I received an email this week asking the question, "What’s the difference between people who pray in church and those who pray in casinos?"
The answer, "The ones in the casinos are serious."
There may be more truth to that email than we want to believe. The prayer to increase one’s wealth is possibly the second most common prayer people pray, while the prayer for health may be the most common.
This morning, we will look at a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus. Paul prays not for the increase of their financial assets, but their spiritual assets. By spiritual assets, I mean the worth of their relationship with God.
If your relationship with God has not made much of a difference in your life, you probably are not aware of your spiritual assets. And you need to take inventory of your spiritual assets again.
You thought by praying a prayer of trust in Jesus, your life would know joy, peace, forgiveness and confidence, but instead, you continue to be bitter, frustrated, guilty and insecure. You wonder if other Christians have lied to you.
You don’t read the Bible much. Instead you read the self-help psychology books. You don’t pray much anymore. Your attitude is, "If it’s going to be, it’s up to me."
You do the best you can to behave like a Christian. You come to church. You use religious language. You help out when asked. You care for others who are in need. But you don’t put a great deal of value on your relationship with God.
Warren Wiersbe tells about the time the late William Randolph Hearst sent out his agent to secure particular art pieces. After months of searching, the agent reported that he had finally found the treasures. They were in Mr. Heart’s warehouse. Hearst had been searching frantically for art pieces he already owned.
Paul’s encouragement to us this morning is not that we look elsewhere or that we try harder. Most of us have looked elsewhere before we decided on God. And we’ve already tried hard since coming to God, and we’re just tired. Paul’s encouragement to us is that we take a spiritual inventory, and that we ask God to show us what we already have from Him.
We continue this morning in our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Some of you might recall this letter was written the same time as the letters to Philemon, Philippians and Colossians. Most of you would never guess that the Apostle Paul wrote or dictated these letters from a prison cell. Paul was not imprisoned for a civil or criminal violation but for his expression of faith in Jesus Christ.
Our text for this morning is Ephesians 1:15-23.
I had a meeting with a pastor friend sometime ago. His church gave him a cell phone and a Palm Pilot, but he only used one function from each. When he needed to make a call, he would turn on his Palm Pilot, look up the number and punch it into the cell phone.
He didn’t program the phone with numbers, and he only used the Palm Pilot as an electronic address book. With his Palm Pilot, he could have gotten online, written and sent emails, downloaded electronic books and programs, and set appointments five years into the future.
The people who gave the pastor the cell phone and the Palm pilot are probably glad he’s using both. But they probably wish he would know more about the worth and abilities of these gifts.
In a similar way, Paul is thankful that the Christians in Ephesus had faith in Jesus Christ and love for all the saints. The word, "saint," simply means those who belong to Jesus Christ. But Paul wanted them to know more about the worth of their relationship with God. They had the basics, but they didn’t explore the full worth of their relationship with God.
In Paul’s prayer, we discover four areas about which Christians need to know more in order to increase their spiritual assets, or the worth of their relationship with God. Let’s look at each of them.
First, knowing God better increases the worth of our relationship with God. Verse 17
Paul is praying that we would know God better, not just know more about God. One can know about God through reading and through reasoning. But only the Spirit of God can help a person know God relationally.
1 Corinthians 2:13-14 tells us, "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
I met Susan, my wife, while we both served as day camp counselors at Cumberland Presbyterian Chinese Church. Before I approached Susan to express my interest in her, I talked with her friends, with her mentor, with the pastor and even with her day camp kids. I gathered information about her and compared what I learned with my criteria list.
My gathering of information on Susan helped me know about Susan. But I didn’t know her better until we spent time eating together, serving together, and struggling through decisions together. In those times, she revealed herself to me in a way that no information-gathering mission could have revealed.
You can learn all you want about God, but you will only know God better when you ask the Spirit of God to help you see and relate to God in your everyday life. And Paul points out that this is not the spirit of any god, but the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to live life with God, not just on Sunday mornings. When you have to make a decision, ask God for wisdom and guidance. When you are lonely, turn to God to experience His unconditional love. When you are tempted, ask God to provide a way out or to provide the moral backbone to do what is right. You will know God better with the help of His Spirit. And the worth of your relationship with God will increase.
Second, knowing God’s call increases the worth of our relationship with God. Verse 18a
The Christian life is not aimless. We do not go through life making up our purpose as we go, nor do we go through life copying other people. God made us unique but He has a call on each of our lives.
Romans 8:28-30 tells us what God’s call involves: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
In other words, God’s call on our lives involves becoming like His Son, Jesus Christ, accepting forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and eventually being raised from the dead as with Jesus Christ.
Someone tells about an interview with a lady who was 130 years old. The interviewer asked her, "What is most difficult about being 130 years old?"
The lady answered, "Knowing what I should be doing at my age. I don’t know anyone else who is 130 years old."
God has given us a role model in Jesus Christ. Whether you are a mailman, a dentist, an engineer, a homemaker, or a retiree, God calls you to model your life after Jesus Christ. We can apply the servant attitude, the love and the wisdom of Jesus Christ to every occupation, stage or area of our lives.
Not only does God call us to become like Christ while we live, but God calls us to receive forgiveness for our sins through Jesus Christ when we fail. And finally, God gives us the hope of being raised from the dead to eternal life with God, just as Christ was.
Whether you die at age 50 or 100 and whether you die from a car accident or a cardiac arrest, you will be raised to eternal life with God. Knowing this is what God calls us to, increases the worth of our relationship with God.
Third, knowing God’s riches increases the worth of our relationship with God. Verse 18b
Some people believe that Paul is talking about the importance of knowing that Christians are God’s inheritance. This is a truth taught in the Bible, but I believe Paul in this verse is talking about knowing God’s inheritance in store for the Christians. We need to read this verse in the context of chapter 1, verse 14, "[The Holy Spirit] is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of His glory."
Last week, I had the opportunity to talk with a one-day new Christian. She was quite excited about finally trusting in Jesus Christ with her life and future. I told her that she only knew about a small portion of the many blessings God has in store for her.
She knows she has peace with God. She knows she has the Holy Spirit in her. She knows God listens when she prays. But there is a whole lot more she does not know.
She probably doesn’t know that she is forgiven of her sins, past, present and future. She probably doesn’t know that she will receive gifts and abilities from God’s Spirit to serve in new ways. She probably doesn’t that Jesus is preparing a place for her in Heaven. She probably doesn’t know about her participation in God’s future kingdom. Knowing God’s riches in store for the believers increases the worth of our relationship with God.
Fourth, knowing God’s power increases the worth of our relationship with God. Verses 19-23
What most people know of God’s power in a very limited way. We know God’s power to forgive. Some may know God’s power to heal. Others may know God’s power to calm our fears. Still other may know God’s power in the acts of history. But many of us don’t have recent and personal knowledge of God’s power.
Paul’s knowledge of God’s power was recent and personal. Paul was living during the time Jesus was crucified. Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul saw the power of Jesus’ name cast out demons. Paul knew the mighty power of God.
Doctors and medical advancements have the power to delay death. Only God has the power to raise the dead to eternal life. Astronauts and aerospace engineers make travel to other planets possible. Only God has the power to seat a person in Heaven. Witch doctors, Buddhist priests and others may be able to channel and contain certain evil spirits. Only God has the power to subject all authority, power and dominion under Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." If you’ve never been afraid of God, you’ve never been with the real God.
God is powerful beyond our imagination. Because He loves the Church, He has made Jesus Christ to be the head over the Church. Knowing God’s mighty power increases the worth of our relationship with God.
John D. Rockefeller, who controlled in 1900 about 90% of the refined oil production in the USA, had three simple rules for anyone who wants to increase his financial assets:
1. Go to work early.
2. Stay at work late.
3. Find oil.
The Apostle Paul, whose letters fill one-quarter of the New Testament, had four simple rules for anyone who wants to increase his spiritual assets:
1. Know God better
2. Know God’s call
3. Know God’s riches
4. Know God’s power
