your Bible to Ephesians chapter 3, we're going to continue our study of the book of Ephesians. We're going to begin another great prayer of Paul's. We're just going to take verses 14 through the first half of 17, just a few verses. Ephesians chapter 3, 14 through 17. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Well, these are my work gloves. And if you look at them really close, they're actually worn. My wife must have used them. But I wanted to show you what these work gloves can do. So hopefully you can see them. I'm gonna put them right here. I want you to watch. Watch what those gloves can do. Maybe it's just because they're my work gloves, but they don't do anything. Right? The gloves? They don't, on their own, accomplish anything. But now, watch what happens, or what could happen, when you put your hands in them. See, I did use them once. But it takes a hand to make the glove work, right? The glove doesn't do anything on its own. And really what Paul is saying in this entire message is it takes the Spirit of God to do anything. We, as Christians, we're the glove. We don't do anything on our own. We can't do anything on our own. But when the Spirit of God comes into us, when the Spirit of God, one person put it this way, invades us, we become different people, and we become animated to the things of God, and we can accomplish things for God. In fact, he says in another place, Paul does it, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions? It's only been a few days, right? You've got to be doing pretty good. And how are you going to accomplish? Where are you gonna find the power to fulfill your New Year's resolutions? Is it going to be willpower? Is it going to be you trying harder and trying harder? Now, there are many preachers who will preach to the glove. You know, they'll say, work harder, do more, you can do it, just to try to be encouraging, right? Come on, work harder, you can accomplish this. But without the Spirit of God, the glove does nothing. And really what Paul is doing in this passage, he's saying the key to the entire Christian life is to have Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. And so he prays, and he prays rather earnestly, that power would be given to Christians. that his presence, that his spirit would enliven them, would empower them to live the Christian life. Now, we all respect power, right? We don't roast hot dogs over a volcano. We know that could end up badly. And we don't cruise on our ships or our boats during a storm because we respect the power of nature. And we also, I think, if you've lived long enough, you have developed a healthy fear of power. I remember once I was plugging in an extension cord, but I didn't notice that the wires were just a little frayed, and the wires were touching in a way that they shouldn't, and I was touching the wires in a way that I shouldn't. And I have a healthy fear for electricity now. But we also all need power. We need power from outside of us to live the Christian life. It isn't enough for the preacher to scream at his people, you have to try harder, you have to do better. Or to explain exactly what the Christian ought to be doing to hold up a standard that without God you cannot keep. What Paul is doing here, he is praying that you be given the Spirit, that you be given the power of the indwelling Christ, and that you, as Christians, that you lay hold upon him by faith. So where do we find the power to live the Christian life? Where do we find the power to overcome ourselves, to overcome our sins, to overcome our tendencies, to just indulge ourselves? we find it in the Spirit of God. So we all need the power of God, the indwelling Christ that we appropriate by faith to live the Christian life. And that's what Paul's doing. He is praying that we be given the power. Now earlier, his earlier prayer in Ephesians, he was explaining there is power in God. God has the power to do amazing things, but this prayer is a little different. He's saying, not just, I want you to know what the power is or where the power is, I want you to appropriate the power. I want the power to be given to you. I want you to lay hold upon this power by faith that the indwelling Christ would dwell within you. And he begins this whole section with, for this reason. That's how the text begins, for this reason. Well, what reason? Or maybe I could put it this way, what reasons? If you look back, it's what we've covered already in the book of Ephesians. God himself is drawing all things to their intended conclusion in Christ. He is drawing all things together in him. He's summing up everything in Christ. And because of that, he prays that you would know the power of the indwelling Christ. He says, because you have been chosen from before the foundation of the world. He prays that you would have the power of the indwelling Christ. He prays, since you have heard the gospel and you have believed the gospel, that you would have the power of the indwelling Christ. Since you have been made alive by the power of the Spirit, since you are now molded into one new man, Jew and Gentile, into one new humanity, he prays that you would know the power of the indwelling Christ. Because as we talked about last week, well, it's all good. God is sovereign and in control of all things, and he brings his perfect will to pass. No matter what happens, he prays that you would lay hold upon the power of the indwelling Christ. But all those are reasons looking back, you know, for all the things I've already told you. But have you looked forward in Ephesians yet? what Paul is going to say to us as the people of God. He's going to say, Christians, this is how you live. This is how you live in the business world. This is how you live in your prayer life. This is how you live struggling against temptation. This is how you live in families. This is how you be a father and a parent and how your marriage ought to work. He gives details of the Christian life. But what he's saying here is absolutely essential to what he's going to say then. He's not just in the last three chapters saying, Glove, try harder, do more. He's saying you need the power of the indwelling Christ to do the exhortations that I'm going to give you in a minute. You know, for you to live the Christian life, you need to have the power of the indwelling Christ. And so what does Paul say? He doesn't look at you guys and say, you need the power of the indwelling Christ. You know, you need to find it, you need to appropriate it somehow. He says, I am praying for you that God himself would give it to you because it comes from God. We don't have to look for it. We know where it comes from, but we have to ask for it. You know, how much more will the Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him? So I am encouraging you to do what Paul did, to pray that the Holy Spirit, that the power of the indwelling Christ would be given to you. But notice what Paul's doing here, he's not praying for himself, he's praying for others. He's praying that the church would know the power of the indwelling Christ. And he says, he doesn't say, I pray for you, but what does he say? He says, I bow the knees. Well, that means the same thing, right? We don't often talk about posture in prayer. How should our body be when we're praying? And there isn't a legalistic requirement or anything, but if you look throughout the scriptures, it says, well, we can pray when we are on our knees, like what he does here. This is another way of Paul saying, and I'm praying for you, but he's praying with bended knee. He's praying as he is kneeling. Another way to pray is with your arms raised. In fact, some of you Presbyterians do that. It's very un-Presbyterian, but it's very biblical. It's okay to raise your hands. If I say something good, you can say amen. If I say something wrong, you can lift your hands up, it's okay. But you can pray or praise with your hands lifted. And you can fall literally on your face, with your face to the ground, and pray in that way. Those are all biblical postures of prayer. The only one that I couldn't find in the Scriptures is sitting down. And that's what we always do, isn't it? We sit down in prayer. Now some of these postures in prayer, they're mentioned to give us an idea of what's going on in the one who is praying. Kneeling is a sign of what? Of submission. But standing is typically how they prayed. They prayed standing up. Remember when he was teaching about prayer, the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. But he was standing when he prayed. And then his counterpart, the tax collector, he was standing some distance away. And there are many places where Christians, when believers, they're kneeling in prayer. They are on their knees praying. And that's a sign probably of urgency, or of need, or even of humility. Ezra said, So, bowing is a sign of inward contrition. It is of humility. It is about depending upon God. Even Jesus himself, he went a little way from them and fell on his face and prayed. It's a sign of urgency. great need he later knelt down falling on his knees he cried out with a loud voice this was Stephen Lord do not hold this sin against him so you can kneel you can fall on your face and it's even okay to sit it's not the posture that makes the difference it's the inward attitude but should not our outward actions sometimes reflect our inner attitude shouldn't our attitude in prayer change our posture in prayer at times? If we're urgent or if we're in great need, should we fall on our faces like they did? Again, it's not the posture that makes the difference, it's the inward attitude. But I still remember It was during one of the holidays some years ago when we were staying at my in-law's house, and my father-in-law, he gave up his bedroom for all the kids and the grandkids, wherever they were gonna stay, and he was in the living room, and that's where he was gonna sleep, and I happened to have to walk past him as he was on his knees praying. He didn't do it so I would see, he just did it because God would see, and this is his typical everyday posture in prayer. So anyway, Paul prays, on his knees, probably as a sign of urgency. The people of God, they need the power of God or this isn't gonna work. So he is urgently praying on bended knee and he's praying to the Father. This is one of, at least for me, this is one of the most helpful images of God. that my God is my father that the the universal Lord is my dad the one who controls everything looks upon me as a child that needs him and so he cares for him and he goes out of his way to help him I remember when I was growing up I was really little but I thought of my dad sort of as a superhero do you ever think of your dad that way And then I grew up, and I was a teenager, and I go, that's my dad. That's just my dad, and that's all he is. And then I had kids of my own, and I realized, this is really hard. Then my dad became a superhero again. some sense he still is. I have benefited greatly from my father. One of the things that I am eternally grateful for is he conceived me. That's a pretty big one. But he's also cared for me. He has provided for me. He has sacrificed for me. He has taught me many things. He has raised me. He gave me a good education. He spent almost or he paid for almost every dime of my college. And my father, I still know to this day, if I ever had a legitimate need, he would take care of me. He would go out of his way to do whatever he could to help me if I had a legitimate need because he is my father. And I think that's the way that we need to look upon God as father. He is able to help and he is willing to help. Sometimes the thing that stifles our prayer life is that we don't believe that God is father or that he is willing and able to help us. God is willing and able to help us. So we can come to Him, and we ought to come to Him. And Paul here is coming, and he is coming to the Father. But as Father, he is the universal Lord. He is the one who has all the supplies. There are some things that my Father can't do for me, my earthly Father. There's nothing that my heavenly Father can't do for me. His supply, His power, His energy is limitless. He can do everything. And then what does He pray? He prays that we would receive power. He prays that we would receive power. I bow my knees to the Father, who is the universal Lord, who is the Almighty. So I bow my knees to the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. So what does that mean? At first glance, what does that mean to you? There are two different options, but every family in heaven and on earth is named. It could be that the whole human community, whether they are here or whether they're there, Whether they're the church militant or the church triumphant, he is the father of the whole church. It could mean that, and I think it probably does. It could mean the family in earth is all humans, and the family in heaven is all the angels, etc. It could mean that too, but I think it really means the other one. The whole family, the whole human family is named by God. One of the things, and I didn't learn very much, one of the things when I used to sell cash registers is, in sales, you need to find the person who makes the decision. Don't waste your time in middle management. You know, talking to people who don't make the decision. Oh, I'll get back to you when I see my boss, or we got a committee meeting three months out. Don't spend all of your time talking to someone who can't make the decision. When we pray, we pray to the one who can make the decision. In fact, God himself is the ultimate decision maker. He makes all the decisions, ultimately. And so when we pray, we are coming to the one who can sign in the dotted line, so to speak. We pray to the one who can take action. He is the one who is in control of everything. And he is the one, he says later, that has named us. And again, this is something we don't talk about very much. What's in a name? It's just a label, right? That's all it is. What's your name? I'm Doug. What does Doug mean? I don't know, just that's him. He's Doug. So we look upon names as just a label. But my name actually means warlike. From the god Mars, that's my name. I'm not sure if that's what I am. My kids may sometimes think I am, But a name, remember when Adam was given the charge to name the animals, he wasn't just sticking a post-it note label on them. This is a bunny, this is a rabbit. He was naming them according to their essence. He was correctly categorizing them. He was almost, as he named them, defining them. And that's what this means. The whole family in heaven and earth is named by God the Father. He has power, he has authority over there, and he defines them, as it were. So we're coming to the one who can make the decisions. We're coming to the one who has all power in heaven and earth, and he can exercise it for us. And he does it sometimes even at our request, sometimes at our prayers. So the first petition, what does he make? That power would be given to you. That power would be given to the church so that Christians could live the Christian life. so that we could be distinct from the world, but that's not the only reason, so that we could be set aside for God's use, that we could be set aside for God's glory, that power would be given to us. And this isn't willpower, this is Christ's power dwelling within us. And he says, out of the riches of his glory, out of his limitless supply, we come to a God of limitless supply, that he would give you his power through his spirit in the inner man. God gives according to his riches in glory. But what does that mean? If I were raising money for a good cause and I went to a five-year-old and they gave me a dollar, that would be amazing for a five-year-old. If I were to ask an 18-year-old who has his first job and has had his first few checks and he's feeling he's a man now, he could probably start his own family. I've got two paychecks. And you were to ask him and he would give $100. That would be sacrificial for him. Now, if some people have worked and worked and worked and are 25 and 30 and they've never given, we have an appointment. I'm going to meet with you out behind the woodshed. We'll talk about that. But if we were to ask a successful businessman to raise this money for a worthy cause, and he were to give $1,500, or a wealthy man, and he were to give $25,000, they are giving according to their riches. Now, put that on God. What is God? What is according to the riches of God? How can God give? God has a limitless supply. And He said, I am your Father, and I am willing and able to give you these things. So ask. Ask. and He will give according to His riches in glory. Now, if we believed that, our prayer life would be different, wouldn't it? It would be an amazing thing to come into the vast storehouse of a willing Heavenly Father and to ask for things. Lord, glorify Your name through me in this or in that or the other thing. But God has limitless supply. He gives according to His riches. The riches and glory was on Paul's mind. If you read all of his works, it comes up over and over and over again. So he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you may know the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of his glory. And Paul says he's going to give according to his riches. So ask away. This limitless supply comes from the glory of God. It comes from His fullness. It comes from His perfection. And He's praying that this power would be made known in you, would be given to you, and would change you in the inner man. That the power of Christ would be known within you, in the heart as it were. That God's spiritual power would be so working in you so that you could Live the Christian life so that you could do the right thing, so that you could keep the law of God, so that you could make disciples, and it goes on and on and on. But the absolute essential is the power of Christ, the power of the indwelling Christ, has to be in the inner man, has to be in the core of your being, has to be the one on the throne of your life, if I could put it that way. The one who is controlling the center, the core of your being. I am going to yield myself entirely to the power of Christ. I am His servant. I am His willing servant. I yield to the living God. He has better wisdom than I do, and He's going to do what He wants to do with me and through me in the coming year. I wonder sometimes if God makes New Year's resolutions for us. This is what I'm going to do with George, Henry, and Sue. and His resolutions, they never fail. What God wants out of us, He gets. What God commits to doing through us, He does. He does it through the inner man. The inner man. We joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. Therefore, we do not lose heart, though our outer man is deceived, and yet the inner man is being renewed day by day. So Paul is saying, I pray that God would give you His might. I pray that God would give you His power. in the inner man so that you would know it working in you. Why do we need this power? If I can compare myself to other Christians, I'm doing okay, right? I'm not perfect, but neither is anybody else. Maybe I'm even above average, like all the kids at Lake Wobegon. We're all above average. We need God's power because we are weak. We need God's power because we still haven't arrived. Because we still are not perfect, because we are still not in every way Christ-like. And so we need the power of God to work within us. We need the power of God to keep our New Year's resolutions. We need the power of God to supply us so that we can live the Christian life. Because we live in a world of temptations. and we can so easily fall. But not only because of the lack that we have that he's going to give the power, but we need the power of God so that we can do what he has commanded us to do, so that he can accomplish through us what he has given us to accomplish. And what is that? Well, just make disciples of all nations. It's a small little task. And with the spirit of God within us, we can and we will accomplish that. Then he goes on to say this, that he may give you of his spirit, but then he says the indwelling Christ. It's really the same thing. It's just a restatement of what was going on before. So he prays that you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. But pastor, I thought that whenever you became a Christian, at whatever age that was, you had the Spirit of God. So why is he praying that we be given the Holy Spirit? Why is he praying that Christ would, that we would know the power of the indwelling Christ? I thought every Christian had this. Well, yes, every Christian who has repented to believe, they have been given the Spirit of God. But you remember in the book of Acts where the Spirit of God came upon the church and the tongues of flame, so everybody who was a believer, they received the Holy Spirit. Then if you read the rest of the book of Acts, it says they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Thought they already were. No, they had the Holy Spirit. Now they were being filled with more of the Holy Spirit, if I could put it that way. Over and over again, for special times and special circumstances, they were given more power. They were given more of the Spirit of God. And so too, when we say, well, that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, yes, he does. But how strong is that faith? Are you appropriating the power of God? Are you believing it? Are you exercising the strength that he has given you? Last week I got one of my Christmas presents. It was a brand new tie and a new shirt. And it was in this really, really nice container. It was a big box and you could see through it. It was beautiful. But I had to, when I received that gift, I had to open it up. I had to tie it on. I even had to get my neck extender, but you don't want to hear about that. But I had to take the gift and I had to unpack it. The Christian life comes to us whole and complete. but there is some assembly required. We need to unpack the gifts that God has given us. We need to, by faith, appropriate them. Notice what he says, that Christ would dwell in your hearts by faith. So we become active. We are active in our sanctification, or at least we should be. We ought to be pursuing God because there's nothing else here worth pursuing. So we ought to be active in pursuing God and our sanctification. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. There's a lot of things that break down in your house, maybe you've noticed, and I have a very special way of fixing them. I just let them be, and sometimes they heal themselves. That may sound funny, but sometimes it works. It's been amazing how often that's worked. But one time, I couldn't fix my computer monitor. I would turn the computer on, and the monitor would be on, and it would flash off. I'd go, man, what is it? And it would go on again, and it would flash off. I had no idea what it was. So I did this, that, and the other thing to try to fix it, and nothing worked. That's why I never tried to fix anything. But then I realized it wasn't plugged in all the way. That's all it was. there are many Christians who aren't plugged in all the way, who aren't appropriating the indwelling Christ by faith. They're not plugged in, they're not actively seeking, they're not actively pursuing, they're not actively submitting to or unpacking the power of Christ that dwells within them. So Paul's praying that we would be all the way plugged in. One pastor said this, that omnipotence dwells within impotence. That's sort of what the power of the indwelling Christ is. Omnipotent power dwells within us who can't do anything without Him. We are the glove, remember? We can't do anything without Him, but with Him we can do amazing things. Have you ever heard of Julian Ellis Morris? I never did until I read this, but he's the He would dress like a bum, and he would sell razor blades and soap on the streets of his city. And so he would do that for several hours a day, and then he would go home to his mansion, get cleaned up, and get in his limousine to go to have dinner at a nice restaurant. Sometimes Julian lived according to his riches, and sometimes he didn't. And that's the way we are as Christians. Sometimes we live according to the riches of God in Christ, and sometimes we don't. And what Paul is saying here is, I want you to be all the way plugged into the power of God. And Paul is about to say, okay Christian, Here's your marching orders in chapters four through six. This is what you are to do as a Christian. This is what the power of the indwelling Christ is going to do in you. This is how it's going to be reflected in everyday life. And you need the power of the indwelling Christ to do these things. And you need to regularly appropriate that power by faith. When you think you can't resist this temptation, you need to remember that I have the power of the indwelling Christ. I have the Spirit of God dwelling within me. In my inner being, in my heart, He's there. I can resist this temptation. When we don't have the power to love or to go out of our way to sacrifice for somebody else, well, I just don't have the strength. Yes, you do. You have the power of the indwelling Christ. When you don't think you can do the right thing, when you are about to evangelize or make disciples, well, I'm not sure if I can do it. Well, you're right. Without God you can do nothing, but in Christ we can do all things. And that's what Paul is praying for before he gives all the exhortations. This is what you should do. This is what you should do. He says you need the power of the indwelling Christ to do anything. And so this is why I am bowing in urgent prayer for you that you would know the presence and the power of the indwelling Christ, and that you would appropriate it, as it were, by faith. This is a passage from Revelation chapter 3. Is that an evangelistic appeal? No! Read it. Go back in the context and read it. It is an urgent desire for Christians, for believers, to open the door to be all the way plugged in, as it were. And the same thing with our text here. This isn't a text to say, okay, unbeliever, I want you to become a believer now. so that Christ would dwell in your hearts by faith. He's speaking to Christians who already have the Spirit of Christ. But he says you need to be all the way plugged in. You need to appropriate the power of Christ within you so that you can live and walk the Christian life. So that Christ would dwell in your heart by faith, your inner being. In one sense, he is asking us to receive power from God. so that we might yield to the power of God, so that we might submit to His wisdom, so that we might submit to His commands, so that we might be all the way plugged in, that we would willingly offer ourselves to the presence and the power of Christ who dwells within us. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. This is a quote from Lloyd-Jones about temptations. Well, Christ dwells in your heart. Does he? By faith. If your heart is prepared with the presence of the indwelling Christ, you can stand when all the evil darts come your way. You have the power of the indwelling Christ. Faith is a gift from God, but we need to receive it, and we need to open it up. Faith, I think I've described it this way before, it is the empty hand that lays hold upon the power of God. Faith is the glove that the Spirit of God must fill, and so it becomes active. Faith is the full surrender to God in Christ. I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the not too distant future I'm going to be giving you a sort of a guided tour through the details of the Christian life. This is what it looks like to be a Christian in the world. That's chapters 4 through 6. And the one thing I don't ever want to hear you say is, I can't. Yes, you can. You've got the power of the indwelling Christ within you. Appropriate it by faith and you have the power to live the Christian life. But you're going to need to remember what I said today because I'm not always going to rephrase it. There's going to be times when I'm going to be looking at you and pointing to you and saying, do this and do that. And I'm not appealing to your willpower. I'm appealing to the power of Christ within you. you're going to need to remember that. By faith you can, and by faith you will. So Paul prays for the church that they would know God's power, that his unlimited power would dwell within them in the inner man, in the heart, by faith. that you would walk according to the riches of God in glory. One of the things that Nehemiah said, go and eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to him who has prepared nothing. For this day is holy to the Lord. Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Let's go back to those New Year's resolutions that you made. Hopefully some of them were really good. Some of them perhaps even were spiritual. You can and will fulfill them with the Spirit of the Living God. It isn't a bridge too far. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. So just a few things before we close. Number one, Paul prays, your leaders pray that the Spirit of God will be given to you, that Christ would dwell in your hearts by faith, that you would have the power to live and to walk the Christian life, that you would have the power even to multiply, that you would yield 30, 60, or 100-fold. But I'm also encouraging you to pray for others in this way. Sometimes with my kids, I tell them, Work hard, do better. And they can't do it without the Spirit of God. So pray for them. Pray for your kids. Pray for others. Pray for others in the church that they would be filled with the Spirit of the living God so that they would have Christ dwell in their hearts by faith. And when Christ is within them, they will do the right thing. But you've gotta pray that he takes up his abode within them. So pray. Pray for the church in the coming year. You know, what if we were to have all kinds of plans and strategies and organize this, that, and the other thing, and I could really bowl you over and impress you with a new organizational structure of the church? It means nothing without the Spirit of God. In fact, we might not even need the whole structure if we have the Spirit of God. But the Spirit of God isn't against structure or order or purpose. Everything should be done decently in order in the church. But we need the Spirit of God. Same thing like with the posture and prayer doesn't really ultimately matter. But sometimes your posture and prayer reflects your inner heart attitude. And the same thing as we go forward in a church as we seek to fill these pews with new disciples. we need the power of the indwelling Christ. So I would urge you to pray the way Paul prayed for the church, that we would be given power from on high so that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith. Amen, let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, it is difficult for us to admit how weak we really are and how much we really need you. But Lord, what a joy it is to know that you will supply our every need according to your boundless riches in Christ Jesus. So Lord, you pray that this sermon would spur a renewed interest, a renewed desire, a renewed perseverance in prayer. That we would ask you for the help that we need. That we would ask you to send your power into the lives of others. That we could see your hand working in them, that we could see your hand working through them. And Lord, that you would make disciples of all nations, including Columbia County. Pray, Lord, that you would bless us as we seek to speak the words of truth and love. and that we might pray down your blessing upon us. So Lord, we do pray that you would fill these pews with those who need you. For we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.