Paul's Prayer for the Fullness of God

I was blessed by the lyrics of that hymn that many of you know, "Hive Thine Own Way." Those lyrics really go with where we're going in the message this morning, and I would encourage you maybe to get those lyrics and use them in your own prayer time as you pray over what we are looking at. "Hive Thine Own Way." Really the heart of that song really fits with what we're looking at this morning in Ephesians chapter 3. I appreciate Brother Keith choosing that song. Well, if you would, please take your Bible and turn back with me to chapter 3 of Ephesians.

Like I said earlier, we will be in verses 14 to 21, and that might surprise you that we're covering that many verses because a lot of times we don't have the time to cover that many verses, but it worked itself out that way this week. So we'll be in verses 14 to 21, and I won't reference really any other scripture so you can just have your Bible turned right there. Now this morning we're back in our series in the book of Ephesians, and I don't know if you have kept up with it, but it's been about two months since we've been in Ephesians. So if you're like me, you need a little reminder.

We can all forget what we did last week, especially two months ago. But first of all, we need to be reminded what the book of Ephesians is all about. The book of Ephesians is one of the most influential books in the Bible, and it contains some of Paul's richest theology. As a matter of fact, one commentator called the book of Ephesians the queen of Paul's epistles, the queen of Paul's epistles. Now if you're like me, if you're like me and you see phrases like that, Paul's richest theology, the queen of Paul's epistles, it reminds me that we should be diligent in our study of this book.

Now I know that throughout the summer we're studying the book of James together, we're studying the book of Ecclesiastes together, but we need to renew our study of the book of Ephesians together. And so that is a reminder that we need to get back neck deep into the book of Ephesians. But Ephesians is all about the believer's riches in Christ Jesus. I've shared this numerous times. That's the theme of the book, and that's the title of our series, The Believer's Riches in Christ Jesus. Paul was writing to this church that he knew so well, and he was helping them to grasp the riches, the great riches that were theirs in Christ Jesus.

All of them, both the Jew and the Gentile. And Paul is doing the same for us. And what I mean by that is the Spirit of God is taking the Word of God and the words of Paul and he is helping us see the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. But second, we need to be reminded of where we are in the book because it has been two months since we've been in chapter three. And here in chapter three, in verse 14, we are right at the beginning of a great prayer and that we are right at the end of some great teaching. And truthfully, this prayer and this teaching is kind of laid out very strange. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Paul started his prayer back in verse one, but he deviated from his prayer as soon as he got started and he deviated to explain the great mysteries that have been made known to them in Christ Jesus. Paul then comes back to the prayer in verse 14. Basically Paul started to pray in verse one and then he interrupted himself. He did. He interrupted himself with some wonderful teaching. And then he finally comes back to the prayer and he starts the prayer in verse 14 and he goes into verse 19 with his prayer. One commentator said that he imagined that Paul was about to start his prayer when he heard the clink of his chains.

Many of you know that Paul was in chains when he wrote this. That is because in verse one, he writes about how he was a prisoner of Christ on their behalf. This commentator imagined that Paul was about to pray when he heard the clink of his chains and being reminded that he was a prisoner for them, he interrupted his prayer and he wrote as he did. Now, I don't have a problem with using our imagination that way. But we have finally gotten back to Ephesians chapter three and we are finally, we finally gotten into Paul's prayer, this prayer for the Ephesians. Now the prayer starts in verse 14 and it goes to verse 19.

Actually verses 14 to 15 are really an introduction to the prayer. And then verses 16 to 19, we have the actual prayer and then verses 20 to 21 form a kind of a doxology or a conclusion to the prayer. Now, before we get into the verses, I want to show you how we will divide these verses. I will divide these verses in three ways. Three ways. We will look at Paul's introduction, the introduction to the prayer. Then we'll look at Paul's prayer, the actual prayer and the many requests that are in this prayer. And then last we will look at this doxology, this concluding praise. And let me just tell you something folks, this is loaded.

Man oh man oh man. There is so much here. And like I said in our scripture reading, what we have here is the key, the keys, if I can use it in a plural way. This is the key to the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. So you see how we will divide the verses. Now I won't go back and read all of the verses together because we read them earlier in our scripture reading, but I will read them as we go. So first notice we have Paul's introduction to his prayer. This is verses 14 to 15. I call this the introduction to his prayer. Look back at those two verses.

Paul says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." Now here Paul gives more than just a few mechanical words to start his prayer. We are familiar with those type of words. We can commit that sin just using mechanical rote language to start our prayer, but that's not what Paul is doing here. Paul actually helps us see how he related to God here and how he relates to his people. That would be God relating to his people. And this introduction helps us better understand how we should pray and begin our prayer and approach prayer in our own life.

Now there's three specifics here I want us to notice. Notice the reason for his prayer. Paul gives us the reason for his prayer. Now we see this at the beginning of verse 14. And here at the beginning of the verse, Paul repeats what he said in verse 1. Look at your copy of God's Word. It says something like, "For this reason," right there in verse 1 and right there in verse 14. And we need to see what this phrase means. This is more than a transitional statement from Paul's teaching to the prayer. This phrase actually has great meaning. If I can put it in my words, this is what Paul was saying here.

"Because of or in light of all of this that I have taught you, I bow down on my knees in prayer to the Father." Now what is he talking about? What is Paul referring to? He was referencing all that he had taught in chapter 2. He's referencing all that he's been teaching them. Now let me help you see what Paul is saying. Let me tie all this together. Paul was saying something like this, "Because you were at one time dead in your trespasses and sins, and because Christ has made you alive in him, I pray this prayer." He was saying something like this.

"Because we have been saved by his grace, therefore we are all, all of us, Jew and Gentile, his workmanship, well, I make this prayer." He was saying something like this. "Because the dividing walls, those barriers have been broken down in Christ Jesus, and we are all one body and one new man, well, I make this prayer. Because we are God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ being the chief cornerstone, well, I make this prayer." So Paul was saying, "Because of all of this, all of this, and there's a lot of this, I make this prayer." But then notice his posture.

Notice the posture of his prayer. Paul gives us this posture. Here we see that Paul bows down. He gets down on his knees to pray. Now this is something that most wouldn't see, but most of the time in the scriptures, people stood while they prayed. But at certain times, people did pray on their knees. Jesus did this when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. As a matter of fact, Stephen, that first New Testament martyr, he did this while he was being stoned to death.

And although it is rare to find someone from their knees in the scripture praying, every time we do see them praying on their knees, they are always in a very, very serious circumstance. And then the conclusion that we make here is that Paul was being very serious. This was a very serious occasion. He saw this prayer as very serious, and his approach was very serious. So this was his posture. And everything about his posture and demeanor, he was serious. And then notice to whom Paul was praying. Paul tells us to whom he was praying. You will notice that Paul gets down on his knees before the Father.

Now the text says, "The Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." Now we need to ask two questions here. Who is this Father? And who is this family? Here Paul is praying to God, the Father, his Father. Most of you could probably have guessed that. In other words, Paul does not see God as some distant God, but as his Father. Paul sees God as a close, loving, heavenly Father. That is who he is praying to, not some distant God, but to a loving, close, heavenly Father. But what about this family? Who is this family? Before we can see who the family actually is, we need to see who the family is not.

This is not some universal family of God. Yes, God is the creator of all mankind. We know that, but that is not who he is referring to here. This is not all of humanity. The family that God is referring to, that would be the redeemed. Those who were at one time aliens and strangers, but who are now citizens with the saints, they are members of the household of God. So there is one family. This is the family of the redeemed.

So here Paul is praying to his heavenly Father, and not just his Father, but to the loving, heavenly Father, his loving, heavenly Father, who is the Father of all of the redeemed, all of the family of God, those in heaven and those on earth. So look at what we see here. Just in the introduction here, it's a lot. Notice what we see. He is saying to these Ephesians, because he's writing the letter, because of all of these things, because of all of these things that I have thoroughly explained to you and taught you. I humbly get down on my knees and pray to my Father, your Father, our Father, the Father of all the saints in heaven and on earth.

Now look at how this applies to us. If we are of the family of God, if we are the redeemed, then because of all of this, what's the this? All of this in chapter one and chapter two, and also chapter three, because of all of this, we can get down on our knees and pray to our Father. And you know, this moves me to one word, motivation. Some of you are good at taking notes and you really need to write that word down. The word motivation. All of this, all of this, all of this that he has explained is the great and wonderful motivation to do what? To drive us to our knees.

All that he gave us in chapter one, all that is explained to us in chapter two, all of these things that are in chapter three up to this point, all of this wonderful teaching, all of this is the motivation to drive us to our knees. So here's what I want to challenge you to do. You take the time and you get down on your knees. Jeff's on your knees and you read back through chapter one and you read back through chapter two and all those wonderful truths that resonate with your heart. Let that be motivation to come to who? God our Father. Let that be motivation because of all of this.

And let me tell you folks, if you really get honest with all of, with what all of this is, chapter one, two, three, it will break your heart. You might not even be able to come to your request because you might be just crying out, "Oh, Father, this is so wonderful." Motivation, one word motivation. But then second, we have Paul's actual prayer. We see this in verse 16 to 19. We have Paul's prayer. Here we finally come to the substance of his prayer. You could put it like this. This is what he prayed for. But a question here. What do the father's family need? Isn't that what he talked about earlier? The father and the family of God?

So we got to ask that question. What do the father's family need? What are the children, the redeemed children of God need? What do God's actually sons and daughters need? What did these Ephesian Christians need? Well, that is what Paul prayed for, which is what they truly needed. So this wasn't some kind of a meaningless prayer or aimless prayer. We've all prayed meaningless prayers, aimless prayers, just words, but that's not the case here. And here in this verse, we see four specific requests. And these requests are loaded. Paul knew these Ephesian believers needed all of this in life.

And I want to go ahead and tell you, when we get through these, you're going to feel like the truck has been unloaded. If you are unloaded on this morning, I've been unloaded on all week and the Lord unloaded on the Ephesians through Paul. So let's buckle up our seat belts. First, notice that Paul prayed for inner strength for them. We find this in verse 16, inner strength for them. Look back at verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he, this is God, may grant to you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Here Paul was praying for their greatest need. Write that down, greatest need.

He was praying for the one thing that they needed so as to live the most victorious Christian life in the most Christ honoring way. He was praying for a personal spiritual strengthening in their inner self. Now, a few questions that we need to ponder. What is this strengthening? What is this strengthening? This describes a strengthening of the heart, a strengthening of the mind, a strengthening of the spirit. He was talking about the inner person that can be strengthened spiritually in contrast to the outward physical person, which is continuously growing physically weaker.

And this describes a strengthening of the inner man or the inner self so that that inner man would be strong, even powerfully strong. And this is not an instantaneous one time event. No, this is a continuous work. This is a continuous ongoing strengthening. So this is an inner spiritual strengthening of the inner man and it is ongoing. It is continuous. Now a question here, how is this possible? How is this possible? This is not possible by one's own efforts. You know, that's one of the most grievous sins we commit in the Christian life. We can do it. We can pray more. We can read our Bible more and we can witness more and we can give more.

Is there anything wrong with doing those things? No, but a lot of times that comes out of self and self effort, but we must see that this is not possible by our efforts. This is not possible by the work of ourselves or the work of another believer. This is possible only through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's power within the man. Isn't that what the verse says? You see, Paul knew that the Holy Spirit resided in them. They were redeemed. And that this work was only possible by the work, a work of the Holy Spirit of God in their heart, in their mind, in their spirit, in that inner man.

Simply this was possible by work of God in their hearts, in their minds, in the inner man, a work of God. That's how it's possible. And then another question, how much strengthening is possible? How much strengthening is possible? Paul said, according to the riches of God's glory. Isn't that what the verse says? This means that there is a glorious abundance of strength and power at hand, God's hand. This means that there is a rich supply of power at hand for this work. And get this, get this. This is a limitless abundance. That might sound redundant, but it is a limitless abundance.

So this means the possibilities for this inner strengthening is limitless. The potential for inner strength and strength that comes to get us stronger and stronger and stronger, it is limitless. And another question, what is this continual strengthening for? This is for living a victorious Christian life. This is for living a true victorious Christian life. This strengthening is for living with victory over sin and over the world. It is for living with victory in trials and tribulations and even great persecutions. It is for living with victory in executing the works of God that are laid up for all of us as believers.

It is for living an obedient, victorious Christian life all throughout the life. So this strengthening is for living in the riches, the riches that are ours, all believers in Christ Jesus. This is living a victorious Christian life. So Paul prayed for an inner strengthening and a continual strengthening for the inner self, their heart, mind and soul, everything about them. Then second, Paul prayed for Christ to dwell in their hearts. We see this at the beginning of verse 17. Paul prayed second for Christ to dwell in their hearts. Notice the transition, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now here we have the next request.

But it is connected to the previous request. And this phrase, "So that," at the beginning of verse 17, it differentiates this request from the first request, but it also connects the two requests. Simply Paul was saying that the reason for this inner strengthening is "so that." So that Christ may dwell in your hearts. Now what is this dwelling? We need to ask that. What is this dwelling? This word "dwell" or "dwelling" in the original is actually a compound word. It is a combination of a word that means "down" and a word that means "to reside," like in a house. So what does that mean? Let me explain that.

Paul was saying that the reason for this inner strengthening, the strengthening of the inner man was "so that Christ may reside down in the house of their hearts." And this was not a one-time event or a temporary residence. This word is in the present continuous tense, which tells us that this was an ongoing continual dwelling. So Paul prayed that these Ephesians would be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, a strengthening in their hearts and in their minds and in their spirits, so that Christ may dwell down deep in the home of their hearts all the time. And we can't forget the how. How does this happen? By our efforts? No.

Paul says by faith, the text says by faith, meaning that this work can only happen by faith or by trusting in God for God to do the work. Now before I move on to the third and the fourth request, I want to show you better how these first two are connected. And the way I want to show you is just read to you a quote that really helped me. This resonated with me. This helped me connect the dots. This is from John MacArthur and he helps us here and I'm quoting. "Christ cannot be at home in our hearts until our inner person submits to the strengthening of his spirit.

Until the spirit controls our lives, Christ Jesus cannot be comfortable there, but only stays like a tolerated visitor." Paul's teaching here does not relate to the fact of Jesus' presence in the hearts of believers, but to the quality of his presence. He's right. He's right. Third, Paul prayed that they may comprehend Christ's love. Paul prayed that they may comprehend Christ's love. This is in the second part of verse 17 and all the way to the beginning of verse 19.

We see this transition again in the middle of 17, "That you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." Now just like the other two requests are connected, they build on one another. Here this third request is connected as well. Simply because of the strengthening of the inner self by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit that leads to Christ continuously dwelling down in the home of the heart, then something else takes place.

A work takes place which leads to an abundant, incomprehensible love being made known in the believer to the believer. Now notice several things are happening which lead to comprehending Christ's love. When this inner strengthening takes place and Christ is dwelling in the home of their heart, they are being rooted and grounded in love is what the text says. This means that this strengthening work causes the believer to be like a tree with great roots. You see a healthy tree? The roots are established. The roots are deep and the roots are wide. The roots are established.

So this inner strengthening causes the believer to be rooted, to be grounded in what? In Christ's love. And when this inner strengthening takes place and Christ dwells in the home of their heart, they have the ability to grasp what? The breadth and the length and the height and the depth of his love. And it's important to see that Paul here is describing four types of love. The breadth here, it speaks of Christ's love to all men, both Jew and Gentile. The length here, it speaks of Christ's love that stretches from before the foundation of the world and goes all throughout the ages.

This height here speaks to Christ's love which is beyond anyone's reach even in the spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places. And this depth, this speaks of Christ's love which can reach down to save the lowest of low even those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. And when all of this work takes place, when all of this takes place, what's the result? Knowing this love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. You see it in the text? Knowing this love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Now I want to pause here. I want you to think with me. What is this love? What is this love?

I want to use an example to maybe help you see the difficulty we have here and the mystery we have here. Let me use an example. What does it mean to love someone? You know I'm married, my wife's in the nursery. I got a ring to prove it, pictures to prove it, a marriage certificate somewhere. And those of you who are not married, you might say, "Well, what does it mean to love someone?" We're talking about just the emotional love that we hear on the radio. What does it mean to love someone? Well you know I could explain it up to a point. And eventually I would come to the place where I would say, "You know, I just love Christi.

I just love my wife." I could give you examples of how that's fleshed out. I could talk about how that love's been proven. But eventually I would come to the place where words cannot describe. I would just say, "I just love her. I love everything about her. I love her voice. I love her personality, her gifts, her talents. I just love her. Why? Why do you love her? I just love her." And those of you who are married, you would say the same thing. Well that's what we have here. We cannot describe this love. We can only do so much. And we can describe it up to a certain point. But those of you who are in this love, oh you get it. You understand.

You can grasp it. You can say, "Pastor, I think I know a little bit about what you're talking about. You know what it's from?" It's called experience. If you've not experienced it, you're on the outside looking in. But fourth, Paul prayed that they may be filled with the fullness of God. This is at the end of verse 19 of the second part of the verse. He prayed that they may be filled with the fullness of God. This transition again that, or so that, you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And here we have the last prayer. And again this prayer builds on the last three. I think you understand this all builds.

But this inner work, this inner strengthening, this inner work of strengthening the inner man, how? By the power and the work of the Spirit, it leads to a full, a full fullness of God for the believer. Now notice the language. It seems redundant, filled with, or filled up to all the fullness of God. You see the redundancy? Now what is this filled up to the fullness? Filled up to the fullness. What is this? This is loaded. And scholars say this is full of meaning. It literally means to be filled up into all the fullness of God. It speaks of a complete feeling that leads to a complete control.

I don't know where I picked up on it, but one scholar or Bible commentator said that when someone is full of anger, they are completely filled with and they are completely controlled by anger. When someone is controlled by anger, they ultimately do things that are sinful. And they are controlled by that anger because they are filled with that anger. And let's the same here with this fullness, except that it is the fullness of the fullness of God. The believer is filled and under the dominance of the complete control of what? The fullness of God. Now let's take a step back and look at this prayer. Again it is a truckload.

Now you know why I said that Paul wasn't praying some mechanical prayer. Now you know why I said this was not just some rogue prayer. This was a lot. He was praying that they, these Ephesian Christians, would be strengthened by the power and the work of the Spirit. And that this strengthening would lead to Christ dwelling in the home of their hearts. I love that. The home of their hearts. And then he was praying that this work would lead them to a comprehension of God's love which all would lead them to being filled up with the fullness of God. Now for us, we've got to ask ourselves, has any of this taken place in our lives?

And I don't think you can answer that in five minutes. We have to ask ourselves, has any of this happened to us? Have we experienced this? Are we living in this inner strengthening? Some of you are not living in this inner strengthening because you're dealing with sin and you're dealing with spiritual depression. You're dealing with defeat. You're dealing with some sin that you've been dealing with five years ago. We have to ask ourselves, are we living in this inner strengthening? That's not a one time's out. It is a continuous work and is Christ dwelling in the home of our heart, not as some temporary resident?

And are we comprehending Christ's love? Are we captivated by this love? The breadth of it, the length of it, the height of it, the depth of it? And are we filled with the fullness of God? And you know what folks, the Charismatics and those who have these weird views of being filled with the Spirit, they make us afraid of these verses, but we can't be afraid here. The end result is what? It's being filled, being controlled with, being dominated by. Oh, not that God's a miser, no. But being filled with and controlled and dominated by His love and the complete fullness of God. And I've got one word here. Control. Control.

And it's all by God, the strengthening, the dwelling of Christ in us, comprehending and being captivated by this love and being filled with the fullness of God. Look, and if you have this in your life, you lovingly, willingly submit to the control of God. And then third, we have Paul's concluding praise. You see this in verse 20 and verse 21, Paul's concluding praise. Now we have to be careful. We can't overlook these verses. There's so much here between verses 16 and 19, we have to make sure we don't miss what Paul is doing. So let's look at these verses.

Now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now here in these two verses, we have the apex, the culmination of what Paul has been explaining. This is the culmination of the work and this prayer and the work that Paul wanted accomplished through the prayer. He has been explaining this great work of God that they need and what he was praying for for these believers. And Paul crowns off the teaching with this great praise and great worship.

This can be called a doxology, which simply means an expression of praise. But notice what Paul is saying here. When the believer is strengthened by the spirit and Christ dwells in the home of their heart, then God has filled that believer with his fullness. Then and only then that believer is able to do far more abundantly than all that they ask and think. Isn't that what the verse says? That almost sounds like a name it and claim it, doesn't it? Look at the verse again.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, simply when this work is accomplished, when this work of strengthening and filling is done, when this work is done and being done in the believer, notice the verse. It says the believer is able to do far more. He is able to do far more abundantly than they could ever imagine that they can ever ask. Isn't that what the verse is? Now pause here and I ask you a question, why aren't we accomplishing more? Why am I not accomplishing more? Now notice what's at stake here. A limited or a limitless working of God in the believer. Isn't that right?

That's what's at stake here. A limited or limitless working of God in the believer. If these conditions are not met and this work is not accomplished, then God is limited in working in the believer. But if the conditions are met and this work is done and it is continuing to be done, well, God is working in the believer and it is unlimited. Isn't that what the verse says? He can do far more than you can ask and imagine. A common way of looking at verse 20 is to see this is a pyramid of progression. You'll see different variations of that about this ability within the believer and notice the pyramid. Notice how it builds.

The text says he is able, that's God, he is able to do, he is able to do far more abundantly. He is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask. He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask than even we can think. See how it builds? I like to think of verse 20 as a spiral. It is spiraling up to God. It is spiraling up to God in God's ability and at the bottom of the spiral is us. Now notice Paul finally gets to his concluding praise. Because of this work in the believer and because God is able, what does he say? To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever.

Finally gets to the praise. So in summary, in Paul's concluding praise, he is actually doing two things. First he is studying the limitless ability of God to work in and through the believer. Second he is praising the God of this work to him be glory, to him be glory in the church. All of this is supposed to be made manifest in the church folks. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen. Almost like he is closing out the book. Now for us we have got to ask ourselves, are we limited Christians? Are we limited believers? Or are we unlimited believers?

Again the Charismatics and those people who abuse these kind of verses make us afraid of this kind of language. But what do we see? Are we limited or are we unlimited Christians? You know I don't know why this popped into my mind but I thought about the phrase as I was concluding this portion of the message. You know you hear the term the sky is the limit? The sky is the limit? Well we are the limit. We are the limit. We limit the ability of God to work in us and through us. Do we not? According to what Paul says because if we don't have this work in us we are limiting the work of God. Now I've got one word for you. Potential. Potential.

If we live what's in these verses the potential is unlimited. Not for us but for Him and His work. Now as I move away from the verses I want to show you where this prayer fits in. Now this is extremely important for you and it's important for the next time we are in Ephesians together. And I want you to take a step back from the verses and I want you to follow me and see what I'm trying to explain. We need to see how these verses, I'm talking about verses 14 to 21, how they are connected with chapter 1 right up to chapter 3 verse 13 and how these verses are connected to chapter 4 and into the end of the book, chapter 6.

Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 up to verse 13. All of that is all about the theological. Paul gives profound theological truths that pertain to the Christian life. He shows who and what the believer is in Christ Jesus, the wonderful limitless riches that are the believers in Christ Jesus. That's the theme of the book. Chapter 1 up to chapter 3 verse 13. It's all about belief. It's all about the theological in what the believer believes. But starting in chapter 4, I'm leapfrogging my verses from this morning. Starting in chapter 4 to chapter 6, it's all about the practical, it shifts.

Paul explains how the believer is to live out the great theological truths that he's just explained. Chapter 4 to chapter 6 is all about behavior, living it out, the practical. So chapter 1 up to chapter 3 verse 13 is about the theological. It's all about what the Christian believes, but chapter 4 to chapter 6 is all about the practical. It's all about how the Christian is to behave in relation to what they believe. It's all about how the Christian is to practically live out the theological. But stuck right here in the middle, stuck right here in the middle is Paul's prayer. And this was not by accident. This was not a happenstance.

This was by God's great design. Paul was praying that God would do, do, do. A spiritual work in them so that they could live out what he taught them. You see it? Paul knew that these Ephesians needed, they needed a true work of God in them so that they could take what they believe and turn it into proper behavior by the power and the work of the spirit in them. So you have the Christian belief, then you have Christian behavior. What's sandwiched in between is this prayer that focuses on a work of God that would enable the true Christian to be able to practically and truly live out what they theologically know and understand and believe.

Anybody remember diagramming sentences in English? I try to forget. I never was good at that. I don't know if you write in your Bible. I have some Bibles I write in and some that I do not. But you know if you were to diagram your Bible or diagram your Bible right here, these verses maybe in your Bible or on a separate piece of paper, this is what I want you to do. I want you to note that chapter one all the way up to chapter three up to verse 13. That's the first half and then from chapter four all the way to the rest of the book, that's the second half and right here in the middle is the key.

The key to taking what you believe and to living it out. Now I'll share with you, I think I've already alluded to it, how we will proceed. Occasionally through Ephesians I will pause and I will teach back into the verses. I taught back into chapter one. I called it lessons from the blessings. We had to learn some lessons and then when we were dealing with those who are dead and they're trespasses and sins, how they're made alive in Christ Jesus, I taught a message back. I called it lessons from God's grace yard. See it's the grace of God that brings us from death to life.

And then the next time we meet in Ephesians we're going to look at lessons from the prayer because we've got to get all that we can get out of this prayer. Not just in a message or two because ultimately you've got to take this home. I've got to take this home and this work has to be being accomplished in all of us. Now what's the title of the message? Paul's Prayer for the Fullness of God. Paul's Prayer for the Fullness of God. And oh it's a lot, a truckload, but he's worth it. Let's pray. We'll commit these things to the Lord and then we'll sing.