It is now heavenly blessing, and that is their portion in the Lord. So he said, now we get an idea of his ministration from verse seven through verse twelve. Here is where he said, Whereof I was made a minister. Now this word here, in one sense, means a runner. It's a sense of a servant who moves out like that. It's a sense of one who carries a message. It's also a sense of just a plain servant. It is a sense of a minister carrying out a stewardship, a servant carrying out a stewardship. So when we look at Paul's ordination in verse one and two, he was ordained of God. He was called of God. And God caused him to be his prisoner and an apostle. You know, he was pointed out of God, wasn't he? He was designated of God. Now, somebody asked me sometime, are you ordained? Of course, I know what they're getting at. I say, of course, I'm ordained. Well, what group did you get your ordination in? I said, oh, I'm ordained of the Lord. What do you mean by that? Well, the Lord says, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you to go and bring forth truth. We do have an ordination of the Lord. That's simply appointing out. And when the Lord appointed Paul as an apostle, he called himself an apostle called out of due season. And so if he did have an ordination, he had a ministration as well. And that meant that he had a servanthood and a stewardship to fulfill. Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power. If I was to ask Bill, are you a minister? If I was to ask Fred, are you a minister? Oh, did you answer me, Fred? Yeah. We ought to be, every one of us ought to be servants. Every one of us ought to be stewards, faithful to the gospel of reconciliation that's committed unto us, that we might bring it to others. Now, where do we get that from? He says, oh, he told us yesterday. Our faith was a gift, didn't He? He says again, Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God. It's God's grace that brings us as stewards to serve Him. It's God's grace that appoints us as ministers, as runners for Him, bearing a message, bearing a message. And so his desire then, as Paul was, to bring it to the Gentiles, it was given to God unto him by the effectual working of the power of God. Now every man who is a minister and a servant, he has a work to do. And so he says, unto me, who am left in the least of all saints, of all the holy ones, a saint is a holy one. And so he says, is this grace given? that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now we've been growing in something. Chapter one, I reminded you of this last night, the riches of His grace in verse seven. Chapter two, verse seven, the exceeding that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now we read of unsearchable riches in Christ. Starts with riches. Then it goes to exceeding riches. Now it goes to unsearchable riches. In other words, if we view God, He is infinite. So then everything about God is infinite. That means His understanding is infinite. means His holiness is infinite, means His love is infinite, means His riches is infinite, means His grace is infinite, means His mercy is infinite. There is no limit, no line that you can lay upon God and measure out any of His attributes that He is. And so as we view it and what He's saying here in Paul's ministration, what was given to Him, and He considered Himself in a lowly position. As a servant, as a minister, he didn't do as so many do. I'm going to run this place. He didn't do that at all. He had the authority. And even when he wrote to the Corinthians and rebuked them, it was in a manner of grace that he did it. And he left their responsibility with them, even though he had authority as an apostle. And so here again, he said he's the least of all the saints. And this grace is given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And so he does. What's God's unsearchable riches? Well, just as I said, you can preach the mercy of God, you can preach the love of God, you can preach the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the long-sufferingness of God. It's all unsearchable riches. I kind of look at it like the ocean. If the ocean was freshwater, please. Okay. I can't drink at all, but I can dip my cup in and drink to my fill. And that's the way he is limitless in its riches. And Paul said he came to preach them. See, when we preach the message of salvation, is it always a message of judgment? Is it always a mission that says, Hell is there? You better run. You're going to, the wicked are turned into hell. And we take verse after verse. Or do we temper that with something? We do, don't we? We temper it with the grace of God. We say, even though this is the holiness of God, He must judge sin on an unrepentant sinner. Yet sinner, He loved you so much, He gave His Son to die for you. And so we do have a ministration of grace, and in the fullness of it, He said, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Oh, before he'd just been talking about the mystery of the two bodies into one. Now he says there's a fellowship in that mystery. How much fellowship do you have in that mystery here? Fellowship means to share in common. There's the sharing certainly in the sense that we're sons of God. There's the sharing in the sense that we're of one body. but there ought to be a sharing in an abundant way of the love that he has shown toward me and we fulfill his commandments to love one another. He says, I like this, the writer in Hebrews puts it in a continuing sense. He says, let brotherly love, what? Continue. He is assuming that it is already there and in the Spirit it is. And he is saying, let it continue. And in the fellowship of the mystery, in the fellowship of Christ revealing himself in the body of the two-made one. There is the fellowship of love. Now, if you were to go to Philippians chapter two, you'd find out there's a fellowship in the Spirit. There's a fellowship in love and a fellowship in comfort in one another. There's the fellowship that is there. There's a fellowship in suffering. Chapter one in the book of Philippians is a fellowship in the gospel. Paul uses that over, I think, two or three times in chapter one of the book of Philippians. There is a fellowship in it. And so here he's speaking of the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hidden God who created all things by Jesus Christ. And now he says this fellowship is to the intent. to the intent that he might now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. In other words, God's design then, his design was to bring the two bodies into one through his own grace in Christ, and then by doing that show to principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God. That's amazing, isn't it? The things that God is using the church as an instrument. A voice to speak to angelic beings. Boy, that's something. You know, I see you ladies with your head covered tonight. You got something on your head. You're speaking to the angels. You're speaking to the angels. See, it's because of the angels that a woman covers her head. Not because a culture. Not because the woman's lower than the man. not because of any of those things because of the angels. That's the reason she has power, authority on her head. That's to the glory of God. That's to the glory of God. That's only one thing. What God really wants through the totality of the church, that the angels might see the love of Christ in me shed abroad. That's what he wants. That the angels can stand in amazement And look at these physical reps spiritually, what we were before He called us, and then what He did in us through His grace. I can say as the writer of a poem some time ago, you know, I'm sure you heard it. He could say, I am not what I ought to be. But praise God, I'm not what I used to be. That's boiling it down into just two lines. But that's indeed what I can say. I thank God even though I am not what I ought to be I am not what I used to be there's a progression of growth and grace and that's what we have here and that's what Paul's going to bring us to if I get to it here that's what he wants us to display to the church or through the church to the principalities and power and it is according to there again is the clue to the book the two words according to what eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ our Lord God had an eternal design. God had an eternal purpose and he's fulfilling it in his Son. And so Paul in his ministration he had a message. It was a message of grace. A message to preach of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now it is in Christ then in verse twelve we have boldness and access through confidence by faith in him. Wherefore, I desire ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is for your glory. And so now he speaks of his own affliction, his tribulation, his being in prison. He's saying to them, Don't be burdened down over that. He said, It's for your glory. It's for your benefit. It's for your grace. And so he said, My desire is then that you faint not at my tribulations. You know, it's easy to look at some older Christian sometime and see his affliction and then say, as a younger person, well, how come God is treating him like that? He was such a saint and now look at him suffer. I can show you some godly men who suffered much in the end of their lives before they died. I do not know why and I don't judge God's motives or check on his ways. He allowed them to do it and God had some eternal purpose in it. Maybe it was to work something and then you and I know nothing about. And maybe it's just to draw them a little closer so he's more sweet to them. So when they're ushered in, in a moment they're joyful. Sometimes as young people, we get burden when we watch the older ones suffer and affliction comes and it seems so hard. My heart used to really go out when I see young couples tried and afflicted. My own heart gets heavy, but I've been able to watch and see what good affliction does, kind of refines them. It does refine them. But Paul is saying here, Don't be weary and don't get faint because you see me through a little trial and tribulation. He said, I desire that ye faint not at my tribulation, which is for your glory. It was. By Paul's suffering, it was for the glory of the saints. Look at how abundant things he wrote while he was in prison. Look at this book, The Glories of His Grace, so abundant that he gave to us while he's in prison. Now Paul takes up the intercession, his prayer, and this is what he finishes the book with. There is only really one basic supplication here, one. And that we read up here. He said, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you got any question as to a position of prayer, well, there's a good suggestion. of 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 by his spirit in the inner man. Now he is requesting of God a prayer again, an intercession. Chapter one he prayed, that they had had knowledge and that they had wisdom and revelation, didn't he? Now he's praying something for their well-being. that through His experiences they might grow strong. And that God, out of the riches of His grace, out of the plenitude of His divine perfections, He would minister to them. And if we look at those divine perfections again, we can see the long-sufferingness of God, the gentleness of God, the goodness of God, and all these things. What a benefit, the mercy of God, the love of God that it brings to you. Those are, that's really the plenitude of His divine perfection, abundant grace, riches of His grace and of His glory, to be strengthened now by His Spirit in the inner man. What's the inner man? Oh, that's the soul that's been turned to Christ. That's the soul that has the Spirit come and live within it. That is the soul that is being conformed to the image of His Son. That is Christ as He is being perfected in the individual. And we are strengthened then by His Spirit in the inner man. How do I get that? Well, it's through the Word of God. It's through a yieldedness to Him. You know, I've recently sat down with people who have said to me, Well, I just am so discouraged. I think I was born again and I ought to have the new nature. And it all ought to be there. I ought to be dead, and I ought to be perfect. Well, in my experience, I think the day that we're totally dead to the old nature is when we're six feet under. But there is the practical aspect to it when he says to it, we need to reckon ourselves dead. Do we need to believe we died with Christ? And so he says here, this inner man needs to be strengthened, and I'm going to pray that he is strengthened. It is very evident he was not perfected yet. It is very evident. If he was, Paul would not have to pray for the strengthening of the inner man. And we need to see that. Sometimes we're so filled with guilt and we're kicking ourselves in the seat of the pants because we just aren't that perfect image of Christ. But you know what? I want to encourage you. When you see a sin in your life, maybe you've got a temper, okay? We'll pick on that one. And it gets wild and you vent it. And suddenly as you do, shame hits you. What do you do? Well, if that inner man is being strengthened and you're growing in the inner man, the first thing you're going to do is bow before him. You're going to confess that as sin. You're going to acknowledge to God what it is. And then you're going to purpose in your heart to try to take the positive aspect and fill your life with meekness instead of anger. We're going to look at that in the next chapter. But see, that's the aspect of putting on that which is positive. So he prayed that you would be strengthened by a spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, and that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all things. What is the breadth and length and depth and height? Look, on one hand, he says, you're able to comprehend it, and to apprehend it, to lay hold of it. And on the other hand, he said, And to know the love of Christ would pass its knowledge. There's no way you can understand it all. It passes knowledge. Yet he said you can know it. How do we know it? We know it experientially, don't we? Because we enter into the love. We dip our cup in and we drink to the fill. And when we are rooted and grounded, and then the storm comes and the wind blows. It doesn't blow over. We don't blow over so easy. And that there is something that comes out of our life. Remember the song of Solomon? And the bride, she's got a garment. Oh, she's got a garden. And she says to the north wind, come north wind, blow on my garden. She invites the north wind. Wow, the north wind's a bitter wind. That's trial, isn't it? But when it blows on the garden, what to do? It blows the fragrance outside the garden so somebody else can enjoy it out there. And sometimes the trial comes And it takes the fragrance of our life as we're refined and the north wind blows. And then the blessings of the fragrance that he's touched in our life, that of Christ begins to go out and touch other lives as well. Sometimes we need that. But you know we need to be rooted in his love and grounded in his love. Faith reaches out. Faith roots us. The Word of God grounds us. We can't have a root without faith. That is our root. And we are then grounded through the Word of God. And we're strengthened. And you know when we're grounded good? And when the root's good? When we do, as he says in Psalm one. Isn't it? That you walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor... stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seed of the stormful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be as a tree. Planted by rivers of water. Where does it root go? Oh, boy. You ever look along the river sometimes on a dry season, you see the trees near the river, they're all green. And you look at the trees beyond, mile or so away, they're all dry. Why? Oh, the tree by the river has got a root going down. It's drawn of the water of that river. And you know, when we have the root in faith and we've drawn near to the Lord Jesus, then the root grows down and it grows strong and we take strength and we're strengthened then by faith and love. We're rooted and grounded in the inner man by his spirit as we take up his word and walk in a yieldedness to it. Now, his desire was that we would know the love of Christ. and to enter into the blessings of the realm of that love. Jude put it this way, keeping yourself in the love of God. That means in the realm of his love. That means not going out to the world, but keeping yourself in the place where his love abides. And this is what he says here, as he ends this chapter. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we could ask for sin. We don't have a stingy God. We don't have a God who is limited in his ability. We have a God who is infinite and unlimited. And Paul's prayer is that he would be glorified. He says, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through all ages. So he took it. In the first verse, For this cause you're all brought into one body. Verse fourteen, for this cause. See, the first part of the chapter is sort of like a parenthetical portion. He says, I'm going to build a little foundation for you. Now he goes back, for this cause, I would have you not to think. And then he gives us the prayer that he puts forth that we might be strong in him. Have you rejoiced in that? It's for this cause. What cause? To bring glory to God because of what he's accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. A display of to all wonder of wonders that he should love me shall we pray