Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Secret to Spiritual Growth | New Testament | Ephesians 3

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

How have you seen God's work of growth in your life? Are there ways you may be stunting your own growth? What can you do to grow in your faith today? In today's episode, guest host Jeff Parrett uses Ephesians 3 to share the key to spiritual growth. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Ephesians 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. So at TMBT family, our co-host Jensen is out on maternity leave right now. Super exciting. So we asked our friend Jeff Parrott to fill in for a couple of episodes. Now, Jeff is a pastor, and he has a way of talking about the Bible that resonates with all ages. He's also incredibly kind. I think you're going to enjoy meeting Jeff on today's episode.

Here he is. Everyone recognizes the beauty and glory of growth, whether it's the physical growth of a child, the ascent of a thriving company, or the progress of a student learning a skill. I'm reminded of a particular kind of growth on the west coast among the sequoia trees, some of the oldest and biggest living things on planet Earth. If you've ever stood before the grandeur of a sequoia tree or seen images of them, you've no doubt been struck by the majesty of how a tiny, seed can become such a titan of God's creation. See, growth isn't just a matter of size and weight.

It's a matter of substance and wonder. How do you measure progress, success, and growth? Of course, it depends on what you're measuring. For a toddler, growth is tracked through physical metrics like height and weight. Athletes look to the scoreboard and season record. Musicians listen for the applause of the audience and shouts of encore. In areas of life that matter to us, growth and progress are things worth tracking and fighting for. How then does someone think about progress, success, and growth in the Christian life? Sometimes as Christians, we can get our metrics for measuring spiritual growth mixed up and confused. We can almost be like musicians using height and weight to evaluate how well they're playing a piece of music. It just doesn't work out. It's not

helpful. Thankfully, Paul's letter to the Ephesians helps us think rightly about spiritual growth. This is the topic in Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. He prays this. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you being reaffirmed. That you being rooted and grounded in love may 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. Notice who the primary actor is in Paul's

prayer. It's God. It is His power and love that are at center stage. While spiritual growth does involve us, it is not dependent on us. It is fundamentally dependent on God himself. This frees us in seasons of spiritual dryness because God's work of growth does not automatically shut off when we're just not feeling it when we feel disconnected from God. Out of the gate, Ephesians 3 tells us that God is always on the move in our world and in our lives regardless of how we feel about him at any given moment in time. We need to focus on one particular detail in Paul's prayer, and that's his emphasis on the theme of strength. Paul prays in verse 16 for the Ephesians and for us to be strengthened with power through the

spirit, for Christ to dwell in our hearts. But what is that strength for? What do you think you need strength for? We usually think we need strength to fight sin, which is absolutely true and good. We also tend to think of strength in terms of learning new skills or facts. Yes, indeed, we do need strength to grapple with spiritual disciplines like engaging with prayer and scripture, but that's not why Paul prays for strength here. His reason is far more foundational. In verse 18, Paul says that we need strength to comprehend the love of Jesus that surpasses knowledge. It's so vast and glorious that it can't be measured by breadth or breadth.

length or height or depth. It's a love that exceeds the limits of our cognition and our intellect. God's love is so great that we need God's strength to comprehend it. I sometimes hear people talk like the love of Jesus is somehow an elementary or entry-level topic for the Christian life, as if it's something you can graduate from in order to engage with higher-order concerns. And I have to confess that I think this way myself sometimes. But Paul's prayer here is a wake-up call. If you think you've moved beyond the love of Jesus, you've missed the love of Jesus. If you think that you can have God's love completely figured out as if you don't need God's strength to comprehend it, then you're probably not growing. You're probably stunted,

and you don't even realize it. If we're not more and more amazed by the love of Jesus as the years of our lives go by, it's usually because we're more and more amazed by ourselves. Paul is saying that if we want to grow spiritually, the only hope we have is to be rooted in the love of Jesus. And I need God's strength to comprehend that love. And if I'm growing there in the love of Jesus, that I'm also able to grow with other people. Because comprehending God's love connects us to the love of community. According to this prayer, we are meant to comprehend the vast love of God with all the saints, as Paul says. God's love isn't something that I discover as an isolated individual, but as a part of a community of faith.

See, Christianity is a group project. It's ultimately centered on our union with God himself. And without the group, there is no growth in that union with God. Paul ends his prayer with a doxology, looking to God as the source of his ultimate confidence. We read this in verses 20 through 21. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now first, notice how Paul's prayer stretches our capacity to see and understand the fullness

of what God's work entails. For Paul, it's not simply a possibility that God is doing more than we're aware of. It's a certainty. My expectations are always too small. Whether those expectations are related to what God might do in my life, or in someone else's life, or in the movement of the culture and history, the potential for God's kingdom movement is limitless because his power is at work within the life of his people.

Finally, this doxology at the end of Paul's prayer reminds us that the glorious work of God isn't just for now, but for all generations, forever and ever. This means that our growth in Christ carries a future orientation. If your life is progressively more and more rooted in the love of Jesus within the community of faith, God will use your life to bless future generations. Imagine that. There are people you've never met and never will meet,

people who haven't even been born yet, who will be impacted because of God's movement through your life. God will use your presence in your office, in your school, in your dorm, in your home, in your neighborhood to move in future generations. In your capacity as a mentor, a friend, a child, a parent, a spouse, or a roommate, God's kingdom will extend into more lives and future generations. Your life will be about telling his story for his glory. Don't you want that kind of growth for your faith, for your life, for your community?

The sequoia trees that leave us in awe of God's beauty and glory as the Creator teach us another lesson about growth. Given the magnitude of sequoia trees, it's easy to assume that their strength and longevity come from roots that sink deep into the soil. But that assumption is wrong. The roots of sequoia trees don't go deep. They're actually quite shallow. Their strength comes not from the depth they go into the soil,

but from the fact that their roots are intertwined with what. one another. The interconnection of their root systems provides the structure and the strength that they need to withstand opposing forces and promote healthy growth. In Ephesians 3, Paul is telling us the same thing is true about the growth of the Christian life. When we are rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus together, God grows not only our faith, but His kingdom as well. That is the beauty and glory of our growth in Christ together. How have you seen God's work of growth in your life? Are there ways you may be stunting your growth with Jesus? What would it look like for you to root your life in the love of Jesus alongside a community of faith? Thank God that his growth leads to a

glory and a beauty that is greater than anything we can ask or imagine.