Delighting in the Trinity

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. How quickly we fall into striving in our Christian walk when God has offered us something far greater. He offers us the opportunity to know Him and delight in Him. To see and delight in His beauty will keep us soaring in our walk instead of wearily striving. This message titled Delighting in the Trinity Part 2 will give us a look into Ephesians 3, 14-21. We have your copy of the scriptures open to Ephesians 3 as we will be considering the last couple verses of Ephesians 3.

It is a key, it is a pivotal text of scripture. And I pray that God will open our hearts and minds this morning to truly see Him as He is. Sky Gentani went with his father to a visit to India. Sky is an author, a blogger, a speaker. And while walking on the streets of New Delhi, a little boy approached them.

The little boy's legs were deformed so that he could only waddle on his calloused knees. And he came towards them and Sky and his father and he cried out, One rupee please, one rupee. And Sky describes now what happens in his book, The Divine Commodity. Sky describes what happened when his father eventually responded to the boy's persistent begging. What do you want, my father asked. One rupee, sir, the boy said, while motioning his hand to his mouth and bowing his head in deference. My father laughed.

How about I give you five rupees, he said. The boy's submissive countenance suddenly became defiant. He retracted his hand and sneered at us. He thought my father was joking, having a laugh at his expense.

After all, no one would willingly give up five rupees. The boy started shuffling away, mumbling curses under his breath. My father reached into his pocket, hearing the coins jingle. The boy stopped and looked back over his shoulder. My father was holding out a five rupee coin. He approached the stunned boy and placed the coin in his hand. The boy didn't move or say a word.

He just stared at the coin in his hand. We passed him and proceeded to cross the street. One moment later, the shouting resumed, except this time the boy was yelling, thank you, thank you, sir, bless you. He raced after us once again, not for more money, but to touch my father's feet. This is how we often are, miserable creatures in desperate need of his help. But rather than asking for what we truly need and what he is able and willing to give, we settle for lesser things. As the apostle Paul says to the Romans in chapter eight, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Now, please let the Lord Spirit rescue you from that all things being only in material terms. Paul begins here, actually he's ending the first three chapters in his letter to Ephesus, verses 20 and 21 is our focus for today.

It's a doxological benediction. It begins now to him, now to him. I want you to read this together with me, all right? Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly 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. You need to know the life that you have in Christ. As he said earlier in this letter, he has made you alive, you he has made alive. That means in Christ you have the capacity and the resource to function according to design and ability, and you have the ability to do it.

You need to know the wealth of resource, of security, of satisfaction and identity. You need to know the life that you have in Christ. This is why he begins with the first three chapters of Ephesians.

You need to know chapters 1 to 3 before you can do chapters 4 through 6. You need to know the hope of your calling and the greatness of his power. These two verses today, 3, 20 and 21, they are the last statement of doctrinal truth, the doctrinal part of his letter. He begins with doctrine and then he moves into the commands.

He begins with the indicatives and then moves into the imperatives. So it looks something like this, you have chapters 1 through 3, and that is your calling and equipping in the riches of his glory and grace. Chapters 1 through 3 is not a bunch of commands that you're required to obey. Chapters 1 through 3 are God saying, this is who I am and this is what I have done for you. Therefore, this is what's true about you.

Grasp that loved ones, know that. Commit chapters 1 to 3 to memory before you try doing chapters 4 to 6. Because chapter 4 begins with a therefore. That therefore points back to chapters 1 to 3. Because chapters 1 to 3 are true, now you know that you have the equipping and the resource to do chapters 4 through 6. Chapters 4 through 6 then is living in the outflow of our life and wealth in Christ. We must see it that way, because if we don't, then chapters 4 through 6 become just a checklist of things a Christian ought to do, or how a Christian ought to behave, because that's what the Bible says so.

No, a thousand times no. That's not grace. God gives you the capacity and that's what's described in chapters 1 to 3.

Am I passionate enough about this? Learn it loved ones, lest you become guilty of relegating Christianity to just another moral religious system. We are capable of doing chapters 4 through 6 only in Christ. And that's how Paul presents it. And that's why he ends chapter 3 with verses 20 and 21. Now to Him who is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine according to what?

The power that is at work in us. Think about that. When I discovered this verse decades ago, when I discovered this verse in the richness of its meaning, it became immediately my favorite verse, because what I thought to myself was, imagine if Christians believed this verse, if this became true in God's people, the church, imagine what would become of us and our world. Folks, this is our calling. Our calling is to Him be glory.

That's it, isn't it? To Him be glory. Therefore, we need to understand what that means.

And there are practical ways of doing that. To Him be glory. And that is the objective of chapters 4 through 6. Chapters 4 through 6 isn't just, okay, you're a Christian, therefore this is how you ought to behave.

No. The objective of it is to bring glory to God. What does that mean? To point to God. So that others will see Him in His majesty and perfection. That's what bringing glory to God means. We want to direct other people's attention to God. And so our calling is just that. To Him be glory. Look what he says, in the church. To Him be glory in the church. That's our calling.

That's who and what we are. It's what we're about as a church. The church is believers. The church is the children of God. It is those who are called saints, set apart ones. It's the same word as what it means to be holy. Holy means set apart. Saints are set apart. What are we set apart?

From and to. We are set apart from the domain of darkness and we are set apart to. Delight in God and glorify Him.

That's who we are. That's the church. And so chapters 4 through 6 are what glorifying Him looks like in the day today. That's why this series is entitled Delighting in the Trinity. In this paragraph verses 14 to 21.

But it says, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus or by Christ Jesus. What's important about that is that He is the point. Not only is He the point, but He is the means. We must know God in the way that He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. He is the point and it all relates to Him. Because the cross of Jesus Christ is the pivotal point of all history. It is what gives us hope. To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all generations, all ages and all kinds of people. No one excluded throughout all generations forever and ever, forever and ever.

This is the big picture. Listen, you need to live with forever in view. Peter Kreeft says, suppose God took you into your future and you saw with unquestionable certainty that despite everything, your sin, your smallness, your stupidity, you could have free for the asking, your whole heart's deepest desire, heaven, eternal joy.

Would you not return fearless and singing? What can earth do to you if you are guaranteed heaven? To fear the worst earthly loss would be like a millionaire fearing the loss of a penny. Loved ones, do you know God that way? Do you have this confidence? The things that we sing, the things that we say of God, are they nothing more than religious rhetoric or do you believe what you say you believe? That's my challenge to you this morning because the Apostle Paul presents this truth to us. Chapters 1 to 3, God is saying, this is who I am, this is what I'm about, this is what I have done for you. Do you understand that and do you believe it? May God rescue us from our religious rhetoric. These are the things that really matter. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Visit our church website to see upcoming events or to listen to more messages at www.gbcwinston.com. To discover how to live by grace, tune in on weekdays at 10 a.m.