Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 21, 2025 | Ephesians - If You Only Knew

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September 21, 2025 | Ephesians - If You Only Knew · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:01
unknown: Good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: You got a guest preacher this morning.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Hey.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't know.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Connor should be getting back from Wyoming today, maybe yesterday.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to having him back.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: So if you weren't here last week, we started a series last week in the book of Ephesians.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, before I get into that, those of you that have been around for years and know me know that if there's events that affect me personally, I I you have no choice but to hear about them on a Sunday morning.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: So I want to share a word about uh Charlie Kirk, who had become, who, though I'd met never met him, had become uh very beloved to me in the past few years.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: He used to be, I felt like 10 years ago or so more of a Rush Limbaugh, which is fine, but uh a few years ago, uh as even his friends will admit, he uh he began being more um prioritizing his faith more.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: So that as he did in Utah last week, and uh as he did in other debates, I started watching his his debates, and and I was just struck by how he would so often begin by saying, Listen, we're gonna talk politics today, but I want you to know it's a distant third behind uh behind my wife and children, behind my family, and first and foremost behind the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, and then he would segue into the gospel, and it was very clear.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: And at the end, because he had a quick and winsome way of doing it, people would clap.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: It was it was really remarkable.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And uh so I was I was struck by that, and so I began watching him and began admiring him, admiring the way that uh I contrasted him.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I've I've I've been on street corners and witnessed in a lot of places in the world, and I oftentimes think of a time I was witnessing about 10 or 12 years ago on the mall outside the White House, you know, Washington Mall, and some women surrounded me and they started yelling at me, you know, I was talking about Christ and handing out tracts, and I tended I just tend to get defensive and I break down a little bit and so forth.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, a woman, a Jews for Jesus friend of mine, came over and began yelling just as loud at them as they were yelling at her.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And she saved me, you know.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Marilyn Sternberg, I will owe you forever for that.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: But Charlie would would be amazing.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: They would be doing things, and and the love would just come out of them, and he wouldn't, he wouldn't be defensive at all.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And so I admired him greatly for that.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And so um last Thursday morning, shooting was on Wednesday, I was on a plane going out to LA, Southern California to participate in Jews for Jesus meeting, and I was, you know, like some of you, like a couple of some of you have come up, some people have come up to me after first service, you were burdened like I was.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: I just felt under a cloud.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: I was horrified.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: It felt like I'd lost one of my best friends.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And I found this, by the way, and this expressed what I'm thinking.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: If you've been crying today, felt a strange feeling or weird burden for Charlie where your heart aches for a man you've never met, it's because you're part of the body of Christ.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And I was worthless those three days at UCLA just because I was burdened, and then came the second burden.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: I remember the first video I think I saw on Thursday afternoon was Charlie had done this wonderful debate at Oxford University earlier this last year.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Seemed to get along absolutely great.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, one of the student leaders had debated him and they laughed and so forth, but then a video came up, and this very same guy was jumping around.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: You could see him getting the news, and he was so excited that Charlie had been shot.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And so that added a whole different burden.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Eventually I ended up uh uh posting uh about that a few days ago on Facebook.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of people around the country and here in Topeka have responded to that, and not all of them positively, including some of my family.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and of course the burden's worse when it's members of your own family.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: I have one who's a uh a professor of religion at a university in our state, and you know, the icy reactions toward his death, of course, are such a burden, right?
4:09
SPEAKER_00: So that that's what I posted about.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm not really here to talk about that.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm just here to talk about the fact that here was a brother in Christ.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I happen to be maybe too fervent, as my grandson will tell you, of an NFL fan.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, he's just as fervent.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Um so um I've loved the fact that most of the best quarterbacks in the NFL are Christians and are not afraid to share their faith.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: And a month ago, Charlie Kirk had posted this tweet, it's all about Jesus, and immediately Lamar Jackson, maybe the best quarterback, other than Patty Mahomes, of course, uh, Lamar Jackson of Baltimore Ravens had reposted it and had gone far and wide.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: It was that about Charlie that I loved the most, that he put Jesus first.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And uh just for those of you interested, at 1 p.m.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: today, uh the main memorial, which is at Phoenix at an NFL stadium, will go off.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: And uh, president, vice president, that's Erica in the middle.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh Charlie married this amazing woman, four or five years older than he.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: She was already Miss, had been Miss Arizona, had a business.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: She was an incredibly capable woman.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: She's taking over his ministry.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: She's uh she's Erica's something else.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, um, I was glad to see uh seven, six, seven days ago that uh the owner of the Chiefs said that today the the stadium rare head, 80,000 seats will be open for a memorial, and Patrick Mahomes will be, Dak Prescott, a number of people will be speaking on video, they're playing games elsewhere today.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I I just needed you to know that um this has been a painful week, and we're I'm we're coming out of it, we're trusting God.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: But it's uh it certainly, as I wrote in my post, has uh has has made some things very clear, right?
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Brought moral clarity to America.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, thank you for letting me share that.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Um so the nice thing about the passage uh that Connor gave me, uh assigned me was uh was that it actually relates to some of this, as you'll see.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: We're in the book of Ephesians, if you weren't here last week.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've started this book.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: It's the favorite book for some people.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh it's the book I've uh probably in some ways have studied the most.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh even when I was in seminary, I was asked to teach the teach it in, teach the Greek part of it to classes at Dow Seminaries for a couple years.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: So I know this book well.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: And I I must share with you that uh, and this is personal, this is this is the way I sort of look at this book in contrast with other books.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think of the books of the New Testament, if you thought of the books of the New Testament as being like a big mansion or a house, I would think of the book of Romans like the library, okay?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Like a living room with a lot of books.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the most doctrinal book in the New Testament.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of scary in many ways.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: It's got so much, so much truth in it and so forth.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: I think of the book of Romans as sort of the library of the house.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: I think of the book of Philippians as like the kitchen of the house.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Book of Philippians is about joy and it's about koinonia, you know, fellowship, and it's about laughter, and it's about getting together, and it includes discussion about table fellowship.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And so I think of uh I think of the unity uh of the church being such a focus in Philippians.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: So that's the kitchen, okay?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: If you don't like this, this is just me.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Book of James has to be the workroom.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: If you disagree with me on this, you're just wrong.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: So because Book of James is all about faith that works, am I right?
7:49
SPEAKER_00: It's it's about, you know, if you've got if you're a Christian and you have a faith, but you're not doing anything, you're not involved in ministry, you're not helping people, you're not loving people, you're not doing things for people, you're not rescuing the perishing or helping the needy, then there's something wrong with you.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Your faith is lifeless, it it's not going anywhere.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: But the book of James is the workroom in the house.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: But you come to the book of Ephesians, and to me, the book of Ephesians is like that second floor sort of uh sitting room that opens out onto a deck where you get to see.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: I get to choose the house, okay?
8:18
SPEAKER_00: So I chose one at the beach.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: All right.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Because Ephesians, uh, if you're here last week, you know, it it is so broad, okay?
8:27
SPEAKER_00: It's it starts in the distant past, as Connor started last week with uh God chose us an eternity past.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And and uh and it moves to the part and it goes to eternity future.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: And it involves uh in the three great verbs that somebody wrote a commentary 80 years ago on this book called Sit, Walk, Stand.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: And because it's you sit in the blessings God's given, you walk your life in those, and then you stand against the devil.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6, you know, put on the armor of God.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's like, you know, you can walk out on the deck, walk in the sand, and and so forth.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: And you can look as far as the future from this room.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: That's the book of Ephesians, and so if I've just made it your favorite book in the New Testament, I've succeeded.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
9:13
SPEAKER_00: So last week, Connor started it by by mentioning the Trinity.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: It's God the Father who chose us, it's God the Son in the present who redeemed us, it's God the Holy Spirit who sealed us for our inheritance that he's promised in the future.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: That was last Sunday.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And it is just, it covers.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me say something interesting though, because it relates to my sermon.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Paul, nine out of twelve books that he wrote, he started out with a prayer.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: He started out by saying, I really pray for you guys.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Love you guys to pray for you.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Thumbs up.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Not Ephesians.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: He is so busting with a desire to tell them about their wealth in Christ and the blessings and the privileges they have, that he starts in Connor's passage, in one chapter one, three through fourteen, just by saying, look at what's happening.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Christ, look at the blessings you have.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: And and it's the longest sentence, by the way, in the New Testament.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: In Greek, he couldn't stop.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: He just keeps on going on and on, verses three to fourteen.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: But now, having finished, he moves to my passage, the prayer, and he says, if you only knew these things.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: The text goes like this.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: It's just five verses, and so I'm going to ask you to read them out loud with me.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: You go, do I have to?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the mighty working of his strength.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: So it's a prayer, right?
11:25
SPEAKER_00: I've circled it, you can see that this is a prayer.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: I have three very practical, not very highfalutin uh lessons from this.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is that we should pray like Paul, pray constantly and thankfully for your brothers and sisters in the Lord, and tell them you're doing it.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Tell them so.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: I never stop giving thanks for you.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: But for your faith in the Lord Jesus, your love for all the things.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, usually we pray when someone's having surgery or someone's sick or there's a crisis or you know, we're low on, you know, when we have a problem, right?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Paul most often prayed when things were going well, he prayed thankfully for what God was doing.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to pray positively more often.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: I pray this prayer for my kids.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for these things.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you've brought my four children to faith in Jesus and love for each other.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Pray these things.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not a major statement, but frankly, praying for others and letting them know is actually part of the lore, the history of the Christian family, of the Congan family.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, we all have families and we all have stories that we tell.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: This is a major story in my family, and it's a story that goes back 70, 60, 70 years, and it's a story about a young man uh named Ro Chungapudite, who comes from northeastern India.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Short man, never got above five foot five in his life.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Once was on stage here.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: But Roe grew up in uh one of those mountainous jungle tribes uh that was called a headhunter tribe.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: They would cut off the heads, a very fierce tribe, all of the men being short, but they were good fighters, and they would cut off the heads of those tribes they defeated, and they would hang them up there in their village.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: So they were a very feared tribe, the Mar tribe, H M A R tribe, and he grew up in that tribe, and they were, of course, a totally pagan tribe, but then a uh a missionary from Wales came about in the year 1900, and he took his life, he would risk his life to go up into the jungles, the mountain jungles of Northeast India, and to go to these, find these tribes, and he went to this tribe, and God had prepared their hearts.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And Roe's father, who was the chief of the tribe, whose name was Chonga, as soon as he understood the gospel, he trusted in it, and much of the tribe followed him to faith.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Walk and Robert stayed a little while and taught them the Bible, but then he left.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: And now, for years, they were alone.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Nobody came, nobody left, they had nothing written, no, their language was not written down, they had no Bible or anything.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: And Changa the chief was burdened about that, and he noticed that his young son Ro was really intelligent and loved by all, had a great personality, and he said to Ro, he sat him down at the age of ten, and said, I'm sending you away.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hike through the jungle 96 miles.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: That's he didn't use the word miles, 96 miles that direction.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: There's a trail that goes up and down through the mountains, and you keep going.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And if you read his biography, seven books have either been written about Roe or by Roe, and a film's been made about him.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: But he said, you know, if you get an angry elephant, here's how you run to get away from him.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: If a tiger comes against you and so forth, you're only ten years old, but you can do this.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And he sent him off.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, in a week, this ten-year-old boy made it through and he came out into this city, and everyone was amazed to see this kid from a previously unknown tribe.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And they put him in school, and sure enough, he was bright.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: He was the smartest kid in school, and he learned a couple of languages.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: And he became so well known in Northeast India that far, far away, thousands of miles away, the people in Delhi heard about it, and uh, representative from the government came and asked him and said, You've just graduated from secondary school.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: We would like to put you in parliament as the representative of the tribes of Northeast India.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And this young man said, No, I must follow my father's advice.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: I must follow his charge to me to get an education and not to return until I'm able to translate the Word of God into the language of my tribe.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Other people had begun to hear about Roe.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: One was uh one was Bob Pierce, a young, well-known guy who had just founded what is today the largest, most pricey Christian organization in the world, World Vision.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: And he'd also founded a smaller one now, headed by Franklin Graham, called Samaritan's Purse.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: And Bob Pierce heard about this young man.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: And so had a friend of Bob Pierce's, the young evangelist Billy Graham.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And they came to him and they said, Listen, we've heard you want to honor your father and you want to learn to translate the Bible and you need an education.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: We'll pay your way to America and we'll pay your way through Wheaton College, the school that Billy Graham went to.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: And Roe accepted, and he went to Wheaton College early in the 60s, and he graduated at the top of his class.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: An extremely gifted young man, and everyone knew he was going to be doing great things.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: He knew languages and so forth, and they called him God's Tribesman.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: And he did translate the language of his tribe.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And he went back to Northeast India and realized other tribes and other tribes around the world needed the Bible, and he founded an organizational called Bibles for the World that would give the Bible in their language to many other tribes.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: The problem was at that time in Northeast India it had been taken over by the communists.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And the communists were not fond of having someone who was preaching Jesus Christ and leading thousands to Christ and starting churches and starting schools, and they put a price on his head.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And at this time, Roe would come back to America to raise money.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And the way he raised money is Roe would travel around this young man, and he would go to these little churches, churches of 50 or 100 or 150, and he would say, uh, he would tell the pastor, I'll cook an Indian meal, genuine Indian meal, for everybody in your church on a Sunday night, if they'll bring them out and I can share what's happening.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: And they would do it.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And one day he went to the little Glendevere Community Church up at the end of the street where my grandmom, we called her grandmom where she lived.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: She lived about a mile away from our house.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And because I was the oldest son of twelve children, my mother would often tell me on a Saturday, jump on your bike and go up and see if she needs her lawnmowed or whatever else.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: And I would go up and I'd hang around and she would always cook some fried chicken for us, and we'd sit and we'd eat for lunch.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful woman.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: She read the Greek New Testament every morning.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And we'd sit over by her little window in a house that was only 750 square feet, where she had a little window, and she had two books there.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: She had a book of birds where she would uh write down every bird she would see, and the other book was a prayer journal.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: And I was not allowed to touch that book.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: That was her private book.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Grandmom, can I just look and into your prayer journal?
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And she'd say, No, you may not.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: So I'd go over to his house and spend time with her.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh Roe came out, and he went to that church and he said, Can I cook for you?
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And there was a church of only 50 people, and he cooked for them, and my grandmother just fell in love with him and she began writing to him.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: She had no money, she couldn't send him hardly any money, but she would make quilts and so forth and send them over.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And she would tell him in these uh letters, this thin blue paper she would write, she'd say, I'm praying for you, pray for you every day.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, he is over in India at this time, and um, and uh he uh price is now on his head.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And one day he is driving his car on a road that I have traveled on in Northeast India, a road that goes around a corner and then comes to a bridge.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And just before he reached that corner, a man jumped out of the ditch, jumped into the way of his car, waving his arms.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And Roe stopped and he said, You mustn't go any further.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: The communists are waiting under the bridge.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: They are planning to kill you.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Turn around.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: And he did.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: His life was saved.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: The next year he came back to America and he came out to Portland, Oregon, and he stopped by that little cottage in the woods where my grandmom lived.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And he was in there and they were chatting and he was telling her this story, and then he said, Would you mind if I looked in your prayer journal?
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, you may not.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, I promise you I won't look at anything except for one date.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, okay.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: And so he looked up that date.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: And there on the page were the words, at 3 a.m., the Lord woke me and told me to pray for Roe.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And he added 11 and a half hours, the time difference, to 3 a.m.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Which is the time that that man jumped out of a ditch and stopped his car.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: He came here in the 1980s.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Roe did.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And he stood here and told that story, and he hugged me and he said, I credit your pastor's grandfather, your grandmother, with saving my life by praying for me.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a dry eye in the place, and of course, he'd brought the India Children's Choir, and when they had, this church was much smaller, and when they had walked through, they used to end their thing by singing and walking through the and hugging every single person.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: So that would that would whet a lot of eyes as well.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after that, he asked me to join the board of Bibles for the World, and I did, and I've passed that on.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Now Jeff Sorensen, one of our elders, is on the Bibles for the World board, but you can see why this is part of the lore of our family.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: That we should pray like Paul, we should pray constantly and thankfully for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And we should let them know we're doing it.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, pray like Paul.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: When you pray for a brother or sister or child, ask God to give them the ability to know him deeply.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: I pray, he says, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, your text may say, in fact, this is the Christian Standard Bible, and in the Christian Standard Bible, it doesn't say a Spirit, it says the Spirit Capital S.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: They take it as the Holy Spirit, but only about one out, exactly, as I counted 24 translations, only one out of four translations takes it as the Holy Spirit.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Makes much more sense to take it as I've translated it here, a spirit of wisdom and revelation, which leads you to say, Lord, would you give this brother, this sister, a spirit of wisdom and revelation and abilities to know you more deeply?
23:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's important because, you know, to be honest, we are known in the world for being dumb.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about Christians, am I right?
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can think that that's what we are.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: We're dumb sheep.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: We have no insight, we have no IQ at all.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way we're presented, isn't it, on The Simpsons.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Ned Flanders, who he would say is the most Christian person on there, Reverend Lovejoy on The Simpsons.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: They are naive, they are dumb.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And the family guy, it's Peter's mom, who's a Catholic, but she's dumb.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: And it's Angela in the office.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe she's smart, but she's certainly in the office, the dumbest person there socially.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Is that what we are?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: I gain real insight from uh Professor Paul.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: He certainly was one of the smartest men of his generation, Paul was.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: He certainly had a PhD.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: He speaks about this whole smart versus stupid thing in 1 Corinthians 1.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: He says, hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
24:13
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, in the rest of this, I've decided to trade stupid for foolish and smarts for wisdom.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: For since in the wisdom of God the world through its smarts didn't know him, God was pleased through the stupidity of what was preached to save those who believe.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Not many of you were smart by human standards.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Not many were influential, but God chose the stupid things of the world to shame the smart.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, so that no one may boast before him.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us, some of you will think of Nate Bargetse here, who has become for us smarts from God.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: So are we smart or are we stupid?
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Is it true as the world implies to us that the atheists are the smartest people around and the Christians are the dumbest?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, well, it depends on what you define as smarts, doesn't it?
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Depends on whether you're talking about eternal foolishness or eternal wisdom.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: But when you pray for a brother or sister, don't ask God to raise their IQ necessarily, but ask God to give them the ability to know him deeply.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: I was telling someone outside just a minute ago after after first service, we were sharing the pain we felt this last week.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And I said, one of the things that was remarkable to me was that Charlie could feel fine with going to Oxford or going to Cambridge or going to Harvard.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: He's gone to all these places, and he would be he would be in a debate with someone whose IQ was perhaps 40 points higher than his.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: If you say his was 140, maybe this guy's was 180.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: It never bothered Charlie at all.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And Charlie wasn't threatened by that.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he he he just shown love, no matter what they said.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Somehow he could, he could be, he could, his, he would put down his book or whatever he was doing, and he would just listen as hard as he could.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: I was telling them, as I watched, as I would watch Charlie, I would contrast that to a time when I was on the Washington mall and getting yelled at, and and how I, you know, I was I got defensive and so forth and had to be spared, you know, by Marilyn Sternberg, a Jews for Jesus woman who came over and started yelling at those women just as loud as they were yelling at me.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: So um, thank you, thank you, Marilyn.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Um this is um this is part of the real smarts of God, and that is loving the people you talk to and not being threatened by them, even if they are have more degrees than you do.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Finally, pray like Paul.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: This is the third and last.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: When you pray for a believer, a brother or sister, ask God to open their eyes to see their bursting bank account, to see their wealth in Christ.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, let's stop right there because we get confused about heart.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: We think heart is about romance and desire, but in the Bible, of course, heart and mind are inextricably linked, so that in fact Jesus could say, out of the heart, meaning out of the mind, come evil thoughts.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And so when he says, I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, he's saying, I pray that your mind will be given insight.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: God will shed a light on it, so that you may what?
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Know three things, what's the hope of his calling, the wealth of his inheritance, and so forth.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: The first thing in our bursting bank account, and by the way, Ephesians is the only book in the New Testament that uses a phrase in the heavenlies.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: It's in the heavenlies that we have this bursting bank account.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And what he means by this phrase, which is only used in Ephesians, is that parallel invisible realm that's here, right here, right now, a parallel invisible realm in which the angels and demons fight with each other over you, out of which demons whisper in your ear words of temptation, and it's there that our bank account, our incredible wealth, is stored and housed, right?
28:31
SPEAKER_00: In this invisible realm called the heavenlies.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing that is there in the heavenlies is, he says, I just want you to know what's in your bank account there, the hope of his calling.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: What's the hope of his calling?
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Those sound like stained glass words.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, believe it or not, the assurance, for that's what hope means in the Bible, and the calling is his salvation.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I call my sheep and they respond to me, Jesus said, John chapter 10.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: And the hope of his calling is the assurance of the fact that we are saved.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: He just barely said that, didn't he, at the end of verse 13 and 14, when he said, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And three chapters from now, he'll say, You are sealed until the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: You're not saved by works, you're not saved by man, you're saved by grace, you're sealed by the Spirit, you have assurance of salvation.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Pray for people who live in doubt, whose first and constant question, it's the most common question maybe I get, is how can I know that I'm going to heaven?
29:41
SPEAKER_00: How can I have assurance of salvation?
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Which is startling in a New Testament where we are told repeatedly, I write these things that you may know that you have eternal life.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Right?
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Or John 3.16.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what sense would John 3.16 mean?
29:58
SPEAKER_00: What sense would it have if it didn't mean that you had assurance that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life until you sin again?
30:11
SPEAKER_00: So the first blessing that you and I have is the assurance of salvation.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, when you pray for a Christian, ask God to open their eyes to their bursting bank account, bank account number two, the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: But you need to notice something important.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: That four verses before this, last week, we heard that we have an inheritance.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Our inheritance, our inheritance when we die and go to heaven, is Jesus and a life in heaven forever.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: But he's not talking about that air.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: He flips the whole thing in a way that is actually startling.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to know the inheritance, the glorious inheritance that Jesus believes he has in you, in his saints, in the church.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: So there it is.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Keep these things clear.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1.14, our inheritance that's sealed is Jesus in his glory and life in heaven with him.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: But now we read his inheritance, you and I, his beloved bride in all his glory.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize, you glorious, beautiful Cinderella, you, that one day the shoe will fit and you will marry the Prince of Gory, and you will love it and be amazed by it, but he is waiting with baited breath for that day as well.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that unbelievable?
31:51
SPEAKER_00: So about a hundred years ago, Clara Brooks, and since she's dead, she won't mind that I rewrote her poem a little bit and shortened it.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: But she wrote a poem called Bride of Christ.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Church of God, you spotless bride, on Jesus' breast, secure.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: No stains of sin in you are found, your garments all are pure.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Once an orphan, now a child, dearly loved and fair, a pearl adorns your graceful neck, and diamonds light your hair.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: The marriage of the Lamb is come.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: His bride already stands.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Her bridegroom soon will take her home to dwell in heavenly lands.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: I once performed a wedding in another state.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the most beautiful couples I've ever married.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: But she was the Cinderella.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: In other words, though she was lovely, humble, godly, sweet, she came from circumstances.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And she was marrying the most eligible bachelor that any of us had seen in the church in some time.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: He was not only handsome, very intelligent, great athlete, incredibly outgoing, but he had grown up in a situation where he was known by many, many people, and many girls had tried to land him.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And somehow she'd been the one.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: I went to see her just before the ceremony, as I always did, always do.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: And I found her, and she was standing there looking amazing.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: She was already beautiful.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: But she looked so radiant in her white dress and her jewelry.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: And I just gasped when I told her that she looked fantastic.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: And then I said, How are you doing?
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for this?
34:19
SPEAKER_00: And she actually started crying.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I can't figure out why he chose me.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: A lot of girls prettier than I, and I thought, I don't know many girls prettier than you are, but a lot of girls more beautiful than I am, smarter than I am, more popular than I am, wanted him.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: But he chose me.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I just don't feel worthy.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons their marriage has been great for 20 years is that they both thought they were marrying up.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: He was just as excited as was his Cinderella.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: One day, you and I will go to heaven and we will see clearly, and we will think, how in the world could the Prince of Heaven have chosen us, have chosen me.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't deserve this.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: But when we see our bridegroom, the amazing thing is, as Psalm 45 says, on that day, it's the wedding psalm, Psalm 45, it says, on that day, he will be the happiest person in heaven.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: He has been waiting all this time for his glorious inheritance.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: There was a funny news story that came out of Florida sometime back.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: I didn't share this in first service, but a little Assembly of God Church 60 miles north of Tampa.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Received a letter in the mail from the American Family Association.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Dear God.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Assembly of God.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Assembly of God.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Dear God.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: You've been entered, and in fact, you were a finalist for the$11 million prize.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Please come forward.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: You have not responded to our request so far.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: We would like to meet you.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: We would like to have you respond to us.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Just imagine for a moment what you could do with the$11 million.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: And the letter constantly said, and God, imagine what you could do with that$11 million.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: And God, won't you please come forward so we can meet you.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: And God, can you, and even it said, and God, can you imagine how all your friends will look up to you if you win this prize of$11 million?
36:57
SPEAKER_00: But you read a passage like this, you know, well, God doesn't need the$11 million.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: You know what God cares about more?
37:05
SPEAKER_00: It's that little church of 140 people that he will marry one day.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: And he can hardly wait to get that inheritance.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Now that's something that's part of your bank account and mine.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: That blows me away.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
37:27
SPEAKER_00: So pray for people that they will understand this, that they will understand that when Zephaniah the prophet ends his book with these words, he's talking about our future wedding.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Adonai, your God, is in your midst, a mighty Savior.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: He will delight over you with joy, he will quiet you with his love.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: He will dance for joy over you with singing.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: That's how much he loves you.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: And finally, having spoken of the past and the future, in the past he called you and you have assurance of salvation since that point.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: In the future, you have this glorious joy of a loving bridegroom forever and ever.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: In the present, until that happens, he says, I want you to know the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the mighty working of a straight ball.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Paul piles up.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: There are four words in Greek for power, four different words.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Power, energy, might, and so forth.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: He uses them all right here.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Just so you'll know that, you know, that God is the Godzilla of the universe.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: That oh, I shouldn't have said that, but so this is a true story.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell doesn't, he grew up, his family doesn't go in anymore.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell was a little boy, and he was learning how to spell.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: This is a true story.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: He was learning how to spell with the magic magnetic letters, you know, on the fridge.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: You know about that where you go, and so he had he had learned how to spell dad, mom, dog, cat, and so forth.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: One morning comes to his mom after his dad had left for work, and he's got three letters in his hand, and he shows her G, O, D.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: She's so happy.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Put those up on the fridge.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: Your dad will be so happy.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: We've raised you right.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Yay! And then she hears him from the kitchen yell out, how do you spell Zilla?
39:16
SPEAKER_00: So, but you know, little boys want the strongest thing in the universe.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: But this passage is saying right now, today, in your life, no matter how weak you feel or how desperate you are, you have the strongest person in the entire universe who's got all the strength and omnipotent power there is, and it is working on your behalf.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: That's what the immeasurable greatness of his power is, the strength of Almighty God, with which he constantly guards us from the enemy and sustains us in our weakness.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Dear Christian, do you see it?
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Do you live your life in the knowledge of your spiritual wealth?
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you have assurance of salvation, the hope of his calling?
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize I am Cinderella, soon to be the glorious bride of my king?
40:06
SPEAKER_00: And until that day do I realize that his strength is mine.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: So listen, friends, let's pray like Paul, constantly and thankfully for our brothers and sisters in the Lord and tell them so.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: And when we pray for them, dear Lord, thank you for my children, for their faith in you and their love for others, but would you give them the ability to know you even more deeply?
40:32
SPEAKER_00: And please, Lord, help my loved ones and my brothers and sisters to see how wealthy and blessed they are in you.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, just hours before her husband's death, her last tweet before her death, Erica tweeted these words.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 46, 1.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: How can that God, who says, My immeasurable strength, is here to support you in your time of need?
41:17
SPEAKER_00: And a woman and her husband, who take those words out of Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, and somehow he allows her husband's life to be snuffed out.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why God did that.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: But like Erica, who's expressed it clearly since then, she still trusts God, knows that his strength has brought her husband to heaven, and that his strength will uphold her as she raises her children without their father.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: And it is that strength that you and I have and that we can call on that God promises us that even when the worst happens, that he has our back.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we should know about him.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you love us that much.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to our marriage with you and the consummation of all these things when we can see our loved ones again and our friends that we admire so much and that have been taken from us.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: We ask for those that we love, for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for our families.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for those who've come to faith in you and have a love for each other.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: We pray that they may get to know you better and better and have spiritual insight.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Lord, we ask that we would live with the constant knowledge of all that you have given us in the heavenly places.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name and all God's people said.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.