1. "God is invisible, but He is not imaginary. God is a Spirit who is invisible, yes, but He is not merely an imaginary being. He has been and is active."

2. "Friends, we say those words for ourselves and each other, not for God. We're reminding ourselves that our only entry into this munificence of God, His splendid generosity, is because of His Son, Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, we have no call on these blessings of God."

3. "God is the best one of those ever. The better you get to know God, the more you want to know Him. To describe Him is to praise Him. To hear Him described is to draw you into worship."

4. "God's power is as great as His love. Brothers and sisters, come and ask, because God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think."

5. "Friend, it's not wrong for the sun to want to be at the center of our solar system. That's just reality. In that illustration, God is the sun and you're the earth. You don't have enough gravitational pull to keep your life in order."

6. "As Christians, we live not for our own glory, but for God's. We don't want glory for ourselves, but we want to give God glory. We don't want to absorb glory, but reflect the Lord's own glory back to Him."

7. "We can so identify ourselves and our work with God's that it can become difficult to know the difference. Friend, beware of confusing God's glory with your own."

8. "The Great Commission is also great because of its great endurance to the end of the age. We're not merely to reach every nation, but we're to reach every generation until Christ returns. The church is not just to grow expansively, but to temporally endure."

9. "Not everything in this world fades and fails. That which is in and for Jesus Christ lasts. And we are told here that God will be glorified through the church forever and ever."

10. "Dear Saint, nothing can separate you from His love. The Lord will not leave you or forsake you. Never, never will He do that. Let the winds blow and the rains fall, the house that is built on the rock will stand."

Observation Questions

1. In Ephesians 3:20, what does Paul say God is able to do, and what standard does he use to describe the extent of God's ability?

2. According to Ephesians 3:20, what is the power that enables God's work described as being "at work" within?

3. In Ephesians 3:21, to whom does Paul say glory belongs, and in what two spheres does he say this glory is displayed?

4. What timeframe does Paul give in Ephesians 3:21 for how long God will receive glory?

5. Looking back at Ephesians 3:18-19, what four dimensions does Paul use to describe the love of Christ, and what does he say this love surpasses?

6. In Ephesians 1:19-21, how does Paul describe the power that God worked in Christ, and where did this power seat Christ?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul conclude the doctrinal section of Ephesians (chapters 1-3) with a doxology rather than simply moving on to practical instructions? What does this suggest about the relationship between theology and worship?

2. The sermon emphasized that God's invisibility is "a physical sign of our spiritual alienation from Him." How does this understanding of God's invisibility differ from the common assumption that invisible means imaginary?

3. Paul states that God is able to do "far more abundantly than all we ask or think." How does this truth about God's power relate to His love as described in verses 18-19, and why is this connection significant for believers?

4. What is the significance of Paul saying that God is glorified both "in the church" and "in Christ Jesus"? How do these two spheres of God's glory relate to each other?

5. The sermon noted that praying "in Jesus' name" reminds us that Christ is our only access to God's generosity. How does this understanding of Christ as "the door" (John 10:9) shape our confidence and approach in prayer?

Application Questions

1. The sermon challenged listeners to consider whether they have been living for lesser purposes such as career, comfort, or security rather than God's glory. What specific area of your life have you been treating as the ultimate end rather than as a means to glorify God, and what would it look like to reorient that area this week?

2. Paul encourages bold asking of God because His power matches His love. What is one significant need or desire you have been hesitant to bring to God in prayer, and how does this passage encourage you to approach Him differently?

3. The sermon emphasized that God is glorified specifically "in the church." What is one practical way you could invest more intentionally in your local church community this month to contribute to God's glory being displayed there?

4. The preacher asked, "What are you doing right now to help the next generation glorify God?" Identify one specific action you could take in the coming weeks to invest in the faith of someone younger than you—whether through children's ministry, mentoring, or another avenue.

5. The sermon pointed out that knowing God's sovereignty helps with anxiety—not by revealing outcomes, but by reminding us who controls them. What current worry or uncertainty in your life could you consciously entrust to God this week, and how might you remind yourself of His sovereign power when anxiety rises?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 11:33-36 — This doxology similarly concludes a major doctrinal section and ascribes eternal glory to God, reinforcing the theme that all things exist for God's glory.

2. 1 Kings 3:5-14 — This passage illustrates God's abundant generosity in giving Solomon more than he asked, demonstrating the truth that God does "far more abundantly than all we ask."

3. John 14:12-17 — Jesus promises answered prayer to those who ask in His name and promises the Holy Spirit, connecting to the sermon's emphasis on Christ as the door to God's abundant provision.

4. Exodus 14:1-18 — God delivers Israel through the Red Sea so that the Egyptians and nations will know He is the Lord, illustrating the sermon's point that God acts throughout history for His own glory.

5. Acts 19:23-41 — This passage recounts the riot in Ephesus caused by Paul's preaching threatening the idol trade, providing historical context for the sermon's opening illustration about the Temple of Artemis.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Problem of God's Invisibility

II. What Is God Doing? (Ephesians 3:20)

III. Why Is God Doing It? (Ephesians 3:21a)

IV. How Is God Glorified? (Ephesians 3:20-21)

V. For How Long Will God Be Glorified Like This? (Ephesians 3:21b)

VI. The Enduring Glory of God Contrasted with Earthly Greatness

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Detailed Sermon Outline

One of people's biggest problems with God, the God of the Bible, is that you can't see Him.

You can't see Him.

Of course, there are many so-called gods around the world that are represented by images or icons.

But in the Bible, the one true God teaches that it is sin to make any physical representation of Him. He will not be seen, at least not in that way.

Those of us from the cultural West or from Muslim countries may be used to the idea of an invisible God. But in so much of the world, the idea seems strange. The idols were a point of conflict. In the Old Testament between God's people and the nations around them. And in the New Testament, Paul's first preaching mission to the Ephesians actually caused a slump in idol sales and a consequent riot.

You see, Ephesus was a major city at the time, and it was best known for having one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. According to some writers, the most magnificent of all those seven wonders, the Temple of Artemis. It was twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens. It was beautiful, ornate, adorned with sculptures by the leading sculptors of the day, and contained, along with other striking features, a great statue of the goddess Artemis. So pilgrims priests, souvenir sellers, all made their living by making replicas or home-sized statues that really were a major part of the trade of the city.

So when Paul came and preached about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, now ascending but soon returning, and the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, having no temple made by human hands and worshiped with no images, not only was this message strange to them, it was unattractive because if true, it would immediately impoverish them.

To many today, the invisibility of God is perhaps a more straightforward problem. We're used to saying that seeing is believing and we're used to using invisible almost as a synonym with imaginary. So if I were to stand there at the door as I normally do afterwards and if you were to come up and I were to introduce you to my friend and tell you that he is a six-foot, three and a half-inch invisible rabbit named Harvey, you would assume that I'm introducing you to my imaginary friend. Many a ten-year-old may think as I did. If God were really so important, wouldn't I be able to see Him?

The God of the Bible actually has a great interest in being seen. The Bible tells us that He was seen and He will be seen, and that His invisibility to us now is the result of our first parents' sin.

It is a physical sign of our spiritual alienation from Him.

But the God that Paul has been telling the Ephesians about is the furthest thing in the world from being imaginary. This is a God of action, a God who has done, who will be seen, and in the sense of being known and glorified, is seen in the magnificent and full wonders through what He has done, through what He is doing even now, certainly through what He will do, which will eventually include the return of Christ and the final judgment of the world, and He will be visible to us all.

Again.

We read in Ephesians 1 of God having already blessed us and chosen us and predestined us. We read in Ephesians 2 of God loving us and making us alive together with Christ and saving us by His grace. And in chapter 3, Paul reminded them of God's having revealed Himself specially to Paul. Paul says in chapter 3, verse 7, of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of His power. So even Paul's preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, like to the Gentiles in the city of Ephesus, had only come about because of what God did.

God is invisible, but He is not imaginary. God is a Spirit who is invisible, yes, but He is not merely an imaginary being.

He has been and is active. And to conclude the first half of this letter to the Ephesian Christians, these three chapters of the story of God's gracious acting to them in eternity past and in their present spiritual resurrection and recreation as one new man, Jew and Gentile together, and even in Paul's calling to preach to them, Paul turns to prayer in our passage from last week. Ephesians 3:14-19. And now finally, to a concluding doxology, a statement ascribing glory to God here in verses 20 and 21. So if you would, open your Bibles now.

Take your Bible, find the book of Ephesians, go to chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3, we're looking at the last two verses. It's on page 977 in the Bibles provided.

Ephesians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. These are the verses that we want to consider together during our time together this morning.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all 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. Four questions to answer for us from this doxology. What is God doing? Why is God doing it? How is God glorified?

For how long will God be glorified like this?

Mark, these are not your most elegant questions you've ever given us. I understand that, but they're very accurate with the text. I think they'll serve you just fine. All right, number one.

What is God doing? Number two, why is God doing it? Three, how is God glorified? And four, for how long will God be glorified like this? So, number one, what is God doing?

Well Paul knows from personal experience that God is far more than an idea. God is a personal being who is at work in our world. Look at how he begins here in Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. That beginning sort of the now to him is how Paul normally turns to doxologies, that is, statements of praise to God, ascriptions of His glory. You may recall others of these in Paul's writing.

So in Galatians chapter 1 verse 5, To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Is a very similar statement in 2 Timothy, in another one in the end of Romans 16. There's a statement that we sing together at the end of Wednesday night Bible study usually, 1 Timothy 1:17, To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And there's the last doxology in 1 Timothy 6, He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

This isn't just a picture of Paul's writing. Jude also writes like this. He concludes his letter with his famous doxology. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

Forever, amen. So this now to Him formula is a kind of way of sort of directing the attention over here. And now to Him and you sort of turn and that's who you're talking about. So that's not a surprising thing to do at the end of a letter that has been fundamentally about Jesus Christ, about what God has done in Christ, turning to Him as we sort of verbally depart the room. At the end of our letter.

That's what Paul is doing really at the end of this first half of Ephesians. So this doxology here gives us the conclusion of these first three chapters. Paul so immediately turns to what God is able to do. He is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. Friends, your problem is not too big for God to handle?

God is not too big to be concerned about your problems, and God's not reluctant to help us. No, Paul said here that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. Brothers and sisters, our God is a gracious God. The Bible is full of stories of what this God is like. Do you remember back in 1 Kings 3 when Solomon asks God for wisdom?

And what does the Lord do? He says, I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor. Or remember in Jesus' last day on earth with the disciples before Jesus was crucified, He says to them, Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.

Friends, there is only one way into the Father's presence, and that is through the Son, Jesus Christ. As Jesus said in John 10, I am the door. The door, that one door, is what we remind ourselves of every time we're praying and we conclude a prayer within Jesus' name.

For Jesus' sake. You realize we're not doing that so it's some special hand signal to God so this one gets in. It's not a kind of magical hocus pocus. If someone doesn't say that at the end of the prayer and they just go, Amen, you don't need to kind of snicker and like jab the person next to you. It's not like that.

Friends, we say those words for ourselves and each other, not for God. We're reminding ourselves that our only entry into this munificence of God, His splendid generosity, is because of His Son, Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, we have no call on these blessings of God. He is our only purchase on God's goodness as those who've rebelled and sin against Him. He's our only hope.

He's our only door. There's one door in, that's Jesus Christ. But having gotten in, they're all the riches that could be imagined and more. So friends, that's what we do when we pray. We come in Jesus' name, and that's why it's good you don't just say that like some little trip formula at the end that's just, Jesus' name, amen.

Just don't do that. Just verbally help yourself and help people around you by reminding them more of the real situation. That is, the God you're talking to has no intention of listening to you whatsoever. You can say, But I made it in His image. Yeah, but you also, in your first parents and in your own life, have decided to go your own way.

Well, so then why is he listening to me? Because of Jesus Christ. Because if you're trusting in Christ, all of your sins and faults and flaws and rebellions are cast aside And His loving obedience and trust is taken as your own. And you are adopted as His very own. You are in Christ.

That's why we pray as we do in Jesus' name. Through that one door are all the riches of God for us, His power to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. Paul has written so much about this power already in this letter. Go back to chapter 1. Turn back to chapter 1.

Remember that prayer there at the end of chapter 1. Verse 19, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him His head over all things to the church. Which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Or a few verses later, look on in chapter 2, verse 5, about His resurrecting power.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you've been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness. Toward us in Christ Jesus. It seems God has not only been displaying His wisdom through the church, like we thought about up in 3:10, but also His power. Right before our own doxology is that knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. Remember we thought about it last week.

You see there 3:18 and 19, May I have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now Paul mentions God's ability to surpass all we might ask or think of Him doing for us. God is not only able to do, but able to do far more abundantly than all we ask. Now friends, think for a moment. Why would Paul conclude the first half of this letter, so all the systematic theology, all the doctrine of God, why would he conclude that with a doxology like this?

How does that logically fit? Why does that make sense?

Because He has described to us the God who is, and that God is the God that we need. If we're going to follow the exhortations to walk in a manner worthy and to be imitators of God and to obey our parents in the Lord and all the things that He's going to be telling us to do in the second half of this letter, we need God's power to obey God's directions. God is not only able to do, but far more than we might ask or think. So Paul turns the reader's minds to prayer, and in prayer we'll often praise God like we did this morning. Praise is always an appropriate part of our prayers.

So I hope you've noticed here that in our services we give a lot of time to prayer. Christian churches used to pray. Christian churches these days tend not to pray out loud together. I can't tell you how many times on vacation I visited a church and there's 30 minutes of singing and 30 minutes of preaching and that's the service. And I'm really happy for the 30 minutes of singing and I'm really happy for the 30 minutes of preaching.

I would just like us to pray too. We're instructed in God's Word to pray. Paul shows us this example here in Ephesians of praying. So we turn in our prayers, and when we start to describe God, to describe this God, is to begin to praise Him. You know, there are some people who, when you get to know better, it would be better not to get to know them better.

You know what I mean? We're in Washington, D.C. We spend a lot of time standing around talking to each other at small group meetings and, you know, little receptions. And there are some people we're happy to meet, and there are other people we're initially happy to meet. And there are other people that are just great to meet, you know, and the more you get to know them, the better they are. God is the best one of those ever.

The better you get to know God, the more you want to know Him. To describe Him is to praise Him. To hear Him described is to draw you into worship. Mark, why does your church sing such strange hymns that no one else sings? Well, it's not quite true.

A lot of people in the past sang them. Why do you sing hymns that are so thick in their words? Because there's so much to say about God and we have so little time. We're trying to help each other stick things in each other's minds and memories about God because of what God is like. Our God is compassionate and eternal and faithful and trustworthy and good and great gracious and holy and impartial and just and loving and merciful.

He is all powerful and all present and all knowing. He is patient and longsuffering and forbearing. God is righteous and truthful and needs no other being. He is unchangeable and sovereign and shows loving kindness. And I could go on all afternoon about what God is like.

He is an amazing God. Brothers and sisters, with such a good God, praise and theology are intertwined. So to describe this God is to praise Him and to draw others into His praises. Even this brief doxology, like this one, should provoke us to praise. His generosity is as boundless as His love mentioned up in verse 18.

This is the One who has lavished His grace upon us, like Paul mentioned back in the first chapter. Some people may think that maturity in prayer leads to a kind of quiet passivity where we just kind of are instructed, we wait on the Lord, we're quiet. And there's certainly a place for meditation in our prayer lives, but Scripture presents inviting descriptions like this where we are encouraged to ask, ask for the kind of grand acts of God that Paul has been describing in Ephesians so far. In his larger catechism, Martin Luther wrote, God desires nothing more seriously from us than that we ask Him for much and great things. Matthew Henry says, There is an inexhaustible fullness of grace and mercy in God, which the prayers of all the saints can never draw dry.

Do you see how the way we ask of God in our own lives, and maybe even more so when we ask publicly as we do in our prayers here on Sunday morning when we gather again tonight we'll do it more. Do you see how we honor God? By publicly asking of Him. We are advertising that we rely on Him. And why would we do that?

Because we have found Him so reliable. He is so faithful. So we are happy ourselves to ask, and we're happy to call on each other to come with us in asking before His throne of grace. So everything we will need and want Him to be able to do, we can ask for. And if you look over chapters 4, 5, and 6 that are coming up in this study the rest of the year, Lord willing, God calls us to live in a way that He needs to enable us to live in.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. So right after Paul prays that these Christians will know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and they might be filled with all the fullness of God, he reminds them that God is the God that they can ask of and who will do all that they ask and more. God's power is as great as His love. Grab that one and keep that one for this afternoon.

God's power is as great as His love. Brothers and sisters, come and ask, because God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. That's what God is doing. He's answering our prayers in His typical abundant fashion, able to do more than we ask or think. Second question now, why is God doing this?

Why does God answer our prayers through Christ as He does? And the answer is right there in the first few words of verse 21, To Him be glory. What does glory mean? Well, it's to give credit, to honor, to recognize, perhaps even to relish. So for God's character and attributes to be known and recognized like His wisdom up in verse 10.

Friends, God's glory is the point of everything, not because He's like some egotistical celebrity, but because He really is God and He really is the point of everything. Up in chapter 3, verse 10, it is God's wisdom that is being manifested to the heavenly being. We find that throughout the Bible this is why God does what He does. He wants the creatures made in His image to know the truth about Him.

You can almost pick a book of the Bible at random. So Exodus, when God draws the children of Israel out of Egypt by His power, why has He done this? Well, you find in the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, it's so that the nations will know and tremble who this God is. Or run further in Israel's history to the prophet Ezekiel. What were the Lord's motives in all of His actions there?

He says in Ezekiel 39, I will set My glory among the nations. This is the message that the Lord had given through Ezekiel in his day. And this is the message through His people today. Friends, it's not wrong for the sun to want to be at the center of our solar system. That's just reality.

Let's say one of the other planets wanted to take that role, probably Earth. Let's say Earth pushes the sun aside and stands in the middle. What happens? The solar system falls apart. There's not enough gravitational pull.

Friend, in that illustration, God is the sun and you're the earth. You don't have enough gravitational pull to keep your life in order, to keep the life of others around you, of the world in order. You weren't made to be that. You're not that. God, the Maker of all, is that.

He is the point of all. Friend, we want you to be saved. If you're not a Christian here, we want you to come to know the truth about this God. We want you to come to know and believe that gospel that we read earlier in the bulletin. Take that home.

If you have questions about it, ask me at the door afterwards, or any of the others who'll be standing at the doors. We want you to come to be forgiven of your sins and have a restored relationship with this God and to see how your whole life is meant to be and can be lived for the glory of God. What an absolutely wonderful way to live life. As Christians, we live not for our own glory, but for God's. We don't want glory for ourselves, but we want to give God glory.

We don't want to absorb glory, but reflect the Lord's own glory back to Him. I was talking to Josh Cooper about this the other night, and he said, Knowing this God helps him with his anxiety. Not because God lets him know the outcome, but it reminds him who is sovereign over the outcome. I think Josh is speaking for all of us there.

That's how we work through the hard things in life, by knowing the God who's sovereign over all. Paul's letters have scattered throughout them reminders that everything is for God's glory. Philippians 4:20, Paul writes to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. I could endlessly multiply references like that.

I pray that this truth is clear to you and that it is attractive to you.

To you. I remember once hearing a famous preacher speaking in front of a large crowd. Several times he mentioned his relationships with very well-known people. And again and again I was surprised that he was representing this politician or that celebrity or this sports figure as a Christian. And I kept listening and I realized that this preacher seemed to be assuming that if someone like him they must like Jesus.

How many different ways is that assumption dangerous?

We can so identify ourselves and our work with God's that it can become difficult to know the difference. Friend, beware of confusing God's glory with your own.

God is the one who should be honored always and forever. Just like in the Exodus, God delivered His people for His own glory. So the deliverances that we've known in this church, that you've known in your life, these are all for His glory. We find that we read through the pages of the Bible that God's glory is not just the point of Ephesians or Exodus, but it is the point of the whole Bible. God's glory is the point of history.

God is about bringing glory and honor to Himself. This is why God does everything He does to bring Himself glory as it should be. Third question, so how is God glorified? We've already begun to answer this, but I want to make sure we notice what God is telling us here in His Word. God is glorified in the Christian, in my life, in yours.

You see that here in verse 20. God answers prayers according to the power at work within us. Friend, your purpose and mine should be to glorify God. Your purpose and mine should be to glorify God. What about you?

Is this how you've been thinking of your life? Maybe your summer internship, maybe your three decades long career, maybe your own family. Are you here this morning thinking there's no reason for your life?

Do you really think that you are the center of the universe?

Friend, you have to one day after this life meet God. And I would not carry into that meeting the assumption that you are the point of it all. That you are the center of everything. I would not vie with God for the right to be the center of His own creation. Think carefully.

Consider. If you're here this morning as a believer, perhaps you've let your eyes fall to lower purposes for things. Perhaps you've come to think of your job or your family or your country or your comfort. Or your health, or your rights, or your bank account as the be-all and end-all of life. But friends, as those things are challenged, as you know reverses and experience adversities, you find yourself shaken.

And if that's you this morning, then hear me when I ask you prayerfully and seriously to trust God.

God. Friends, you don't have the competence to run the world. The few men who got closest to doing that in the last century brought untold misery upon millions. That's not your role or mine. God is sovereign and God is good and God is worthy of being trusted.

So God is glorified in You and me, brothers and sisters, as Paul writes here, according to the power at work within us. Paul has been referring to God's power in his own life, that throughout he could refer to God's action in and through his own life in Colossians 1 when he talked about all of God's energy powerfully working within me. And that's not just true of apostles like Paul. It's even more amazingly true of all Christians. That's what Paul's been laying out here in chapters 1 and 2 and 3 how God's power is at work in predestining us and resurrecting us, and even in giving us access to the gospel.

That's all God's work. This is why Paul elsewhere exhorts us not to boast in ourselves, but boast in the Lord. It's His power at work in us. We endure only by the power of God. Remember why the risen Christ told His disciples, Don't scatter yet.

I know I gave you the Great Commission, but just hold on.

Wait here in Jerusalem because I'm going to give you something you're going to need. Acts, chapter 1, verse 8: you: will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Friends, they would need God's power for what God was calling them to do. And God's power is at work in us. I wonder if you can think of examples of this in your own life.

When do you feel you've noticed your own abilities ending and God supplying especially from His own? Certainly your conversion. Jesus said with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. But what about censure conversion? Any examples come to mind?

Or how have you seen God's power at work in other people's lives?

Anything come to mind? Why don't you make a point and share some of those memories, some of those observations over lunch in just a little bit? I love how Spurgeon reflected on this: Our boldest prayer is not the boundary of what He is able to bestow. God has called us to be holy like Him, so let's pray for His aid. He calls us to be loving, let's pray for His power to make us loving.

We are to be encouraged here to go to God and ask for what we want. And what we want are all the graces of God and the fruit of His Spirit to abound in us. The glory of God in our own lives and all the ways that Paul is about to exhort these Christians, too. And God's glory is not just about your life or mine, but He's glorified in the church specifically. Did you see how he says that there?

Verse 21, To Him be glory in the church.

I think a lot of people today are pretty clueless about why churches exist. You read recent polls that have come out and got a lot of attention this last week. It seems fewer and fewer Americans are finding much reason to go to church or to be involved in at least traditional churches. I remember one writer recounting a conversation with a bishop in the Church of England several years ago. The writer recalls, I asked him how he would define the mission of the Church of England.

He seemed a little taken aback by the question, but finally allowed that he supposed the mission, so to speak, was something like keeping alive aspects of the Christian heritage for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

That was a bishop. I hope that the Ephesians had been a little clearer than that about the purpose of God's work in the church. Friend, do you have an idea of what God's purpose in the church is? It's the glory of God. That's why this is here.

It is for the glory of God. The kind of thing that God is doing here in this place among us, humbling the proud and encouraging the downhearted and seeing sins forgiven and lives renewed, this is what God is about. This is His plan. This brings Him glory. Surely Paul is conceiving of the heavenly assembly throughout eternity, bringing praise to God and to the Lamb who was slain for them.

Have you thought of how much effort you will give for so much smaller ends? You'll move to another part of the country. You'll put your financial well-being in jeopardy or even your health all in order to achieve what?

Something that at best may last for a little while and make something of a difference? Well friends, we're all called to do things with our time, but we shouldn't misunderstand God's priorities. His language suggests here that even now the manifold wisdom of God is being revealed in the church. Just look around here for a moment and consider the eternal plan and manifold wisdom of God. And it's surpassing love as we can see it even here.

God's glory is seen among His people as Paul puts it here in the church. In fact, we can say that God's glory is particularly displayed in the church. We'll see this played out in the chapters ahead of us in many specific ways as Paul completes the church as one great symphony of God's sanctifying work. We praise God for how we've been reminded of the truth of this this past year with all the challenges that we've faced in being able to assemble and worship God publicly. I wonder how you've been seeing God's glory like this in power in our church.

In forgiveness being offered and relationships reconciled. In the sound volunteers. Wandering up and down fields and parking lots in Northern Virginia and Anacostia Park and now our own parking lot, in the mounting number of volunteers to start up our children's work again now. Friends, pray that that work that God used to begin this church, you know this church began through children's work, pray that this work will revive fully here. Those of you who have been members here for decades before I even come, and when you prayed that God would revive the work here, did you expect He would do all that He's done?

Praise the Lord for His kindness that we have seen and tasted ourselves. Of course, at the very core of God's being glorified is Christ Jesus. You see, Paul writes that here in verse 21, and in Christ Jesus. How is God glorified in Christ Jesus? Well, friends, all of our blessings come to us through Christ.

We read in chapter 1 that we are adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, that we have been blessed in the beloved. Friends, the glory of God is seen supremely in Christ Jesus in the way this Messiah King has come and made us His special people. That's why we talk about Jesus so much. That's why we sing about Him and His work so much. So consider how much of God's nature and character is brought out by the work of Christ.

So many of those attributes of God we mentioned earlier, His justice and His love, His mercy and His holiness, His grace and His righteousness, are seen together in the incarnation and humiliation and crucifixion, and resurrection, and ascension, and coming return of Christ. Friends, how do you know if God wants you to come to Him? Because He sent His only Son to bring sinners to Himself. And if you're a sinner, pray that God will give you the gift of faith and belief in Jesus Christ so that you will come to Him. So you too will adorn His mercy and ornament his love and reflect the power of his saving work in all these ways and more, bring glory to God.

So God is glorified in the life of the Christian, in the local church, in and through Jesus Christ. One last question, number four: For how long will God be glorified like this? So just when you think you've reached the summit of the glorious praise of God, Paul sort of hits the sustain pedal. You know, God holds that note. He points out that God will hold that note.

That is, the lives of His people and His church together, and the witness of His only Son will bring Him glory not only once, but throughout history. You see that here in verse 21, Throughout all generations. Sometimes we think of the Great Commission as great because of its great expanse, all nations. That is a great aspect of the Great Commission. But the Great Commission is also great because of its great endurance to the end of the age.

We're not merely to reach every nation, but we're to reach every generation until Christ returns. The church is not just to grow expansively, but to temporally endure. And that takes us right back to the importance of children's work. God has been glorified here through people who were born in the 1880s, in the 1920s, through those born in the 1950s and the 1990s. Let's pray that continue until the very end of the age.

Friends, every week we get notices from the church office of new babies born to couples in this church. Praise God!

That is wonderful. Now someone needs to take care of the nursery for them. Someone needs to help those parents and give the parents a little break so they can come in and have an hour or two of singing and praise to God during the week so they'll be able to go back in and do the wonderful work that God has committed to them. One more implication of this is that this desire to bring glory to God throughout all generations means that we need sturdy structures, structures that endure. One reason I think Jesus founded the church as he did in Matthew of his gospel and that his Spirit inspired the structure that it has of membership and elders and deacons is because of its enduring quality.

We should be wary of flimsy structures and the practices that create them. Spurgeon said, Quick building is seldom permanent. Gold, silver, and precious stones are scarce material, not easily found, but then they endure the fire. What's the use of religion which comes up in a night and perishes as soon? Ah me, what empty bragging we have heard.

The thing was done, but then it was never worth doing. Some things were as if it had never been done. And moreover, this sham way of doing it made it all the harder toil for the real worker. I think of the great missionary John Paton who gave his life evangelizing the islands of the South Seas. Peyton said, Plant down your forces in the heart of one tribe or race where the same language is spoken.

Work solidly from the center, building up with patient teaching and lifelong care a church that will endure. Rest not till every people and language and nation has such a Christ center throbbing in its midst with the pulses of the new life at full play. Rush not from land to land, from people to people, in a breathless fruitless mission.

The concentrated common sense that builds for eternity will receive the fullest approval of God in time. Friend, God's own work endures. History itself is too brief to contain the glory that God means to get to Himself through you and me and through the church and through His Son. He intends His glory to continue throughout eternity. Did you see that in that final phrase there in verse 21?

Forever and ever. Psalm 115 verse 18 says, We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. The psalmist's resolve there is prophetic. We will.

We will bring Him glory throughout eternity forever and ever. The ultimate purpose of God's infinite power is His own eternal glory. Romans 11:36, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be glory forever. The Son will be glorifying the Father and the Father glorifying the Son in His own presence with the glory the Son had with the Father before the world existed. And Christ is and will be glorified in us, His people, as we see His glory throughout eternity.

Friends, the church will be giving God glory forever and ever.

Now how does that compare? With the glory you see walking around you in the boss's office or in the Senate or on TV and the game.

Here in Washington, we often have naive assumptions about this world's greatness stripped away.

Listen to what John Wesley in the 18th century in London said in a journal entry, I was in the robe chamber adjoining the House of Lords today when the king put on his robes. His brow was much furrowed with age, quite clouded with care. And is this all the world can give even to a king? All the grandeur it can afford? A blanket of ermine around his shoulders so heavy and cumbersome he can scarcely move under it, a huge heap of borrowed hair, with a few plates of gold and glittering stones upon his head.

Alas, what a bauble is human greatness, and even this will not endure.

Friends, not everything in this world fades and fails. That which is in and for Jesus Christ lasts. And we are told here that God will be glorified through the church forever and ever. What an amazing opportunity to invest in what will last in eternity, an investment that lasts longer than Google, longer than America. I wonder what you're doing right now to help the next generation to glorify God that will stand in the light of eternity.

I pray that God will show us clearly how wise and worthwhile it is to follow Him. I don't know about you, but that's why I find biography so instructive. I love biographies. Show me with earlier lives, with others' lives, how they have been able to live in such a way that brings glory to God. Maybe I'll find something that can make my life better and more meaningful.

They testified to the fact that the Lord will not leave Himself without a witness. God will be glorified in us, in the Church, in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. We should conclude. You remember the great temple of Artemis I mentioned at the beginning that some called the grandest of the seven wonders of the ancient world, twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens.

I've been to Ephesus. I've been to the place where the temple of Artemis stood. It's not there. It's gone.

The greatest wonder of the ancient world. In fact, it fell apart three times. It was rebuilt again and again but it's been missing now for over a millennium. It was just an empty field where it once stood with one lone column to remind us it was there. God's glory is not like Artemis' temple.

Paul wrote that we were chosen to the praise of God's glorious grace and doxologies like this one let us know that Christ's church will never finally meet the fate of that ancient Greek temple. How did Jesus describe His church? The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates, remember, were the strongest part of the walled city's defenses. And if even they will not prevail against Christ's church, then the contest is certain.

Another assumption of Jesus' promise there is that the church is on the offense that hell is on the defense. You know, I assume when we're in the midst of a battle we can only see for a moment and that over a very small space. Because we know our struggles right now or our family or our situation, but perhaps our decades or our part of the world, but Jesus casts His eye down the long hall of history into eternity and He promises that His church will prevail. Dear Saint, nothing can separate you from His love. The Lord will not leave you or forsake you.

Never, never will He do that. Let the winds blow and the rains fall, the house that is built on the rock will stand.

Do you doubt that God can cause His church to stand against the opposing winds we feel? Let me encourage you this morning, Christ's victory is sure. His praises will never end. Enter the joy of your Master. Let's pray together.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all 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. O God, we pray that you would help us to live by faith in you. Teach us to rely on you in prayer, to ask of you, to depend on you, Thank youk for your promise to answer us. Oh Lord, you, promises are tied up with youh own glory. You've joined our good to youo own honor.

And so we are confident to approach youh in the name of our Lord and Savior, you, Son, Jesus Christ. And so we ask, Lord, for your power. That you would glorify Yourself in our lives and in this church. We pray in His name. Amen.