Ephesians Week 3

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Ephesians series where we break down Paul's letter to Ephesus.

Grab your Bibles.

We're excited to look into God's Word this morning.

We're going to be in the book of Ephesians.

If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand.

We'll get you a book, a great book for you to take home with you or just use today.

Either way, you're going to find the book of Ephesians, which we're walking through chapter by chapter, verse by verse, actually, for most of the summer.

This is an important book for you to understand.

As Paul is writing to the people of Ephesus, a new church, a new work of new Christians who are experiencing a lot of turmoil in their own personal culture because at one time they were pagans.

They had a pagan culture in that they would serve multiple gods.

Ephesus is a very spiritual place, demonic place, if you will.

And there's a lot of tension in all of these young Christians reworking, reunderstanding what their life should look like as a follower of Jesus.

Paul, in a sense, is writing the book to these Ephesians as a missionary survival manual.

And he starts that, the first three chapters, really with some very, very deep doctrine that we've walked through for the last couple of weeks, difficult to even maybe understand.

And yet last week we talked about that sometimes, as scripture says in Deuteronomies, I believe 29, 29, that the that there are secret things of God that we're yet to understand, or we'll probably never understand.

But the things that he reveals to us in his word, and this is why God's word is so important to you, as Moses states, it is the difference between life and death, understanding God's word, applying it, standing upon it, building a foundation for you and your family and the culture around you.

It's the difference between life and death.

This is important for you to understand because there will be times as you walk with Jesus that you just don't simply ask, or I'm sorry, you don't simply understand what he's asking you to do.

That's why Jesus is never asking us to lead.

Can everyone say amen?

Because we'll just lead ourselves right into a pit where where the where where sin rules our life, where, as I've talked about, blindness comes into your life.

And so Paul lays out doctrinally, theologically for these new Christians this confidence and hope and understanding what your salvation is in your life, how it comes to your life and how it's processed by the Trinity.

We'll look at it in just a way, in just a moment.

But at the very beginning of Christianity, people didn't call themselves Christian as much as they called themselves the way.

And I and I love that idea.

I love that phrase because really it's about following Jesus.

The way is the way.

There's no, maybe it's a way, maybe it's not a way.

Jesus even talks about this with a wide and narrow road later on in the first part of his ministry, and yet sometimes, even as followers of Jesus, we go our own way.

Sometimes we don't understand what God's word is, and yet he still calls us to obedience and trust, can I say it that way?

Where something will come into my life that I don't understand, and I'll go to God's word and may not even understand why he wants me to do those things, or even the Holy Spirit that is alive and active in our world today, in your life.

It's one of the reasons you're even here today as he reworks salvation in your life and discipleship.

You need to understand there's just times where, and it usually comes in conviction with me, where I say, Lord, I hear you, I understand you.

I may not even understand, but Lord, I'm going to follow you.

So I pray this prayer, Lord, you can have it all.

At some point in your life, you have to come to the point of salvation is about surrendering.

Lord, I don't understand everything.

I read your word, I'm involved in your church, I'm active on mission with your calling in my life.

And I may not understand that you want me here or you want me to talk to this person.

And yet, Lord, I'm I'm gonna just surrender it all to you, and I'm going to be obedient in my following.

We showed you last week how the Trinity works out salvation and your discipleship in your life that God chooses you.

That frankly is probably one of the hardest things to talk about or preach about in God's word, but we call that predestination, and that Jesus is active in redeeming you in that process, going to the cross and giving his life and spilling his blood.

And then yet the Holy Spirit also is developing you.

It's what I just talked about, where the Holy Spirit comes in and says, Mark, I don't even want this in your life.

I want you to give this up.

Or Mark, I want you to go this way and not this way.

Sometimes I don't understand that, but I trust because of what God's done in my life.

I say, Lord, I just surrender all my will to you, and I want you to lead me.

Not a lot of people, not a lot of people, let me say it this way: a lot of people make a decision to follow Jesus, but they don't follow Jesus.

A lot of people believe, but they don't do.

And believing is important, it's an important first step, but to be a follower of Jesus is an activity of walking with him and being in his presence and understanding this deep love that he has for you.

And honestly, believing that God's smarter than you.

I don't know if you guys know that.

He's smarter than you.

And so you want to live an eternal life with Christ, not only here on earth where he puts you on mission with a purpose far greater than your own selfishness, and then you spend an eternity with him, he understands that that's his plan, that's his desire.

We talked about that in the last couple sermons.

So after Paul lays out this really deep understanding, he's, I don't want to say he's nervous, but he's concerned.

Because he he wants this to this portion of the gospel to go deep into their lives.

And so Paul, secondly, at verse 15, he begins to pray over the people in this church.

And I'm glad that it's it's written out so that we can see the importance of what Paul is praying over these people.

And we find this in chapter 1, verse 15.

Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the Lord our God, 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.

You I I've talked about the word heart, you'll see in God's word oftentimes.

It's talking about your spirit.

But your heart often leads you, and what sin does is it makes your heart a heart of stone.

Scripture says when you come into saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, he exchanges a heart of stone for a heart of flesh, that it's beating again, it's it's it's its desire is towards God and not sin.

There's a transformation that takes place, and yet Paul is asking for the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, and the eyes to see.

That's important.

That the eyes that we need to see, you hear me talking about having spiritual sight, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, and having the eyes of our hearts open up to see what's going on in this world, to see what's going on in my spirit, to have a discernment about the people I'm hanging with or the culture I'm hanging it with.

Is this something that is profitable for my following of Jesus?

And you've heard me say it that spiritual sight will be one of the greatest values in the world today.

We live in a world of knowledge.

I think you all recognize this.

Even today, it's so quick.

Even the last couple years, uh, with AI coming into play, all you have to do is you can walk around if you have a question.

I even do it on my own phone.

I'll say, Gronk, tell me the answer to this.

And seconds later, I have the answer to that.

Do you know that all the knowledge from the creation of the world until the 1900s, every hundred years, our world knowledge would double.

After World War II, world knowledge doubled every 25 years.

When the personal computer started to come into play and you started to have a computer in your home, even before we had this mobile phone computer that we walk around with, it was in your home.

And and at that point in the 90s, knowledge, world knowledge doubled every 13 years.

They're saying now that we're reaching the point where the world's knowledge doubles every 12 hours.

There's more knowledge in the world today.

We are more enlightened in the world today, and yet more spiritually sick than we've ever been.

And the reason that is, is we don't have the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, or the eyes to see.

And that's important.

That is a a plus.

That makes you a superhuman in a way in a world that is blinded.

Listen, Antonogden, your city is blinded with snow blindness.

We need some people in Antinogden who can spiritual see in lots, man.

Everyone's walking around with bottled glasses.

Marquette, people are confused by the fog.

In Ishpaming, I see you in a roundabout, and I say every time I drive through there, that boy needs LASIK eye surgery.

And the world is blind, is my point.

And Paul says here, listen, I want you to feel it.

I just don't want you to have knowledge about it.

I want you to feel it.

I want you to feel it in your heart because that's when life change happens.

You can have all the knowledge in the world and be far from God.

You can have all the memorization of scripture, though it's important in your life.

I know people who are theologically understanding with all kinds of documents on the wall saying they they have studied and they know and yet they are far from God.

Paul says, I want you to taste and see, like it says in Psalms 34.

Taste and see.

It's one thing to recognize that dessert on the table.

I'm pretty sure that's good.

But it's a whole nother thing to go over there and cut a nice chocolate cake.

Woo! And put that in your mouth and experience it.

Let me tell you, everyone, that's life-changing.

That's life-changing, and that's what it's like to be with Jesus.

He's not looking for robots who just believe things.

He's looking for people who love him and want to worship him.

Man, and I I love you, you probably notice I'm up here uh for one of the songs, and then I go in the back because I want to be in the room with you mostly.

But when I'm in the back and I'm kind of looking over my notes, I can barely pay attention because you guys are blowing the paint off the wall.

We got a paint back there every week because of the way that you guys worship.

And that ultimately blesses God.

That's what he's looking for.

He's looking for people who worship him.

I love in John chapter 4, I believe it's verse 20, where Jesus very famously says, true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth.

John 4 · chapter mention

I think a lot of you are familiar with that very, very famous verse.

That that word in Greek, worshipers, or worship in spirit and truth, it's really related to a way a dog gets excited when he sees his master.

Have you ever noticed that when a dog comes up and is all excited to see the master?

Maybe you went to gym superfood or whatever, and and and that dog thought you were abandoning him, and then you went.

We had a a golden lab in uh in Russia, and we lived out on the steeps of Russia, kind of like the prairie of Russia uh by the North Caucasus Mountains.

And uh our driveway or the road was really kind of long, and and the the dacha or the house we had was just kind of stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

And from a long ways away, we can see Jack just bouncing because he could see our truck and he'd be howling and bouncing, he was like Tigger.

I don't know how he did it, but he would jump in the air and and do a spin and come down, and when we walked inside the compound, he would just jump all over us and he would lick our hands.

Oh, you're here, you're here, you're here, you're here.

That's the word for worship.

And some of you worship God like a cat.

Woo! Holy Spirit's moving now.

Yeah.

He's here.

Hope they get done singing soon.

It's not about me.

Have you ever felt a breath there?

Have you ever felt dry spiritually?

Paul says later on in Ephesians chapter five, we'll probably visit this verse again.

He says that to be in relationship with God and to worship him, to be in his presence is to be filled with the spirit.

And he he relates it in a way maybe these new former pagan Christians could understand.

He relates what that feels like to be in the spirit in a way with being drunk.

Chapter 5, verse 18.

Instead of being drunk with wine, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That your life should be a life of exuberance and love and joy.

So stop trying to fill your soul or fill your life with a substitute or an addiction, trying to cover your pain of this world, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That when you are in right relationship and in love, God will come in and change your spirit and your thinking, and you'll be high on the spirit of God.

So that's a great question.

Are you high on the spirit or just high and miserable?

Some of you I know are just high and miserable.

The way.

Some of you know the way.

But it's just knowledge.

Because you're not willing to surrender to that.

You're not willing to reach across the table, cut yourself a piece of chocolate, hate and haste and feed.

That means you would have to get rid of your pride or your fear or your arrogance or your sin.

The whole point is that you would love God and worship him.

This is the whole point that Paul's trying to lay out for you.

And not just avoid sin or believe the right things.

That latter is important.

Don't put yourself in sinful situations.

Put borders in your life.

Many do here who come out of a past hurtful life.

But that's not the point.

The point is to love and worship God.

Like a dog who gets to see his master coming home.

And in that, your life begins to change.

I just don't want to be a knowledge dispenser for you.

That's not the purpose of me getting up here.

I don't come up here and preach so that you're smarter.

I want you to leave church, being drawn to being a worshiper.

Or my sermons would would help you worship.

My preaching would lead you to worship.

When you go to a lecture, you're going to receive knowledge.

When you hear one of my sermons, I want you to leave worshiping God.

So let me give you four things that I believe that deal with spiritual sight that Paul is saying, man, I want you to I want these things deep down in your spirit, deep down in your heart.

And the first spiritual sight that we find in verse 18 is the hope to which he has called you.

Now you need to understand that the English version of hope and the biblical concept of hope are completely different.

The English or American idea of hope is this very thing.

Hope means a desire that you're not sure will come to pass.

I think you you all recognize that.

Like the Lions winning the Super Bowl.

Some of you have that hope.

Mostly the Palmackeys.

There's probably some Lance and Octan Ogden people.

I don't know, maybe they're part of the Canadian Football League up there.

But a lot of us have a hope and a desire, but that we're not sure if that's gonna come to pass.

Now, a biblical hope is different.

A biblical hope is different.

A biblical hope is a life-shaping certainty that hasn't happened yet, but you know it's going to happen.

Jesus, this is the circumstance I'm in right now.

Listen, I'm not feeling it.

But I know in your word that you got a plan, and you're going to fulfill that plan.

All the way back to the first chapter of Ephesians, that's why you chose me for salvation, God.

I'm going through a rough time, I can't see the future.

I and yet I know with certainty that your word says to me that you'll take.

In the negative aspects of my life, and you'll work them to my goodness, even though I can't see it or understand it, Lord.

I'm gonna trust you, I'm gonna have a biblical hope, knowing God.

When what you started, you're gonna finish.

And that's the difference.

Because sometimes our our soul in this process, it even when things aren't working out the way that they work out, our soul gets our soul gets hungry.

Because we we go back to that earthly hope.

And we're like, Lord, I don't see you, I don't feel you related to eating.

The reason that people overeat, you understand, is that they're they're wanting to go on an adventure, and food is like an adventure.

I'm definitely this person.

If I'm stressful, I stop at Super One and I get a box of Oreos.

I've had boxes of Oreos in my car.

I just drive around and hammer those things.

Am I hungry?

No.

I'm just looking for some kind of pleasure.

I'm looking for a little Mark Broberg Oreo adventure.

Don't buy me boxes of Oreos.

People do, and it's bad.

Stop it.

And I go on a little Mark Broberg Oreo adventure, right?

Am I hungry?

No.

I'm just trying to.

If you allow eating to fill your soul, you're gonna overeat.

You guys catching me on this?

And when your soul is hungry, because you're not filling it with the Spirit of God, being in His presence, being in His Word, being with His people, your soul will get hungry and you'll fill it with silly things or damaging things, as some of you already know.

That's you saying, Lord, I'm not feeling it, I'm gonna go my way.

And so you go towards Him or her or foolish things.

I wish there was in all things that we touched and do in our lives, I wish there was a shelf life indicator.

Mark, this is only gonna last three minutes of happiness in your life.

Mark, this pursuit, you know.

Because we fill our lives with things that expire and have no shelf life.

Can I say it that way?

It reminds me of a very famous story.

I I've probably told you the story before, I'll tell you again.

I like it.

In June 2nd, 1982, Larry Walters, a a um a young man uh and his girlfriend in uh around the Los Angeles area on the 4th of July week got very bored, and he was uh deciding that he needed some kind of powerful experience in his life.

He was bored with life, he was bored with his job, his soul was hungry, and so he decided, he told his girlfriend, I want to go to the store and I'm gonna buy like 50 balloons and I'm gonna fill them with helium and I'm gonna tie it to my lawn chair, and I'm gonna sit in that lawn chair, and I'm gonna see how high it takes me up in the air.

And so he went and got uh he lied on on the application to get these balloons and all the helium that he that he needed.

He filled 42 balloons and he tied them onto a long, a lawn chair, and he tied the lawn chair to his Jeep.

Of course, the balloons took the lawn chair up, and so he got his BB gun, he got a six-pack and a couple of peanut butter jelly sandwiches, and he climbed inside that, and they untied the the the uh uh the the the chair to the Jeep and bam, he went as fast.

He went so fast he dropped his BB gun.

And he climbed 16,000 feet, everyone, and began to float over Los Angeles in this Kmart lawn chair.

Eventually, 45 minutes, he was at 15,000, 16,000 feet, and he he floated into the Los Angeles airspace over the airport, and plane pilots started radling in.

Uh, we have a fat man in a lawn chair at 14,000 feet, we're not sure what to do.

And they're like, What?

Eventually, Larry floated down and got caught in some power lines and lived.

That's silly, everyone.

And yet, that's an extreme example, but there are a lot of things that we bring into our life or pursue in our life because our whole soul is hungry for the things of God and the mission of God and the redemption of God and his presence.

Your soul was created to house these things, to propel the mission of God and his purpose in your life.

You need to understand that Jesus is on mission.

The Holy Spirit is on mission.

God is on mission.

He's not just sitting up there wondering what he's gonna do with North Iron.

And yet we fill our things with things, we fill our lives with things that we think are going to feed our soul, but just waste our time and damage us.

Well, Pastor Mark, how do I find the purpose of God in my life?

Two things to start with salvation and redemption.

Let's go to let's go to promise number two or spiritual sight number two.

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

And maybe this is this this portion of scripture is really difficult to understand.

And that's why I put it in the form of a question.

What are the riches of the glorious inheritance?

Inheritance is that thing you receive maybe from your parent when they pass away.

That's our earthly understanding of inheritance.

But in this portion of scripture, what inheritance are we talking about?

Are we talking about my inheritance that I received from God?

No, no, no, no.

This is what people get wrong.

It's God's inheritance.

God's gonna receive an inheritance.

Well, what is that inheritance?

Scripture says it's it's the saints.

You're his inheritance, the guy who created the universe.

What listen, what do you get Elon Musk for a birthday present if you're friends?

The richest man in the world.

Can you imagine him opening up and saying, Man, thank you for this 42-inch TV flat TV screen?

Like, what do you what do you get God?

You that's how precious you are to him.

So precious that he sends his son to turn the upside down right and begin to redeem you and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you through you to redeem everyone.

Your God's inheritance.

Paul begins to talk about that.

He gets kind of flowery in his language, which he usually doesn't.

Paul's not a poetic dude.

He's just not.

He's usually, I you know, God loves you, I'm the apostle, shut up.

That's the kind of way that Paul writes.

But here he doesn't know even how to express all that God desires for you and is doing in you.

And he says, I pray that you may have strength to comprehend all that the saints, what is breathed, and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all of the fullness of God.

The length.

Scripture says, all eternity, all from the beginning to the end, he knew you and loved you.

Scripture says that he set his love upon you, he surrounded you.

That's powerful.

Again, he didn't, your parents just didn't create you and like, oh man, I got another youper.

What am I gonna do with this dude?

It was always his plan.

You're sitting in the seat that you're sit in, you're in relationships, he's postured you, he's poised you to accomplish incredible things, he's set his love and plan on your life.

The height, Psalms 103 says, as far as the heavens are, that's his intense love for us, and every molecule molecule in the universe forms the purpose in your life.

It's how powerful your purpose is, the depths, it's how far God goes to save us, how far he reaches down into the pit and pulls you out.

Maybe you're an Antonagdon or Lance Marquette Ishmaing.

You need to understand how deep he will go to pull you out of the muck, set you up as his son and daughter.

We kind of go through relationships really quickly, don't we?

It always reminds me of some of the foolish things people break up with each other with, you know.

I heard of a young man breaking up with a girl because she had split ends, and yet he had a big old hair on a mole on his face.

I I just never understood that.

Or, you know, if I don't know if you watch Seinfeld, but Jerry breaks up with a girl because of the way she eats her peas on a plate.

You know, we we come in and out of relationships.

It's not the way it is with God.

Can you imagine me doing that with my children?

Boys, hey man, this just ain't working out for me.

It's not you, it's it's me.

But we're gonna have to break up.

No, if anything, the weakness of my sons makes me love them more and have more compassion and want to help them through those things.

The point where we pray and we work hard and we think about their future and help them make good decisions.

It's it's the same relationship with God.

It's not a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of breakup.

God doesn't do that.

He's chosen, he's chosen.

Number three, what is immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe there is a power of resurrection in your life.

Resurrection is some of the most powerful people, and I I thought about this too, but I've heard people say this kind of idea that it wasn't really God's greatest power wasn't resurrection as much as the universe, but and and you look at the universe and it it can blow you away.

He spoke the universe into existence, he spit the stars into place.

He made a woodpecker.

I have a woodpecker at my house.

I'm trying to finish my sighting and I'm throwing rocks at it all the time because they come over to my sighting and just bury holes in it.

I tried to look up how to, as a royal ranger, I tried to look up how to kill a woodpecker, but I guess it's frowned upon.

I found out that a woodpecker, I don't know if this is important, I found out a woodpecker has a six-inch tongue, which is amazing because most woodpeckers are only six inches.

But that tongue wraps around its head and throat and is a shock absorber.

And at the end of his tongue is a barb that once he makes a hole, the tongue goes in there, finds the worm, pierces the worm like a fishing hook, and brings it to his mouth.

That's pretty amazing.

I have a new love for woodpeckers, and yet that's not God's greatest power.

God's greatest power is not creation, it is resurrection.

And here's why.

Listen, because creation, the power to birth something out of nothing, creation or that nothing is neutral.

But death, sin and death are it's negative, and yet because Jesus was raised from the dead, it is a sure sign that God's power of resurrection can resurrect your life no matter how broken it is, no how much damage is there, no matter no matter how much sin has cannibalized and eaten your life, he has the power to resurrect it.

And yet some of you are just trying to do it yourselves.

You're denying this power because you want to be the savior.

Instead of just surrendering, Pastor Mark, I just need to turn over a new leaf.

No, you need to surrender and allow the power of God to come in and change your heart.

The only thing that you need changed is your heart, everyone.

And again, I'm about being disciplined, I'm about boundaries, I think they're important, I have them in my own life.

But you need to tap into the power of God.

This is what Paul is saying, and that happens in the love and the worship of Jesus.

Number four, and I'll end here.

And he put all things under Jesus' feet and gave him as a head over all things the church.

Again, Jesus is on mission, and he's chosen the church to fulfill the things that he has planned.

Have you ever watched in like a I was trying to remember, I couldn't, like a movie where it was a big war movie.

Ever see them have those massive maps, maps, like a pool table, and the map, the map is so big, they're strategizing that they gotta use like a hockey stick to move the tanks around.

So imagine how Jesus is with the church, like a place like North Iron.

Man, I want them to go over here.

I know someone who's searching me over here.

I I want my spirit to go over here, and he moves you, the church, around in this map.

Why?

Because he has a plan and he's going to fulfill that plan.

That's how important you are in this.

So let me ask you quickly just two questions.

What is your source of hope, worth, and power?

And I'll I'll leave you with this, and I'm gonna we're gonna stand and we're gonna pray.

If you go to that next slide, thank you, Carter.

Becoming a Christian, you make Jesus your hope for the future, no matter what your feelings.

Your feelings will lie to you, everyone.

Feelings are not truth.

I'm not saying that they they aren't existent, but better you trust the truth of God than your feelings.

That hope is Jesus.

You make what he thinks of you your worth.

Not what people think of you around you.

The question is how does Jesus feel about you?

And you depend on him to be your power to live and to bring life together.

So as Paul would say to the people of Ephesians, what are you living for?

What are you living for?

Could you stand with me?

Let me pray.

Spiritual blessing upon you, Father.

Lord, my prayer is that we would have eyes of our heart across this auditorium, across the people in other campuses that are watching us, Father, in Lantz and Antonagdon, soon to be Marquette, in Ishbaming, across the UP, Northern Wisconsin, the United States, even we have people across the world who watch us, Lord, that you would open their eyes, Father, in your presence and your love and your power, that they would receive spiritual sight to be that revelation of wisdom, to be that revelation of resurrection.

Father, that revelation of spiritual sight, Father, that only comes from you, so Lord, as we move towards you, Father, as we follow you, Father, as we surrender you to your power of resurrection, Lord, I ask Jesus that you would have your hand upon your people and bless them, Father.

Lord, and for those who move towards you in their hearts, with their feet, with their hands, Father, and worship and surrender, Lord, Lord, that you would move in the powerful way that you would live, that you would move heaven to put your will in their lives, Father.

You promised, promised us, Father, we stand upon it and we look for you and your power, Jesus, and we ask again in your holy and precious name.

Thank you so much for joining us with this message.