(upbeat music)
- This program is paid for
by the friends and
partners of Touching Lives.
Welcome to the international
broadcast ministry
of Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt.
Here at Touching Lives,
our mission is to touch
the lives of the lost
and enrich the faith of the found.
And now, here is pastor,
author and speaker,
Dr. James Merritt.
(placid music)
- Good morning, you guys,
and to those watching online,
those that are watching by television.
One of the things that
goes with the territory
of being a pastor is I field
a lot of tough questions
from people that attend church.
And I got a text out of the
blue from a guy in our church
that I actually spent a year mentoring,
and it was filled with some of
the, it was a tough question.
There's some really tough questions.
I just want you to listen to what he,
this is what he texted me just
out of the blue one morning.
He said, "What about the
transformation power of the cross?
"Why are we not seeing it?
"Is it only me?
"I just do not see the
transformational power of God at work
"right now in people
who claim to follow Him.
"I absolutely believe God is still at work
"but where and who?"
You talk about some tough questions.
I sat down and I kinda wrote
in the best response I had
at the time but I couldn't
get that text off my mind.
And I thought about it for several days.
and all of a sudden one day,
it just hit me just like
a bolt out of the blue.
I believe that the power
of God is often missing
from most lives of most
people who claim to know God
and who claim to be followers of Jesus,
because we don't believe God
the way God deserves to be believed.
We don't obey God the way
God demands to be obeyed.
And we don't love God the
way God desires to be loved.
Because if we did, the church
would look radically different
than it does today.
And I believe the world would look
at the church radically
different than it does today.
If you're a guest of ours,
we're in a series in the book of Ephesians
we've been calling "Unbelievable".
And the reason why I
call it "Unbelievable"
is 'cause I don't belief
there's a book in the Bible
that describes more what an
unbelievable God that we worship
and the unbelievable things
that this unbelievable God wants
to do in us and with us and through us.
And we're in Ephesians
today, chapter three,
and some of you have received a lot of us,
we give these little books out,
those little discipleship books.
If you brought yours,
we're on page 28 in our
little discipleship book.
But in Ephesians three, there
is a prayer that Paul prays.
When I read that prayer, I
said, "That's the solution.
"That is the answer to every question
"that my friend had texted me."
'Cause I wanna give you a
kind of an advanced warning.
If we begin to pray this
prayer that God gave to Paul,
and we really believe when
we ask for these things
that God does what we ask Him to do,
we would see the transforming
power of God unleashed
in our lives and in churches
like we've never seen before.
In fact, I'll tell you
something about this prayer.
I've read the Bible through many times,
and I don't say that to brag.
You would expect a pastor to say that.
I should as a pastor and I get it.
But I wanna tell you,
there is not a more
powerful prayer ever prayed
in the Bible, and I would suggest to you,
there's never been a more
powerful prayer prayed
in the history of the
world than the prayer
that we're going to look at this morning.
You say, "How do you know that?
"What makes you say that?"
Well, it really begins
with how Paul said he begins the prayer.
Here's what Paul said.
He said, "For this reason,
I kneel before the Father."
Now with all respect to Paul,
why do I care what his posture is?
Why did he go out of
the way to let us know?
I just want you to know
when I pray this prayer,
I get on my knees.
And the reason why that is so unusual,
you may or may not know
this but 'cause you may say,
"Well, I've got on my
knees to pray before,
"what's the big deal
about kneeling to pray?"
Well, Paul was Jewish.
You say, "Well, what does that mean?"
Jews normally never kneel to pray.
I don't know if you know
that or not, they don't.
Jews normally pray by standing.
So, if you've ever been to Israel,
and if you've not been to Israel,
you can go on and look online
and you just have a picture,
we go to the Wailing
Wall, the Western Wall,
you'll see rabbis,
you'll see Orthodox Jews.
And here's how they're praying.
They're not kneeling, they're
standing and they're rocking.
You say, "Why do they do that?"
That's the way normally Jews pray.
They stand and they rock back and forth.
And yet, Paul is letting
us know this prayer
is so transforming, it
is so life changing,
it is so earth-shaking that
it drove me to my knees.
And Paul is writing this prayer,
remember this, in prison.
He doesn't know, but the
day he's writing this prayer
will be the last day he'll live.
He doesn't know if he's ever
gonna see another sunrise.
And yet, what's so fascinating
is he's not praying
for what he wants or what he needs,
he's praying, not for protection
or for freedom or for mercy,
he's not praying what we would pray,
God, get me outta here,
God don't let me die.
As a matter of fact,
his prayer has absolutely nothing to do
with what he wanted God to do for him.
It had everything to do with
what he wanted God to do in him
and in the church.
Now, I wanna say several
things I'm gonna say,
and I'll just kinda wanna
warn you, for some of you,
it's gonna shake you up a little bit,
for some of you it's gonna be convicting,
for some of you is gonna be uncomfortable.
You can tell a lot by how
spiritually mature you are
by what you pray and how you pray.
Max Lucado, the author,
some of you have read
about after Max Lucado,
he had an organization
called LifeWay, teamed up,
they did a survey to ask
a thousand Protestants
what do you pray for?
Now, some of their prayers I wanna admit
that I thought was
encouraging, it was noble.
For example, 51% of a
Protestants said they prayed
for their own sin.
I thought, well, that's good.
46% said they prayed for their enemies.
Now, they didn't say what
they prayed for their enemies.
They just prayed for their enemies.
44% prayed for people
in natural disasters.
I thought, boy, this is encouraging.
But then it got to this,
20% said they prayed every
day to win the lottery.
(congregation laughing)
14% pray for God to avenge
someone who hurt them.
Now, this was really convicting to me,
11% prayed for their favorite team to win.
God, forgive me.
But 11% prayed for their
favorite team to win.
Last night, I was praying
for a team to lose.
God didn't answer my prayer,
Jack, but I'll keep praying.
Anyway, 9%, 9% prayed to
find a good parking spot.
7% prayed to not get caught speeding.
Now, let's be honest.
There are two problems we all have
when it comes to prayer, right?
Number one, we don't
really know how to pray.
If we did, we'd pray more,
we don't know how to pray.
Number two, we don't
know what to pray for.
And so, at times, if we're just honest,
it's like we're throwing
stuff up on the wall
and we kinda hope it sticks.
Well, I wanna show you something today
about the greatest
prayer you will ever pray
and the prayer that always
makes a direct connect with God.
'Cause we've all prayed at times.
And we really have wondered
are You really listening to this?
Do You really hear this?
Am I praying the kind of prayer
that's getting Your attention?
Let me give you some great news.
The prayer we're going to study today
always makes a direct connect with God.
You say, "How do you know?"
Because the prayer that gets
to God always comes from God.
The prayer that gets to
God always comes from God.
And I wanna tell you about this prayer.
And I want you to buckle your seatbelt
because if you pray this prayer daily
and you believe it and
you live like it's true,
you cannot help but live a
radically transformed life.
Now that said, get this
thought in your mind.
We don't always get what we pray for,
but we always get what
God wants us to pray for.
We don't always get what we pray for,
but we always get what
God wants us to pray for.
And the prayer we're going to study today,
this is a one size fits everybody prayer.
This is a prayer you
can pray for yourself.
This is a prayer you can for your family.
This is a prayer you can
pray for your spouse.
This is a prayer you can
pray for your neighbors.
This is the prayer that you
can pray for anybody, anywhere,
anytime, under any circumstance
and you'll know you're making
a direct connect with God.
And I'm gonna encourage you
today to write down four things.
And before I do this,
let me go ahead and say one other thing.
When I get through today,
some of you are gonna walk out of here
and you're gonna say, "I'm
not praying that prayer,"
because if you pray this prayer,
you won't live the way you're living.
If you pray this prayer,
you won't see your money
the same way again.
If you pray this prayer,
you won't see other
people the same way again.
If you pray this prayer,
you won't see the word of
God the same way again.
If you pray this prayer,
you won't see the world
the same way again.
If you pray this prayer,
you won't see your marriage
the same way again.
It will radically change your life.
And Paul says there are
four things we ought
to pray for every single day.
Number one, God, strengthened
me through Your Spirit.
Strengthen me through Your Spirit.
Now, Paul begins his prayer
in a way that we rarely,
if ever, begin ours.
Usually when we pray,
let's just be honest,
we're always asking God
to do something for us,
heal us, bless us, take
care of us, provide for us.
But here's the amazing thing.
Paul doesn't ask God
to do anything for us.
Paul asks God to do something in us.
So, here's what he starts saying.
"I pray that out of His glorious riches,"
now here's what some preachers would say
that He'll give you that Mercedes,
He'll give you that beachfront condo,
He'll give you that Rolex watch,
He'll give you that
mansion in the country.
He didn't say that.
"I pray out of His glorious riches,
"He may strengthen you with
power through His Spirit
"in your inner being."
Now, let's just all be
honest, and by the way,
I'm in the same boat you're in,
I want you to go back and think
about every prayer you've
ever prayed in your life.
Every single prayer you've ever prayed.
I promise you, 99.9% of the time,
they will always come under three requests
or three categories, right?
First of all, heal me.
If you don't believe that,
get in a group of people and do one thing,
who has any prayer requests?
Guess what?
It's always about sick people, always.
Hey, my aunt is having cancer surgery,
pray she'll come through.
My aunt, they discovered
a spot on her lung,
pray it's not cancer.
My son has mono, can't play football,
pray God will heal him of his mono.
It's true of our staff
meeting, we've talked about it,
we do at staff, have prayer request, yeah.
Somebody needs to be healed, heal me.
Second way, hand me.
God, I need You to
provide something for me.
My bank account is low, I need
somebody to send me money.
Okay, I really want that car.
I really want that house.
I really want that watch.
I really want that jewelry.
I want this, I want that, God hand me.
And then the third one is helped me.
Lord, I need this job, help me
to do well in this interview.
Lord, I need to pass this test
so I can get into medical school.
Lord, help me to pass this test.
Now, before I go any further,
hear what I'm about to tell you.
There is nothing wrong with
those prayers, nothing at all.
I'm not trying to discourage
you from praying those prayers.
That is not my point.
However, we have somehow this idea
that God's up there going,
I wish you would asked Me
to do something for you
just so I can show you I can do it.
That's not what God is saying.
What God is saying is how about asking Me
to do something in you?
I've already got the for
you've taken care of,
I own the cattle on a thousand
hills, I own the universe.
You can't bring your
request I can't answer.
How about asking Me to
do something in you?
Because Paul's first
prayer is not for health,
it's not for wealth, it's
not what God can do for us,
but what God can do in us.
And he says, "Here's what I prayed.
"I pray that God will
give you inner strength.
"I pray that God will
give you spiritual power."
And by the way, it's not coincidental
that that's the very first thing he prays.
He says, "The first thing
I wanna pray for my church,
"the first thing I wanna pray for me,
"the first thing I want to pray for you
"is that God would
strengthen you by His power,
"through His spirit in your inner man."
Why does he do that?
You ready?
Because unless you are daily
continuously strengthened
by the Holy spirit, you
can't walk with God,
you can't work for God,
you can't witness for God,
you can't even worship
God the way you should
except by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Only the power of God can
enable you to live for God.
I'll give you an illustration.
Suppose somebody came to
you and they said to you,
"I want you to begin
writing plays like 'Hamlet',
"or like 'Romeo and Juliet.'
"I want you to write
plays just like that."
Here's what you'd say,
"I'm not Shakespeare.
"I can't do that.
"Shakespeare could do that.
"I can't do that."
And it'd be foolish for
me to get up here and say,
"Now, listen, I want all of you
"to start reading the four gospels.
"And I want you to read
the way Jesus lived
"that I want you to go out
"and I want you to live
just like Jesus lived."
You know what you'd say to me?
You'd say, "I just got one
problem, I'm not Jesus.
"I can't live like Jesus
because I'm not Jesus."
You're exactly right.
But if somehow I could put
the genius of Shakespeare
in your head,
or if somehow I could put the power of God
in your heart, guess what?
You could write just like Shakespeare
and you could live just like Jesus.
And the reason why God sends
the Holy Spirit into us
is not so that we will
live the way we want to,
but so we'll live the way we ought to
and the way He wants us to.
I talked to people all the time
by becoming followers of Jesus,
no more than an excuse I get from people
that they'll say they're not ready.
When I'll say, "Why aren't you ready?"
here's what they'll always say,
"I can never live up to that.
"I could never be good enough
to live the Christian life."
And I always get to say to
them, "You're exactly right.
"You are absolutely right, you can't.
"Here's the good news.
"God's never asked you to, ever."
How many times do you
get up in the morning
and the first thing
you say to God is this,
"Would You just strengthened
me in my inner man
"through Your power, by Your Spirit,
"would You just give
me spiritual strength?"
'Cause this is what's so
encouraging about this verse.
Life is a battle.
I don't know about you,
my life's a battle.
I'm assuming yours is too.
Life is a battle.
Here's the good news.
You're not in the battle alone.
Life's full of burdens.
You got burdens, I got burdens,
we all have got burdens.
But you never carry them alone.
I read a story the other
day, I thought, boy,
that's really illustrates
what I'm trying to say.
There was a guy that was in
Iowa, and he was driving,
and he ran off the road and
his car got into a ditch.
Well, a farmer came by and he
asked if he could help him.
And the farmer said, "Well, be honest,
"you need a team of horses
"to pull that car out of that ditch.
"And I've only got one
horse and his name is Dusty,
"and Dusty's old and Dusty's blind."
But he said, "Let's just
see what Dusty can do.
"Don't expect a lot, but
we'll give it a shot."
So, he hitches Dusty to the car,
and he backs up and takes a whip.
And he begins to crack
that whip in the air.
And he said, "Pull, Jimmy, pull!"
And Dusty never moved.
So, he backed up again
and he cracked the whip a second time.
"Pull, Sammy, pull!"
Dusty just stood there.
So, he backed up the third time.
"Pull, Charlie, pull!"
Dusty never even moved.
Then, fourth time he
cracks that whip, he says,
"Pull, Dusty, pull!"
And with one mighty tug
that old blind horse pulled
that car right out of that ditch.
Well, the guy was amazing.
And he walked, he shook the hand,
and shook the farmer's hand.
And he said, "Man, thanks
for helping me free my car."
But he said, "I just
gotta ask you a question."
He said, "Dusty never moved
when you kept calling him
"by all those different names,
"but then you called him Dusty
"and he pulls the car right out.
"Why didn't you just call him
Dusty from the beginning?"
And the farmer said, "Well,
remember, Dusty's blind.
"And I had to call out
those three names first,
"because if he thought he's
doing that work by himself,
"he wouldn't even have a try."
(congregation laughing)
Now, here's the point.
Life is a battle, but God
says you're not in it alone.
You got burdens, but you
don't carry them alone.
That's why you need the
Spirit of God in you,
not to live the Christian life alone,
not to pull the loads alone,
not to carry the burdens alone,
not to fight the battles of life alone.
We have at our disposal 24/7
the strength, and the power
and the might of the Holy Spirit.
He says you need to pray for God
to give you spiritual strength.
But there's even greater reason.
I'd never seen this before.
I've read this passage, I
don't know, hundreds of times.
I had never seen this
'til I did this message.
He said, "Do you know why you need
"to be strengthened by My
Spirit in your inner man?
"You know why you need that?"
Now, watch this.
"So that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith."
Now, if you know anything
about Christianity,
anything about the Bible,
you'd go, "That's odd."
By the way, that's the
only place in the Bible
that ever speaks of Jesus
living in our heart.
We tell kids all the time,
"Would you like Jesus,
ask Jesus in your heart?"
It's the only time the Bible,
the Bible talks about
Jesus living in our hearts.
And the reason why that's
odd is you say, "Well, Paul,
"wait a minute, you're
talking to Christians.
"You're talking to
people that go to church.
"You're talking to people, I mean,
"that's what a Christian is.
"Jesus is already living in their heart.
"Why would you tell them you need
"to be strengthened by My
Spirit through your inner man
"so that Christ will live in your heart?
"I thought He already
did live in my heart?"
Until you do a little study,
which I was able to do.
There are actually two
words in the Greek language
for the word dwell.
One word means to live in a place
where you're really a
stranger and a foreigner,
and you really never feel at home.
It'd be like you're in a job.
And your job, your company
says you gotta move to France
or Germany or wherever for a year.
And then, you gonna get to come back home.
But for a year, you gotta
move away from home.
So, they give you a very
nice furnished apartment.
They give you all the amenities.
It's beautiful, it's air
conditioned, it's heated,
nothing wrong with that,
but you never feel at home.
It's just not home.
And you know it's not home.
You just never feel comfortable there.
That's not the word Paul uses.
Paul uses a word that
means to live in a place
where you're so comfortable,
it just feels like home.
You just wanna settle down
and you never want to leave.
Now, listen, this is what Paul is saying.
The only heart where
Jesus really feels at home
is a heart that is strengthened
and empowered and filled
with the Spirit of God,
because here's the difference.
There's a difference, listen to me,
there's a difference between Jesus being
in the house of your heart
and feeling at home in your heart.
And the real question I
wanna ask you is this,
just look at the way you
lived your life last week,
just last week, just
tell me the way you kinda
went about life last week.
Here's my question.
The way you lived your life last week,
were you so strengthened
by the Spirit of God,
so empowered by the Spirit of God,
that Jesus felt right
at home in your heart?
Paul says, let's pray first of all,
God, strengthen me with Your Spirit.
Second thing, load me with Your love.
Load me with Your love.
Now, this prayer is like
a set of steps, okay?
And each steps takes you deeper with God.
So, here's what Paul prays.
"And I pray that you being
rooted and established in love
"may have power together with
all the Lord's holy people
"to grasp how wide and
long and high and deep
"is the love of Christ
"and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge."
Now, here's what Paul's saying.
Would you like to know whether or not
right now you're controlled
by the Spirit of God?
You say, "Yeah, I would," real easy,
when you are controlled
by the Spirit of God,
you'll be consumed with the love of God.
When you're controlled
by the Spirit of God,
you'll be consumed with the love of God.
Paul says, "I want you to be rooted
"and established in love,"
and he uses two beautiful words.
One is an agricultural word.
One's an architectural word.
The agricultural word, "I want
you to be rooted in love."
A root is what gives a tree strength.
So, what he says is every morning,
seek the roots of your life,
deep, deep down into
the soil of God's love.
And then he says, "I want
your life established.
"I want it grounded in the love of God,"
and that word grounded refers
to the foundation of a building.
Now, I don't know anything
about architecture,
but I do know this, I've had
architectures tell me this,
the higher the building
you wanna build anywhere,
the deeper the foundation has to be,
the broader the foundation has to be.
And what Paul was saying was this,
the deeper you go in your love for God,
the higher you go for the glory of God.
And I've learned in my own ministry,
loving God gives you the strength
to deal with difficult people,
and loving God gives you the stability
to weather difficult problems.
Now, here's where some of
you'll get very uncomfortable,
but it's just true,
it's true for all of us.
What you love, what you really love
is more important than
what you really believe.
What you really love is more important
than what you really
believe, you know why?
Because whatever captures your heart
will control your feelings
and your behavior.
What your heart loves the most,
your mind will reason out,
your emotions will feel out,
and your will will act out.
One of my favorite authors
is a guy named Tim Keller.
Some of you've heard if who Dr. Killer is,
great, great preacher, great author.
He said this "What makes
people into what they are
"is the order of their loves.
"What they love most,
more, less, and least,
"that is more fundamental to who you are
"than even the beliefs to
which you mentally subscribe.
"Your loves show what
you actually believe in,
"not what you say you do.
"People therefore change
"not by merely changing their thinking,
"but by changing what they love the most."
In other words, to put it
simply, here's what he said.
Our affections determine our actions.
Our affections determine our actions.
I'm gonna prove this to you.
It took me a long time to
learn it and I finally got it.
I could stand up here hour
after hour after hour,
and I could give you every
logical, every theological,
every philosophical,
every intellectual reason
why you ought to be
generous with your money,
why you ought to tithe,
why every one of you ought to
be supporting the work of God.
I've got a file cabinet full of 'em.
And here's what I've learned.
I preached it, and I preached
it, and I preached it,
and I preached it, and I've
never moved the needle.
Half the people who attend any church
never give a dime to the church, never.
And here's what I finally realized.
I will never move your
needle by moving your head.
The needle will only move
when God moves your heart.
And the real reason why many of us
do not support the church financially,
it has nothing to do with your finances,
has nothing to do with your bank account,
the cold, hard, simple truth
is you just don't love God
the way you say you love God.
'Cause if you loved God the
way you say you love God,
you could not help but give to the work
of the God that you love.
And so, Paul says "That's
why I want you rooted
"and grounded in love because
affection determines action."
And then, Paul does something else.
He says, "I want you to know,
"I want you to have the
strength to comprehend
"how great God's love is.
"I want you to know its
width, and its length,
"and its height and its depth.
"I want you to know there is no love
"like the love of God."
And the way he describes it,
he says, "You know the
love of God is so broad,
"it spreads over the entire world.
"It is so long it reaches to every person.
"It is so deep it sinks to the lowest sin.
"It is so high, it sores
all the way to heaven."
I read the other day with
the farthest galaxy right now
that we've ever discovered is
13.8 billion light years away.
Think about that, 13.8
billion light years away.
And then I read where the deepest depth
of the world is called
The Challenger Deep.
It's part of a trench
that is 6.85 miles deep.
And I read that and I thought to myself,
God's love reaches from
the zero gravity of space
right down to the 1,000
times atmospheric pressure
of the deepest sea.
You can't measure God's love by space.
You can't control God's love by time.
But then he goes on to say this.
He says, "I want you to
know how broad, and wide,
"and deep and long the love of God is."
But then he says, "And to know this love
"that surpasses knowledge."
What?
Yeah, I want to know this
love, but you can't know it.
Paul, I don't get it.
Well, you see, it is one thing to believe
that God loves you.
And I think most of you, if
I were to ask you would say,
"Oh, yeah, I believe that God loves me,"
but it's another thing to
know that God loves you.
And it's another thing
to know that love of God.
Believe it or not, every preacher,
when you kind of start get
toward the end of your ministry,
you look back, and I'll be
the first one to tell you,
and every preacher says,
"I have said something dumb
things in my preaching."
I'm just glad you don't know
some of the things I've said,
okay, I really am.
So, I'm just being honest
with you, I'm not perfect.
And I'll tell you something I
used to say that's just wrong.
I used to say the greatest tragedy
that could ever happen to us
is to find out that God
doesn't love us after all.
I used to say that.
I said, "That's the greatest tragedy
"to find out God really
doesn't love us at all."
And one day I finally
hit me, that is so wrong,
it couldn't be wronger.
The greatest tragedy that
could ever happen to anyone
is not to discover that
God doesn't love us,
the greatest tragedy is to
learn that God does love us
and then never know that love
and experience that love.
That's the greatest tragedy.
I grew up with a dad,
I've told you before,
I grew up with a dad who was
just not very affectionate.
My dad never told me he loved me
unless I told him first,
my dad never hugged me
unless I hugged him first.
He was a strict disciplinarian,
he had a quick temper.
And growing up, yeah, did I really believe
and hope deep down that my dad loved me?
But I have to be honest,
I didn't really know
that my dad loved me
until I was 17 years old.
And he takes me down
to college in Florida.
I'm gonna be eight hours
away, I don't have a car.
It's the first part of August.
I'm not gonna be home 'til Thanksgiving.
And I'd never been away
from home in my life.
Never been away ever.
And now I know two and a half months
for the first time in my life,
I'm not gonna see my mom, not
gonna be seeing my dad at all.
So, when it was time to say goodbye,
it was time for them to leave,
I actually remember like
it happened yesterday,
my Aunt Jewel was there and Mom
was there and Dad was there.
I hugged Aunt Jewel,
and then I hugged Mom,
and I turned around, and as I
turned around to hug my dad,
Dad's looking at the ground,
wouldn't even look at me.
And it was like, it was raining,
these big teardrops were
hitting the pavement.
And for the first time in my life,
he didn't wait for me to hug him.
My dad hugged me.
His shoulder was on me, he was sobbing.
And the reason it was such a
sweet time, the thought hit me.
I said, "Ha, son of a
gun, that guy loves me,
"that guy really does love me."
And listen, when you
see, for the first time,
I felt that love, I knew that
love, I experienced that love.
And when you come to the cross of Christ
and the Christ on the cross,
that's when you really
know the love of God.
But he says, "But you
can't know that love."
So, what does he mean?
Here's what he meant, listen.
We can truly know the love of God,
but we will never totally
know the love of God.
When we get to heaven,
we still won't totally
know the love of God.
I'll give you kind of a
message that I came up with,
if you're parent, you know this,
your children hopefully
know that you love them
and you'd do everything you can every day
to show your kids you love them.
God bless you and so did
I, but you know what?
Your child will never know
how much you love them until what?
They have their own child.
When my two boys had their first child,
one the first things they said to me,
"Dad, now I know how much you love me,
"Mom, now I know how much you love me."
Listen, here's what Paul is saying.
No, you can never totally
know the love of God,
but you can truly know the love of God.
And you may doubt the wisdom of God,
you may doubt the works of God,
you may doubt the ways of God,
don't you ever doubt the love of God.
So, Lord, strengthened
me with Your Spirit.
Lord, load me with Your love.
And then thirdly, fill
me with Your fullness.
Fill me with Your fullness.
When God strengthens you with His Spirit
and loads you with His
love, you know what He does?
He fills you with what?
Himself, so Paul says this,
"That you may be filled to the measure
"of all the fullness of God."
Now, you've seen this in your own life.
Have you ever had somebody
get so upset with you,
or have you ever gotten
so upset with somebody
that you said, "You're just full of it,"?
Don't look at me like you're holy,
you've all had that happen
to you, and so have I.
She's told me that more than once.
I've been married to her
43 years, you know what?
That's not a compliment.
That's not a positive thing.
And they're making a true observation
because here's the cold, hard truth
about all of us right now.
We're all full of something.
Everybody in this room
is full of something.
Over 400 years ago, someone
somewhere coined the phrase
we still use today to describe
the vast majority of people
that live in the world today.
Somewhere, somehow, somebody met a person
that was so conceited, so
egotistical, so self centered,
they said, "You know what?
"You're just full of yourself."
And here's the truth of the matter.
We all know people who
are full of themselves.
As a matter of fact, here's the bad news.
If you are full of yourself,
you're the only person
that doesn't know you're full of yourself.
Everybody else knows it,
but you don't know it.
All you know is you get up every morning,
look in the mirror and
seeing how great thou art.
That's all you know, 'cause
you're just full of yourself.
And all you care about is yourself.
And you don't love anyone
more than you love yourself.
Now, here's the truth that
Paul's getting at, you ready?
Right now this is true
of me, it's true of you,
it's true of everyone
listening to me right now.
This is absolutely true right now.
You are either full of
yourself or you're full of God.
You can't be half full of
you and half full of God.
God doesn't share space with anybody.
So, you're either full of
yourself or you're full of God.
And that's why I one of
the things I say we ought
to pray every day is God, empty me of me
and fill me with You, You must
increase, I must decrease.
And I wanna be so full
of God, I really do,
I wanna be so full of God that people see
in me the love of God.
They hear from me the voice of God.
They feel from me the power of God,
Pipin Ferreras is what's
called a free diver,
fascinating story.
Free divers dive under the
water with no air tank.
He goes into the water, into
the ocean with three things,
flippers, a wetsuit and one breath of air.
This blew my mind when I read it.
He set the Guinness World Book of Records.
He once descended in the
ocean down to 531 feet.
His round trip lasted three
minutes and 12 seconds.
He loaded his lungs
with 8.2 liters of air,
twice the capacity of
a normal human being.
When he did that, no free
diver had ever gone farther.
As a matter of fact, no
World War II submarine
had ever gone deeper than this man went
with one breath of air.
When he came up out of that water,
he didn't say I broke the record.
He didn't say look at me.
He didn't say am I not something?
You know what he said?
I want to go deeper.
Man, I read that and I
thought, you know what?
When God strengthens you
with His love, His Spirit,
and God loads you with His
love, you want to go deeper.
I found this out as a believer,
the more you get of God,
the more you want of God,
the more you get of God,
the more you want of God.
And honestly, so what
does that really mean?
I don't know all that it means.
I just know one thing,
every day of my life,
I wanna be filled with
the fullness of God.
And how different would
our church be today
if every one of us who claim to know God
would live our life in such a way
that people would see God
and hear God and feel God
when they just get around us?
So Paul said try praying
this, Lord, today,
would You strengthen me with Your spirit?
Lord, today, would You
load me with Your love?
Lord, today, would You
fill me with Your fullness?
And then, here's the last
thing and we're done.
Lord, persuade me of Your power.
Persuade me of Your power.
Now, how Paul closes this prayer,
now listen, what Paul's about to say now
will determine whether or
not your prayer life changes.
It will determine whether
or not your life changes.
It will determine whether
or not you even bother
to take time to pray.
See, too often, and
now listen, this is me,
we focus on our problems
and not God's power.
And when you think about what to pray
or how to pray or when to pray,
think about Who you're praying to.
So, here's how Paul ends this.
"Now to Him who is able
to do immeasurably more
"than all we ask or imagine,
"according to His power
that is at work within us,
"to Him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus
"throughout all generations,
forever and ever, amen."
Now, listen carefully,
if I were to ask you this question,
what do you really believe about God?
Let's just, what do you
really believe about God?
You do your best, you
have old flowery language,
and you try to say all
the right politically,
theologically, correct things.
Let's just cut to the chase.
Nothing reveals what you
really believe about God
more than your prayers.
Nothing reveals what you
really believe about God
more than your prayers.
So Paul says, "Now let me show
you how to end your prayer.
"I've told you how to get into it.
"Let me tell you how to get out of it."
He says, "We begin by
praying to God for us,
"but we always end by giving
praise to God from us."
And here's what he says.
He said, "Remember Who you're praying to.
"You are praying to a God.
"You not only can't ask God
for more than He can do,
"you can't even think of
anything that God can't do
"that falls within his character."
Listen, Walt Disney at his peak
could not imagine a God like this.
Walt Disney at his peak could not imagine
of anything that God can't do.
You can't think of anything
greater than what God can do.
Now, let me just stop, I know
what some of you are thinking
is, oh, wait a minute, time out.
I prayed payers that God didn't answer.
So, don't sit there and give me the,
I prayed prayers that God didn't answer.
Well, let me correct you.
First of all, number one,
God answers every prayer.
God answers every prayer, okay?
But if your prayer was not answered,
it was not because your
prayer exceeded God's power.
It's because God's plan
exceeded your prayer.
You're praying to a God who has no limits,
no handcuffs, no shackles,
no boundaries of what
He knows, where He is,
and what He can do.
So, here's the question.
Simple, simple, I'm asking it
from me, I'm asking of you.
Do you really believe God can do anything?
Do you really believe God can do anything?
See, the true test of what
you believe about God,
listen to me, the true test
of what you believe about God
is not what you say, it's how you pray.
That tells me all I need to know
about what you really believe about God.
So, here's a convicting question.
I want you to imagine you're praying,
somebody walks in on you
while you're praying.
You don't know they walk in,
but somebody walks in on you.
And so, they just watch you and
they listen to your praying.
Here's the question.
If I were to catch you praying,
if I were to catch what you were praying
and how you were praying it,
would I walk away and
would I say this about you?
That person really believes
in a God who can do anything.
'Cause I really believe this.
I believe there are times
we come to God with a prayer
and God's looking at us
like, "Is that all you got?
"Is that it?"
Do you ever pray the kind of prayer
that only could come
true if God showed up?
And do you realize how
powerful this prayer is
and how powerful it could be in your life?
See, I know what some of you, listen,
when you come into this
church, I know it, I get it,
and you should, 'cause every time
any pastor gets up to preach,
here's what a lot of you are asking,
and I would be asking the same thing,
that's well, and that's good,
and that sounds real nice,
but how does that help me
hack it tomorrow morning?
Tell me how that helps me pay my bills.
Tell me how that helps me make
it in a difficult marriage.
Tell me how that helps me make it
through rebellious children.
Well, I wanna challenge
you to do something.
This is the application part.
I'm gonna ask you
beginning in the morning,
I'm gonna give you one
last day of vacation,
in the morning,
I'm gonna ask you to begin every day
before you even get out of
bed, pray those four things.
Don't even get out of bed.
Lord, before I get out of my bed,
strengthen me with Your Spirit.
Load me with Your love.
Fill me with Your fullness.
Persuade me of Your power.
And you watch how God
changes your circumstances.
You watch how God changes you.
You watch how God changes
the people around you.
Now, let me just stop.
There's an old saying,
don't pray to God for
something, you might get it.
You can't pray this prayer
and not support the church financially.
You can't do that.
You can't pray this prayer
and not have a one that you're
praying for to be saved.
You can't pray this prayer
and never say a word week after
week about Jesus to anybody.
You can't pray this prayer
and hold a grudge against
that person that left you holding the bag.
You can't pray this prayer
and keep looking at the
pornography under your bed.
You can't do it.
That's why this prayer is so powerful.
That's why this prayer
is so transformational.
That's why this prayer
is so life changing.
I've been doing it ever since
I worked on this sermon,
I never get out of bed,
it's the first thing
I prayed this morning.
Theresa doesn't know it, 'cause
she's laying there asleep.
And I'm always praying
before I get out of my bed
and I prayed it, and I'm telling you,
it has radically changed my life.
When I say, "You know what?
"Lord, not only do I
believe You're doing it,
"I'm gonna live like it's true.
"I'm going to live, I'm
going to live a life
"that's strengthened with Your Spirit.
"I'm gonna live a life
that's loaded with Your love.
"I'm gonna a life that is
filled with Your fullness.
"And I am persuaded of Your power."
So, let me wrap it up, I'm closing this.
My friend, Rick Warren, who
I love with all of my heart,
one of the greatest men I've ever met,
Rick Warren made a great observation.
And the morning I read I thought
it's one of the greatest,
most profound thoughts
I've ever seen in my life,
ever read in my life.
He said, "You know,
there are a lotta things
"in life we didn't get to choose."
How many of you, just out of curiosity,
were born in this state?
You were born in the
state of Georgia, okay?
How many of you asked to
be born in this state?
No, you didn't, just grace of God,
you were born here, right?
We didn't ask where to be born.
We didn't choose where to be born.
We didn't choose when to be born.
We didn't choose to whom we were born to.
We didn't choose our looks.
We didn't choose our abilities.
God didn't give us a choice.
God didn't ask our opinion.
God in His sovereignty chose
all those things for us.
But then Rick Warren said,
"But there's one thing that God said,
"'I'm gonna leave this up to you.
"'I'm hands off.
"'You make the call,
your choice, your call.
"'Do what you will.'"
He says, "There's one
thing we get to choose
"every single day of our life."
Here's what it is.
"It's how much you choose to believe God."
That's up to you.
How much do you choose to believe God,
here's what I'm saying to you,
my wonderful church family,
let's believe in a God who can
do more than we ask or think,
let's believe in a God and live
like we believe in that God.
And every day when we
walk out of our house,
whether it's to go to school
or go to work or go to play,
let's walk out of our house,
strengthened by His Spirit,
loaded with His love,
filled with His fullness,
persuaded of His power.
And then, you watch what God
will do in you, and with you,
and through you, and for you and by you.
Not just you, but in the
lives that you touch.
(upbeat music)
I have a question for
you and it's a tough one.
Are you more concerned
with your outward image
than with your inner qualities?
Most everybody struggles
with this question, myself included,
because we've been told
image is everything.
And this got me to thinking,
and eventually led me to write a book
on the subject of character.
You see, your reputation
is what others think
is true about you,
but your character is who
you really are on the inside.
When it's all said and done,
it's your character that counts.
I wanna invite you to order
your copy of my new book,
"Character Still Counts Today",
and begin to invest your life into
what matters most, your character.
Go to touchinglives.org to order your copy
of "Character Still Counts Today".
And remember this, when you die,
your reputation will be gone forever,
but character will stick
with you for all eternity.
(dramatic music)
(placid music)
- Touching the lives of the lost
and enriching the faith of the found.
This is "Touching Lives"
with Dr. James Merritt.
This broadcast is made
possible by the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts.
