June 28, 2026 | A Powerful Prayer for Power

Ephesians 3:14-21, Pastor Jason Lancaster

Transcript

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I know in our church there are a lot of coffee drinkers in here, and I've had an interesting relationship with caffeine in my life. I didn't drink caffeine when I was in high school growing up, didn't really know much about it. And when I was in college, went all the way through college without really caffeine, coffee, or anything like that. Went through seminary without caffeine, really. I mean, I know it sounds impossible, but I did. Because I didn't really know much about it. I didn't know the benefits of it until I started having babies. I just I didn't sleep and I didn't know how to function. And I and I would try Red Bull, I would try Coke, Dr. Pepper, I mean you name it. I was drinking it. It's funny, I didn't start drinking coffee until my 40s. I know that sounds crazy. Crazy. And here's the problem I have with caffeine. I can drink it, I get pumped, feel like I can conquer the world. But around 7 p.m. at night, I just crash and I start to go down to feel like kind of depressed. And I shared my dilemma with somebody at one time, and they said, well, the solution is when you start to feel that way, just drink more. Guess you're never gonna sleep. Because the issue is I don't really need a lot of caffeine. What I need is sleep. That's really the fix, right? And so I just think about, and just to take that analogy, life in general, when we are are feeling kind of blah in life, kind of like, uh, I don't feel like I just want to do much of anything. We kind of feel stuck, I just feel like I don't have energy, not just physical, but spiritually. So we're like, okay, I want I need to do something to fix that. And so maybe we'll go to a movie. Nothing wrong with the going to a movie. I mean, how many of you, when you go to a movie, it's inspiring, it's encouraging, and after the movie, you're like, man, that's so amazing. And it lasts about an hour, that feeling. And some of us can get kind of you know tired in our lives, kind of depressing, some energy, and so we'll go shopping and we get excited about shopping. Problem with shopping is you got to keep doing it to keep hitting that high. And others will get that in the same way, just going out to eat or drink, nothing wrong, going out to restaurants, enjoying it, and kind of getting kind of an uplift. And now, of course, there are crazy ways and sinful ways in morality and drugs and alcohol where we can pump into our lives to get this high. But but the issue is whatever we're seeking to fill that, I don't know, lack of void that we have in our lives, whether they're sinful or just neutral things, they just they don't really last. Because the reality is that the only one who can fill that void or fill that only where you're like, uh, is God Himself. I mean, really, that's the reality is God Himself and His love for you is the only one that you can taste, or you say eat, and that satisfaction is legit, and it lasts, and it keeps going, and it's available to us 24-7. So we're gonna see today in God's love, if you want to go ahead and turn there. We're in Ephesians chapter 3, and we have this amazing prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians. He started praying it, well, at least tried to back in Ephesians 3 1. He got paused, giving this wonderful explanation of Jews and Gentiles together. But now he's finally ready to pray, and he's gonna pray that they would know this love of God for them, that they would know this power. That's what we want. The power of God that will last. Let's do it. Verse 14, chapter 3. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. He takes this posture of kneeling, which is kind of unusual for the Jews. They would often stand, but he's he's kneeling in awe and submission of the Father. And posture can have a very important part in your prayer life. It's like your your posture of kneeling can communicate to your brain. Let's get serious here and pray. And I know some of you are thinking, no, I can't kneel if I kneel, I won't be able to ever get up again. I understand that. But you can still have this posture of humility before the Lord. And I want you to notice that, like I said, I want you to just follow along in the verse. If you look at verse 14 again, he says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, and he says, From whom every family in heaven on earth drives its name. So everyone, believers in him, those who have died, that are now in heaven, those who are on earth, he is our God. He is our Father, He loves us. We can come to Him anytime. He is the God who is there. Verse 16. That here's the prayer, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory. Stop there. God is rich. In His fullness of blessings, He is rich. Do we do we doubt that He is rich, that He has everything? I think about something that has everything in our Hot Springs area, is often a place called Dick Sporting Goods, where they have what you would think every sport. You can walk in, you can got fishing, you have soccer, you have golf, you have tennis, you have weightlifting, but you know what? They don't have everything. I've gone in there before trying to buy some buy some wide running shoes. They didn't have any. I've gone in there before trying to find a taekwondo outfit. They didn't have it. They got a lot, but they don't have everything. But God has absolutely everything in him that you need for life and godliness. In him is the fullness of goodness, in him is the fullness of all mercy and grace and wisdom and all the resources you need for life and godliness. So Paul is praying to the rich one, full of riches. And the specific prayer that he prays, if look at verse 16, he is praying to be strengthened, he's praying for them to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man. So he's coming to the all-rich one, all the riches and everything. He's saying, I want you to be strengthened with power inside, by the Holy Spirit power in your hearts, in your minds, in your emotions, in your wills, everything would be strengthened by God's power in your life. This past week on Monday night, or actually during Monday morning around seven, a gust blew in our area through our house and knocked our power out for 12 hours. And I don't know about you, but we're a bunch of wimps without power. We don't know what to do. My kids stare at me. What do we do without the internet? What do we do without charging our stuff? I don't know. You know? But so when it comes back on, we're so relieved. Like it's wonderful. Oh, the power is back. Praise the Lord. But you ever realize that sometimes in our life we can be walking with the Lord and we just kind of get used to his lack of power in our life? We can just kind of get used to it. I mean, how many, if you think about it, how many of you can live your life today without God? How many things can we carry on in our church where has God given us power? We're just kind of doing our own thing. Paul is praying for them to be strengthened with power from the rich God who has everything. And you're like, power to do what? Well, I'm glad you're asked. Look at verse 17. Strengthen with power. Verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. There it is. If you're a believer in Jesus, he took up residence in you by the power of the Holy Spirit at conversion. It's not a prayer for Christ to come in all over again. But the key word here is if you notice it, is the word dwell. Look at verse 17 again. So that Christ may dwell. The idea of dwell means that Christ may be in your life where he settles down and he makes himself at home. He's putting down roots, he's settling in permanently. He's not a passing traveler. Your heart is not an Airbnb for the Lord. Your heart is not a hotel for the Lord. Well, he's supposed to, you know, he can check in and check out. Your heart is supposed to be, okay, come on in and make yourself at home. Now, when we have guests over at our house, did you ever say to them, make yourself at home? You don't really mean it. You don't want them going through your stuff using your lotions and stuff. You don't want them going through your fridge. You don't mean that. But to the Lord, we're supposed to say, hey, our hearts, they're your home. So what is hindering you from saying, Lord, come on and give me your fullness where you take over everything in my life? What hinders you from the fullness of God taking an effect in your life? And I would say this. I would say some of the things that may be hindering you for God being Lord, taking fully control of your life, may be something called lies. Of course there's sin, but there are lies that we believe. There are lies that we believe, even as believers, that can hinder from the fullness of God being in our lives. There's a book that was written for women. I don't know why I read these books that are written for women, but sometimes I do. This is called Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free. I'm sure some of you have read that. But in reading this book, it's like, you know, those are lies that guys believe too. It's not just lies that women believe. So, well, what are some of these lies? Okay. Here's some of the lies. Number one, God is not enough. Number two, God's ways are too restrictive. Here's another one. I should not have to live with unfulfilled longings. Another lie is I cannot walk in consistent victory over sin. How about this one? If I feel something, it must be true. And here's my favorite one. If my circumstances were different, I would be different. It's these lies that take out a mortgage on your heart. And occasionally you'll Airbnb to the Lord, come on a little bit, he'll kick in and get out. Because the lies have taken up a residence in your heart. They have a mortgage on your heart, and they keep telling you things that are not true. And what you need is you need the Lord to be so in your life where He is pushing out these lies. And he is setting up permanent residency in your life. The fullness of Christ is dwelling in you permanently. And the only way to have this is through the power of God. Oh, but we're not done. We're not done. Look at verse 17 again. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and here it is, and then you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpass its knowledge, that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God. Okay, there it is. Here it is, yeah. We're gonna talk about experiencing Christ's love for you. That's really when I hammer big time. Because I feel that in the Christian world, and even in my own life, many of us, just admit it, you are an emotional atheist. I mean, you got the doctrine, you know the truth, but there's no warmth that you I want to say it, that you experience from the Lord. That you experience his love. So what is hindering that? Of course, the lies, the lies that that Satan tells you, the lies that you believe hinders God's, you know, experiencing his love for you. But I I really want to deal with this emotional atheism because we are not just clicking and ticking off boxes doctrinally. There is a joy and experience that we have in the love of God for you. So, what stops that? Well, the first thing I want you to see is that this happens in community. Let's look at verse um 16, 17 again. So you got granite with the power, and that you be strengthened with power, and then look at verse 18. May be able to comprehend with all the saints. So the first thing I want you to see is that comprehending and experiencing the love of God happens in community. Now, if you're an introvert, like uh I tend to be at times. My my son, I told you before, he asked me, he said, Dad, uh, why do you hate people? I don't hate people. I just prefer to often be alone. In fact, I read something this morning. I've never heard of this, but during the middle, during the Middle Ages, the church had something uh connected to their church where it was something called bricked in. You know, you know this concept? Bricked in, where you could be so devoted to God that you wanted to have you just your life with God that they could brick you in, seal you in to a small room for the rest of your life. And you could look out the window, they would slip you some food. And some of you are thinking, oh, that sounds pretty good. But that's not the way we're supposed to live. We're not supposed to live bricked in from community. We experience his love often in community. So don't separate yourself, don't brick yourself in. Continue on. And he says he prays that they be rooted and grounded in love. The idea is a root, you know, the tree takes roots, ground it like architecture, uh, a building ground in the firm foundation of love. Back to 17, 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 length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Did you realize that Jesus loves me? This I know for the Bible, tells me so, takes divine power and enable it to believe it and to experience it. You can sing the song as a kid, you can sing the song as an adult, but you're not gonna truly believe it and experience it without the power of God. So I can say to you, hey, do you know how much God loves you? And you say, I'm not so sure. Well, let me explain it to you. Well, it's so long and wide and high and deep. You're like, well, what do those phrases mean? Well, people have tried to explain it in different ways. When you talk about the love of God being broad, that means it encompasses all mankind. All humankind, Jews and Gentiles, both. The welcome is to come, to come to God through Jesus Christ. It's also long enough to last for eternity, so God's love in your life is not just a one-off here for a little bit, but it's going to last eternity. And it's deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner like me, and it's high enough to exalt him to heaven. Now, St. Augustine had a very interesting way of putting it. He said, just look at the cross. I think that's very helpful when you can think about the dimensions of the cross. You have the upright beam of the cross, view it as reaching down to earth and point it up to heaven of the love of Jesus. And then you have the cross beam of Jesus' arms stretching out, inviting you in of his love. I mean, if you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at the cross. That is God's love for you in the cross. It's right there in the cross. And so I'm I'm telling you, God loves you so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for you. You, a sinner, to bring you into relationship with him. Anybody can get in on this, but but through faith. And God's love is for you. And you're going, Yeah, I just don't feel it. I just don't experience it. And I'm gonna point to something that may be the issue, okay? Of course, lies could be an issue keeping you from experiencing the love of God. But another issue, the reason why you may not experience the love of God, you ready for this? Is because you are filling your life with so much other stuff that has nothing to do with God. Here's an example. I I like to go to Texas Roadhouse T. I don't know if anybody else likes sex roadhouse, but I do. I like their roles. I see you out there. And I'm just asking the question, I'm not talking about my personal experience, but how many of you eat one? Hmm, two, three, maybe four, and you fill yourself up before your meal even arrives. Anybody? Yeah, amen. And then it comes and you're too full to eat. You may dabble on, can I get it to go box? Because you filled yourself up so much with through the appetite, you just can't even eat the food. And so you you come in here on Sunday morning and you go, Well, I don't feel the love of God. You spent your whole week filling yourself up with other things, and shall I say, you've been discipled by the algorithm of social media who's discipling you for the things you see and read online hours and hours and hours. You spend your time doing everything else that doesn't have anything to do with God, and you come in here and go, Well, I just don't, I just don't feel the love of God. Because you're just loading up on rolls. You're just loading up. And that's not the way we're supposed to live. Because God loves us in Jesus and He wants us to experience it, and He doesn't want us to be filled with the things of the world, but with Him. That's why I want you to see once again at the very end of verse 19 that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Filled up with all the fullness of God. So Christ is dwelling in your heart, not an Airbnb, but permanent residency. He's taking out a mortgage on your heart. We're pushing away the lies. We we don't want to be filled up with things of the world, but filled up with the fullness of God. And I want to tell you this, make sure you get this. When you're filled to the fullness of God in your life, you are not getting more of God, but God is getting more of you. And when God gets more of you, you will experience more of Him. You are not getting more of God. He is getting more of you, and when He gets more of you, you will experience more of Him. Does that make sense? The fullness of God in our lives. Now, what's so amazing that Paul ends this prayer in a way that just takes it to another level. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I'm sure it is for you too. Look at verses 20 and 21. 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. So you're telling me this prayer to God, he's able to do abundantly beyond what we ask or think. I don't believe it. There's no way I've I've prayed prayers before and God didn't answer them, and so it's shut myself off to praying like that because I don't I don't believe it. I know your experiences. One of the reasons why we don't pray is because unanswered prayer in the past or God didn't answer the way you wanted to, but I want you to pause for a second here. That God is doing something in your life that you may be unaware of, and he's doing it and answering your prayers in such a way that is bringing him glory. And I want you to pause again and look at verse 20. It says, Now to him. Who's able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think? Did you notice here that he's able to do far more abundantly according to the power that works within us? So not only are we talking about God answering prayer, but we're talking about him answering prayer and doing things through you. Like God's power has targeted you, doesn't terminate on you, but goes out and he's doing like amazing things that you never ever imagine doing by his power. And every single one of us, if I truly ask you, every single one of us, you you want that, right? Right? So but so catch this. You're like, I really want to be used to impact the world. I want to be used to impact the community, but you don't really want to change your calendar. I want God to just use me to impact world missions and see people get saved and churches planet, but we kind of hold back our resources. You see, we act like, okay, God use me, and yet God don't use me. So I want you to see that the resurrection power of God in your life is not a passive spectacle, it is a current running directly through you. God wants to use you in miraculous ways to serve other people. I read something this week that's absolutely amazing. It's a story you probably don't hear much, especially if you're on social media. It's a story about a variety of courageous teenagers. In particular, courageous boys. You think teenage boys, there's nothing courageous about them. But this is a variety of stories. And here's what the here's what the title of the article is about. It says this they put down their phones and ran toward danger. And then it gives some examples of teens that are not consumed with their phones but serving others. Here's some examples. Three main teenagers entered a burning farmhouse. Another one, a 15-year-old kept his stepfather alive with CPR. A Cleveland teenager carried a ladder to a burning house. These are all true stories. A 12-year-old saved his baby brothers and grandmother. Three boys climbed a 12-foot fence to reach a drowning child. An 18-year-old paddled across an icy pond to save a dog. A Philadelphia teenager stopped a moving truck during a medical emergency. Two teenagers revived a three-year-old girl. Now, sometimes the endings are very tragic about one who died trying to save a drowning boy, and another who died 16-year-old trying to push his friend away from a train. Can you imagine that God wants to use you in such a way that, hey, wow, they risk their lives to actually serve other people? Even dangerous ways? It's almost like God's saying, you know, put down your phone, whatever that would be for you, put down your phone. God's power wants to work with you in such a way where you're praying and acting, and God is doing things that you just never imagined. It's beyond your brain even computing. It's unfathomable what has happened that God is using you. And I just I know some of you. And then some of the things that you tell me that God has done through you. And I look at you and I go, Are you kidding? Yeah. Same thing when you look at me. I say, Are you kidding? Yeah. God has moved in powerful ways and using you in your life to impact others. And you're sitting here on the last third of your life, right? Thinking, praise God. And he still wants to do things above and beyond all that you can ask or imagine. And then it ends this way in verse 21. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. When you experience praying for things and asking God to use you in significant ways, you really have to have a posture that says, Lord, even if you don't answer my prayer the way I want you to, may you be glorified. Even if you have other plans that you're going to use me or not use me, you be glorified. Can you imagine having a posture in prayer and says, whatever happens, may you get all the attention, may you get all the glory, whether you answer me according to the way that I want or not. Because it's all about the glory of God. Can you imagine being so filled with the fullness of Christ and the fullness of God that you are saying, Lord, push out the lies. Lord, give me wisdom to fulfill myself with things of the world. Tell me to put down my phone and run towards these things that make me uncomfortable that are dangerous, where you actually want to use me. I believe that we can experience the love of God when we finally get honest about who God is and who you are. When we are fully honest about who God is and all his beauty and all his character and all his mercy and all his love and all his sacrifice for you, and you start to acknowledge all your need for him, you'll experience love of God. This past uh Sunday on Father's Day, my son, my 15-year-old son, and I went to go see a movie. And I don't need to get into all the details of the movie, but the gist is this. The main character is stuck in life. And the reason why he's stuck in life is because it's everybody else's fault. It's everybody else's fault. And he's making no progress and he's not growing at all. And the movie actually depicts him eating himself. He takes a big chomp out of his shoulder. You wonder how that is? I can explain to you later. And the movie ends with him still being stuck. You may be here this morning and you may be stuck. And in fact, you may say it's everybody else's fault. My mom didn't love me, my dad didn't love me, my spouse didn't love me, my kids don't love me. That may be true. But when we come to God who loves us, and we start to lay out every single thing that's going on in our lives, the lies we are believing, the stuff that we are filling ourselves with, and we're saying, God, here we are. I'm tired of being stuck. I really want to know your power. I want to know your love. And I want, and you start confessing sin, you start confessing the way you've dealt with stuff wrongly, and you're just honest before the Lord. Watch out. God will do things in your life that you can't even imagine. It would even have come to your mind. Because his love and his power is working in you. This is a prayer that Paul prays for this church whom he loves. And I love you. And I want to pray this prayer for you. And I'm not going to put on a show, but I'm going to go over here. I'm going to keep my microphone on. I'm going to kneel like Paul knelt. And I'm going to pray this for you. The camera, just put it on the cross, get it off of me. Let's spend time right here at the end praying this prayer. So let's just all just bow our heads. Let's go ahead and bow our heads as we pray. Father, I bow before you. And I realize that everyone in here who knows you, you are the one we derive everything from. Our life is from you. Our existence is from you. And I know that you're the rich one with everything. And I just ask, according to your riches of your glory, that you would strengthen the men in here, strengthen the women in here with power through your Holy Spirit in their inner being. So that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. That the you would dwell so deep in their hearts, you'd push out the lies that are trying to dwell in them, and you would be the one who would dwell. And that they would be so rooted and grounded in love that they can start to comprehend the incomprehensible. They can start to comprehend with other brothers and sisters, they're not isolated, they're not pushing other people away. That they're comprehending with the rest of the saints in here. Saints, because you're a saint through Jesus. That they will comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth. And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. Lord, if there's anyone here who doesn't know or experience your love, that you would bring that reality in their life. They would realize, okay, we have filled my life with so many other things. I've pushed you out in so many other ways. And they would just see the love of Christ. If they doubt it, look at the cross. The cross is God's love for us in Jesus. And that you would so fill them with the fullness of God that we wouldn't stuff our face with the things and our hearts with the things of the world, but look to you. And Lord, I ask you who are able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. Lord, we have some big prayers. Many of us have big prayers. And help us to realize that a lot of these prayers are going to be answered with God's power through us, that no one else is going to act, that we need to step out in faith and act. The Lord continue to blow us away as you work above and beyond, abundantly beyond all we can ask or thank. And may you get all the glory, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.