Ephesians: "That you may know..."

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what you don't have—but what you can't yet see? In Ephesians 1:15–23, Paul prays that God would open the eyes of our hearts so we can truly know the hope, inheritance, and power that are already ours in Christ. This message explores how the Holy Spirit transforms our vision, shapes us into a people marked by faith and love, and invites us to live from God's promises instead of striving to earn them. If you've ever felt spiritually stuck, uncertain, or hungry for more of God, this message is for you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Good morning, everybody. Happy Sunday. If y'all want to make your way back to your seats, I hope y'all had good conversations. Nice. Well, if I haven't gotten the chance to meet you guys yet, my name is Ava, the one that Stephen shouted out. Thank you, Stephen. And I'm going to be reading the passage for us today. So we're going to be in Ephesians 1, verses 15 through 23. And it says, For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you. Remembering you in my prayers, 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. I pray 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 and his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion in every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. So, Jesus, thank you for your word. Thank you for leaving us with truth. And thank you for leaving us with a hope, a hope that is not fleeting. It's not based on positive emotions, God, but it is a hope that is assured in what you did on the cross, Jesus. Thank you that we get to live with that. Thank you that you left us with the power of your Holy Spirit, God. That we're not left hopeless, we're not left powerless, but we're left strengthened by you, God. Let us use those things for your glory, God, to encourage one another, to bring others to you, Jesus. And most of all today, Lord, let us know you, God. God, like you said, we didn't leave us as things just to know about you, but to truly know you, God. So please open our eyes and soften our hearts to what you have for us today. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Thank you, thank you. Well, good morning, everybody. How are you doing? Let's go. Yeah. Clap for God's word. Come on. If we haven't met, my name is Blake. I get to serve as a pastor here at Kingdom City Church, and we are just super grateful that you're in the room. We launched this church just about 10 months ago. And so it's so funny. Every single time we get up and we see people in the room, see new faces, especially, man, it just confirms and blesses us so much because literally we we came here for you. We came here so that so that we could see this. We came here so that there could be a community established in our city and that God could use those people to change a community that desperately needs uh needs him. And so uh and so I mean every single one of you have been prayed for, and you're an answer to prayer if you're in this seat. So we're so glad that you're here. Today we're continuing in our series through Ephesians, and this is our passage that Ava just read. And uh and this passage is really the key to understanding the entire letter of Ephesians. This is this is really the key passage to help us understand Paul's heart as he's writing this letter, why he's writing it, and his motivation for writing it. And also not just his heart for for the churches in in and around Ephesus, but also the way that we should pray for one another, the way that he, if he was here, would tell you how he's praying for you and how we should pray for one another. And so this passage is one of those that if it could get into your heart, if it could get into your heart, it could really transform you as a person, but it could also transform us as a community. You know, I know that there's different kind of individuals in the room that come from different experiences, different life stories, and also different experiences when it comes to faith or when it comes to church. And and today, I, you know, as we I rarely do this, usually I do this at the end, but I kind of want to tell you who who this is for today. And I think it's gonna hit everyone in the room in some way, is uh first and foremost, I think there are people here who you you don't you don't know Jesus. Like you're here and maybe you know about him and you've you've you maybe you've been in church, but you've never really had that encounter. Maybe you've seen people who are really walking with Jesus, you've seen people who really believe the things that that we're gonna talk about today, who are really bought in. And you look at them, and maybe you even maybe you even respect that or you honor that, or maybe even look at that and envy that a little bit. And you go, man, I wish I could believe. I wish I really, I really bought into that. Where our prayer today is that the Holy Spirit would open your heart, open your eyes, and that you would walk away being one of those people that really see, really understand, really savor, and really find Jesus beautiful. Other others of you, you've you you've maybe seen Jesus before and you think about your life, and there was a time in your life that you look back on, maybe it was a camp, maybe it was a moment when you were young, and you go, Man, I miss that. I miss that season, I miss that moment. I wish I could go back to then when I when I really saw and understood Jesus and had this love and affection, and now you're kind of here and you're a little dry. And you're going, man, it's been a long time since I've since I've felt like that. It's been a long time since I've experienced that. Where men, our hope, our prayer today is that the Spirit of God could reopen and reawaken you in a fresh way. That you see again and you hunger and you thirst again and you love again and you worship again and you adore again. And then others of you, man, you're here and you love Jesus. You love Jesus, but there's room for more. There's room for more. There's more love, there's more worship, there's more affection that can be stirred for Jesus. And so I think every single one of us, if we really get this today, it could be trajectory shifting for you as an individual, but I also think it could be formative, transformative for us as a church. Like we've said before, talking about this letter to Ephesians, it's a visionary letter, meaning that what Paul is trying to do in a lot of this, he's trying to get you to climb a mountain a little bit and to help see more than maybe what you've typically been seeing. A lot of times when Paul would write letters throughout the New Testament, he's he's writing to individual churches and he's maybe addressing an issue or a problem. And so he's kind of getting into the weeds a little bit to address something. Well, this is one where he's saying, you know what, we're not gonna spend too much time in the weeds. We're gonna get up on the mountain and we're gonna look up and we're gonna see the beauty of all that Jesus has to offer. And so even structures this letter where the beginning is really just a prayer of praise. It's like he breaks out in song and he's going, Man, look at Jesus, look at him, look at him, look at him, look at him. And then kind of the rest of this letter is breaking down. Now that we've seen him, now that we've really savored him, now that our hearts are exploding with love and worship for him, here's how now we should respond and live in light of this. And so here at the end of chapter one, we're getting to kind of the end of Paul's song and the end of Paul's prayer, and he's really pouring out his heart to this group of people. And once again, like Paul is trying to captivate these people with the person in the life of Jesus and give them a vision for a new kind of life. We find out, we find out about the background of the churches in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. And just to kind of get back to the beginning a little bit, in Acts chapter 19, it's Paul's third missionary journey, and he goes into the city of Ephesus, and he encounters 12 people who were disciples of John the Baptist, but had not yet heard the good news of Jesus. They hadn't heard the finished completion of all that John prophesied about. And so Paul encounters these 12 men, he fit, he tells them the good news about Jesus. They respond in faith, they're baptized, and they become the first disciples of Jesus in the city of Ephesus. And Paul actually establishes a discipleship school with these 12 men, and he pours into them, and over the the scriptures say that he stays there for two years, the longest Paul stayed in any city, and over the course of those two years, through through discipleship and multiplication and missional living, all of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, hear the good news of Jesus. You know, we talk about this when you look at a room like this and you go, Yeah, man, we're you know, we're not the biggest church in Atlanta. You know? Maybe we're not, you know, you look at this and you go, This is this is this is sweet, this is cute, I love this, I really like this. And you think, man, what could we really do? Maybe you're here and you're going, man, I love this, but what could we really do? Like, look how big our city is, look at all the needs of our city, what could we really do? And the beauty of the way that Jesus lived his life, the way that Jesus taught about ministry, and the way that even Paul exemplifies this is that they transformed an entire region, region through relational discipleship, where they were living in community together, empowering one another, encouraging one another, and partnering together to see the transformation in their community. And that kept happening over and over and over again until in two years, an entire region had heard the good news of Jesus. And so, why do we get why do we do this? Why have we planted this church? It's because we believe that this is the power. This is the power of the gospel, this is the power of living for Jesus. And so Paul starts out in verse 15. And once again, he's he's broken out in song, and now he's going to tell us here's why I'm here's why you need to listen to the next five and a half chapters. Is he says, he says, look, because of your faith in Christ and your love for all the saints, because of your faith in Christ and your love for all the saints. So he's saying, Man, I I I'm praying for you and I'm writing this letter because I've heard about your, I've heard about your faith in Jesus and I've heard about your love for all the saints. And it's motivating him to write to these people and to pray for these people because they have faith in God and they have love for one another. And once again, if you think about this story, these people are not are not from Jewish backgrounds, they don't come from faith backgrounds, they're Gentiles, and now, and now they're coming together and they're trying to form a new community, a new humanity that that is now walking with Jesus and walking with one another to transform, to transform a place. And Paul, and Paul wants these people to know. He goes, Look, I need you to know, I need you to know that that the Spirit of God has filled you, and I've heard, I've heard how the Spirit of God is changing you and using you. So he's he's riding from a prison and he's heard stories. There's a reputation about these disciples in these churches. And he's saying, Man, I've heard about your faith and I've heard about your love. And and as soon as I heard about it, it made me want to start praying for you. Is once I heard that, I couldn't stop praying for you. I keep praying for you because I'm hearing about your faith and I'm hearing about your love. Because the reality is you you have to imagine in a community like this, there's a lot of people with broken stories who come from who come from past where they maybe worshiped idols or they were participating in all that Greek culture had to offer. And you imagine that maybe they heard the good news of Jesus, maybe they prayed a prayer, maybe they entered into community, and I bet they had a lot of insecurity. Did something really change? Did something really happen in me? Like, man, there's some of you in here today, you you made that, you made that declaration. Maybe you started doing, and then, and then something happened where maybe it was a it was a feeling shift and you're beginning to have insecurity about your relationship with Jesus. Or maybe you're in and you're going, man, did something really change? Did something really happen? And what Paul says, he says, Look, I want you to understand that your faith and your love is evidence that something has happened to you. Your faith and your love is evidence that something has happened in you. This is evidence of the Spirit's presence and power in this community of people. Once again, God is building for himself a set apart people, a different kind of people who embody a different way of living. And in the Old Testament, God's people were given a law to set them apart. And he said, Man, if you follow these guidelines, if you follow these rules, it'll set you apart from these other nations. Well, in the New Testament, in our day, he says, No, no, no, it's no longer a law. It's I'm gonna write my law on your heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. And he said, I'm not just gonna give you a way of life, I'm gonna give you power to actually be able to embody this. And so you're here today, and if you're if you're a believer in Jesus, you've been filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's no longer a law or a rule, but you actually have the power to live a different kind of life. And he says, he says, this evidence of your faith and your love is evidence that the Spirit has filled you and you're now living this different kind of life. The law could tell us how to live, but we had no power to faithfully live that way. And now that the Holy Spirit has filled us as followers of Jesus, now that we have him indwelling and living within us, now that we are in Christ, we now have the power to be obedient and faithful to him and effective in the mission of Jesus in our everyday lives. And so, those of you who are who are here and you're a follower of Jesus, and maybe you've been living as a as maybe a victim, and you've kind of been operating with a sense of insufficiency or inadequacy. What Paul is trying to do is he's trying to awaken you to all that is yours in Christ, the power that has now filled you, and all the potential that is now yours if you live for him. He's saying, No, no, no, there's no longer this mentality of inadequacy or victimhood or insufficiency. You're in Christ. You've been filled with the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. And so he's saying, and I know that you're living this way because I've heard about it. I've heard about it. That this Gentile audience has now been brought together in unity and they've been filled with the Spirit of God and they're now living faithfully to Jesus and they're loving one another. And can I tell you something? This is the kind of church that we long to be. I mean, I long, I long for us to be the kind of church where people go, oh man, I've heard about them, their faith and their love. Their faith and their love. When you think about faith, like what is he talking about? He's talking, man, these these people actually believe. Like these people, have you ever have you ever been to a place where I've one of the things I've heard from people, even people who may not yet follow Jesus, is they they may come in and they go, Look, man, I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily know that I'm there yet, but I have no doubt that you guys are. Like you really believe what you're talking about. Like I have no question that you genuinely believe the things that you were saying. Like y'all are y'all genuinely, and like, man, that's that's the reputation that you guys are beginning to have, is that people walk in and they go, Man, these people actually believe this. That that they actually believe that that God has stepped into the story of humanity, that this God actually knows their name, knows their story, has has pursued them in love, has actually died on the cross on their behalf, taking all their sin and shame so that they could be forgiven and freed, that he raised from the dead, he's now seated at the right hand of the Father, and now and now they actually believe that there's this God who is for them. And and there's a freedom and there's a power, and they're going, Man, like you're beginning to get that reputation. And he's saying, like, man, these this this is these kind of people is that they actually believe that that Jesus hears them when they pray. They actually believe that as they as they pursue him and as they long for encounter and as they worship him, that something happens and that God is actually moving in their direction. He's saying, Oh my gosh. And like when you're living by faith, what do you do? You start to take risks, right? He's going, man, like you guys are living on mission in a place that hates Jesus. And he's saying, You're you're starting to take risks because of your faith in Jesus. You're enduring suffering because of your faith in Jesus. Your love is overflowing into the streets and transforming cities because of your pursuit of Jesus. In Acts 19, we actually find out that because of their missional living, people began to throw away and burn their idols that they used to worship, so much so that the economy turned upside down in the city of Ephesus. And there was a strike from the from the silversmiths who who made these idols. They said, look, we're now, this is destroying our business because these people no longer worship what we make. He's going, like, that something's happening. Why? Because their faith was exercised in mission and it began to flow into the streets, and the city was actually changing as a result. This is what it looked like yesterday. We got to, we had some people who served in our city. And and people are looking at that and they're going, and they're going, man, like like why are you why are you taking a Saturday in order to serve in a city? Why are you doing these things? Why, why are you why are you putting resources for it in this? Why are you guys sweating like this? Why are you guys working like this? Why? Because they're it's saying, man, our faith and our love should spill out into the streets. And he's saying, no, that and the goal isn't that that just becomes a serve day on the calendar once a year, but that becomes our posture. That every single one of us become everyday missionaries who see brokenness in our community and begin to begin to fill in those gaps with the healing of Jesus and the gospel. Losing my breath. Like this faith, I've heard about it. And then he says, and your love for one another. Your love for one another. And I think a lot of us have been a part of communities, maybe we've even been a part of churches where you can honestly say, Man, I don't know that anyone knew my name. I don't know that anyone really knew who I was. I don't know that anyone really cared. And he's going, he's going, man, that doesn't happen with you. That doesn't happen with you. Like you love one another. You know, when Jesus said on the night before, on the night of his betrayal, before he would lay his life down, what did he say? He said, Man, this is how people are going to know you belong to me. Your love for each other. Your love for each other. When we were in our pre-launch season before before we launched the church, we would have these kind of social gatherings in a coffee shop. And it it wasn't all that creative. We would literally just kind of rent this space for an hour, and we would tell the people on our team of like, hey, we're gonna, we want you to break out on tables. We want people to sit with you, and we we want you to just care for them for an hour. Why don't you just have a conversation and talk to them and care for them for an hour? And I can't tell you how many people came up to me after those nights to go, to go, I met this person tonight, and they cared for me more in one hour at this table tonight than my friends have over the past decade. Why? Because followers of Jesus are meant to have a love for people and an ability to navigate the deep things of the human heart so that someone else can feel seen, known, and loved like they've never had before. And you say, Man, you guys love each other. Why do we talk about community all the time? Because we want to like bump up our statistics on communities? No. It's because the way that he's gonna know that we belong to him and that others are gonna know that we belong to him is by the way that we love each other, by the way that we love each other. And these communities aren't the end all be. We're not trying to get you to attend something, we're trying to get you to get in relationships. We're trying to create a pathway where you can get into relationships and love people and be loved by people. Why do we talk about serving? Because it's an opportunity to love people, to to lock in, to lock arms together and to love people, to make a way for other people to experience Jesus. Like we don't do that because we just need to get church done. Like we we do that because it's part of our formation to love each other. That we mutually sacrifice for one another. That's what it's meant to be. That there are sacrifices that you make for someone else in this community so that they can have an encounter with Jesus or says that so they can experience what you what you've experienced and what you long for each other to experience. This is why we emphasize belonging. This is why we say phrases like church isn't an event to attend, but a family to belong to and a mission to leverage your life for. It's why we say that, not because it's pretty, but because that's what we long to build. For you to experience belonging, for you to experience purpose, because that's the engine and the fuel of the human heart and what God made you for. And He's saying, Man, I've heard about you, and this is who you are, this is what you're like. I mean, that's what we want to be. And so Paul says, because of this, because of this reputation, because I know the Spirit of God has really gripped your hearts and is changing you, I can't stop praying for you. I keep praying for you. Let me let me ask, like, man, for those of us who who this is this is our church, how often do we pray for our church? How often do we pray for each other? How often do you look to the left and to the right, to the front, to the back, and you see those people and you see those faces and you start praying for them? How often does someone catch your attention and you go, Man, I want to pray for them? And it's because we're naturally wired to see our problems, right? And we want to we want to intercede for ourselves and pray for ourselves. But what he's saying is like, it's like, man, what if you started to just pray for one another? Like, I keep praying for you. Paul's in prison. Like Paul could have written this entire letter and said, Hey guys, I need you to pray for me. And here's six chapters on why my life sucks right now and you need to pray for me. But he doesn't do that. He says, He says, Listen, I want you to know I keep praying for you. I keep praying for you because I've heard, I've heard about you. And so that when we when we gather, the the beauty of the gathering is like, man, if you get this group of people who have loved one another and have been praying for one another throughout the week and they now arrive in one place together and they're pursuing the same thing together, that that is potential for power for God to move in an amazing way with these people who love each other, been praying for each other, been saturating and softening our own hearts out of love and prayer for one another, interceding for one another, and then and then God pours out his spirit and he meets us here. But I think there's so many times that we put we put all this pressure on this gathering. And we go, we go, man, I I'm coming in and I haven't prayed, I haven't talked to the Lord, I haven't interceded, I haven't thought about this, and I'm but I want to come in, I want to sing some songs, and I and oh, I didn't have an encounter. And you're gonna know, man, what Jesus is saying, he's going, man, pray, pray for each other. As often as you think about each other, pray for each other, and then you show up and things happen. Why? Not because you threw up a shotgun prayer as you walked into church, but because you've been thinking and praying and interceding and loving one another throughout the week. And this is what Paul is saying. He's like, if Paul was here and he was preaching and he wanted to teach us how to pray, or he wanted to tell us what's on his heart for us, this is what he's saying. This is how I'm praying for you. This is how we should pray for one another. And, you know, I think one of the temptations that can happen is our fear is that is that if we pray, if we spend our time praying for other people or other things and interceding for other people and other things, that we don't get enough prayer for ourselves and that somehow we're gonna get left out. And you're going like, no, no, no, man, I got things I need God to do in my life, so I gotta pray for me, okay? And the beauty of the promises of Jesus in the New Testament is he says, He says, if you seek first my kingdom, I'm gonna take care of you. What does he tell us in Matthew 6? Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Like you don't actually have to create this laundry list and and ask him consistently and incessantly about all the things that you need, trying to get him to care. He already cares and he knows what you need. But he said, Man, if you seek first my kingdom, I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna take care of you. And the beauty of this is if you have a church of people who are loving one another, guess what happens? You're praying for them, and they're praying for you. And so you still get prayed for. And this is what Paul is trying to exemplify and trying to build. But what specifically is Paul praying for? Because even one of those things, it's like if we even if we do get in communion, we do pray for each other. How do we pray for each other? What do you believe is the greatest need of our community and of our people? A lot of times people start praying for material things, right? Even for our church. People always ask me all the time, it's like, man, I'm praying for you guys to get a building. It's like, actually, that's not what we're praying for. We would love that one day, but what we're actually praying for is, man, we want to be hungry for the Spirit of God. Like, we want to actually know and love Jesus and build up a reputation that people in the city know and desire Jesus because they see people who are walking with him and loving him. Like, pray that for us, please. But it'd be cool if we had a building. But it's like, that's what, like, man, what do you, what are you asking for prayer for? How are you praying for other people? And what Paul prays for this community of people is he says, I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. At first glance, depending on the translation that you read, you may think that he's praying for two different things. I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to help you know him better, period. I also pray that your hearts may be enlightened. But it's actually, if you read this in the original translation, it's it's actually a qualifier. It's showing you what it's it's it's it's defining again what he's saying. He's saying, I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation for you to know him better that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. He's saying, I want you the eyes of your heart to be enlightened, that you may know him better. This is what he's saying. He's saying, Spirit of spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten your heart, to give you insight in your heart to see him that you may know him better. So, what's he praying? He's praying that you would know him better. That's what he's asking for. He's saying, Man, man, Jesus, out of all the things I want to pray for these people, this is what I want to pray for them, that they know you better, that they get more insight into you, that they desire you more, that they want you more, that they're that they crave you more, that they know you more, they know you better. You know, because there's a difference between seeing and not seeing, between knowing and not knowing. You know, you may hear that and go, yeah, yeah, there is a big difference between those things. But here's what Paul tried to say, he's saying, look, some of you think you see, but you don't really see. Some of you think you know, but you don't really know. And the worst thing that we can be as Christians is so certain, right? That we're certain that we end up not seeing. There's a lot of us, our certainty has prevented us from being able to see. It's prevented us from having a hunger and a desire and a and a posture of trying to learn. And he's saying, He's saying, Look, I need you to know some of y'all don't see and some of y'all don't understand, and I want you to see, and I want you to understand. There are people who think that they can see and can't see, who think that they know but don't know. Or maybe, like we said earlier, who used to see or used to know, but have lost vision and have forgotten. So, what happens to us? What keeps us from being able to see? What keeps our vision obstructed? So I was thinking through this, and I think ultimately it's really, it's really three things. The the you know, church fathers have ultimately said that there's three enemies of the soul. It's the enemy, the world, and the flesh. It's kind of church history has always kind of said, man, you got these three things that are constantly warring against you. There's an enemy who's working against you, the world, the culture around you that that is not submitted to Christ is working against you, and then also your flesh. You have these, you have these broken kind of desires in you that are at war with your spirit and want to lead you astray. And so these three things, first, first and foremost, the enemy blinds the minds of unbelievers. This is what 2 Corinthians 4.4 tells us. Is that is that the the God of this world, he's talking about, he's talking about Satan, he's talking about the enemy, he's talking about demonic forces. What are they working so hard to do? They're working really hard to keep you from seeing. That's what they want to do. They're trying to keep people who don't yet believe in a stage in a place of blindness so that they don't see and understand. And when he's talking about sight, he's not just talking about eyeball vision to be able to see Jesus, but he's talking about insight. He's talking about being able to perceive and understand, to see Jesus for who he is and what he's and what he's done, but also to see what he's doing throughout human history, to see the story he's writing in your place in it. He wants to keep you blind to it. And and 2 Corinthians 4, 4 tells us what he doesn't want us to see. He says, the God, the enemy's goal, the God of this world, is to try to blind you and keep you from seeing so that you cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And so Paul is spending all his time here trying to show you Christ, trying to show you Jesus. And he's saying, What the enemy wants is for you not to see Jesus. And the enemy wants that, he blinds unbelievers, but he also wants to lull believers into a sleepy state so that they no longer see Jesus and find him beautiful. If you don't see Jesus and find him beautiful, you will struggle to obey him, love him, and submit your life to him. Right? You know, it's what's what's interesting is you know, if you think about art, or maybe you think about movies or different things like that, there are things that you find beautiful that other people don't find beautiful, right? There's a piece of art. Like, have you ever gone to uh to maybe a gallery or a museum, and people are like, this is a masterpiece. It's beautiful. Here's the story behind it and why it's amazing. It's $2.3 million and it can be yours. And you look at it and you're like, I'm like, Asa, Asa could have done that. I feel like that was Asa's art project right there. And people are like, no, no, no. Or maybe you watch a movie and you're like, this is the best movie I've ever seen. And people are like, that was the worst thing I've ever watched in my life. And those two people marry each other. But but no, it this is the difference between someone who can see and someone who can't, right? Is that there are some of you who look at Jesus and find him beautiful. There's some of you who look at Jesus and find him restrictive. Right? Some of us look at Jesus and we go, man, he's life-giving, he's beautiful. I love him. And others of you look at him and go, and the scriptures actually talk about this. That some of us are gonna are he talks about an aroma, and he says, Some of you are going to smell and you're gonna smell life and it's gonna be beautiful. And others of you are gonna smell death and you're gonna push away. And the enemy wants to blind you from seeing the beauty of Jesus so that you push away. Jesus actually warned us and told us that Satan is the father of lies, that ultimately what he uses is lies. You know, I think a lot of people when they think about the enemy or they think about demonic forces or they think about darkness, they they they think that he's gonna use these really big, huge, awful things. You know, people obsess over the big, and they're like, oh, that awful thing is really demonic. And he and there are things like that, right? But you know what he uses? Half truth. That's what he loves to use. Just a little, a little bit of lie. You know, when the when when the enemy is actually tempting Jesus in the desert, after Jesus is baptized, it says the Spirit of God leads him away into the desert where he's tempted by the enemy for 40 days. And when he's tempted, it's amazing what the enemy does. You know what a strategy is? He quotes the Bible. And he says, Hey, hey Jesus, isn't it said that? And he quotes a little bit of scripture. And then what does Jesus say back? Hey, but it's also said he said, No, no, man, you're not gonna get me with this half-truth stuff. Let me get you the full thing. And and this is this is what people like to do. This is a lot of times how people begin to start to drift, right? Is they get a half-truth and they begin to allow that to guide them and lead them. And this is what the enemy loves to do to give you just enough that you believe it. Because you're you're smart enough that if you hear something that's just like outrageous, you're gonna be like, that's not true. But if he gives you something that's a little bit true, you'll go, hmm, that actually actually sounds right. That sounds true. And you begin to follow that. And this is what Jesus says. He says, Man, he uses deception. And what he does is he gives you a worldview and he keeps you from seeing. That's as simple as it is. Some of you are there right now, others of us we have friends or family members who are there. People that we love, we have a culture that is there. Isn't it amazing how in politics they can quote some of the same stuff and yet have completely different worldviews? You know, everybody who's a Democrat's like, I love Jesus, and everybody who's a Republican's like, I love Jesus. And you're like, both of y'all are kind of, you know. It's like it's that because what are they trying to do? Everybody's trying to use half-truths to lead us into deception to give us a worldview so they can control us. That's what the enemy uses. So the enemy, you need to understand that you have an enemy, and what he wants to do is through deception, keep you from seeing Jesus. This is why Paul is praying. He's saying, Look, this isn't a discipleship class thing. Yeah, those are helpful. But he's saying, Look, no, what you need is this is a supernatural work of the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit to give you revelation so that you can see. And what is the Holy Spirit gonna use? He's gonna use what God has revealed in his word to show you. But you some of you, some of you can read the Bible like a textbook, and others of you read the Bible and you love it. Why? Because some of you see and love Jesus, and others of you read a book. And what he's saying is the Spirit of God is gonna give you revelation, and he's gonna show you who God really is, and he's gonna help you see. This is why he's praying. The second thing is the is the stuff of this world. Jesus actually says in Mark chapter 4, verse 19, in the parable of the sower, he's talking about what chokes out the work of the spirit in our lives. And Jesus says this interesting thing. He says, He says, the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things choke out the word. Once again, it's so interesting that Jesus uses this. He doesn't, he doesn't say it's the awful promiscuity, it's the drugs, it's the alcohol. He says, No, it's it's worry. It's thinking that money is gonna take care of you. And it's just your desire for stuff more than God. He goes, This chokes it out. The picture he paints is that it's just these things begin to shoot up and get a stranglehold and just choke it out. You know, that's that's some of us here, right? You like you can actually feel the spiritual life in you getting choked out as you begin to worry more and more, as you get distracted more and more, as your heart be as space in your heart begins to get crowded up, and the and the activity of God gets crowded out of your life and pushed away, and God moves to the sidelines, and the life is just getting choked out of you slowly. Then the third thing is a sinful resistance that hardens our heart and quenches the fire and affection. You know, once again, this is really what happens in our flesh is that there's just a hardness of heart that begins to happen where we get resistant towards the things of God. Sometimes this happens through religion, right? Like some of us we get so convinced that we know what we're doing that we actually lose a softness and an openness and a desire and longing for Jesus. You become a habitual Christian who understands the way things work and the way things operate, but you actually have no love and affection for Jesus. And he's saying, Yeah, man, you do all this stuff, but you don't love God. And so, and so this can happen to us, and a hardness of heart begins to happen. And the reality is you can sit in the spaces and have a hardness of heart. We can show up and we can be here, yet we can be resistant to the Lord. The second thing he says is this happens to us when we don't, when we when we have sin in our lives that that kind of begins to overtake us and we don't repent of it. We don't get away from it, we don't push it away. Is is slowly but surely this this unrepentant sin just begins to kind of crowd out our lives. And what this means is that there's things that God does not love but actually hates and calls you to resist and run away from that we actually walk in and pursue and and settle with and allow in our lives, and we do that more and more and more and more. And what it does is it kind of pushes the Spirit of God out more and more and more and more. Because what does the Spirit do? Convicts and leads you to life. And what we do, and we consistently say, I don't, I don't respond to that conviction, I don't want that conviction, I don't want that life, I want this over here, is we consistently push further and further away and it hardens our hearts. And sometimes this looks big. It looks like that secret thing that you do at night that no one knows about. It looks like that secret habit that you have, it looks like that stop at the gas station to crack open a beer before you get home or whatever it may be. Sometimes it's things like that. Other times it's just a posture. Just consistently being like, no, I don't want that. No, I don't want that. And then lastly, I think I think a lot of times what happens is we go through some suffering, we go through some pain, and and it gets a foothold in us, and we get bitterness towards the Lord, and it hardens our hearts. Like some of you have been through some really hard things. Some of you are in the middle of really hard things. And what the enemy would love is to take that difficulty and that hard thing and to allow it to become a seat of bitterness and unforgiveness that ends up being anger and resentment towards the Lord that keeps you away. That thing that you prayed for that didn't go the way that you thought it was going to go or hoped it would go. And he uses it to lead to resentment towards the Lord rather than creating a softness in us that knows that the Lord loves us, cares for us, and is there for us and is there with us that leads us to fall into him. Independence. We push away from him. And this is why Paul prays, I pray that the spirit of wisdom and revelation, I pray that you'd receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that it would enlighten your heart so that you could see him and know him and know what he's really like. And the enemy, the flesh, and the world would no longer get a grip on your heart and keep you apart from him. And so this is a supernatural work that happens to the work of the Holy Spirit. And that's why Paul is praying for it. And now what does he pray? He prays really three things. He says, He says, Look, I want, I want the Spirit of God to open the eyes of your heart so that you can see. And what does he say? He says, I want you to see these three things. The first thing is he says, I want you to see the hope of his calling. I want you to see the hope of his calling. And and and what is he what is he what is he asking for? He's saying, Man, I want you to, I want you to see and remember that God chose you. I want you to hope in the reality that God chose you. In Ephesians chapter one, what we've worked through over the past several weeks is is is that that Paul is telling them what is theirs in Christ. And he says a list of these few things. He says, first and foremost, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. He says, Look, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. What does that mean? He's like, God's not holding out on you. Everything that, everything that Christ died for and Christ died to secure, if you are in him, it belongs to you and he's not holding out on you. God isn't trying to give you some and give them more. He's like, no, no, no. Everything I have is yours. Everything I have is yours. The second thing he says, you've been chosen and adopted as a son and daughter of God. You're no longer, you're no longer a beggar or or or a coworker or or or this kind of abandoned person on the side of the street. He goes, He goes, No, no, no. You're a son, you're a daughter. I love you. I'm for you. You have access to me. I'm yours. Everything I have is yours. You're not a bit you're not a beggar, you're a beloved. Three, holy and blameless in the sight of God. Some of you have done some horrible things in your life. Every single one of us could raise our hand and say, Man, I got things in my life that I regret. I got things this week that I regret. And what he wants to say is, he says, look, when Christ died for your sake, he took all of it. He took all of it so that when you stand before God, you can be confident in knowing that you're clean because you are holy and blameless in his sight because of what Christ has done. He says that you're redeemed and forgiven through Jesus' blood, that you've been purchased and your debt has been wiped clean because of the because of what Jesus has done. He says that you've been marked and sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, that you've been filled with the Spirit and you've been changed and you will continue to be changed. And then lastly, he says that you're the guaranteed heir of the promised inheritance, that everything God promises is guaranteed to you if you're in Christ. That it's yours. That when we stand before God, when we walk into eternity, that everything that is Christ, He's sharing with us as His co-heirs. That inheritance is yours. And what Paul is trying to say is he's trying to go, look, I need you to see this. Why? Because if you don't see this, you're gonna live a life that is less than. He's like, man, there's a life that God has for you. There's a calling that he's placed on your life. And when you don't see this or you forget this or you lose sight of this, what are you gonna do? You're gonna settle for a life that he didn't die to give you. He's like, no, no, God has God has so much vision and love and desire for you, and you've got to see this. You've got to know who you are, you've got to know who he's made you to be, you've got to know what he's sacrificed for you to have. And what happens to us is God's choosing us, and when we get acts, when we see all that is ours in him, what does it do? It transforms our hope and perspective of the life and future. There's some of you, because you've forgotten what is yours in Christ and who you are in him, you have no hope for your future. You have this mentality of being stuck as a victim and in suffering. Why? Because you've you've forgotten the hope of his calling. No, no, no. What happens to you is this transforms your hope. This transforms your hope in your future. And once again, Paul is writing this in chains from prison to a community of people who are enduring suffering and persecution. And so what is he saying? Oh, the hope of your future is that all of this is gonna go away. He goes, No, no, no, the hope of your future is secured in Christ so that you can endure this and be resilient, knowing what's waiting for you. That that's your hope. You can endure, you can be resilient. C.F.D. Mole once said that hope is faith standing on tiptoe. He said it's faith standing on tiptoe. What does that mean? It means that what I believe to be true, it's I know what is mine in Christ and what I believe to be true, and now I'm looking towards the future in expectation because I know he's gonna be faithful. And so you're standing on tiptoe, going, I know it's gonna happen and I'm ready. That you don't have to, you don't have to be pessimistic or cynical looking towards your future. You can be hopeful. You can be encouraged. He says, He says, I want you to see the hope of his calling. The second thing he says is, I want you to see what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance. I want you to see what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance. Now, there's been there's been debate between scholars of the way that this is worded. They're asking, okay, is this God's inheritance or is this our inheritance? Because Ephesians 1 has talked a lot about our inheritance, but then this says it's his, it's his inheritance. And and what I would like to say is, yes, is that it's God's inheritance and it's our inheritance. Why? Because God's sharing his inheritance with us. That what Christ has died, that he has secured for God, that he is, he Christ has come to purchase and redeem God's people for him. And then what are we? We get to share in those things with Christ, his inheritance, because we are co-heirs with him. God's inheritance was secured by Jesus, and his inheritance is us. And Jesus came to secure God's treasured people for God that he may enjoy them and bless them and dwell with them for all of eternity. He says this in Ephesians 1, and he goes back to say it again in Ephesians 2. What does he want to do? He wants to bless you with his kindness for all of eternity. You're going, what's God's posture towards me? What does he want to do? He wants to show the riches of his grace and his kindness to you forever and ever and ever. That's what he wants to do. What's eternity gonna be like? Are we just gonna go there? We're gonna be dressed in white, we're gonna have to sit there at his feet and sing all day long. He's like, no, no, no. What's it gonna do? It's being it's gonna be eternal receiving of the blessing and riches of kindness and grace in Jesus. What are you gonna do? All of eternity are gonna be like this. Just more. I want more. Joy, more, treasure, more. Kindness, more, riches, more. All in Christ. Because he's going, all that is mine, all that I've secured is yours. I'm sharing it with you. In his kingdom. Our inheritance was secured by Jesus. The inheritance is all that God gives. Once again, going back to every spiritual blessing that God's heart is not to withhold from you. And what happens to us is when you don't understand or grasp all that is yours in Jesus, you feel the need to secure it for yourself. When you don't understand that Jesus' desire is to give to you, what do you do? You feel the need to secure it for yourself. This leads to people who are insecure, walking around trying to get for themselves because they don't believe God's going to take care of them. You know, in the story of the prodigal son, there's a younger brother that we give a lot of attention to that runs away and does a bunch of stuff, acting like a hoodlum. But then there's another brother, there's an older brother. And the older brother is the one that never left. He did all the things right. And what happens at the end of this story is the younger brother comes back, the father forgives him and throws him a party, and the older brother gets angry. And he comes to the father and he says, He says, I've been with you all these days, I've done everything right, and you've never thrown a party for me. And what does the father say back to him? Son, everything that is mine is yours. This son didn't see and doubted his father's heart, and it led him to live a life of insecurity and performance. When the father the whole time was going, Everything that's mine is yours. My heart is open to you. And there's so many of you because you're not convinced that God's heart is open to you, you're living performatively and insecurely when everything that is his is yours. Third, he says, I want you to see what is the immeasurable greatness of his. Power. The immeasurable greatness of his power.

unknown 44:03

Man.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

God, if we could get this. We talk all the time about being ordinary people who become extraordinary disciples and everyday missionaries. And there's there's some of us here like, man, if you could understand the greatness of God's power. And what does he say? He says it's for you. The greatness of God's power. Paul in another letter would tell us that the same power that raised God from the dead, the same life-giving spirit power that raised Christ from the dead, is in you. It's in you. That power is in you. Why? Because the Holy Spirit indwells you. It's in you. Amen. So good. Praise God. It's in you. He's going, man, I want you to see this. I want you to see this. He goes, Yeah, look, look, man, I know, I know you're suffering. I know you're going through so many things. Writing to the church in Ephesus, man, I know that you're in this, you're in this Gentile world with this idol worship. I know that there's riots. I know that people are coming after your life. And he goes, he goes, man, but this is the greatness of God's power is in you. You can do it. You can you can be resilient. You can endure it. Man, I know you've got this sin in your life that feels like it's gotten a grip on you. And he goes, God, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you. That sin is not that's not overtaken you. God's life-giving power is available to us. And what does he say? What is he rooted in? He's proven this in what? The resurrection of Jesus. This is why the resurrection of Jesus is so important for you to actually believe. The historical bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead is important for you to believe. Why? Because it's every bit of your hope is sealed up in that. If he didn't raise, you've got no hope, you've got no power. But he says, look, if Christ has raised from the dead, that same power that raised him from the dead is in you. This is our guarantee that he's going to raise us, that he's going to be faithful to all of these promises, that all of this inheritance is actually ours, is the fact that Christ has been raised and seated at the right hand of the Father. And he says, Look, he's done it before in Christ and He's going to do it again for you because you're in him. John Stott said, How shall we come to know the surpassing greatness of the power of God? Because he has given a public demonstration of it in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. It is because of Christ's resurrection from the dead and enthronement over the powers of evil that he has been given headship over the church. The resurrection and ascension were a decisive demonstration of divine power. For if there are two powers which we cannot control, but which hold us in bondage, they are death and evil. We are mortal, we cannot overcome death. We are fallen, we cannot overcome evil. But God in Christ has conquered both and can therefore rescue us from both. The same power. Say living hope. It's not a dead hope, it's a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. And he says, This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. He says, He's writing to this persecuted group of Christians who have been dispersed, apart from their family, apart from their community, enduring suffering. And he says, He says, But listen, there's a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And because of this resurrection, you have an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade. It's not going anywhere. You're not going to lose it. You don't have to grip or grapple for it here. You can feel free to sacrifice for the Lord Jesus here because He's going to give you all things for eternity. I'm telling you, there is no cost that you can count and sacrifice for Jesus on this side that he will not repay you a million fold for in eternity. There's nothing. There's nothing. Why do we talk about this all the time as a church? Because, like, what's rooted in us being this people of faith and this people of love is the fact that you actually believe this and you know that there is nothing, nothing that he's not going to give you. Why? Because he loves you and his kindness is towards you, his heart is for you. And so you can overcome and you can endure until you stand before him, holy and blameless, looking dead in his face, confident, confident that you belong to him and you get to enjoy him, and he's gonna enjoy you for the rest of eternity. And so to finish, what are we saying? This is what Paul says. He says, So I keep asking. I keep asking. What am I calling you to do? To keep asking. He says, look, the Spirit of God has to do this in you. And my question to you, my challenge to you is you have to ask for this. You have to ask for this for you, you have to ask for this for your marriage and for your home and for your kids. You have to ask for this for your friends and for your community and for your coworkers and for your neighbors, and you have to ask for this for each other. And he says, So I keep asking and I keep asking and I keep asking. Paul's in prison and he's going, I can't stop asking for God to give you more, to help you see more. And so what's the call? To keep asking. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has to do this in you. If you're gonna walk away from that sin, the Holy Spirit has to give you new vision and new sight. If you're gonna count that cost and make that sacrifice for him, what's he got? He's gotta give you new vision, he's gotta give you insight, he's got to get open the eyes of your heart. If you're gonna trust in him, believe in hope, what's he gotta do? He's gotta open the eyes of your heart, he's gotta enlighten you. And so we're about to move into a time of response as we pray and as we sing. And and man, my my prayer, when I thought about this and when I prayed to God about this, I say, God, I want to see, I want to see individuals praying and crying out to you. God, I want to see couples praying with each other, homes praying with each other. I want to see communities and friends praying with each other, asking for these things for each other. I want to see people come into our prayer team to say, Man, I need you to pray and ask that my heart would be open to see these things because I don't see them anymore and I want to see them. And so, man, we got people positioned throughout the room. You got people next to you who love you and care about you. Man, just ask the Lord. This isn't gonna be a YouTube video that opens and enlightens your heart. You're not gonna see an Instagram reel that's gonna open and enlighten your heart. You're gonna have to have the Spirit of God give you fresh insight and revelation into the beauty and the majesty and the glory of Jesus and all that is yours in Him. If your heart is gonna be released from bondage and your life is gonna be free. And so some of you you cannot see, your vision has been blocked and blurred. And today you can pray and ask for new vision. Some of you cannot see past yourself, and you need to pray for other people because you're so, you're so just can't get your eyes off of you. And man, you need to pray for other people. Some of you need to pray and respond as a family, as a marriage, whatever it may be, as a community. But man, let's be a church that keeps asking, that prays like this, so that we can have open eyes and new vision and a life that transforms a community, but it's got to start in your heart. And so, Holy Spirit, we just we come to you and we ask you, Holy Spirit, would you would you come? God, if there are people in this room who don't want you and their heart is resistant, we pray against that in the name of Jesus, that you would give a dis, that you would birth a desire and a hunger in their heart that they didn't have. God, if there are people here who are afraid of being judged because they want to pretend like they have it all together, but what they really need is prayer, God. We pray against that in the name of Jesus. There's no insecurity, there's no performance. We're free. We're free in you, Jesus. God, if right now your spirit is calling some of our hearts and you're illuminating people in our community that you're calling us and leading us to go to and pray for in this moment. I pray that we would respond to that. We would pray for each other. God, we want to keep asking and keep believing and keep yearning and keep hungering so that we can be this kind of church and this kind of people. Because there's nothing else worth living for. And we know that all that is yours is ours in you. Thank you that this is true, Jesus. Hear us as we respond. Be present with us as we respond. Move in this room, Jesus. Move in our hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen.