Ephesians 1:15-16 “From Head to Heart”

Ephesians 1:15-16 “From Head to Heart”

Good morning.

Lets begin with Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for all that you are, for your awesome power, might, love, grace and mercy. Please help us to understand your word and to align our hearts with yours. Please soften our hearts to your word and help us to see you have our best interests in mind in all that you ask us to be. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

Paul began his letter by getting straight to the vast, amazing and incomparable spiritual blessings we have been given by God, those blessings given by the Father, those blessings we have through his Son Jesus and those we have through the Holy Spirit. This introduction should stop us in our tracks, to stand in awe of what the God of the universe has done and IS DOING for us. As his chosen, adopted children we have an impenetrable and unshakable foundation we can be certain will never fail or shift because God is the one who provided and promised it. And after this wonderful reminder to humble us at all that has been gifted to us Paul now has something to tell to these believers in Ephesus about his prayers for them.

This next section, verses 15-23 is all one sentence in the greek language which Paul wrote it and much like the section before it verses 3-14 were all once sentence it helps us to understand it as all one cohesive thought to be taken together. Today we will be focusing on verses 15-16 and within these first 2 verses we begin to see Paul starts to tell them what he has been praying for in regards to them but lets start at the beginning in verse 15 and 16. It reads:

“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.”

For this reason, Paul is saying that because of everything that has happened to you, all of those marvelous things which have been given to you by God, I, Paul, give thanks for… you. And why is Paul giving thanks to God for these Ephesian believers? Because he had heard of their continued spiritual growth, growing in them is a more intimate faith in God, and because of that so is their love for all believers… Paul had a deep relationship with the Ephesians but as far as we can tell some years have passed since he was last with them but he has received report and heard that their faith in Jesus is maturing, it is growing as it was intended to.

He probably felt like many of us do when a friend or relative moves away from us, or us from them. We think about them from time to time and wonder how they are doing but when we get a phone call or a report that they are doing well we feel relieved and thankful to KNOW they are doing well.

It is also very important for us to notice what attributes Paul points out and gives thanks for… Their Faith in Jesus and their love for all the saints, like we said before saints refers to anyone who has believed in Jesus for eternal life, a new believer or a strong mature believer. We see very clearly what is given priority. What is WORTH noting, what are praiseworthy attributes of a church? Faith in Christ and Love for one another. It sounds as though the Ephesian church actually took it seriously when they were told what the greatest commandment is. To love the Lord you God with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself… When you think about Perry Bible Church, What is your dream, what is our vision for our church? Are we concerned more about numbers? Are we concerned more about money? Are we concerned more about how we look on the outside? How high we rank on the importance or fun list of churches in Perry? Are we concerned about music or what clothes we wear or the softness of the chairs we sit in? or the hundred other things that vie for our attention…Or are we concerned with what God is concerned about? Am I more worried about HIS glory or MY glory? Do I have more faith in my ways or HIS ways, DO I have more love for ME or for my fellow believers, all the saints?…

I mean we should seriously look at what is praised in God’s word when it comes to churches! And if we picture in our minds the kind of people who truly do love God with everything that is within them and love each other as much as we love our own selves I hope it becomes obvious to us what God values and loves to see in us and why it matters…What good is it if we have 200 or 500 or 1000 people sitting here if we don’t have faith in Jesus, what good is it if we have the best worship service in town, the most fun VBS or youth group if we don’t love the 50 or so people sitting here right now? We think we could handle loving more? Or do we just want 25 of the easy people for ME to love to start attending… Are our hearts like those of the Pharisees? Only wanting the middle class and rich to come to the temple, those who would help make them look good? Do we despise it when Jesus brings to us the poor, the lame, the sick and the sinner?

Paul knows it is hard to love every believer. As Paul went on his missionary journeys do you suppose that everyone gave Paul a warm welcome, held their meetings in a way that catered to his personal likes or dislikes? Do we think everyone openly accepted him with smiles every where he went? No absolutely not. He was often treated the same way they treated Jesus… with contempt and physical beatings… But not the Ephesians… Paul gave thanks for these believers who were doing well… doing what pleases God…

This section we are moving into will introduce what Paul is praying for the church and he begins it with talking about thanksgiving… When we pray we often pray for the sick, the hurt and broken people in our lives, we genuinely want them to feel and get better whether physically or spiritually and there is nothing wrong with that, those are things we should be praying for… But I fear when we give thanks we often have a pretty self centered view of what we give thanks for, I can assure you the finger it pointed squarely at me here too. When I give God thanks and praise I find myself being thankful for things that affect ME. But Paul here is giving thanks because of what has affected THEM. How often do we give God thanks for the spiritual growth and maturity we see in someone else, someone who does not directly affect us?… It is easy for us to pray for those who are obviously lacking something, weather lacking in heath, lacking in love, lacking in patience or goodness, especially when their lacking affects ME!. but I would be ashamed to see a pie chart of the percentage of my prayers where I thanked God for His work in someone else’s life… yet that is the example we are given here, its what is mentioned first. How often do we pray for those who SEEM to have it all together or are doing well? It is clear from Paul’s letter here that they too need our continued prayer and thanksgiving for them because as we will find later in the letter, those walking with God and making a positive impact in God’s plan and desire for us will be targeted by Satan.

Thanksgiving is coming up, I know, I know I am a week early with this but, during this holiday we have set up, called thanksgiving, we are prompted to think about the things we are thankful for which is an incredibly important part of our lives right? Gratitude plays a large part of our outlook on our day and being thankful for the many blessings we enjoy… What are the things we always hear mentioned around thanksgiving?… I think of the crafts that my kids bring home, with a tree and on it are some fall colored leaves with a list of what they are thankful for on the leaves or the tail feathers of a turkey… They always say things you would expect from a child, like I am thankful for my Family, my house, my country, my toys… And as we get older, we may not write these things out on a cute tree and leaves or on the back of a turkey but hopefully we are praying to God and thanking Him for them… but do our thankful prayers mature too? Or are we still like a small child only thankful for the things we can touch, the things we can hug or spend time with? The things that are about and affect…ME… Again none of these things are bad and we should be thankful for them but I think it shows us where our treasure and heart are too… Paul will get to the requests that he prays FOR these believers but he begins with his unceasing thanksgiving for… them, not just that they exist or because they can benefit and serve Paul in some way but he gives thanks for their faith in Jesus and their love for one another. That makes the top of the list!

I will ask it again when was the last time we gave thanks and praise to God for the work he did in someone else’s spiritual life? Or for our own spiritual life? We KNOW that our faith in God is important, it is important we become more like Christ and have a deep love for one another but why is it absent from our praise and thanksgiving? I think if we are honest with ourselves it is because we don’t REALLY prioritize it, we have a hard time seeing it as one of the things we should pursue and therefore be MOST thankful for…

But then again, how can we be thankful for something we cant see and touch? How do I KNOW someone has grown spiritually? That is a fair question, Paul does not list the specifics of what he heard about the Ephesians that led him to know they were loving one another and had a strong faith in Jesus as their Lord… I think sometimes we say or think the answer to that question is: “Well, I’ll just know it when I see it” and while that is hopefully true.. Maybe what WE see as spiritual maturity and what the reality of biblical spiritual maturity is doesn’t always line up…

Lets looks at Jesus parable about prayer and even thanksgiving… I will read from Luke chapter 18: verses 10-14. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed these things about himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I tithe of all that I earn.’ “But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Lets summarize this in more modern terms, Two men go to church on Sunday, one of them is a Deacon in the church whom most people see as a really good guy and the other is the local mechanic who over charges for repairs and sells people services their cars do not need and everyone in town knows it. The deacon in the church prays like the Pharisee, the first first four words are good, God, I thank you… but he continues, thank you that I am not like other men around town I don’t cheat on my wife or my taxes, that I pay all my bills on time, thank you for not letting me sin like the homosexuals, the drinkers or the wild partiers. You know Lord, I come to church every Sunday and put my offering in the slot and pray before each meal. And thank you very much for not making me like the mechanic Mr. Johnson over there who has no problem swindling people out of their money…

And then Mr. Mechanic Johnson’s prayer: He sits quietly and wrings his hands… God, I know I am a sinner… I can’t even look in your direction because of my shame. Please have mercy on me and please show me your grace.

So how do we pray and how do we give thanks to God? The same God that Paul started the letter glorifying The same God we have been praising for all of the UNDESERVED spiritual blessings he gives?

We probably would not put our prayer so crassly as I just summarized because we know better with out minds but what does our heart say that our mouths do not? I think if we are truly honest with ourselves we are all too much like the Pharisee… Thank you God for… my house, my food, my car, my job, my unbroken family, the freedoms I have… because you gave me all these good things I thank you… and maybe what our hearts mean: I must be doing things right by you God, look at everything you have blessed me with… God you really do good work on people like me, thanks!

Or does our heart approach him like the Tax Collector… Like a sinner who is well aware of his TRUE condition, not compared to the guy sitting over there, not compared to some other person we know in our lives… but compared to God, in all his majesty, all his righteousness, his perfect justness, mercy and love. With a heart that says God, compared to you and your standards I am less than zero, please continue to have mercy and grace on me. Thank you for all you have given me, I do not deserve anything good from you and yet you are still faithful.

Or like Paul, Lord, thank you for this church of faithful believers who put their trust and hope in you. Thank you for the growth in their fellowship with you, that even I can see their love for you spilling out to those around them, to all of our fellow believers even the difficult ones that they used to avoid talking to.

The point of this is not to make you feel sad and dreary all the time moping around like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I know most of us or all of us KNOW Proverbs 3:34: “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble” and like we just read in Luke 18 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

But despite what our minds tell us, and what our mouths say in everyday life but especially when we pray and during this time of Thanksgiving what does our heart really say to God? Its worth thinking about because guess what, God knows what is in your heart already. This is not a call to use better wording and more beautiful language when you pray but to examine our heart. What is your attitude towards God and towards his other children? Do we remember we are still sinners but rejoice in the fact that DESPITE who I AM God still chose me? Do we thank Him for that? Do we honestly pray: Thank you God for choosing me, thank you for choosing me despite my condition. Thank you for choosing Mr. Mechanic Johnson, because I know you love him too. And thank you for Mrs. Betty Baker and all the work you have done in her life, Please help me to see all your children the way you do so that you might be glorified by our growing faith and our love for one another.

So does this mean that God can only be strongly glorified by those who are looked down on by others those who have nothing or have an addiction to the quote ‘really bad sins?’ When they are pulled out of the mire of filth by God are they the only champions of God glory? I do not think so. I think some the champions of God glory and grace come from the proud, the wealthy or legalistic people. We all have known someone who thinks they are above everyone else and even though they may look polished on the outside, they are like the pharisees, they see their self righteousness in their own laws and rules and see no need to change them because those things are good to them, even though so many others in their lives will never live up to that standard… But what if God changed them. Humbled them? Opened their eyes to the lack of love in the rules they had been clinging to for so long? Maybe they would not be caught dead in jeans on Sunday morning and would turn their nose up at anyone who thought that could possibly be appropriate… But then you see them in jeans some Sunday, you see their heart and attitude change toward those who wore jeans or whatever the legalistic roadblock had been - THAT is an act of God….those people who are living in a deep universally despised sin KNOW they are wrong.. But the one who lives in self righteousness has no idea and thinks they are pleasing God, just like the Pharisee’s prayer. So when we are allowed the unique opportunity to see our brothers and sisters growing, changing, and pleasing God we NEED to give thanks to God for THEM for his glory shining through that person and to lift them up and encourage them to love them and have faith that God does change you and change me into a creature that has more faith, and more love and more thanksgiving.

Lets pray:

Dear heavenly father, thank you for every person here this morning. Thank you for choosing us to be apart of your family for making us forever secure in you. Thank you for the growth you have caused in our hearts and please help us to long to know you more and to walk in close fellowship with you. Thank you for all of the blessings you give to us and loving us enough to send your son to pay the price for our sins. Please incline our hearts to you that we would live a life that gives you glory and honor. We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.