Welcome to the services today. Glad that you are here. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Ephesians. Before my forced vacation, I had started preaching from the book of Ephesians. And one of the things that the Apostle Paul does in many of his epistles, is at the beginning, he has a prayer for the people that he's writing the letter to. And so the book of Ephesians is no different. So I thought we'd skip over a few verses and go ahead and and deal with this prayer that the apostle Paul writes here in the book of Ephesians, chapter one, verses 15. through 23, 15 through 23. And I would ask you, if you will, to stand with me in honor and reverence to the Word of God as we read this passage. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and ask his blessings upon this time. And I'll ask Brother Eric Schultz if he will lead us in this prayer. Father, we thank you for the opportunity. Well, this is the first Sunday of the new year, and Richard has kept us in the Christmas spirit by singing a couple of Christmas hymns, and we're going to be And of course, this prayer of the Apostle Paul could be applied anytime. But I've titled the message today, A Prayer for the New Year. And it is certainly one that is appropriate for the new year. And by the way, if you look on the front of the bulletin, you've got four Chinese characters there. How many of you can read those characters? Okay, we got some people and so we're all going to say it together, you know, Happy New Year, but we're going to do it in Chinese. Xin Nian Kuai Le. Xin Nian Kuai Le. Once more time, that's a little weak. Xin Nian Kuai Le. Now, okay, let me do it first, you know. I learned that in language school, when you're learning pronunciation and tones and all that in Chinese, you've got to listen to the teacher first. And then you say, xin nian kuai le. Xin nian kuai le. OK, good. And we trust that you truly do have a happy new year and a great time in the year 2015. Back to Ephesians now. We earlier had studied from the first part of this chapter, chapter 1, verses 3 through 14. And in that chapter, Paul gets carried away describing all the riches and all the blessings and all of the wealth that the Christian has received through God's grace And that entire paragraph from verse 3 through verse 14 is one sentence in the original Greek. Well, now we're down to chapter 1, verses 15 through 23. And in this passage, Paul prays a prayer for the Ephesians Christians, and what is the prayer? It is a prayer that they will be able to know, understand, and receive all the blessings and riches that God has provided for them. Now, again, in this section, Paul gets carried away. This entire paragraph, verse 15 through 23, is one sentence in the original Greek. Fortunately, Paul didn't have to worry about a grammar checker. except the Holy Spirit, of course. And he led Paul to write these fantastic words for our benefit today. And as we study this passage, as I said, I've titled the message, A Prayer for the New Year. And as I have considered this prayer, there were four things that jumped out at me, four main things. Number one, a prayer that they will know God. Number two, a prayer that they will know God's promises. Number three, a prayer that they will know God's power. And finally, a prayer that they will know Christ's position. Now, the first thing I do when I'm preparing a sermon, I do an outline, and as I look through this passage, those are the points that I wanted to deal with. And I never know how long it's going to take when I start out. I've got good news for you. I'm only going to do two points today. And since Richard cut the song service short, we may set a record and get out by 12 o'clock. But who knows? We'll see. Point number one, a prayer that they will know God. Verses 16b and 17 says, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. This is the key, this is the foundation, the heart of Paul's prayer, that they may know God. Everything else that follows in the prayer is building on that foundation. Paul's prayer is that the Ephesian Christians will know God better. So he prays, O Lord, I pray that these folks who already know you might come to a new and deeper knowledge of who you really are. The Greek language contains several words that can be translated as know. In this particular verse, it is a verb that means to know deeply, personally, intimately, For instance, I know our president. I know who he is. I know what he looks like. If you show me a picture, I'll say, that's the president. But I don't know him personally and intimately, and he certainly doesn't know me. However, I can also say I know my wife. That's an entirely different kind of knowing. After 57 years of marriage, it's a knowledge that is very deep, very personal, and very intimate. And that is the kind of knowledge that Paul is praying for the Ephesian Christians. To know God, the true God, should be the number one priority of every person in the world. To know God better should be the goal of every Christian. I fear, however, that God is a stranger to the average Christian. We don't really know Him. Y'all, excuse me. Mine's allergy is not a cold. Now, if some of you are like me and watch Fox News, you know that on the O'Reilly Factor, they have a segment called Waters World. And in that segment, Jesse Waters goes out on the street with his microphone and a video camera and asks people very simple, basic questions about politics, American history, and current events. And most of the people that he interviews don't have a clue what he's talking about. They come up with all kinds of wild and weird answers. All they know is their own narrow little world. And so they don't have a clue. They don't care what's going on in the rest of the world. I fear that is the situation with so many of us Christians. We don't really know God. We're so wrapped up in our own private world that we've pushed God to the periphery of our lives, and we don't really know Him. Oh, we may occasionally give lip service to God, but we really don't know Him. The danger is that we may think we know God, but we're totally missing the mark. Every Christian should live their lives in such a way that when other people look at us, they see a reflection of God. We are loving because God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And when people see the love manifested in our lives, they can see a picture of God. and compassion and holiness and forgiveness and all of the other attributes should be manifested in our lives. We should be like the little boy that Emory Griffin tells about in his book, The Mind Changers, the art of Christian persuasion. And he tells this story of a kindergarten teacher who asked her class to draw something that was important to them. In the back of the room, there was little Johnny, and he began to labor over his drawing. Everybody else finished their drawing and headed it in to the teacher, but he didn't. He was still drawing. The teacher graciously walked back and put her arm around Johnny's shoulders and said, Johnny, what are you drawing? Well, he didn't look up. He just kept on drawing, working feverishly on his picture. Then he said, God. But Johnny, the teacher said gently, no one knows what God looks like. He answered, they will when I'm through. Well, when we finish this course of our life, Will people be able to look at my life and the way I've lived? And can they say, I've seen a reflection of God lived out in and through his life? So how do we know God anyway? Well, this is the deep subject. There are books that have been written on this subject, and my favorite is Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Any of you read that book? No? It gets deep into theology. The theology of God. But it's a great book. But the first thing that we have to do or have in order to know God is to have a conversion experience. The Apostle Paul. On that road to Damascus, he was a very religious man. He was a learned man. He had his PhD in theology from Gamaliel, the most preeminent rabbi of his day. But he didn't know God. Until on that Damascus road, he had that conversion experience. And every one of us need to ask ourselves, Paul said, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith or not. We need to know. Some of you know the Christofferson family. Faithful, long-time Christians. But one of the things that Brother Tommy, the father and husband in that family, shared with me And one of our services one day was that, at that time it was about three years ago, in the church they attend over in Euless, that he discovered he wasn't saved, he wasn't born again. And he came forward publicly confessing Christ is the Savior. Well, that's something that every single one of us need, we must have. That conversion experience, being born again by the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, taught and guided by the Holy Spirit. That's the beginning of our Christian life, our spiritual life, our knowing of God. But then after we're saved by the grace of God, we need to seek God. We need to have that searching heart. that's crying out for God to know God better every day of our lives. Psalm 46.10 says, Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. But so many of us are like the government official who got off his helicopter with his Starbucks coffee in his right hand. With his coffee cup, he gave a quick salute to the Marine at the bottom of the steps and then proceeds on to the next thing in his agenda. Many Christians are like that. in their walk with the Lord. They snap off a few quick sentences of prayer, maybe in the morning, a prayer salute to God, and then they're off to follow their agenda for the rest of the day. Psalm 4610, Be still and know that I am God. The word still comes from a Hebrew word that means to let go, to be quiet. If we're going to really know God, we have to let go of the things of the world and be quiet before Him so that we can submit ourselves to God and let the sovereign God teach us about Himself. That takes my mind to that familiar hymn that we sing sometimes, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Second stanza reads like this. Sweet our prayer, sweet our prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since He bids me seek His face, Believe His word, and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my every care, And wait for Thee, sweet our prayer. You see, in the words of Scripture and in the words of many of the hymns that we sing, God is inviting us to seek his face. He wants us to know him better, and we can only know him better when we seek him in prayer. And again, there's so much to be said about knowing God. We can only scratch the surface this morning. Maybe some of us can find J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God, and we can learn from that. And maybe this morning, at least, I've whetted your appetite to come to know God in prayer and to seek his face. And he, the waiting soul, will bless with the knowledge of himself. Point number two. Paul's prayer is a prayer that they, the Ephesian Christians, will know God's promises. And I'm going to read verse 18 out of the New Living Translation. In parenthesis, I have placed the words from the New King James Version, which I normally use. But here's what he says, I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light, that is enlightened, so that you can understand or know the wonderful future he has promised to those he called, that is the hope of his calling. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people. And so we have here the promise of enlightenment. Now, the more we know, understand, and appropriate God's promises, the better we will know God. So the Bible is a book full of promises. In one of my older Bibles, when I was reading through the Bible, one time it was the New American Standard Bible, but when I encountered a promise for God, I put a P there beside that verse in red ink. And that might be a good thing for us to do as we begin this new year and as we read through the Bible, because as we claim the promises of God, we will come to know God, who He is, and what He has done for us and what He wants to do for us. So this is Paul's prayer for them, that their hearts, in the New Living Translation, that their hearts will be flooded with light, so that they will know and understand all the blessings God has provided for them. You see, back in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And so, that's false prayer. that all of those blessings, every blessing available to every Christian will be appropriated by us. That's what Paul is praying for. And when we pray for one another, I think today it would be appropriate for us to pray this prayer. That their hearts will be flooded with light so that they will know and understand all the blessings God has provided for us. Now, flooded with light. You know, one of the problems we have is we need to have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God flooded into our hearts so we can know and understand God. One of the things my wife, I wouldn't say she's demanding it, we'll say requesting it, is because we have recently received word that there are thieves going through our area of the Metroplex and robbing people, going into their garages and forcing their way into homes and so forth. And so her request is that in the front corner of our house next to the driveway, the back corner of the house at the end of the driveway, and around at the back door that goes out into the yard that we put these motion lights up high so that if a thief comes, the light immediately floods the yard or the driveway And theoretically, when the light goes on, it'll scare them away and they won't bother us. Well, that's Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. That as we read his word, the Holy Spirit will flood our hearts with the light of God's truth. He prays that their hearts will be enlightened so that they know God and all that He has blessed them with. However, sadly, there are too many Christians who are in the dark as far as knowing God and His blessings. Too often we get trapped in that darkness by our environment and our lifestyle. And we miss out on what God has for us, what he has done for us. Just let me illustrate. Now, this is not talking about any particular person, but it's something I fear that is happening over and over again in our world. Let's say you have a young man who has been raised in a Christian home. He's gone to church for years. That includes Sunday school, vacation Bible school, youth activities at the church, and worship services. Then, he graduates from high school, goes off to college, and at last, he's on his own. He meets a girl, and they start dating. Pretty soon, they're living together. When his parents hear about it, They're furious and worried and upset, and they wonder what to do. They argue and plead and beg and threaten and quote scripture, all to no avail. What's the problem? It's simply this, that in the life of this young man, the floodlight of the Holy Spirit And the truth of the word of God has never penetrated into their hearts. The eyes of their heart are shut to the truth of God. And until those eyes are opened, all the yelling in the world won't make much difference. What we need to do is take Paul's advice and pray for them. Pray that their hearts will be flooded with the light of the Holy Spirit and God's Word. You see, opening blind eyes is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He and He alone can do it. But He can do it. That is the reason we pray for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and for our family members and for friends and loved ones who today may be far away from God. As our children grow older, we often discover that we have less and less control over them. They've decided to go their own way. We cannot compel their obedience because we cannot compel their hearts. But we can pray and cry out to God and say, O Lord, open the eyes of their heart. Help them to see the light of the truth. And then you just keep on loving them with that unconditional love that God has given us through the Holy Spirit. And then, as Paul prayed, Not only that their hearts and minds would be enlightened, but he prayed for the promise of the hope of his calling. Paul prayed for them that they may know what is the hope of his calling. You see, God has called us to hope. You know, faith, hope, love, these three, the greatest of these is love. But hope is important. Hope is important in our lives as Christians. In the New Testament, hope is always the expectation of something good. It is also something we must wait for. OK, so hope and waiting go together. Now, the best During this season of the year, the best example I can think of is waiting for Christmas. For those families who exchange gifts, everyone has high hopes, waiting for Christmas morning when they can open their gifts. We're one of those families that exchanges gifts on Christmas morning. We get up early and it's a great time. This year, I've got to tell you this. I made that cardinal mistake of going on the internet and ordering my own Christmas presents. And I was in the doghouse over there. In fact, I thought they were never going to wrap it. But they finally did. But you see, some of you know that I learned how to type on an old manual typewriter. And all of these years that I've been using computers, I've been searching for a keyboard. that has the feel and the touch of the old typewriters. And I finally found one. And I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. Now, they finally wrapped it, put it under the Christmas tree. And Christmas morning, I got to open my keyboard. And let me tell you, My sermons may get longer and longer because it's so much fun typing on that old IBM Model M keyboard. But I had that hope. And when I sat down at the computer and started typing and it really worked, all those mistakes that I had been making, they're gone. Wow. So I'm happy. Well, anyway, that was a little rabbit trail that I got on. Now, for our extended family, we also have a gift exchange. We get together, we have a meal together, and we exchange gifts. But we've encountered some problems this year because there's some extremely contagious viruses that are running around and so our extended family Christmas has already been postponed several times. Right now it's set again for this coming Saturday. Who knows if that's going to work out. But we have some rules for our family gift exchange. First, the children get gifts from everybody. That's a good thing, I think. Second, we draw names. Men give to men and women give to women. Third, it's supposed to be something you make yourselves. Now, New Year's Day, we went to Stephen Belinda's house, had a meal, played some games, and I watched a little football. But I noticed over there to my left, there was a conference going on. And they kept glancing in my direction. And I said, what's going on? They said, Christopher, my grandson, has brought your gift. And he wants to know if you want to open it now. You see, I've got it all figured out. Christopher has this gift. for Grandpa that is so fantastic that he can't wait to see my reaction when I open it. And of course I wanted to open it right then, but I told Christopher, no, I'll wait for everybody else and we'll open our gifts together. But oh, the joy Oh, the joy of the hope that I have today waiting for this coming Saturday when I can open my gift. And I'll go on to say, and I'm not going to tell you whose name I drew, but I've got this gift that is so fantastic, it's going to blow his mind. Barbara. has worked hours and hours and hours and days and days and days making gifts. And wow, it's going to be great for those grandkids and great-grandkids when they open their presents. But you see, that's what Paul is talking about here. He prays that the Ephesian Christians will have that kind of joy, that kind of excitement. over what God has done and is going to do for each of us. He is praying for them that after the light goes on in their hearts, that they will have that hope, that joy and that excitement for all the things God has promised and provided for His children. And then Paul prays for the promise of a rich inheritance. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? Now, just up a little bit further in this chapter, he was talking about our inheritance as Christians. Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory? But if you'll look at this verse, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? You see, this is not talking about our inheritance. It is saying that you and I, God's children who are blood-bought Christians, that we are God's inheritance. We are God's treasure. We are God's riches. In other words, we are God's possession, purchased by the blood of Christ. Thus, we are His portion, or His inheritance, which He will finally and ultimately possess throughout eternity. There are many Old Testament texts that speak of Israel as God's chosen portion or inheritance. For example, Psalm 33, verse 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance. Paul is emphasizing that although the Gentiles were formerly alienated from God and strangers to his promises, now in Christ they are equal members with the Jews as God's covenant people and are together God's inheritance. And the amazing thing today is that God should consider us as his treasure, these sinners who have been rescued from eternal condemnation. And yes, many of us, we still bear many of the traces of the old lifestyle, the former sinful condition. But God loves us. And it is only through the love of God that He has chosen us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not see us in all of our unworthiness and all of our sinfulness. He rather sees us through the beautiful prism of His Son. When God looks at you and me, He sees the beauty and the perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ. And so we become precious to Him because Jesus is the only begotten Son, beloved of the Father. And from eternity, they have had this special, close, intimate, loving relationship. And so because we're in Christ, covered by his blood, robed in his righteousness, when he sees us, he sees his treasure, his inheritance. So Paul's prayer is that they will come to know and understand how blessed they are to be God's special treasure, his rich inheritance for all eternity. This morning, as we're here, I pray that we will take time to read and meditate on this prayer of Paul, and particularly to meditate on the incredible truth that I am God's treasure. He treasures me because of his son, Jesus. And if you're here today and you cannot say that I have had that experience of confessing my sins to God and trusting Jesus as my personal Savior, that I'm born again by the grace of God, if you cannot say that, then I invite you today to come. It just involves opening your heart. and saying, God, I believe, I trust you. I trust that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I trust that he died on the cross for me. And I receive him as my Savior. And if there's any Christian here who has any need in your life, you'd like for us to pray for us or share with us, we'd invite you to come. As Richard comes to lead us, we stand together to sing our hymn of invitation. Number 437.