Psalm 14 The Message
Eugene H. Peterson by NavPress Publishing
Bilious and bloated, they gas, “God is gone.” Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison Rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop. 2 God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He’s looking for someone not stupid – one man, even, God-expectant, just one God-ready woman. 3 He comes up empty. A string of zeros. Useless, unshepherded sheep, taking turns pretending to be Shepherd. The ninety and nine follow their fellow. 4Don’t they know anything, all these predators? Don’t they know they can’t get away with this— treating people like a fast-food meal over which they’re too busy to pray? 5-6 Night is coming for them, and nightmares, for God takes the side of victims. Do you think you can mess with the dreams of the poor? You can’t, for God makes their dreams come true. 7 Is there anyone around to save Israel? Yes. God is around; God turns life around. Turned-around Jacob skips rope, turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Ephesians is really two concepts or thesis – one on belief and the other on behavior. One is doctrine one is duty. Our reading today is bridged between the two sections. It’s a prayer connecting belief as the fundamental driver for Christian living. It’s a great prayer and a blessing. Listen to the word of God.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Our two readings might sound opposed to each other, but in a subtle way they are related. In Psalm 14 we have the writer condemning a people that are opposed to God and that prey (attack) on the people of God. It dismisses the weakness of the non-believers and ultimately, we are protected by the Lord. It’s an appeal to the nation of Israel to hang in there.
In Ephesians, Paul is lifting prayer to strengthen the church at Ephesus. This isn’t a passage to help sway non-believers, this one is for the faithful. To strengthen each of them and us as Christians. We pray for those in need, for those hurting, for those grieving, for the sick, the hungry, the poor, for our wives our husbands, our children and our parents. We pray for our jobs and our health, we pray for the church, our community, our country, the world. We pray for our circumstances. And it is good that we do this. but Paul teaches us that there’s something even bigger. Most of us think that if our circumstances changed, then we would change. But Paul knows that circumstances don’t make us who we are. If Paul’s prayer is answered for us, then we can truly change, even if the world around us stays completely the same.
So I’m going to unpack this prayer and examine why its so strong. So what does Paul teach us to pray? Before I even get into there are two things off the top. He starts it with the clause, for this reason. What reason? What are you talking about? We’re thrown right in the middle of a discussion, and we don’t know what it’s about. Paul spent the prior chapters discussing the unity of the church: how through the blood of Christ we are now in this together. The church wasn’t working well together because it became factionalized, all those things don’t matter – we are all believers together.
The other thing I’ll point out it is the passion Paul brings to this prayer. He writes “I kneel before the Father”. In the Old Testament, the posture the Jews held in prayer was usually tied to the importance of the prayer. Kneeling, bowing or lying prostrate were usually done when acknowledging our humbleness before God. These aren’t the exclusive ways they prayed, in fact in Timothy, Paul exhorts “men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing”. It just means when he got on his knees it was special. Paul is praying that God will give us power so that we’re changed within. Not just power in general, but power toward a specific purpose: power that we would be changed in the depths of our beings. Read verses 16 and 17:
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith… (Ephesians 3:16–17)
What’s Paul praying for? Paul’s praying that something will happen in what he calls “your inner being.” This is the inner part of you that no-one can see, the part that makes you who you are. Paul’s praying for the very essence of who we are, at the very center of our personalities. And what does Paul pray for our inner beings? He prays that we’ll be strengthened with power through the Spirit. The purpose of this prayer is that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” He doesn’t pray that we’ll have a power that will improve our standing with others or get us more of what we want. The power Paul prays for is that the inner parts of us will become places where Christ can make his home. Paul uses the word ‘dwell’. It’s a strong word that means taking up permanent residence, to really settle down. Paul’s praying that our inner beings will be strengthened so that Christ may really settle down and live there. And if Christ lives at the very center of our beings, it’s going to mean transformation. We’ll never be the same. So we’ll be rooted and grounded in love. What a great image of a vast tree with roots penetrating deep into the earth. Down where it can receive the deep waters and always be nourished.
So this is the first part of Paul’s prayer. It’s not just that we believe certain things. This prayer is about much more than believing certain truths about God. It’s that we will be increasingly transformed in the very depths of our being by the one who’s taken up residence there.
But that’s not all.
Pray that you understand the limitless dimensions of Jesus’ love (3:17b-19). Verses 17 to 19 say: I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19).
It’s strange. Again, Paul prays for something, in a sense, that’s already true. He prays that we’ll grasp the love of Christ. I find that most people who are Christians get this at some level. Little kids can sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” But there’s a level at which we really don’t get it. A lot of us have this picture of God who’s perpetually disappointed with us. We try to obey God, but for a lot of us the motivation is about duty or obligation than as a response to God’s love.
I love the words he uses here to express the enormity of the Love of Christ. It’s in 4 dimensions; length, width, and height should cover it, no it’s beyond that. In Psalm 103:11–12, which also uses dimensional language:
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
The heavens are infinite above the earth. We are not talking billionaire trips just to the edge of space, we are talking vast magnitudes. That’s how great his Love is. And obviously east and west can never be connected, they’re relative – that’s how far away our sins go once we’ve been forgiven by God. The point is Paul uses 4 metrics not for hyperbole, but because our conventional understanding of size and space is inadequate to understand the size of God’s love.
There’s also this odd dynamic. Are we talking about know how much Christ loves us or the power of the believer’s love of Christ. I don’t really know and maybe it just depends on need. Either way the enormity of Christ’s love surpasses knowledge. No teaching that I could provide, no sermon that could be taught by Jen or any pastor would educate you or fill you with the wisdom that comes by faith. It’s through the Spirit and our own willingness to accept it that Christ enters our being. I’m not talking about bible thumping, rulemaking self-righteous belief over knowledge. Anti-vaxxers that use the bible as justification for not getting the covid vaccine are wrong in their understanding and don’t have in dwelling of Christ within them. Any Christian that uses Bible verses as justification for behavior hasn’t truly internalized belief.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Bible isn’t true or inadequate or unnecessary. What I’m saying is as we mature as believers the Word lives in us and guides us. That love of Christ that gives you true power that you’re filled with the fullness of God.
There’s lots of talk about autonomous vehicles. Usually we’re talking about cars, but planes and boats too are being enhanced so that no person is needed at the wheel anymore. They can fully self-drive. The reason they’ve taken so long is that for a long time the industry thought we needed smart roads and cars that talked to each other and to the traffic lights and to the street signs. The world needed to be smarter to help guide the cars. Elon Musk realized the cars have to do it themselves. And while they’re not quite there yet, not even Tesla. They can drive themselves under certain circumstances.
That’s the same thing for faith here…as Christians Paul wants the Holy Spirit so embedded in us, in our hearts, and in our lives, that no matter the situation, we don’t need to refer to the Bible, we will act as God wills. Jesus take the wheel!
Just think about the most faithful Christians you know. How can you tell, it might be they’re good teachers, or they can sing, or they are musicians or they pray? But most likely the best Christians we know are those who demonstrate the fullness of God’s spirit. They love unconditionally. They live a life in service to others. Paul concludes that if we’ve tapped into the fullness of God, we can accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. We can do more if we just believe.
We’ve been living under this pandemic for 18 months now. While it seems, we’ve turned the corner I don’t think anyone believes it’s over. There’s plenty of Greek letters to go after delta for worse variants. For many of us, it’s been the worse time of our lives. God hasn’t abandoned us, he’s left us the counselor to guide us. While we couldn’t worship together, the spirit was still at work. Loaves and Fishes served 100 families a week. Downstairs in the Foundation we host the LGA a catholic school for about 20 students. We couldn’t be in the building, but the spirit didn’t leave. Mission was stilling going on, effecting lives. It’s also left long lasting improvements in the building. If you get a chance look and see how both of these programs have changed our buildings.
During the time the church was closed for worship, I was blessed to help with recording worship, and I always thought, what do people miss about the building. And how can I make this more meaningful. I wanted us to stay connected prior to making those videos, I had no experience with editing, I learned the software as I went. I saw that we had a need and I jumped in. Believe me, I made plenty of mistakes and was questioning why I was putting in so much work. And the reason was because the church needed it.
Now its your turn. It’s time to reengage. Whether you’re in worship here or online, you can still serve. The church officer nominating committee has started its search to fill positions of church leadership. We need ushers for worship. We need donations for flowers. For each of you, there is a role, you must be open to the Spirit moving through you. It’s a power at work within us that is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.
To the glory of the Jesus Christ to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.