Ephesians 3:20

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21)

The world cannot tell you who you are or where you are going — but the prayers of Paul unveil a destiny in Christ that begins right now.

The Shifting Lens of the Western World

Our day in 21st-century America is commonly referred to under the banner of postmodernism. It's not a worldview that's easy to define, because the term gets applied to many fields — postmodern architecture, literature, music, design, thought, and philosophy. To add to the confusion, some philosophers now say we've moved into a post-postmodern era, which is even harder to pin down.

At the end of the day, these terms simply describe progressive shifts in the way we in the West frame our existence — the way we understand reality, meaning, and the purpose of life. It's just the lens we look through. And if you back the clock up five or six hundred years, you'd find a very different lens.

For more than a thousand years, people in the West framed their understanding of the world through theism — that there was a personal God who created everything and was interested in relating to His creation. But in the 1600s and 1700s, a shift took place toward deism: the idea that yes, there is a creative God, but He set things in motion and exists out on the edge of the cosmos, uninterested in interacting with us.

From Naturalism to Nihilism

As science grew through the 1700s and 1800s, the modernist era moved us from deism to naturalism. One of the key movers of that thought was Charles Darwin. Naturalism held that there is no God — everything just exists and always has. This wasn't new; many Greek philosophers fifteen hundred years earlier believed the universe always was. The naturalist mindset of the 1800s said it has all been here and everything progressively evolved.

At the end of the 1800s came nihilism, whose chief architect was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who coined the phrase, "God is dead." It's amazing to study Nietzsche's life, because he was a Christian on his way to seminary to become a clergyman before a drastic change took place. He moved to a despairing, zero-point view that there is no purpose and no meaning in this chaotic world — which is ultimately what happens if there is no God, no moral lawgiver, no one to give dignity to humanity. Even Nietzsche hoped we'd find a way to break through nihilism, but that was his depressing view of how the world works.

Existentialism and the Birth of Postmodernism

Out of that meaninglessness grew existentialism, shaped by the French atheist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism says there is purpose — but only the purpose you create for yourself. Sartre shaped much of 20th-century thought; those who lived through the youth revolution of the 1960s were being pushed along by his thinking, even if they never knew his name. Mix in Eastern thought (remember those four guys called the Beatles?), and as Western existentialism merged with Eastern mysticism through the New Age, the postmodern era was born.

Sartre wrote in his essays on existentialism: "Man exists. He turns up. He appears on the scene, and only afterwards he defines himself... There is no human nature since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after that." We are self-made people who must discover ourselves and then frame for ourselves what we will be.

Apply that to 7.2 billion conscious beings, and you end up with an infinite number of meanings and purposes — and no one meaning can be greater than another. Everything is relative. You've experienced this: you share your view with a friend or coworker, and they say, "I'm glad you have that. You have your truth and I have my truth." It is the worst thing in the world today to say your belief is greater than someone else's. That is the postmodern mind. There is no common narrative, no underlying story that coherently describes what life is about. It's a life with no foundation, no anchor — choose-your-own-adventure life for every human on earth.

Questions the Modern World Cannot Answer

The problem is that this shifty river of thought can't answer the philosophical questions that any worldview must answer. Origin is fuzzy: where did we come from? The naturalistic mind says everything burst onto the scene fifteen billion years ago, but we don't know how or why. We spend billions on projects like the particle collider at CERN to zero in on what started it all.

There's a documentary on Netflix called Particle Fever about physicists searching for the Higgs boson — the "God particle" theorized by Peter Higgs in the 1950s. About two and a half years ago, they found it — but it didn't work the way they expected. At the end of the film, one of these brilliant minds is driving home saying, "Everything we've written is wrong. All the textbooks need to be rewritten." Everything they thought they knew, they didn't know.

Identity falls strictly on you — figure out for yourself who you are, your own meaning, value, and purpose, with no intrinsic dignity from anything. Destiny is unknown — where do we go after this? And purpose — what are you here for? For many in the West, the only purpose is to perpetuate humanity, just to keep it going. This is why so many are passionate about climate change; they see it as a crisis that could destroy us, so fixing it becomes their purpose, their religious work, even if it's never framed in religious terms.

The Bible's Compelling Answer

It is my conviction that the Bible presents the most compelling and coherent worldview, giving the best answers to identity, origin, destiny, and purpose. Who am I? The Bible answers with a resounding yes — God created us in His image. Where did we come from? God is, and He made us; we are made by Him and for Him, and in Him we live and move and have our being. Where are we going? God has an answer for that too, and from it our purpose is defined.

In our series called Identity, we've been studying Ephesians, written by the apostle Paul 2,000 years ago to Christians in Ephesus. Paul wrote to a Greco-Roman culture whose worldview is philosophically not much different from ours — there's nothing new under the sun. The word of God never changes; it's living and powerful for every age.

What We've Seen So Far: I Am, I Was

In Ephesians 1 we considered our identity, our I am. Paul uses two words — in Christ — to define who we are. In Christ we receive at least ten things: we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, chosen, predestined, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, given revelation, given an inheritance, and given an eternal future. And all of it is by grace (Ephesians 1:2). We didn't merit it.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

In Ephesians 2 we looked at our I was, our origin. We were dead in trespasses and sins (2:1). We were enemies of God, walking in disobedient opposition, under the direction of another spirit, the devil (2:2). We were led about by the lustful desires of a fallen, carnal mind and were under the wrath of God (2:3). As Paul says in Romans 2, we were storing up wrath for the day of wrath — like a huge warehouse of wrath waiting to be delivered. A fearful thing indeed.

Our Destiny: I Will Be

Now in chapter three we look at our destiny — our I will be. The world provides no compelling narrative and no convincing answer to purpose, which is where we'll go in chapters four, five, and six. But the gospel is the best place to find the answer to who we are, who we were, and who we will be.

Ephesians addresses destiny through the prayers of Paul. Remember, Paul didn't write in chapters and verses — those markers were added later and are not divinely inspired. He wrote one letter, and twice he pauses to record his prayer for the church: once in chapter one and once in chapter three. These prayers open our eyes to our destiny, especially because of how Paul finishes the prayer in chapter three.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21)

God Is Able

Ephesians 3:20–21 reminds the Ephesians — and us — that the God to whom these prayers are directed is able to answer our petitions. The prayers of chapters one and three are not words that go out into the air and do nothing. God hears and is able to answer. The word able means capable and powerful — the Greek dunami, connected to dunamis, the word for power in Acts 1:8: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." God divinely gives us the ability to do what He calls us to do.

Not only is God able; He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more. The New Living Translation says He can accomplish "infinitely more than we might ask or think." My six-year-old son Ethan loves the number infinity right now — he keeps asking what's greater than infinity. It's a big number you can't fully comprehend, and God is able to do infinitely more than we ask. The NIV says "immeasurably more"; J.B. Phillips says "far more than we even dare to ask or imagine."

This means we routinely ask far less than what God can do. Our prayers are always lower than what He's able to accomplish. God can powerfully accomplish all that we ask of Him in prayer. That's why every week we ask you to write down your prayer requests — because we believe this. You can never out-pray the power of God. He is capable, strong, and able.

Hope as Absolute Expectation

The fulfillment of Paul's prayers is our destiny in Christ, and that destiny involves a great word: hope. Remember the 2008 presidential campaign and President Obama's message of hope, with those red-white-and-blue posters? People were charged up by that word. But human hope is usually a blind shot in the dark — wishful thinking. People say, "I really hope I win the lottery," when you have more chance of being struck by lightning on a clear day.

Biblical hope is different. A word study shows that Christian hope is accentuated by calm certainty — absolute expectation that these things will come to pass. When the Christian says, "I hope to be with God in heaven," it's not wishful thinking but absolute certainty. Why? Because, as Hebrews says, "He who promised is faithful." Hope for the Christian is not wishful thinking, but absolute expectation. Because God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, we can trust He will fulfill these prayers — and their fulfillment is our destiny.

The Two Prayers

Therefore I also...do not cease to give thanks for you...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe... (Ephesians 1:15–19)

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

At the end of this second prayer Paul says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." He reminds himself and the church: God can and will do this.

This Destiny Is Here and Now

The first thing to note is that this destiny is here and now. Yes, the Christian has a destiny in heaven — I'm trusting you already know that. Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled... In My Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14). But I'm worried we sometimes think heaven is all there is to our destiny. Too many Christians live as if they have only eternity to look forward to and nothing of value to be hopeful for here and now.

To put a twist on 1 Corinthians 15:19 — if in the life to come only we have hope, then we are of all men most pitiful. If the only thing we have to look forward to is the future, Christianity becomes a mere escapist ploy: "Can we just get out of here? This place is awful." I've heard too many Christians with that mindset. But Jesus said in John 10, "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and that more abundantly" — here and now. Our destiny in Christ is more than just heaven.

If escape were the point, God would have just taken us out when we believed. Instead He left us here. In His high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus prayed, "Father, I do not pray that You should take them out of the world." Why? Because He has an abundance of life and communion with God that He wants us to experience now.

What Paul Prays We Would Experience Now

In chapter one Paul prays we'd receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in full measure — that we'd experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit's power and presence. This echoes Isaiah 11:2, where the Spirit of the Lord — of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord — rests on the Messiah.

He prays our eyes would be enlightened to grasp the hope of His calling. Peter says we are called to eternal glory by Christ Jesus, so part of that hope is that God has called you to be the canvas upon which He glorifies Himself. He prays we'd grasp the riches of our inheritance — that you'd comprehend how wealthy you are in Christ, the beneficiary of every spiritual blessing. And he prays we'd know the exceeding greatness of His power — the same power that raised Christ from the dead, at work in your daily life.

In chapter three he prays God would mightily strengthen us through His Spirit in the inner man, so that as we live out our purpose we experience His empowering. He prays that Christ would dwell in our hearts — for we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3, 6), and Christ in us is the hope of glory (Colossians). He prays we'd comprehend the love of God — its width, length, depth, and height.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

God wants you to comprehend how great His love is — because then you realize He doesn't love you based on what you've done. Most Christians live tossed to and fro: "He loves me, He loves me not." God wants us to come into the settled awareness that He loves us. Finally, Paul prays we'd be filled with all the fullness of God now, not just in heaven. In Colossians, all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus bodily, and we are complete in Him.

This Destiny Transforms Our Purpose

Yes, our destiny is to be with God forever — but it's more than heaven. It is to come into the full awareness of the love of Christ, the power of God, the indwelling of Jesus, and the strengthening of our inner person so we can fulfill our purpose, which we'll cover next week. We've looked at I am (chapter one), I was (chapter two), and I will be (chapter three). Next week: I should be — "walk worthy of the calling with which you were called" and "no longer walk as the rest of the world walks."

One reminder: this destiny is only for those in Christ. If you're not a Christian, this is not yet your destiny — you're in that quagmire, trying to figure out your purpose. But Jesus Christ has a purpose for your life, far bigger than anything you've experienced. To come into the awareness of it is to put your trust in Christ for salvation, that by grace, through faith, He will receive, adopt, and forgive you, and make you His treasure.

Finally, this destiny transforms our purpose. Grasping these truths changes what we live for and how we live daily. What does it mean to grasp the width, length, depth, and height of God's love? To experience the fullness of God and the indwelling Spirit? From that, the sin that has dominated your life loses its grip, and the power of God gives you the ability to leave behind what you've never been able to leave before — the sin that so easily ensnares you.

So this week, ask: What is your I will be? Is something keeping you from laying hold of these things — maybe just a mental block, "He can't forgive me, you don't know what I've done"? That's not what the Scriptures say. He draws near to the brokenhearted and the contrite who confess, "Lord, forgive me," and they experience His grace and power. May these things be worked in us, that we'd experience the transforming power of God and not live a deflated life in Christ like Tom Brady's footballs.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we rejoice in You. The apostle Paul said, "Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Again I say, rejoice." God, help us to rejoice in You today and in the good things You have done, knowing that You have the power, the ability, the capability to do what Paul prayed for Your church — exceedingly, abundantly, immeasurably, and infinitely more. And Lord, teach us to pray bigger for our own lives and for the lives of those around us. Our prayers come so low compared to what You're able to do. Stretch us to pray bigger for the person we think could never come to faith, for the issue in our own life we think we'll never overcome. Help us to be diligent in bringing those things to You, knowing You are able. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.