6 Objectives in the realm of Decision Making

Decision Making

1. To rarely make decisions on the fly, excepting of course when circumstances force me, and to consistently plan ahead, exercising the foresight that characterizes wisdom.
2. To communicate well with Ashley throughout the decision-making process, taking the initiative in engaging her thoughts with my own.
3. To not employ the tactic of unnecessary stalling in making decisions and thinking things through, but instead to develop intentionality in all my decisions.
4. To make an important decision only after reasoning it out closely, such that I could give a good account for why I chose the way I did.
5. To always refrain from making unnecessary decisions or fretting over things that are not my concern.
6. To trust God's providential guidance of my understanding of a situation, knowing that he will never leave me without necessary knowledge to make a decision when I must make it, and that I need do is make the best decision with the wisdom that he has given me.

4 Objectives in the realm of Physical Health and Condition

Physical Health and Condition

1. To have a solid regimen of physical training including both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
2. To take good care of myself physically, remembering that I am not a disembodied spirit, but at the same time never to value my own physical well-being above faithfulness to God's call on my life.
3. To enjoy regular walks both for the physical benefit and also the spiritual refreshment gained thereby.
4. To eat in a generally heathful manner, but not to obsess over food or matters related to food, since the kingdom does not consist in such things but in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

6 Objectives in the realm of Intellectual Pursuits

Intellectual Pursuits

1. To be always learning and reading and thinking, since there is so much to be gained by getting wisdom.

2. To be regularly exercising and seeking to gain something by my knowledge of ancient languages, and therefore to make time for original language reading and study.

3. To find a balance in my intellectual pursuits between biblical and theological studies and the classics of literature, as a means of mediating the gospel to the culture.

4. To always have a list of books to be working through, and to have that list be varied to encourage my breadth of understanding as well as hone my expertise.

5. To effectively communicate to whatever audience I speak to by avoiding or explaining technical jargon and by engaging their life situation.

6. To relish listening to sermons, and not just giving them, and thereby to convict my own heart as well as learn from others.

6 Objectives in the realm of Values

Values

1. To regard knowledge as a means to the end of blessing others and living life to the glory of God.

2. To value personal faithfulness to God and godliness as infinitely more important than any spiritual gift, lest at the last I hear from my Maker, "Depart from me, for I never you, you that work iniquity."

3. To value faithfulness to Ashley and my future children above any ministry hopes or plans, trusting the providence of God and seeking first to discharge faithfully the duties he has clearly given me before those that are less clear.

4. To esteem highly the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood, and therefore to be willing to pour out my life for her in service.

5. To be a pioneer in raising the standard of knowledge in the church and combating the anti-intellectualism that has kept so many from experiencing the freedom of the gospel, since it is knowledge of the truth that sets us free.

6. To not waste time in trivialities, but instead to redeem the time in the most profitable way for Christ's glory and the good of his church.

7 Objectives in the realm of Relationships

Relationships

1.To have many relationships at balanced levels of intimacy, able to be very intimate with a few (Ashley and 1-2 close friends), somewhat intimate with a little bit of a larger group, and more surface level with the very many; and to be skilled at cultivating all kinds of relationships.

2. To always have free and open lines of communication with Ashley, and to do whatever it takes to maintain those.

3. To be the type of follower that I myself would most like to lead: faithful and humble and proactive and submissive.

4. To be so consumed and amazed by the free gracious love of God for me, that I have no desire or need ever to manipulate any of my earthly relationship.

5. To never use the "cultivation of relationships" as an excuse for undue indolence, when such cultivation is not biblically aimed.

6. To always be entrusting to God those I have relationships with, pointing them away from myself and to Christ.

7. To intentionally pursue gospel-focused interactions with people, and to always be seeking wisdom by asking others good questions.

8 Objectives in the realm of Emotions

Emotions

1. To be like Christ in sympathizing and empathizing with the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those around me.

2. To be continually investing significant emotional weight in several discipling relationships at a time.

3. To often be brought to tears by the mere contemplation of someone else's predicament.

4. To have a real and growing measure of sympathy for and awareness of the needs of the third world, and especially God's people there.

5. To always conquer discouragement about the usefulness of my work or my lack of more time for preparation with the sweet savor of God's providence and the peace that passes understanding in Christ.

6. To have a steady and strong emotional disposition that is not rocked back and forth by the waves of every fad because it is so constantly engaged in affection for Christ and love for his gracious purposes.

7. To always admit of increase in my love and devotion to the Lord, and because of love for him to Ashley, my family, my church, my friends, my acquaintances, and even those who would call themselves my enemies.

8. To be constantly excited and exuberant in the prospect of fruitful service in all areas of my life.

10 Objectives in the realm of Ministry Skills

Ministry Skills

1. To be overflowing with godly affections for spiritual things, and so winsomely attracting others to the things of God, seeing every personal interaction as an opportunity to glorify Christ.
2. To administer and delegate ministry responsibilities in a way that honors God, reflecting high esteem for him as well as the nature and gravity of the office he has called me to.
3. To work in an organized and efficient manner which takes into account how God has wired me and how I may most effectively serve him.
4. To labor in a finely tuned balance between liberal understanding and specialization, in a way that maximizes my contribution to the kingdom.
5. To pray for and pursue opportunities to explain the gospel to those who have not heard, those who have up to now rejected it, and those who profess believe but belie their words by their lives.
6. To be wholeheartedly devoted to the more personal means of edifying believers, like small groups and mentoring relationships, as well as skillful in their use.
7. To know the Biblical text so well and competently that I excel in teaching it and applying it to specific circumstances and contexts.
8. To be able at any time to offer up Biblically saturated prayers for any circumstance or occasion on anyone's behalf for such ends as God has promised to bless and in a manner that glorifies him.
9. To have a thorough mastery of the interplay between the Christian faith and all forms of learning and knowledge.
10. To be constantly engaging the Biblical text with issues of the surrounding culture, out of the overflow of my natural life and thought.

8 Objectives in the realm of Spirituality

For my internship with the College Ministry at College Church, I have been working for some time on a Growth Covenant, meant to focus my efforts to grow in various ways for the sake of serving God and his church. As part of the process I came up with lots of big picture objectives in these various categories of growth. I've tried to garner these objectives from God's Word, and so I thought that they in particular might be helpful to others. I know it was an illuminating process for me just to be able to set down in writing what I really think I should be aiming for as a Christian. Here's the first set:

Spirituality

1. To read the Scriptures regularly, delighting myself in frequent meditation on the riches of God's word.
2. To be a man of prayer, one devoted to praying for God's purposes in the world, and especially his church, with vigor and devotion.
3. To rely upon the love of the Father in the close presence of Christ as mediated through the Holy Spirit during all my daily activities.
4. To have my mind and heart so well tuned together that in any study my heart sings for joy in doxology to him in whom all wisdom and knowledge consist.
5. To be more and more conscious of my absolute depravity apart from Christ, and thus have a sweeter and sweeter relish in his undeserved love for me.
6. To walk always in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and not according to the flesh, as I seamlessly move from compartment to compartment of my life and labor.
7. To be a man in whom the fruits of the Spirit are truly blossoming, and not merely one operating effectively in spiritual gifts.
8. To use and cultivate the gifts of the Spirit in all love and regard for the building of the church and the glory of Christ.

A New Kind of Human: 7 Characteristics of the New Human

This is the third and final segment of my sermon on Ephesians 4:17-25, entitled "A New Kind of Human", delivered to Marion Park 7/11/09.

Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 4:17-25.

II. The Characteristics of the New Human
Ephesians 4:20-24:
²⁰But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
1. They have Heard about Christ

2. They have been Taught the Truth in Jesus

3. They Put Off the Old Humanity

4. They Know the Old Human is Corrupt and its Desires Deceitful

5. They are being Renewed in the Spirit of their Minds

6. They Put On the New Human

7. They are Created in the Likeness of God in True Righteousness and Holiness

1. They have Heard about Christ
-Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. To understand the coming of the Messiah as the Savior of the world they must have heard something of Adam, the fall of mankind, and thus the nature of the old humanity, the patriarchs and God's dealings with Israel, all of which point to the need for Christ. Then they hear of the entrance of Jesus onto the stage of history to fulfill all righteousness. He perfectly lived out the law, being God's true Son, his genuine Israel, the ultimate prophet and teacher, a healer and wonder-worker with all authority, a king to lead God's people and subdue their enemies, a priest to mediate between us and the Father, the all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins in his death, and the authentication of the hope he offers us in his resurrection from the dead.
-This phrase may also be translated not just "heard about him", but "heard him", "assuming you have heard Christ himself". Merely hearing the information about Christ may characterize an old human just as well as a new, but to hear him say to you personally, "Come, follow me," with that voice of such authority that you can only walk after him, that is a characteristic of the new human. To have heard him call out to you in the deadness and darkness and corruption of the grave, "Lazarus, come out!" that is something that only those who have been made new have ever experienced. Have you heard Christ?

2. They have been Taught the Truth in Jesus
-Not only have they heard him, but they have followed, they have walked along the discipleship road as learners of Jesus. He has taught them such truth that the shadows of their minds must simply flee away. While he is with them all is bright as day and the lies and vanity and corruption is revealed for what it had always been. They have come to know the truth, and the truth has set them free. They have read the apostolic witness in the Bible, they have heard the word of God preached to them, and it has been applied to their lives in community with other Christians.
-Most importantly the truth in Jesus means that they have been instructed that by faith they have become identified with Jesus, they have been taught how they were grafted in to him and now he is their covenant head, and no longer Adam. By union with him, he bore their sin and purchased them, and they received his righteousness, and through him are brought into relationship with God, in full communion now with the status of sons. Have you been taught the truth in Jesus?

3. They Put Off the Old Humanity
-Paul gives us here the metaphor of taking off clothing to describe how we are to "put off" the old human in us. While we have been made new in Christ, the old garments relating to our old way of life tend still to cling to us and to inhibit us from living as this new kind of human. For the Christian one characteristic of being a new creation is the fact that we keep having to put off the old man. Until our bodies are raised up at the last day to resemble Christ's glorious body, the old human which Paul elsewhere calls the 'flesh' still clings to us and tries to enslave us once again to it. And so the new must continually battle the old for supremacy in this in-between time. Every day we must wake up to decide, "What will we wear today?" And many times throughout the day, we may realize that we must go again to the cross for a new change of clothes. But the good news is that, in this spiritual battle at least, the 'survival of the fittest' is the name of the game. And let me tell you a secret, the new human is far more fit than the old. If God has truly made you new then the old man, though he may cling to you and still war against you, is doomed for extinction. Are you putting off the old humanity?

4. They Know the Old Human is Corrupt and its Desires Deceitful
-New humans know that the old human in them is rotting and decaying. It is being corrupted, corroded in its very nature. What looks like golden treasure is subject to moth and rust and thieves. Just look at any of the things that the old humanity sets its hope on. Money: Well that's gone pretty quick. Human applause: there's always someone new that's going to push you out of the spotlight. Relationships: they never fully satisfy.
-Moreover, all its desires are just a theatrical illusion. They are merely an attempt to deceive. Since they are merely earthly and lack the light of heavenly realities, they lie about the true nature of yourself, of the world at large, and ultimately they lie about God. Paul is talking not only about the gross and visible lusts (like extra-marital sex, drugs, porn, over-eating), but also ambition, cunning and everything which proceeds from self-love or lack of confidence in God. Do you know that the old human is corrupt and its desires are deceitful?

5. They are being Renewed in the Spirit of their Minds
-Jerome: "We are not being renewed in our thinking process apart from the renewal of our spirits. Nor are we renewed in our spirits without thinking. We are being jointly renewed 'in the spirit of our mind.'" Paul seems to imply here the gluing of our minds and spirits together into one cohesive whole. You see, the world separates these things out because it can't keep the spirit and the mind together. For them you can't be spiritual and reasonable at the same time. Christianity is different. New humans are being renewed in the spirit of their minds.
-Paul is also pointing out by this that its not just the worst parts of us need to be renewed, its not just the baser part of our nature, but even the very highest, best and most noble parts of our old nature need to be renewed. This is not just behavior modification that Paul is speaking of. It is not just a new method of actualizing your potential. This is a miraculous renewal in the very deepest part of who you are. By letting in the light of the gospel into your mind more and more, the spirit of your mind actually gets re-hardwired. Your thoughts change. Your inmost desires shift. Your whole person is renewed from the inside out. Are you being renewed in the spirit of your mind?

6. They Put On the New Human
-Not only do we need to put off the old, and be renewed in the very best parts of our inner nature, but we must also put on the trappings of that new nature. This is the same metaphor of clothing from before. New humans are in the process of putting on the clothes of the new humanity. And you know, it is the character of Christ himself, the new man par excellence, that we must put on. We are to adorn ourselves with his righteousness, and to clothe ourselves with his love. His wisdom is to be the crown on our head, and his virtue the belt around our waist.
-You see, God is completely responsible for giving us our new nature. But thankfully that doesn't mean there is nothing for us to do. You get to continually work at putting on the right clothing. Through faith invest yourself with his garments. Live in accordance with your new nature. Be a new kind of human in how you act, how you think, how you live. Remind yourself of your true identity throughout the day. Paul's message is basically this: Dress in accordance with your station. Business men dress like businessmen, children dress like children, policemen dress like policemen, firefighters dress like firefighters, ballerinas dress like ballerinas, tennis players dress like tennis players, and should not Christians dress like Christ? Are you putting on the new human?

7. They are Created in the Likeness of God in True Righteousness and Holiness
-The new human is nothing less than a new creation by God himself. We are made in his own image as at first. He restores to us through Christ what Adam had lost for us through disobedience. While there may be an appearance of righteousness or holiness among the old humanity, it is ultimately false. It is but an appearance or show, without the real substance or power. Only by the new creation of God in the likeness of Christ can anyone share in the true righteousness and holiness of God.

-And you know that's what Paul's been saying all along here. There are no shortcuts to get from the old humanity to the new. Only by God's spontaneous work of new creation in the heart is anyone ever going to be pleasing to him. There is no other righteousness; no other holiness will do. No godlikeness is really godly, except for what comes through new creation. The lines between old and new human have been drawn and they are clear. So now I want to ask you? Do you have the characteristics of the old humanity or the new? Have you been created anew in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness? Or do you still remain in the darkness and deadness of the old humanity? Either way, what you need is Christ? What we all need this evening is the work of Jesus in our hearts and our minds and our spirits to renew us and restore to us his image, so that we might be a new kind of humanity for his own possession and the praise of his glory and grace. So let's all pray for that now together.

A New Kind of Human: 7 Characteristics of the Old Human

This is the second segment of my sermon on Ephesians 4:17-25, entitled "A New Kind of Human", delivered to Marion Park 7/11/09.

Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 4:17-25.

I. The Characteristics of the Old Human

Ephesians 4:17-19:
^"17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."

1. Their Walk is as the Gentiles

2. Their Minds are Futile

3. Their Understanding is Darkened

4. Their Ignorance Alienates them from the life of God

5. Their Hardness of Heart Keeps them Ignorant

6. Their Callous Hearts Abandon themselves to Sensuality

7. Their Greed leads to all kinds of Impurity

1. Their Walk is as the Gentiles
-The old humanity is the regular state of mankind as split up into many nations. The word 'Gentiles' simply means 'nations'. And so what Paul is talking about is the way of life, the walk, of all the nations of people, who don't know God. Everybody grows up in a godless world and is taught to walk as little babies in accordance with that godless world. Nobody is born as a Christian. Nobody comes out of the womb a new human. I've heard people say to me, "Oh my boy, he's just always had such a spiritual connection with God from when he was very little. Oh my niece, she's such a spiritual person, always been just naturally praying from when she was a child." My response is: Oh okay maybe that's so, but that doesn't mean they are new humans, that doesn't mean they've experienced the new birth. Everybody's born an old human, in Adam. This is the regular state of the nations. Old humans are going to walk in this way, they're going to stay old humans unless something radical happens.
-The old humanity is characteristic of the way of humans without God. Normally in scripture the term 'Gentiles' is used to refer to those outside Israel. The irony here is that Paul is telling a bunch of Gentiles, no longer to walk as the Gentiles do, as if they weren't part of that group anymore. You see what Paul's saying is, remember in the OT how all the nations were without God and their thoughts were only evil continually, and then God took this one man Abraham and made him leave his native land, and promised to make him into a great nation, and then after 400 years of captivity God rescued Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and took them into the desert. And then he gave them a law, saying "You're not supposed to be like all the other nations around anymore! I'm making you completely different. Obey my laws and be different and I will bless you! And you will be my own special people for my own possession and I will be your God!" What Paul is saying is, "That's what's going on now! God is now fulfilling his purpose for Israel in you Gentile believers in Ephesus. So don't be like the people around you. They are the Gentiles and you're Israel. So don't be like the nations around you. They all walk like Gentiles."

2. Their Minds are Futile
-Their thinking is vain or futile, without any real purpose, life is void of meaning for them. Do you know people like this? Really the whole world is like this. If you go up to anybody on the street and ask them, "What's the meaning of your life? What's it all about? What is the reason for your existence?" They don't know. :Just passing through." They're like a passing vapor that goes nowhere rather than a steady wind that's going somewhere. They have no ultimate aim or goal, or if they do it is not the type of goal that's worth devoting a life to. "I just want to improve my golf swing." "I just want to get a promotion." "I just want to get enough money to get a new iphone." "I just can't wait to retire and go lie on a beach somewhere."
-Their minds are futile, because their gods are futile. Their minds can rise no higher than forms of things that are actually less than themselves: a golf swing, a promotion, comfort. They are worshiping created things rather than the Creator, and so their mind can have no substance to raise to the level of the image of the Creator God. If you worship an animal, then you're not going to take your mind very seriously. If you worship only your own comfort, then anything higher or of more value than your comfort will be squashed under it. They can't raise to the level of God and so they must sacrifice one aspect of the image of God in them to another aspect of it.The image of God remains in them, yes, but it is made futile because it is defaced by sin and unbelief.

3. Their Understanding is Darkened
-Since their eyes are clouded over no light can pierce through the darkness of their idolatry, and their understanding of the nature of the world and of their own existence suffers. Both in true knowledge of self and knowledge of God they are sadly lacking, because the windows of their mind are shuttered to the bright day of God's Spirit. Though some knowledge remains for them, they live as prisoners in the dim light of their shuttered house, with nothing but flickering lamps inside. They operate well enough indoors, and many have great levels of specialized knowledge of earthly things, but their frame is sickly for want of proper exercise and fresh air and exposure to the heavenly sun. The understanding of members of the old humanity is darkened.

4. Their Ignorance Alienates them from the life of God
-Because their eyes cannot reach above the horizon but they are ever occupied only with things under the sun, they remain ever strangers and aliens to the God who made it all. They are aliens to the covenant and the promises, they know nothing of the moral injunctions of Israel's God, nor do they care for his offer of relationship with himself. Prayer is to them either a ritualistic manipulation of their idol or something with which they have nothing to do. Prayer means nothing to them. God is a strange entity, that may or may not exist, the main point is that they don't care. He's a stranger and they have no desire to get to know him. No interest in really pursuing a relationship with him. They like their country, their way, their existence, their life, and the life of God is completely uninteresting to them.

-My fiance told me about how when she was in Malibu for this Voice Program she was talking with this one girl, who said she was sort of a Christian, but she was dating a non-Christian, and Ashley wasn't sure if there was really any life there for this girl. Well, one of the things this girl said was that she just loved meeting interesting people. But she didn't seem to think my fiance was interesting. Now I'm biased but that sure didn't get her on my good side. But more than that Ashley wondered about what she meant by that. Because who isn't interesting? I mean people are so incredibly interesting! They're people. And yet the real kicker was, this girl was not at all interested in talking about her faith with Ashley, she didn't want to talk about Christianity or her church or God or any of it. Apparently even God was not interesting to this girl. Well, God is the most interesting being in existence! That's a characteristic of the old humanity, not the new humanity. Their ignorance alienates them from the life of God.

5. Their Hardness of Heart Keeps them Ignorant
-Just in case we might be tempted merely to pity their ignorance, and suppose that all old humans need is to be instructed in how interesting God really is, for instance, and then they would be fine, Paul makes clear that its their own hardness of heart that keeps them ignorant. They are deliberately ignorant. They remain in the ignorance of the old humanity into which they were born chiefly due to the hardness of their own hearts. They deliberately shut out the light that would expose them, because they inwardly acknowledge the wickedness of their own deeds. They seek to hide in their ignorance, assuming it to be bliss rather than the hell-hole it actually is, and so they do not come out into the light of day.

-John 3:19-21: "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

6. Their Callous Hearts Abandon themselves to Sensuality
-In the callousness of their hearts they deny their higher nature, forfeiting the higher life which they have the capacity for, and instead, like unthinking beasts, they plunge themselves into their baser instincts. The wisest among them lack foresight, and the psychologist among them cannot diagnose himself. Without hope of understanding themselves they abandon themselves to their own passions and desires, leading to all sorts of licentiousness and sensuality and depravity. They go from high to high, party to party, accomplishment to accomplishment, pleasure to pleasure, leaving a trail of tears in their wake. Everything revolves around their needs, their wants, their dreams, and though they may not like it because it makes them feel bad, they have no choice but to step on the needs, wants and dreams of others in order to get their own.

7. Their Greed leads to all kinds of Impurity
-Since they have abandoned themselves to their desires, they soon find that their lust for more has no bounds. In them is a cavernous hole of thirst that will not be filled, and so they have no recourse but to be greedy for more and more and more. How much will be enough you ask them? And they always reply, "Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more."
-And so addictions of all kinds enslave them. Money, food, sex, human applause, power, success, possessions. They are always trying to find something to feed that voracious hunger inside. And so they go to extremes of impurity in all of these: sacrificing their children to get more money, abusing their bodies with more and more food, feeding the appetite for sex with porn or adultery to the destruction of those they said they loved, jettisoning all their convictions for a chance in the spotlight, manipulating others for their own gain, loading their houses full of stuff that they can neither use nor anymore find, but that chains them down. In all these things they are prisoners of the greed in their own hearts.

Well, thankfully, Paul doesn't leave us there, but he goes on to give us all the characteristics of a new kind of human.

A New Kind of Human: Introduction

This is the first segment of my sermon on Ephesians 4:17-25, entitled "A New Kind of Human", delivered to Marion Park 7/11/09.

Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 4:17-25.

A New Kind of Human
-The Myth of Evolutionary Progress. We've all heard it; we've all encountered it in one form or another. When Charles Darwin wrote his origin of species, he found a willing academic crowd because his theory resonated with the spirit of the age. Progress was the key feeling. Enlightenment confidence in science was already crowding out God or any non-material reality. The idea that has grown up from his legacy is that the origin of all life, including humans, could be explained by incremental changes over time as species adapt to their environments and differentiate, from single celled organisms all the way to humans. Richard Dawkins the ardent atheist and evolutionist said that the question he is most often asked is "What's the next step in evolution for us humans?" It makes sense to ask such a question. If we've changed that much, and we're still progressing, what are humans going to evolve into next?

-Our entertainment has picked up on this question with a vengeance. Think of all the superhero shows or movies, like X-men or Spider-man or Fantastic Four, take your pick really. All of them pose the idea of a mass mutation in which some humans develop powerful abilities, super powers, as a sort of next step for evolutionary mutation. This happens, either cause they are just born different, or because they come into contact with some strange chemical from outer space that prompts the mutation.

-But this isn't just in our entertainment. Some people actually believe this stuff. At its most harmless some talk about the spiritual evolution of humanity referencing humanity's ability to create art and community, to care for its weaker members rather than wiping them out, others await a race of cybernetic brains that will not need to even move because they will have created machines to do everything for them. One article I found online looks forward to Super Humans using the psychic abilities that they already have available to them, literally on the level of moving things with your mind and going beyond the 5 senses with your imagination in order to control the world around you.

-Well, against all this the Bible has something very different to say about the origins and future of humanity, but interestingly, as we'll see in our passage today, it does teach that there is an old kind of human, in Adam, and there is a new kind of human, in Christ, and it teaches us that the only way to become part of the new humanity, the only way to become a new human yourself, is through the mutation, if you will, the new life, the new creation that comes through believing in Jesus Christ. And in the passage that we're going to look at today, Paul explains to the Ephesians the characteristics both of the old human and also of the new human, in order to remind them not to continue to operate as they did before their mutation, before they were fundamentally changed in the core of who they are, but now to operate as befits members of the new humanity in Christ. Because there is a tendency among new humans to still act like they did when they were old humans, and so new humans need to reminded of what they once were like, and how they are now to live. So that's what we're going to look at today, "A New Kind of Human". And Paul gives us in this passage the characteristics of the old human (vv. 17-19) and the characteristics of the new human (vv. 20-24), so that we can learn the difference and so that those of us who believe in Jesus can be sure to live like new humans ourselves.

Bible Study: 2nd Cor 2:14-17

Last evening, I led Bible Study for the College Group at College Church. We always study the passage to be preached in the main service on the following Sunday, and this Sunday Jay Thomas is finishing a 4-part series on the pastor's life as an example for the believer with the topic, "The Pastor Must Suffer as a Servant of the Gospel". The passage is 2nd Corinthians 2:14-17:

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶ to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Because we have such a large group at Bible Study, we first split up into smaller groups to discuss the passage before coming together to bring the fruit of our insights before each other. Here were the directions I gave the small groups:

Everybody: Focus especially on determining what Paul means by “triumphal procession” given the context, what the aroma is about, and the difference between true and false gospel ministers.

Group 1: Look at 1:3-14 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Group 2: Look at 4:7-18 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Group 3: Look at 6:3-13 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Group 4: Look at 7:2-10 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Group 5: Look at 11:21b-31 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Group 6: Look at 12:7-18 for an alternate context of the theme of suffering in 2 Cor, and see how it interacts with our passage.

Then after we all came back together, I led us through this set of questions in order to really bring the passage home for us:

1. What is Paul thanking God for? What does it mean for God to lead us in triumphal procession in Christ?

2. How might the context of Paul's situation inform the meaning of his "triumphal procession"? See especially 2:12-13.

3. What is God's purpose in leading Christians, and particularly apostles like Paul, in triumphal procession?

4. What are the two possibilities for how people react to the aroma of Christ given off by suffering ministers of the gospel? Is this a comfort to you?

5. Why do you think Paul exclaims, "Who is sufficient for these things?" in the middle of this passage?

6. What characteristics define true gospel ministers, as opposed to those he calls "peddlers of God's word"? Look at 4:1-6 as a parallel text.

7. The suffering of gospel ministers is one of the main themes of 2nd Corinthians. How does this passage interact with what Paul says elsewhere in the book about suffering?

I've been pleased to have several people commend how well I did leading Bible Study because of how fruitful the discussion was. I love God's word because if you listen closely to it, it always has astonishingly powerful things to say.

All About Prayer: Who to Pray to

This is the third and final segment of my sermon on Ephesians 3:14-21, entitled "All About Prayer", delivered to Marion Park 6/27/09.
Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 3:14-21.

Who to Pray to

The last question that's Paul's prayer answers very clearly, and in some ways the most important, is who to pray to. And we've see it hinted at as we've been going along, by Paul mentioning the members of the trinity as he prays.

1. The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

-The whole trinity is here in this prayer. We have God the Father as the one that Paul is directing his prayer to (in verse 15). He is asking for the empowering of the Spirit in their inner being (in verse 16), with the goal that Christ will dwell in their hearts through faith (in verse 17). Paul has some clear assumptions about how the members of the trinity work in relation to one another. This is the Biblical paradigm. God the Father is prayed to, and it is by his will, plan and foreknowledge, that he sends first his Son into the world to accomplish redemption, and then both Father and Son send the Spirit into the hearts of people, to glorify Christ in their hearts, applying that redemption in the lives of believers. Of course, when any one member of the trinity is at work, they are all at work and in perfect agreement and concord with him. But nevertheless, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in this constant, loving, perfect relationship. The Trinity defines ultimate reality. From everlasting to everlasting the members of the trinity are constantly relating to each other in perfect fellowship.

-We pray to the Father.

(John 16:23-24) "In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

It's not that if someone gets it wrong and starts talking directly to Jesus, or praying to the Holy Spirit, God's not going to listen to that person. Nor does the fact that you pray to the Father earn you any points with God. No, God looks on the heart. But, it's just the case that Biblically speaking this is how prayer is done. Paul never asks the Holy Spirit to come and fill this place; he always asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit. Paul, or any other NT writer for that matter, never prays to Jesus asking him to apply his own work of salvation to his church. He always prays to the Father.

-We pray in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ. You can see this in the passage above. Jesus’ name, his character, is the ground of our ability pray to the Father. He gives us access to God and it is only on the basis of his merit and his righteousness that our prayers become effective. It is because of the Son that the Father hears us.

-We pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. "He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being". Paul prays for it, but it is also the only way we can pray. "The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words." We need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to pray.

-The whole trinity is active in prayer. The Spirit works in our hearts to inspire us to see the face of God in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we can pray to God with confidence, as we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. We are lifted up from our earthly sphere, into the very life and relationship of the Trinity, which has been going on ceaselessly for eternity past. We pray to the Triune God.

2. The God who is able

(Eph 3:20a) "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think..."

-God's ability is far beyond our ability to imagine. No eye has seen, no ear has hear, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those he loves.

-If you are not praying to the God who is able, you're not praying to the true God. If you’re praying to a God who can’t do something, you’re not praying to the God of the Bible. You’re actually double-minded in your asking, because you don’t really mean it.

(James 1:5-7) ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

-Because we pray to a God who is able and who gives generously to all without reproach, you should have a sweet mixture of confidence in his goodness and submission to his will. Ruth Bell Graham said something very profound about this mixture of confidence and submission: "When I am dealing with an all-powerful, all-knowing God, I, as a mere mortal, must offer my petitions not only with persistence but also with patience. Someday I'll know why." This makes sense given the way Paul talks here. He doesn't just say, "Now to him who is able and always does exactly what we think we want..." He says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us..." God doesn't limit himself, thankfully, to the exact wording of what we ask for. He is able to do far more, and he wants to do far more, and he does do far more. And the joy is that the power at work within us is by the Holy Spirit, the fully God third person of the Godhead, who knows everything about us, and knows from eternity past exactly what we really do need for life and godliness.

3. The God who is at work within the Church for his own Glory

(Eph 3:20b-21) "according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

-The most important thing to keep in mind and to present to God in prayer is the fact that he is at work within you. This is how you can have boldness to talk to a God as marvelous and great as our God, by reminding yourself as you talk to him, of his work in you, of his grace for you, of his love for you. It is only because of his work that we can have the confidence to converse with him about anything.

-He is also at work in the church as a whole. Jesus taught his disciples to pray "Our Father who art in heaven", and the prayer is not an individualized prayer for my needs, but for the needs of the church as a whole. Paul models this by praying for the Ephesian churches, and perhaps the Christian church as a whole. Prayer is not just about receiving a personal high, it's about the church. And it's to the God who is at work within the church and who loves the church so dearly. You're praying to a God who is passionate about his church and so it would make sense for you talk to him about his church. He loves talking about his church, so if you talk to him about his church and ask for good things for his church, it's going to go well; you're going to have a good conversation with him, because he likes talking about that.

-The goal of prayer, like everything else is God's glory. You are praying to a God whose ultimate goal is his own glory. It's not like your talking to an equal where you can trade off or barter with him, you get this thing that you want and I get this thing that I want. I make you look good in this way, if you make me look good over here. That's a surefire way to ruin a prayer. When we do that, we're not really praying to the God who does everything that he does for his own glory. God's goal is to glorify his Son in the church through the enlightening work of the Spirit. And he's not changing his mind anytime soon. So if you're asking for something that doesn't lead to that, you're not being aware enough of who you're praying to. Now, it is true that God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him. God's glory is not inimical to the everlasting happiness of his saints. That's one of the ways he's glorified. But the best prayers are the ones that are designed to glorify God in the world. Do you remember in the wilderness when Moses prayed to God to spare Israel? Do you remember how his argument went? Moses said basically, if you destroy this people now, the other pagan nations who have been astounded by your work in bringing Israel out of captivity, will say that you only brought them out to destroy them in the desert. A lot of times we pray for things that really wouldn't glorify God. In that case, we’re not sufficiently aware of the God we’re praying to. God is always going to act in accordance with his own glory, so there’s not much chance he’s going to hear us if we pray for anything else.

So we pray to a God who is at work in the Church for his own glory.

So who to pray to: 1. The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (We pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.) 2. The God who is able. 3. The God who is at work within the Church for his own glory.

We've looked at why to pray: 1. It's just what Christians do! 2. So that we won't lose heart but will glory in suffering. 3. Because God is sovereign over all creation and the Namer of every family.

We've also looked at what to pray for: 1. Inner strengthening by the Spirit w/ power so that Christ indwells our hearts by faith. 2. Rooting and grounding in love and knowledge of God's unknowable love. 3. Filling w/ all the fullness of God.

And lastly we looked at who to pray to: 1. The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 2. The God who is able. 3. The God who is at work within the Church for his own Glory.

John Bunyan gave an amazing definition of prayer that pretty much sums up my whole message: "Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word of God, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”

All About Prayer: What to Pray for

This is the second segment of my sermon on Ephesians 3:14-21, entitled "All About Prayer", delivered to Marion Park 6/27/09.
Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 3:14-21.

What to Pray for

Paul presents us here with a model prayer, by which we can know better what we should pray for. Just like Jesus gives his disciples a model prayer, which we call the Lord's prayer, so that we can know a basic template of the kinds of things that we should be praying for, so whenever Paul or other writers of the New Testament record their prayers in their writings, we should pay attention. Though they are sincerely and meaningfully praying these things, they wrote them down for our benefit. Paul writes down his prayer for the Ephesians, not because it was a helpful exercise for himself to write out his prayer, but because he thought it would encourage the Ephesians and be a helpful model for them in what to pray for.

1.Inner strengthening by the Spirit w/ power so that Christ indwells our hearts by faith.

(Eph 3:16-17a) "that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith"

-It is inner strengthening that Paul prays primarily for. Not external perks. He’s not praying for them to get out of anything. The one clear time where Paul does pray for the removal of an external trial, the thorn in his flesh, he prays three times and God responds, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." It's the same with Jesus in the garden, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Christian prayer is not first and foremost about being removed from trial, but about the inner strengthening to endure it. Of course, this doesn't mean you never ask for God to take away the problem or the trial. Jesus did. Paul did. But, they prayed for such things in complete submission to the will of God. They prayed with an awareness of the fact that God knows what he's doing and that there's probably a really good reason for the suffering. For Jesus it was because only he could bear the sins of the world and fulfill God's eternal purpose to save you and me. For Paul it was to keep him humble. For you it's probably going to be closer to Paul's reason than Jesus'. It's probably helpful to think about all the trials the Ephesians Christians were most likely going through at this time that Paul doesn't ask God to spare them from. He nowhere in this letter prays for the Ephesians to be more wealthy, though they were probably quite poor. Nowhere does he pray for them to have financial blessing. Nowhere does he pray for them not to be persecuted, though they were being persecuted. Nowhere does he pray for the Ephesian church to live comfortable lives of ease. Nowhere does he pray that God will grant them physical beauty and attractiveness. It's just not on the list. It's not that it's always sinful to pray for any of those things, but if those things are dominating the prayer list, if they're the things that are filling your heart, your priorities are probably out of line with what God most wants for you in this life.

-The inner strengthening is in accord with the riches of his glory. The fact that God is mainly for our inner strengthening is not some sort of useless platitude to make us feel better. It's not some type of emotional or psychological band-aid that we're to just plaster over the wounds of life. Paul is praying for a strengthening that is according to the riches of God's glory. He's not talking about a stoic resignation to your fate, but for riches of glory to well up inside you in the midst of suffering and persecution and calamity. The heavenly glories are actually much, much better than the earthly glories. We often don't really believe that, which is why we don't pray as Paul does. Paul really believes that the best type of riches, wealth and prosperity the Ephesian believers can have is this inner strengthening according to God's heavenly riches of sustenance and power. Paul really believes the best type of glory, fame, and boasting that they could experience is found in the inner strengthening that God provides. It's not that Paul's theology is against the body; no, exactly the opposite, it's incarnational! It's about the God who became man, adding humanity to his divinity, and thus perfecting humanity in the midst of a fallen world, in the midst of trial, by reliance upon the inner strengthening of Holy Spirit.

-The strength comes by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. Just as Jesus relied up on the power of the Holy Spirit we are to pray for him to strengthen us with his power. And the Holy Spirit's power is shown most clearly in weakness. It was the Holy Spirit's power that sustained Jesus when he was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. It was by praying for the Holy Spirit's power and assistance through the night that Jesus chose his twelve disciples. It was the Holy Spirit's power that enabled him to preach effectively. It was by the Holy Spirit's power that he performed many signs and wonders, even casting out demons and reviving the dead, to the point of his own physical exhaustion. It was by the Holy Spirit's power that he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood in anguish. It was by the Holy Spirit's power that he went to the cross and died the death we deserved to die. And it was by the Holy Spirit's awesome power that Jesus was raised from the dead to resurrection life. Don't you want this Holy Spirit dwelling in you with power? Then pray to the Father for the Holy Spirit's inner strengthening with power.

-The goal of the Holy Spirit's work is that Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith. This is what the Holy Spirit's inner strengthening does. The Spirit of Christ brings Christ's very presence into our hearts through faith. Just as the Holy Spirit worked to glorify the Son, while he lived on the earth, now the Holy Spirit works to glorify the Son in the lives of believers. He makes us see Christ for all that he truly is, and he makes Christ to dwell in our hearts, to live and reign at the center of our being, so that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us, giving power to our mortal bodies. The goal of our prayers should not be to gear us up or get us ready to go or to enliven our emotions in any superficial way. The goal of prayer is the Christ-life in us; that Jesus himself through his Holy Spirit would live for us, by living in us. And that is what we so desperately need from God. I'm tired of the tips and tricks, of the patterns and programs to try and make myself do it right this next time, aren't you? I need Jesus to live life in me.

2. Rooting and grounding in love and knowledge of God's unknowable love

(Eph 3:17b-19a) "that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge"

-The love of God must become the roots that bring nourishment to our life. We pray because we need to be nourished by the love of God. And one of the main ways to get this nourishment is to pray to God. The love of someone you really care about, say a husband or a wife, actually has the power to feed you, to sustain you, to help you grow. Love has this power. And so in a relationship like that you regularly remind that person of your love for him or her, and they regularly remind you of the same. And if you were to stop reminding each other, that would be bad for the relationship. How many marriages, I wonder, have slipped down the wayside because the couple thought they'd said "I love you" enough times to each other, and it wasn't worth saying it anymore! And how many Christians have stagnated in their growth by thinking it was no longer worthwhile to go to God in prayer to hear of his undying love for them over and over and over. God wants to tell you he loves you. If we are to become like a tree planted by streams of water, which bears its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither, Christian, we must pray so that our roots go down deep into the love of God.

-The love of God must become the foundation upon which our life is built. Believers are being built up into a glorious temple in which God desires to dwell by his Holy Spirit. What foundation then, do you think will be proper for such a building? If you and I are to be built up into a temple of the living God, what sort of grounding is it on which we are to stand? We should be founded upon the solid rock of God's love, with each stone prayed into its place by applying the mortar of Christ's precious blood. No other foundation will do for such a temple. We must pray the love of God into our bedrock. The sands of passing fads, and self-help books, and mix-and-match philosophies won’t do; the sands of success and fame and money won’t do; the sands of even friends and family, or career and romance will not do; none of these things will stand the test of storms of life let alone the ultimate storm of God's jealous wrath. We must have Christ's love as our grounding.

-We need the strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth. Our capacities for receiving and understanding his love need to be enlarged. That's why Paul prays that we will have strength to comprehend it. We don't naturally have the capacities to really get the love of God. It's just beyond us. So we need to pray, we need to keep drinking in the love of God, so that we can get it more and more. We need to pray through the breadth of God's love, applying it to every sphere of our lives. We need to pray through the length of God's love, contemplating how infinite its measure to us who believe. We need to pray through the height of God's love, grasping onto it whether we be in the depths of the sea or the heights of the heavens. We need to pray through the depth of God's love, letting it sink deeper and deeper into our hearts. And all this can only come if God gives us the strength to comprehend it. O how we need to pray for this!

-Lastly I said that we need knowledge of God's unknowable love. I say unknowable because to know the love of Christ is to know an infinite thing. It surpasses any ability to really quantify it. You don't come to the end of this process. There's no Christian, no matter how holy or adept, that can say, "I've completely comprehended the breadth, length, height and depth of God's love, so I really don't need to pray anymore." It's just not going to happen. God's love is infinite in all dimensions. So even in heaven we will grow more and more in knowing God's love. We will continue to search out its depths for all eternity.

3. Filling w/ all the fullness of God

(Eph 3:19b) "that you may be filled with all the fullness of God".

-The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ to our hearts by faith, and a growing reliance upon knowing God's love for us in Christ, actually lead to our filling with the fullness of God. We should pray for his fullness to fill us up in every way. Colossians 1:19 "For in him [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Ephesians 1:23 "which [the Church] is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all". So Paul says the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ, in its full express during his life and earthly ministry, and now that continues in heaven. And since the church is Christ's body, now are receiving the fullness of God, who fills all in all.

-How can we be filled with all the fullness of God? Well, we'll use the analogy of cups, because it makes it easy to understand. Now if you have a little cup, then the cup can only be filled up with so much liquid and then it is full. And if you have a little bit bigger of a cup, then you can be filled up with a little bit more liquid, and then it's full. And if you have a jug, then it takes a lot more liquid to fill it up. Now if the liquid that you're putting in the cup is living water, if it's the Holy Spirit, the living water that wells up from within, then no matter how big your cup is, even if it's a tiny little cup, when you fill up that cup, it is now filled with all the fullness of God. Because this isn't just any regular old water, this is living water. It’s not just water that runs out when you're done drinking it. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit in us would become a spring of living water, a source from which more water comes. So that as your cup grows into a bigger cup, and then from a bigger cup into a jug, and from a jug into a jar, and from a jar into a basin, and from a basin into a tub, you stay right filled on up to the brim with all the fullness of God.

-If you are filled with any of the fullness of the infinite God, then you have all the fullness of God. You may need to grow in your capacity; you may still become a bigger cup that can be filled with more; you may still grow as a tree, with your roots going down deeper; you may still be built into a bigger and bigger building, but however much you are filled with, you are still filled with all the fullness of God, because he's infinite, even just a little of him is all of him. And so the new believer no less than the tried saint has all the fullness of the infinite God. And you know it's a good thing that this living water continues to well up from within, because I don't know about you, but I leak. My cup has got holes in it. So I need more and more living water to keep filling me up. So we should pray for the fullness of God, and we should continue to pray to be filled more and more and more with all the fullness of God.

So, what to pray for: 1.Inner strengthening by the Spirit w/ power so that Christ indwells our hearts by faith. 2. Rooting and grounding in love and knowledge of God's unknowable love. 3. Filling w/ all the fullness of God

All About Prayer: Why to Pray

This is the first segment of my sermon on Ephesians 3:14-21, entitled "All About Prayer", delivered to Marion Park 6/27/09.
Before continuing you should make sure to read Ephesians 3:14-21.

Since this passage of Ephesians is a prayer, I'm going to deal with three subjects related to prayer today, as we delve into this text. First we're going to look at Why to Pray, then we're going to look at What to Pray for, and lastly we'll deal with the very important subject of Who to Pray to.

Why to Pray
I think almost every Christian has asked the question at one point or another, "Why do I pray?" "What is the purpose, or point, of prayer?" "If God knows everything before I ask him, why ask at all?" Well, the NT is not without answers to that question. Right here Paul records a prayer in his letter to the Ephesian church. And in the way he sets up his prayer, he implies some answers to that question, why pray at all. I can see three of them.

1. It's just what Christians do!
(Eph 3:14) "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father," For what reason Paul? Why do you pray?
(Eph 3:12) "in whom (Christ) we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him." He's talking about prayer there. And if you look back to verse 11 you can that Paul is saying that this boldness to pray and access to God's throne room that we have in Christ was accomplished according to God's eternal purpose.
-The eternal purpose that God has realized in his Son was to restore communion between those who have faith in Jesus and himself. This is why Jesus died! So you could pray to the Father and the Father would hear your prayer. So you could have boldness to enter the throne room, so that you could have confident access to the God who dwells in unapproachable light. Jesus died to restore a right relationship between you and the Father. Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with God in the garden. But sin marred that fellowship, because a holy God cannot walk in the darkness of sinners. We hid from him in the darkness, because our deeds were evil, and we continue to hide from him by avoiding prayer.
-Have you ever wondered about whether or not God hears the prayers of the wicked? Does God hear the prayer of sinners? or does he only hear the prayer of the righteous?
(Proverbs 15:8 and 29)
⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.
²⁹The LORD is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
So it seems like this is saying that God only hears the prayers of the righteous. But this is sort of a trick question, because (excepting Jesus) only the wicked ever pray to God, only sinners ever ask him for anything. No one is righteous, no not one. There is no one who seeks God. But God always hears the prayer of a repentant sinner for mercy. He always hears the prayer of one whom, like Abraham or David, God credits righteousness apart from their own works, but on the basis of Christ's righteousness. This is the reality that Paul has in mind in Ephesians, that by being in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. Prayer is the natural result of being a Christian, and it is the privilege of those who are counted righteous in Christ to be heard by God.

-Christians are people of faith. Our faith is in the work of Jesus, in his substitutionary sacrifice for us, that allows us to enter the holy places into the presence of God. Therefore the natural expression of faith is to pray. Christians pray; that's just what we do!

(Hebr 1:19-22) ¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Jesus' blood gives us the confidence to pray. He opens for us a new a living way through the curtain of his flesh. He is our great high priest offering the once for all spiritual sacrifice that makes God able dwell in our hearts. He is the one that sprinkles clean our consciences and washes our bodies in the pure water of baptism. And this is all so that we can draw near to him with a true heart in full assurance of faith. God's eternal purpose in Christ was that you might be able to pray. It's the very definition of what it means to be a Christian. It’s just what Christians do!

2. So that we won't lose heart but will glory in suffering

(Eph 3:14) "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,"

Paul is telling us why he prays. And this 2^nd reason is in the verse right before our text.

(Eph 3:13) "So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory."

-We are a people who very quickly lose heart. Discouragement is real. In the face of suffering, discouragement happens. It’s something that Christians deal with regularly. Anyone who has earnestly tried to live a holy life before God, to grow in faith, to serve him wholeheartedly in whatever he's called them to do, knows that it can be easy to lose heart. Paul knows this and this is why he prays.

-Paul knows that just giving us commands is not enough. He doesn't just tell us to buck up and keep a good attitude. Just telling us not to lose heart because of suffering is not going to do it. It's not enough. God has to do it. God has to work to make us not lose heart. God has to move us so powerfully that we actually glory in suffering. That's his work, not something we can muster up in our selves, nor should we try to. Paul does give the command; he does give us the encouragement about what we need to do, but then immediately after he goes to prayer. He begs God to do it, to make it happen.

-Paul prays, and prays fervently, because he feels the fact that just exhorting his churches to live like a Christian is not going to do it. You've got to feel your need. You've got to know you really are inclined to lose heart; you’ve got to know that glorying in suffering does not come naturally. You can't just put it on your to do list, and then you'll be fine. If you really feel your need, like Paul, then you will pray. If you think you can do it without God, your not going to have motivation to pray to him.

-Right here we are at the point in the letter where Paul is transitioning from 3 chapters of theology, prayer and worship, into practical commands and exhortations. A lot of what passes for preaching in our churches does not do this because we don't really believe in prayer. If the 3 points of every sermon are "Pray, read your Bible, go to church," then we're simply not preaching and teaching in the way Paul did. Yes, there are things for us to do, and it is necessary to be practical, but if every thing is just "do this, do that" then people are not hearing the gospel. Our message is not the power of men it is the power of God. Paul's teaching was always in the posture of prayer.

-The only way you’re not going to lose heart, but glory in your suffering is if God does it in you. And if you come to him in Christ asking that he keep you from discouragement, and that he grant you the mysterious power to glory in your sufferings, God will not despise that prayer, but will surely grant what you ask for.

3. Because God is sovereign over all creation and the Namer of every family

(Eph 3:14-15) "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,"

-God is not just the God of Israel, he is the God of the whole world. God is not just a tribal deity. He's not just one among many options that you can pray to, hopefully in order to have him do something for you. You’re never going to be excluded on the basis of your family or anyone in your family. No tribe has a particular claim on the Father above anybody else. God is sovereign over all creation and every family in heaven and on earth is named by him, meaning that he owns them all. When you name something you have a sort of power over it, you own it. I was reading a fantasy series recently and one peculiarity that speaks to this issue was that there was this ancient language, in which it was impossible for you to lie, you could not say an untruth in it. And along with this, if you found out the true name of something or someone, then that meant that you would have power over it, you could make it do whatever you wanted. Well, God knows the true name of everything in the world, of every family, every person, everything. God knows perfectly and exactly the true nature of everything and everyone. And with that he has complete power over it all. God is completely sovereign over all creation. If he wants something done, it gets done. There's nothing that God can't do. You can see why it makes sense to pray to him, if that’s the kind of God he is.

-Now, all around the world, people are praying to all sorts of gods; all throughout time, people have been praying to many many, many gods and goddesses; all sorts of little idols, made of wood and stone, or silver and gold, or trees or water or the sun or earth. All around the world, all throughout time, people have been praying to Anvari and Apollo and Ares and Apsu, to Aphrodite and Baal and Brahma and Chalchiutlicue, to Chemosh and Cheng-huang and Dagon and Damkina, to Diana and Dionysus and Enki and Freya, to Gaia and Geong Si and Hades and Huitzilopochtli, to Hsi-Wang-Mu and Ishtar and Isis and Jupiter, to Krishna and Lakshmi and Luna and Mercury, to Mot and Nanna and Neptune and Odin, to Oyamatsumi and Phoebe and Poseidon and Rama, to Seti and Shen Yi and Tezcatlipoca and Utu, to Venus and Vishnu, to Yarikh and Yu Huang and Zeus. And none of them has the power to really answer prayer, and none of them is sovereign over all creation, and none of them knows the true name of everything in heaven and earth, and none of them is the true God but all are a lie. And you and I wonder, Christian, why we should pray to our God? Clearly the human heart naturally gravitates to pray to something. The question is not why to pray, it's not whether to pray, it's who are you actually praying to. Because if you're not praying to the God of the Bible, you're probably praying to some other god of your own devising, you’re probably praying to one of the gods I just named, even if you don’t know it.

So, to sum up, why to pray: 1. It's just what Christians do! 2. So that we won't lose heart but will glory in suffering. 3. Because God is sovereign over all creation and the Namer of every family.