I suggested to the preacher's
class last Saturday morning that if we are interested in learning
how to pray, And I'm desperately interested in learning something
about prayer. And I think that this generation
of church people need to learn something about prayer. I hear
people always talking about, let's have a little word of prayer. There may be a little word of
ceremony and a little word of emotionalism, but there's no
such thing, Darvin, as a little word of prayer. Talking with
God is not a little thing, it's a big thing. We're told in the
book of Ecclesiastes, I was looking at it again a while ago, over
in chapter 5, it says keep your foot, keep your foot when you
go to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give
the sacrifice of fools. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy
word be few." We're not, in this matter of prayer, we're not heard. Now I know Paul talked about,
or the Apostle talked about praying without ceasing. That's living
in a an attitude, a spirit of continual fellowship and communion
with God. That's not talking all the time.
That's talking some of the time and listening all the time. It's
living in a spirit and an attitude and a fellowship and communion
with God all the time. But I'm afraid a lot of what
goes under the word and the term prayer is an abomination to the
Lord God. Sometimes we do it because it's
time to do it, or we do it because we want to impress someone, or
we do it because we're told to do it. But this
thing of prayer, if you want to learn something, I'm persuaded
of this, if you're interested in learning something about prayer,
I think we might begin by studying the prayers of godly men in the
scriptures. I really think that's the place
to begin, to study the prayers of men whom we knew did some
praying, and prayers that God heard. prayers which God inspired
and prayers which God was pleased to preserve for our study. Let me give you a few of those.
If you have a pen, you want to jot them down. I've got them
written in the back of my Bible or one of the pages, one of the
white blank pages in the back of the Bible because I go to
these prayers and read them occasionally. I'm not telling you to do something
that I don't already do. Here's just a few of seven great
prayers. There's Elijah's prayer, 1 Kings
18. 1 Kings 18, 36 through 38. You say, that's only three verses. Well, prayer one was 63 words
long. 1 Kings 18, 36 through 38. This is the prayer that brought
fire from heaven. Wish I could pray a prayer like
that. licked up the water in the trench, burned up the sacrifice,
and burned up the wood. 1 Kings 18, 36-38. And in David's prayer, 2 Samuel
7, 18-29. David's prayer. We've got two
or three of those, but that's one you jot down there. 2 Samuel
7, 18-29. And then Solomon's prayer. Oh my, this is, this is, this
is blessed, it's great. 1 Kings, 1 Kings 8, 22 through
54, that's Solomon's prayer. 1 Kings 8, 22 through 54. And then David's prayer for Solomon,
his son, is Psalm 72. That whole Psalm is David's prayer
for Solomon. Psalm 72. And then here's one
that we need to study too, is Habakkuk. H-A-B-A-K-K-U-K. Habakkuk's prayer. And that's
found in Habakkuk 3, 1 through 19. And you ladies will love
this one. This is Hannah's prayer. 1 Samuel
2, 1 through 10. Hannah's prayer. 1 Samuel 2,
1 through 10. And then another prayer of David,
1 Chronicles 29, 9-19. I'll just go over them quickly
to see if you've got the right scriptures. Elijah's prayer,
1 Kings 18, 36-38. David's prayer, 2 Samuel 7, 18-29.
Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 8, 22-54. David's prayer for Solomon, Psalm 72, Habakkuk's prayer,
Habakkuk 3, 1-19, Hannah's prayer, 1 Samuel 2, 1-10, and David's
prayer, 1 Chronicles 29, 9-19. But my subject tonight is not
how to pray. I don't feel capable of speaking
on that subject. But my subject tonight is to
focus on a particular prayer. a particular prayer of a particular
man for a particular people. That's our subject tonight. A
particular prayer of a particular man for a particular people.
This man prayed for these people. This was prayer. This was prayer. The depths of prayer. The beauty
of prayer. Prayer for the glory of God.
And really and truly, It'd be better for us if we could pray
one good prayer a day than a half a dozen. And like I say, we live
in a continuous attitude of prayer and fellowship, dependence on
God, waiting upon the Lord, seeking the Lord. Pray about any matter,
any time. But I'm talking about taking
a time with a broken heart and a ready spirit and a seeking
of the Lord. Let's lay hold upon the horns
of the altar and lay our petitions before God. And laid there, leave
them there. There's no need to keep reminding
God that you brought them there. Just leave them there. Take them
there and leave them there. Now, Ephesians 3. Here's the
prayer, verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. And here's the prayer that he
would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Let
me go back a little bit. I've tried to tell our fellows
this in the preacher's class. We need to go back a little bit
and be sure that we keep everything in its context. And Paul said,
for this cause, he's been talking about something, for this cause
I pray. Me and a real prayer, genuine
prayer, is born of need. Urgency. Me and a driven to real
prayer. That's when we really pray. So
Paul says, for this cause I pray. What cause? Well, back in verse
7 he said, God made me a minister. God made me a minister. The Apostle
Paul was a very humble man, a very humble man, both before God and
both before the people. We find some men who are humble
before God, but not so humble before the people. And I've even
seen those that are not humble before either one. But Paul was
humble before the Lord. He said, God made me a minister.
I was made a minister of the gospel. Listen, according to
the grace, verse 7, according to the gift of the grace of God
that was given to me. by the effectual working of His
power. I am what I am by the grace of
God. God made me a minister. He made me a minister. I'm not
a self-made minister. I'm not a self-made man. God
made me a minister. And He did it according to the
gift of His grace, and He did it by the effectual work of His
Spirit. There's no place in the ministry
for pride or self-exaltation or praise. There's no place.
There's no place. being conscious of our sins and
being conscious of his great mercy and being conscious of
our dependence upon him, we say, I was made a minister. God put
me. Paul said, God put me into the
ministry. And then he said in verse 8,
now that's humble before God. Now watch him before the people.
And God did this unto me. Unto me. He said in another scripture,
who was a blasphemer. who was a persecutor, an injurious,
but God did this to me, who am less than the least, who am less
than the least of all saints." That's the person to whom this
grace is given. He says we have this treasure
in earthen vessel. We're not sufficient to think
anything of ourselves, our sufficiency is God. We have this treasure,
this indescribable, unspeakable treasure We have it in these
earthen vessels. Let's don't ever forget it, that
we are earthen vessels. And then verse 9, here is his
ministry, to make men see, to preach to them what is the fellowship
of the mystery. You see, the ministry of the
Word is the means that God uses to enlighten men. That's the
means God uses. God is pleased to use means.
And the ministry of the words is the means that God uses to
enlighten men, to show men, to make men see the fellowship of
the mystery. The gospel is a mystery. And
it's hid in Christ. From the beginning of the world
has been hid in Christ. We studied that last Sunday.
Hid in God who created all things by Christ, to the intent that
now, under the principalities and powers, even in heavenly
places, might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of
God, the angels pressed with strong desire around that bloody
tree to see the Lord of glory expire. They didn't. Angels desire to
look into these things that you and I are speaking so fluently
about tonight, the mysteries of the gospel. And then he says
in verse 11 that God, His mercy and grace was purposed in Christ
Jesus before the world began, according to the eternal purpose
which He purposed in Christ our Lord, in whom, in Christ we have
boldness, boldness before the throne, access with confidence
before the throne by the faith of Christ. And I desire that
you don't be troubled because of my trials and sufferings for
preaching the gospel, which is your glory. For this cause, what
cause? It's threefold. The awesome responsibility
of ministering the mysteries of the gospel. For this cause
I bow my knee. The awesome responsibility. Spurgeon
said one time he was reading through the book of Habakkuk
and some other passage of scripture in which the word of God was
called the burden of the word of God. The burden of the word
of God. And Spurgeon said this, if the
Word of God, if you're a teacher or a preacher and His Word is
not a burden to you now, it will be at the judgment. I was getting
ready to go to the television station Monday night. I'd prepared
my messages. I worked on them all day Monday
and got them ready and was sitting over at the house waiting for
time to leave and it just flooded in upon me the responsibility
of standing before that camera and that microphone and preaching
to thousands and thousands of people. Thousands of people. I got up to the television station
and Gerald walked up to me. First thing out of the clear
blue sky, he said, does it ever dawn upon you the responsibility
that's on you tonight? I said, yes, it's been dawning
on me all evening. On and on we all eat, and for
this cause I bow mine..." Now I tell you this, if you ever
have a cause, you'll bow your knee. If you ever have a cause,
you'll bow your knee. Somebody won't have to say, let's
have a little word of prayer. Paul had a cause, and that cause
was God had put him in the ministry. God had given him a responsibility. God had laid on him a burden.
God had given him an open door, and for this cause I bow my knee
to God. And the second cause is the glorious
privilege, look back there at verse 11 or verse 12, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence into the presence
of God. The second reason why I bow my
knee is God's given me access with boldness and confidence
into his presence. I got a right to come into the
presence of God before the throne of grace in the name of and by
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why shouldn't I pray? I can, my buddy Jay is laid up
and my friend Edgar is sick for this cause that God says you
can come talk to me about that. And that's a pretty good cause.
to take it to him. That's a good cause. We'll pray,
you see this, we'll be motivated when we get a cause. David stood,
there was Goliath out yonder, challenging the armies of God. You talk about Iran humiliating
the great giant America, think how Goliath, one man, was humiliating
Israel, saying they're not daring any of them to come fight him,
and they just cowered cowed back there, you know, there were cowards
who cowed away from him. Finally David came out there
and said, is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? And he
went forth to meet the John. I say, for this cause, Paul says,
for this cause I bow my knee, because I've got a burden and
a responsibility for this cause, because I've got a privilege
and an opportunity to come bolder before God. Not reciting a little
silly, little silly repetitious cliches. God, we thank you for
this, and bless all for whom I duty to pray, and bless me
and my son John, his wife, us four, no more. Amen. When we got a cause, we'll get
some expressions that are glorifying to God. And then the third thing,
the great desire the great desire, and he expresses this in his
prayer, that these people would be enabled, enabled by God to
enter into the treasures of his grace. You know, he said in Romans,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. That they might be saved. Paul
wasn't interested in them getting religion. They had that. They
had that by the bushels. But he was interested in them
being saved to the point he was almost willing to be separated
from Christ for the sake of his brethren. And that's the cause,
for this cause, God put me in the ministry. I have an access
to his presence, and I want these to whom I preach to enter into
the treasures of this grace. So let's look at the prayer itself
briefly now. It's a four-fold prayer. And
the first thing he prays for them is in verse 16. He says that God would grant
you that God would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his power in the inner
man. Now let me summarize this a little
bit. Paul says, first of all, I pray
that you might have true spiritual life, true spiritual life and
strength in the inner man, and it might be strengthened. I pray
that you might have true spiritual life and strength in the inner
man and that it may grow. Now, the inner man, there's just
so much religion, the study of what struck me, the minute I
read, what strikes you the minute you read that? Paul prays, I
pray that, I pray that Paul Mahan, Willie Thompson, Jim Sly, will
have spiritual life in the inner man. So I said, well, they all
got religion. That's what I'm saying. See,
everybody today, Woody's got religion. Everybody you meet's
got religion. It's an outward form. They go through the motions. Everybody's got religion. If
they didn't have religion, they wouldn't be here tonight. They've
been like a fella told me the other day. He sat across the
table from half his plates turned down in jail. They let him out.
And he came to see me. And he wants some help. And I
tried to strike up a little conversation with him and gave him a little help. This
church wants to do that when we can, and brought him some
groceries. And his wife had him put in jail
for beating her up. And stayed there two weeks, put
him under a thousand dollar bond or something. I asked him, I
said, you know, they made him come to Lansdowne, Nancy, so
he'd have treatment, you know, he's under treatment now. I said,
you got a problem here? He said, yeah, I got terrible
temper. I said, I've had trouble with this a long time. He said,
I'm real mean, you know, and I said, well, I said, you and
your wife go to, does your wife go to church anywhere? Oh, he
said, we're both saved. Yeah, he said, that ain't the
problem, you know. That is the problem, too. But
he wanted me to understand that they were both saved. And just
don't discuss that, because that was settled a long time ago.
The old account was settled long ago. I settled it down at the
mourner's bench or down at some preacher's revival. We got that
settled and out of the way now. And we can go on to better things,
you know. Go on to jail or somewhere. But
what Paul is praying here, that they might have spiritual life
in the inner man. If that dear boy If that dear
man had spiritual life in the inner, where's the inner man?
It's the heart and the mind and the soul. That's where spiritual
life is. It's not a mechanical do-good
and a mechanical ceremonialism and a mechanical outward show
of of good works and religion and religious talk and doctrinal
talk. Paul said, I prevail till Christ
be formed in you in the heart, mind, and soul. Christ said,
I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and
soul. That's where it is. That's where
it is. God was pleased to reveal his Son in me. Christ said to
the woman at the well, if you knew who was talking to you,
you'd ask for me and I'd give you living water. And that living
water would be a well of living water in you, springing up within
you. How little we know about that. Christ said, everyone that thirsteth
to come unto me and out of your belly, out of your innermost
being, shall flow rivers of living water. And that's what Paul's
praying for them here. that they might have spiritual
life in the inner man, the inner man. You see, this is what the
Pharisees didn't know anything about. Our Lord said to them,
you cleanse the outside of the cup, you appear beautiful to
men, but on the inside you're full of excess and extortion,
full of dead men's bones. Cleanse first that which is within,
the inner man, the heart, I hear people say, I can't control my
tongue. Well, your heart controls your tongue. If your heart's
wrong, your tongue's wrong. And if you get the right attitude
and hear toward a person, you won't talk about them. If you
get the right attitude and hear about a person, you won't slander
them. And this is where it is. All of these things are controlled
by this inner man. And this is what Paul's praying
about here, that you might have spiritual life in the inner man. in the inner man. Now, you say,
why make that a matter of prayer? Why not just pass out pledge
cards and tell people to do right? Well, listen here. He says that
God would grant you, that God would grant you, that God would
grant you according to the riches of His grace, or out of the riches
of His grace, by His Spirit. that he would grant you this
spiritual life. It's the gift of God. It's the
work of God. We're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. So here's
what I'm saying. After we've tried all these methods
of religion and all these propositions and all these programs and ceremonies,
if we could be brought to the feet of Christ and pray for a
portion of his grace to fill our hearts and to fill our minds
and to fill our souls, and to fill our inner man. That's where
I want God to work, if God will work there. Somebody said this
one time, some people receive Christ into their houses, like
Simon the Pharisee, but not into their hearts. Remember that fellow,
he invited Christ to dinner, but he didn't receive him in
his heart. But Mary and Martha received him in their hearts,
and therefore he was always a welcome guest in their home. That's where
you start. Christ in the heart is always
a welcome guest in the home. So that's the first part of that
prayer, that God would grant you, and watch how he says it,
according to the riches of his grace, that he would grant you
by his Spirit to be strengthened with might in the inner man.
Let's pray for that. It's been a long time since I
heard anybody pray about a matter like that. You know, and this
is what we need to pray about. Lord, do something in the inner
man. Lord, make my husband quit drinking. Well, that's just,
you see, this is just his drinking. That's not his problem. It's
not his problem. Lord, make my wife quit cursing. Well, cursing is not a problem.
She may quit cursing and still be full of poison. You see what
I'm saying? But Lord grant, Paul said, by
your grace, that they may have life in the inner man. Be strengthened
by your Spirit in the inner man. That's where it is. Now verse
17. He prays secondly that Christ
Now this is the source, my friend, this is the source of spiritual
life. It's Christ, Christ in you, the
hope of glory, Christ in you. This is the fountainhead of all
blessings, Christ. He's the fountainhead of all
blessings. It says God chose you in Christ from the foundation
of the world. that you might have all, God
has blessed you in Christ with all spiritual blessings in the
heavenlies, even as he chose you. All these spiritual blessings
are in Christ. This is the fountainhead, and
this is the key to union with the Father. No man cometh to
the Father but by me. That Christ might dwell in your
hearts by faith. That's my prayer, that Christ,
not the law, but Christ. Not the doctrines, but Christ.
My friends, however, listen to me a moment, however good and
right and true are the means, they're still just means. However
good and right and true are the means, they're still just means.
And we've got to get beyond the means, we've got to get to the
end for which the means are ordained, and that's Christ. That's Christ. The Word of God is precious. But you know, Our Lord said to
the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have life, but there they which testify of me, and you
will not come to me that you might have life. So though the
Scriptures, like the people of Israel, the preaching of the
gospel didn't profit them not being mixed with faith in them
that heard it. What's this? He says in verse
17, that Christ may dwell in your heart. Not a one-time bister.
This is what I'm worried about today, about that young man sitting
there half. He says, well, I saved and baptized
14 years old. That's a one-time bister. Christ
made a visit to his house one time, that's the life he thought
of. And that's that profession of faith, a one-time bister.
Or perhaps an occasional bister. He comes around on Easter and
Christmas and special days and revival meetings and protracted
meetings. Or maybe a, maybe a Pretty regular
Vista. Now, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts is a lot of difference. That Christ may dwell, the King
of Kings may dwell in your heart, may dwell in the secret inner
self, that Christ may dwell there. And he doesn't, he's not a Vista,
he's the Lord of the house. He's the King of the house. He
occupies the place of sovereign master, that he may dwell in
your hearts," what's this? By faith. By faith. We walk not by sight. We walk
by faith. Our Lord does not dwell in pictures,
what you was telling that fellow Richard the other night. That's
not our Lord. It's not by sight. It's by faith. It's not by sight. It's not by
crosses and slogans and activities and these things. Christ dwells
in our hearts by faith. by faith. And that's what he's
praying, that Christ, the fountainhead of every mercy, the source of
every blessing, key to union with God, that he may dwell,
not that he might visit some time ago or once in a while,
dwell in your heart. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, that he may dwell there like that. I think
we lay hold upon him. Now here, let me get to this
right here. This is just Tremendous here, verse 17, the third request,
the third part of this prayer. In verse 17, verse 17 and 18,
that you being rooted and grounded in love, I'm going to come back
to that, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, I'll be
back to that, but here's what I want to get to, four words,
four beautiful words. that you may be able to comprehend,
verse 19 says, and to know the love of Christ, the breadth of
it, the length of it, the depth of it, and the height of it.
See those four words? All right. First of all, let's
go back to that rooted and grounded. Now, begin with, you can't, if
you don't love him, you're not going to understand his love.
That's what he's saying, that you may be rooted and grounded
And that's persevering and continued, rooted and grounded in his love
for you. You love him because he first loved you, but you love
him. You love him. And you're rooted and grounded
in that love for Christ. that you may be able to comprehend
with all the saints. Now you see that with all the
saints, it's not a selfish, personal thing, except Jesus is my personal
Savior, let the world go to hell. That's not, it's not a selfish,
self-centered, private possessions, but his great love with all the
saints. That you may be able, being rooted
and grounded in the love of Christ, that you may be able with all
the saints, with all the family of God, that you may be able
to comprehend and to know the love of Christ, the breadth of
it, the length of it, the depth of it, and the height of it.
Now what do those three words mean? Here's the first one, the
breath of it. Now think about a vast river,
the breath of it. What is the breath of his love?
How wide is his love? How wide is his love, the love
of Christ? Well, first of all, it reaches
all nations. That's how wide it is. He said
he had a people of every kindred, nation, tongue, and didn't he
say tribe? And tribe under heaven. That's
how wide it is. Some folks would like to narrow
it, you know. I think the Jehovah Witness got about 144,000. That's
just peanuts out of this world population. And I think the Catholics
got their own little burying ground, you know. You're not
in that, you're not in the kingdom. But our Lord said His love is
wide, wide as the ocean, deep, deep as the sea. And it reaches
all nations. And watch this, it covers all
iniquity. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. There's not a sin out yonder
in the farthest corners of the world, not one charge either
in heaven, earth, or hell, or one judgment against one of his
people. His blood has reached it all. That's how wide it is. And it
encompasses all my needs, my cares, my trials, all things
work together for good to them that love God. through the call
according to his purpose. My God shall supply all your
needs according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
His love encompasses all my needs. And then it confers upon me all
the blessings I need in this life or in the life to come.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That you might
be able, see what it's to comprehend, being yourself rooted and grounded
in his love, with all the rest of us, all the rest of us, that
you might be able to comprehend the breadth of his love. Can
you think about it? All right, how about the length
of it? Well, that Ohio River has a starting point. And it
ends down there in New Orleans, at the sea. Old David travels
that river, but it starts and ends. But my Lord's love has
no starting point. Infinite. From eternity past,
started in eternity past, in his covenant of grace, in the
beginning, God chose you to salvation. Just go, you just go on, you
follow a river and after a while you're going to come to the head
of the river. You're going to come to a little spring where
it all started. But you follow the love of Christ on and on
and on and on and on back before the world, back before Adam,
back before the angels, back before Lucifer, back in the beginning. And that's when Christ set his
love on us. And not only the length of it,
he has no beginning or end. It flows on eternally. He said,
having loved his own, he loved them to the end. The end of what?
Infinity. There's no end to his love. He
never stops loving us. He says, I'm the Lord, I never
change. So that's, you comprehend his love for us. Now you think
about that. Now look at the third word, the
depth of it. Incomprehensible. How deep. is the depths of our Lord's love. Well, I'll just tell you a couple
of illustrations. The depths of his love is seen
in Almighty God condescending. This is the depth of it. Now,
if God associated with skunks, it wouldn't be as amazing as
God associating with men. That's right, that's the depth
of his love. It's God condescending to have
anything to do with us. David said, when I consider,
God, your heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all that
you've made, what is man without mindful of him? You think about
the depth of his condescension. And like Job said, Behold the
moon, it shineth not, the stars are not clean in his sight. How
much more abominable is man that drinks iniquity like the water.
What the living God should even think upon us, let alone love
us, let alone save us, let alone move in our direction, is a condescension
that is incomprehensible. That's how deep is his love.
But let me go a step further. Its depth is not only seen in
God condescending to have anything to do with us, to think on us,
or to mention our names, but he actually stooped down so far
as to take our nature upon himself, and to take our sorrows upon
himself, and our shame, and our death, and our sin, and even
our grave, and even our hell. That's deep. deep, deep, deep,
the depth of it. And its depth, the depth of his
love, is seen thirdly in his willingness to say to the uttermost,
even the chief of sinners, even the chief. Paul said that was
he. All right, the fourth word. What
about the height of it? The height of it. the breath
of his love, that you may be able to comprehend it. Just sit
here and look at this from now on. Comprehend the breath of
his love. His love. His love. And the length of it,
having no beginning or ending. And the depth of it. I wish I
could find a center. I mean a bona fide, genuine,
self-confessed unadulterated, plain old, alibi-less, excuse-less
sinner that had gone to the depths of the deepest pit of the darkest
depths of sin, I'd say to him, God loves you. A sinner is a
sacred thing. What do you mean, sacred thing?
A sinner is a special, particular person. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. There ain't many of them. Did
you know that? No, sir, not many sinners. If I could find me a
Mary Magdalene, if I could find me a blasphemous, persecuting,
injurious Saul of Tarsus, if I could find me a Zacchaeus who
was a traitor to his own nation, if I could find me a thief that
they outcasted, cast out, I'd tell him that God loves him and
Christ died for him. That's the depths of his love.
We good folks are going to miss salvation, and them bad folks
are going to find it. Because Christ came not to call
the righteous, but sinners. We're so afraid of that word.
And then the height, how high? Do you know how far his love
reaches? Well, you go on past the moon.
You go on past Mars and Jupiter and all the rest of that outfit
up there. And you go on and on and on, and you get to the very
throne of God, and that's where his love is seated, right there
at the throne of God. That's how high it reaches, to
the height of his infinite glory! For his glory will be our glory! He says, too much for me. Well,
that's what Paul says here in verse 19, it's too much for him.
He said, to know the love of Christ's passive knowledge. That
is, passeth any perfect knowledge here, we just know in part, it
passeth all natural knowledge, and it passeth perfect knowledge,
but at least he's praying that we might be able to embrace and
comprehend some of it, some of the breadth of it, and the length
of it, and the depth of it, and the height of it, And it's just,
there's no end in any direction to his love. See, that's what
he's saying. There's no end in any direction. Whether breadth
or depth or length or height, there's no end to his love. His
love reaches the Father's point. His love. All right, last of
all, here's the last, the fourth request. verse 19, that you might be filled
with all the fullness of God. Now this is tough. I wouldn't
assign any of our preacher fellows to take this text right here
next Saturday night at all, but these are words of mystery, and
they need to be pondered So let's just look at them just a minute
and see if we can get something out of it that you, let's talk
about you and me. Now it's whatever Paul's praying,
it's for us. It's for us, it's for us old
plain ordinary folks. He didn't say that the ministers
and the bishops and the cardinals might be filled with the fullness
of God, but that you, you, you, that you might be filled. Now
everybody's gonna be full of something. Gonna be full of something. We're gonna be full of self. We got a problem with that. Are
we going to be full of ambition? Ambition. That goes in a lot
of directions. Or full of hatred. Man, he's
an angry young man, they say. Full of anger. Just full of it. Just completely full of it. Full
of hatred. Full of envy. Full of the world,
materialism. Got to get ahead. Ahead of what?
Ahead of somebody else. Got to get ahead. Because everybody's
going to be full of something. He said, I pray that you may
be filled with God. Filled with God. What about God? Well, filled with His love. Filled
with God's love. The fullness of God, see? The
fullness of God is His love. Filled with this we've just been
talking about, His love. Filled with His grace. Be merciful
as your Father is merciful. Fill with His joy, rejoice in
the Lord. And again I say rejoice, fill
with His patience. God is long-suffering to us. Fill with God, you see, that's
the fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace. Fill with
His peace. Fill with it. All right, watch
this. That's the illustration I found on this. is this, a man
was asked years ago to illustrate this verse that we might be filled
with all the fullness of God and he was asked to illustrate
it and he went down to the seashore and he picked up a bottle and
took the cap off of it and got the junk out of it and everything
empty and then he went down to the sea and he held the bottle
into the sea And he filled it completely full. And then he
put the cap back on, real tight. And he took it and threw it out
in the sea. And it went down. He said, there, there it is.
He said, it's filled with sea water. It's full of the sea. There's sea in the bottle, and
the bottle's in the sea. It's full of the sea, and it's
in the sea. There's sea in the bottle, and
the bottle's in the sea. It is full, and yet it dwells
in a greater fullness. It's just a part of that fullness,
John. It's not all of it. He couldn't get all that sea
in that bottle. You see, by no means. He just
got what he'd hold. You hold a little, and I'll hold
a little. But he got what he'd hold, and he said, it's full
of the sea. You see it out there? And he
said, and it's in the fullness of the sea. And this is the way
it is. God is in my soul. God dwells
in me. If any man had not spirit of
God, he's none of this. God dwells in me, and yet I dwell
in God. My soul is filled with God, and
my soul is in God. The fullness of God is in me,
not all of God. He said the heaven of heavens
won't contain him. How much less this house you
build. But the fullness of God is in me. It can dwell in me.
And I can dwell in the fullness of God. And I believe that's
what Paul is praying for this young church. He says, I pray
that you, individually, personally, you, you might be filled with
God, with the fullness of God. That's His love and joy and peace
and grace and kindness and mercy. You might be filled with God.
that you might dwell in the fullness of God. Because what little we
can contain of God is nothing. He contains us. We're in Him. In Him dwell, in Him we live
and move and have our being.