Sermon Text: Ephesians 3: 14-21
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Morning Message:
The question that I have for you today is: What is hindering the advance of the gospel? There are three places that I want us to examine this morning when it comes to this question. One of my devotional readings this week pointed out Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, in particular, chapter two, verse 18, which says: “Therefore, we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us.” Now when it comes to Satan’s influence on our Christian lives I try not to put too much emphasis on it because I never want to give him too much credit. The fact is that the Christ in us is much stronger than the devil, as long as we are living a Christ-like life. The old saying “the devil made me do it” is not true. Satan has the power to tempt us, but how tempted we are depends on how strong our faith is. With that being said, we must not underestimate the lengths to which the devil will go in order to hinder our efforts for Jesus. My devotional states it this way: What is hindering the advance of the gospel in your life or in your church or in your community? Behind all the opposition is the hand of Satan. We can acknowledge Satan’s interference, but let’s keep our eyes on Christ and maintain the fight. Paul’s epistles have encouraged believers for nearly two thousand years. Satan thought he was silencing Paul, but he only gave the apostle a more lasting voice. Don’t be bullied by the devil. We’re on the winning side. “If God were not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy.” (Thomas Brooks)
The suggested reading for today is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. You need to read this scripture for yourselves in order to get the full affect of what it is saying to us. The people are following Jesus everywhere. Jesus, knowing the answer, as he always did, said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people?” This is a test for Philip, and it is also a test for us. Philip gives the human answer, the logical answer, the responsible answer. Here is where the devil does his best work. We tend to think that Satan, because he is the author of lies, only works through lies. More times than not he nudges us toward the human answer that makes human sense; the logical answer that no one can really disagree with. He tries to blind us to the possibilities that exist when we put our faith in God. Andrew speaks up and gives the logistics of exactly what they have. He still can’t imagine how so little can feed so many, but he at least is willing to bring what he has to Jesus. This is always the first step of faith: entertaining the possibility. What happens is a great miracle, but the miracle had a starting point. It took enough faith, maybe as Jesus states in scripture, the size of a mustard seed, but first it took enough faith to get past the hindrance. This text ends with the story of Jesus walking on water. Once again, humanly impossible, our minds can’t even comprehend such a thing unless we remember that Jesus can do all things and there are no limits to his power.
What is hindering the advance of the gospel in your life? I tell you all the time that we need to grow in our faith; we need to become more like Jesus every day. We must become more sensitive to the hurting world that we live in. I had an experience while I was away which caused me to think about where I am in my faith. Tina and I were walking back to our hotel in Savannah when we passed by a homeless man. He asked if I had any change that I could spare, and I hesitated for a moment. Tina right away said to me, give him something. I did, but I couldn’t stop thinking about my initial reaction. I realized that I have allowed the world to cause me to be more cynical than I should be as a follower of Jesus. My human reaction was to question and wonder if the need was real. The Jesus in me should have allowed me to trust that God would work through my willingness. The devil didn’t make me do it, but his influence changed my thinking. As we were getting in our car early in the morning to travel home we saw this man again. He was sleeping on the ground in the park directly across from our hotel. My heart sank, and I felt very convicted in my soul. I knew that I should have done more, and that image of him sleeping there while I was sleeping in a bed in a comfortable room has stayed with me. I know that I can’t feed and clothe and support every homeless person in this world, but I also know that I must have faith enough to believe in a Savior who can and not be a hindrance.
The real answer to the question today is not Satan, it’s me and it’s you. We allow the devil to have a foothold in our lives and the space to influence our thoughts. When the gospel is hindered in our lives as Christians, then it is also hindered in our church, and as a result in our community. It all starts with us. If we are God’s people and believe in a God that can do all things then we must take up that mantle of faith and live it to the fullest everywhere. Listen to what Paul is saying to us in today’s text:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on the earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
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