- Introduction
I found myself reflecting on
these great verses (3:20-21), and being inspired by them.
Sometimes we look at life
through limitations rather than possibilities.
I think we should expect big
things from God!
We read here in Ephesians 3,
that God can accomplish …
“abundantly far more than we
can ask or imagine” (v.20b).
That’s a lot!
Verses 20 & 21 are like a
doxology at the end of a prayer –
Words of acclamation …
“Now to him … who can do all
this … be glory … forever and ever; Amen”.
What we are acclaiming is …
all of what God is able to achieve.
What’s that? “Abundantly far
more …”.
I think we need to act as if
we really appreciate that this is true.
We heard last week how Gei
Lin believes this, and is acting on this basis.
Gei Lin believes that there
can be a tremendous improvement in the services in his home village,
and refuses to put any limits
on what can be achieved!
This sort of faith is not
just for Gei Lin, but for all of us!
“… abundantly far more than
we can ask or imagine”
- immeasurably more, infinitely more, exceedingly more, superabundantly more
- no limits … only those limits we might place
- more than we could ever conjure up in our mind or contemplate asking for
- yep, no limits
- How does this work in practice?
Not out of thin air, but
rather …
“… by the power at work
within US” (v.20a)!
It is somewhat staggering,
but no less true, that God chooses to work through us.
We are God’s channels of
blessing to the world.
This, despite our fragility,
our weakness, and our propensity to get it wrong at times!
God’s power … “at work within
us”.
Now … that’s a lot of power!
The power to create the
universe.
The power to create a human
family on earth.
The power to raise Jesus from
the dead.
God through his Holy Spirit
is able to work abundantly far more powerfully and
effectively than we can
imagine.
And, God doesn’t work
as a detached or impersonal force,
but rather is intimately
connected to his creation,
and works through His people.
Experiencing the power of God
working tangibly in and through our lives,
must be something we see as
an ultimate highlight in life! Even something to aspire to!!
I have been very grateful
this week, that God chooses to work within us,
when we are called upon to
stretch ourselves into all sorts of unexpected happenings!
We are to experience this
together in the church.
The glory of God is to be
seen as operative in the church (v.21).
It is as God works within us
that the glory of God is seen beyond us.
To all generations.
Might sound out there … but
that is the witness of this scripture!
This can speak volumes to a
hurting world.
Is the church still relevant
in today’s society?
Only if the church is
resembling God’s glory!
Only if there is a witness to
Jesus Christ!!
GHP Thompson wrote: “The
honour of Jesus is in the hands of the church”.
Sometimes we pray for God’s
power, when we already have that at hand.
What we should be praying for
is eyes to see the power that God has already provided
(From JD Greear).
And, we should never measure
God’s power, through our limited expectations.
- What is the centre and basis of God’s work in the world?
The words in this prayer
build up to answering this.
Starting in verse 16:
- according to the riches of his glory,
granting that we may be
strengthened in our inner being with power through the Holy Spirit,
- granting that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith,
- AS WE ARE being rooted and grounded in LOVE.
The centre and basis of God’s
work in the world … is love.
That has never changed, and
despite how the world looks, this is NOT going to change.
Being rejected time and time
again over human history, God returns to us in love.
And as people, all of us,
designed in the image of God,
the centre of God’s desire
for us is to be … “rooted and grounded in love”!
Any saving relationship we
come into with Jesus, is itself “rooted and grounded in love”.
We are NOT designed to carry
animosity, hate or deceit.
If we hold grudges or
bitterness or unforgiveness or conflicted thoughts toward another,
we better find a way of
dealing with this soon.
I’ll come back to that!
Love … appreciating and
practicing God’s love …
is the path to being filled
with the fullness of God (v.19b).
Rhett spoke about this two
weeks ago from 1 Corinthians 13.
You can have a whole lot of
things, but if you don’t have love …
you really have nothing!
- How is this love described (in Ephesians 3)?
As very large indeed (v.18).
So large that it “surpasses
[our] knowledge” (v.19)
- in a way it exceeds our capacity to understand,
- we can’t know it all, we can’t exhaust it;
however, Paul has already
prayed (in v.18)
that we may still have the
“power to comprehend”,
all of us together,
the immense size of this
love.
This all means … that it’s
not so much about knowledge,
but more about experiencing
and involving ourselves in God’s love!
So we shouldn’t stop
exploring the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love!
Let’s explore God’s love now:
- Every part of the universe is suffused with God’s love. God’s love cannot be confined.
- God’s love is broad enough to take in all peoples – there is room for all.
- God’s love is multi-dimensional, weaving its way into all the fabric of life.
- God’s love is deep enough to reach the most broken person.
- God’s love is sacrificial enough to redeem the worst of sinners.
- God’s love is high enough to transform us into the image of Jesus.
- God’s love is long enough to last for all eternity.
God loves more than we can,
yet God continually is
drawing us toward his level of love!
Our experiences of life, good
and bad, stretch us toward being “rooted and grounded in love”.
And love finds new expression
through our own experiences of life, in both joy and sorrow.
So, if God’s love is as big
and impressive as this, then things can change!
- How do we see this play out in daily life?
Not limitations, but new
possibilities!!
Both in us, and around us.
With love at the centre of
our minds, and God working powerfully within us:
- We may fully appreciate for the first time that God can forgive us …
even of what we had
thought was unforgivable.
- When we are at our lowest ebb, we may appreciate that God has drawn
close to our
suffering; and healing (of just the right kind) is not far away.
We
may now sense there is hope, rather than just hopelessness;
where we may have felt
lost, soon we may find purpose again. Where we thought we could never get past something bad in our lives, we can!
- Where we have felt isolated and unable to connect socially,
new paths have opened
toward meaningful relationships and community.
- We may now fully appreciate how much God loves that other person …
the one that we have
had a bit of a problem with. It then becomes gradually easier to
love them (in Jesus
name).
- Where we had almost given up on certain people coming to know Jesus,
there is a new
appreciation that things can turn around. There is new intensity to
our prayer for them,
refreshed credibility in our witness –
potentially providing
for them new triggers of faith.
- When we feel overwhelmed by problems, e.g. family, financial, relationships,
personal
health … these can loom large, and you can feel like you are going under;
God’s
power within us … can give us all sorts of new perspectives, and
avenues
of positive activity.
- When we are absolutely despairing about the world in which we live,
the violence, cruelty
and poverty, the darkness and selfishness,
then we come to
understand that God is working to uncover and reverse such injustice.
- Where we have found it difficult to share our faith or be ourselves,
we feel newly equipped
with confidence and courage to
make a difference in
another person’s life.
There are no more limits on
what can be achieved with God on our side!
It’s no longer ‘if’, but
‘when’!!
We can dream big dreams!
If this is of God, we will
have the necessary power … at the right time!
So, we can throw off all
those restricting conventions and fears.
I don’t want to settle for
anything short of the (high) adventures God has for me
(From J Mateer).
- Conclusion
And so the big vision
expressed here … is for God’s extraordinary love to be revealed in
the church as a witness to
Jesus Christ and to God’s glory. This speaks volumes.
We should be living with
great expectancy as to what God is about to do.
And we should be living with
the sort of openness, that believes that, at any stage,
God could work his power
through us.
As we have said, this
potentially helps us in big ways, and helps others as well.
Such love is proven in
tangible and practical ways, in caring and sharing – generously,
and not for any return. This
needs the ‘buy-in’ of all of the saints … together …
fully appreciating and
activating God’s love … with each other and into the local community –
women and men, young and old,
all the different backgrounds, personalities, experiences of
life and complimentary gifts
… all the diversity brought together into a unified
expression that makes a
serious difference. Amen.
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