Good evening, everybody. Welcome to this evening's Bible study through Ephesians. Let's take a moment to pray and jump right into the study. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you, Lord, so much for your grace. And Father, as we've been studying the book of Ephesians, Lord, we recognize that your love truly is so deep, so intentional, so methodical.

What's more, Father God, we recognize that your love is so intimate, that God, you lavish your love upon us as your children. And so we want to dive just deeper into understanding to greater degree. What's more, we pray, Father God, that that would elicit in us a response of faith, a response of trust, and God reciprocating our love to you.

We thank you, it's in Christ, and we pray. Amen. As we look through the Bible study today, we're not going to be doing a review because later on as we walk through the passage, there will be a review built into the study. So I'll read for us the passage now.

And the scripture says, reading again in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." As we look at this passage, there is a strong prayer here for every single believer.

And so what we wanted to do first is take a look at one of the study questions was, what prompted the prayer? Apostle Paul in a couple of occasions said, "For this reason," and so we have to ask, what was this reason? And what we notice is actually that this phrase, "For this reason," occurred in verse 1.

Apostle Paul said, "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles," and then he paused in that moment, and when he paused, he paused to ask us the question, "Did you really understand the gospel? Do you understand what God is doing? And do you understand why I'm trying to make sure I teach you these things?" And then he picks back up his thought in verse 14 and says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name." And so, as we take a look at this, we wrestle with Apostle Paul's thought whenever we study the Bible because in a very methodical and I would say an intricate way, he strings together many thoughts.

And what I'm going to say is, Apostle Paul then has been saying that leading up to this, there is a rationale, a motive as to why he is praying this for the church, for the people. And one of the things I just want to quickly mention is, every single one of us, at some seasons we can wrestle in prayer.

Some seasons, because of certain needs, we are fervent in prayer. Other seasons, we struggle. And perhaps it's difficult to pray, namely because prayer in and of itself is a difficult discipline, and sometimes it's difficult to pray because maybe we've experienced disappointment. But sometimes, it's difficult for us to pray, we struggle with it, because we're not reminded as to the grand purpose as to why.

I think if we were more encouraged as to the reason why we pray, then perhaps more so we would pray all the more regularly. Now, as we think about this, I have a couple questions for you. Could it be questions? What are the possible rationales as to why Apostle Paul is praying?

What is the reason that he is talking about? Could it be that in verse 13, in our previous section, Apostle Paul mentioned that he wants to encourage the church because he doesn't want them to be disheartened by his tribulation, specifically the fact that he's in jail. So when you think about this, Apostle Paul perhaps could be saying, "I really want you to understand that God does love you, and although with your eyes you see persecution coming, you see me in jail, although all this horrible stuff is happening, trust me, God really loves you.

I want you to know that." So there are some people, some commentators, who think that Apostle Paul is pointing to the fact that the church may be discouraged. And for us, if we received something of an exhortation, like "Follow me as I follow Christ," or "Obey what I say, but the person who's speaking to you is in jail," it could be disheartening.

As a matter of fact, it could lend to a little bit of suspicion, like, "What's actually happening?" Right? Now, I don't think this is the case, namely because when Apostle Paul states this reason, he goes above and beyond that parenthetical section in verses 12 to 13. I'm sorry, verses 2 to 13.

But rather, he says, "For this reason," at the beginning of the chapter, pointing to something before. A second potential is Paul's love for the church. If we're looking at chapter 2, we recall that the church as it's being built, Apostle Paul in his description of the gospel in chapter 2 moved from personal salvation, moving from death to life, to what that means as a ramification, that we all are made one.

That the dividing walls of animosity and enmity has been done away with, and so the church is built. And we described how God loves that church as its own household, and therefore, Apostle Paul, he essentially depicts in many ways his own love for the church. So is his love for the church the reason why he's praying?

Could be. Although I think his love for the church is always shown, I think there's more to be said here. I think what Apostle Paul is pointing to is what he's been pointing to the whole time. And that is, Apostle Paul has been communicating that his great privilege, his grace to me, the "Wow, I cannot believe I am a part of this stewardship, this responsibility," is his main point of what God has been doing in his intent and purpose.

Apostle Paul has been revealing to us God's intention, not just from yesterday, not just from a generation ago, and not just from the time of the patriarchs. Apostle Paul has been showing to us God's heart and intention since God has created the world. And that is incredibly magnificent. And so when you think about that, we have Apostle Paul pointing to the great plan and mystery of God.

On other portions of the book of Ephesians, he described it as the administration. He described it as the unfolding plan, right? And so what I'd like to do with you in a brief moment now is to walk through several passages together, and you have those passages on your packet, but you can walk through with me on your Bibles so that you can highlight those things and just make a note of how often Apostle Paul points to this in his thought, in his flow of thought.

So in the immediate context, in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 11, Apostle Paul talks about this great mystery. And in establishing this great mystery, he specifically talks about what God is doing to draw individuals to be one underneath Christ, that even Gentiles will be saved through the name of Christ.

But then what he says is this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. So there's our concept, the purpose of the Lord. Here's another passage in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 9 through 10. Right before that, he says, "And to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things," and look at this, "so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." Piecing it together, we know that God is working to showcase his glory, his great and grand wisdom.

The redemptive plan that God is doing, yes, it's massive, it's multifaceted, but all that goes to show the grandeur of God's glory and his wisdom to accomplish salvation. And prior to that, remember on chapter 2, there was so much that we could glean. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 6 at the beginning, Apostle Paul describes our incredible salvation in the mercy of God.

We go from those who are absolutely dead in transgressions to those who are made alive in Christ, right? But look at what he says right after he says that in verses 1 through 6, in verse 7 he says, "So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." So what God is doing in his intent and plan is to showcase his mercies to the universe.

And what's more, we go all the way back to chapter 1, and in chapter 1, we saw so much of God's intention and plan. For example, verses 4 through 6 of chapter 1 says, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him." So one aspect of it, yes, God's intention was to redeem us as his own possession.

In love he predestined us to adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. So there you have God's intention and purpose. His redemptive plan, which is magnificent, which is a great mystery, which is a showcase of grand wisdom and mercy, but all that to praise and glory of his name.

What's more, in verse 11 through 12 he says, "Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory." There we have the same thoughts again.

And then in the next section it says, "In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory." So if you look in chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, there was a consistent theme that Apostle Paul was looking at, that God has a masterful plan of salvation, but all of that was for his glory.

And what's incredible is he says in verse 15, "So for this reason," this constant thought of this "for this reason," why he's writing to the church, why he's praying for the church, why he is teaching, and why he is doing his ministry, it has never left his mind. It's always been there.

And so in thinking about God's grand intention and work from long ago, he sees the faith happening or existing within the church, and then he connects the dot essentially and says, "I'm praying for you because clearly God has applied and is working in you." And so he says, "I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, I do not cease giving thanks to you while making mention of you in my prayers." And what he prays here is so similar to our passage that we're studying today.

Essentially he says that "God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.

These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might." So essentially this reason of God's intended purpose of executing his redemption, but all that to his grand glory. That is what he's thinking about. He's thinking about God's plans. He's thinking about God's will. And so let's take a moment just to pause and meditate on this a little bit.

If we pause and meditate, we again at some times, we pray for certain seasons. And if we were to really think about our dedication to the glory and purpose of God, I believe we would then have a transcending motive. We would have a timeless motive. We would have an ever-present motive to continue to pray.

And if you think about it, when we are only, if let's say our prayers are lopsided, and we are only praying for the things that are temporal, we're only praying for the things that are circumstantial, the things that are physical, then no wonder we don't pray often. Because if I'm just praying for my class, for example, to go well and finish well, then once that class ends, then what?

Then it's just on to the next thing, right? But do I care about the next thing as much? If I'm just praying for relief for circumstances, then what? If the relief comes? The fact of the matter is some of these things that we work for in terms of working for provision, working for grades, working for money, some of those things don't even necessarily require, right?

Doesn't necessarily require like a mass miracle to happen. A lot of it is you reap what you sow. And so all I'm trying to point out is this, not that God is not intricately involved in the daily provision of our daily necessities, because he is. Not that God does not care for our daily bread, because he does.

But the fact of the matter is if the content of our prayers is not in tune with the grand purpose of God, it's going to lose motivation. It's going to lose steam. And so there's this question for you, what is it that you typically pray for? For Paul, he is seeing the masterful plan of God, and when he sees faith, he realizes then how it connects.

And so I would hope that you would have your eyes open to see that even more. When you see certain things, you should have a framework to put, you know, they kind of talk about having some kind of grid or a structure so that you can hang stuff on, which totally makes sense.

We see the grand, we've been given the privilege of seeing the grand masterful plan of God in redemption, and then that should cause us then to ask ourselves, how does this fit? And if we see it fit, we should be praying for those things. And so this, I do believe, is why Apostle Paul prays, and I think it was important enough to spend that kind of time on it.

What's more, I think because he was thinking about that, that's why Apostle Paul, when he says, "For this reason," that is the reason for his prayer, but also that's the reason for the doxology. I have a blank for you there. The reason for the prayer and the doxology. What do I mean by that?

What's really interesting is, as he begins with, "For this reason," and points back multiple times to the will, the intention, and the purpose of God, he also concludes this section and this first part, the first half, with this amazing doxology. And within this doxology, he says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Okay? Now, I think he's going the wrong way. That first part of it in verse 20, one might be thinking like, "Hmm, we're just supposed to expect a ton from God." No.

I think Apostle Paul is looking at God's intention and plan and looking at the people and just wanting the church to know. I want you to know God's amazing plan for you. Because lest you forget, God is not just trying to make you a winner in Orange County. That would be an incredibly, incredibly small plan if it was God's plan.

God says, "I'm going to make you holy and blameless and present you before me in all eternity, completely clean, righteous. You're going to be glorified." And so, Apostle Paul, when he says, "God is able to do far more than what you're thinking," I think he has a lot more in his mind than what we're thinking.

That's my point. I think Apostle Paul is thinking to great grandeur. The thing about it is other gospel writers and other apostles speak the same way. "Man, if you only knew what God has in store." This is kind of like the 1 Peter, I think it's 2 Peter chapter 3 passage where a lot of people, he was like, "Some will say, 'What gives?

Where is the coming? Since our father's past, it's been the same thing.'" And Apostle Peter is like, "Oh man, only if you knew what God counts as brevity and time. Only if you knew what was in store of what God is going to do." In the same way, that to Apostle Paul is his doxology.

If you actually knew and thought about all that God is intending and planning, praise. Praise be to God and the church. And likewise, here's an interesting thought. There's this other verse in verse 15. I'm going to just briefly mention it because it's a little confusing. So Apostle Paul in the beginning of this prayer, he says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name." Now, because of for the sake of time, there is an appendix.

There is an appendix of why I think it means what I'm about to say. I believe when he says, "From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name," he's not talking about every single family in existence. I think he's talking about every saint across time. Those who are in heaven already and those who are on earth.

And what I'm thinking is when Apostle Paul is thinking about the Father, ones who have a relationship like that, what is he thinking about? He is thinking about how God has already worked. When you think about the church, you're thinking about, "Wow. Look at the hand of God. Look what God is creating." Because that's what the church is supposed to show.

We are the handiwork. We're the workmanship. When you think about saved individuals, you're looking at spiritually transformed people by the power of God, by the Spirit of God. And so again, I believe Apostle Paul's mind is just wrapped up in God's incredible intention, purpose, and glory. Question to you.

If your mind also is not aware of God's glory, God's plan, God's purposes, you will always be out of touch with reality. What's more, you're going to have a very hard time making sense of your life. What's more, you're going to be complaining. What's more, you're going to be devastated and despair.

If our hearts as believers are not wowed, not only wowed, but then submissive to, not only submissive to, but devoted to the great cause of the glory of God, we are losing track of what our God, our Father is doing in this time. Why now? Why this? Why everything?

Right? And so again, maybe we're talking a bit too overly philosophical or theoretical, but as we see the example of Apostle Paul, this he points to as a reason why he prays and what's more as a reason why he writes in this way. Okay? This has an exhortation for us if we're struggling with how to pray more in line with God's will, Apostle Paul gives us his example here.

Okay, moving to number two, which we're going to take a little bit of less time on because I just want to do an overview and sequence. Okay? So what I mean by that is let's take a look at this passage and what I'm going to do is just a quick pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, comment on each of the different points of prayer to give you the overview.

Right? And just as a quick tip, remember it's so important to look at the repetitions and see how he uses certain phrases to introduce his prayers. So I noticed he uses the term that and then he introduces a prayer. So there is that he would grant you to be strengthened with power and the next phrase is I moved according to his riches, according to the riches of his glory because it modifies or describes the strengthening that it would be in accordance with the riches of God.

Through his spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you may be able to comprehend. So this would be one lump kind of prayer. You're supposed to comprehend with the rest of the saints. Okay? Again, he's thinking all the saints.

What is the breath? What is the length? What is the height and the depth? I'm not sure exactly which way it has to go. And he says and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, being rooted and grounded in love that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

By way of summary for you, here are the terms just as a quick summary. Right? The number one thing that he says is that God would grant strength with power. And then it moves to so that Christ may dwell in your heart and that you may know Christ's love.

I set this apart as a separate prayer because being rooted and grounded in love is a participle meaning this is what you're supposed to be as you know the love of God. But I think what he's thinking, he's thinking progression, right? That as you know the depth of Christ's love, you are going to be rooted and grounded, unshakable in the love of Christ.

And what's more, it's going to culminate to being filled with the fullness of God. Okay? Now one of the things that I asked you was not only do we see the points of the prayer, is there some kind of sequence? And my answer is yes, there was. Now I've only done a couple of these things because again, every single one of these points of the strength, the dwelling, the know, rooted and filled, they could each take essentially like one sermon, right?

Or an explanation and kind of observation that we could look at other passages and all that kind of stuff. But one of the important things I wanted to highlight is there definitely seemed to be a sequence for Apostle Paul as he's thinking about this. And what's interesting is that in this sequence, it's not necessarily the way that perhaps we might originally think about it or naturally think about it.

Which is, doesn't it always start with you be in Christ? Christ is in you. That's the starting point. And then you can do the act of faith, right? But I think Apostle Paul has the other aspect of our Christian life in mind here. What I mean is this. He begins with being strengthened in the inner person, right?

He begins with being strengthened by the spirit in the inner man. And so, what he's praying for when you think about that strength of the inner person is faith. That faith is going to cause us so that in every aspect of our life, Christ is going to dwell in our hearts.

And as Christ dwells in our hearts in every experience, in every aspect of our lives, we are going to experientially know because guess what? That know therefore may know Christ, it's gnosco. You're supposed to have a personal, interactive, experiential knowledge. Not a conceptual one, not just intellect, but a knowledge of the love of God.

And what that causes you to do is be all the more firmly rooted and therefore as you are more and more firmly rooted in Christ's love, you're going to be filled over and over and over again. So as we think about that, I just want to make mention of this.

What he's thinking of here then is not so much just the salvation move, although again, as significant as that is, I think what he has in mind is the growth and sanctification of every believer who is supposed to experientially grow in the depth of knowledge of Christ having dwelt in our hearts.

I'm just going to use this one specific thing as an example why. Because even when you look at that term dwell, there are different Greek terms for staying or dwelling or living. So just like in English we have those terms, in Greek there are many terms as well for the concept of someone being in someone's home.

But here, if you look up this definition of this word, dwelling means to not just visit, but it means to stay permanently. The idea of make a dwelling as to mean that in terms of Christ filling our minds or filling those experiences, the way I like to think about it is for us, as we move through certain experiences, what's going to happen is you're going to be tested.

And different parts of your heart are going to be exposed. And when that happens, you're going to realize, you know what, certain areas of my life I've never thought how does God fit. Certain areas of my life I never thought how does God impact or what's the ramification? What's the implication of Him being Lord here?

And so a lot of the commentators make much of this and say, "Is God somebody who is a visitor who you've invited to the living room or is He living with you, having access to every single part of your house? What's He saying?" The idea is we are to be growing in our faith, in our experience.

We are to be growing in every measure of what we are thinking, our heart and our desires, our will and our intentions, the devotions, the clarity of our conscience, the trust that we exercise, all of these things that are internal. Those are the inner man faith concepts and exercises that we are supposed to be growing in.

And so in that way, there is a sequence that we're supposed to be growing in. And I believe as we do this, what's going to happen is this is going to allow us to take every single experience that we have, every hurdle, every success, whatever experience we have, we're going to be able to walk through those experiences with Christ and come out stronger in our faith, come out more refined, come out more biblical, more real in our thinking.

And that's what essentially happens to Apostle Paul. One of the passages I want to highlight to you is Apostle Paul saying that he has this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Four, all things are for your sake so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to bound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

I'm going to stop for the sake of time, but you see what he's saying? We're going to go through these hurdles, we're going to be persecuted, beaten, struck down, but our inner man is being strengthened daily. Okay, so we've looked at the overview and the sequence of the prayers, but there is a theme.

Essentially, there is a focal point. The focal point is that there should be incredible strength in God's incredible power for every believer. The way I want to put it is, let's pray for that. Let's devote ourselves to pray regularly for powerful faith. Let's pray to experience God's power through that faith.

And the way I would like to do this is I want to go through the passage again with the thematic observation of strength. How do all those elements that we see within this prayer contribute to an individual who is in Christ being strong in the power of God? Pray for, first, he talks about again the main idea, says that he, God, would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power.

The word there is dunamite. Now again, I'm not going to talk about dynamite or whatever, but that is ability, that is capacity, that is the capacity to exercise a will and accomplish it. There is an enablement that God desires in us to actually be strong. Is it more and more godly for people to have this, "I'm totally depraved, worthless am I?" Let's be a little bit more precise.

Without Christ, worthless you are, totally depraved you were, but now as you are in Christ, you're living by the Spirit, sealed, empowered, the Spirit is with you and in you and so is Christ. Right? Let's be a little bit more precise with our wording. We have the power of God.

And what's more, this power, let's pray for rich, glorious strength. This power, he says, is according to the riches of his glory. Now think about that. Okay, we can go on doing like one of those cross-reference studies and think about riches. The richness of his mercy, the richness of his grace, the richness of this and that.

Here he says the richness of his glory. If God is to bless us, this is one incredible blessing. To have the power of God according to the riches of his glory, that's like limitless. Right? That's like saying, "Have power unending." Right? That would be, because there's no parameters to the riches of God's glory.

It's like the universe and more. Right? I mean, we can't even begin to describe. Moving forward, not only are we supposed to have this rich and glorious strength, let's pray for inner strength. Right? That we are to be strong in the inner man. Strong in our thought, in truth, in our understanding, in knowledge, in faith.

So many times we wish, we just wish so much that we were strong in so many other ways. We wish that, "Oh, you know, I have a test coming up." As you can tell, I'm talking about tests a lot because I'm studying. "We have a test coming up and oh, I have anxiety.

What if I fail?" Right? Every person wrestles with that. "What am I actually praying there?" It could be all I'm praying for is make me smarter, make me smarter. Is that truly inner strength? Right? We're talking about inner faith. We're talking about trusting God. We're talking about having the inner strength as the halls of faith would say, the faith to do so much.

Now, I'm going to come to that later, so let's move forward. Let's request and pray for residing strength. Again, when we think about Christ dwelling within us, really, like think about that. I mean, we want to have not a temporary God is our physician who is a visiting doctor.

No, we want Christ to be residing with us, daily abiding with us, walking with him step by step. Let's pray for an established strength. You know how that passage described being rooted and grounded in love? Doesn't that just challenge you so much? Let me ask you, right? How many of you now, especially in these uncertain times, actually feel like you are rooted, very unshakable, right?

The tides of the day, the news, it's not causing you to shift left and right, but rather you feel like you're rooted. What's more, that term, the next term of grounded is talking about established on a firm foundation. Again, very descriptive ways to describe being the strength that we're supposed to have and lastly, he prays that we would be filled with the fullness of God.

Wow. Filled with the fullness of God. I want you to think about that again. What we are praying for is not temporary success. I mean, let me ask this question in this way. What would be a miracle? Right? Sometimes we're just sitting there thinking, "Oh my gosh, it would be so sweet.

It'd be such a miracle if..." And then we have these thoughts about what could happen if all our bills were paid, if our student loans were gone, if our X, Y, and Z happened. Would that be the miracle? I think here and now when we think about being filled with God over and over again, this would be to us the eternal miracle, right?

This would be to us something that pervades every single part of our lives. Constant strength. Constant strength. I want that. This is the kind of strength I want. And I pray that this is the kind of prayer that we're praying for the people that we love. And more importantly, this is the kind of prayer that we're praying for ourselves.

Apostle Paul says this is what he is praying for. He wants us to be strong. And you know that later on, Apostle Paul is going to command us, "Finally, be strong. Be strong in the might of the Lord." And essentially what Apostle Paul has been trying to do is to show us God is absolutely transforming us from that depraved sinner who was dead in transgression so far from God.

Look at how transformed you are now. You have the Spirit in you. The whole time he's been trying to show us the richness of what we have. He's been saying from the very beginning, "Look how you've been so incredibly blessed. You have it all. You have every single spiritual blessing.

Please do not walk around with your head down, acting as though you have nothing." Let's meditate on this for a little bit. God wants to transform us, but for us, do we live our Christian lives as though we've been just trying to do a diet? This is my example.

I think for a lot of times, people, they feel this need for the internal strength, especially when it comes to things like diets, right? Because they know it's good for them. They've experienced what it feels like when you're unhealthy. You're all sluggish and groggy and unmotivated and tired and fatigued every day.

Nobody wants to feel like that. And so they know they need to go on a diet. They know they need to be on a health regimen of exercise and good food. But then the hard part is what? Willpower. When that donut's there, it's just so soft and fluffy. You just want to eat it, and your willpower is so weak.

Especially if, let's say, you previously were in a habit already of not eating well. There's so many rationales in your head. The willpower is weak. One of the examples that I was thinking of was even something stronger than food, which is drugs. You think about all these programs the government tries to put on, whether it was, in my day, it was the DARE program.

DARE, to keep kids off drugs. Just say no, right? It's not cool to do drugs or something like that. But after evaluation, it's been shown it's just not that effective. You could try to have run classes. You could try to have a cop come by your school and just be like, "Yeah, man." It may work.

It may work. It may really help to show graphic videos of what happens when you do drugs or something like that. But willpower. Sometimes a kid who's tempted by his friends just doesn't have the willpower to say no. "Why do I bring this up?" Is that how you feel with your faith?

Like, "Yeah, I know it's good. I've seen the video. I know what happens when you don't practice faithfulness to God and obedience to the Lord." But the willpower to say no, it's just not there, right? You just feel so weak. Now partially, I'm part doing this as an example and metaphor.

But obviously, we've all probably felt the devastating feeling of being defeated and not having what it feels like, the strength in you to say no to sin and then to say yes to righteousness and then to do the high calling of God, to love people that are difficult to love, to swallow your pride, to surrender, to be godly, to be Christ-like.

I mean, we've all experienced what it feels like to have that kind of weakness. But Apostle Paul is challenging every single one of us. Let's pray. Let's pray for the strength because the strength is available to us in Christ. In some sense, we have it. We need to realize and exercise.

We need to make sure that we are trying to live this life not with these rationales. Sometimes people come to me when they have sufferings and they're just like, "But dude, Pastor Mark, you don't know the things that I've been through, right? People don't know the things that I've been through.

It's way too hard to move forward." I'm going to encourage you. Partially true. I may not have suffered to the extent you have, okay? But this does not apply to our Lord Jesus Christ. He has gone through so much suffering. He can sympathize with us. He will empathize in every way that we are tempted.

And God is going to show us his great power, his great strength in us through Christ. A kind of strength where we're not just overcoming a test, right? We're overcoming the demons and the Satans of this world and all the evil forces of schemes and darkness. We're overcoming years of slavery.

We're overcoming wickedness, ungodliness. I want to encourage you, every single one of you. Apostle Paul is praying for power. And Christ himself, even this past week, I was reminded, he is the one who said, "Through faith, you could tell this mountain to jump into the ocean." That's how powerful faith is.

Do you understand? Through faith, you're going to be made new. And even from beginning in this life, you're going to experience that newness. And I want to encourage you with that. That's incredible. And so you guys recall, that's from Mark 11, verse 23, that with faith, even just a mustard seed, everything we thought impossible without God is absolutely possible with the Lord.

Hebrews 11, just think about how powerful faith is. The strength that God gives to us through faith. I mean, individuals, I've seen it. Individuals who are deathly afraid of doing something. Like, "I could never confront my parents. I could never talk to that person through faith. I could never speak in front of the church, give their testimony, and everybody in the room is crying because it's so moving." Right?

But beyond that, the halls of faith, through faith, they left their home. Through faith, they fought nations and mighty kingdoms. Through faith, they abandoned everything. Through faith, they were stoned, tortured, and some sawn in half. Think about how powerful faith is. And remember, because we just exited, came out of the Easter week, scripture says that the power of Christ's resurrection is in you.

The incredible power of Christ's resurrection is in you. To persevere through suffering, to fight against every temptation, if you are struggling and trying to decide what's right to do, and you know what's right to do, but you feel that weakness, like, "I don't know if I can do it." The spirit of Christ's resurrection is in you to make those decisions.

The spirit of Christ's resurrection is in you to make bold statements for Christ. I will say, like, again, I've confessed so many times, the fear of man sometimes is in me. And when I'm talking to somebody, I felt just the jitters, the butterflies in my stomach, and my voice quivering like I'm crying or something.

And when I'm focused and I know this is my Lord, I can speak. I can speak truth. Because that truth of God is absolutely powerful to save. I want to encourage you again. We have power. We have great, great power. And sometimes when I see people and they're in the midst of the sin, we get it.

You feel weak. Here and now is particularly, especially a time for you to exercise this faith. There is an incredible spiritual power for you in the name of Christ. And so Apostle Paul is going to command us later in Ephesians 6.10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." You know, I want to conclude with this last point, point number four, which is to say this.

Sometimes I listen to prosperity gospel teachers because it kind of gets your blood boiling and then also gets your mind going like, "Ugh!" You know, "How do you convince these people?" You know? Well, what's funny is that some of the prosperity gospel preachers say the exact same statements that I just said like a moment ago.

"There's power in you. There's resurrected power in you." And you guys know what I'm talking about. Now, why am I then not a prosperity gospel preacher? It's because although they may say similar things, we know that they end at, and that power is going to now do for you, your will.

That power now is going to translate to you, my car, my house, my wife, my life, and maybe even my glory. Because when we take a look at Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20-21, the ending of this passage, Apostle Paul says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, you can stop there and wonder, 'Huh!

God can do a lot more than what I even have asked.'" And prosperity gospels have used that. Gospel preachers have used that and said, "Oh, God's going to do wonderful things for you." But verse 21, we can't not read that. It says, "To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus in all generations forever and ever.

Amen." Right? The prosperity gospel preachers will use that and turn and twist and pervert everything to feed our blasphemous self-idolization. That's absolutely ridiculous. And as a matter of fact, that is such a blasphemous diminishing of the power of God. You're bringing God's power down to this when you think that God's power is relegated to buy you that car, that house, and what more?

Because again, honestly speaking, all that is is actually the power of man. The vast majority of people in America, if they work hard and save, at least in the next five to ten years, they're going to be able to afford a vehicle. Right? And to say that you're going to exercise this faith and you're going to exercise your disciplines and you're going to seek the Lord in praise so that he can get you that car, that is such a gross undermining of God's power.

We believe that God is going to strengthen us, to absolutely transform us into the image of Christ. He is going to move us through faith to transcend this world. And through faith, he is going to bring us home to his kingdom and eternally cause us to be perfect before his eyes.

We are looking for so much more. And so I pray that when you have that insight, realize that when our minds and our faith is so sober unto the eternal, when our minds and faith are so sober into the plan of God and his redemption and the glory of the Lord, we actually find so much more solid ground.

We actually live in reality. We know what we're doing and why we're doing it. Everything starts to fit. Let's take a moment to pray. Lord, I pray, God, that truly we would understand, but what's more, there would be conviction of faith. God, you know, right now I'm trying to teach and wrap up an incredible three-chapter section where you've described your incredible grace, the working of your might and power, all directed towards those who were previously enemies.

And so, God, we want to thank you and praise you, Lord, for revealing all of that to us. We trust your heart. We receive with grateful hands all the mercies that you give. And Father God, it fills us. It causes us to be strong. I do pray that for every single person at our church, Lord, God, we would not simply have strength of know-how.

God, that we would not simply have strength of ingenuity and good problem solving. I pray, Father God, that we would have the truth, strength of Christ and the faith that you call us to have. Lord, help us to live in such a fashion where it is so wise in your eyes and not the eyes of the world.

And I pray, Father God, that we would live in such a fashion that is so empowered and strengthened by your spirit. We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ. In me pray, amen. (thunderous applause)