Results of Prayer

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to Ephesians. And speaking of prayer, Ephesians chapter 3 and verses 14 and following is the prayer that the Apostle Paul has for the local church. And I would like to just simply start off with a life change point. Before I read the scriptures today, I'd like to set out front something that I would like to really specify for us to change in our lives. If you could implement this one thing today in your life, I think that your lives, our lives, our congregation would be better off for the rest of our life here on earth if we simply implement this one thing. And that is this life change point: to pray for your family with your Bible.

If you take notes, I want to explain that to you. Pray for your family with your Bible open. Turn to this passage. Use this prayer to pray for your family, your immediate family and your church family. Paul is praying for the church here in Ephesus. And this is his prayer for them. It's not the only prayer. Last week we read the prayer in chapter 1 and we have read the prayer to the Colossian Church last week. We talked about this. We've got this subject already rolling in our minds. But by way of life change, if you could take your Bible and open it with your spouse, with your kids, and read this prayer and take the points from this prayer and pray for your family and your church family the same way that the Apostle Paul has prayed. This is a divine prayer. The concepts here are such that God will bless and He will do it. If you do this, I guarantee you will not regret it. And so today the message title is "Results of Prayer." And I want to talk to you today about the results of this prayer. The results are that you will be stronger in Christ, that you'll be rooted in Christ, you'll have a deeper knowledge of Christ, you'll be filled with Christ, and you will glorify Christ. And if you stick with me today to about 7 or 8 p.m., we'll get through all those points.

We'll start by reading the text in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 17 to 21.

Ephesians 3:17 says, "So that," there's the results, "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able 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, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. And now to Him He was able to do far more and abundantly and 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."

Let's pause for prayer. Father, according to this prayer, I ask You that You would strengthen us in Christ, that You would root us deeply in Christ, that You would give us a knowledge of Christ that surpasses all that we could ever think or imagine. Fill us with Christ and help us to glorify You, dear Jesus. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

And so as we lean to the results of this prayer, I would say that our prayers for others are to have, according to verse 16, which is the verse prior to what we started with today — which is last week's message content — inner strength. Prayers for others to have inner strength from God and power through the Holy Spirit. And so this inner strength and fortitude that we are to pray for one another. And so pray for your spouse, for your children, for other people in the church. Do you have an online church directory so that you can go on and look at the faces that are members of this dear church and you can pray for them specifically by name? And if you have a notepad right now, look around and write the people's names around you and pray for them.

This is actually what Paul is doing. He's praying for the Ephesian church specifically in this way: that they would have inner strength from God through the power of the Holy Spirit, not in their own strength. We oftentimes find ourselves struggling in our own strength and we simply fumble over life. But here in verse 17, it starts with the phrase — one of my favorite phrases in the whole Bible — "so that." And "so that" means the results. Here is where the results start. All of what Paul has said so far and been praying for is so that you can have these results: that Christ may dwell in your hearts and be able to know the love of Christ and to be filled with God and to this being the glory of God. And so this person who has Christ richly dwelling in their heart and knows the extent and depth of Christ's love and is filled overflowing with God brings much glory to God in the church for generations to come, and they benefit from the same rich heritage. That's results. Your life in Christ going through the generations is results.

And so the glory that God is talking about is your life — you living in Christ, living out Christ, talking about the knowledge of Christ, being filled to overflowing with Christ, being strengthened through trials in Christ by Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, remaining steadfast and unmovable and abounding even in life's trials. A trial could hit your life, but you're not shipwrecked because you're rooted in Christ. And that obviously is a result of your life in Christ and the prayers of the brothers and sisters in Christ. How important it is for us to pray for one another. This is so important — to grasp the why behind the what in this passage — because you are not a life to your own, you're not an island to yourself, you exist in the body of Christ and you matter. Every soul matters, every person matters. Your fellowship, your prayers, they really matter for the livelihood of those sitting around you. We had a group over here go out to lunch last week — it's great because you're stirring up fellowship and praying for one another. Your life is not an island to yourself, so who you are around in your small group Bible study, your prayers for them matter because it directly affects the quality of their life. Do you wish that you were stronger inwardly?

Do you? Well then run around to every single person after service and say, "Are you praying for me or not?"

I mean, literally we must be praying for one another so that we are inwardly steadfast, unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. And you're able to have this confidence if you're rooted and grounded in the Word of God. If you're continuing in the Word of God, then you are seriously standing upon the rock which is Christ, and life can have its storms and its winds, tornadoes, hurricanes, and all these types of symbolic language for trials of many kinds, and you are simply still rooted in Christ. In the book of Psalms the Bible says that he shall be like a tree — planted by the rivers of water who yields his fruit in its season. Psalm 92:12 likens you to a tree and the reason why that palm tree in the middle of the desert can withstand a drought and still bear fruit is because it's got roots that tap into the water.

You must be rooted and tapped into a source that is deeper than what people see on the surface. Your life behind the scenes must be rooted in Christ. Are you studying the Bible? Are you praying? Your private life by and large determines who you are in public. So who you are with Christ behind the scenes enables you to glorify God publicly, and so sometimes you'll see in others that there's just a holy boldness that comes out of nowhere. Where does that come from? It comes from the wellspring of their heart. Their heart is so captivated by Christ that all of these things are true, and I want that to be true.

And so for you to be able to pray for one another in this passage, I want you to circle some words in your Bible. And then when you have these key words circled in your Bible, you can open to this passage and you can pray with your Bible for your family the way that Paul prayed for his church family. In verse 16, "strengthened." And when you look down and you're praying with your Bible open — whether you're praying in person with your spouse or in person with your children — it doesn't matter. You pray. I hope you would pray in person with your family. As you're praying, whether privately or with them, or for your church family, your private family, all everyone — you look down, you see this word "strengthened" and it triggers your mind to pray that my children would be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in their inner man, in their inner person. Lord, I know that there are going to be trials come their way. I know that Satan's going to try and steal their joy, but I want to pray that they would remain strong.

And as you look down and you see now verse 17, circle the word "dwell." This is an amazing concept, that Christ could dwell in their hearts richly. And ask the Lord for Christ to be able to dwell richly inside of their hearts and souls, that they would be a clean vessel so that the Holy Spirit would be at home there. And then circle the word "rooted," that they would be rooted in the ground and living. As you are praying for your family and you glance down and you see the "rooted" circle, you want to pray that they would root themselves in the Word, that they would do deep dives in word studies in the Bible, that they would study God's Word and rightly divide it according to 2 Timothy 2:15, and they would know God, they would know Christ, know the power of the Holy Spirit. Because they are rooted in Christ, they're able to withstand life's storms and droughts because they're rooted in Christ and in His love.

And then verse 19, circle the word "know." To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. To know Christ — R.C. Sproul said one time that the problem around Christianity is that people just don't know who God is. And to know who God is is to know the love of God, the true love of God. It's not "love is love" like as if humanity can define love. Love is defined, and so love is what God says love is, and to know the love of God, which is truly a sacrificial love. To know the love of Christ. And then circle in verse 19 the word "filled." To be filled up with Christ. To be filled up to all the fullness of God. Not to be running around half empty all the time and struggling just to get by every single day. Every day drudgery — that's not disciples in Christ. Every day drudgery is not life in Christ. Life in Christ is to be filled overflowing. Life in Christ is to have Christ flowing through you. You may be struggling with physical ailments — that's okay, but you still have Christ in you. You may be being persecuted — that's okay. You still have Christ flowing through you. In fact, if you didn't know this, in John chapter 15 verse 20 it says, "If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also." Persecution and afflictions — like Elder Hal read in the passage today — it's part of being a Christian. And if you cannot be rooted in Christ and actually thrive through the storms, then I'm saying to you we need to pray more for each other and for ourselves to be stronger in Christ. We can truly be rooted and grounded in love even when you are afflicted and persecuted and going through trials. Where was Paul at when he wrote the Ephesian letter? Point noted, right?

And so the next word that I think that you should circle is "glory" in verse 21.

As you pray for your family, pray that they would glorify God. To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory — that they would glorify God with their mouth and say, "To God be the glory." When someone gives them a compliment for perhaps something that they have achieved, then they would say, "To God be the glory." They would give God all the credit and they would live in such a way that people would glorify God. The Bible says to do your works as unto the Lord and not unto men. The Bible says for us to let our light shine before men that they might glorify the Lord. And so for us to live in such a way that we glorify God, I believe that you have been praying, you've been studying and that you have been prayed for. A praying church, a church that's praying for one another, is so important.

And so these are some of the results of prayer. Point number one in my message outline is to pray that Christ dwells richly in our church members' hearts. Pray that Christ dwells richly. Think of Paul's prayers for his church family as what we should be praying for our church family and our home family. In verse 17, this word "dwell" is superbly interesting. To dwell means to be settled. To dwell means to inhabit comfortably. To dwell means to be at home. And so if your life and your thoughts and your motives are in alignment with God in His Word, then Christ is at home in your heart. He's dwelling in your heart comfortably. You are a holy person and the Holy Spirit is comfortable inside of your heart. In fact, your heart should be a dwelling for the Holy Spirit.

You should be saved — if you're not saved, the Bible commands everyone everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for your sin. The payment for your sin Jesus paid for on the cross. You can't pay for your sin. If you added up all of your sins you'd be shocked at the price tag. Sticker shock! You would not know what to do with that astronomical number. I don't even think there is a number large enough to be able to describe how expensive our sins are, and yet Christ paid for that. It took a perfect person to be able to pay for that.

So there's more to it when it comes to dwelling and making Christ at home in your heart — more than just being saved and having the Holy Spirit as a seal in your heart. Ephesians 1:13 says that the Holy Spirit has sealed your heart — those who are saved — but also God as One who is holy, holy, holy is settled home in your heart. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 3, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is full of His glory." And if God the creator of the heavens and the earth is settled at home in your heart, the brightness and the glory of God is not hidden in your heart but it's coming out of your eyes. It's coming out of your actions. It's coming out of your mouth. It's coming out of how you do what you do and where you go and what you do. It's coming out of every worshipful part of your life. God is coming out of you, through you. We're a clean vessel, and so our job then is to make our house, our dwelling place, inhabitable for God, comfortable for God to be in.

So my question: are you walking or living and abiding in Christ? And if you are, then like Amos 3:3 says, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" Can you walk with Christ unless you agree on the destination? Can you be walking closely with Christ unless you agree on where you're going and what you're doing and what you're saying and how you're working — business ethics, how you're serving, how you're talking and not gossiping, how you're praying — unless you agree with Christ, unless you have the same mind of God, unless He is truly ruling and reigning in your heart and mind, can you walk closely with Christ? It's the same in a logical illustration. Can you walk closely with someone if someone wants to go to the east coast and you want to go to the west coast? Can you walk together? No. You've got to be agreed and walk closely together — Amos 3:3.

How about abiding? John 15:4 says, "Abide in Me and I in you." Wow, what a command. "Abide in Me and I in you." This wonderful illustration of the vine and the branches is Christ and us. Where does the vine branch start? It's kind of hard to tell. And the closer you are to Christ, the more they see Christ and not you. It's kind of hard to tell that you're not a Christian — you are a Christian — because you're so conformed to Christ. What a rich metaphor.

But not only making Christ at home to be able to dwell and be settled and inhabit in your heart comfortably, but also God being settled and comfortable and at home in your heart means that we experience joy and satisfaction that is of Him. Turn to John chapter 15 with me. I want you to see John chapter 15 verses 10 and 11. Hold your place in Ephesians and turn to John 15 verse 10. "If you truly abide in Christ, then His joy is your joy."

And what I mean by abiding in Him: John chapter 1 verse 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." If you abide in the Word of God, you're abiding in Him. If you're abiding in the Word and what Christ has said — these are the words of God. Jesus is God. He claimed to be God. "I and the Father are one." If you believe in Jesus, in His words, and you abide in His commandments — not the Ten Commandments, more than just the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament, but all of the Word of God, all that Christ has commanded. The great commission is to teach all that He has commanded.

Look here in John 15:10, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." Here's the joy. You ready? Verse 11, "These things I have spoken to you, so that" — I love "so that" because of the results — "My joy may be in you and that" — more than just your joy being in you — "and that your joy may be made full." Isn't that wonderful? That the joy of Christ, the harmonious relationship between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, that triune Being of God, the unbroken fellowship between the Trinity, the joy, the self-existence, the wonders, the oneness, that unbroken fellowship is what is inhabiting your heart. And have you made your life and your motives and your mind holy so that Christ resides richly within you? Or have you offended the Holy Spirit and quenched the Holy Spirit?

1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, "Do not quench the Spirit." If you quench the Spirit, then all of a sudden you're drained of this joy. You're drained of that life and it shows on your countenance. It shows in your motivation day by day by day. Is every day drudgery, or is every day another day to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? It depends on how holy you are. It depends on how much you're praying. It depends on how much you're in God's Word. It depends on your priorities in this area.

If we have God as a superb priority in our life, it really does show. Satan wants to distract you — not with evil things, with good things. And Satan will fill your life up with a ton of good things so the great things in life, like being filled overflowing with Christ, will come at the expense of being too busy. You want to hear my personal acronym for busy? B-U-S-Y: Being Under Satan's Yoke. If you're too busy, you're too busy. And it comes at the expense of being filled overflowing with Christ. And so we must make the decisions in our life to prioritize prayer, to prioritize praying for not only ourselves and our family and our church family, but to be doing this intentionally in our life so that Christ will be at home in our heart.

If you're distracted from Christ and He is not priority in your being, then you have put Him off to the side and other things in life have become idols, have become what you're worshiping, what you're thinking more about. You're thinking more about the things of this world than you are of God. So leveraging everything in your life to glorify Christ — that's keeping Christ as a priority in your life. That's being prayerful, that's being motivated by Him. These are wonderful things.

The triune God then makes His abode in you. While you have your finger here in John 15, turn back to John chapter 14 verse 23. 14 verse 23. "Jesus answered and said to them, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.'" Okay, you're going to keep God's Word. Here's the result: "And My Father will love him." Follow my train of thought. Can you even imagine what it feels like to be loved by God?

It's hard to even define what that feels like. But if you keep His Word, if you're intentional to keep God's Word, to continue in the Word, then He will love you. And here it continues: "And We" — is that pronoun capitalized in your translation? I have the New American Standard. "We" is capitalized. "We will come to him," that being you, "and make Our" — another capitalized pronoun — "Our abode with him." If you keep God's Word, if you're intentional about having the Word of God as an uncompromising standard — if the Bible says it, I believe it, and I'm going to do it, period. Myself aside, I'm not going to be influenced by friends to abandon God's Word. I'm not going to be influenced by culture to abandon God's Word, even just a shade. Satan just wants you to slip off the standard just a little bit and get on to something good. He's not going to tempt you with something dark and evil because you wouldn't fall for that. But you would fill your life with all kinds of good things and be distracted from God. And it comes at the expense of the triune Being — God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son — making His abode in your heart comfortably.

And so let me read this again to you. In John 14:23, it says, "Jesus answered, He said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our abode in him.'" This word "abode" in this particular text means abiding and dwelling. You see why I went here as a reference, because it is the same root idea as "dwelling" in the Ephesian prayer. So this rich metaphor is describing your heart as a home that is indwelt by the triune God.

Well, that's pretty humbling to think that my heart's a home for God.

Do we need to do some maintenance to make sure that He's comfortable?

How many of you clean the house before you have company come over?

Yeah. Some of you are like, "I don't care." My wife says it great. She says, "Come on over any time. Some is clean last week or clean this week. It doesn't matter." But with God, it matters, right? Forget about your homes. What about your heart?

And ladies, please be encouraged by this. Sometimes we prioritize something like cleaning the house over cleaning your heart. And sometimes the things become so important that are futile and at the end of the day don't really, really matter. Now I do believe that cleanliness is next to godliness — that's not a verse of scripture, but I try to follow it. I keep my life clean, not just externally, but most importantly, internally.

It's so important for us to prioritize the Lord. So the dwelling of God being inside of your heart — back to Ephesians. In chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 19 to 22 speak of this dwelling of God as well. Ephesians 2:19: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." And so all of these rich metaphors of a household, a temple, a building, a body simply mean that God inhabits your heart. You are a household of the Lord.

And so this means when a believer — when believers' ways are pleasing to the Lord — then there is unbroken fellowship with the Lord. And this is in all aspects of life. You and Christ, you rejoice together when there is rejoicing to be done and you're sorrowful together when there's sorrow to be had. This is wisdom from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And then as well you simply enjoy one another's company, enjoying the company of the Holy Spirit who resides in your soul. It's almost like gazing off at God's creation and enjoying the painting of a sunset that He does uniquely every single evening and being awestruck in wonder of God and dwelling upon His precepts. And as you are meditating and dwelling and praying, you are having fellowship with the Holy Spirit and fellowship with the Lord. It's rich fellowship. I crave that time with the Lord.

And so you enjoy one another's company, the triune Being God inhabiting in your house, in your home, in your building. How could you not have fellowship with this wonderful Being? Satisfaction and comfort come from dwelling inwardly upon the things that glorify God. And as things that are glorifying God are happening in your life, there is an immense amount of satisfaction through reflecting upon the fact that I gave the gospel away or I discipled a brother or sister in Christ or spent time in prayer or was fully engaged in worship this Sunday. In fact, I'm so thrilled to have spent the entire Lord's day with the Lord. I didn't just go to church for an hour and ignore the Lord and the Lord's day for the rest of the day. I'm getting better at having fellowship with the Lord that inhabits my heart. See what I'm saying? He's dwelling and He's made His abode in you.

And so the point is to pray for your family and church to dwell with God. When you open your Bible and you change your life to open your Bible to pray for one another, pray that they may dwell with God and God dwell with them. This richness then will become inner strength and overflow from their heart. And so I like to say it like this: to dwell is to swell. Whatever you're dwelling upon is swelling. You get that? As in "swell." If you're dwelling on the wrong things, guess what's swelling?

Right? If you're dwelling upon someone who wronged you, that's swelling. And what's swelling? Revenge.

Oh, I'm going to send them an email. I'm going to blast them online. If you're dwelling upon revenge or someone who has wronged you, then that swells. So repent of that and start dwelling upon the richness of Christ and let that swell and become huge in your mind. As well, to swell is to make Christ big, to think about Him and His richness.

How does this happen? Well, look back at the text in Ephesians chapter 3. So glad you asked, because you get it. You're like, "Yeah, I want that, but how?" That's a great question. In verse 17, it's almost like Paul interjects the how. In verse 17, it says, "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts" — there's the how right there — "through faith." It's through faith.

What is faith? So if all of this, what I've talked about so far, is through faith — that's the how you get to what I've just described — then we need to know what faith is. Well, the Bible defines what faith is in Hebrews 11:1. It says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for." Do you hope to enrich your life through being pure and making your heart a holy and inhabitable home for the Holy Spirit, the holiness of God? Do you hope for that? Well, be confident in that. Have faith in that. Pursue that. Start in that direction and put your feet to the pavement in that direction. Have confidence in that area and start intentionally making steps in that way by faith, and it'll happen. That's your part: to believe.

And so therefore your part is to fully believe. The Bible says in James chapter 4 verse 8 that if you draw nigh unto Him, He will draw nigh right back. And so to the extent for which you are intentional in your personal relationship with Christ, you are getting out of it what you are putting into it. If you're ignoring Christ, you're quenching the Holy Spirit. But if you are listening to Scripture, if you're memorizing Scripture, if you're praying the Scriptures, if you are reading your Bible and studying the Bible and you're really truly pursuing Christ, you are more alive in Christ. You have a thicker branch rather than a twig with a few dangling leaves.

Your part is to fully believe. And guess what? Everyone else's part is to faithfully pray. You have a very strategic part by observation of this prayer in that to pray for one another. The prayers for one another are very, very strategic for the life of your brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a lesson that we must really get. So do you see a brother or a sister in the Lord struggling in life? Pray for that brother or sister to be inwardly strengthened and overflow with God, and that's your part. Their duty is to have faith that God will, and your part is to pray for that brother. So this is the how. We must pray for one another — to exercise their faith by being fully confident that God would, according to verse 16, grant them according to His riches to be strengthened with power inwardly, and according to verse 17, that Christ would dwell in their hearts richly.

And so pray for your family with your Bible. Have your Bible open. Think about who you're praying for and pray for them specifically in this way and it'll make a huge difference. And this is not a matter of self-confidence. It's not a matter of self-assurance. This is faith. This is obedience. This is abiding in the Word. Jesus said if you abide in His commandments, His joy will be overflowing for you.

And so I want to read with you Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 to 6 — just a taste of faith. This whole chapter is about the Hall of Fame chapter of faith, through those who have been wonderful examples of faith. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 through 6 it says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what we see is not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he was dead, still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

I pray verse 6 really stands out to you, that you would believe by faith that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. It's impossible to please God without faith. First of all, you can't be saved without faith — for by grace you're saved through faith — so it's impossible to please God without faith. And then as well, to live life, it is expected for you to walk by faith and not by sight. Can't please God without faith. It's impossible to do that.

Point number two in the sermon outline is pray our church knows the love of Christ. Pray our church knows the love of Christ. Back in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 18 and 19, there's this particular phrase "with all the saints" that is a key phrase. In verse 18, "it may be able to comprehend with all the saints" — with all the saints. So pray that our church, with all the saints, would be able to know Christ. This is the primary preposition of the sentence and it denotes union, union in Christ. All of us collectively united to Christ. The close togetherness that Christ's love produces is the key entry point to comprehending the love of God. You can understand God's love to a certain extent by yourself at home.

But you can't understand all of God's love unless you are among the saints, because the way God works, His love flows through you, and you don't have all the answers, you don't have all the gifts, and you are not self-sufficient. You cannot figure it out on your own. How many times have you had an answer to a very important question in your life delivered to you through a saint?

God's love through a person loved you and helped you. And so to comprehend means to lay hold of, to make it your own. If you were to comprehend God's love, the fullest extent of God's love — why you don't have it overflowing: more fellowship, more prayer, more Bible study, being fully committed to the local church.

Once you grasp this concept of the togetherness and God's love being collectively known, as when we are all together and how He works through us with all the saints, verse 18 says to know the love of Christ with all the saints. When you get it, you crave it and you're like, "Man, I want to be there every chance I possibly can. I want to open the doors for people. I want to help clean up after people. I want to socialize with people. I want to fellowship. I want to pray for people. I want everything that I could possibly get" — not just for the self-interest, but to be used of God, to be impactful in somebody else's life. It's just wonderful.

And so if you would obtain God's love, then know that God's love is not just in you and is not completely known just in you, but is among all the saints. It's a collective thing. It's the body of Christ. So we cannot know and understand or attain the fullness of God's love apart from the company of fellow believers. That's the reason why a church that's alive is worth the drive. That's the reason why we long to come together. And that's the reason why when you can't make it — oh, you wish you could have. You hate to miss. I hear it all the time: "In case I can't come, man, I wish I could." The agony of not being able to meet together. This is what we're talking about. This fellowship, this love of God. And so fellowship strengthens you by God's love. Fellowship brings the fullness of life together by God's love. No wonder in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, communion and prayer. The main ingredients of the local church — one of those most important ingredients is fellowship. That's the reason why you can't do church online.

COVID has afforded many the opportunity to be at home and be lazy and stay on the couch. "Oh, that's okay, I watch such and such church online. I give online." They're not engaged in the local church. In fact, they're shortchanging themselves of a lot of the love of God, and they are shortchanging the church that they should be at. Every soul matters. They should be at church because their life matters to others. And so the spiritual temperature of others is lower because they're not there. The spiritual temperature and the answers that they need in Christ are not happening because they're not there. And so you matter to each other. That's the way God designed the local church. Isn't that beautiful? And so you matter.

And so when you wake up in the morning, it's not about me. First of all, it's about God's glory, and God's glory will strengthen people around you. Fellowship is a key element. And as you have God dwelling inside of you and the overflow of Him is filling you to an immense joy, it strengthens the brethren. So you cannot know all of God's love alone without the saints.

In verse 18, it says, "You may be able 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, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." The vast depth of God is further explained in these terms of breadth and length and height and depth. For example, the breadth is a great extent. The length is far and long. The height is exalted and high and lofty. And the depth of God is the deep well of wisdom and His Word like water — deep and wonderful counsels. To know the love of God is to understand these deep and wonderful, soul-satisfying counsels, these rich metaphors. 1 Corinthians 2:10 says, the deep things of God. To know the deep love of God, the deep soul-satisfying, soul-feeding things is the meat of the Word. I think of the hymn, "Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" — vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.

And point number three is pray that church members are filled by God. Pray that they're filled. This command is further explained in chapter 5 verse 18 of Ephesians. Ephesians 5:18 says, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." And to be filled with God is a command. The results are speaking the Scriptures, singing, having joy in your heart and giving thanks and serving one another, in verses 18–21. So to be filled with the Lord — the Holy Spirit — it's defined here in Ephesians 5:18–20. I'll read it again. "Be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, speaking and making melody in your heart to the Lord and always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." And so those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are submissive to one another. They consider others better than themselves. They're not argumentative. They're always giving thanks because they believe in the sovereignty of God and how He works everything out providentially. And so you're not complaining about the circumstances.

Listen to me — those who are filled with the Holy Spirit don't complain because that's an indictment upon God.

If you're complaining about the circumstances in life, you're mad at God because God did that. God gives and God takes. God gives health and He gives sickness. He gives wealth and He gives poverty. God is God. He's sovereignly in control. The one who is filled with the Holy Spirit will not murmur and complain. Philippians chapter 2 verse 14 says, "Do all things without murmuring and complaining." And so if you were to lose your joy, you'd be a complainer. If you start being a fault-finder and being critical about people and about things, you will grieve the Holy Spirit and your joy will be zapped. That's a fact. And so don't complain, because God sovereignly works all things for His glory and our good. And you don't have to understand it in the moment. You don't even have to understand it in your lifetime. I just pray my life is not like Job's. Boy, that was a long time of not understanding, right?

I love the Apostle Paul. He's like my biblical hero. I experience a lot of the things that he experienced, but to be honest with you, I do not really, really desire all that Paul went through. Well, I love Christ — He's my number one hero — but I don't really desire that. But if God took me to being scorched and persecuted for His name, I dare not grumble and complain about the circumstances because there's a higher purpose at hand. And so you trust God and you be filled with the Holy Spirit and you remain thankful in all things. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is the will of God." And then in verse 19 it says, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit."

These things are so fundamental to our faith, but don't we lose these fundamentals when we stub our toe or something doesn't go our way? Folks, let's really focus on our praying for one another so that we can remain steadfast and strong in Christ and become those who have made Christ comfortable in dwelling in their hearts as a home, a comfortable home.

And so being filled with the Holy Spirit — not only one who is singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and giving thanks, but you're subject to one another and helping one another. We need to pray for one another to be filled with God. And as you are praying for each other in the church, remember to pray that we will be filled with God. And the key is not to force yourself to do these things. The key is to be real in Christ. We're not human doings, we're human beings. And so be a Christian. Allow this to be fruit that's in your life. Your first step is to deny yourself, deny the world, and then really dive deep into God. And so when you're filled with God, God is glorified and His attributes are freely flowing through you. Other believers see that and it's bringing God much glory in the church. It is seen actually in the church, verse 20 and 21.

Now as I start to wrap up — and everybody says, "Thank the Lord" —

In verse 20 it says, "Now to Him who was 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."

Three quick take-home truths. The results of praying for each other are this.

Number one: richness of heart. A result of praying for others is that they would have richness of heart. The richness of Christ — not a life in Christ that symbolizes poverty or emptiness or drudgery, but to be rich in Christ. Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." And in this heart — the word "hearts" talking about the inner man, the heart, soul, and the mind — "Create in me a clean heart, O God." And if you would be faithful to creating yourself a clean heart where Christ can dwell in your heart richly and flow through you, then these results would be, number one, you would be rich of heart. You would be wonderful. You'd be delightful to talk to. As we grow older and older and older in this life — older in your faith and age — we should be becoming more and more rich in heart. When someone interacts with you, from the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks; they truly get a taste of Jesus. And as your life overflows upon them, they say, "Wow, what a wellspring of life. What a wonderful person to interact with. What a person that's filled with Christ." As we get better and better at continuing in the Word and being more like Christ, we would then also have joy that is just simply unspeakable.

Psalm 16:11 says, "In His presence there is fullness of joy." Fullness, joy. So I think that we should get better and better and better at guarding our heart. Who of you leaves your doors unlocked at night? I don't think anybody does. Same thing for our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart." And if you were to keep a pure and a holy heart, you're going to guard it against the sneaky things that try and creep in and poison your heart. Satan just wants to rob innocence. He wants to pollute innocence. He wants to rob you of your joy. And if he sees someone alive in Christ, he's going to continue to come after it. You've got to guard your heart. You've got to create in yourself a clean heart. So richness of heart is a result.

Number two: a result is that you're addicted and overwhelmed — addicted to Christ.

Don't be drunk with wine and be addicted to alcohol or drugs or things of the world. As 1 John 2:15 says, do not love the world or anything in the world. But you're addicted to Christ. And as you're addicted to Christ, you're overwhelmed by God's love. And so the love of God that's in your heart has caused you to continue in His Word — John 8:31. It's caused you to be devoted in prayer — Colossians 4:2. It has caused you to keep His commandments — John 15:10. It has caused you to love one another — John 13:35. It has caused you to study His Word — 2 Timothy 2:15. It has caused you to share the gospel and make disciples and testify about Him. You could go on and on and on of what being addicted to Christ and overwhelmed by Christ is. But that is a result of praying for one another in this passage.

And so those of us who would now take your Bible and pray for each other — the results for this dear congregation is to continue in this way. Boy, I'm excited about the upcoming years as we strengthen our prayer life for one another.

And so number three is that they're filled to overflowing. Filled to overflowing. It's like water coming out of a spring. Christ comes out of your heart. A result of this kind of prayer life for one another is that you are filled to overflowing. John 4:14 says, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give, he shall never thirst. The water that I will give will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." A well of water springing up to eternal life — and that should characterize our lives. Those of us who are thriving in Christ have Christ welling up within us. And we have to go places and share Christ. We have to find ways to share Christ. In fact, if someone tells us, "Stop sharing Christ," we say, "No can do." It just keeps sharing Christ. I like the t-shirt that says, "Warning — we'll talk about Jesus at any moment." That's a good t-shirt.

And the fourth one is glory displayed in the church. A result of this passage is that glory is displayed in the church. Doxa is the Greek understanding of glory and honor and praise. It is the manifestation of God Himself. It is the glory of God. It is the comprehension and recognition of God. When you look at another person and you see Jesus, you give credit and glory to God. It's not to the person. The person says, "None of me — it's all of the Lord." And so we recognize the power and the excellence and the beauty of God in the church, both in the corporate meeting together and individually as believers. We spread the glory of God.

And now as I close, I'm going to read a passage in Revelation that talks about some of these things and then pray. In Revelation 21, the Bible says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw a holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them. And they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away.' And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.' And then He said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.'"

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this passage on prayer. You've been so gracious to us to overwhelm the Apostle Paul as he was writing the Ephesian epistle, to have him be overwhelmed to pray, to be overcome by Your Holy Spirit to the point to where he had to stop the epistle and bow his knees and start praying for the Ephesian church. And to have recorded this prayer — Lord, You've been good to us, so we thank You for this written Word, and we thank You for this prayer. And I pray You would help us to remember to turn to Ephesians chapter 3 and open our Bibles and to pray for one another specifically: that we would be strengthened with power in the inner man, and that You would dwell in our hearts, that we would be rooted in Christ, that we would know Your love, to be filled to the fullness of God, to overflowing, and to be able to spread Your glory.

Father, I ask as well that if anyone here is not saved, that Your good Holy Spirit would draw that soul under conviction of sin, and that they would repent of their sin and place their faith and trust in Your substitutionary death on the cross, for You paid for our sin. And I pray, Lord, that they would be saved. And I pray, Lord, that they would follow You in believers' baptism and belong to this dear church. And then also learn how to study the Bible and make disciples. God, I pray this for Your glory and our good. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.