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Ephesians 3 | Spiritual Maturity · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Basic Davis Podcast.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: You're listening to our current teaching series, Ephesians.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Maturity takes time.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: But not only time, maturity takes intentionality.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Imagine we have a six foot eight, thirteen-year-old basketball player at our church.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And he's about the size of LeBron James.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: That six foot eight, thirteen-year-old basketball player might have the stature and some raw potential to be a great basketball player, maybe even the NBA someday.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: But that six foot eight, thirteen-year-old needs time and intentionality to grow strong, to put on muscle, to gain coordination, to gain skill, to be able to decently match up with the great big LeBron James.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: We all are on a developmental process.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: We might have potential spiritually.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: We might have a few building blocks spiritually in our life, but we're all in a process that takes time and intentionality to grow and become mature.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: God wants all of us to become mature followers of Jesus.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, we all start as baby Christians.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: We're like right out the womb spiritually.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: We get saved, we get baptized, we're just a little baby Christian, and there's excitement and there's joy.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't want us to stay a baby Christian forever.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be baby Christians all of our lives.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: We want to grow up and become mature Christians.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I used to fly pretty much every other week, traveling, teaching, doing all kinds of stuff.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And every time I flew, almost every time, there would be a screaming, crying baby.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: So then Apple made these great headphones, noise canceling.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: But if you're on a plane and you have a screaming, crying baby, you think that's normal.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: That's what babies do.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: They scream, they cry, they don't know how to regulate, they're developing, they're at that stage, and so nobody gets up and says, you shouldn't be screaming or crying as a baby on the plane.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: At least I hope not.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And if you do, you'll get recorded and they'll go viral on social media, and then you know how culture is today.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: But if an adult man in his 40s on an international flight of 12 hours screams and cries for 10 hours on that flight, everybody on that plane is like, that is not normal.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Something is wrong with that man.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Because we have a sense that everything should be developed in its proper stage.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Maturity, if you're gonna write a definition down, maturity is the process of normal and healthy development.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is gonna talk about this in Ephesians chapter 3.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Ephesians 3, back in the day, I've taught this, this is my fourth time teaching Ephesians, but back in the day when I taught this, it was like 20 plus teachings.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: So I could break up Ephesians 3 in many, many different parts, but today it's one teaching.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: This section has three parts.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: First, verses 1 through 13 is kind of a parenthetical conversation that Paul has about his suffering and calling and why he's in prison and he's trying to encourage the readers.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Then in verses 14 through 18, verses 14 through 19, pardon me, Paul prays a prayer for the Ephesians church to mature spiritually.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul ends this chapter in verses 20 and 21 with a doxology, and I'll explain what that is at the end of the teaching.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at each of those.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: First of all, verses 1 through 13, if you're a note-taker, write this down.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: This should be kind of the heading, the theme of these first 13 verses.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Paul's calling, Paul's calling to reveal God's mystery.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says here.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: He says, For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, he's in prison in Rome for preaching Jesus to the Gentile world.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: That is the mystery.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: If you have a pen, a pencil, a highlighter, circle, underline, highlight the term mystery.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: The mystery made known to me by revelation.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: As I have already written briefly, in reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit of God's holy apostles and prophets.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me, through the working of his power.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given to me.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: To preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: And to make plain to everyone the administration of the mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: His intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: According to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: In him and through him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: I ask you therefore, do not be discouraged, because of my sufferings for you, which are for your glory.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me riff on these first 13 verses for a few minutes.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: The key to what Paul is talking about in verses 1 through 13 is this phrase that we see twice, but in different language we see the unfolding of this mystery throughout all of these 13 verses.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Paul is talking about the mystery of Jesus.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Mystery is a term that's used all throughout the New Testament.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: It has this idea of that which was previously unknown, but now has been made known.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Or you could say the mystery of Christ that was promised in the Old Testament and fully made known in the New Testament.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: For example, if you go from the beginning of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, all the way through the end of the Old Testament, you start to see this unfolding promises about a future Messiah that's gonna come and deliver people.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, third chapter in the Bible, we start to discover that there's going to be a Savior who's gonna be victorious over Satan.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what we call Christus Victor.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: And then in Genesis chapter 12, verse 13, we see God promised Abraham that Abraham would be a nation, and from that nation would come the Savior who would bless all the peoples of the earth.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: The Abrahamic blessing.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: And then Psalm chapter 23, we start to read about a detailed prophecy in the Psalm about crucifixion before the Persians ever invented crucifixion.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And then you go to a pinnacle chapter in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53, where you see that the Savior, the Messiah, was going to be a suffering servant.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: He's going to take on the iniquities and sins of the world, and then he's going to give us.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: He takes our imperfections and he gives us his righteousness and perfection.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: What a great switch.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: He takes our worst and we give him our best so that we could be forgiven.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: So all throughout the Old Testament, you see these promises, but they weren't fully made known or understood until Jesus came on the scene.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus begins to fulfill all of this.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: He is Christus Victor, he is the Abrahamic blessing, he was crucified on the cross, he was a suffering servant, taking upon himself the sins, the waywardness, the trespasses of humanity, that we could be forgiven and given the righteousness of God through Jesus.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is saying, I'm in prison because God has called me to make known this mystery.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul says ten things about this in the first 13 verses.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to wait for you to write these down, but I'll riff real quick on all ten of these aspects of the mystery that Paul talks about.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: First, in verse 1, he says there's a cost to make known this mystery.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm in prison.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: There's a cost to follow Jesus.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: There's a cost to serve Jesus.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: There's a cost to live for Christ in a world that has darkness because darkness is opposed to light.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: He was a steward of this mystery, verse two.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Paul's calling was to tell people about Jesus.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: That's our calling, too.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Third, the mystery was made known to Paul personally.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Remember in verse 3 he talks about this, how Paul in Acts chapter 9 was on the road to Damascus, and Jesus met with Paul personally, revealed himself to Paul personally.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Fourth, verse 4, he wanted the Ephesians to understand this mystery.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: It's the aha moment of history.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: That God became man and dwelt among us to die for us, to forgive us and to transform our life and to repair our relationship with God.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Paul's like, I want you to understand this mystery.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Fifth, the mystery was revealed by the Holy Spirit, verse 5.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the Spirit of God that helps God's apostles and prophets and people to understand his divine revelation.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual things are understood by the Spirit of God.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Sixth, the unveiling of the mystery revealed the gospel as the gospel both to the Jews and the Gentiles.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: They're fellow members, fellow partakers, fellow heirs of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just stop there.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: That was quick six points, but I'm gonna pause for a minute.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Catch your breath.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: This is so important.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: The reason Paul mentions this as he's unfolding his calling to encourage them, that his sufferings for their benefit, is because the Jews and the Gentiles in the city of Ephesus had tension.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Relational tension.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is like, you guys need to understand that the good news of Jesus, you guys might be divided, but the good news of Jesus is gonna unite you.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Seventh, he was a minister of this mystery.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a servant of Jesus, called to unveil the redemptive plan of God by God's grace.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Eighth, verses 10 and 11.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Even the angels are learning about God, his wisdom in this revelation of the mystery on earth.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: The angels in heaven are looking down from heaven and they're like, whoa, this is incredible.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: God would save this guy and use his life to make a difference with all of his imperfections, that God would do that.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Look at God's grace.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: The angels in heaven are learning about God watching us.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: We do have a heavenly realm that is watching us.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
13:16
SPEAKER_00: They're binging our life.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: 24-7.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: And they're learning about God as God works in your life.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Ninth, verse 12, the mystery allows God's people to approach God with freedom and confidence.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, there was a place called the Holy of Holies in the temple where you got the full nature of God's glory and presence.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: But there was a dividing curtain that nobody could enter into except the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, one time a year.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And now God's like, no, all of you, because of Jesus, can approach God with freedom and confidence, even in your imperfections.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: And then 10th, and this is just the first section, he was suffering for this mystery.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Why Paul is talking about this, there's probably a few reasons, but the main reason is he's like, don't be discouraged.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand why I'm in prison.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: It's because the gospel is changing people's lives.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: It's because the gospel is spreading throughout the Roman Empire, it's because my suffering has benefit for the church.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So don't be discouraged.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Be spiritually encouraged that I'm suffering for the gospel of Jesus.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need a redemptive view of suffering around spiritual things.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: And Paul gives them that.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Now he moves on, verses 14 through 21, and this is where I want to spend most of the time.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Paul's prayer.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's calling to reveal God's mystery, Paul's prayer for spiritual maturity.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: We'll just say 14 through 19 because we'll separate the doxology, although it's connected.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: So Paul goes into this diatribe, he goes into this conversation that's kind of like a parenthetical section, the first 13 verses.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to encourage them, they were discouraged.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to say, hey, the wall, the separation through the gospel, God's changing all of that in your community.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And then he starts in verse 14 for this reason.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, what reason, you might ask Paul?
15:46
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: It seems as though Paul is referring back to verses 11 through 22 of chapter 2.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember you were here last week, we did not look at those verses.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Because we knew that we would connect those verses this week.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Paul seems to be referring back to chapter 2, verses 11 through 22, when he begins to talk about how the gospel brings unity to the Jews and the Gentiles, all people, all ethnicities, when there's tension among people groups, the gospel always has the answer to that tension.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Let me catch you up of chapter two, real quick.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: He said a few really important things.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he said in verse 14 of chapter 2 that every person who's a follower of Jesus, no matter what group you come from, you are united in Christ.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: There's no longer a barrier, there's no longer a dividing wall of hostility.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: The second important thing he says in chapter 2, verse 16, is that not only when you come to Jesus are you reconciled to God, but you're reconciled to people.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: We need to preach that message more.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Because our culture is a culture of division right now.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is not a gospel of division.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: A gospel, our gospel is a gospel of reconciliation.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, the third major point that he makes, we're one now, we've been reconciled to God and to one another.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 18, he says, all of you, Jews, Gentiles, all people groups who believe in Jesus have the same equal access to God.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: It's by Jesus.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: We both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: And then his kind of culminating summary in verses 19 through 22, he makes a fourth major point.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: That all of them are God's people.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul trying to say in these verses?
18:04
SPEAKER_00: That he begins the same thought in chapter 3, verse 14.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's saying: the gospel of Jesus repairs human relationships.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: The gospel of Jesus repairs human relationships.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: It repairs your relationship with God, but it also repairs your relationship with people.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Enemies become friends.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: People that you were divided based on issues or differences now become a part of your family in Jesus.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of talk about boundaries now in our culture.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But people forget that the conversation around boundaries begins not to keep us distant from each other, but to keep us in relationship with each other when there is some tension or differences or some unhealthy things.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not I'm gonna permanently cut you off.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: It's there's gonna be some healthy boundaries that keep me healthy, but I'm not gonna quit relating to you.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are situations in life where we need to put up permanent boundaries.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: But in our Christian pop psychology, we have gone way too far on this.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: And I say that to say that ruptured relationships are just a part of the human experience.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: But ruptured relationships should often become repaired relationships in Jesus.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: We don't cut everybody off.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: That's not the gospel.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: We're not like, oh, you know, I'm gonna cut you off because I don't like how you dress, and I'm gonna cut you off, mom, because you know, you put me in my room and you disciplined me when I was a kid for eating too much candy or whatever, like I'm never gonna talk to you again.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Like we begin to cut everybody off.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what that is?
20:07
SPEAKER_00: That is a picture of the opposite of Jesus in the gospel.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible to reconcile with all people?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: No.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: But does God say in Romans chapter 12, if at all possible, make peace with all people?
20:28
SPEAKER_00: It might be impossible with some, but it may be possible with others.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the glue to human relationships in the kingdom of God?
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the greatest roadblocks to human relationships in the kingdom of God?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: And bitterness is not something God wants for the human soul.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: No.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Just to be safe.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: There are situations where people permanently break a relationship.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: There are irreparable situations in life where you need to have a permanent boundary.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Or there are irreparable actions that break a covenant where you can never go back to that particular situation.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: You can forgive the person, you don't have to be bitter, but there are certain situations.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make sure to give this caveat so that we don't think, oh, if I was in an abusive situation, I go back.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Or if so-and-so violated my trust over and over and over and over and over again, has never changed.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not going back.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Or there are situations that you put up a boundary.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: But most relationships deserve the intention to pursue repairing.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul is trying to say.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Now you're like, Wesley, you're like 20 something minutes in.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: To this, and we're not even close to being done.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So let's keep moving on.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: He says, for this reason, I'm just connecting you to chapter two.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I had to build that bridge.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: They asked me to teach the whole chapter.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I kneel before the Father.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: It's just a physical posture.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a thematic posture in the Bible around prayer, where your heart is submissive and humble and intensely passionate to God.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Ezra did this, the psalmist did this, Daniel did this, Jesus did this, Stephen did this, Paul did this.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: They all bowed their knees at times, not all the time, but at times in prayer.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: It seems to be a thematic posture in the Bible around prayer at certain moments.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Now notice what Paul prays for.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Five things.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: All relating to spiritual maturity.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: He says, For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth derives its name.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in the inner being.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Number one, write this down if you're a note taker.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, write it down anyways.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: Number one, a prayer to grow strong in Christ, verse 16.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: A prayer to grow strong in Christ.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: He is talking about God's glorious riches strengthening you in your inner being.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: God's glorious riches.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what God is rich in?
23:28
SPEAKER_00: He's rich in good stuff.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And there's a wealth in God's nature and in God's power that enables us to grow in Jesus.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: And God, through his own riches of his character, he wants to strengthen you.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to grow strong spiritually through his power.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And notice in verse 16, he grows you in your inner being.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: You know how God grows us?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Always from the inside out.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not let me be more religious and put on my religious front and dress the religious way or whatever.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: It's I'm being transformed from the inside out.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Nobody sees the initial work and then they begin to see the overflowing work.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: So spiritual maturity is a life of growth.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna hit a point.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're like five years into following Jesus, and you're like, I've done it.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm there.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: You'll never hit that.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: You'll be five years in.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm not there.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Twenty years in, I'm not there.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, 40 or 50 years in, I'm not there.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a life of spiritual growth.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: That should encourage you.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not overnight, it's not permanent at one time.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a life, a linear reality of spiritual growth.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Second, look at verse 17.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Second part of this prayer.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: Number two, a prayer to surrender our hearts to the Lordship of Christ.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Notice the phrase where he says, Christ may dwell in your hearts.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting Greek verb.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: It means to take up full residence.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: This speaks of the relational nature of Jesus in our hearts and him becoming the Lord of our hearts.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Christ wants to take up residence inside of you in all areas of your life.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, more and more as we follow him, should be on the throne of our hearts.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: The great theologian Augustine said, He values not Christ at all, who does not value Christ above all.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: That's a great saying.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's made its way and been popularized for all of history.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: In our hearts, when we come to Jesus, we should begin to open every door of our inner being to God.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Our mind, our heart, our will, our habits, and we should say, God, take up full residence in every part of my soul, my heart, and transform me from the inside out.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: I surrender control to Jesus.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity is not only a life of growth, spiritual maturity is a life of surrender.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Surrender.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: When we surrender our thoughts and our emotions and our habits and our bodies and all of what makes us human, we surrender to Jesus and we say, Jesus, I used to be the Lord.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: I used to be in control.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to be the Lord and you in control because you know what's best, you do what's best, and you lead me into what's best.
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SPEAKER_00: So I want you to be on the throne of my life, and I want to surrender control to you.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe a great question for me, for you today is what do you need to surrender to God?
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SPEAKER_00: I can't help but believe some of us came in here today because there is one thing that you need to surrender to God today before you leave.
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SPEAKER_00: And God is speaking to you.
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SPEAKER_00: And as I say this, it's resonating inside of you.
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SPEAKER_00: Just surrender it to God.
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SPEAKER_00: Don't wrestle with Him, don't be close-fisted, be open-handed.
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SPEAKER_00: Lord, all of my life is yours.
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SPEAKER_00: I might not be perfect, but I want to surrender this to you so that you can transform and change me.
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SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus wants to take up full residence in us.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, the end of this verse, notice the next thing he says.
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SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all of God's holy people, that means set apart, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: The third part of his prayer is a prayer to comprehend the love of Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: And he uses two metaphors about following Jesus in love.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, that you may be rooted, which pictures love as the soil in which Jesus' followers are to be rooted and grow, and that you may be established.
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SPEAKER_00: This pictures love as the foundation on which Jesus' followers are to be built and grow, that you may comprehend, grasp mentally and intellectually the love of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: Do you know the love of Jesus?
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SPEAKER_00: The width, the length, the depth, the height of God's love, the superabundance and vastness and completeness of God's love.
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SPEAKER_00: The love of Christ is too large to be confined by any mathematical measurements.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
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SPEAKER_00: All you PhDs, all you math geniuses, you cannot measure the love of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: Immeasurable.
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SPEAKER_00: You can measure everything else.
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SPEAKER_00: You're measuring the distance from the sun to the earth and this and that and like.
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SPEAKER_00: But God's like, there's one thing you're never going to be able to measure.
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SPEAKER_00: The love of Christ is too large for human measurement.
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SPEAKER_00: The greatest verse in all the Bible around the love of Christ, I believe, is Romans chapter 5, verse 8, where he says, But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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SPEAKER_00: At our worst.
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SPEAKER_00: Your worst day, your worst season, your worst chapter in your story, Jesus died for you at that point.
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SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity is motivated by Jesus' love.
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SPEAKER_00: We are not motivated by condemnation.
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SPEAKER_00: We are not motivated by shame.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, we are toward bad ends.
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SPEAKER_00: But healthy spiritual maturity is motivated by Jesus' love.
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SPEAKER_00: It's not I hope that God loves me.
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SPEAKER_00: It's I know that God loves me.
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SPEAKER_00: That there's no measuring the love of God in my life, over my life, for my life.
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SPEAKER_00: There's no measuring it.
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SPEAKER_00: It is too vast for human comprehension.
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SPEAKER_00: No matter what you've done, you're not motivated by shame or guilt or condemnation in following Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: You are motivated by love.
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SPEAKER_00: Fourth, verse 19.
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SPEAKER_00: He then prays, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
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SPEAKER_00: There's a connection here, but there's also something that I want to further elaborate on.
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SPEAKER_00: So write this down.
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SPEAKER_00: Number four, a prayer to experience the love of Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to comprehend it intellectually, it's another thing to know it personally.
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SPEAKER_00: The term know there is to know experientially or personally.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a relational verb.
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SPEAKER_00: It's what Jesus says.
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SPEAKER_00: John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you.
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SPEAKER_00: The vertical experience of God's love is first, and then the horizontal reciprocation of God's love is second.
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SPEAKER_00: We experience God's love and then we reciprocate God's love to other people.
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SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity, write this down, it's really important, is not only motivated by Jesus' love, but spiritual maturity takes place in a relationship characterized by love.
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SPEAKER_00: If you're in a relationship with another human, all healthy growth is going to occur in a safe, loving relationship.
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SPEAKER_00: And this is the type of relationship that God wants us to have with Him, which is amazing.
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SPEAKER_00: It just wrecks you in a good way.
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SPEAKER_00: That everything in life we're looking for is found in God.
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SPEAKER_00: At the depth of our soul.
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SPEAKER_00: The greatest human desires are all fulfilled in a relationship with God.
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SPEAKER_00: And then finally, number five, verse 19 as well, he says, that you may be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Number five, a prayer to be filled by Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: Filled with all the fullness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
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SPEAKER_00: It means that God's presence and God's power dwells in us, our hearts, the hearts of God's people, and that God's presence and power in us becomes the foundational influence in our life.
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SPEAKER_00: We fill our hearts and our soul with a lot of different things.
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SPEAKER_00: Not all bad things.
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SPEAKER_00: Some of which might be bad things.
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SPEAKER_00: And maybe God's going to probe our hearts today, saying, What are you filling your heart with?
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SPEAKER_00: Because God would say, I want your heart to be filled with all the fullness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
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SPEAKER_00: God wants to fill your heart with all of his fullness.
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SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you might have been a Christian for a long time, going to church, and you have an intellectual understanding of God.
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SPEAKER_00: You know he's real.
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SPEAKER_00: But God wants to take it further.
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SPEAKER_00: God wants to fill your heart with the experience of his presence every single day.
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SPEAKER_00: So spiritual maturity becomes a reality through God's presence in us.
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SPEAKER_00: It's when God is present, when we experience, when we're filled with the fullness of God, that spiritual maturity becomes a reality because of God's presence in us.
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SPEAKER_00: And notice how he ends.
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SPEAKER_00: I love this.
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SPEAKER_00: Paul frequently ends.
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SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, two times, he begins a letter with the doxology.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice how he ends.
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SPEAKER_00: This is two of the greatest verses in all the Bible.
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SPEAKER_00: Paul's doxology, verses 20 and 21.
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SPEAKER_00: You guys, I'm doing really good on time, by the way.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm very proud of myself.
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SPEAKER_00: And I hope you're proud of me this morning, too, verse 20.
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SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
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SPEAKER_00: Anything you can pray and anything you can dream, God can do more.
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SPEAKER_00: According to his power that is work at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: A doxology is an expression of praise around the nature of God.
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SPEAKER_00: And Paul wants to end this section with two doxologies.
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SPEAKER_00: One around God's power in verse 20, and one around God's glory in verse 21.
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SPEAKER_00: Now to him, God.
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SPEAKER_00: You might be here this morning, you're like, I want to grow spiritually mature, but like, I'm not able to do it.
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SPEAKER_00: And you're right.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't do it without God.
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SPEAKER_00: And so God says, now to him who is able, to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine, more than you can pray, more than you can request, more than you can dream.
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SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul takes three words in the Greco-Roman language, Koine Greek, and he merges them together.
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SPEAKER_00: The term immeasurably more is three words merged in one.
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SPEAKER_00: It means beyond all measure, the highest form of comparison.
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SPEAKER_00: Immeasurably more.
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SPEAKER_00: Essentially, as F.F.
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SPEAKER_00: Bruce says, it is impossible to ask God for too much.
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SPEAKER_00: His capacity for giving far exceeds his people's capacity for asking or even imagining.
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SPEAKER_00: Do you want to become a follower of Jesus?
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SPEAKER_00: Do you want to grow?
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SPEAKER_00: Do you want to become spiritually mature?
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SPEAKER_00: Ask God.
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SPEAKER_00: And God will do more in your life than you could ever ask or even dream of.
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SPEAKER_00: Pray again.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do immeasurably more than all you can pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Dream again.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do immeasurably more than all you can dream.
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SPEAKER_00: Because of God's power at work in each one of us.
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SPEAKER_00: To him be the glory in the church, in our lives, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: Glory is one of the most important theological terms in the Bible.
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SPEAKER_00: It often is picturing the presence of God, the nature of God.
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SPEAKER_00: His nature is heavy, it's weighty, it's deep, it's vast, it's beautiful, it's majestic.
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SPEAKER_00: And then we ultimately see a picture of the glory and presence and nature of God when Jesus comes on the scene in his person.
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SPEAKER_00: What he's saying here is because of all that God is, and that all that God is and is doing in your life, honor him, worship him, praise him in every generation, forever and ever, and all of eternity, worship and praise God.
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SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but most Sundays in my life following Jesus, there's stuff we carry as humans, right?
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SPEAKER_00: Like you carry stuff into church, into the gathering of God's people.
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SPEAKER_00: Every time I worship and sense the presence of God, it's one of the most beautiful things that I could describe in my lifetime thus far.
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SPEAKER_00: There's something so deep, so peaceful, so right when I worship God, that I don't feel in any other way.
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SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you as we end chapter three.
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SPEAKER_00: Let's go, Wesley.
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SPEAKER_00: All of chapter three.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of myself, by the way.
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SPEAKER_00: I just I just want to say one thing.
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SPEAKER_00: As we end this, just worship God.
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SPEAKER_00: He's gonna change you.
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SPEAKER_00: You're gonna grow over a lifetime.
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SPEAKER_00: It's in the soil of love.
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SPEAKER_00: And glorify him for all that he is and all that he is doing in your life.