2,000 years ago, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.” We call it the Great Commandment and this series is really all about being great at the Great Commandment. It starts with the heart. When you give your heart to Christ, He gives his heart to you and your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God. Then you recapture that childlike wonder. We talked about that and we talked about the soul of love, in order for us to love God w/all our soul it cannot be empty…. and last week we talked about loving God with all of our minds, today were talking about strength. This is really the final frontier. This is where the rubber meets the road. If we miss this, we have not loved God the way that He wants us to. However today I’m just gonna give you guys a little teaser trying my best to draw you back next week for the conclusion of this message.
Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now 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, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
What a passage of Scripture, what a prayer! Can I say up front that when Paul is praying this, he is not just praying for the people that this letter was intended for, for the Church of Ephesus, he was praying for you, he was praying for Focus Church. I want to unpack this passage together, but today we’re just gonna look at verses 14 & 15
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I had this thought: sometimes our shoulders ought to be sore in raising them in worship to the Lord. The reason I thinking that is because my shoulders are sore. We were singing about glory to God, and the Lord reigns, and when we sing those songs, the bible talks a lot about body posture, and as I lift my spirit to the Lord in worship, sometimes I want to lift my hands to the Lord so that my outer physical body represents what’s happening in here…. And that’s one definition of the ‘raising of hands in worship’
Maybe you’ve heard some of the others… raise hands in surrender to great and mighty God. Like raising hands if a gun is pointed at you “I surrender”, a form of submission. How about the little toddler child who wants to be held, “hold me, hold me” our girls, Alli said “Hold you, hold you” which meant she wanted to be held, Jess said “hold to me, hold to me” sometimes we raise our hands in worship as a form of saying, Daddy, Abba Father God hold me. It’s a sense of being held or longing to be embrace the One who loves you more anybody or anything ever can.
So raising our hands in worship can represent:
Outer expression of inward emotion
Form of surrender
Longing to embrace
I have a video to show you, some of you have seen it before, others havent but its a Focus favorite - A Beginners Guide to Interactive Worship.
Let me share a related thought, if you will, because it has to do with body posture and that’s what this passage is speaking of. Listen, sometimes our knees ought to be sore from humbling ourselves before the Lord. I think we need to look at this passage literally. For this reason, I kneel before the Lord. I want to suggest that this may be the most important posture in the entire Bible, because I’m absolutely convinced that if you stay humble, then there is nothing that God cannot do in you and through you. The Bible says that God opposes the proud. That is scary to me, I do not want God opposing me. Let me say this, even as a pastor who is trying to serve the Lord, if I’m doing it with pride, then here is the crazy thing, God will oppose the very thing He called me to do, because God doesn’t bless, He doesn’t grace or favor pride. But if you find a way to humble yourself and stay humble before the Lord, oh, I have never once knelt in prayer and gotten up and not felt better. And very specifically, what happens is this, a lot of anxiety is alleviated. It is lifted off of my shoulders, and when I get up after kneeling, there is a confidence, but it is not self-confidence, like I can do it, because I can’t do it, but there is a God confidence, that He is in control and that I’m back in alignment with who He is and what He wants to do and I’m doing this for the glory of God. When you are in that posture, it is a powerful position. If you want to move forward spiritually, you better get on your knees. I’m going to challenge right here, when was the last time you spent some time on your knees before the Lord?
So here is your homework, spend some time today & this upcoming week kneeling before the Lord and humbling yourself before Him again. And hear me folks, you will be strengthened.
entire video and/or audio of this message: ALLmost 4 - the introduction
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