10-Ephesians: “God Is Able: More Than You Can Ask or Imagine” | Ephesians 3:14-21

So last week we learned that grace is an asset. It's the most valuable thing that we have ever been handed and we were charged not to bury it. Instead, we were charged to invest it because we are stewards. We are asset managers of the insearchable riches of Christ that he has given to us. And then right in the middle of that thought back in verse one, Paul started a sentence and then he just stopped and then he took this long detour through the mystery of the gospel.

Well, this morning Paul is going to get back to that initial thought. So let's kneel with him and let's listen to one of the most staggering prayers in all of the Bible starting in Ephesians 3:14 where we jump into verse one that says for this reason I that is Paul bow my knees to the father of our lord Jesus Christ. Paul says for this reason now this is a continuation again of verse one. And so the question then is well what is this reason? And for that we actually have to go back into chapter 2 just for a quick reminder where Paul says now therefore you are no longer strangers.

Just keep it in this mind. This is the reason that Paul is falling to his knees. You are no longer strangers and are foreigners and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. It is for this reason that Paul is about to say what he's going to say in chapter 3.

This reminder that we are no longer strangers. That we are built on the cornerstone of Christ. That we are being fitted together. that we are built being built into a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of God. This is why Paul is going to bow. This is why Paul is falling to his knees because of the truth that is being declared here.

Paul is falling to his knees in prayer. And it was kind of fun when I was thinking about falling to his knees. Those of you that are on the older side may remember something that looks a little bit like this, right? Isn't this what we kind of picture when we're praying that we're kneeling by this bedside and we now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Right? And so this this falling on his knees. But in Paul's day, what's interesting is how they would pray was more like this. They would be standing. This was a very common way that this this was being done.

And how do we know that this is the case? We know this because of what Jesus says in Luke chapter 18. He says, "A Pharisee stood and he prayed thus, and I love this, with himself, right? I thank you, God, that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. We have this picture in our mind, but you can imagine this guy is is standing there and he is praying and and most of us either sit and we pray, maybe we kneel by our bed and we pray, or we sit at the table and we pray." But it was very common for them to stand and pray.

But by Paul dropping to his knees, he's communicating something. He's communicating something to his audience that he is giving absolute submission to a sovereign authority. This apostle Paul is falling to his knees and he's saying, I am submitting myself to this person that I am praying to. And in this case, this submission is to God the father who is the the father, he says, of our Lord Jesus Christ. which which brings us to a point that we have to address. Now, Paul doesn't directly address this, but it's easy for us to run across something and we're like, okay, you got God the Father and you have God the Son.

And how is he the son if we say he's eternally God? How is that possible? Because in our mind, it's thinking, well, I am I am Heidi's son. I am Ron's son. And how did that come about?

Well, the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees, right? That's how that comes about. But that's not what Paul is saying here. This is not what is being communicated here. Our friends at Got Questions help us with this.

So just in case this happens to be here, whether in this room or online, Jesus is not God's son in the sense that he he of a human father and a son. God did not have to get married. God did not have marital relations with mother God at some point. That's not what is happening here. He didn't mate with Mary.

He didn't get together with her to produce a son. Jesus is God's son in the sense that he is God made manifest in human form. That's what this is. Jesus is and always has been God from the very beginning. We remind oursel of this from John 1.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Now, of course, we read this and we're like, "All right, well, you said word. What does that even mean? What does mean what does this word mean?" And that's why we jump down to verse 14 where we read, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth." Jesus himself is the eternal God made flesh. And this idea of being son, one of the things that we know is the godhead is co-equal with each other, father, son, and spirit.

But the son and the spirit yield to the authority of the father. This is Jesus in Luke 22. Not my will but your will be done. So this is the co-equal God of the universe who has made himself submiss submissive to the will of the father. We continue in verse 14 Paul continues said from whom the whole family in heaven on earth is named.

Now earlier I mentioned the significance of Paul bowing to God. This line extends here extends God's sovereignty, his power in his authority over every single family in existence. Whether that be a spiritual family or whether that be a temporal family. So we're talking about humans, angelic host, whatever it is, every single group of people is under the authority of God. And and this would have been understood in biblical times because the way they understood it is if you were able to give a name, you had authority over it.

This is the power that Adam is given as he names the animals. This is the power that we see God give as he changes different individuals names. So for example, father Abraham used to be Abram and God renames them from Abram to Abraham. God the creator is sovereign over every group over their identity, over their boundaries, even over their very right to exist. There is nothing in all of creation that exists outside the will of our God.

Amen. Paul continues that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with the might through his spirit in the inner man. That he would grant you. Now, first this is Paul saying to the Ephesians that he would grant you these things, but really this extends beyond that to anyone and everyone who is a believer in Christ who would read these words. And we're told that he would extend this according to his riches and his glory.

Now, let me ask you this question, family. How rich is our God? How often do you think about that? How rich is our God? I mean, we can't even fathom how rich our God is, how wealthy our God is, what our God can pour out and is capable of pouring out.

But then also, we're told that they would be strengthened. Now, if you were here a few weeks ago, you might remember us talking about different types of strength. This is that word cratto coming back. This is that power that overcomes any obstacle. How many obstacles?

Any obstacle. So, you have this God who is pouring out according to his riches and glory and is strengthening you to overcome any obstacle. There is no obstacle that can stand against our God. And we know that this is powered then by his might, by his dynamis. This is literally his power.

All of the power that God possesses, Paul is praying would be available to his readers and to us who are believers that we could overcome any and every obstacle that comes against us. So then we ask ourselves, well, how is this then accomplished? Paul continues on and says it's because of his spirit. His spirit that we were told a few weeks ago, we are temples. We He lives in us.

He dwells in us. This overwhelming power is to overcome able to overcome any obstacle because of the Holy Spirit of God himself that lives that exists in each and every one of us. We are told that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love. Now this word dwell is so powerful because again one of the things that this study through Ephesians has been teaching us is that our translations are often inadequate to convey what Paul was necessarily trying to convey. I mean it does as good a job as it can without being overly wordy.

Okay. Now, when I think of dwell, it's like, okay, I live there. I dwell in my home. That's where I dwell. But that's not what Paul is communicating here.

There's something that goes so much deeper. Christ is not just a a visitor in our hearts. He is taking up permanent residence in our hearts. Now, I want you to think about that because many of you in this room have been told you can lose your salvation. that God will abandon you, that you can choose to kick God out of your life. What are we already beginning to see here?

That's absolutely not the case. When Christ comes into your life, he comes to dwell and to set up what kind of residence? Permanent res resonance. Let me ask you a question. What's permanent?

It's permanent, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal permanent life. Our God does not abandon us. Even when we seem to abandon him, he will not abandon us. But it continues to go beyond this.

This is the thing that's so powerful here because then we move on to this idea of heart. Now again this is where we get this word cardia. Now we cardiac we understand this. Now for us we think of the heart and it's like oh that is the seat of my emotions. I have given the love of my life my heart.

This is not what they would have understood this to be by any stretch of the imagination. Literally what Paul is saying here is Christ sets up permanent residence. He's touching into your heart. He is taking over control of the command center of your life. Every aspect of who we are becomes under the control of Christ.

That is the picture that is here. Imagine Christ at the helm of the ship of your life. Any of you Star Trek fans or Star Wars fans and you see the people there, it's like you got the captain. Christ is the captain of your life. Now, you can certainly say, "Oh, I cannot do a captain.

I'm not going to be able to move this way." Right? and he's calling the orders in your life and you're choosing not to do it. That certainly can absolutely happen. But if you listen to what it is that he is saying, he will direct you in the ways that you should go. You're not left to sit out in the sea by yourself being tossed by the winds and the waves. That's not how this is to happen.

You're like, I don't know how to navigate these seas, Lord. He's like, give me control. Do what I say. Let me direct you. Oh, but captain, I cannot do it.

I just don't know where [screaming] I'm going. I cannot do it. He's like, "Give me control." And there's many of you in this room right now that know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been allowed yourself to be tossed by the wind. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Thank you. Now, let me live my life. Let me do what it is that I want. And he's like, "Give me back control.

And guess what happens when we give him control? It goes so much better for us. He is so much more capable. He is so much more competent to lead us through. Does it mean that it's it's scary or not?

Of course, it can be terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. What do we see? We see a picture of the the disciples. Jesus is sleeping at the back of the boat.

They're just being tossed all over the place. Lord, don't you even care if we die? How chill is Jesus in that moment? Calm, total peace, and then he speaks. And what can we learn from that?

We can learn that the Lord's comfortable with us going through chaos. The question is, are we comfortable with him leading us through that chaos? Are we trusting him in that moment? Are we slapping him out of the way, grabbing control and saying, "I can do it better." I think most of us, especially if we got some years under us, understand he can do it so much better. Now, instead, there there's this desire that we would allow him who is love to control things in our lives. that this love that God himself is love.

And he wants us to be rooted and grounded in his love. Rooted and grounded in his love. And this love, this is that that agape love. This is that sacrificial love. This is that love that let Jesus hang on the cross and not just hang on the cross, but stay on the cross for you and for me.

It's that love that allowed him to take on death for us and to go into the grave for us. That's the kind of love that he desires for us to have as well. And it's this picture that him who is willing to give himself for us is the one that we should root and ground our lives on. Now, you've probably heard the the the the song that talks about building your house on shifting sand, right? What happens if you build your house on shifting sand? falls over.

But when we build our lives on Christ and on the love of Christ, we can withstand the the difficulties that come our way. Now, again, focusing on the fact that the difficulties do occur. The number of times I've had people tell me, "Well, obviously you must be sinning and not in alignment with God because you're going through a difficulty." I cannot count. And there's many in this room who know what I'm talking about. Now, if you're aware of the Bible, you might know that that sounds like someone's friends.

His name was Job. Well, what? You obviously are a sinner. Job, what's your sin? Confess your sin.

That must be why you're going through what you're going through. Family, the reality is is we need to consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. We were set up and made to understand and to know that in this world you will have trouble, but he will give us our peace. And the question is, are we grounded on him? Are we rooted on him?

Because when we do that, then we are able to again make our way through these things. And here's the thing. If you've found yourself kind of walking away again, you've grabbed hold of control. Don't think that you're so far away. Ask him to take control again.

And he will do it. Ask him to say, "Lord, that I would be rooted and grounded as I'm supposed to be in you." And he'll allow it. The thing is is that we are all broken and we're being made new. Right? Positionally, we're we're perfect.

We die today. We go to we go to glory. If we're in Christ, well done, thy good and faithful servant. But let's be honest. Paul says in Romans 7, he says, "I do the things I don't want to do, and I don't think do the things I want to do, wretched man that I am.

Who will save me of this body of death? This life is a process of being made into the image of Christ. So, you're going to screw up. Just accept that right now. There's not a person in this room who is in Christ that will not from time to time screw up sometimes repeatedly, over and over again.

You will find yourself doing the same thing over and over again. And then you'll be like, "Why did I do that?" Like, "Lord, help me with this." And then you'll you'll see that one fixed. And then he'll move you into, you know, from the 100 level classes to the 200 level classes. and you'll find out you're screwing up there, too. And then you'll eventually get that you'll graduate to the 300 level classes. And next thing you know, you're in graduate level classes and you're still screwing up there.

And then you'll graduate from there and you'll be in doctoral level classes and you'll find out you're screwing up there. And it's this constant process of continuously being made more and more like Jesus. As long as we are alive, as long as we are in this flesh, as Paul was talking about, we will battle with this flesh. And ideally, we're continuing to look more and more like Christ. You may even fail a class.

You may have to come back and repeat that class and he will walk you through that whole thing and you will continue to be frustrated with yourself and he will continue to be gracious and he will continue to lead you. The enemy is going to try and beat you down. The enemy is going to try and get you to think that you're a failure and get you to drop out. But our God desires to continue to see you grow to be more and more like him. Amen.

And what this needs to happen, what Paul wants us to understand, and this next part is so unbelievably powerful because there's many of us in this in this room right now, they're like,"Lord, I don't understand." How many of us have said that? How many of us have thought that even this week? And so, what does Paul say next? that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth, and the height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He literally wants us to be able to take hold of something and make it our own to understand him at a deeper level. And this is the amazing thing.

Our God is an infinite God. But what we're seeing here is that we have the ability to comprehend more than we could ever think, dream, or imagine. Our God can help us to do that. And that's the thing. You're not on your own to do it.

He can help us comprehend himself. He can help us understand the width, the length, the depth, and the height of who he is and what it is that he has accomplished. What it is that he continues to do in our lives. Now, some of you are like, "I thought there were only three dimensions." Yeah, that's the thing that's pretty wild of this. Paul is giving four dimensions here.

Our God is beyond seemingly our comprehension in and of ourselves. He goes beyond just simple measurements. He is so unbelievably deep and rich. But this imagery that Paul is giving to these Ephesians is powerful because these people as they're walking around would see this. This is the temple of Diana or Artemis or or rendering of it.

This is a beautiful building. I mean, I don't know about you, I would love to see this thing pristinely finished. And there's a better than average chance we would see something like that and go, "Man, we're amazing. It's pretty amazing the stuff we can do." I'll tell you what, a few years ago, we were standing at Kaj Mahal and I was like, "Oh, you got to be kidding me." And then when you get closer, like if you've never been there, which most of you haven't, you haven't seen nothing because the real treat to Taj Mahal is when you get close to it and you see the little intricate ornate stones that they have handcrafted and interwoven into the marble. It's stunning beyond belief.

And it's really easy for us as humans to get caught up in our human innovations. It's really easy for us to get all aruck and wondering about the things that we have accomplished. It's really easy for us to to look at something that's amazing and give all the glory and praise to those things or the ones who have handcrafted those those things. But what's powerful and what's necessary for us to understand is that our God is so far beyond any of that. You know, the other day I was watching this this video on I love space stuff.

I I love things about just the vastness of space and the intricacies of space. I love watching the people who the astronomers who are studying who are completely confounded as the things that they see out there blow all of their models out of the water. They're like, "But we used to think this. We have to completely rethink everything that we've ever done." And they they see things like this. There there was this one.

It was like this giant circle of galaxies. I don't know if you're aware about how big galaxies are, but they're huge, like huge. Now, imagine a ring of galaxies. Like, it just completely blows our mind because there's like this structure should not exist. And right next to it is just this big arch of galaxies.

Like, these things what they're what they're determining the age of them and how long they've been there, this can't be. And this idea that everything just exploded into existence, this can't be. And that's the thing that's amazing about our God is he spoke all of that into existence and he holds it all in his hands. Like trying to fully comprehend him, this is the thing that literally will take all of eternity for us to just continue to understand and be like, Lord, you indeed are able. You are able to do these things.

But then to understand that as we're looking at these beautiful buildings, we're looking at even the the beautiful cosmos that none of that compares to the love of Christ. None of it compares to the love of Christ which goes so far beyond any of that. It passes our very knowledge. like I can try and comprehend it only in the sense that I am a father and I can I can think of the idea of of laying down my life and sacrificing for my children. I I and I can think of sacrificing my life for my wife. But then when you start thinking about things like Jesus was perfect like we can say that Jesus was perfect and it can just roll off our tongues.

But when you actually ponder the fact that there was literally nothing wrong with Jesus, there was no reason for Jesus to have ever died. And yet he was willing to lay down our life for us. Like when you literally think about what he did and how he lived and then you set even just yourself over here and then you realize it's more than just yourself. It's the culmination of all of humanity, including those people. Think the most reprehensible people that have ever existed, the totality of humanity and and the awfulness that we have perpetrated on on this world and on one another and then on our God.

And yet, he was willing to lay down his life despite all of that. That passes knowledge. That surpasses our knowledge. How miraculous, how amazing that is. It just passes through all of this.

And then Paul then prays that we would be filled with the fullness of God. Now, I want you to ponder that for a second. How full is God? like, "All right, Lord. I know you've told me that I'm going to be able to comprehend all wi with all the saints, all of this stuff. I'll be honest, family.

I struggle with this sometimes because I I'm like, I don't know how this is possible that he who spoke the universe into existence that I'm regularly saying holds all of it in his hand, says, "I can put inside of you, Chris. I can put inside every believer the totality and the fullness of myself. Now I want you to think about that for a second. Think about you plus the fullness of God is capable of doing. Have you ever thought about that? about how amazing and capable and able our God is.

And that if you are in Christ, that fullness, that completeness, that capability that surpasses all knowledge and understanding lives and exists inside you. All of the fullness of God lives and exists inside of you. And so Paul continues and he says, "Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." Family, our God is able. You, me, we, we are unable. But our God, he is able.

He can solve the problems that you have in your life. He can address your every care and concern. He can address every area that needs addressing in your life. He can help you understand the ununderst understandable. He can do those things.

He can help you know. He can help you to comprehend. He can certainly grant each of us the fullness of himself. Our God, the Lord Jesus, he is above all. He is the one who makes all things possible.

He is the one who can accomplish all things. He's the one who can do things abundantly. He is above all everything we ask or we think. Now, I stopped there for a second. I thought to myself, I can ask some pretty big asks.

I don't know about you. Any of you ask anything, you're like, I I can ask some pretty big things, right? We can certainly do that. But we see that he is able. Able does not always mean he will, though.

That's the thing that's powerful for us to understand because we have a flaw in our humanness. We seem to think that if we ask something, he's obligated to answer that thing. Whatever that thing happens to be, whatever it is that we think should be his will. I want you to think on that for a second. The thing that we think should be in his will.

But the thing that we need to understand, and I I'm constantly cycling back to this one, is that we need to be asking inside his will because he's not necessarily obligated to answer our will. Now, if our will happens to be in alignment with his will, guess what? Well, he's going to answer that. This is John in 1 John 5. Now, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he what?

He hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. That's a fancy way of saying is if we ask it in his will, he's going to answer it. That's the powerful thing. But he's not going to do something against his will.

Young people, you get to experience it where it's like, "And Lord, I want to marry this person right here." Well, here's one thing you should know. One of God's wills is that we actually have a measure of choice. And that bug that bothers us sometimes. That bothers us sometimes. That's a whole another message there.

How, you know, it's like I want what I want unless I don't really want it, but I really want it, but I don't. You know what I'm like, I don't know what I I don't know what he just said, but I kind of do. But if we ask according to his will, this is Jesus again of the garden. Not my will, but your will be done. That's such a powerful thing for us to do is we're praying to our God when you're finished asking the Lord, but not my will, but Lord, your will be done and Lord, bring my life, bring my will into alignment with yours.

A perfect example of this comes with our our building for the kingdom. So, this building project, I'm constantly getting asked about this and this this is a whole thing. This is a whole another discussion and some of you are still trying to understand me. Right? So, some of you have known me for a long time and you're like, I still don't understand how he works at all and how how this stuff happens.

But I'll tell you, God and I have had conversations about this because we started this whole process five five and a half years ago. And people are like, "Well, how do you know that this is God's will?" I don't. But I know it's his will for us to at least walk this path. But then it's totally his right to be able to reshift us. You're like, "Well, what do you mean?" I'll give you a perfect example that doesn't have to do with building the kingdom that set this up.

Back in 200 late 2005, Holly and I nearly moved to Illinois for me to start an internship in internship in 2006 with a big church doing seminary and all this other stuff. Everything seemed to be pointing us in that direction. Every all the things, you know, how you're like, "God, just just make it clear. knocked down all of the obstacles, opened all of the doors. I tell you what, family, all of that was happening. Even as we sat through 12 interviews, I kid you not, 12 interviews over two days.

Holly and I come out of this whole thing and we're thinking, how are they going to choose where to put us? We had already been accepted into the program and we're like, every single one of these was a home run. Knock it out of the park, except one was awkward. We're like, nah, that didn't really work. probably not going to be where we're going to where we're going to be at. Few days after we get back, phone call.

Yeah, you're kicked out of the program. Click. Door came slamming shut. And what happens after that? God, how is it that it was so clear and you opened every door and it seemed so clear and we're willing to sacrifice and and self-pay and raise money and do all the things all for you?

How could this be? And we were angry. And over time, God reminded me, look, the whole point of this thing was for me to help you guys be willing to go wherever we would direct you, but not just you, to help your parents who were angry at the idea of us moving the grandkids halfway across the country. There were so many levels of things that God was doing, laying all of these things out. So now, how does that play with what's happening with this build?

When this whole thing started, I'm like, "Look, God, do I know for sure that you're going to provide the money for this?" I don't, but I see a need here, and I see a big vision. I see what you can do in Sunrise. I see what you you can do in the next generation here in this place. I see us being able to to build out here and to see this happen and see this filled with children and the next generation being reached for Christ. I can absolutely see this happening.

And there were some others who joined me until suddenly issues started happening. Suddenly things started getting in the way. And I remember having conversations with God because because I I'll be honest at this point the price has nearly doubled in the last five years of what this was supposed to cost. Anybody here noticing inflation, right? Uncomfortableness with the whole thing.

And you can sit there and you can say, "God, why wouldn't you have given us the money right away? It would have been more economical. God, why is it that that you allowed these shenanigans to go on with the local municipality that required half of the money to go to a brand new parking lot instead of going towards the build? God, why didn't you allow God? Why didn't you do this?

God, why didn't you do this? God, why haven't you done this? God, why haven't you? And the whole time he's just been telling me, he's like, "Look, Chris, um, last August we figured 2.3 million, right?" Yes. Well, am I capable of that?

Well, yeah. Okay. Well, now we're at another year of inflation. Am I capable of that? Well, yeah.

So, when am I not capable of making that happen? Well, God, you're always capable of making Exactly. And how many other things in our lives is he just saying like, "Do you trust me? Do you trust that I am able and that I'm capable of doing this thing in my time? You see, one of the things that I've learned in my life, family, is one of the reasons why God often will hold back on things is because he's getting us to the place that we need to be.

This is why Mrs. Thompson sometimes will tell me, "Would you please learn the lesson you need to learn so that we can just move on?" But how many of us have been in that place in our lives? And and I'm just going to tell you something. I believe God can do that and I believe that he will. But I also believe that he could totally pivot us some other direction.

And guess what? That's okay. That's okay. We we are totally comfortable and confident with the fact that we like Moses could end up being see this like finished and then the Lord takes us somewhere else whether like I drop dead in the pulpit or whatever it ends up being and now it was we dreamed a dream and suddenly we don't get to participate in it. And again, going back to Moses, the moment you think you're owed something, think about someone like Moses who dealt with those people for 40 years and never got to set foot in the promised land.

We are owed nothing except what he has promised us. And at this point, that's eternity with him. And we're thankful for that. It's just amazing what our God has done and is capable of doing. Okay, continuing.

And all of this is done according to the power that works in us. To him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Again, this is that power of God that is working. This is that so you have that that pool of God's power that is then being energized that is being activated.

And we remember that we were given this power. This is again Luke writing in Acts one. and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Every single believer in Christ has the same level of power. Some of you sit there and you're like, "Well, I'm not as articulate as Chris. I'm not as talented as so and so.

I'm not as whatever as so- and so." This is the thing you need to understand. You are a tool in the master's hands. The thing is is our God can do things beyond anything that you hope, think, dream or imagine in and through you. That's the amazing thing. Yeah.

Paul in all of his education, he was an enemy of God. It was only at the point where he allowed himself to become a tool in God's hands that he really truly started doing things of eternal significance. And that is the case with each and every one of us. The question is, are we allowing him to do that? Are we allowing him to bring about his glory through us, through his church in Jesus Christ?

And it's not just in the church of that age. This is the thing that's important for us to understand. This is for all generations. This is for us as well in this place right now here at sunrise in the middle of West Valley City. All of this, this power, this wonderworking power is available for every single believer in this place.

And think about the accumulative ability of God in this place if his people will allow him to work through them. How amazing it can be. How amazing it can be. And not just for a moment, but again, forever and ever. Well, as we reflect back on this morning, you know, we saw Paul, the Apostle Paul, he dropped to his knees before the father.

He prays to the spirit and he prays that that we would be strengthened on the inside that we would be powered and live in the power that can overcome every obstacle in our lives. Paul prays that Christ would not just visit but would move in and run the house of our hearts. And he prays that we would grasp the love that is so wide, that is so long, that is so deep and it surpasses all knowledge that we would be filled with the fullness of God. And then he reminds us who we're praying to. He reminds us that we literally pray to a God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that we could hope, think, dream, or imagine.

And so, here's what we we do with a prayer like this. May we pray bigger. May we pray bigger, bigger than our problems, that we would bring the immovable thing to God. That we would ask according to his will and that we would trust that he could move it in his time. But also trust that he would redirect us if that would be necessary.

That we would hand Christ the keys. That we would literally hand him the helm of our lives. And that we would allow him to run our lives. that we would stand in awe of him, that we would stop being press impressed by human things, but instead we would worship our God who holds all things, for he is able. And so, let's go pray and let's believe it with everything that we are in this world that desperately needs to see the light of Christ shining through our lives. And all God's people said, "Amen." Let's pray.

Father God, we are thankful again for this morning and the privilege that it is to come and to hear your word and to be challenged, to be challenged in this way and to be encouraged, Lord, to live lives that are bigger and more faithful maybe than we could ever have thought. to realize what actually lives inside of us. A power, the fullness of God that is capable of overcoming every obstacle is more than able to accomplish what concerns us today. And I would pray for everyone in this room to go from this place and to live in a way that represents that to this world. We thank you Lord and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.