Prayer for Clarity

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. So what pain are you enduring right now? Whatever pain you're in, you have the assurance of God's love and you know that he has fully forgiven and accepted you. You have the knowledge that he is present in all things, working for your good, that he is determined that you will know him and see him and you will be like him. That is the hope to which you are called. Welcome back to another day of solid, gospel-saturated, biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So do you believe that prayer is a personal and intimate privilege in the life of every believer? Or is it just something we do because we're supposed to?

Is it conversation or just one-sided asking? And maybe most importantly, is there a way that we can add power to our prayers? Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer answers these questions as he continues our teaching series called Mystery and Clarity. We're learning how to obtain a sense of clarity and power as we pray.

If you've missed any part of this new teaching series, you can always listen again free of charge at jdgreer.com. Now here's Pastor J.D. with a message he titled Prayer for Clarity. The second thing that Paul does in the book of Ephesians is he prays for the believers in Ephesus. And I am so grateful for this prayer that it is recorded here because it shows us how to pray. It shows us what God most wants for us.

All right, here we go, verse 15. Because I have heard of your faith, you new Ephesian believers, I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. So 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 a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. I want to focus on those words.

Let's stop there for a minute, okay? And I want to focus on those words, the spirit of wisdom, that God would give us a spirit of revelation that we would have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. This is a prayer, you see, for spiritual sight. Paul has just taught them, if you recall the first part of this chapter, he's just taught them this incredible truth about how much God loves them. It is a love that is deep and wide and complex and in many ways it is a mystery to us. So after Paul tells them these deep, mysterious, awesome things about God's love, about like how he chose us from the foundation of the world and there's never been a time where he didn't love us and how even in the pain that we go through, it doesn't mean that God doesn't love us.

In fact, he's working it all for our good. After he tells us those mysterious things, he prays for them to be able to see it, to see it with their heart or to feel it. You see, sight is one of the most valuable things we possess, physical sight. You don't want to lose it because your life would be drastically different without physical sight.

Spiritual sight is something that you don't want to miss out on either. And Paul says, I don't want you to just consent to the fact that God loves you. I don't want you just to consent to the fact that God is working all things for your good.

I don't want you to embrace that cognitively and tell me that you believe it. I want you to feel it. I want you to feel it down in your soul.

In the Psalms, David said it this way. He said, I want to taste and see that the Lord is good. You see, it's one thing to know with your mind that honey is sweet or even to understand why it's sweet or to know that some rich chocolate dessert is sweet.

It's quite another thing to have that sweetness burst alive in your mouth. And Paul is praying that you would taste and see experientially how God cherishes you, that you would sense his closeness to you. Because you see, that's what really changes your life. Seeing God's majesty with the eyes of your heart and feeling his love for you changes your heart. That creates in you a love and a craving for him, a love that drives out the cravings for sin, a love that overcomes addictions, and a love that overcomes selfishness. It's a love that overflows into a love for others. Now, God, I've told you guys this a lot, but God doesn't want religious rule followers.

That's not the point. He is calling out a people to love him and to worship him. And let me just say again, for many of us in this church, this is the one element we're missing. That's what makes this prayer so relevant to us. You see, our problem is not that we don't understand cognitively the truths about God's love. Our problem is that we don't feel them. We don't taste them. They haven't burst alive in our hearts. The sense of God's love for us individually never causes us to weep or worship.

Many of you guys are good at memorizing and knowing stuff. You know what Christians believe and you know what they should do, but you don't flow with passion for God. How often do you feel dry spiritually? I mean, your theology is fine. It's not like there's some great heresy in what you believe.

You're not involved in some big embarrassing sin. You just don't feel love for God. Guys, the point is not what you believe or not just what you believe or what you do. The point is loving God. Jesus said all that we believe and all we do hangs on that.

Loving God because that's how God feels about you. For Paul, he can't even start talking about the love of God without bursting into worship and praise. Several times in Paul's letters he'll make statements like this.

Don't you realize how big and how huge and how deep and how glorious this God and his plan that he has for us is? In one place in Ephesians, Paul makes an incredible contrast. He says Ephesians 5 18 right here in the book of Ephesians, do not be drunk on wine which leads to debauchery and abuse and broken relationships. Instead, you got to catch that word instead, instead of being drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit. In other words, in contrast to being drunk with wine, you should in a way be high on the Spirit. The difference, of course, is that behind the Spirit doesn't lead to debauchery and broken relationships.

It leads to peace and it leads to righteousness and holiness. But you see there is supposed to be some similarities in being drunk and being in love with God. Can we have a moment of honesty together? Is this in any way true about you? Is there any way that you could say that your emotions for God are similar to what a drunk man feels when he is inebriated?

We bad this know you shouldn't get drunk with wine. But how many of us are so filled with the Spirit that it's like we're drunk with passion for Him? The point of it all is to know God and love Him, not just to avoid sin and believe right things. And passion for God, you see, begins with sight. It begins with seeing who God is and how much God loves us. So this is what Paul prayed, that we would see God with the eyes of our heart and be overcome with a sense of awe and worship. So you need to see with the eyes of your heart, you need to see Jesus. It's only a greater love for Jesus that can keep you from giving yourself to sin and to selfishness. I think a lot of times about college students watching TV this past week and just caught one of these little things coming up about what goes on at spring break and I remember thinking, how are they ever going to say no to those things?

Especially when everybody around them is doing it and it's just what's accepted. How are you going to break the powers of those attractions? Is it because I preach a really good sermon right before spring break and tell you all the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases? Is that going to do it? No. Here's how. It's when you develop a more intense love for Jesus. I want you to learn to love him and be so passionately devoted to his glory that you would not want to dishonor him and that would give you the ability to say no to sin. That's what he's praying for. See. Let them see and feel and taste.

Not know, but know in their heart. What exactly does that look like? What specifically does he want them to see? He gives you four phrases in the next few verses that are four things he wants you to see clearly.

Here's clarity number one. He wants them to see the hope to which God has called them. You see that there in verse 18? He wants them to see the hope to which they have been called. Now first let's talk about the word hope because a lot of times in English hope means a desire that you want to come to pass but you're not quite sure will come to pass. For example, is Carolina going to make it to the NCAA tournament this year? I hope so, but right now there's nothing really sure about that.

In fact, the NIT may be a better bet. Biblical hope is different. Biblical hope is certain.

In fact, let me give you a definition. Biblical hope is a life shaping certainty that has not happened yet but that you are sure is going to happen. What God has determined to give us and what he's making us into, Paul says, is settled forever. God set his love on you from all eternity and he's never turning back.

You are going to know him, you are going to be filled with him, and you're going to be like him. And Paul says, I pray that you might know the certainty of that and you might know the value of it in your soul. Let's stop for a minute and let's just ask why would that be important? Why is it important for us to see that? Let's give you a couple reasons.

Knowing the hope to which we are called would allow us to overcome sin and temptation. Let me give you an analogy. I've often heard that people who overeat consistently do so because they are bored or stressed and eating is like a way of coping with their boredom or their stress. It adds a little adventure to their life or a way to escape pressure. Well, of course, that's a problem and it leads to poor health because eating is supposed to be enjoyable, yes, but if you are eating food to feed your soul, well, then you're going to overeat. Well, in the same way, when your soul is hungry, you turn to silly pursuits to feed your soul, but having your heart fixed on what God is doing in you and what God is going to give you will keep you from that.

C.S. Lewis used a great analogy and some of you have probably heard it. He said, we're like the kid who is, you know, the four-year-old who is playing in a mud puddle in his backyard and keeps telling his parents he doesn't want to go with them when they're offering to take him to the beach because he's so just, you know, enamored with his mud puddle and you're like, don't you get it? This is a little mud puddle. It's like that deep, it's that wide, but I'm offering you the beach.

It's the biggest mud puddle in the world. But we say no because we're so fixated on this that we don't realize how much more is offered to us. That's what Paul says. I want you to see how much more God has because when you see that, you won't be entrapped by these little distractions and these things that just consume you.

The only way you will avoid the trappings of materialism, for example, or the race to get ahead, which is the mantra in our colleges, the only way you'll avoid that is by a greater and more certain hope. If I see the value of God and his kingdom, will I really feel like I need to have so much nice stuff in my life? No. If I am cherished by the God of the universe and I know that, will I be driven by the need to have everybody else's approval? No.

You show me somebody who is obsessed with making money, who is obsessed with having nice stuff, and I will show you somebody who is not aware at all of the hope to which they have been caused. Thanks for listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. We'll get back to today's teaching from the book of Ephesians in a minute. But first, I wanted to tell you about the latest premium resource we are offering our Summit Life family right now. With your gift of $35 or more to this ministry, you'll receive a Bible study through the book of Galatians written by Pastor Tim Keller, who was one of Pastor J.D. 's biggest influences in the faith. Not only will this Bible study help you gain a better understanding of one of the deepest, richest parts of the Bible, but it's also a great reminder of Pastor Tim's years of faithful gospel ministry as he takes us through Galatians. You'll recall that we just finished up our own teaching series through Galatians recently, so take things one step further by working your way through this study. Be inspired to embrace the true gospel message in all of its beauty and maybe study with a friend. To get your copy, call right now with your gift.

You can reach us at 866-335-5220 or visit jdgrier.com. And as always, we want to thank you for your continued support of this ministry. Now let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor J.D. right here on Summit Life. Here's the other thing.

Knowing the hope to which you are called not only helps you overcome sin and temptation, it'll help you endure pain in your life. I was thinking this week about the worst college jobs. I feel like I had a few bad ones. I'm sure you did too.

I don't have time for you to tell me all yours this morning, obviously, so I can tell you mine because I feel like mine would be at least in the top five here in the room. I worked in college one summer. I worked in a food line distribution center freezer.

It was three football fields long. It was negative seven degrees in this freezer. It was terrible. It was such a drudgery being in this job, right? Well, let me just kind of change the scenario a little bit.

What if I had some rich uncle who said to me, son, I want you to learn character. So I want you to take this job over the summer. I'm going to pay you $10,000 an hour if you'll do it well. So now at the end of a shift, I haven't made $22. I've made $40,000.

Every week, I'm pulling in 200 grand. You think it's going to feel like a drag? No, it's going to be awesome because I know the hope that God has called me to. If you know what God is doing in you and giving to you, it changes your perspective on pain in the present. Paul says if you could just grasp the assurance and beauty of what God is doing in you, even your pain now, it's not like it goes away, but you suddenly, your perspective on it changes. A couple weeks ago, I referred to my friend, a guy that some of you I know have heard of, a guy named Matt Chandler, pastor of a church, very similar to ours out in Texas.

He has three kids, which are the ages of three of my kids. On Thanksgiving of last year, suddenly drops of a seizure. They take him in, discover a mass on his frontal lobe in his brain.

They immediately cut it out, do a biopsy on it, and the tests come back and that shows that it is malignant. Now he's undergoing chemotherapy and here we got a guy whose life looks so promising and may still be, but everything is ahead of him who suddenly now is looking at the prospect of not living for more than six months. And he said something the other day that just totally just just captivated my heart. He said, he said, I'm remembering the words now of C.S. Lewis of a book I read a while ago. C.S. Lewis, who was quoting Paul, who said when we get to heaven, it's not like we're going to get to heaven and all of a sudden we just understand why everything happened. Oh, I see, that's why that happened. Oh, he said that's not it.

C.S. Lewis paraphrasing Paul said when we get to heaven and we look back on the pain in our life, we say what pain? What pain?

I can't even hardly remember it because of what I see that God produced in it. That's why Paul in the book of Romans, Paul a man who was very accustomed to pain and heartache, said these light and momentary afflictions are not even worthy to be compared to the glory that is going to be revealed in us. So what pain are you enduring right now?

Maybe it's somebody you love that's suffering, maybe it's your own physical pain, maybe it's bad relationships, maybe it's a bad marriage, you're frustrated at work, sexually frustrated in your marriage. Whatever pain you're in, you have the assurance of God's love and you know that he has fully forgiven and accepted you. You have the knowledge that he is present in all things, working for your good, that he is determined that you will know him and see him and you will be like him. That is the hope to which you are called. So no matter what's happening, whether people are mistreating you or life is blown up on you, even if it's just people annoying you, you can always respond in every situation to what God is doing.

What if you mothers reflected on the fact that when your kids are annoying you that God in that moment had a plan for you using that to make you what he wanted you to be? That's the hope to which you're called. Paul says I want you to see that, I want you to feel it. Here's the second phrase. I want you to know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

See that verse 18? The first thing, by the way, if you write down a one-word description, the first thing he hopes you see is he hopes you see hope. Second thing he wants you to see, watch this, I'll show you.

Actually let's back up, stop, because I think this one might throw you for a minute. Because that little phrase, it kind of sounds like religious mumbo jumbo, doesn't it? That you might know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

So let's break that apart. He's talking about an inheritance. So what is an inheritance? Well an inheritance is something of great value that you get when a rich relative dies.

All right, second question. Whose inheritance is he talking about? This is the part everybody misses. Everybody thinks he's talking about our inheritance. No, he's not talking about our inheritance. Whose inheritance?

Look at your bio. Whose is it? God's inheritance. God has an inheritance? Yes.

What is it? The saints. Who are the saints?

The saints are all those that God has chosen. You. You are God's inheritance.

Paul says, I am praying that you might know that you are God's greatest treasure. Would you stop and think about how staggering that is? For just a minute. What is God excited about getting as an inheritance? I mean, think about it. What would you get God as a gift that he didn't already have? I mean, just think about it with like Bill Gates. If you were related to Bill Gates, what would you get Bill Gates as a gift at Christmas? Could you imagine getting Bill Gates something and him be like, wow, I've always wanted one of those.

That's a flat screen TV. Look at that. Even more so, what do you get God? I am God's inheritance. God considered me so precious to him that Jesus gave up the universe and he suffered and he died to save me. Paul is saying, I'm praying that you would see that and you would feel it and you would be overwhelmed by your value to God and by his commitment to you. You're taking notes. Write down for the second one, write down your worth. Paul wants you to see your hope.

Secondly, he wants to see your worth. Later in Ephesians three, Paul re-praised this prayer with different words. And Paul says this, listen to this. This is my favorite passage in Ephesians.

I think the whole thing. I pray that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Let me tell you something about the apostle Paul in case you're kind of new to study in the New Testament. The apostle Paul is not one prone to exaggeration. He doesn't usually speak in a lot of flowing poetic kind of flowery language. Usually he's like, this is what God is like and I'm an apostle. So you shut up.

Okay. Cause this is what it is. Here Paul does something that's actually pretty unusual for him. He loses his words.

He starts to say the love of Christ. It, it, it, it's just surpasses all knowledge. It even surpasses my ability to describe it. Even though I'm under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I still can't describe it. And then he points out these like, starts using this real poetic kind of terminology, the breadth and the length and the height and the depth. Now, you know, he didn't actually say what he means by breadth, length, height, and depth. But I think when you understand, especially Ephesians one, I really think it's actually kind of obvious what those four words refer to. Again, this is my interpretation.

You could challenge it, but just, just look at it. The length, the length of God's love from all eternity and for all eternity, God shows us from before the foundation of the world, which means there has never been a time ever when God has not known me and loved me. And there will never be a time in the future where he will quit loving me.

There is nothing we can do to make him love us less and there is nothing we can do to make him love us more. That sounds so freeing, doesn't it? You're listening to Summit Life and an encouraging message from Pastor JD Greer. So Pastor JD, we just wrapped up our study of Galatians last week before moving to the next letter from Paul, Ephesians. Why did we study Galatians?

What's the purpose? You know, that's a great question, Molly. And what you find is that throughout history, people don't change. And the same things that they had questions about and struggled with are actually the same things that we have questions about. In Galatia around the year 50 AD, the church faced a choice between what Paul called two different gospels. And one gospel was anchored in the self. I can change myself. I can fix what's broken in my life. The other gospel was one where you look to and depend on God's grace, his spirit and his power.

Those are the same two choices we have today, Molly. Even in churches, Galatians is a book about the Holy Spirit. It's a book about justification by faith and the connection that has to the fullness of the Spirit and the difference he makes in your life.

And that's why we're providing a Bible study by our friend, the late Dr. Tim Keller, that will help you get even more out of it than what you're hearing on the air. So reach out to us. Just go to jdguerre.com. We would love to give you a copy of this book. You can give online at jdguerre.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us tomorrow as Pastor JD continues our study in the book of Ephesians, revealing our role in God's plan. And guess what? It's not a super secret plan either. Join us Thursday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.