You get some people, and I had a
brother telling me recently about his concern for
people who, they seem to talk the talk,
but they seem to lack a sense of
the reality.
And you know, when your Christianity is all
theory, that's bad.
That's bad because Christianity deals with more than
just a knowledge up here of what the
truths are.
You know what I see?
I see some people, and we don't want
to be these people, they know the truth
and they try to persuade themselves that what
is true of biblical Christianity, because it's described
in this book, they try to persuade themselves
that it's true of them.
But we're talking of something, listen, if Christ
indwells your heart, and you're rooted and grounded
in that love that He saturates you with,
and you begin to have some idea about
the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to grab hold of this unsearchable love
of Christ, and you're filled with all the
fullness of God, I guarantee that's not the
kind of thing where you have to sit
back and say, well, I don't feel the
reality of this, but because I believe it
in my head, I'm going to try to
persuade myself that this is real.
That's not what's happening here.
That's not the kind of Christianity we find
in Scripture.
Let me ask you this, is Christ real
to you?
Is Christ real within you?
I'm not talking religion and church and reading
your Bible and singing the hymns.
Is Christ real to you?
Him.
Has He come in, and in the same
way that He would sit down with somebody
and have supper with them, and you would
know it, do you know that reality?
Because if not, I'm telling you, don't be
content.
Look, if you're not ready to go further
here, if you're content with this, you can
be content with that.
But I think verses like this are meant
to make us not content, and to take
the prayer as an indication that this is
a promise.
If Paul weren't under inspiration, we might question,
well, he's fallible.
Could he be praying for something God wouldn't,
maybe perhaps, really be willing to give us?
But he is under inspiration, which means Paul
asking this for us is as good as
it being a promise.
This is God telling him, Paul, pray that
way for them.
And let's record it in the letter to
the Ephesians for all the future generations to
see that this is a very valid and
legitimate thing to ask for, because I intend
to give this.
It's a promise.