In his sermon titled 'The Prayer for Those Who Have Everything,' Jason Dohm examines Paul's message in Ephesians 1:3-17, emphasizing that believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He underscores the importance of understanding these blessings as a unified thought, as Paul presents them in a single Greek sentence. Dohm highlights the Ephesian believers' faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints, which were reported to Paul and prompted his thanksgiving and prayer. The sermon stresses the significance of the term 'Lord Jesus,' representing the God-man essential for salvation. Paul prays for the Ephesians to be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God more deeply. Dohm encourages believers to seek a deeper experiential knowledge of God, beyond mere intellectual understanding, and to pray for a closer walk with Him. The sermon concludes by urging believers to persist in faith, love, and prayer, drawing on the spiritual blessings available to them.

Well, the title of the sermon this morning is the prayer for those who have everything. Of course, I'm taking off on verse 3 where Paul says that believers have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And now Paul prays for these tremendously blessed people. We're coming out of verses 3 through 14, which you'll remember are, it's a single sentence. Our translators have been merciful to us and broken it up.

I think in New King James it's four sentences if I remember right. But Paul wrote it in a single Greek sentence, and the importance of that for us is that it represents a unified thought. In other words, there are lots of phrases, lots of concepts and we need to keep them together because Paul put them together in a unified thought. Verse 3, the beginning of this long sentence in Greek is actually a summary of all that will follow it in the sentence. Let me just read that again, Ephesians 1 verse 3, Paul writes, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And then Paul, in the phrases that follow begins to heap up the spiritual blessings, just adding spiritual blessing to spiritual blessing to spiritual blessing. One section of God the Father's work in the salvation of sinners followed by Jesus the Son's work in the salvation of sinners, followed by the Holy Spirit and His work and sealing in the salvation of sinners and each one of those three sections concluded with Paul stopping to praise God for the blessings that come through that member of the Trinity. And now we begin a second long sentence. Verses 15 through 23 in Greek are one sentence also. And it's a sentence that begins with the word therefore.

In other words there is a stream of logic. Paul is building with the second long sentence on all the truths that he's established in the first long sentence. All these things are true, verses 3 through 14. It is a heap of blessings that are the belonging of the believers, the present possession of all who trust in Christ Jesus and because of those truths now This so we're heading into the now this therefore based on all that truth Here is what Paul says next So as we go to our three verses today, verses 15, 16, and 17, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, I thank you for this mountain of spiritual blessings, every one of which is the present possession of anyone and everyone who has thrown themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope in life and death.

And God, I pray that everyone hearing me now would be someone who has forsaken every other hope to seize all of these spiritual blessings, not one withheld from your people. Let us know what a privileged people we are again today. Let us revel in that. Let us rest in that today. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, I'm going to put the first two verses of our text today together and consider them together. So I'll be rereading now Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 and 16. So follow along as I re-read Ephesians 1, 15 and 16. Paul writes, Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." In these two verses we have a response to a report.

So if you took the trouble to print out the handouts, you're taking notes on the handouts, you fill in the blanks with response and report. A response, Paul is responding to a report. Paul has heard certain things about the Ephesians and he responds to that report. It's probably been five or six years since Paul has been among them in Ephesus. We don't know that for sure, but most scholars, where they date the letter from Paul to the Ephesians, that would put it about five or six years.

So it's been a while since he's been among them, and he's been hearing things about them. These Ephesian believers were participants in these great spiritual blessings that Paul has been heaping up in verses 3 through 14. And Paul has been receiving reports which are consistent with that understanding. In other words, Paul is saying this is the mound of blessings that are the present possession of the believer and because of what I've been hearing I can tell that you're a participant in those. All the reports that have come to me are consistent with you being partakers of this heap of blessings that belong to the believers.

These reports consist of two descriptions of the Ephesian believers. Number one, they have a continuing faith in the Lord Jesus. I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. Now when I encounter Lord Jesus, that term, that two word term, Lord Jesus, I no longer want to skim over that term. It actually represents God-man.

Lord represents that the Word was in the beginning with God, that the Word was God. He is Lord. He is a co-equal member of the Trinity. He is God and yet this God came to earth and he took on flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh and he dwelt among us.

He was a man. He was born. He was given a name and His name was Jesus. Not from eternity past, He was the Word in eternity past. But He came into this world and He lived a life with a name.

Like I live a life with a name. I'm Jason, He was Jesus. He is the Lord Jesus. He is the God-man and it means the Savior set forth in Scripture. So I want to try to convince you not to skim over this term, the Lord Jesus, either.

It is the Savior that the scripture sets forth. It is the God-man that was necessary for the salvation of sinners. He had to be God so he could have the the perfections that would allow him to be an acceptable substitute and he was a man. He was one like us so he could stand in our place to represent us. He is the Lord Jesus.

He is the God man. The Lord Jesus is the object of saving faith. Faith doesn't save anyone. Many people have faith in many things. The object of faith must be the Lord Jesus, the God-man, the Savior set forth in Scripture, in the ultimate sense, this is the only thing that matters about me.

In the ultimate sense, at the end of the day, when I stand before God to give an account, this is the only thing that will matter. Do I have faith in the God man? Do I have faith in the Lord Jesus? Do my sins cling to me? Or have they been placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary?

And He has taken the anger of God against my sins. He has paid the penalty for my sins. He has washed me clean by His blood in the ultimate sense. The only thing that matters about everything that happens in my life of which there will be thousands of thousands of thoughts and words and deeds and the only one that will matter is do I have faith in the Lord Jesus. The spiritual blessings that Paul has been describing from the earliest verses of the chapter are heaped up for believers.

They are heaped up for every believer. All of the blessings of Ephesians chapter 1 are for every believer without exception, but only for believers. None of these spiritual blessings are the possession of any unbeliever. You must have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's another question about me.

Is my faith in Jesus lively enough that anyone would ever report it? Think about that. Paul, the Apostle, is receiving reports. Here are things to know about the Ephesians. Here are facts about the Ephesians.

They had a faith that was lively enough that that made the content of the report that Paul was receiving. I should ask myself that question. Is my faith lively enough that anyone would ever report it? For the Ephesians the answer was yes they had saving faith and it was thriving, it was continuing, it was growing, it was effecting, it was transforming. That's how it could make it into a report.

Their faith was not just a secret element only in their hearts. It was working its way out so that people would look on and see these people and say they have a deep and abiding faith in the Lord Jesus. So that when Paul heard of them, he heard of their continuing faith in the Lord Jesus. It was a thriving faith. It was a continuing faith.

It was a growing faith. It was an effecting faith. It was a transforming faith, which brings us to number two. Number one, the first description was they have a continuing faith in the Lord Jesus. Number two, they love all the saints.

That's the other thing Paul was hearing about the Ephesian believers. They love all the saints. Their reputation is a reputation of expansive love. Not clickish love. Not loving the people who are just like you, the people who are lovable, the people that you naturally are inclined towards.

It was an inclusive love. It was an expansive love. It was a love to all the saints. What did Jesus say at the beginning of the upper room discourse? Do you remember this in John?

A number of chapters were devoted to Jesus' last night with his disciples before he was crucified. At the beginning of that, in John 13.35, Jesus says this, John 13.35, by this All will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. People know if you are a disciple of Jesus, if you are a student of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, if you have love for other disciples of Jesus, other followers of Jesus, other believers. Does this mean that Believers only have to love other believers? No, believers are commanded to love even their enemies.

But love among the brethren, love among believers is a defining evidence of saving Faith. Love among the brethren is a defining evidence of saving faith. If you want to know if someone is a real believer or just a talker, you can look and see, do they have affection for brethren? The book of 1 John is really a book about how you know whether you're in the faith or not. One of the defining marks in 1 John is love of the brethren.

Saving faith springs from a new heart that has new affections. Let me say that again. Saving faith springs from a new heart that has new affections. When you are born again, that is a great and appropriate term. You are born again.

You're not a person who's turned over a new leaf, you're a person that's been made a new creation because the heart of stone has been taken out and the heart of flesh and the things that you used to love you don't love that way anymore the things that you never loved you now have an affection for. Things, people that you didn't love now you love. And of course this is taught all across the New Testament in 1st Corinthians 13, the great love chapter. Chapter, Paul says that if I have all faith but have not love, I'm nothing. James says in James chapter 2 that faith without works is dead.

In other words faith with no evidence of faith is counterfeit. Do you understand that? Faith with no evidence of faith is not counterfeit. In other words it's not that you love in order to be saved, it's that when you are saved you have a new heart with new affections and you must love. You do love.

And if you don't love, it's a sign that you don't have a new heart with new affections. Notice this, the report was that these Ephesian believers had love for all the saints. Remember Saints is just a word that means holy ones, ones who have been set apart by God for God. So the believers, people who had been set apart by God for God in Ephesus had a love for all the other people who had been set apart by God for God. Friends, when a person is born again he or she begins to have a growing love for other believers, even other believers who they are not naturally compatible with.

Isn't this something we know about if you've lived long at all, you know about natural compatibility towards some people. You don't have it for everyone. This is apart from that. Of course you love the people you're naturally compatible with, but new hearts with new affection takes us beyond that. Praise God it takes us beyond that.

There are many other believers that you are not naturally compatible with and yet when you have a new heart with new affections because of your faith in the Lord Jesus, You find yourself loving people that in your past life you never would have loved. You might have been at odds with, in conflict with, and yet now somehow you have a love, an affection for them in your heart. Praise God for this. God does this. We need this.

We need more of this. We need to grow in this. The Ephesians did have it and had been growing in it. Paul was hearing about it. Paul has received the reports and he responds to the reports.

How? In two ways. First, Paul continually gives thanks for them. I do not cease to give thanks for you." He continues giving thanks for them. Paul knows the work of the Spirit when he hears about it or when he sees it.

When he sees faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints, he says, thank you, God, you did that. So understand what's happening here. Paul is receiving reports, these Ephesians have faith in the Lord Jesus and they have love for all the saints and he says I know what that means. That means God is working there. God is working in those hearts.

God is working in those people. Thank you God for working in Ephesus, for transforming in Ephesus. Paul just keeps doing it. Thank you God. Thank you God.

Day after day. He hears reports. He thanks God. In fact, Paul expresses it even more strongly in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 3. Listen to 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 3.

Paul writes, we, the we of 2 Thessalonians is Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other." So this is almost exactly the same thing. He's aware of faith in them and love among them. And what does he say? Let me just read that again.

2 Thessalonians 1 verse 3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. When Paul saw or heard of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and of love flourishing among the saints, he felt a compulsion to thank God. We're bound to thank God for you. As is fitting, he had an internal compulsion and And to put it the opposite way, he thought it would be unfitting to see or hear of faith and love among the people of God and not thank God for it.

He felt a compulsion. So did Silvanus and Timothy. So that's the first response to these reports. Paul continually gives thanks for them. He felt bound to.

Second, Paul persistently remembers them in his prayers. He prays for them, making mention of you in my prayers. Paul is an evangelist, but he isn't just an evangelist. He is a disciple maker and a spiritual father and a brother in Christ. Yes, he brought the gospel to Ephesus.

Praise God that he did, but he also returned to them, remained with them for three years, sent partners in ministry to them, wrote a letter to them, and persistently prayed for them. This is a thousand miles away from dropping a track and running. I'm not saying there's never a place for that, I'm just saying that's not what characterized the Apostle Paul. The people that he evangelized overwhelmingly He thought of, went back to, sent people to, wrote letters to, prayed for day after day. He brought the Gospel to Ephesus, but he returned to Ephesus.

He remained in Ephesus for three years. He sent people back to Ephesus to check on them and to help them and encourage them. He wrote a letter to them. He persistently prayed for them. Which brings us to verse 17.

What in the world did he pray for them? Verse 17 addresses that. Now we're in Ephesians 1 verse 17. Ephesians 1 verse 17, Paul gives us the content of his prayers for them. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." In this verse we have a prayer for believers to be enabled to know God.

So if you're taking notes on the handout there are three blanks and believers enabled no fills in the blanks a prayer for believers to be enabled to know God first Paul specifies First, Paul specifies that he is praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, this makes me uncomfortable. Just think about that. Paul is praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does that make you at least a little uncomfortable?

I feel like we're peering over the edge into the bottomless well and we've sent down all the rope that we have and it hasn't touched the bottom. We've no indication of even where the bottom is. It's this deep, deep well of the Trinity. How can God the Father be the God of God the Son? But though it makes me uncomfortable, that language didn't make the Lord Jesus uncomfortable at all.

He uses identical language to that in John chapter 20. John chapter 20, post resurrection, Mary Magdalene encounters the resurrected Jesus and in John 17 verse 20 Jesus says to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father but go to my brethren and say to them I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and to your God." So this is Jesus using Paul's language that has made me uncomfortable, which clues me in that I'm the problem. If I wasn't convinced that the Apostle Paul was comfortable with that language and that I better get comfortable with that language, Now we hear it right out of the mouth of Jesus. Let me just read this again. John 20 verse 17.

Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, my brothers. Go to my brothers, my brethren, my brothers and sisters and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God." And he's talking about the disciples but we can spread that out and say the disciples in that sense, we are brethren. My Bible reading plan has me started in Mark. So I encountered this already in Mark chapter 1 verse 35. Listen to Mark chapter 1 verse 35.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he, Jesus, went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed." So the sun is not up, but Jesus is up and he goes away to be alone and to pray and this is actually just one of many places in the gospel that we see Jesus praying but often going away to be by himself and to pray to his father. It is not blasphemous to say that Jesus was praying to his God. That is not blasphemy according to Paul and according to Jesus. That is not blasphemy. That does not mean that the Lord Jesus was not or is not God.

The Lord Jesus was God. The Lord Jesus is God. The Lord Jesus will forever be God. But Jesus is the head of a body. He is the elder brother of brethren.

And in his role as our head and our mediator there is a sense in which our relation to the Father is his relation to the Father also. He is our head. We are joined to Him, united to Him by faith. And in that sense, in that way, God is his God because he is the head of his people whose God is the Lord whose God is Father God. So this isn't teaching that Jesus isn't God It is teaching about our union with Jesus who he is as our head and we the members of his body.

God the Father is his God in that sense. Paul calls him the father of glory, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you, and then he prays. He calls him the Father of Glory. Friends, isn't that the God you want to pray to? Jesus is God.

Whoever Jesus got up before the Son to pray to, I want to pray to Him. Whoever the Father of Glory is, I want to pray to Him. The God that our Lord and head Jesus Christ prayed to, the Father of Glory, the Father of Splendor, the Father of Majesty, the Father of all Perfections, who is willing to answer Christ's prayer and then and therefore my prayer because I'm joined to him and he's able because he is the father of glory he is almighty God that is the God that Paul prayed to. Jesus is God, the Father of Glory. That he's Jesus is God makes him willing to hear my prayer.

I'm joined to him by faith. That he is the God of glory means he's able to do anything that I ask him. That is the God I want you to find me praying to. And what is he asking for God the Father to do for the Ephesians, to give these believers the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I'm just quoting verse 17 now.

Paul is asking God the Father to give these believers the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. And then Paul will further develop what he means by that in the following verses which we will study next week. Let me just read verse 17 again. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Now, let's look back at verses 8 and 9, because verses 8 and 9 are very similar to what he's praying here in verse 17.

Here's what Paul already said in verses 8 and 9. Which, He made abound to us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will. I'll just stop there. Which he made abound toward us. God has already made something abound toward us, not in small measure but in great measure, in abounding measure, and it is wisdom and prudence to make known to us the mystery.

So you can see these verses, verse 8 and 9, have a very close association with Paul praying for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Wisdom is actually the exact same Greek word. And mystery in 9 and Revelation in verse 17 are related. It is a mystery of something that just can't be discerned by human intellect. It must be revealed by God.

So there's a very tight association between these verses. In a sense, these are already spiritual blessings. Paul has put on the heap. You might look back to verses 8 and 9 and say, Paul, you already put them on the heap. Why are you praying for them?

You already said these things abound towards us. Why are you praying for them in verse 17? A few things to say. First, I think the ESV and the NIV translators got it right when they capitalized the S in spirit, as in the Holy Spirit. You can't tell in the Greek.

It could be little s Spirit, in other words, like a general disposition of wisdom and revelation, or it could be the Holy Spirit of wisdom, the giver of wisdom, the giver of revelation. ESV and NIV nailed it. I think New King James and NASB missed it. Go turn to 1st Corinthians 2 verses 6 through 12. I believe in 1st Corinthians 2 verses 6 through 12 that we're getting really good commentary on Paul by Paul.

So that's my favorite commentator on Paul is Paul. 1 Corinthians 2, we were here a couple of weeks ago, but I want to read a little more from that chapter. 1 Corinthians 2, I'll be reading verses 6 through 12. Please follow along as I read 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6 through 12. Paul writes, However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

But we speak the the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which None of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things 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 know the things that have been freely given to us by God, this is exactly what Paul is doing in Ephesians 1. He's praying that God would pour out, would work through his spirit in the Ephesian believers, that they might know the things that have been freely given to them by God, all the things he's been saying in verses 3 through 14, that first long sentence.

And then that is totally consistent with what you see later in Ephesians. If you're back in Ephesians, if you just look in Ephesians 3, verse 3, Ephesians chapter 3, verse 3, Paul says, how that by revelation he, God, made known to me the mystery. So by revelation God made known to him the mystery. Now look down to verse 5, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Holy Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. These things are made known by the Holy Spirit.

So Paul isn't praying that we would be given a general disposition, a little s spirit of wisdom and revelation because we know God. You know God, so because you know God, may you have a general disposition of wisdom and revelation. No, no, that's not it. Paul is praying that God would give us the active operation of the Holy Spirit to cause us to know God more and more and more and more. May the Spirit work in you that you would know Him more.

Not just intellectually facts about God, but experientially experiencing God personally, closely, intimately. I'm going to read that sentence again because I think it is the punchline of the sermon. Paul is praying that God would give us the active operation of the Holy Spirit to enable us to know God the Father. Turn to Philippians 3. I want to convince you that in Philippians 3, Paul is actually asking or seeking the same thing for himself, desiring the same thing for himself in Philippians 3.

I'll be reading Philippians 3 verses 7 through 14. At the beginning of this, I know he's talking about his salvation. I know he's talking about the saving faith that he gained in Christ by walking away from all of the old things. But he doesn't end there. He doesn't end at conversion.

Conversion is just the start and then he continues to express a desire for more. Listen to this in Ephesians 3 verses 7 through 14. Yet, indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, I'm not there yet, I press forward. I forget the things that are behind so that I can surge forward to know Christ more, To have more. This is what Paul wanted for himself and wanted more of for himself. He pressed on. He pressed forward.

This is what Paul wanted for the Ephesian believers. Think of the sermon title, the prayer for those who have everything. We're just coming out of Christmas where you might have tried to buy a present for the person who has everything. You're just like, what would I even give to them that they would want and haven't already acquired? You might think about this after we've gone through Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 14 and seeing all the things that are the present possession of the believer in Jesus.

You might ask, well, why would Paul pray for them at all? Just pray for people who don't have that yet. Pray for people who don't have the heap yet. Don't spend time praying for these people who already have everything. They have every spiritual blessing.

They've been chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven. They've obtained the inheritance. They've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. In having Jesus, they have all things. Paul keeps praying for them.

Why? Because believers never fully enter into the experience of all their blessings until they get to heaven. I've walked with the Lord for a long time, I can tell you, that's so true. Believers never fully enter into the experience of their blessings until they get to heaven. So we should press forward believers we should press forward There's more to have.

There's more that we don't have because we've grieved the Spirit and quenched the Spirit. We should pray, Oh God have mercy on us, forgive us, help us to press forward like Paul pressed forward. Forward like Paul pressed forward. Peter says something similar at the very end of 2 Peter. The very end of 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18 Peter says, But grow, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Had they not experienced the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Had they not experienced the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Of course they had, but there was room to grow. You can pray that for anyone who's not dead. You can pray that for anyone who is not dead.

They can grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. They can grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry says it this way. I loved this. Matthew Henry says it this way.

Our Apostle blesses God for what He had done for them, and then He prays that He would do more for them. He gives thanks for spiritual blessings and prays for further supplies of them. He has laid up these spiritual blessings for us in the hands of his son, the Lord Jesus, but then he has appointed us to draw them out and fetch them in By prayer. Let me read that again. Our apostle blesses God for what he had done for them and then he prays that he would do more for them.

He gives thanks for spiritual blessings and prays for further supplies of them. He has laid up these spiritual blessings for us in the hands of his Son, the Lord Jesus, but then he has appointed us to draw them out and fetch them in by prayer. Yes, these spiritual blessings are our present possessions and God has put them into the hands of His Son Jesus for us, but then He has appointed us to draw them out and fetch them in by prayer. Applications, I'll give you three. I think they're as obvious as they are wonderful.

Number one, We should be able to be fundamentally described as full of faith in the Lord Jesus and as having love for all the saints. We should be able to be fundamentally described as full of faith in the Lord Jesus. What does that man trust? I have been watching him. He only trusts Jesus.

And as having love for all the saints and expansive love and inclusive love. The implication is this to the extent that I fret and fear and complain, I have missed the mark. If the report of me is that I am one who frets and fears and complains, It cannot simultaneously be reported that I am full of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't go together. I'm not talking about do you ever fret or fear or complain.

I'm saying what fundamentally describes me. And to the extent that my brethren would be surprised that I love them, I've missed the mark. My brethren shouldn't be surprised that I love them. It should be known, it should be reported that I love all the brethren. The ones that I'm wired to be naturally inclined to and the other ones, the ones that I'm not naturally wired to be inclined towards.

How could that be reported if I say it and live it? If I utter the words to my brethren, I love you, and I live like that's true. Number one, we should be able to be fundamentally described as full of faith in the Lord Jesus and as having love for all the saints. Number two, we should be persistently thankful when we see this in others. This should inform our prayers.

We shouldn't say, see someone who is full of faith and full of love and say, that's an awesome lady. We should say, that's an awesome God. Thank you God. You did that God. We shouldn't be full of the praise of man.

We should be full of the praise of God thanking him for his work in our brethren. God-centered prayers. Number three. We should pray for the work of the Spirit to this end that we would know God the Father. We should pray for the work of the Spirit to this end, that we would know the Father.

We should pray for our brethren. Paul was praying that his brethren would be enabled by a work of the Spirit to know God more and more and more and more. Not just facts about God, but experiencing God, enjoying God, walking closely with God, walking intimately with God. This is what Paul was after in the Ephesians. We should be after it in our brethren by prayer for ourselves.

There's no rule that you can't pray this for yourself. Are you not praying this for yourself? I haven't been. I'm going to endeavor to follow Paul's example and pray this for myself and for you. God, activate the spirit in my life to enable that I would be enabled to know not just about you but know you intimately, closely, walking closely with you.

I'm a believer. Every spiritual blessing is my present possession. Now, Fetch it in by prayer as Matthew Henry would say. Fetch it in by prayer. Fetch in the experience of it, more of it by prayer.

We'll give Lloyd-Jones the last word. Listen to what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says. Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Exodus 33.

Have you ever felt that desire? The apostle is praying that these Ephesians may begin to hunger and thirst for it. May realize that all that has happened to them has been designed to the end that they may see and know the glory of God this Father of glory. The psalmist expresses the same idea in the 42nd Psalm as the deer panteth after the water brook so panteth my soul after thee, O God, my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. He was not thinking of the God of theology as it were the God of the textbook, the God of propositions, but of the living God, the personal God.

That is such a helpful quote. Nothing wrong with learning things about the God of theology, the God of the textbook, the God of propositions, but that is not the same thing as knowing God. That is not the same thing as your soul panting for God like a deer pants for the water. Jesus died for this. Jesus shed His blood to cleanse us, to make it so that we could have fellowship with God.

To Stop short of that is a cheat. It is to cheat yourself of the glory of it. It is to cheat Jesus Christ of his reward for his sufferings. May 2021 be for me, be for you, a year of panting for God as the deer pants for the water brooks. May it be a year of returning to our first love.

Oh God, may it be so. Oh God, thank you for bringing us here to this text and to these truths. I pray that you would put your finger on any place where we've grieved the spirit or quenched the spirit's work in our lives through stubbornness, laziness, disobedience, refusal to repent. God, please clear those obstacles that we might know you, not just facts about you, but that we might walk closely with you. I pray In Jesus' name, amen.