December 27th, 2025 "A Pastor's Prayer for His People" Ephesians 1:15-23

A new opportunity to say, God, I don't want to remain where I am. You've given me your Holy Spirit and you want to change me. The purpose of your living in me is to transform me into the image of Christ. And so I need to do the things that partner with my transformation as you do the work of changing me. [00:41:23] (23 seconds)  #PartnerWithHolySpirit

Now you can read the Bible every day, all day long, and still walk away like a whitewashed tomb. In fact, Jesus regularly called out the Pharisees for just that. They understood the Old Testament in and out. They could quote it line by line, verse by verse. They could tell you where the period was supposed to go. And they could tell you the difference between the dot and the iota. But they had missed the very heart of God. [00:41:46] (32 seconds)  #BeyondBibleTrivia

It's very wordy, but look at what he's specifically looking for. The knowledge of him. So the first thing that he's asking God to do in the lives of the church in Ephesus is to open their eyes so that they would have greater knowledge of God. That they would do more than know about God. They would actually know him. [00:50:30] (31 seconds)  #KnowHimDeeply

``Now, one of the dangerous things that can take place in a Bible-believing church, Bible-preaching church like our own, and I praise God for the reality that we hold to the inspiration and inerrancy and authority of scripture. But one of the things that can happen if we're not careful is we think that the finish line is simply knowing what the scripture says. That's not the goalpost. It's knowing the one whom the scripture reveals. And that's God. That's his son, Jesus Christ. That's the truth about all that God has given us in and through Christ. The purpose of the Bible is to be God's special revelation of himself so that we can know him and love him. [00:52:03] (51 seconds)  #KnowGodNotJustScripture

He's praying that the church would know the blessings of the gospel. Look with me starting in verse 18. There's that phrase having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know that you may know what does he want us to know? What is the hope to which he has called you? These are the blessings of the gospel. The hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. The specific blessings of the gospel that Paul wants the church in Ephesus to know is hope inheritance and power. [00:55:57] (40 seconds)  #GospelHopeInheritancePower

Christian hope is rooted in the resurrection. if God does not have the power to raise Christ from the dead Paul says then we have no hope. We out of all people are most to be pitied. If we go around proclaiming that Jesus is alive and he really is not then we have no hope. The good news is that Jesus is alive. That God rose Jesus from the dead and now we see in the text that Jesus is at the right hands of the Father in the place of supremacy and we'll get into that in just a minute. He's praying that the believers would understand the hope they have in Christ. [00:56:54] (50 seconds)  #HopeInTheResurrection

Paul says from prison get your eyes off of your circumstances ask God to open the eyes of your heart so that you can see hope and your hope was made visible on the third day and you may not have seen it believers in Ephesus but I know over 500 people who did Paul tells the church in Corinth and some of them are still alive so go ask them [01:01:05] (38 seconds)  #OpenEyesToHope

we're like the Ephesian church we didn't see Jesus alive after he died by faith by the power of the Holy Spirit as he opens our eyes we look with resurrection hope toward our future suffering in our broken world has a way of shrinking our vision and Paul knew it and so he's telling the church I'm praying that God would help you understand and know the resurrection hope you have in Christ [01:01:43] (40 seconds)  #LookWithResurrectionHope