Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Well, well done to all of those who've been praying and fasting over these 21 days. I don't know what sort of fasting you've been doing. Some of you might be looking forward to getting back onto social media again after a bit of a social media fast. I can assure you it's no better than it was when you last went on there. And so you might be fasting food or other luxuries in your life. I remember a few years ago we had a invitation to us as a community to go on a Daniel fast. Now, Daniel Fast is that moment in the scriptures where Daniel was offered the king's food, but he said, no, no, I'm not going to accept the fine meats of the king. I'm just going to live on a diet of fruit and veg. And so that's inspired a movement around the world called Daniel Fasting. And a few years ago, we had a moment where we said to the church, hey, shall we do a Daniel fast together? Any of you remember that? Well, we read lots of information, we shared lots of recipes, but no one described a side effect of Daniel fasting.
[00:01:03] Flatulence.
[00:01:06] It was okay during the week when you're on your own, but when we gathered as a church community, it was like the Salvation army in here.
[00:01:16] You could tell who was fasting.
[00:01:21] In fact, you know, sometimes you have to experience things before you understand what the scriptures are saying. I know now why the lions didn't go for Daniel.
[00:01:32] They were too scared to open their mouths.
[00:01:37] So whatever fasting you've been doing, I pray that it's been a rich experience for you. It may have been a very testing experience.
[00:01:46] I often find that when I fast, and we fast regularly, that there is a bit of an onslaught. We expect there to be a wonderful sense of beautiful freedom and release. And sometimes it feels like all hell breaks loose against you. Don't be disturbed by that, don't be off put by that. You know, sometimes the most strategic people are the ones that the enemy goes for, and he's just trying to disconnect, disconcert you. And so be persistent. Don't give up on doing good things. And so well done to all of you. But as we finish this 21 days of prayer fasting, I wanted to bring a prayer, and it's a prayer that I pray for us regularly, and it's a prayer that is taken from the words of Paul in Ephesians three. We're going to read this prayer together, and then I'm going to unpack it a little bit for us this morning. But Ephesians 314, it says this, for this reason I kneel before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
[00:02:56] I pray that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
[00:03:10] I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and the width, the height and the depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of goddess. Now, to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
[00:03:48] What a prayer. What a prayer to have spoken over our lives. What a prayer that seeks the mind and the heart of God for you.
[00:03:59] Let's go back to the very first of those verses I read. It says, for this reason, I kneel before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. First of all, there's a posture here. Kneeling. There's a sense of commitment. Prayer can sometimes, and we know we can weave prayer into any part of our life. But prayer can sometimes be a bit of a casual event and a casual occasion. But Paul writing here, I kneel. There's a posture, there's a surrender, there's a submission. There's an acknowledgement that we are in the presence of someone who is greater than us.
[00:04:37] That's what you do when you kneel. You respect, you honor. And there's a respect and an honor that the Lord is bringing back to the church today. He's bringing back to his church across the nations. Because we've become a little casual with him. God is our best friend. He's so casual. We play football with him. We have fun with him. And of course, he loves all of those moments. I love that moment in the chosen when they go running to the beach, if you've not seen that scene, and they're running to the beach with Jesus and the disciples, and they're splashing in the water, and it's fun and it's joy. And I love that Jesus is with us in our joyous. But let's not forget that he is the king of Glory. He is the Lord Almighty. He is the one that when he said, let there be light, there was light. He's all powerful, almighty. And bowing before him is a really appropriate response. For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We are one family. We have the same origins.
[00:05:44] Don't let the world divide you. Don't let the world divide that which God has originated.
[00:05:53] Oh, there are movements of division taking place across the face of the earth right now.
[00:05:57] And there are those that would seek to manipulate and seek to enhance the sense of segregation and separation.
[00:06:09] And there are separations of ages, there are separations of cultures. There are separations of class. There are separations of color. There are separations of nations.
[00:06:21] And Paul, writing here, says, one family with one father.
[00:06:33] One of my favorite lines when I marry couples is those who God has joined together, let no one put asunder.
[00:06:44] God has joined his people together.
[00:06:48] Let no one divide or separate.
[00:06:54] Now, I quite enjoy watching some of these programs where people go through their family tree and they look back and they discover aspects of their heritage and their past, and they try to find out something of their identity. They want to form an understanding of their past in order to understand who they are in the present.
[00:07:14] But they don't go back far enough.
[00:07:16] They don't go back enough generations. They have to go back to the very beginning that one creator, one lord, one family.
[00:07:33] And if you want to get your identity from as far back as you can get on your family tree, if you want to draw your identity from a group of people that you share the same hobbies and interests with, if you want to draw your identity from what nation you were born in, I want to let you know, there's a bigger family, there's a bigger cause. There's a bigger cause that you're called to.
[00:07:58] Goes on to say, I pray that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory. Let's stop there for a moment. Because when we pray, we pray for answers to come from God's abundance.
[00:08:18] We shouldn't pray based on the level of intimidation we have about the size of our problem.
[00:08:27] You all know the well known quotes of don't tell the you know, don't tell your problems, or don't tell God how big your problems are, but tell your problems how big God is.
[00:08:40] There are some times when our prayers are so lacking in faith because we are overwhelmed by our circumstances and I'm. Please don't hear me wrong. Please don't hear me minimizing the problems that you're walking through.
[00:08:58] Please don't hear me minimizing the impact of the dilemmas of your life or the pain of your life or the needs of your life. But I have to tell you, God is bigger, he is greater, he is more powerful. And there is nothing too difficult for our God.
[00:09:21] And God's call to his people. And Paul's prayer is that they would pray according to the riches of God's glory, that we would pray out of a place of faith and understanding.
[00:09:36] We should pray from an awareness of his abundance in our lives. And, boy, the abundance of God is phenomenal.
[00:09:49] Goes on to say, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his spirit.
[00:09:59] Strengthened? Who wants to be strengthened?
[00:10:04] Being aware of our weakness does not negate the ability to be strengthened by his power.
[00:10:16] So often I meet followers of Jesus that genuinely think they're the worst follower of Jesus that has ever walked the face of the earth.
[00:10:27] Maybe you just thought I was talking about you there. You're just hoping I'm not going to have a word of knowledge and pick you out right now, that you're the worst Christian in the world. You might be so aware of your weakness and your vulnerability, but it does not disqualify you from being strengthened by the power of his might, strengthened by God in his strength, which is made perfect in our weakness.
[00:11:03] His strength.
[00:11:05] I think we too often think that this is all about us.
[00:11:11] It's all about how good we are or how strong we feel or how victorious we have become.
[00:11:21] And this is not about us.
[00:11:24] We are but reflectors of goddess. His strength.
[00:11:30] May his strength be revealed in the people of God.
[00:11:35] His strength. You know, the weaker you feel about your life, the more you're aware of your need of the Lord.
[00:11:44] You can be strengthened by his power. And it says, there is an inner being within you, an inner being in your life.
[00:11:55] And as we all know about the outer, we all know about physical frame, we all know about our psychological understanding, we all know about our engagement with the things that we see in one another. But the Bible tells us there's an inner person, there's an inner strength, there's an inner spirit that's within us.
[00:12:17] And Paul writing says, I pray that you will be strengthened with the power in your inner being through his spirit, the inner being.
[00:12:31] I wonder how much we feed our inner being.
[00:12:39] There is an inner being within you, whether you are aware and whether you feed or whether you attend to it or nothing. And this inner being is a place that God wants his life, his hope, his joy, his peace and his purpose to come by the power of his spirit.
[00:13:00] Let's just pause a moment. If you feel weak, if you are praying, God, would you fill me with strength in my inner being?
[00:13:11] Just pray that prayer now, Lord.
[00:13:16] I pray that by the power of your spirit, you would strengthen the fragility of our lives and you would make us strong in you.
[00:13:29] Come and breathe life on that inner being within us.
[00:13:35] This is not all about the complexities of our understanding. There's something wonderful and beautiful and mysterious that your spirit comes and breathes life into us. Your spirit comes and distills the abundant power of eternity into the hearts and the lives of your people.
[00:13:56] Your spirit stirs us up.
[00:14:00] Your spirit wakens us.
[00:14:06] Come, Holy Spirit, breathe your life in us. I pray in Jesus name.
[00:14:18] The words of the prayer go on to say, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That's it.
[00:14:30] Your heart.
[00:14:32] It doesn't matter how religious you look. It doesn't matter how often you attend church. It doesn't matter how generous you are with your resources. It doesn't matter how hospitable you are with your time. If your heart, the place of your passions and your desires, your motives and your surrender is not fully possessed by Christ, then you're missing out.
[00:14:58] And it says a really provocative word here because I, when I travel, I keep hearing people asking the Lord to come and visit us.
[00:15:11] Visit us, Lord.
[00:15:13] We need a fresh visitation of God in our lives, in our churches.
[00:15:18] That's not what this prayer says. This prayer doesn't ask for a visitation.
[00:15:22] This prayer asks that he will dwell abide, live, take residency, come and live permanently at our address of our heart.
[00:15:38] Sometimes people theologically say, when we invite people to pray a prayer and ask them to ask Jesus to come into their heart. It's not theologically correct, you know, Jesus lives in the our whole of our lives. But the heart here is that seat of passion, the seat of desire. If you and I have a desire that's greater than a desire for Christ, then he's looking to possess our hearts further and to dwell in us.
[00:16:08] That means there's never a moment when we ask him to take a break while we carry on with something else that he's not going to be into.
[00:16:16] Come and dwell in us dwellers are not visitors.
[00:16:22] God's not looking to visit rediscovered church. He's looking to dwell in our homes and in our lives and in our hearts. He's not looking to turn up with a guest speaker one week and just to come do something fresh for a season. He's looking to dwell among his people. He's looking to dwell in your life and the enemy comes to steal, to kill and destroy. And to tell you that you're too inadequate, you're too weak. You can't know the dwelling presence of the Lord. You're not religious enough, you're not that person. You're not as enthusiastic as someone else. And the enemy comes and he seeks to steal, to take away from you the capacity of the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in you. But there's a dwelling that you and I can live with the realities of.
[00:17:10] But we dwell by faith, through faith.
[00:17:17] The world doesn't teach faith.
[00:17:20] It teaches feelings.
[00:17:24] But God dwells in our hearts not by feelings, but by faith, through faith.
[00:17:33] There's a lot of culture in our world that, and I meet it regularly. Someone comes to faith in Jesus and they're all really excited for the first few months because it's all new. It's all really exciting, isn't it? Do you remember the day you gave your life to Jesus? Do you remember those moments when you did silly things for him because you were so head over heels in love with him?
[00:17:56] And then it became normal.
[00:17:59] And one day you wake up and it just feels different.
[00:18:05] Do you remember that day?
[00:18:08] Probably don't, actually. You remember the day you found him. But the day it became normal, the day it stopped feeling exciting, it just sort of creeps up on us, doesn't it?
[00:18:20] And then we get to a place where we've gone from running to church and getting there early and being enthusiastic in our worship. We've gone from the place of like, I just don't want the worship to ever end.
[00:18:38] We have some of the loudest kids ever, don't we?
[00:18:42] That curtain, everyone thinks it's a wall, don't they?
[00:18:48] Some of you were having a conversation, not the other week. We heard all your secrets.
[00:18:54] And there is this incredible presence of God that longs to dwell in our hearts, not by our feelings, but by faith.
[00:19:06] And that's really difficult if you've grown up in the world where you've not been exposed to faith.
[00:19:13] Because we want to know the feelings of him dwelling with us.
[00:19:20] We want to know that incredible. Wake up and wow, I feel amazing today.
[00:19:28] And there are times in our life when our feelings do compute correctly and they are in line with the truth. But can I say something really honestly to you?
[00:19:40] If you need to know the abiding presence of goddess through your feelings, you will be so vulnerable as a follower of Jesus because our feelings don't always accurately reflect the truth.
[00:20:01] Let me tell you the truth.
[00:20:04] Whether you feel like it or not, God has promised he will never, ever leave you, ever.
[00:20:13] That's his truth.
[00:20:16] And yet your feelings some days will think, I don't feel God.
[00:20:21] And if you live your life needing to feel like he's close, you'll be easily picked off.
[00:20:33] And that's a challenge for us.
[00:20:37] The people that I know that have walked for years with Jesus are people who have learned to walk by faith, not by feelings.
[00:20:49] God says, I'll never leave you.
[00:20:53] He says, I'm with you at all times. He's promised that he will be your shelter. He's promised that he will be your refuge and strengthen. He's promised that he will forgive. He's promised that he will never let you go. And no matter how you feel, those are the things of truth.
[00:21:15] So what happens when you don't feel like those things, but you hear those things, you have to go another level and say, by faith, I'm taking that.
[00:21:28] By faith, I'm holding that.
[00:21:31] By faith, I'm claiming that.
[00:21:34] By faith, I'm holding that firmly in my hand, and I'm not letting go.
[00:21:39] And your feelings will challenge that, because your feelings will say, well, it doesn't feel that way, does it? And you go. Go away. Because I know that that is the truth. And by faith, I'm confessing the truth, and I'm speaking the truth, and I'm living according to the pattern of the truth.
[00:21:55] And when you begin to step out living a life of faith, and if we don't live a life of faith, Christianity becomes incredibly boring for us.
[00:22:09] It becomes something where we just go through the motions, and that's never what's meant to happen. If you're bored with church, if you're bored with the expressions of Christianity, it's because there are adventures of faith that you've not stepped into yet. I don't know how you can be bored if you're walking a life of faith. Cause God's always gonna be stretching you and challenging you always, because his passion is to dwell in us.
[00:22:38] And when he dwells, all the glory of heaven resides in your life and my life.
[00:22:45] And how can that be boring?
[00:22:48] But we can only step into it by faith.
[00:22:53] Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
[00:22:57] Faith is grabbing ahold of a promise. Maybe think of a promise that God has given you. Now, what's it going to take for you to walk by faith and to step into that?
[00:23:10] Mike mentioned about the privilege we have of being able to trust God with our first fruits, that journey, Jesus spoke so much about finance often, because he knows that our hearts can have other obsessions and passions, and he's saying, trust me with this, walk by faith, and trust me with this.
[00:23:35] I know people, that they have persisted by faith over the years, and faith is tested.
[00:23:46] Don't think that faith means that you can say, oh, God, I know you're with me always, and therefore my problems are not going to exist any longer. I'm just going to. That's not the way it works. It often tested and tests our persistence, and our persistence by faith brings a breakthrough.
[00:24:06] God is working within you. He's working for you, and he's working through you by faith.
[00:24:19] I pray that you be enrouted and firmly established in love.
[00:24:27] We went for a nice walk yesterday, and on a nice walk, you often observe nature around you.
[00:24:38] There are very few of those occasions where I stand in the middle of a field and want to get my spade out to analyze the roots of the trees around me.
[00:24:53] I usually look up this time of year. You see the evidence of the leaves on the ground, beautiful orange color from autumn.
[00:25:04] But we rarely think to look deeper.
[00:25:08] And yet, you and I know, we all understand how nature works. If there are no roots, there are no trees, there are no living trees. Roots are an essential part. The higher the tree, the deeper the roots.
[00:25:25] I remember on occasion reading a report from a building surveyor looking at a particular property and someone was looking to buy a house and there's a beautiful tree.
[00:25:36] And they just admired the tree and thought, wow, it would be lovely to have that tree in our garden. I love that. It's a beautiful feature. The surveyor went into the house and did the report and said, I'm concerned that the roots.
[00:25:50] I'm concerned the roots are going to go into the foundations of the house.
[00:25:54] See, because he'd learned, he knew in his trade that actually what was below was more important than what was above.
[00:26:01] And Paul says, I pray that you be enroute it and firmly established in love.
[00:26:09] Roots are really important.
[00:26:13] There's never been, I don't think, a greater emphasis than there is in our society today as to how important the tree looks.
[00:26:22] Instagram doesn't care about the roots, it just cares about the tree.
[00:26:26] That unaffordable car lease deal that you are making other sacrifices on meals just to be able to afford, just for the purpose of that six second admiration from the neighbouring car in the traffic lights.
[00:26:41] That's not the roots, that's the tree.
[00:26:44] That desire to have a wow home, to send messages of success and importance, doesn't care about your roots. It just cares about the tree. But God cares about your roots.
[00:26:57] And Paul says, I pray that you will be rooted in love.
[00:27:02] Where are our roots drawing life from? Are they drinking from the wells of our career, from the wells of success? Are they drinking from other people's acclamation of you? Are they drinking from your own sense of self esteem? Are your roots drinking from the feelings that come at the end of having a good, successful day? None of those things are where the roots were meant to be drawn from. Your roots are meant to be drawn from the love of God.
[00:27:33] And when that happens, it doesn't matter what winds blow. It doesn't matter what seasons come. It doesn't matter what storms hit. Your roots are safe, and they're anchored in God's love, which is unfailing.
[00:27:50] You and I are meant to be rooted in God's love, and it is overwhelming. Love goes on to say in the prayer that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the length and the width and the height and the depth of God's love? See, so often we try to picture the love of God and think of it as a wall that we would try to scale or a mountain we try to climb around. But it's actually a pool that our roots are meant to be going deeper and deeper and deeper into.
[00:28:21] It's meant to not just be a theological construct of our understanding, our imagination. It's meant to be an experience that we draw from our roots.
[00:28:33] No matter how much they grow, we can never find them, stretching beyond a place where the love of God is praying that Christ's love that surpasses knowledge would fill us with all the fullness of goddess. We're often so rationed with our love, aren't we?
[00:28:58] You'll have your own stories of times in your life when you feel love has been withheld from you, when it's been maybe applied more sparingly than you would have liked, or maybe even shared begrudgingly.
[00:29:12] But God's love is boundless.
[00:29:17] It's generous, unwavering.
[00:29:22] He overwhelms us with himself.
[00:29:26] And this truth, not our feelings, is meant to be the place from which we draw our strength, our life, and our purpose.
[00:29:40] So here is the church that Paul is writing to in Ephesus.
[00:29:48] Here is the rediscover community that the Lord himself is praying over us.
[00:29:57] Here I am as a shepherd of the flock, praying for your life.
[00:30:04] And I am sure that some of you will ask, can you pray for a new job? Can you pray for help in a crisis we are facing. Can you pray for a healing situation? I want you to know that the deeper prayer is that you will be filled, filled with his love.
[00:30:26] I don't want us to be a tree that just looks magnificent on the outside, but that's built with roots going into dodgy aspirations and affections and desires and selfish ambition. I want us to be a church whose roots go deep, the things of the Lord. I want to be that person. I want to be that person who lives drawing not from the things of this world, but from the things of God.
[00:30:55] Because that is when I know we will be able to stand.
[00:31:02] There are verses that later on ephesians say, and when you have done all to stand, stand firm, then that's not a determination of character. That's a promise that those whose roots are deep in the love of God will stand.
[00:31:20] Will stand.
[00:31:24] And look how this prayer finishes now.
[00:31:31] To him who is able to do above and beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
[00:32:04] Amen.
[00:32:07] He is able to do even more.
[00:32:14] A message I've been sharing with leaders around the country is found in John 15.
[00:32:21] You know the scripture that says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:32:25] Unless you abide in me and I in you. You know the passage and the verses that I, or the verse I've particularly been focusing on with leaders around the country is the verse where it says these words, which I quizzed and questioned whether Jesus was telling the truth because he said these words, apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:32:54] And I'm like, surely, Jesus, that's not true. You're exaggerating.
[00:33:00] Because I know people that without any faith in their lives, without knowing Jesus, they've done great things.
[00:33:09] I know people who've set wonderful charities up and don't know Jesus.
[00:33:14] I know people who've got a real heart for local communities and they make a difference with real compassion, and they don't know Jesus.
[00:33:22] I know people that they've been living a life of sin, and yet they've been able to seemingly do things and accomplish things in their life.
[00:33:37] I think, if I'm honest with you, I think we can do church in a way without Jesus.
[00:33:45] We've learned how to do it, haven't we?
[00:33:47] We've learned how it packs up and how we roll it out and how we structure it. We've learned the sort of programs that work. We've learned how to be attractive.
[00:33:59] And yet Jesus said these words, apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:34:07] He didn't say, you could do less. He said, apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:34:14] Now we know the words of Jesus are always true. So what was he saying?
[00:34:20] Well, I believe there are two aspects that Jesus was saying.
[00:34:26] The first one, I'm going to use an illustration. When my kids were younger, I remember going on a holiday over to west Wales.
[00:34:34] And on this holiday over in west Wales, we had the most miraculous experience where the sun shone.
[00:34:41] So we decided in the place we were staying that we were going to get our buckets and spades, we were going to drive to the beach and we were going to have a day at the beach, enjoy this beautiful west Wales sunshine. That's what we did. So we sit down, we got all our equipment, our chairs and our windbreakers and our buckets and spades, and I sit down on a chair and I pull out my kindle. I want to do my favorite hobby, which is reading. And my kids said, dad, dad, daddy, can we build a sandcastle?
[00:35:10] And I looked at my neighbouring beach dweller and he had built a brilliant sandcastle.
[00:35:23] And I'm thinking, kids, if we're going to build a sandcastle, we're not going to be outdone by him.
[00:35:29] We're going to build a better sandcastle than he has built now. There was no one going around with a clipboard doing marks and scores. I wasn't going to acknowledge to him that I was motivated to beat him, but that's what I did. And so we began to dig the sand and build the castle. I think after a while, the kids were spoiling it a bit, if I'm honest. So I told them to go away and carry on with some other activities and just let me finish this, kids.
[00:35:57] And I have to say, I won.
[00:36:05] It was a great sandcastle.
[00:36:08] At the end of the day, we made our way back to the car, and in the boot of the car, I had a video camera. You remember those before we had smartphones. And I took the video camera out of the boot of the car and I did this creative pan shot around this beautiful coastal area. And as I panned around, I gently zoomed in so that the zoom landed right on my sandcastle, the beach.
[00:36:30] And I'm like, yeah, that was a great, productive day.
[00:36:36] We went back, enjoyed an evening together. The next morning, we woke up and another miracle happened. The sun was shining two days on the row in west Wales. Kids, let's go back to the beach again. Let's go back and enjoy the same activities. Let's make the most of the sun. So we drive back to the beach. I parked pretty much the same space. We walk to the same area of Sandhya to see my castle.
[00:36:59] And it wasn't there overnight, you know, the sea had come in and had taken it away and washed it out to sea.
[00:37:09] It was a good castle. It should have been respected more than that by nature.
[00:37:18] But Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing that were lost eternity.
[00:37:27] Apart from me, you can do nothing that will go beyond the boundaries of this world.
[00:37:34] I think I've shared an illustration previously where I was on holiday a year ago, and I had this really bizarre conversation where a man came up to me, a complete stranger, and he said, I've got so much money, I don't know what to do with it.
[00:37:46] Oh, that's a novel introduction.
[00:37:49] It's not one I'll try.
[00:37:53] I said, oh, that's interesting. How have you made all your money?
[00:37:57] He said, oh, I'm in investments.
[00:37:59] Oh, great. Tell me what sort of investments you're in. And he was telling me his investments, obviously wanted to share this news with a complete stranger.
[00:38:09] And then after a while of sharing about his investments, he then said, so what do you do?
[00:38:14] I said, it was funny you asked that, because I'm an investment as well.
[00:38:19] He said, are you? He said, what sort of investments are you in? I said, well, you know, the investments that you're in, they take people up to the point that they die and then they can do nothing with them. I pick up the next bit.
[00:38:31] I pick up the bit where we invest in that which lasts forever.
[00:38:38] You can take none of it with you.
[00:38:40] There are many things we can do in this world that will get us busy, but there's not many things we can do that will last eternity.
[00:38:49] And I want to give my life and stand before God one day and see that what I've given to will last for eternity. And apart from abiding in him, I can do nothing of eternal value.
[00:39:03] And secondly, can I ask you to put your left hand out? If you're not sure which hand that is, it doesn't matter, do the other one.
[00:39:11] Just imagine I was to walk around the aisles now, and I was to come and place in your hand a million pounds.
[00:39:18] It's not going to happen, so don't get excited, but imagine I was to do that. You're like, wow, I've got a million pounds. And you'd be spending it in your mind. You'd be thinking of what you're going to do with it.
[00:39:29] Keep that hand out of moment. Keep holding that million. Hold your right hand out.
[00:39:34] And imagine I came around and I put 100 trillion in that right hand. I don't even know. I don't know what a million looks like. I'm about 100 trillion, but I can't even imagine what that would be like.
[00:39:48] And when you look, that million that you were excited about suddenly doesn't feel so significant as what you've got in your other hand.
[00:39:58] See, we can do things in this world, but it's like nothing in comparison to what he can do.
[00:40:04] He is more than able to do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, we can ask, dream, think, desire or imagine.
[00:40:17] Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
[00:40:24] Abide in me.
[00:40:26] Apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:40:30] Let's read over this prayer together before we hand back.
[00:40:37] I'm praying this over you now.
[00:40:40] For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
[00:40:53] I pray that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
[00:41:15] I pray that you be enrouted and firmly established in love.
[00:41:20] I really pray this for you, church, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and the width, the height and the depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
[00:41:42] Now to him, let's stand together. Let's read these final two verses together.
[00:41:51] I'm going to ask you not to read them like you're in a school assembly. You know what that's like. Now to him who is.
[00:41:58] I want, even if you're slightly out of sync with others, I'm going to ask you to declare it.
[00:42:03] This is a culmination. This is a crescendo. This is the moment that the orchestra is at full swell. This is the moment that hearts stretch out and reach. And this is now to him who is able and every doubt that's in your heart.
[00:42:25] May it be sobered up by the power and the presence of God.
[00:42:30] May the truth of God sober up the doubts of your heart to bring a reality of his power.
[00:42:40] Let's read these together now. To him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the church. And in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Come on, let's lift our voices. Let's give God some praise. Amen.
