Main Point: God is able to fill you with his fullness for his glory
There are times when we look at what God is doing in the world, in the church, or in our families and wonder, “God, what in the world are you doing?!?!” This can be positive when God blesses in ways beyond what we asked or even imagined. This can also be a struggle when God doesn’t answer our prayers or even seem to care. “God, what in the world are you doing?!?!”
Angela and I felt this back and forth of both wonder and disappointment the first 10 years of our marriage through pregnancies, miscarriages, and three babies in three years. It was during my last semester in seminary in early 2004 that Angela became pregnant. It was an emotional roller coaster because we wanted children, but we thought we were not ready. I was about to graduate, and we had nowhere to go. I was sending out resumes with no prospects, and we had to move out of our apartment. After the initial shock over the pregnancy wore off, we started getting excited about this child. A couple of weeks later I was in class and saw the worried face of a good friend through the window in the door. He motioned for me to come out; Angela was having a miscarriage. “God, what in the world are you doing?!?!”
Fast forward a few months and we are unpacking boxes here in Granbury and I have started as pastor of the church. We settled in with a steady paycheck and health insurance, so we decided it was a good time to go from a family of two to a family of three. After three or four miscarriages we began to ask again, “God, what in the world are you doing?!?! God, why do you knit these babies together in Angela’s womb but they keep dying?” There were darks days and lots of tears. Then Abby was born, then Hannah was born even though we thought we lost her too, then more when joy Sarah was born. Three babies in three years, “God, what in the world are you doing!?!?” And four years later, Ruth, number four comes along. This is crazy good!
In Ephesians 3, the apostle Paul is sharing his prayer for these Christians. They are struggling over his suffering and he wants them to be strengthened by the Spirit to know the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of God. He wants us to be strengthened by the Spirit so that we experience the great love of Christ and become more like God through our sufferings.
Where you are right now, what do you need? You need the power of the Spirit, the love of Christ, and to become more like God. The people in your life who are struggling with the question, “God, what in the world are you doing?!?!” they need the Spirit of God to help them rest in the love of Christ and fill them with the fullness of God. In our struggles we need a big dose of a big God and that is what Ephesians 3:20-21 gives us. We need a big dose of a big God, and we need to understand what God is up to. When we struggle, we need to know God is able to fill us with his fullness and we need to know how to glorify him. So, let’s dig in. Ephesians 3:1-21 (read it)
Grab onto this as you suffer and as you walk alongside sufferers, God is able. God is not dead or indifferent. God is alive and cares more for your loved ones than you do. Part of the difficulty of suffering is we don’t have all the details about why we suffer, and we don’t have all the details about how God is working our suffering according to his plan. So, we fight to believe God is able, and we fight for our brothers and sisters to believe that God is able.
Verse 20 directs a word of praise (a doxology) to the God who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Let’s get that squared away first; God is able. The words able and power in verse 20 come from the same root word. It’s the same root that we build our word dynamite on. In suffering and difficulty, the usual response is for us to think either God can’t do something, or God won’t do something. The affirmation from Isaiah 59:1 is “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;” When God’s people complained about how much better off they were back in Egypt, God promised to give them meat to eat, and Moses could not believe it. Here is God’s response to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not” (Ex 11:20-23). And the Lord proved he is capable of doing far more abundantly than all that the Hebrew people could ask or imagine.” Seeing that God is able, let’s ask,
I. What is God capable of?
- God is able to do more than you’re praying for right now
Who is God? Ephesians 3:20, He is the God who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask.” Here, asking is the same thing as praying. God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we are praying for. And what is Paul praying for? He is praying for struggling Christians to be strengthened by the Spirit to know the love of Christ and become mature like God. What do our friends and family need in their suffering? They need to be strengthened by the Spirit to know the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of God. That is a pretty big ask! In the next chapter we will see how Paul is calling them to live lives worthy of the gospel and to be tenacious about protecting the unity of the church. Jews and Gentiles who could not be more different have been united to one another because of Jesus and they need to know how to get along together. More than tolerate each other, they need to learn how to live as one body, members one of another.
The union of Jews and Gentiles is like these people from Black Lives Matter and these people from the Proud Boys are joined to one another through Jesus and are learning how to live together, work together, and love one another. Each of them needs the strength of the Spirit and the love of Christ so they can be filled with the fullness of God and live together as the people of God. God is able to do that! God is able to do abundantly more than that!
It looks like “far more abundantly” is one of those words that the apostle Paul made up because the Greek language wasn’t adequate to express the ability of God. Think of a crazy excessive amount like Jesus feeding the 10,000 people from one lunch box and there being 12 baskets of food left over (Mt 14:20); that’s crazy! God is capable of far more than you and I know. Just like Moses didn’t think God could feed meat to a million Hebrews in the wilderness and the disciples didn’t think Jesus could feed the 10,000 in the wilderness so you and I don’t think God is able to take care of us in our suffering. Listen, God is able but not just able, God is willing and able. God is able to do far more abundantly than all that you are praying for. God has your prayers in his hand plus some.
- God is able to do more than you can imagine
Our greatest brains are not capable of imagining the capabilities of our great God. A God who is simultaneously perfectly infinitely sovereign, holy, wrathful, and loving is beyond our comprehension. This God who knows all things and is steering all things according to the council of his will is capable of doing things beyond your imagination. God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:9). God is up to things we can’t understand.
The NASA website says astronomers estimate the universe contains up to 1 septillion stars (that’s 1 with 24 zeros). The Milky Way Galaxy contains around 100 billion stars. Can your brain compute how God has the power to speak 1 septillion stars into existence, remember all their names, and then put the strength of the Spirit and the love of Christ into little ole you? Listen,
- That great power is working within us
Go back to Ephesians 3:20 and follow along so we are clear that I am not making this up, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” Where is that great 1 septillion star creating power working? His power is working within us. Who are the us in Ephesians 3:20? They are men and women, husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters. The fullness of God is working among no-name people to bring God glory in the church.
The way unknown and unseen stars in the galaxy bring glory to God is the way unknown and unseen Christians in unknown and unseen churches bring glory to God. When, according to the power working within us, we do what God made us to do then we glorify God. Are you doing what God made you and Christ redeemed you and the Spirit empowers you to do?
My prayer is that God will open you and me up to the possibilities of what he can accomplish through our suffering, our difficulties, and our disappointments. Paul told those Ephesians Christians not to lose heart over what he was suffering because what was happening to him was their glory (Eph 3:12). Say what?
Can God provide meat for a million people in the dessert? You bet he can; his arm is not too short to save. Can God provide lunch for 10,000 people in the wilderness with 12 baskets of leftovers? You bet he can; his arm is not too short to save. Can God make glorious things come out of your suffering? You bet he can; his arm is not too short to save. In fact, God’s power is at work within us. The infinite God of the universe is at work through us. So, what in the world is God up to? God, what in the world are you doing?
Verse 21, God is after his glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. So, what do we do? We glorify God.
II. Glorify God
God is glorified by the redeemed and by the Redeemer. Our lives of holiness together as the church reveal the greatness of God and Jesus’ work to make us holy reveals the greatness of God. Let’s take each of those in turn. Paul is praying for us to
- Seek God’s glory in the church
Remember Ephesians 3:10; God’s plan is to reveal his manifold wisdom to all of creation through the church. In eternity past God chose to reveal his wonder and greatness not through Hollywood or congress but through the church; to him be glory in the church.
Now, I want to think God will be most glorified when I am healthy, wealthy, powerful, and popular. I want God to make much of me so I can make much of him. And generally that means something like make me successful and then I’ll tell everyone how great God is and everyone will see his glory. But instead of using our success to bring himself glory, God uses our suffering. God has chosen to use the way we love, trust, and work together to reveal his glory. Looking at the apostle Paul we must understand God’s plan is for his most well-known apostle to be arrested and killed and then for a bunch of no-name husbands, wives, and slaves to reveal his glory throughout all generations.
How do we do that? How do we glorify God? There must be 1 septillion ways to glorify God but if we focus on what we have seen in Ephesians 1-3 we understand that we glorify God when we depend on the resurrected Jesus to live lives of love together as the church. Who glorifies God? A united church glorifies God and who is the church? The church is made up of Christ-followers, husbands who love their wives and wives who respect their husbands and children who honor their parents and parents who disciple their children and employees who serve God through their work and bosses who fear God.
Maybe you and I struggle with our situations because we are asking for the wrong things. Instead of asking for God-glorifying things (like God’s help in our suffering) we are asking for self-glorifying things (like get me out of this suffering). God tells us in James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” What this means is I am often frustrated because I want to be glorified instead of wanting God to be glorified. I am often angry because I don’t get my way and I am rarely angry that God doesn’t get his way. What do your plans and daydreams consist of? Do your plans and daydreams focus on God being glorified in the church? Do you, church member, plan and pray for this church to glorify God more clearly and consistently?
So, what could it look like for God to be glorified in us? This is the question that Ephesians 4, 5, and 6 answer. The clearest answer comes in Ephesians 4:15 and 16. God is glorified in the church when speaking the truth in love, we grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. God is glorified in the church when each member loves one another and is devoted to helping one another become more like Jesus. God is glorified in the church when we help one another become more like Jesus.
This reality pushes us to what it means for God to be glorified in Christ Jesus. You and I must
- Seek God’s glory in Jesus
We the redeemed glorify God precisely because we are redeemed by Jesus. Our redemption through Jesus puts the wisdom of God on display. The Father planned for Jesus’ righteous life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection to create us. Have you ever tasted a really good dish at a 5th Sunday lunch and asked, “Wow, who made this?” The world is meant to see the way you love us and ask, “Wow, who made this?” The answer is Jesus made the church, Jesus made this holy, loving, hopeful, powerful, and suffering people. And Jesus’ work to make the church is all according to the Father’s plan. God is glorified in Jesus because Jesus redeems the church according to the plan of God. Jesus’ sacrificial work to create the church is no accident but is the eternal God exalting plan.
So, when we are divided, suspicious, and complaining this distracts from the glory of God and makes Jesus look like a religious placebo. But when we are united, loving, hopeful, and helpful, explicitly because we are depending on Jesus, then God is revealed for who he truly is. God is glorified through Jesus when we the church love one another well, when we work hard unto the Lord, and when speak as gracious witnesses to the power God. And for how long should this go on?
- Seek God’s glory throughout all generations
Our children’s building is called the Next Gen building because of our Psalm 78 commitment to tell the next generation about our glorious God so that they love him and tell the next generation about our glorious God so that they love him and tell the next generation about our glorious God. On and on throughout all generations we seek to glorify God by worshipping God and telling others how to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. God is glorified throughout all generations as generation after generation worships God, works hard unto God, and lives as witnesses to God so that generation after generation loves and follows Jesus. The “us four and no more” attitude that focuses merely on your family is insufficient. Each of us needs a vision for God being glorified through our great great great grandchildren being healthy members of a healthy church. They won’t know our names, but we want to structure the church and strengthen the church so that they know our glorious God. Throughout all generations we want God to be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus and this for ever and ever. Christian, commit with me to
- Seek God’s glory for all eternity
The end of verse 21 steps from this age into the age to come. Verse 21 opens up vistas of eternity in which God will be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus. To this great doxology of God’s unending praise the apostle Paul offers up a hearty “Amen.” It is true. It is certain! May God be praised and trusted from now through all of eternity because God is worthy of unending praise.
So, what in the world is God doing? God is redeeming normal everyday people like me and you through Jesus Christ to form his church. The church is made up of people like me and you who put the hope, love, and power of Christ on display in our relationships and through our work. God is pouring the strength of the Spirit and the love of Christ into our hearts so that we go into every situation, especially the difficult situations, as image bearers. Like Jesus, we often suffer, but this suffering for the good and the redemption of others is our glory and not our shame.
We start reading 2 Peter today in our daily Bible reading. 2 Peter is a letter written to suffering Christians. One way you can glorify God in the church is to read and discuss a chapter a day with your spouse, your children, and with your fellow members. Start your day with personal Bible reading and prayer. Talk about what you are learning as you go throughout the day and end the day with family worship. Men, husbands, fathers, and brothers we must lead the way. Women, wives, mothers, and sisters we need your help to get there. We want to be a church that glorifies God by each of us becoming more like Christ. We want to be one family in Christ making disciples.
By and For the gospel 