In Christ - Rooted and Grounded in Love

Neil Silverberg continues the In Christ series by taking us into Paul’s soaring prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21. Rather than asking God to change circumstances first, Neil shows how Paul prays people into the truth—beginning with the Father, aiming at the inner life, and expecting the Spirit to work from the inside out. What if our first prayer was for power in the inner being, for Christ to truly make a home in us, for roots that go down into love, and for nothing less than the fullness of God?

Walking phrase by phrase, Neil traces Paul’s four cascading requests. First is inner strength—real resilience that holds when the outer self is wasting away. Second is faith that welcomes Jesus into every “room” of life, not as a guest but as the owner with the keys. Drawing on the beloved picture from My Heart—Christ’s Home, he invites us to let Christ rearrange the mind’s library, the appetites’ dining room, the living room of friendships, and even the closet of secrets. Third comes being rooted and grounded in love—not striving to love God more, but receiving strength to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love with all the saints. Neil weaves in a memorable window from church history—the Puritans’ “kisses of God”—to illustrate how doctrine is meant to be felt as well as understood. Finally, Paul asks that we be filled with all the fullness of God, a Spirit-given saturation that displaces self-rule with holy desire and satisfaction in God.

The message crescendos with Paul’s doxology: God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, and he does it according to the power at work within us. Neil anchors this in God’s sovereignty, omnipotence, and glory, and shows how Scripture lifts our expectations—from the Red Sea to the storm on Galilee. Along the way, he calls us to kneel before the Father, invite Christ’s lordship over our thoughts and appetites, lean into the church to comprehend love together, and worship with confidence that God’s power is not a force we wield but a Person who lovingly rules us.

If your prayers have grown small or tired, let this teaching in the In Christ series expand your frame. Listen, let the words wash over you, and then try praying Ephesians 3:14–21 over someone you love this week.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Framing Ephesians And “In Christ”
• 1:45 Reading Paul’s Prayer Aloud
• 3:17 Puritans And The “Kisses Of God”
• 7:45 What Paul Doesn’t Pray For
• 9:22 Two Petitions At The Core
• 12:06 Posture And Praying To The Father
• 15:20 Request One: Inner Spiritual Strength
• 19:24 Weakness, Grace, And Real Power
• 21:25 Request Two: Christ At Home In Us
• 24:12 Rooms Of The Heart And Lordship
• 26:16 Request Three: Rooted And Grounded In Love
• 29:40 Love That Surpasses Knowledge
• 32:04 Corporate Comprehension Of Love
• 34:33 Request Four: Filled With God’s Fullness
• 38:05 Fullness Of God, Christ, And Spirit
• 40:34 Doxology: Beyond What We Ask Or Think

Transcript

Neil Silverberg: 0:03

Well, for several weeks now we've been walking through the book of Ephesians. Paul wrote this letter to a first century congregation. We call this series in Christ because Paul never called believers Christians. That's never on his lips. He only refers to them as in Christ. Believers are in Jesus Christ. And we've heard that repeated again and again. And it's important because that's how Paul identified believers. But this letter is not only about being in Christ, it's a treasure trove of instruction and how believers ought to pray for other believers. It's amazing. Remember the lengthy prayer that closed the first chapter? I think Mark spoke to that. Well, this section, this first section of Ephesians ends as well with a prayer of Paul. And it's so powerful. I've been praying this prayer for years over the believers that I work with, and I love to pray this prayer. So we're going to go through it tonight. And these are apostolic prayers. We want to notice how Paul and the apostles, how they prayed for people. It's important to take note of that. When Paul came to a region and preached the gospel, he didn't leave them with Bibles. They couldn't do that. They didn't have it. But he prayed for them these apostolic prayers that were powerful. And so this morning we're going to impact the apostles' second prayer in chapter 3. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and we'll plunge into this. Hallelujah. I'm excited about it. Ephesians 3, verses 14 through 20. And this message is entitled Rooted and Grounded in Love. Would you mind standing with me as we read God's word? Ephesians 3, 14 through 20. Verse 14, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, 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 depth, height and depth, and 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 could 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. Let me read that one more time, verse 20. What a powerful statement. 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. And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated. Praise God. One of the things I've enjoyed doing over the years that I've been teaching is studying carefully church history. I've been so enriched by becoming acquainted with how brothers and sisters throughout the ages interpreted the scriptures and lived out their faith. And church history is a compendium of teaching on that regard. One group of believers I became familiar with as I've studied church history is the 17th and 16th century Puritans. They are called Puritans because they sought to purify the church. And they were a specific group. The pilgrims that we're familiar with were a part of the the uh Puritans, but they they were called separatists because they believed that the Church of England was not redeemable and they should separate. And they came over to these shores with that intention. Other Puritans were known as non-separatists. They wanted to reform the Church of England from within. All of these Puritans were known for their sound Bible exposition and their theological preciseness. But along with their emphasis on theological correctness, they were known for their intimacy with God. And this is something we see in when they are when we read a certain document that the Puritans left us called the Kisses of God. I don't know if you've ever heard it, the Kisses of God. What did they mean by the phrase the kisses of God? Listen, the Puritans, for Puritans, the Kisses of God meant a profound, intimate experience of God's love and favor, a feeling of heightened divine communion that was both spiritual and emotional. It wasn't long before seeking an experience, it wasn't seeking an experience over doctrine, but about a holistic, heartfelt engagement with God, where doctrinal truth was meant not only to be understood, but deeply felt and enjoyed. I love that. It represented the intense, joyful connection a believer could have with God, much like the intimate and loving uh greetings in biblical stories or the love shared between spouses. Now, where did they get this idea of the kisses of God? As the story goes, a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin was walking down a road one day, and ahead of him was a father walking with his son hand in hand. And they continued to walk hand in hand, but suddenly the father stopped and he scooped up his little boy in his arms and started profusely kissing him. And this went on for about a minute. And he then placed him back on the road, held his hand, and continued to walk. And the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, who observed this, realized that his father didn't love the son more when he scooped him up and profusely kissed him with kisses. He just wanted a moment where he could demonstrate the depth of his love for his son. And the Puritans called this the kisses of God, based on the verse in Song of Solomon 1, verse 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. I don't know how many men can relate to that in this room, but they saw it as a valid experience for both men and women. Jonathan Edwards was considered to be a Puritan, and it says of him, Jonathan Edwards, one of the leaders of the first great awakening, reported profound spiritual experiences in which he perceived the glory and grace of Jesus as overwhelming and indescribable. How many want that? He viewed these encounters as moments of divine revelation, during which he all intensely sensed God's majesty, love, and beauty, often accompanied by deep emotion, tears, and a heartfelt longing to be emptied and annihilated before God so he might be filled with Christ alone. Now, Jonathan Edwards is considered to be the greatest intellect that America ever produced. Many believe that. But look at what he says. He viewed these encounters as moments of divine revelation, during which he intensely sensed God's majesty, love, beauty, and accompanied by deep emotion, tears. You can be intellectual and you can be emotional. Did you know that? I believe that what Paul was praying for these believers at Ephesus will experience. That's what he's praying. He's praying that they will experience what he has talked about in theology. By the way, Randy Alcorn, an author, said in the following letter to the Colossians, which has a similar prayer to that of the Ephesians. He says, as we look at this prayer, I want to take notice of what Paul didn't pray for. Please note this. This is what Paul didn't pray for. An elder's bout with cancer, the flu bug going around Colossi, an Asia Minor recession, kidney stones, back problems, good weather for the church picnic. No. Did they not have those problems? They did, sure. They had diseases, discomforts, financial strains, bad weather. And did they pray for them? No doubt. But scripture records that uh prayers that seldom concern such things. They involve intercession for people's love for God, knowledge of God, walk with God, and service to God. That's what they were concerned with praying. No, essentially, there are two position positions, two petitions, I'm sorry, that Paul prayed in this prayer. I want you to consider them with me. First, he prays that God may strengthen them with power through the Spirit in the inner man. And I hope to persuade you of how much that is needed. And then, secondly, they might have they might have power to grasp the limitless dimensions of the love of Christ. By the way, I've heard it said and I agree with it, that the best way to understand a person's theology is by listening to him or her pray. What a person prays about the nature of God, the nature of man, is revealed by the way they pray. So we need to be reminded when we pray, when we read these words, that Paul isn't writing a theological treatise. He is praying for God's people. You know, a number of years ago when I was living in Alabama, somebody brought me a book, and it was called The Odes of Solomon, a small little book, The Odes of Solomon, and it purports to be a prayer book and prayer lyrics to songs the early church sang, especially in the late first century, early second century. And it blew my mind when I read it because they were so theological. They didn't just pray, I'm being blessed, I hope you're being blessed too. They they prayed deep. It was intellectual, it was theologically sound. And this is what apostolic prayer is it's how the apostles prayed for their converts. And again, when Paul came to a region and preached the gospel, he didn't leave a Bible with them, he had no Bible to leave with them. Instead, he prayed for them, and these are the ways he prayed for them. We should be students of these prayers. Amen. Now, this prayer has four requests which flows out of it. I want you to follow this, but before we look at the four requests, let's look at how Paul resumes his original prayer, which actually starts in verse one of this chapter. But we notice first his posture when he prays. He prays on his knees, he bows his knees. And the normal notion posture in prayer was to stand. Remember in Mark 11, it says, whenever you stand praying, so Jesus said that. So standing was a Jewish form of prayer, posture towards prayer. And he remember the Pharisee in Luke 18, the Pharisee was standing before the Lord and in the temple. And remember, but also uh there was uh moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus fell on his face and prayed. Remember that? Matthew 26. In Scripture, bowing the knees, though, signifies that they may have prompted Paul to mention it. The kneeling posture represents an attitude of submission, of the recognition that we are in the presence of someone who is much greater than us. This is why the psalmist said when he proclaimed in Psalm 95, Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Remember how when Ezra heard of the intermarriage of the Israelites with foreign women, he fell on his face, on his knees, rather, and stretched out his hands in confession to the Lord. So, and then when Daniel heard that King Darius had signed the edict forbidding anyone to pray to any God but the king, remember he continued kneeling three times a day and giving thanks before God. And not only does Paul tell us his posture is to bow, but he also tells us that his prayer is directed to the Father. And this is critical. This is the Father of whom all fathers in heaven and earth derive his existence, all fathers. This highlights that all relationships and structures, both seen and unseen, are rooted in God's fatherhood. The family in heaven and earth is often interpreted to refer to the family of God, which includes both Old Testament and New Testament saints who are united as join heirs in Christ. This is why the Lord taught us when we pray to begin our prayer saying, Our Father. We must know that the God we are praying to is not some uh distant, impotent being. He's a God that is Father who has forgiven us our sins, and now he has made us children of God. So let's look at these four parts of the request that Paul offers to God for. Number one, the first request is for inner spiritual strength. Take notes of these. You need these in your life. Inner spiritual strength. That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in his inner being. At its core, this is a prayer for power. And already in this letter, Paul has actually asked for believers for power for believers. Remember in chapter one, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might? In Philippians, he he asked that he might know uh the power of his resurrection. That was Paul's prayer for the believers. They would know the power of his resurrection. And by the way, this is not a prayer for naked power, like some invisible force that's going to take us by surprise, although in revival that does happen. The sphere in which this power is to be known is in the inner being, deep in our hearts. What exactly does he mean by that phrase, the inner being? To answer that, look at another passage where Paul uses the same phrase, the inner being, in 2 Corinthians 4 16. He says, So we do not lose heart, though our outward man is wasting away, our inner being is being renewed day by day. Wow. When he says our outer self is wasting away, he is referring, no doubt, to the many years of physical hardship and persecution Paul endured. For example, he was beaten five times. Five forty lashes, but except for one, 39 was the limit, and he five times was uh experienced that pain. But that's not all what Paul means when he plays says that our outer man is wasting away. He is no doubt referring to the simple fact that he's aging. How many have discovered you're aging? And don't you love it? I'm sold. I did that intentionally. If you were if you were sleeping during the sermon, you're up now. The best way to describe the aging process is wasting away. Our outer self is wasting away. But while that's going on, at the same time, our inner self is being renewed day by day. The believer alone lives out this dichotomy of the outer self wasting while the inner man is being renewed. Paul points out this dichotomy, not only here in 2 Corinthians 4 and in the scripture in Ephesians, but he is uh talks about it in 2 Corinthians 12, how he was given a messenger of Satan to buffet him, remember? So to keep me from being conceited, 2 Corinthians 12, keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation. Thorn, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a pet messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me, but he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Someone recently asked me what that means. It means exactly what it says: Grace makes anything uh tolerable and gives us the ability to deal with it. Therefore, I will boast the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, I am content with weakness. Listen to this man. For the sake of Christ, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then am I strong. The second request is that Paul prays for a deepening of their faith. First he prayed for power, now he prays their faith would be deepened, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. Such an important request. This is more than resident faith that comes with salvation. Paul is writing to Christians, and Christ took up his residence in their hearts when they accepted him. Right? And this is Christ being at home in one's heart. Two words translated by the one English word dwell. The one means a temporary dwelling, like staying in a hotel. But the other means permanent residence. Which one do you think Paul uses? The Holy Spirit doesn't come just to bless you and leave, he comes up to take permanent residence and to dwell in your hearts forever. In his book, My Heart, Christ's Home, author Robert Munger describes, pictures the Christian life as a house through which Jesus goes from room to room. He says, in the library, which is the mind, Jesus finds trash and worthless things, which he proceeds to throw out and replace with his word. Thank God. In the dining room of appetite, he finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu. In the place of such things as prestige, materialism, and lust, he puts humility, meekness, love, and all other virtues for which believers are to hunger and thirst. He goes through the living room of fellowship, where he finds many worldly companions and activities through the workshop, which where only toys are being made, into the closet where hidden sins are kept, and so on through the entire house. Only when he has cleaned every room, closet and corner of sin and foolishness could Christ settle down and be at home. To have Christ dwell in our hearts through faith means for him to be at home in every corner of our life because we believe his promises and therefore become obedient to his word. The third request is that believers be rooted and grounded in love. Rooted and grounded in love. And I want to focus on this. Being made strong inwardly by God's Spirit leads to Christ being at home in our hearts, which leads to love that is incomprehensible. Love is incomprehensible. The result of our yielding to the Spirit's power and submitting to Christ's Lordship in our hearts is love. When He freely indwells our hearts, we become rooted and grounded in love. 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. We are to be settled on a strong foundation of love. He was not asking that they would love God more, he was asking that we would apprehend God's love more. It took divine strength to be rooted and grounded in love. By the way, this is a prayer for the corporate church, not for individual believers alone. It's for the corporate church. We need to remember that. Believers will personally benefit from this prayer, but we best understand it if we approach it from a corporate perspective. It's not about me and Jesus, it's about us and Jesus. I remember when I was a new believer and I first read Acts 1.8, you shall be my witnesses, and I started my individual career for God. But it's not a personal prayer for me alone. It's for us. The promises were for us and Jesus. We cannot comprehend the fullness of love until we are totally immersed in love, unless it is the very root of our being. Someone asked famous jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to explain jazz. And he replied, Man, if I've got to explain it, I ain't got it. That's a theologian. Same thing applies to love. It can't truly be understood and comprehensive until it is experienced. Yet what Paul is talking about is not simply an emotional or subjective. It is to be rooted and grounded in love. It requires being rooted and grounded in God. When we are saved, God's love is poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. What seems to be a contradiction, Paul says that to know the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. This is an experience that passes knowledge. Knowing Christ takes us beyond human knowledge because it is from an infinitely higher source. Again, Paul is not speaking here of knowing the love we are to have for Christ, but the love of Christ, his very own love that he must place in our hearts before we can love him or anyone else. We are commanded to love because he has given us love. God always gives us what he commands in return. And love is one of the greatest gifts that's been given to the church. The fourth request is that he would be filled, they would be filled with all the fullness of God. Think about that. Paul's praying for believers to be filled with all the fullness of God. What does that mean? It means the inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit leads to the indwelling of Christ, which leads to the abundant love, which leads to God's fullness in us. This is an indescribable request. To even begin to grasp the magnitude of that truth, we must first think of every characteristic of God. Paul is not exaggerating when he prays for this fullness because he asks for it repeatedly throughout this letter. The Greek word for fullness is the word plero, P-L-E-R-O, and it means to make full or be filled to the full. It's used throughout the New Testament, and it speaks of total dominion, total dominance by another force, total dominance. To be filled to the fullness of God means to be totally dominated by God. It is to be emptied of self and filled with God. How many want to be filled with God so that he has dominant control over your life? That should be our prayer for all of us. This is clearly stated in the Ephesian letter. Here, Paul talks about the fullness of God. In Ephesians 4, 13, he talks about the fullness of Christ. In Ephesians 5.18, he talks about the fullness of the Spirit. And we are to experience all three of those: the fullness of God, the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the Spirit. This is to be totally satisfied with God alone. And the only way it'll happen is if we ardently pursue Him. That's how it will happen. If we pray for Him to strengthen us with power by His Spirit, by the inner man, Christ will be at home in each room of the heart, like we read earlier. If Christ occupies our heart, we will have confidence and security and we'll be able to love others. The ability to know God's love and thus love others leads to the fullness of God in us. What a God we have who loves us so much that he will not rest until we are completely filled with Him. Now, Paul ends with a doxology, an ending that is completely sufficient for this passage. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that 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. There is one way to conclude this apostolic prayer, but with an anthem of praise. And we see three things in the doxology: God's sovereignty, God's omnipotence, and God's glory. God's sovereignty, omnipotence, and glory. Let's start with God's sovereignty. It means that God can do more, far more abundantly than we ever ask or think. Has God ever blown your mind with what he does? It's good to have your mind blown. He says our prayers can be answered far beyond even what we ask or think. I got a couple examples of that, from the old one from the old, one from the New Testament. First, from the old. Israel escapes Egypt in the Exodus, and they come, and where does God lead them to? Right against the Red Sea, where they are up against the sea on one side, and there's no way they can get for go forward. And to make matters worse, when Pharaoh sees and hears that they're now caught, he musters his chariots and goes after Israel. And so Israel sees their enemies coming from one angle and the Red Sea blocking the way. And you know what God does? He does what no one imagined, exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or think. He opened the Red Sea. You think Israel said, We know, we're standing here, we know what God's going to do. He's going to open the Red Sea. We're his people. They had no idea. And God did something far more abundant than they could ever ask or think. A similar water story appears in the New Testament when Jesus is taking a snooze on the boat. He had told the disciples to go to the other side. He's taking an afternoon nap. And suddenly, which is common into the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee is a storm comes up on it, and they're about to be capsized. And Jesus is super superfluous. And they wake him. And remember how they waked him? They said, Lord, do you not care that we are perishing? It was an indictment against God. Do you not care? And he woke up and said, Why are you afraid? And he said, literally in Greek, he said, Shut up to the wind and the rain. The one who controls the rains and winds can do that. And then what happened? A great calm came over, and they were uh delivered from the storm. Again, God did what was far more abundant than they could ask or think. But we need to be clear where Paul says this power operates. He says, according to the power that works within us. It's not out there only, but it's in here that the primary place that G Paul tells us the Spirit is working. It's primarily sanctifying prayer. God doesn't work from without to within, but starts within and works without. And we see that in the Philippian epistle. You know, Paul says in verse 12 of chapter 2 of Philippians, therefore, my beloved, as we have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work at your salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. It's God. So Paul speaks in this passage of God's power working with us. It's not a power we control, it's a power that controls us. If we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we have the most powerful force in the universe dwelling in us. Do you know that? And then Paul says it's also God's omnipotence is revealed in the doxology. Here's a theological definition of omnipotence that I love. God is an omnipotent, means God possesses unlimited power and is all-powerful, capable of doing anything logically possible and consistent with his own nature. This concept implies divine control over the physical and spiritual realm, the ability to create, and the power to fulfill his will, which is understood to be good and wise. For believers, God's omnipotence is a source of great comfort. We should be comforted by his omnipotence because it signifies that he is in complete control. And he will use his power for good according to his love and wisdom. He used his omnipotence to bring Jew and Gentile together, as we saw in chapter 2 and 3, and form them into a dwelling of God through the Spirit. And then God's glory is revealed in this doxology. His sovereignty, his omnipotence, now his glory. The Greek word for glory is the word doxa. It means glory, majesty, and honor. Ultimately, everything God does. How many know everything God does is for his glory? The power of God displays his glory. All that God has done is to resound to his glory forever. When we worship, we are giving God the glory that is due to Him. We don't come to worship to receive something only. We come to because God is getting the glory, and we want to join in with every created being in the universe to give him glory. Notice how Paul puts God's glory in the church before Christ Jesus. He says, Paul does not put the church before Christ in Ephesians 3.21. Rather, he connects them in a single unified expression of glory. The phrase in the church and in Christ Jesus indicates that God is glorified through the unified community of believers. And we are in union with Christ. This highlights how the church is God's masterpiece of grace, a testament to his glory throughout the generations, visible in uniting all believers under Christ. Wow. Notice the phrase all generations, to all generations in the doxology. That's a long time. We talked much in this church about how God is a generational God. Why do we talk about it? Because God is a generational God. Why is that important? Because He wants every generation to receive the glory to his name. Every generation. And this is followed by the phrase forever and ever. If you thought to all generations was long, how about the phrase forever and ever? It's even longer. This means there will be no end to God receiving glory. There is no end. Fourteen times in the New Testament, it says, to Him be the glory forever and ever. To Him be the glory. But it appears prominently in the Psalms. Psalm 145, Psalm 145, 6, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And how about Psalm 145? I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. His glory is in Christ. You know what God glories in? Glorifying Himself. That's what He glories in. And there are a number of places in the New Testament that reveal how the glory of God is seen in Jesus. But my favorite is the book of Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 3. It says, He is the radiance of his glory. He is the radiance of it. You know what the Greek word for radiance is? It's the Greek word for shining or brightness. What the rays of the sun are to the sun, so it is that God shine. The Son of God is the brightness of the Lord shining. How many of you have ever seen the sun? You've not really seen it. I mean you can glance up in a moment for a moment and look at it, but go out sometime in June or July in Knoxville, and at noon look up and stare at the sun for 30 minutes. You've never seen the sun, nor have I. Why? It's too bright. But the sun is seen by its rays. And it this tells us not only about the sun, but tells us what the Christian life is, essentially. The Christian life is like getting a tan. I'm serious. Because you just lay there and let the sun's rays bake your skin. And when you get back, everybody knows in the office that you were in Fort Lauderdale. Which I was just there. Can you tell? But he goes on and says, He is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature. The exact representation. Now I want to blow your mind. The word in Greek, there's one single word that's translated in the English Bible by the exact imprint of his nature. It's the Greek word character. And it was used of the imprinting of coins. You know, I have a quarter in my pocket. I've never seen the original, but I don't need to. Why? Because the original was stamped by the uh imprint by the original. And when it's stamped, it was the the uh imprint was permanent, and it was therefore uh no need to see the original. Remember how Jesus said in the upper room, I'm going back to the Father, and Philip said, Show us the Father and we'll be satisfied. Remember his response? Have I been so long with you, Philip, and yet you've not known me? All that has seen me has seen the father. How do you say then, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? So he is the imprint of his nature. The character of God is fully revealed in one place, and it's in the Son of God. So this morning, we are blessed to be rooted and grounded in love. We are blessed to be strengthened with power by the Spirit in our inner man. Now I want to pray this prayer as a prayer, and as Jordan comes and plays, I want you to stand. We're gonna pray this prayer together. Take a moment and let's consider what it means to pray this prayer by faith. How many of you believe if we pray this prayer because it's biblical, God's gonna hear an answer? So join with me and follow with me. Verse 14 of Ephesians 3. 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, and 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 abundant than all that 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. Lift your hands. Let's worship. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you that you've heard this prayer because you inspired it by your Holy Spirit hundreds thousands of years ago and we prayed it in faith. Lord, we know you're going to do it. We trust you to fulfill that which you we've just prayed. And Lord, not let it not just be a one time prayer. Help us to live this prayer out by praying it daily for those we love in Christ, for brothers and sisters that we don't know. Lord, help us to pray this prayer faithfully in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.