Truth For Life

Have you ever felt glad to see someone before? Maybe it’s been a long day and you just want to go home to be with your family or maybe you’re stressed out and the sight of your friend really encourages you. Well, In the book The Pilgrim’s Progress, there is a chapter where the main character, who’s name is Christian is walking through a place called the Valley of the Shadow of Death. While he is walking through this valley, he is faced with trials that terrify him and in the midst of this lonely journey he hears someone way ahead of him on the trail shout out, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.” and the story then says, “As a result [Christian] felt very glad, and that for the following Reasons: First, because he gathered from what he heard that some who feared God were in this Valley as well as himself. Second, since he understood that God was with them, even in such a dark and dismal place, then he reasoned that this invisible presence ought also to be with him, in spite of the hindrances of such a region. Third, for the hope that he entertained eventually having fellowship, should he be able to overtake those ahead of him. So he went on and called out to the man who was ahead, though he did not know what to say in reply since he also had thought himself to be alone. Eventually the light of the morning dawned; at this Christian exclaimed, “He has turned the shadow of death into the morning.”

There is nothing quite as bad as feeling alone. Like no one gets you, or that no one has been where you are before, or that no one cares. And if you’ve ever found yourself feeling that way before, you definitely know how relieving it is to finally have a conversation where someone goes, “I completely understand where you’re coming from!” It is a beautiful thing to feel like you’re with people who get you, right? Well, as we look in Ephesians today, we will find that Paul is writing to the people who have experienced just what we’ve been hearing about for the last several weeks. They are the people that God has loved before the world began, they are the people that Jesus died to save, and they are the people that the Holy Spirit has worked in; and as Paul thinks about this he says, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you…”

Paul is so thankful that the God who saved Him has also worked in the hearts of this people and saved them and because of that they have been brought from darkness to light, from being children of wrath to sons and daughters of God and because of that Paul’s heart is overwhelmed and he simply can’t help but to thank God for his brothers and sisters in Christ. These are the people who get him, they’ve been redeemed from sin just like him and so there is this deep love between them both. And just like any other friend who really cares for you, he genuinely wants the best for them and that’s what we’re going to see here today. Paul has seen that this group of Christians has been saved, but that’s not all he desires for them to experience, instead he is going to pray to God that they would genuinely enjoy a deeply rich relationship with God and the truths we see in this prayer are truths that if we understand, will change our lives. Let’s go ahead and see what he prays here in Ephesians 1:15-23

So, the way I want to apply these three points, we can call “Truths for Life” is to set this up to say, “When I find myself growing distant from God, I should remember these three things: First, I should remember the hope of His call. Second, I should remember the depth of His love. And third, I should remember the gift of His power.”

Whenever I find myself growing distant from God, I should remember

The Hope of His Call.

When you look back at your life, is there anything that sticks out to you that makes you say, “Yeah, that really impacted the course of my life.” For me, the longer I live, the more of those I have and one of the biggest ones was in the middle of the foothills of South Carolina on August 2nd of 2015 when I met a quiet, short, dark haired girl who would go on to be my wife.

Well, as you look at the past, Paul wants you to look back on the fact that God, at some point in your life even if you don’t remember a day, called you to Himself. Paul loves that word, “called”. He really explains the beauty of this hope-filled call in Romans 8:28-30 where he says, “28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

What Paul is saying here to us, is that we should often look back to consider that God radically changed the course of our lives. We were once hopeless, but now we are a heavenly people and this is what makes this so encouraging. One guy wrote, “All this was in God’s mind when he called us. He called us to Christ and holiness, to freedom and peace, to suffering and glory. More simply, it was a call to an altogether new life in which we know, love, obey and serve Christ, enjoy fellowship with him and with each other, and look beyond our present suffering to the glory which will one day be revealed. This is the hope to which he has called you. Paul prays that our eyes may be opened to know it.” So, whenever you feel like you’re growing distant from God, look back on the grace He has given to you and find your heart filling up with gratefulness.

Whenever I find myself growing distant from God, I should remember

The Depth of His Love.

When I was a teen, my pastor would always say, “Did you know that if you only look at your rearview mirror instead of through your front windshield, you will eventually wreck?” Well, not only does Paul want us to look back, but he wants us to look forward and it is here that we learn that he wants us to look forward to the open arms of our loving God. I want you to notice here that Paul doesn’t mention our inheritance, but he says that we should know the riches of HIS glorious inheritance in the Saints. What Paul is describing for us is the fact that we are the inheritance of God. Just like a rich man who is made famous by how much money he has, so will we praise our God to His fame since we are His inheritance.

When I consider this, I can’t help to recall a really beautiful quote I heard a few years ago that said this, “Has it ever occurred to you that God will be just as happy to have you in Heaven as you will be to be there?” So, whenever you find yourself struggling in your Christian walk, don’t get discouraged, don’t grow distant, don’t look back like Lot’s wife did, instead look forward because we are traveling home to the God who will be pleased to receive us.

Whenever I find myself growing distant from God, I should remember

The Gift of His power.

In the last year my family back home has suffered through a lot of loss. One of my cousins unfortunately lost his son when a drunk driver ran him over. And the court obviously rewarded my cousin a sum of money for the loss and so on. Well, this same cousin who lost his son was also dying with cancer and while he was laying in the hospital, they planned to come let him sign the rights to this money over to his mother for safe keeping, but right before they came he had a medical emergency and was unable to sign the paper before he passed away. He unfortunately did not have the ability, or the strength to sign that reward over to his family.

Well, what Paul wants us to know is not only do we have something to look back on in the past, and not only do we have something to look forward to in the future, but we have something to help us on the journey home and that is the great power of God. And you might be thinking, “Okay, how does this apply to that story you just told us?” Well, since we are Christians, we are the body of Christ and that means we are attached to the One who represented us when He died in our place, rose from the grave and is seated in Heaven. And it is by the power of the Spirit that we can draw on the blessings of Christ’s work to strengthen us day by day.

It’s almost as though Paul is saying, “Hey, you need to realize that you have great power from the Lord to help you in this Christian life.” and we say, “What kind of power?” and Paul explains to us, “This is the power that worked in Christ, raising Him from the grave and sitting Him at the right hand of God. That’s the kind of power God blesses us with in our daily walk.” So, as you fight doubt, worry, anxiety, temptation and more and you don’t know how much more you can take, lean upon the One whose strength is sufficient for you.

Let me close with this quote from Warren Wiersbe:

Here we discover that we were “born rich” when we trusted Christ. But this is not enough, for we must grow in our understanding of our riches if we are ever going to use them to the glory of God. Too many Christians have never “read the bank book” to find out the vast spiritual wealth that God has put to their account through Jesus Christ. They are like the late newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst, who invested a fortune collecting art treasures from around the world. One day Mr. Hearst found a description of some valuable items that he felt he must own, so he sent his agent abroad to find them. After months of searching, the agent reported that he had finally found the treasures. They were in Mr. Hearst’s warehouse. Hearst had been searching frantically for treasures he already owned! Had he read the catalog of his treasures, he would have saved himself a great deal of money and trouble.

Guys, we have a God who loves us and is there with us in our Christian lives and these great truths that we heard of today will hopefully cause us to love Him greatly and pursue Him genuinely.