Sermon Series: The Believer's Bank 

Know Your Treasures–Part One 

Ephesians 1:15-18

3/19/00 PSBC PM

In a nutshell: We know we are "getting it" regarding our Christianity, when we see evidences of faith in God's promised blessings and love toward the saints. Four blessings are reserved for those who have faith and love. When we come to God asking for wisdom and revelation, then open our lives up to experience God at work in us, we will receive: 1. The Hope of Our Calling; 2. The Riches of His Inheritance; 3. The Greatness of His Power; and 4. The Supremacy of His Authority.

I. Introduction

A. Hearst Story

There is an interesting story about the wealthy newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst. Hearst, as you probably know, was one of the wealthiest men of his time. And one of the things that Hearst spent a large amount of his fortune on, was collecting art treasures from around the world.

One day, while reading through some books on famous paintings, he found a description of some very beautiful and valuable paintings that he decided he really would like to own. So, he sent his art agent to Europe, to find them and try to purchase them.

After months of searching, the art agent reported that the treasures had been found… They had been found behind some old locked doors in one of Mr. Hearst's warehouses, where they had been stored for years. It turned out that the only key to the lock on the old doors had been lost many years before, so no one had been in the room for years. So, what William Randolph Hearst had so desperately wanted, had been his all the time.

B. Relevance to Ephesians

Paul wrote the Ephesian letter to the Christians around Ephesus, because he wanted them to know about the treasure that was already theirs because they were followers of Jesus Christ. In essence his purpose was to tell them–and to tell us–that there is nothing they or we could ever desire that wasn't already ours by virtue of the fact that we are people who are "in Christ".

So, in this evening's study, we are going to find out four more of the treasures that are ours. However, in the case of these treasures, like Mr. Hearst's paintings, a key is needed. And my job tonight, is to not only make sure you know what these blessings are, but to make sure you have the key that unlocks them, as well.

C. For this reason... So, turn in your Bibles to Ephesians one, starting at verse 15. As we begin this section, Paul starts to reflect back to what he's just told the Ephesians in verses 3-14...(look at your Bibles)

Ephesians 1:15-16 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

In other words..., ...because all the blessings that have come from God's design of the salvation process, and ...because Paul was hearing good things about the Ephesian church in regards to how they were drawing on these blessings..., he knew how to pray for them.

You see, word had traveled to Rome that the Christians around Ephesus were doing two things that demonstrated that they were GETTING IT– –First, they were demonstrating faith in Jesus Christ–not just salvation faith–but faith that the blessings that Paul has just described were really theirs and really played an important role in their lives; and –Second, they were demonstrating honest-to-goodness love, care and concern for the other Christians they were worshiping with, and making friends with, and learning God's Word with.

If you look at Paul's writings to other churches, you see that this faith and love combination were two of the most important things he looked for in churches. They were the two issues that separated a healthy church from an unhealthy church...

To the church in Philippi he wrote...

Philippians 1:9-11 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best (live by faith) and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ– to the glory and praise of God.

And to the church in Thessalonika he wrote...

1 Thessalonians.3:12-13 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts (increase your faith) so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

And friends, that's how we can tell if Palm Springs Baptist Church is a healthy church. That's how we can tell if we're "getting it". Just look at your life.

1-Are you living a life of faith–a life that demonstrates that you really believe you have the blessings that we've been learning about over these last seven weeks?

2-Then are you showing love to the people in this church? -Do you encourage when you sense someone is discouraged? -Do you pray for the needs that are shared in your Flock Groups, during the week? -Do you open your home or make it a point to show hospitality or look to initiate opportunities to get together with people from this church family? -Do you help when you know a need? -Do you put your desires on the back burner and put the needs of someone else ahead of those desires? You see, that's love. And it's faith and love that define the difference between "playing church" or being the church.

D. The PIN

Now, we're just about ready to look at these 4 new blessings I told you about a few minutes ago. But, before we do, I want to point out two keys you need to know if you are going to have a complete understanding of all four of these blessings that Paul is going to mention in this prayer.

These keys are something like William Randolph Heart's lost key. Or to put it in more modern terms, these two things are like your PIN number that you have to key in, in order to access the money in your checking account at an ATM machine. The two things are found in verse 17 and the first part of verse 18.

Ephesians 1:17-18a 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened...

1. First of all, in order to receive the four blessings that he's going to mention, we have to ask God the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and revelation to know these things. In other words, asking God for wisdom and revelation needs to be an important part of each of our prayer lives .

Maybe I can help you by explaining a practice I started to do about two years ago, when I begin my personal devotions. Before I open my Bible and start reading, I'm now starting to pray something like this, "God, I don't know what you have in store for me in your Word today, but would you open my eyes to see what you mean, how I can apply it to my personal life, and how I can use it in someone else's life in the coming days."

Since starting to pray like this, it's like God has roto-rootered the pipes that connect He and me, and understanding is starting to flow like it hasn't ever flowed before–and I'm not just talking about what a portion of Scripture means, but how that Scripture can apply to a specific day's events that I'm going to be facing either that day, or in the near future.

Example: That's what happened this week, as I spoke to the people at Community Church at their potluck on Tuesday afternoon. I had prepared a great talk the week before in preparation for that time, but two days before I was to speak, God used something I had been reading in the book of 1 Peter to completely change my message and focus. And what I had learned in 1 Peter, turned out to be exactly what their Pastor had been wanting to say to his people for several months, but had been afraid to address.

2. Then there is a particular phrase in v.18 that is the other part of the PIN number that unlocks these next four blessings. If you look at verse 18, the phrase is, "that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." Now, that's important because he's not talking about just an academic head knowledge. Rather, he's talking about a deeper kind of "heart" knowledge.

Now, by talking about the eyes of your heart, he's not adding anything new to your anatomy. Rather, He's talking about the fact that God wants our hearts–our inner person–to be "enlightened"

Or to say it another way, Paul is praying that we will have an intimate knowledge, or an experiential understanding of God's blessings in our life. And that will only come as you know what is your's as a Christian and start living your life based on that knowledge and wisdom, rather than the knowledge and wisdom that's based on your limited life experience.

So, the PIN number that is in our control, that is necessary to receive the next four blessings that he's going to mention, is a two part thing... –First, a willingness to be instructed by the Holy Spirit in what God's Word means and how it figures into our daily activities, AND –Second, experiencing the power of that Word by opening ourselves up to it, and letting it work itself out in our lives.

What will happen then? What will we access? Using Paul's phrases, there are four things... 1. The Hope of Our Calling; 2. The Riches of His Inheritance 3. The Greatness of His Power, and 4. The Supremacy of His Authority We'll only have time to look at the first of those tonight, then next week, we'll look at the other three...

II. The Hope of Our Calling

A.. Hopeless world

The First of these four blessings is found in the middle of verse 18...

Ephesians 1:18b 18 ...in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,...

Illustration: A number of years ago, off the coast of Massachusetts, a cargo ship accidentally rammed a submarine. The submarine sank before anyone could escape. The entire crew was trapped. Ships rushed to the scene of the disaster, but there was nothing any of them could do. They were forced to watch and wait. Divers were sent down to evaluate the tragic situation. One man put his helmeted ear against the vessel and listened for any sounds. What he heard was someone tapping in Morse code. Because he knew Morse code he could decipher the message. It was this: "Is - there - any - hope?"

Friends, all around us, people are asking that question. They are seeing and experiencing things that they cannot control..., and feeling their lives spinning more and more out of control. –health problems, –financial calamities, –moral problems with those who lead us and value problems in society, –unexpected tragedies –untimely deaths, –and uncertainties about life after death... ... and these all cause people to cry out, "Is there any hope?"

And sadly, some have concluded that there is no hope in this world.

Illustration: It happened not long ago, that a woman was caught stealing from the cash drawer in a school cafeteria in Chicago. She went home and doused herself and her three kids with gasoline and burned them and herself to death.

Did you know that suicide is the second leading cause of death among teen-agers, nationally? Why? It's because so many of them look at all the things that they cannot control in the world, and they conclude that they have no hope. So, they pursue a permanent solution to a temporary problem. To use Paul's words in verse 18..."The eyes of their hearts have no understanding."

But Paul prays that we will realize the hope that Jesus has called us to. What is that hope? That's the first blessing that Paul prays for us as we mature in Christ. And I see at least four parts to this hope.

B. In Christ, we have "the Hope of His Calling."

It's very interesting to look at how the Bible portrays death. It's different for a person who is "in Christ", verses a person who is not.

1. Sleep

In Bible terms, when a Christian dies, it's said that he or she has fallen asleep. That phrase is used repeatedly in the New Testament, but it always has a limited application. The phrase is never used of people who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. People who are not "in Christ", DIE! But the believer, always SLEEPS!

You might remember the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11? In the narrative of the story Jesus says, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps." Now, that's a beautiful description. Lazarus had no life in his body, yet Jesus said, "he sleeps."

That word SLEEP is a beautiful word. After all, who's afraid to go to sleep? Sleep brings refreshment. Sleep brings renewal. And sleep is always viewed in the context of waking up at the end of it. So, a view of death as nothing more than sleep is the first part of the blessing of Hope.

2. Present with God

But, according to God's Word, when we talk about a Christian who dies, it is the body that sleeps–but not the person's soul.

At death, the real person–that thing that we call the eternal soul–moves out of this body of clay and departs to be with Christ in heaven. And being with Christ in heaven is far better than anything we could possibly experience in the body here on earth. That is the second part of our hope!

The Bible makes a very strong point of this. The apostle Paul says,

Philippians 1:21 21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

In other words, the only thing better than living FOR Christ here on earth, is to be WITH Christ in the glory of heaven.

The Bible goes on to say, that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, but when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord--instantaneously. That's where a Christian is as soon as the life is gone out of the body. The soul, the part that lives forever is with Jesus, in heaven, instantaneously. But the body sleeps.

3. Body Will Wake Up

I said a few moments ago that sleep is always viewed in the terms of waking up. A third part of the hope that a Christian has in Jesus Christ is that the body that is sleeping will wake up. Listen to what Paul says in the book of 1 Thessalonians...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Illustration: Probably my favorite story about Dr. Harry Ironside, the former pastor of Moody Memorial Church in downtown Chicago, happened shortly after he had retired.

He and his wife were living in California, and one day they were passing a store in their neighborhood. The store was one with which they were both quite familiar. They were surprised on this day to find the store completely empty and abandoned. But in the window was a sign which read--"We've moved out for repair and renovation. We'll be back October first, under new management."

Dr. Ironside turned to his wife and said, "If you ever think of putting a slab over my grave, you could put something on it like that--Harry Ironside, moved out for repair and renovation. He'll be back under new management."

Well, friends, that's exactly what happens to the Christian when Jesus returns at the resurrection. He or she is given a new body–a body under new management, a perfect body–in which to spend eternity. That's the third part of the hope that is ours.

4. Providing Hope

But there is one other part to that hope. That part has to do with the present. You see, if we just focus on the future, then we might as well end things right now and be with Christ–because the Bible tells us that that is gain over living life here. But it's this fourth part of hope that helps us make sense of life on this side of eternity.

Illustration: What I'm talking about is best illustrated in a story about Vincent Donovan. He was a missionary in the early 1800's to the Masai tribe in east Africa.

Back then, the Masai people of east Africa were often captured and sold into slavery. They were taken from their tribal homes and brought to the African coast for export as slaves. This proud people, gave a name to the port city that was the last stop on the mainland, before they were loaded on the slave ships.

It was called Bag-a-moyo which means "the place you throw down your heart." They knew once they reached that place there was no more hope for freedom. They had no more hope for the future.

But Vincent Donovan moved to Bag-o-moyo, and he lived among the Masai people in the slave quarters, and ministered to them as they waited in Bag-a-moyo. He told them about Jesus. He told them about a future that held hope; And a Savior who loved them and wanted to forgive their sins. And many of those Masai believed the message of salvation and became Christians before they ever boarded the slave ship.

Because of Donovan's work, the Masai renamed the sea port in their language. They called it Had-a-moyo, the place where you can find your heart. A people who felt totally helpless were given hope through a man who told them the good news of Jesus Christ.

The fourth part of our hope in Jesus Christ is that we are allowed to be part of spreading God's hope to others. We have a purpose that goes way beyond the normal. We have an eternal purpose while living in a temporal world. We have a hope! The good news of Jesus Christ!

III. Conclusion

Let me close with this true story...

Illustration: During World War I, a British commander was preparing to lead his soldiers back to battle. They'd been on furlough, and it was a cold, rainy, muddy day. Their shoulders sagged because they knew what lay ahead of them: mud, blood, possible death. Nobody talked, nobody sang. It was a heavy time.

As they marched along, the commander looked into a bombed-out church. Back in the church he saw the figure of Christ on the cross. At that moment, something happened to the commander. He remembered the One who suffered, died, and rose again. There was victory, there was triumph, and there was hope.

As the troops marched along, he shouted out, "Eyes right, march!" Every eye turned to the right, and as the soldiers marched by, they saw the Christ figure on the cross. Something happened to that company of men. They realized the hope of triumph that came after Jesus' suffering, and they took courage. With shoulders straightened, they began to smile as they went.

Friends, the point of application from these verses in Ephesians one, is simply this... If your life and your circumstances seem to be without hope, then you need to ask yourself this question, "On whom do I have my eyes?"

Only the person whose eyes are fixed on Jesus will have a worthwhile and purpose-filled hope. Why settle for anything less. It's one of your blessings because you are "in Christ." Don't miss out on it by focusing on something or someone else!

Amen.