Exploring Ephesians

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning church family welcome and thank you for joining us for church online this morning my name is olivia and i am especially grateful that it is sabbath today and that the sun is shining and that you have chosen to join us today i'm even more grateful that lockdown has ended for parts of new south wales overnight and that this time next week we'll be joined all together here at kingscliff church so look out for updates on this in the e-news in the coming weeks thanks so much olivia now i actually have one more announcement and this may be good news to some of you and hopefully sad news to most of you and that is that i'm going to be leaving for america this friday so i've lived in kingscliff for the last six years and um i've absolutely loved it here i love kings cliff i love my friends i love the beach i love everything about um this place and australia but i am going to be i'm planning on visiting my family um for the next four to five months and i'm bracing for the very real possibility that when i try and come back in i won't be let back in unfortunately so the plan is to go visit my family leaving this friday and then come back but sadly this may be the last sabbath that i'm ever here in kings cliff so i'm really i'm even more saddened by the fact that i don't get to see um so many of you here but next week it'll be so good to see you online here um so with that said um we'll just get into our song service so um recently i've been reading through the psalms of some of my friends and um psalms used to be sort of like my go-to i wake up oh i slept in i i'm busy so i'll just quickly read a psalm and i tell you what just brushing over scripture you do yourself a real disservice because there's so much depth and so much profundity in this book and i just want to read you three verses from psalm chapter 8. [Music] um my friends and i actually we i was reading my devotions in warning and i sent my friends a text and i said it's going to take a lot to convince me that psalm 139 isn't a top five psalm of all time so that god is of course thinking well what are the top five or what are the top ten psalms of all time so me and a couple of my friends started reading through so many psalms four five six seven eight a morning sometimes and um we actually did arrive at our top ten but some one that i'm going to read you right now which is some it just snuck into the top ten and i remember reading i think this was like my fourth psalm of the morning and it did take me a while but but when i read these three verses they just they struck me i was sitting out in the sun room where i live and this just it really did strike me to the core which doesn't happen that often i just want to read it to you here psalm 8 verse 3 says this when i consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have ordained and i don't know if you guys have ever seen that sermon that very famous sermon where he talks about the stars i think it's called indescribable or something like that and um you just get a sense for how small we are on this planet in in comparison to the universe and we're talking about the god who made the universe and it says here when i consider your heavens the work of your fingers god made this the moon and the stars which you have ordained what is a man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him for you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor last week clinton preached an incredible sermon and if you haven't watched i really encourage you to go back and watch the first part of his ephesians series and he talked about what it meant to be an adopted son back in the day and christ god isn't only mindful of us he calls us a friend and he calls us his adopted children [Music] so i invite you to sing with us now you guys are able to sing you're in your living rooms you're not told you can't sing so sing with us um wherever you are maybe you're in america maybe you're in europe sing with us the song what a friend we have in jesus keep psalm a in the back of your mind and just let this sink in maybe it'll strike you like it did oh allow sins and griefs to bear what a privilege everything to god in prayer [Music] oh [Music] because we do not care everything to god in prayer [Music] is [Music] take it to the lord and pray [Music] faithful [Music] take oh [Music] you [Music] despised [Music] take it to the lord in prayer [Music] in his arms he'll take and shield [Music] thou wilt find [Music] um our next song is lord i need you and another one of the psalms that i actually really loved was psalm 51 and if you're not familiar with psalm 51 it's a psalm that david wrote after he had raped bathsheba and after he had killed her husband uriah the hittite dude mocked up and he writes to psalm psalm 51 and it's a long song i encourage you to go read it it's absolutely incredible and david is in one of those experiences and i'm sure you've had them before where you just come to grips with exactly who you are and you just realize man i am i'm morally bankrupt i am like who is god that i am a sinner and david david it's basically a psalm asking for forgiveness and repenting of a sinfulness and it's a beautiful psalm and i encourage you to go read it but david doesn't say dear god please forgive me i won't do this again. he doesn't promise to do anything himself because he just sees how sinful he is and how not capable he is of making himself better and i think a great way to sum up the psalm psalm 51 is he just says lord i need you i am a sinner and he says he he over and over in the psalm he says god my iniquity my sin my transgressions and his response every time after he goes a little bit this rant or wow how bad i am he says lord forgive me according to your loving kindness according to your according to your according to your mercy and i felt like that a couple of times in fact when i truly do some introspection i i come to the conclusion as i think we all do in those in those moments where we get a look into our lives and we just think man i am such a sinner lord i need you i love the the words in the psalm lord i need you i come i confess bowing here i find my rest you're my one defense my righteousness oh god how i need you so we're gonna sing that after we get a really quick drink [Music] lord i come i confess bowing here i find my rest and without you i fall apart you're the one that guides my heart lord i need [Music] you every i need you my one defense my righteousness oh god how i need [Music] your grace is more where grace is [Music] lord i am free holy nest is christ in me lord i need you all i need you every year i [Music] oh you so teach my song to rise to you when temptation comes my way and when i cannot stand i'll fall on you jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] lord i need you i need you every year i need you my one defense my righteousness oh god how i need you you're my one defends my righteousness oh god how i need you [Music] ah good day there everyone and welcome along to balloon carbon and again i've got my friend here with me pastor darren g'day there pastor darren hi arnie hi boys and girls it's so good to be back again what are we going to be making oh well you need to guess arnie and boys and girls see if you can guess what it might be i'm going to take this yellow balloon yeah i'm going to inflate it right and i'm going to tie it off yep and i'm going to do a tulip twist down the middle oh jewel a twist and tie it off i don't need that bit so you're gonna break it off that's right are you ready yep one two three that that was pretty good that's it and there it is there's what passed down this is a light i see the light that's wrong you know when it's dark in the night and you need a torch so you can see this is a headlight okay so it shows the way we need to go and when you're on a journey with god you need him to be your light to lead you jesus says that he is the light of the world that he is pastor darren that's right and if we're going to be the light that jesus asked us to be we need to be attached to a solid foundation i made a foundation earlier yeah i can see that on the ground here that's it i'm going to now put the foundation at the front and there we go and if we're going to journey with god then we need to stick to the solid foundation i'm going to give it a front end that sounds uh very interesting pastor darren sounds like it might be a vehicle of some some description it could be that's a big clue boys and girls there we go i've attached the front end the front end to the back end but it's not finished yet okay there's a wall i think it needs some big wheels at the back if we're journeying with god yeah we need to make sure that he is driving us forward but it needs some front wheels as well front wheel goes there okay look at that it's not finished yet okay it needs a front end another front end oh the grill to protect the engine right because sometimes it might get a rock or a stump and you need the grill to protect the engine to keep it going forward on the journey all right so that's its protection so we have the grill on the front you know the bible tells us god is there for us he protects us he stands up for us no matter what problems happen in our life we can stay on the journey with him because he's leading us he certainly is pastor darren leading us that's right but i need you now give it ah an exhaust an exhaust so there it is it's finished yeah that's pretty cool pasta darren can you guess what it is boys and girls you have a guest boys and girls but i'm gonna have a guess pastor darren and i think i'm gonna get it first time this time it's a tractor that's right it's a tractor you know art is twisting you into amazing creations boys and girls he's leading us and we are on a journey with him just like we're learning about today's story you can go anywhere with god and he will sort things out for you and keep you on track and lead you and he's going to tell an amazing story through your life ah that's good pastor jerry yeah and i love this tractor would you like to take it home and put it up on your shelf maybe oh yeah i reckon i uh i'd like to do that bastard darren there you go let's see get through the window tonight yeah okay you think it will fit through the window i'm looking forward to watching it yeah interesting anyway boys and girls it's time to go now so from balloon carbon we'll catch you next time see you pastor darren bye arnie bye boys and girls yeah so your kids i'll see if i can get this uh this tractor i'm gonna call it john john john the tractor john the oh dear oh yeah yeah john the tractor oh dear it's now come time for us to collect our offering the offering this week is the annual sacrifice offering and it's an opportunity for us to give sacrificially to help fund the mission of our global pioneers if you choose to give today you can give via our e-giving app or through the links on the e-newsletter so let's pray together over this offering today dear father thank you for this opportunity that we have to give to help support our global mission pioneers lord thank you for the work that they are doing for the work that you have put upon their hearts that they give their lives so freely for you and lord if we are able to help in some way today through our offerings lord may you bless our offerings and may you multiply them thank you for this church and for this opportunity to worship together today in jesus precious name amen we'll now just watch a short video and learn a little bit more about this mission hi good morning i'm ray lordreas i'm a church planter here in manila philippines coordinating church planting in our conference i have been involved in church planting in the past seven years and i planted a young adult church here in manila that has different locations and meeting in different locations i was able to utilize social media to begin with in my church planting journey i started connecting with people in the city through social media started looking for groups i could connect with and in the process i came across this application called meet up it also has a website meetup or meetup.com is a place where different groups connect to each other if you go to this if you download this app or if you go to this website you'll find different meet up groups and so i started looking for groups i can connect with most of the groups here are organized by and church and secular people so i started connecting with these people until i realized i could actually also start my own meetup or my own meetup group that's when i started organizing this group called cafe life cafe stands for community authenticity friendship and experience it's a small group idea and so we started connecting with different people the idea is really to connect with young professionals and open an avenue for young professionals to connect with hang out after work so i started putting that on meet up and um i was surprised uh young professionals young adults started you know showing up in our meet up groups and so we started connecting with a lot of young professionals that's how the church plant that we planted started through that we were able to connect with a broader demographic mostly in church and secular and through this application through the meetup we were [Music] inspired to also form or to also come up with our own app so my team who who are mostly young adults and young professionals started developing this app called cafe live so it's also available for download for ios and google or android phones when you download this app this cafe live you you will find [Music] a list of different groups meeting in the city and these groups are being led and coordinated by our members and you would also see different discussion groups our different discussion guides as this this is being used by our groups meeting in different places up until today our church utilizes the use of social media to connect with a lot of people we have small groups meeting in zoom or google meet and we are still meeting more new people through social media [Music] our next song is oh praise the name and the lyrics of this song tell a story of jesus when he walked on this earth more specifically when he paid the price for our sins and i know in this life that we've all experienced pain we've all experienced heartache and most of all we've experienced death whether for you it's been a loved one a family friend i know i have experienced death in this life and yet the bible says that there is a love that is stronger than death and where is that love found where can love conquer death in this song the first line is i cast my mind to calvary where jesus bled and died for me and that is where we find the love that is stronger than death because jesus conquered death on the cross and we can say oh trampled death where is your sting and that's the song that we're singing today so as we sing i invite you to cast your mind to calvary where jesus overcame death for us i cast my mind to calvary where jesus bled and died for me [Music] i see his wounds his hands his feet my savior wrong that cursed his body bound and trashing tears they laid him down [Music] messiah [Music] and all alone oh praise the name of the lord of god o praise his name forever [Music] oh [Music] i [Music] is [Music] oh oh praise his name forever [Music] he shall return in the road [Music] the blazing sun shall be and i will rise among the saints my gay trans face on jesus [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] we will sing your praise r [Music] dear god our hearts are broken for this world the hatred is palpable the division undeniable and the pain runs deep we desperately need more of you we ask for your truth to be louder than the noise which surrounds us for your mercy to be stronger than the voices of oppression for your strength to overpower those who seek to do harm where there is division bring unity where there is anger bring peace where there is evil bring victory empower us to fulfill your mission to answer your calling to be the light you've created us to be may your love your grace and your mercy flood this world we love you we seek you we place our hope in the mighty name of jesus this we pray good good morning everybody happy sabbath we are glad that you have joined us for church online if you are in the new south wales area especially in the region where kingsley churches you would know that restrictions are going down that means that hopefully if all goes well we will be back in church next week and we're looking forward to that so much but for this week we want to welcome you once again to church online if you're watching some at some other place in the world we want to welcome you as well to our online community uh we're glad that you have joined us uh for the last few weeks we've been exploring the book of ephesians actually for the last two weeks and we will continue to do so today um so i'm going to invite you to open your bibles if you have or you can watch on the screen as i read the the pericope that we'll study today or investigate today it's ephesians chapter 1 verse 15 to 23 a prayer of paul i don't know about you but i've never started a prayer the way that paul starts at it starts in verse 15 with the words for this reason for this reason because i have heard of your faith in the lord jesus and your love towards all the saints i do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you my prayers that the god of our lord jesus christ the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which you to which he has called you what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the work of his great might that he worked in the christ when you raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all the rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all before we start let's just pray together gracious father we come to you lord and we are excited to delve into this passage and see what you want to reveal to us lord thank you for so many people watching online lord we pray that you would be with each of them lord that your holy spirit will enable them to understand what paul is saying here lord to understand the power of prayer and where it can lead us and what paul is really asking for us and and of you lord i pray lord that you're that you'll be with me as i articulate this there's so many things so many nuances to this text so many little things that we can discuss i think that we can be here for so many hours just discussing this one passage but i pray lord that you would be with us as we um understand this we pray for everybody in our community lord that is not here today and we look forward to worshiping again next week again be with us now in jesus name amen so i we as i said we're busy with the book of ephesians and the last week we started to kind of get into the first section of chapter one and basically this is a continuation if you want to think of last week's uh praise section paul is actually praising god all the blessings that god has given to us in christ and this is a kind of a continuation uh in a sense it's a a consequence of that because god has done all of these things he has chosen us he has reconciled us he has sealed us the work of trinity there choosing us and adopting us um in christ therefore paul can pray this prayer and that's what we're going to look at today and actually the first first half of the whole book of ephesians from chapter 1 to chapter 3 can be broken up into four sections two of them is explaining things that we have in christ ending to our prayers and this is the first prayer this is a prayer of enlightenment paul is praying that we would be enlightened and then late in chapter 3 the last prayer is a prayer of enablement and so in one sense you're not going to get all the answers that might come into your mind as you read this text this will come later in the book of ephesians so if this if if this sermon kind of peaks some curiosity and youtube oh what does that mean or how does that play out stick with us because paul is still building his case and paul in i imagine when paul was writing this as he was praying this he was seeing stuff that i think very few of us actually see and that is his point he's praying for the ephesian church and those in the surrounding area and asia minor that this letter was going to it was a cyclical letter and he's praying for them and saying man i wish you as a church would see what god has called you i wish you would be enlightened and many people in the history of christianity there were pockets of people pockets of christians that have seen this and i think paul if he lived today he would say man kings cliff church or king slip church online i wish you could see this i want to tell you of one of these stories that i think that this individual saw what paul was meaning not just in ephesians but in the whole gospel message his name is lawrence or saint lawrence and there's a picture of him actually i want uh if they can put it up on the screen i'd love for you to see that now that's a a picture he was a martyr for his faith and that's a depiction of him the reason i show you this picture just because i think it's very funny especially if you look at the two horses on there just look at the eyes of the horses when i looked at this i was just cracking up laughing and they must be thinking what is happening with humanity like what are they doing right but this is the depiction of saint lawrence he was the archdeacon of rome and he was martyred for his faith but right before he was martyred he was chosen by the pope to be the arch one of the seven deacons of rome uh third century and one of the things that he was called to do as the archdeacon was look after all the treasury of the church and make sure that this was used appropriately for the for the needy and the hungry and the orphan and the widow and all of these things and rome was busy persecuting the church very strongly and and the caesar at that time they made a rule to say that if a bishop or a pope or a leader of the church gets persecuted then all his possessions would immediately go to the imperial treasury and so uh the the edict came out that the pope would be would be persecuted for his faith and the pope was persecuted and he eventually became a martyr and he died and at that moment uh they they they said they went to the archdeacon to to lawrence and they said hey we want all the stuff that the pope owned like we want all the treasure treasures of hit of of rome right all the the church of of rome's treasures and he said to them uh listen give me about three days i'm gonna need about three days to round everything up so it says sure we'll give you three days eventually he got his three days three days went past and uh eventually the three days he went to to rome to the place where all the prefects were meeting went in then said i have finally rounded up all the treasures of the church and they said great let's see it and he said cool and he called the people that was helping him and eventually there was this all this whole array of crippled people disabled people orphans widows all of them came in and they were kind of flabbergasted and they said here here is the treasure of our church you see the people of rome their paradigm of power and status worked around this idea that we wanted wealth we wanted power that's what that's what they saw as the treasures of the church but but lawrence knew that the true treasure of the church is not the wealth that it has but the people that it has the the the the people that are needy he was a very witty guy and eventually because of all of this he was led to be martyred for his faith and that's the picture that we saw that he was actually put on a grid iron and he was going to be burnt to death and once again his wit was uh to too much and uh the story goes that as he was there on the gridiron about halfway through being burnt he said to the executioner i think i'm done on the one side you can turn me over right he was a man that somehow knew even in death that this world is not everything that he it somehow he saw something differently than this world and this situation and what wealth is and what power is what status is and even in death he knew something that most of the people around him didn't know throughout christian history we have had christians that saw stuff in this world that other people didn't see and that's what paul is praying for in this prayer for us to have enlightenment to see things around the gospel order another story of this is uh father frederick and i just want to make sure that i pronounce his surname correctly his name is fredrick von bortle schwing he's a german guy and he's frederick von bol schwing senior and junior um frederick started a church or a mission called bethel and the the mission for him he was a pastor in germany was to have a church that or not a church would have a facility or a place that would help or firstly it was just for uh epileptic individuals people that struggled with epilepsy but then eventually it became full disabled and at you know at the turn of the century it was about about 1600 people that was in their facility in in germany eventually his son also took over and his son kind of ruled bethel or or worked in that arena during nazi germany occupation right and for many years he was seen as a threat to nazi germany for for um for the nazis the people that they cared for they were not worth much you see for the nazi the individual or the or the ideology that was driving that the only individual that really meant something was the ubermensch the working towards the ubermensch this perfect individual that had no frailties that had no disabilities but bethel was standing as a community looking after these people that it seemingly had no inherent worth they could not do much and so they thought now there's another man during this time that that saw the glimpses of the gospel and stood against nazi germany his name is dietrich bonhoeffer and dietrich bonifa was a german theologian that spoke about what we as christians should do the uh how we should live our lives in in texas in his biography about dietrich boniface speaks about how dietrich saw bethel how he envisioned and understood what they were doing at bethel as both friedrich senior and junior were both theologians and pastors they had a vision not just to care for people but almost as a calling on god and they saw and they knew that there are different powers in this world that are working and they knew what they were doing was being used by god's power to care for people and i want to quote a part of the book in eric mctaxis's book bonhoeffer pastor martyr prophet and spy he says this bethel became a began in 1867 as a christian community for people with epilepsy but by the 1900s included several facilities that cared for about 1600 physically and mentally disabled people frederick jr took over at his father's death in 1910 now right after the world world war ended world war ii ended a few weeks after that frederick actually died and a lot of people think it was because he was so stressed during this time constantly fighting against these powers that we don't see it says by the 1930s it was a whole town of schools and churches and farms and factories and shops and housing for patients nurses and caregivers at the center where numerous hospitals and care facilities including orphanages bonhoeffer saw bethel as the antithesis of the nazi worldview that exalted power and strength now this is the power listen to this it says it was the gospel made visible a fairy tale landscape of grace where the physically and mentally disabled were cared for in a palpably christian atmosphere for bonhoeffer he knew what frederick was doing he knew that they were fighting against principalities and powers that were not of this world he knew that this was almost a community in the world in a very dark place in the world where there were wars raging and people being killed all over the place this was a fairytale place where the gospel was being lived out somehow bonhoeffer knew what was happening there and i think that he would have said that's exactly what paul was praying for in ephesians when paul is praying this in ephesians this prayer of enlightenment he is praying for you and for me living in this world that our church will be a lighthouse that we would be able to see what god wants the church to be that we would see the visions and the calling and the power that we have at our disposal to be the church that the church is not merely a building that you go to but it's a people group called out by god chosen by god himself adopted into his family as we saw last week that are reconciled by jesus therefore sealed by the holy spirit for a purpose that's what the book is about the book is firstly talking about the blessings that we have in jesus in christ and then he talks about the behavior that we should have in the rest of the of the book chapter four chapter five and chapter six so paul is setting up what is coming later in the book in this prayer but paul is not really saying oh let's pray about this as if he's sprinkling this praying no no he's saying let me tell you how the christian start is how the christian church is started and how it will be sustained through prayer like at the basis paul knows for this to happen for you to be unable to do something you need prayer that's why you pray for a prayer of enablement for you to understand what you need to be enabled for you need to understand that as well to be enlightened for that you need prayer at the end of the day our spiritual disciplines everything should surround prayer how strong and how fervent and how important is your prayer life to you is it something that you do that you're in need or is it something that you do that you cannot live without so let's get into this prayer paul starts and he says for this reason for this reason he's building up on what he already said he says for this reason because you have to receive all the spiritual blessings in christ already the stuff that i have already spoken to you about being chosen being reconciled being sealed the belonging that you have the identity that you have the purpose that you have for this reason because i've just explained to you the theology and praise god for that now i'm praying for this reason because i have heard of your faith or faithfulness to the lord jesus christ and your love towards the saints paul is sending up here a very easy way for us to understand who are truly christians you see we have many denominations in the world today i think at the moment the last stat that i heard is that there's like 34 000 different denominations and they all have different beliefs and different ways of understanding the bible but if i had to ask you like if you had to break all of that down at the at the core where the rubber reads the road what does it mean to be a christian how would you identify a christian paul would say faithfulness to jesus and love for one another that's what jesus said right he said this in john chapter 13 verse 35 by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another i love that i read this phrase this week to be above with the saints in love will be glory to dwell below with the saints i know well that's a different story right and that's what we experience it doesn't mean that the church is going to be a place where you just get on with everybody all the time because you all have everything in common and you believe everything the same and you see everything the same there will be disunity in the sense where you don't always or agree on everything but that's the power of the holy spirit working in you that's how people will know that your disciples that even with your disagreements there's still unity in the love of jesus there's still something that binds you that is greater than your disagreements or greater than these things it is jesus that brings you together you will be actuated and motivated and driven by love not your love not a feeling but uh something that the holy spirit is doing in you understanding of the spirit of god or of what jesus has done for us paul would articulate it this way later in corinthians he would say if i speak in tongues of men and of angels but have not love i am a noisy gong and a clanging symbol even i'm the best speaker in the world but i have no love i have no use and if i have prophetic powers and i stand all the mysteries and all the theology uh uh all the all the knowledge and i have all the faith as to remove mountains but i have not love i am nothing even though i can be the best theologian in the world and map out all the mysteries but i have no love it means nothing if i give away all that i have and deliver my body to be burnt but i have no love i gain nothing even i if i live such a life of sacrifice but it's not motivated by true love it means nothing he says this is what love is this is how disciples of jesus would live their lives they are patient and they are kind they do not envy or they do not boast they are not arrogant they are not rude they do not dis insist on their own way they're not irritable or resentful they do not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoice in the truth they bear all things they believe all things they hope all things they endure all things you see when paul was praying to this church he's praising god and saying thank you so much that you are a church that i know that is faithful to jesus and and the love that you have for each other is spoken about all around people know that you are christians by the way that you are faithful to jesus and the way that you love each other are you known as that kind of christian are you known primarily by what you know are you known primarily about how you love paul continues and he says i do not cease to give thanks to you remembering you and my prayers we see two things you have prayed of paulia in his prayer he's persistent and he's thankful he's not praying because there's a problem this is one of the letters where there's no issue paul is not addressing a problem per se in colossians which was written exactly at the same time from the same place he's addressing a problem but to this cyclical letter that we call ephesians he's not addressing a problem he's saying man things are going good that's why i'm praying even more for you see what we do is we pray when things are going bad but when things are going good hand break up i don't need to pray anymore paul says no no that's exactly when you should be praying pray that it is good and thank god that is going good be persistent in your prayer in season and out of season always be ready to keep on praying never stop pray without ceasing and when he prays and thanks god eventually gets to his petition now he prays and he says i pray that the god of our lord jesus christ and the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know so the idea of the hearts being enlightened and gives this idea that it's not just something that you once see like it's the i like this phrase your heart's being enlightened it plays to this idea that it's not just a cognitive intellectual thing but it's not devoid of that but it's also an emotional thing it's a holistic thing where god is calling you to see certain things that you haven't seen before you're realizing realities that you haven't done before right the the literal translation would read like this the eyes of your heart and the mind being enlightened with the present result that they are in a state of illumination meaning that you are constantly in a state of seeing things more and more clearly oh wow okay ah yeah yeah but it keeps on growing more and more as you are connected to jesus now another thing that's interesting about this prayer is that paul doesn't pray for circumstances here now granted in this in this situation there might not be a problem but if you go through the prayers of paul he never really prayed for circumstances he never says pleased with this one's this one's health and this one's marriage and this one's financial situation now it's nothing wrong to pray for those things but what is interesting is that paul's priority of prayer is god not the things that god can bring what's the status of your prayer life like do you pray for what god can bring or are you praying primarily as a first priority for god that god can do this that you're seeking god first that's how jesus taught us to pray if you go to the lord's prayer the model prayer the disciples come to jesus and say jesus please teach us how to pray teach us what we need to do and jesus teaches in the model prayer right and he prays in the model prayer of jesus and we have done a series on this you can go back on our youtube channel and see a whole series on the lord's prayer there's two basic sections to the lord's prayer praying to the father about his person and praying to the father about his family right praying to the father about the father who is the father praying to him about his personhood about his principality about his purposes and then when you've understood who the father is you've understood who he is as a person hallowed be your name your kingdom come right your will will be done if you understand who he is what's his purposes for for for this world and for you when you've when you started from god then you go to the family and you say lord you know give us what we need give us our provisions help us to be pardoned and pardon other people protect us from the evil one you see it's not wrong to pray about these things but paul understood that it starts with a priority to understanding who god is so paul once again does that he prays that we would that the god of the lord jesus christ and the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened you that you may know so saying this is the main crux this is the main verse of this prayer paul is praying for you to see what you haven't seen before paul is praying for you to see the world differently than the way that most people see the world paul is praying for you to see reality for what reality truly is and not just your perception of reality basically paul is saying he wants god to remove the or take the curtains away so that you can see what's really happening behind the scenes god wants you to look at this world and look at yourself and look at other people from his vantage point and he's saying that you can't do this by yourself you need the spirit of wisdom you need the whole work of trinity to do that god the father sending it through the christ dwelling in you and the holy spirit illuminating the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of knowledge now the interesting thing there about knowledge and wisdom is knowledge is to know but wisdom is to know how to apply that knowledge and that's what he's praying for here and then he prays for three specific things he says if you're enlightened there will be three dimensions that he's mentioning here firstly he speaks about hope he says what is the hope to which he has called you the first thing paul says is that i wish you could understand i wish you could see to what you have been called for the hope that you have been called for we use this word hope as a kind of a tentative term that oh man i hope this works out like you're not sure if it will or will not that's not the way that the bible used hope like sometimes when when something happens i was you know there's been situations where you walk over a bridge and you're not sure if the bridge will hold you or not it's kind of creaky and broken you're like oh i hope this doesn't break you're not sure if it will won't break you you're kind of hoping it doesn't but if it does oh right paul is not saying well let's hope and see paul is saying no no hope works this way our hope is rooted in jesus in the reality that god himself had garbed himself with humanity stepped into our world he walked amongst us he died on a cross and he has resurrected that's a reality today that's not something just not just to believe that is reality and he's saying your hope is built on that somebody once said that hope is as a christian on the tiptoe kind of looking forward to what is coming knowing what has come already and looking forward to what is coming for right so we have this idea that he's saying i hope what is the hope to which he has called you remembering the call that we have peter puts it this way he says you must remember that you're a chosen people a royal priesthood called to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you from darkness into marvelous right like or a light right the word jesus christ the word christ is this idea christ is the anointed one and the the individuals of the offices the old testament that were anointed as prophet priest and king somehow the calling that we have as adoptive sons and daughters of of the father is to be like christ little christ in walking in in the footsteps it's almost this way where you're wearing your older brother or older sister's jacket you're not big enough to really fit it in but you're growing in it right that's what paul is saying i hope that you can see the greatness that you have been called for the word church interestingly enough in the all in the new testament and in the old testament is is the same word in the old testament is the word kahal and in the new testament is the word ecclesia the word ecclesia comes from two words just justification of two words ek meaning out and ecclesia the word kaleo meaning to call so the word ecclesia the word church means that those that have been called for a specific purpose paul says i hope that you can see what you have been called for it is a great privilege what you as the church have been called for you have not been called to come to church to sit on the pews you have not just been called to the to come to church and believe a certain set of doctrines you have not been called by jesus christ to just come and say my name is on a roll and therefore i'm a christian he says no no no you have been called for something way greater than that and i wish you could see it i wish you could envision what god is calling you for then he goes on he says what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints so firstly he speaks about the hope and now it somehow speaks about this inheritance in the saints now if you were to read this and i read this for many years like this when you read this you're thinking to yourself he's speaking about the inheritance that i have i'm a trust fund kid then right my heavenly father is so wealthy and there's so many treasures there i'm a trust fund kid that's what it is i have all this inheritance but that's not actually the verse can be translated in both ways and primarily if you read the old testament we actually see that it's that it's giving us the idea and i think that's what paul is alluding to that the inheritance isn't our inheritance primarily it's actually god's inheritance let me explain it to you in this verse deuteronomy chapter four i want to read two verses both from deuteronomy deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 20 but the lord has taken you and brought you out of an iron furnace that's the kind of egypt experience he says they're out of egypt to be a people of his own inheritance as you are to this day later on in deuteronomy chapter 7 he says this for you are a holy people to the lord your god the lord your god has chosen you to be a people for his treasured position sometimes also translated as his inheritance out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the lord said uh his love on you or chose you for you were the fewest of all the peoples but it is because the lord loves you and is in keeping the oath that he saw to your fathers and the lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of the pharaoh the king of egypt so when he's saying this when paul is praying for you to see the hope that you have been called for and for the inheritance is saying i wish you could see that you are the treasured possessions of god like you are his inheritance you're the one that he is saying oh wow look at this this is my treasured possession i wish you could see your worth and your value from god's perspective and because you understand that because you now understand that i'm his treasured possession and i'm adopted now you also have an inheritance now you have access to that great wealth of god the father because you are now one of his children paul says i wish you could understand this perspective this leads you to this idea verse 19 and that would be the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe this is paul is ramping up and this is the crucial thing that he is asking us about he's saying i wish you would be enlightened enough to see the power at work not only in you but through you for the gospel now power was a big thing in the book of ephesians because power was a big thing in the in in ephesus ephesus was a great political power and social social structures were very important and power within those social structures were very important the more power you had the more you moved up so people generally gravitated to want more power in order to oppress in order to move up but also religiously there were a lot of powers right it was a seat of worship of artemis or diana and part of the thing is that there was a lot of magical magical cults that used magic in order to use power to do something in this world so people in ephesus and the surrounding areas knew that the more power you had the more more influence you had in this world and so paul is speaking to this idea of power and for paul there was no more powerful event than the the resurrection of jesus christ now i want to show you the way that paul just plays on the idea of power here the power that god himself has in verse 19 there's four words for power he says and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power the word there is dunamis where we get the word dynamite from and i will read this um section from a dictionary it says this this would power dunamis comes from the sense of positioning or controlling influence often understood as manifesting influence over reality in a supernatural manner so paul is saying what is the immeasurable greatness of his power having the power the physical power to to do something in a supernatural manner right towards us who believe according to the working that word there is the word energia where we get the word energy the power to affect change by moving energy right that is the idea of working and once again the dictionary puts it this way it says this is the sense of functioning or operating having the power to operate and affect change in a tangible sense of his great and then once again a different word there the word is which we would we would generally use this word when a volcano erupts we would say look at that power the greeks would say look at that kratos right and once again it it determines this it says kratos is the controlling power power to direct or determine or to govern his might and the word there is which means the sense of capability or strength they're having the possessions that you need to do something so i want to read to you a literal verse how this would be understood when you were in ephesus as a greek speaking individual when you read this in the greek this is the kind of idea that you would get and what is the immeasurable greatness so grab out your your uh measuring sticks get your calculator try and measure the greatness of god he's saying what is the immeasurable greatness of his inherent power not something that he gets from somebody but something that he has inside of him what is the immeasurable greatness of his inherent power towards us who are believing according to the operative energy of his power to purposefully direct or determine the qualities he possesses to do what needs to get done which was the working in christ when he raised him from the dead among him at the right hand of heavenly places this is what he's saying in plain english the power of easter morning resurrection sunday that kind of power is available to the believer every single day like get this people for thousands of years have never seen somebody being resurrected that kind of power being displayed and paul is saying i wish you could see that jesus god himself has that power in himself inherent all the time to move and do what he needs to get done to get to his purpose and that same power is as your disposal this is a prayer of revolution this is a prayer that when we really truly understand and we are enlightened to see reality for what we have and what we can achieve through the power of the holy spirit in us man the world will be a different place if we start praying this prayer we would start seeing and doing things in our communities that has never been seen and done before and paul knew that and paul builds on that and he's and he speaks to this power giving the different nuances of this power he says he is the one that raised him from the dead then he says and he seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places far above the rule of authority and power and dominion paul is speaking here and saying that there is a reality beyond what we see beyond the four dimensions that we see that is truly real as well we live in a world that is um inundated with the scientism of the day where we're saying what you can see and what you can feel and what you can taste whatever your senses the imperial is telling you is real that's what's real and anything else well that's your private opinion paul is saying no no no no that's not private opinion that's reality there are forces and spiritual powers beyond us that we cannot see that is influencing this world and it's influencing you sometimes paul would say that if you're sinning if you're doing something it's because of your own brokenness because of your own carnality but at other times he says no no you are moved by the devil and the demons they are a cosmic war going on between good and evil at this present moment in your house where you're watching this in this church where we are preaching from like this is a real reality but you when you're with jesus you're already on the winning side like jesus has the power that there is no other power beyond him or stronger than him there's no power that can strong arm wrestle him down and say ah i've won no no he's already won he has already displayed his power paul is saying remember that resurrection power power over all the principalities and power whether it is political whether it is spiritual whether it is financial doesn't matter what it is if there is a power that stands in god's way there's no power strong enough to stop him when he wants to get something done the next one he speaks he says and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come meaning that this kind of power is not for not here and now but forever and ever and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all now just imagine this the most powerful being in the universe is at the head of the church how powerful is the church man let me tell you there is great power in the believer there's great power now paul is not saying that we pray for this kind of power to do what we want to do no no he's saying that's why he's praying for enlightenment first before he prays for enablement he's saying you need to understand firstly where you're coming from who has chosen you who's adopted you how he's reconciled you how he has sealed you you need to understand that and the work of trinity then you need to pray so that you can see reality your own reality the world's reality so that you can understand your place in the universe god's place in the universe what he is calling you to and what is the great purpose and plan for god what is he doing here and then when you fully understand that when those visions and vistas are open to you eventually you will start saying man god how can i use this power for your glory for the praise of your name not because i'm good not because i want attention or anything but how can i do this for your glory and for your power a song that sums this up very profoundly to me is actually a song that we know very well the the song amazing grace the first verse is this amazing grace how sweet the sound that's paul's this false gospel message in ephesians and romans and galatians like how sweet is the gospel to know that you were a sinner and you were you were far away from off in ephesians chapter 2 next week we're going to delve into the gospel story where we were dead in our sin and he came and resurrected us and saved us how great is that story amazing grace how sweet this sound that saved a rich like me i once was lost but now i am found i was blind but now i see i was blind i could not see reality for what reality truly was but now i start seeing reality in the face of of of god's glory through his kingdom i can see through christ being in christ the spirit working in me i see reality different than the way that reality truly is and when you start seeing that we will we will be like lawrence the archdeacon that will say yeah yeah we see power and status and and wealth differently than you do you want wealth in terms of money we see wealth as the and the lame and the orphan and the and the widow we would be like the like frederick jr and senior where we say that we want to have these fairy tales of grace in our community people are fighting for each other but we are fighting for the right things for the gospel things for the good things for the purpose of god which he has called us for we will have people doing things and miracles will happen and we'll be like that's just god working i recently heard the story of this of this power being displayed in a in one of our teachers of our church a leader in our church at the general conference his name is pavel goya a romanian preacher and he told the story that when he was young he was in the army communist romania he was living there and he he was in the army and he was the seventh adventist he kept the sabbath and one of his officers came to him and said i'm going to make sure forsake your god i'm going to make sure that you give up on your christianity and one day he came to him on the sabbath and he said to him you need to dig a hole and he said to him sorry i'm not going to dig the hole today it's my sabbath day he said i you will dig a hole he said to him sir i i will dig a hole any time any place except from the sabbath day unless if there's an emergency or somebody's dying then i will dig a hole on the sabbath but the icons i can't see that there's an emergency i don't see anybody dying so i'm not gonna do my my belief and the guy said i will make sure that you do this and he said to him listen yeah if you don't dig this hole you are insubordinate and if you're in subordinate that means that you'll go to prison for two years if you in and then he called all of the uh the the people in the garrison together uh or in his bunker together and he said and if you if you insubordinate in front of all of these individuals you'll go to prison for 14 years and i'll make sure that you go to the worst prison in romania dig a hole he said sorry i'm not going to dig a hole so this officer left in and called all of the other officers together and they were having an emergency officers meeting to to discipline and so pavel goya left and he went to the warehouse he was the the in charge of the warehouse and he he wanted to pray and the first thing that naturally what he wanted to do was what he wanted to pray that he would be freed from this but then he remembered his father told him his stories about how joseph didn't pray for freedom but pray that god's purposes would be done how he remembered daniel didn't pray for freedom necessary but pray that god would use him so he said god i want i'm going to pray that you do what you need to do through my life and he was praying he was praying the meeting was going on while this was going on one of the generals so in romania there are four armies and in each one has a general so one of the generals uh came to this base and he used to do this all the time to these bases he would do these um quick visits uh without them knowing to kind of see how prepared they are for war and how is everything in in order so he came there and he sort of eventually he said to them well last time i came here i saw that all the window there were a lot of windows broken and now they fixed there's no budget there's no money how did this happen they said oh pavao he did this uh he his father taught him how to work with glass and he fixed all of these things wow that's great see the last time i was here the driveway was broken and you have no money no budget how did you fix this he says well the same thing pavel his father taught him how to do that and he did this how much does it cost no nothing free of charge oh wow this is brilliant he said the the museum here with all the artifacts and all the old ammunitions and guns and all of these things it was in disarray but now it's beautiful again how did this happen once again paval he did all of these things and so the general went on four or five other things and they kept on saying what's pavel it's pavel this pavel see this is an amazing guy we're like where is he what have you done to him have you given him you know time to go home a little bit or did you give him some some reimbursement did you throw a party for him like what did you do did you do something they said no then he said well you know what's going on why are you having an emergency meeting what's the problem no no there's a an officer there's a soldier that is insubordinate he doesn't want to listen and they said well what did he do no he he doesn't want to dig a hole well who is this guy it's pavel what do you mean it's pavel why doesn't he want to dig the hole no he's the seventh adventist he keeps the sabbath and and and he said well what's the problem is it an emergency no well uh is somebody dying no well why do you want to dig him why why why do you want him to dig a hole and eventually he said listen yeah i see that you're just out to get him but let me tell you if this man is willing to prison for his god he would be willing to go to prison for his country if he's willing to die for his god he's willing to die for his country let me tell you now that you do not touch pavel if you touch paval you touch me you leave him alone eventually the sergeant came to him knocked on the door while he is still praying he doesn't know of any of this stuff happening he's praying and so the the the sergeant comes knocks on the door and says pavel who did you call nobody no no who did you call who's the person that you call you must have called somebody very powerful for the general to come and speak on your behalf i i don't even know the general not too long ago the lieutenants came to and said pavel please just tell him that we are treating you well we will treat you well we won't any hassles anymore just tell him who did you speak he says i didn't what do you mean who's the powerful person that you went to says well i didn't go to the general well you must have gone to somebody even more powerful and he said yes i did i went to somebody more powerful who was it the president no no no it was god i went to god himself you see pavel understood just like just like frederick did just like lawrence did just like paul did that god is powerful enough to move and shake things as he needs to for his purpose and paul is praying that every christian that calls themselves a son and a daughter of the father would be able to be enlightened enough to see the great inheritance that they have the great hope that they have the great power that they have at their disposal that when they pray stuff happens because their prayers are in accordance with god there is a great controversy going on and you are working with god in the in in the in the movement of light in this world to expand in this world you you're moving to the reconciliation of this cosmos you're moving towards the restoration you know what your purpose is you know what your calling is and you are working with god not against god paul says that is a great privilege so as i was preparing this week as i was preparing this week for the sermon on thursday night i we have uh training for the elders on how to preach and i was talking to them about when you preach you must always have like something like a a question like what is the thing that you want people to do when they leave like what is the thing that that when you preach you want people like this is the this is the thing this is the action that i want to do when i was thinking about the sermon like what is the action that i want you to do from the sermon like what is the thing i want you to take home to be like okay this is what i'm going to implement in my life and it's something as simple as this pray that's it just pray a lot more for god to open your eyes to enlighten your mind and your heart pray pray pray it's something so simple but yet sometimes so difficult because we get distracted we get busy we think that prayer is just another little seasoning on our spiritual discipline list but i want you to start seeing that prayer is the foundation it's the cornerstone of our spiritual disciplines that we need to be connected to god and pray that god would enlighten us and inspire us pray alone every day make time for prayer make time for corporate prayer we have a great prayer ministry at this church judith hallmar is our prayer leader and she is doing a great job every morning at 5 30 in the morning there is a prayer uh group going on if you want to join on the zoom link on that check out e-news it's in there every single day there's also on wednesdays all of the elders we fast and we pray on on wednesdays and then friday night uh these are not friday night wednesday night there is a prayer meeting zoom prayer meeting and at church there's a prayer meeting here if you want to pray more if you want to pray with other people more get connected our church wants to be a church that is a prayer warrior church so as we wrap this up as we think about this i want to ask yourself challenge you to spend time this week not to pray for things pray for those things but to pray primarily for god himself to pray for enlightenment to understand the purpose that god has for you and for this church and to pray for god to enlighten your mind so that as we develop and as we grow and as we move in the book of ephesians that we would be ready when the call of enablement comes that as we discuss and discover as we go through the book of ephesians we our hearts would be warmed we would see the power and profundity in the word that we would say yes lord i am ready to take what you have called me he's not calling us to anything yet he is merely saying this is who you are you belong you have identity you have been sealed now i'm praying that you see he's not calling you to do anything yet except pray but there will come a time and it will come very soon in the next few weeks where god is going to call you to do something to live out your life pray lord to say yes i want to be ready in that moment let's pray together gracious father we come to you and lord we pray that we would be ready lord when that moment comes but for now we pray for enlightenment lord we pray for wisdom not just knowledge but we also pray for knowledge we pray that we would know how to apply that knowledge in our lives lord we pray that we would be disciplined christians lord we pray that we would be able to see reality for what it truly is not for the way that we the world is trying to perceive reality to us but to actually see what reality is to see the war in our hearts and on our minds and in this world and to see what we can contribute to this what we can do for this as you work in us lord this is not our work but it is your work through us it is a great privilege to be called to be co-laborers with you lord in this plan of salvation how beautiful are you lord to call us as as human beings lord broken and and wretched lord to say i'm going to redeem you i'm going to justify you and and take away the penalty of sin and then i'm going to come and i'm going to give you the power over sin and sanctify you and make you holy and call you to be one of mine what a privilege lord what a beautiful privilege i pray that we will be able to see that truly bless and keep us now in jesus name i pray amen amen thank you clinton and thank you everyone for joining us today online we hope that you've been blessed and i pray that um you will continue as clinton said to make prayer a real priority in your life if you would like special prayer this week from the pastoral team feel free to contact them anytime through the links on the website and through the e-news and with that have the rest have a good rest of your sabbath and we'll see you here next week

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Length: 82min 51sec (4971 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021