Message Recap
Teaching pastor Megan Marshman was with us today to conclude our Celebration of Hope (COH) series. She taught us from Ephesians 3, where the theme verse for this year's COH comes from. Essentially this passage is Paul saying a prayer to the Christians at Ephesus, but it was also for us. He wants all of us to look upward so that we might be filled inward and the love of God would flow outward.
Megan began with an illustration of a cup. She shared that growing up, she would splash love on coaches, friends, teachers—anyone she wanted to. It wasn’t until she had kids that she realized she created an unhealthy habit—she was throwing out her cup of love expecting people to fill it back. Eventually, she realized this unhealthy habit worked a little bit but created a dependence within her on being filled by others. She continued, a cup can only be filled if it’s facing up (she had been tilting her cup out towards others, "splashing" them with her love.) That’s the same with us. Our cup needs to stand upright so that God’s love can fill it. A cup does not work and cannot be filled, if it is lying on its side. It is only from His filling that we can love at all well because we don’t need people to be God’s love for us.
As we consider Ephesians 3:14-21 it's important to gain the broader context of the Scriptures. Megan shared that chapter one is telling us Jesus has accomplished everything we need, and we are deeply and completely loved. Chapter two is telling how that is even possible. So chapters one to three are telling us about what is true about those who follow Jesus. Chapters four to six then tell us what we do because of the truth found in one to three. Megan continued with three main points:
1. Look Upward: In Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14, Paul is kneeling, which is an expression that he is shattered with deep emotion. He is expressing complete surrender. He’s praying so that we might have faith deeply rooted in love so that we can grasp how wide and long and high is the love of Christ. He wants us to grasp how much we are loved—not to do anything—but to know we are already loved. In all of Paul’s prayers, he never asks for his circumstances to change (he’s in prison) because he’s always looking up!
2. Filled Inward: action comes from our inner being. Paul prays because he can’t make them change. Only God can convince us to change. Megan then continued with an onion illustration: each layer shows more and more what is deeply in us—one layer might be our appearance, the next our job, the next our family, the next hidden sin, etc. At the core, the truest thing about us, though, is that Christ is who we are. How do we become more like Christ? Through sanctification. What is sanctification? Our process of growth in which we become more like Jesus. Often though, we get this wrong. We think:
- God then me - God does it all and then I step in;
- God not me - God does it all and I don't have to do anything;
- God and me - God does some of the work and I do some of the work as if it's a 50/50 relationship;
- God in me - Growth is all God and all me. This is the proper approach!
3. Overflow Outward: What is the immeasurably more? It is that the entire world would be filled with Him. And that begins with us. We are loved that we might make him known among the earth (Psalm 67:1-3). Our job is to overflow, not because it’s what we should do. We overflow because it’s who we already are.
Megan concluded, COH is not asking for an emotional response. It’s an opportunity to live into who we already are at our core. He in you, you in Him.
