I am Filled

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8:40 Service | 10:00 Service | 11:20 Service | Sermon Audio

Good morning Chapel family. This summer we’re walking through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and we’re calling the series “Identity” because the truth of this letter has the power to deeply affect our self-image. And our self-image has a massive influence on almost every part of our lives.  

In college I majored in psychology. And we talked a lot about the classic “nature versus nurture” debate. Some people say we’re more influenced by our nature, or our genetics: “The reason I’m a shy and reserved person is because my father was shy and reserved, and I inherited the shy gene from him. There’s not much I can do about it.” That’s the nature side. But the nurture side says, “No, the reason you’re shy and reserved is because as you were growing up, you were surrounded by examples of shy people, so over the years you learned to act that way. That behavior was nurtured in you.” So…who’s right? I think they both are. 

But I’ve also come to believe something else: there’s a power that can actually override nature and nurture. If that’s true, that’s exciting isn’t it? Because if there are aspects of your self-image that are damaging your life right now—and there probably are—this means you’re not stuck there. You don’t have to continue getting in your own way and harming others. You can change. Amen? And that’s what Ephesians teaches us. 

I’m calling today’s message “I Am Filled.” So here’s my first question: as you sit here right now, do you feel empty…or do you feel full? Somebody’s going, “I just had a bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel—I am full.” That’s not what I’m talking about. As a person—as a spiritual being—do you feel empty or full?  

In the book of Ecclesiastes, which was written around 900 BC, King Solomon complains that all of his accomplishments and all of his possessions and all of his women have left him feeling empty. He says it’s like chasing after the wind. Centuries later, Henry David Thoreau wrote that most people lead lives of quiet desperation. That’s what I mean by “emptiness.” Feeling unsatisfied… restless… bored.  

Aren’t you glad that we now carry the Internet in our pockets, so we never have to get bored again? Isn’t that great? I mean, even when you’re sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, you can check the news, send a text, play a game, check Instagram. We have defeated boredom, right? No. The Daily Beast ran an article called “Generation Z is Already Bored by the Internet.” And they introduce this term, “phone boredom.” Here’s how they define it: “Phone boredom occurs when you’re technically ‘on your phone,’ but you’re still bored out of your mind. It’s that feeling when you’re mindlessly clicking around, opening and closing apps, looking for something to do digitally and finding the options uninteresting.” Have you ever felt phone bored? Even with the entire world in your pocket!...we can still feel empty. 

So obviously, “fullness” is the opposite of that. It means you feel alive and interested, and emotionally engaged. On a deeper level, you feel like life has purpose and meaning. Life is worth living. And it’s not necessarily based on your circumstances: you can drive a 2025 Mercedes and live in a Mountain Lakes mansion and feel empty…and you can drive a 2002 Civic and rent an apartment in Newark and feel full. So I’m talking about something much deeper than outward circumstances.  

So: as you sit here this morning and think about your life, do you feel empty, or do you feel full? As we continue in Ephesians today, we’re going to hear the secret to being filled.  

Let’s read the passage together—Ephesians chapter one, verses 15-23. This is God’s Word for us today… 

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. This is the Word of the Lord.  

That last verse—verse 23—says that Jesus is the one who fills everything in every way. Which means he can fill us. So I’m going to build the outline around that thought—it’s all about the fullness that Jesus gives.  

So, first: The Fullness of Christ is Personal. Look at verses 15 and 16: 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Apparently, messengers had come to visit Paul in prison, and they told him about his old friends in Ephesus—that they were doing well spiritually. And it seems like that report was the catalyst for Paul to sit down and write this letter. So he says, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” And then for the whole rest of this chapter, Paul tells them, specifically, what he’s praying for them. Just a side note, but an important one: it’s interesting to notice what Paul did not pray for. He didn’t pray for their health, or their safety, or their prosperity. Not that it’s wrong to pray for those things, but Paul knew that you can be healthy and safe and prosperous…and still empty. So his prayers go directly to what matters most. That challenges the way I pray for people. Doesn’t it challenge you? 

So here’s the first thing he prays for—verse 17: 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Pauls’ ultimate passion for these people, and he would pray the same thing if he were praying for us, is that we would know God better. The Greeks had two main words for “knowing.” The word gnosis meant you know something on a basic level. Gnosis. But the word epignosis means you know something or someone deeply, by personal acquaintance. And in verse 17, Paul prays tor their epignosis of God. So if we want to understand the fullness that’s being offered here, the first thing we have to know is that we are filled by someone—not by something. This is personal. “That you may know him better.” 

A few years ago we hosted a men’s event here at The Chapel, and the guest speaker was Charlie Ward. Charlie Ward played football for Florida State—he won the Heisman Trophy. And then, amazingly, he chose to play pro basketball instead of football, and played for the Knicks. So he came to speak, and I got to hang out with him! We sat downstairs before the event and I got to hear about his family, and his ministry, and his memories of his time with the Knicks. I know a bunch of things about Charlie Ward. But honestly, I don’t know him. And I’m pretty sure, if you said to him today, “Hey Charlie, what do you think of Pastor Dave from The Chapel?” he would say, “Pastor who?” Because he doesn’t know me either! Because there’s a big difference between knowing about and knowing. Between gnosis and epignosis.  

So… do you know some things about God; or do you know God? Because until you start knowing him, you will feel empty. 

Okay, so how do you even get to know God? You can’t touch him; you can’t see him. Look at verse 17 again. It says I keep asking that…God…may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. “The Spirit of wisdom and revelation” is talking about the Holy Spirit. Paul is not praying here that they’ll receive the Holy Spirit, because as believers, they already have the Holy Spirit (remember last week—verse 13 says the moment you believed, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit). So he’s praying that the Holy Spirit in them will bring them wisdom about who God is, and revelation—that the Spirit will reveal God to them. The reason you and I can know God—way better than I know Charlie Ward—is because God’s very Spirit dwells within us. But here’s the thing: you have to choose to pay attention to His presence in your life. 

My wife often reminds me of the basic marital fact that when we don’t spend any time together, our relationship gets distant. That’s very profound, isn’t it? “When you don’t spend any time with your wife, you will not be close to your wife.” That’s like Marriage 101. That’s how relationships work, right? Including your relationship with God. The Holy Spirit of God lives in us! But we have to choose to spend time with him and listen to what the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is trying to tell us.  

We just finished a series on prayer, and I shared with you my morning devotional routine: reading Scripture, meditating on Scripture, and then I go out and walk and pray. But it’s possible to do all of that, and have it be very academic and have it be all up here (head): facts, information—totally impersonal. But on a good day, I’m consciously allowing the Holy Spirit in me to light up the Word for me; to prompt my thoughts and guide my prayer. I am literally tuning my heart to the frequency of the Holy Spirit, just like you tune a car radio and you break through the static and you hear that clear signal. That’s when it goes from gnosis to epignosis—from knowing about to knowing. And when you stay on that frequency throughout the day, you are actually walking with God and staying aware of his presence and getting to know him like a friend. 

So this fullness that Jesus wants to give you—it’s a personal thing.  

Secondly, The Fullness of Christ is Hopeful. Verse 18 says: 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people… Those words “hope” and “inheritance” are futuristic words. They are about the future. And one of the things that makes us feel full or empty is the way we view the future. If your view of the future is optimistic and positive, you’ll feel full. If your view of the future is dark and negative, you will feel empty.  

There’s so much that’s been written about the rise of anxiety and depression since the pandemic. And people speculate all kinds of reasons why that’s happening. There seems to be some tie to economic conditions; certainly some connection with opioid abuse. But beneath all of that, I believe it comes from a lack of hope. When you look at your life, and you look at the future, and you don’t believe things will get any better.  

I’m not an expert counselor, but I’ve learned that very often, we believe our current situation is our permanent situation. Because we’re so focused on the problems of now, that we’re incapable of zooming out and realizing that this is a brief moment in time. It’s not permanent. For example, we have some kind of failure—we fail at work, or in school, or in a relationship. And we tell ourselves, “Well, this is it. I’m a failure. My life will forever be defined by this failure.” But God is looking at it from 50 million feet up, saying, “Okay, he’s going to have this moment of failure, but that’s just a tiny dot in the big picture of life. And especially, it’s a tiny dot in the big picture of eternity.” And so much of wisdom is learning to zoom out and look at the big picture.  

So look what Paul says: “I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened…” in other words, “that the lights will go on, and you’ll see that as someone who belongs to Christ, your future is good. You have a glorious inheritance.” So whatever you’re experiencing right now is not permanent; you’re not defined by it; the future is infinitely worth living for. 

A few years ago, a woman from our Chapel family told me that she’d been diagnosed with advanced cancer. And she sent me an email to explain how she was dealing with it. Let me read you a few lines. She wrote, “This situation will draw me nearer to the Lord I love. I trust Him with all my heart. The Lord and I will walk this road together. Down the road eventually will be a fork: one to the right and one to the left; one leads to recovery and the other to Heaven. Both these forks are good ones, because the King is with me.” That is a person who realized that if Christ is in us, we can’t lose. Right? It’s not that we look forward to chemotherapy, or we look forward to unemployment, or other hard things. But we know those things don’t have the last word. They’re just temporary steps along the way, and the end is awesomely good.  

There’s a famous quote from a 14th century spiritual leader named Julian of Norwich. And I just have this feeling that someone needs to hear this more than anything else in this message, because your life is a mess and you need hope. And this strong woman of faith said this: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” That’s the hopefulness that Jesus wants to fill you with. God is in it; he hasn’t abandoned you; and all will be well.  

So this fullness that Jesus gives—it’s a hopeful thing.  

Third, The Fullness of Christ is Powerful. For a common person living in first-century Ephesus, the world was a scary place. They were surrounded by the power of the Roman Empire, which was intimidating. There was all kinds of sickness and disease that they didn’t understand. It was very difficult to break out of the social class that you were born into. So on many levels, it was easy to feel powerless and at the mercy of a big scary world.  

Do you ever feel weak? Some of you are in a financial hole. Or you’re facing a health challenge. Or you’re having trouble with your parents. And you feel powerless to change it. And that can make you feel empty. How do you cope with that feeling of weakness? 

For people in Ephesus, a lot of them turned to pagan religion. Did you know that Ephesus was famous for being the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Do you know which one? The Temple of Artemis. If you visit today you’ll see the ruins of this temple—here’s a picture. We also learn in Acts chapter 19 that there was a thriving business in Ephesus, selling little silver idols of the goddess Artemis—so people could put them in their pocket, or on their windowsill, or hang them from the rear-view mirror of their chariot for safety. We also learn in Acts 19 that there were a lot of people in Ephesus who practiced sorcery and black magic. Because in a big, scary world, everyone’s looking for power, right? We all need it.  

And Paul says, “Look—as a follower of Christ, you don’t need false gods or magic or superstition. You don’t need horoscopes or Zen meditation. You have access to a far superior power.” Look at verse 19: 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead… Would you just think about that for a minute? The same power that catapulted Jesus out of the grave is available to you! 

Now let me be clear: it’s available to us, but it doesn’t originate with us. It’s not your power. It’s not somehow manifested or conjured up by you. The power is clearly from Christ. In fact, right after Paul tells us that the power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you—he just goes off! He goes off on a tangent, but it’s not tangential—it’s the most important thing. He loses himself in wonder over the all-surpassing power of Christ. Look at this—this is one of the high points of the New Testament, starting in verse 19: That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Can we just put our hands together for the greatness of Jesus Christ? Paul is like, “I know I’m telling you about the power you can have through Christ, but hold on—I just have to worship him for a minute.”  

Because the book of Ephesians is for you, but it’s about Christ. 

And this power that’s available is for you, but it’s from Christ.  

And I don’t know where you’re feeling weak and empty in life right now. I don’t know what people are making you feel weak. But picture what this could mean for you: the same power that raised Christ from the dead is for you. God did not give you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and love, and of a sound mind. So when life gets hard and people get hard and parenting gets hard and marriage gets hard; or maybe sobriety is hard for you now—when the hard things in life come, you don’t avoid them or run from them; you face them because you can do all things through him who gives you strength. Amen? This is real power.  

And if you’re trying to find fullness through horoscopes or Ouija boards or tarot cards or crystals, you need to repent of that, because you’re being deceived. Come to Christ and find real power. 

So this fullness that Jesus gives—it’s a powerful thing.  

And then one more thing: it’s Communal. If you think about the things that make us feel empty, we talked about distance from God, hopelessness; weakness; but this might be the biggest thing that makes us empty: being disconnected and isolated from other people. Aloneness leads to emptiness.  

Look at the last two verses of the passage—verses 22 and 23. He’s still talking about Jesus here: 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. In the book of Ephesians, this is the first mention of “the church.” So it says that God appointed Jesus to be the head of the church. And when it says “church,” that’s not a building; the church is people who gather together to worship and serve Christ. The church is people.  

And in order for you to live a life that is full, you need the church. You need real connections with fellow believers. In fact, listen to this: in this passage, every time it says the word “you,” it really says “you guys.” (that’s the RJV—Revised Jersey Translation). Seriously. In English we don’t have a plural form of “you,” unless you live in Alabama.””Y’all.” In Greek there’s a plural “you,” and that’s what’s here. It’s all y’all. So everything we’ve talked about today: knowing God personally, having hope for the future, experiencing his power, you will experience all of that so much more when you pursue your faith with other—with the church. Isolation leads to emptiness; connection with others leads to fullness. 

This past Tuesday night we finished up our J-term—so for three consecutive Tuesday nights, about 200 people gathered to learn how to live like Jesus and replace distractions in their lives with spiritual disciplines. It was so rich; people were really engaged. But you know what my favorite part was? Each night when the class ended, nobody wanted to leave. Well, a few people left. But so many people stayed. I’m such a wimp when it comes to staying up late, so I’m pushing myself to stay till like 9:00. But when I left each week, there were still all these people—standing in pairs; standing in little groups; some of them sitting in groups on the floor; some of them brought dinner and they’re eating and laughing and praying for each other. That’s the church. That’s what it’s supposed to look like.  

So let me ask you a question: how’s your fellowship? Can you point to a few people, and say, “I spend time with those guys regularly. We pursue our faith together. I share my struggles with them. I could call them any time of day or night, and they’d be there for me.” No, I don’t have time for that stuff. I’m busy! I catch the sermon online, and do a little praying, but I don’t have time for actual people. I’m just telling you, you’re missing out. This is one of the main reasons people feel empty! Because they have no true fellowship in the church family. 

So move toward people. Be part of the church. Your soul needs it.  

This morning, if you’re feeling empty, there is a voice that says, “What you need is a great vacation. That’s why you feel this way! What you really need is a new car. What you need is to get drunk this weekend. What you really need is that woman, or that man. That will fill you.” Resist that voice. Because as a believer in Christ, the secret to fullness isn’t getting something that’s outside you; the secret is opening the eyes of your heart to what God has already given you. Find your fullness in Him. He loves you. He’s there for you. And he wants to fill you like nothing else can. 

Rise for benediction. 

Benediction: 

And now may the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, open the eyes of your heart, so that you may know the riches you have in Christ.  

Instead of just knowing about God, may you know him in a way that’s personal and hopeful and powerful and communal.  

And as you walk from this place today, even if you came in empty, may you walk out full.