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Intercession for Illumination (Ephesians 1:15-23)
9 Plays24 days ago
There are two great needs in the churches across America today. We need more intercession for others and more illumination through a great spiritual awakening. Ephesians 1:15-23 seems to chart the way in praying for those around us to experience an enlightenment.
In our text today we will hear Paul assure the disciples in Ephesus that he was praying for them the following, “…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” Of course, Ephesus wasn’t the only church for which the Apostle prayed. He prayed for the church in Rome, the church in Philippi, the church in Colossae and the church in Thessalonica. These were the prayers recorded in the New Testament. He surely prayed for even more churches in his day.
The prayer for enlightenment was not a prayer for financial prosperity or a political priority, it was for spiritual maturity. The focus of his prayer is almost like he was praying that Christians would take a look at the spiritual bank book with available resources for living the Christian life.
Let’s pray for believers and followers of Christ in the US to awaken to the following:
1. Appreciation for Salvation from God, 1:15-16
2. Attention to the School of God, 1:17
3. Anticipation of the Summation by God, 1:18
4. Appraisal of Our Status with God, 1:18
5. Awareness of Strength through God, 1:19
6. Authority of the Son of God, 1:20-23
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing in Grace' Ministry
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
The Role of Prayer and Ephesians 1
00:00:44
Speaker
Welcome to Growing In Grace. I pray that you are growing in the Lord's grace every day as you walk with Him, as you go to Him and receive from Him. ah We're going to be in Ephesians chapter 1 today, and so we've got a ah high mountain we need to climb really quickly. But I think you're going to really like Ephesians 1. If you've never discovered this chapter, it's just one of my favorites. It's so rich, and I just encourage you to spend a lot of time in this chapter if you can.
00:01:15
Speaker
ah Ephesians 1, we're going to start with verse 15 and go down through verse 23. It's a sizable task for this amount of time, but I really want to talk about two things that I think American churches really need today. We need to spend more time in prayer, and we need to spend more time praying for others, not just for ourselves and saying, Lord, please bless me with this. Please bless me with that.
00:01:40
Speaker
But we need to spend more time praying for others, and we also need to spend time praying for one another that we would have illumination or enlightenment. You're going to hear ah the Apostle Paul say that he had been praying this for the ah believers in Ephesus, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
Praying for Spiritual Maturity
00:02:00
Speaker
That's what I want to talk about. Intercession for illumination.
00:02:05
Speaker
You know, the Apostle Paul prayed for many churches, not just the church in Ephesus. He would pray for Rome. He would pray for Philippi. He would pray for Colossae. He would pray for Thessalonica. For all of these churches spread out. And I just think, wow.
00:02:20
Speaker
You know, we don't need to only pray just for our church. There are other churches that need ah the Lord to work in their church. And so I encourage you to do that. But I just find it it's so refreshing that what he's talking about in this text, he's going to be talking about spiritual maturity.
00:02:38
Speaker
He's not talking about praying for financial prosperity. He's not talking about praying for a certain political priority. He's talking about growing in grace. He's talking about becoming more like Christ. And so in order to do that, what do we need to be praying? So I hope this will give you some ideas on how you can pray for your church, how you can pray for other churches, how you can pray for your family,
00:03:04
Speaker
How you can pray for other families and and friends and so forth.
Understanding Ephesians 1:15-23
00:03:08
Speaker
Here's what it says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15. 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.
00:03:36
Speaker
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He's 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.
00:03:56
Speaker
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,
00:04:18
Speaker
and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who feels all in all.
Prayer for Spiritual Awakening
00:04:30
Speaker
So let's think about how can we pray for others to experience a spiritual awakening just on a daily basis as they walk with the Lord. Here's some ideas from this passage. The first one is pray that they would awaken in terms of appreciation. Appreciation for salvation from God.
00:04:50
Speaker
You know, it had been about four years since the Apostle Paul had served in Ephesus. And yet, isn't it cool that he still remembers them? He still gives thanks for them. He actually is still praying for them.
00:05:03
Speaker
You know, he's heard about them, he says, so he's mentioning their reputation for Christ, but he's also talking about motivation that he finds in Christ. He says, for this reason, because I've heard, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. And so there's that ah appreciation to Christ, and he's awakened to two specific blessings.
00:05:30
Speaker
He says, I'm so grateful for your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am so grateful for your love toward all the saints. You know, I'm so grateful for the love that I see in our congregation. I pray that that is in your congregation as well. But I'm also thankful for so many that have placed their trust, their faith in Christ because it's totally transformed their lives. And as the pastor, I get to see that all the time. So just ask that God would awaken those that you know. Pray that God would awaken other churches in your community.
00:06:10
Speaker
that they would realize all that they've already been blessed with when they had salvation given to them through Christ. You know, in Ephesians 1, in verse 3, it says, bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in Christ.
00:06:27
Speaker
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So just think of all that we should be grateful for and thankful for. You know, this particular time of the year when we're recording this, you know, we're coming up to Thanksgiving.
Theology and Knowing God
00:06:41
Speaker
It's getting very close. So I hope that you are going to include your salvation and all that has become accessible to you because of the salvation you have in Christ. Well, let's move to a second thing that we can pray that your friends and my friends, that those we know would awaken also to attention, to pay attention to the school of God.
00:07:06
Speaker
Now, I just happened to have graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from their School of Theology. But I wonder, do you know what the word theology means? When people say theological or they say this the School of Theology, what are they talking about?
00:07:27
Speaker
It's not as hard as you might think. It is the study of God. Now, the study of God, even though it's not difficult, it's inexhaustible. I mean, there's so much to knowing God. As a matter of fact, I would even be so bold as to just give you something to think about. What do you think is the highest knowledge possible?
00:07:49
Speaker
I mean, if you know about this, then that's the highest knowledge there is. You know about that, that's the greatest knowledge there is. You know what I would say it is? Knowing who God is.
00:08:01
Speaker
What can you tell me about God? You know, the atheist says there is no God to even know. An agnostic would say, well, if there is a God, you can't know Him. But I just wanted to point out that right here in verse 17, he's actually praying for that church there in Ephesus that they would know God, that they would keep growing in knowing God. Are you increasing in the knowledge of God?
00:08:28
Speaker
That's part of what Paul prayed for the church at Colossae, Colossians 1.10. He said, you know, I'm praying that all of you will continue to increase in the knowledge of God. In Philippians 3.10, the apostle Paul is giving a personal testimony, and he says, you know what I long for? I long that I may know him.
00:08:51
Speaker
Wow. Jeremiah, the prophet said a long time ago that don't let the wise man boast in his wisdom. Don't let a mighty man boast in his strength. Don't let a rich man boast in his riches. If you're going to boast in something, he said, you are to boast in this. You know what he said it should be. You guessed it. that We know him. If you know him,
00:09:14
Speaker
That's the highest knowledge anyone can know. There's a man named J.I. ah Packer that wrote a book about knowing God, and he said that there are four characteristics of those who know God. He said you'll have great energy for God, you'll have great thoughts about God, you'll have great boldness for God, and you'll have great contentment in God.
00:09:36
Speaker
I'm just saying, if you pray for the people that you know that they would get to know God better, you might be surprised at how their lives will be so much
Hope in Christ vs Unbelief
00:09:46
Speaker
better. Their lives will be improved and deeper. But let's move to a third thing that we can include in our list of things we're going to pray specifically that people will be enlightened about. i I think that we can pray that others around us would have the eyes of their hearts enlightened that they would know what is the hope to which he has called them. What is the hope? You know, what is the hope? You know, I see all kind of hope in this same chapter only earlier than what I read. If you look at verses nine through 11, it says, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him.
00:10:34
Speaker
things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
00:10:48
Speaker
Let me just tell you something I pray that people would awaken to. I pray that we would awaken to the summation of God, everything that He's about in our world. It's all about exalting Christ. And so I just think, man, we have such hope in Christ and our hope is not a wish.
00:11:09
Speaker
Our hope is more like, well, let's don't say wish, let's say assurance. It's something that we know, we're certain about regarding the future. 1 Thessalonians 4.13 contrasts the hope that believers have that goes beyond the grave and It contrasts that with the lack of hope that an unbeliever has toward death. They're not ready, and that's why they don't want to die. And so they they are really nervous about it.
00:11:39
Speaker
But you know, John the Apostle, when he was older, when he was an older man, one of the last things that he wrote was 1 John. And in 1 John 3, verses 2 and 3, he wrote of this call to hope in Christ. And he said that the hope of Christ's future assurance and our transformation into his likeness, that purifies us in our behavior, in our lifestyle while we wait.
00:12:07
Speaker
Ephesians 2, 12, Paul writes of unbelievers and says, you know, they have no hope and they're without God in this world. If that describes you, I just want you to know that's why Christ came. He came to give you hope.
00:12:23
Speaker
He came to let you know He is at work in this world, but we have to turn from sin and welcome Him in by faith before we see His work. He's working all around us. As a matter of fact, He's working in all of history. He's been at work. And so just know we can anticipate the time that He's gonna wrap it all up and He's gonna accomplish His will in His purposes.
God's Appraisal of Our Lives
00:12:51
Speaker
I think verse 18 is something else we can include in our prayer for awakening. To pray that people would awaken to our appraisal, to the appraisal of our status with God. What does God assess our lives to be worth?
00:13:09
Speaker
Do you know in Ephesians 1.11, he's kind of talking about awakening to our inheritance that we have over there in Christ, okay? So awaken to our inheritance that we have in Christ. He says that we have riches of His grace in Ephesians 1.7, that those riches of His grace have been lavished upon us in Ephesians 1.8. But now listen to the difference in having inheritance in Christ with what he says he prays that they would be enlightened to understand in verse 18, the last part. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance
00:13:52
Speaker
In the saints, uh-oh, in the saints. It's amazing, I can't explain it, but here's the only way I know to say it. It's amazing that when he looks at us through the finished work of Jesus Christ, he sees us not as worthless, but as valuable.
00:14:12
Speaker
You know that your life, your a heart, your future, all that you're going through, it is so incredibly valuable to God. You have great worth to God. That's why it says here in this verse 18, he's praying that these people there in emphasis would awaken to the riches of God's glorious inheritance in them, in the saints.
00:14:39
Speaker
ah You know, it's something that kind of reminds me of what happened in various places in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let me give you a couple of examples of both so you know what I'm referring to. But Gideon didn't know until it's recorded in Judges 6.12 when the angel was speaking with him, he didn't know what God thought about him. I mean, he thought he was worthless, he was weak, he was from a small tribe and all these kinds of things. And when the angel greeted him,
00:15:08
Speaker
Here's what the angel said to Gideon, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. You ever feel like you're just a wimp spiritually? Well, you know what? In Christ, listen to me, in Christ, the Lord is looking at you and he's saying, you are a mighty man of valor. Same thing happened to Daniel. Daniel was also shocked by the angel's greeting when he said, O Daniel, man greatly loved,
00:15:37
Speaker
Do you feel loved by God today? Do you know that you are loved by God today? You know, Jesus poured out His blood for you. Jesus loves you so much. The Father loves you so much. God made you. And so just know that this day, you have incredible worth. When He greeted Mary to tell her the the great news that you know she was going to be carrying Jesus in her womb someday,
00:16:03
Speaker
The angel said to her, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. Yeah, I mean, can you imagine being told that? You know, that you're favored, that God is actually with you, not against you. He's for you, not against you.
00:16:19
Speaker
This is true because of our appraisal in God's eyes. God looks at our status with him and he says, you know what? You are so important to me. As a matter of fact, every soul is so important to Jesus Christ that it's like he placed a scale on the face of the earth, one of those balancing scales. so And he said, you can take all of the world and put it on one side, all of its riches and all of its gadgets.
00:16:48
Speaker
and you can put one soul on the other side." And he said, what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and yet he forfeits his soul, loses his soul? You know what he's saying? He's saying your soul is so valuable to him that he considers it weightier, worth more than all the world's gold and silver.
00:17:11
Speaker
Listen, do you know your status? but I pray that God would awaken us to what we mean to him, so that regardless of what your salary is, regardless of what your position is, regardless of how much money you have or don't have, that doesn't matter. You know, he looks at Simon Peter and says, you are Simon, but you shall be Cephas. You know, he said, you're just like a little bitty stone, but one day, Peter, you're gonna be a rock.
00:17:41
Speaker
You see, God looks beyond who we are right now. He sees who we are in Christ, but He also sees who we will become when it's all over, when the dust settles.
God's Power for Believers
00:17:51
Speaker
There's a fifth thing that I think we should pray that God would awaken every believer in the United States to today. I think that we should awaken to the awareness of the strength of God.
00:18:03
Speaker
Now don't get don't don't don't think that I'm still at this stage in my life, okay? I'm gonna be transparent with you and I'm gonna tell you about my teenage years. When I was a teenager, my friends and I would work out with with barbells and we would lift weights and so forth. And so what we would do is we would take those measuring tapes like a tailor has or a seamstress has, and we would measure our biceps.
00:18:29
Speaker
So please don't picture me as measuring my biceps these days. I've grown beyond this, okay? But here's the thing I want to ask you. If you were to measure God's strength, God's power, what is the measurement of that? Well, I can tell you what the Bible says right here. It says that we would awaken to what is the immeasurable greatness of His power,
00:18:53
Speaker
toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might." Oh my goodness, now we're talking. You know, it says that God's power is immeasurable. You know why it's immeasurable? Because we couldn't even comprehend it, even if He told us. It's incomparable. But also, I think that we're incapable. we just There's no way for us to measure it anyway.
00:19:20
Speaker
because it is inexhaustible. Have you ever heard of inexhaustible energy? Well, think about God's energy level. Think about God's strength. He doesn't get tired and weak. He doesn't grow weary. You know, God has strength. As a matter of fact, when the Apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write verse 19, it's like he just kept using these synonyms for Christ's power and strength. And he used four of them in the same location.
00:19:49
Speaker
You know, in the Greek, he used dunamis, energeia, kratos, and ischthos. And so I thought to myself, wow, dunamis is power. Does dunamis remind you of the sound of anything, like dynamite?
00:20:06
Speaker
It's like the the capability or the potential of God's power. Energaea is working. It's like effective power. What can God's power actually accomplish? But then Kratos is that power that overcomes resistance. That's why he says here that it's great might. His great might, that word for great there, means there's no resistance that can stand up and hold him back.
00:20:35
Speaker
And then might there is this incredible word that refers to inherent power that one possesses. So it's not like power that's on a status sheet that's not real. No, this is really this is the power he really does have. It's effective. And he has it right now. It's available. But here's the thing that blows me away. OK, this is why we need to awaken to it.
00:21:02
Speaker
What is the immeasurable greatness of His power, the next two words, toward us who believe according to the working of His great might? The immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might. Can you believe that God has that kind of power that He wants to make available to us in Christ? Man, well, let me give you a sixth ah area or direction that you can pray for people in concerning spiritual awakening.
Christ's Authority and Our Enlightenment
00:21:38
Speaker
I pray that we would awaken to the authority of the Son of God. I mean, you know since we're in an election year here, we're also caught up in this election season that we're in, but there's someone that's higher than all of our elections, than all of our positions, someone that's greater than all of it. You see, the supremacy of Christ
00:22:03
Speaker
is magnified in the closing verses of this chapter, and it celebrates this this certain truth about Jesus Christ right now. Whatever day you're listening to this on, right now, this day, here's the truth about Jesus Christ's authority. He is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named.
00:22:31
Speaker
Isn't that incredible? And so he thinks, okay, how could i how could I break that down and describe it to the people? And so here's what he described it with in Ephesians 1.
00:22:45
Speaker
verses 20 through 23. He said Christ's authority is seen in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. I haven't known any other men that could do that myself. I don't figure you have as well, but it says that he worked. So using his power, it worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is one way of describing Christ's authority. That's not the only one though.
00:23:13
Speaker
Because the next thing it says, when he raised him from the dead, what did God the Father do next? He invited Christ to sit next to him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Oh my goodness. That's the ascension and the exaltation of Christ. Please don't think of Christ as a baby. I know Christmas is not too far down the road. Christ is not a baby. Christ is not even on the cross. Christ is not in the grave. Christ has ascended and he is now seated in great
00:23:48
Speaker
power and authority at the right hand of the Father. But also, he goes on to say in ah verse 21, 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, he's talking about the lordship of Christ. It's the same thing that Paul said in philip Philippians 2, 9 through 11, that there's coming a day out there in the future When every tongue, when every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, that's exactly what he's saying. That's the authority and the description of his authority, but it's also the headship of Christ.
00:24:32
Speaker
You know, we all often refer to Christ as being the head of the church. Do you know that I'm not the head of First Baptist Church of Columbus, Texas. I'm not the head of it. No, Jesus is the head of the church. And it says it right here. He is the head of his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all. But notice that that's not all that he's the head of. It says, and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. So it's just incredible the headship of Christ, the lordship of Christ, the exultation of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. All of these are referring to His authority. So when you pray in Jesus' name, when you pray in Jesus' name, man, just know you are releasing some kind of spiritual authority on whatever it is that you're praying for.
Using Ephesians 1 for Spiritual Awareness
00:25:30
Speaker
You know, let me close with this one story from 2 Kings 6, verses 15 through 17. There was an Old Testament prophet named Elisha. In Elisha, God was using him in powerful ways, and he was getting on the nerves of the king of Syria. It wasn't the only king he was getting on the nerves of, but that's one of them. But anyway, that king said, you know what?
00:25:54
Speaker
He said to his commanders, take your armies. I want you to find Elisha wherever he's hiding. And so they went out there and Elisha wasn't hiding. He was out in the open. As a matter of fact, he was in a place called Dothan. I don't think this is Alabama, so don't get off track with me. But in Dothan, they must have found guys and they must have hit them up in the corner in the back streets. And some of those Syrian guys must have grabbed them by the collar and said, where is?
00:26:22
Speaker
Elisha, the prophet, where is he? So finally they pointed in his direction and so they all surrounded him early one morning. So Elisha had a helper that was there helping him and so he was instructed to make coffee, tea, something in the morning. So he got up and stirred the fire And whenever that servant looked out there, he couldn't believe it. They were completely surrounded by Syrian troops with swords and spears and all this. So he wakes his prophet up there and says, look, hey, you better wake up, Elisha. We've had it now. What shall we do? And Elisha looked at his servant and he said, don't be afraid. There's more with us than with all of them. He said, Lord, would you open his eyes? And he know that's exactly what happened.
00:27:11
Speaker
The Lord opened the spiritual eyes, not the physical eyes, but the spiritual eyes of this servant of Elisha, and all in the hills around the Syrian troops were way more chariots of fire. And God was trying to say,
00:27:28
Speaker
I got way more resources and way more people in my army than this Syrian guy has in their army. So anyway, I just thought to myself, wow, what a great example of the need for a spiritual awakening. So why don't we use Ephesians 1, verses 15 through 23.
00:27:49
Speaker
And just go through there, verse by verse, and just pray some of these things for the church that you love. Pray some of these things for the family that you care about, for the friends that mean so much to you. But pray that God would illumine their minds, their understanding, their hearts. Pray they would enlighten them so they would see the great resources, tremendous resources that they have available to them in Christ. Well, why don't we pray together right now?
00:28:19
Speaker
as we wrap up for today. Lord, I thank you. I just want to thank you so much for the book of Ephesians. It is an incredible passage, Lord. This whole book is, but also to look at this particular text, it it was ah heartwarming and it stirred me. It got me excited.
00:28:39
Speaker
Because it it led me to know some specific ways that I can pray for my church and my family and my friends and for those around me to pray beyond my circle of acquaintances and to pray for people all around the world. And so God, please, would you enlighten our hearts? Would you open the eyes of our hearts?
00:29:02
Speaker
that we could see. When we're in your word, use your word like a lamp to illumine so that we would have a deeper understanding of who you are, a deeper grasp on the fact that you're working things out according to your plan.
00:29:18
Speaker
that we would see the great resources that we have in Christ, including that incredible power and authority. Oh Lord, there's so much here. Help us to realize how much we mean to you. But I just pray in Jesus' name that you would bless my friends that are listening today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Conclusion and Blessings
00:29:38
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us today for Growing in Grace. I pray God will bless you.
00:29:49
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.