God’s Power Never Goes Out! | Ephesians 1:15-23

Takeaway Verse: Ephesians 1:18

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.

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Transcription:

Welcome to The Bible for Busy People. I’m Erica Parkerson. This is the place where we meet up to read half a chapter of God’s word together, and remember how loved we are. Jesus extends an amazing invitation to us in the Bible. He says, come to me and I WILL give you rest. This is us RSVPing: Yes!! to that invitation. So take a deep breath and let’s get started.

Today’s episode is called, “God’s Power Never Goes Out”. I know the world is a very dark place right now, but I am just extra thankful for the Light of the World. To think that that is one of the names of our God. Wow. Okay, we are gonna be diving into the second half of Ephesians chapter one, Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. It’s a little more formal than his other letters, but it is so rich. It’s like eating a piece of cheesecake with a delicious, strong cup of coffee to go along with it. 

But before we dive into Paul’s letter, would you join me in a word of prayer? Father, we thank you for another day, we were on the wake-up list today. We just take a deep breath, and we take a moment to press pause on everything going on in our lives and to recognize that you are our God. You’ve got everything under control and we’re your kids. And we can rest in that. Would you open our eyes and our hearts to what you want us to see and understand in your word today, in the mighty name of Jesus we pray, amen. I like how they say, all God’s kids said amen! Yes, amen. You are a child of God. 

So here we go. We’re gonna dive right into Ephesians chapter one beginning in verse twelve. “God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles,” Gentile just means not Jewish by the way. I actually looked that up today just to make sure. I’m like, I think that’s what I know. That’s all it means. “And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the good news that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised, and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”

Can we just take a moment and praise and glorify him? Lord Jesus, we praise you, Father God, we honor you. Holy Spirit, we glorify you. The Spirit is our comforter. He is our helper. He is somebody to praise God about. He’s the one who comes in when your heart is breaking. Oh, I am so thankful for our Father, the son, Jesus, and for the Holy Spirit. We do praise you today, God, thank you Lord.

“Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for God’s people everywhere,” this is Paul speaking to the people in Ephesus to the Ephesians. “I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly asking God the glorious father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.” What a great prayer to pray. You can pray for somebody you love, maybe it’s your kid, your niece, your nephew, your friend, your spouse. What a great prayer. “Pray that our hearts would be flooded with light so we can understand the confident hope he’s given to those he called.” Whew, that is powerful. “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”

Whenever you freak out about what’s happening in the world, and I have done my share of freaking out in recent days, remember that Jesus is seated at God’s right hand in heaven. There is something very steadying about that. Mm. “Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else, not only in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.”

Now that was the church Ephesus, and that’s you and me. Woo. I love it. “And the church is his body. It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself.” He fills all things everywhere with himself. Lord fill us. He fills us. He is willing to fill us. Now let’s go back to our takeaway verse, which was verse 18. “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light.” I love that image. “So that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those. He called.” 

I remember when I was a little girl, we got a lot of thunderstorms in New York. And the lights would go out very suddenly and the whole apartment would just suddenly become totally dark. And my sister and I would be afraid, but my mom went right to the candles. She had a drawer where she pulled them out and she started lighting them. And all of a sudden, the room went from pitch black to beautiful light. The light flooded the room and filled the room. Just when things are at their darkest in the world, in your heart, you may have something pressing on your heart right now that is preventing you from seeing any light in your life. That’s when we need to pray this prayer, that God would just flood our hearts with light so we can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called. You and I can dare to hope because God is the God of hope. He is the light of the world. Christ fills us as Paul just wrote. As light fills a dark room. Ooh. He is the light of the world. Can’t wait to dive into Ephesians chapter two with you tomorrow.

Thank you so much for listening to the Bible for Busy People. If you need prayer or you’re ready to go a little deeper in your faith, we’ve posted some resources for you in our show notes. We’d love for you to share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us reach even more people with the hope of Jesus. This podcast is part of Purposely, a podcast network designed with practical podcasts to help you find and live in God’s purpose for your life. Find more podcasts that will recharge you at onpurposely.com.