. BUT NOT MANY WOULD NAME HIM AS A PATRON OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. YET HE WAS. IN JULY 1798, NAPOLEON BEGAN TO OCCUPY EGYPT, BUT BY SEPTEMBER 1801, HE WAS FORCED TO GET OUT. THOSE THREE YEARS MEANT FAILURE AS FAR AS HIS MILITARY AND POLITICAL PLANS WERE CONCERNED, BUT THEY MEANT SUCCESS IN ONE AREA THAT GREATLY INTERESTED HIM, ARCHAEOLGY. IN AUGUST 1799, A FRENCHMAN NAMED BOUSSAND DISCOVERED THE ROSETTA STONE ABOUT THIRTY MILES FROM ALEXANDRIA. THIS DISCOVERY GAVE TO ARCHAEOLOGISTS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. IT OPENED THE DOOR TO MODERN EGYPTIAN STUDIES. 1 THIS MYSTERY IS GOD'S 'ROSETTA STONE.' IT IS THE KEY TO WHAT HE PROMISED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, WHAT CHRIST DID IN THE GOSPEL, WHAT THE EARLYCHURCH DID IN THE BOOK OF ACTS, WHAT PAUL TAUGHT IN THE EPISTLES, AND WHAT GOD WILL DO AS RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION.

1. Value The Presence Of The Church

The mystery is that through Christ's death both Jews and Gentiles can be brought together into a new entity. Both are fellow members of the body. The body refers to the body of Christ, the Church. The mystery is that God inaugurated a New Covenant --- a unity of all peoples formed together into a new entity, which is the Church. God has inaugurated a new age in which “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God has established a new society on the basis of a New Covenant. The church is the only place you will find where there is no class structure, where there is no pecking order, where the whole is unified in common bond of love and care, where the commitment to Christ outshines personal agendas and overshadows divisions intrinsic in human nature.

At Babel, the peoples were divided through the division of the world into language groups. Only in the church is there than common fellowship that transcends earthly barriers of language, political viewpoint, socio economic status and cultural difference. This morning, although we may not be familiar with the languages of those present here today, we know there is that common love for the Lord Jesus Christ born from a common experience of His grace and mercy.

This is the revelation of the Church. And until the time when God could bring the Church into existence, He chose not to reveal that mystery. It is the mystery of the called out ones. In Greek, the term translated “church” is ecclesia. It literally means “called out ones.” And for hundreds of years church was called ecclesia --- called out ones. Then the Emperor Constantine was converted and built many gorgeous temples. The term was changed from ecclesia to kuriakos --- lordly house. Over the years and through the languages kuriakos became kirkus which became kirk which eventually became church. But a church is not a lordly house made with hands. A church is a gathering of called out ones who know the Lord and are placed together by Christ. It is a living organism known as the body of Christ. And the Church is central to God's plan.

IT IS A TRUTH THATWAS PREVIOUSLY CONCEALED, AND IS NOW POWERFULLY REVEALED. THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, GOD NO LONGER SEES JEW OR GENTILE; HE SEEMS THE THRONG OF THE REDEEMED. IT IS HIS BEST-KEPT SECRET, IT IS THE CHURCH. THAT IS THE MYSTERY THAT THE CHURCH BEARS!

2. Value The Preaching In The Church

. . . of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things . . . (3:7-9)

Paul says that God revealed to His holy apostles and prophets this mystery. God made the apostle Paul a minister of this mystery according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. Isn't this amazing? I have always been fascinated and awestruck by the fact that God has entrusted the preaching of His mysteries to mere mortals. It seems that we are so ill-equipped for the task. In fact, Paul echoes this very sentiment when he says to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things. Paul senses his own inadequacy to preach this glorious mystery.

It seems to me that an angel could better preach this mystery. If Michael or Gabriel would suddenly appear in the clouds proclaiming in a thunderous voice the truth concerning Jesus Christ, I would certainly be impressed. But God has not chosen angels to proclaim this message. In fact, angels can't even understand this mystery first hand. Angels are not redeemed creatures. Insofar as our salvation is concerned, angels have no first hand experience. Peter refers to God's marvellous redemptive salvation in 1 Peter 1:12 where he says that these are “things into which angels long to look.” And as we will see in just a moment, the angels actually learn about God's grace and wisdom through the Church. So God has chosen redeemed humanity to preach the mystery.

Jerome D. Engle, the famous Baptist preacher, was once vacationing at a well-known shore resort. One of the local churches had expected to have its pulpit filled on Sunday morning by a "supply" or visiting minister. At the last minute, the visitor was unable to appear, and the church found itself with no one to conduct services. The leaders of the church scurried around distractedly in search of a preacher, and were unable to find anyone. At last, chancing to hear of the presence in town of an eminent divine, one of the church leaders sought out Engel and begged for his services. Graciously, the minister consented. Delighted and relieved, the committeeman said, "You know, Dr. Engel, we'd have been willing to accept a poorer preacher, but it was impossible to find one."

This mystery centres around Jesus Christ. All of God's redemptive purposes centre in Christ. Paul calls this the unfathomable riches of Christ. JOHN CALVIN REFERRED TO IT AS, "THE ASTONISHING AND BOUNDLESS TREASURES OF GRACE!" 3 THAT IS THE GOSPEL IN A NUTSHELL. IT IS GOD'S MAZE. IT IS HIS HIDDEN TREASURE. IT IS SOMETHING WHICH THE MOST RE-KNOWNED MIND IN THE WORLD COULD NOT TRACE, OR FIGURE OUT. IT IS PAST FINDING OUT. IT IS THE GRACE OF GOD MANIFESTED IN THE GOSPEL OF GOD. This new humanity based on the New Covenant reveals the unfathomable riches of Christ's grace and God's wisdom. This new community is based on Christ living in you and in us corporately. This coming together of all people under the banner of the Cross and living out God's purposes through the life of the Church has it's focus in the person of Christ. Christ's riches are revealed. We see that He is rich in His love for us. We see that He is rich in His mercy toward us. We see that He is rich in His grace. And we also see the riches of His presence within us, His power in us, and His plan for us. And now we have the privilege to share that mystery with others.

SOME TEND TO BELIEVE THAT IN OUR SOCIETY, TODAY, WHAT WE NEED IS MORE 'SEEKER-SENSITIVE' METHODS TO ATTRACT THE MASSES. AND, MAY I SAY, I BELIEVE THAT IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A WATERED DOWN GOSPEL TODAY. WE ARE MORE INTERESTED IN APPEALING TO PEOPLE'S PREFERENCE THAN IN APPEALING TO THEIR CONSCIENCE. I BELIEVE WILLIAM BOOTH WAS RIGHT WHEN HE DESCRIBED PREACHING TODAY AS BEING, "RELIGION WITHOUT REPENTANCE, SALVATION WITHOUT SUBMISSION, HEAVEN WITHOUT HELL, CHRIST WITHOUT THE DEVIL, AND CONVENIENCE WITHOUT COMMITMENT." FRIEND, WHILE OUR METHOD MAY CHANGE, OUR MESSAGE NEVER CHANGES. IT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME, AND IT IS STILL THE SAME. IT IS THE DEATH, THE BURIAL, AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. IT IS HIS BLOOD, WHICH WILL SAVE A WRETCHED SOUL. IT IS HIS LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY, WHICH WILL DO OUR WORLD WHAT HUMANISM, COULD NEVER DO.

3. Value The Purpose of the Church

. . . in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. (3:10-13) Here we see the present purpose of this mystery. We find that the Church, Christ's body, is in itself a revelation of the manifold wisdom of God. We see here again that the Church is central to God's purposes in redemption. The mystery of the Church is that God has established an age of grace in which He is working out His purposes through a new community in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. In other words, in the Church God teaches heavenly beings. The angels of God learn to understand the manifold wisdom of God as it is made known through the church. What an amazing statement! Let me quote W. A. Criswell on this point:

What an exalted conception and idea of the Church this is! What the angelic beings did not learn in the presence of Deity, and what they have not learned in all the providences of God through the centuries, they learn in how God saves man, and in how God's redemptive grace is building this new creation, the Church, the body of the Lord. The angels didn't learn of God's wisdom in creation. They didn't learn of God's wisdom in His dealings with man in the Old Testament. In all of God's covenants, they didn't learn of His wisdom. But through the saving work of Christ to call the Church together, they see His wisdom. In the establishing of a new humanity based on a New Covenant whereby Christ's very life is imparted to people made new by His grace, we see a wisdom unequalled anywhere in the universe.

The Church is God's enterprise. This is why it cannot be run like a human organization. This new way of living calls us to deny self and to operate out of a different mentality. It calls us to lay down our lives. It calls us to do things which are not simply hard to do, they are impossible to do without the power of God. In the Church we are called to live in community, where our actions or inaction impacts the lives of all others. We are called to lay down our individual preferences, not simply for the preferences of the majority, but for the will of God. We're called to respect and submit to the spiritual authority of the leaders God has placed in the Church, as well as to submit to one another in the Lord. We are called to forgive one another, to love one another, to serve one another, to support one another, and to encourage one another. And that runs both ways. None of this can be done by our power, or wisdom, and it certainly cannot be done by employing worldly strategies. It is only as God is present in every aspect of the life of the Church that we see the wisdom of God revealed. But when He is allowed to be in charge, then we see what He had in mind.

We must see that through the Church God reveals His manifold wisdom and unsearchable riches in Christ, and we must commit ourselves to be the Church --- those who have entered into a New Covenant of grace and into a new relationship with one another. As we do, then God will reveal His plan through the Church to us, to others, and even to angelic beings. Valuing the Purpos of the church gives strength to stay enthsiatic even when the going is tough. When the world gets worse and the Christian is downcast, knowing what the final purpose is all about brings enthusiams and purpose to hardhip and disillusionment.

IN THE MID-17TH CENTURY, THE RULE OF OLIVER CROMWELL IN GREAT BRITAIN BEGAN WITH THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I, AND CONTINUED WITH A CAMPAIGN TO RID ENGLAND OF ANY VESTIGE OF THE MONARCHY. TARGETED IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR WERE THE ANGLICANS, WHO WERE TIED CLOSELY TO THE KING, WHO SERVED AS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. CROMWELL EMPTIED THE MONASTERIES, REMOVED BAPTISMAL FONTS FROM THECHURCHES, DEFAMED THE CLERGY, AND DID EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO DISENGAGE THEIR PLACE AND INFLUENCE IN THE CULTURE. IN THE FACE OF SUCH TIMES, SOME WERE YET UNDAUNTED. ONE DAY, SOMEONE FOUND AN INSPIRING, BUT LITTLE-KNOWN INSCRIPTION HIDDEN AWAY IN HAROLD CHURCH, STAUNTON, ENGLAND, THAT READ, "IN THE YEAR OF 1653, WHEN ALL THINGS SACRED WERE THROUGHOUT THIS NATION DESTROYED OR PROFANED, THIS CHURCH WAS BUILT TO THE GLORY OF GOD BY SIR ROBERT SHIRLEY, WHOSE SINGULAR PRAISE IT WAS TO HAVE DONE THE BEST OF THINGS IN THE WORST OF TIMES!" 5

Elbert Hubbard, said, "Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm."

A positive attitude will have positive results because attitudes are contagious. - Zig Ziglar

Be a self-starter and you won't need a crank to get you going.

In 1520 one man brought small pox to Mexico, where it cost three and one half million deaths. Another man, who landed in England in 1348, was responsible for spreading the black death, "Bubonic Plague," the greatest killer Great Britain has ever known.

Likewise, one inconsistent or disloyal church member can hurt the whole church. Listen to Paul: "Whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all themselves rejoice with it" (1 cor. 12:26). It does not take many bullets from a rifle to kill a man. One bullet can kill. It does not take many deadly diseases to bring death to the human body. One deadly disease can bring death. It does not take the breakage of many bones to cripple the hand. One broken bone can cripple.

The Bible teaches, "One sinner destroyeth much good" (Ecc. 9:18).

Most church members live so far below the standard that you'd have to backslide to be in fellowship! - Vance Havner

"On Sunday a meeting is held of all who live in the cities and villages, and a section is read from the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets, as long as time permits. When the reading is finished, the president, in a discourse, gives the admonition and exhortation to imitate these noble things. After this we all arise and offer a common prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before described, wine and bread and thanks for them according to his ability, and the congregation answers, 'Amen.' Then the consecrated elements are distributed to each one and partaken of, and are carried by the deacons to the houses of the absent. The wealthy and the willing then give contributions according to their freewill; and this collection is deposited with the president, who therewith supplies orphans, widows, prisoners, strangers, and all who are in want." Justin Martyr

Dear Church Member,

Don't wait until the hearse hauls you to church. If you do:

1. You will go, regardless of the weather.

2. You will go, regardless of the condition of your body.

3. There will be beautiful flowers there, but you won't enjoy them.

4. You will go, regardless of how your family feels.

5. The minister may say many good things, but they will do you no good.

6. There will be beautiful music, but you won't hear it.

7. There will be heartfelt prayers, but they will not touch your heart.

8. There will be friends and relatives there, but you won't worship with them.

9. You will go, no matter how many hypocrites are there.

10. You will go, no matter how much you are needed at home or work.

11. You will receive no blessing from the service.

12. You won't feel concerned about your clothes.

13. You will never have to decide about attending church again.

Aren't you glad to be alive and well and full of zest and able to choose to go to church? Our churches are in serious trouble today. There is virtually no difference between the average church member and the person who is not a Christian. God meant for the Christian to be different, to live a different kind of life, and to be on a different moral level from those who are not Christians. And yet, there is practically no difference in lifestyle. We will never become a church that effectively reaches out to those who are missing out if we shoot our wounded and major on the minuses. Instead of being fishers of men, as Christ has called us, we will be keepers of an ever shrinking aquarium. Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter, flying along in V formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. (Christians who share a common direction and a sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the thrust on one another.) Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. (If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are going.) When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.) It pays to take turns doing hard jobs - with people at church or with geese flying south.) The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. (What do we say when we honk from behind?) Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by a shot and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly, or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their original group. (If people know we would stand by them like that in church, they would push down these walls to get in.) You see, all we have to do in order to attract those who are missing back to church is to demonstrate to the world that we have as much sense as geese here in church. That seems little enough price to pay to win the lost and minister to one another. Even geese have sense enough to know it works every time. "

A black church in Kansas City has as its slogan:

WAKE UP, SING UP, PREACH UP, PRAY UP AND PAY UP - BUT NEVER GIVE UP OR LET UP OR BACK UP OR SHUT UP UNTIL THE CAUSE OF CHRIST IN THIS CHURCH AND IN THIS WORLD IS BUILT UP."

Ephesians 3:14-21 PRAYING FOR THE POWER

"But I can still pray For this cause"

What is the cause that moves Paul to pray?  As you look at the letter of Ephesians, I want you to see it as an artist's canvas on which Paul, held as the Holy Spirit's brush, is painting a beautiful picture of the Church-the body of Christ.   The background of this picture is a divided world with chaos everywhere.  Nation against nation, tribe against tribe, man against wife, and children against parents, and even in the inner life there is disintegration and discord. God's purpose is that all the instruments that are in discord and off key will be brought together into one in the Lord Jesus Christ. But unless the church takes the message of Jesus Christ and the Love of God to every person, it cannot be done. It is for this reason that Paul prays. Don't lose the picture of where Paul is in prison (probably in Rome).  The important thing for all of us to grasp is that though he is imprisoned, despite being in confinement, unable to travel and preach to people in person--there is one thing the enemy cannot stop him from doing.  He cannot prevent him from praying.  Paul can still pray! Have you learned that truth?  The enemy can put you in a place you don't want to be.  He can steal your freedom, he can put bars on the windows of access, he can hem you in and confine you physically, but he can never obstruct the path from the heart of a humble believer to the heart of the Eternal God.  Think of what this means to thousands of believers all over this world at this very moment.  Some are being persecuted for their faith.  Some are experiencing unimaginable sufferings, but they can still pray. Perhaps I'm speaking to someone confined to a sickbed, or because of your age, you simply are no longer free to go where you want to go.  You are not useless.

Your life need not be fruitless. Like Paul you can enter into the ministry of intercession. You can still go on praying. Paul was exercising a powerful ministry while in prison-- and you can do the same. Paul knew that he could help people by praying for them.  So can you. --5 truths that God reveals to us--that will enable us to pray with confidence.--

1. Because God is now approachable.

"I bow my knees before The Father"  The normal Jewish posture in prayer was standing with hands stretched out and the palms upwards. Paul's prayer for the Church is so intense that he prostrates himself before God in a deep heart-felt cry. This must have been quite an experience for the Roman soldier chained to Paul! It is through prayer that we lay hold of God's riches that enable us to behave like Christians and battle like Christians. Whether we actually bow our knees is not as important as bowing our hearts and wills to the Lord and asking Him for what we need. Before whom did Paul prostrate himself?  The Father.  God is the father to whom Jesus Christ has now given us access. Cf. 2:18; 3:12.  In the OT God is the person to whom access is forbidden because of our sin. But in the NT, the essence of the Christian faith is unrestricted access to the presence of God. God is an approachable father. Cf. Hebrews 4:16

2. Because we are apart of His family from whom every family ( the whole family-nkjv) in heaven and earth derives its name. Here we have two important words-- Father and family. The word family can be translated "fatherhood."  All fatherhood in heaven and on earth gets its origin and name from God the Father. He is the great Originator; every other fatherhood is but a copy.  God is the father of the whole family.  What family?  The family of the redeemed.  Of this family, some are in heaven already and some are still on earth, but they all belong to the same family. All men are not children of God by nature. Instead, they are children of disobedience and children of wrath (Eph. 2:2-3). As Creator, God is the Father of each person; but as Saviour, He is only the Father of those who believe. There is no such thing in Scripture as the universal fatherhood of God that saves all men. Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:7)  Paul wants us to know how to look at ourselves. In his mind it was clear.  It doesn't matter if you are Jewish or Gentile. If we are in Christ, we are brothers and sisters and God is the Father of us all. The colour of your skin, your particular language, culture or economic status cannot divide us in the body of Christ. We are not to think of ourselves as Jewish or Gentiles, Irish or Spanish but we are to think of ourselves now as the children of God; we belong to God's great family. Cf. 2:19. Do you know what it is to be proud of the "family name"?  If you know how to be proud of your school or your country or your team- do you know how to be proud of the name?  As Christians we must always remember that the Name that is on us is the Name of God. And we are to live in this world as those who wear His family name. My Father's name is on me-- may I never bring shame to the name!  In every family there are privileges and responsibilities. Paul begins to pray that God would give us the power to appreciate our privileges and live up to our responsibilities.

3. Because we understand what is most essential. "...that He would grant you..." Before we look at the significant requests that Paul makes in his prayer, it is extremely meaningful to see what he does not request.  Have you ever wondered how to pray effectively for others?  What Christian hasn't?  When we know that others are facing difficulty and trouble, what is the nature of our prayers for them? Please note--Paul does not pray for a change of circumstances.  Here is a man in prison who prays not in a general way that God may be good to them, but extremely specific.  When you pray that God will bless someone, you can have more confidence if you will pray as Paul did.  When we talk about praying a blessing on our neighbours how are we to pray?  We pray for their felt needs, but when we pray for one another we also need to pray for our real needs. What is our real need?  What is essential? "...that He would grant you..."

*The Strength we need internally.  "to be strengthened with power"

Paul's prayer reveals the essential need for power in the Christian life; if Christianity is in fact a source of power, it is completely different from other religions.  Builders talk of reinforced concrete, reinforced fibro, reinforced blocks. When new buildings are erected, something strong is needed to shore them up and provide stability.  Before you build a concrete wall, if you want it to be really strong, you put into it rods of steel to strengthen it from within.  When you pray for yourself or others, are you most concerned about the external matters or the internal matters:  External = circumstances, pain? Internal = spiritual growth, development, your knowledge, relationship and experiencing God.

The first priority in the face of any difficulty is to deal with our own spiritual ability to receive power from God.

*The Source from which it (this power) comes. "...according to the riches of His glory... ' God never runs out of His supply.  This lake will never run dry. The resources of this storehouse are limitless.  Paul prays that God will give them "according to" not "out of"  His riches.  If a wealthy person gives you something out of his riches- it could be as little as a dime.  But if he gives you according to his riches, it will be more than adequate. Paul was praying for a generous measure.

*The Spirit through whom this power comes. "...strengthened with might through His Spirit"  The Holy Spirit is the channel through whom this power is available.  We are the channels through whom this power will be manifested.  The filling and control of the Holy Spirit is so practical.  Gal. 5:22

*The Sphere in which it operates. "in the inner man"  This is where our greatest needs are. What's the inner man?  What's the outer man- the physical body?  Literally it is into the inside man--this seems to suggest a penetration of spiritual power into the very core of the believer's being. Do you know about the inside man?  The "hidden person of the heart?" Our secret as Christians ever since we received Christ, a new man has been put inside us and that inner man is built up and strengthened.  The winds and storms that blow around us and upon us are not so important. But what makes up the inner man?  Three primary parts:

*Reason. It has been estimated that you and I have around 50,000 thoughts each day.  That's a lot of thoughts. We are constantly using our reasoning ability. But the question is how many of my thoughts are thoughts of fear, anger, lust, worry, and unbelief?  We need His strength when our reasoning is about to create a mental avalanche that isn't going anywhere good, and we need to dismiss it. Have you become aware of the mental dynamic? There is a direct relationship between what you think and how you feel!  Try feeling angry without angry thoughts.  Try feeling discouraged without discouraging thoughts. Or anxiety without anxious thoughts.  Guess what- you can't do it!  God has made us so that to experience a feeling, we must first use our reason.  Some of us are very weak in the inner person. Sometimes we are conscious of a dullness - a spirit of distraction - an inability to think clearly. Some of you have no difficulty at all picking up a John Grisham novel or a newspaper, but when you try to read the Bible your mind wanders and you cannot concentrate. Our ability to reason needs help to be better able to discern between right and wrong, from what is wise and foolish, from what is impure and hurtful. And then when we discern wrong thoughts to treat them like flies at a picnic- shoo them away and get on with our day.

*Conscience.  That our conscience becomes sensitive and tender to the nudging of the Spirit.  It's possible to disregard our conscience to the point where it becomes dulled.  We lose our alertness. Carlyle said, "The deadliest sin is the consciousness of no sin". This would be a helpful way to pray for others.

*Will.  Often we know what is right, and want to do it, but our will is not strong enough to enable us to carry out our intentions. If the inner man is weak, sin takes over and a believer seems helpless to resist it. There are many commands in the NT; "Walk in the Spirit" ; love your wives" ; "Submit to one another" ; "Obey your parents". The essence of Christianity is in the will.  As a result of sin and the fall our wills are weak.  We resolve to do certain things and determine not to do others- and that really is our desire.  Then when the time comes, we fold like a deck of cards. What is most essential in our prayers is the strengthening of our inner man!  And the strength comes as Jesus Christ takes up his permanent residence in our hearts.

4. Because we know the secret of our strength.

A. The Person of Christ dwelling within. "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith"  even as Jesus promised in  John 14:23: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."  There are two Greek words to convey the idea of "to live in"; one has the idea of living in a place as a stranger, and the other has the idea of settling down in a place to make it your permanent home. "Dwell" (house + down) is the Greek word for a permanent home; Jesus wants to settle down in your heart, not just visit as a guest or a stranger. -Hymn "Abide with Me" Christ will gladly come into your life- but he will not force his way in.  He knocks and then waits for our invitation to come and bring us His strength. By the way, this prayer is offered for believers. Christ is already present in their lives, but is he dwelling there? Rev. 3:20- Laodiceans were believers but in an extremely weak condition spiritually.  There is a sense in which they knew the Lord Jesus, but in a deeper personal sense they do not know Him. They were in a relationship with Him, but he did not control them.  He had not settled down in their hearts. If this is where you are today, we thank God for what has happened to you, but there is so much more.  There is a difference between being a believer in Christ and having Christ dwelling in your heart. To believe in the Lord Jesus is not the end, it's only the beginning.

B. The Prominence of His strong Love. "rooted and grounded in love"  When the Lord Jesus lives in us His love becomes the predominant factor in our lives.  The picture is of a tree that has a great root system.  The roots are firmly down into the soil of God's love. This gives a believer stability and durability.  Love is the soil in which our Christian life grows best.  We are to be rooted in it.  The real strength of a believer's life is love. I Cor. 13:1-3.  Love is not something weak and flabby- it is strong and powerful. There is nothing stronger than true love.  It is the greatest influence in the world. Paul asks that they may be able (strengthened) to comprehend with all the saints (together, in community) every dimension of the love of Jesus; that they would know it by experience, and not just in words. 4 dimensional love. The cross pointed in four ways; in every direction. Its breadth- God's love is wide enough to include every human being
Its length- God's love is long enough to last through all eternity
Its depth- God's love is deep enough to reach the most guilty sinner
Its height- God's love is high enough to take us to heaven

C. The Practice of His full presence.

"and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled"   Paul asks that they may be filled unto all the fullness of God; and that they may be filled to their capacity with Jesus, even as God is filled to His own capacity with His own character and attributes. It is logical to ask how this can ever be; how can something so far above us ever become reality?

5. Because we believe nothing is too difficult for God. vv.20-21 "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond"  The key is His ability- it is only through Him. Who is able to bring these blessings and privileges to pass in our lives? Only God! These things (spiritual strength, the indwelling Jesus, experiential knowledge of God's love, and the fullness of God) are ours as birthrights in Jesus; however, they must be received by prayer and can be furthered in the lives of others by our prayers for them. Too many Christians have never "read the bank book" to find out the vast spiritual wealth that God has put to their account through Jesus Christ.

His power is unlimited. "all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us"  His ability to do exceeds our ability to ask.  How much can you ask for? What are the outer limits of what you can imagine? He can do exceeding abundantly beyond all of it!  Is your God too small? A little child can paddle at the edge of the ocean; they bob around.  But out in the middle of the ocean, even a huge ocean liner bobs around like a cork.  We enter into the Christian life as little children and begin to paddle-but we must go on out into the depths and learn the limitless greatness of God.

His praise is unending. " to Him be the glory forever and ever."  The only fitting response to this great God is to give Him glory - especially in the church, the company of His redeemed, and that He receive that glory throughout all ages, world without end - Amen! Can you say "Amen" to this?  Do you enjoy conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ? He is standing and knocking at the door of the heart of Christians and He says "I would like you to know me." If you will open the door to your inner self I will come in and I will show you myself- I will sit down and become your best friend.  You can know me with an intimacy you have never experienced.  I will come into you. But you must first open the door.

How do I open the door? By faith.  Only faith reveals this possibility to you.  You can read the scriptures with much intellectual understanding but without faith you cannot truly comprehend them.  It is also faith that enables us to believe that Christ has settled down in my heart.  Faith says this is reality for me.  It is possible for me to walk and talk with the Lord Jesus in an intimate manner.  Faith takes hold of God's promises.  If you believe it then you will pray for it.  And if you pray for it you will experience it.

Perhaps you need to Christ in this experiential way? You could pray in this way today:

*"I do not know Christ in this intimate manner- and I truly want to get to know Him.  I believe it is possible and I am going to ask for it.  So now God, with faith in your word and with confidence that this does not depend on me, I pray that you will strengthen me with your might in my inner man.  I ask you Lord Jesus to come into my heart, to show yourself to me, to speak to me, to live in me.  I want to know you. I want you to live in me and control my whole life."

The Newcastle Baptist Tabernacle

January 21^st 2001

We welcome each person to our service this morning and pray that you will be richly blessed.

Today we welcome Michael, Debbie and baby Emanuel and their family and friends, to a service of Thanksgiving and Dedication.

We also welcome David Cohen and the team who have been assisting us by leading a Kids Club here at the church and helping us with parent meetings and other crucial ministries.

The Kids Club will continue on Monday and Tuesday and concludes this Tuesday night with a session with the parents entitled “Principles Of Positive Parenting” Of course, all are welcome and your presence would be an encouragement to visitors. This will be a coffee and dessert night for the parents, and if folks are able to pass on bickies or desserts or cakes they will be gratefully consumed. Bickies and cordial are also needed for the Kids Club tomorrow and Tuesday . If you would like a team member for lunch please take one home with you. The team includes Helen, Kimberley, Rebecca, Andrew, Jeff, Rick, Lela and Andre’.

Ephesians 3:1-13 The Mysterious Value of the Church
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles --- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. (Ephesians 3:1-13)

1. Value The Presence Of The Church

2. Value The Preaching In The Church

3. Value The Purpose Of The Church

A little talk with Jesus makes things right,

A little talk with Jesus makes things right,

No, no to the devil

A little talk with Jesus makes things right,

Ephesians 3:14-21 PRAYING FOR THE POWER

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

You May Come Boldly to God Because

1. Because God is now approachable.

2. Because we are apart of His family.

3. Because we understand what is most essential.

A. The Strength we need internally

B. The Source from which it (this power) comes.

C. The Spirit through whom this power comes.

D. The Sphere in which it operates. *Reason. *Conscience *Will.

4. Because we know the secret of our strength.

A. The Person of Christ dwelling within.

B. The Prominence of His strong Love.

C. The Practice of His full presence.

5. Because we believe nothing is too difficult for God. vv.20-21

Please pray for Peggy Wilkinson who is going into hospital for a hip operation on Tuesday.

Please pray for The Kid’s Club this week.

Please uphold Steve and the family as Steve is overseas.

Please uphold Rev. Al Patino as he leads us in a refreshing pulpit ministry this month.

Ephesians 3:17 The Enthronement Of Your King

I serve a living Saviour… not my favourite hymn. Because “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” 1Cor 3:3-6 Acts 2:32-36 Acts 4:8-12

While I was meditating on this verse and what I should say to you this song came again with a fresh delight and insight. For not only do I know He lives because of the historical fact of it. I know because of the su He longed that Christians might be more habituated to living by faith on Christ, so that He might be in them not by transcient visits, but abide constantly in their thoughts and affections, and that thereby they would be established in joy and abounding fruitfulness.bjective experience of Christ’s indwelling of me also.

The Distinction

"If Christ be in you the body is dead" (Rom. 8: 10), "know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you-, except ye be reprobate?" (2Cor. 13: 5), "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20), "Christ in you the hope of glory" (Col. 1 : 27). Trinity (Isa. 57: 15)

The Domain

Once there lived another man within me, Child of earth and slave of Satan he,

But I nailed him to the cross of Jesus And that man is nothing now to me,

Now Another man is living in me And I count His blessed life as mine,

I have died to all my own life I have risen to all his Life Divine.

That Christ personally and immediately inhabits His people is a blessed fact and therefore there is no need to make request for the same. But over and above that, the apostle here prayed "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," by which we understand him to mean, that by spiritual meditations upon and loving contemplations of His complex person. His glorious titles, His mediatorial offices. His precious promises, His wise precepts. He may have a constant place, the supreme place, in our thoughts and in our affections. That for which the apostle prayed was that the saints might have a spiritual sight of Christ, a spiritual knowledge of Him, a spiritual enjoyment of Him, so that He is present and precious to the soul; and that can only be by the exercise of faith rpon Him as He is revealed in the Scriptures. It is for the heart to be affected with the excellency of His person, with His love and grace, with His blood and righteousness.

My Heart Christ’s home. The car only moves if it has a driver in it.

Golfing…I could only do well if I had an infusion of Shark or Tiger Woods in me.

The Dwelling “May dwell”

People living out of bags are never at home. Lady in Oklahoma airport a musician and physiotherapist.. 3 weeks per year at home…she said, if that’s what you could call it.

Is He at home in your heart?

The Door “through faith”

It is an objective dwelling of Christ in the heart which our text refers to— as the subjects which engage our thoughts obtain a dwelling-place in our minds and as the objects of our love secure a place in our affections.

Faith, by the Spirit, makes Christ a living actuality. Moreover faith produces love, and then worketh by it, so that the object of faith is sealed upon the heart. As Christ was received by faith at first, so by the same principle of faith we continue to receive out of His fulness, to feed upon Him and to commune with Him. And as the mind is exercised with believing meditations upon Christ we give Him entertainment in our hearts

The Delight

Eph 3:17-19  WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE 

“Dr. Sumner (Wemp), never in all my life has anyone ever told me they love me. My father, my mother, no one has ever told me that they love me."

Dr. Tom Elliff. guy who after 40 years of marriage was faced with a divorce suit. His wife said that he was unloving, he hadn’t told her he loved her since their wedding day.  When his wife’s solicitor spoke to him about it , he said, “I told you I loved you when we got married.  If it was to be any different I’d have told you.” , "Looking for love in all the wrong places. Looking for love in all the wrong faces." The reason people are looking for love in all the wrong places is because they really do not understand where love can be found. . A car is designed so that it has to have oil in order to function correctly. God has made your heart in such a way that you need love. If you do not get love you do not function properly. "Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made. Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky."   Eph2:8,9 But all the time they are trying to earn God’s love

A. His Love Is Incredible In Its Dimensions     width

..”for God so loved the world? Eros phileo agapao D. L. Moody had a place down in front of the pulpit of the church in gas jets, this statement—God is Love. "Well what was it that grabbed hold of your heart and brought you to Christ?" The man pointed to the gas jets and said, "That's it right there. God is love." : “Jesus loves the little children Jesus loves me this I know at canon Green Sydney town hall crusade

B. His Love Is Incredible In Its Distance         length    

God SO loved the world. Jeremiah 31:3    The idea here is of the overwhelming, overflowing nature of God's love. He is saying that the love of God is not some little desert stream that's just about to dry up. The verb that is used for this word, love, is a word that takes us into the past and it takes us into the future. Everlasting love..till stars stop spinning. Telescope love the big picture from eternity to eternity. Microscope love. Rom 8:28, Eph 1:11.

C. His Love Is Incredible In Its Depth.            depth   the world

regardless of how bad you've been, God says, "I love you When mankind chose the shades of night Thou art the One who saw him fall; Thy love so kind and full of light Began each erring one to call; Through prophets old we saw Thee trace the path to death’ that holy place; from hearts of praise this cry we raise, how great how great is Thy love, How great is Thy love.

D. His Love Is Incredible In Its Destination     height

God Loves you with an INDISPUTABLE love. You can't dispute it. You can't doubt it. I preached a number of years ago on the subject of the love of God. One man was present who had for many years been ruined through guilt at having taken lives during WW 2. Afterward he came took my hands and looked directly into my eyes and said,  "Pastor, does God really love me?”  What is the proof? God so loved the world that he GAVE His only begotten son. Romans 5:8.

Don't tell me God doesn't love us, it's indisputable. You can't doubt it when you read about the cross. Look at the heights of God’s love for you. “and they called it puppy love..” the Osmonds.. puppy love—it can lead to a dog's life. Somebody said,   "Love is not an emotion, love is a decision." Well love is a decision, but it is also an emotion.  I came across a poem about puppy love:   Love is a very funny thing. It's shaped just like a lizard. It wraps its tail around your throat and goes right through your gizzard.  But the cross not like that. Errol Hulse “Once in the heart of the believer, the love of Christ becomes very powerful.  It has taken Christian martyrs through trials tortures and the flames of death.  

Ephesians 3:19 Filled With All The Fullness Of God

identity crisis Church crisis spiritual crisis moral crises."Meat and Poultry," magazine, testing airplane windscreens, trains in UK. Straight through whole train! The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly. The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had only one recommendation..."Thaw the chicken." God has a right way for you to develop a strong character that will take you through these turbulent ungodly years. That order is set out for us in this passage Divine Enablement: 16 Divine Enthronement 17 Divine Enlightenment 18 Divine Enlargement that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

picture of the Temple here. How does God reside in the temple of the human soul? Well the temple first of all better be strengthened to contain the Almighty God. You need to be strengthened by His Spirit. Christ Himself will come and reside there as the great High Priest. Oh we shall see the wondrous love of our Saviour…and as we are taken up with the fact that the Saviour Shed His blood for us, we shall be taken up with His love…and God Himself shall enter His temple and fill it. Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell By faith and love in every breast; Then shall we know, and taste, and feel The joys that cannot be expressed.”

“Come fill our hearts with inward strength Make our enlarged souls possess,

And learn the height, and breadth, and length, Of thine unmeasurable grace.”

1992, Michael Plant, American Yachtsman, commenced a solo crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean. But two weeks into the voyage something went wrong, and Plant and his boat were lost at sea..When Coyote built, an 8,000 pound weight was bolted to the keel to provide stability to the ship. How is the weight below the waterline in your life? Do you know some people who are models of godly living? a sense of God’s presence Johno Jackson There was something weighty and deep about Johno. Shallow keel Christian living has little time for disciplines of the soul.

Shallow keel Christian living makes much of emotion and commotion and little of vital impact through genuine devotion. Shallow keel Christian living is not Christian living..there is very little personal holiness nor happiness in God during trials and difficulties.

Shallow keel Christian living makes much of self and less of the Lord..

Shallow keel Christian experiences can leave one cynical, tired and empty.

You are to be filled with each Person of the Triune Godhead?

1. The Essence Of Being Filled With All The Fullness Of God

We are to be filled with God. He desires to pour His life into us and fill us to the full.

Christ dwells in human beings. Christ dwells in us. And the greatest need for the Christian is to be filled with Christ. We are to be filled with His nature and character. Eph 4:12 Col 1:19, Col 2: 9 John 1:14-16 We are to be filled with the Spirit. Eph 5:18-Gal 5:22 The Tri-une Godhead is here in this prayer. Barnes' Notes It means here, "that you may have the richest measures of divine consolation and of the divine presence; that you may partake of the entire enjoyment of God in the most ample measure in which he bestows his favours on his people."

2. The Abundance Of Being Filled With All the Fullness Of God. Barnes Notes: “It was to be with "all" the fulness of God; not with partial and stinted (pleroo) It speaks of total dominance. One who is filled with rage is dominated by rage.

3. The Experience Of Being Filled With All the Fullness Of God.

When someone knows the love of Christ to him, there is a sense of being satisfied.

CH Spurgeon, “We are made up, as it were, of a number of horseleeches, every one of which cries, “ Give. Give.” Here is the heart craving for something to loveThere is the intellect craving for more-more certainty, more novelty, more wonder…No power or passion that is vital to our manhood is discontented with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Praise

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Hope

Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Goodness

Rom 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Love

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Wisdom

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Something other than Self!

Ephesians 3:19 Filled With All The Fullness Of God

In spite of the identity crisis in the world the Bible is very clear about what a Christian should be. The Scripture lays out a definitive way in which life as a Christian is to be conducted. There really aren't any mysteries in terms of how the Christian is to conduct himself. Cultures change, styles change from time to time and place to place, but the character of the Christian isn't to change. And God's design for how the Christian functions is clearly revealed in Scripture. The sad reality is that when the Christian deviates from the plan there is chaos and that's the kind of thing the church is experiencing in the world today. Divorce is as high these days in the church as in the world. Adultery is frequent in many churches. Moral and spiritual devastation is rampart in Australia, and is it any wonder that the church is going to hell in a hat bag. Baptist churches are diminishing in numbers and membership. In only perhaps the next 20 years, should the Lord not step in, you will see many churches just close up and disappear. Something is wrong character wise among Christians. We are not doing things the right way.

Speaking of the right way to do things...in a recent issue of a magazine I never read called "Meat and Poultry," the editors quoted from another magazine I never read, "Feathers," that is the publication of the California Poultry Industry. But the following story was irresistible. It seems the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has a unique way of testing the strength of windshields on airplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken right at the plane's windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies. The theory is that if the windshield doesn't crack from the carcass impact, it will survive a real collision with a bird during flight.

Well it seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windshield on a brand new high-powered locomotive they're developing. They borrowed the FAA's chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windshield, went right through the heart of the engineer's chair, smashed the instrument panel behind him and imbedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab. The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly.

The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had only one recommendation..."Thaw the chicken."

Now I'm trying to make that into a parable for this sermon. There's a right way to do things. And if you do things the wrong way, the result is chaotic. God has a right way for you to develop a strong character that will take you through these turbulent ungodly years. That order is set out for us in this passage

Your spiritual growth and experience begins with the blessing of Divine Enablement:

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,

Your spiritual growth and experience deepens with the blessing of Divine Enthronement

17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;

Your spiritual growth and experience overflows with the blessing of Divine Enlightenment

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;

Today we seek to understand that our spiritual growth and experience culminates with the blessing of Divine Enlargement that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul is picking up the picture of the Temple here. How does God reside in the temple of the human soul? Well the temple first of all better be strengthened to contain the Almighty God. You need to be strengthened by His Spirit. Christ Himself will come and reside there as the great High Priest. Oh we shall see the wondrous love of our Saviour…and as we are taken up with the fact that the Saviour Shed His blood for us, we shall be taken up with His love…and God Himself shall enter His temple and fill it.

Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell By faith and love in every breast;

Then shall we know, and taste, and feel The joys that cannot be expressed.”

“Come fill our hearts with inward strength Make our enlarged souls possess,

And learn the height, and breadth, and length, Of thine unmeasurable grace.”

In the autumn of 1992, Michael Plant, a popular American Yachtsman, commenced a solo crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean. But two weeks into the voyage something went wrong, and Plant and his boat were lost at sea..

When Plant has prepared to sail, his friends and family had collected at the dock for an enthusiastic farewell. None had any reason for anxiety, they were waving to an expert who had circumnavigated the globe alone more than once. Plant was recognised as an expert yachtsman comparable to none. The Coyote, his sailing ship, was state of the art, its fabrication, its technology, its creature comforts, its equipment were the envy of the sailing community. There was expertise, experience and equipment. But something did go wrong. Eleven days into the voyage radio contact was lost.. And then the news that no one expected, the Coyote was found floating upside down 450 miles North of the Azores Islands, and no sign of Plant. Later the inflatable raft was found still stored inside the yacht. What had happened to this skilled yachtsman?

When the Coyote was built, an 8,000 pound weight was bolted to the keel to provide stability to the ship when in the water. Yachts are extremely stable and can handle most any seas because of the weight of the keel which keeps them upright in the water. Because of the weight of the keel, yachts are able to maintain a steady course and harness the tremendous power of the wind, and yet not capsize. There must be more weight below the waterline than above it. Any violation of this principle of weight distribution spells disaster.

Possibly Plants yacht was hit from beneath by a whale, or an iceberg, or some debris, or even perhaps a US submarine, and the keel weight was dislodged. The first wind that came, the first wave, now that the weight below the waterline was no longer greater than the weight above it, would have capsized the Coyote and cost the life of Michael Plant. The four ton weight was missing and the stability of the Coyote was compromised.

How is the weight below the waterline in your life? This passage before us, these four petitions of Paul, are prayers for your heart to be deepened so that your life won’t capsize under the gales of this world that prevail against the yacht of your life.

Do you know some people who are models of godly living? There is a sense of being in God’s presence when you are with them. I remember one elder at the Heathcote Engadine Baptist Church particularly. Johno Jackson suffered incredibly with back pain. He was such a humble and gracious fellow you would not dream he had been one of the early inventors of the pacemaker. But such godliness!! When you went from his house, you knew you had been with a godly man who immersed himself in the Word of God. And when you left his house he would always say, “The Lord bless you real good.” And you just knew He would. Because you knew Johno was a man who had the ear of God in his prayer life. There was something weighty and deep about Johno. No superficiality here. No shallowness….just real depth of godliness.

This petition of Paul’s brings to us deep experiences which will cause us to be weighty and deep below the waterline. We will have the depth to our lives that enables us to stand up under storm force gales in life. Now there are folks who just would delight in this passage and would say “I have had an experience of God, and that is good enough.” They live a shallow life based on shallow experiences.

Shallow keel Christian living has little time for disciplines of the soul.

Shallow keel Christian living makes much of emotion and commotion and little of vital impact through genuine devotion.

Shallow keel Christian living is not Christian living..there is very little personal holiness nor happiness in God during trials and difficulties.

Shallow keel Christian living makes much of self and less of the Lord..

Shallow keel Christian experiences can leave one cynical, tired and empty.

Rather than such a shallow experience, the Lord desires to fill us with all the fullness of God. This word “filled” is an interesting word in Ephesians and elsewhere in the epistles.  Did you know you were to be filled with each Person of the Triune Godhead?

1. The Essence Of Being Filled With All The Fullness Of God

(what it is)

We are to be filled with God. He desires to pour His life into us and fill us to the full.

Christ dwells in human beings. Christ dwells in us. And the greatest need for the Christian is to be filled with Christ. We are to be filled with His nature and character.

Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;  13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 

Col 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

Col 2: 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, "He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

We are to be filled with the Spirit.

Eph 5:18-19 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Paul’s prayer takes us to the heights.

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Tri-une Godhead is here in this prayer.

Barnes' Notes

(1) They were to be "full of God." That is, he would dwell in them, pervading them.

(2) They were to be filled with "the fullness of God"- pleerooma is a favourite word with Paul. Thus, he speaks of the "fullness" of the Gentiles, Rom 11:25; the "fullness" of time, Gal 4:4; the fullness of him that filleth all in all, Eph 1:23; the "fullness" of Christ, Eph 4:13; the "fullness" of the Godhead in Christ, Col 1:19; 2:9. It means here, "that you may have the richest measures of divine consolation and of the divine presence; that you may partake of the entire enjoyment of God in the most ample measure in which he bestows his favours on his people."

The Psalmist spoke similarly:

Ps 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. 24 With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. 28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.

2. The Abundance Of Being Filled With All the Fullness Of God.

Barnes Notes: “It was to be with "all" the fulness of God; not with partial and stinted measures of his gracious presence, but with "all" which he ever bestows. Religion is not a name. It is not a matter of form. It is not a trifle. It is the richest, best gift of God to man. It ennobles our nature. It more clearly teaches us our true dignity than all the profound discoveries which people can make in science; for none of them will ever fill us with the fulness of God. Religion is spiritual, elevating, pure, Godlike. We dwell with God; walk with God; live with God; commune with God; are like God. We become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4); in rank we are associated with angels; in happiness and purity we are associated with God!”

Here we see the Greek word (pleroo) that means to fill to full. It speaks of total dominance. One who is filled with rage is dominated by rage. When my children are filled with silly happiness, it breaks out in uncontrollable giggles. They are controlled by the giggles.  Someone who is filled up to all the fullness of God is a person who is controlled by the Spirit of God. The fruit of the Spirit is bursting forth in their life. They are in an abiding relationship with Christ as Lord.

The Essence The Abundance The Experience

3. The Experience Of Being Filled With All the Fullness Of God.

I picked up a book second hand the other day called “The Life God-Blesses.”

It was absolutely instructive in its title. Isn’t that the sort of life you want to live? The life that God has blessed!

If you get a knowledge of Christ’s love, it is a filling knowledge. It brings contentment to the soul. When someone knows the love of Christ to him, there is a sense of being satisfied.

CH Spurgeon, last century put it this way: “We are made up, as it were, of a number of horseleeches, every one of which cries, “ Give. Give.” Here is the heart craving for something to love. Oh, but when you love Christ, you have a heart’s love that will satisfy you for all time! Where can such sweetness be? Your heart shall never go a-hungering again. His charms shall hold you fast. There is the intellect: what a horseleech it is! It is ever craving for more-more certainty, more novelty, more wonder; but when the intellect comes to know Christ it acknowledges that in him dwelleth all wisdom. To know the Eternal Son is to know the Father, and this is a knowledge which rests the understanding and fills up the mind. Imagination itself is content with Jesus. Hope cannot conceive anything more lovely; she gives up all attempts to paint a fairer than he; and she cries, “Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. O ye daughters of Jerusalem!” No power or passion that is vital to our manhood is discontented with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

So.. you got leeches!” that’s an interesting way to put it. Deep inner needs that must be met. And only in Christ are these needs ever truly met. And they are met as you experience the love of Christ and are filled up with all the fullness of God! You begin to enjoy. Your soul is not merely satisfied, but overjoyed. It is more than just being satisfied with God..but overflowing. You are filled with all the fullness of GOD!!

An unexpected windfall may make someone happy, but how about when we can say with David, , But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever? Contented? We can be more than contented…FILLED with all the fullness of God!!!!Your heart possesses a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Praise

Sometimes when you have been praising the Lord you have wished that you could keep on singing all the night long. I have to admit sometimes when our musicians play those tunes of those hymns I would prefer not to preach and just to sing. A lot of you have heard my voice and would prefer I preached rather than sing, mainly because I can do just about anything better than I can sing. But sometimes I get right carried away with the hymns we sing. That is God filling us.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Hope

Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When a loved one died, you didn’t fall apart! Why? Because your heart was “fixed, trusting in the Lord.” When the sad day came it did not overwhelm you: at another time it might have done so, but the Lord so filled you with his presence that you were quiet, the Lord prepared you for the trouble.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Goodness

One day I saw something that amazed me. I saw a friend handle an extreme attack by a critic with absolute goodness and patience. I was watching a miracle of graciousness and courtesy. Where did it come from? Rom 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Love

You will have a love that gives your lips words for the lost. Have you ever tried to witness to someone else when you are not filled with all the fullness of God. What a sad mess we make of it. There is no enthusiasm because, aware of our distance of relationship with Him, we wonder that god could ever use us to lead someone else to Christ. And so there is no enthusiasm, there is no passion, and we don’t know what to say, even though we may have been trained in 17 ways to share our faith. But if you are full of spiritual life you cannot help running over, you will by the Holy Spirit’s power pour out the right words when they are needed, and thirsty souls will receive of the living water.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Wisdom

Whatever happens to you in the future you will be prepared for it. If you are called upon to confess his name, if you are filled with all the fullness of God, courage will be yours; and if you are called to endure great suffering, patience will be ready, for the God of patience will grant you strength equal to your need. If a knotty problem poses you, and you are filled with God’s wisdom, you will work it out. If you go forth filled with God, you are provided for every emergency. Come calamity or prosperity, whatever shape the temptation may assume, if the love of Christ has filled you with the fullness of God you are ready for it.

When You Are Filled With God, You Are Filled With Something other than Self!

CH Spurgeon; “Does it not mean that self is banished; for if the fullness of God has filled you, where is room for self? Does it not mean that the soul is perfectly charmed with all that God does for it? “Filled with all the fullness of God.” Does it not mean that every power of the entire nature is content and satisfied? Does it not mean that the whole man is occupied and inhabited by God-that the whole nature becomes permeated with grace, saturated with love, satisfied with favor, and full of the goodness of the Lord?

Now you may be saying “Steve, it sounds wonderful, but I do not understand all this. This has never been my experience.”

Well you must start at the very beginning, the very best place to start. :

Look to Jesus Christ at once, and you shall be saved. Trust him, trust him wholly. By faith you will begin to live. After you begin to live, you will be strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord. After you are strengthened Christ will dwell in your heart. After Christ has dwelt in your heart, you shall know the love that passes knowledge; and after you know the love that passes knowledge, you shall be filled with all the fullness of God. Do not begin at the end, but take things according to Gods order. If you want to climb a ladder you don’t expect to put your foot on the top rung first go; but you go up one step at a time. There is your first rung- “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Take that first step now. Beginning with faith in Jesus, you shall persevere, and ascend till you reach the top of the ladder.

Eph 3:16 Enablement By His Spirit

13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 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, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

1. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Present Reality
   
2. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Personal Reality

Power For The Soul

Power For The Suffering

Power For The Struggling

Power For The Service

3. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Prolific Reality

Ephesians 3:17 The Enthronement Of Your King

1. The Distinction

2. The Domain

3. The Dwelling

4. The Door

5. The Delight

The Strengthening Of His Spirit

This is the second prayer of Paul for the Ephesians, and like the former one in Eph 1, it is concerned mainly with their spiritual welfare. Whereas the first prayer centres in knowledge, this prayer has its focal point in being. On Friday I saw a fella with words printed on his tee shirt. If I had worn it, it might have made even me look smart. It said, Knowledge is King. Paul had the focus of his first prayer that the believers might grow in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes a step further in this second prayer and asks that they might grow in grace. That they might be, rather than just know.

This is the second of two prayers in the first three chapters of Ephesians. The first is found in Ephesians 1:15-23. In that first prayer, Paul prays that we might come to know God's power. In this second prayer, Paul prays that we might use that power. We not only need to know God's power, we need to use it. It is possible to know a great deal about automobiles --- to know how all of the mechanical parts interact, to know about the electrical system, to know about the transmission, engine, suspension, and the like --- and never use the automobile to go anywhere. On the other hand, it is entirely possible to know almost nothing about how an automobile is engineered, and to use it every day to travel thousands of miles. We must use what we know, or what we know does no good. The same is true spiritually. It is possible to know a great deal about the truths of God contained in the Bible, and yet never live by those truths. So the focus of this second prayer is on how to know and live by the power of God.

These four petitions here are cumulative. They are like steps. Underline the word “that” there in the text. It is the step, each one of these steps taking you higher in the experience of God’s grace and love.

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

See how he moves from height to height. WOW….. to be filled with all the fullness of God!

Over the next few weeks we are going to take each one of these steps to a fruitful God filled life and understand and experience how they can be worked out in our lives.

The first petition Paul makes is 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,

Some lumber men were approached by a new company and introduced to their new product, the chain saw. The boss was persuaded by the chain-saw salesman, who promised that each lumberjack using the new chain-saw would be able to double his production from 8 trees per day to 16 trees per day. Jock, an old Scotsman was given the first chain saw. The first day he returned to the mill exhausted. He had only managed to cut 7 trees that day. The boss bawled him out. He claimed he preferred his old crosscut saw to the new chain saw. The next day he got it up to 8 trees….but no where near the promised 16. The following day he got 9 trees, the next day 8 and 7 on the Friday. The manager of the mill called the salesman and demanded he front up the next day. Jock was his best lumber man.. and he had not managed to make more than 9 trees on a day…not the promised 16. The salesman explained that there must have been something defective in the chain saw. He switched it on, yanked on the starter chord…the engine flew into life.. and Jock shouted out….”Where did that noise come from?” He was trying to cut the trees with the chain saw without the aid of the engine!

Your life was never intended to be lived without the Spirit of God.

God has always intended to strengthen your life through the power of His indwelling strengthening Holy Spirit.

1. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Present Reality

Duck church, Duck Choir, Duck Preacher… Isa 40:28-31

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

There was a resounding Amen! And they all waddled home. Being at church had made no difference. This passage is meant to make a difference.

Ps 138:3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul. NKJV

This passage directly corresponds in the Old Testament with what Paul prays here in the New Testament. David was enduring a difficult time Ps 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand Against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me. 8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. NKJV

". God at once responded and afforded him relief by strengthening the faculties of his soul and animating the grace of his "new man". The effect of that strengthening would be courage, fortitude, spiritual heroism.

". God at once responded and afforded him relief by strengthening the faculties of his soul and animating the grace of his "new man". The effect of that strengthening would be courage, fortitude, spiritual heroism. The Spirit can make the feeble mighty, the trembler brave, and the weary cheerful. "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength" (Isa. 40:29).

1 Sam 30:3-6 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. 6 Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. NKJV

The Spirit can make the feeble mighty, the trembler brave, and the weary cheerful. "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength" (Isa. 40:29). Do you find there are crises in your life that are truly overwhelming? Are you facing a health crisis that causes you to despair? Do you need strength to face it? Courage? A sense of God’s hand and purpose on your life? Are you facing threatening that could well overwhelm you? Do thy friends dispise forsake thee, Is there trouble anywhere? You can know the strengthening of God’s Spirit for the crisis you are facing right now.

2. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Personal Reality

Power For The Soul

The inner man = “the hidden man of the heart”. It reminds us of our Saviour’s parable about the leaven hidden deeply in the three measures of flour, until all is leavened…until the whole of the man is affected and changed. The Lord promises a strengthening by His Spirit of the inner man of the heart.

Eph 3:16 [In the inner man] In the soul. Every man is a compound being; he has a body and a soul. The outward man is that alone which is seen and considered by men; the inward man is that which stands particularly in reference to God and eternity.

2 Cor 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

NKJV

The outward man is strengthened by earthly food, etc.; the inward man, by spiritual and heavenly influences. Knowledge, love, peace, and holiness, are the food of the inward man; or rather Jesus Christ, that bread of life which came down from heaven: he that eateth this bread shall live and be strengthened by it. The soul must be as truly fed and nourished by divine food as the body by natural food. from Adam Clarke's Commentary,

Power For The Suffering

Col 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; NKJV

After 16 years of struggling in Africa David Livingstone returned to speak at a theological college, weary worn emaciated. One arm was hanging uselessly by his side, having been savaged by a lion. “Shall I tell you what sustained me amidst the toil, the hardships, the loneliness of my exile? It was Christ’s promise, “Lo I am with you always unto the end of the age.”

His power doesn’t absolve us from the fight, it fits us for the fight.

FEAR NOT!

God is omniscient and omnipotent

"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."—Psalm lvi.3.

"I wiU trust and not be afraid."—Isa. xii. 2.

WHEN I'm afraid of times before, What coming days will bring,

When life's omissions I deplore, And earth-mists round me cling;

0 Lord of love, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I'll trust in Thee.

When I'm afraid of wily foes, Their flattery and hate—

Who seek my progress to oppose— My joys to dissipate;

0 Lord of hosts, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I'll trust in Thee.

When I'm afraid of dangers near, Foreboding future ills;

When rocks, and shoals, and deeps I fear, And gloom my spirit fills;

0 Lord of might, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I'll trust in Thee.

When I'm afraid of crushing loss, Parting from loved ones dear— .

Lest I shall murmur at my cross, And yield to faithless fear;

0 Lord of peace, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I'll trust in Thee.

When I'm afraid of failing health, Sore weaknesses I know—

And illness steals o'er me by stealth, And sickness lays me low;

0 Lord of power, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I'U trust in Thee.

When I'm afraid of drear old age, As nature's powers decay—

Mortality's dread heritage, Increasing day by day;

0 Lord of grace, my weakness see— When I'm afraid I’ll trust in Thee.

—A. Gardner.

Power For The Struggling

Might has its home within me "God gave us not a spirit of tearfulness: but of power and love and discipline."—H Tim. i. 7 (R.V.).

"TNSTEAD of fearfulness and shame—power. And the power is heaven-born and heaven-sustained, be­queathed and nourished by the Spirit of God. What opposition should I dread, from what enemy should I fly, when this invincible Might has its home within me? My weakness, leaning upon God, its end can never miss. He delights in the empty and helpless soul into which He can breathe His strength.

Instead of fearfulness and shame—love. The very love of Jesus, limitless, unconquerable towards men who range themselves against His gospel. If this love abounds in me, it will drive terror far away. It will make me the envoy of peace to those who hate me. Above all, my shrinking from them will rise and reign a throbbing compassion for them. Stronger than my misgivings of the harm they may inflict on me, will be my knowledge of the sorrowful destiny they may reap for themselves—my yearning to snatch them from it.

Instead of tearfulness and shame—discipline. The sober and continual government of my self: the watchful-ness that mounts even into prayer. Let me have this lordship over my frailties, my alarms, my moods of despondency and panic, and thrice am I armed: no shafl shall pierce my coat of mail.

'I fear no breathing bowman, But only, east or west, The awful other foeman Impowered in my breast.'God, let me remember, gives me not a spirit of fearfulness, but of Power and Love and Discipline." —Rev. Alexander Smellie, D.D,

"But I look up—into the face of Jesus, For there my heart can rest, my fears arc stilled;

And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness, And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled."

He giveth more grace

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater

He sendeth more strength when the labours increase

To added affliction He addeth His mercy

To multiplied trials His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth and giveth and giveth again. Annie Johnson Flint.

Power For The Service

Acts 1: 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Luke 24:46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things. 49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

The point is that when God gives you a clear call He is also ready to give you His strength to see it through, and that if you try to do what He calls you to do on your own, you are bound to fail. We must serve in Hi5 strength or we are heading for frustration. Jesus put this so well and so simply when He said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).

Let me show you both by biblical teaching and by examples how God gives to those He calls the strength to do tasks that may otherwise seem impossible. Let me also show you how He expects us to depend on His strength, not our own. Being called by God means that we have the reassuring promise that God's strength is always available to us. The psalmist wrote, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea" (Ps. 46:1-2).

The prophet Isaiah wrote, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (40:31). A few verses later he spoke for God and said, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand" (41:10).

Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be with them to give them power after He left this earth: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8). And Paul the apostle frequently prayed that the churches to which he ministered would be filled with this strength, or power, as when he prayed for the Colossians that they would be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power* (Col. 1:11).

The experience of Jesus' own disciples is one of the best examples of the difference God's strength through the Holy Spirit makes in believers' lives. Before His death, you will remember, the disciples argued among themselves about who was the greatest and who would have the place of highest honor in His kingdom—in other words, they were hardly spiritual giants. And when their fantasies were shattered on the night He was betrayed and arrested, they all ran away in terror and hid, afraid the authorities would come after them, too. On the Day of Pentecost, however, they were filled with super-natural power, and neither they nor the world were ever the same again. They began by turning Jerusalem upside down with their powerful preaching and the testimony of their Christian love. When Peter and John were taken before the Sanhedrin, the same religious leaders who condemned Jesus ordered them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. What was their response? Did they run and hide again? Indeed they did not! They prayed, "Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word. . . . And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken . . . and they spoke the word of God with boldness"

(Acts 4:29, 31). The strength of God applied to their lives made a

phenomenal difference. Paul spoke often of the effects of God's strength in his own life.

In Philippians 4:13 he said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." In his first letter to the Thessalonians he wrote, "For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake" (1:5).

Selfishness Consumed

Sloth Consumed

Shame Consumed.

Civil War, South was recruiting but not training troops. Brown, a farmer was missing after a retreat.. returned some hours later with 6 union prisoners. “Where in the world did you get them?” “The woods is full of them, plenty for the taking.”

3. The Strengthening Of His Spirit Is A Prolific Reality

There is more power available than you could possibly need.

Infinity

Tonight I look upon the sky and think of Thee

0 God, Creator of those myriad stars and of vast space between;

And yet inside the hollow of the hand which made all these

My soul can find repose and rest and peace.

I see Thy mercy, limitless as space,

I see Thy love and feel Thy close embrace;

And though Thy presence fills the universe,

Yet close as hands and heart Thou art to me.

—Olga J. Weiss

It is limited only by our hearts willingness to receive.

The Christian life isn’t difficult, it is impossible, except for the Lord’s strengthening of us by His Spirit.

Ephesians 3:17 The Enthronement Of Your King

I serve a living Saviour… not my favourite hymn. Because “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.”

I know the Lord Jesus is alive because of better reasons than just some subjective experience. Objective facts concerning His resurrection rivet my soul fast to Him as My Saviour and Lord.

1 Cor 15: 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

Acts 2:32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The LORD said to my Lord,

"Sit at My right hand, 35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." '

36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." NKJV

Acts 4:8-12

"Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

NKJV

While I was meditating on this verse and what I should say to you tonight while I was in the USA this song came again with a fresh delight and insight. For not only do I know He lives because of the historical fact of it. I know because of the subjective experience of Christ’s indwelling of me also.

But we must now consider more closely the relation of this first petition unto what immediately follows. The apostle yearned for an increased meas­ure of grace to be granted the saints and for their spiritual abilities to be en­larged—not in this instance with a view to the performance of the outward acts of obedience and duty, but that the believing soul might be empowered to enjoy its spiritual portion and privileges. He longed that Christians might be more habituated to living by faith on Christ, so that He might be in them not by transcient visits, but abide constantly in their thoughts and affections, and that thereby they would be established in joy and abounding fruitfulness. He longed that they might not only have love, but be "rooted and grounded" therein, so that their communion with Christ might be a steady experience rather than an occasional luxury. It is only by His strengthening of the heart that we are delivered from being en­grossed by the things around us and our earth-bound affections are drawn unto things above. He it is who creates the desire for Christ, who shows us the things of Christ, who causes us to make Him the grand subject of our spiritual meditations. So too it is only by the supernatural quickening of the Spirit that we can be girded for that extraordinary effort of mind if we are to be "able to comprehend. . .and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge". And beyond any peradventure, it is only by the operations and influences of the gracious Spirit that we may be "filled with all the fulness of God". And that quickening, enablement and girding we are to daily seek from Him.

1. The Distinction

"If Christ be in you the body is dead" (Rom. 8: 10), "know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you-, except ye be reprobate?" (2Cor. 13: 5), "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20), "Christ in you the hope of glory" (Col. 1 : 27). We readily grant that we are treating of a realm that is beyond the compass of any created mind, yet that does not warrant us in denying God's Word. We freely admit that the God-man Mediator does not indwell the saints, for His humanity is localized in Heaven. But Christ is, essentially, a Divine person, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, and in becoming flesh the Word lost none of His Divine attributes. Omnipresence pertains as much to Him now as it did before He became incarnate, and as a Divine person He indwells His people as really and truly as do the other persons of the Godhead. God the Father dwells in His children : if 1 John 4 : 12-15 be read attentively, it will be seen that in that passage "God" clearly has reference to the Father. The Holy Spirit dwells in the saint individually and in the Church corporeately: Rom. 8:8, 11; 1 Cor.3: 16; 6: 19; and God the Son dwells in believers. When it was said "God is in you of a truth" (1 Cor. 14: 15) it is to be understood of the Triune God.

Yet it is not only in the sense that He is omnipresent that Christ indwells His people. When we read "do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23: 24) that refers alike to the omnipresence of each Person in the God- head. But when we are told that the infinite God "dwells in Heaven" (Psa. 123 1), "among the children of Israel" (Num. 35: 24), "inZion" (Psa. 9: 11), "with him that is of an humble and contrite spirit" (Isa. 57: 15), it signifies a particular appropriation, where He is specially manifested. "Surely He that dwells, as He is God, in common in all creatures. His person and Godhead may well

be thought to dwell in us by a special appropriated habitation, as in His own

house, which we are says the apostle in Heb. 3:6; yea, and not only His own

•house' but His 'body' also". Pointedly did Goodwin also ask, "Can Satan,

because he is a spirit, possess the bodies, and even the hearts of men; and can-

not Christ, who as God is 'Spirit' (John 4: 24), do the same?". "What! hath the addition of the manhood unto His person made that person, as He is God, incapable of dwelling in us immediately, as well as the person of the Spirit? Is He disprivileged thereby, whereas indeed by reason of His relation to us as God-man it is that He doth dwell in us anyway? It has also seemed somewhat strange tome that He that is ordained to be the means of our union with God, and is the prime object and terminus of our union, the designed Bridegroom that is to be married, the person to be in conjunction with us: 'I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be one in Us' (John 17); that He also is the person in whom and by whom the union is effected with Him- self and the other two Persons and is the Person most concerned in this matter of union, that Himself should be married and come to be in His nearest conjunction with us only by a proxy, namely, by the Holy Spirit, and Him to be sent into our hearts only to dwell in His stead—that were indeed strange"

(Thos. Goodwin).

2. The Domain “your hearts”

Once there lived another man within me, Child of earth and slave of Satan he,

But I nailed him to the cross of Jesus And that man is nothing now to me,

Now Another man is living in me And I count His blessed life as mine,

I have died to all my own life I have risen to all his Life Divine.

I Take-He Undertakes

I clasp the hand of love divine;

I claim the gracious promise mine

And add to His my countersign.

I take-He undertakes.

I take salvation full and free

Through Him who gave His life for me;

He undertakes my a(/ to be.

I take-He undertakes.

I take Him as my holiness,

My spirit's spotless, heavenly dress;

I take the Lord, my righteousness.

I take-He undertakes.

I take the promised Holy Ghost;

I take the power of Pentecost

To fill me to the uttermost.

I take-He undertakes.

I simply take Him at His word;

I praise Him that my prayer is heard

And claim my answer from the Lord.

I take-He undertakes.

I take Thee, blessed Lord;

I give myself to Thee.

And Thou, according to Thy Word,

Dost undertake for me.

-A. B. Simpson

John 12:20-26

20 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. 21 Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." 22 Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. 23 But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

NKJV

That Christ personally and immediately inhabits His people is a blessed fact and therefore there is no need to make request for the same. But over and above that, the apostle here prayed "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," by which we understand him to mean, that by spiritual meditations upon and loving contemplations of His complex person. His glorious titles, His mediatorial offices. His precious promises, His wise precepts. He may have a constant place, the supreme place, in our thoughts and in our affections. That for which the apostle prayed was that the saints might have a spiritual sight of Christ, a spiritual knowledge of Him, a spiritual enjoyment of Him, so that He is present and precious to the soul; and that can only be by the exercise of faith rpon Him as He is revealed in the Scriptures. It is for the heart to be affected with the excellency of His person, with His love and grace, with His blood and righteousness.

My Heart Christ’s home.

The car ojnly moves if it has a driver in it.

Golfing…I could only do well if I had an infusion of Shark or Tiger Woods in me.

3. The Dwelling “May dwell”

People living out of bags are never at home.

Lady in Oklahoma airport a musician and physiotherapist.. 3 weeks per year at home…she said, if that’s what you could call it.

Is He at home in your heart?

4. The Door “through faith”

It is an objective dwelling of Christ in the heart which our text refers to— as the subjects which engage our thoughts obtain a dwelling-place in our minds and as the objects of our love secure a place in our affections. As the eye beholds an object, an image of it is introduced and impressed upon the mind; and as the eye of the spirit-—faith—is engaged with Christ, an image of Him is formed on the heart. The sun is stationed in the heavens, yet when we gaze upon it steadily an image of it is formed upon the retina of the eye. As by opening the door or the window the sun shines directly into our rooms, so by the exercise of faith upon Him, Christ obtains a real presence in our hearts. Christ is the grant Object of faith, and faith is the faculty whereby we, through the light of the Word and the power of the Spirit, receive and take into our renewed minds the knowledge of His person and perfections. Thereby He is admitted into our hearts and we have real communion with Him. As the fancy, or that faculty of the mind by which it records and represents making to appear past images or impressions, forming a picture of them in the mind, is an aid to our natural knowledge in the understanding of natural things; much more so does faith help our spiritui knowledge of Divine things—giving a real subsistence to them in the soul. The beholding of Christ is not by way of fancy-; but by faith giving a subsistence to Him, so that the heart finds a reality of what it believes; yea, it has so great an influence and leaves such an impression that it changes the heart into the same image (2 Cor. 3: 18). Faith, by the Spirit, makes Christ a living actuality. Moreover faith produces love, and then worketh by it, so that the object of faith is sealed upon the heart. As Christ was received by faith at first, so by the same principle of faith we continue to receive out of His fulness, to feed upon Him and to commune with Him. And as the mind is exercised with believing meditations upon Christ we give Him entertainment in our hearts. "That He would grant you. . .to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ". Cannot the reader now perceive more clearly the relation between those two petitions?

There is no exercise of faith upon Christ apart from and except by the operations

of the gracious Spirit within the believer's soul. Said the Lord Jesus, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him" (John 6: 44). To "come" to Christ is the same as to "believe" on Him as v. 35 of the same chapter shows, and none can come or believe unless his heart be drawn to Christ by the Father, and that "drawing" He does both personally and by the operations of His Spirit. True, John 6: 44 has reference to our initial coming to or believing on Christ, yet we are equally dependent upon the Spirit for every subsequent exercise of faith. Thus we read of "faith of the operation of God" (Col. 2: 12), and of Paul praying that God would "fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power"—i.e. His power

(2 Thess, 1: 11). Thus the principal effect of our being strengthened by the Spirit is that our hearts are drawn but unto Christ and our faith is exercised upon Him.

As the Spirit is from Christ (John 15: 26; Acts 2: 33), so the great mission of the Spirit is to direct souls to Christ (John 16: 14, 15). If He first convicts of sin, it is but to convince of our need of a Saviour. If He communicates to us a new nature, it is that that new nature may be absorbed with Christ. If He strengthens us it is in order that faith may act upon Christ. "As the Spirit never acts but in and through Christ with respect to His people, so Christ is never received but by and with the influences of the Spirit. They are as undivided in Their operations, as in Their essence. A man cannot truly believe in Christ but by the power of the Holy Spirit, nor can a man have the Spirit who does not truly believe in Christ. There is a reciprosity in the two Divine offices which illustrate and magnifies Both, and for which respecting the Divine glory, They were covenanted and undertook. Christ is the Fountain of life, and the Holy Spirit is the Water of life, from that Fountain (Abrose Serle "Horae Solitarae "), and His watering of the soul is to fit it to act faith on Christ. It is far too little realised by the majority of Christians that they are just as wholly dependent upon the gracious operations of the Spirit within them as they are upon the meritorious righteousness of Christ without them, and therefore they need to seek unto God ahd count upon the enablings of the Former as definitely and as constantly as they trust in and rely upon the finished work of the Latter. As they are completely devoid of anything to commend themselves unto the notice of the Lord, so they are equally without any power of their own to serve and glorify Him now that He has deigned to look upon and recover them from their lost estate. It is because of their helplessness that He has bestowed the Holy Spirit upon them: to maintain life in their souls and to draw forth that life into suitable exercise and action. Yet it is both our privilege and duty to concur therein: recognising our dependency on His agency avoiding those things which grieve Him, and seeking His daily renewings. "I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1: 19)—a fresh supply of the Spirit comes to us in response to prayer! Until he has learned his dependency upon the Spirit's workings within him, until he personally realises his urgent need of a fresh "supply of the Spirit", a being daily renewed by Him, the Christian will not and cannot make any true spiritual progress: faith upon Christ will not be operative, love for

Isa 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. NKJV

I Take—He Undertakes

I clasp the hand of love divine; I claim the gracious promise mine

And add to His my countersign. I take—He undertakes.

I take salvation full and free Through Him who gave His life for me;

He undertakes my all to be. I take—He undertakes.

I take Him as my holiness, My spirit's spotless, heavenly dress;

I take the Lord, my righteousness. I take—He undertakes.

I take the promised Holy Ghost; I take the power of Pentecost

To fill me to the uttermost. I take—He undertakes.

I simply take Him at His word; I praise Him that my prayer is heard

And claim my answer from the Lord. I take—He undertakes.

I take Thee, blessed Lord; I give myself to Thee.

And Thou, according to Thy Word, Dost undertake for me. —A. B. Simpson

5. The Delight “Christ”

"Yes, He is altogether lovely." Song 5:16

Lost men of this world cannot see the
stupendous beauty of Christ. All sparkling
beauties are found in Him, but they lack eyes!

He is infinitely and superlatively lovely!
All that we could ever say about Jesus
falls infinitely short of his worth. He is
pure, unspotted beauty. There is an
infinite resplendency, a sparkling luster
to His beauty!

Jesus is most lovely in His sufferings,
when he made an atonement for our sins.

What, lovely in His sufferings?
Lovely when He was buffeted, spit
upon, and besmeared with blood?

Oh yes, He was most lovely upon the cross,
when He showed most love to us. He bled
love at every vein!  Those drops were love
drops!  The more bloody, the more lovely!

Oh how lovely ought a bleeding Savior
be to our eyes! Let us wear this blessed
crucifix always in our heart!

The cross of Christ is the key
that opens paradise to us!

How beautiful is Christ on the cross!

The ruddiness of His blood took
away the redness of our guilt!

Christ's crucifixion is our coronation!

He left His Father's bosom, that hive of
sweetness, to come and live here. Truly,
He exchanged the palace for the dunghill.

"The unsearchable riches of Christ." Not
even the angels can dig to the bottom
of this mine!  They adore Christ, being
ravished with His amazing beauties!

Jesus is the very extract and quintessence
of beauty. He is a whole paradise of delights!

Prostitute as she chases Augustine down the street she calls out to him…..”It is I!” “But it is not I!”

God's Desire

The universe belongs to Him;

He made it with His hand—

Worlds, galaxies to man unknown

And every grain of sand.

Contain Him? All of space would fail!

In heaven, He dwells apart—

Yet passionately, He pleads to be

Locked in a human heart.

"None of self, and all of Thee." —Theodore Monod

Oh, the bitter pain and sorrow

That a time could ever be,

When I proudly said to Jesus

"All of self, and none of Thee."

Yet He found me; I beheld Him

Bleeding on th' accursed tree,

And my wistful heart said faintly,

"Some of self, and some of Thee."

Day by day His tender mercy

Healing, helping, full and free,

Bro't me lower, while I whispered

"Less of self, and more of Thee."

Higher than the highest heavens,

Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord Thy love at last has conquered

"None of self, and all of Thee." —Theodore Monod

# posted by Groseys messages @ 11:05 PM