A Prayer for the Saints

And read verse 21 with me. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever. Father, what a beautiful thing to praise your name. Because you are... More awesome than we can put into words. And so, Father, I thank you and praise you for who you are. And Lord, I just ask that as we spend time in your word this morning,

talking about the subject of prayer, looking at this prayer of Paul, Lord, that you would stir in our hearts an even deeper desire to go deeper into our prayer lives with you. And so, Father, moved by the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open your eyes. Stand up in the book of Ephesians, chapter 1.

Ephesians, chapter 1. Well, the last time that we were together, we looked at, really, the subject of Ephesians, which is our riches in Christ. If you will, we looked at the bank statement for believers, that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And as Paul lays all of these spiritual blessings out to us, didn't it almost kind of feel like we were drinking from a fire hose of Jesus?

Just goodness, right? Like, it's almost more than we can take in. Well, I think Paul knew that. And so, as he was sharing with them all of these wonderful truths about who God is, he sort of took a moment, he's going to take a moment at the end of chapter 1 to pray for the Ephesian believers. And in this, we get a little bit of a view into the prayer life of Paul.

As a matter of fact, the book of Ephesians contains two of Paul's prayers. This one here in chapter 1, and then there will be another one in chapter 3. The one in chapter 1 deals... deals with spiritual enlightenment or spiritual understanding. The one in chapter 3 deals with spiritual strength. But since he just told us about all of our riches in Christ, he prays that we as believers, especially these Ephesian believers,

would understand to a deeper degree what these riches really are. And so, I've entitled the message, A Prayer for the Saints. Now, before we get into and read over this little prayer in verses 15 through 23, I want to spend just a moment talking about... about prayer itself. Over the years, as I've worked with especially young people, I always ask them the question when we start talking about the subject of prayer,

I say, so what do you find the most difficult about prayer? Now, if you don't find prayer difficult, you're probably not being fully honest with me. Because I think all of us as human beings have a little bit of a hard time with prayer, at least in the beginning. Because prayer is very unnatural to us, right? Having a conversation with a person that's decently natural

because they're... sitting right in front of you and it's easy to have interchange or exchange and things like that with them because they're right there with you. But with prayer, God's not with us, right? I mean, he is, but we can't physically see him with us. And so, prayer is very spiritual in nature. And since we're not spiritual, it's not a very natural thing for us to do.

And so, as I've asked young people over the years, what are the things you struggle the most with prayer? My heart has borne witness with these as well. So, I'm going to give you the top three things that most people, at least young people that I've worked with, say that they struggle with about prayer. Number one, they don't know what to say. They're like, I want to pray, but I don't always know what to say to God.

Like, what do you say to God? You don't want to use the wrong words. You want to use proper words. So, what do you say? The second concern or struggle that they have with prayer is they say, I want to pray according to God's will. I want to make sure that I'm not praying just what I want, but what God wants. And then the third one, and this is the one that I struggle with the most,

is focus. I have a hard time staying focused when I pray. Now, perhaps your heart bears witness with one or all of those, much like I do. Well, I think that as we look at prayers in Scripture, it actually answers these problems. Because if you look at the prayers in Scriptures, which, by the way, this is something that you can use, not just in this one section in the book of Ephesians,

you should pay attention any time where a prayer is being given. Because if you look at these prayers, you realize, first of all, you know what to say. Because if you can't have any words of your own, what better to use? It's in the very Word of God itself. And so it answers the question of, what do I say when I go to the Lord in prayer? Number two, you know that the Word of God is according to the will of God, right?

So you can know that you're praying within the will of God because this is the Word of God, right? And then number three, you can stay focused because it's right there in front of you. And if you start to drift, you go, oh, wait, what's it say here again? And you bring it right back to where it is. So look at prayers of Scripture. Use this one. Use the one at the end of Ephesians.

There's a great one in the book of Colossians. And then, of course, there's all of the Psalms. And then you can look back in the book of Exodus and there's some prayers of Moses. You can look in the New Testament and you see some prayers of Jesus. There's prayers all throughout Scripture and you should pay attention to those and use those as templates for how you pray.

And that's kind of what we'll look at here today. Because as we come to this prayer in the book of Ephesians, this prayer is for several different people. Number one, this prayer is for ministry leaders. Because after all, this is a pastoral prayer of Paul, right? It's a pastoral prayer. For all of the Ephesian people. Because as he's laid out all of these truths,

he wants them to understand them to a deeper degree. So if you're a ministry leader, perhaps you are in charge of a small group. You're in charge of a couple of kids that you're discipling, a couple of people that you're discipling. Perhaps you're in charge of a ministry. Whatever it is, this is a wonderful prayer to pray for those that you are ministering to.

But number two, this prayer is for parents and grandparents that have kids and grandkids that you want to see grow deeper. And their understanding of God. And so you pray this prayer for them. Lord, I want my kids to know you more. And so you go through this prayer. But you know who else this prayer is for? This prayer is for you. To pray for yourself. Because all of us can use a deeper spiritual understanding.

Because all of the things of God are spiritually ascertained. Not ascertained through the methods of the flesh. And so with that as a backdrop, let's read over verses 15 through 23. Of Ephesians chapter 1. It says this. For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you

while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of your calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every, every name that is named, not only in this age,

but also in the age to come. And He put all things in subjection 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. And so as we look at this prayer, we're going to see, first of all, an introduction to the prayer, the prayer itself, and then He goes off on the power of God, right? So let's, first of all, look at this little introduction.

He starts off by saying, for this reason, I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, for this reason. Now that should cause you to ask a question. For what reason? Right? Why is Paul praying this? Well, the for this reason takes us back to everything that he's just said before. It's a linking sentence that ties us to what he said before in the prayer that's about to come.

For this reason, because of all of the riches that you have in Christ, I need to pray for you. Because of all the riches that you have in Christ, you need to understand. You need to understand these things. Because listen, spiritual truth can only be spiritually understood. You can look and see all the Greek words and do all the Bible studies that you want to,

but it doesn't necessarily become a heart knowledge. It's just a head knowledge that you have. And so these things need to be spiritually understood. And that can only be done through the power of the spirit, which can only be done through prayer. He says, for this reason, I, having heard, have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which exists among you

and your love for all the saints. In this introduction, he says a beautiful thing to the people of Ephesus. He said, because of all the riches that you have in Christ and because I have heard of your faith and your love. Now that word faith there doesn't indicate saving faith. That word faith there indicates a day by day walking in faith. Now remember, Paul's writing,

this epistle. I'm about to sneeze. Hang tight. It passed. Okay. Sorry. I'm going to blow you guys out of the water. So I was going to cover the mic and do what I needed to do so that you're not like, anyway. So Paul wrote this epistle while he was in prison in Rome. And so probably he had heard some reports from other believers because people were allowed to come and go with this prison that he was in.

He was under house arrest. People were allowed to come and go. And he had heard that this group of people in Ephesus are continuing to walk. Day by day by faith is a matter of fact, their faith was well known amongst those in the Roman empire. He says for this reason, since I heard of your day by day faith, and can I just make a little bit of a side point here before we get into this prayer?

That's exactly what faith is. Faith is simply the day by day exercise of walking in complete trust in God. It's just that it's the, it's the everyday things of life. Sometimes we view faith and we think, faith has to be so big that I have to be willing to do all of these things. And man, sometimes you just have to have faith to get out of bed in the morning,

right? You seven have to have enough faith to put one foot in front of the other because it's a day by day faith that we have. And it all comes through Christ. He says, since I heard of your faith and of your love for all the saints, that word love is a gap, a love. And of course, a gap, a love is the kind of love that's only produced by yielding to the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the two things that the people of Ephesus were known for is they were known for their faith and they were known for their love, their faith in God and their love for people. Can I just go ahead and tell you really quickly that those two things have to work together. You can't have one without the other. You cannot have faith in God and not have love for people.

As a matter of fact, John and his epistle tells us, if you say that you love, God who you can't see, but you don't love your brother who you can see, then the truth is not in you. And so you can't have faith in God without also having love for your brethren. But you know what else you can't have love for your brethren if you don't also have faith in God, because the kind of love that's being referred to here is the kind that's only produced by yielding to the Holy Spirit will yield to the Holy Spirit through through faith that faith and love always have to work together. So he says, when I heard of those, those things I did not, I do not cease giving thanks for you and making mention of you in my prayers.

Now he's going to tell us there's two things that he does without ceasing. He gives thanks for them and he mentions them in his prayers without ceasing. Now this should give us a little bit of an indication of what prayer should look like. That prayer should be something that we do without ceasing. Now I don't know how you view this in your life. I don't know how you view,

prayer in your life. Many of us view prayer is that thing that we were taught when we were little kids. If you were growing up in the church and as a little kid, when it was prayer time, your parents always told you the exact same thing. Remember the two things they told you now your head close your eyes. Oftentimes there was a third that was thrown in there too.

You remember the third thing they said, be quiet, right? Because, because they didn't want you to talk in the middle of their prayer time. Well, because of that, which is an important thing to do because it shows respect. And quite frankly, if you don't tell a small child about their heads and close their eyes, they won't. And they'll look around and they'll talk to everybody in the world,

including you not got right. So you have to teach them that when they're little kids, but as we mature, hopefully we begin to understand that prayer time is not just when I bow my head and close my eyes. Prayer time is all the time. I don't cease praying because my prayer life should be that I wake up in the morning and say, dear God, and I go to bed at night and say, amen, because my entire day is caught up with me commuting with God.

You say, Ryan, I don't have a job like you do. I'm not just in the Bible all day long. I get that. I didn't have a job like this all the time either. And they still had to learn that on a job site when I was working construction, you better talk on believe. I prayed all day long. Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing right now. I really need your help, right?

I mean that that's over and over again, right? When I worked, groundskeeping was constantly having to fix things because small engines break all the time. And I'm not a mechanic. I would look and I would go, dear Jesus, right? That's all I do to say sometimes. I have no idea what I'm doing right now. But that's the idea that we don't cease in prayer. But there's two things he says he doesn't cease in doing.

Number one, he says, I never cease to give thanks for you. Now, I think that's an interesting way for him to start off this prayers by letting them know. I thank God all the time for you. I have a question for you. Do you thank God all the time for anybody? Now, I'm not saying, do you thank God for your things, right? A lot of us are pretty good at thanking.

God for the things that he gives us. But do you thank God for the people that you're around? Do you thank God for the body of Christ that we have right here? Because quite frankly, I feel like we've got a pretty, pretty good group of people here. It's Calvary Chapel, Mark city. They're pretty loving towards each other. At least as far as I can tell. Do you thank God for those people?

Do you thank God for the people that he's provided to you? Do you thank God for the, for the family that he's provided you? You say, Ryan, you don't know my family. I don't have to, right? I know families and sometimes families are amazing. My, my good friend, Jerry Horton used to put it best. He says, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family,

right? But do you thank God for them? Do you thank God for the difficult people in your life? Ryan? No, I'm serious. You should thank God for the difficult people in your life. You know why? Because God is using them and they will be there. I'll never forget somebody telling me this and me hating them for telling me this. They'll be there as long as you need them,

right? And God puts difficult people in our life to teach us something. And they'll be there as long, as we need them to be there. Do you thank God for that? He said, they never cease to give thanks for you. And I also never fail to make mention of you in my prayers. Isn't it amazing that Paul's doing ministry in Ephesus while he's in prison in Rome? Do you know that on any given day you could be doing ministry in any church throughout the world simply by making mention of them in your prayers?

I'll never forget Chuck Smith coming down and telling us at a at a chapel one Friday, he said my whole way down here. I don't remember the country he was talking about, but he had just heard of missions report. He said my my whole way down here I was doing ministry in this other country. He said, you probably wonder how I was doing that. We heard a report last night about this church that we support in this other country,

and the Lord laid it on my heart in my hour long drive down here to just pray for them. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He did that to tell us you can be in ministry anywhere by making mention of them in your prayers. Isn't that kind of kind of neat?

You can be in ministry across the world while sitting right here in Arc City because you can make mention of them in your prayers without ceasing. And so he gives us this introduction and now we come into the heart of the prayer. I'd like to take note of what he says in the prayer. He says, I make mention of you in my prayers, verse 17, that the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. A handful of things that he prays for these Ephesian people, and so I like to break these several different things down.

Number one, he prays that you may know him, that you may know him. He says that the God verse 17 of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Now there's a little bit of debate over this word spirit. When he uses the word spirit, is he saying to give you the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation or to give you a disposition?

Because the word spirit can also mean, the word spirit there can also mean a disposition or an attitude of wisdom and revelation. Well, here's my thinking on this. I need an attitude and a disposition of understanding. I need a spirit inside of me of wisdom and revelation. Okay. The source of wisdom and revelation is the Holy Spirit. And so I land with a lot of other commentators that said, I actually think the two have to

work together in the understanding of that Greek wording there, that you need the Holy Spirit to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. So what is the spirit of wisdom and revelation? Well, the idea given to us, and I loved what the Amplified Bible said, the idea given to us is a deep and personal insight. That you would have a spirit. A spirit of deep personal insight.

And what is it a deep personal insight into? A deep personal insight into the knowledge of God. We need to understand something. God is not known through intellectual pursuit. Otherwise, only the intellectual could pursue him. God is known through spiritual revelation. Which leaves a lot of hope. For the rest of us. Is there a place for intellectual pursuit?

Absolutely. But you can study out everything in the world about the Bible that you can, but without spiritual revelation, you will never really know God. You will just know a lot of facts about the Bible and brothers and sisters. There's a lot of people in seminaries right now that know a lot of facts about the Bible, but they don't know God. Because all they have is an intellectual pursuit.

Not a spiritual revelation. So what does he pray for them? He prays that they would have a spiritual revelation, a deep and personal insight into the knowledge of God. Now that word knowledge means to be accurate and true. The idea is a thorough, full knowledge. In other words, he says, I want you to know everything that you can about God. My prayer is that God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all glory would

give you a deep personal insight. A personal insight into exactly who he is, that you would learn everything that there is to know about God. Because he is the source of all knowledge and he is the purpose of all knowledge. I will beat this drum until the day that I die. The entire reason you've been created. The entire reason that I've been created is to know God because that knowledge of God

is the only thing that will last for eternity. My knowledge of him is the only thing that I will carry into eternity. All of the things of this body, they won't go into eternity. But my spiritual knowledge of him, that will just continue. And then it will take all of eternity for him to explain himself to us because God is so far beyond our understanding. I think the most dangerous place that any Christian can get to the most dangerous place

that any pastor can get to. The most dangerous place that any teacher can get to is saying, here's the box that God's in. This is who he always is. This is what he always does because God is so far beyond our understanding. My prayer is that every day of your life, you will learn a little bit more about who God is, that we will all learn a little bit more about what it is to know and follow Jesus.

Because that knowledge of him is the reason you're created. And that's the reason you're created. That's the reason why most of the world is freaking out right now, because they're trying to find purpose in life and they're trying to find purpose in life apart from God. And as St. Thomas Aquinas said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest indeed.

And so he says, my prayer, first of all, is that you might know him, the Lord of all knowledge, the source of all knowledge and the purpose of all knowledge. Number two is that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened. That's exactly what it says in verse 18. So I won't read that to you. But what does that mean?

Well, when he speaks of the eyes of the heart, we have to understand how the Greeks viewed the heart at that point in time. They viewed the heart as the source of everything that flows from man, the very core of your being. Therefore, at the very core of your being, you need to be enlightened. Eyes need to be open, not just your physical eyes open, but your spiritual eyes, the eyes of the core of your being would be open to know some things.

And as these eyes are open, we are illuminated. The idea is that we would be in a state of illumination, a state of spiritual illumination. Let me put it in language. We all understand that you'd have some true heart knowledge, that you'd have some true heart knowledge, that it would go beyond what you know here. And get down into what you know here. Because if what we know here can move to here, then everything about our life changes.

When we were at camp with the little kids, we were talking about true heart knowledge, that God's not just interested in the way that we think. He's interested in our heart. Because if he can have our heart, it's all of us. I said, how many of you got up and went to school every day? And they all raised their hands. I said, how many of you? Had to be woken up.

Like your mom had to come in and wake you up and drag you out of bed and tell you to get dressed and drag you to school and you weren't real excited about it. They all went. I said, if your mom comes to you and tells you it's time to go swimming, how many of you put your swimsuit on and you're ready to go at the door without her having to say anything beyond, let's go swimming? And they all went.

I said, you know why? Because that's in your heart, right? Like your heart's desire is to do something fun. Your heart's desire is not to go to school, right? That's why God wants true heart knowledge inside. Because once it becomes a true heart knowledge, it stops being a have to, and it starts being a get to. Once the eyes of my heart are illuminated, it no longer becomes the thing that I'm forced

to do. It becomes the thing that I long to do. Somebody asked me one time, why do you like to run? Because I do genuinely like to run, although I'm not going to lie, the heat's been killing me here lately. I've had to stop and walk. I think it's because I'm getting a little bit older. Heat doesn't handle. I don't handle heat as well as I used to. But anyway, I still really love to run.

And somebody said, why do you like to run so much? I said, I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't hate it. I said, it's easy. Running for me is a sanctuary. It's where I commune with God. It's not about how fast I go. It's not about how far I go. It's not about any of those kinds of things. It's because it's something I want to do because I commune with God there.

It's a heart thing for me. But you see, if that's not your heart, you're going to hate running or whatever thing it is that's your sanctuary, right? He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you would have a true heart. A true heart knowledge, because if it's a true heart knowledge, no one's ever going to change your mind. And what does he want their eyes to be enlightened to do?

Well, that takes us to number three, that you would know that that word know is the exact same one for the knowledge we said earlier, that you would know factual knowledge, what's actually true, that you would know the hope of his calling. Pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling. That word hope is thrown around a lot, isn't it? Remember a certain political campaign at one point in time, hope and change, right?

I'm just going to leave it at that.

The word hope gets abused a lot, in my opinion. It's kind of like love. It's another one of those words that really gets abused a lot. The word hope is a really powerful word if used properly. The word hope actually means confident expectation. And when applied to God, it means a divine. Guarantee. I really appreciated that in the Amplified Bible that it said that.

A divine guarantee. And so when he says the hope of his calling, it's the confident expectation or the divine guarantee of his calling. Well, when he describes this to us, when he says, what is the hope of his calling? You should ask yourself, what is the hope of his calling? What is he hoping that our hearts will be enlightened to? Well, the hope of his calling is none other than eternity, right?

Right? And so as he prays that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened, that we would have a spiritual illumination, a true knowledge, the first thing that he wants us to have a true knowledge of is the hope that we have, the hope that we have beyond here, because the hope that we have beyond here makes here change a whole lot. It makes the way that we view this world change a whole lot, right? Let me put it to you this way.

It's put best in an old hymn that I used to love to sing. It goes like this. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. You see, the reason why most of us struggle to hold on to this earth so much is because we don't understand the hope of his calling. We don't understand the divine guarantee.

We don't understand the confidence. We don't understand the expectation that this place is not our home and this world is not our home. And if you don't understand the hope of his calling, you're going to live in fear. You're going to live in fear of what someone can do to you. You're going to live in fear of what someone can take away from you. You're going to live in fear about what is coming in the future, because to you, the

future is not certain, because you don't know your hope. The other thing is, if you don't live with that hope, you're going to live in fear of destiny. For example, you call this this little house, it's the only place in the world where I live attached to this earth. We call that being materialistic, and you will care only about the things that you own. You will care only about the things that you have.

You will care only about the money that you can make, because after all, this place is your hope. What happens if the house burns down? What happens if the car gets wrecked? What happens if these things all fall apart? What happens when I lose my job? But my hope is in this Earth only. are going to mess with me. They're all going to wreck me. But if I look beyond here, all of a

sudden the things of this earth, man, they're just not as big of a deal anymore. It's just not as important to me anymore. I don't hold on so tightly to this earth. I don't hold on so tightly to my job or my title or my wealth or all those things because it's all going to burn. Don't get me wrong. It's not on fire yet. You should take care of your stuff, but it is all going to burn and it

shouldn't control you. And if your hope is in the future, people can't control you. Listen, I fear sometimes that us as the church, the church in general, the church everywhere is so worried about what the world is going to say that we've stopped standing for the truth. But do you know why we're worried about what the world has to say? Because we don't understand the hope of our

calling. And Paul knew that. Paul knew what these Ephesians were going to be facing. And so he prayed. Brothers and sisters, if you're finding yourself too tied to this earth, you need to start asking God, Lord, show me the hope of the calling that you have for me. Number four, he says that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened to know the glorious riches of his inheritance.

And the saints, the glorious riches of his inheritance and the saints. Now, I want you to think about something. When we were talking about the blessings that we have in Christ, we were told that we have an inheritance, right? And that inheritance is part of that hope of our calling. But that's not what he's praying that we would understand here. What he's praying that we would understand here is that we would understand the riches of his inheritance and the saints.

In other words, God views you as his inheritance. And did he get the short end of that stick, right? And that's how I feel sometimes, right? Like I get all of eternity with Jesus and he gets me. It's like my friend went to New York and all I got was a stupid T-shirt, right? It's one of those kind of things. And so we have to understand because that's the way we view ourselves.

But that's not how God views us. God views us as his inheritance. Our inheritance is eternity. His inheritance. It's us. And the best way I know to explain this to you is for us to go one place in scripture. Go over to the book of Matthew chapter 13. And I want us to look at verses 44 through 46.

Matthew 13, 44 through 46. Starting in verse 44. These are kingdom parables, by the way, that Jesus is telling. Starting in verse 44, it says this. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. Which a man found and hid again. And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls.

And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Now, those two parables right there are an explanation of what he means when he says that we would understand the glorious riches of his inheritance. The inheritance in the saints. Because I want you to think about the situation that just took place in those two parables.

A man goes and he finds a treasure in a field. He's out digging one day. Why was he digging the field? I have no idea. He's out digging one day and as he's digging in the field, he's like, oh my gosh. I just found the most valuable thing that I can imagine. But the field doesn't belong to me. And if I take it out, it's theft. I'm going to hide it again. And I'm going to go and I'm going to buy the field.

So he goes to town, finds out who owns the field. And as he finds out who owns the field, he says, how much do you want for the field? I mean, it's just a... It's just pasture land. I'll take so much money for it. And he buys the field. Now, did he want the field? No. He wanted the treasure. But because of his love for the treasure, he bought the entire field.

Let's bring this down to an application of Jesus Christ. You see, God loved us so much that in order to redeem us back to himself, he had to repurchase the world. Did he need a planet? No. But he wanted... He wanted you. So what did he do? He purchased the world through his own precious blood so that he could have you. Because you are the treasure. And the parable of the pearl of great price is the same way.

He says, kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who is seeking fine pearls. And he found one pearl of great value. And so what does he do when he finds this pearl of great value? He does something incredibly foolish. He goes and sells everything that he owns. So he can have the one pearl. That's exactly what Jesus did for us. He gave up everything so that he could purchase us.

And I think the thing that we need to realize as believers in Jesus Christ is that you are God's inheritance. As a matter of fact, he loves you more than you can ever think or imagine. His love for you goes deeper than you can even fathom. And he loves you that much. And that's how he views you. That's how he views you as being so valuable. I think one of the greatest lessons we can teach everybody in the world right now

is that your life has so much value. You are not worth what you can make for a living, what you can make at your job. You are not worth what you can do and the talents that you have. You are not worth your good looks. You are not worth all of those things because you're worth so much more than that. So much. So much so that he didn't redeem you with silver and gold.

He redeems you with his own precious blood. But you see, we don't view ourselves that way, do we? As a matter of fact, I bet as I'm saying these things, you're like, Ryan, that's kind of ridiculous. I don't think God really views me that way. Oh, trust me, he does. But you see, it's so hard for us to view ourselves that way because if you've really come in contact with Jesus,

you start to understand just how sinful you really are. And it takes a work of the Holy Spirit to reveal, just how precious you are in his eyes. Your life has so much value. Back to Ephesians. And so he prays that we would understand the greatness of the inheritance that he sees in us. And then the last thing that he prays is that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened,

that we would know the greatness of his power. Notice what he says in verse 19. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. The super abounding greatness of his power. Again, I think that something that we as Christians don't live with very much is the understanding

of the great power that God wants to exercise in our lives. Now, some people want to take this and abuse it a little bit. But we'll deal with that in just a moment. For right now, let's just deal with what scripture says. As a matter of fact, this super abounding power is so great that Paul uses four different Greek words. I can't pronounce the Greek words,

but I'm going to tell you what they mean to tell us how great this power is. He says, first of all, that he has given us his dunamis inheritance power or inherent power. Second of all, he's told us that he's given us power in exercise. Third, he tells us he gives us his manifested strength. Fourth, he tells us he gives us his strength as an endowment. If you want to know what that sentence is,

it's right here where it says, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power, that's dunamis inherent power, that toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working, that's power and exercise of the strength, that's manifested strength of his might, that strength as an endowment. Think Paul wanted us to get the idea that there's a lot of power in God for our lives. He's just like, how many different synonyms can I use?

To tell you how much power you have in God. How much power God wants to use in your life. All of this power is available to the believer. And yet how many of us live powerless? We live powerless lives in our walk with Jesus Christ. Every day wondering, how am I going to make it through today? Forgetting that you are more than conquerors through him who called you.

Now, this is not the go out and spiritual weight lift sort of thing. This is just a distinct understanding that you have all of the power of Jesus Christ flowing through you through the Holy Spirit. But he prays that you would understand that because we don't always live with that. So what is this power for? This power is for two things. Number one, this power is so that we can live

a victorious Christian life. This power is so that we can live a victorious Christian life. I have a question for you. I don't want you to answer it out loud, but I just want you to think about it. How many of you give in to the exact same things over and over again? How many of you don't live victorious because you find yourself falling back into the same trap?

Perhaps, maybe it's because you don't understand the power that you have in Christ Jesus. The power that turns drunkards into believers. The power that turns addicts into followers of Jesus Christ. The power that turns addicts into followers of Jesus Christ. The power that changes the lives of liars to make them those that will tell the truth. The power that takes those that are thieves

and turns them into honest employees. The power of God that changes the sinner to a saint. Perhaps it's because I don't understand that that same power is available for me. I can believe it for everybody else in the world, but I don't believe it for me. Well, you know what? You're not alone because Paul prayed, Lord, open the eyes of their understanding. Open the eyes of their hearts

so that they can know the mighty power that works in them. It's because it doesn't come natural to us to live according to that power because we don't always understand it. We don't always understand exactly what we can do. Remember when I first learned to ride a riding lawnmower, right? They said, put it in one. Now this is before they had the sweet zero turn mowers.

They said, put it in first gear. And a little kid just, riding as slow as possible. As far as I knew, that's as fast as that lawnmower went. You know why? Because I didn't know just how much power that lawnmower had because they restricted me. Well, many of us live in first gear, don't we? You live your Christian life in first gear and you never fully explore everything that God has.

Number one, it's given to us for victorious Christian living. Number two, this power is available for us to have a powerful service for Christ. I'm telling you, I think so many people sitting in churches do not fulfill the calling that God has in their life. Do not fulfill the mighty calling that God has in their life because they don't think they're good enough.

Because they don't think they're powerful enough. They're not strong enough. I don't know enough. All of those things. And as long as you live thinking, I can't do it because I'm not enough. You're never going to do it. Now, listen, you need to understand you're not enough, but in Christ, he's more than enough, right? Because God takes ordinary people and does,

does extraordinary things with them. Some of those extraordinary things that he does, not very many people ever find out about, but what a beautiful thing when they can step up and do it, right? One of the greatest preachers of all time, his name was Charles Spurgeon. Do you know how Charles Spurgeon got saved? Charles Spurgeon went to a church whose pastor stepped down.

And so one of the members of the congregation got up just to give a message because there was no pastor there that morning. That morning, Charles Spurgeon happened to show up. And that pastor preached on a verse out of Isaiah that says, look unto me, all ye nations and be saved. And he preached hard on that one verse. And at that point in time, Charles Spurgeon knew that was for him.

And so he came to Jesus as his Lord and savior. An average guy stood up in a church because the pastor had left and preached on one verse and the most powerful preacher potentially to ever live got saved. Brothers and sisters, all of the power of Jesus Christ is available to you. You just have to decide you're going to access it. You just have to understand what it is

and allow God to give you the grace to access it in your life. That's why Paul, praise the Lord, opened the eyes of their understanding so that they can see the mighty power that works in them for victorious and powerful Christian service. And if there was any question, about what this power was, because he goes on to talk about it, which tells me this is a pretty important thing for us to pay attention to. The last thing that we'll look at is he explains the power.

He kind of goes off on it. He gets distracted. I appreciate this about Paul. He says, verse 20, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection 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. He sort of goes off a little bit about the power, right? What kind of power is available to you? Well, it is, and I love this because I think it's the most amazing sentence, maybe in this section. It is the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

I don't know if y'all think about just how powerful that is. That's pretty powerful. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that's at work in you. And if that power can raise Christ from the dead, can it not give life, as Paul tells us in Romans, to your mortal bodies? Can it not give you the kind of life that you want to live, that you need to live?

Can it not give you everything that you need? Because if it raised Christ Jesus from the dead, can it give you the power to live as God has called you to live? It's the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. But not only that, it's the same power that seated him at the right hand of the Father. Okay, this one may equal the raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

Because I want you to think about what he means here when he says, and seated him at the right hand of the Father. Well, how did Jesus get to be seated at the right hand of the Father? How did it start? Y'all remember how it started? So he's with his disciples up on the mountain. And they're like, so you can like set the kingdom down and stuff like that. And he's like, no, no, go wait for me in Jerusalem.

And then at that point in time, you'll be filled with the power of God. You'll be filled with the spirit and you'll be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. And as he stood there, he ascended into heaven. Dude, that's an amazing scene in scripture to me. Because you know, if I'm a disciple and I don't think I'm completely unlike

the moron disciples, I'd have been like,

because he just sort of floated, right? I wonder how fast it was. Sorry, sidebar. Paul did it, I can do it. I wonder how fast it was. Was it like a whoop? Or was it a? And did he walk? Right? I don't know. Anyway, that's power, right? And that power ascended him into heaven and seated him at the right hand of the father. What's the right hand? The right hand is the place of authority.

Therefore, the same power that gives Jesus Christ authority is coursing through you, through the Holy Spirit. Not only did he seat him at the right hand of the father, but he seated him above all. Notice what he says. Far above, verse 21, all rule and authority and power and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

He gave him that kind of authority. And that same power is available for you. Not only that, but he put all things in subjection and under him, verse 22, He put all things in subjection under him. The God that you serve, the Jesus that you love, everything is in subjection to him. And the power that raised him is working through you. Not only did he put all things in subjection under him,

but he gave him to be head over all things to the church. And he, of course, fills all in all. Brothers and sisters, I don't want you to go out and think that you could stop semis like Superman now. No, that's not what it means to have that kind of power. But I do want you to live victorious. And I want myself to live victorious. And I want us to live in all of the power

that God has intended for us. That we would live in the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the peace of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the love of the Holy Spirit. Because you know what? Sometimes the greatest thing that you need power for every day is to love those unlovable people that you're thanking God for every day in your life. Because they'll be there, listen,

as long as you need them, right? And sometimes you need every drop of the power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead to not lose your ever-loving business on them, right? And you can be like claiming it through Jesus' name, right? I mean, it's a powerful thing. And that's the power that is at work in us. Brothers and sisters, if it were me, and I'm going to close with this.

If I'm praying this for myself, if I'm praying this for my kids, if I'm praying this for other people, this is how I would pray. Bow your heads with me. Father, we come to you. We praise you for who you are. Father, I thank you so much for the power that you've given to us. And so, Lord, I pray for myself and for everybody that's sitting here this morning, Lord.

Father, I pray that you would grant to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you. Father, would you give us deeper insight into who you are? Father, would you give us deeper insight into the truth of your word, into the truth of your nature, into the truth of the power that you have? And Lord, I pray, I pray that you would help us to know you more.

Father, it's the reason you created us. And so, Lord, give us a deeper knowledge of you. Lord, not just a knowledge that we have in our head, but an experiential knowledge that plays into our daily lives. And Father, I pray that you would open up the eyes of our hearts. Lord, that you would open up the eyes of the heart of every person that's here, that you would give us a true heart knowledge,

that it would go past the knowledge in our head and go deeply into the knowledge of our heart, Lord. Lord, would you give us a true heart knowledge, Lord, of the hope that we have in you. Father, a true heart knowledge of the eternal hope that we have in you, that hope that guarantees that this place is not our home. Lord, that we would take our eyes off of this world and focus wholly on you.

And Father, would you open up the eyes of our heart, Lord, to know the glory of the riches that you see in us. Lord, that we would have the view of our lives the way that you view our lives, that we would understand, the great value that you see in us. And Lord, that we would live in that understanding. And Father, I pray that you would give each one of us a deeper understanding, a true heart knowledge of the great power that courses through us, Lord, that same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, that we would stop living in the sins that dominate us, that we would stop living in the fear that dominates us, but Lord, that we would live according to the power of Jesus Christ.

Father, that we would, that we would serve according to that power and that we would not be held back by the things of this world. Lord, may that power be the thing that flows through our hearts and our minds. And Lord, I thank you that you hear and answer these prayers. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

Holy Son, stretch His treasure,

turns His face away as wounds which bar the Chosen One.

May His sons to glow His shoulder.

Ashamed to hear my mocking voice among the scoffers. Was my sin that held until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life.

His face posted in no gifts, no power, no wisdom posted in Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection I gain from His reward and serve.

Yes, I know it.

The wounds have paid my ransom.

Yes, I know it.

He should give His only Son that's His treasure. Father God, I thank you for how much you love us, Lord. And Lord, I know that we will never fully, truly understand how deep that love is. But God, I thank you for it. Thank you that you do love us that much. That you would send your only Son to pay the price that we rightfully deserve on a cross for us, for me, Lord.

Lord God, we just thank you for all that you do for us. We thank you. Thank you for your word that was spoken here today, God. And may it just permeate our hearts. May it permeate our entire life, Lord. May we leave here today just walking in constant communion and constant fellowship with you, Lord.

May we be constantly in prayer. May we have a constant connection with you, Lord. We love you, Father. We praise you and we thank you. Amen. That's all God's people said. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.