08.12.2012

Lord, thank You that we forever belong to You – because of Your grace. We praise You – and it is only by grace that we’ve been brought to You – there is nothing in us to make us worthy – but You loved us and saw something important. Open our hearts to You that we might be soft and quick to yield – in Your name we pray –
We are in Ephesians – and will read a longer section here:
Ephesians 1:15 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, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention [of you] in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 [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, 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 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], 21 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. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
In this passage, there is a tremendous amount – we could spend forever talking about it – theology/what it will be like to be with Him – but I will focus on Paul’s prayer – there are three things that he specifically prays for –
] in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him
this is a foundation - without this you can't get to the others.
We are always excited to get to this power and strength part – but you can’t get there until you have a growing knowledge and relationship with God.
Knowledge – for us – the word tends to be academic – we think of it as information/facts/intellectual pursuit – but this is an experiential knowledge. It is like this – a person can know a lot about parenting – but until you are a parent, you don’t know anything about parenting.
Marriage is the same – until you are in the thick and thin of the relationship, you don’t get it.
Paul wants their relationship to be real – and that they would really experience it.
Are you experiencing a real relationship with God? Ask yourself. Or, does it seem like God is distant? Something you know about, but not real on a day-to-day basis? You CAN experience His love and power in your life. Paul is praying that would take place.
One thing we see in this verse – he prays that God would give them this. Paul prays that God would give it – so we see that it is something that must come from God.
Here is how this happens. It begins in this simple way – you have to first have a relationship with God. If you don’t have a relationship with God – if you have not come into a saving relationship with Christ, you won’t be able to experience His power.
Eph. 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
It is not our work, it is God’s. It comes by grace through faith. As we take communion, we are reminded of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And that is point one – you must come to a point where you have received his mercy through faith. But this does not mean that we are passive in our relationship with God –
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
You are saved by grace – but you are saved TO work – that is the pattern in the New Testament – Having come into relationship with Christ, you have a work to do. And we must be engaged in the work.
The Christian life is not passive – there is a sense of receiving Christ – we can’t do anything, it was all done on the cross – but having that, it moves us to action. It begins with what God has done – and because God has done it – we do.
Second prayer:
, 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,
That we would have hope – it is future oriented – he is praying that they would have a confident assurance – something you can know for sure – that in the face of whatever difficulty you are facing that there is a new world fr them at the end of this one. He is saying that we experience God’s love and power when in the difficulties of this world – we look to the next world. We think we will really experience God when He gets us OUT of the trouble – But if you don’t look to the future hope DURING the trial, you don’t get the full experience of God. Sometimes God doesn’t remove the trial – and when that happens, if you don’t have His hope, you don’t have anything. We see this throughout the New Testament as Paul and others encourage us to live this world with the future world in mind. If you are dependent on this world only, you will be very disappointed, Paul says. Jesus says – in this world, you will have trouble – but there is another world that I am preparing for you. We won’t experience the love and power of God fully until we focus on that world.
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
I encourage you to read this verse in 4 or 5 different translations – these words are so big that the translators struggle to get as much into it as possible – because this power that God has toward us is incredible. For the Ephesians – remember, we talked about how they lived in a place where there was an emphasis on religious power and battles – and like Mike shared about India – they were afraid of the gods – and Paul is saying – you have a God that is far more powerful to help you out in any situation – greater than any magic or spells. To experience this power – a couple of practical things – to really experience God’s power in us and towards us – one simple thing is
The area of prayer. Prayer has a significant and key role in us experiencing God’s power – so it is an important action step to take.
Prayer begins with silence. That doesn’t mean that if you are in trouble – that you don’t cry out to Him. BUT when you take some time and you have a prayer time – I encourage you to stop for a minute so you can hear from God – so that in that time you can surrender. Prayer works when we have surrendered the outcome to God – not trying to manipulate an outcome – prayer is surrendering to God first – and in that surrender – to place our requests at His feet that He might work best.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t get on our hands and knees and cry out to God desperately – like Jesus in the Garden, He cried out to God – but He also came to this confident surrender of “not My will, but Thine be done”
Stop first. Ecclesiastes says to go to the house of God with silence first – don’t just start blurting out – at least recognize Whom you’ve come to talk to! Yes, we can go boldly to His throne – but don’t forget that you are coming before the throne! But realize – you are standing before the throne of God! And hopefully that gives us more faith before God. Then we begin to experience His love and power.
Then recognize, that when it comes to pass, recognize that God did it – so often we fail to recognize it – small and simple things that we should be grateful for. If someone JUST gives you a card – you should be grateful – if they give you a new CAR – you should be grateful either way!
This passage also talks about His resurrection power – the way we experience His power as He transforms our attitudes and speech and we see God helping us to overcome addictions and sins and struggles – whatever it is. Because of this resurrection – you can be different – you can stop being angry – you can be patient – you can be gentle. Whatever it is that needs to be changed – He is in the process of doing it – yes, it takes all of our lives – and it takes changes. That change comes from Him. Genuine transformation only takes place as we cooperate with the power of the Spirit in our lives – then when that happens – we need to acknowledge Him.
To begin experiencing God – very practical – things you can do - that will make a significant difference.
Take a time – start with 2-3 times/week, but work for every day – a time of reflection. Here is what this means – in the evening – later in the day – in that time – maybe 5-10 minutes – maybe ½ hour. First – be quiet. Find a quiet place with no television – even in your car driving home from work. I would step outside and walk up and down the street –
In that quiet place – invite him to show you where he was present during that day – God, where were you today in my life? Like the footprints in the sand – understanding where God is carrying us – it allows us to see where He is – so that we are not left in the dark. We are trying to connect the events of the day with the activity of God. As you do that – maybe there was a time where He protected you. Maybe something neat happened and you didn’t realize it was God. Like at work when something just works out – maybe that was God. In the Old Testament – something would happen and they would ask, was not God here? But it is not until afterwards that they realize it. God is active in our lives – not just passive.
Second -and this is a little harder – recognize how God is present in your response to things. Like, being at work, and someone goes off – and you respond graciously – that wasn’t you – God was involved with that. Left to you – you wouldn’t respond graciously – you would get mad and irritated. It is God that does the transforming work that allows us to act as He would act,.
Allow God to show you His presence when you responded negatively and you didn’t respond properly – and you missed what God wanted to do because you were unable to respond as He would have you.
Exercise 2 – learn to have intimate encounters with Scripture.
Some call it sacred readings or reflective readings. There are different ways of reading the Bible – this is one I practice naturally – it is hard to explain this – Learning to read our story (our lives) into the story (the narrative) of the Bible.
When I am reading the scripture, I pay attention to the internal dynamics – what is going on inside of me within the verses. Things that resonate deeply as I read. And I stop and think, why is that phrase in that verse haunting me? Why does that disturb/convict/encourage me so? And then take time. Take a Bible program and print it out – read it 3-4 times – and highlight the one phrase that speaks to you. Read it slowly, listening – and if a verse comes out – highlight it. Then look to see what God is trying to say – then spend some time thinking and praying about it.
I was reading Psalm 10 – and I don’t have a Bible up here – and I was doing my journaling project for 4 weeks – it was good –
10:1 Why dost Thou stand afar off, O Lord? Why dost Thou hide [Thyself] in times of trouble?
WHY? WHY? WHY? It is okay for me to ask why if the psalmist did it.
Okay – a couple quick more things –
As you place your story in the biblical story – be a little cautious about the whole thing – because God worked in the biblical story – and as we see how God worked in that Biblical story, we see patterns of how He worked – but we need to be very cautious about not transferring the Biblical story directly into our story. Like Abraham and Isaac – you don’t go offer your child with a knife – but the principle – have I allowed anything to become an Isaac in my life? Have I allowed anything to take the place of God? We can do this throughout the Biblical story.
Psalm 139 –
139:1 (For the choir director. A Psalm of David.) O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known [me.] 2 Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. 3 Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, Thou dost know it all. 5 Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, And laid Thy hand upon me. 6 [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is [too] high, I cannot attain to it.
Look how the Psalmist has experienced God’s love and power in his life – read the entire psalm – you have searched me and known me – and I think the final exercise is to give God the opportunity to search you. Take one time this week – set aside 15 minutes and say – okay – search.
We are afraid to do this – because of what we might discover or what HE might discover! Some of it is really ugly – but the searching is met with unconditional love. All of us have longing to be fully known and fully accepted – and God does that – You have KNOWN me – you know my words before I even speak them! Like with a close friend – who knows what you are going to say – but God is so much more than that – He knows the deep stuff and the dark stuff and you are loved unconditionally – so that time with God is a safe place – God is a safe person to address the issues of your life with. It is safe with God to reveal and address. Let’s pray.
O Lord, thank You that You know us – thank You, Lord that you are so intimately acquainted with us – you formed our inner parts – we are fearfully and wonderfully made – and our souls know it well.