Ephesians week 6: fully resourced
Fully Resourced
The Friend or acquaintance who has more than you:
· Set designer in NYC ($5k/day – refused to eat off of plastic)
· My friend Charles (Play anything that comes to mind)
· My brother and his near-photographic memory (makes it impossible to win an argument)
For these, and a million other reasons, I live with some awareness of the limits of my resources… and that’s just with the things are that marginal (at best) to a quality life. Those limits feel even more severe when it comes to the things that really matter: mental/emotional health, physical health, relational health... you know, the real stuff.
The GOOD NEWS is:
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Paul’s prayer is for a revelation of Christ’s promise – that in him you are fully resourced. You have all you need to enjoy all the life there is. And that’s not a metaphor. But if you need a metaphor to begin to comprehend it, think of it like being plugged into The Matrix. Part of the genius of that film is that the lead character, Neo – or new man – doesn’t overcome the obstacles in his way by sheer work and determination. Instead, he plugs in and has all that he needs for the circumstance he’s facing. The film is, emotionally speaking, about him coming to the place where he actually believes it. Not just ascents to it – but believes it so wholly that he acts on it.
So, let’s break this passage down into digestible chunks so we can chew on it and make it part of who we are. Let’s quickly look at v15:
I’m skipping v14… when you start to unpack the “this” in “for this reason I fall to my knees,” you end up with a 90 minute sermon… at least. So, let’s assume the 4 weeks before cover the “this” and pick right up with:
V: 15
15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
God: the Creator – right off the bat Paul reminds who you’re dealing with. The God who can bring something from nothing is not troubled by our lack. Thus, Paul can truthfully refer to God’s resources as “UNLIMITTED.” With God, you lift your head to chew the bite you just took and when you look back down for the next one, your tilapia sandwich is still whole.
V: 16
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
It’s crucial to recognize that the resource empowers your “inner strength.”
It’s true that Christ work on the cross provides salvation (sozo) for you spirit soul, body, socially, and financially. We all need to be saved in each of those areas. But the spirit – that part of you that is most truly you – is the spearhead that will pierce each of the other areas.
Death is separation – plant analogy – plant image. That’s why sometimes it feels like you can’t get there from here.
V: 17
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
You see a progression of knowledge at work: first, Impartation: Strength Given, when we know what he can do, we begin to see what he’s like. With that “kick-start” we begin to see what he’s like: When we know what he’s like, we trust him. When we trust him, we begin to do what he says. When we do what he says, we make space for a closer relationship with him. And the next thing you know, we’re always with him – drawing strength, now knowingly, from him directly.
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them (John 14:23).
i. Like any other exercise, practiced over time it makes what once was difficult easy.
ii. As a natural result, we “bear fruit.”
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 – NIV).
iii. This is not only fruit of the Sprint in that those who live this way will exhibit joy, forgiveness, patience, long-suffering, love…. But it is also the sozo-life coming to the other parts of you: soul, body, socially, financially.
V. 18
18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Again, the progression continues, because as the fruit of our increasing intimacy with God makes itself known in our lives, we grow in our capacity to understand just how truly remarkable the love we’re experiencing is. You find yourself free – free to forgive, free to love back, free to trust, free to try, free to give a little more, free to rest, free to share, free to laugh, free enjoy the quirky stuff that you enjoy, free to be you. You’re no longer separated from life so get a real solid look at what YOU look like ALIVE. You get a look over the precipice and realize you can’t see the bottom, the top, the sides – it just goes on forever in all directions – from eternity straight to you.
And that’s when you really start to get it – I’m never going to completely get it – the only way to know more is to experience more. So, Paul continues:
V. 19
19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
It makes your heart race to even think it’s possible, but that’s exactly why they call it GOOD NEWS. It seems too good to be true… but the more you experience the more you realize that it is in fact it is so good that it is TRUTH. It’s more than a thing you see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. It’s a thing you can live. And it makes empirical knowledge feel like mere hear say. It is the ultimate in verifiable evidence-based knowledge. It is, instead,
V. 20
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
And it is the reason that God deserves all the glory – because he is able through his mighty power to break through our death, impart the strength of his resurrection life into our in most being, make us able to invite him in, grow in trust of him, draw our strength from him, enjoy the fruit of that relationship, understand the infinite love that makes the process possible, and then experience that incomprehensible love so that we are whole.
Since we are so resourced, how then shall we live?
Anxiety free
Depression free
Quick to forgive
Holy