Sermon Tone Analysis
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I LOVE YOU!
Love is a splendored thing as the old song goes, but it is more than that, isn’t it?
Today we are looking at the riches of His great love.
The invocation, the petition and the benediction.
Do you remember the first time you heard that, “I love you?”
What about when someone showed you their love?
There is great wealth, great riches in love, especially in the riches of God’s love.
Love is a verb, an action word, Christ demonstrated it, and He displayed the riches of His great love for us so we can live them out before others.
God’s love is displayed in Christ
In the riches of His grace
In the riches of His glory
In the riches of His mercy
In the riches of His peace
And, in the riches of the mystery!
All of this is leading us to what Paul is trying to explain so we can comprehend and apprehend the glorious riches of His (Christ’s) love for us.
Paul is picking up on a prayer started back in Eph1:15-23, and now again.
But there is a shift that happens
From enlightenment to enablement
From knowing more to being empowered to do more
From position in Christ to possession the riches of His great love
This prayer as well as Paul’s other prayers seen in Php1:(-11 and Col1:9-12 are about the spiritual condition of the spiritual man, not the material things in this world.
By faith we know God will take care of our physical (material) needs.
let me give you a peace of the previous prayer
So now its time for us to journey together as we look at this great section of scripture.
Scripture that builds on the foundation of God’s great love for us.
I.
The invocation
Invocation, not a word you hear much of, it is the summoning of a deity, it is a form of prayer or petition, a form of possession.
So our invocation here is about possession not position or posture.
Our spiritual posture is more important than our physical posture.
For in scripture you can find many physical postures with one intended spiritual one.
Abraham stood before God (Gen18:22)
With Abraham it was in prayer about Sodom and Gomorrah
David sat before the Lord (1Chr17:16)
With David it was after God spoke a covenant to David
Jesus fell before God (Mt26:39)
With Jesus it was in petition in the garden before His arrest.
Paul also draws on the spiritual posture here in Ephesians
Buried in graveyard (Eph2:1)
When we were dead in our trespasses
Seated in the heavenlies (Eph2:4-6)
When we received Christ through baptism we were raised up and seated in the heavenlies
Walking to please Him (Eph4:1, 17; Eph5:2, 8, 15)
So we may walk in a manner that is pleasing to Him
Standing (Eph5:10-13)
Learning to stand so we can withstand, or having done all we can to stand, stand for the spiritual battle.
Wait, here is the scripture in stead of a paraphrase of it.
Through prayer we are able to lay hold (apprehend) God’s riches that enable us to be Christian’s, act like Christian’s and battle like Christian’s.
What is your position in possessing the riches of God’s great love?
Now this leads us to (v.15);
All may be fathered by God, but not all are children of God.
Adam was son of God by creation (Lk3:38)
Believers are children of God by rebirth (Jn1:11-13; 1Jn3:12)
It is important to understand many are children of wrath (Eph2:2-3)
Now today it is not about going back to the severity of sin, but looking at the riches of God’s great love for us.
Paul wants us to understand (comprehend) so we may apprehend (take hold of) it!
II.
The Petition
Oh the glorious petition that Paul offers up for the church in Ephesus and what glorious riches we can from his petition too.
Strength, power, so we can see, hear, taste, feel and put to use.
Several items Paul puts in his petition.
I’m sure you would love to have someone pray these things for you.
Or, hey, can you pray these things for someone else?
To apprehend something is more than just grasping something (that would be comprehend).
It is more than knowing something.
It is to get it, to receive it, to take hold of something.
The something here is the greatness, the riches of God’s great love for us, the fulness of His love in us and for us.
Notice the progression of the prayer
For strength and power (v.16)
So that you can be rooted and grounded (v.17)
To comprehend the great love of God (v.18)
And apprehend it; and be filled (v.19)
Petition one: Strength and power (Eph3:16; Rom8:9; Lk4:14; Rom8:4)
Strength and power that should be evident in the believer.
Strength that we receive when we have the Spirit of God that dwells in us.
It is the strength, the power of the Spirit that enables us to day to do the Lord’s work today and to live for Him today.
The same power Jesus had in His ministry is available to us, minus the miracles that are no longer needed today.
We are called to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh, for it is God’s power at work in us.
This strength, this power is given to us according to the Riches of His glory(v.16)
This is not power out of His riches, but according to His riches.
Let me give you an illustration.
If a billionaire gave you $20.00, he is given out of his riches, but if he gave you $1,000,000.00 then he is giving according to his riches.
The first is a portion and the second is a proportion of his riches.
Strength/power work in you (Ep2:1, Eph3:6; Psm11919; Mt13:9; Psm34:8; Act17:27; and 1Tim4:7-8)
We were raised from the dead, to sit in the heavenlies Eph2:1; Eph3:6); all our senses come to life too, let me show you.
So the inner man may have eyes to see, see the spiritual things
So you can have ears to hear
so we can taste
So you can feel
and finally that we may put to use, or to exercise
This is the Spirit that gives us strength, gives us power, that cleanses us, feeds us, empowers us, roots us and grows us (Psm51:7; Mt4:4; 2Cor4:16-18; Eph3:17)
Cleanses us
Feeds us
while in this body we are decaying, our spiritual body though is being empowered by the Spirit so we can succeed.
We are strengthened by the power of the Spirit, so we can grow in the Lord to the unity and the fullness of the faith.
This Spirit helps us to then start to comprehend the incomprehensible.
It all starts with love, is that not what we are talking about today, the riches of His great love?
The great love of God in Christ Jesus received through obedient faith.
So we can be rooted and grounded in His great love.
The roots are what hold us in the storms of life
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