Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Which is your glory. See, we're a family. Sometimes family fights. Sometimes family members argue. Now if your family members don't argue, God bless you.

But for the rest of us. Sometimes, you know, things get testy with family. Sometimes you disagree with family. And sometimes you like to strangle some family. Whatever the case might be, I'm sure. And I'm picking, obviously. But we're a family.

We have the same Father. If you've been saved by the grace of God. Notice verse 16, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of what?

Well, we're gonna talk about that. Verse 19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

I believe on Wednesday night. Lord, I need your help today. And Lord, we all really have a cause to bow our knees for. And that's the outline that nobody listens to because they're wanting to get home and go get some lunch. So, we might skip the last one and just deal with the first two outlines, all right?

But the pre-outline I would call this. Notice first, there must be a purpose. Verse 14, he says, for this cause, I bow my knees. May I say that you're not gonna pray, and you and I are not gonna be faithful to get on our knees before God, call out to him, plead with him, unless we have a good reason to.

You know, and all of us have good reason, but let's just be honest. We talk about prayer and we talk about these things and say, well, we ought to pray, but normally the reason we have trouble praying is because there's not a real cause. We kind of, the cause for us most of the time is I just know I need to. But it's different when you have something that you need to go to God for. You see, I think a lot of times you and I don't pray because we're just not burdened. I think that we don't pray because we're too busy. Look at me, when you have something major in your life that is crushing you, you don't work hard to find time to pray.

Can we agree with that? Have you ever thought about this? It's not just that, well, I just, you know, I don't pray because, well, I just don't have the time and, well, I just, no, no, listen, when something is important to you and your world has been rocked, first thing we do is pray.

We don't know, we don't have anything else that's too big for us. And dear friend, I think that you and I would pray more if we were more sensitive in our spiritual life to realize there's some cause, there's some purpose, there's some reasons that we need to get down and pray. Listen, just because I know I need to, that's not gonna be motivation a lot. Let me tell you what motivates you when there's a purpose. When there's a purpose. And listen to me, I am saying that there is those purposes in our lives, but we often just don't realize it. So what is his purpose? First, there's a purpose.

There's gotta be a cause. He says, for this cause, I bow my knees before you. Notice, second, there must be a prayer. He said, for this cause, I bow my knees before you. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father. So there needs to be a purpose, there's a need, there's a burden. And then next, there needs to be a prayer. I mean, you and I can worry about something and fret about something and research something, but what we need to do is pray.

You and I try everything else. We get a burden, we call everybody we know, everybody we talk to, we just wanna talk to them about it. What do you think?

Let's just go to God. For this cause, he didn't say, for this cause, I come talk to my friends about it. He didn't say, for this cause, I put feelers out on social media.

Anybody got an answer? We don't Pinterest this. We pray this.

By the way, Pinterest has really good recipes. But anyway, for eating healthy. I bow my knees to the Father, okay, but look at this, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. There's the power. I've got a cause, I've got a purpose, then comes the prayer, and God's got plenty of power to go around.

The final process is done. So, what here was the cause? What was going on? What was the purpose of his praying? Notice, if you would, in verse 13.

This was the purpose. Wherefore I desire what? That ye faint not at my tribulations for you. Because he was concerned that they would end up fainting because of trials, because of tribulation. In other words, I believe you're heading the right direction, and you're doing right. But my fear is that in the middle of doing right, that you would end up fainting, remember the verse, and be not weary in well-doing, for ye shall reap if ye faint not.

My fear was to pray that they wouldn't faint, that they wouldn't stop. Here's the thing, listen, we had revival this week, for those of you who were able to be here, and we have been set on a right direction. I believe our church literally was already starting to head that right direction. God's been doing a work, we've been seeing people saved here, and I don't get up and make a whole lot of attention about it. We're thrilled when people get saved, and we'll let you know when they do, but I'm not gonna granderize it.

Listen, I want God to do the work. But I believe we're heading a right direction, but let me tell you, what's gonna stop it is if we faint. So he said, this is my cause, so that you don't faint in tribulation. This is my cause, so I'm gonna get out of my knees, and I'm gonna plead with God through his power that somehow, some way, through the advice I'm gonna give you, that you don't faint in the midst of these tribulations. Dear friend, I've seen so many people head a right direction and stop and quit and faint because things got bad.

It happens all the time. So what did he say? Notice number one, look at verse 16. This is what he prayed. I don't want you to faint, I don't want you to get to tribulations and trials and end up stopping what God's doing in your life, so for this cause, I'm gonna get out of my knees, and I'm gonna pray and notice what he prayed and asked for God to do, to keep them from fainting. This is what he said, God, I need you to do this. Notice number one, verse 16, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened.

Number one, my prayer, so that you don't faint, is that God gives you strength. We're weak. You know why we stop? Because we're tired. You know why we give up?

Because we're worn out. And so the prayer was that you would be strengthened. I love this word, strengthened, but let me tell you what I love even more. Notice how he says that he wants God to strengthen them.

Notice, look at verse 16. To be strengthened, number one, with might. Now, you know what this word might here means in the Greek? It means miraculous strength. So, I'm afraid you're gonna faint.

I'm afraid that these trials are gonna end up, in other words, now you're motivated to do right, but once you're motivated to do right, Satan's gonna bring everything against you. And when he does, I'm praying that God will strengthen you with miraculous power. That's something vitamins can't do. It's something that protein shakes can't do. It's even something that Krispy Kreme can't do.

Although sugar can give you a little bit of a rush. He says, I'm praying that God will strengthen you with miraculous power. You know what miraculous power is? You can't explain it. You can't tell anybody where it's really coming from.

You don't really know what's going on. All you can say is, God did it. All you can say is, hey, somehow God did it. Somehow God gave the strength. Somehow God got me through it.

Somehow all those things were bad and we're sitting at a hospital or we're dealing with this disease or we're going through this trial or we've watched our loved one, our child make these decisions. But in the middle of it, we're not quitting. We're not stopping. We're not fainting. We're not giving up. We're not getting out of church. We're not getting out of God's word. We're gonna keep going because somehow, some way, God has strengthened me with miraculous power.

That's what keeps us from fainting. He said, my prayer for you, and this is the cause, why I get down on my knees and pray, is that God would strengthen you, number one, with might. Notice number two, that God would strengthen you by His Spirit.

That's how it's done. This means this. I'm praying that God will strengthen you by His Spirit. Can I tell you something about this little phrase where He says that God will strengthen you by His Spirit? If you've been saved by the grace of God, where is the Spirit?

It's inside you. That means this. Whatever you're going through, you don't have to find somewhere to get what you need to go through it. That means whatever you go through, you don't have to get to a certain person to get what you need to be able to go through it.

He's already there. You and I are strengthened by His Spirit. Look at me. You and I are not strengthened by church. The reason you and I receive strength at church is because His Spirit gives us strength at church. Because when we come to church, we're preaching and teaching God's word, which feeds the Spirit of God. And that Spirit gives us strength.

Look at me. You don't look for some religious practice to give you strength. You don't say, well, I'll just tithe more. That'll give me strength. I'm all for that. It would give me strength, too.

It would cut down on a lot of stress, to be honest with you. But look at me. I get my strength by the Spirit of God. Now we all meet together and we talk and preach and sing about the Spirit of God. We're strengthened around each other.

Why? Because our strength is centered in the same thing, the Spirit of God. I'm asking that God would give you miraculous power. That He would do it by His Spirit that lives and resides inside of you. And notice, thirdly, I love this, in the inner man. Look at verse 16. To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. You say, alright preacher, what are you talking about?

Look at me. Please get this phrase, please. The outer man is strengthened when the inner man is renewed. You and I try to get the outer man strengthened. Well, I've been tired lately. I tell you what, I just need some rest. Well, you very well might need some rest.

But if you just get rest, you're going to come right back and before long, you're going to be right back to where you were. He says, I pray that God would give you miraculous strength by His Spirit in your inner man. Because the inner man is what needs the strength. The inner man is what needs renewed. And dear friend, you and I, we spend so much time and effort worrying about the outer man.

But where our strength comes from is in the inner man. Hey, I'm going to tell you something. I've had times where I'm just worn out. Kind of worn out with people, worn out with things. I'm so tired of belly aching. I'm so tired of everybody telling everybody how bad they have it. And I just did this and I did that.

This has happened to me. I'm tired of victim mentality. I'm tired of everybody thinking everything's happened to them and everybody's done them wrong and nobody's right. I'm about tired of that. You excuse me for letting my flesh out a little bit on a Sunday morning. Will you forgive me for that? I'm about tired of it. And there's sometimes I'm just like, you know what, I'm about ready to just tell everybody what I really think. Then I'll open that up.

And I'll start reading. God resisted the proud. But He gives grace to the humble. I have spent time in God's word and as He renews my inner man, guess what, I change on the outside. I didn't necessarily eat anything different or I didn't necessarily do anything different.

I might not have gotten a lot of rest. But when the inner man is renewed, the outer man is strengthened. He says that's what I'm praying for.

That's what I'm praying for. Notice secondly He says I'm praying that you would be strengthened. Notice verse 17, number two, He says I'm praying that Christ may dwell. You say alright preacher, this seems a bit obvious.

Look at verse 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Notice first that Christ may dwell in our hearts. He says I am praying that Christ may, you say well preacher I don't have to pray for Christ to dwell in my heart.

No, all you have to do is pray and ask God to save your soul. And the Holy Spirit regenerates us. We become alive in Christ and Christ dwells in our hearts. But dear friend, even though the Holy Spirit of God dwells and resides and lives inside of our heart, we still have a flesh.

And the Bible says out of the heart are the. This word dwell means to reside permanently. It means to literally control.

It means to maintain. It means this dear friend that I am challenging you. What this is saying is that He's saying I am praying that God will not just live in your heart. What He is saying here through the word is that Christ would fill, dwell, control your heart. Listen to me.

I want you to get this. You know why people faint and quit? Their heart gets wrong. Their heart's not right. Hey, I've seen it my entire life being in some form of ministry or associated with.

My entire life you can tell when a person's heart is in it and when it's not. And although Christ might be in their heart, their heart is not in Christ's work. It says I'm praying that Christ will dwell in your heart. Secondly He says by faith. By faith.

That's how it's done. You say why did He say it that way preacher? Because listen to me.

I want you to get this. Sometimes you're not going to see what Christ is doing. And you're not going to understand what He's doing. And you're not going to know why He's doing it. But you and I just have to have faith that He knows what He's doing and I'm going to let Him control my heart. If you go by circumstances or feelings, God's not going to control your heart. You will. But we've just got to trust Him.

Number three. He prays this. Verse 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. So part of not fainting requires you and I to comprehend some things.

In other words our comprehension of a few things would help keep us from fainting, quitting, stopping, turning. So what does that mean? Well this word comprehend here.

Now listen to me. I just want to give you the definition here of this Greek word. It means to possess. It means to attain.

It means to find, to obtain, to perceive, to take. This is what He's praying. He says I'm praying that somehow God would allow you to comprehend, to seize, to take.

To take what? Well I want you to notice what He says in verse 17. He says that ye being rooted and grounded in love may comprehend. So these things are necessary for us to be able to comprehend whatever He's talking about here we're going to talk about in a second. So He says first you've got to be rooted in love.

What does that mean? Then He says I've got to be grounded in love. What do roots do? Roots go down and they stabilize but what are roots doing?

They're feeding off the nutrients. If a tree doesn't have good roots, if they're not feeding or eating we would call it then nothing's going to grow. So rooted in love means what you feed upon. Grounded in love is what you build upon. Grounded is this term for foundation.

That's what this word grounded is. It means this that in order for you to comprehend you've got to be feeding on love and you've got to be built upon love. Now maybe you understand why He says so that you can comprehend the height, the depth, the width, the breadth.

He's talking about a building process. Do you get it? He is saying in order for you to comprehend first you've got to have your roots down to feed. This is what you feed on. Then your foundation has to be built on love. And if you're feeding on God's love, built on God's love, the breadth, the height, the depth is what is built on top of that.

Do you get it? Listen to me. Rooted in love is what you feed upon. Grounded in love is what you build upon.

But built in love is what you live upon. Now my wife and I eventually this afternoon will get home. We're going to go into our house. We're going to enjoy the fact that we're closed in. We're not exposed to everybody. We have air conditioning.

We have a refrigerator. But the reason that is there and standing is because the foundation was settled. The foundation was square. The foundation was done right.

Look at me dear friend. He's saying you and I often faint because we worry so much about the building, but we have not looked at our feeding system and our foundation system. Often you and I faint because the roots really haven't gone down very deep. We've just made a few decisions.

We've gotten a little bit excited. Now we're going to charge hell with a squirt gun and the first time a trial comes, the first time a trouble comes, the first time bad health comes, the first time criticism comes, we fall over. He says what I'm praying is that God will get you rooted in His love. Foundation upon His love so He can build you upon His love.

When you're built right you don't fall over every time a wind comes your way. I know this is a Sunday morning and it's a lot of meat, but if you're understanding would you just say amen? Listen, we had motivation Sunday night to Wednesday night. Now it's time for application. Everything you heard Sunday night to Wednesday night, it's going to go away quick if we don't do these things.

If we're not rooted and grounded then we'll never be built. He says that's what I'm praying for. For this cause I'm bowing my knees. You know that's why a lot of times in churches people look really good. That's why you look at a husband and wife and you just think, and I've told you guys, I've literally sat in my office.

I've been here long enough now that you would never know obviously or anything like that. But I have sat in my office and I've had people counseling with their marriage and I've shared this with you before. Then they have literally in the counseling session they have described a couple in our church and say, I would like to have a marriage like that.

And little did they know the week before that very couple was in my office with marriage problems. Look at me, you know why? Because above the ground we look good. But he says I'm praying you're going to faint if you just look good above ground. But if you're not rooted and grounded in the love of God. Notice number four verse nineteen. He says I'm praying for this, to know the love of Christ. Why is this so important?

Preacher I know Christ loves me and you know I know the Bible says that. But dear friend, this is way different than just knowing about it. This is knowing it.

This is experiencing it. This is on a first hand basis and I have found, look at me dear friend, when times get tough, yeah you want to quit. Yeah you want to give up. Yeah you want to get bitter. Yeah you want to get angry. But when you really get a taste and think about the love that Christ has shown you, it makes you want to keep going.

How could I do that? How could I get out of church when he's the one that's never done anything to me? Why would I get out of his word? Why would I quit reading the Bible because I've had some bad things happen to me?

When he's the one that's done nothing but good for us. That you would know the love of Christ. And this is the only way he describes it.

I love this. Which passeth knowledge. These other things he's given us some tidbits of information. Listen, if you're going to comprehend God you're going to have to be rooted in love and grounded in love. I mean everything we've talked about so far, I mean you're going to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. He's given us all these things.

But when it comes to the love of Christ, he literally says this. There's nothing I could say to even describe it. It's beyond description. It passeth knowledge. I could tell you everything about the love of God and I still wouldn't scratch the surface.

So I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to tell you the love of Christ. I want you to know it. I want you to experience it. You can't read a book about it.

You can't look up an essay paper about it. You can't just live on that because somebody else describes it. You've got to experience it to know it. You've got to feel it.

You've got to realize and see yourself for who we really are. To think that he would still love us and he would still care. Oh I just don't have enough knowledge, he says, to write anything down. I can't give you A, B, C, D and E and little one, two, three and little A, little B, little C. And I don't even know where you go from there on an outline. He says it passes knowledge. In other words this, it's not something that you can write down.

It's something you have to experience. You know what I pray for my three sons? That they'll know that love. I don't want them to look at my love and I don't think I could love them more than I do. But my love fails sometimes. My love falls short sometimes. My love makes mistakes. My love gets it wrong sometimes.

And my love is weak sometimes. I want them to know the love of Christ. I don't want them to look at Dad and think that's God.

Look at me. God loves them more than I ever could. He loves them perfectly. He loves them completely.

He has nothing that's fake about it. And I want them to know that. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.