The Glory of His Presence

6/3/2007 #718 THE GLORY OF HIS PRESENCE POWER OF HIS PRESENCE Ephesians 3:13-21 Part Twelve INTRODUCTION: God delights to be with His people. For the believer, our bodies are His Temple. God indwells us through His Spirit. So many of us struggle through life without ever discovering the resources God has given to us. He has provided all we need so we can live for His glory. Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus to experience the presence and power of God. I. GRACE OF HIS PRESENCE A. POWER OF THE SPIRIT. 1. Source of strength. v. 16 “the riches of His glory” 2. Supplier of strength. v. 16 “by His Spirit” (2 Cor. 4:16) Our physical bodies are perishing but our “inward man is renewed day by day.” B. PREEMINENCE OF THE SON. 1. Christ enthroned. v. 17 “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” 2. Christians established. v. 17 “being rooted and grounded in love” “If we make room for the Holy Spirit, He will make room for the Lord Jesus.”

II. GROWING IN HIS LOVE A. EMBRACING OF GOD’S LOVE. v. 18 “May be able to comprehend.” Years ago in Britain, D. L. Moody met a young man named Henry Morehouse. He asked Mr. Moody, “if I come to Chicago, will you let me speak in your church?” Mr. Moody said yes thinking that the youth would never be in Chicago. Sometime later, the young man knocked on Moody’s door in Chicago. “Hello, Mr. Moody. Remember me? I’m Henry Morehouse. I’ve come to speak in your church.” Reluctantly, Moody allowed the young man to speak. That night Morehouse preached on John 3:16 and spoke of God’s love with Holy Spirit power. Moody was deeply moved. The church leaders asked Morehouse to preach again and again. He preached every night for an entire week on John 3:16. Moody had never heard preaching so powerful. Indeed, Morehouse became known as the man who moved the man who moved the multitudes. The last night came. Again, the young visitor announced his usual text and said: “I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you. Suppose I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and could climb that shining staircase until at last I stood on the sapphire pavements of the city of God. Suppose I were to seek out Gabriel the herald angel and were to say to him, ‘Gabriel, you stand in the presence of God. Tell me, how much does God love the world?’ I know exactly what he would say. He would say, ‘Henry Morehouse, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ That’s how much God loves the world.”

B. EXTENT OF GOD’S LOVE. v. 18 “breadth, and length, and depth, and height”

“In the last century, when Napoleon’s armies opened a prison that had been used by the Spanish Inquisition, they found the remains of a prisoner who had been incarcerated for his faith. The dungeon was underground. The body had long since decayed. Only a chain fastened around an anklebone cried out his confinement. But this prisoner, long since dead, had left a witness. On the wall of his small, dismal cell this faithful soldier of Christ had scratched a rough cross with four words surrounding it in Spanish. Above the cross was the Spanish word for “height.” Below it was the word for “depth.” To the left the word “width.” To the right, was the word “length.” Clearly this prisoner wanted to testify to the surpassing greatness of the love of Christ, perceived even in his suffering.” C. EXPERIENCING OF GOD’S LOVE. v. 19 “to know the love of Christ” “George Matheson was engaged to be married when he went blind. Rather than face life married to a blind person, the young lady called off the engagement. Brokenhearted, Matheson found solace only in God. Out of this tragic experience, he penned the words for a beautiful hymn.

O Love, that wilt not let me go

O love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow My richer, fuller be.

D. ENRICHED BY GOD’S LOVE. v. 19 “that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

III. GREATNESS OF HIS POWER A. UNLIMITED POWER. v. 20“unto Him that is able”

God is able; God is able to do; God is able to do exceeding abundantly; God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask; God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

God gave unto Solomon his request for wisdom and then gave him more. “And I have also given thee that which thou has not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.” (1 Kings 3:3-13)

B. UNLEASHED POWER. v. 20 “power that worketh in us” “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 1:19-20)

IV. GLORIOUS IS HIS PRAISE A. PERSONALLY. v. 21 “Unto Him” B. PUBLICLY. v. 21 “in the church by Christ Jesus” C. PERPETUALLY. v. 21 “throughout all ages, world without end”

LESSONS FOR LIFE: 1. We limit God’s work in us by not surrendering to His Lordship and obeying . 2. We struggle spiritually when we fail to rely on the power of the Spirit. 3. We can experience the love of God in a greater way if we seek after Him. 4. We miss the joy of His presence when we love our sins more than the Lord. 5. Whatever we love, desire, and seek more than the presence of God and His fullness is sin? What do you value more than His presence? Who or what has your heart? If you have not repented of your sins and trusted Jesus, do it today.