Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every now and then our music team gives us all an eye exam.

It’s either that or a desperate attempt at subliminal messaging.

For those of you who have never managed to read font size 2 on an overhead projector, I don’t want you to be discouraged.

There’s only an elite group of us here who can do it.

So if you’re in any doubt as to who of us has this spiritual gift, be sure to listen up next time the mumbling begins in one of the choruses - you’ll recognise this group by their strong vocals.

What do you think about this?

So this got me thinking.

How well can I see?

I’ve never had to use glasses.

You know, I can spot a ZRP officer from about 800m.

Which Charles Darwin would probably say had something to do with natural selection and adaptation.

Here’s the thing...

So I downloaded and printed off one of those Snellen charts last night and Ruth and I did some eye tests.

From 20 feet, the only line I couldn’t read was the last one on the sheet.

So it turns out that I have 20/10 vision which apparently is twice as good as someone with 20/20 vision.

Once upon a time.

He was in the world, and the He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

But here’s a humbling thought, if you could swap your eyes for an eagle's, you would be able to see a rat from 3.2km away or an ant crawling on the ground from the roof of a 10-story building.

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.

3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.

5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Have you ever wondered how much your life would change if you could see twice as far as you see today?

Would anyone here ever choose to see less?

I doubt it.

I remember my gran coming back from having her cataracts removed and telling me that she could see the leaves on trees again.

For months she had got used to seeing a green haze instead.

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

And they took as their wives any they chose.

3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.

These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Yet, although we rely on the eyes in our heads, there is another organ within us which has eyes to see.

What am I talking about?

The heart.

Just as the eyes of our heads were made to see the physical world, the eyes of our hearts were made to see the spiritual world.

So here’s the question, if you had to sit an eye test for your heart this morning, what score would get?

We are going to be looking at a prayer this morning that reminds us of how precious it is to see with the eyes of our hearts.

Let’s pray… “open the eyes of our hearts that we might know how much there is to be seen with the eyes of our hearts”

Read

The first chapter of this letter, as we learned last week, can be seen in two parts:

A passage of praise followed by a passage of prayer.

And what we need to realise as we transition from Paul’s praise to Paul’s prayer is that the praise is what inspires and provides the basis for his prayer.

The things he prays for the saints in Ephesus are because of the things he praises God for in heaven.

How do we know this, because Paul begins in verse 15 with these words...

“For this reason...”

By way of reminder, perhaps we ask, by what reason Paul?

What reasons have you set before us to inspire this prayer?

Well, if we look back to verse 3, here are at least nine reasons...

God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

God had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world

God has predestined us to be holy and blameless

God has adopted us into his family

God has redeemed us and forgiven us

God has lavished upon us the riches of his grace

God has made known to us the mystery of his will

God has given us an inheritance

God has sealed us with his Holy Spirit

=> blessed, chosen, predestined, adopted, redeemed, sealed

Next time you’re looking for reasons to praise and thank God, spend a little time in Ephesians 1!

But if you look carefully - and this is a little confusing in some of our English translations - you’ll notice that Paul’s prayer is also inspired by two things he has heard about the Ephesian church.

eph 1:15

For this reason I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you

Their faith and their love.

Two things for which Paul cannot stop thanking God.

I’d like to pause here for a moment and ask two questions:

When was the last time, in your prayers, that you thanked God for the faith and love of other Christians?

How important to you is the faith and love of your brothers and sisters in Christ?

For Paul, to hear that his Ephesian friends are continuing in the faith and loving the church is sufficient grounds for him to be thanking God without ceasing.

Paul’s happiness and joy is tied up in the spiritual state of his fellow believers.

He is not a man who only gives passing thought to his brothers and sisters in Christ.

He is not indifferent to how they are growing in grace.

To him it matters deeply.

And it matters deeply for the same reasons he has given us already in verses 3 through to 14. Notice that this isn’t a cause to praise the Ephesian church.

It is not as if, after praising God for 12 verses, Paul goes on to praise the Ephesians.

God forbid.

No, for Paul, the news from Ephesus provides him with even more grounds to continue to praise and thank God.

For it is God who has brought it about.

The faith and love seen in Ephesus are evidence of the fact that God has blessed and chosen and predestined and adopted and redeemed and sealed the Ephesians too.

Therefore it is God - and not the Ephesians - that he thanks.

And he thanks God because - for Paul - God’s mission has become his.

God does all things according to the purpose of his wil, to the praise of his glorious grace, and as he creates a new people for himself - we join him in that glorious vision.

The evidence, therefore, that grace has really come home to our hearts - is when we seek it not only in our lives but in everyone else’s too.

We show the marks of Christ and the seal of the Holy Spirit when our happiness and joy and prayers explode out of us whenever we see his grace at work around us.

So I ask you, as I ask myself, what do my prayers tell me about how much my heart is aligned to Christ’s?

For all the things that we have thanked God for over the last week, how often have we thanked God for the faith and love that we see amongst our brothers and sisters?

We pray a lot for those who are sick and troubled and unemployed and bereaved and depressed - and when God answers these prayers there is great excitement and joy - and for good reason - but if you really want to know what gets God gets excited, if you really want to see what keeps Paul up at night in his prison cell - if we really want to know the signs of a healthy church - look at how the Holy Spirit wants us to pray here.

Because this isn’t just Paul’s prayer - this is how God wants us to pray.

“because I have heard of you faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers”

So if you’re anything like me - we know that we have a problem.

I don’t pray like this.