Rock Springs Reboot: How God Makes the Impossible Possible
May 18, 2021
Why doesn’t God do something to change the world? Have you ever asked yourself that question? With all the hurt and brokenness in our world, with violence escalating in Israel, with all the murder of the unborn, with all the injustice of human trafficking, with all the racism, hatred, division, confusion and fear, why doesn’t God come down here and fix this world? Ever heard yourself say something like that?
At the same time, have you ever considered that God already has a plan to fix this world? And that His plan includes you? That’s what’s been the focus of our Rock Springs Reboot series. God’s plan has always been to bless the world through ordinary people who are filled with the love of Jesus.
But the problem most of us struggle with is believing God could actually use us. We look at ourselves and think: “I’m not strong enough, loving enough or capable enough for God to bless the world through me.” In fact, what God is calling me to do seems like an impossible task. And if that is you, I’ve got some good news for you today. For in the passage of God’s Word we’re going to look at today, we’re going to see How God Makes the Impossible Possible – How God has made a way for you to actually become strong enough, loving enough and capable enough to be the blessing our world needs. How God imparts the power you need to love like Jesus.
So if you’d like to learn how God’s made it possible for you to do the impossible, then let me encourage you to open your Bible to Ephesians 3:14-21, where Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, reveals to us how God wants to strengthen you, fill you, and equip you, so you can love like Jesus and be part of His plan to fix this world. So, we’re going to look at this prayer in three parts. And the first part of this prayer addresses our human inability, our weakness when it comes to being the blessing God has called us to be. In other words, what we see in the first part of this prayer is this:
God wants to strengthen you: Listen now and see how this is a prayer we all need. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3:14-17a Now the first part of this prayer hits right at the point where we all falter. Left to ourselves, we simply do not have the power within us to love like Jesus. That’s why it’s impossible for us to love like Jesus. We don’t have the strength to love like Jesus, because we are not Jesus. So God needs to strengthen us so that Jesus might come fully alive in us. That’s what it means for Jesus to “dwell” in your hearts through faith. God wants Jesus to shore up your inner being so He can settle in and be at home in your heart, in your mind and in your will. Left to ourselves, none of us have the kind interior structure fitting for Jesus to be fully at home within us. Let me illustrate:
Our previous “dwelling place” was a 1939 Brick Tudor on North Seventh Ave in Tacoma, Washington. We purchased this house about a year after we moved to Tacoma. But before we could call it a home, we had an issue we needed to address. Our daughter Courtney hated the room she was supposed to move into. It was like a cave. Every square inch of surface was covered with aged wood paneling. It had built in desks, dressers and beds that made it feel cramped, musty, dark and outdated. But we promised her that if we bought the place, we would remodel that room and make it a place where she could be at home. And that’s what we did. We removed the built ins, stripped away the dark paneling, tore out the old knob and tube wiring. Then we rewired the room, put in new insulation, put up new dry wall and finished off the room with new trim and new paint. By the time we finished this dark and dated room, it was transformed into a light and spacious interior dwelling that was fitting for Courtney. It became a place where she could truly feel at home. A place where she could thrive.
That’s what God wants to create in you. He wants to strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that your heart, mind and soul become the kind of environment where Jesus can really settle in and live. And once He is truly at home in your inner being, He can really begin to live and love through you. So since Paul prays that God might strengthen us by His Spirit in our inner being, this prayer implies is that our inner being is too weak for Christ to truly be at home in us.
So think with me about what this prayer implies: To ask that God might strengthen your mind is to say that your mind may not be a fitting place for Christ to dwell. This makes sense. Whether you’ve believed in Christ for years or just came to faith, you and I live in a world that tries to fill our minds with thoughts and ideas meant to convince us that life is all about living for sensuality and self. TV shows and movies have made consensual sex the norm. The powers of the age are trying to convince you that you can chose your gender. College professors teach that there is no such thing as absolute truth. The spirit of the age is all about creating your own morality. There is no right or wrong, just your right or wrong. And if you have a faith, well, you are told to keep it to yourself. After all, everyone is spiritual and all paths lead to God. So your Christianity isn’t what we need. In fact, your Christianity is harmful. So our minds are under constant attack today. They are weak or being weakened by the constant barrage of ungodliness in the world today.
But God’s Word tells us that we are people of truth. That’s why Paul says, I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. And the Holy Spirit wants to strengthen your mind with the truth of the glorious riches that are yours in Jesus. He wants these truths to fortify your mind: The truth that you’ve always been wanted by God. The truth that you’ve always been loved by God. The truth that in Jesus Christ God has made you righteous. The truth that in Jesus Christ, you have been redeemed; you are forgiven and are now free to be who God created you to be. The truth that your salvation is secure and guaranteed because you have been marked by the Holy Spirit that God gave you when you believed. The truth that you are now and forever God’s treasured possession. And it is these truths and more that are meant to fortify your mind, so you will see yourself the way God sees you, not as the worlds says you should be. It is the truth of God’s Word that strengthens you and makes a home for Christ in you. God wants to strengthen your mind.
In the same way we need our hearts to be strengthened. Why? Because we are often deceived by our fears and imaginations. When we let our fears get the best of us it is because we’ve forgotten that God is in control. When things don’t go our way, we get angry or depressed. When we take our eyes of Jesus, we allow our circumstances to create discontent in us. Let me ask you: Do you ever battle with fear or depression? Do you ever find yourself wrestling with discontent? If you do, that’s a sign of a weak heart. And what you need is Christ’s Spirit to fortify your heart. You need the Spirit of Christ to remind you of your riches in Christ. You need the Spirit of Christ to protect your heart. That’s why Paul gave us this prayer. All of us will face fears, have times of discouragement, and struggle with discontent. That’s par for the course in living in this world. No one gets a free ride. We’re all in a battle for our heart. But God’s made a way to strengthen your heart. And the way He strengthens your heart is with the Spirit of Christ. With the Power of the Holy Spirt. And that’s why this prayer needs to be part of our daily prayer arsenal. So that God might fortify our hearts with the power of the Holy Spirit.
And finally we need our wills to be strengthened For left to ourselves, we discover quite quickly that our wills are weak and wishy-washy because of sin. We want to obey God’s Word, we want to live godly lives, but too often we fail. We chose to disobey, we chose to sin, or we chose to judge. Then we resolve to do better, but then we fail again and again. Is there any hope for us? Yes, that’s why Paul has given us this prayer. This prayer reminds us that we are unable to do God’s will our of our own strength, but God is able. It is the Spirit of Christ in us who gives us the power to obey. This is why it is impossible to live the Christian life in our own strength. Our mind, our heart and our wills are fallen. That’s why God gives us His Spirit, so we might let Him strengthen us – and the more we learn this, the more we pray and ask God for His help, the more God will fortify our inner being, and Christ will come alive in us.
God wants to make your heart a home for Jesus. But this doesn’t just happen because we want it to happen. It happens when we allow God to transform our hearts with the riches of Christ. It happens when we allow Christ’s Spirit to fortify our hearts with His truth. And it happens when God’s people pray. The good news today is this: If you are weak in your inner being, if the world has you confused, depressed or fearful. If the world is causing discontent in you, you don’t have to stay that way. Start praying this prayer. Get a prayer partner to pray for you and you for him or her. And let God create a place in you where Jesus can come alive in you. God wants to strengthen you. That’s the first truth we get from this prayer. Now, the second:
God wants to fill you: Now we all know what it’s like to be full – we can’t eat another bite. We also know what happens when we fill a glass too full – it overflows. But when you look at what God wants to do in your life, this prayer tells us that God wants to overflow your life with the love of Christ. Here’s Paul’s second request: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17b-19
Now that’s a prayer. Let this sink in a minute. What does this request tell us about our potential to be a blessing in our world? Well, it tells me that everyone of us has the potential to bless others with the love of Jesus Christ. It tells me that all of us together, “the Lord’s Holy people” is the instrument God has chosen to change the world, to heal the world. You see, God doesn’t need to come down here to fix what’s gone wrong in the world. God’s already given the world what it needs. All it needs is love – this vast and all-consuming love of Christ that’s to flow from God’s people!
Now this is not just any kind of love. It’s not a touchy, feely kind of love. It is the full expanse of Christ’s love. So if we are going to be the instrument from which Christ’s love is to overflow – if I read what Paul is praying here correctly, then what must first take place for this to happen through us, is that we must all truly experience Christ’s love. So let’s take a moment to dwell on His love. How great is Christ’s love?
Christ’s love is wide enough to reach the whole world. Revelation tells us that God’s love is wide enough to reach people from every tongue, tribe and nation. This means Christ’s love is wide enough to reach any sinner. And that means any person you ever locked eyes with can be reached with the love of Christ. His love is wide enough to reach you, your neighbor, your son or your daughter. His love is wide enough to reach those living in Eloy or Uganda, to those living in Ocean Beach or the Sahara Desert. His love is wide enough to reach atheists or Muslims; Arabs or Israelites; Asians or Caucasions! No one is outside the scope of Christ’s love. His love is wide. Its also long:
Christ’s love is long enough to stretch from eternity to eternity. In this letter God tells us that He has loved you since before time began. God has always loved you. He will never stop loving you. For God’s love never changes. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That means that no matter what crisis you are facing, no matter what illness has you down, no matter what sin you struggle with, you will never cease being the object of His love. His love is long enough to reach those who run from Him, hide from Him or say they have no time for Him. He is always pursuing us with His love. And that means He will always pursue all people with His love. His love will never run out. His love will never run dry. For His love is eternal. And that encourages me today. Does it encourages you! Christ’s love is long! But it is also High.
Christ’s love is High enough to raise us to heaven. Jesus didn’t just die for you to give your forgiveness, but to bring you to God. He didn’t just deliver you from judgment, but rescued you for heaven. Christ’s love for you made you a member of God’s forever family and gave you a seat with the Father in heaven for all eternity. His love lifts you up, holds you up and secures your future in heaven once and for all. His love is high. And finally, Christ’s love is deep.
Christ’s love is deep enough to rescue anyone from sin’s damage and Satan’s domain. Jesus left heaven and descended to the depths of mankind. He welcomed prostitutes and tax collectors at his table. He touched the untouchable. He loved the unlovely. He redeemed the ruined. He reached into the depths of our depravity to rescue us and make us new. And He went to the lowest pit of humanity when He allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, and took the worst evil could muster to free us from Satan’s grasp. Now, no one can say, “I’m too far gone” or “I’ve done too many wicked things for God to love me.” No, for the love of God goes deeper than the most depraved and evil among us. That means He will love you even at your worst. That’s the depth of His love for you. His love is deep. As the Hymn writer Trevor Frances once wrote: O the deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free. Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
This is the love we were created to know. This is the love God wants you to be rooted and established in. And yet as Paul says, it’s a love that surpasses knowledge, for it can only be found in the love of Jesus who gave His all for us. So then, this kind of love must be experienced by faith in Jesus. And yet, once we begin to experience all that Jesus gave up to rescue us, redeem, include us, and heal us… that’s the kind of love that doesn’t just change us, but actually fills us with the life of God.
And it’s this love that God wants to spill out of your life to bless our hurting and broken world. Do you realize the power of this prayer? This is why God has made the Church to be hope of the world. This is how we can be the blessing God calls us to be. For when we are filled with God’s love, God will use us to redeem this lost and broken world. This is how God makes the impossible possible. He fills us with the love of Christ.
So this is some prayer. It’s the prayer that gives us the strength we need to allow Christ to live in us. It’s the prayer that fills us with love of Christ our world needs. And it’s the pray that shows us that we can do the impossible, for God has made it possible through His power that’s at work in us. That’s the final truth in this prayer:
God makes it possible for you: 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, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 Here’s the God news! God is able to do more than all we ask or imagine, according to HIS POWER that is at work in us. What can you imagine God doing through you, if God really lives in you? If you can imagine it, God SAYS HE CAN DO IT!
Can you imagine God strengthening your mind, heart and soul so that nothing holds you back from following Jesus? God is able! GOD WILL DO IT!
Can you imagine God empowering you to help another person trust and follow Jesus? God is able! GOD CAN DO IT!
Can you imagine God helping you love your neighbor who’s far from God? God is able! HE IS AT WORK IN YOU, AND HE WILL WORK THROUGH YOU. THAT’S HIS PROMISE!
Can you imagine God sending you to help start a Journey Group in Eloy? God is able. GOD CAN DO IT THROUGH YOU!
Can you imagine God using you to love a street person in Ocean Beach? God is able.
If you can imagine it, then if what Paul prays here is true – then God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!
So maybe we need to start asking. I mean if this passage isn’t a call to prayer, then what else is? You see, this prayer is not simply a life changing prayer, it’s a prayer that God wants to answer, for it’s a prayer He is able to answer. AND WHEN HE ANSWERS THIS PRAYER – JESUS WILL LOVE THROUGH US, AND HELP US BE A BLESSING!
So then, this must be a prayer we start praying. For this is the kind of prayer that changes things. This is the kind of prayer that changes us. So how would God have you respond today?
First, Start Praying This Prayer. Pray this prayer for a brother in Christ. Pray this for your brothers or sisters in your Journey Group. Pray this prayer for yourself, ask others to pray this for you, and let’s see what God is able to do!
Second, Start Praying This Prayer for our Church. I’m praying that God would raise up a team of intercessors that would make this THEIR MINISTRY. May God give us a Team of Intercessors. People who will bend the knee and pray this prayer for our community. People who will bend the knee and pray this prayer for every believer who calls Rock Springs Family. People who will bend the knee and pray for Eloy. People who will bend the knee and pray this prayer for me, your Pastor.
Can you imagine what God might do through us if we pray this way? He won’t just change us, but He will use us, to love change our world through the love of Christ! Let’s pray!
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