[0:00] Okay. Any of you guys, when you were young, were any of you afraid of the water, afraid of maybe you were supposed to learn how to swim, but you were really, really afraid of deep water?
[0:15] Anyone had that experience? A few of you, yeah, yeah. That wasn't actually quite my problem when I was younger. I wasn't afraid of the water. I was afraid to open my eyes underwater.
[0:28] Anyone have that particular problem? I would get in a pool just fine, but I would keep my eyes squeezed tight, shut. Now, when I started taking swim lessons, that became a problem.
[0:41] If you're going to take swimming lessons in a crowded swimming pool, you need to be able to see with your eyes, or you're going to bang your head on the side of the pool, or bump into somebody else, or wander off track. I remember swimming as a kid, and trying to swim in the pool, and you'd start going straight, and then you'd sort of curve, and before you know it, you're hitting the side of the pool, because you're not looking where you're going, because my eyes would be squeezed tight, shut. I did not want water to get into my eyes.
[1:10] My memory serves me correctly. It took me a couple of swimming lessons before I finally overcame this fear, and I remember that was just a really big deal to me, and I celebrated that, you know, being able to open your eyes underwater. Only then did I have eyes to see.
[1:29] Last week, we learned how God's people in the Old Testament, we saw that the people of Israel, they were like swimmers with their eyes shut. They didn't have eyes to see. They, you know, their physical eyes were working just fine. They saw the great wonders that God did. They saw these amazing miracles, these supernatural signs, these 10 plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, God appearing in glory on Mount Sinai. All that God did to rescue them from slavery in Egypt, you'd think, wow, that's what they needed to believe. If only people today would see things like that, then everybody would believe in God. But in their hearts, they didn't see. In their hearts, they didn't understand.
[2:19] They didn't have eyes to see. And last week, we saw what Moses told them in Deuteronomy chapter 29, when he said, we read, and Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
[2:53] And just throughout Scripture, throughout the entire Old Testament, this is a tragedy that the prophets kept returning to again and again and again. Apart from a small and faithful remnant, apart from that remnant, Israel as a nation did not have a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. They didn't know the Lord their God. They didn't have that sort of relationship with him. They didn't have a willingness to obey him. At best, it was just an external religion.
[3:38] And even Jesus Christ, when he came to earth, he lamented the fact that so many people listened to his words but didn't have ears to hear. Again and again, his refrain was, if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Because not everybody did.
[4:00] What we learned last week is that it's not that the people of Israel were unusual in this. In fact, this is something that is characteristic. This is the natural state of human beings like you and me.
[4:14] We don't have eyes to see. We are keeping them tight, shut as we are thrashing about blindly underwater. It is only through the Holy Spirit, it is only through his Holy Spirit that God has given you, God has given me a heart to understand, ears to hear, eyes to see.
[4:35] In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul hammers home this point. Having eyes to see, having eyes to see who God is, what God has done, that is the key to true life, eternal life, lived out in the hope and power of God.
[4:59] If you don't have eyes to see, you've got nothing. And so our only hope is that God will give us eyes to see through his Holy Spirit. We need eyes to see. What do we do?
[5:14] How shall we respond to this news that we need eyes to see? Well, follow along with me as I read Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through 23. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through 23.
[5:27] If you're using one of the blue Bibles that our ushers hand out, you'll find these verses on page 976. Page 976, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through 23.
[5:45] For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.
[6:11] Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
[6:48] And he put all things under his feet, and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
[7:00] This is the word of the Lord. This morning we're going to limit our attention to verses 15 through 19. We're going to focus on those verses in particular.
[7:10] There is more than enough for us to consider, for us to mull over in just those five verses. Now notice that the Apostle Paul begins in verse 15 with a single phrase.
[7:27] And the single phrase in the English Standard Version is translated, for this reason. For this reason. There is a certain reason that he's giving thanks.
[7:38] He's not just simply one of those happy-go-lucky people who's just always grateful for nothing in particular. Right? He's got something in mind. What's the reason that he's thankful? Well, if we consider what Paul has written up to this point, the first 14 verses of the book of Ephesians, consider all the good news that you've heard preached over the last couple of months.
[8:00] Paul is talking about this reason. It's a reason given in verse 3. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
[8:17] That's the reason why Paul is giving thanks. That God has blessed you. God has blessed me who are in Christ, who are united with Christ by faith in Jesus alone.
[8:32] These spiritual blessings, those are how he has saved us. So, open your eyes to see how God has saved you. Open your eyes to see how God has saved you.
[8:47] Look again. Look again at how God has saved you. Look again at all these spiritual blessings that have been lavished on you. Verse 4. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
[9:01] You were chosen by God. You were chosen, apart from anything you ever did, to become holy and blameless before him. Your election is a blessing from God.
[9:13] Verse 5. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. You were not only chosen by God the Father, he has adopted you into his own family.
[9:25] He calls you his daughters and sons. He is not ashamed to call you by his family name. Your adoption is a blessing from God. He is not ashamed of our guilt, of our sin, our shameful and rebellious desires and thoughts and words and actions.
[9:47] Verse 7. In him. That's in Christ. We have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses. Jesus' blood was shed on our behalf when Jesus died on the cross, when Jesus took the penalty for our sin.
[10:06] He stood in our place, ensuring that God would be just when he forgave us. Jesus' blood. That is the reason the Advent candle that we lit this morning is red.
[10:21] Because Jesus died, his body broken, his blood shed, he gave you life. You who have faith in Jesus were delivered from slavery to sin.
[10:33] Your redemption is a blessing from God. And then finally we read in verse 13 that we who believed in Christ were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
[10:51] God has not left you alone. When Jesus returned to his Father, he didn't just leave you alone. He has sealed everyone who has this true saving faith in Christ. He has sealed you with his Holy Spirit.
[11:04] The down payment, the guarantee of all of these blessings that are yet to come when Christ returns. Your sealing is a blessing from God and a promise of more blessing yet to come.
[11:20] Open your eyes to see how God has saved you. Open your eyes to these blessings of election, adoption, redemption, sealing. And for this reason, give thanks to God for what he has done for you.
[11:34] That's what the Apostle Paul is doing in verse 15. He's giving thanks and he tells us the occasion for his thanksgiving.
[11:47] Verse 15, Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you.
[12:01] So Paul is giving thanks after hearing all these, he's hearing these reports of how believers in the city of Ephesus, in this church that he founded earlier, years earlier, how these believers have remained faithful to Jesus, how they've been trusting Jesus, how they are loving one another despite the massive differences between Jew and Gentile, men and women, parent and child, slave and free, and yet they're all one community and one body in Christ.
[12:32] It's one thing to talk about election, adoption, redemption, sealing, you know, in this lofty theological language. That's nice, but it's another thing altogether to see these abstract things actually working out in real life.
[12:48] when these truths are, they put on flesh, when Paul sees faith and love playing out in these real relationships with Christ, stories of their real relationship with Christ and with one another.
[13:03] And when he hears these stories, he cannot stop thanking God. It's like new parents.
[13:14] It's one thing to be expecting, anticipating your child to be born, to imagine, what's my child going to look like? What are they going to talk like? What are they going to think like? What's it going to be like seeing them grow up?
[13:27] It's another thing altogether when your child is born. And now all of those ideas have become a flesh and blood reality. And those of you who are parents know that when you first saw your son or daughter, they were more beautiful than you could ever imagine.
[13:45] Do you look at the real flesh and blood church this way? Do you look at the real people God has put in front of you? No, I'm not talking about the ideal, what you think the church ought to be like.
[13:58] I'm talking about the real people. Do you look at them and think these people are the handiwork of God? These people are the masterpiece of God.
[14:11] Open your eyes to see how God has saved us. Not just you. Open your eyes to see how God has saved us. Live alongside one another.
[14:23] Man, we've got to stop. And I confess that I'm, I am probably the one who's foremost guilty of this. We've got to stop living these siloed off lives where we're not a part of each other's lives, where we don't really know what's going on.
[14:37] We don't really know how God's Spirit is transforming one another. We need to live alongside one another. Watch up close what God the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of one another.
[14:51] Have you seen have you seen the Spirit of God transforming these people that you're sitting with? Have you seen glimpses of the glory of God?
[15:06] Glimpses of God's glory breaking out from them as they grow in power and splendor with each passing year? This is one of the most beautiful things you can ever see.
[15:19] I just love this. To see glimpses of that future glory starting to peak out, starting to show in each one of you. That's why the Apostle writes in the book of 3 John, I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth.
[15:41] I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. No greater joy. Open your eyes to see how God has saved us.
[15:54] That's what Paul is doing. That's why he's overflowing with gratitude. And then Paul begins to pray for the church in Ephesus. He follows his gratitude with prayer. He asks them, he prays for them the best thing he can think of.
[16:09] The best thing they could possibly receive. he writes in verses 16 through 18. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
[16:35] What's the best thing that Paul can think to ask for this church, these people? Well, different translations of the Bible, we're actually going to see they give slightly different answers.
[16:46] So we need to tackle a question first before we can continue. There's a phrase in verse 17. And this phrase reads in my translation, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation.
[17:00] It reads, the spirit. Some translations simply put this as spiritual wisdom and revelation. If you're using an older copy of the English Standard Version that we usually preach from, you'll see this translated as a spirit with a lowercase s of wisdom and revelation.
[17:19] Some other popular translations do the same. A few years ago, the English Standard Version was updated. They changed it and now it says the spirit, capital S, of wisdom and of revelation, referring to the Holy Spirit.
[17:33] it. Several other popular translations side with that. Alright, I'll show you my answer first of all. I think this should be translated as the spirit with a capital S.
[17:47] And the first reason is this. You can say that someone has, you know, someone has a spirit of wisdom. You know, they've got this characteristic attitude of wisdom. You know, if I, you know, if I say that, you know, Cam Cairns, there's a guy with a spirit of wisdom, all of you will be like, yeah, you know, I know what you're talking about.
[18:05] I don't know if I agree with that, but no. But I get what you're saying. Now, if I come to you and say, Cam Cairns, there's a guy with a spirit of revelation. You'd look at me like, what?
[18:20] What does that mean? That it is not really a phrase that shows up in the Bible. I'm not familiar with that and it would have seemed odd in Greek too.
[18:31] The second reason I think it is the spirit of wisdom and of revelation is this. You know, yes, the original language is a little ambiguous, but the way that it's worded seems to be borrowed from the passage that BK read for us this morning from Isaiah chapter 11 verse 2.
[18:50] This was a prophecy of the coming Messiah and it's written, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
[19:10] It's not super clear in English, but that phrase, the spirit of wisdom is exactly the same as the phrase that is used in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17.
[19:21] And here it is indeed the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the Lord who was going to come and to rest on Jesus of Nazareth at his baptism. But in the end, no matter what approach you take to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17 where it is, whether you're thinking it's the spirit of wisdom and revelation, whether you're thinking that's just a, you know, the believer's own spirit of wisdom and revelation, it doesn't really make a huge difference because regardless of which approach you take, both of them are true.
[19:56] It is the Holy Spirit of God who gives wisdom and revelation to our own spirits. The Holy Spirit gives us hearts to understand, eyes to see, ears to hear.
[20:10] The Holy Spirit is continuing this work. He is illuminating the words of Scripture so that we can understand them, so that we can know the heart, the mind of God himself, so that our knowledge isn't merely, you know, academic knowledge, accumulated facts, but it's real personal knowledge, a real new covenant relationship with God, knowing him.
[20:36] Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.
[20:52] Now, we have not, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
[21:07] And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual, to those who have the spirit.
[21:21] For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ. You can know the heart and mind of God himself, not exhaustively, but truly know what really is on his heart and mind if you have his own spirit within you, dwelling in you.
[21:50] Regardless of your translation, here's the idea. Paul is praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. He's praying that this Father of glory would make his glory known to the church in Ephesus.
[22:05] He's praying that God would give each and every believer his Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit who understands the mind of the Lord would give to the spirit of each believer the wisdom, the revelation to know God, to know all the blessings God has in store for them so their thoughts, their desires, their words, their actions would be utterly transformed so they would become his holy and blameless children.
[22:32] God is praying. Paul approaches the same idea from another perspective in verse 18. He says it means having the eyes of your heart enlightened.
[22:49] You have eyes to see. Not just physical eyes but deep within you in the core of your being you've got eyes to see. and not only were you freed from blindness when you first received the Holy Spirit when you first believed but now over the course of your life your vision is clearing up.
[23:12] All the blurriness is going away. You can see the lines, the colors of the world as they really are. You can see the world the way God intended you to see the world. You can see him the way that he intends you to see him.
[23:25] You can look at one another and see each other the way that God intended you to see one another and you can look and see there is a not too distant hope. A hope of glory.
[23:37] And Paul is showing us that this happens when we pray. So, ask God for his spirit to open your eyes. Ask God for his spirit to open your eyes.
[23:53] Now, maybe this week and last week you're a little bit confused because on the one hand you're hearing that yes, every Christian receives the Holy Spirit when they believe and yet you're talking about receiving the Holy Spirit again.
[24:08] You're talking about this idea of being given the Holy Spirit. If every true Christian, every believer already has the Holy Spirit, how can the Holy Spirit be quote unquote given to us? Does this mean that God is holding back that there's two tiers of Christians, and some people who have the spirit and then others who have, you know, God has kind of given them more?
[24:31] Well, no. Think of it this way. Those of you who are married, let's have a show of hands. How many of you who are married, I haven't even finished asking the question.
[24:46] Get your hands down. How many of you who are married, how many of you knew all of who your spouse was when you said, I do? No hands.
[24:57] Okay. You knew all of, you knew everything. You pretty much knew all about your spouse. You knew all of who your spouse was. There were no more, there were no secrets, nothing new to discover. In your, you know, following decades of marriage, you learned nothing new.
[25:09] Yeah, they're pretty much exactly, exactly what I thought. How many of you wives knew every single one of your husband's habits or mannerisms or virtues or sins? All right.
[25:23] Getting a good reaction there. How many of you husbands knew everything that your wife values and loves and hates and gets annoyed by? Anyone? No?
[25:33] No? And yet, when you said, I do, you received all that your spouse was in all of their fullness.
[25:47] You received everything that your husband was, regardless of whether you knew, knew it or not. You received everything your wife was, regardless of whether you knew it or not. Nothing was held back from you.
[26:01] Ever since then, you've been receiving all of who your spouse is. You've been coming to know what you already have. You are coming to know what you already have when you received your spouse.
[26:17] And so it is with the Spirit of God. You have received the full presence of God within you. And we as a church have received the full presence of God within us.
[26:32] Verse 23, Paul is going to say that the church is the fullness of him, the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. You already received the Spirit when you believed.
[26:43] When you believed. And now, let us join Paul in praying that we may come to know all that we have. That we may come to know the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, whose Spirit dwells within us.
[26:57] That we may come to know all the blessings that God has in store for you and for me. Let us come to know not only how God has saved us, but how he is saving us, how he will save us in the future on the day when Christ returns.
[27:15] Ask God for his Spirit to open your eyes to see all that he has for you, all that is already yours. And what is he going to open your eyes to see?
[27:32] What do you have to look forward to as you pray this prayer? Verses 18 and 19, they give us three things that the Spirit will enlighten the eyes of our heart to see.
[27:47] That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might.
[28:04] here's what you're asking for. Ask God for his Spirit to open your eyes to the limitless promise, pleasure, and power of God.
[28:17] The limitless promise, pleasure, and power of God. The limitless promise of God in verse 18. It's the hope to which he has called you.
[28:31] The hope to which he has called you. He has chosen you. He has summoned you out of darkness. He has given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, ears to hear, and he hasn't done this just so that you'll fall back into darkness again.
[28:51] God has done this because he is a certain, sure, secure, destiny in store for you.
[29:02] A hope, a promise that he has sealed for you. Remember what Paul wrote in verse 4? He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.
[29:19] This was the purpose of God and God makes sure that all his purposes come to pass. If you believe in this hope, if you believe in the limited promise of God, it is going to radically transform the way that you think, what you desire, how you live.
[29:45] C.S. Lewis delivered a famous sermon back in 1942. I believe, called The Weight of Glory. And here's what he wrote. If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.
[30:11] We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
[30:29] we are far too easily pleased. The slogan that the district of Squamish chose for itself plastered on all its websites, all its material is hardwired for adventure.
[30:44] Hardwired for adventure. A more truthful slogan would be Squamish far too easily pleased. Our town is a haven for half-hearted adventurers.
[31:01] Half-hearted adventurers who are satisfied with so much less than the infinite joy of being holy and blameless in the presence of God. But you, you are summoned to a greater hope.
[31:19] You are summoned to the limitless promise of God. Verse 18. We are told next of the limitless pleasure of God.
[31:34] The limitless pleasure of God. And Paul calls this the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. And as we heard a few weeks back, he's not talking about the inheritance waiting for us.
[31:52] That is something that Paul and the other apostles and Jesus sometimes talk about. But here, he is speaking of God's glorious inheritance.
[32:03] This rich and glorious treasure that God is longing to receive. And what is this treasure? What is this inheritance? inheritance? It is the saints.
[32:18] The saints. Those whom God has set apart as his holy ones. That means you and me. God treasures you.
[32:34] Do you know that? did you know that you are precious to him? You who believe in him, he has united you with his son.
[32:46] He has given you his spirit. You are bursting with his glory. And oh, that you would believe this.
[32:57] How you would live as people who know, people who know that they are the inheritance of a glorious God. And oh, how that would change not only the way that you look at yourself, but the way that you look at one another.
[33:15] The way that you look at one another and see the glory that God sees. C.S. Lewis continued to write in The Weight of Glory.
[33:28] It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
[33:53] All day long, we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities.
[34:03] It is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another. All friendships, all loves, all play, all politics, there are no ordinary people.
[34:16] You have never talked to a mere mortal. Among the people of God, especially among the people of God, there are no mere mortals. Among the people of God, there are only those whom God is transforming into the image of God from one degree of glory to another through the work of the Holy Spirit.
[34:39] You will soon be his glorious inheritance, the limitless pleasure of God, his pleasure in you. Last of all, verse 19, we are reminded of the limitless power of God.
[34:54] Paul writes about the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might. This is the same power that he talks about in the following verses, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that elevated Jesus, the power that established Jesus as supreme over all human and angelic authorities.
[35:21] And Paul says this great, this mighty, this immeasurable, limitless power is at work in you. At work in you.
[35:32] His Spirit is alive in you. Not just you as an individual, but alive and at work in Squamish Baptist Church. And you have no idea what he is capable of transforming you to become.
[35:54] your imagination is too small. Whatever you're thinking you will be, it is not glorious enough. Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul assures us, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.
[36:16] these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. He not only has great plans to raise you to life from the grave, you are not going to be like you are now.
[36:30] You know that, right? You are not going to be like you are now. He has great plans to make you holy and blameless before him. And not only that, he is fully capable of carrying out every single thing that he has purposed for you.
[36:50] His Spirit is at work with immeasurable greatness, the limitless power of God. Oh, that you would see this.
[37:03] That you would truly believe this. What if God really can do everything that we say he can do? ask God for his Spirit to open your eyes to the limitless promise, pleasure, and power of God.
[37:22] Ask him for eyes to see. And so what then? We know to ask.
[37:32] And oh, that we may ask and ask and ask again. This request that God longs for us to pray for, that he assures us, he will answer. Is there more to do than just asking?
[37:46] Well, yes and no. On the one hand, you can't have eyes to see unless God the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. You can't do anything to open your own eyes. You can't pry them open any more than a dead man can raise himself back to life again.
[38:02] This all depends on God and so in that sense, all you can do is ask. But on the other hand, you can put yourself in places where God the Holy Spirit has promised to work. The Apostle Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter 6.
[38:17] Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.
[38:29] But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. So in other words, you can sow seed, you can be like a farmer sowing seed, and you can sow your seed in one of two different fields.
[38:46] You can sow that seed in the field of the flesh. You can choose actions and habits that reinforce your desire for this sinful independence, autonomy from God. An autonomy that only produces corruption and death and one day will turn you into a horror that you would shrink back from.
[39:06] Or, you can sow your seed in the field of the Spirit. You can choose actions and habits that the Holy Spirit will then use to reinforce your desires for God and his kingdom.
[39:21] Now, here's the thing. You don't make that seed grow. That's something only the Holy Spirit can do. But you can choose which field you sow in. First, as we've seen, sow that seed of prayer.
[39:37] Paul prays for the Ephesians. He says in verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. He comes to God in humble dependence. Last week we read in Luke chapter 11 where Jesus said, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
[40:00] Sow the seed of prayer. Second, sow the seed of service. Sow the seed of service. In Isaiah chapter 58, the prophet Isaiah writes, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
[40:21] And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
[40:36] As we serve one another and especially those in need, we become like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. We are guided and satisfied by the goodness of the Spirit of God.
[40:48] Third, don't just sow the seed of prayer and service, sow the seed of generosity. Luke chapter 12, Jesus says, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
[41:08] Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
[41:19] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your heart will be where your treasure is. Your desires will follow your money.
[41:34] And so if you give faithfully to the Lord and his work, to the poor and to the needy, the Holy Spirit will take that seed and cause it to grow, reshaping the desires of your heart.
[41:46] Finally, sow the seed of remembrance. Sow the seed of remembrance. Bring back to mind the things that you keep forgetting, that keep falling out of your mind.
[42:01] Meditate on scripture. Mull it over in your mind. That's why we encourage people to read the Bible daily. There's no command that you have to read the Bible daily or pray daily or do all those things and you don't score any points with God if you do.
[42:15] But you're planting seeds. And that's why it's okay to read your Bible and to come away thinking, man, you know, I just didn't really feel moved by that.
[42:26] sometimes seeds don't sprout right away. Sometimes the Holy Spirit makes it grow over time. In Psalm 119, we read, my eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
[42:46] Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes. I am your servant. Give me understanding that I may know your testimony. that's how we get eyes that are longing for salvation.
[43:08] By learning the statutes of God, by knowing his word, we come to know the limitless promise, pleasure, and power of God as the Holy Spirit illuminates the words of the Bible, as he takes them off of the page and writes them on our hearts.
[43:23] Now, this remembrance, it absolutely must be reinforced. It must be reinforced when we gather together to worship each week.
[43:34] As the Spirit of God works through one another, remember, you were not created to be on your own. Do you really think the Holy Spirit was given just to you?
[43:47] Anyone who doesn't make this gathering a priority in their life, what they're basically saying is, I'm the only one with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit speaks and moves and works in me directly, but not through other people.
[44:05] This remembrance has to be reinforced. As the Spirit of God works through one another, we remain faithful by remaining together. That's why we read in Hebrews chapter 10, Just like anything else, we just love to corrupt these things, turn them into things where we are basically proving to God how good we are, or trying to score points with God, or prove our righteousness to God, and that's not why he wants us to do these things at all.
[44:52] He wants us to do these things so that we are sowing seeds that his Spirit will grow. You need your brothers and sisters to bring God's promise, pleasure, and power to your remembrance because you forget.
[45:08] And your brothers and sisters, they need you. That's another reason why we have to make this a priority, priority. It's not just all about you, it's about them too. They need you to bring God's blessings to their remembrance.
[45:24] And through this remembrance, the Holy Spirit enlightens the eyes of our hearts. He transforms us day by day from one degree of glory to another to become holy and blameless like Christ.
[45:36] That's how he does it. And now, what we're going to do next, we're going to take part in just one of the key, pivotal, singular acts of remembrance that we are called to do.
[45:49] Jesus is calling us not merely to bring to mind his broken body and shed blood, he's calling us to eat and drink, to act out in our actions what we know to be true in our hearts, to eat a meal together that shows that we participate together, we receive together the blessings of Jesus Christ's once for all offering for sin.
[46:15] We're going to celebrate communion together, brothers and sisters. As we do this, may the Holy Spirit continue to shape you and me. May he give us eyes to see.
[46:27] May God open our eyes to see how he has saved us. May his spirit open our eyes to the limitless promise, pleasure, and power of God. I'd like to invite forward the men.