As they're finishing up the offering there, if you're a guest with us, we're gonna release kids to children's ministry in a moment. So if you haven't registered your kids already, you can do that. We'd love to serve you in that way. The children's ministry workers are gonna head to the back, and the kids can be dismissed to head back there as well. As I was saying, if you've got little ones and you're a guest and you haven't checked them in already, we'd love to serve you in that way. There's a table out in the hallway where you can get your kids signed up. They can walk you through the process. For everyone else, we We're going to be taking a brief detour this morning. We've been in our series on the book of Colossians, "The Hope of Glory." Well, this morning, we're going to stay with that theme and really right where we've been in the book of Colossians, but we're going to jump over to the sister book of Ephesians. And there's a rhyme and reason to that.
The reason is, as we saw last week, I want to go back for one brief second before we read today's text in Ephesians. And reread the concluding verses from last week's message.
Last week we finished Colossians by looking at the first 4 verses of chapter 3, and it said this: If then you have been raised with Christ— the assumption being, if you are a believer, you have been raised with Christ— seek the things that are above, specifically where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. So when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Now we concluded there last week, if you remember a few weeks ago, we noticed in the turn towards chapter 2, up until that point, Paul hadn't used a single imperative in the letter. There's not a single command in the opening chapter of Colossians. It's just this bath of Christology. He's just showering us with the knowledge of who Christ is.
And then it turns and building upon that, he begins to give us exhortations and commands and imperatives about how to live our life. Last week we looked at the imperative not to add to Christ, that when we consider salvation, we recognize Christ and Christ alone and the grace we receive through him is the only vehicle of salvation. There's nothing we add to that formula that makes us right with God, that sets us before God without blame. Here's the sweet thing about Paul. He never overemphasizes one thing to the detriment of another. We can be prone to do that. Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, is not. And so right as he gives us a warning against legalism, he's about to jump into a section of Colossians where he then not just warns us against legalism but comes back on the other side and gives us this massive exhortation to holiness. It's this whole section we'll see in the rest of chapter 3. Put off the things that might kill you and put on the things of righteousness. So it's this sweet balance of don't try to work your way to salvation, and at the same time, don't despise holiness. Don't despise living a godly life in Christ.
Before we go there though, I want to spend this morning jumping across to the letter of Ephesians. This passage we're going to look at in Ephesians 3:14-19. 3 through 19 has been on my heart for a while. It's been on my heart because I think it encapsulates a lot of what Paul is driving at in this letter to Colossians as well.
Before we jump into exhortations about the specifics of holiness, I want to give us a picture of how to pray for what Paul calls us to in Colossians 3:1-4. Does that make sense? He wants us to see, don't be legalistic and add to Christ. And at the same time, don't pursue holiness and forget Christ. Christ is sufficient for salvation and Christ is the end goal and purpose for why we pursue holiness in the first place. So with that in mind, let's consider how we do that by looking to the letter of Ephesians.
6 · Articulates the sermon's controlling concern — how to treasure Christ with insatiable, sustained passion — framing the entire message as practical instruction for obeying Colossians 3:1-4
Our aim today is to tap into a running application on how we properly walk out Colossians 1:4. How do we adore? How do we esteem? How do we treasure Christ? How do we set our minds on the things that are above, set our minds on Jesus with a passion that's not going to run out? With an insatiable passion. Paul intends for believers to be stirred up to gaze on the treasure of Christ, and as they gaze on Jesus, to have a voracious hunger take hold of their souls. That's what we're going to look at this morning in Ephesians.
7 · Reads the primary text of Ephesians 3:14-21 aloud, framing it as God's holy and authoritative word and asking that its truth be written on the congregation's hearts
Hear God's holy and authoritative word. Ephesians 3 starting at verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 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, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, that is, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all 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, forever and ever. Amen. God's Holy Word, may He write its truth upon our hearts.
8 · Establishes the canonical connection between Ephesians 3 and Colossians 1:9, arguing that Ephesians extends what Paul began in Colossians — both passages center on prayer for Spirit-empowered knowledge of Christ
What Paul calls us to in Ephesians 4 is sort of an extended commentary on the same thing he called us to in Colossians 1. If you remember in Colossians, we already talked about a few weeks ago this recognition Paul calls us to pray. He says in verse 9, from the day he heard about the faith of the Colossians, right, we haven't ceased to pray for you. We've been asking that you may be filled with this, with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We're going to see what that walking is in the rest of chapter 3. But what I wanted to do is to pause and go to Ephesians and just extend our time contemplating what does it look like to pray, to pray that God would empower us to set our eyes on Christ. That's what we're going to do this morning.
9 · Introduces the sermon's first major move — the necessity of divine strengthening for treasuring Christ — by asserting the irreducible fact that self-sufficiency fails in spiritual pursuit
To pursue that sort of treasure, Paul shows us in Ephesians, first we have to pray specifically that we would receive inner power, that we would receive strengthening. Paul's opening words underscore an irreducible fact in the pursuit of this radical treasuring of Christ. It's simply this: self-sufficiency will fail you. You don't have the strength to do this on your own. You are not strong enough.
10 · Expounds Ephesians 3:14 to show that Paul's prayer posture signals awareness that what he's asking believers to do — set their minds on Christ — exceeds human capacity and requires divine empowerment
3:14, I bow my knees before the Father for this reason, Paul says, this thing that I'm praying for, what I'm calling you to, is beyond your capacity. He says to set your mind on Christ in Colossians, but don't lean on your own strength.
11 · Illustrates human inability to treasure Christ unaided by comparing it to a blind man given a treasure map — the capacity simply isn't there without external intervention
To do that, it'd be like describing to a blind person the most fabulous treasure in all of history. It's incredible. It will change your life. It will make everything about your life different and better and fabulous. And here, blind man is the map. It's just marked with the Acts, go find it. You can't do it. You don't have the ability left to yourself.
12 · States the proportionality principle — treasuring a vast Savior requires vast resources — and establishes that Paul's Ephesians prayer aims to secure those limitless resources for believers
To simultaneously crave and savor a treasure as vast as Jesus, we need equally vast resources. That's exactly where Paul points us. His prayer request in Ephesians, which expands upon a similar prayer request in Colossians, is that we would have those limitless resources empowering our pursuit.
13 · Begins expounding Ephesians 3:16 on prayer for strengthening through the Spirit, then introduces a seminary professor's testimony about using this prayer before batting, setting up a correction about the prayer's true purpose
Verse 16 says he prays according to the riches of God's glory that God would grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in our inner being. I had a professor in seminary He was a Division I baseball player. He played for the University of Minnesota, and contrary to the revenue sports, Minnesota is actually decent at baseball. So this isn't like Minnesota basketball or football, so don't think he was really bad. I think he was actually a pretty good player. He actually got All-Big Ten his last year, and he told us he was going through a slump at the start of the season, and then he realized he needed help. And so he said he started to recite this prayer in Ephesians every time before he would step into the batter's box. Lord, empower me with strength in my inner being. He would step in the box and he just said it just helped transform his season.
14 · Corrects the misapplication of the Ephesians 3:16 prayer, contrasting trivial requests (baseball hits, test scores, business deals) with the prayer's true purpose — to lay hold of Christ's majesty and be satisfied in Him through the incomparable power of God's glory
Now, as cool a story as that is, that's not really what Paul's talking about here. He's not talking about little prayers so you can hit your drive straight around the fairway. Lord, some of you are like, Lord, Please, I'm trying to close this deal, my slice of soap. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about coming before him, not saying, help me hit a triple instead of a single. Coming before him and saying, Lord, help me lay hold of the majesty of your Son. Help me see Jesus and let my soul be satisfied. He says, according to the riches of your glory, let this happen. My prayers can be so small. To go in pursuit of Christ in our own strength, it's like settling for a 2-volt battery. When you could get hooked up to a nuclear reactor? Paul calls our attention to the most magnificent, the most majestic power source that has ever and could ever exist, the glory and splendor of God the Father. Everything you can imagine pales in comparison when it is set next to His, the Father's, glory. Everything else is a pale shadow and flicker. Nothing burns with the radiance and energy and power of God the Father's glory. The sun is pitch black compared to the brilliance of God's glory. And Paul prays for the riches of God's glory, all of that glory to be applied to you, to strengthen you in your inner being. Not so you can get a base hit, not so you can pass the test, not so you can close the deal, so that you can lay hold of the mystery of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. And be conformed to look like Him.
15 · Reinforces the magnitude of Paul's prayer by drawing in parallel passages from Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 — all showing that Paul prays for resurrection-level power to sustain believers in Christ-centered joy to the end of their race
For this reason, Ephesians 1:15, I do not cease to give thanks for all of you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you, all of you, a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Verse 19, "What is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us to believe? How much is He giving us? According to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." Oh, how our prayers are too small. Back in Colossians, Paul writes, Colossians 1:11, "May you all be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy." All endurance. I want you to have all this power so you will finish the race, so you will come to the end and you will still be satisfied in Christ. I want you to have all of this power so that all the way through the race, You are finding deeper and deeper joy and satisfaction in the only place it exists, in Christ Jesus. It's an enormous prayer.
16 · Articulates the inexhaustibility principle at the heart of God's glory — the resource Paul calls upon for believers' inner strengthening is infinite and cannot be depleted, establishing confidence in the prayer's fulfillment
What power, enlivened strength in our inner beings? What does Paul implore God for on our behalf? Nothing less than the unfathomable depth of the riches of his glory. Paul is not just saying that the source gives us hope. He's drawing our attention to something at the heart of God's glory. It cannot be exhausted. His riches know no bounds. His glory can't be contained. God's inexhaustible and infinite gravity is what Paul confidently calls upon to strengthen and empower our, your inner being.
17 · Steps into direct pastoral address to name a common spiritual struggle — the gap between our desire to treasure Christ and our actual capacity to do so — then offers pastoral reassurance that this power is available through humble prayer
You ever experienced how the longing to treasure Christ can quickly rebound with hollow despair? I want to treasure him! And then I'm just mindful of how I fall short of how I think I should. How can I sufficiently treasure Him? I think you come to the table and I think of everything He's done and I am aware at times of how far short my adoration of Him considering all He has done. That's an accurate hopelessness. You can't adequately treasure such an awesome Savior, not without an infinite power. Paul says that power, if you would only humbly call upon it, is available to you.
18 · Establishes the corporate dimension of Paul's prayer (these are letters to bodies, not isolated individuals) and illustrates spiritual distractibility through a personal story of children at fireworks — they miss the glory exploding before them because lesser treasures capture their attention
It's available specifically to us as a body. These are letters written to local gatherings of believers, people fellowshipping with, sharing a common life together in Christ, not so they'd have lots of friends. Friends are good. Friends that sharpen you and attune your affections to Christ are better. That's what Paul has in mind. If you want to have greater vigor, greater single-mindedness, you want the single-mindedness of Paul. I want the single-mindedness of Paul. I want to set my gaze on the things that are above. He's not just saying glance, look away. It happened just this weekend, a few days ago, we took a slew of kids, it was the Washingtons and the Wagners with the Metcalf kids as well, and we were going to watch the Corporate Woods fireworks, 4th of July, right? So there's just this building excitement the whole evening for these little kids to go watch the 4th of July fireworks. We're gonna see the fireworks! And they couldn't be more excited. I was sharing with someone before the service, it was kind of helpful to remember I've lost the mystery. I kind of sit there and I'm like, "Oh, okay. Boom, bang, flash. It's sort of neat." For them though, when you're 5 years old, "Whoa!" They're going nuts. So we get there and they see them and it's like everyone that flashes, "That's my favorite color!" They're freaking out. As excited as they are though, they were so quickly and easily distracted. All of a sudden, they discovered we had bags of— what's it called? It's like Captain's Gold or something like that. It's Captain's Booty. Some sort of Costco treat. They're there, the fireworks are exploding in front of them, and they're like, "I want a bag of Crunch 'N Munch! I want some—" "Case!" I tell my son. "The fireworks, man! Everything you've been looking for, it's right there!" "Yeah, here's a little bigger candy. Go turn!" Boom, boom. And then we're passing out these little bracelets. And all of a sudden, all their attention is back. It's like, no, the firework. All day you've been begging me. I've been promising you we wouldn't miss it. The firework. I think they really saw about 18% of the fireworks. And it's blowing up over top of their heads.
19 · Applies the fireworks illustration directly to the congregation's spiritual life, issuing an exhortation to single-minded pursuit of Christ over trivial distractions and modeling corporate prayer for resurrection power
We can relate to that. Do you want to have the single-mindedness of Paul? I don't care about pirates' booty. I don't care about bracelets. I want to behold glory. I want to set my gaze on the things above. I want to see Jesus. God, I want— my churches to see Jesus. Lord, we want Providence to see Jesus. So empower us in our inner being with the same power that raised your Son from the grave.
20 · Prescribes the solution to spiritual dissatisfaction — not lowering expectations but emboldening prayers — calling believers to cry out for empowerment to behold Christ's glory rather than adjusting downward to match their current tepid experience
If we want that, search and meditate, study and marvel. At the awesome power that comes from God's magnificence. The solution to feeling like there's a gap between how much you should treasure Christ and how much you are treasuring Christ— the solution is not to temper your expectations. Don't be like me at the Fourth of July. Oh, um, been there, done that. No, the solution is to embolden your prayers. To ask God to empower you to behold glory with fresh eyes.
21 · Establishes the experiential basis and efficacy of Paul's prayer — it comes from his pastoral knowledge of believers' weaknesses and his confidence that God answers bold prayers offered in Jesus' name, grounding prayer confidence in the logic of Romans 8:32
Paul's prayer isn't just inspired, it's experienced. He knows our weaknesses and our failings and our limitations. And knowing all this, he highlights the power at our disposal and he prays that that power from God would come. And it comes. Paul shows us here in Ephesians and back in Colossians. It comes when his people pray, when they pray bold, radical, confident prayers. And they come in the name of Jesus. You did not spare your own Son, Father. How will you not give us all things in him? And all I want is him. You didn't spare him. This is why he died. Set my gaze.
22 · Expounds Ephesians 1:13 to demonstrate that the Spirit's strengthening work is already operative in every believer — the seal of the Spirit guarantees both present empowerment and final conformity to Christ's image
And the beautiful thing is, The thing is, the Spirit that strengthens that work is already at work in the heart of every believer in this room. Ephesians 1:13, in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in Him and you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Translation, He gave you the Spirit to cause new life to come into your heart and because He's given you the Spirit, He's guaranteeing you're going to get all the way to the point where you're conformed to the image of His Son. Because He's given you the Spirit, He has committed to give you more of the Spirit so you can continue to gaze, so you will continue to look like Jesus. That's God's promise to us. It's a sweet promise. Don't let that promise get stale and normal.
23 · Uses the extended analogy of a flooding river to picture degrees of Spirit-empowerment — all believers are in the river by definition (having the Spirit), but the question is how deeply into the current they press, determining the power and satisfaction they experience
You can imagine it this way. I think I've used this illustration before. It bears repeating. You can think of this in terms of a wide, powerful river. A river that's gushing, one that's like at flood stage. You know what a river at flood stage looks like? It's not just a trickle. It's not like you can see the banks. It's like it is overwhelming its banks. In the middle, it's frothing and there's power and there's energy in its current. If you imagine the glory and majesty of God as that river, here's what Paul is saying. If you are a believer, The very fact that you're a believer, by definition of being a believer, is you have the Spirit. That's what Paul considers a believer. Who's a believer? One who has the Spirit. If you're a believer, you have the Spirit. Translation: you are in that river. Having the Spirit means you're in the river, you're united to Christ. The question Paul is asking this morning is, how far into the river do you want to be? How far caught up in its current do you want to be? If you're just experiencing a little bit, just hints and trickles, the issue isn't with the river. The issue is with your placement in the river. If you remain on the shore, the current is barely felt. It's just sort of whooshing by your ankles. Whooshing is a very technical theological term. It's whooshing by your ankles. You want a bigger whoosh? The Spirit's still present. You will still arrive at Christ, but the time and the effort and the difficulty are greatly multiplied. If you would only cry out, Paul says, if you would yearn for the middle of the river, if you would yearn for the place where the current of the Spirit's power is strongest, you will be swept downstream. You will be swept towards your treasure and swept towards your pride. You will be whooshed with infinitely greater power and speed and satisfaction.
24 · Applies the river analogy by diagnosing spiritual weakness (weak joy, shallow affections, strong temptation) and prescribing the solution — crying out for fresh infilling of God's Spirit to renew joy, deepen affections, and kill sin out of Christ-obsession, not legalism
If you are in Christ, Paul's promise, the promise of the gospel, is you are in the river this morning. The question is whether you will radically push away from the shore whether you will cry out for the strong current of the Spirit. Is your joy weak this morning? Is it circumstantial? Are your affections for Christ shallow? Does sin, not generally, I mean specifically, sin in that area? Fill in the blank. Does it seem particularly strong? A temptation hard to resist? Well, how often do those realities cause you to cry out for a fresh infilling of God's Spirit? To cry out that God, according to His great glory and power, would strengthen your inner being? So that your joy would be renewed, so that your affections would grow deep, so that you could kill sin not because you're a legalist, but because you are obsessed with the Son.
25 · Expounds the purpose of Spirit-strengthening from Ephesians 3:17 — so that Christ would dwell in believers' hearts through faith — and reissues the exhortation to push into the strong current rather than remaining in shallow waters
Paul's prayer is that Christ would dwell in us through faith, that we should live our lives with a fuller loving trust in him, being more and more deeply molded by the Christ event, ever increasingly drawn into the center of the Spirit's strong governing current. Paul's exhortation in the prayer this morning: push off, thrust yourself into the current. Don't simply wade in the shallows.
26 · Introduces the second major petition in Paul's prayer — knowledge of Christ's love — connecting the dwelling language to OT tabernacling theology and using contemporary worship songs to illustrate both the richness and inexhaustibility of Christ's love that believers are called to comprehend
He also tells us not just to pray for strength in our inner being, but that to pray for this strength along with praying and asking that God would give us knowledge. Knowledge of love. Look at verse 17. We pray so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. That He would take up residence. That word dwell, it's related to Other places in the New Testament, John uses it and says in John 1, "He has dwelt among us." It's going back to the Old Testament, this whole idea of God tabernacling. He pitches a tent. The tabernacle is the fact that God exists in the midst of His people. Do you want Christ to dwell, to take up residence, to live in your heart through faith? I'm hoping the answer is yes. If the answer is yes, he says, If you want to be rooted and grounded in love, I'm praying that you would have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depths, that you would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. We sang two of my favorite songs this morning. All I Have Is Christ. That's a sweet song because there's some mornings when it's the cry of my heart. Like I've had one of those mornings where it's just the spirit the Spirit is stirring and I am coming crying out, "All I have is Christ." And there's other mornings where I'm coming and I'm praying, "Lord, what I'm singing, I want to be my prayer, and I know that my heart is not there. Bring my heart there." Ever had those mornings? And then you have "In Christ Alone," that sweet, sweet hymn. We sang it at our wedding. It's just got a sweet place. Just standing there with my bride in front of our family singing, "No power of hell, no—" like I mentioned, my fist. "No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand." Rejoicing, glorying in the love of Christ. I love those songs. And those songs barely even get at one iota of the depth and the beauty and the tapestry that is God's love for us in Christ Jesus. Those are songs that never get old because there's theological richness to them. And it's barely even the tip of the iceberg.
27 · Establishes the necessary logical connection between Spirit-strengthening and love — love is the fruit that all other spiritual fruit grows from, making love the inevitable consequence of beholding Christ's glory rather than an optional add-on
Paul is praying for a domino effect. He wants us to be rooted and grounded in love. Love is the necessary consequence of being strengthened by the Spirit through faith. It's the fruit that all the other fruits come from. Somebody being strengthened in the Spirit to set their gaze on Christ, they don't leave that experience more cranky and crotchety than before, right? They don't leave that experience more selfish, more self-centered, more obsessed with their own priorities. They don't leave that experience more prone to anger, more prone to sin, more prone to indulge the flesh. They leave that experience more prone, Paul says, to love together with all the saints.
28 · Emphasizes the corporate dimension of knowing Christ's love — Paul prays for comprehension 'with all the saints,' signaling that the church body is essential to grasping the full immensity of Christ's love
That's significant. Not a me and Jesus knowledge of love. But a love that is known and celebrated and lived out corporately. The wording of Paul's prayer in verse 18 is namely, "To comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, that is, that is to know the love of Christ." And he's careful to point out, we need each other, we need the church, we need the body to fully grasp the immensity of that love. So move on, keep that in mind. Paul is praying that we'll grasp the immense dimensions of this love. He wants us to know its character.
29 · Establishes the inexhaustibility of Christ's love — it surpasses knowledge not by being unknowable but by being infinite in its depths, requiring believers to continually push deeper rather than settling for shallow familiarity
To treasure Jesus, you need to pray for deep spiritual comprehension, a real knowledge of the love of Christ. In Christ alone, great place to start. All I have is Christ, great place. 1 Corinthians 13, Great place. Romans 6 through 8, great place. None of those exhaust it. You go back to them and you meditate and you consider and you just go deeper and deeper and deeper. It's a love that surpasses knowledge. What exactly does it mean to set our minds on the things above, things that seem out of reach? Use the image of a river again. I think he's saying, he's praying, get out of the shallows, get into the depths. Shallow swimming produces shallow knowledge. It produces shallow treasuring. Don't dive in the shallows because you'll break your neck. You need to get out deeper. If you think you know and comprehend and grasp the immensity of his love, if you think you have a handle on it, then you must be in ankle-deep water. Jordan Coughlin, who wrote "All I Have Is Christ," I know him. He's not writing that thinking, "I've plumbed the depths. I wrote this song and that's all there is." He's still writing songs because he knows that I've just dipped my toes in the water. There's more. Paul says this love surpasses knowledge. He's not saying it's incomprehensible. He's not saying you can't know it in a true way. He's saying this love is a treasure that is limitless in its fulfillment. It just keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper.
30 · Uses the extended illustration of summiting Mount Everest from Into Thin Air to picture the rarefied heights of comprehending Christ's love — you need oxygen (the Spirit's power) to survive and remember what you see at those heights, and even Everest pales compared to Christ's glory
I've been reading a book recently, actually listening to it on Audible. Shout out to Matt Brody, who pointed me to Audible. Audible is great. I can, I can take it and I can, I can download books, theology books, and while I'm going for a run or going for a walk, I can listen to it, kind of redeem the time that way. I also grab biographies and nonfiction. There's one recently I've been listening to, Into Thin Air. Some of you are maybe familiar with it. It's the story of this tragic ascent to the top of Everest that ended in the deaths of many people in the party. One of the things that's fascinating, you talk about Paul here giving us this image of the heights and the depths of the love of Christ. In this book Into Thin Air, he talks about going to the summit of Everest and the experience that it entails. When we were in Bolivia, I told you we were driving over that one crest of the mountain to go down to the orphanage and it got to 16,000 feet of elevation. The bus. We weren't even walking around 16,000 feet and like a bunch of Nancys, we were just, "I feel so weak." Like one guy was, "I got headaches. I feel tall." Just, you know, that's what we were doing at 16,000 feet. 16,000 feet is 500 feet short of base camp of Everest. Base camp, like where you go to recharge the batteries for another attempt. At the summit. Because when you try to climb the summit going into the thin air of Everest, it's a task. The thing that was stunning to me was you would think, what are you going to do when you get to the summit of Everest? You are on top of the world. You think, I'm going to get up there, I'm going to like look around, I'm going to grab a piece of paper, and there's going to be an inspiring poem that comes out up here, right? I'm going to write a song. I'm going to do something. No. Into Thin Air says you're crawling and you're on your oxygen. Hopefully you've got enough oxygen in your tank and you get up there and it's like you kind of collapse to your bottom and the air is so thin, you're so high up. It's like basically your Sherpas that are leading you up there say, hey, take 90 seconds, get everything you can because then we got to go back down so we don't die. And he describes you're trying to take it in, but You're so low on oxygen, really you're just trying to stay conscious. You can hardly remember anything. Not how I would envision the peaks of Everest. It's similar here. Paul is saying you're going up. You're going up into rarefied air when you consider the love of Christ. Hook yourself up. To oxygen. To take this in, to remember it, to be satisfied by it, to be changed by what you see, you need help. And with the Spirit's power, with the Spirit's strengthening, it's far beyond any view from Everest. It's far beyond the glories of the Grand Canyon. We can actually relate to the Grand Canyon. None of us have ever been on top of Everest. If you've been to the Grand Canyon, you look out and you just think, "Oh Lord my God, an awesome wonder when I consider." And that's nothing. Limitless glory to be found in Jesus.
31 · Reiterates the Colossians 3:1-4 imperative in light of the sermon's accumulated argument — setting your mind on Christ means sustained, transfixed gazing, not a casual glance, because the depths of His love demand prolonged pursuit
The more you plumb the depths of Christ's love, the deeper you have to go. Paul's exhortation in Colossians to set your mind on the things that are above, to set your mind on Christ, it has nothing to do with a glance. You don't glance at Jesus. And expect to fully grasp the glories of His love. You set your mind there. You stare. You fix your gaze transfixed upon Him.
32 · Exposes the incompatibility between clinging to worldly treasures (even good things like family, health, comfort) and experiencing the full power of Christ's love — lesser treasures, no matter how legitimate, cannot satisfy when they function as ultimate treasures in competition with Jesus
This kind of love, the character and immensity and satisfaction of comprehending the unsearchable love of Christ, it will always be foreign to us while we cling to the security of the shores, while we pray little prayers for a better batting average and a better test score. Where your treasure is, Jesus says, there will your heart be also. We can't rejoice in the power and security and joy of what Paul describes if we are trying to at the same time have a vice grip on worldly treasures. Life and comfort and money and home and job and family and spouse and children and health. As long as those are your greatest treasure, the treasure that rules all other treasures, as long as those are the things that you work with the most energy to defend and protect and ensure that you never lose, you will feel the emptyness unrelenting agony of a life dominated and dictated by lesser treasures that can't truly satisfy. These aren't trivial treasures. These are some really good things. It's not a bad thing to be healthy. It's not a bad thing to love your family, right? But they're not the best treasure. Jesus is the best treasure.
33 · Expounds Philippians 3:7-9 as Paul's own testimony to treasuring Christ supremely — he counts all legitimate gains as loss not because they are worthless but because Christ's surpassing worth makes everything else pale by comparison
His kingdom offers us more. I want to cry out with Paul in Philippians 3, whatever, whatever huge category of everything I ever had, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I count those things as loss not because they're nothing, not because they're insignificant, but because Jesus is more. For his sake I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish, even though they're not. There's some good things in that pile, but it's nothing compared to Jesus, because I want to gain Christ and I want to be found in him.
34 · Applies Paul's Philippians testimony by calling believers to loosen their grip on lesser treasures and cry out to God for power to leave the shore, turning their attention to Christ as the surpassing treasure worth all risk and loss
If you want to treasure Jesus like that, you have to loose your grip, loosen your grip on lesser treasures. You have to get on your knees, as Paul calls us to in Ephesians, and he calls us to in Colossians, and you have to cry out to God for the power to forego the comfort and security of the shore in faith that the swift, strong current of knowing Christ's love and being found in him is worth far more, infinitely more. Turn your attention and center your mind on the knowledge of Christ. Cleave to the great treasure and seek to plumb the depths of its unsearchable joys.
35 · Connects the Ephesians 3 passage back to the sermon series in Colossians 1-2, showing that the high Christology of those chapters provides the content for the gaze Paul calls us to fix on Christ — meditate on those truths and the Spirit will take you deeper
Now combine that with everything we've seen in Colossians 1 and 2 the last several months. The glories of this high Christology. The one in whom and by whom and for whom and through whom all things were created. The one who is the centerpiece of redemption. The centerpiece of our reconciliation. The centerpiece of our future glory. Those two chapters describe the awesome worth and magnificent inheritance we have in Christ Jesus. If you want to set your mind on Christ, if you want to rest in His love, then meditate and pray repeatedly on truths like those and know that when the Spirit is there in power, you will not plumb the depths of it. He will take you deeper.
36 · Issues a concrete memorization challenge to the congregation — memorize the book of Colossians as a means of storing up Christ's glories and plumbing the depths through the Spirit's power, offering to celebrate anyone who completes it
Colossians and Ephesians, this whole book is a gold mine. I said at the very beginning of the Colossians series— I don't know if anyone took me up on it— I laid out a challenge. I should have gone back and repeated it several times. Remember what the challenge was? Would someone dare to memorize the book? Memorize the book of Colossians. I think we still have about a month left in it, so there's still time. Would anyone dare not to glance, but to stare at the glories of Jesus, to store them up in your heart so that you can plumb the depths through the power of the Spirit. I'll lay that challenge before you again. If you do it, we'll even let you have a crutch. We'll let you have the Bible open in front of you. I'll invite you up here on the Sunday morning so we can listen to you rejoice in having treasured the mystery of Christ in Colossians. Reissue the challenge. See if there's any takers. It's a beautiful thing. It won't return to you empty.
37 · Expounds the climactic petition of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:19 — that believers would be filled with all the fullness of God — as the ultimate purpose of all the preceding petitions for strength and knowledge
We know this because Ephesians 3:19 says Paul prays all that, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Praying for God's power through His Spirit to captivate your hearts with Christ. I'm praying for a revelatory comprehension of the inconceivable love of Christ Jesus. And here's why: because I want you to be filled with the fullness of God. That's Paul's final prayer request. Filled with the fullness of God. Filled to bursting through the power of the Spirit, given more capacity.
38 · Expounds Philippians 3:13-15 to define spiritual maturity as single-minded pressing toward Christ as the prize, using Paul's self-description to challenge the congregation's understanding of what mature Christianity looks like
As he says in Philippians 3, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Verse 15 is a sweet little challenge. Let those of us who are mature think this way. I like to think I'm mature. A lot of us probably like to think we're mature. Paul gives us a nice little synopsis. Let those of us who think we are mature think this way. Paul's talking about our maturity in Christ, but he's painting it in its full beauty.
39 · Applies the sermon to Providence Church specifically, casting a vision for the congregation to become known as a people marked by prayer — prayer that flows from treasuring Christ and desiring Him above all, not prayer as religious performance
Mark Prather, I don't know if you remember this, when he came to visit us and he preached to us, the executive director of Sovereign Grace Churches, this is a real burden of his heart. Heart. I've talked to him about it. He wants us to be a denomination, a family of churches, individual bodies, local representation of the body of Christ who join together, pray, beseech the Father through the name of Jesus. I want it when we pray on a Sunday morning that it's just a continuation of what we've all been doing already on Sunday morning, what we've all been doing Saturday night, what our care groups have been doing together throughout the week, what we've been doing in our homes with our families, what we've been doing praying for our neighbors and our communities and our workplaces, that we would be a place and a people marked by prayer. When they would talk about Providence, they would say Providence is a church that is centered on Christ, centered on the gospel. It loves the kingdom and living in light of the kingdom. And you know what else providence is? It is a people who pray. They see the glory of the kingdom. They see the call to make disciples and mature disciples and multiply disciples. They are a disciple-making church because they love Christ and His call to make disciples. And because of that, they pray. They pray. And they don't pray so they can say they pray. They pray because they want Jesus. Because those of us who are mature think this way. Those of us who are mature fix our gaze on Christ. One thing we do, we forget what lies behind and we strain forward to what lies ahead. That we press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And so because we want to be mature, we pursue that and we pray for that. We pray for maturity and for holiness for our inheritance. And we expect that this is what God is working in us even now. And we trust His word. We trust His promises that if you pursue Jesus as a treasure, if you pray to God for this goal and prize, you will be satisfied.
40 · Steps into direct evangelistic address to any non-believers or spiritually shallow attendees, promising on the authority of God's Word that anyone who comes to Jesus will be satisfied
If you're sitting here this morning even in the shallows, you can be satisfied. If you're sitting here this morning and you've never gotten in the river, you've kind of heard about this Jesus guy or this church thing and you've kind of come to take a peek, so that's what it is. If you come to Jesus, if you entrust yourself to him, I promise you on the authority of God's Word, you will be satisfied.
41 · Brings the sermon to doxological conclusion by quoting Ephesians 3:20-21, celebrating God's ability to exceed our prayers according to His power at work within us and ascribing glory to Him in the church and in Christ
As verse 20 says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or or think, according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
42 · Closes with pastoral prayer synthesizing the sermon's major themes — asking God to fill the congregation with Christ, empower them through the Spirit, make them a praying people, and accomplish all kingdom purposes ultimately because they want the Son
Lord, we want to be filled in your Son. We want to be swept up in the current of the Spirit Spirit so that we would treasure Jesus. We want to think in the way that is mature. We want to be a people who pray. We want to be a people who have knowledge that surpasses understanding. We want to be empowered in our inner being with the same power that raised Your Son from the grave. We want all of these things so that our witness would be strong. Lord, that people would see our lives and they would see your kingdom lived out. Lord, we want to see holiness held high at Providence. We want to see mission pushed forward at Providence. We want to see disciples matured and new disciples made and disciples multiplied. But we want all of these things, and this is our prayer, Lord. Because we want your Son. So we pray all these things in his name, according to your power that's at work within us, that Jesus would be glorified. Do this for his name and our joy. Amen.