Seeing What You’ve Been Missing

Introduction

Who here loves a gift card? I’ve got a couple in my wallet right now. My birthday was a few weeks ago, and I guess I’m like most guys my age; there’s really not much I really want or need, so the go to for my fam is a gift card. One thing I’ve learned about myself and gift cards, though, is that I’d better use it quickly. See, I’m forgetful, and there’s a strong likelihood that, if I don’t use a gift card that’s been given to me—like this Barnes and Noble gift card that my sister gave me—if I don’t use it soon, it’ll disappear behind my driver’s license and insurance card, and I’ll forget all about it.

And that would be a shame, because I love Barnes and Noble. Truth is, I love any bookstore. I love the smell of a good bookstore. I love walking around, checking out new titles, holding new books, leafing through the pages. Of course, I can do all that without a gift card, but this gift card gives me a reason to go into the building and have that experience instead of just ordering my next book on Amazon. But if I tuck it away in a drawer and forget about it, maybe find it months or even years later after it expires, I never get that opportunity. I had access to this thing, that experience, but I missed it, because I didn’t use what was already mine.

And I say all that, because I believe that there are many Christians who do the same thing. Many Christians, who live, knowing that they’re saved, knowing that God has given them salvation. They’re gonna go to heaven when they die, but that’s pretty much it.

They forget what we talked about last week, they forget that in Christ, they already have access to incredible riches—hope, power, and an inheritance that we can’t even wrap our heads around. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 isn’t that we would get these blessings, but that our eyes would be opened to see what we already have in Christ.

Again, we talked about this last week. We talked about the riches that have been poured out on us through Jesus—the fact that we’ve been saved for a purpose, that we’ve been redeemed and forgiven, and that you’re being changed by the Holy Spirit inside of you. This week, we’re going to see how to make those riches a reality, how to get out that immeasurably valuable gift card of salvation that maybe you’ve forgotten about, and actually put it to use.

This is the second message in this preaching series on the New Testament book of Ephesians, and I’m glad you’re here for it. Look with me at the first couple of verses here, Ephesians 1:15-16:

Ephesians 1:15–16 “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;”

Paul gives thanks for these Ephesian believers for two things , he thanks God for two qualities that this church possesses. He doesn’t express gratitude for their financial support. Paul didn’t need their financial support. He was bi-vocational, raising his own support making tents. No, he tells them that he thanks God continually, mentioning them in his prayers because of their faith and their love.

Say that with me: “Faith and love.”

Specifically, he says that he’s heard about the FAITH that they have in the Lord Jesus. Not faith in their pastor or their pastoral team. Not faith in their deacons or their Bible Study leader. Faith in Jesus and Jesus alone.

He’s thankful for their faith AND for the LOVE that they have for ALL the saints. And remember what we said last week. A saint, according to scripture, is not a subset of Christian that’s just a little more holy than all the rest. No, a saint is just a normal follower of Jesus. If you know and follow Jesus, you are a saint.

And Paul says to this Ephesian church, “Rumor is, y’all love ALL of ‘em, and that’s awesome.” And it is awesome. The fact that this church was known for loving ALL Christians, that was something. Because, have you met ALL Christians?

Not all Christians are easy to love. Some are really difficult to love, and that’s nothing new. There were plenty of disagreements in the early church. Paul spends half of his other letters telling Christians to get along, urging them to get along. He even does some of that here in Ephesians, but not a lot, because this church was known for their faith and love.

And that brings us to the first key to seeing what you’ve been missing in Christ. Don’t just sit on your salvation. Put it to practice…

Practice faith and love.

The church in Ephesus had a reputation, a reputation of faith and love. And you know this; reputations don’t just happen. Reputation follows repeated action, consistent action over a lifetime.

I think about a woman whose name you’ll immediately recognize. Born in Albania, she felt called as a young woman to serve “the poorest of the poor” in India. In 1948, she left the security familiarity of the school where she taught to live in the slums of Calcutta. She started with no funding, teaching children to read by writing letters in the dirt, tending to the dying with her bare hands, and begging for food for orphans and lepers. Over time, her ministry, Missionaries of Charity, grew into a global movement with thousands of sisters serving in over 130 countries.

That woman, of course, was Mother Theresa—again, a name that you’ve at least heard . But Mother Theresa’s reputation wasn’t forged in a single heroic act, but her consistent, daily choices—living simply, refusing luxury, and giving her life to people who had nothing to give her in return. People who met her often said they felt they were in the presence of someone who loved like Christ: small in stature, but overflowing with love. Even critics who questioned her methods couldn’t deny that she spent her entire life pouring herself out for others.

A reputation of faith and love is not built on one moment of courage or one act of devotion but on a lifetime of consistent, sacrificial choices. At work, people may remember you for how well you do your job, but long after that’s forgotten, they’ll remember if you were kind, honest, and compassionate. Parents—your kids probably won’t remember how clean the house was, or how good the meals were, but they’ll remember if you prayed with them and loved them well, and if you showed them Jesus.

What are you known for? If people described you, would they point to way you trusted God when things got hard? Would they remember how well you loved everyone around you? What would it be to live in such a way that others thank God when they think of you?

Practice it. Live it out with intentionality. Practice faith and love.

Pick up in verse 17:

Ephesians 1:17–18a: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…”

Paul tells these Ephesian believers that he’s praying for them to two things—a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation. He’s not praying for them to have the Holy Spirit. That’s not what he’s talking about here. As we’ve seen, they’ve already received the Holy Spirit. Paul wants them to walk in the Spirit, and through the Spirit, to have wisdom and revelation toward a specific end.

Everybody wants wisdom. Everybody wants to be wise. And there are plenty of times that we crave revelation. We want to know what our next move is. We want to know what God wants us to do next—what job to take next, what church to attend, what school our kids should attend.

We want that kind of revelation, but that’s not what Paul prays for here. Paul prays simply that this church that he loves would have wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, and that in that knowledge, their eyes would be opened.

And that brings us to something else. See what you’ve been missing. Practice faith and love, and second…

Ask God to give you His direction.

Spiritual direction that brings you close to Him. We ask Him to do that, because He’s the only one that can, as the song says, “open the eyes of our heart” that way. Remember all the times in the gospels when Jesus would say, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The assumption was just because you have ears on the sides of your head, doesn’t mean you can hear and know deep spiritual truth.

I remember one time I went to the theater to watch a movie. I don’t remember the movie, but obviously if you’re going to a theater to see something, you’re going there for the big screen that just envelopes you into the action, the sharp imagery, surround sound and all that. Only problem was when I got there, I realized that I’d forgotten to wear my contacts, and I didn’t have my glasses. It wasn’t awful. I can see good enough. But the experience wasn’t what it could have been. It wasn’t what it should have been.

The problem wasn’t the movie. The problem was my vision. That’s what Paul means by “the eyes of your heart” needing to be opened. God’s truth is clear, but because we’re broken, because we’re still works in process on this side of eternity, sometimes we don’t we don’t see God’s truth, we don’t sense God’s direction, because our spiritual vision is cloudy.

But when you pray for that wisdom, when you pray for that direction, it’s like God wipes the lenses of your heart to help you to see what He sees, to see what really matters, what really needs to happen so that the world can see His goodness.

So, pray. Pray regularly for God to help you understand Him more clearly—through His Word, through prayer, and through obedience. Don’t just pray for a change in your situation; pray for a change in your perspective.

Look at the rest of verse 18. Paul says that the reason you ask for wisdom and revelation in Him is…

Ephesians 1:18b: “…so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”

Remember that this passage is a continuation of the passage we looked at last week, and as I said earlier, last week we talked in great detail about ALL the riches that we find in Him, all the resources at our disposal through the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We talked about how we can be assured of those riches as HEIRS to power of the resurrection. And we see those themes repeated here.

The big picture is that we can rest in that knowledge. If we allow the Holy Spirit to settle it in our hearts and minds, we can rest, knowing that we have inherited the goodness of God as His children—the riches and hope of His calling.

And that brings us to something else. If you’re doing life in your own strength, open your eyes to what you’re missing. Practice faith and love. Ask God to give you His direction, and third…

Rest in the hope and riches of your calling.

I hope you heard last week’s message. I hope you received that message and have walked in greater freedom because of it this week. But here’s what I know. I don’t have the power to make you hear that, to make you rest in the riches of God’s grace. I don’t have the power to make you really FEEL the HOPE that you have in Jesus, the contentment, joy and peace that you have in Him. I know that, because Paul didn’t have it either! That’s why he prays and asks God to it.

But if you will ask Him, God will open your eyes to tsee Him as He is. He will open your eyes to His infinite resources, His infinite power and provision. of His calling

After I told you the story last week about the guy who late in life in extreme self-denial only to find out he was a multimillionaire after his death, I came across another story about a man who died in poverty during the Great Depression, only to be discovered later as the heir of a massive estate he never claimed. He lived in fear and lack while unimaginable riches had already been set aside for him. In the same way, there are so many Christians who live in despair while God has already given them everything they could need or want in Him.

Maybe you know someone, a believer who panics every time the stock market dips or the bills pile up. Maybe you are that someone, you live as if everything depends on you, when the truth is God has already secured your future. God has already issued your inheritance. Even when life gets crazy, even when you can’t fathom your next move, you can rest knowing that your future is guaranteed in Christ.

When life feels uncertain, remember that your future is secure in Christ. Hope is not wishful thinking—it’s confident expectation. Live today with eternity in view.

Look at the rest of the passage, starting in verse 19:

Ephesians 1:19–23 “and what is the boundless 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 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 made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Paul asks a legit question here. What is all this power that we’ve been talking about, the “boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe”? The power that can cure addiction, heal diseases, give hope and encouragement when it feels like everything is lost? What is this power?

Paul says it’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father! It’s the same power that gave Jesus authority over everything—all rule, all power, all dominion—above every name that can be named. It’s the same power that works through Him, through His authority to the church. Because the church is His body, and extension of Jesus in the world today!

And you, if you belong to Him, you are an arm of His church!

Which means (listen to this!) if you know the Lord, if you are saved, you have the power of the resurrection at your disposal! So, if you want to discover all that you’ve been missing in Christ, walk in it! Walk in that power…

Walk in the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

That’s the fourth key that we see here. Practice faith and love. Ask God to give you His direction. Rest in the hope and riches of your calling, and fourth, walk in the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Think about that power. NASA engineers say the Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo missions had 7.5 million pounds of thrust. 7.5 million pounds! Like, I can’t even comprehend that. That’s more raw power than I can imagine. But as impressive as that is, Paul reminds us that God’s resurrection power—power that is stronger than death—is available to us every day in Christ!

What does that means? Well, it means you don’t have to fight life’s battles on your own. When you’re trying to break that habit that you know is destroying you, you have the power of the resurrection at your disposal. When you feel lost and overwhelmed as a parent, you have the power of the resurrection available to you to bring up those children in the Lord. when your marriage feels like it’s running on fumes, or even that quit a long time ago—you’re not left to your own strength. The same power that raised Jesus is available to you!

So walk in it. Pick up your head, brother. Lift up your eyes, sister! Stop spinning your wheels in own strength. Get on your knees and ask God, beg God to make Himself real to you. Fall in love with Him again. Draw near to Him again, and walk in the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

You ever searched all over the house for your glasses—only to realize they’ve been sitting on your head the entire time? That’s exactly what Paul is praying against for believers: that we wouldn’t go through life searching for strength, hope, or security somewhere else, when God has already placed them in Christ, right within your reach. You just need our spiritual eyes opened to see what you already have.

IF you know Jesus. Again, that’s the assumption here. This letter, Ephesians, is written to believers. All the resources that we’ve covered this week and last week, all this supernatural strength that’s available to you in Christ is only available to you if you are in Christ.

So, are you? Do you know this Jesus who is “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”?

If not, the invitation is open for you to receive Him today. Just ask Him to save you, and He will. And if so, Paul’s prayer is not just for the Ephesians—it’s for you too. We need to see God more clearly, anchor ourselves in hope, and walk in His power. The real question is will we? Imagine what God could do if we gave ourselves to this? If we committed to pray Paul’s prayer every day for ourselves, our families, our church?

I really believe that God just might open our eyes to discover everything we’ve been missing.

But don’t leave here missing Jesus…