Ephesians 3:14-21
"… I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being…"
Key point: Do you know that your church can do immeasurably more? The church is established in love, by love for love. So do we love well? Do we do more? We must pray that His glorious riches strengthen us, work in us, so we love and do as He has called! Worship Christ, grow in Christ, serve Christ and model Christ.
We have the God Who asks us to come to Him. He lives in and around us. Therefore, we can worship Him as Lord, pray to Him, and surrender our life to Him. He is our Lord and Savior. We can pray not just for ourselves, but for others, too. We can lift them in prayer that God might strengthen them and bestow upon them provision from God's mighty and vast treasures. We can pray for the strength and vitality of the Church, for our churches, for family, friends, and fellow members, and for neighbors who need to know.
What we exemplify and teach is Who our Lord is! We need to grasp the wonder of exactly Who our Lord Jesus Christ is. We need to know Christ, who suffered mercilessly, who went through false accusations, sufferings and rejection, all and only because He chose obedience to the Father on our behalf. We must know Christ, the King of Kings, Who seeks us to be His love producers, His change agents, the presenters of the wonder of His message, His Gospel all with kindness and care. We can pray for Christ to dwell powerfully within us all, in our hearts, will, physicality and mindfulness. We can pray that He sends His Holy Spirit powerfully and passionately all in the formation and the fullness of His love that flows in and through us to those around us. Let us not just imagine our lives and churches transformed, let us be living and working in His power and keep making it so for His Glory.
What we exemplify and teach is Prayer! Paul was "practicing His presence," as faith and trust and a commitment to obey are the marks of a person who loves and honors God. When we pray, we commune with God, with not just words of want, but with praise to Him for all He is doing and can do in our lives. Prayer is to be conformed to His likeness, to perceive before we receive. The key to a successful Christian life, ministry, and the church is prayer. There is no way around it (Psalm 2:7; 5; John 12:41; Philip. 2:11).
What we exemplify and teach is God is our strength! God is our source of power and ability. We are anchored in our faith and hope in Christ! If we are not anchored in Christ, our hearts will deceive us by sin. We are to have discipline, solid doctrine, correct thinking, and not be drawn to false teaching or faulty trends. God's plans and faithfulness transcend what we know and see (Psalm 18:1-2; 27:1; 59:17; 119:28; Jer. 16:19; Matt. 24:14; 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:8, 14-16; 2 Cor. 10:5; Phil. 1:6-9; Col. 1:4-11; 24-27; 1 Thess. 1:8; 2 Thess. 1:3)!
What we exemplify and teach is the authenticity of love! This is a fruit of faith and shows our legitimacy, which allows us to serve. It lives in the present as it looks outward to others (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 13; Col. 1:4-13; 1 John 3:14; James 2:14).
The purpose of the Christianity is not having Christ to serve us; rather, we serve Christ for HIS glory, for the glory of God the Father. Through this service, the Church is collectively built and made known. The "coming of the Kingdom" in the Old Testament meant that a new stage in God's redemptive plan was coming--CHRIST. For us, it means declaring our personal identification and relationship to our Lord and Savior before we dare communicate it to others! Then, we will see the riches of his immeasurable love working with us as individuals and collectively as a church. We will know our calling and be responding to it. We will be loving and responding to it. Our need is to bow to His Lordship for our betterment and growth! This will keep us going on the right path through that dark, foreboding jungle of the pandemonium of church life!
© 2016 R.J. Krejcir, Ph.D., Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development www.churchleadership.org/
