[SPEAKER_01]: Morning church, today my name is Keith.
[SPEAKER_01]: We will be reading, Ephesians chapter 1, verse is, 15 through 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please stand for the reading of the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith and the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have not stopped giving thanks to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remembering you and my prayers, I keep asking that God or Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray the eyes of my heart will be enlightened in order that you may know the hope, which he has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance and the holy people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's comparable great power for us who will leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys have a seat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Keith.
[SPEAKER_00]: We began last week looking at this new section here in Ephesians chapter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have your Bible going to open up there to Ephesians 1, we'll
[SPEAKER_00]: really anchor in there today as we're walking through this wonderful beautiful letter of Ephesians the Apostle Paul writing to this church in Ephesus and we began his we didn't get into his prayer last week we began this section with verses 15 and 16 really just as Paul begins to tell the Ephesians I'm praying for you I love you guys I'm praying for y'all
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just wanted to remind us this week as we get into really what this prayer is versus 1718 and the first part of 19 we're going to look at today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to remind us listen prayer prayer is not a transition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes in church you can almost feel like that like we'll pray between.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, elements as we go through our church services, I try my best, you know, every given Sunday, just to really make prayer a very intentional moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a transition.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not an interruption.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not an inter, an interruption impulse letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to pray again.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not his only prayer in
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians is going to pray again in this letter, and it's really not, it's not an extra, it's so important to Paul that he would stop in the middle of it to say, I want you to hear the prayers that I'm praying for.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Paul could have just prayed for the Ephesians and not written it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever think about that?
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have done that for the Colossians and the Grinthians.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have done that for all of his letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have prayed, and now I'm sure he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for them, actually prayed for them and not wrote down everything, but he does write down his prayers because prayer is significant in the life of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful that Paul wrote down his prayers for us, and that we can look at the prayers that he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray, y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really, prayer again, I want us to understand this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prayer is not supplemental to the Christian life.
[SPEAKER_00]: prayer is the Christian life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is our lifeblood.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really the fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see that in Ephesians 6.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Paul talks about the armor of God, how does he end it?
[SPEAKER_00]: He just says, pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: We armor up to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's our fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's our ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the work of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's our heart beating.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, as we jump into this, let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's let's go to Lord again in prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's ask him to help us as we walk through
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that your word is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is sufficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you would speak to us in your word today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give us as we're about to see Paul pray for the Ephesians, the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you better.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that our eyes would be open.
[SPEAKER_00]: The eyes of our hearts to know the hope to which you have called us the riches of your glorious inheritance in us, your saints, and you are incomparably great power.
[SPEAKER_00]: for us who believe help us to see it in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so let's look at the prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just jump right in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 1, here's verse 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just start in verse 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's this actual prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep asking, and that's back to last week with this continual prayer, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This constant prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep asking.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, 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.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's pause it there kind of 19 verse, verse 19 part A, and then we'll jump in the rest of it next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he begins this by saying I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to talk about that for just a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've told y'all a few times as we've been walking through this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: the Book of Ephesians is very trinitarian in the language that Paul uses, Father's Son Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see that many times throughout the letter of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have counted at least 13 times in this letter where Father's Son Holy Spirit are really talked about in one breath by Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe apart from, I don't know, the gospel of John and maybe the Book of Romans Ephesians is one of if not the most trinitarian letters in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love that we can kind of see.
[SPEAKER_00]: So right here he says, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of mess with you at all when he says, the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't call God here, Jesus is father.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls God, Jesus is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make Jesus less than God?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think as you see a phrase like this, I think we should dissect things like that and ask why does Paul phrase it that way?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, God has called many things throughout Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Corinthians, one, three, Paul calls him the Father of Merces.
[SPEAKER_00]: James, one, 17, James calls him the Father of Light.
[SPEAKER_00]: This actually says the Father of Glory, but he calls him the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of Glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: The actual technical, and this is kind of sometimes we get into the technical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it helps us to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: what the Greek actually says here that technical Greek the way that Paul wrote this was the father of the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how it's phrased.
[SPEAKER_00]: The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do believe the word V is really in their V glory the father of the glory and I really do believe that is a reference to Jesus himself The father of the glory Jesus is the glory and actually out of a few scriptures on this Jesus is the glory of God There's something for us to know and we think about who God is in the trinitarian nature of God We have father.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have son.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have Holy Spirit and and God and Jesus is often talked about in the New Testament as the glory of
[SPEAKER_00]: God, St. Corinthians 4, 6, that we see the glory of God in the face of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he says there.
[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 2, 8.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls him the Lord of glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talking about Jesus, the Lord of glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: James 2, 1, the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Father is glorious in and of Himself and is the Father of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus is God's glory revealed to us and made known to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: all that God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Christ we see Him and know Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Himself said this, John 149, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen me, you've seen the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if Jesus less than God, the answer is no, Jesus is God, fully God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we talk about the Trinity and I think it's just good for us to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about the Trinity, God is three in one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, one nature, one essence.
[SPEAKER_00]: One being that exists in how we phrase this is three persons, three persons, one nature, one divine nature, one divine will, one divine purpose, perfectly unified and all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: This does not diminish to call the Father God is not diminished that the Son is God or the Spirit is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is three persons in one.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of think they like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They all have unique roles.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Father has unique role in redemptive history.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call him Father and Creator, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Son has unique role in Redemptive History that he is our Redeemer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do not say God the Father died on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually heresy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: God the Son died on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, the Father did not, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, God, the Son, that is His role to be our sacrifice to be our Redeemer, to be the payments for our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then God, the Holy Spirit, of course, who now intwells the church and unifies the church and empowers the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to talk more about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we go to told y'all a couple weeks ago, I'm going to end in a couple weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to finish up May looking at really just the role of the Holy Spirit and how we walk in the Holy Spirit as Christian people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's important and so just that that's just a quick note here when he says the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not diminishing Jesus as less than God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just saying, you know, God is the God of Jesus as much as Jesus has submitted himself under the leadership of his Father and then he does say the Father of glory or the
[SPEAKER_00]: The glorious father, the father of the glory, is how he phrases this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't just want to make that clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I bring that up to say, no religion in the world accepts this truth that I'm sharing with you right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: No religion in the world accepts that Jesus is fully God and the full glory revealed to us of God, no religion in the world accepts that except Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is to say, are there, you know, are there many religions that lead to God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Answer is, no, they can't possibly be because only the religion that would accept that the Son of God is the glory of God could possibly get to God because you can't get to God in the other way, then through Jesus' own Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't get to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't know him because to know Jesus is to know the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we come through Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We come through Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so He says, let's continue the prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you He says, give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some of your bibles have the word spirit there, capitalized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Raise your hand if you're looking at your Bible right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Raise your hand if it's capitalized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Capital S. Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not all of the bibles have the because because it's a little bit
[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit hard to decipher there is he saying our spirits he's talking about are that God would give us a spirit or a heart or a disposition of wisdom and revelation or is he's praying that the holy spirit capital s would give us
[SPEAKER_00]: the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do think, and a lot of scholars, obviously, I've got to read things on this and kind of check this out like how others interpret these things throughout the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Greeks hard to know, a lot of scholars agree that it's kind of, yes, both here, that Paul is praying, it's certainly that our spirit would be impressed upon by the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom and the revelation of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, wisdom and revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we think about wisdom and revelation?
[SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom is that wide-ranging knowledge of the things of men and God, sort of a general understanding of how things work and how things work together for God's eternal purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's praying that we would just know that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, a few weeks ago, we talked about the mystery that Paul talks about a lot in Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is using Paul, he's using Paul to reveal God's mysteries to the church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he wants us to have wisdom and that word revelation, the word revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word of revelation in Greek is the word Apocalypse, which is where we get the word Apocalypse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Apocalypse.
[SPEAKER_00]: The book of Revelation, the Greek title of it is Apocalypse.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the name of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Revelation, that's what that word is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a disclosure, it's something revealed, something that was covered now uncovered.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's revelation, something that was hidden, now unhidden.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is praying that the Ephesian church and really that all the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: would have the wisdom of God and the revelation of God, things disclosed to them about the truth of God and the gospel and redemptive history that they would know these things, that they would know these things, and all of that is possible, because God reveals it, God has revealed it, is revealing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, we looked at Jesus as the glory of God and the revelation of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of this is centered upon who He is, all of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all about you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We say that it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of history, all of redemption is about, it's all centered on Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn with me to the book of John real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the gospel of John, very first chapter of John.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you would, John chapter one,
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I want you to just see this circle in your Bible if you got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's a great verse here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 18, John 1, 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says this, no one has ever seen God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God, the one and only, think about how this is phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one's ever seen God, but God, the one and only who is at the Father's side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just said, no one's seen God, but there's God who's at the Father's side.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is God who is sitting at the side of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, Trinity here, who is he talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, Jesus is sitting at the Father's side, who is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, no one's ever seen God, but God, Jesus, the one and only who is at the Father's side has made him known.
[SPEAKER_00]: has shown him to us in Jesus, we see God in Jesus, we know God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you want to know God, you want to see God, you look to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we have four gospels in our Bibles.
[SPEAKER_00]: My Bible has four.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if yours does.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have four gospels in here to see four angles of the life of this one man, Jesus Christ, because he's the most significant person in
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the apostles, this is important.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he's praying for this revelation, he's praying for the revelation of God to be given to the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's important for us to ask that because we need to know what Revelation he's talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he just saying Ephesians, I'm just praying that you guys would sit around and y'all would pray and y'all would meditate and you guys would burn some incense and light a fire and just hope that God reveals things to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: that what he's asking.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not what he's asking.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I want us to kind of see and understand this this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The apostles, like Paul, like Matthew, like Peter, the apostles were specifically commissioned by Jesus to receive his revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: of him through the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus told them, like, go read the end of the gospel of John.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus tells us disciples this very specifically when the Spirit comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to remind you all of all the things I've taught you, talking to the apostles, so that they can do what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Write it down and teach the church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave them the revelation, so that they could give the church this revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Ephesians 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go back to Ephesians chapter 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is super important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 3, 1 through 5, says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, the mystery made known to me, here's our word, by Revelation, as I have already written briefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, reading this,
[SPEAKER_00]: That's important.
[SPEAKER_00]: In reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to many other generations, and it says now, Ben, who's same word, revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we receive the revelation of God right now today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Reading!
[SPEAKER_00]: by reading, and he's talking to people in the first century.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the first days writing them a letter so that they can do what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Read it, hear it first, and then read it, and then so doing, they are receiving the revelation of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to know God, you want to receive revelation from God, be in the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is written down for us and he said by the Holy Apostles and prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was God's plan, Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles who are also prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: They wrote down the revelation of God for us, so they received it, God downloaded it to them, so that they could write it down for us and we have here God's revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys can read God's revelation every single day.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no and I will make a statement here.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no new revelation capital R revelation new revelation of God given today
[SPEAKER_00]: not not today not like that not scripture level authority revelation not saying God doesn't lead you and give you discernment and show you you know ways to go and things to do in decisions to make just saying as far as like capital or revelation about who God is and what the gospel is y'all it's here
[SPEAKER_00]: We have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's written down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul said that to the Ephesians, and I believe it's still a plus to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two thousand years later, so when he's praying for them, he's praying, and God, guys, get into the Word of God and read.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that you have wisdom and revelation in your spirit, given to you by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, in chapter 6 of Ephesians, the Word of God is the sort of the Spirit, it's the sort of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's using that in our lives to teach us and draw us near to God, give us wisdom and revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wisdom and revelation, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, what then?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, okay, I'm praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: that the glorist father may give you the spirit of wisdom or revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does he want to give us the spirit of revelation or wisdom and revelation?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that you may know him better, know him better, know him better, know him better, wisdom and revelation are summed up in this the knowledge of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just so that you know things, it's not just so that you know facts, it's not just so that you know some theology, it's so that you know God.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's always the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: We read the Word of God so that we know the God of the Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we live in the community of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we seek the Lord daily in prayer and in His words so that we would have wisdom and revelation to know Him better.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word, the Greek word is epigenosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, the word nocis is knowledge, just plain flat knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Epigenosis means deep, real, intimate, first-hand experiential kind of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the difference between,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the difference of those two words.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know about Abraham Lincoln.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We know our best friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know our spouse.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's epic.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, says that's that kind of knowledge that Paul is praying over the feet that whether we would know God like that through real Experience through real knowledge ribs your relational, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is relational not just theological He's praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to know him No him not just know about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not a Christian because of what you know about God You're a Christian because you know God
[SPEAKER_00]: can root Jesus Christ and by faith, and He has made the way for us to know Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is why He died upon that cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter says, He died on the cross to bring us to God, to know Him, to make the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why that curtain was torn into, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, free access.
[SPEAKER_00]: to know Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then He says, and I pray also, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's that word again to know the hope to which He has called you, the eyes of your hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's affection for Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's praying that we have eyes that we see with, but not just these eyes, the eyes within the spiritual eyes, the eyes of our hearts,
[SPEAKER_00]: He's praying that those eyes would be open.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about truth, and he's talking about love, that the eyes of our hearts receive both.
[SPEAKER_00]: They receive the truth of God in the person of Jesus and the love of God in the person of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the sentence.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you talk about heart, scripture really, what's up about heart?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's up about the center of ourselves, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The center of our affections, the center of our love, the center of our desires, the center of our motivations,
[SPEAKER_00]: That your heart would more fully and joyfully embrace the light of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that the heart as of you heart would be enlightened.
[SPEAKER_00]: That light would come in, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus that the light of Christ would enter into our hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all that He is and all that He's done and all that He's commanded of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We fully and joyfully embrace because we love Him because we know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Him, and chapters 4 and 5, Paul is going to get into light and darkness here in Ephesians, about light and darkness, and those who don't know Christ walk in darkness, he actually says that they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God due to the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's non-Christian people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ignorance in them due to the hardness of their hearts because they're walking in
[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul's praying here for the Christ he's just saying, don't love the darkness, love the light of Christ, walk in the light of Christ, a pray that the eyes of your hearts are open to see and save for the light of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let him be your joy and your love and your affection every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: To know him better, to know him better.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says again, that you would know the hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: the hope to which he has called you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: To know the hope I entitled this message today, a prayer for hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we would know the hope to which he has called us.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the point of all of it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That we know Christ and if we know Christ, we know hope, and he says, we're called into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you're called into.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're called into hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is your calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that, Christian?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know your calling is into hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: More than you're calling is to whatever vocation you have, whatever job you're currently doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's sort of a calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a part of your calling, but it's not the calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your calling is into hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your calling is not to be a mother or a wife or father or husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's part of a calling and that's sort of under that calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a small calling, but the calling is the calling of hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's our calling to know Christ and know the hope to which he has called us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says, it's the calling that we have in this life is to know hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christian hope is full assurance, full confidence, not wishful thinking, not ifs and maybe's
[SPEAKER_00]: This is absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how we live in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I weighed on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I trust in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Christian hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Ephesians 2 verse 12, Paul says that before we knew Christ, we were without God, without hope and without God in the world, without hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the world,
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at me right now, if you are living in the world, you know what I mean by that, living according to the world, the ways of the world, the things of the world, the desires of the world, look at me when I tell you this, you cannot have hope in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't exist, you might think you do, and you might have it for like five seconds, because you get what you want in this world sometimes, but what happens when it gets ripped away?
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it gets ripped away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a very good friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of you know, Brett Johnson, and he passed away this past week.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know, Brett grew up here at Eastridge, good friend of many of us, friend of our Eastridge family for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did ministry for many years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did ministry alongside of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was blessed to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do a lot of camps and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brett was diagnosed with cancer three years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we also have a good friend here, Greg Laffin, family, church family member, Greg Laffin, Greg, and Britt had the same kind of cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Same exact kind of cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did some treatments together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Greg passed a couple of years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Britt was at that funeral.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Britt was at the funeral of Greg.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I'm man that he had done some treatments with the man who had the same exact cancer that he had.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after Greg's funeral sent me a text, and I was reminded of this this week, because again, Brett passed this past week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was reminded of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sent me a text, and he just said, he said, today I was reminded that Greg did not lose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I am not losing anything in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you get that message out of a funeral?
[SPEAKER_00]: only one way if you're called into hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the only way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brett was called into hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: He learned it here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He read it here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He saw it here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He received the wisdom and revelation of God here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he saw that I am not called to health.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm called to hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not called a long life on this earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm called to eternal life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm called to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is a hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will always have that hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what we're called to friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can rejoice in this to live is Christ, say it with me, to die is gain.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the essence of Christian hope in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 1, 21, to die is gain.
[SPEAKER_00]: You lose everything in this world when you die.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You lose everything from this world when you die.
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it gain?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Christ is our hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you get Christ for all time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope in Jesus Christ, Hebrews 618, is the anchor for our souls.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are anchored in Christ by hope, because we are called into this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Paul is praying that for the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't lose it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to have more of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Know the hope to which he has called you and then he qualifies this hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints We talked about that two weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are his.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is ours.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are rich in him because he is rich We are glorified in him because he is glorious and then he says the incomparably great power for us who believe We have power in him because he is powerful not because we're powerful because he is powerful
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the surpassing greatness.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're surpassing greatness of His power.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is our hope in Jesus that the one who has all surpassing greatness, all surpassing power, all abounding goodness and grace and power and love and riches.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is ours, we are His, Paul loves, Paul loves to emphasize in Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves to emphasize in this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not exaggerate because if it was exaggeration, it would be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves to emphasize.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not just power.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says it's exceeding power, surpassing power, boundless power, and measurable power, and comparable power.
[SPEAKER_00]: For us who believe, he says for us who believe, make that note, if you don't believe, no hope, no power, no riches for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So believe, believe in Jesus, see Him, know Him, come to Him, cling to Him by faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: Know that he died for you and he rose from the dead and he is your hope and will be forever for us who believe We have that reality now and we have that reality then because all of this is really speaking to these two realities both now and then Like we we have this hope and now and this is what Christian hope is it's a hope and now and it's a hope for then We have the riches of God now and we know that we will always have them then
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in the glory of God now, and we will fully and finally be glorified in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have received the power of God now, and we will know it fully and experience it eternally, then now and then that is the Christian life because he has empowered us, not only to be forgiven of sin, but freed from sin's power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, do you know you can experience God's power now in your life because the spirit lives in you, to free you from sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just forgive you, but free you from sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from death, and we are free to walk in righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are empowered to have joy and hope and peace and love in a world that is so, let's be honest, it is so full of darkness and brokenness and sin and suffering and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we have hope because we have been empowered by God, by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is Paul's prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, Paul is praying this for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe just over the church and I think we can accept this prayer from Paul too, because he knows that Satan will employ all of his efforts against you to diminish your hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: How to Satan attack the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, he cannot steal your inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't take it from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cannot steal your salvation, but what he can do is discourage and deceive and distract you from knowing the hope to which you are called.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just wants you to forget about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to put your mind and your heart on other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to focus on your problems and only your problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: and make you forget that God called you a saint, in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to live in fear instead of freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to lose heart and to lose hope and to be overwhelmed by the troubles of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that the Ephesians didn't struggle with hope?
[SPEAKER_00]: These are people that literally I promise you, lost family and friends to follow Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are people that lost jobs to follow Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are people who are struggling financially, people who are persecuted because of their faith, people who struggled with their identity, Paul's gonna address that later on in this letter, people who are struggling in their marriages, people who are struggling in their parenting, people who are struggling with sin and worldliness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is why Paul wants them to know, I'm praying for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am praying for you that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him and the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe, listen, I don't care who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need that prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need that prayer in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need that to be prayed over you in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's what I would love to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, I would just love to encourage you to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: this week, read back through that prayer, 17 through 19 there, and just let it be Paul's prayer over you and pray that over your own life and pray that over your family and let that be a prayer that you memorize and put into your mind and put into your heart that you would
[SPEAKER_00]: for the wisdom and revelation of God to be made known to you so that you know and better the eyes of your hearts to be enlightened, to know the hope to which He has called you for riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let it be prayed over you, prayed over yourself, prayed over your family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's something we're going to do together today as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so if you guys want to ask the band to come out and if you guys would stand with me, stand up with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to pray this prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have taken the liberty of just writing this prayer out and kind of my own words.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's basically the scripture, but just kind of written it out of my own words for us to pray together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what we're going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to pray this out loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can pray it quietly.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to do it like we're not going to read it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we're not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we do the communion scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to do it like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're just going to have a time to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to look to your left and your right real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look to your left and your right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at those two people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those two human beings, if you're on the end, you don't have one person, so congrats.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked here left and you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pray this prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: for those two people.
[SPEAKER_00]: If one of them you don't know their name, just ask them in real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, what's your name?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to pray for your name, because this person up there, this person, that's your person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you just to pray, just take a moment, just take a moment and pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can pray, you can say it out a lot if you would like to.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just pray it in your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to seriously and intentionally take the next minute and pray for those two people this prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm begging you guys can do that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pray that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, I thank you that you hear our prayers, and Lord, as we pray this prayer over one another, I just ask for us collectively, that you would answer according to your wisdom and will, in each of these people's lives, each of the individual lives in this room, over our families, and over our church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us know you, know the hope to which we are called.
[SPEAKER_00]: and walk in your glorious inheritance and incomparable power.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.