You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy. This fall, we're studying the book of Ephesians, learning about the new life that we find in Christ. Now here's the teaching. Good morning, church. Good morning.

Now, I know you're probably thinking one of two things. First, is that pint sized Jeff up there? Or second, isn't that our operations guy? I I can hear you now over your brunch. You know, after church saying, man, we are really deep in the preaching bench when we've asked the operations team to come up on stage.

I felt a little stunned when Jeff, you know, looked down the bench and said, lace up your sneakers. Get start warming up. And I said, coach, this jersey has not seen grass stains in a long time. But he got down on one knee, looked me out and he said, get in there, son. Make me proud.

So here I am today. So, in all seriousness, I know many of you, but many of you I only know through one avenue, which is email. And you probably have only one view of my role, which is operational, which is true. Right now, as a team, we are seeking to kinda make our systems and structures clean and optimize and hopefully one day, leaning to the other half of my role which is leadership development. But before my stint in organizational development and operations, I was a teacher and I was a missionary and as I was a discipleship pastor.

And there's no greater joy that I have than being with God's people reveling, and God's glory revealed in his word, of helping the saints and the seekers take their next step towards him. And together, chasing eternity in the grand adventure of being on the front lines of what God has called us to in his mission as this tiny outpost of his kingdom all over the globe. And so preaching and teaching has been a part of my past, but it's been several years. So my prayer this morning is that any human errors that may come from being a little rusty without any grass stains would not distract you from the glory and the power that's in God's word for us today. Because today, we pick back up our series in Ephesians, the renewed series, where we're looking at how God, in his lavish grace, is building a renewed community made of renewed people who understand the riches of all that he's done for us.

So we may go out into the world and renew our communities. And today, we will be looking at God's power to renew. A complete power. A power to change us and a power to enlighten us, the eyes of our heart. And my big idea for us today is this, that it is our understanding of our proximity to and our relationship with power that will change us for better or for worse.

But first, let me pray. Lord Jesus, we glory in your name and in your presence today, and I thank you like Paul in this text, thanks you for the Ephesians, that these is a group of saints that love you and are full of faith and love one another. And so I ask that today, that you put the powers of the world, sin, and Satan on notice. That their days are numbered. In fact, they are already over.

And that you are here now, and you will be enlightening our hearts now in the hope of our calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of your power towards those who believe. And we ask that you do your work in us this morning for your glory and our good. And I ask, Lord, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. So I wanna tell you a story about a man's proximity to power that changed him forever.

I once had a coaching client who needed some help. He he came to me to talk about dealing with life's stresses and about how he could achieve his goals with more joy and peace. A pretty modern request. Right? After leaving a long career in a as a military defense contractor.

He had just taken a job in operations overseeing a large conglomerate. And as I sat across from this man who was sweet in temperament and in heart, he was fraying and frazzling at the edges. So I asked him diagnostic questions about his daily life, and he explained to me that he was in the grip of a bitterness at the brokenness of the world. A burden on was on his heart because of the fear that he lived in. And his soul was bound up and paralyzed with a sense of helplessness, of not knowing what to do in a world that's so broken.

He couldn't sleep. He couldn't shut off his brain. It was ruining his life, and with a redness around his eyes that betrayed his sleeplessness, and a longing to be free from the weights that he carried, he pleaded for help. And as I explored where the fear came from, we realized it wasn't coming from his new job. It came from the compounding years in his last job.

You see, his previous job had given him proximity to the world's military powers and their unseen chess moves behind security clearances that keep our world from falling into chaos. And in his role, he had the unfortunate privilege of intimate knowledge of proximity to, and a relationship with power. And that proximity had revealed two things to him. The first was the enemy's constant threats made to our world, and the second was the power and the might of our United States military, flawed though it may be, that deters those threats. And being in a proximity to that terrifying power was more than his human heart could handle.

His emotions would fluctuate between being grateful, glad, even gritty, knowing that he lived in a world that he was safe in, that he could be an agent of action in. And then it would switch to being bitter, burden, and bound up, as he knew the real dangers of life. For you see, his knowledge of proximity to and relationship with power had enlightened his heart. It had revealed the truth and had changed him forever and not necessarily for the better. His heart had given way to the human impulse in the face of power to fight, flight, or freeze, and he couldn't shake it.

And I believe this is largely be because the power of the deterring force that was keeping evil at bay, however impressive, was only a mere human power, not powerful enough to subject everything and everyone to his good and loving will. He needed a higher power to rest in, to hope in, and to empower him to be an agent of good and power in this world full of brokenness. And so that is why I proposed to you today that we too have come face to face with two different powers. Both terrifying in their abilities, albeit one significantly more than the other. And our proximity to them, and our relationship with them, will make all the difference.

Not only in the quality of our lives, but also in the effectiveness by which we will accomplish the mission we've been given by God. To know him, to glorify him, to enjoy him, but ultimately to share him with the world. So with that, let's unpack the text and let it do some work in us. First, a little background. Pastor Jeff opened up the scriptures to us last week and showed us the torrential downpour of blessings that Paul had poured on the Ephesians.

And there they stand, sopping wet and stunned by this heartening encouragement of spiritual realities. Ones known and ones likely forgotten in the hustle and bustle of living in a pagan metropolis. And if these Ephesians are anything like us, which I assume they are, even though they are followers of Jesus, verse 15. They are still human beings living in the shadow of power. Power of the world, which at that point was Rome, the power of their sin, and the power of the pagan and demonic realm.

And if we're we were paying attention in acts earlier over the last year or two, then what we know is that these Ephesians formerly were pagans worshiping false gods. And they likely experience ongoing struggles living in proximity to the hub of Roman decadence and pagan power. We know these people, because we know ourselves, although they are redeemed, are still in process, struggling to live into the glory and the goodness of Jesus. And they struggle like we do to become more and more free through a daily fight and the powers of opposition that face us. And although this torrential downpour of blessings does shine bright, it's very hard when maybe the heart is burdened to really grasp them and internalize them and bring them in here.

Because when the heart is burdened in the grips of pain or fear or helplessness or in other words, bitter, burden, or bound up, no amount of intellectual platitudes will break through. That's because our body is in the grips of stress. We will fight, flight, or freeze, and only an experiential knowledge of a greater power will release the mind and the muscles to be at peace. So what does Paul do? Does he tell them to try harder?

Does he tell them they're not doing enough? Does he beat them over the head? No. What does he do? He prays.

Why? Because he knows that he doesn't have the power to change them, and he knows they don't have the power to change them, but he does know the one who does have the power to enlighten their hearts with his presence. And what does Paul pray for? That these believers would receive a deeper knowledge, a proximity, deeper proximity to, closer proximity to, and a deeper relationship of the reality, and experience them in such a way that it would enlighten them, awaken them, reveal to them, transcend mere intellectual ascent into an experiential knowing of the power of God towards those who believe in him. That's what he's praying for.

Because he knows that if they have the knowledge of, the proximity to, and the relationship with the one true power, it will change them. And, and the relationship with the one true power, it will change them. Now, it's important to note that these folks are already followers of Jesus. So don't they know these realities already? Yes.

Of course. These people have been loving and serving the Lord for some time now. They have a rich past of faithfulness. And it's no small thing in a broken world, back then nor today, That's something to be proud of. I mean, churches close or fall apart.

Daily. So we might have expected Paul that he would pray. Lord, would they just continue to keep on keeping on? Would they keep fighting the good fight at a slow and steady pace? I mean, a simple encouragement would have sufficed because isn't it hard enough to live in Ephesus with all of its weights and hindrances?

Or isn't it hard enough to live in Indianapolis with all of its weights and hindrances? No. He doesn't. Paul wants them to know even more. He wants them to know and experience the new heights, the new vistas, the further up, the further in, the running, the sprinting, the filling their airs with a filling their lungs with narnian air.

And he desperately wants them to wake up to all that they're missing, not because where they are is bad, but because where they're headed and where they could be is tremendously more as they gain as they gain more and more of Christ. He wants them to not walk their race with joy, but run, maybe even sprint our race for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ and making him known. So for us, if we're paying attention, Paul's praying and he gives us some knowledge of what he's praying for. We should ask the question, what did Paul think was so significant? What realities did he think that if God chose to enlighten the heart that they should know?

What Holy Spirit understanding do we need now for our journey to shake us from our spiritual contentment and to renew us? Well, here it is. Paul prays that they would know, not know, but know. The hope of their calling, God's glorious inheritance in the saints, and Christ's immeasurable power towards those who believe. Let's unpack these.

First, the hope of their calling. Paul wants them to know the hope of their calling or as scholars would characterize as God's power demonstrated in the past when they first believed. This is a past power. It is a hope in the irrefutable historically proven facts that have already happened to them in Christ. In other words, Paul wants them to derive hope, like roots that pull up the finished work of the cross into their soul.

That they're and they remind them of their saving faith and their experiential transformation of being renewed by the Holy Spirit. These things are fact. These things are final. They cannot be changed. Crisis they face, sin they commit, or doubt that comes their way, they can look back at the power of God demonstrated them in the past.

And this gives them an assuredness, a rootedness that frees them from their guilt and their shame and their doubts that plague our human existence. That makes each of us, if we're honest, on our worst day, unsure of where we stand before God. Firm foundation to dig their heels into, as they walk the pilgrim path full of toils, and snares, and sufferings. By knowing this power, they don't have to worry about their standing, which means they can face the future knowing they are safe and they are loved. Come what may, hell or high water, nothing can change what God has done.

The immutable God has finished the work. And when we know that that is finished, it gives us a peace. Right? We savor this past power and it makes us grateful. Truly, deeply, satisfyingly grateful.

It's point number one that Paul wants us to know. Point number two, God's glorious inheritance in the saints. He wants him to know the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints. In other words, this is a future power to secure their future in what we see as the seemingly unknown. But what a really unexpected phrase.

Now, we in last week's passage, there's the inheritance that's ours. Right? But scholars really have two interpretations of this one. One is that he's saying God's preparing our inheritance, but the other is that we are his inheritance. I think God is ambiguous here because both can be true.

And here's why. When we think of inheritance, we think of a sterile meeting with the lawyer carving up the estate among a cold and unfeeling group of descendants, eager to get their hands on the old man's money as he lies in the grave. But this is saying the exact opposite. Christ secured them as his inheritance. The king is alive and he won't die, but we will.

At least our mortal flesh. And that's why he says we are God's inheritance. When we die, then we will be inherited by our father to go and live with him in his opulence, and most importantly, his presence the way we were supposed to be. Because here's the thing that we're clouded from so often. God created us to be fully alive with him, full of love, joy, and peace, and most importantly, with an in an intimate relationship with him.

Think of the most content moment where you have felt love and warmth of someone being with someone you loved and who loved you in return. True communion and relationship. You felt alive with love, joy, and peace. And maybe it's been a while since you had that feeling because we live in a broken world. But if you've tasted it once, that feeling forever, that was God's design for you and me.

A restoration of the garden that we forfeited is now given back to us undeservedly. And like our earthly money, our well our gloriously wealthy benefactor will not be denied his inheritance. Delayed, maybe. Denied, no. He will have his inheritance, which is not things or trinkets.

He has plenty. What is his treasure he cannot wait to lay hold of? You. Us. That is dignifying and intimate language.

And that is good news, because being his inheritance, we get to be the treasured object of his affection and caught up in his glory in relationship with him forever. Now, one final thing about inheritance before we move on. It requires a power to protect it or ensure it that it will happen one day. And no one, certainly not the all powerful God of the universe, fails to secure his assets. So the all powerful God of the universe hems in his treasure with a future power, safeguarding us and making us secure in the knowledge that we are his and he will have his own.

What does that mean for us? Well, when someone's future is secure with riches, it makes them safe. But when those riches are coupled with joy and relationship and relational intimacy with the father, then it makes us alive. It makes us bubbling up with a reckless, dare I even say, spoiled and lavish gladness. Gladness that comes with a glorious inheritance, because being with God forever will make us glad.

Point 1.2. We could stop here, and that would be more than any human could ask for, to have our future and our past taken care of. But if we're honest, and I think Paul and God know this, we're consumed with trials and sufferings now. We're consumed with trials and sufferings now. We're consumed with trials and sufferings now.

We're consumed with trials and sufferings now. We're consumed with with trials and sufferings now, which means these often beautiful truths fall on deaf ears. We need a power now, a present power, third point, verse 19. Paul wants them to know the immeasurable greatness of power towards us who believe. I believe there's two functions of this power.

First, a protecting power. First, a protecting power. This is the present power of God that is deployed on our behalf to accomplish his perfect will in the world and in our lives. And this is the protecting power that promises that he will work all things for our good. Even if we don't understand it or see it now, we can rest knowing that no one can take us from his hand.

And although there is often an unex an unexplainable tragic suffering, nothing can fort the loving plans of those in Christ. That power is not for the past. That power is not for the future. That is for today, now. And that's coupled with the second part of the power, an indwelling power.

It is the indwelling Holy Spirit's power that is accessible to us every moment of the day, and that emboldens us to live with a sense of divine purpose as we glorify God and make him known, taking weak and feeble people, and turning us into risk taking and resilient bunch as we march towards eternity. This is a power for holiness, a power for love, a power for perseverance, for self control, for worship, for joy, for our mission. Put that all together, in other words, God's great power towards us makes us safe and makes us gritty folk in a broken world. Notice here, who is this immeasurable power towards? It's not a limited power, not a significant power, it is the immeasurable greatness.

Paul doubles up there. Power that's available to who? To those who believe. Those who by faith have come into the family of God. So the question is, do you believe, trust, and follow Jesus?

Do you want to? If the answer is yes, then rejoice. This power is accessible to you. It means you can have the confidence and the energy to be fully alive and meet today's challenges and make you gritty in a broken world. Three points.

Three things Paul wants us to know that he thinks will enlighten our hearts, a hope of our calling, and measurable, inheritance, and the greatness of God's power. If you're paying attention, we are immersed in power on every side. A past power, a future power, and a present power. A rear guard, an advance guard, and a battalion of elite troops at our side. That is the power I want to be near.

That is good news that will make us grateful, glad, and gritty in a broken world. Now, Pastor Tom and I were talking about this before the service. Paul could've we could stop there, but Paul keeps going. We could almost have a second sermon. So are you guys ready for a second one?

But Paul doesn't stop here. And unfortunately, I don't have time to dig into every piece of the second half, although it would be worthy. He keeps on pouring it out. Paul pours out these blessings, these praises, these facts, these truths. And what he packs in these next few verses is what I believe is what hymn is a hymn of praise that spreads out the file of evidence of why we can trust this power.

It's the case file of when we are full of doubt, when we struggle, when we hear really beautiful things like we've just shared. Oh, that sounds great. I want that. I don't I don't feel that. I don't see it.

Paul says, I know. Stick with me. Let me give you the one piece of evidence that will root your enlightening the lightning of your heart in. Christ has risen from the dead. And if that's true, which I believe it is, and all of history for thousands of years have attempted to disprove it, and unsuccessfully, it still stands plausible and probable that Christ was raised from the dead.

Because if there is a God, then he is capable of conquering death and subjecting everything to his loving rule, including his church, which he desires to fill with the fullness of himself and send out into the world to fill the world with his glory. I think Paul ends with this because he knows we will doubt unless we have something rock solid to dig our heels into. But again, there's too much there for today. So let's zoom back out. Let's summarize all that we've seen so far.

Paul has prayed. He has prayed for these believers that they would have a deeper, intimate knowledge of, in relationship to, and transformational experience with the God of the universe, which is rooted in his power, hope of their calling, rich inheritance, and the indwelling power of God in them. And that power is demonstrated on the cross, and that validates all of his claims to his rule, his benevolent rule of all creation. What a text. Probably could use a break after that.

Right? But it begs the question, because if we leave here now and just go back to the humdrum of our lives and we go out for brunch and we just start talking politics, we will miss the moment. We have a moment of clarity because I believe by God's grace, we've had the privilege of gaining a knowledge of and possibly even a proximity to the ultimate power of the universe this morning. But only you and I today can ask, seek, and knock for more relationship with the God of the universe. And ask him to grant that.

And so what should we do with such a passage? Simply, we should do what Paul did and pray. We go to the power. But we don't pray as westerners do. Dear God, help me be more alive than you.

Amen. And then on to my tasks. Oh, God didn't answer that prayer. No. No.

No. I think it's a more deeper, possibly even more complex and complicated prayer Because God wants to enlighten the heart. Well, the heart's buried. Therefore, we must dig things up and pray informed and deeply self aware prayers from the heart, so he can do the work of changing it. Close by submitting to you, there's three things that we should do with this.

First, we should diagnose the heart and its wanderings. Two, we should awaken the heart and its longings. And three, we should ask God to then enlighten our hearts. First, diagnose the heart. Remember my coaching client, his proximity to the powers of the day had made him bitter, burdened, and bound up.

Which one are you today? Are you bitter? Do you find yourself angry at life? Why is life like this? You've experienced pain and suffering, or you will, or you've seen it in others.

And we feel like life is too hard, too unfair. And so in the quiet of the night, we ask ourselves, perhaps there there might be another power out there that can make me safe. But until I find it, I fight for myself and my own with a bitter anger. Are you burdened? Do you find yourself afraid?

Seeing life's dangers and asking why is life so scary? We see the looming catastrophes in the world, in our families, in our bodies, and we become buried under a mountain of fear that sends us spinning. And so we seek to cope with this fear by trying to find anything, anything that will distract us for a moment. And we run and we flee the vulnerabilities of life. Or are you bound up?

Do you find yourself feeling helpless? Paralyzed because you realize come to the inevitable reality, we have no power in ourselves. And so we just stay in a helpless state, a victim state, because who could contend with the forces of evil and the brokenness that we experience? We freeze. Friends, these are just three of many symptoms of being in proximity to knowledge of and relationship with the powers of the world, sin, and Satan.

I know from my own personal experience. Emptiness or meaningless in life. Perhaps, life utility has run you down. Maybe, you're paralyzed by the demands of life that require more from you. More energy, more competence, more wisdom than you currently have.

Fill in the blank. There is no shortage of reasons, friends, to fight, flight, flight, or flee. Unless we find a larger power that dislodges it. But I have good news. If you can identify with any one of those wanderings of the heart, if you can diagnose one today, then I have good news.

God's on the move and he's attempting to enlighten your heart here today, And giving you awareness, even wooing you to take the next second step which is to awaken the heart. Paul wants our hearts to be enlightened, uncovered, dug up, made new. So we need to know what does the heart want. What spiritual desires do we have? Do we have any?

Why or why not? The real question here today is, do you want to go from bitter, burden, and bound up, Or would you prefer to slowly and steadily, over time, walking with Jesus to become grateful, glad, and gritty folk in his presence? To become grateful for a hope rooted in our past that's unchanging, that chases away our guilt and shame, so we can sit quiet with a peaceful contentment that we are safe and we are loved. To become glad that we're included in his inheritance, knowing one day that we will be with him and he will fulfill our deepest desires and our design, so that you can live now genuinely looking forward to the future with joy. Or to become gritty in the indwelling and measurable greatness of the power of God, becoming an agent of His power in the world that fulfills our calling and our mission and the adventure of following him for a lifetime.

So that we can live life alive with a purpose and a confidence despite opposition. Which one of those calls to your heart today? Which one is maybe awakening some desire? Because if you can feel even just a shred of that longing today, that's God on the move. Breaking through.

He's beginning to enlighten our hearts, and he stands eager to throw kindling around that spark to help you regain a knowledge, a proximity, and a relationship with this true power, the only true power. And he bids you with a fierce gaze and a loving smile to cozy up next to the lion of Judah and trust him to renew our hearts and to live in his complete power today. Because if we've diagnosed the heart and we've awaken the heart, then we have one final step. We pray that God may enlighten our heart. We go to the power who spoke the world into existence, who walked, who marched step by step through the gates of hell with the swagger of a conquering hero, casting our shackles into the fire, and then ran back up those steps, bursting from the tomb in power.

He was he is raised from the grave. Which is why Paul said in the text that God has is the only one with power to enlighten and change us. And what we must do here today is to gain knowledge of, a proximity to, and a relationship with, and trust him to do the rest. Please pray with me. God in heaven, we pause and we ask, we beg, we plead that you enlighten our hearts to the glory of your power today.

Don't let us go. Don't let us leave. And so we wanna stop and stare with the eyes of our heart at the immeasurable greatness of your past, present, and future power, and ask that you make our hearts swell with the desire of more. We need you, God. Our days are full of troubles and trials, pains and sufferings, and we grow weary.

And so we pray against the forces of evil that wants to steal, kill, and destroy, and ask that you protect this spark of your glory that you revealed in your word today, and turn it into a fire that consumes us and fills us. Amen. Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast. If you would like more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchind.com.