Ephesians 1 – Spiritual Wisdom
Toledo, WH, how many of you love to grill? There’s something magical about it, grilling in the winter is OK, but there’s just something about it in the summer, it’s like the whole process, from buying the meat, to preparing it, to cooking it to perfection and of course eating it…the whole process is satisfying. If you don’t burn it. I love to cook, but there’s something magical about grilling.
It was the year 63 AD, about 30 years after Jesus’ earthly ministry, that Paul was on his third missionary journey, spending a few years preaching and building a church in Ephesus…a busy city on the west coast of modern day Turkey. Paul loved spending time with the Ephesians, they were a young church, about 10 years old…and most of their congregation wasn’t Jewish, they were gentiles…they were essentially people that had never been to church.
Hmmm…a church that’s young…many newer Christians…growing and vibrant?? You can see how important this series is going to be for us here at CedarCreek.
As we study throughout the next few weeks…Paul wants us to know something about the church. It’s like Paul wanted us to know what the church was here for as a whole.
He wanted to remind Christians of the many spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. He wanted to encourage us in Ephesians to have a Christ-like walk worthy of our calling to God. He comes right out and says it early in CH1 verse 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Many of the early Christians there only knew of the teachings of John the Baptist, so they were focused on repenting their sins, baptism and preparing for the end of the world. They only cared about confessing and being baptized. Paul wanted them to realize what they had in Jesus…the perfection made through Jesus, purchased with His own blood and the beauty of life in Him, WITH Him and FOR Him. Jesus and Paul made it personal.
If I try to preach and can’t find a way to make it personal for you, I’ve failed. I’m just spewing out information. …what good is that? I have to try to find a way to make it personal. Anything I can say in 40 minutes, I can say in 20…I just need to learn how to say it better. Make it personal.
Maybe that’s what I love so much about grilling. I don’t usually do too well with someone asking ‘hey, want me to man the grill’? It’s personal for me. This is my moment, this is my chance to work a calculated process…I’ll take the blame if it fails, I’ll also take the credit when it doesn’t. This is MINE to win or lose. Ladies…When a guy grills, he doesn’t see dinner…he sees an excuse to connect with primitive man. He sees a challenge, he sees a Picasso. When Rachel grills she sees meat that isn’t cooking fast enough, when I grill, I see a baby on board sign with a car seat, seat belt and air bag wrapped into a delicate roll of bubble wrap. You’ve got to talk to it…love it...earn its trust…
Rachel and I just see it differently. If we learn to understand that, we appreciate it more.
Paul was essentially reminding the Ephesians that when God looks at His Son, Jesus, He was seeing His church. When non-Christians look at Christians, they should see Christ. Tell me, what do they see in you…Christ?? The next few weeks will be about finding out WHAT PEOPLE SEE IN YOU…
What’s interesting is how Paul decides to start it all off!
In verses 6-14 Paul talks about a thing called ‘predestination’.
We’re not going to spend a lot of time here (making all you theologians upset) because I covered it in depth a few months ago in a sermon…but here’s the deal…
Paul rocks the theological mind…with something that would spark endless debating amongst Christians for thousands of years. It would go so far as to split churches and denominations. This kind of behavior would have driven Paul crazy if it happened in his midst.
So what is it??
Predestination. The fact that Paul says God CHOSE us to be His.
Here’s where we stand as leadership at the Creek….God chooses people as a whole…the human race….by going to the cross….He died for EVERYONE!!! …and then they are given free will to choose Him.
It may be fun for some to debate in good-natured Christian conversations, but if we dwell on figuring this whole thing out…we are fools, God didn’t give us all the answers. The greatest human minds have struggled with it. BE OK WITH THAT. Can you be OK with that??
When it comes to some things in the Bible…
You can argue about a lot of things all day long…we can argue about ANYTHING…we can argue about grilling all day long. Gas, charcoal, smokers, lump charcoal vs. briquettes…direct heat, indirect heat…but argue for too long and you lose focus of the task at hand. The food is burnt, the party is over and nobody is getting along. What outsider wants to be a part of that, what neighbor in their right mind would want to return for that?
OK, so why is this message titled spiritual wisdom? Because Lee named it that 10 months ago and now neither of us can figure out why. Ha
Really though, verse 17 Paul tells us to keep asking the Lord to give us a spirit of wisdom, so we can know him better.
What is this spirit of wisdom?? How do you become wise(I asked on facebook)…is there a manual? Of course there is…The Bible…Psalm 111:10 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
KNOWING what God says is absolutely true for your life and you pursue it at all costs.
How do you become wise?? It’s not just age; there are some really unwise old people and some really wise young people.
I really think the key to wisdom is how we apply knowledge.
I’ve never met a wise person that isn’t patient. I’ve never met a wise person that doesn’t listen well. There are 2 kinds of people in this world, people who listen and people who wait to talk. Pulp Fiction. I’ve never met a wise person that needs to have all the answers.
Here’s the difference between worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom according to the Bible:
Worldly wisdom is all about ME…Google it….wisdom….all new age, all about ME. Bettering ME.
Friends, Spiritual wisdom is learning to how cope with it NOT being about ME.
Wisdom isn’t about the depth of your knowledge; it’s about the depth of which you’re willing to give it away. Jesus taught us that.
I grew up going to Devils Lake…my uncles cottage…so many memories, snowmobiles, boating, swimming, ANNIE record…but no memory more vivid than his grill. Is there a particular smell or sight that just instantly gives you a memory? Weber, classic…the smell of the charcoal in the lakeside air. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring…My dad and uncle with aprons on bringing the party from the grill, through the glorious smoke and plumes of ash….
I remember my dads 50 gallon drum nasty welded grilling, killing machine….TODAY, I cook on charcoal almost exclusively. Not because I’m a purist. Not because I want to look like I know what I’m doing…
Because every time I light that charcoal…EVERYTIME…I think of those memories.
All these years I’ve always kept that inside for myself. That was always MY moment. It had always been about ME.
Until last Tuesday night.
I was heading out to light the chimney starter…same as always…excited to smell that smoke and have MY moment.
As I shut the back door and started walking to the grill, I heard the back door open and shut. I knew Bear hasn’t learned that trick yet…so I turned around and saw Kasen walking behind me. He said…dad, I want to learn how to grill like a man.
I mean right then and there, the clouds broke, a ray of holy sunshine came down like a beam of fire igniting the charcoal of my soul!
Kasen and I grilled like men on a mission that night. But something was different. I was different. See…for the first time in my life…this moment wasn’t about ME! The question was…was I willing to be OK with that? I didn’t bother teaching him about lump charcoal vs briquettes, about vent closing for optimum heat transfer, I didn’t tell him what temps the meat needed to get to in order to take it off because it would continue cooking while it rested.
I didn’t waste time telling him about all the arguments about different grills and techniques. I didn’t want to scare him off.
And I knew what he wanted. He didn’t want to know all of that useless knowledge…he wanted one thing.
His dad to be proud of him.
And I can guarantee you….his dad only wanted one thing.
So we sat down, on a Tuesday night, in the steady stream of smoke and smells that took me back to my childhood. I told him all the stories of my grilling adventures past…I told him about the lake, about his grandpa’s grill….he asked so many questions. And then he dropped the bomb.
Kasen turned and said “Dad, someday I’m going to do this with my son…because of you”. I’m going to do it….because you did it.
Golf swing (hole in one)
For the first time in my life I didn’t care if the meat burned to a crisp. I didn’t care if I got the sauces and cheese on, I didn’t care about anything that I’ve always cared about.
I had imparted some seemingly insignificant knowledge and wisdom on my son…I’ve done that before, but this time he applied it.
God asked a lot of His Son…to go to that cross undeservingly…to die in place of you and I…how proud must He have felt when His Son didn’t take the easy way out, when Jesus applied His Father’s will…when He gave it all away. I know this…I wouldn’t trade either of my sons for any of you…you don’t deserve that. Yet we serve a God that was willing to do it.
We don’t have to know all the details to be wise, we don’t have to have many of the answers to be wise…we just have to know what makes our Father in Heaven proud, and apply it.
Look at what we can apply in the next few weeks: Salvation, spiritual maturity, church growth, great marriages, Godly families, winning spiritual battles…
None of this is any good if its not applied. It’s not good enough to just know it!!
Paul leaves this letter to the Ephesians blank…he doesn’t clearly specify that it’s for the Ephesians in the original text. ….because Paul wanted to give it away.
He wanted you and I to write our names in there.
This is a letter to KYLE GRAY…read it, live by it. Make it personal.
God’s love and wisdom is of the rescuing kind. The sacrificial kind. The kind that isn’t about ME. It’s about Him and what extent He would go to save us at all costs. His love is unfailing, His grace is unending.
Spiritual wisdom is not what you hold in your heart, it’s not about what makes ME better….it’s what you’re willing to give away…no matter WHAT the cost.
PRAY
