Enlightenment Beyond Imagination

Intro: This coming month we have birthdays for two of our parents… Katy’s mom and my dad.

And BOTH of them are REALLY hard to buy presents for.

Do you have anyone in your family like that?

It’s not that they are necessarily picky… it’s just that if they really need or want something, they go buy it themselves.

It’s not like they are independently wealthy or anything like that, but they pretty much have what they need and want.

And so maybe you’ve asked this question before, “What do you give to someone who has everything?”

Hold onto that thought…

For the last two Sundays we have been studying an INCREDIBLE section of the book of Ephesians where Paul praises God for the fact that the CHURCH has been blessed IN CHRIST… with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

In other words, there is not ANYTHING in heaven or on earth that would benefit our walk with Jesus that God has not already given every believer in Christ.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ… if he has transformed your heart and changed your life… then YOU are someone who has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And so now, Paul is going to move into a prayer for this church… and as he does, it begs a question similar to the one we are asking about birthday gifts, “What do you pray for someone who already has everything that they need? What do you pray for someone who has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places?”

Do I pray that God would make them his children? Nope. He’s already done that.

Do I pray that God would forgive their sin? Nope. He’s already covered their sin with the blood of Christ.

Do I pray that God would give them MORE of the Holy Spirit? Nope. He’s given them ALL of the Holy Spirit as a seal and a guarantee of their inheritance.

That’s what makes Professor Howard Hoehner say THIS of the passage we are going to study today: "[This] could be called the prayer for those who have everything...." (pg. 247)

We are going to learn from Paul how to pray like we believe that God has already given us all we need for life and godliness.

We are going to learn how to pray for our church KNOWING that we have been ENLIGHTENED to the plan of God that is BEYOND IMAGINATION!

What do you pray for a church who has already been given everything? You pray for an full understanding of what they have been given!

Here’s our big idea for today:

Big Idea: Pray for a full grasp of all God is doing through his church.

Just to remind you of our context… We are in a study of the book of Ephesians… finishing out chapter 1 today… we are preaching through this whole book that, Lord willing, will take us JUST into the beginning of 2022.

Ephesians is an EPISTLE… it’s a LETTER… probably an encyclical letter that would have been passed around a group of churches in the region of the city of Ephesus.

And it’s written by the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as he sits under house arrest in Rome.

Now, typically, Paul opens his letters identifying himself, addressing his readers, and then launching into a prayer of thanksgiving and petition for them.

Ephesians is different. In Ephesians he FRONT-LOADS his prayer with this section of PRAISE to God for the unimaginable blessings in Christ, and then bases his prayer of thanksgiving and petition on the fact that they need a full grasp of all that they have in Christ.

Now the last blessing he mentioned in the previous section (if you were here last week, you might remember) is that every believer is SEALED with the promised Holy Spirit.

And it’s out of THAT thought that he launches into this GLORIOUS prayer with the words “FOR THIS REASON.”

Based on everything that we have been given in Christ, THIS is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church… and through the miracle of Holy Scripture, this is a prayer for every church reading this epistle today.

We are going to read… and then study… and then PRAY this prayer together in the remaining time that we have together today.

Read Eph. 1:15-23.

I believe it is so Important that we pause to realize what this amazing section of scripture is: it’s first and foremost a PRAYER.

It is the first of two major prayers in this book… both of which compliment one another… we will get to the second one at the end of chapter 3.

But we must understand: this PRAYER is the KEY to GRASPING the unimaginable plan of God for his church.

The truth is that Paul inserts this particular prayer here because if he doesn’t pray this for them, they will not fully grasp the mystery that God has revealed to them.

PRAYERS like this one help us realize that we are TOTALLY DEPENDENT on the Holy Spirit to give us understanding and to guide us in our Christian walk and activity as a church.

Bible reading is NOT like other reading a novel or a biography… it is a SPIRITUAL exercise of engaging with the author of the book through prayer!

The whole PURPOSE of the book of Ephesians is that they would pursue God’s unimaginable vision for his church so that he would receive MUCH glory...

And Paul prays HAS to pray a prayer like this in order for them to get it.

Dr. Abner Chou says, “If you want to understand the book of Ephesians, you have to pray this prayer.”

We will not be aware of all that we have in Christ… we will not be aware of all God wants to do in our church… unless we are a church that is DEVOTED to praying FERVENT prayers like this one.

It’s my hope today that your prayers for our church would DEEPEN as you learn to pray with Paul.

Not just prayer for temporal, physical things… not just praying for God to bless us with comfort and an ease and minimal opposition...

No! Prayer that is informed and enlightened by the revelation of Christ at work through his body, the church.

We often talk about praying in accordance with the will of God… If you want to pray for God’s will to be done, you have to understand God’s will is marching forward... in this age… THROUGH the church.

So today we are going to look at:

Three Elements of Enlightened Prayer

1) Pray thankfully for the fruit of God in his church. (1:15-16a)

Ephesians 1:15-16 “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...

So Paul is praying this prayer because of ALL the blessings they ALREADY have in Christ... in particular the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.

But it’s important to remember that we won’t see those blessings if we don’t have faith… and we don’t have PROOF of those blessings without a love that extends toward all the saints… that’s within the CHURCH… local and global.

Faith and love are the FRUIT of God blessing his church.

FAITH is initiated and given by God when he sends a messenger to proclaim the gospel and he opens our heart to receive it.

FAITH… is not a work done by us… it’s not a result of our superior intelligence or our prior disposition to follow God…

we will see that clearly in the section we are studying next week...

FAITH is the FRUIT of God’s work... enlightening the eyes of our hearts to see God.

Faith is the result of God entering into our darkness… into our dead spiritual understanding… and turning the lights on.

Similarly, LOVE is the fruit of God by which we LIVE in his light and have full relationship with him and with one another.

Faith is the lights going on… love is the enjoyment and expression of that light.

And the love Paul is talking about here has a specific direction: it’s toward all the saints: love toward others in the church.

If you walk into a church and there is genuine love between the believers there, you have to understand… THAT IS A MIRACLE OF GOD!

Some of you know what I mean because you’ve experienced when it DOESN’T happen in a church… because people are CLAIMING faith but still living in the darkened understanding of their flesh.

Now typically in Paul’s prayers, faith and love would be accompanied by a third element of fruit… HOPE.

If faith is the lights going on in the room you are in… and love is the enjoyment and expression of that light with others who see it too… then hope is looking from the bright room you are currently in... down the darker hallway of the future where the end is still a little shadowy, but knowing that God will reveal all things in his time.

Hope is CONFIDENCE that God’s promises and purposes will come to pass… even when we can’t fully see HOW.

Paul gets to hope later in his prayer… so I won’t discuss it in detail here...

And Faith, Hope, and Love are the abiding fruit of God’s work in a church.

Dr. Gene Getz calls them “the measure of a healthy church.”

Do you want to know if our church is healthy? Do you want to know if the church you attend is healthy?

Look at where we put our faith:

Do we put it in earthly measures of “success”? Or do we put it in the power of our risen and reigning Lord Jesus?

Do we work in our own power? Or do we fervently pray for God to work?

Do we tolerate idols in our hearts and put our faith in them instead of God?

Do we long for and rely upon the nourishment of God’s word because we BELIEVE it is the only source of truth?

If you want to know if we are healthy, look at where we put our faith… and then...

Look at how we love one another:

Do we truly care about one another?

Is our love toward ALL the saints… or just the ones who are easy for us to love?

Do we forgive each other when sinned against?

Do we forbear differences of opinion or things that annoy us?

Do we speak truth to one another and point one another to Jesus?

Do we actually prioritize spending time together?

If you want to know if we are healthy, look at our faith… look at our love… and then...

And then look at where we find our hope.

Do we talk about the Kingdom of Heaven more than we talk about how worried we are about the politics and events of this world?

Do we sing and speak of heaven with great joy and anticipation?

Do we point one another to a hope that is untouched by flesh and blood… and uncorrupted by Satan, sin, or death?

Do we courageously bear witness to Jesus Christ, recognizing that this world is not our home.

A church that is healthy will have increasing measures of FRUIT… Faith, hope, and love…

And Paul had heard a report about the churches in Ephesus and the surrounding region and was able to THANK GOD for the fruit he produced in these churches.

These churches were HEALTHY!

Yes, they needed more growth in their hope… we will get to that in a second....

But their FAITH… and their LOVE for ALL the saints… was STRONG.

And so every time Paul prayed, he made mention of them.

This kind of thankful prayer for the fruit of God in his church is ESSENTIAL for having a full grasp of the plan of God in the present age.

So often we can focus on what is NOT ideal about the church or relationships with God’s people.

Some of you right now are possibly thinking of ways that you have NOT seen faith, hope, and love in Christ’s church...

Conversations you had that didn’t go as well as you thought they SHOULD… or ways you’ve been slighted or hurt in the past...

It can be easy to love our dream of an ideal church instead of loving the church that God has actually given us.

But God IS at work in his church! And THANKSGIVING gives us eyes to SEE IT!

Thankful prayer goes LOOKING for the evidences of God’s grace… the fruit of his work… and then makes sure to acknowledge it...

FIRST to God… and then to the other person.

We’ve talked about this before… it was in your prayer guide for this past week… and it’s something we need to do continually.

Paul THANKS GOD for the fruit he sees in the churches… and then he TELLS them WHAT he thanked God for in them.

Have you done that in the past week or two?

If not, do it. It will be good for your soul.

YES God still has work to do in us… we aren’t in heaven YET… but he has ALREADY done so much…

He has brought dead people to life.

He has made prior enemies brothers and sisters in Christ...

He has given us a common mission and bonded us together as a church.

He has given us faith, hope, and love...

And can I just tell you right now… I THANK GOD FOR YOU, OAK HILL!!!

What God is doing in our church is special… it’s unique…

I can honestly say that I can answer YES to the vast majority of those diagnostic questions I asked earlier.

I’ve seen faith, hope, and love in COUNTLESS ways… not the least of which is this move.

Yes, God has provided a building and that’s great… but I’ve been delighting the beautiful ways so many of you have stepped up to serve one another… and the joy and love with which you’ve done it.

I’ve been enjoying just BEING WITH you all these past few weeks…

In fact, there’s a part of me (and just a part) that will be sad that all the long hours are over because they gave me the opportunity to be WITH YOU in a different way… and I thank GOD for that!

And that THANKFULNESS gives me a window into a FRACTION of what God wants to do in and through his church… both here in Southern Lancaster County, and around the world.

Can I just say that I have also been SOOO thankful for so many of the people who used to attend the Mt Hope United Methodist Congregation, and also those who lead Memorial United Methodist.

I’ve seen a great deal of love toward ALL the saints from you too… saints who are not part of your own local church, but who you loved just the same.

Not only that, I was with a group of MANY of the pastors here in Southern Lancaster County… and they have just been SOOOOO encouraging… cheering us on… celebrating with us… being interested in what God is doing here at Oak Hill...

And that’s the FRUIT OF GOD in their lives and in our own. And I am so THANKFUL!

[Pause] And THANKFULNESS for the fruit God has ALREADY provided… stokes the fire for PETITION for what God still wants to do in his church… that’s where Paul goes next:

Eph 1:16-18 “I do not cease to give thanks for you... remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know… [stop there]...

Three Elements of Enlightened Prayer:

Pray thankfully…

2) Pray theologically for the knowledge of God in his church. (1:16b-18)

Explain: I know as soon as we say the word “theologically” some people start breaking out in hives…

They necessarily equate theology with big words and dusty books and arguments that have no relevance to life...

But that’s not true theology… and it’s not what I mean when I say, “Pray theologically.”

True theology is simply the STUDY OF GOD.

Theology is an ever-deepening knowledge of God and his ways.

And so if something called theology is not increasing our understanding and relationship with God, it’s not true theology.

Hopefully you can see where I’m getting this idea of praying theologically in these verses:

Paul prays That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

That’s true theology.

First of all, you need some good theology just to even UNDERSTAND that sentence.

We talked about this the last two weeks: that we serve a TRIUNE God. We serve one God who eternally exists in three co-equal persons.

Not three different gods… not one God who sometimes appears as different persons… no, One God who eternally exists in three co-equal persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

By the way, I just read an article last night citing a recent study that 58 % of self-identified Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a real person… that the Spirit is just a symbol of God’s power presence or purity.

That number actually goes UP among those who self-identify as “born again believers”… 62 percent of them do NOT believe that the Holy Spirit is a real person… (which makes me ask, “how do they think they were born again… Jesus says that it only happens through the SPIRIT)...

So THEOLOGY… the study of God is NECESSARY!

We can’t pray without good theology!

Let’s just be clear: the Holy Spirit is a person… he is distinct and REAL… and he is given to every person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

And the scriptures also agree that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son.

He is EQUAL in nature… but submits himself to the Father and the Son.

BUT… that’s not the hardest part of this verse… here’s the REAL tricky part with this verse… Paul just made that claim that they ALREADY had the Holy Spirit… but now he’s asking God to GIVE them Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God… so what’s the deal?

Have they received the Holy Spirit or not?

Let me make this clear: Paul is not praying that God would give them the Spirit from the outside in like He is a NEW GIFT… he is praying that the Father would give them wisdom and revelation… and that comes THROUGH the Spirit who already indwells them… filling them from the inside up.

Paul is praying that the Spirit of God would increase their experiential knowledge of God.

That he would reveal WISDOM (living out God’s truth) and REVELATION… a greater understanding of what God has already said.

The Spirit is the one who knows the mind of God… and who interprets spiritual truths to spiritual people.

We need the Holy Spirit to even BEGIN to understand spiritual things… and that’s a GROWTH process for us.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual…. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:10-13, 16, ESV)

God gives us the Spirit… he makes us Spiritual… he gives us the mind of Christ… and then by his Spirit, he reveals to us the very depths of the thoughts of God.

Back in Ephesians 1: He’s not asking God to reveal some new thing that they haven’t already been given...

Notice: He prays that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… having the eyes of your heart enlightened...

Don’t get confused by that translation like I was at first…

He’s not saying you need some FURTHER enlightenment...

He is saying, “the eyes of your heart have ALREADY been enlightened… and therefore he is praying that you might fully know God.”

In other words he’s saying, “Because you have already come to know and believe the gospel… because the lights have ALREADY been turned on for you so you can see the incredible GLORY of God… I’m NOW praying that you would have wisdom and revelation FROM GOD the Spirit about the very nature of God the Father.”

So this isn’t praying that you would learn or know some new thing about God that no one ever heard before...

This isn’t praying so that you would know exactly what choices God wants you to make about specific things… like which color car God wants you to buy...

This isn’t praying for some audible voice of God telling you which boy or girl you are supposed to date...

This is the Spirit of God taking you deeper and deeper into your KNOWING of God.

And not just your knowing ABOUT God like he is a figure in history that you study like Abraham Lincoln or someone like that...

This word is referring to your experiential knowledge of God… your “real life theology.”

It’s knowing like you would KNOW your spouse or your best friend...

Paul is praying that we would KNOW God intimately… up close and personal… because we have been given the very SPIRIT of God who imparts wisdom and revelation.

He’s praying that we would know God’s heart…

That we would know what makes him tick...

That we would know his plan and desires...

That we would know his priorities...

That we would know his ways...

That we would know his voice.

And this is a BIG PRAYER because we serve an INFINITE GOD… and it will take an ETERNITY us finite creatures to get to know him fully… which gratefully he has granted eternity to us who believe just for that purpose.

Do you PRAY for a deeper knowledge of God?

Do you start each day PLEADING, “God, let me just see more of who you are today!

“Help me to be more aware of what you are doing in this world and in my life!”

“Give me insight into your word and wisdom in how to apply it today!”

When you come up a concept you don’t understand in scripture… like the Trinity for example… do you pray, “God, I know I will never fully understand you, but give me greater insight into your glory here.”

“Help me to see just how AWESOME you are in the way you have revealed yourself!”

That’s so much better than just shrugging your shoulders and saying, “Well, I guess I’ll never understand THAT big theological concept… guess I’ll leave it for someone else. Give me something that I CAN understand.”

NO! The whole point is that we have a God who we CAN’T fully comprehend… who wants to WORK in ways that we CAN’T fully comprehend…

...and the goal of our existence in Christ is that we would KNOW HIM MORE… so that we would give him much GLORY...!

Paul doesn’t want the Ephesian church to have a small view of God… or a small view of what it means to be a part of Christ’s church… and so that is why he CONSTANTLY remembers them in his prayers… asking the Lord to do THIS work in their midst: that they would KNOW God.

The fact that we get to know God so intimately should never cease to make us stand in wonder… which is why we must also...

3) Pray transcendentally for the full experience of God in his church. (1:18b-23)

Look at the second half of verse 18 - Eph 1:18-23 “...that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked 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 above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Paul wants them to know… apprehend… understand and live out… three things: the hope to which we are called, the riches of his glorious inheritance and the immeasurable greatness of his power.

And so he PRAYS for them to know.

He wants them to GRASP what is true about them because they are IN CHRIST...

And he wants them to LIVE OUT of that awareness… to EXPERIENCE it...

That’s what it means to KNOW.

So first he prays that they would know the hope to which they have been called...

This tells us something about our spiritual reality: we have been called to HOPE.

The word for CALL is the word for a summons of the King.

When the King calls you, you dare not say “no.” And you would have no REASON to say no because the call is so good.

That’s why it is sometimes described in theology as “the effectual call of God.”

Remember from last week, he CHOSE his people in Christ before the foundation of the world…

he PREDESTINED them for adoption… that is he foreordained all things so that those whom he chose would actually become his children.

And the way that he brought that about was by CALLING us… by summoning us to himself...

Which here is described as calling us to a certain hope.

The call to Christ is a call to hope.

But sometimes we don’t know that hope as fully as we could.

Just as in an eclipse, when the comparatively small moon overshadows the glorious radiance of the sun, so too the temporary trials and circumstances of our lives shroud the glory of our eternal hope.

I find in interesting that Paul saves “hope” for this section of the prayer, and DOESN’T include it in his prayer of thanksgiving where it would typically belong alongside faith and love.

And honestly, I believe that Paul saves it for this part of the prayer because that’s the part that they are missing the most.

They prone to forget, for whatever reason, the hope to which they have been called.

They are settling for a smaller view of the church than the grand, cosmic plan that God has for it.

And so he prays that they would KNOW the hope to which they have already been summoned!

Second, he prays that they would know… the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints...

This is part of the blessings that we talked about last week…

That the CHURCH… Israel and the nations gathered together and united in One Body… is the INHERITANCE that Jesus Christ, God’s Anointed Son, receives at the end of time...

The church is presented to him as a spotless bride, holy and blameless before him.

His glorious inheritance is... IN the Saints.

And because we are HIS inheritance, he becomes OUR inheritance...

We get to enjoy God himself… and all of his blessings… because God is uniting all things together in Christ… God is making all things right in him.

And that plan is moving forward, specifically because our God is powerfully working beyond comprehension in and through his church.

Paul prays finally that they would know the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.

God is working… out of all the abundance of his power… toward the end goal of HIS glory and and the good of those who believe in him.

He is using all of his might… all of his energy… all of his sovereign authority… to order ALL THINGS… until they reach their intended end of being united in Christ.

But Paul doesn’t just want to say, “I want you to know that God is powerful,” and then leave it at that.

No, He wants them to try… just TRY… to wrap their heads around just how immeasurably great God’s power is...

So he gives a number of proofs for God’s power… just in case you are prone to forget just how STRONG God is...

The power that God is working toward his people is the same power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

Everyone repeat this after me, “Now THAT’S power!” “Now THAT’S power!”

Death is the one thing that NONE of us really have control over.

We can try to deny it or delay it… but we can’t control it.

It comes like an unwanted guest on rich and poor alike...

It is no respecter of persons.

And Jesus Christ died too.

But HE did not deserve to die.

He died because OUR SIN deserved death… and in order to forgive our sin and restore us to relationship with God, a perfect sacrifice had to be made in our place.

So Jesus Christ… the Son of Man and Son of God... died the death that WE deserved to die.

But Jesus didn’t stay dead.

God the Father RAISED him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God accepted his payment for our sin and made him the firstborn from among the dead so that we could receive his powerful life!~

And it is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ that we can come to have life…

That our hearts can be enlightened to the plan of God to rescue a people for himself...

That our lives can be transformed and restored in the image of our creator...

And if you want to be enlighten to the plan of God and the purpose of your existence… you MUST turn to Christ today!

The only option is an eternal existence without hope… without power… and with the consequences of sin without end.

But if you HAVE believed, then the powerful life of Jesus is alive in YOU… the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is flowing toward YOU… and it is a power that goes on unshakeable, because...

The power that God is working toward his people is the same power that was given to Christ in his glorification...

Paul says that Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places.

And he makes sure that we remember that his position is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Everyone say this with me, “Now THAT’S power!” “Now THAT’S power!”

There is no ruler on this planet who even comes CLOSE to the power of Jesus…

There is no SPIRITUAL power that can stand against the power of Christ… no angel, no demon… not even Satan himself… DARES to lift a FINGER against the chosen, Anointed Son of God.

FF Bruce says, “Whatever grades of authority there may be in the universe, they are all inferior to him." (Bruce, 273)

and it is THAT POWER of the Champion of Heaven that is flowing toward those who believe…

Jesus is right now on his throne, ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father… getting all things ready for his future kingdom.

All of time and space is getting prepared for the consummation of his kingdom when he returns.

The powerful authority that is right now enlivening his church.

God FIRST put all things under his feet… and then he GAVE him as head over all things TO the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

We are IN CHRIST like body parts connected to a head.

What happens if you cut off someone or something’s head? (like a chicken or something)?

It DIES!

The vitality… the consciousness… the direction… the decision making… the wisdom… the intelligence... all comes from the head...

And the head of the CHURCH… is Jesus Christ. We are HIS BODY.

The life of the OMNIPOTENT SON OF GOD is FILLING his CHURCH!

Everyone say this with me, “Now THAT’S power!” “Now THAT’S power!”

And the prayer of the enlightened believer takes on this nature of TRANSCENDENCE… praying that we would EXPERIENCE that power!

That we wouldn’t settle for anything less than this power.

That we wouldn’t think small thoughts of the church… or small thoughts of what God wants to do IN US and through us.

One of our fellow GCC pastors, Robbie Symons, says this, “I believe that we have been deceived into thinking that when we can accomplish something we can see, then we are truly productive. Therefore we get busy doing and lack the faith to understand the true power of fruitfulness is built upon pleading for God to do it.

That’s powerful.

Here’s what that means: We can look at something like our move into this building and think, “Look at how much we accomplished!

It’s tangible… it has a definite outcome...

But moving into the building is just the means to an end.

The real work starts now. One of my pastor friends texted me last night after I shared a picture of the sanctuary with him and he said, “That took a lot of work! Now it’s time to PUT IT TO WORK!”

And he’s so right… The real work is the passionate worship and the bold preaching and the fervent prayer that happens here.

It’s the pleading to God for courageous evangelism and purposeful discipleship and strategic church planting.

THAT’S the real work… and that work requires true power that only comes from pleading to God for it.

Paul’s point as he closes out Ephesians 1 is this: The ruler of the entire heavens and earth has been given to us as our HEAD… we get to be filled with all his fullness… what CAN’T we ask for in his name and for his glory?

What won’t we do at his direction?

The answer: nothing.

But we must be aware of this power. We must pray so that we would KNOW it and ACCESS it and EXPERIENCE it.

Do you understand that PRAYER is the most powerful thing you can do?

Prayer opens our eyes to the powerful God we serve so that we

Through thoughtful prayer we become aware of the work that God is doing to produce fruit in his church.

Through theological prayer we come to know the God who is doing the work.

And through transcendent prayer we come to experience the power that is flowing from God toward his church.

We have been given EVERYTHING in Christ… PRAY for a full grasp of what God is doing in his church.