Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. That's where every day you and I we get together. Oh, hold on first. I gotta make sure everybody's joined us on live. What am I doing here?
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Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year. 2022. Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll get the Lord's word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, for your grace, for how good you are.
Father, we pray now that as we come to your word that you would let us have a singular focus.
There are many things that could distract us or weigh heavy on our hearts.
Father, we thank You for Your Word.
Loaded pray now that you would let us read, understand and that your Holy Spirit would apply these things to our lives in Jesus's name, Amen. Hey, go Ephesians chapter one.
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, 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.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which 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 principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all.
Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to these words, right. So first, a What is this about? Well, Paul is picking up the second section. Here right here it is talked about how God previously in verses one through 14, how God predestined us, you elected us and He saved us. In all of this was done in Christ. And now he says in verse 15, therefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for the saints, do not cease giving things a postman years and emphasis and hears about their faith and he's still going, he's like, Yes, this is good. This is wonderful that you all are still believing in Jesus Christ, that you're walking in Jesus Christ, that you love him and that you're loving one another. This is good stuff, guys. I'm thanking the Lord for it.
And he says he mentions them in their prayer in his prayers and and then in verses 17 through 23, we kind of get at the heart of his prayer for them. And so what are some of the things that he's praying for the people in Ephesus? Well, first he says that he wants God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of glory, that he wants God to give them a spirit of wisdom, and Revelation, and the knowledge of him.
I remember just a few days ago, I was rereading J i Packer's book knowing God. If you've never picked up Becker's book knowing God I highly recommend it. And in there, he talks about how when you meet somebody more and more important.
It's not our option, whether we know that person or not, but the more exalted, more regal, more important somebody is, it's up to them. Whether they open themselves up to us. So if you stroll into the White House and you go to meet the president, you can't demand that you know, the president.
Now, you might be able to shake his hand you might be able to say good morning, but he doesn't have to tell you how he's doing.
He doesn't have to tell you what's on his mind. He doesn't have to tell you what's in his heart.
So Paul is praying that the God of the universe, the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the God of glory, make Himself known to us isn't that our desire? Isn't that what we want? We want God's Holy Spirit to be working in our hearts that we might know him and be known by him.
And so he says he wants them to, to have be filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him and then verse 18, he says, he describes us right, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is a hope of your calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, he wants their eyes to be filled with light they were once darkness but now they're light and you think I want you to be able to see I want you to be able to see and what does he want them to be able to see that there is hope in his calling, that there is a firm assurance of things that come and it's it's money in the bank, it's as good as gold, right? It's it's going to happen.
So we want some to have hope in God's promises. He wants them to know what their calling is. What are the riches of his glory in his inheritance in the saints? He wants them to know. Right? What does this mean? The riches of His inheritance are the glory Yeah, sorry. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Are This is God's riches, as God's glory but sin his people he wants them to know who God is, and how wonderful it is to have been redeemed by God.
That God sees us as his inheritance, that the Lord loves his people.
That the Lord values his people. So much so that he redeemed them not with the perishable things like gold and silver but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
But he also wants them to know in verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ Jesus, when He raised Him from the dead and seated him his right hand in the heavenly places?
Here he's saying essentially, I want you to know the power of God seen in the preeminence of Jesus Christ.
He wants the saints and Ephesus to know what God has done powerfully and raising Jesus from the dead and raising Jesus from the dead he also exalted Him above every power, every principality there is no president. There's no prime minister. There's no There's no elected leader, Judge official, no one who has higher than Jesus Christ. This is specifically drawing us back to places like Psalm two and Psalm 110, that the King of Kings has come. The Lord has said unto Jesus Christ, come sit here at my right hand, is the one David looked to and said, My Lord said unto my Lord, Sit here at my right hand.
If God has made his enemies as footstool, and he is making his enemies as footstool.
So, Paul's prayer for the people in Ephesus is that they might know who Jesus Christ is, and they might know what God has done to display his power and raising Jesus from the dead and seeing Him at His right hand, far above all principality, and power, and might in Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come isn't the name of Jesus Christ suite that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm getting ahead of myself will be there in Philippians. We're still in Ephesians. But it's Jesus Christ who is preeminent.
And he put all things this being God. This is Paul's prayer. He wants them know that God has put all things under Jesus's feet and give Jesus to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all
he wants them to know the inheritance that they have.
Like God has put everything underneath Jesus's feet and Jesus gives the universe to his children.
All the storehouses of heaven are yours, Christian, and this is what He wants us to know.
That all the promises that he had given to Abraham and to his seed, that seed being Christ, if we're in Jesus Christ, are ours.
So what's this whole section about this is a prayer from Paul, that we might know God and be known by him, and that we might know the power of God and might know his son whom he raised up from the dead and know the inheritance that we have in him.
I'm gonna let you know I don't know what to underline in this section.
This is a nice new Bible that my friend gave me and I don't know what I want to. I don't know if I want to mark this Bible up. It's too nice.
But if I was to have to choose something, it probably be verses 17 and 18.
And maybe 19.
But if I did 19 to make that work, I'd have to refer also underlined verse 20. So maybe identifying 17 through 20 What would you underline in your Bible? Well last see calling what are we called to do? How does this affect our lives?
Do you know God?
How do you know him?
You go to his word.
You do what we're doing right here together.
We go to his word.
And we look for him.
In the word in the in the printed text, we can find him because the King of Kings has made himself known to us.
And he's given us His Holy Spirit.
And even somewhat more amazing than that. He doesn't just write letters to us from afar. But he says that we are to come boldly before His throne. of grace. I pray that You know God, both by coming to Him in His Word, and by going to His throne room and sitting with him.
So the reality is isn't just that you were written a letter to and God knows you from afar, and he knows about you know, he knows you.
He knit you together in your mother's womb. It's like the book of Jeremiah. Before you were born. I knew you.
called you by name.
from eternity past, it said in the first part of this chapter that He predestined us according to adoption.
He knows us as His children. He loves his people.
So when you go to Him in prayer is why it's so beautiful how Jesus teaches us how to pray.
Our Father who is in heaven.
He's your father, willing and able to help you.
To care for you. I pray that you avail yourself of these ordinary means of grace that you you go to his word.
And you are enriched as you think about who your God is, and who Jesus Christ is.
And I pray that you embrace Him and that you enjoy going to His throne of grace.
That you pray to Him, that you love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
Let's pray together now.
Father, how wonderful Are you?
That you have made yourself known to us?
Father, we do not deserve to know you.
We deserve to be under your condemnation and yet somehow for some reason, Out of Your great mercy and love you have loved us.
Thank you.
Thank you for displaying your power in Jesus Christ by raising us or raising Him from the dead after giving us a living hope.
Lord, we pray that we would know you better and better and better. In Jesus's name, Amen.
Well, May you enjoy God may you know him.
And as you know him, me the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds as you rest in Christ Jesus. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai