Scripture reading this afternoon is taken from Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 through 21. You can find it in your bulletins. Also you could use your Bibles as well. Ephesians 3, 14 through 21. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and granted in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly done all that we ask or think according to the power of work within us. To him be the glory, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Holy Father, we thank you for revealing to us through your word this prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesian church. We thank you because through this prayer we understand also how you want us to pray. With this prayer also we are moving our hearts to seek the things that you are revealing through this prayer. May you help us, Lord, as we consider this passage, to understand what you have written, and also to be ministered by your word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that is in us, that gives us understanding of your word. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, and gave us access and boldness to pray. We thank you all these things in Jesus' name, amen. So I would like to start by reading a quote from John Stott's commentary on efficiency in this chapter. Particularly, this quote was very challenging for me, and I would say a blessing as I was meditating on God's Word. And I'd like to share it with you as we consider this portion of God's Word. It says like this. One of the best ways to discover a Christian's chief anxieties and ambitions is to study the content of his prayers and the intensity with which he prays them. We all pray about what concerns us and are evidently no concern about matters we do not include in our prayers. Prayer expresses desire. For example, when Paul pray, For the salvation of his Israelites, King Fawkes, he wrote of his heart's desire and prayer to God for them. As the hymn puts it, prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered and unexpressed. The reason why I find this quote very, I would say I found it very challenging is because it make me think and meditate on what I pray for, what I usually pray for. We learn from God's word that we are called to bring before God our needs. We learn from the Lord's prayer that we are called to pray for our daily bread, and all this is very important. But also, we learn from God's word as we see from these verses that we are studying today that there are things that are very important that we all Christians should be praying about. and it have to do with our souls, and it have to do with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And this is what I think that we see on these verses. Paul is modeling for us by telling the Ephesians how he was praying for them. He was modeling for them what they should be praying about. And something important to consider is that when Paul wrote this, Paul was inspired by God. This is divine word. So in other words, what Paul was writing here is God was revealing to the Ephesians and he's revealing to us, all Christians, something that we should be praying about. So I think for that reason, we should pay careful attention to these verses that we are reading today. This is actually Paul's second time, or Paul's second prayer throughout the letter of Ephesians. He stopped in chapter one to tell the Ephesians how he was praying for them. And this is the second time he stopped in his teaching to the Ephesians to let them know how he was praying for them. In the first prayer, or in the first time that he taught them how he was praying for them, He told them that he was praying that God will give them understanding of the spiritual blessings that are theirs or were theirs in Christ Jesus. And as we saw in that test, when Paul said the spiritual understanding or to have understanding or revelation of these things, is that it will be more than just a rational understanding of these spiritual blessings, but those blessings will influence everything that they do, that God will reveal that to them in a very special way, so these blessings will become very real in their lives. In this prayer, Paul has something in common with the previous one, which is that he's also concerned with their souls, their spirit, spiritual blessings. One thing that you can see difference between what Paul is praying about here versus what he prayed before is that here he's praying for the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers to give them strength, to give them the power to live a life that honors God. So in the first chapter, Paul taught them that he was praying that God would reveal to them how God has blessed them with these spiritual blessings. And here right now, Paul is teaching them, or was letting them know that he was praying that the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts to strengthen them. And again, Paul is modeling this for us, and again, it's God himself who is revealing this to us, that we should pray the same way. That probably we should move up to the top of our list what Paul is praying about here. That we should continue to pray for the things that we pray in our life because we're called to pray and bring before the Lord all our needs. But this might be very important that we move it up top on the list, that we pray for these things as well. So there are three things, or four things, sorry, that I would say Paul is praying here for them. And others will find probably six things or seven things, other commentaries, and some will find only four or three. But at least I saw four. One is that the Holy Spirit strengthened our inner being. Second, that Christ might dwell in our hearts. Third, that rooted and grounded in love, we might comprehend the love of Christ. And fourth, that we might be holy as God is holy. And as we go through the test, I will repeat them again, so if you were taking notes and you couldn't, you will be able to do it. So the first one is that the Holy Spirit strengthen our inner being. The Holy Spirit strengthen our inner being. Paul starts this prayer actually the same way he started, or I should not say he's this prayer, but the way he tell them how he's praying for them, the way he told them how he was praying for them in chapter one. The same way he says for this reason. And in chapter one, when he says, for this reason, he was pointing back to all the spiritual blessings that were theirs in Christ. Spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ. And then he prayed that God would reveal to them these spiritual blessings. Paul here starts again saying, for this reason, pointing back to something. And there has been various opinions on this. John Calvin, for example, thought that when Paul said, for this reason, he was pointing back to what he has just said in the previous verse, referring to the sufferings that Paul was enduring as he was in prison. John Stott will say that when Paul says for this reason, he was pointing back to the fact that Christ has broken down the wall that divided Gentiles and Jews and also Jews and Gentiles with God. James Boyce, which is the author which I agree with in this point, is saying that Paul is pointing back basically to all what he has said before. that God has already promised these things to these people that he is going to pray for them. That God has already predestined these people before the foundation of the world to receive these blessings and therefore he is praying that they receive these blessings. And the reason why I agree with that is because you see that in the first instance when he shared with them while he was praying for them, it was right after he told them all these spiritual blessings. And here he paused again to tell them, now I'm gonna tell you that I'm praying for you, that all that I have mentioned to you in chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three will become real in your lives. And then Paul says that he bowed his knees before the Father. This might sound something familiar to us in our context. Some of us bow our knees to pray, but Jews didn't pray this way. They pray standing up, looking up to the heavens. So the fact that Paul is saying this is demonstrating that for Paul was very important that they receive what he was praying for them. And I don't know if this has happened to you, but there has been moments in my life when I have seen myself bowing my knees because I'm praying for something that become very important in my life. So Paul says, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. If you hear me preaching weekly, you know by this time that I like to mention a few Greek words that are from the test. And I tell you the only reason why I do that is because when you look at these words, they help you to see things that are not sometimes so clear when you read the test in English. And I think that, for example, this is one of the reasons. When I read this for the first time, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, I was thinking, What does Paul mean here? Is he talking about, we understand the families on earth that are here, the Leal's family, the Pfeiffer's family, or I can keep going with all these families who are believers and come to church and Paul is praying for them. But is he also talking about the Leal's family in heaven? And it's heaven divided within families that he's praying or he's referring to these families that have received this blessing. In fact, the word every here that we have from every family could be translated, and actually a better translation is the whole family. The NIV Bible renders that word that way. So it will be translated this way, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. Right away, I think that for you and for me, that removes any doubt. The reason why we pick either every or the whole is based on the context of the text or based on this verse in the context of the rest of the Bible. And Paul have taught already that one of the blessings that we have is that we have become members of the household of God. God is the father. There is only one family. We call it the universal church. Christians here, Christians in Africa, in China, in Colombia, in any place of the world that join Christians that are in heaven as well. So Paul is saying, I bow my knees from whom every family or the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. God is the God of his universal church. Christ is the head of the universal church that includes all the families on earth and in heaven. That also can give us some encouragement to know that those who have fallen asleep are brothers and sisters in Christ, continue to be connected with us in a sense, because we are connected with Christ. We are united to Christ and they continue to be united to Christ in heaven. There is only one church, the Church of Christ. And then Paul prays telling them or tells them why he's confident as he prays. He says, according to the riches of his glory. I think when you go to ask somebody for something, you can go as confident as how much you know that person is able to give you, right? So you know that Paul is coming to God who is rich in all these spiritual blessings. who has everything and who does not deny anything to those who ask him according to his will, according to what he knows is better for them. So he comes with confidence and we'll see that later in verse 20 when he also talks about according to the power. And he prays this, the first theme, which is that the Holy Spirit will strengthen our inner being. He put it like this. He might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. One thing that we can learn from this prayer and these other prayers from Paul that maybe we don't use often in our prayers is that Paul is conscious and understands that the three members of the Trinity do different things in our lives in His plan of redemption. He prays to God the Father that the Holy Spirit will do this work in them. And you will see later that he prays also to God regarding our Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that as we see this as a model for our prayers, we could learn how we should also, as we pray, consider that we're bringing things before God our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And many times we also need to remember that we need to pray that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and the lives of others. Even non-believers, as we pray for their conversion, when we pray that somebody will come to faith in Jesus, we're praying that God will send the Holy Spirit to them. But we saw previously also, that when he was praying in the previous prayer, that God will send the Holy Spirit to believers, meaning that he will, through the power of the Holy Spirit, give them understanding of things that they could not understand before. Now he prays that God will strengthen them with the Holy Spirit in their inner being. Eso antropos. Inner man. In their inner man. And he's referring to their soul. It's inner because we cannot see it. We don't see our spirits, our soul. We only see our bodies. But Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit will do a work in their souls, in their spirits. That work in particular is about strengthening them. To be strengthened with power in his spirit. When we think about strengthening the spirit, I think that probably this becomes familiar for us as we see it as Christians and we see it as something that we get it, we understand it, but that's not as simple. Because we can see and understand physical strength. You go to the gym and you work out or you run or you do things and you get muscles and you become strong physically. And because of that, you are able to endure more, maybe lifting up more weight, or maybe walking more miles, or maybe doing more stuff that is physical. But sometimes, if we see this, we have to accept that we don't understand fully how the Holy Spirit is actually strengthening our souls, because we cannot see our souls. But our souls are strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now the question is, to do what? Our souls are strengthened, for example, to resist temptation and sin. Our souls need to be strengthened to endure temptation, resist, and not to fall into sin. Our souls are strengthened to endure suffering as well. We face sufferings and trials in our life and our souls are strengthened to endure the sufferings that we face as Christians. Our souls are strengthened to remain faithful in our trials. That even when you are going through trials and you see everything falling apart in your life, you are strengthened to continue to trust that all things are working together for good. that God still loves you, that God is good, that God is still real. Because you can be tempted to think, well, if this is going so bad, maybe there is no God. But our souls are strengthened to remain faithful during trials. Our souls are strengthened for spiritual disciplines. One of the probably things that we might think is easy in life is to pray, but it's actually one of the most difficult practices that we all have as Christians. You can invite people to Bible studies or conferences or different activities, and you get people to come, but when you say, let's come to a prayer meeting, I tell you, from experience is not that easy. You don't have many people to come to pray. And think about your own life, your own devotional life, how difficult it is for us to pray for a certain time. Our souls need to be strengthened to pray. Our souls need to be strengthened to read God's word and then we don't fall asleep. And to study God's word and have understanding of what the word of God is teaching us. Our souls need to be strengthened to care for our bodies, to be disciplined. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and our souls need to be strengthened so we are careful how we care for our bodies. Our soul needs to be strengthened to be disciplined in any area of our lives, even in our finances. All this to say when When Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit will strengthen them, he wasn't only talking about strengthen them for spiritual life in the church, but that he will strengthen them for everything that they will do in life. Remember, we have three enemies. Our flesh, the world, and the devil. And our souls need to be strengthened to face these three enemies. So this prayer of Paul for them is very important. This prayer for ourselves, this daily prayer that God will strengthen us with the power of the Holy Spirit, our inner being, is very important. Second prayer of Paul, he says, that Christ might dwell in our hearts. It says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Here another Greek word that is interesting is the word kotoikeo. Or somebody might pronounce it kotoikeo. Which is the word that we have translated in our versions as dwell. And why that word is important is because there is another word which is paroikeo. which is translated as dwell in different parts of the scripture. But there is a difference, a big difference between these two words. The word kotoikeo means to settle down, while the word paroikeo means to inhabit as a stranger. The word paroikeo is the same word that Paul uses in chapter two, verse 19, when he's referring to aliens, people who dwell or inhabit as strangers. But the word that Paul is using here, kotoikeo, is the word that translates to settle down somewhere, to inhabit, to live there. And I think that's important because it's referring that Christ may dwell forever in you. That Christ will not be an alien in your life that comes and goes, that takes part of your life sometimes, But that Christ will be in control. Basically what Paul is praying here that so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith is that Christ will be the Lord of your life. And think about this, he is praying this for believers. How does Christ dwells in your heart? Through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is already in their lives. But Paul is praying that Christ will be in control of their lives, that they will see Christ as their Lord. The third prayer that you see here is that rooted and grounded in love, we might comprehend the love of Christ. It goes like this, that being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. Paul is using here two metaphors. One is botanical and the other one is architectural. He says rooted as comparing us as a tree that has roots in a ground and that ground where we are rooted is love. And the other metaphor is grounded is as a building that has a foundation in love. Now Paul says that we may have strength, but I think a better word to translate that word here, rather than strength, is to be able, or power. Because strength is usually used as resisting, to endure, but here is that we will be enabled to do that. To do what? To comprehend. the love of Christ. And he described it as what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth. And historically people have seen this illustrated in the cross of Jesus. The vertical pole reached heaven but also reached down to sinners like us. And the horizontal where Christ has his arms is welcoming sinners like us. But what Paul is praying is that we will be able to comprehend, is to experience the love of Christ, which he says that surpasses all knowledge. That we cannot comprehend. But we can through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And why is that so important? Because when we comprehend, when we understand the love of Christ in our life, it's that we can be rooted and grounded in love, and therefore, we will bear fruit of love towards those around us. This is why he says that we might have strength to comprehend with all the saints. How do you show love to someone if it's that you have someone around you? You show love to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Or you show love to those who are outside the church. Because you have understood God's grace and God's love in your life. Because you have understood what Christ has done in your life. And if you understand that, that move you towards loving your neighbor. Remember what motivated God to send his son is that he loved us. Because he loved us, he sent his son to die on the cross for us. And that understanding is what move us to be rooted and grounded in love. Therefore, bear fruit of love towards the members of the body of Christ, but also towards those who are not members of the body of Christ, which we want to reach with the gospel. And fourth, that we might be holy as God is holy, and you might wonder, where do I see this in the test? Well, you read verse 19 that says, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, and here he goes, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That word with can be also translated unto, all the fullness of God. And basically when it says, unto all the fullness of God, means that you reach the standard of God, which is holiness. He want us to be holy because he is holy. And remember, God's will for your life is your sanctification. Paul have taught us before as well. Therefore, Paul is praying that they will be filled with all the fullness of God, is that they will bear fruits of being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And remember, in all this, what is common is that this is for those who are in Christ, these are blessings that belongs to us because they are spiritual blessings that we have because we are in Christ, but they are given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He's praying to the Father that through the Holy Spirit, he does this work where? In our inner beings, in our souls. You see it before also in your hearts, which is the same, your souls, your hearts. Now where is Paul's confident? And where should be our confident as well? Paul's confidence is in this, that now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, that God is able. Sometimes the person that you are frustrated the most is with yourself. And I think that Paul had that experience. You read that in Romans chapter six when he says that he didn't do what he wanted to do, but he did what he didn't want to do. And you see yourself because you know yourself very well, and you say, there is no way that I can change. There is no way that this person who I am can be different. But God is able to do more than what you ask and what you think. And when I say what you ask, it's because sometimes we are not even praying for these things, and God is still doing it. How do we know that? Because it says, according to the power at work, again, within us, in our inner being. God is already doing that work. We know that Even though our outer self, which is our body, is wasting away, our inner self is growing day by day. God is doing this work in our lives. This is what is sanctification. He is growing our inner being. And we, again, because we don't see ourselves, we don't realize how much we grow. Sometimes, this take the form of realizing our brokenness. and how bad we are. And this is a step forward because God is revealing yourself, revealing to you what he is doing at work in your life. Therefore to him be the glory in the church and in Christ throughout all generations forever and ever, amen. Paul closes giving God the glory because at the end, he is the one who does this work. He is the one who is able to do this work. Now, brothers and sisters, I think that when you look at this test, this test should challenge you, at least it challenged me to pray for myself, these things, and to pray for you as well. And I think that you, again, should move up top on the list of your prayer requests. That you pray that God may grant you strength and power through the Holy Spirit. That he will indwell you with our Lord Jesus Christ. That our Lord Jesus will be in control. He will be the Lord of your life. That you will be rooted and grounded in love because you have understood the love of Christ. Basically it's that he will give you a deeper understanding of Christ's love in your life. and that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. May we pray this. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for your grace. and the way you minister to our lives in ways that we don't even realize how you shape our souls through the power of the Holy Spirit. And through all the circumstances that we face in life, you're working all things together for good. And we praise you for that. To you be all glory and honor. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.