God's Mysterious Plan Revealed (Exercise Your Faith) | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

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Ephicients three is the portion of scripture that I want

to continue on this whole series that I've been doing

on Efficients. I start off with Epicians one, Ephicians two.

I think I managed to share Efficients two, and I

will here the last time round, and today I want

to preach and teach from Efficients chapter three, and eventually

I will just hopefully by the end of the year,

finish off all the way to chapter six. Efficients is

a powerful book. All all the books in the Bible

are important and great for us to really study in

that no particular reason why actually chose Ephicients, but I

just felt led this season to teach the church chapter

by chapter and go through it a little bit more

systematically so that we get an idea of how how

we should actually be reading the Bible. I think it's

very important that when we read God's Word, you don't

just open your miney moore, liby to chance and then talk, Okay,

I read this verse. This is verse for the day.

Let let's try not to do that. I want to

encourage us to be able to read it in context.

That means read it book by book, chapter by chapter.

It usually helps in our maturing and in our understanding

of God's Word. It's it's so key because science, you

can it's so easy for us to plug versus out,

you know, or this verse, okay, sounds nice for this season,

I'll just use this particular verse and not knowing the

full context of what we are reading. And so this

is where I want to encourage us. When we read

God's Word, read it, try to read it on the whole.

Of course, you won't be able to finish it immediately.

This is why I encourage the deaf community as well

to do because for them, the whole concept of reading

is not easy. But I told them, whatever you have,

just go through it systematically so that you see a

picture instead of plucking things out out of tinner. I

think it's important for us to be able to see

clearly in that sense. Okay, So if it's just chapter three,

if you have your Bibles, I want you to keep

your keep your Bibles open to chapter three. You're going

to be reading the entire chapter three. I'm reading from

the NLT. You may have different versions. It's okay, it'll

be great. Yeah, for us to just compare it with

the different versions so that we get a clearer understanding

as well.

Amen.

Everyone good, Okay, stay with me, Yeah, stay with me.

I will speak fast, okay. Verse one. When I think

of all this, I palled a prisoner of Christ Jesus

for the benefit of you gentiles, assuming by the way

that you know, God gave me the special responsibility of

extending his grace to you gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier,

God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. As you

read what I have written, you will understand my insight

into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it

to previous generations, but now by his spirit he has

revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. And this

is God's plan. Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the

good News share equally in the riches inherited by God's children.

Amen.

Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy

the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.

By God's grace and mighty power, I have been given

the privilege of serving Him by spreading this good news.

Though I am the least deserving of all God's people,

He graciously gave me the privilege of telling the gentiles

about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I

was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God,

the creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.

God's purpose in all this was to use the Church

to display His wisdom in its rich variety, to all

the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This

was his eternal plan, which He carried out through Christ,

Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in Him,

we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence.

So please don't lose heart because of my trials here

I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored.

Verse fourteen. When I think of all this, I fall

to my knees and pray to the Father, the creator

of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that

from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with

inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his

home in your hearts. As you trust in him, your

roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong,

and you may have the power to understand as all

God's people should wide, how long, how high, and how

deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ,

though it is too great to understand fully. Then you

will be made complete with all the fullness of life

and power that comes from God. Now, all glory to God,

who is able, through his mighty power at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Glory to Him in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

through all generations, forever and ever. Amen sounds familiar, right,

some portions of this scripture because we love some of

the verses in Ephesian Stry, and we use it over

and over again. I mean, we sing songs how high,

how how wide? I think there's a Lincoln Booster song there.

We we quote Emphesion Street twenty very often. Now unto

Him who is able exceedingly abundantly above all things. Yeah,

so let's let's let's go into it. Let's go into it,

and let's see what is it all about. Let's happen understanding,

because I always find it sometimes. Let let's learn not

to just quote some times the scriptures out of context.

We have the tendency or do actually cults do that

all the time. They take something and then it's true,

it's true. You know, you'd be surprised if you meet

different cults. They will tell you you, look, this is

what the Bible says. And actually you can you can

even take the Bible and do a lot of wrong

things when you can say that it's justified. Here just

one line justify Uh. You know, can kill this, can

kill that, can It's true. So but when you read

it in context. Another one that we like to use

sometimes I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I mean, yes, power, keep at it, keep using it.

But you know what the context of I can do

all things to Christ who strengthens me.

Is anyone have any idea? I believe he's in Philippines.

What was Paul talking about when he when he said

that anyone just wanted to try life marriage? It's actually money.

He was talking about money. He's saying that whether I

have money or I don't have money, whether you support

me or whether he don't support me, I can do

all things to Christ who strengthens me.

Uh.

And and really, you know when you apply in contact,

sometimes it's even more powerful. Then you get a clearer

understanding of where the verses are you. So I think

it's it's good that we delve into God's word with

an understanding of.

Okay, what what is it? What? What context was it?

Efficients is an amazing letter that Paul wrote to the

church in Ephesus. I think I shared the last time around.

This was a church that he he liked, he loved,

he loved pretty much because they were pretty good. Okay,

they were quite well behaved compared to the Corinthian Church. Uh,

not so well behaved. That's why the letters first second Corinthians.

Actually it's one, two, three, four. There were four letters

returned to the Corinthian Church, but we don't have all

of it.

That's why it's not in the scriptures. Uh, some of

it have been missing.

So the and second Quarrinthians is quite strongly worded one

and it's really teaching them on some things that you

shouldn't be doing. These youth flowers are really carnal. Do

you think just because you're filled with the spirit, that

doesn't mean that you can you know, you still live

carnal lives even though you're filled with the spirit. And

that's why there's a lot of talk about spirit, giftings,

et cetera. The church in Ephesus was pretty well behaved.

Paul actually loved the church. And if you read the letter,

the first three chapters basically is he's establishing certain teachings,

certain beliefs, certain doctrines, and then the next three chapters

you will see him actually applying it a little bit

more so. First three, I always say, talks about belief.

The next part talks about behavior, how we should behave

because if you believe in something, then there's a natural

output that your behavior is something else. If you say that, oh,

I have this doctrine, then your doctrine is essentially seen

in your doing. And so that's how the letter has

actually been written, is establishing something and then is establishing

how therefore you should be living your life. So get

that bit of an understanding. And then you also need

to know that he was actually writing it from prison.

I think he probably was in a prison in Rome,

uh and back then because Paul was a Roman citizen,

so they didn't just throw him into some dungeon and

left him to rot there. They actually put him under

house arrest more or less like house arrest, So he

was actually uh not able to just go anywhere he wanted.

That was his form of imprisonment as a Roman citizen

under house arrest. But there was constantly someone chained to him.

So there's a prison there's a prison guard who is

actually chained to him. Prison guard. Seriously, can you imagine

being chained to Paul every day? The lur be witnessing

to you. There's a lot of the prison guards. Their

life change really really if you read scriptures, you actually

see that happening. Amen, hallelujah. Okay, so again we read

twenty versus. I'll start off like this. You see, when

God does something new, he chooses the most unlikely people

to do it. You realize that sometimes from here you

see actually in the Book of X you see it.

We will normally choose someone who is suited to the task,

someone who has fits the profile, someone who you know,

this person can get things done. But God sometimes goes

with the most unsuitable people and tell them to do it. Nonetheless,

And when God wanted to bring in the Gentiles into

his plan, he actually chose the most fanatical Jew he

could lay his hands on. And this man was named

Saul of Tarsus. That's the reality of it. He is

like the mother of all Pharisees, Pharisees or Pharisees, a

man who wouldn't even sit on the same table as gentiles.

Let alone go and witness to them, Let alone go

and win them for Jesus.

This was Saul of Taxes.

And God actually arrested him when he was on his

way to go and arrest the gentiles. He was actually

on the mission. I'm like, I'm going to make sure

that this players are all going to pay and suffer

for it. No, he was actually there witnessing the first martyr, Stephen.

When Stephen was martyred, Paul was there. Saul was there,

and he was helping people hold their codes. Remember if

I think you see the account somewhere in X chapter

somewhere seven maybe, and he held onto their courtes He

was encouraging, he was secretly planning, all this is what

I'm going to do. So he was on his way

to go and arrest gentiles, but the Lord stepped in.

Of course, you know, his conversion story is one which

is quite dramatic. But I'm not keen sometimes know, when

I teach on Paul's conversion, I'm not keen at his

conversion story. What I like to emphasize this is the

fact that he continued believing, because this was the same

man who forty years later died preaching the word died believing.

Because in First Timothy, eventually we see him saying that

I have fought a good fight. I finished the race.

And that is the kind of person that he is.

The conversion, no matter how dramatic some people say, or

Paul only could live like that because because he had

a dramatic conversion, I don't think so. I don't think

we should over emphasize on the amazingness how he became blind,

how skills had the drop out from his eyes, how

God had to orchestrate and then I us to come,

et cetera.

I mean amazing. But yet all I read about Paul

is all.

The amazing writings that he has given to us and

is part of Scripture. So Paul is the most Jewish

of all Jews. And here he says to me, God

told his great secret. That's essentially what he says, Okay,

in different translations, and he was actually bursting to share

this secret. How are you with secrets? Actually, I'm sure,

I'm sure all of us, like being told secrets. Men,

all of us like I have a secret that Hey,

what question is can you keep it?

Ah?

But there is only one joy greater than being taller secret.

Do you know what that is? It's being able to

tell it to others. And that is how Paul felt.

Actually think about it, because do you know actually the

name Paul that he uses, It's interesting his parents never

call him Paul.

He was Saul of Passes.

He actually was named after the first king of Israel,

but he changing to Paul because that was the Greek

version of Saul, and he changed it to the very

that his name to the name of the very people

that he's going to be reaching out to. The transition

and the transformation is quite astonishing actually if you look

at how Paul's life took that amazing turn. But let's

let's let's go into this now. First of all, in

this chapter he talks about a few things. He talks

about being a prisoner for the Gentiles, and he was

in a way literally a prisoner for the Gentiles at

that point. And then he says, I'm a steward of

God's grace.

What does that mean? What's what's it sounds like mumbo jumbo.

But what stewart.

What does stewart mean anyone you know sons, Yeah, stuard

want to just throw What do stewart means? Yeah, we

always say a baby dedication. Baby dedication. We say that Lord,

thank you, thank you for giving us this child. We're

dedicating the child because the child belongs to Gone. And

essentially as parents, what are our role. Well, our role

is actually as stewarts to take care of the children

until they reach usertain age because after a certain age,

if they're stilling in your house, you want them out right.

I don't know, I mean, I don't think you enjoy

will be like, hey, kids, stay with us forever and ever.

I think by twenty one towns, Noah, you're the first

to go.

Uh. That's the reality of it, that that's stewardship.

Basically, eventually we release back unto the lot because they

will start their own family, they will start there. So

that's basically what stewart is. It's someone who manages someone

else's property, a steward. And Paul says that I'm a

pre reason and I'm a steward. Basically I manage God's grace.

I'm a steward of God's generosity. He put me in

charge of distributing his wealth. Think about it. That is

what Paul is saying. And it's such a wonderful task,

right because again, a steward of God's grace.

What a privilege not to have all the wealth of God?

And God says, now, go and share it with other people,

Go and distribute it to those in need. That is

how Paul looks at it. I'm a steward of God's

grace because ultimately what we are saved by grace.

I talked last time around, we are.

Safe by grace, true faith, and grace is the one

thing that I don't know whether you can ever quantify it.

But that is something that I don't think you can

ever quantify it. And Paul is saying that, really, I

have all of the wealth that the Lord has offered

to me, and now I'm going to share it.

And you can do that.

Wherever you are, you can do that, whether you're in change,

you can do you can still be a steward of God. No,

it doesn't matter what circumstances you are under. And I

think Paul has showed them that you can do just that.

And then he says this, Now, let us come to

the mysterious plan, and Paul calls it a mystery, and

that word sometimes it is translated a secret. Some Bible

translations will say secret, God's secret which can now be told.

That's the kind of secret that we like, right, a

secret that can be told. Hallelujah. And God actually had

an official secret, and he kept it for generations. He

didn't tell people about it. He kept it all the

way through the history of the Jews, and then he

shared it and he told it to the apostles and

the profits of the New Testament. Hallelujah, praised the Lord.

I mean, if you understand secrets. Back in the I

remember reading something like this. UK actually has an Official

Secrets Act. So there were a lot of war stories

from World War Two that were actually kept under wraps

four years I think that's a that's a period of

time on thety years or forty years, I can't remember exactly.

And then I think in the sixties or seventies when

that period expired, that was when you started getting all

the books on what happened during World War Two, all

the memoirs, all the different stories. Know, there was the

influx of books being released into the market because they

had a period where he can't tell anyone something like this. Okay,

So there was God kept it, but then eventually he

told it to the apostles and the prophets of the

New Testament.

So what is the secret? Well, the secret is simple.

The secret is that Gentiles can now come to God

apart from the Jews. It's not just the Jews that

can come to God. That is the secret, and that

was what God revealed to the apostles. He revealed it

to Peter first, and then to Paul, and then to

all the other apostles. God is going to turn to

the Gentiles and He's going to deal with them directly.

What a secret.

What an amazing secret, because it meant that the person

who saw God did not need to join Israel because

back then there was what the mindset was, no where

you want to become Christian soon, not first, you have

to Circumcizsee. It was something that was ongoing, and Paul

had to actually write sorry, circumcise. Yes, yeah, it's a

surgical act. Yeah, yeah, you'll know what I mean, right, Okay.

And Paul actually had to write a letter to the

church in Glacia to explain that that is no longer

neither no back. Then they think, or you've got to

keep all the tank com moments again, you've got to

be the Pharisee of all pharisees. Keep all the tank

com moments. Then only you can come to God. If not,

you can't come to God. Well, now Paul is essentially

saying we can come straight to God through Jesus.

Amen.

For Jesus was the seed of Abraham, and that is

the secret Paul could not wait to tell the world.

God had now sent Paul straight to the Gentiles, not

to bring them into Israel, but to bring them to Jesus.

That was what he was supposed to do, and that

was the great secret that he balled in him, and

he was going to do it. Well, that's he was excited.

And Paul did not need to take any of the

Jewish tradition with him. All he need to do was

take Christ, Jesus, and the Gentles are now on equal

terms with the Jews. They are fellow heirs that will

inherit everything promise. They are members of the same body

and partakers of the same promise. Now think of it.

The word partakers basically means this you're eating together. Okay,

there's a difference between friendship and fellowship. Okay, there's a

bit of a difference. Friendship is this air team and me,

we share a friendship, and we're sitting down on the

meal at the table. You know, I'm eating my meal,

he's sitting my meal. That's that's friendship. You know, you

understand that. Yeah, I'm eating my meal, you're eating your meal. Okay, yeah, yeah,

But fellowship is different. Fellowship is I'm sitting next to

the team and we're sharing the same sandwich.

That's he said.

You know, team takes a bite and I take the

bie from the sayummy, hm hmm. As not as it's

not spaghetti.

But but that is the difference. You know.

One is really you're you're sharing a friendship. You're sharing

a you know, just just sharing a meal. The other

one you are partaking. That is what the word fellowship means. Basically,

it almost means like you're eating off the same sandwich.

Basically you're sharing the same thing. In the lords supper,

we eat off the same loaf. Of course here now

this today we just feel it. Okay, some churches they

still practice on one loaf, everyone going, yeah, some ches

steal one cup and one jellies or every everyone's say,

I pity the flow with number two hundred and fifty.

You know you've got to share. But that's the nothing

wrong in that they understand. Basically, the Lord supple is

us eating the same one loaf one body. We partake

of that low and that is why we say we

partake off the lots supper. That is the meaning of

partic You see the Jews that wouldn't even have a

meal with Samrita, and who are half Jews, let alone

non Jews. And it says in John's Gospel that when

Jesus met the woman at the well and said can

I have.

A drink of water?

She was so shocked because to hers like, hey, Jews

don't even want to use the same utensils and cutleries

as a Samaritans. But here, no, Jesus is actually asking

for her to go and scoop up water for him.

And no, we have pausing Jews and gentles are now

going to eat together. Can you imagine that it's a

real something has to happen for him to be able

to suddenly change and believe that, oh this is indeed

a secret that has to be revealed, because they can

eat together. All of the promises in the Old Testaments,

the Old Testament were made to the Jews, and you

and I coote them today and we claim it without

any doubts as gentles, Can you imagine that we are

partaking off the same We share the same faith, the

same belief. Every promise, every psalm is actually a Jewish prayer.

You think about it, it is, and all the praises

that we're singing it, it's actually devotions used by the Jews.

We have partaken the same promises, and we have taken

it sometimes for granted. Yet this was a secret, and

it was a secret kept for centuries. Today we use

it openly. Thank God for what Paul did. And we

have the freedom and the liberty to quote those psalms.

That really has so much power in our lives, right,

I mean, we are also indebted to God's word.

Amen.

And so Paul says this, I've got a secret. God

told me. He revealed it to me directly. And here

is the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ, that

can now be told. Gentiles and Jews are equal before

God and can come to Jesus Christ, and gentiles don't

need to become Jews first period. That was it, And

Paul actually had to fight for this principle. He fought

hard for it. Like I said, he wrote letters to

the church in Galatia. That's where you get Galatians trying

to explain to them, look, don't, don't, don't don't impose

your jewishness on people to uh to to make sure

that they can't. It's almost like when they do that,

you are impeding them, inhibiting them from actually embracing Christ

in totality. And so how does God share the secret

is a question that we have to ask. Well, he

shares it by word of mouth. That is how every

other secret is shared, right, I mean, of course if

you're in the death community, I mean we're going to

sign it, okay. But somebody says, do you know can

you keep a secret? And then straight away you're all ears. Yeah, sure, No.

Have you ever said no, no, no to that question,

don't tell me because I know I can't keep it. No.

Usually we're all ears because we are all self disciplined people.

But well, when you have a secret, you want to

share it, and a secret that can be shared. Is

a secret that really is the best guy and this

secret is going to affect everybody though. Really, if you

know that you have a secret that can affect everybody

in the world, will you keep quiet about it? That

was why Paul was chosen to tell this good news.

To share the good news is a privilege. It's a

lovely privilege. Privilege. If you have good news for someone,

it burst out on you won't keep it content. I

mean if you I don't know when you get but

to no one, you won't tell everyone, Hey, I get

give them compiler. You'll probably be like, thank goodness is

out after nine months. But the reality is you will.

You will go and harald it. You will go and

tell the world about it. That's the good news. You

don't say no, I have a duty to go and

tell someone this good news. I don't think it was

a duty. It's actually a delight. And that's what evangelism

should essentially be. It's a delight, not just it is

a duty. Actually, we have a responsibility to go ahead

and witness. But if we just keep it as a

strict duty and don't delight in it, I think we

are missing the whole point. Because it's not news that is,

or I got to share with you some dark secret

or something said this is the good news. And sometimes know,

when we look at how evangelism should be undertaken, it's

always duty bound. I'm beauty bound to do this. I'm

duty No, don't look at it that way. I know

books have been written on evangelism, but really, if you

believe that the Gospel is good news, then you want

to go and tell people. It should be a natural

thing part of our lives. And that is why Paul

says he was he was so delighted and when he

said this, God chose me to tell this. When you

have really got good news, you talk like that. When

you have really good news, you will say I I'm

actually adapted, and I owe it to each and every

one of those who don't know this news yet to

tell them this good news. I'm adapted to both jew

and Greek. I've got to tell them to me, this

privilege has been given the least of all saints. No,

he looks at him as the worst, the worst of

the worst. But yet this privile has been given to me,

and I owe them. And that that's why in Romans,

the thing he can actually say, owe each other nothing

but the depth of loving them. It's powerful when Paul

comes to this place where he's totally, totally he knows,

he knows that he has been called, he knows his purpose,

and he knows he has his great news to share.

And really this is the privilege of telling people about Jesus.

That is evangelism. And that is how Paul felt. And

that is why Paul says, I was made a minister.

I was made a servant. Again, I'm not making this up.

Go go and read chapter three, read it line by line.

He says, it is God who makes who made me

a minister. And there are two things that makes a

minister or a servant, basically a gift of God's grace

and the working of God's power. Paul says that he

was made a minister by God. Basically, a minister or

a servant would need a gift of God's grace and

the working of God's because on our own we do

not have the gifts and the power to serve others

by ourselves. That is why I say just now that

grace is something that you have to receive. You see,

if God gives you the free gift of grace, amazing

gift right, the gift to forgive you God's grace upon

our lives. And then we keep our hands in our

pocket and say that I don't want it, Then how

are you going to receive God's grace? That's why it

is said that we are saved by grace, true faith.

When we have faith, it is the act of actually

putting up our hands and receiving God's grace in our lives.

And that is so needed. And basically we need God's

grace and God's power to minister onto others. You try

doing it on your own, It's not going to be easy.

Trust me, why would you even want to There's nothing

to chat Actually, if not for you receiving God's grace,

like how Paor receive God's grace, and not for the

fact that he had the power of God living in him,

that there is nothing to share. He's sharing exactly what

God has done in his life.

Amen. And so that is.

He's saying that I'm a minister, I'm a servant, and

I need the gift of God's grace and I need

the working of God's power because really, I can't do

this on my own.

And what is the minister supposed to do?

And Paul says this, I was made a minister or

a servant to preach the unsearchable riches in Christ of Christ.

Amazing his words.

This is someone in Chaine writing to a church and

he can still say that, you know, this is my

privilege to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, which means

God's an ending wealth. You know, one can actually go

on preaching. No, I used to dread, become a I

have to teacher. I have to teach the word. I

think I run out of things. I run out of

material eventually. If every week got the teachers were or

to share a few services, I think I run out

of material to share eventually. But you know you'll never

run out of material to share. You will have a

run out of things to share from God's word because

it is so rich, unsearchable riches of Christ. And you

can go on preaching forever and ever. And the scripture

also reminds us no, heaven and earth will pass, but

His word will still remain, and you can cover it

from cover to cover, but still continue to teach and

to preach.

Amen.

So what is the overall objective? Why all this preaching,

why is it necessary? Well, the answer is this is

to make all people see the plan that God has.

That is the overall objective. That is what it's all about. No. Literally,

he says that to turn the light on so that

man can see. That's the team of our our church

this year, that all may know. We are praying that

the church s will take this on and continue this

lifestyle of evangelism where they will share and light lights

in people's life because a lot of us are living

in darkness. That is the job, not to be a

lamb lighter and pulse it, to light a lamb so

that they can see the plan of God themselves.

That's how function.

That's our role. God's planner is to unite all people

in Christ. That is the mystery, that is the secret.

Gentile's Jews, black, white, rich, poor, clever, simple, east, West,

doesn't matter. I'm going to bring them all together in Christ.

That was how Paul looked at it, and he took

on that responsibility. And that responsibility is now our responsibility. Amen,

why is it our responsibility? You start to ask, let

Paul do a lie? Why impose on me? Well, because

God's purpose in all this is to use the church

to display His wisdom.

I'm not making this up. You read it. That is

what you say in the scriptures.

Therefore, you can't have Christianity without a church, because that

is God's visual aid. That is where you see his

plan fulfill people who would normally never mix. They are

mixing with one another and together and all now in

Christ Jesus amen, because we are partakers of the same love.

We are joined heirs, members of the same body. It

is in church where people see the wisdom and plan

of God actually being worked out.

I know there's a lot of teaching.

Now that tells you church not important, don't I mean, really,

you think it's not important if one of us isolate

ourselves as Christians, where are people going to see the

plan of God to bring people together where the church

is extremely vital to Christianity as Christ is, for it

is his body. You know, Jesus said I have to

go because he had limitations when he was here, as

in his so called human form, he couldn't be in

many places and many times he couldn't bear multiple places

and multiple times. You know, he couldn't do a lot.

There will limitations in his human form and that's why

I say I will go eventually and I will live

with you my spirit. The spirit of Christ continues. And

the spirit of Christ. Now is there really to sanctify

the church, justify, sanctify, eventually glorify the church. But Christ

is the heat of the Church, and a haiteless body

is of no use on earth. So the Church must

continue to recognize that Jesus is the heat of the Church.

But just as a heat with no body, it's also

going to be ineffective if you think about it. So

I say this again, a hateless body is of no

use on earth, but hate with nobody is also going

to be ineffective. That's why we are called today to

be the body of Christ. We continue to function and

all operate with Christ being the het. We the body,

and what people will see is essentially the body. And

that's why the mandate has been given to the church.

We are the ones that are responsible now to.

Go and share.

And we are also told here that this mystery of

God was hidden in the Creator before all ages. Cah,

I'm just breaking it out, as Paul Share, I'm breaking

it out. What does this mean that we are also told,

you know, the mystery of God was hidden in the

creator before all ages. You see, some people think that

God thought of turning to the Gentiles only after the

Jews had turned Jesus down.

It was almost like a plan, be like, ah, man, shucks.

This guy said no, let's just choose every someone else,

someone else other than the Jews. Uh.

You know, he offered the kingdom to the Jews.

The Jews said no, and he said, all right, let's

just now give it to the Gentiles.

They are planning well.

According to Ephicion Street, God knew all along that what

he was going to do. He knew all along. It

was in his mind when he created the world. He

knew all along that he was going to go to

the Jews first. Then he was going to turn to

the Gentiles. It's actually stated in scripture. Then to complete

the picture, he's going to bring the Jews back in

at the end. Or Paul Ashley uses some sort of

gardening language when he's explaining this. He says, Israel is

cut off from his own roots since Christ came.

You Gentiles have.

Been grafted into the roots, and you are growing now

on Jewish talk. That's what we are doing now. We

are growing on a Jewish wine. You know that your

Savior is Jewish, like it or not, That's the reality.

Do you know that every scripture that is written by

those that are written by doctor Luke are all written

by Jewish writers. You are using a jewis Bible. You're

worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How more

Jewish can he get? And one day Israel is going

to be grafted back in and we will all be

one in Christ.

That is what scripture tells us. So God knew this.

He knew it all along the way, and so he

went to the Jews. He gave the Jews their own Messiah.

And then when Jesus came, he said this, I was

sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel.

And he gave them the first choice. And when they

turn it down, Paul in the name of Christ said, lo,

I now turned to the Gentiles.

And he did.

And so that is God's plan, making known to the

principalities and the powers through the Church, the amazing wisdom

of God. You are called to be witnessed not only

on earth, but also to Heaven. Even the angels watches

us know. And that's what he means, No, there is

that deep sense of responsibility within us as believers to

share the word, share Christ to as many people as possible.

And Paul says, a, because of Christ and our faith

in Him, we can now come boldly and confidently into

God's presence. So please don't lose heart, he says, because

of my trials here, I'm suffering for you. I may

be in prison, but you should be true that the

Jewish jew is actually ready to go to jail for you.

And you can't stop me from praying. He says that, no,

he's actually talking to them. No. The two main means

that God uses to fulfill his purpose is this, and

I kid you not, it's preaching and praying.

Preaching and praying.

If those two things are strong in the church, the

church will be strong because these are God's chosen agencies.

Preaching and prayer. I used to wonder, preach again, Really

do I need to preach?

There?

I'm like, Oh, as I'm reading God's scripture, I realize

we need to preach. Preaching is not a dying art,

and all of us are called to be preachers. With

your life, you will preach. All of us are called

to pray. It's not something in which we do it

from time to time whenever we feel like, you know,

it's actually something. This is the means that God has

used to fulfill his purposes, preaching and prayer. So let's

turn to the next section, because here we see Paul saying,

I bow my knees for this reason. He can no

longer preach widely because again he's chained up in prison

and he couldn't move around this person stuck to him.

But that he can still pray, and he does know.

He prays for the church in Ephesus because he wants

them to carry on preaching.

That is his prayer.

This is the wonderful notion of one person telling another

and then praying that the other will tell someone else,

and then it keeps on going, going and going and

going and going. If only we just captured this. This

is the simplicity of the operations, So simple, right, it's not.

There's this book no called Operation World. Have you already

before Operation World? It has all the different profiles of

every country and then basically it's a book that missionaries

actually use it. They will know, okay, if I want

to go to this country, you know how do I

use this? Who are the people? How many are saved?

How many not safe? No, what's the demographics? It's called

Operations World. I still remember it's an old book. I

think they're probably updated over and over again. But the

operations is simple. Preach and pray. Preach and pray. And

do you know that if each believer actually in the

community brought one person to Christ over the next twelve months,

and then those two did the same thing again in

the following twelve months within five years, that they say

that every person in the community will be safe.

Reality of it.

The simple method is is preach and pray, share the secret,

pray that the person who has heard it will pass

it on. And so that's why Paul says, I pray

for you. Now I bow my knee. Know his physical

attitude basically helps with his mental attitude as well. Kneeling

helps you pray. It does sometimes unless you got really

bad knees. But you know where I'm getting it. It's

the whole You know, this is someone who is in

a cell chain to a soldier, but Paul gets on

his knees. I don't know what the soldier will be thinking.

But Paul didn't care who did Paul pray to. He

prayed to the father. When you are praying, you are

coming as a child to a father. And that's why

he says, I bow my knee to the father. I

bow my knees to the father. And really there's something

that you can learn about a person true prayer, how

they pray. Sometimes you think, oh, I think I can

learn more when they are preaching. By Actually, I think

you will learn more of a person when a person's praying.

I want you to notice what Paul praise. Of course,

it's important for us to take notree of that he

prays five things for the people. Again, I remember he's

writing to the church in Ephesus. And when you pray

for others, question is do we actually pray for these things?

And look at it. Let's look at it. First of all,

I want you to notice that he prays for their

inner man rather than their outer men. Read the scriptures.

You'll see it's quite isn't he astonishing? Sometimes how we

often we often pray for externals is normal, and we

always neglect praying for the internals.

What do I mean by that? Well?

Alter needs is health, strength, food, clothes, shelter, and I

know even the Lord's prayer says, no, give us this

day our daily brain, and he's right. I'm not saying

that he's wrong to actually pray for the external needs,

but what essentially is included in the inner man well

a strong conscience, a strong will, a convinced mind, a

living heart. You see, when you pray for someone, pray

also for their inner man that they may be strong inside,

because to be strong and heart, strong in mind, strong

and soul, that is where the strength is really needed.

Even physical weaknesses can be copd when you're inner man

is strong. And I keep you not. I really believe

in that. I've seen. I've seen people who are physically sick.

The whole body can be laden with ailments and melodies

and they can be cussing out God and it's like,

oh man, why did God allow me to go through this?

And also I've also seen those who are going through

the most severe sickness, but they're still praising God for me.

That is someone who's inner man is strong. And Paul

is saying, pray for the inner man. That's the first prayer.

The second one is this pray that they will be

in dwelled by Jesus basically are taken over by Jesus.

If we read John chapter one, you will see that

you know, in the beginning was the word, and the

word was with God is a long thing times we

read it and man is so confusing. But in verse

fourteen it says that the word made is home amongst us.

What do you think that means? Well, that is as

what it says. No, Jesus is the word because he

is the logos. He has made his world among us.

He has made his home among us. Think about it.

It is a prayer that Jesus may be at home

in your heart. And you can't be at home if

there are things in the house that you are not

comfortable about. And so if Jesus is to feel at

home in our hearts, then our hearts must be the

kind of home that he feels at home in. And

so actually this prayer sometimes involves a lot of self examination.

Pray that Jesus will dwell in their hearts because we

need to also examine God. Is this home to you?

You said that you have made your home amongst us?

Is my life home to you? Second thing? The third

thing is this pray that you may be established and

the word used is actually rooted and grounded. See you

watch a good gardener planting a tree, spreading out the

roots carefully, then putting the pied, putting the soil, putting

the fertilizer, and then making sure everything is now a nice,

firm and compact. Paul prays that they may be rooted

and grounded. That was his prayer. You see, he knows

that it's so easy for Christians who are here today

and gone tomorrow. That's the reality of it. We can

all start a blaze now, the first few weeks, the

first few months, maybe even the first few years. But

the person who is rooted and grounded will continue witnessing

all the way, even like him forty years later, all

the way to his death, he continued to witness. That's

why he pray. I pray that you will be established,

rooted and grounded. Prayer is this that you may be enlarged?

What does that mean?

See?

One of the great dangers of becoming a Christian is

that sometimes we become very small inside personally.

And I'll tell you why.

Because many of the things that you once were able

to do now actually or you have to stop doing

because Jesus has asked you to stop doing some of

these things. And sometimes we feel like we've got to retreat,

retreat because a lot of things we can't do anymore,

and we can't be part of the world, and we

just become small and all close up. But you see,

actually we are supposed to develop new things in Christ.

Otherwise we end up being so narrow in the wrong

sense of life that your life starts to shrink. But

Paul is saying, I pray that you may explore the length,

the breath, the height, and the depth, because he says,

you need a big heart, and all of us need

a big heart, because the bigger heart is we can

cope with more people. We can cope with many people,

and they have to have such big a mind and

heart that they can learn new truths. That was his

prayer for them. He says, I pray that you'll be

enlarged and that you will know the length, the breath,

the depth, the height of the love, which goes far

beyond knowledge. Knowledge is good, but love surpasses it all.

And that was Paul's prayer for the people, that you

won't become small, but you will see how big, how white,

how deep, how far God's love in your life is

And finally, there is the prayer that says you may

be filled with God at the end in verse nineteen,

filled with all the fullness of God. If you only

understand how atomic energy works, it's just a little atomb,

and within that it can fully explode. God is saying

that in us, if He is in us, we are packed.

We are packed with the fullness of God. And that

fullness is not something that remains contained. That fullness usually

will explode and you're going to be filled with that

fullness and not remain empty. A lot of times known

we are like God, empty us from all the wrong

things that we've done. No, Lord, I want to remove this,

remove that. If we don't feel our lives we've gone.

Eventually all the wrong things will come back and feel

our lives. There's actually something that is taught in the scriptures.

Don't just ask God to remove these remove this. I

want to stop doing this. I want to stop doing that.

But if we don't ask the spirit to replace and

come in and feel us, what we are essentially going

to do is we are going to take on the

world again, because that's how we are. Remember I mentioned

last week we are all born of the flesh, we

all are tempted by the devil, and we all live

in this world. That's the reality of it. And so

it is only when we are feeled in God and

filled with the Holy Spirit that then you will live

a life that is overflowing and abundant. That's why John

means when he says you not only will have eternal life,

but you will have abundant life, because when you feel,

it overflows. And that is how we should be praying

for others, that they may be strengthened, they may be

indwelt with God, they may be established, they may be enlarged,

they may be feel That's what Paul is saying. And

finally we come to the end, and I'm gonna invite

the banner. Okay, I know it's a lot to take in,

but I hope I'm helping you. See how Paul is

actually writing to the church and he's pleading with them,

and there's so much that we can learn, so much

principles in which we can learn Verse twenty to twenty one.

Do you know that in this little letter to the Efficians,

Paul actually uses every word you could possibly think of power,

My strength, power, and that's all he says. Now to

him who, by the power at work within us, is

able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we are

ask or think, to accomplish, infinitely more than we might

ask or think. Why then do we not see more

of God's work?

Ever?

Ask yourself that question? Why do we not see more

of God's power? Because sometimes we love to quote this

know now, unto him who is able to do exceedingly

abundantly more more than we can ask for? Well, why

don't we see more of God's work at work? Is

because we don't ask, and we don't think that's all.

That's the reality of it. You see, He's able to

do it. He's the creator of the heavens and hear.

Do you think there's anything in which he can do? No,

But if we don't ask, then we won't see when

we ask. Sometimes, see, this is the other problem. When

we ask, we can't imagine it happening. And that's why

sometimes I teach this, never pray outside your faith only

for those things that you can imagine happening and then

expect it to happen. Learn how to do that, because

you're finer our God indeed is exceedingly amazingly abundoned his everything.

But sometimes we go around, I will pray the whole

world will be safe, and here it doesn't happen, and

then be like, oh, man, is he really exceedingly abundantly

above all things? But if you start and I practice this,

I started by saying, Lord, I pray my family, my

family will be safe. Use me to witness to my dad,

use me to witness to my mom. Took twenty years

of my life, but it was worth every single moment

of it, because again, whatever little faith that I had.

You see, the principle of.

Faith is this, we got to exercise it, not just

ask God to enlarge it a lot of times.

That's what we are bringing.

You know.

That's a scripture in Luke chapter seventeen. You can go

and read it.

It was where Jesus says, okay, guys teaching the disciples

that you all got to forgive each other, don't know,

And you got to forgive this person up to seven

times a day if the same person causes the same.

Wrong against you.

Can you imagine that same person causes the same wrong

against you if he does it seven times in the day,

you forgive him seven times, and automatically what happened. The

disciples were like, oh Lord, how to do that? Please

enlarge my faith? Straight away the disciples say, Lord, and

large our faith. And then Jesus, you remember he said.

He went on to say something I don't even know why.

He said, faith as small as a mustard seed can

cause the mild bray tree to be uprooted.

So you're scratching on it. They ask, Lord, please and

launch my faith.

And then he's talking about faith as small as a

mustard seed and can really just uproot the malbra tree,

which is a tree with the deepest root you can find.

In the whole of Israel. What is he saying?

I believe this is what God is teaching us. We

don't go around just asking for enlarge faith. Ask tell God, God,

help me to exercise what little faith I have. Take

those first steps. First, God, you have put faith in

each and every one of us. Help me exercise that faith.

That is what is needed, not just more faith, because

more faith and there's no action in the faith is dead.

And so when we are praying, why is it that

we don't see things happening even though we have a

God who is exceedingly, amazingly abundant, abandoned. I don't know

if it's all the super latives you can think of.

It's because we don't ask, and when we do us

we don't. We can't imagine it, we can't believe it.

Let's work out our faith one step, one day at

the time, and I believe ultimately all glory goes back to.

Christ, Jesus.

That's how it is now to him be the glory.

We take none of this and that's why Paul was very,

very cognizant to make sure that he never claims any

of the glory. It's not for him to claim. It's

not even for the church to play. It's where the church,

only in and true Christ, can claim the glory.

We hope you've been blessed by this message.

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I hate for you, God bless