Title: Paul Who Loved the Church in Ephesus
Contents
Bible Text: Ephesians 3:20-21
Paul loved the church in Ephesus
Dear saints,
Paul prayed twice while writing the epistle to Ephesians.
Once in Ephesians 1:15-19,
Another is in Ephesians 3:14-21.
In particular, in Ephesians 3:14-21, which contains the words we read together today, we get down on our knees and pray earnestly before the Father, who has given names to every tribe in heaven and on earth.
If you look at that
First, pray that the inner man may be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit,
Second, pray for the roots of faith and love to be rooted and solidified;
Third, pray for the understanding of the length, height, and depth of Christ's love,
Fourth, we are praying that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If we divide our prayers by personality, we can divide them into 'private prayer' and 'public prayer'.
Private prayer is literally an encounter with self and God.
This does not mean that you can pray in any way.
Public prayers are prayers offered on behalf of those gathered in public worship.
Therefore, all those gathered there must pray in a way that can empathize with the prayer of the representative and sincerely say “Amen”.
Therefore, in today's text, Paul kneels and prays with an earnest heart for the filling of the Holy Spirit, the filling of faith, and the filling of love.
The average human height does not exceed 6 feet.
Considering only the height of a human like this, humans cannot be considered superior in any way to elephants or bears and lions, which have larger bodies than humans.
But, as Pascal said, man is great because he can think even though he is as fragile as a reed.
The greatness of man lies in his thoughts.
Therefore, if you have a weak mind, you become a physically weak person.
When your thoughts are sick, you become a sick person.
For that reason, the Bible testifies:
“For as his heart thinks, so is a great man” (Proverbs 23:7).
That's right.
My thoughts become a fundamental force that greatly influences not only my present, but also my destiny, environment, and neighbors.
However, since Adam sinned against God, hopeless corruption has been planted in the human mind.
Therefore, man today is a giant in that thought, but a hopeless giant, corrupt and sick.
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus revealed to us the great work of the Holy Spirit, capable of healing corrupt human thoughts that cannot be cured by science, philosophy, ethics and morals, politics and institutions.
Therefore, though we have sinned, we remain sick,
as a corrupt being,
Come to Jesus and confess all your sins,
If you confess your sickness with your mouth and accept Jesus as your Savior,
Through the blood of the cross, through the promised work of the Holy Spirit,
Take away all corrupt thoughts,
It is to create a temple of the Holy Spirit in our thoughts.
It is to make each one of us into the position that God created us to be.
Therefore, there is only the work of the Holy Spirit that can change human thinking.
Dear saints,
No matter how good the environment is, it is of no use unless the mindset of a person changes.
However, the human mind cannot be changed except for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is neither by force nor by skill.
It is only possible through the Holy Spirit.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
By the Holy Spirit, all negative thoughts are expelled from our thoughts,
When you fill yourself with positive thoughts, your circumstances and your destiny will change.
The most precious vision in this world is Jesus.
Our Lord's love is so great and vast that we cannot comprehend it all with our minds.
That is why we are in the process of knowing that love for the rest of our lives.
The love of Christ that we already know cannot be compared with the love of the Lord that we have yet to know.
It's like comparing a single raindrop to the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
How wide is the breadth of the Lord's love, which no man dares to measure.
The path of the Lord's love also begins before the foundation of the world and continues until after eternity.
The length of the Lord's love is eternal.
The height of the Lord's love cannot be compared with anything in this world.
The Lord took our sins and went down to hell to save us.
Therefore, we must realize the love of the Lord in three dimensions.
We have no way of repaying the grace of the Lord's love.
We are more perfect, eternal, and sure grace than any human love!
That is, we who have received the grace of God and the love of Christ.
Dear saints,
The breadth of Christ's love is the extent of the benefits of His grace.
God loved the world so much.
The Bible testifies that this salvation and eternal life are given to everyone who believes.
Gentiles and Jews, both good and ugly, without distinction between men and women, young and old,
It is the grace of God, the love of Christ, that is given without discrimination to those who believe in Christ.
God's plan and will for us was established before eternity.
Jesus will accomplish this with his everlasting power.
Although we live in this world today, we can work out our salvation through God's patience.
The length of God's grace that endures to the end, protects and guides us, is beyond measure.
God's grace is also great. high. It is a great grace.
It is the sublime and holy love of the Lord, who gave up his high and high throne to rescue us from the dark death and the pit and took on a low and lowly life.
There is a lot of love in the world, but the grace and love that the Most Holy and High God has given us is incomparably precious.
The depth of God's grace is also great, high, and great grace.
No matter how much we realize and know, no matter how much we dig into it, it is a mysterious grace that cannot be comprehended.
However, if we try to know this, we will find a grace, a grace, just as the miners do mining, and we will be more grateful.
But we cannot know and understand everything in this world.
We have received a grace that we cannot all thank for in this world.
God gives us grace, but not a little.
It is we who limit God's grace.
God is a God who will give and enjoy more abundantly than we ask for and think.
Now we must believe that God is able to abound with His power.
God has no shortage.
What we seek, what we think is imperfect and trivial.
However, we must believe in God and ask for His grace, who will give us more perfect, eternal, spiritual, precious and blessed things, and will fill them more abundantly.
Paul always prayed boldly. The reason is that the sense of purpose is clear.
“Only One Thing”, “The Sign Ahead”, “The Reward of the Calling”, “Citizenship in Heaven”
That was Paul's purpose.
Paul's purpose was clear. It is a dream and a vision.
People with dreams do not perish. A person with a clear dream is a living person.
He is a happy person. A person who believes that life is worth living no matter what sorrow and hardship may come. not scornful. Shh don't despair.
Now I would like to end my speech.
Paul's dream here should be your dream and mine today.
Every saint must have this dream.
You must be determined to “live only for Jesus Christ.”
The most precious vision in this world is Jesus.
A saint who has this dream has no choice but to be proud.
Assertiveness and pride are different things.
Therefore, we must now abandon our pride and cultivate our dignifiedness.
Dear saints,
God can do anything we ask for.
We can't ask for it, but you can do anything you can think of.
God can make even more unreasonable demands than this.
Now, let us all praise the glory He gives in the church and praise God who blesses us more than we ask or think.
With this heart, I pray in the name of the Lord that God's grace, love and blessings be with all of us who want to live with this determination.