But with that said, I want you to take your Bibles this morning and turn with me again to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We continue our study, our exposition of this very rich letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians residing on the province of Asia Minor in the city of Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 1. The title of the message is simply this. Pray for this reason. Pray for this reason. The well-known Bible expositor H.A. Ironside told of a godly man by the name of Andrew Frazier who had come to Southern California to recover from a serious illness. And though this Irishman was quite weak, he opened his worn Bible and began expounding the truths of God's Word in a way that the great preacher Harry Ironside had never heard before. In fact, so moved by this old man's words, Ironside, out of curiosity, asked this man, where did you learn all of this biblical truth? Did you go to college or seminary? And the sickly man said, oh no, my dear young man, I learned these things on my knees. on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There, with my open Bible before me, I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul and to open the Word of God to my heart." He went on to say, he taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I ever could have learned in all the seminaries and colleges. in the world. Pray then for this reason." How vibrant is your prayer life? How important is your prayer life? The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, and so you might ask yourself the question, well, what's the point in praying if after all God ordains all things? But that wasn't Paul's attitude as he writes to the Ephesians. He has just given to us in verses 3-14 this rich section that enumerates for us in some detail all the blessings that come to us by virtue of being in Christ. And all of these blessings, as we've seen in prior weeks, come to us and flow to us out of the richness of God's sovereignty. We are elected according to God's sovereignty. We are predestined according to God's sovereignty. Thus, we are saved according to the sovereign working of God. But that praise of God's sovereignty doesn't leave Paul complacent. It actually propels him into a prayer. It is the sovereignty of God that causes the Apostle Paul now, beginning in verse 15, to pray to this God, because Paul understands this God is sovereign. This God is in control of the entire universe. And notice what his prayer is, beginning in verse 15. Paul 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, 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 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. You see, Paul's affirmation of God's total sovereignty compels his prayer life rather than curtails it. It is God's abundant sovereignty that he has detailed here, that Paul has confidence in, and although God's sovereignty is a truth that we must heavily lean upon, so is the truth of James 4.2. You desire and do not have, James says, and you do not have because you do not ask. The Apostle Paul's confidence in a sovereign God leads him to this rich prayer beginning in verse 15. Now here is the gist of the prayer. It actually goes all the way to the end of the chapter, to the end of verse 23. This morning we're just going to look at verses 15 through 19, but here is the gist of the prayer. Paul understands that this God, who has planned and accomplished this rich salvation for the Ephesians, has a work yet to complete. And so Paul steps in and he prays that what God has started in the Ephesians, God will complete. It's the same thing Paul said in Philippians 1.6. He was confident that he who began a good work in the Philippians, that good work of salvation, would be faithful to bring it to completion. That was Paul's attitude toward the church. That was Paul's attitude toward all the people of God. That God, after salvation and beginning with salvation, has a work to do in the people of God. And so as Paul says here in verse 16, I did not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, praying that God would reveal to you this knowledge of Him, that your eyes of your hearts would be enlightened, as he says in verse 18. Now think about this for a moment. Paul had ministered in Ephesus longer than any other city. Paul had seen many converts. Paul had lectured in the hall of Tyrannus. Paul had preached from the Ephesian pulpit. Paul had personally taught and trained the elders of this church in theology and even warned them in Acts 20 of savage wolves that would come into the church. He had prepared this congregation well, perhaps better than any congregation that he was involved in, and yet, he wants more for the people of God. He wants greater knowledge of the deep things of God. And he's not only praying for the Ephesians, which reveals his love for them, but he reveals the content of his actual prayer for the Ephesians, which I think teaches us that we should model the prayer of the Apostle Paul. How important is our prayer life? What do we pray for when we pray? How important is our growth in the knowledge of God? How important is our desire for others in the church to grow in their knowledge of God? See, Paul's heart was to pray for the church that the church might grow in their knowledge of God. There are really two extremes on two separate spectrums that we need to think about. On one spectrum, you have on one side of this spectrum, those who sort of pride themselves in dying and going to heaven ignorant. In other words, they settle for the milk of the Word instead of the meat of the Word of God, their knowledge of God is minimal, and their lives, quite frankly, betray their immaturity and their shallow walk with God. But on the other side of the spectrum are those who want knowledge, those who hunger for knowledge, those who have knowledge, but they don't apply it. On another spectrum, you have on one side, some who pray constantly for more blessings of God to come down, seemingly ignoring the fact that God has already blessed us, as verse 3 says, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God cannot give you more than He's already given you in Christ. But yet there are people that pray for some new experience or some second revelation of God. But then on the other side of this second spectrum are those who know that in Christ they've received all the blessings and that has had grown in them a complacent heart and spirit of not wanting to learn the things of God and grow in the things of God. Their love of God grows somewhat cold. Perhaps that is what happened to the church at Ephesus. Because we read in Revelation 2, 4, the words of Jesus. He tells the church at Ephesus, you have left your first love. Paul does not want that to happen. God's people should not only hunger for knowledge about God, but they should hunger to actually know God. And we as believers should pray for fellow believers that We grow in our knowledge of God. And that's what prompts Paul to pray what he does right here. This awareness of all these blessings that are given to us in Christ, our redemption, our election, our predestination, our adoption, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, all of those gifts that we have received, The way in which we experience the fullness of these gifts comes through steadfast prayer and the enabling of the Holy Spirit. So you could put it this way, God has come to us in Christ for salvation, now we need to go to Him. God has sought us and found us in salvation, now we need to go to Him and seek Him, in sanctification as we discover the depth of His majesty and His glory and all the blessings that have come to us by virtue of our union with Christ. And here is a little disclaimer. We have already received all of Christ. You've either received all of Christ or you've received none of Christ. Christ does not come to us in pieces. We receive a whole Christ, but the point is it takes a lifetime. culminating in our glorification to know and discover and to experience and to have an awareness and a deeper appreciation of our glorious union with Christ. And based upon our union with Christ, our vital union with Christ, Paul prays for these Ephesians that they might know the depth of what this union means for them. Now, the outline this morning is simple. I just have two things that I want you to see from verses 15 through 19. First of all, I want you to see the reason for prayer in verses 15 and 16. And then secondly, I want you to see the requests in prayer, verses 17 through 19. Those are the two simple points. The reason for prayer, verses 15 and 16. And secondly, the requests in prayer, verses 17 through 19. And under the second point, We see the request generally and the request specifically, and under the request specifically, we have three petitions that Paul prays for. So let's look first at the reason for prayer. Verse 15, for this reason, Paul is giving a reason as to why he's praying for the Ephesians. What is it? For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, that's the reason he prays. Verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul has just enumerated, as I said, in detail, God's amazing sovereign grace in salvation. And as he reflects upon that, he realizes that this sovereign grace of salvation has had very real practical results in the lives of the Ephesians. And that causes him to move into this prayer for the Ephesians, which causes me to stop for one moment to make this simple point. You and I never need a greater reason to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ than this fact, they are part of the family of God as we are. Because we are one with Christ, we are one with one another, and that is what causes Paul to pray this. Now, notice he lists here two cardinal virtues of Christianity, faith and love. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. Paul had heard of their faith and of their love. Now, to be sure, Paul had seen firsthand many converts when he was in Ephesus, but four to six years has passed since he's visited the city. So Paul is relying on information he has heard from people who have visited him in prison, people who have written him letters. He has heard of new converts. He's heard of the growth of the church, both numerically and spiritually. And here's the surprising thing. He takes their word for it that the church at Ephesus is possessed by those who have faith and love. Faith and love being the evidences of true salvation. And I make that point just to say, we can never be sure who is in the invisible church, but where faith and love are present, there are God's people visibly, and where we see the evidence of faith and love, those are the people of God that we pray for. Faith and love are the family markers of God's true people. Faith. Faith in what? Faith in the Lord Jesus, as Paul says there in verse 15. This is not subjective faith. It's faith in the Lord Jesus. This is the entry point into the family of God, is a credible profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. Faith in the Lord Jesus. To say that Jesus is Lord is to affirm His deity, that He is God, but also His sovereignty, that He is our Master. He is not only our Savior, He is our Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, There was evidence in the lives of these Ephesians that they were submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They had faith in their Lord Jesus Christ, but this faith was joined to the second thing, and that is their love. Faith and love are inseparable virtues of Christianity. Calvin calls them the cardinal virtues of Christianity. Where faith is, love will be. Where love is, faith will be. And since faith brings us in union with Christ, We then have a love that flows from us. Notice verse 15. Paul says, "...toward all the saints." Paul saw their faith as credible because of the evidence of love among them that was indiscriminate. Their love reached all the saints of every stripe no matter where they were from. Why? Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5. And maybe, perhaps ironically, Paul reveals his own faith in love due to his willingness to pray for these saints that he heard had faith in love. Christian love. is love of both attitude and actions. Christian love is love of word and deed. It's inward and it is outward as well. It is critical that love mark the lives of true believers. John says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And the fact of the matter is, faith draws us to Christ, to trust Him, to love Him, to obey Him, and love draws us to His people that we've been placed in union with. It is vertical faith in God that results in horizontal love for the family of God, so that God's saving grace is really not present when brotherly love is absent. 1 John 4, 20, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. How do we love our brothers? Well, there's a number of different ways we do, but the emphasis of this text is loving them by praying for them. Notice verse 16, Paul says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul is proving his love for the church by his willingness to pray for them in an unceasing manner, thanking God for their salvation and praying for them. So that beginning with those closest to us, those that we're in local assembly with and reaching out from there, God's people are to pray for each other just by virtue of the fact that we are all one with Christ. The love of the brethren. We are to love one another indiscriminately. We are to show that love by praying for the brethren. Now this doesn't mean, the love of the brethren does not mean there's no confrontation of sin. The love of the brethren does not mean there's no clarification of doctrine. The love of the brethren does not mean there's not condemnation of heresy. But love does involve an attitude of accepting people at their word that they are believers when they give evidence of it, faith and love, and it results not only in that attitude of acceptance, but in the action of seeking their good. Jesus said, by this all men will know you're my disciples if you have love for one another. Paul is demonstrating, by precept and example, one of the greatest ways we can love our fellow saints, and that is by spending time in prayer for them. It was the great Puritan Thomas Watson who said, There is but one God, and they that serve Him should be one. Watson says, there is nothing that would render Christianity more compelling to lost people than to see the possessors of it tied together with the heartstrings of love. And one of the greatest ways we love is through prayer. This doesn't require great wealth, great knowledge, high intellect. It just costs us our time, doesn't it? It costs us our time and our love. Paul is revealing his love. He's wearing his love on his sleeve by telling the Ephesians that he's praying for them. You know, as you know, I have many opportunities to preach funerals from time to time of complete strangers. And I can't tell you how many times I've gone in to preach a sermon and someone comes up and they give a eulogy. And if I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times. They say, you know, Dad, He had his own way with people. He was harsh with us and never talked nice to us, but deep down I know that he really loved us. He never told us that he loved us, but I just know deep down he really loved us. I always think to myself, how sad. True love is not afraid to express itself in words of affirmation. And by Paul praying for the Ephesians, but not just doing that, telling them that he's praying for them, that's tantamount to saying, I love you and I care for you. And Paul also understood that prayer is one of the vital keys to Christian living. Perhaps this is why the church is weak today. The church today wants to rely upon the new and the innovative instead of relying upon the ordinary and shall I say extraordinary means of grace. What are they? Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayers. Prayer is one of the primary means of grace that is essential to grow spiritually and to strengthen the church. Paul knew that, and so he prays unceasingly for the saints. Well, all of this begs the question, What do we pray for when we pray for the saints? We don't need a better reason to pray than for the fact that there are other believers that we should pray for. We need to pray for the saints because they are saints. They are the people of God. But what should the focus of our prayers be? Let's move from the reason for prayer in verses 15 and 16 now to the requests in prayer, verses 17 through 19. And first, Paul gives here the request generally in verse 17 and the beginning of verse 18. And then he gives the request specifically in the second half of verse 18 and verse 19. And within this specific request, we see three petitions. Notice the requests in prayer, the requests generally. Generally speaking, verse 17, we are to pray for ourselves and one another the same thing Paul did, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, here it is, in the knowledge of Him. And to further clarify this, verse 18, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened. Now stop and think about this with me for a moment. This congregation had real people in it. They had government persecution threatening them from outside of the church. They had a radical confusion threatening them from within the church. They had physical affliction among the body in the form of pain and sickness and death. But sometimes what we view as our greatest needs aren't our greatest needs. Paul doesn't pray that God would help them with any of those things that I mentioned. Rather, he prays, as it says here in verse 17, that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Why? because their knowledge of God's riches to them, and the more their knowledge of these riches increases, the more they will be able to stand in their trial-ridden lives. It is only the grace of God that comes to us in the riches of Christ, which will preserve us and help us persevere through whatever life throws to us. So that was Paul's prayer. There is not a prayer for Aunt Tusi's hangnail. There is not a prayer for Uncle Walter's broken finger. There's not a list of medical concerns. There is the spiritual prayer that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. That's quite a prayer. Spirit of wisdom. That refers to the Holy Spirit's illuminating work of teaching God's people. You remember Jesus said in John 16, 13, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. That was written originally to the apostles who became the authors of the New Testament Scriptures, But generally, that principle is applied to all of God's people that are indwelt by the Spirit of God, who is the illuminator. He is the teacher of God's Word. That's why Paul says that he's praying that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Revelation is apocalupsis. That's the Greek word. It has the idea of unveiling or disclosing something that was previously hidden, with this idea behind it, that whatever is disclosed could not be understood simply by human investigation, it has to come from God. It's God revealed. And it may be best to see that God's apocalypsis, His revelation, is His disclosure of knowledge to us, while wisdom emphasizes the use of that knowledge. But what I really want you to see is that it's important to recognize that Paul is depending entirely on God for this, seen in the fact that he's pleading with God to create in the hearts of the Ephesians a greater knowledge of God, and by the fact that he says at the beginning of verse 18 that he wants the eyes of their hearts enlightened. There was some enlightening, some illuminating that needed to take place, which tells us that there is no Christian who has fully arrived at a full knowledge of God. Every Christian is dependent upon God. We are not only dependent upon God for our salvation, but we are dependent upon God for our sanctification. And Paul's point here is that growth and holiness is dependent upon knowledge, but growth and knowledge only comes through prayer. Jesus was clear in John 17.3. that the goal of salvation is not just eternal life, the goal of salvation is knowing God. Jesus said, this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. So Paul prays unceasingly that the God of their Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of their hearts enlightened, or illuminated. The word hearts there, let me just point that out, because in modern times, when we celebrate Valentine's Day, we're celebrating our love, you know, for our spouse or what have you. In modern times, the heart is seen as the seat of emotions, the seat of feelings. But in biblical times, in both the Hebrew culture and the Greek culture, the heart was actually the seat of knowledge. It was the seat of thinking. It was the seat of understanding. And the seat of feelings and emotions were the bowels or the intestines. You see, the Ephesians knew Christ. But Paul wants these Ephesians to know Christ better, to grow in their knowledge. The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis, but in verse 17, it has the little preposition epi in front of it, so it's epinosis, which intensifies the meeting to mean a deep, full, thorough knowledge of God. It's not that they weren't believers, they knew God. Paul was interested that they grew deeper in their knowledge of God. And you know just by practical experience that there is a difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing someone. For example, I know a lot about President John F. Kennedy. He's a fascinating figure to me. I've read a lot about him. I know the general chronology of his life. I know the family history of his family coming over from Ireland. I know his shortcomings. I know his political achievements. I know a lot about him, but I don't know him. He died well before I was ever born. I remember one time as a little boy I was in the airport and my grandparents were getting back on the plane to fly back to Dallas, Texas where they lived, and I looked up and I saw Roger Staubach. the famous quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, two Super Bowl championships, great quarterback, Hall of Fame. Of course, he was an older man at that point. And I walked up to him and shook his hand and talked to him and looked him in the eye, and I can tell you, he was a real person. And I know a lot about Roger Staubach, and I actually met him. But it would be ridiculous for me to stand up here and say that I actually know Roger Staubach. I don't know him. I know about him. I know that he's real. Paul is praying that these Ephesians know deeply God. the depth of who God is, the glory of who He is, which is why He details in verses 3 through 14 the depths of this glory. So that in the final analysis, doctrinal knowledge should always lead to devotional, doxological, and experiential commitment to God. And again, let me say, It's not that Paul is praying the Ephesians receive the fullness of blessings that come from God. They already possess all the heavenly blessings they are going to possess. Verse 3, we already possess all that we're going to possess. But the discovery and the experience of the fullness of these blessings only result through prayer and the enabling of the Spirit of God. This is the true work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is a teacher to the people of God to reveal to them the deep knowledge of God. The Spirit of God does not move in people and make them do crazy things and say crazy things and dance around and make inaudible sounds. The Spirit illuminates God's Word. The Spirit reveals to God's people, mysteriously, the deep things of God. And if this is true, then we must pray the Spirit would reveal His Word to us. The reality is that God's Word can be taught with biblical accuracy and theological clarity and man-made persuasion and not come with the conviction and power of the Holy Spirit. That only comes by prayer. Let me put it to you this way. You can give a blind man a Bible, and that's a good thing. But a blind man can't do anything with a Bible. The point is, the doctrine of inspiration, as wonderful as it is, and I say this with the utmost respect for the doctrine of inspiration, the doctrine of inspiration is useless apart from the doctrine of the illuminating work of the Spirit of God. And a blind man simply can't see. Apart from the illuminating work of the Spirit of God, we are blind to the things of God. We need enlightened, as verse 18 says. Our knowledge of God is not complete the moment that we are saved. And so the Spirit teaches us day by day, and the more we pray, and the more we study, the more that we learn. Paul made this plain, didn't he, in 1 Corinthians 2? He spoke about this in no uncertain terms. He spoke about the fact that 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. And we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. Here it is, that we might understand the things freely given to us, because We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, Paul says, but taught by the Spirit. The Spirit of God takes the message of the man of God and He illuminates it, the Spirit of God does, so the people of God understand it. So here's the reality, we grow up into Christ, we grow up into Christ as our lives sink down into the unfathomable and inexhaustible depths of knowing God. God's Word is living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. And it is true. Doctrine divides. Doctrine divides error from truth. Doctrine divides those who hold to error from those who hold to truth. But doctrine doesn't simply divide. Doctrine also edifies. Truth transforms. Paul's desire above all else was to know Christ, wasn't it? Philippians 3.10. We have not because we ask not. So we pray to God that He would enlighten our eyes to understand the depth, to discover all of these riches that belong to us in Christ. And I can assure you that takes a lifetime. It's not something that happens on one Sunday morning. It's not something that happens in one Sunday school lesson. It's not something that happens just because we've worked through one book of the Bible. This is a steadfast, constant study of the Word of God, accompanying it with that matter of prayer." This is the request generally that Paul has, but now notice the request specifically. What is it specifically that Paul prays? There are three petitions that he prays. And these are three petitions that should mark our lives as we pray for ourselves and we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We saw in verses 15 and 16 the reason for prayer. And now we began to see in verses 17 through 19 the requests in prayer. We've seen the requests generally. Now we're gonna see the requests specifically, three petitions. Paul prays that the Ephesians would know their hope. that they would know their riches and that they would know their power. So in all the things that God has given us to Christ, in all the blessings that are ours, we have before us the goal to discover by the Spirit of God who is our illuminator and our teacher, and as we pray to Him to discover these three things, the hope we have, the riches we have, and the power we have. Notice first he prays that the Ephesians would know their hope. Verse 18. He wants the eyes of their hearts enlightened, here it is, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. Now usually hope has to do with a longing regarding something in the future, and here it does as well. However, Paul prays that Christians be assured, watch this, of their future because of their calling in the past. That's the prayer. We should pray that God would show to us the hope to which He has called us. There was a calling in the past, there's something He's calling us to. Of course, God has called His people out of the world. It was an irresistible call. It was a sovereign summons by the King. Paul dealt with that extensively in verses 3-14. Verse 13, he said, "...in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in Him and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." That was the effectual call of the Spirit of God in giving them faith that they might believe in the gospel. And so our hope for the future, which culminates in a state of being in the very presence of God, sinless in heaven, begins with the fact that we were called in the past. And that's what it's grounded upon. Our hope for the future is grounded in this calling of God in the past. And hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking, right? The Bible calls hope a living hope. It calls it a blessed hope. It calls it a sure hope. It calls it a hope that will not disappoint because of the love of God that's been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It's a hope that the Spirit of God has sealed Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. So here's the point, knowing our past calling and future hope changes the way we live in the present. That's why Paul prays for the Ephesians this way. Help these Christians know their hope, the thing to which they've been called to, the work of God in the past all the way to the future. Help them to know that and to believe that. In other words, knowing our future transforms our present. Or you could put it this way, living perseveringly in the present is determined by us seeing the future clearly. So that I believe it is a false axiom. This is a false axiom. You hear people say, well, he's so heavenly minded that he's of no earthly good. It's a false axiom. I think it's impossible to be too heavenly minded. It's impossible to be too reminded by the Spirit of God that you have a hope, and to not despair, regardless of what you're facing, regardless of what trial there is, regardless of what temptation there is, regardless of what you're worried about even this coming week. The more the Spirit of God assures you of the hope to which you have been called, the more you know God. The more you know His blessing, His grace, His mercy, His salvation, His deliverance. And so the point of this first petition is that we would be filled with the certainty of the knowledge of this hope of heaven. This is one of the reasons, incidentally, that God weans His children from the things of this world. And God will wean you and I through poverty. God will wean you and I through trials, through sickness, through discontent, through lack of success, through persecution. It is all of these things which are a blessing in disguise because as we go through these things and we still have the assurance of our hope and we have an eye to heaven, we know that God will deliver us from this world. So how we live as Christians in the present is largely determined by how we think about the future. Peter put it this way, 2 Peter 3.11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved. What things? This world as you know it. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? In other words, Peter says, don't you know that this world's going to pass? Your knowledge of that, your hope of a future is what compels you to live a godly life, to live a holy life. For to you, This you have been called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in His steps, and we follow in the steps of Christ's suffering. That's why God says, be holy for I am holy. He calls us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's goal is our holiness and the only way to wean us from the things of this world often times is to send trials into our lives which make us more holy because we stop trusting in the things of this world. God wants us to know the hope to which he has called us. He wants us to be filled with that hope, and therefore Paul prays, help the saints know their hope. That's the first petition. The second thing he prays, the second petition, is that they would know their riches. First, know their hope. Second, know their riches. Notice the end of verse 18. He continues to pray, and what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? Now, we've spoken about inheritance before, haven't we? A couple of weeks ago, skip back up to verse 14. The Holy Spirit spoken about in verse 13. Verse 14 says, is the guarantee or the guarantor of our what? Inheritance. until we acquire possession of it. As we discussed, verse 14, we emphasize the fact that it is true that God has an eternal inheritance that is waiting for us. Because of our union with Christ, all that belongs to Him will someday belong to us. And we will fully and experientially Be aware of that and sense that and experience that in the consummated kingdom. But we're not there yet. That's the inheritance we receive. But notice here in verse 18, the focus, or at least the way the ESV translates it, is not our inheritance, as verse 14 says, but it's His inheritance. Notice that. We receive spiritual riches, but so does God. And what are God's spiritual riches? The riches of His glorious inheritance are in the saints. In the saints. As shocking as it sounds, the people that the Son redeemed at Calvary become the spoils of God's victory in defeating Satan. That doesn't sound like a good deal, does it? Through the Gospel, you get God and He gets us? But you see, God's people are so special to Him, because they are united to Christ, that when Christ comes before Him, His people come before Him, and God says, I love them all, they're all My inheritance, they're all of Mine, from the least to the greatest of them, they are Mine, because they were bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2.9 calls us a people for God's own possession. God being our possession, us being God's possession. They're two sides of the same coin. They're two truths that are inseparable. And by the way, this concept was even understood in the Old Testament. You remember the people of God were promised the promised land? And they divided it up among the tribes? But a true believer among the Israelites was not really focused on the land. They were focused on the Landlord. They were focused on the spiritual blessings that were going to come to them, of which those physical blessings, including the land, only prefigured the land to come. The land flowing with milk and honey ultimately was pointing forward to heaven. What Christ would redeem His people of all time for, and this is even prefigured in the fact that Aaron and his descendants had no land inheritance. And you even get little hints of this, that all of God's people understood that God was their true inheritance, not the land. Psalm 142 verse 5, I cry to you, O Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. The land isn't their portion. God is their portion. God is their inheritance. Paul prays that the Ephesians would understand that they have a share in the inheritance of the saints in light, that God will be there someday, and because God will be there someday, they will be gods, and they will belong to God, and all that belongs to God will belong to them, and they have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for them, that's reserved by the power of God. By the way, that's why Jim Elliott said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And that's why Jesus said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. You have a greater inheritance than what you can get on this earth. And even more home to the Ephesians. You know, some in Ephesus had left the black arts of witchcraft and sorcery. Acts 19 tells us about this. They were transferred from Satan's dark kingdom into the kingdom of light. And they demonstrated their deliverance by burning the books of black magic. And Acts 19.19 tells us that the sum of those books that they burnt came out to 50,000 pieces of silver. It was a public demonstration that they weren't going back to their old ways. It was a public demonstration that what they got in God through Christ was far greater than any sort of mystical sorcery of the world. And it was also tantamount to destroying both their influence and their inheritance. They were literally burning money. But it didn't matter to them because they knew they had a greater inheritance. And so why is Paul so intent on praying the second petition that the Ephesians know the riches of what they possess? Well, the reason is quite simple. It hardly needs to be mentioned. It is easy to be focused on the possessions of this world, the things of this world, to lose an eye to eternity. I remember reading one time the story of a gentleman who went into the home of a very poor woman who had called on him because he was wealthy and she needed relief money to relieve her from her poverty. And as he walked in the living room, he saw something on the wall that caught his attention. It was a piece of paper. neatly framed behind the frame, and as he looked closer, he asked the woman what it was, and she said she didn't know what it was, that her uncle, before he passed away, sent her this piece of paper, and she just put it in a frame because it was pretty, and it reminded her of her uncle, and as they crashed open that picture frame, they found that it was a check written for $20,000. The point is, she was rich all along, and she didn't recognize it. We're just like that. We have the riches of Christ, but the things of this world, the glitz and the glamour and the shiny things of this world, draw our attention, draw our gaze to them instead of Christ. And it takes constant prayer for yourself and for one another. to not see those riches, but to look for the riches of heaven that are ours in Christ. Riches that no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love them. Paul says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now in part, but then shall we know fully, even as we have been fully known. As I said earlier, it's impossible for you to be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. Here's the reality. Those who make the greatest difference as citizens on earth are those who know they are citizens of heaven. They have an eye to eternity, they live for eternity, and thus they glorify God and have a lasting impact upon those around them. So Paul prays for these things. We've seen first of all the reason for prayer, verses 15 and 16. Then we saw the requests in prayer, The request generally, then the request specifically that they would know their hope and know their riches. Now let's just look at verse 19, the third petition. Paul prays that they would know their power. Next week we're going to discuss verse 19 in more detail. I just want to glance at it now. Let me read it to you. Paul also prays. He wants these Ephesians to know what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power, His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might. Now, I want you to underline three words. I want you to underline the word power. That is the Greek word dunamis. That's where we get the English word dynamite. Underline the word working. If you're using an ESV, that is energio. It speaks about the energizing work of the spirit. And the word might, kratos, literally could be defined as force or strength. It is God's energizing, working power and might in our lives that Paul is praying for, because that is exactly what we need to live the Christian life, isn't it? That's what we need to live the Christian life, to fulfill God's will, to be a good witness. I imagine that, like Sarah who laughed at the promise of God of having a son as an old woman, that perhaps when the Ephesians read verse 19, they laughed. Because they were the marginalized of society. They were the persecuted of society, the persecuted of the Roman government. Their beloved apostle is in prison because of Nero getting ready to be beheaded, and Paul has the audacity to say they are the most powerful people in the world. But if they laughed, It was only because they lacked faith. And if we chuckle, it's only because we lack faith. Here's the reality. There is no greater and more powerful people in all the world than the people of God. But it takes eyes of faith to see that. It takes prayer to understand that. We are the most powerful people on earth, not due to our status, not due to our position, not due to our wealth or our popularity or our achievement. No, God has chosen the foolish things of the world, but we are the most powerful because we belong to God and He belongs to us and His power is within us to live for His glory, to be a good witness for Him. So, we don't need to pray for power to witness. We just need to pray that God strengthens us with the power we already have. It is the gospel of God that has power. That's why Paul wasn't ashamed of it. It's the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. We don't need to pray for power to overcome indwelling sin. We already have the power, Romans 8.13. We just need to be strengthened with the power we already have. And how does this power come? Well, through prayer. A prayer like 2 Thessalonians 1.11, to this end, we always ought to pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His Spirit. It is only through prayer that we live the way God has called us to live. And specifically, as we pray the gospel, for instance, verse 20, the power that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead 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 His head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. We're filled with the power of this God who sovereignly rules this world. And that's hard to believe. But through prayer, with the eyes of faith, with the illumination of the Spirit of God, as we become more aware of the knowledge of God and knowing God and all the glories that are ours because of God and because of His rich Gospel, we begin to believe that. And as we believe that, we live in light of that. as confident, expectant Christians. Confident in our King who reigns, which motivates obedience and holiness and hope and faith in our lives. As we close, I want you to turn to 2 Kings 6. This will be the last thing that I mention. 2 Kings 6. We've been talking about this language of being enlightened, We've talked about this language of being blind, not being able to see. We've talked about being delivered from Satan's dark kingdom and placed into the kingdom of light. This is it in illustration form. 2 Kings 6. This is speaking about Elisha and his servant. Verse 15. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, Alas, my master, what shall we do?" The Syrians have surrounded the people of God. The Syrians have surrounded Elisha and his servant. And the servant says, Master Elisha, what are we going to do? Verse 16, he said, do not be afraid. For those who are with us are more than those who are with them. What? Then Elisha prayed and said, O Lord, please open his eyes, the eyes of my servant, that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And what did he see? The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And what happened? Verse 18. When the Assyrians came down against him, Elisha prayed. Now this is the second prayer. Prayed to the Lord and said, Please strike this people with blindness. The Assyrians. So, he struck them, God did, with blindness. in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. Like Elisha prayed to God that his servant would see what he could not see apart from the eyes of faith. That is the armies of God. That is the sovereignty of God. That is the power of God enveloping God's people. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If God is enthroned and ruling, what power can ultimately oppress us to the point that we lose hope? No power, no threat, no religion, no government, no country, no ruler, no demon, not even Satan himself can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ. But how did Elisha's servant see the armies of God? He only saw the armies of God when his heart was enlightened through the prayer of Elisha the servant. God hasn't changed. He still works through the means of prayer to strengthen His people, to reveal to them the knowledge of God, that they might grow in that knowledge and be blessed by it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for this time of discovery in Your Word. Father, each week we come to Ephesians and we are overwhelmed with the depth of truth that the Apostle Paul writes to the church. Father Paul certainly was a very smart man, but he's writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's writing your words to your people. Father, you have blessed us with so much in Christ. You have given to us far beyond anything we could understand, anything any eye could see, any ear could hear, any heart could imagine. We only see dimly what You have for us and therefore we need to constantly pray that You would reveal more and more of Yourself to us through the Word, through the illuminating power of the Spirit. Father, give your people comfort this morning that what they've done today, coming and sitting under the Word, submitting themselves to the Spirit of God, this is the best thing they could do to give them hope. that they might know their hope and their riches and the power that you've granted to them in Christ and in Christ's kingdom, the coming kingdom, which will be ours because it's Christ's. And what is Christ? Christ's is ours because we're united to Him. Thank you for blessing us, dear Father. Bless your dear people this week. Lord, as we go our separate ways, we pray all of this in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.