INTRODUCTION
• How many of you woke up with excitement and anticipation concerning the prospect of coming together with your brothers and sisters in Christ to worship? (I AM TAKING NAMES )
• Does the thought of waking up each day knowing you get to serve the Lord excite you? Or do we just take for granted that God is with us?
• What gets you excited each day that gets you going? We are in the midst of a series entitled REASONS FOR MY HEART TO BEAT.
• In this series we are looking at some things that can get us excited to start the day.
• More importantly the areas of excitement we are exploring together can help transform a lethargic walk with Jesus into one that is exciting and full of hope.
• As we get to know the Lord better, as we start to understand the various blessings we have from God, it should light a fire of excitement under us.
• Today we are going to examine reason number 2 in our series REASONS FOR MY HEART TO BEAT, TO KNOW HIS POWER!
• We serve THE ONE AND ONLY GOD THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!
• As we progress through the text we need to take note that all that we have from God comes to us as a result of His power, or His ability to do what He promises to do.
• Whatever God has promised in His word He has the power to deliver! I hope that thought gets us excited about our GREAT GOD!
• We will be in Ephesians 1:15-23 today. Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, this young church was enthusiastic about their faith but they were very young in the faith.
• In verses 15-16 Paul commends them for their faith and their love for all the Christians. By the way, when one has a strong faith, they will have a strong love for God’s people.
• What we will cover today is some of the content of Paul’s prayer for this church. His goal is for them to grow in their faith and as a result have a great walk with the Lord!
• Let us begin by looking at verses 17-18!
• SLIDE #2
• Ephesians 1:17–18 (HCSB) 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. Be open to knowing God.
• Faith can be difficult at times to build; there are so many obstacles that get in the way of our development. Life happens, people can lead us away, and distractions can take away from our focus from Jesus.
• Paul prays for help for the Ephesians in two areas.
• First he prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.
• The basic premise to this part of the prayer is that God would give them a spirit of wisdom so the people could understand the revelation and therefore realize they need to give God the glory for the blessing.
• This is similar to what Paul prays for the church at Colossae in Colossians 1:9.
• SLIDE #4
• Colossians 1:9 (HCSB) For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
• If we do not possess a spirit of wisdom we will never really grow to maturity because we will never really understand what God has done, and is doing.
• We will never understand the purpose behind much of what God does so then we will never be able to fully give God the glory for what He does.
• We will attribute God’s blessing to things such as our own ability or to the god of luck.
• Wisdom is the ability to take knowledge and understand it to the point of being able to apply it.
• It is being able to perceive the drift and meaning of what God makes known so that what is made known is a real revelation to us.
• As we seek to know Jesus more, we then understand more.
• God has given us all we need; we just need to see it.
• SLIDE #5
• 2 Peter 1:3 (HCSB) His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
• We NEED knowledge and understanding to go along with our enthusiasm about Jesus so we can have a deep faith. A faith that rests on a firm foundation that will not be shaken!
• When you know someone more you can appreciate them on a deeper level. This is one of the beauties of a long-term marriage, you get to know each other on a deeper level therefore you can appreciate each other on a deeper level.
• In verse 18 we find part two of the prayer.
• 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened …
• Another way to say this is that the eyes of your heart are opened.
• What is in our mind controls what we do. Paul wants the people to have an enlightened mind, we will see why in a moment.
• The appeal is for God to sharpen our spiritual eyesight, so that we do not overlook the three spiritual realities we are going to delve into next.
• This reflects a bit of Psalm 119:18
• SLIDE #6
• Psalm 119:18 (HCSB) Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wonderful things from Your instruction.
• What is it that Paul desires us to be able to understand and appreciate? The first and second items are found in verse 18.
• SLIDE #7
• Ephesians 1:18 (HCSB) I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,
• SLIDE #8
We need to be open to knowing Him so we can…
II. Know the hope of His calling.
• Many people are searching for the meaning of life, they are looking for purpose, and sometimes even Christians are seeking to know the purpose of their faith.
• What does God have in store for me? Why does He love me?
• Why did God call us into fellowship with Him by adopting us in Christ?
• Paul wants us to KNOW the HOPE OF HIS CALLING.
• The word “KNOW” refers to a kind of knowledge that is perceived in the mind, even when it cannot be experienced by the senses.
• The issue that Paul speaks of cannot be measured by skeptics, they must be perceived by those who walk by faith not by sight!
• This is the substance of the hope of our calling. Hope is not just emotional, it has a basis in reality also.
• Our calling from God is more than having our sins forgiven and going to heaven as important as those issues are, there is more to our calling.
• Our experience of faith cannot just begin and end with those thoughts, we are called to more!
• If our experiences begin and end there. They make it an anchor of refuge, a soothing of the conscience, and an escape from the anguish of guilt and fear of death, not a life vocation, a grand pursuit. Gospel Advocate Commentaries - New Testament Commentary – A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.
• The hope of our calling should inspire to strive the live a lift that is pleasing to God!
• SLIDE #9
• Philippians 3:8–9 (HCSB) More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ —the righteousness from God based on faith.
• The hope of our calling should motivate us to put Jesus first, to live for Him and to try to reach others for Him!
• Then also in verse 18 we see another reason we need to be open to knowing Him!
• SLIDE #10
We need to be open to knowing Him so we can…
III. Grasp the riches of His inheritance for those in Christ.
• I bet if we were a part of the family of Apple founder Steve Jobs, we would be thinking that since he died we would have a GREAT inheritance from him.
• The closer to him we were we would surmise the more we would get!
• Paul wants us to also know from verse 18, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,
• What we have from God is greater than we could imagine! Paul uses the word RICHES six times in this letter, this is the second of those six.
• Now we see a change of thought from MAN to GOD!
• This is not the inheritance God has for his people; that was the previous reality, heaven.
• This is what God has in his people, his own inheritance which consists in his people.
• To say, as in v. 11, that “we get heaven and God gets us” initially causes one to think that God is being short-changed.
• But if we could really see the church as God sees it, like a beautiful bride (Eph 5:27), we would understand how highly God values his inheritance. College Press NIV Commentary, The - The College Press NIV Commentary – Galatians & Ephesians.
• SLIDE #11
• Ephesians 5:27 (HCSB) He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.
• We need to KNOW how much we are loved and valued by God!
• Many people struggle with self-esteem, I believe if we quit looking for esteem in ourselves and get it from knowing the creator of HEAVEN AND EARTH VALUES you, what more do you need!
• YOU ARE A BELOVED CHILD OF GOD IN JESUS. GOD LOVES YOU AND CANNOT WAIT TO BE WITH YOU FOR ETERNITY.
• Now when you realize that NOTHING WILL GET YOU DOWN!
• Let’s turn to verses 19-23!
• SLIDE #12
• Ephesians 1:19–23 (HCSB) 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. 20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.
• SLIDE #13
We need to be open to knowing Him so we can…
IV. Comprehend the greatness of His power used toward us.
• This is what it is all about. All the other issues we have touched on this morning are predicated on the power to be able to deliver. What good are promises and such if you do not have the power to deliver?
• They are empty and void of hope.
• We build our hope on the GREATNESS OF HIS POWER.
• Now we shift back to US. Notice in verse 19. It tells us, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.
• That power is for our benefit! It is used for those who believe, or who belong to Him!
• This power is available to work in us!
• The power is described as immeasurable greatness! When we realize what God can do in us and through us, we should never lose heart or lose hope!
• I do not know about you but being able to raise the dead is pretty impressive. Well the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power He uses in you!
• It is the same power He exercised when seating Jesus at the right hand, the same power that He will use to put EVERYTHING under His feet!
• That power is what He uses in you.
• Through Jesus you can overcome ANYTHING, there is not power that can stand before Him!
• SLIDE #14
• Philippians 4:13 (HCSB) I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
• This can happen because of God’s GREAT IMMEASURABLE POWER! We need to grasp and embrace this so we can take on the world and never be afraid to stand for Jesus!
CONCLUSION
• I do not know about you, but when I think of God’s power, I get energized, I am encouraged and I am strengthened!
• Are you ready to plug into the power of God? God has the power to raise your soul from the dead, are you ready to let Him do it for you!
• For those who are saved already, are you ready to live life with the power of God at your side?
