03-Ephesians: “Why Do Christians Live Spiritually Broke?” | Ephesians 1:15-18

Chapter 1: Intro: Why Do Christians Live Spiritually Broke?

Well, last week we walked through Paul's waterfall in Ephesians 1:es 3-14, which was one unbroken sentence in Greek where we were where we saw that we were blessed by God, where we saw that he has chosen us, where he has adopted us, where he's accepted us, where he's redeemed us, where he's forgiven us, and where he's sealed us with his own Holy Spirit. and that because of that, our inheritance with him is guaranteed. But here's the question that follows. If all of that is already true in our lives, if we're already redeemed, if we're already forgiven, if we're already sealed, then why do so many believers walk as though they're spiritually broke? Why do we live in fear? Why do we live in fog? in spiritual stagnation when the riches of his glory have already been deposited into our accounts.

That's exactly where Paul is going as we enter into verse 15 this week. And Paul is going to start with this word therefore that follows what follows is the beginning of one of the most powerful prayers in all of scripture.

Chapter 2: The "Therefore" of Verse 15

Let's start in Ephesians 1 verse1 15 that reads this. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you. Now, something you need to understand if you haven't heard me say this already, maybe you've forgotten it or maybe uh you've never heard it to begin with, is when in in the word of God, when you see that word therefore, what it's doing is it's going to explain to you what previously was therefore. It's a nice little Bible study indicator of what is happening. So in this case, having just read the beautiful one sentence masterpiece that Paul had preached in Greek of 202 words of just a continuous sentence, that waterfall that I described where we learned that we are chosen, where we're adopted, where we're accepted again, where we're redeemed, where we are then have the mystery revealed. seed.

We see the inheritance obtained. We see the Holy Spirit has sealed us with his promise. And we also have seen that we have the guarantee of our inheritance. Now, again, I want you to look and think back to that list I just said, right? We're chosen.

We're adopted. We're accepted. We're redeemed. We're sealed. We're guaranteed.

So again, I'll ask, why do so many Christians, and maybe you're one of them, and again, I'm not going to look at anybody in particular, maybe you're one of them who's living as though you're spiritually broke. Why do we walk around like we're empty when the king has already again filled our account?

Chapter 3: Why Give Thanks? Faith Is Concrete

Now, look at what Paul says next in verse 16. He says, "Do I do not cease to give thanks for you?" He says this to the Ephesians. But why why give thanks for believers who are believers? I mean, sure, it's nice to be not be alone. I mean, Paul's in prison, and so it's got to be something kind of nice that he's like, "Okay, I'm glad you guys are out there, but why is he doing this?" You see, there's another section of the therefore that needs to be noted.

So whereas verses 34 3-14 describe the reality of a believer, each item we discussed is true of the believer. They're promises. They are the inheritance inheritances. But but notice what Paul says right at the beginning of verse 15, which is easy to miss. after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. What Paul is saying when he mentions the faith, this is not abstract.

This is not just some quaint generic saying. Paul is being very concrete here. It's significant. It's something powerful that's being commuted communicated right there in the middle of the Roman Empire. Now, we ask this question then, but what is faith?

Faith is what I call here at Sunrise a little big word. It's something really that drives many people nuts because it seems to be very abstract. A lot of people ask, well, how in the world can I have faith in something that I cannot see? But I'm going to tell you right now, when we say that, it's very nonsensical because we put our faith in things all the time that we cannot see. Like for example, when we walk outside, you're going to see the beautiful sunlight that is there.

That sun is there because there's a core that's burning. We had we do you ever think, "Ah, it's going to stop today." Or do you have faith? No, it's going to persist. Why do you think that? Because it's persisted your entire life.

Every time you breathe in, do you have to think about the fact that there's oxygen is coming in or you just have faith that it's going to be there? How about when you're flying on a plane? Now, some of you struggle with faith when it's flying on the plane, but you generally have faith that the wings are going to stay on the plane. And if you've ever flown, there have been some times where maybe you questioned whether or not the wings were going to stay on the plane, but they still stayed on the plane. Right?

When you're on a roller coaster, you have to have a measure of faith that it's going to stay on the tracks. And the people that worked on that stuff have done their due diligence to make sure that it stays in the tracks. When you walk into this room, you have faith that the ceiling is not going to collapse in on us. Right now, you're all sitting in these chairs and you have faith that those legs are going to hold you and you're not going to collapse right where you sit. We demonstrate faith in things that we cannot see on a consistent and constant basis.

These and so many more things we blindly put our faith in. But Paul here is acknowledging that their faith in something that's far beyond any of these things that we've just discussed. faith in something that will never fail because we're honest about everything that we're just talked about. Every one of them can fail eventually, right? Eventually, this roof will not be standing. Eventually, the sun will burn itself out.

Eventually, everything in this world will change. But there is one who does not change.

Chapter 4: Kyrios: Jesus Is Lord, Jesus Is YHWH

And that is our Lord, our God, and our Savior. Paul says the Ephesians faith is in something again that will never fail. But why? Well, to answer this, we remember a word that we were introduced to last week and it's this word curios or lord. We remember that this word for the Ephesians, their entire society would have used it for Caesar because they had emperor worship.

You were required to worship the emperor. The emperor was considered to be a god and you must worship him. And here Paul is saying, "No, your curios, your Lord, your God is Jesus." And something for you to know is the Old Testament translation in Greek called the Septuagent, it uses curios for a word you may know called Yahweh or God's covenant name for himself in Hebrew. What what is being said here is that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is God.

Jesus is

Chapter 5: Love Is the Evidence of Genuine Faith

Yahweh. But there's even more to be thankful for. Paul is saying that I'm thankful for the love for all the saints. And we think about the second greatest commandment. We use this here often at sunrise, which is to what?

Love God and love people. Right? What is the first word of the fruit of the spirit? Love. Right?

Amen. Galatians 5:6 reads this. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. John 13:35 says this of the believers. By this all will know that that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another, if we have faith in Christ, it will be seen in and through our love for one another. love, Christlike, real true love evidenced in one's life demonstrates that a believer is genuine. It shows that they're truly Christ and that they

Chapter 6: Paul's Prayer: Wisdom and Revelation

share in his eternal inheritance. Now this brings Paul to making mention of you in my prayers that God of our that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give to you the wis the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. Now when we initially read this it might feel a bit benign benign. He's he's making mention of something something like, you know what? Um, I hope that I'm going to remember to make mention of such and such a thing in a meeting, right?

Really, it's like not nothing seems too overly special about that. But if we could read it in its original, Paul is holding the Ephesians in active memory before God. It's not a passing thing for him. It's something that he's keeping right in front of God. He's bringing them up and he's keeping them up in prayer before God.

But prayer for what? What Paul then says is amazing. He's praying for them to have the spirit of wisdom. Uh this spirit being numa. This is where we get this idea or the the wording for the Holy Spirit.

He's not praying for them to have the Holy Spirit. We've already acknowledged that. But what he's praying for is that they would have this spirit of wisdom themselves. Paul is praying for these believers to have a disposition towards an attitude of wisdom. Specifically, the wisdom we talked about last week.

This wisdom that comes from above, this wisdom that is different than the wisdom of the world that we saw in James 3:17. Now this word wisdom is in English this word Sophia. Sophia or wisdom Sophia is the name but means wisdom. Sophia is not just some abstract intellectual capacity that that we have in Greek the thought and especially in bib biblical use is that this wisdom is being applied. It's not just knowing something.

It's actually utilizing actively this wisdom. This it's the skill of seeing reality as it actually is and acting according to it. The best way I can describe this is if you guys ever had that thing where you have this aha moment, you're in the middle of a situation and it's almost like your eyes are opened and you see things differently for the first time. Maybe you're struggling like we we had a situation this morning and they shall remain unnamed, but I was working with someone this morning and we were battling with something earlier in the week and then we show up here this morning and suddenly it all just works. It's like I don't know what happened between last Monday and what happened between now, but suddenly the eyes were opened and every m thing made complete and absolute sense.

That's what Paul is talking about here. And then he says this revelation in the knowledge of him.

Chapter 7: Epignosis: Knowing Christ Experientially

This goes back to this word nosis, this word knowledge. But what Paul is using here is he's going to augment it. He's going to make it even more powerful. And he adds to it. He calls it epigenosis, right?

It's this full thorough experiential knowledge. It carries this sense of knowledge that's been internalized and has moved from imp from information to comprehension and almost like you have a relationship with that knowledge. It's this thing that I I don't know about you, but when I was young, I thought I knew everything. Anybody else here think that? And then you got older and realized you didn't know diddly squat.

And then suddenly you like because of all of the the things that life deals you, you suddenly start having those like oh and and now you suddenly start finding out that you can you can use this knowledge that you've gained powerfully to to overcome things like fear. Right? Suddenly you're like I'm not held by fear anymore. And the reason why this is powerful is because this is the kind of thing when you have a relationship with the truth of who Jesus is, it changes your life, right? Because when I was a young man, I remember this.

True confessions from Pastor Chris. So when I was a young man, I knew Jesus. I believed in Jesus, but I lived in fear. Anybody else relate with that? And I made stupid decisions with things.

I I you know you you stupid decisions with money, stupid stupid decisions with talent, stupid other different decisions and then you're like man if I only knew back then what I know now how would that have changed your life and and that's the thing that I'm finding now. Things that used to terrify me don't terrify me anymore. Why? Because I know he holds everything. I have a more of a relationship with this knowledge of who the Lord Jesus is.

It's almost like he's opened up the eyes of my understanding.

Chapter 8: Open the Eyes of My Heart (Kardias)

Open up your eyes of understanding being enlightened that you may know what is in the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? This eye of understanding, right? it. This the thing that's interesting here is a lot of times epigos that I just talked about will be translated as understanding. But Paul's not using that epigenosis right now.

He's using another word that is here. There's a couple different words, but the one that you guys are really going to relate with is this word cardius. Now, when I say cardius, what does that sound like to you? Cardiac. Everybody's like, especially those of that getting older, right?

Cardiac arrest. But yeah, heart. So cardius equals cardiac equals a heart. Paul is talking about open the eyes of my heart Lord. This is literally what he is saying.

Open the eyes of my heart. And the thing is though is when we think about in our culture heart, what do we think about the heart as? We think of it as the seat of our emotions. But this is not what Paul would have thought. This is not what Paul's audience in Ephesus would have thought.

The heart was something very different for them. Let me see if this sits different for you. Think, think about what I'm about to say. Open the eyes of my intellect. Open the eyes of my will.

Open the eyes of my affections. Open the eyes of my moral compass. Paul is praying that everything that they are almost like he's saying in a different way. Open up my heart, soul,

Chapter 9: Walk in the Light: The GPS Illustration

mind, and strength. Open everything that I am of you to be enlightened. Paul's not asking God to enlighten the Ephesians for the first time, though, right? The way Paul writes this doesn't allow for like him saying like, "Hey, I would do this for the first time." Instead, he's praying that they would walk in the light that they've already received. Family, how many of you are not walking in the light that you've already received?

How easy is it for us to have a relationship with Christ and just almost like, what do we say? Hide it under a bushel. No, I'm going to let it shine. Right? We need to live in this light that we have received.

And we have to allow him to lead. We have to allow him to guide. Now, I was looking for illustrations for this. Now, some of you are going to relate with these with this. Some of you are not.

Any fans of GPS in here? Okay, we got two or three, four. All right, the rest of you, this isn't going to relate, but I'm going to say it anyway. Okay, now imagine you've never been to this place and you pop it into the GPS and you're driving along. Now, a lot of you are going to relate with this thing.

It's like turn right in a quarter mile. Well, that doesn't look like the right way to go. Turn right in 500 ft. I'm telling you, that's not the right way. I'm going to keep going straight.

Now, what happens when you go straight? You end up stuck in traffic and you're sitting there and it's like at the earliest opportunity, make a U-turn. Like, what are you? I'm stuck. That's our life so often, right?

We know the direction we need to go. God has made so much plain to us how we should live our lives. But what do we end up doing? I know better. I got this figured out.

I don't need the word of God.

Chapter 10: Hope: Confident Expectation, Not Wishful Thinking

Now Paul continues on and says this hope of his calling. Now, when we think of the word hope, many of us think of wishful thinking. I'm I'm hoping that if I don't listen to the GPS, I'm still going to get there on time, right? We think about wishful thinking. This isn't what Paul's talking about.

He's not talking about like some of you, well, if some of you are like, I hope it doesn't rain today. I'm just going to tell you, I hope it rains today. I know it's not going to rain today, but I hope it rains today. But we get you get what I'm saying, right? I I hope that my favorite sports team wins.

I hope the church is going to be packed out someday. I hope that we're going to build the the the expansion over here at some point. But Paul here is talking about something different altogether. Paul has a confident expectation of a future good that is grounded in a promise from a faithful God. That is his hope.

Do you hear the difference in that? It's the me coming in here and saying like, I know every chair is going to be packed out at some point. I know that's going to get finished because God is faithful. It's different than this passing hope that we have. Our hope, family, is in our God.

Not for a maybe, not for a may, might be, but it will be. All of these promises that he's talked about. It's not a passing hope. It is a confident hope that these things are going to be accomplished and are for everyone who has been called. So, we're hopeful because we have been called and accepted the call.

We've been adopted and we've

Chapter 11: The Riches of Your Inheritance

been granted the riches of his glories of his inheritance. Now, you might be asking, "Well, Pastor Chris, what does this even look like? What are these riches that you're talking about?" And I am glad that you asked. The first one is he has prepared a place for us in the father's house. Amen.

We read this in John 14. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.

And where I am, there you may also be. This is not a passing hope. This is an assurance, a absolute hope of a thing that we have to look forward to. Next is a resurrection body. And everybody said, "Who's over the age of 30?" Amen.

And I say 30 because that's when I woke up and it was like the strange pain started. But we look forward to this resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body sown in corruption is raised in incorruption. It is swn in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is swn in weakness raised in power. It is swn in natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.

Family. We have a affirmed hope of what is to come for that new body. Amen. All right. Then we have the imperishable inheritance that's kept in heaven.

Peter says this in 1 Peter 1. He says, "According to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved for you in heaven." family. This inheritance that we look forward to, that we have a definitive hope for, it does not pass away, right? We have all been trained since we were young, stuff ends, right? We lose people.

We lose family members. Again, we already mentioned the body begins to break down and fall apart. You know, many of you have had that car that you started with. You drove it off the lot and if you kept it long enough, eventually it like fell to the ground, right? Things break down.

But not this. This is an eternal hope that we look forward to. This is our inheritance. We also have will be reigning with Christ. Right?

If we endure, we shall also reign with him. That's rule with him. Like kings and queens. So like when you hear princes, princesses, kings and queens, and those kinds of things, we are his kids. If you are a child of the king, an adopted child of the king, what are you?

I know you don't like we've been trained not to say these things, but we are royalty. We are told in the word we are a royal priesthood, right? We are his. Amen. To him who over overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

And I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. The riches include delegated authority. We're not merely admitted to he to heaven. We are seated. we will reign. So many people, again, the people who walk around thinking that they're broke, think that they're just going to find some corner in heaven somewhere to set up like a little shack, get their little cardboard box, and live like a street person in heaven.

That's not what we're called to. That's not our hope. We are royalty. We are his kids. And then we have the unveiled vision of Christ, beloved.

We are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed when he I should just stay down here. Be with him for we shall see him as he is. We shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads. The riches include the direct unbiated vision of Christ.

We what Moses could not see in this life. We will look in the face of God for all of eternity. That's amazing, family. And then we will be part of the new heavens and the new earth. Peter again says this in second Peter chapter 3.

Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Then Revelation 21. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea.

The riches include renewed creation, not escape from a material world, but the material creation itself made new. I know for some of you, you're like, "Wait, what? I don't sit on a cloud somewhere with a harp?" Nope. That's not what happening. But we don't have time to talk about all that right now.

But just understand, God is going to make all things new. We get a new body. All of creation gets made new. the heavens and the earth all made new. And then the riches are inexhaustible, displayed across the ages. Ephesians 2:7 says that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ.

Family, many of you have watched a lot of money disappear. You've lost things. You've had things repossessed. You've seen people destitute and that is not going to be our end. There will be no end to the riches that our king has set and prepared for us.

So now I want us to think back to this

Chapter 12: You Are His and You Are Treasured

list. A prepared place, a new body, an inheritance that cannot fade, a throne, the face of Christ, a new creation, riches displayed for endless ages. family, we need to stop living like we're broke because we're not. If you confessed, if you believed, you're his. If you've confessed, you believed, you have an inheritance as one of his saints. You're a member of the bride of Christ.

You're part of the church. As a bride of Christ, Paul was going to say this later in Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And then in revelation, let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints family.

We are his. We are his who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works. Family we are his treasured possession. But God demonstrates his own love towards us that while we were still sinners he did what? He he died for us.

Family again that tells us how much we are absolutely treasured. We're treasured beyond anything that you could hope, think, dream, or imagine. And I know you're like, "Well, not me." I love to tell this to some of you. Some of you have heard me say this to you. You are not the one special person that he didn't die for.

You're not the one special person who's not worth his life. He died for everyone. Yes, even you. Yes, even me. Yes, even that person.

Chapter 13: Stop Living Broke. He Was Broken for You. You're like, "There's no way that person is not redeemable." Yeah, that person too. That's how much he values us, how much he treasures us. Now, family, I want I want us to look at what Paul prayed over us and what he prayed over the Ephesians.

He gave thanks for for our faith. He gave thanks for love. He asked God to flood with the spirit of wisdom and experience our knowledge of Christ. He prayed that the eyes of our hearts, our whole inner person would be enlightened and to see what is already ours. And that is my prayer for so many of us.

That we would actually live like we're saved. That we would live like we're loved. That we would live like we're treasured because we are. So hear me. I want you to hear me right now.

You're not broke if you are his. I want you to let that resonate for a second. If you're his, you're not broke. You have access to more than you can possibly imagine. You've been chosen.

You've been adopted. You've been accepted. You've been redeemed. You've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. A place has been prepared and is waiting for you.

A resurrection body is coming for you. An inheritance that cannot fade is reserved for us in his glory. And the throne to reign from. The unveiled face of Christ is just waiting to be seen. And the new heavens and the new earth are waiting to be lived in.

Riches so vast that God will spend eternity unpacking them. And in the middle of it all, you're not just his. Again, you are treasured and counted as worthy of his life. So, this week, I want us to think about doing a few things. First, walk in the light that you've already been given.

Walk in the light that you've already been given. Stop ignoring it. Stop ignoring that little voice that's trying to tell you which direction you should go because for some reason, you think you know the right way to go. Second, pray Paul's prayer over yourself and someone else that you love. There are people right now in your life that need to know this truth.

There are people in this life that need to know the truth of the gospel in their lives. And third, live like someone Christ counted worth his life. Again, I don't know how often you remind yourself of that because it's really easy to listen to the nonsense that people try and beat us up with about how terrible we are. Some of you have grown up in that. Some of you have these voices inside your head that tell you how worthless you are, how useless you are.

But you need to start speaking the truth. That at least for the one who really matters, he says you're worth it. You're worthwhile. That you're special. that you're amazing, that you're loved, that you're talented, that you're gifted, and that he wants a relationship with you, and that he can work miracles in and through your life. Even in this world, when you start thinking that you're not enough, remind yourself that he made you enough.

Stop living broke because he's already been broken for you.