God's grace to all of you, and I would invite you to bring the book not to Galatians, but to the book after it, and that would be Ephesians. Let's bring the book to Ephesians 3, and we'll be looking at the last few verses of Ephesians 3. Find Galatians and go one book over. When you look at this passage at a glance, it's much like a huge mountain range with various peaks. So if you have that in your mind's eye, a mountain range with various peaks, that's really a good picture of this passage. And the three main peaks that are in this passage would be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. because this is a Trinitarian passage and all three members of the Trinity are mentioned. And so this passage here at the end of Ephesians 3 brings us to a very high place. And you'll notice there that our passage begins in verse 14 and goes all the way down to verse 21. But instead of starting in verse 14 at the beginning, I want to direct your attention to the very end of our passage, to the very end of chapter 3, and notice the last word there. That last word is a word that you will hear during our songs. It is a word that you will hear during our sermons. And it's a word that, regardless if you speak Greek, or Hebrew, or English, or Spanish, or Ukrainian, or Japanese, or Chinese, regardless of the language, it's not really translated, it's the same word for all of us. And it's that word, Amen. Some of you might say, Amin. But across the board, it's the same. And you see that word amen at the very end. You see it there in verse 21. And it basically means, I agree. When somebody says amen, they're agreeing. But beyond that, amen means, let it become this way. When somebody says amen, you're saying, let it become this way. It may not be yet, but let it become this way. And I want to know. From verses 14 to 21, why does Paul say amen? What is he agreeing with? He says here, let it become this way, but to what? And not only is Paul saying amen, but he's calling the whole church, he's calling all of us to join him and to agree with him. He's calling all of us to say, let it become this way. And I want to know, amen to what? Well, we're looking at verse 21, and if you back up a little bit more, back up several words in verse 21, you'll notice that it's not to the pastor, it's not to the elders of the deacons, it's not to the worship team, it's not to any of us. But you notice there in verse 21, it's to him. Aren't those loaded words? To him. In fact, our passage says twice, to him. And really, if you want a summary, if you want a motto of the Christian life, it's to him. My life, your life, in two words, it's to him. We ought to fasten that on our minds, fasten that in front of us every day of our lives to him. It's not to money. It's not to careers. It's not to family. All of these have legitimate places. But in the final analysis, it's to him. And that's where Paul puts our attention. And you notice here, Paul says, as you keep going, to him be something. To him be glory. To God be glory. If you want to know the mark of a believer, if you want the characteristic of a believer, it's to him, to God, be glory. That if the spirit of grace is inside of you, when it's all said and done, what you want is for God to receive the glory. And that's what Paul is saying here. And it's not just, to Him be glory in my heart, to Him be glory in my life, to Him be glory in my family, to Him be glory in my career. We talk like that, but it's not just those things. But specifically, when you look at our text, it's to Him be glory where? To Him be glory in the church. And dear saints, if ever there ought to be a place of God's glory, it ought to be right here in the church. If ever there is a place of thanksgiving, it ought to be right here in this room, right here among God's people as the church. And you've heard me say this kind of thing that our church, as well as any church, But church ought to be one of the most joyful, one of the most encouraging, one of the most peaceful, one of the most humble, one of the most loving places in all the world. It shouldn't get any better than the church. And based on this passage, the church ought to be one of the most thankful people, one of the most thankful places in all the world. Nobody should outclass us in thanksgiving. The church. To him be glory. To him be thanksgiving in the church. Would the God And when we're together and when visitors come into this room, they don't just say, they have nice facilities, hey, they have really nice people, they have nice coffee, they have nice music. Would to God that when they walk away, they say, that church, they are a thankful people. Those people are glorifying God. Would to God that be our testimony? Now, Paul uses this word in verse 21 at the very end, he uses this word, amen. And not only in sermons, not only in songs do we hear that, but what else do we use that word amen? We typically hear that word amen in our prayers. You've said it a million times. You've heard it already in our church service. the word amen. And we typically put it at the end of our prayers. And that's exactly what's going on here. Paul is praying in verses 14 through 21. And we know that because he says amen. And look at the way it begins in verse 14. Paul says, I bow my knees toward the Father. He's praying. He's bowing. And then he closes with, I agree. Let it become this way. This is a prayer. And I want to know, What does he ask for? As he is humble, as he is fallen before the Father, as he's bowing to the Father, what is he asking for? So much so that he says, amen. And he's calling all of us to join him in this prayer. And we want to know, amen to what? And so let's read it. Ephesians 3, beginning in verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory and the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. And all God's people with Paul say amen. Let's pray. And Father, we do bow to you. We bow our hearts, we bow, and we would seek you, and we would seek help, and we would pray for the Holy Spirit, and we would pray that you would be glorified, and that you would so work in our hearts. And it's by Christ Jesus that we come. Amen. So churches tend to emphasize facilities. They tend to emphasize resources. Churches tend to emphasize schedules, and programs, and activities, and ministries, and all the things that are coming up. And in a lot of ways, we do. We have projects around the church. We have activities around the church. And like any other church, we tend to emphasize these things. But if we're not careful, in the midst of all of our busyness, in the midst of all the things that we're about, we can fail to emphasize prayer. We do, do, do, but we don't always pray. Our prayers don't match all of our actions. We concentrate feeding hands, youth group, caroling, Bible studies, decorating the church, fellowships, getting things ready, making plans. We emphasize these things, all these things that we do, but we don't really emphasize all the things that we need God to do. You want to know what prayer is? It's putting the emphasis on what we need God to do. That's prayer. That among our actions we need God to act, and that's what prayer is all about. Now, I think we all know C.H. Spurgeon. Spurgeon was a pastor back in the 1800s. He taught pastors. He had a preaching college. He gave lectures to his students. He's really the prince of preachers. He's a preacher's preacher. But he said this. He said, you know, I rather train one man to pray than 10 men to preach. That's interesting coming from a preacher. And E.M. Bounds, who said a lot of things about prayer, he said, you know, no amount of diligence, no amount of study, no amount of giftedness can ever compensate for the lack of prayer. So we plan, and we give ourselves, and we do all of these things, and we're gifted, and we're diligent, but brothers and sisters, there is no compensation if we lack in prayer. And so here, as we would just look back and step back a mile away from the passage, what we see here is that we must be a praying church. Emmanuel Baptist Church, all of us, we must be a praying church. That is clearly indicated in this text. We, as in verse 14, we as a church must bow our knees to the Father. And brothers and sisters, Not only should we be busy about doing things, but we should be busy about asking God to do things. And that's what Paul is doing here. He's dealing with the church. He's writing the church. He spent three years with these Ephesians in the book of Acts. So he's done a lot of things, but he is not neglecting prayer in all of it. And so it is with us. And what we see here from a mile away is that prayer and God's glory in the church go together. Prayer and God's glory in the church go together. And I'm sure over the next few days as we celebrate Thanksgiving, individually, as families, as a church, I am sure that we're gonna be thankful for any number of things. Over the next few days, I'll sit down around our kitchen table, and we as a family will go over the blessings, and we will go over things that we're thankful for. And on Wednesday night, you all will have the opportunity to share what you're thankful for. And it could be any number of things. You know the typical things that people usually say they're thankful for. But again, what can be missed in the whole shuffle is that what we ought to be is thankful for prayer. I know you're going to be thankful for family and friends and your home and your job and all of these things, but will we ever remember, will it be on the radar to be thankful for prayer? And that's obvious because how many times, and this has probably happened to everybody in here, how many times have you been on the phone with somebody and you said, you know what, thanks for taking my call. You ever said that before? Thanks for taking my call. Did you ever say to somebody, hey, thanks for listening to me. I appreciate you just letting me pour it all out to you. Thank you. Well, how much more should we do that with God? Psalm 28, verse 6, I praise the Lord, why? I praise the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my cry. In John 11, 41, Jesus gets in on it and he says, I thank you, Father, for you hear my voice, and I thank you that you always hear me. Our Lord was thankful for prayer. And brothers and sisters, one thing that we can glean out of this is that we must be a praying church, and we must give God the glory for the spiritual riches of prayer. When we pray, we obviously want God to hear us, and he does in Christ, in Jesus' name. So we want God to hear us. And sometimes when we're praying in a group setting, when we're praying here in church, or maybe as a family, other people will hear us. So not just God, but other people will hear us pray. Don just prayed and we all heard him. But if we go a step further, Not only God listening, not only other people listening, but do you ever pay attention to your own prayers? Did you ever hear your own prayers? You can learn a lot about yourself by what you pray for. Prayer is extremely revelatory. And when you think about your prayers, you can learn what's important to you based on your prayers. You pray for what's important to you. You want to know what's important to you? Think about your prayers. You can learn what you believe is important for other people. What do you ask God to do for other people? That's what you believe is important for them. And prayer will also reveal what you believe about God. It reveals what's important to you, what you believe is important for others, and what you believe about God. Now, dear saints, I would think that as Christians, no matter where we are and how long we've been saved, I would think that there's always room for us to keep learning, keep growing, and keep changing in all aspects of our Christian lives. Does anybody in here have it figured out? So we would say, okay, this area, that area, this area, that area, I need to learn and grow and change. Well, isn't that true in prayer as well? That we need to learn and grow and adjust in our prayers. Because when we look at this passage, brothers and sisters, we are seeing what is important to Paul, what he believes is important for the church, and what he believes about God. This is what we're seeing here, and this prayer is not just about Paul, but it's a reference point. This prayer here is a model. Remember, Jesus gave a model. Well, here, Paul is giving us a model so that we might learn and grow and change in our own prayers. Because I am positive about this in my life and your life. When you look at what Paul prays for and what you pray for, there's a lot of difference there. Now, is it Paul that needs to change or you that needs to change? So your prayers will reveal a lot about you. But what's here is an adjustment. And you notice there in verse 16 that he prays for something that we typically pray for. I'm sure everybody in this room has talked this way. He prays for something that we're used to praying for. You notice there in verse 16, he prays that you would be strengthened. And if I took a bunch of hands, have you ever prayed for strength, every hand would go up. He prays here that you would be strengthened. And when we're praying for strength, we're usually thinking, be strengthened with doctors, be strengthened with rest, be strengthened with food, be strengthened with therapy, be strengthened with vitamins and medicine, be strengthened with all of these things. But you notice what Paul says, He says that you would be strengthened with what? That you would be strengthened with might. Now that's an interesting way to put it, that you would be strengthened with might. What is he talking about? He's clearly talking about that you would be strengthened with God's might. That you would be strengthened with God's might upon you. And really what he's saying here is that God's might upon us would be the cause of our strength. That's what he's saying, that God's might upon us would be the cause of our strength. You feel weak this morning? What you need is the strength of his might. And when you admire certain Christians, and you sit there and say, I don't know how he does it. How are they so strong? It's the strength of God's might. Now, dear ones, you know that most people in this world want strength. And in the kind of climate that we live in, people need strength. We're a year away from a big election. And you better believe in our society, there are people that want political strength. And in a world filled with war, you better believe that there are all kinds of people that want militaristic strength. And you and I know in an economy like ours, that there are all kinds of people that want financial strength. And of course, we all have bodies. and we want physical strength. So this whole idea of strength is not a rare thing except in the way that Paul is praying. because he's not really talking about outward bodily strength, though that's not wrong, but you notice that you would be strengthened with God's might, that God's might would be the explanation for your strength, and where is he praying for that strength to be? He's praying that they would be strengthened with God's might in the inner man, on the inside. I'm used to praying for the body, and here he's praying for the inner man. Now, dear saints, you and I know that we can rattle off about God's strength, God's power, God's might. We could start to define that. We could start to give verses. We could sing songs about the power of God. And of course, when we think about the strength of God, we could say that God created the world. He created the universe in great strength. And God does miracles in great strength. And we could go on and on about these facts and figures that we have a head knowledge of, but they really don't affect our hearts. Everybody in here knows that God is mighty. But you know what Paul is praying for here? He's not praying for our ability to explain God's power. He's praying for our ability to experience God's power. The strength of God's might inside that we as a church would experience that kind of working from God. Saints, do you pray that way? I think we could express it like this, so you get this couple and they buy a house. It's far from a brand new turnkey house, far from that. It's a fixer-upper, it's a piece of work, it needs TLC, it's an old, rickety, messy house that needs a lot of TLC. And so with excitement, they buy this house, and they move in. And it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of strength to renovate this house. And they move into this house and from day one, what are they doing? They're tearing out the walls, tearing out the floors, they're putting in new flooring, they're putting in new walls, new furniture, new cabinets, new everything is going on. They're cleaning, they're painting, they're decorating. And brothers and sisters, you know that kind of work doesn't happen overnight, that it actually goes on for weeks and months and even years. We are still, right, we are still working on our homes after years. And so this couple, they begin working on this house that needs renovations, and it takes a lot of time and strength. And a year later, that house is a lot different, but it still has a long way to go. Five years later, it's a lot different than day one, but it still has a long way to go. 25 years later, the house still needs work, but it has come a long way. That house is nothing like day one. And you know what's interesting over the years? What happens to that couple's house? That that house begins to take on the characteristics and qualities of the people that live inside. Your house takes on the qualities of you living inside. And what's the point? When you and I get saved from day one, we're that old rickety house that needs a lot of TLC. And it's gonna take nothing less than God's strength from day one to start changing the old house that we are. And with a lot of time and with a lot of strength, a year later, five years later, ten years later, you're nothing like day one. You need a lot of work, but you're nothing like what you were. It's God's strength. It's God's might inside of you. And you know what happens? Just like that house begins to take on the qualities of the people that live inside, you and I start taking on the qualities of the God that is at work inside of us. If he's living inside of us, he begins to renovate and decorate a certain way. So that I begin to put away the old man, the old clothing, the old ways. I begin to put away the selfishness, the emotions. I begin to put away the impulses. I begin to put away the foul mouth and the dirty mind. I begin slowly but surely to be renovated from the inside out. And God is doing it with his strength. And he is changing me so that I begin to take on the very qualities of God who lives inside. That's what Paul's praying for. And dear ones, I would think that if God is at work strengthening our inner mans, If we're praying that God, by his might, would strengthen our inner mans, what we all ought to say with Paul is, amen, let it become this way. God, be at work in me, be at work in the people beside me, be at work in our church. And before you complain about the people beside you, think about how much have you prayed for the very thing you're complaining about. So open your mouth, but open your mouth about those things to God. And pray that God, by His might, would strengthen our inner man. And together we ought to say, Amen, we agree. Let it become this way. And I would think, brothers and sisters, If God is strengthening us with his might in our inner man, I would think that what's gonna be true of this church is that we are gonna glorify God. There will be glory in this church if God is at work strengthening our inner man with his might. If God is doing that, there will be glory in this church. See how important this prayer is? Dear ones, as you Keep looking, it's obvious that Paul knows that the church, the likes of us, need a lot of help. We need to be strengthened in our inner man, but that's not all. Now, our focus tends to be on our love for Christ, right? We sing songs about that, we pray that way, and we know that we should love Christ more and more. You remember what Jesus said to Peter? Peter, do you love me? Three times, Peter, do you love me? That's a question we have to answer. And surely, we would say, Lord, strengthen me with your might in the inner man so that I would love you more, that I would love you faithfully. God, increase my love for you. We ought to be praying that way, but brothers and sisters, that's not really the angle that Paul takes. He's not really focused on our love for Christ. He's focused on the other side of that. In verses 18 and 19, Paul is focused on Christ's love for us. Now again, just like the power of God, we know verses about Christ's love. We know songs about Christ's love. We could talk about the love of Christ. But is that really what he's talking about? That you can rattle off verses about God's love? That you can just kind of sing songs about God's love? Is that really what Paul is talking about? What if? I said to any one of you, come on up here and for the next five minutes, tell us about the love of Christ. Well, how would that go? That would probably be a little more challenging than we would actually realize. Come on up here, take a few minutes and tell us about the love of Christ. No wonder Paul is praying that we would understand the love of Christ. That's what he's saying here in verses 18 and 19. He's saying that we need to be strengthened with might in our inner man so that we can comprehend the love of Christ. We need to pray so that we know this love of Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is not rocket science because There are a lot of things we need help to understand, right? We need help to understand science and math and how to do taxes and how to load up our computers and how to fix a car and we get on YouTube and we do all these how-to. There are a lot of things that we need help to understand how to do. And brothers and sisters, no wonder Paul is praying here for God's help, for God's strength. that we would comprehend the love of Christ. If you need help understanding science or taxes, how much more do you need help understanding the love of Christ? It's not natural to us. How would you measure his love? How would you measure the love of Christ? Would you do it in pounds? Would you do it in acres? Because Paul gives a geometric shape here, it's just an illustration, but he gives these four dimensions, doesn't he? He says that the love of Christ has length to it, and it has width to it, and it has height to it, and it has this depth to it. And so he gives these four dimensions in all different directions. And I think basically what he's saying is this love of Christ keeps going in all these directions, and it doesn't stop. Mine does, but his doesn't. And so the length and width of our Lord's love is all over the earth. And the height of his love is from earth to heaven and heaven to earth, that's his height. And the depth of our Lord's love is the cross. Just think about you, that Christ would bear your sins, that he would take your blame, that on the cross he would actually suffer. Does anybody in here want to die? Well, Christ didn't want to die, but he faced that death, the death of a sinner, the death of somebody being judged by God. He took that blame upon himself. And there we see the depth of his love to do something for the undeserving. that we might be reconciled with God. And so what Paul is saying here is that we would be strengthened with God's might in the inner man, and specifically that we would be strengthened with God's might in the inner man so that we would learn and comprehend the love of Christ. But brothers and sisters, just a few weeks ago, my wife and I went to a friend's wedding. And they stood up there all happy and joyful, and they gave their vows. And while you and I could talk about and define marital love, romantic love, we could talk about the love of a husband and wife, we could talk about that. But there's a sense to which talking about love defies words, it's an experience. That love between a husband and wife goes beyond words. And that's what Paul is saying here, that you would comprehend this love of Christ, that you would know it in your mind, but then he says that this love of Christ is beyond knowledge. It's beyond mere definitions, it's beyond mere words, and he's praying that you would be strengthened in the inner man so that you would know this love, not just in a comprehension, but you would know this love in an experiential way, brothers and sisters. If we're honest, we do not experience the love of Christ deep down within as we ought to. And that's why Paul is praying for God in his strength and might to come and open that experience to the people of God. So that it's not just something that we know about, but it's something that we feel. So that I'm touched, I'm moved with the fact of Christ's love. That sometimes I'm moved to silence, or moved to tears, or I'm moved to joy, or I'm moved to praise because of the experience of Christ's love. That's what he's praying for. This comprehension, this experience that is beyond knowledge. And dear ones, Paul says amen. I'm praying for the church to be strengthened in the inner man, so that we would be renovated. And I'm praying for the church to be strengthened on the inner man, that they would know the love of Christ. And he says, join me in saying amen. Let it become this way, that the people of God are strengthened with might, so that they're renovated within, so that they become more and more godly, and so that they become more and more as those that are touched by the very love of Christ. That's what he's praying for. And dear ones, if God is working in our church in such a way, if he's strengthening our inner man and expanding our awareness and he's expanding our hearts to gravitate and to be moved and to experience the love of Christ, if God is doing that within, there will be glory in this church. If we are experiencing the love of Christ in the way that Paul's talking about, there will be glory in this church. Paul here is not too interested on what we do on the outside. That's us. We're very interested in what we do on the outside, but he's actually very interested in what's happening on the inside, because what's happening on the inside will inevitably affect the outside. That you would be strengthened in the inner man so that you would know God's renovation and so that you would more and more experience the love of Christ. Does anybody need that kind of praying? And you say, well, this sounds good. I understand about God's strength and his might in my inner man to renovate me and to change me and to change my heart and my affections and my goals and my desires and my behaviors and my words and my thoughts. I understand about how God strengthens me with might in the inner man. I understand what you're saying, Pastor. I understand about this experience of the love of Christ that you're talking about. I understand what you're saying, but I know me, and I live in the real world, and I'm so weak. I struggle so much. So you can talk about God's strength, you can talk about experiencing God's love, but I know by tomorrow it's so, so hard. I can't do it. And that's why Paul says what he says in verse 20. Because we would be quick to say, now unto me, now unto me, I can't do it. This strength that you talk about, this godliness that you talk about, this inner work that you talk about, loving Christ, knowing the love of Christ that you talk about, I can't do it. And he says there in verse 20, now unto him. That's where your attention must go. That's where your faith must go. That's where your urgency must go. Now unto him. I know, I know what the flesh does. I know how weak and unable we are because I face it too. And Paul says, I told you about the heights of this passage, right? Mountain peaks, here it is. Now unto him. Above your temptations, above your circumstances, above your weaknesses that you feel, and all of your flaws, now unto him. And the next high point, now unto him. who is able. He's able to strengthen your inner man and to renovate you. He's able to help you out of that temptation, out of that besetting sin that you just can't stop doing. Don't keep saying, I can't do it. Well, that's true on your own, but don't just say, I'll never get over this. I'll never have victory. It's a denial of the one who is able. Paul says, now to him who is able to strengthen you with might in the inner man and to give you the experience of the love of Christ. With Paul, we ought to say amen. Let it be so that at Emmanuel Baptist Church, you're strengthening our inner man so that we are renovated people, taking on the qualities of the God that lives inside. Amen, let it become that we experience this love of God that is beyond mere facts and figures. And brothers and sisters, if we as a church will remember to him who is able, if we would believe that, to him who is able, God will be glorified in this church. If you walk away believing to him who is able, God will be glorified in this place. And so I have more, but I'm going to pick it up on Wednesday. And actually, I didn't really say what I kind of wanted to say, but it's going to come on Wednesday. God bless it to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.