Ephesians: Destined to Win In Christ! Part 5 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue – 12/02/2024

Praise God, friends, welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’re gonna be sharing Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, and he makes a statement here in verse 20 that is amazing. “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” We’re gonna be talking about what that really means. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here today. We’ve been sharing all week, and we’ve really been in Ephesians 1-3. And in these three chapters of Ephesians, Paul talks about, you know, our new position in Christ. In fact, it’s talking about that we’re seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That’s Ephesians 2:6. That’s really the key verse. He talks about, we have a brand new condition and we have a brand new position, right? We talked about how we’re blessed, how we’re chosen, how we’re unblameable, how we’re accepted in the beloved, how we’re predestined to succeed, how we’re not only we’re redeemed from every curse, forgiven from every sin. We talked about how we have a new purpose in Christ Jesus that we received, you know, by a grace inheritance. And we talked about a brand new way to pray. And we’re gonna talk more about how Paul prays in Ephesians 3, talking about getting a revelation of his love. But in Ephesians 1, his prayer talks about, we know, you know, Jesus, we’re filled with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, with knowledge of him. He talks about how we know what he’s called us to do, how we know the power given to us in Christ when God raised him from the dead. And that Jesus’ name is above every name. And now we’re the body of Christ and we have authority in his name.

It’s so important to understand your position in Christ. I’ve just been thinking, just kinda looking back over, you know, I’ve been a part of this church since we started it 23 years ago, but I’ve been pastoring here helping you for eight years, and a lot of people really struggle, especially men, with their identity. You know, people go through midlife crisis. They’ll maybe retire and just have no purpose in life. It’s because they’re just very focused on their outward positions, maybe their outward influence in ’em. If they don’t really get the recognition or the titles and the status they think they deserve, they just act like little babies, very immature, just kinda lash out, just… But if you really think about it deeply, it’s ’cause they don’t really understand their position in Christ Jesus. I know you’ve met people too who just said, “I have to be in ministry. I have to be in full-time ministry. If I don’t do that, my life is meaningless.”

It’s crazy.

And that they, you’re just missing the main point, which is, you know, your position in Christ Jesus, your ministry to the Lord. That’s a much bigger deal than your ministry and your relationship with other people. But if you get this relationship right with God, then it’s gonna influence this relationship with other people.

Right, and we’ll talk about that more in next week’s broadcast, really, because Paul begins with this relationship with God and who we are in Christ. And then he talks about how we walk it out in this world in Ephesians 4 and 5, and then stand against the devil. Ephesians 2, we went on and talked about how we’ve went from death to life, how we went from a position of being separated and alienated and estranged from God and his promise, his covenant, his covenant people, to now that we’re accepted, we’re no longer strangers, right? Or foreigners. How, you know, we’ve been brought near by the blood. We’ve been brought into fellowship with other believers. There’s no longer a Jewish part of the church and a gentile part of the church. We’re either saved or we’re not, right? And then in chapter 3, he talks about this message of grace, this time that he’s called to share what Paul’s called to share and the mystery of Christ in you. And when we begin to understand that, how we live out our God-given purpose. And then he prays again. And so I’ve said before, if you really wanna know how to pray, read Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Colossians 1, and Philippians 1, because he doesn’t pray from a sense of need or a sense of lack or a sense of defeat. He prays from a sense of victory. This is who God is. This is who Christ is. This is what God’s called us to do, and this is what God’s invested in us so we can get the job done. So with that, we’re gonna jump into this Ephesians 3 prayer. What a powerful prayer when you begin to get a revelation of the love of God. That’s what he’s talking about right here. So Aaron, jump right here in Ephesians 3:14,

It says, “For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for 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 the inner man.” I love that.

Amen.

And where we’re strengthened is just in our inner man. That’s talking about in your Spirit.

Right.

You know, I remember years ago you gave me a book that you read as a young man that really impacted you, and it’s called “The Hidden Man of the Heart.”

Amen.

By E.W. Kenyon.

Right. You need to get a revelation of who you are in the Spirit. Get a revelation of spiritual things, because that’s what, when you understand this as a believer, that’s where Christ works, right? And so when he prays this, that he would grant you, first of all, God is our Father and we’re in his family, but he says that he would grant you to be strengthened with might or ability by his Spirit in the inward man. There is spiritual ability released to us in Christ in the realm of the Spirit. You know, Zechariah 4:6 says, “‘It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it’s by my Spirit,’ says the Lord.” We must begin to understand spiritual things. Peter talks about, don’t let your beauty be the outward man, but the hidden man of the heart. That’s what that book was written about. And getting a revelation of spiritual things. You know, Job is said to be by many authors, the oldest of the Old Testament writings, and Job says this, “There is a Spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding.” Job 32:8. You know, Proverbs says this, “The Spirit of man,” Proverbs 20:27, “is the candle of the Lord lighting all the inward parts of the belly.” Jesus said, “Out of your belly, out of your Spirit shall flow rivers of living water.” He was talking about the coming Holy Spirit that would live on the inside of us.

And Paul talks too about, just not regarding people according to the flesh, but also seeing people through who they are in Christ as well. So you need to know who you are in Christ, what God has implanted in your Spirit, what he’s doing inside of your Spirit, but that’s how you also need to look at other people, not just look at what’s going on on the outside. And that’ll help you, like, not take things personally when people are having a tough time and kinda lashing out. Sometimes, especially as pastors, people can sometimes get a little ugly and act a little ugly.

Crazy.

Sometimes it’s a maturity thing. Sometimes it’s a hurt thing. Sometimes it’s a… You don’t always know, but you can still look at them beyond just that whatever mess is going on and care about what God is really doing in their heart.

Amen. You know, so we need to begin to understand. He says he’s praying to God that he would grant us, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might, strengthened with ability, the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead now dwells in us. Paul says that in Romans 8:11. He says, “By the Spirit in the inward man.” He’s not talking about the outward man. You know, Jesus, the Bible actually talks about him in Isaiah 53. There’s a prophecy of Jesus, and it says, “When we see him, there’s no comeliness, there’s no beauty in him that he would be desired.” I don’t believe Jesus would’ve been voted the most likely to succeed. It took faith to believe in Jesus. It wasn’t an outward thing, right? But it was an inward thing. And it, you know, when you think about Saul and David, God told Samuel, “Don’t look on the outward man,” because God doesn’t look on the outward man. God sees the inward man. Of course, people always look on the outward man. They make judgements, right? But God is looking at the inward man. He’s looking at the hidden man of the heart. And when we were talking about all these things that we have in the Spirit in Ephesians 1, that we are blessed, that we are chosen, that we’re holy and blameless, predestined, right? To the adoption of children to the good pleasure of God’s will, that we’re accepted in the beloved, that we’re redeemed, that we’re forgiven. All those are really talking about spiritual aspects. And it’s spiritual aspects that affect physical aspects when you begin to understand the thing in the Spirit. When I began to understand who I was in the Spirit, my whole life changed. When I began to understand that God saw me as righteous, that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, man, it changed my, that’s one of the first things that came to me when I first got baptized in the Holy Spirit, when I first began to understand the full gospel. I am the righteousness of God. And it doesn’t really matter what everybody else says. It matters what God says about me.

I love that we’re just going through all the scripture in context, verse by verse. You know, sometimes people like to pull just one verse out of context and use it to say what they want it to say. I heard a funny joke once about a young Christian woman. You know, a guy was kind of interested in her and she quoted that verse from Isaiah 53, “There’s no beauty in you that I should desire.” And that was her word, what God was speaking to her, but, you know, she was pulling that out of context, obviously. You know, sometimes people will come to me wanting something and they’ll pull a verse out of context. And, you know, I recently had a young man who volunteers here and he wanted to get paid, and he doesn’t really volunteer that much. And he pulled a verse out of context, you know. He’s really talking about pastors are, you know, should get paid. And he’s not a pastor, he’s not near here, you know, as much as a-

And I get paid very well, but Aaron, I worked for lots and lots of years in the church with no pay.

Yeah, but he used a verse that was out of context, and I didn’t, you know, put him in his place, I was kind, but I just kinda, you know, it’s just a maturity type thing, but it’s good to look at scripture in context. I’m really glad we’re just preaching through Ephesians in context ’cause you see so much power that way.

So he’s praying, and he’s praying that we would be strengthened with might by his Spirit. You need to understand the realm of the Spirit and who you are in the Spirit. And if you begin to understand that, I guarantee, as a believer, that will change how you live in the flesh. It’ll change how you live. You know, the Bible says this in Romans 8:6. It says, “For to be carnally minded is death,” to be minded according to flesh, according to the outward man, or according to religion, or all these other things, is death. But to be spiritually minded, to be minded according to the Word and according to who God says we are in the Spirit is life and peace. Thank God you can get life and peace when you begin to know Jesus.

Yeah, and if you’re being strengthened in your inner man, that’s talking about supernatural strength.

Amen.

God can give you supernatural strength through that inner man, through your Spirit. So maybe you need supernatural strength. You can ask God for that. We have a scripture right here in Ephesians 3:16 that God would grant you, you know, to be strengthened

Yeah, and Romans 8:11 that we’ve quoted, one of my favorite scriptures, if not my favorite scripture in all of the Bible. And so, you know, we’re gonna be back after a short break, so stay tuned. We’ll be back more and share on this powerful prayer. Hi friends, we’ve been teaching from the Book of Ephesians, and I’ve just written a new book from the Book of Ephesians that I’ve wanted to do for years, “Destined To Win,” breakthrough revelation from the Book of Ephesians. You’ll wanna get this book. And we’re gonna offer this book actually free to anyone who calls in and becomes a new partner this week. Blessings.

The church is the best thing that has ever happened to the world. I’m so thankful for the church. I’m so thankful for the global body of believers. I’m so thankful for local church bodies like this. I love the local church because Jesus loves the local church. This is the thing that is holding our country together.

Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’re right here sharing from Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3. And really, we’re gonna get right into the heart of what Paul is sharing in this prayer. He’s talking really in the context of love and getting a revelation of the love of God. And he says right here in verse 17, and I’ll just read verse 17 through verse 21, and then we can comment it. But he says that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend, to understand with all the saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and height, to come to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, to get a revelation of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages of the world without end. Amen.

Yeah, well, just going through this, you know, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. You know, that’s how Christ inhabits us. It’s because we have faith in him. And, you know, that word dwell means to just be planted there. Like you’re really planted in Christ. He’s really planted in you. You aren’t going anywhere. He’s not going anywhere. That’s talking about a continual inhabitation. You know, a lot of people are searching for a home. You know, today, I think in today’s modern world, especially young people, they don’t really have a sense of home. You know, they just wanna be on the go all the time, on the move all the time. They don’t wanna really be planted. They don’t wanna be grounded. They don’t wanna work in the same place. They don’t wanna have, you know, they’re just very, you know, gypsy kind of lifestyle. But spiritually, we have a home and that’s in Christ, and we are his home as well. And, you know, he wants to dwell in our hearts through faith. And it says that you being rooted and grounded in love. If you really understand how much God loves you and how much he loves other people, that’s gonna keep you planted. You’re not gonna just blow around and be uprooted and just fruitless. You know, if you’re gonna produce fruit, you gotta be rooted and grounded in love first. And the Bible talks about beware of this root of bitterness by which many have been defiled. If you wanna stay pure, produce good fruit for God, you have to be rooted and grounded in love, not in bitterness. You know, there’s a difference between offenses and being offended. You know, I actually have an opportunity daily. Offenses come, you know, especially if you work for your dad or you work in a church, offenses come, but you actually have to make a choice to be offended.

Yeah, but you gotta make a choice to walk in love.

You have to make a choice to walk in love. So, offenses will come, and if you’re offended, it’s your own fault.

Yeah, you know, mom recently met with a person, and I’ve known these people, I’ve tried to counsel ’em actually for a period of time, I dearly love them, but this person was really struggling. And one thing that mom told this wife was she told her, “Listen, love is not an emotion. You can have emotions that are good, but love is a choice, and you need to make a choice.” And mom was brutally honest with her. And this woman really met with mom for an hour and a half. Mom said she wept the whole time. But she went away from there completely changed. They’ve been married, like, 10 years. And, you know, her husband told me after 60 days after this meeting, “My wife has never been this way in 10 years of marriage. She’s like an amazing wife.” He said, “I don’t know what your wife told her, but whatever your wife told her-

This understanding that you are a Spirit, you possess a soul, your soul does not possess you. Your soul is your mind, your will, your emotions. You know, a lot of people let their soul possess them. They let their emotions really control them. And I, you know, I’ve realized this, especially this past year. My wife and I have been serving as youth pastors here. We’ve been overseeing the youth ministry. And a lot of youth, just that age, can be very emotional, let their emotions kind of dictate them. I remember one student, he just had a bad attitude a lot. And one night, he had an especially bad attitude and I pulled him out of the service and talked to him one-on-one, and he just blew up. He was very emotional. He said, “I don’t even wanna be here right now.” He was just, is complete emotional. And I kind of thought about letting him hear my emotions, like I, you know, emotionally, I don’t want you to be here either. I didn’t say that, you know, “I don’t really love you.” I don’t, you know, I don’t really feel…

You love him.

No, I love him, and that’s what I told him, ’cause I was looking beyond the emotions, looking beyond his emotions, looking beyond, you know, my own emotions, and said, you know, “I’m actually committed to being here. I’m committed to helping you. I’m committed to,” you know, and I even told him, “It’s my job as a pastor here to point you in the right direction. And whether you do that or not, it’s up to you, but that’s my job, and your job is to be respectful, to have just a moderately decent attitude. I know sometimes you have a tough day, sometimes you have a lot of emotions, but you gotta do the bare minimum for me at least.” And from that moment, there was a shift. And I didn’t just, you know, react in my own emotions.

Right, well, his parents came and talked to you, and then they talked to him, but they’ve had major breakthrough. They had been struggling with him for a couple years, but there’s been a major breakthrough. I was actually worried ’cause you were brutally honest with them. But anyway, it worked out good, and so-

But you have to be rooted and grounded in love. And that’s not an emotional love. And that’s not just a fleeting love. That’s an agape kind of love. A steadfast, unchanging, unconditional love.

Well, this is talking really about us getting established in the love of God, his love for us.

And that affects everything else too.

And he says, “When you get established in the love of God, when Christ takes up residence in your heart by faith, and you get established in the love of God, you begin to understand with all the saints, what is, you get a revelation of that love.” He said, “You need to get a revelation of that love. You need to get a revelation of the grace of God for you. What is the breadth, the length, the depth, the height, to come to know,” that word in the Greek in verse 19, to know means to come to know the love of Christ. You grow in that revelation knowledge of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. It passes book learning. I can tell you about it, but it takes God to give you a revelation of the love of God. You know, I talked to Andrew Wommack one time because, you know, I was actually pastoring for, you know, six years before I got a revelation of grace. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, called to preach when I was 14 years old in Andrew Wommack’s Bible Study. And I didn’t get a revelation of the grace of God, a real revelation of it, until 16 years later when I’d been pastoring for six years. When I was 30 years old, I got a revelation of the grace of God that completely changed my life. And I was sharing, actually, with a teacher at the Bible school, and I told Andrew about this situation because this guy was a great guy. This guy operating the gifts of the Spirit, he was a man of his word, he was a man of integrity, but he did not have a revelation of love. And I went and gave this guy teaching on Jesus Plus Nothing. And then I told Andrew Wommack about it, and Andrew told me, “Lawson, I’ve taught grace all around the world.” But he said, “I’m convinced if God doesn’t give people a revelation of the love of God, they’re not gonna get it.” You’ve got to receive it, which is consistent with 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

And Paul, you know, in that Ephesians 1 prayer, he prays for that Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Some things only come by revelation.

Yeah, and so he says this, “That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, to come to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.” It’s not book knowledge. You know, people can tell you about it, but you gotta get revelation of it by the Holy Spirit, “that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” When you get a revelation of the grace of God, you’re just gonna get full of God. You get full of God, you’re gonna get full of love and joy and peace, and longsuffering-

Yeah, the Kingdom of God, it’s righteousness, peace, and joy and the Holy Ghost. If I see that a minister never smiles, never laughs, has zero joy, I tune ’em out. I figured out this guy, this guy’s not in the Kingdom of God, really. You know, if they don’t have any joy about them, if they don’t have any humor about them or any, you know, any smile. Some people, they just have ministries of criticism.

They have death.

They’re just mad and criticizing, that’s all they do.

That’s a ministry of death.

There’s a lot of YouTube prophets out.

Ministry of the law.

That’s all they do. They just criticize and fume and try to tear down, and just, all they do is talk about what’s wrong, exposing this, exposing that, exposing. And they aren’t really ministering the grace of God, the love of God. All they’re doing is trying to-

Amen. So we need to get established in the love of God. Go on to verse 20. “Now unto him that is able to do,” this is one of my favorite verses in this book, and this is one of my favorite books. “Now unto him, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or even think, according to the power that works in us.” See, we could say what power works in us. Well, we have the power of the Word of God. We’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God that lives and abides forever. 1 Peter 1:23, “We have the power of the Spirit of Christ, the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in us and quickens our mortal body.” Romans 8:11, “We have the power of the Holy Spirit. Out of our belly flows rivers of living water.” John 7, verse, what? Verse 37 or verse 39, right in there, verse 38. And then he says this, but right here, what’s he talking about? The context is getting full of the love of God. We’ve got the power of the love of God. When you get a revelation of the love of God for you, of the grace of God for you, it’s gonna change you. It’s gonna change how you receive from God. “Now unto him, who’s able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, the power of his great love. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages of the world without end.” You see, we need to learn to rely on his presence. We need to learn to realize his love. We need to learn to rest in his grace. And when we do that, we’re gonna manifest his glory.

That’s awesome. Now, God is always gonna, he’s an exceedingly abundantly kind of God. You know, he can go beyond what you ask, beyond what you think, beyond your wildest dreams. God has done that in my life, you know?

Lawson He’s done it in mine.

He’s more than enough. He’s abundant, so.

Amen. God has been so good to us, Aaron. God has been so good. I think about, you know, the fact of, you know, what he’s done for your mom and I. We have a great marriage. We pastor a great church. We have three great sons that, you know, all of you are healthy and strong, love Jesus, have good families. And we’re blessed. You know what? Spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially, and he’ll do it for you. Hey, we’ve got hundreds of teachings on the internet, on our website, free of charge, check ’em out. God bless you today.

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