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[0:00] You guys can go ahead and y'all know where to turn. We're going to the book of Ephesians. We are going to be in chapter 3 today, tonight.

[0:13] And you guys are troopers. Because I know after a day like today, you guys are probably tired. And listen, that's okay. Now we're tired.

[0:24] We're aware of our weakness and God's going to use it for his great purposes. So the title of my sermon tonight is... Let me start my timer. The title of the sermon tonight is The Immeasurable Power of the Love of Christ.

[0:38] The Immeasurable Power of the Love of Christ. And we'll be in Ephesians chapter 3, jumping down to verses 14 through 21. So as per usual, I'm going to read the text, pray, and then we'll get after it.

[0:52] This is God's holy and authoritative word. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

[1:10] 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 breadth and length and height and depth.

[1:39] And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

[1:50] 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.

[2:08] Amen. Father, would you bless the preaching of your word? Father, would you bless the church?

[2:43] Times to think and times to comprehend truly what the love of Christ is and what it does for us. And would you use me as your instrument this evening to do that? In all my weakness, Lord, would you make your power known?

[2:59] Fill me with fire from on high to bless your beloved church this evening. Lord, may I get out of the way so that Christ may be glorified and magnified and exalted.

[3:16] In Jesus name. Amen. There's something innate within humanity that absolutely loves the power of love.

[3:27] Right? So many, if I could go through pretty much any Disney movie that has ever been created. And at some point, the power of love is going to be shown to change the ways of evil and bring about all of the good.

[3:38] Think about Frozen, right? At the very end of Frozen 1 here, talking about the OG of Frozen. Elsa is all icy and dead and things are not looking good. But through the power of love, her sister Anna brings her back to life.

[3:53] And if we're going to an actual OG, let's talk about beauty and the beast, right? The beast is cursed because he's all mean to that one random lady. And then he's cursed for a lot. And they all turn into random objects. And he turns into this big hairy beast.

[4:04] And it is only through the power of love that he can be transformed back into his lovely human form. Quick side note on that movie. And when we watched it with my kids last year, it was a hilarious and terrifying experience because they loved the beast.

[4:20] And so when he transformed into like golden Goldilocks, they were shrieking in terror and crying saying, where is my beast? Where is my beast?

[4:31] It was a wonderful, wonderful moment. But the point of all that is we love the idea that love saves. We love the idea that love is powerful.

[4:43] And what we see in this text is the true purpose of Christ's love. The most magnificent display of love that we could ever comprehend or even see has been given to us and explained to us through this book.

[4:54] And we experienced it through the resurrecting power of Christ. But this love has a purpose and it is to empower us to live for Christ. If you remember, even from this morning, right before the section, Paul has essentially announced the demolition project of racism and hatred and division in the church.

[5:11] He speaks of the mystery of this gospel and that it truly is for all people. That it is through the church that God is deciding to make himself known. That God's power is shown in giving grace and strength to weak people.

[5:22] People who are weak like me and people who are weak like you and people who are weak like these Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus. And that power to us is accessed by understanding the love of Jesus Christ.

[5:36] Because in reality, I think if we're honest with ourselves, we don't fully operate as if the love of God in Christ transforms everything about us.

[5:47] We can often form our identity or feel secure in who we are and how we are based on earthly relationships rather than the love of Christ. And we can very often limit the ability of God to complete a good work in us.

[6:03] We are so aware of our falls and our fallenness, our flaws and our fallenness that we can think that we are so messed up that we will get in the way of God's good plan.

[6:16] Ultimately, in our day to day, friends, we must remember the reality of this text. I want us to leave this evening with a fuller grasp of the love of Christ and understand that it will give us limitless power as we navigate life.

[6:31] And I'm not talking about we're going to be able to raise people from the dead and do all these different kind of things. What I'm saying is when we understand the love of Christ, we will live in the power of Christ. We will be those unshakable Christians that can handle anything.

[6:43] Why? Because we know the power of the love that has been given to us from Christ himself. My hope is that we would bank it all on the love of Christ, that our reflexes would be to say, okay, this is the situation that has happened.

[6:58] What does the love of Christ have to say about this? That our instincts and the way that we engage with both sufferings and joys in life would be to put it through this filter, the love of Christ.

[7:10] And that from that love that we receive from Christ, we would draw strength for Christian living. Here's my main point this evening. It is this.

[7:21] If you know the love of Christ, you will live by the power of Christ. If you know the love of Christ, you will live by the power of Christ.

[7:32] What Paul is doing here, he is pulling from the earth shattering realities of the gospel implications and the limitless glory of God to give strength to weary and suffering saints.

[7:47] Paul developed this thought not by saying, hey, you guys already know this. I've talked about it a lot here. Let me reiterate again. No, he's saying, listen, he's talking about it in a fresh way. He pulls from the familial connectivity, he says, from the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

[8:04] He talks about God's divine dominance and power according to the riches of his glory, which he is worthy of limitless and unending glory because of who he is in that power, he says.

[8:14] That's what he's drawing from in order to show that the church in Ephesus and us by extension can live in the power of Christ.

[8:26] So it begs the question, right? How does knowing the love of Christ make us live by the power of Christ? We're going to see three results of knowing the love of Christ that will make us live in the power of Christ.

[8:37] So let's jump into result number one. This is verses 14 through 16. We'll be strengthened in our inner being. 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 may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

[9:04] What is he saying here? He's saying that God will be your strength. Paul is letting the church in here on his prayer closet. He's appealing to God by all the power and might that God has, the power of his Holy Spirit, the power of the resurrecting glorious grace that God does when he raises us from the dead, right?

[9:25] He's already talked about us being raised from death to life. He's already blessed God for the infinite riches and blessings we receive in Christ. And now he's saying from these riches and from this grace, this is what we are drawing from.

[9:42] This is the God who I'm appealing to for this prayer that I'm about to pray for you guys. And in this prayer, he highlights the totality of God's rule and omniscience.

[9:52] He said this in Ephesians 1, 1 21 says far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

[10:04] God is a big God. And he is appealing to this God on behalf of his people. Everything is subject to him. Everything that exists owes its existence to him.

[10:16] God is a big God. He is worthy to be praised. Christ. And in this text, Paul is saying he's calling upon the power of this God for one specific thing.

[10:29] It is to strengthen his people. And the means of that strengthening of this people, we'll get to this in greater detail in just a moment, is to understand his love. I love that last song we just sang, just exalting the glory and the majesty of God.

[10:45] He's the great I am. He's the great I am. Nothing should be able to touch him. Nothing can touch him. And yet here we are appealing to this God to give us personal strength.

[10:55] And he says, yes, I will do it. Can we take a moment to simply relish and glory in the reality of the Christian faith? Both of these things are true.

[11:08] God is untouchable and is majestic and glorious and perfect and omniscient. He is other than us.

[11:21] God is God. And he would be completely justified if he said, I want nothing to do with you.

[11:31] You are full of sin. You have rejected me. You are beneath me. And we would say that makes sense. But that's not who our God is.

[11:44] And that's not what our God does. What our God does is he sees us and he loves us and he rescues us and he protects us and he keeps us.

[11:59] And he draws us near. God draws near to us. You know what should happen if God draws near to us? We should die because of his holiness. But what happens when God draws near to us is we feel his care and his love.

[12:13] He allows us to put our burdens upon him and he allows us to take refuge in the shadow of his wings. This is what our God does.

[12:26] One commentator writes that signifying out of the wealth of his glory also indicates that God's giving corresponds to the inexhaustible riches of that glory. It is on a scale commensurate equal with his glory.

[12:39] He gives as lavishly as only he can. No one can give like God can give and God gives all that he can. So we receive the maximum benefits possible because God is so overflowingly generous with what he gives us.

[12:56] There is hope in this text because life can oftentimes feel hopeless. I think we need to be fine admitting that like this.

[13:09] This we are operating in a Genesis three world. Things are not the way that they should be. Suffering will come. Depression will hit you in waves. Sometimes things can seem to be going so well and yet there's still an emptiness inside of you day by day by day.

[13:25] Things are difficult. And yet in the midst of that, we can draw strength from God himself because he loves you. And he sent his son for you to die for you so that you can be brought into his family so that you can be redeemed so that you can be a saint.

[13:39] But this is the love of God that we have. You are a part of the household of God and you are not in a spare bedroom. He is not putting up with you.

[13:50] You are his beloved. And out of this inexhaustible glory that we've been talking about, we receive strength. To be strengthened in our inner being.

[14:02] Well, what is our inner being? The inner person, the interior of our being. This is how Peter O'Brien described it. He says it is the seat of personal consciousness. Our moral being. It is the focal point at the center of a person's life where the spirit does his strengthening and renewing work.

[14:20] Do you need to be renewed by the spirit this evening? This is what God wants to do. He wants to renew you. Refresh you. Make his face shine upon you.

[14:34] This is the business that our God does. To be strengthened is a theme that Paul hits often. You see it later in his book in Ephesians 6.

[14:45] He says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Colossians 1.11.

[14:55] Be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. God wants to strengthen you. What these texts do is it eliminates the facade of self-sufficiency.

[15:13] We cannot do this on our own or in our own strength. I mean, we're at a retreat and we are completely exhausted. It's been like a day and a half. There is nothing impressive about our strength.

[15:28] We need God to do it. And yet we can trick ourselves into thinking that we have the skill set so we have to grind and do it ourselves and friends. It's just not the reality.

[15:40] It's just not the reality. And the fun and beautiful thing about it is once you realize that and you stop trying to just, yeah, I'm going to make this work. When you stop doing that, you experience the freedom of joy in Christ.

[15:51] And you're like, oh, my weakness is actually something I can boast in. That's what Paul gets to eventually. He's like, I'm actually going to boast in my weakness because why would I want to boast in anything else?

[16:02] And that dude had some credentials. I'm in a different book now, but it's still important. Same author. He's talking about his credentials. He says, I was a Hebrew among Hebrews. I did this, that, and the third. I was shit-protected. All these things. And I counted as nothing.

[16:13] Nothing. If Paul's not bragging about that, then we definitely need not brag over our petty little degrees. Right? We are not.

[16:23] When we got saved, the Trinity wasn't like, all right, we got a fourth member, baby. No. God was completely fine on his own.

[16:35] Him rescuing us is just an overflow of his grace. And we need him so desperately. And he gives himself to us so freely.

[16:48] We must live dependent on God's strength. There should be no person more dependent than a Christian. It's what we do. How do we make it through? We simply depend on the one who made it all.

[16:59] How do we do it? We simply depend on the one who gave his life for us. How do we do this? We depend on the one who strengthened us by the power of his Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit transforming us.

[17:09] That's how we do this. Nothing in my hands I bring. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There's this wonderful paradox that God didn't need to save us, yet he did.

[17:21] And all we have to do is receive his salvation as a free gift of grace with faith that he himself actually already gives us.

[17:33] There is nothing we are bringing to the table. And he doesn't stick up his nose and say, I don't need you guys. No, he says, come. Come to this table. It's like so often when my kids will try to help us cook.

[17:48] It's like, one of my daughters would be like, Mom, can I help you bake a cake? And she's like, yes. And she is destroying the whole kitchen. Like, dropping powder, dumping sugar on the floor, stepping on with her hands.

[18:00] She didn't wash her hands. Just boogers in the cake. And Bethany's just smiling along. Just, yeah, all right, let's do this. She's not saying, get out of here. And that's a flawed, sinful mother.

[18:14] Imagine the love of a perfected father coming alongside us as we're just bumbling. Bumbling around through life. He smiles at us.

[18:25] He says, I'm going to help you. I'll clean it up. Someone said, even our prayers, that the Holy Spirit fixes our prayers on the way up. No other person should be more dependent than the Christian.

[18:36] Let's look at response number two. This one's glorious. We live filled with the fullness of God.

[18:48] Verses 17 through 19. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

[19:02] That you being rooted and grounded in love. So you hear that in love. May have strength to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length and height and depth.

[19:15] And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. There is unlimited power available to the Christian as we contemplate the love of Jesus.

[19:31] The love of Jesus is going to be the vehicle which drives our power and drives our belonging to one another. Christ dwells in our hearts. Ephesians 2.22. In him, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

[19:46] We talked about that this morning. Real quick, Peter O'Brien says this. If Christ has taken up residence in our hearts. He is at the center of our lives and exercises his rule over all that we are and do.

[20:00] This indwelling is through faith. That is, as they trust him, he makes their hearts his home. It's beautiful. The implication of the apostles prayer then is that the more the Spirit empowers their lives, the greater will be their transformation into the likeness of Christ.

[20:18] If I asked you, what does it mean? How would you become filled with all the fullness of God for power? I don't think our instincts would be fully understand the love of Christ.

[20:36] But that's the connection that Paul makes here. He's praying these giant prayers, calling on the familial glory of God, the riches of inexhaustible riches of his glory to do what?

[20:48] To have strength with all the saints. To do what? To be holy. No. To be righteous. No. What is he calling on God to help us do?

[21:00] To give us strength to comprehend with all the saints the love of Christ. Do you think about the reality of the love of Christ in this way?

[21:11] That I need supernatural help from the Holy Spirit to understand the love of Jesus Christ. This gives us security.

[21:26] This gives us joy. This gives us strength. And as Paul is talking to the church in Ephesus, you've got to remember, right? After all these pagans and witches were converted, they gave this giant gift, right?

[21:38] They were doing things for the church. They burned all of their former idols. And he's saying, that's not what your security is in. For the Jewish people, it's like, it's not in keeping these ceremonial laws.

[21:50] Both of you guys, both look at me. Listen, it is not what you have done. What you need to be filled with the fullness of God is to understand the love of Christ.

[22:01] I love St. Patrick's prayer. And I feel like it is one way that we can try to step into beginning to understand the love of Christ.

[22:11] Because you will never understand it fully. At least not on this side of heaven. Probably not on the other side either. It's that deep. But listen to this desperation of wanting a nearness to Christ.

[22:23] He says, Christ with me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ in me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ on my right.

[22:33] Christ on my left. Christ when I lie down. Christ when I sit down. Christ when I arise. Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me. Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me.

[22:43] Christ in every eye that sees me. Christ in every ear that hears me. I arise today through a mighty strength. The invocation of the Trinity. Through belief in the threeness.

[22:54] Through confession of the oneness of the creator of creation. Do we have that desperation to be near Christ? To speak of Christ?

[23:07] To dedicate our lives to loving and singing Christ? What does this look like for us? There is no truth of scripture more crucial to strength in the Christian life than understanding the fullness of Christ's love for you.

[23:25] Focusing on the love of Christ is not wishy-washy Christianity. There's a version of it that's out there. Right? That's just like, I don't want to talk about atonement. I don't want to talk about the cross.

[23:36] I don't want to talk about holiness. I don't want to talk about obedience. That's not where we are. Being too focused on the love of Christ is not a pit I believe that we fall into. What I believe that can help us is kind of a rekindling and a re-understanding.

[23:51] That Jesus loves me. Jesus loves you.

[24:05] Jesus does. And it's not a fickle love.

[24:23] It's not a love that is changing by how you do. It's not a love based on your performance. It's not a love based on your job.

[24:35] It's not a love based on your attendance to church events. Though that is important. But that's not what his love is based on. Jesus loves you.

[24:48] Full stop. That's the end of the sentence. And what Paul is saying here is in the Christian life, this is a doctrine you have to understand and hold close to your heart.

[25:02] It has to be readily accessible at all times. It's the only way we'll make it through suffering. Because one of the hardest things in suffering, I believe is when your world is falling apart.

[25:17] And then all of a sudden you're wondering, am I loved? Am I kept? Will I be carried by my savior to the end? And the answer to that is yes.

[25:29] Nothing has changed about the love of Jesus for you in that situation. So what you can do is you can hold on to the tiny thread of hope. That is not a hope that like, oh, I hope this is true, but a hope that is secure and steady and unchanging.

[25:43] Christ loves you. Understand this. Hold on to this. Draw strength from this. And as he slowly draws you in, you will be kept by him because of his love for you.

[25:58] The love of Christ is not abstract. Paul takes an attempt to measure his love. He's starting to say the length and height and breadth and depth of his love. And he's saying, guess what?

[26:09] I want you to understand this thing that cannot be understood. It's incomprehensible. You can't put it in a box. Paul's saying, I can't put it in a box, but I need you to understand this.

[26:20] I need you to comprehend the reality of the importance of Christ's love. And if you really, really want to know Christ's love for you, all you must do is look at the bloodied cross. Because that is the greatest display of his love for you.

[26:35] Christ loves you and Christ died for you. I oftentimes like to think about this reality. I don't know how it worked if I'm the only one, because someone would have to crucify him.

[26:48] But if you were the only person on planet earth, Jesus would still go through the crucifixion to save you. If it was just you, he would still do it.

[27:00] And he would do it with joy. This is the love of Christ for you. And even now I can even, I can sense it that there's these, well, but what about no, that's his love for you.

[27:16] And we need the spirit to help us understand that. We need the spirit to help us comprehend this. Romans 8, 38 says, there is no height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.

[27:29] We'll be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Jesus, our Lord. Peter O'Brien says, we can never plumb its depth or comprehend its magnitude.

[27:42] No matter how much we know of the love of Christ, how fully we enter into his love for us, there will always be more to know and experience.

[27:55] Charles Spurgeon, the homie, but brethren, we get the best idea of the breath of Christ's love.

[28:06] When we behold it flowing to our lost and guilty selves, I never thought it so broad a stream till I found that it reached to me, even to me.

[28:19] I feared that I was far away from its blessed margin, but the river swelled and overflowed its banks until at last it washed me, even me.

[28:31] How broad it must have been to have reached to some here present who had wandered into the plains of sin and had followed after their own wanton devices. But yet the breath of the river embraced even them.

[28:46] This is the love of Christ for us. Philippians four, seven and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will. This is what it does, right?

[28:57] Peace of God, the peace that we have with God that was brought, bought by Jesus Christ, connected to the love of Jesus. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

[29:10] Jesus. When we know this, we will live more stable and more steadfast. And what else happens is your love for others will grow. Listen, it is really hard to continue in a petty argument with someone when you recognize and remember that Christ had died for your sins.

[29:27] When Christ has forgiven me in light of all of the sins that I have done against him, it helps me be quick to forgive someone who was wronged me in any kind of way.

[29:38] When you're aware of Christ love for you, you are better able to pour that love out towards others. Your response and conflict will be gentler.

[29:50] Your pursuit of humility will be prioritized and your joy will be abounding. I think of a buddy, the elf after his date, he bursts up on the door.

[30:03] He says, I'm in love. I'm in love. I'm in love. And I don't care who knows it. That ought to be our experience. Christ loves us and it transforms us and it gives us joy.

[30:15] We get to experience joy because of the love of Christ. And finally, we are used by God to glorify Christ.

[30:27] This is verses 20 through 21. This verse is insane. And it closes the first half of the book before he gets to the practicals. Now to him who was 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.

[30:55] Amen. We'll be used by God to glorify Christ. The him being able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.

[31:06] It's not like a cheat code where we pray this thing and God gives us whatever we want. What it is though, it is a reality that nothing is too difficult for God. What it is though, is it's an understanding that God can use us, even us for the purposes of his glory.

[31:22] Guys in high school, I was a silly, stupid jock. I just was a ridiculous human being. I didn't think I liked reading until there was no spark notes for the great Gatsby.

[31:36] So I had to read it. And I was like, me like book. It's like book, like movie, but more words. But God decided in his kindness to call me pastoral ministry.

[31:53] And literally like my favorite thing to do now is read. I'm like, who is this guy? Sophomore in high school, JT would have been like nerd. And then I would have beat him up because I'm stronger than him. But God will use fools and bumbling buffoons like me to glorify Christ.

[32:12] That is a miracle. It's a miracle. I think I get into this tomorrow, but in Ephesians four, he talks about everyone's been given a gift, right?

[32:25] And everyone is being used by God for the work of ministry. And when he says the work of ministry, he's not talking about pastors pastoring. He's talking about the saints doing the work of ministry.

[32:37] All of you guys, are you going to be used by God and are being used by God? Because that's the power that his love can do. When you know his love, you recognize he's giving you a gift and you can be deployed to spread his gospel to those who don't believe.

[32:52] You can be deployed to glorify his name in whatever city or context you find yourselves in. And we can say, are you kidding me? And God's like, yes, actually, you saw what I did with old Pete.

[33:04] Peter was a wild disciple. I find a lot of like comfort and knowing like, okay, Peter was a knucklehead all throughout the gospels. And then he was just a total stud, like praise the Lord. But what this does do is it stops us from having small thoughts of God.

[33:21] He can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think there's, there's no room for small thoughts of God. But Paul connects the scope of what God can do.

[33:32] All that we ask or think to the power that is at work within us. The power that works within us is the strengthening power we receive through his spirit, according to the riches of his glory. Do you see the kind of help that we have in living the Christian life, which means that we can attack our weaknesses and our sin, anger, addiction, lust, doubt, whatever it is.

[33:52] We can attach these things according to the power at work within us, which is God himself. God himself is at work within us. And he has limitless power to help us.

[34:04] So live your life as if the gospel really covers all your sin, as if the gospel is something that you can actually draw power from because you can. Do you believe that God has the capacity to forgive all of your sins?

[34:17] Do you believe that the love of Christ is so deep that it can transform every aspect of your life? Do you believe that the love of Christ is so grand and powerful that it empowers you to fight against sin and win?

[34:32] To empower you to endure suffering. This is the power at work within us. God wants us to respond by letting the reality of Christ's love wash over us and to affect how we live, how we process, what we strive for, and in whose strength we work out of, right?

[34:53] Before this session, I was like, I don't even know who's going to preach tonight because I am so tired. And now I'm jumping around sweating and screaming. Why? Because God's at work. Because his power helps me.

[35:05] I was looking around. I was like, I don't know if any of y'all going to be awake while I'm preaching. And everyone's awake. Praise the Lord, I think. Why is that happening? Because the spirit's at work.

[35:17] And the things that we would normally label mundane and in the things that we would label as extraordinary, the spirit is at work. And the purpose of the strength that we receive is not so we get to pat ourselves on the back and say, oh man, I'm doing such a good job at Christianing today.

[35:33] That's not the purpose. The purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ and the church. What greater purpose would we have than to glorify Jesus Christ?

[35:46] What's the last line in verse three of all I have is Christ. Oh, father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose.

[36:02] In any way, it was just fully giving our lives to him. Lord, use me in any way you choose and let my song forever be. My only boast is you.

[36:15] Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. Right? I think Jordan Coffin was talking about that song on a panel when he was writing it and he actually started with a chorus and then it kind of took a different shape. But what he wanted to convey in the chorus is that like if everything got stripped away from us and we had nothing else, the response is not, oh, geez, all I've got is Christ.

[36:36] But that would actually be all that we would ever need. Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. Christ. Second Corinthians nine. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times times, you may abound in every good work.

[36:54] God is helping us in every good work. God's glory in the church cannot be separated from his glory in Christ Jesus. Right? So the glory and the power that empowers us is going to help us glorify God in the church.

[37:08] Why do we have such confidence that God's going to meet us Sunday after Sunday after Sunday? Because we know that Christ wants to build his church. We know that no power can come against the gates of hell cannot prevail against the gates of the church, power of the church.

[37:24] God's love for you is greater than you think. Period. Period. This great love that God has for you infuses you with power for mission and stability and suffering.

[37:36] This great love that God has for you has folded you permanently into the family of the church. Therefore, you are not alone. You are not other. You are beloved and you are strengthened.

[37:49] And this is what God is planning to use for all future generations. From this time forth and forevermore. This was written a long time ago. And God's power is still going forth generation after generation after generation after generation after generation.

[38:05] How and why? Because of the immeasurable power of the love of Christ. It's just continuously keeping his people and empowering us for mission and for love.

[38:16] The unlimited power that the Christian receives as we are rooted in the love of Christ gives us an unstoppable security and belonging and unshakable ability to glorify Christ in the church.

[38:28] And the amazing far more abundantly. And the amazing far more abundantly. I'm closing here. The amazing far more abundantly that God can do is have us live lives pleasing to him.

[38:40] In spite of our sin. God has made us saints. God will use us to share the hope of the gospel to the lost. God will ensure that we are kept to the end.

[38:52] God will make disciples of him through us for the glory of his name and the continuation of the church. These are his promises to us.

[39:04] Let me close with Paul's words here. Now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

[39:18] To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Would you pray with me? Lord, as we are about to take extended time to pray and seek your face and seek your presence and seek your power.

[39:42] We do ask that you would fill us afresh. A fresh and filling of your Holy Spirit. Lord, it is nothing that we do that's going to quote unquote conjure up your spirit.

[39:55] But it is going to be a free gift of grace that you would visit us in a particular way. Open our eyes and ears to see what is really true. That by the spirit we would operate in the power of the spirit.

[40:12] That we would be able to be still before you. That we would glory in the truth of your gospel. That we would experience the effect of Christ's love for us.

[40:26] That we would be filled with all the fullness of God. And know the love of Christ. For your glory. And for our good.

[40:36] Because you are good. And because you graciously and lavishly give yourself to us. Would you help us to experience that now. And have a greater awareness of Christ and his gospel through it all.

[40:48]  Amen. Amen. Amen.