 Okay, let's pray. Dear even father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you are doing in our lives. We thank you for allowing us to be here today. Lord, we pray that you will organize our minds to be able to perceive what you have allowed us to learn from this training. Lord Jesus will also anoint our teacher that the teacher will be able to have the right vocabulary to speak. Lord Jesus at the end of this will be able to be edified to also edify your church that you are giving us to lead for in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Yes. All right. So last week we started off with the book of Ephesians. We kind of looked at the background of Ephesus and the kind of culture that the believers were living in. And we also looked at the main focus of chapters one and two in which Paul is telling the gentile believers that they are on equal footing with the Jewish believers that they are in no way inferior that they too have been given the riches of Jesus Christ. And in fact he kind of makes an office of prayer for them so that they can enter into all of these riches and privileges which are theirs. We also looked at how Christ in himself in his body, in his flesh he has broken down that dividing wall of hostility that existed between the Jews and the gentiles earlier. So Paul is kind of affirming allowing the believers to know that they have nothing to feel bad about that they are valued in God's eyes that they are as valuable as the Jewish believers. So we see all of that in the chapters one and two. So here we are coming into chapters three and four where he continues this idea because he started talking about it as a mystery in the last class. He says this is the mystery which people in the past could not understand. In the Old Testament times people were aware that an outsider, a foreigner can come into the land of Israel and choose to make Yahweh their God. And if they do so, yes, Yahweh's mercy and forgiveness will extend even to that foreigner but that foreigner would first have to submit to the mosaic law he would have to become a Jew in the sense he would also undergo circumcision and then he would follow all of the procedures which were laid down for the biological Jewish people. So all of this the person would have to undergo and so they were familiar with the idea that God's mercy does extend to other nations but here in this New Testament times we discover that the Gentile believers don't even have to follow the mosaic law. They are completely free from it all and this was something that the Jewish believers were kind of finding difficult to digest. This was something entirely new to them and we see that struggle actually going on when we look at the book of acts and we look at the letter to the Galatians in all of this we kind of get a hint of the real tension that was actually there going on in the early church. We who live so many centuries later we have got very used to the idea that yes we are as equal with the Jewish believers as anyone so we are very comfortable with the idea but then at that time when this new concept was still coming in there was a lot of tension and the leaders of the early church Paul and the apostles and all of the other leaders to deal with this almost on a daily basis this is something that they lived with and we don't quite catch that living so many centuries later but that was the situation over there so when we look at Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1 we again see this hint of this if someone could just read out for us that one little verse right in the beginning Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1 please for this reason I have Paul a prisoner for the Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles Yes so over here Paul says I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles it is for your sake that I became a prisoner so if my ministry had not been among you Gentiles I would still be free I would still be able to move on with my ministry with my life but then because of my ministry among you Gentiles I am actually now a prisoner if you remember we looked in the background last time this letter to the Ephesians was written during his first imprisonment so just kind of to get an idea of the events that took place just as a reminder if you were to go to Acts chapter 21 and we have this entire chunk over there verses from 17 up to 29 Acts chapter 21 verses 17 to 29 in that whole big chunk we kind of get a background of what was going on at that time in the early church and why Paul gets arrested why he ends up in the first imprisonment so in Acts 21 if we see Paul goes over there to Jerusalem and he is received very very warmly by the believers over there they are very happy to see him he talks about the ministry that he is doing among Gentiles and how there are lots of Gentiles coming to the Lord and the believers in Jerusalem are very happy about that they are so glad to know that so many people are coming into the kingdom even from among the Gentiles they are happy about all of that but there is also this underlying tension they know that is there and we catch that in the verses which are mentioned over there so Acts chapter 21 verse 20 this is what they say when they heard this they praised God then they said to Paul you see brother how many thousands of Jews have believed and all of them are zealous for the law they have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs and in verse 22 look at what the leaders are saying they say what shall we do they will certainly hear that you have come so do what we tell you there are four men with us who have made a wow take these men join in their purification rights and pay their expenses and why are they asking him to do this then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you but the law that we believers do not have to follow the mosaic law it has been very clearly established that salvation is not going to be earned by keeping the mosaic law and yet you have all these thousands of Jews who have come to the Lord and they are still in that old mentality they still value that mosaic law which was passed on to them generation after generation for thousands of years and so they are not able to just let go of that lightly and so even after becoming believers they are still holding on to those mosaic traditions they are still following many of those farisake rituals and customs which were laid down because in their minds they associate godliness with following those things if they do those things and keep those things it makes them feel more godly about themselves and so they are actually holding on to those things which is what the leaders point out in Acts 21-20 they say thousands of Jews have believed and all of them are zealous for the law and they are rather upset about these bits of news which are coming back to them regarding Paul and how he is going around telling the Jewish people who are living with the gentiles saying don't need to get into circumcision and all of that you don't need to follow the laws of moses and they are kind of upset about what Paul has been teaching and so the leaders say over here in verse 22 what shall we do? they will certainly hear that you have come that you have arrived over here in Jerusalem and there may be some confusion there may be some kind of a protest or a position raised so we need to be cautious we cannot have the church divided you see at that time the church was in its infancy the church was just getting established so the leaders had to be very wise they had to be very carefully led by the Holy Spirit in every little thing they could not just randomly say things and do things which would end up maybe harming the faith of the new believers so they had to tread very carefully and so they say at least these believers need to know you Paul who are from a Jewish background you are not being disrespectful to the traditions which were followed all through our lives generations from the time of moses so you even though you have now gone to the Gentiles and you are doing your ministry and yes even though it is definitely authorized by Christ Himself that we don't have to follow the mosaic law any longer you however as a man from a Jewish background you are being respectful of our culture you are following our traditions so let them understand that let them see that you yourself are being obedient to the law which is what they say in Acts 21 verse 24 they say everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law and then they clearly admit in verse 25 say as for the Gentile believers we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from certain things so the mosaic law does not apply to them they don't have to follow it that is not how salvation is earned so they are very clear about that so this is not a matter of doctrine but this is a matter of sensitivity to the cultural beliefs of this set of people we still have not yet come out of that mindset which is what we saw happening even in the letter to the Galatians I mean these Jewish believers who had placed their trust in Jesus Christ no doubt about that their salvation was just based upon their faith in Jesus Christ as being divine and the one who has the power to forgive them of their sins because of what he did in the cross they are very clear about the doctrinal details but somewhere in their unrenewed minds they are still thinking if I keep these mosaic laws then I am more holy so they kind of had this tendency to look upon the other believers the Gentile believers as being slightly inferior not our class not up to the mark the way we are what do they know they have come from a Gentile background they are like almost animals pagans they know nothing we on the other hand we know what godliness is all about so somewhere in their hearts these new believers still have this kind of it's kind of a thinking that somehow following the mosaic traditions makes them superior to the other believers and we see that kind of coming out in the Galatian letter and so over here in Ephesians Paul is doing his best to assure this Ephesian believers who are almost all of them Gentiles they probably had a small mix of Jewish believers among them but they were mainly a Gentile congregation so he is telling them you are a no inferior you don't have to think of yourself as inferior in any way so he is trying to bring about that teaching over here so anyway going back to Acts 21 so Paul actually goes he accepts the council and advice which the other leaders are giving he goes over there to the temple he undergoes those rituals that he is supposed to he does all of that so in fact everything seems to have got resolved quite well he has in no way shown disrespect all of that and then in Acts 21 verse 27 some Jewish people probably not even believers from Asia Minor they see Paul over there at the temple and make an assumption that he has taken a Greek believer into the temple that's the wrong assumption that they have made Paul did not do any such thing he went into the temple with four other Jewish people and did whatever rituals were required he did not take any Greek believers into the inner courts he did not do that this is an assumption which they make they start off a riot Acts 21 verse 28 they say they start shouting and they say fellow Israelites help us this is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place and everyone gets really worked up and they say look at this man how can he defy our mosaic traditions how can he do this to our background our culture and all of that and they all get really worked up that's the problem with ethnic issues people kind of get out of control so it is good for us to value our ethnicity it is very very good for us to hold on to our culture because after all good people have come up with all of those systems and traditions and all of that but if it is in any way pagan and if it is in any way going against the scriptures then we are very careful to keep our hands clean of all of those aspects of the culture so here these people get all worked up that their culture is being trampled by this man Paul wrong impression because Paul was not doing that he was going out of his way to show how respectful he is but as a result of that the whole imprisonment happens he gets sent to Rome he says I want to appeal to Rome so he is sent over there now in his first imprisonment so that is the background so he points out the fact that I have become a prisoner because of my ministry among you Gentiles and why have I gotten to trouble because I have been openly declaring that you Gentile believers are in no way inferior so he is basically telling them believe what I am saying infact I am here in chains because of what I have been preaching so this is not just a casual comment that I am making it is very true that there are thousands of Jewish believers out there who are looking upon you as being inferior but know this in your heart in your mind irrespective of what they are saying about you you guys are in every way equal with them because Jesus Christ has given you that status so this was you know he was renewing their minds he was helping them to understand what Jesus Christ has actually achieved and I think it probably took a few generations for that to sink into their heads you know I mean so now we are so comfortable with the idea we know for a fact that we are in every way equal to the Jewish believers but back then it was something that it took a few generations I think probably to really for them to absorb that and for that to be established inside their heads so Paul kind of got the process going so if today if we in our Gentile communities enjoy the status that we do it's because people like Paul and others spoke up under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and clarified who we are and what our status is because most of us are from the Gentile community I mean very few of us have a Jewish background so coming to verse 2 if someone could read out for us verse 2 please he says there has been a stewardship of God's grace that has been given to me for you as in God has asked me to be the steward and you know administer certain things to you I have been asked to administer grace to you and when we think of the word grace we are just basically mainly thinking of divine favor you know but in the New Testament wherever you have this word grace being used it's actually being used in four different senses we get four different meanings out of it so we need to understand that over here when he is saying I am administering God's grace to you he is not just talking about he is not just saying that I am telling you people that God's favor is upon you he is talking about even the other aspects of grace in the way the term was used back then so it's actually there in your notes there are four different ways in which the term grace is used grace actually talks about the divine character of God himself so in that sense the grace which is administered to us that's basically the nature of God the character of God which is being administered to us we are meant to walk like Christ so God gives his grace to us in that sense that we become more like Jesus Christ we are built up in our character so that is one way that grace is given to us we are given this character of God we are given this ability to start becoming like him in his nature so that is one aspect of grace that we receive but there are another and of course there is a popular one which we are all familiar with where you have divine favor God is no longer angry with us because Jesus Christ took the punishment for ourselves so therefore there is divine favor resting upon us now so that of course is the popular meaning of grace that we are all very familiar with and the term grace is also used for divine empowering so in the scriptures when it says that grace is being extended to you it's not just divine favor but also out of that divine favor now because God's favor is upon you you are being empowered to live in a whole new way you are being empowered to be able to claim the riches which belong to you so you are empowered to be able to do the ministry that God has placed in your hands so there is divine favor there is divine empowering there is also this divine character of God that is being imparted to us and then the fourth meaning of grace which we see in the scriptures is the gifts which have been given the spiritual gifts they also are referred to as the grace of God so these four different things God gave Paul the responsibility of being a faithful steward and administering these four different aspects of grace to the gentile people so that they too can enjoy these four aspects of grace that God is offering it is his responsibility to make them aware that they have access to these four types of grace and it is his responsibility to help them to walk into those things to claim those things to have those things in their everyday Christian life so he as their servant he as their apostle he would actually teach them to walk in all those four forms of grace which is why he says I am in chains I am a prisoner because of my ministry among you and this is the ministry that has been given to me among you that I should administer these four forms of grace to you and help you to claim them in your Christian life so then he moves on into verses 3 and 4 where he again touches upon this whole idea of mystery where basically he is talking about how this equality of Jewish and gentile believers is something that God had planned right from the beginning even before the foundations of the world but it is only now that people are becoming aware of it so he starts talking about that so if someone could read out verses 3 and 4 makes me wonder whether this anyone at all how by that revelation he has made known to me the mystery as I have briefly written over it by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ okay so he says this mystery was made known to me by divine revelation Jesus Christ Himself revealed this to me like he had said earlier in the other epistle this is not something that I received from humans Jesus Christ Himself has revealed this to me and that is why I am doing this ministry among the Gentiles because God Himself has told me that the Gentiles are equal to the Jewish believers so he says this is my so I am writing all this so that you also will be able to understand these insights which have been given to me by Jesus Christ about his mystery and then he goes on to say in verses 5 and 6 earlier people were not aware of these facts so if someone could read out verses 5 and 6 so he says it was not made known to people in other generations but now it is being revealed by the spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets so he points out that in earlier generations people did not know about this mystery and I think we touched upon first Peter chapter 1 I think probably in one of the previous classes but just to look at that once again first Peter 1 verses 10 to 12 so in first Peter 1 verses 10 to 12 he says the prophets who were in the past they searched intently and with the greatest care they searched the scriptures because they wanted to understand all these things that the Holy Spirit is kind of hinting and they want to know the details and it says in first Peter 1 verse 12 it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told to you so these things were not clear at that time but they kind of sensed that God is doing a greater work and I think this work will not just extend to the Jewish people alone but it will even extend to the gentile community as well so they kind of partially caught a glimpse of these things in the Old Testament times but Paul says now it has been all this is being very very clearly revealed to you by the spirit of God is what he says and yes brother Shey go ahead with your question Thank you pastor, sorry to take you back I just wanted to ask a question on the four aspects of grace to our next step I think there are two folds to favor but do you think the divine favor you talked about here is talking about salvation Ya the grace has been extended for us to be saved but it's also a continued grace in the sense that now that he has accepted us as his children and we continue to sin even after salvation that's there right because we are unrenewed mind is still around and our body which is susceptible to fleshly desires all of that is still there so we are still learning to become like Jesus Christ but we have not yet become perfect at least in practice positionally of course we are right so because of this there is a continued grace that needs to continue resting upon us till this becomes an accomplished fact once we are in heaven and we see him we will be like him but right now the process is still kind of going on that process of sanctification so in that sense there is a continued grace that would have to continue being extended to us even after salvation so at the moment of salvation yes we entered into the grace but the divine favor that grace has to continue being granted to us and over here we are talking about grace in the sense of favor in the sense of mercy being shown to people who don't actually deserve mercy but it's being shown to them because Jesus Christ has already paid the price on their behalf so I would say grace is available at the moment of salvation but then after that also it needs to continue and that continues being extended to us every day yeah does that help? that helps that helps so we looked at how in the past the people were not very aware of this mystery of the Jews and Gentiles being one but now it has been revealed and so then he goes on to elaborate further if someone could read out verses 14 to 19 if someone could read out 14 to 19 14 to 19 adding rates for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in Inama that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being returned and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that he may be filled with all the fullness of God yes so this is the second prayer that Paul is praying for the efficience we saw that other beautiful prayer which he prayed in the previous chapter so now over here there is one more lovely prayer that he is praying and you see he is praying these prayers because these Gentile believers are still not understanding the status they have especially because the Jewish believers are not even treating them as equals so because they don't have confidence in themselves they are not really able to see who they are they are kind of living a lower level of life they are not really walking into and enjoying all the privileges because probably in their minds they are also thinking oh yeah we are like from a Gentile background so yeah we are not really as privileged as these other people and so yeah these riches even though they are there I think they will probably those riches will go to the Jewish people because of their superior position we on the other hand what do we know we came from a pagan background so maybe these things don't really apply to us the way they apply to those people and so they also would have had all these wrong thoughts in their minds and so he prays the previous prayer for them so that they will walk in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and so now over here again he is kind of praying along similar lines and he says you know there is one family he talks about how part of the family is in heaven you know as in the Old Testament believers you know all those who trusted in Yahweh and stayed committed to Him for salvation so those people they are part of the family is already in heaven and part of the family is here on earth and these Gentiles are part of this divine family so he says you people are part of this divine family and so he says this is my prayer for you that God will strengthen you you know on the inside in your inner person that God will strengthen you using His glorious riches so that's the first prayer point that he makes for them there are five things over here in this passage which we just read out and the first of them is this where he says he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so in the same way this prayer applied to the people back then this prayer applies even to us believers today so if we are living if we are feeling like we are this very substandard very average believers who will never really amount to anything then these words are for us if we are always feeling oh I will never really be able to overcome temptation oh I will never really be a victorious Christian I will always be an average failure or if you are thinking oh the other people the way they hear from God they are so guided by His spirit I on the other hand seem to be spiritually deaf I don't think I will ever be able to hear from God or you are saying to yourself I wish I could serve I too want to serve the kingdom of God I too want to contribute something but what do I have in my hands I really am nothing much so I think whatever I manage to contribute to the Lord it's not going to be of any great significance so these may be all of the negative thoughts that may be going through a believer's mind and we are told over here this should not be your thought this should not be your belief regarding yourself why because God's glorious riches have been given for one purpose to strengthen you with power through His spirit in your inner being so it's not just going to be a little bit of strengthening that Jesus Christ can do for you He will strengthen you to the extent of His glorious riches all the spiritual riches which are ours all of that is available even to the least believer the believer who thinks that he is the weakest believer who thinks that he will never really amount to anything in the kingdom of God these glorious riches extend to even that person because God wants to use His glorious riches to strengthen even that person and He is not going to be strengthening that person with just some kind of a temporary strength He is going to be using His own resurrection power to resurrect all those areas in that person's life that need to be sparked back into life so that he will be a person who is on fire for God so God will do that and God has the capacity to use His resurrection power to do that for us so we should not have this kind of defeatist attitude thinking I can never amount to anything the basic lesson over here is that stop putting trust in yourself stop looking at yourself on your limitations and saying okay fine, I trust in myself and this is the extent to which I can go so this is all I am stop trusting in yourself start trusting in Jesus Christ start trusting in His resurrection power please trust in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross we trust Him for our salvation we are very very confident that whatever He did on the cross it has been applied to us as far as salvation is concerned so we know that now we are believers that we are part of the family of God that we seem to accept but then when it comes to other aspects where we are meant to live in victory where we are meant to be people who will make meaningful contributions to the kingdom when it comes to such things we think this is something that I have to do on my own no stop trusting in yourself begin to trust in His resurrection power which has no limits which can accomplish things which go beyond your expectations and so He says this is my prayer for you guys I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power in your inner being this is something that God can actually do for you so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith so He is basically saying because God is going to strengthen you on the inside using His resurrection power you will be able to dwell in Christ what on earth does that mean what does it mean by saying that because of what God is going to do with His resurrection power you are going to be able to dwell in Christ aren't we already dwelling in Christ because if you look at Galatians 4.6 over there it says because you are His sons God sent the spirit of His son into our hearts the spirit who calls out Abba Father so we already have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us so what does it mean when it says over here now because of the resurrection power which is going to be imparted to you now because of this resurrection power which is going to strengthen you now you will be able to have Christ dwelling in you in what sense does He mean over here He is actually talking about how Christ is going to be formed in you Christ is already dwelling in you through His Holy Spirit which has happened right from the moment of salvation over here what He is talking about when He says Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith He is basically saying even as you place your faith in what Jesus Christ has done even as you place your faith in the resurrection power of God to be able to accomplish anything and everything even as you place your simple basic childlike faith in what Jesus Christ has accomplished even as you are doing that God will start being formed in you God will do it He will accomplish it and so this is the theme which is kind of running through all of Paul's letters so even in other letters He refers to this if you will look at Galatians 419 He says I am in the He says I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you this longing the goal towards which He is working is that Christ in all of His completeness is formed in us in our character, in our thinking in our responses in the choices we make on a daily basis we literally should become like Christ in all of those areas and that is His desire He says the same thing again in Colossians 128 where He says so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ so in that sense He is saying there are glorious riches which have been made available to believers so God is going to use these glorious riches and He is going to use His resurrection power to strengthen you on the inside so that Christ will be formed in you you will start becoming Christ like this is something that God will do for you and then it goes on to say in the next portion so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love so the third prayer point that He is making is that these believers should be rooted and established in love like we know the basic foundation of everything that we are everything that we do it is love God's love because God loved us now we are able to do all of these things so become rooted in this love be completely confident that you are loved to an extent where God will do these things inside you so you do not have to have a defeat to statitude and think oh I will never amount to anything God's love towards you is great enough that He will do this by His power but you from your side have to believe your faith has to be actively at work where you say yes even as I wait on the Lord every day even as I do my own little prayer time and my own little Bible reading it will not be the way Billy Graham did his Bible reading but even at my level even as I am making my own efforts to fellowship with him by His resurrection power He will do this for me because He loves me that much so become rooted in His love become established in His love do not even have any doubts about what Christ can accomplish in your life so these are big words that Paul is using because he really wants them to catch who they are and not just get discouraged because a bunch of Jewish believers think about them badly because this is my prayer that you will be able to grasp these things that these things will become a reality in your life so he says 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 so he says this is something as long as you are not very confident about how loved you are or continue to think I will not amount to anything but once you start catching this concept of how deeply greatly you are loved then you will be so confident that you will place your faith with full confidence in what Christ is going to be giving is going to be doing for you you will start waiting for it with eager anticipation you will start laying aside all the things which are hindering and you will prepare yourself so that he will turn you into this Christ-like person so there will be this eagerness this anticipation because now you really believe that this is something that is actually going to happen to you in your lifetime it is not just something that is going to happen to some big hifi believers it is going to happen even to you why because you kind of started to understand the width and the length and the height and the depth of the love of this Jesus Christ for you you are kind of beginning to grasp it and so that we see this same concept being brought out even in Romans 8 verses 35 to 39 Romans 8 35 to 39 where it says who shall separate us from the love of Christ and then it goes on to say in verse 38 Romans 8 verse 38 it says neither angels nor demons nor any powers so nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God Satan will try his schemes and strategies to hold you down so the evil powers will of course try to bring in temptations and distract you away from God they will try from their side whatever their attempts will be going on but you can keep your eyes focused on the Lord if you can keep your eyes on this resurrection power that is available to you when your time of temptation if you cry out and say Lord you said in your word that your resurrection power is available to me now you by your power help me to overcome these things that I know that I am struggling with these strong holds of sin and temptation which I know pulling me down Satan is trying to diswork it is true that Satan is trying to drag me down but Lord your resurrection power is far greater than any power or any strategy that Satan was ever going to try and use because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ so these need to become realities in our mind at a very foundational level of our thinking these must become established realities because then we will begin to like our eyes will be opened and we will see that this is the status that we have in Christ this is the confidence that we have in Christ and then you will really see yourself walking in victory why not because you know you on your own became super super powerful all of a sudden but because you have trusted in the word of God you trusted that what God said he will deliver and because you trusted him in simple child like faith he is actually going to do it I mean your part is just to trust him and believe that he can actually do something that great in your life and he will do it so he has no issues doing his part he can make you into a spiritual giant he is not at all worried about that but are you catching that are you believing for that are you realizing that you can actually have it or are you under the impression like you know those people were back then at that time they were thinking oh the Jewish believers will get all that but we will be and today of course we don't think that much about the Jewish believers but you know we may be thinking oh ya those world famous evangelists and those world famous preachers ya ya they will God will do that in them but in me can it happen in me and here we are being given the assurance that yes it is not just for them it is for everyone so it says that you may have power together with all the Lord's holy people so it's not just the other holy people who have this advantage you too have the very same advantage you too have that same love which is being extended to you so you need to become rooted in it you need to become established in it so that is the message which he is bringing out over here and then he says verse 19 may have power together with all Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ to know this love that surpasses knowledge because that's verse 19 so this love of Christ that he has for you personally it's a love which surpasses knowledge it's infinite so you'll actually never quite grasp it so if you can never really quite grasp it why not that you've been being asked to measure it how are you going to measure something which cannot be measured how do you measure something that's beyond measuring over here the words that are used the Greek words that are used where he says so that you may grasp how wide and long and high that word grasp over here it's literally that Greek word so you see something good and you grab onto it you seize it and you say yes now this is mine and I'm going to hold on to it so he's saying it's very true that God's love for you is immeasurable you can never really quite wrap your head around it but whatever little bit that you're getting a revelation of grab it catch hold of it hold on to it don't let sin take that away from your head so don't let him come with all his negative thoughts and say because that's his main job he is the accuser so he will say where will you amount to anything is what he's going to say to you but you who have caught these revelations that the lord is laying out in the scripture grab hold of it seize it and hold on to it so grasp the extent of the love of the length and width then breadth of God's love you may not be able to understand all of it but whatever holy spirits revealing to you catch it grasp it seize it hold on to it and then it says to know this love that word know which is used over there that word over there it means absolute knowing I mean I said you are perfectly 100% confident so grasp hold of what is being revealed to you and know just be 100% confident that this is what God wants to do for you so even as we believe in this because we are trusting him with this childlike faith he credits it to us as righteousness he will actually make this righteousness start being formed in us he will actually help us and because we are not feeling defeatist anymore we will be more willing to cooperate we will be more eager to to cooperate with him in achieving this earlier that's the thing about know about not seeing the truth when we have this idea that oh I'm never going to amount to anything we kind of entertain since we kind of entertain temptations because we are like ah anyway what's going to happen my life is anyway not going to change we are not very eager but once we catch these truths we become more eager if I can just put in that my little bit of cooperation the Lord will do the rest and that gives us the enthusiasm to hold on to the Lord we can talk further about this after we come back from the break it's kind of 9.52 went a little beyond so maybe we can come back at 10.02 alright so 10.02 if we can log back in so that you can have your entire 10 minute break thank you