Life Groups // Fall 2024 // Week 6
Posted October 11, 2024 — Lincoln Berean
Filled to Overflowing // Ephesians 3:14-21
Introduction
In this passage, Paul calls on the Lord to strengthen, grow, and unify the believers in Ephesus through the Holy Spirit that dwells in them. He emphasizes keeping Christ in the center of their lives and being rooted in God’s profound love and power, which exceeds all that we can understand.
To think through the main ideas in the sermon and prepare for your discussion together, we invite you to look over all the questions on the following pages and write your thoughts down before you meet with your group. Due to preferences over a wide range of groups, we do not expect you will cover every question each week.
Warm Up (Suggested time: 30 min)
1) If you could see any band or musical artist in concert from any time period, who would you choose and why?
2) What is one thing that has pushed you out of your comfort zone recently?
Getting Started
Transition into group discussion.
1. Open group discussion with prayer. Here are a few potential prayer items:
a. For the Spirit of God to lead you in truth
b. For the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in your lives
c. For grace to hear and apply what the Spirit says to you
2. Choose someone to read the passage aloud for the group.
Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)
1) How does this passage relate to the overall themes of the book of Ephesians?
In verse 14, Paul picks up with the same words that he started chapter 3 with. What is the reason that he refers to in both verse 14 and verse 1 of chapter 3?
In verse 16, Paul prays that the Ephesian church will be “strengthened with power through His Spirit” according to the riches of God’s glory. Have you ever felt God strengthening you through His Spirit? What did that look like for you?
2) Throughout this passage, Paul prays for the spiritual growth and development of his brothers and sisters in Christ. In what ways would you like to be more consistent in investing in the development of your fellow believers?
Take some time to pray Paul’s prayer together as a group – with each other, and for each other. Have everyone select one person (perhaps just the person to their right or left) and pray this passage for them, inserting that person’s name as the subject in the blanks below: (If your group is large, you might want to break into smaller groups for this.) Then, after everyone has prayed for each other, have your group leader read aloud verses 20-21 to close out your time in prayer together.
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant ______, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in ______’s heart through faith; and that ______, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that ______ may be filled to all the fullness of God.
How might your Life Group look different if you all made a habit of regularly praying like this for one another?
3) Last week we talked about the “unfathomable riches of Christ.” Paul continues that idea in this week’s passage, pointing to the love and power of Jesus that extend beyond our comprehension. What do you think Paul means when he mentions “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”?
Knowing that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” how should that affect the way that we worship and interact with Him?
To what degree do you believe that you comprehend the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ (v. 18)?
-Have you ever asked God to help you comprehend the love of Christ?
-What might help you grow in your confidence of your understanding?
Personal Spiritual Exercises
Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit—we invite you along each week to strengthen your souls with suggestions and prompts. Next week in Life Group, take a few moments to share how the Lord may have used this exercise in your life.
Scripture Focus: In addition to Ephesians 3:19-21, you can also read Job 11:5-9 and Isaiah 40:10-31 for some other biblical descriptions of the incomprehensible vastness of God. This week, try to find new ways that you can incorporate the limitless scope of His greatness into your worship of Him.
Prayer Focus: Make a list of people that you see on a day-to-day basis who you would like to cultivate a habit of praying for and pray Paul’s prayer for them this week the way that you did in question #2. As you interact with those people, consider how you can see God moving in their lives.
Prayer (Suggested time: 20 min)
A significant part of “coming together” is being open and honest with our lives. Sitting in a group of people for prayer may be new or it may be familiar to you. If you would rather not pray aloud when it is your turn, feel free to pray silently and then say “Amen” aloud signaling the next person in the group to pray. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone is a participant in sharing this time before God together.
Take a few moments to prepare a prayer request. What did the message, working through the above questions or the discussion cause you to notice about your own relationship with Jesus? Would you be willing to share your prayer request with the group?