12. Eph 3:16-19 Pleasure and Delight in God
- Enjoying and delighting in God is a core part of the Christian life.
- We all want more of it, but how do we get there?
- How can we have more?
Play Audio:
Video cover image by mdennes Flickr Licence
- Today I want to look at Ephesians 3:16-19
- I’m going to argue that:
Ephesians 3:14-21
- Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
- wἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται, from whom every group in heaven and on earth is named,
- ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory,
- κατοικῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν for Christ to dwell, through faith, in your hearts
- ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints
- γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χριστοῦ, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
- Τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ Now to him who has the power
- αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
Translation and structure by Andrew Fountain
- Why is it that many Christians seem to struggle for years against chronic sins, with little or no progress?
The lie of Satan
Pleasure is outside
the circle of obedience
Outside will?
1. Is it wrong to want to be happy?
- The truth: “At your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)
Love and joy are closely intertwined
- Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name;
- When then nation turned its back on God and went after false gods, he said
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your husband”
paragraph
2. I want to talk about our Experience of this
- Paul goes on to say in
Moses
- Sarah Edwards, The wife of Jonathan Edwards: (1700’s New England)
Sarah Edwards
Mrs. Edwards writes: “Last night was the sweetest night I ever had in my life. I never before, for so long a time together, enjoyed so much of the light and rest and sweetness of heaven in my soul…
Part of the night I lay awake, sometimes asleep, and sometimes between sleeping and waking.
I seemed to myself to perceive a glow of divine love come down from the heart of Christ in heaven into my heart in a constant stream, like a stream or pencil of sweet light.
At the same time my heart and soul all flowed out in love to Christ, so that there seemed to be a constant flowing and reflowing of heavenly love, and I appeared to myself to float or swim, in these bright, sweet beams, like the motes swimming in the beams of the sun, or the streams of his light which come in at the window.
I think that what I felt each minute was worth more than all the outward comfort and pleasure which I had enjoyed in my whole life put together. It was pleasure, without the least sting, or any interruption.
It was a sweetness, which my soul was lost in; it seemed to be all that my feeble frame could sustain of that fullness of joy, which is felt by those who behold the face of Christ, and share of his love in the heavenly world.”
Samuel Rutherford
- A pastor in Scotland 1600-1661
- Without knowledge there is no experience
- Knowledge is necessary to guard us against false experience