Comprehending the love of Christ & Pauls Doxology

We're going to finish up the last part of chapter 3 today. Actually, when I first started into this, I thought, well, it's going to be kind of dull. But actually, the more I got into it, I thought, whoa, this is some pretty special stuff. And we actually have also Paul's doxology, which is pretty cool as well. So I'm going to utilize Macaulay's outline here.

And basically, the part that we're going to look at today is his prayer. The last part of chapter 3 is his prayer for the saints. So we're going to look at that. Actually, Bob covered part of this last week. Receiving the Strength of the Spirit in verse 16, which we're going to go back and kind of tie that in with the rest of it. Then we're going to look at the comprehension of the love of Christ, which is a pretty all-encompassing and incredibly marvelous thing. And then we're going to look at the knowledge of the fullness of God, and we're going to see how it's His desire that we share in that fullness.

And then lastly, the doxology, which is the last two verses. And at first I thought, well, it's going to be kind of, like I said, it's going to be kind of, well, it's just a doxology. Actually, some gathering of believers will recite a doxology at the end of their service or whatever, and I think after a while you kind of miss, well, what's in the doxology? Why are they praising God? And we're going to find out there's some marvelous things they're praising Him for. And some things are kind of a surprise, at least they were a surprise to me. I thought of it one way, You kind of get in and start looking at it and say, wow, this is different than what I thought. I think we all benefit here at Holly Hills.

You can read many passages and your first impression may be totally wrong because you read it and think, wow, and you fit it in wherever you want. But you go back and look at the context and study it and you think, boy, this has a different meaning than what I thought. And we're going to see that in doxology. You first read it and you think, Boy, here's some whatever I ask or think. Hey, I can ask or think all this kind of stuff. You start looking at this, and it's a lot different than what you might think. So it's a little teaser here as we work toward that.

So can I get someone to read 16 through 21? You can just read it off the overhead, or you find your Bible, or whatever. that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, 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. 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.

So I took this, actually it's in your handout too, I just took the verses and I went back and I kind of underlined the first part we're going to study and the last part is the doxology. But just kind of going back from what we looked at last week here, this is a request. Paul is making a request of God on behalf of believers.

And he starts off in verse 16, he says that he would grant to you, and he says he's going to grant to you these following things, and it's going to be according to his riches, of his glory. Can you imagine if you came across a bum in the street and he says, I'm going to give you all that I have. You'd think, well, I don't know how much I'm going to get out of this deal. But in this case, when God says, I'm going to grant you something, our ears ought to pick up, wow, he's going to grant us something.

So I underline three things that occurred to me. And you can kind of divide this different ways, but whenever you see that or so that. It's always that idea. It's a purpose that. He's going to grant to us with a purpose that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. Actually, Bob kind of covered that last week. We're not going to recover that. We're going to talk a little bit about that. And then we're going to focus on that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints this incredible love of Christ.

He describes it as a breadth, a length, a height, and a depth. But if you think about an infinite God, those measurements kind of fall by the wayside. Because when you start measuring an infinite length, that's pretty long, and an infinite depth, and so on. So anyway, we'll get to that. Second thing, you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So God's desire, God by His very nature is totally full of His total character, and He wants to fill us with that.

Another thing I kind of came across here, We've been talking position a lot, and there is some position here, but a lot of this is about our condition. He says, I want to fill you. You think, well, wait a minute, don't I already have? Actually, you have the full Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He wants to fill me, so there's some information he wants to tell us about. He wants to be able to comprehend His love, and so on.

And the last part, two parts there in 2021. Notice it has now to him and it has to him. So the first part is going to talk about this specific thing in terms of asking and thanking and it's according to his power. And the last part is just kind of praising God for his glory in the church and his son, the Lord Jesus.

So I kind of went back a little bit So this verse starts out, and I kind of left out the middle part because I wanted to kind of tie it into 18, so that you may dwell, I'm sorry, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and then there's a description I kind of left out, that you may be able to comprehend. So let's just look at that part. So that with a purpose that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, So, I thought that this is interesting, this idea of this word dwell, and it was sort of covered last week. May Christ, through your faith, actually dwell, settle down, abide, make his permanent home in your hearts.

I know Mike talks about this a lot. As we come to know the Lord Jesus, we see his word, we develop a relationship. It sounds kind of strange, especially to people outside who aren't believers. The idea that you could develop a relationship and not actually meet this person. But scripture talks about this idea that through faith, he may dwell in your heart through faith. Making a permanent resonance.

You get to know him and understand him through his word. And so that's something he desires to do. And here's another that you may be able to comprehend. So actually what happens is that this is now we moved into 18. Comprehend. You may be able. So this is the idea to be. It's actually a word for strength. You fully are fully able. He wants us to really come to know him and understand him. And let's see, did I have. Yeah, let's look at.

Let's look at Philippians 4.13, which kind of uses this idea, at least the core of this word, that you may be able, Philippians 4.13, can someone read that? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Right.

So actually, maybe it's not obvious that the very first part of that, I can do, is a core word of this. There's an ex in the first of this, but this is the core word. You might be able, or I can, you want to have the ability through faith to to fully comprehend and we're going to see fully comprehend his love we're going to see in the context so that's his desire that's what Paul is praying about that you may be able to fully comprehend his love for you and he says what's interesting is to comprehend and he's going to add he has a little prepositional phrase there with all the saints he's not just saying I want some of you to comprehend me his desire is that the entire body of Christ are able to comprehend, to lay hold of. To lay hold of in this case is to lay hold as to possess, we call it pro-appropriation sometimes. And I want to look at some familiar verses here. First let's look at, actually I didn't do the clicker here.

Did someone read John 1.5? And this is kind of the negative of that. John chapter 1 verse 5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. So that's our word here. Darkness cannot comprehend light. So that's our word comprehend.

But in the positive sense, and this is a very familiar verse. Philippians, and I'll go ahead and read this. Philippians chapter 3. So turn to that Philippians 3. verses 12 and 13. It says, Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ, Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.

He wants us to really grab on to, possess it, this comprehension. We're going to see in the context that's a comprehension of his love for us. He wants us to really come to understand that and to make that our own. Lay hold of to possess to one, to appropriate.

And in this passage here it talks about where he says in verse 12 there, Philippians 3.12 he says, you know, basically I was laid hold of by Christ in order that I may lay hold of But I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of it by Christ." So Christ has a purpose in laying hold of us. It's to come to know Him and He wants us to lay hold of that.

If you have questions or thoughts, and this is his point about with all or together with the saints, and Weiss was kind of pointing, with all the saints indicates this is a spiritual capability. It's not limited to a few select saints, but but is common property for all saints, basically. So here's this phrase. May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. And if you're interested, I have electronically Chafer's little book, a little booklet on Ephesians. And I actually just came across it. I had it and I hadn't been using it. I started looking at it and he just has some great things to share.

So he says, graphic indeed is a language employed here. which assigns to this particular love the dimensions of space, breadth, length, depth, height, but these are dimensions which are infinite. And that's why I was kind of telling you, you think, well I'm going to put God's love in a box. So he says, it's kind of like you really can't, you know, breadth, length, It helps us, but when those dimensions are infinite, it's impossible to comprehend that. That's like comprehending infinity.

I'm going to live forever. You think about that, and after a while, you can't handle it. It goes beyond your comprehension. There's a verse here. It's Old Testament, but I think it kind of grabs onto the fact that God can't be defined. Could someone read Job 11, 7-9? Job kind of wrestled with who God was and what he was about. This is an interesting verse. Job 11.

Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol. What can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If he passes by or shuts up or calls an assembly, who can restrain him?

That's fine. That's great. OK, good. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I mean, it captures this breadth and length and height and depth. If you want to, you can leave the door open a little bit. I mean, it's up to you. If it's too noisy, that's fine. Whatever you think is right. OK, so Job kind of describes what we're talking about, the breadth and length and height and depth. OK.

And to know the love of Christ is the next little part of it. We're on 19 now. Know here is this word for gnosko, which is the idea to come to know, to recognize, to understand. So he wants us to really understand God's love. Even though it's an infinite property, it's knowable. And we're to come to know and understand it.

And then this phrase, the love of Christ, which is, and there's maybe a companion verse to this. I'll go ahead and read that. That's in 2 Corinthians. And this is really cool. Verse 14, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. It says, For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. I'll read 15 as well. And he died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

So the love of Christ, we're to know it, it's to control us, I mean it's an incredible thing. His love for us, as kind of described in there, you know, talks about the fact that, you know, we can see the identification in there. We died with him in 14 there. For the love of Christ controlled us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. So we died with him.

Pretty cool stuff. So then another verse I thought was appropriate. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present no things to come, no powers, no height, no depth, or any other creative thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that's something that we're to be at home with and the way we come to know about it is just what we're doing right now. We're studying and understanding scripture about the love of Christ and how important it is and how significant it is, which surpasses knowledge Can we go back?

Sure, here. One of the things I think is awesome about, and you kind of hit it at the start, I want to connect for folks, is that this is conditional. That means that this is right now. And actually, thank you for sharing that. On the earth, because this knowing the love of Christ is actually active. It's something that we're doing together. And so we know the love of Christ together.

Not just purely as individuals. I don't just know it and keep it to myself. There's an interactive relational church body aspect to this infinite dimensions that we get to know together on the earth as we're growing. And I think that's really cool because sometimes we think about God's love and we think, I can't understand it.

It's infinite. But it's for today. It's not just for some day off in eternity. It's now. That's great. I kind of started out with this. This is a prayer that Paul is praying on behalf of the saints. He's asking the Lord It's like we might pray for our children. They might come to know Him. They might come to be saved.

He's praying for this body of believers in Ephesus that they might really come to understand that. So it's not something they have all wrapped up. And neither do we. We don't really have it all figured out. We're learning that as we walk by faith and walk through this life and with these trials and difficulties we learn about the love of Christ. So this is His prayer. It's for us. It's not something that... But it's based upon all these wonderful truths about him. And Ephesians is just chock full of that. There's all these wonderful truths.

So we're going to see that's pretty important, and we'll get to the doxology here in a little bit. OK, cool. Thanks, Randy. Now, this last part is kind of interesting. Which surpasses knowledge. So this surpasses is the idea that it's I like this one.

Bolo is a word for ball. So we got hyper. If you put a little hyper bolo. In different sports events, if you overthrow somebody, usually in sports, that's not a good thing. Like if you're in baseball and you overthrow the first baseman home plate, or you're in football and you overthrow the receiver, you don't get a lot of accolades for that. The crowd doesn't go, yes, right on.

But here, this is surpassing. What surpasses is over and above. Through, over, beyond, exceeding. So it's a pretty cool word. So there's a couple of places that it shows up. And it's worthwhile looking at these. And actually, they're an early part of Ephesians. So just go back if you're in Ephesians right now. Actually, let's do the Corinthians one first, I guess.

I guess I want to do that one first. No? Something? What do I want to do? Let's skip the Corinthian ones and let's go to Ephesians 119. Ephesians 1. Where do I want to go? They're all good, right? You guys have all heard J. Vernon McGee and he says, now this is my favorite verse and then five minutes later, this is my next favorite verse and my next favorite verse. They're all good. Can someone read 119?

It is incomparably great power for us who believe that power is like the working of His mighty strength. Okay, great, great. So in mine it has surpassing greatness. What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us? And then in 2.7, I covered these earlier, but I'll just go ahead and read it. In order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us. Toward us in Christ Jesus. Scripture has other things that use this idea of surpassing, hyperbolo, over the top.

It talks about in Philippians 4.7, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension. So it's not surprising that many of God's characteristics are over the top. They're over and above. And we're constantly flooded with that information. If we're faithful to listen, either people speaking or reading it, we'll see that God's character is surpassing over the top. To me, the concept needs to be more like my cup runneth over. It's mine. It's my needs. And they're filled to overflowing. The whole thing is filled. It's not just that there's a possible overshot there. It's so much more than I need.

Exactly. We talk about his grace. Vern does this. He doesn't get an itsy-bitsy piece of grace. Well, I'll just give you enough. Just to barely make it. Just so Randy doesn't really hurt himself. I just gave him enough grace. He didn't really hurt himself. He's sore. God gets him over and above that. Maybe that's a poor example. He gives you way beyond that.

And you think, But Lord, I'm not, I don't have, you know, the problem is we want to connect it to health, wealth, and whatever. We want to have, well, I don't have this, I don't have that. You know, I don't want to have this problem or that problem. You know, we want to connect it to that.

But, you know, the Lord doesn't, his examples in the scripture, like I shared several weeks ago, His example in scriptures are not easy. Christ didn't have it easy. It wasn't like, I'm going to the cross tomorrow, Lord, this is going to be great. He was agonizing in the garden. Paul, in Corinthians class earlier, he was agonizing to the point of death. He didn't want to live anymore because it was so tough. God doesn't promise an easy life. The Christian life is not an easy life. But it's a life filled with His overflowing character. And that's like the overflowing cup.

That's great. OK. That you may be filled up. So we kind of got through part of this. We start off, to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, this overflowing knowledge. And here's the purpose. That you may be filled up to all the fullness. So we actually have a Greek word here. you may be filled up, and fullness, which are, one's a verb and one's a noun, but they're very close in meaning to one another. But the superlatives that are used in the original language are just incredible here.

So he wants us to fill us up. Here's an interesting thing is, we already know that we have all these spiritual blessings, right? So here's something, and this is conditional, like Randy went down this path before, this is all conditional stuff. He wants to fill us up, so there's more You know, I think, wow, Lord, there's more stuff than... You just told me I'm seated with Christ in the heavenlies and all these different ones.

But now, you say you want to fill me up with all the fullness of God. Wow. I mean, and to be honest, I don't totally understand all this fullness. I mean, I just don't. But there's a verse. It's because it's hyperbolic. That's right. It's over my head. It's beyond me.

When you look at Galatians 5.16, it says, if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. We tend to think, maybe, of the relationship between walking in the Spirit and sin as maybe a primary concern. Because we don't want to sin. Alright, I'm not going to sin, so if I just walk in the Spirit, The benefit will be to me, maybe singularly, that I'm not sinning.

But this is so much more beyond that. I know. This is this excessive love of God, an excessive grace of God, an excessive fullness of God. And when I say excessive, I don't mean that as... No, no, it's a good excessive. It's a good excessive. I regard it as surpassing.

And that's really... That's pretty significant. If we just get God off our back as a mindset, I've just got to knock sin so I can keep God off my back. That's the wrong mindset. No, it is. It is. He wants to be on our back and on our front and on our heads and on our feet and all over us. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So this word, you may be filled up. The verb form is, I'm not sure I can I'm not going to pronounce it, pluru, or something like that.

It's to make full, to fill up. In the passive voice, in verse 19 here, it's to be made full. So he wants to make us full. Like I said, I don't really totally understand how that... I see the mechanics of that, but it's an incredible statement. So now he says, I want that you may be filled up. And now he's going to tell us the source of this filling is God. He wants to fill us up. That's what He wants to do. That's His game plan. Paul is praying for this.

So here we go. And the second part of this, that to all the fullness of God. Whoa! To all the fullness of God? That's everything He is. It just seems like it. To all the fullness of God. So I just a couple of little nits here. All is, there's nothing left out. So that's his desire. You think, wow, I'm not big enough to contain all that. I can't handle that. And he says he wants to do it.

And two is this, to the measure or standard of the fullness of God. So here's the noun form of that same word. And it's that of which a thing is full, God, in the completeness of his being. So there's a couple of verses here that I wanted to look at here this is this is pretty cool okay so let's look at could someone read Colossians one night let's do Colossians 2 9 and 10 let's do that one first Yeah, you know, I messed up there.

Thank you. No, no, actually, why don't you correct your handout. That's actually what I did. I wanted to flip them around and I did a poor job of that. I left the zero out and I put the nine anyway. That's Colossians 2, 9 and 10. If you'd read that, that'd be wonderful. For in him all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete. And he is the head over all rule and authority. Did you say 11 also? No, 10 is fine. You're good. So if you just go back to 9. So here's the source. For in him is all the fullness of deity. So he wants to fill us. So there's some cautionary notes here I want to point out too that I kind of realized too.

So then the other one is in Colossians 1.19, all the fullness to dwell in him. I did a terrible job, didn't I?

It's 1.19, Colossians 1.19. Someone could read that please. Have you read that before? No, that's Ephesians.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. Okay, perfect. So we have no problem thinking, and this is a statement here by Schaefer again. He points out, and rightly so, we're talking about this idea of being filled with God. We're not going to become God, obviously. This is kind of his cautionary note. Chaffer is amazing in his writings. I have to think about it for a while when I look at it. Only one among all that ever dwelt on the earth or in heaven has been really filled with all the fullness of God. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus.

That's the only one that was But, what's interesting is here, that being the case, we're still told here that his desire is, and Paul's praying for it, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. And I just, I don't, you know, this is about as far as I can go with it. I think, wow, my circuits are blowing. I don't totally understand, you know, all the working out of that.

But he is praying for that, which is incredible. OK, so that kind of ends this. We're going to go into the benediction here. So any thoughts on this last little part before we go into the benediction? And actually, the benediction is not just kind of a ho-hum, oh, I'll fall asleep when we get to this part. It's going to be pretty neat. I want to understand that better, too, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Pretty incredible stuff. Pretty incredible stuff. It's pretty awesome that Paul doesn't write about it.

When I was younger, I'll say this, when I was younger reading about this, I thought surely Paul was talking about somebody else. Surely not me. Actually, I'm with you on that. It is us. You and me together, and I'm kind of excited about that. Absolutely. A little bit? A little bit. When we read something and we feel like that feels foreign, instead of challenging our own thinking to say, is this real? Yes. Why do I not understand it? What can I understand better? Why does God, through Paul, say I need to know this? If our instinct in the flesh is to say that's not me, that's not what Paul's challenging us to be confronted with.

And that's really cool. It's going to take forever, as Ephesians 2 says. It's going to take forever for us to understand the grace of God. It's reasonable to think that this is a forever kind of a thing. But we can start now. So now the benediction. Both 20 and 21 start off to Him. This is now to Him who is able. I like this quote by Macaulay, so I decided to put it in. He elevates this benediction to the top of the pile here. He says, the benediction 2021 represents a high point in the book of Ephesians.

That's a pretty incredible statement. Much is yet to come, but its theme is the outworking of our position in Christ, and we are in Christ. We can ascend no higher. I got teared up reading that. Because this is another thing, we're in Him. There's no higher place we can be. And that's for everyone, every believer in Him. So that's pretty cool.

With that said, we also observe that there's two descriptions here, 20 and 21. One is general, and one is specific. So I'm not going to tell you which is which. Now you would think that in making that statement, usually you put first, second, but I don't think so. I'm giving it away now. Anyway, think about that. Which is general and which is specific?

Now to him who is able. We have a God who is able. We've just been looking at that. Who is able is to have the power. It's a form of dunamis. We always say it's the word for dynamite. But it actually has an ongoing... for dynamo too. So it's not just blowing up power. It's ongoing power all the time. Now the Him who is able. So we establish He's able to do. He's able to do. So God is able to do these things.

To do far more abundantly. to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. So I'm going to ask a question here. First of all, let me just give you the literal translation. What I mean by literal here, if you take your Greek and you do a word by word to the English, this is exactly what it says in the word by word. So it has a couple of other things stuffed in here. Literally, to do beyond all things super abundantly above, it goes with that word, The things which, that's another word, we ask or think. So what do you think here? Before I go on, you have it in your paper of course. Don't look, but maybe you have. Is this something in my prayer life I would use and say, Lord, take care of this issue, take care of that issue.

He makes a pretty incredible statement. In fact, it took me over a day. We went on a trip last week. I was studying this, I had my laptops, and Lani doesn't like that, but I had to go off and do that. Or she's watching TV. No, no. We were driving. We were staying somewhere. Actually, we did the Airbnb thing. This is not a plug for it, but it was pretty cool. Anyway, so I'm doing it, and I'm thinking, to do beyond all we can ask or think. And I'm thinking, oh, wait a minute here.

I'll tell you my struggle first. Well, I ask about all kinds of things. Lord, give me wisdom with this. Lord, you know, it would be nice if this, you know, just the colony of our family, if this issue were, you know, I'd like to see things this way and that way. Think. All that we can ask or think is another level up.

And I'm thinking, is that what I do? Is this a day in, day out prayer he's talking about here? And I don't think it is. I'm giving you the answer before I get there. And that's why I started. Because if you think, all we can ask, I think, wow, that's pretty cool. I get everything I want. All my troubles go away. Everything's good.

But for the rest of scripture, that's not so what's happening. OK, so I'll give you what. And then once I kind of amuse that for a while, actually, I'm getting ahead of myself here. So let's just go ahead. That's my struggles I had. And I'll tell you the results in a minute here. So let's just dissect this part here.

First thing, to do beyond all things. And it's Hooper Panta. Boy, these verses are just filled with all these excessive words about our Lord. In measure, exceeding all things, beyond all things. So he has a double set here. First is to do beyond all things. That's the first one.

And if you look in Colossians, I'll just read it in the interest of time, God is able to make all grace abound to you, is what that verse says. So, He can do beyond all things, and then in addition to that, part two, to do super abundantly. My goodness, this is, and it has that compound Greek word that means beyond all measure indeed, the highest form of comparison imaginable, And if you look in those Thessalonian verses, it's hard to find, but it's most earnestly or very highly to these two incredible words that we can ask or think. Ask is to ask something for yourself, and think is to consider or understand.

So here's what really got me thinking right here. And Schaeffer, once again, he writes, and I read it three or four times before it gets home to me, what he purposed is, and talking about this in the benediction here, what he purposed is none other than all that has been revealed in the earlier portions of this epistle, every spiritual blessing in Christ is in view And these the Apostle has by the Spirit set forth in this chapter 1-3.

So what he's saying here is, I didn't ask the Lord to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies. I would have never thought that in my lifetime. To ask that I would be seated with Christ in the heavenlies? That I would be all these blessings I have? So that fits what I can ask or think. That fits because I can ask or think. I don't think that way. Hopefully in time I will, as I know the Lord better. But beyond what I can ask or think are these wonderful blessings that are delineated in the first part of Ephesians. And I said, wow, that fits! I was amazed. Other people went off and said, these are for your prayer life right now. And I'm thinking, wow! I don't see that. Boy, this just really rang true to me. So this really helped me to understand Beyond what I can ask or think is what Ephesians is describing of who we are in Christ. I didn't ask for that. I didn't even think about it. I didn't think of all those wonderful blessings I have.

That's really cool. That's why I said this isn't a ho-hum benediction. This is pretty cool. Okay, go ahead. I'm wondering too if it's more of a, at least I myself, I'm looking at this, this, this, and this, but God is looking at a bigger picture. And that's beyond what I can, I'm a detailed person, I'm looking at this, this, this, and he's looking at that. He's looking at the big picture, he's up here looking at the big picture. Well, I think that's what he's saying here. He's looking at, you're not thinking about, I'm in Christ.

How does that help me? It's not easy to fit that into your normal workday life. But he wants you to have that view. He tells you all these wonderful things about who you are in him in Ephesians. And he's saying that's beyond what we can ask or think. He's praising God here. Now to him who is able, he has the power to do far more abundantly beyond all we can ask or think.

And like I said, that's what bothered me. I kept thinking, Well, I ask and think of all kinds of things in my prayer life, all the time. I think of all the things. I think of all the needs here at Holly Hills, at home, wherever in our country, with our family, my grandchildren, whatever. But these things, my position in Christ, doesn't come to my mind in that domain. But he's saying that this prayer is giving adulation to God for that. OK. Go ahead. I have two thoughts.

One actually goes back to when you taught in the main service at Romans 8, 26, and 27. You talked about the Holy Spirit. One, there were a lot of good points in that lesson. One of them was that the Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf about things that we couldn't understand or think. Right, that's good, that's good. And secondly, out of that you also said, and this is not actually my second point, but you said, why do we think God answers prayer? Because God prayed, the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf. It says He's praying. God must answer prayer.

So that's amazing. That's good. This is actually that that does tie with that. Yeah. And the second thing I wanted to point out is the Hooper accuracy is a triple compound here. Isn't that amazing? So if you thought I was very soon is about is out of and hyper is super or something like super outside of what you would think about. And which is just like Paul, you make up words so that we can just figure out a billion each. Well, like I said in this passage, there are more words like all these ones are just over the top and this over the top and that over the top. And anyway. And then he says it's beyond all that we can ask or think.

So I wouldn't think to ask about being seen with Christ in the heavenlies. I wouldn't think that. I wouldn't think about that I'm his child. The intimate relationship we have, I wouldn't have thought of that. He thought of that. I would ask God. Can you imagine many religions where you ask God to be his son or his child? They'd say, it can't do that. God is up here and you're down here. You can't ask that. Well, our God says you can ask that and I didn't do that. So it's pretty cool. So it's according to his power. So basically I saw that the Holy Spirit was in view here.

Ephesians 3.7 says, of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power. I couldn't expressly find that, but I think in the context that is according to his power that works in us, that certainly speaks to me of the Holy Spirit. So the last to him, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

So this is the second verse to him. And you know benediction is a praise offering to the Lord. So, you guys know, glory, right? It's who God is, right? It's more than just He's glorious, you know, the amount of transfiguration, He was glorious, He couldn't see, or Paul on the road to Damascus, glory is His total character, His glory is. And it's to be shown in the church, the body of believers. Ephesians talks about that, talks about His body, His body being the church, Christ's body. Let's just read that one.

Hebrews 3.1 says, I got that wrong, I apologize guys. Were you on vacation or something like that? Yeah, I was on vacation. That's true. That's true. Actually, you may hit the nail on the head. A lot of boo-boos here today. Okay, let's make a Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. This makes a lot more sense.

And He is the radiance of His glory, speaking of Christ here, And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, upholding all things by the word of his power. When he made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And for, it says, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. So two areas, to him be glory in the church and in the Savior. And it's to all generations. And literally, in the original, it's to all generations of the ages of ages. And that's a way, another way of saying forever and ever.

Go ahead. To share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle and the High Priest, whom many confess. Good, that's good too. They're all good. That wasn't the one I was intending, but that's a good one too. I could include that one. It's not fair. All of Hebrews is really good. You couldn't put any worse than that. They're all my favorite verses. Alright, well, so, fitting in, did Macaulay elevate, he says this benediction, these two verses are the high point of Ephesians. And actually, I would, boy, looking at what was said about our God who does beyond what we can ask or think, just that alone.

So you're not going to ask it? I wouldn't think to ask it? I wouldn't take it, and I wouldn't ask it. But he's going to do it. And he did it. So it's pretty cool stuff. Let's just go ahead and close. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Father. Thank you for this marvelous truce and this epistle to the Father. Thank you that we're kind of turning the corner here. And I pray for Randy as he sums up the chapter next week. And we pray for as we go on in Chapter 4 that we continue to Be amazed at what you've done on our behalf. In Christ's name, Amen.