10.1.10
THE QUEST – TO KNOW GOD BETTER Eph 1:15-23
INTRO
Last Sunday we were thinking about 2010 and the year that lies ahead and what developments we might like to see take place during the year.
And I made the case that what matters to us more than anything else is our relationships.
It is our relationships that determine the quality of our lives more than anything else, therefore we will be examining these over the next few weeks in order to be able to improve the quality of our lives as God intends, beginning with our relationships with God as our Father.
I quoted from the words of a contemporary Christian song that describes a longing that we have:
There must be more than this
oh breath of God come breath within
There must be more than this
Spirit of God we wait for you
Fill us anew we pray
Consuming Fire
Fan into flame
a passion for your name
Spirit of God
fall in this place
Lord have your way
with us
So to recap, we considered that:
The best way to begin the New Year is to strengthen our relationship with God as our Father.
For in doing so we will find the direction for our lives that we are looking for.
• We looked at the blessings we have from God our Father NOW: Forgiveness, redemption, sonship and salvation, and the gifts the Holy Spirit gives.
• We gave thought to the special relationship we have with the Father as his ADOPTED children.
• Then we reminded ourselves of the security we have in Christ as those SEALED with the Spirit of God.
And I encouraged you to press in to that relationship with God.
TODAY WE ARE GOING TO DO JUST THAT.
POINT
There is no doubt that the apostle Paul had a rich and deep experience of relationship with God as Father that he wanted others to share:
READING Ephesians 1:15-23
POINT That’s great praying isn’t it.
And to the degree that we know God in the way described here, we too will pray like this, asking God our brothers and sisters in Christ may share the same experience of intimacy with God and its outcome.
What is this prayer?
1. IT’S A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING v15-16
‘For this reason’ For what reason?
Paul is referring to what God has already done for them:
• Blessed with every spiritual blessing
• Adopted as his children
• Redeemed and forgiven us
• Sealed us by the Holy Spirit
• Guaranteed our inheritance
APPLIC
It is a great joy for any Christian worker, voluntary or otherwise, to see real evidence of the grace of God in saving, blessing and transforming the lives of others. It’s what we live to see.
POINT
At this time Paul was in prison in Rome and he had heard good reports of what was happening in Ephesus. He had heard about their
• FAITH in the Lord Jesus, and
• how they showed their LOVE for one another
He could see that they were making progress in their Christian lives and so he went on to pray:
2. THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW HIM BETTER v17-19a
Key text: Ephes. 1:17
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.
In his prayer Paul asks that they might have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation that they might know him better.
POINT
This is the same prayer that Moses prayed for himself. In Exodus 33 God was giving a special blessing to Moses. And Moses asks of the Lord, "Show me Thy glory!"
And the Lord said, "You cannot see My face and continue to live, but I'll do this. I'll put you in a cleft in the rock and I'll cover you there with My hand and then I shall pass by with all of the radiance of My glory and when I have passed by, I will take My hand away and you will see My afterglow."
Paul prayed the same thing for them.
POINT
Just as with Moses – when we see more of the Lord – when we come to know the Lord better we are changed!
Moses himself was affected by the glow of being in the presence of God on the mountain, and Paul says that:
‘ And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
APPLIC
This is the difference between knowing about God in terms of theological truth and knowing God in personal experience.
In Ephesians 3:19 Paul prays that they may know ‘the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge’
= the language of experience.
PERSONAL SHARING [wanting to preach within my experience – but part of that experience is the experience of NOT YET being in the place God wants us all to be!]
BELIEF: [Those who hunger shall be satisfied]
KNOWING HIM BETTER INCLUDES BEING
BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH OUR HOPE
Hope = our confident expectation of:
• eternal life.
• imputed righteousness.
• adoption as children of God.
OUR SENSE OF ASSURANCE IS STRENGTHENED
Hope concerns the future BUT IT IS EXPERIENCE NOW
Paul once wrote:
Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
That is the hope -- a glory which is coming, a glory toward which we are moving day by day.
WE HAVE NOT ONLY HOPE, BUT RICHES TOO
Riches of his inheritance NOW
APPLIC
[Kingdom living NOW]
3. A PRAYER THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW GOD’S POWER AT WORK IN THEM v19b-23
As Christians God’s power is at work in our lives - the same power that raised Christ from the dead!
When Paul describes God’s power at work in us:
Saving us – Regenerating us – Keeping us – Changing us, he lets us know just what kind of power this is, and how effective it can be. It is the same power that was at work in raising Jesus!
APPLIC Power at work today
CONCL Ways of receiving revelation:
Revival; Scripture; Reading; spending time with those close to God; Prophecy, soaking, prayer meetings
(Difficulty of this in the present season of Winter)
Prime times – summer camps, conventions and conferences
