EPHESIANS 3:14-21
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.16 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now 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,21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21 IMMEASURABLY MORE
189th Anniversary of Springford Baptist Church
October 3, 2021.
What is your experience of God doing MORE, even more than what you could ask or imagine? Throughout the 189 years that Springford Baptist Church has been looking to God and trusting God in prayer, over and over God has been doing more, even more than what was asked or imagined. We recognize this and praise God for this today!
Lately, we have been living lives that have seemed limited in a number of ways. We have not been able to do many of the things we enjoy doing like visiting freely with family and friends and going places without feeling concerned about our safety.
For our church celebrating our Anniversary on this first Sunday in October, we might be inclined to focus on what is less rather than on what can be more. We might recall making our Anniversary Sunday a Homecoming Time and welcoming those back who have had significant connections with our church in the past. We might reminisce about Anniversaries when we were able to have a crowd of people sitting closely together and standing to sing praises to God. Our minds turn to memories of sharing a delicious meal together after our Anniversary services and talking and laughing together and appreciating our church family and our guests.
It is easy to turn our thoughts to what we feel like we are missing and to have the conclusion be that this is so much less.
I had an encouraging phone call recently from someone in Nova Scotia who was a deacon in one of the first churches where my husband Bob and I served as Pastors. He was recalling one of the first messages that Bob preached for Thanksgiving there and a Children’s Story that I had told. It was all around this truth that God can do immeasurably more than what we ask or imagine. The children’s story recounted prayers for some yarn to finish a pair of mittens and having a brand new pair of mittens arrive in the mail-even more than what was asked.
Our friend then went on to tell us that the church roof there needed to be replaced and it was going to cost $15 000. They had a church meeting and went away from the meeting wondering how they would ever raise that amount of money. Apparently, as people heard about this need, the funds started coming in and in a short time they had almost double the amount of money needed to replace the church roof. He was reminded of this principle of God being able to do, “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” (vs. 21)
Our God is still at work doing, “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
Notice that today’s Scripture highlights Paul’s prayer for the church, the Christian believers to whom he is writing. Paul kneels before God the Father and prays, “that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Paul is confident as he prays for this church, asking God to strengthen them with power through the Holy Spirit. They are not to rely on their own limited strength, but rather to witness the “more” that God can bring about as they are rooted and established in love. And he prays that they will have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp the immensity of the love of Christ.
It is our personal encounter with Jesus and His love for us that gives us the courage to dare to believe God for the more that He is able to do!
When I read here about being “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” that is my prayer for you and for me-more of God! Yes, more of You LORD God!
We are inclined to come to God asking him to fix various situations or to supply our needs; to bring healing and comfort; to bring hope when we are feeling without hope.
God is certainly able to answer these prayers and in even more generous ways than we would have expected.
Above and beyond this, God is prepared to bring about “immeasurably more” than all we ask or imagine when this prayer is answered for us to be filled with all the fullness of God.
This is a prayer for us to pray on this the 189th anniversary of our church. It is people being filled with all the fullness of God for the many years of the life and ministry of this church that has brought glory to God.
God will continue to receive glory as we today are filled with God’s fullness.
Verses 20 and 21 give glory to God for what He is yet to do, 20 Now 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,21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
When God receives the attention for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do, that glory gets expressed in the church (that’s us) and in Christ Jesus. This will continue throughout all generations.
We do not want to in any way limit what God can do in us and through us to bring glory to Him. On this the 189th Anniversary of Springford Baptist Church, we are not limited by what we might describe as less because our God is always, “able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine.”
Glory to God!!