According to the Riches of His Glory
First B Jackson
2026-04-12

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Through it. Blake, get the slides up there. Yeah, there we go. Alright. So, here's a little overview of where we're headed.

There's two paragraphs probably broken out in your Bible that way and that's these two things here. So, Paul is praying for a purpose. He's praying for our inner being and our faith, knowledge, and our filling, and there's a lot more in there than that and he's praying for God's glorification in our prayers, in the church, and in Jesus, and for eternity. So, we will start off with Paul praying for a purpose and he says right there, for this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may 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 grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Before we go further, let's let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much for this prayer that Paul has prayed that we get to study today. May it shape how we pray for ourselves and for each other and and for you and for your glory, lord. I pray this morning that you open our our spiritual eyes and ears and you help us to receive knowledge and then it wouldn't just be head knowledge but it would impact our life in every way. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Alright. So, for this reason, right there in the beginning, we gotta look back, okay? We gotta look back. What reason is he talking about? If we go back to chapter two, he's talking about how we, you know, both the Jews and the Gentiles, we are no longer foreigners and strangers but we are fellow citizens with the saints and he he goes into a building analogy.

We'll talk about a little bit where Jesus is the cornerstone and we're all being built together to be God's dwelling and then he says in in chapter three verse one for this reason, okay? And then and which is what Ray preached on a couple weeks ago but he kind of Paul takes a rabbit trail and doesn't really finish his thought until now in verse 14 for this reason. So they're connected. What reason is he talking about? Pretty much the whole letter.

We we can just preach all of it again so we really fully understand for this reason. No. We won't do that. But Paul is is teaching how before we were excluded from Christ, we're we were children of wrath but now, we have been brought near by his blood. Both groups, the Jews and Gentiles have access, fellow citizens, members of God's household.

And in chapter one, he says, in love, he adopted us. We are adopted into his family. We were dead and then he made us alive together with Christ, right? So, it's all of these themes, all these reasons, and this is cool to think about. He's he's given us all this info, all this knowledge, right?

But without prayer, what power does knowledge have? Right? So, he's he's praying for us right here that we would receive this knowledge in a big way. He prays for so much here and he says, so, I kneel before the father. I love that posture.

Now, if you're if you're driving down the road, you can't really kneel when you pray. Right? So am I saying, oh, you must always kneel when you pray. No. That is not what we're saying.

But there is value to physically kneeling and having a posture of prayer as as it makes sense for you. For me, it's at night often, I will kneel at my bedside and pray, pray over my wife, pray whatever it is and it just helps me physically to have that posture of prayer. So he says, I kneel before the father. So cool. He prays for his brothers and sisters, us in the church, to the father.

Right? Like, the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Like, it's a big deal who we're praying to. Like, it's God the father who named all, made all. There's nothing made that he didn't make, right?

And then also just to point out before we get into each sub point, it's very Trinitarian. This Paul, this this letter from Paul is Trinitarian which means he's talking about, he's praying to the father, he's praying about Jesus, the son, he's he's praying for the spirit to do work in us. So, you see all three parts of the trinity in the prayer. Alright. So Paul prays for a purpose.

He prays for our inner being. He prays for our inner being. For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. What is your inner being? What is that?

And later in chapter four, he says, don't lose heart. Our outer self is wasting away. Our outer self is wasting away, but our inner self is being renewed day by day. So that and you remember Paul says, you know, physical training, working out, doing power cleans, that has some value, right? Has some value.

But where is the priority in this prayer? The inner being. He's he's more concerned for our inner being than our outer being. So much so and there's folks in this room right now whose inner being, I mean, sorry, whose outer being is wasting away. And it is so sad.

Right? But we don't lose hope when our outer being is wasting away and failing. In fact, I have been so encouraged by some of the people in this room that their outer being is failing, but what's their inner being doing? It's being renewed. It's so much so that they are like sharing gospel with doctors and nurses that and it makes no sense because they're they have bad news about their outer being that they're rejoicing about their inner being, right?

So cool. What an opportunity that we can have with our inner being that the Lord strengthens. So according to what? There's this neat pattern. And I won't I won't try not to spend too much time on this, but when he says according to the riches of his glory, so he's praying in accordance with the riches of his glory.

That's limitless. There's this pattern all the way through chapter one and chapter two where he uses that language according to. He says, in verse five of chapter one, according to the good pleasure of his will, huge. According to the riches of his grace in verse seven and eight, that he lavished on us. Do y'all love that word lavished?

Like, when I hear the word lavish, I think about and there's gonna be food analogies in the sermon and some building analogies. So, just to get you ready. This is a food analogy. Lauren and I, early in our marriage, we got to go on a on a date to this place called the melting pot. Have you all heard of the melting pot?

The melting pot, you get there and there's appetizers. It's like a eight course meal and they have these bowls of cheese in the beginning and you're dipping all of the the food, this really great food into this cheese and you're eating it and they're just lavishing more food and more cheese and then my favorite part is the end and they bring out a fountain of chocolate and it's literally like flowing. It has a waterfall of chocolate and you're putting your desserts in there, your strawberry or whatever and you're just it's just lavishing this goodness all over your already good food and you're eating it. So, like, he, God lavishes grace on us. He lavishes so many good things on us.

Yes. And then at verse 11 of chapter one, according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will. That sounds huge. According to this, according to this, according to this, verse 18, he mentions the immeasurable greatness of his power. The immeasurable greatness of his power.

In the next verse, which he exercised in Jesus raising him from the dead, right? And then in in chapter two verse six, he mentions the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. There's an there's a pattern of this according to that Paul's praying and teaching according to a limitless source. A limitless source. He prays for our inner being to be strengthened with power from God by the spirit, through the spirit.

Without his power in us, we can't do anything pleasing to God. Right? We need his strength to love him and understand him. Right? We need his strength to carry us through dark valleys like when our outer self is wasting away, we need his strength.

We need his strength and his power to love our enemies. That's that's not natural. We need his strength to do that. We need his strength in our inner being to be his instruments for righteousness. We need his strength in our inner being to overcome trials and temptations to recognize where we've let the enemy have a foothold in our life and to flee from that.

Right? We need his strength to speak his word, his truth to each other and to the lost. We need his strength in our inner being for endurance in this lifelong journey to be more like him. So that's our inner being. Now he also prays for our faith that and according to the riches of his glory, limitless, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

By faith, he prays, Christ may dwell in your hearts but wait a second, that's funny because I thought when you're when you become a believer, he dwells in you right then, right? So, what's he praying for? He's praying for a more powerful presence in us and and somehow it's tied to faith. In Galatians two twenty, over the hill, we've been studying Galatians in chapter two verse 20. Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live which is confusing, right? He just said he was dead. Now, he's saying he's alive. The the old self is passed away.

The new self lives, right? So, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God. That's Galatians two twenty. Where faith is dead, where is the presence of Christ? There's this connection between faith and our living of the life of Christ in us, right?

There's this direct relationship. Remember back in school, you learn about the different types of relationship like a direct relationship is as this increases, this increases, right? Yes. So, y'all are you with me, right? Alright.

As faith increases, more dwelling, more of Christ in us increases. It's direct relationship. And then there's also when he speaks of this dwelling that Christ may dwell in your hearts, there's a link back to chapter two to that building analogy. Right? Jesus is the cornerstone.

All of time before and after is all pointing to Jesus. It's all about him. In verse 21, it says, in him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, y'all are also being built together for God's dwelling in the spirit. A friend of mine this morning or last night, I don't remember it was dark.

First Corinthians three sixteen. He just shared it with me. Just just totally random. He didn't know what we were preaching today. First Corinthians three sixteen.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? Great. Yes. By faith, he powerfully works in us. We must have this authentic faith, not just the knowledge which Paul prays for us here.

Oh, Paul. So good. So, we see this connection between before, you know, we're just talking about the strengthening of our inner being, right? Strengthening of our inner being by the spirit. So, you have that but it's there's a connection between that and this prayer for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith.

Both of them are happening. Both of them are being prayed for and it makes this complete total transformation on the inside. Alright. So dwelling, a building analogy. Before Lauren and I bought our house that is back home that's being rented out to some really lovely people, we were looking at and she was not on the same page, but I was looking at like getting an old nasty foreclosure.

Like, when you drive up and look at it, you're like, that is nasty. You know, Like a horrible house. And I went with the realtor and looked at one and I almost didn't wanna go in there. It stunk. It's it had foundation problems.

It it had moisture issues. The sheetrock was gonna need to be torn out but I'm in construction like it just looks like another project, right? But when we buy the house, we need to dwell in it. So, there is a conflict there, right? Like, I could manage but you know, for the betterment of my marriage, we chose not to go that route.

But think about just just walk down the road a little bit with me here. If we bought the house. Okay? Maybe if we weren't married. If it was just me, we'd no, we're married.

We got kids. We buy the house. We purchase it with cash. We didn't, we couldn't afford that but let's just pretend, right? We pay cash and we own this nasty house.

Yes. Yeah. There's a deed and it says, William Van Jones and Lauren Elise Jones own this house. It's paid for in full and we move in like we take nasty things out and just we're in one of the rooms. Okay?

Y'all with me? It needs foundation issues. You know, it needs repair on the foundation. So, we start there and get that squared away and then we we clean out, get some nastiness out of there. We start tearing sheetrock out and start hanging new sheetrock and finishing and painting and it's starting to become something, right?

The whole time we own it but it's starting to become something and and over a lifetime, you know, we have kids and we start moving into different rooms that haven't been renovated. You know, they're put on the back burner. If you're if you like to renovate yourself, you know, it might take a lifetime. So that's the analogy. Right?

In the same way, we as it is talking about him dwelling in us, right? He purchases us day one. Boom. He owns he the deed, if we were a house, would say covered by the blood of Jesus, redeemed. We are saved right then but it that's not the end of the story.

There's a renovation project because we look like that house, right? When we are purchased and so as he works in us and as we pray these prayers over us that he would be in us and strengthen us and he would just take over our inner being and that he would dwell in our hearts through faith and he's working on rooms that you hadn't let him in yet, right? Are we concerned for our personal holiness, our sanctification process as much as we're concerned for that outer being, our looks, and how much weight we can pick up. I know I keep saying that. That's obviously my struggle.

Our our our wealth or whatever the thing is, our outer being, are we concerned for our inner being as much? Are we praying for God to clean out our inner being which is a temple? Are we praying for him to come in that temple and start flipping tables? That sounds rough. The tables of lust and envy, misplaced priority, the love of money.

Are we praying for him to do those things? I'll let you answer that. Not just to yourself. Alright. So he prays for our knowledge.

He prays for our knowledge. Verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Great ball. So you're you're praying that we can understand something that's not understandable. Yeah.

It's another building analogy too. What is the length and width and height and depth? But it's immeasurable. His love is immeasurable. We've already talked about it.

He's limitless. But the good news is, you know, it's to comprehend with all the saints. Like, it's a group project. If you are like me, when you hear group projects, it gives you some comfort. You're like, oh man, I just need to find a really smart guy or girl, and I'll just ride in that wave on the group project.

That's horrible. I'm not saying you should do that, but we're all in this together. We can learn from each other. We can see how others are strong in their inner being and we can talk to them about that and learn from them and we can love them and they can love us. Like that's that's why we meet.

That's why we're a communities. We're it's all the saints. It's collective for the church. You can't measure the love of Christ but as we grow, as he grows, our inner being by the strength he powerfully works in us, gives us, he gives or sorry, as he dwells in us more powerfully by faith, we can comprehend more and more of his love as we love him and love others like he does. Right?

Like there's this, it's all kinda starting to build together, right? And then he says, we're rooted and founded or rooted and grounded, rooted and founded in love. There's I was watching John Piper talk about this last week and he pointed out rooted is like biological, a biological term founded is like a structural term. And we've already talked about the the structural analogy that Paul has already given with the temple and how we're all being put together. Jesus is the cornerstone.

He's dwelling in us. We've got that analogy. But what about the biological one? Jesus gives us a great analogy in John 15 when he's talking about how he is the vine and we are the branches. Remember, this section is really talking about knowledge, not just not like knowledge of his love.

Okay? So in John 15, he says, that he's the vine and we're the branches. We can't produce any fruit unless we remain in him. In verse five of John 15, Jesus says, the one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me and later in verse eight, he says, my father is glorified by this. That you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

I'm not, you know, going too far off of of love here, knowledge of love. We're getting to it but he's saying that he's glorified, that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples and then verse nine, he says, as the father has loved me, I also have loved you. So, remain in my love. Remain in my love. And then in verse 12, there's a call to reciprocate his sacrificial love.

He says, this is my command, love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends, which he did for us. We talked about it extensively last week. Right? This is my command.

Again, verse 17, love one another. So again, think about this. This is one small section of scripture where we can gain knowledge about the love of God and see of an analogy, a picture of how Jesus loves us and how we can love others. There's there's endless opportunities for us to gain knowledge about his love and how we should love others. Right?

But when we hear this and and have this knowledge of his love, like James says, we don't want to just be hearers who hear. We want to be we want to let that change us, like bring us to action. We want to do something about it. Knowledge that leads to action. So we must know him and abide in him to glorify him.

Alright. And then for our filling, it's the fourth part of this first section. And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Filled with all the fullness. What does that mean?

I can't help but think. I I must just be all about food when I was prepping. I can't help but think that old American pastry that's wrapped in plastic, that's yellow, it's a Twinkie, and it's what is it's filled. It is filled with this cream that is so yummy. Right?

I haven't had one I think since I was 12. But when literally when you bite into it, I still remember. It is filled with all the fullness. Like, it's it's just a fun picture to think about. This whole prayer is is leading to the section of fullness, right?

And we talked about all these different ways. All of these different ways. This this length and width and height and depth of God's love filling us in every dimension with the limitless love of Christ to be filled beyond knowledge, beyond comprehension, to experiential and tangible comprehension and immersion of his love. Strength in our inner being, increasing in our faith. And then we see in back in chapter two, this this grace and love aligned and where we have this undeserved favor and he lavishes this grace on us.

All of the goodness, this power, this knowledge, and wisdom, all of these things come from grace. Like our cup is overflowing from grace. And in chapter four of Ephesians, it's not on the slide light today. We see that there's like a maturity that's measured in the fullness in our life. So what what purpose?

It's for God to be glorified. That's the purpose of all of those things for God's glorification. Verse twenty and twenty one, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. So he's talking about Paul being glorified in our prayer and in the church and in Jesus and for eternity. He says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think and here we go according to again, according to the power at work within us.

This is so crazy. We don't pray or think enough like to even come close to what he can do for us. Remember, he is limitless. Limitless. But we we limit ourselves.

Why? What are we limiting ourselves by? What holds us back? A lack of faith, a lack of knowledge, a lack of prayer, a lack of his dwelling in us because of the junk that we have in us? What are we lack why are we lacking?

He prays for God to be glorified in the church. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. We first be and the big corporate church exist to glorify God. So may we abide in him and bear much fruit like it says in John 15. God is glorified in his son and in his dwelling in us, the members of his body.

We, the church, his bride, whom he loves, our purpose to glorify his name, to make his already great name great. That's that's our purpose. And he prays for God to be glorified for eternity. To him, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

The third first thought that comes to my mind is for all of you in the room who take part in the children's ministry downstairs, in the youth ministry on Wednesday and Thursday night. You are taking part in these generations. Like, you are doing this. Thank you. That's awesome.

Like, you're living this out in that service. Anyone discipling someone younger than you is taking part in this and if you don't have someone that you're discipling this younger, get after it. Like, there's so many people in here that that would love to to receive that wisdom from your life and for you to pour into them. So, find somebody to pour into that next generation. I love this church is so we've got the whole thing.

We went to a church back home and it was all young people. Yeah. But we have the honor to be in the same room with folks that have been here a long time. One day, all tribes, tongues, nations, all of creation will bow down to him and recognize the most glorious truth of all time that he is the one true God who loved us so much that he sent his son to provide redemption by dying for us. Amen.

And in his resurrection power, those who put their faith in him are adopted into his household and we, his creation, can glorify him for all eternity, right? Like, praise be to God that that is the reality.