EPHESIANS 1:15-22

Think for a moment about your prayers this past week. What did you pray for? What in your prayers occupied the most time and focus? I don’t know about you, but the things that often occupy my prayers seem different from Paul’s. Many times the prayers we offer, collectively and individually, while focusing on good things, often miss the greater spiritual things.

 Did you notice how Paul ended the first chapter? Paul shares his prayer for the saints at Ephesus. Here’s what we find:

§  Thankfulness to God for the faith of the Ephesians and their love for each other (v. 15-16)

§  Requesting God to give the brethren the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (v. 17)

§  Through this wisdom, to know the hope of His calling, and riches of His inheritance (v. 18)

§  Through this wisdom to know the immeasurable greatness of His power (v. 19-20)

§  To know that this power raised Jesus from the dead and placed Him high above all else (v. 20-21)

§  To know that all things are placed under Jesus feet – that He is the head of His church (v. 22)

 Paul’s list places the emphasis, both in prayer and request, on spiritual things. It’s not to say that Paul never prayed about physical things (like the thorn in the flesh – 2 COR 12). It’s just a vivid reminder that there are good things to pray for, and there are greater things to pray for. The Apostle opens our eyes in this section of how to pray better prayers, focusing it’s attention on better things. Think for a moment about what difference Paul’s focus would make in our minds today? Here’s what came to my mind:

§  It reshapes our priority list – what if we let Paul’s list be our highest priority of the day? What if our main concern today was our faith in Christ? What if on the top of our focus this day was keeping our minds focused on the blessings that belong to those who are in Christ? What if first thing on our to-do list was seeking the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to provide the fuel for spiritual thinking? What if, as a church, we start every meeting acknowledging Christ Jesus as our true Head?

§  It reshapes our measurables of success – this is certainly true as a church. Often we measure success by things never mentioned in Scripture – how large is the congregation? How nice is the building? How many Bible classes do they have? How many gospel meetings do you have? It can be easy to measure the success of a church over those kind of tangible standards, but Paul’s prayer helps us to seek the greater measurables – the Spiritual. What if we sought for and praised the same things Paul did, with each other? What if we focused and spoke more about the faith we see demonstrated in each other? What if we praised the love that is poured forth in kind service to one another? What if we came together often, seeking the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit, and in our times together discussed the greater spiritual truths, building confidence and comfort from the Lord in what He has done and promised will do?

 It's good and Biblical to pray for physical things like our daily bread, or for the health of those who are sick. But Paul reminds us to not let that be the only, nor most important emphasis in our prayers to God. As John wrote, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3 JOHN 2). May your physical health reflect your spiritual health. May we as the Lord’s church continue to place our emphasis on the greater, spiritual things.

  “Holy and righteous Father I thank You for Your abundant blessings in Christ. The love You have poured on us, the salvation You have so richly planned and offered to us, the blessing of wisdom provided through Your revealed words, the gift of Your church, the glorious hope of what is to come – I stand in awe of how thoughtful You are to someone so undeserving. I give You thanks for the incredible faith demonstrated in Your saints, so many of which have helped strengthen, instruct and encourage me. I give You thanks for the love of Your people who seek to help and serve in countless ways. I pray You open my eyes to see, and in recognizing to place the greater weight of my importance and priority on the things You praise, As Christ is the head over all, help me to place Him over all things in my life, the true King of glory.”  

Ephesians 1:1-14

I was never a big “gamer” growing up. Of the games I did play, my favorites were those that let me explore a vast landscape. Think less old school Mario where you move from left to right and more new school Mario where you can run around a 3-D world as you wish. In my opinion, the best part of the game was “unlocking everything. You could go anywhere you wanted, and you had all the perks of the game at your disposal. Everything was yours.

Making everything yours was quite the task though. It took hours and hours to beat a game and unlock everything. You had to unlock certain parts of the game before ever even getting a shot at unlocking other parts. You didn’t get everything at once.
 

When we jump into Ephesians 1, Paul is letting us know the blessings that come through Christ are nothing like those video games I used to play. They’re way better. In verse three, Paul tells us those in Christ have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That’s the highest level! Did you think you had to level up your character to the max before getting all that stuff? Not according to Paul. He tells us that if we are a Christian, regardless of age, regardless of how long you’ve been saved, regardless of your past, if you are in Christ, you have unlocked every “perk” there is to enjoy.
 

It gets even better though. Not only do we have every spiritual blessing through Christ, we have those blessings because it was God’s will to give them to us. The Almighty God of the universe is a God that wants to bless you! How did He choose to do it? Through faith in His son. What way did He chose to bless you? By giving you the best and giving it all.
 

But wait, there’s more! One of the blessings Paul lists in verse seven is forgiveness. God didn’t desire to bless us with the best He has because we are so great. He did it despite the fact we aren’t so great. He blesses us by forgiving us. We didn’t unlock all the perks by being the best player. We simply come to God in faith and because of His amazing love for us, He chooses to forgive us and bless us in Christ. We have a word for this: grace. Paul says in verse eight that God lavished it upon us. I wouldn’t argue with that.
In the first half of this letter Paul wants to overwhelm you with God’s grace. This is the good news and it’s really good. However, because we are underserving of all of this and didn’t earn it ourselves, that points us in a direction. Praising God. It’s all to His glory. God is the hero.
 

On Monday morning at the office or late at night taking care of kids you might feel that your reality is more like old school Mario. Endlessly running and just hoping the next thing to pop into the screen is the finish line and not a man-eating plant. Paul wants you to broaden your horizon. See past the next thing coming at you and realize you are already blessed in the greatest way. We aren’t always given every physical blessing, but we are given every spiritual blessing.

If it sounds like Ephesians 1 is all rainbows and sunshine, that’s because it is. Enjoy it. Paul wants you to. Praise God, everything is yours.

In our B.L.A.S.T. weekend, Jarrett Ferguson shared some conclusions from research done on Generation Z, also known as the “Open Generation.” What this research found was that this young generation has expressed a rising interest in God and spirituality, but a declining interest and devotion to His church. That mindset isn’t unique to the youth of our generation. There seems to be a general wrestling and questioning over the relevance of Christ’s church. Not but a decade ago it was popularly stated as, “I love Jesus, I hate religion.” 

 Found right in the heart of our New Testaments is a letter that provides the clarity for these confusing thoughts. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians contains some of the most beautiful language regarding our salvation in Christ, some of the most practical instructions regarding our daily devotion as disciples to the Lord, and some of the most powerful and purposeful words about Christ’s church. 

 The letter of Ephesians leaves the reader all the more impressed with the Lord’s creation of His church. Here’s just a taste of what we see about Christ and His church through Ephesians: 

• Jesus died for His Church (EPH 1:5-6)
• Jesus is the head of His Church (EPH 1:22-23) 
• Jesus united Jew and Gentile, all the world in His church (EPH 2:15-18)
• Jesus laid the foundation for His Church (EPH 2:20)
• Jesus provided the Gospel through which resulted in His church (EPH 3:3-10)
• Jesus is glorified through His church (EPH 3:21)
• Jesus equipped His church for unity, work, and growth (EPH 4:11-15)
• Jesus pointed to marriage as an illustration of His relationship with His church (EPH 5:22-33)
• Jesus armored His church to face spiritual battles (EPH 6:10-17)

 One phrase found 7 times in this small letter is, “walk.” And that’s what we’re inviting each of you to do. Join us for a walk through this incredible letter and come away with a renewed love and devotion for the Lord and His Church.