The OBPC Podcast: We Pray to a Big God

Introduction

One of the current buzz-phrases in the church world today is vision casting: the ability to define what one wants a church or organization to become and to present it to those who are going to be doing the work in a persuasive way so that they adopt it as their vision. I am not sure how exactly to do this. There was no Vision Casting 101class in seminary and the type of processes I learned in business school really don't measure up to the biblical standard. So, I am not very good at it. One thing I do know. Any vision, any direction, for any Christian church must include faithful and diligent prayer.

This morning as we finish looking at this wonderful prayer of Paul, I want to put before you the greatness of our God. I want you to see that we pray to an infinitely big God. I want us to join the apostle Paul in giving glory to our great, big God.

I. The Prayer Ends with the Fullness of God, 19b.

A. Our translation is a little misleading at this point.

1. It gives the idea that we are to be filled with the fullness of God, which is an impossibility because we are finite and God is infinite.

2. What Paul is conveying goes as follows: he is praying that the Ephesians be complete unto the fullness of God.

B. The fullness of God is the standard or measure for our completeness.

1. The idea is that we are to be completed by what is godly, what is a reflection of God.

2. This can only be done in Christ because in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Col. 2:9).

3. Thus our standard of completeness as humans is God's fullness.

4. Not things that we make up for ourselves.

II. This Doxology Concludes the First Half of Ephesians.

A. Paul has already written great things concerning the work of God in his Church.

1. We have been redeemed by the predestinating love of God through Christ Jesus, 1:7.

2. We have been given spiritual wisdom so that we can know the hope we have in Jesus Christ, 1:17-18.

3. We have been saved by the amazing grace of our loving God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, 2:8-9.

4. God is working in us as his new creation to serve him and grow together, 2:10.

5. God in Christ Jesus, who is our peace, has brought together all peoples into one body, the Israel of God, in the unity of the gospel, 2:11-18.

6. God is building his Church on the firm foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, 2:19-22.

{TRANSITION: beside all these glorious truths about the work God, Paul has already written great things about God himself.}

B. Paul has already written great things concerning God himself.

1. He has written about the power of God.

Eph. 1:19-20– …and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…

2. He has written about the wisdom of God.

Eph. 3:10– …so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

3. He has written about the mercy of God.

Eph. 2:4-5– …God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…

4. He has written about the love of God.

Eph. 2:4– …God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…

5. He has written about his grace.

Eph. 2:8– For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…

C. As Paul thinks back on the greatness of God and the greatness of what God has done for his people, there is nothing else he can do, but to break forth in praises to him.

1. That was Paul's heart – God was so great to him that he couldn't contain himself.

2. After he spent some time talking about the deep issues of God's election in the book of Romans, he just cries out about God's greatness.

Rom. 11:33, 36– Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!… For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

3. After describing his struggle with sin in his life, Paul remembers what Christ has done for him.

Rom. 7:24-8:1– Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

D.For Paul, cognitive and experiential knowledge of God through Jesus Christ drove him to praise him, to give glory to God.

III. This Doxology Concludes the Second Prayer of Paul for the Ephesians.

A. Paul had asked God to do some very big things for the Ephesians – things that only an all-powerful and loving God could do.

1. Paul prayed that they would be strengthened by the Spirit, 16.

2. Paul prayed that they would be indwelt by Christ, 17a.

3. Paul prayed that they would know the love of Christ, 17b-19a.

4. Paul prayed that they would be filled unto the fullness of God, 19b.

B. These are very big requests.

1. Can God really do them?

2. Will he be able to deliver on them?

a. I mean, it would take a very powerful being to be able to do these things.

b. Not only powerful, but infinitely loving as well.

C. This doxology brings together the power and the love of God in Jesus Christ.

IV. This Doxology Settles the Greatness of God.

A. Several translations of these verses to give us a better idea of what they mean.

1. ESV – Now to him who is 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.

2. NIV – Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

3. NASB – Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

4. Amplified – Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]--To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).

B. In thorough Pauline fashion, Paul, after searching for a word to describe the greatness of God and not finding it, creates his own.

1. The word translated exceedingly abundantlyin our translation is not found anywhere else in Greek literature, but in two of Paul's letters (here and in 1 Thess.).

2. He put together three words huper(hyper), ek(out of, from), peri(beyond) to mean vastly more than more– on top of it he adds another beyondto it.

3. The idea is this: think of the most powerful being you can conceive of, then infinitely add power to that being and you are not even close yet to the God who loves you in Jesus Christ.

C. What is it that he can do? More than we can ask or think.

"[God's] capacity for giving far exceeds his people's capacity for asking – or even imagining." F.F. Bruce

1. We are so timid in our prayers.

2. We are so unfaithful in our prayers – both by not praying and by not believing that God can answer our prayers.

3. We don't even dare imagine what God can do in us and in his church.

4. It is a good thing that God doesn't wait for our prayers in order to act.

"God is not only unlimited in himself, but is unrestricted by our prayers or knowledge." Charles Hodge

a. God instituted prayer as a means to make what he wants to happen happen, but can you imagine if he only acted when you prayed and when I prayed?

b. That would be terrible since we are so cold and so unfaithful in our prayers.

D.This is not a promise that God will operate like a genie in a lamp, bound to do whatever we ask.

1. Some people have a field day with this verse and mislead the people they are supposed to be shepherding by saying that God must make them rich.

2. God can and does perform miracles, but that this is not the emphasis that Paul is placing here.

3. Remember that Paul is writing this letter from a Roman jail and this doxology is designed to affirm God's ability and desire to answer the prayer Paul just prayed for the Ephesians.

a. Paul prayed that they would be strengthened by the Spirit, 16.

b. Paul prayed that they would be indwelt by Christ, 17a.

c. Paul prayed that they would know the love of Christ, 17b-19a.

d. Paul prayed that they would be filled unto the fullness of God, 19b.

E. You don't have to doubt that God will do all these things for you and that you can pray all these things because you have the proof of its truth in you (the power that works in us, 20b).

1. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ, the power of God is working in you as the Holy Spirit abides in you.

a. This is the power that created the world by speaking.

b. This is the power that caused God and man to become one in Jesus Christ.

c. This is the power that defeated Satan at the cross.

d. This is the power that brought Jesus from dead and burst forth the gates of hell.

e. This is the power that will re-create the universe at the return of Jesus Christ.

2. If God can bring Jesus Christ back from the dead and save you, then he can do anything and you have witness of that in you.

a. The greatest miracle of all is not somebody being healed of cancer.

b. It is somebody being brought from enmity with God into love for God.

c. It is a heart of stone, full of hatred for God, being transformed into a heart of flesh full of love for God.

d. If God can do that, he can do anything.

F. It is to this God that glory is to be given, 21.

1. We tend to go in so many directions trying to serve God.

2. We often we forget that he is supremely pleased when we pray to him, acknowledging that all praise, all honor belong to him.

3. We might even get so busy serving God that we forget God and his greatness.

4. Yet, it is to him that all glory is to be ascribed.

5. We are to lay all glory at his feet now, tomorrow, and forever.

a. We are to do that ourselves.

b. We are to teach our children to do it.

c. Because that is a little taste of heaven and eternity.

Conclusion

As we stand here today with so many things we can be thinking about (things that are scary; things that are uncertain; things that are discouraging), I want to challenge all of us to think of the greatness of our God. See that you pray to an infinitely big God. Join the apostle Paul in giving glory to our great, big God. And pray! Pray that you and everyone around you would know the love of God in Jesus Christ.

http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/06/we-pray-to-big-god-eph-320-21.html