Today on Real Life Radio, the moment you were born again, you had no idea what wealth in the spirit realm was yours until you came across them in study and through experience. Experience in Christianity is one of the greatest things that you can ever experience. This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibs. I'm David J.
Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Hey, I'm very excited to promote this new book by Dr. Tim LaHaye. Not only a mentor of mine, but a precious friend, he has written a book: How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. Remember, Dr.
Tim LaHaye is the one that brought you the remarkable Left Behind series. I bet with all of your knowledge of Bible prophecy, there's still a hole somewhere. And this book is going to help you as he walks you through how to study Bible prophecy for yourself. How to study Bible prophecy for yourself. Get it for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.
dot com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called "The Book of Ephesians," and a message titled "Things That We Need to Know." Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And here Paul prays that we would truly grasp the riches that are already ours in Him. You see, the moment we're born again, the whole world of spiritual wealth becomes ours, even if we don't know it yet. And like a child who slowly discovers all that comes with their family, we grow into what God has given us, and it all begins to open up through prayer.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that Paul was a man devoted to prayer, and we're called to do exactly the same.
So when our prayer life begins to fade and we stop talking to God like we once did, we need to just quiet our hearts and commune with Him in a whole new way.
Now, with his message called "Things That We Need to Know," here's Pastor Bible Teacher Jack Hibs.
Well, if you grab your Bible tonight and open them up to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, and we'll begin in verse fifteen tonight, down to verse twenty-three. And the title of the message tonight is "Things that We Need to Know," things that we need to know. And if we bear with this study tonight, we should come out on the other end in less than an hour, much better off for having taken the time to have been here. As we look at some fantastic truths right out of the scriptures, some of the most Powerful verses in the Bible are laid out before us this evening, and we will do our best to get all the way through that.
That's my intentions tonight.
However, the the depth and the meat. Of what Paul is trying to tell us in this great, great study that he has penned to us is so much worthy of our consideration. They are certainly things that we need to know. And by the way, before we get into this, in the Greek New Testament, from verses three to fourteen. Paul gives one sentence that's from verses three to fourteen.
It's a tremendous sentence.
Well, from verses fifteen to twenty-three, Paul gives another sentence. The whole chapter is built up really of officially two sentences. But in verses fifteen to twenty-three, Paul gives a sentence that contains one hundred and sixty-nine words in the original Greek New Testament. I mean, this guy can talk. And he he can take a breath and go.
And it's not that he's talking a lot; it's what he says is so meaty that he can't stop. He just says it. And so this is a very important piece of scripture that we're seeing this evening, beginning at verse fifteen. Paul says, "Therefore, I also." After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is the body. The fullness of Him who fills all in all. Let's pray together one more time, Father. We ask you in Jesus' name that you would take these truths from your Word and embed them into our hearts, Lord. That you would descend upon us by the power of the Holy Spirit to breathe life into us.
We know that your Word has life and is life. But Father, we pray tonight that we might be recipients of the grace and of the power and Lord of the knowledge. Concerning the facts that we need to have right here and right now for us, so Lord bless this time together in Jesus' name, Amen. Things that we need to know: the context of the scripture is based upon prayer. If you look carefully at this, beginning at verse fifteen, he says, "Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints," he goes right into verse sixteen.
I do not cease to pray. He's praying. For this church, and what's important about verse fifteen, you should circle this in your Bible. Is the word therefore? The reason why it's important is because he's backing up all the preceding fourteen verses.
He's saying, based upon what we've just gone through, I am now going to offer up to you a thanksgiving. Really, I guess unto the Lord, and then offer up on your behalf this prayer. But Paul says here, therefore, very important word. Before we get into this and continue on in the study, we need to recognize a few things. When we are born as children, you know, Job told us we're born naked.
Naked I came, naked I go, and you know that's true. You might say, well, I've never seen anybody buried naked.
Well, they are really buried naked. They may have a suit on, but they're naked. They're naked. There's nothing left anymore. There's nothing there.
They're gone. They're about as naked. That body's about as naked as it's ever going to be. In fact, it's more naked than it was when it was born. But we are born into this world, Job says, naked, and we're going to leave naked.
But the fact of the matter is, when we are truly born into this world, though we come out naked-looking and and ugly and crinkly and ball-headed, most of us ball-headed like a bowling ball. The fact of the matter is, by virtue of who your mother is, who your father is, there are certain assets and resources that are available to you. You don't know it at all. You are just crying.
Well, I am not going to say my child's name. One of my kids came out. In fact, I can't even say their name. I forgot which one this was. It was a classic day, though.
I mean, she came out, and the doctor holds her up, and he he was trying to go to church right after because she really ruined his day. She was coming too soon; it wasn't going to work. He kept saying, "I'll go to church, and I'll be back in a minute." You know, you just, Lisa, keep doing your thing. And well, what happened was he had his dress pants on underneath his scrubs, and his had his nice shoes and socks on. And she came out, and hey, look, all right, and just just really filled up his shoes.
And just really surprised him. Just really let him have it.
Well, not only was she connected to mom by way of the umbilical cord. Really, even much more important than that was the fact that she was connected to our family. There were certain resources and assets, by virtue of her being born in our family, that are hers, though she doesn't know anything about them. And every one of us who have been born in the world—I'm not talking about the financial status of your family. I'm talking about you being part of the human race.
You being an extension of your mom and dad. You have certain things that have been granted to you by virtue of birth that will never be separated from you, good or bad. Doesn't matter. The fact is, they're yours, and you do not realize that they're yours until you grow up into them. There comes a point in time as a child grows up that they find out we're rich, or we find out we're poor, or we find out we're middle class, or we find out we have a car or a truck.
They're not aware of these things at the beginning, but they become aware as time goes on, and that's what Paul is talking about in the context of the study tonight. Is that there are things that a Christian, once they experience the birth of the Spirit. That they wind up coming to, the knowledge of as a Christian. The moment you were born again, you had no idea what wealth in the spirit realm was yours, until you came across them in study and through experience. Experience in Christianity is one of the greatest things that you can ever experience.
It sure is painful, though. I had a brother just before service. Talk about experience and in pain and what's going on. God's working in his life. It's not easy, but by virtue of our birth, we are related to this family, this Christian spiritual family that is global.
It's worldwide. It's alive. It transcends that connection of human. Earthly birth, because it's of the spirit. But the text, the context of the study tonight is based upon prayer, and we'll see things that come out of it.
So he says in verse 15, therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith, and the reason why that's there is because he says, I just got done talking to you about being sealed by the Holy Spirit. Remember, we talked about that the last two weeks. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are asking the question: Are you sealed? Do you know it for sure?
If you are sealed, you do know it for sure. It's the way he works. None of his kids are running around not knowing. And maybe you are struggling with that because you need to be reassured, or you need to believe him. You may be one of his children, but you're not believing his words.
But the fact of the matter is, if you believe God at His word and the witness of the Holy Spirit in you, you know that you've been sealed by the Spirit. We've come through that, by the way. Second Timothy two nineteen says, Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God is sure; it stands, having this seal, that the Lord knows those who are His.
So I like that.
So now Paul's purpose, after this foundation has been laid in the first fourteen verses, his Motive now is to pray for them. To pray for them, he says in verse sixteen, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." So the first thing I want you to notice is verse verses fifteen to sixteen is that Paul's example at prayer. People, we need to have his example at prayer. I'm afraid, and I'm not coming against this church specifically or you. Specifically, but the Church of Jesus, by and large, I think is praying less than ever before.
I think we're playing more and praying less. I think it's so hard for us to shut down everything. When's the last time you When's the last time you got in your car and turned your radio off or kept it off? Have you noticed you jump in the car and you automatically turn it on? I'm really bad about that.
I'm a news freak. I get on KX. And if they're not, you know, and then I toggle back and forth, KFWB, KNX, and you're saying, "Man, I want to ride with you anywhere. You bored me out of my life." You know, it's you don't have to listen to the news. You know, I just I wind up listening to it and telling you about it.
You know, but I like the news. But the thing is, the Lord is always telling me, "Turn it off, turn it off." But God. But God, we want to know what's going up. Listen, we got to shut it down, and we need to start listening to the Lord. I think we might be playing more than we're praying.
We need to be praying a lot. Why? The prayer of the believer is what's going to unlock your. Relationship with the Lord in knowledge to assimilate what God has spoken to you. You can take this Bible all day long, and if you read it academically, it won't change your life.
You've got to read this word and eat up what it says, and that is done through prayer. When you open the Bible, say, "Lord, I want you to seal the sin in my heart. I want you to anchor these truths into my soul, and I ask you to speak to me." If you approach the Bible like a novel, if you approach it like, well, you know, I'm supposed to do my Bible reading today, so here we go. You're not going to get anything out of it. You know, you got to set, you got to look at this thing like it is breathing.
It's alive. Hebrew says, sharper than any two-edged sword. By the way, if we're not praying, if I'm not praying, and if you're not praying, that is the first avenue. By the way, that is cut off. There's a block.
A roadblock on that avenue. When we begin to backslide, if we cool off on our prayer life, watch what happens. We cool off talking to God. It's just like the relationship you have with someone—maybe an employee, maybe a spouse. You're not talking to them much, and the less you talk with them, the more alienated you feel with them.
Isn't that true? And isn't it funny when you're not talking to somebody, you begin to think it's so stupid. You begin to think what they might be thinking. How can you dare do that when you haven't even been talking to them? That's the trick.
I haven't talked to them in so long. I don't think they like me. How do you know? I don't know. I haven't talked to them in so long.
So then, how do you know? I just feel like they don't like me.
Well, ask them. I can't do that because we're not talking. When there's a fellowship going on, it's hey, how you doing? Great. How you doing?
Okay, fine. And God's like that. You talk with God daily. How you doing today? I'm doing fine.
How you doing?
I'm doing good. Let's go. Let's get on the freeway, God.
Okay, here we go. He's with you all the time. He'll just never leave and you're forsaking you. You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com.
That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. And we just need to talk to him. You know, we got to be careful.
We don't get in. I think there's a, I think there's a place for liturgical type of prayer, but I think I don't think we should get into it. By that I mean, there's a time when we bow the knee, and we might even, you know, go through some interesting things that we do in prayer time as individuals privately alone. Maybe you like to lay down flat on the carpet and talk to God. That's great.
Keep doing it. But you ought to be able to stand up and get behind your moped or your car and be able to talk to God too. Paul is saying, I don't cease. To talk to God about you guys, and that's Paul's example of prayer. We need to be like that, and I honestly mean this.
If it is slipping from your life, don't think for a moment that it's just going to affect you. It will affect your family and your friends, and then it will affect your church. And I got to admit, right now, there's days when I get up and I, my flesh says, "We ain't praying today." And I'm laying there, going, I heard that.
Now, some of you who are visiting or don't know the Lord, you're thinking, these Christians are sick. But what's the first thing you do? You wake in the morning. It's God. It's God.
Isn't that great to wake up in the morning? First thing when your consciousness comes around, it's God's with me. Wow.
Okay, what's going on today? And the flesh says nothing. Fishing, huh? Stay in bed. Zip.
And then the spirit says, "No, you know what? We need to do. We need to get into our devotion, man. You know, you missed it the last few days. Come on, let's go get into the devotion." Okay, flesh says, "No way." And you're laying there, and there's this war going on.
Isn't that weird? Before your feet ever hit the ground, it happens in milliseconds too. Have you noticed? Then you get up, and as soon as you start going with it, the flesh just by now kind of like gives up. All right.
But have you noticed if we don't yield and go spend a moment with the Lord? And I don't know what kind of props you need. I need props. I'm a hands-on kind of propy kind of guy, and I I'll always go. Out to the kitchen, to the bay window.
Now look outside towards the sun, if there's sun or whatever. And I'll just look out there. If that doesn't do it, I'll open the sliding glass door, which everybody doesn't like because the cold air comes in. But it means something to me, and I'll listen to the morning. And it's like, oh man, God help me.
I feel like I'm dead. And then I'll hear a bird sing, and our robin will go across the yard, or whatever it is, and it's like, yeah, neat. And that's how God speaks to me, and that's how I get my batteries going. And then I'll get into the Word, and things happen. For you, it's different.
Maybe it's Beethoven or Mozart in the morning.
Some people, fine, but be wise about this. Paul got in the mood and mode to be praying always. The Bible says, "Pray always, and don't cease." The Bible says, "Pray and don't give up praying." We need to remember that. But listen, we backslide in prayer. We're going to backslide in Bible reading.
We'll backslide in our conduct, and then we stop going to church, and we wind up messing up good time, and we're not accountable to anybody anymore. By the way, I came across this great verse the other day, and it's Psalm seventy-seven, thirteen. Read this yesterday. I love this verse. Isn't this a great verse to hang over the front of a church?
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? Isn't there like a little bit of boasting in there? I like that. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary.
So come on, let's get on in the sanctuary. And by the way, who is so great a God as our God? In other words, get into the sanctuary, man. And fellowship, because we have such a great and awesome God. But you cut that out of your life, you're gonna, you're gonna hurt, and you don't want to do that.
Verse 15 says, Paul says here, after I heard about your faith in the Lord. Yeah, underline faith in the Lord. It's twofold right here, faith in the Lord, and number two, your love for all the saints. Those have got to go hand in hand. The Christian life is lived on two planes, always, always two planes.
Our relationship Godward is displayed by our faith in God. Listen, everyone, did you get it? Our relationship toward God, Godward, is displayed to the world by our faith. We don't. This isn't.
This is important. Our faith. Please, are you growing in the Lord? Is the Bible challenging your heart? When you come in and out of a message or listen to a message on the radio, whatever it is, are you challenged by it?
That feeling's a little uncomfortable when you're challenged by the Holy Spirit. It's a little bit unnerving because, do I dare say the word? We hate this word, change. Change. The Holy Spirit wants us to change.
We are changing by the power of God, and when we seek Him, Godward, our relationship with the Lord is displayed throughout the world by our faith. Are you trusting God? Have you yielded your life to Him? We sang this beautiful song tonight about trust in the Lord. If we're trusting Him, we will be a people that are saying.
God, whatever you're going to do with my life, just can you fast forward a little bit? Because I'm thinking, I don't want to, I don't wind up, I don't want to wind up having a stroke in ten years and not be able to do mission work.
So if I'm going to have a stroke in ten years, speed it. Let me get some work done now. You know what I'm saying, or is it just me? It's just me. By the look of your face, it's me.
I don't want a moment wait. God, let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's get you know. I want to burn out for God. I'd rather burn out for God than burn out for something else.
So let's go, Lord. And I want to be associated with a fellowship, and I think you do too. That we're committed to God, and our faith shows it.
Well, do you think we should go up and take those guys? Joshua says, or Jonathan says to his armor bearer, "Let's go." God doesn't need the whole Israeli army to whip these guys. If God's with us, He'll use the two of us to whip the whole army. Don't you like that kind of thinking? I mean, that's awesome.
It's great thinking.
Now, you know, let's try it. You know, I think that's fun. I think it's kind of bloody, but I think it's fun. But that's the way the walk ought to be. Is your walk a dynamic?
Paul is praying for this church because their walk is a dynamic. Man, he's prompted to pray for them because they're dynamic in the Lord. I love it.
So faith is our display of our relationship to God. But look at the second thing: is that our relationship manward is through love. If we have faith in God, we're going to have love toward our brothers and sisters. And this is God's love. This is God's love that we'll have for them, and God can only give this love.
So, don't try it on your own. You can't do it, even in the family of God. There is people we have a hard time with, and you might say, "Gosh, how can I be a Christian? That guy drives me nuts." God has brought that guy into your life to drive you nuts, so that you will fall to your knees and say, "Lord, you know we're suffering." Lord, help me to love Brother John more. When the truth is, it's God.
I can't stand that guy. You got to help me. He's my brother, and I feel really bad about it because he's just driving me up the wall. And the Lord says, "Thank you for that honest prayer." The fact of the matter is this: you need to ask me for your for my love and patience for him, because I love him, and I've brought him into your life to sharpen you. If everybody around us was just like us, think about it.
We would really not get along very well. Our degree of love, though, for those around us reveals our level of faith in the Lord.
So we need to be careful about that and prayerful about that. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "Things That We Need to Know." Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called "The Book of Ephesians," a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians, discovering the riches, the walk, and the triumph of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Everything Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing has a home, jackhibbs.
dot com. It's the place to catch the latest message, revisit a series, listen to the podcast, stream real life network, or find resources that help you stay steady in God's Word. Whether you have five minutes or an hour, start there. The site keeps it easy to watch and listen, learn and grow. Visit jackhibs dot com today and stay connected to what God is doing through this ministry.
Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and.
Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
