“A Prayer for Spiritual Power” 

Ephesians 3:14-21

Reading: Ephesian 3:14-21 

1. Spiritual power comes from the Holy Spirit (v.14-16)
2. Spiritual power is for us to know the love of Christ (v.17-19)
3. Spiritual power is ultimately about the glory of God (v.20-21)

My name is Bobby Hamlett and it is a joy to preach the word here at Abundant Grace. Through the years at GP conferences I’ve heard a lot about Abundant Grace but to be in the room to see your faces, it’s special. It’s so cool! 

I love your church’s mission statement: Helping People Get Excited About Following Jesus! I’m an excitable guy so I just love that! 

And I recently read Phil’s book - Bold! Personally I’ve sensed God challenging me to step more out of my comfort zone in areas of my life and 

So when Tim, our lead pastor at Trinity Community Church mentioned the opportunity to preach here at Abundant Grace I felt led to respond. Are you ready Abundant Grace? 

Introduction: The Rocketdyne F-1 Anyone ever heard of it? Here’s a picture of it. (show image on screen) Now is it getting a little clearer? Still fuzzy? Apollo 11 (Show Apollo 11 Saturn 5 Rocket image) Ok how about now? What rocket? Saturn 5 Rocket. Apollo missions in the 1960s and early 70s. Was anyone here around for those? Can you believe the last Saturn 5 rocket went up in 1973 - 51 years ago! The Rocketdyne F-1 was the world’s most powerful engine…until recently. Each engine was filled with tremendous power. 1.5 million pounds of thrust… that’s about an equivalent potential energy output of 17 Hoover Dams. 1.5 million x 5 engines = 7.5 million pounds of thrust. 85 Hoover Dams worth of power. That’s a lot of power. These engines propelled the greatest rocket launch to date. It sent men to the moon. What an amazing feat of engineering! 

And yet what happened to the engines? Do you remember? They were discarded. Fell into the sea. You see, as amazing as those engines were. It wasn’t ultimately about the engines. It was about something greater right? It was about getting men to the moon. It was about being the first to do it. As we open the Scriptures and study God’s Word, we are going to talk about a different type of power. Amazing God-given power. But I want us to keep the right perspective. It’s not about the power! It’s about a greater glory…the One Who holds infinite power and grants it to those He loves for the purpose of His glory, the strengthening of His people and the expansion of His kingdom. 

Let us pray. 

Main point: God desires for His church to be strengthened with His power to know His love and to be filled with the fullness of God 

***Let’s dive into some context…

Today’s text is Ephesians 3:14-21. We know that the Apostle Paul is the author. Acts 28:16 and Acts 28:30 records that the Apostle Paul was in Rome under house arrest. You want to talk about bold…He’d been imprisoned for speaking of Jesus. But Paul is writing to believers in Ephesus, a capital city of the Roman province of Asia (modern day Turkey). God was at work in Ephesus because Paul’s previous journey and 2 year stay there (Acts 19:1-10) speaks of what was happening in Ephesus.  Short summary...  “... all the residents of Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” Acts 19:10. Isn’t that amazing!? The Word is being preached and you’ve got both Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus hearing the gospel! A lot! 

So Paul’s over here (Rome) - on lockdown. And he’s writing to “over there” (Ephesus). He’s got a guard to watch over him. He’s still given some freedom to write and teach those who came to him. He’s also sharing the gospel with his guards. Paul is making the most of his time! Most scholars believe that Paul wrote Ephesians as well as the other “Prison Epistles” - Colossians, Philippians and Philemon during this 2 year time of house arrest in Rome. 

So now let’s come to our immediate literary context in the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 3:1, Paul described himself as “a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.” Eph 3:1 Paul knows that his imprisonment has been divinely orchestrated. He’s not ultimately a prisoner of Rome but a prisoner for Jesus Christ on behalf of the Gentiles - the non Jewish folks to whom God had called him. 

Structure: 

It’s also good to look at the structure of this prayer that we will study today. 

Paul’s petitions (asks) are sandwiched between Paul acknowledging God as the One who grants spiritual power (v.14-16) and a doxology of Praise to God, the One who is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or think. Something simple we can learn just from the structure of Paul’s prayer in these verses is this… Effective prayer is God-centered. Or you might say “God-sandwiched” - that would be my wording. Good lesson from Paul: As we pray, start with God and end with God. 

Let’s start with verses 14-16. 

14“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being”

• Spiritual Power Comes From the Holy Spirit 

Explanation: What reason is Paul talking about? In Eph 1:15 and Eph 3:1 Paul says the same thing “For this reason”. So here in verse 14, Paul is pointing us back to the previous chapter, where he is unpacking the mystery of the gospel that has now been revealed to the Gentiles. He says he knows he was made a minister of the gospel. God had called Paul to proclaim truth to the Ephesians and that’s why he bows and prays for them. 

Notice his posture. He bows his knees. This simple act acknowledges humility. Kneeling reminds us of how our hearts are to be humbled before our God.

And in verse 16 it says “That according to the riches of his glory that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” Ephesian 3:16 

According to the riches of His glory. Abundant Grace, there’s no end to the riches of God’s glory. Your God owns the cattle on a thousand hills - He is the Sovereign Creator of the Universe. He is Omnipotent. Omni - all. Potent - Power. He is limitless in His power. And He desires to strengthen you today and everyday. 

So the Holy Spirit is the one who strengthens believers. It’s not Paul. 

And this is in our “inner being”. Inner being? It may seem strange to us. Paul uses this language in 2 Cor 4:16 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” - 2 Cor 4:16

This outer self is our physical bodies, these are wasting away. But the inner man, the inner woman, the inner being, our very soul is being renewed day by day. The “seasoned” maturing Christian has been strengthened and continues to be strengthened. Some for a really long time! Right?