Trinity Baptist Church

Praying with Paul

Open My Eyes, Lord

Ephesians 1:15-23

 

There are two reliable ways to learn how to pray. First, you can learn to pray by listening to those who know how to pray. I have often found strength for my own heart simply by sitting in a prayer group and listening to the prayers of others. Sometimes when I am distracted or worried or just worn out, listening to others pray slowly warms my own heart and puts me on “praying ground."   

 

In fact, quite often in our Wednesday evening prayer meetings, I don’t pray at all.  I just need to be quiet and listen and be encouraged through the prayers of others. 

 

Second, you can learn to pray by studying the great prayers of the Bible. If we want the Lord to teach us to pray, this is a good place to start. After all, these prayers were included in Holy Scripture.  That in oand of itself, lets us know these prayers are worth listening to and reading. 

 

By the way, what if your prayers were published?  Did you ever think about that?  Someone has observed that prayer is the language of the soul.  So what is your soul saying?  If you want to know what a man believes, don’t tell me what he says; tell me what he prays. A man may say many things, but when he prays, we see his heart.

 

With that in mind, we are spending several weeks considering the prayers of Paul.  Many of his prayers were recorded for eternity in Scripture. 

Tonight we’re going to look at the prayer found in

 

Ephesians 1:15-23 (read it)

 

He begins with

 

 

Verse 17

 

The heart of the prayer comes at the end of verse 17.  Paul’s prayer actually boils down to a request for the Ephesians to know God better.  That’s what the whole prayer is about. 

 

Now to know someone better means some knowledge already exists.  This means that he is writing to and praying for believers who already have some knowledge of God. And his primary request is asking for these folks who already know God come to a new and deeper knowledge of Who He really is. 

 

The Greek language contains a number of different words that might be translated as “know.” But this particular verse contains a verb that means to know deeply, personally and intimately.

 

To illustrate that, I can tell you that I know Billy Sims.  He owns a barbecue joint over here at the corner of Grand and Commerce.  He played college football for the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two-time consensus All-American, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1978.

 

 

 

He was the first overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the NFL's Detroit Lions.  I even have his autograph on a football.  No doubt about it, I know Billy Sims. 

 

But I can also say, “I know my wife” and that’s an entirely different kind of knowing. After 30 years of marriage, it is a knowledge that is very deep, very personal, and very intimate. And that’s the sort of knowledge Paul is praying for.

 

Now if you know Ephesians at all, you know in the first few verses of 1 Paul is just praising the Lord.  Then at verse 15, he begins this long prayer that they might know God better.

 

First Paul puts the truth out, then he prays the truth in. In verse 3 he says we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. So the prayer is not, “Lord, give us new blessings,” but “Help us to realize the blessings we already have.”

 

He’s not praying they will receive new truth.  He just wants them to experience the truth they already know.  Spiritual truth is just that.  It is truth and you can learn it in a cold, sterile classroom setting.  But he’s praying for them to be turned on to the truth.  It’s more than just knowing God; it’s being excited about knowing God. 

 

God invites us to seek his face. He wants us to know him better. It’s not as if our Heavenly Father is hiding himself from us. But we can only have a close relationship with him if we will seek it in prayer. That’s the burden of Paul’s prayer.

 

Remember the old hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”?

The second verse is especially insightful in light of this prayer: 

 

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of 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 hour of prayer.

 

That’s the aim of this prayer of Paul.  God bids me seek His face, believe His word and trust His grace. 

 

That’s the aim of his prayer.   First comes the request.  Next the talks about 

 

2. The Means: “The Eyes of Your Heart Enlightened”

 

Verse 18a

 

This is the only time the phrase “the eyes of your understanding or the the eyes of your heart” appears in the New Testament. That means that this is a significant truth that demands our attention. The heart has eyes. Did you know that?

 

When Paul speaks of “your heart,” obviously he’s not referring to the organ in your chest that pumps blood throughout your body.

 

The term “heart” refers to what we might call “the real you,” the place inside where the decisions of life are made.

The heart is the place where you decide what values you will live by and what direction you will go and how you will live your life each day.

 

Every important decision you make is made by your heart. And according to this verse, your heart has eyes that can be opened or shut. When the eyes of your heart are closed to the light of God, you stumble around and make dumb choices.   

 

You fall into sin, you break God’s Laws, you end up driving into the ditch, you make the same mistakes over and over again, and you enter one dead-end relationship after another. Why? Because the eyes of your heart are shut and you lack moral vision.

 

The light of God is shut out of your life. And that means you can see and be blind at the same time. That is, you can have 20/20 vision with your physical eyes but the eyes of your heart can be blind to the light of God. There are lots of people like that in the world. Physically they can see but spiritually they are totally blind.

 

A lot of Christians live like that. They know God but their eyes are so filled with the things of the world that they are blind to the truth.

 

Let me illustrate. Imagine we have before us a Christian young man who has been raised in a Christian home. He’s been going to church for years–Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, children’s ministry, Falls Creek and the youth stuff.  But now he’s graduated high school and goes off to college.  For the first time in his life, he has some independence.  He is now on his own.

 

He meets a girl and they start dating. Soon they are sleeping together. When his parents hear about it, they are furious and worried and upset and they wonder what to do. They argue and plead and threaten and quote Scripture.  But nothing seems to get through to him. 

 

What is the problem? It is precisely this: The eyes of the 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.

 

But notice what the verse says because it contains this amazing thought.  Paul prayed for the Ephesians that “the eyes of your understanding, the eyes of your heart might be opened.” One translation says, “that the eyes of your heart might be flooded with light."

 

That means for the child of God, even if their eyes are shut, they can be opened.  Opening blind eyes is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He can do it and only He can do it.

 

That’s why we pray for our children and grandchildren and for our family members and for friends and loved ones who today are far from God. As our children grow older, we discover over and over again how little control we have over them.

We cannot compel their obedience because we cannot compel their hearts.

 

That’s why the names of our college kids are on the prayer list.  Every week when they are away someone is faithfully praying for them. 

Someone is asking God to “open the eyes of their heart. Help them to see the light of truth.”

When Eugene Peterson translated the last part of this passage for The Message, he included this unique sentence:

 

    “At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church."

 

There are two radically different ways of looking at things. Either the world is at the center and Christ is at the periphery or Christ is at the center of life and the world is off at the edge somewhere. So many Christians have bought into the notion that this world is all that matters. They’ve pushed Christ to the periphery of life. But when Christ comes to the center, the world is seen for what it really is–something on the edges.

 

In a lot of ways, living for Christ is like a sports game.  You’re either on the bench or you’re in the game. The problem with far too many Christians is they’re sitting on the bench goofing off when they ought to be in the game serving the Lord. Bench warmers sit around, goof off, laugh, cut up, and trade jokes while the game is going on. If they ever decide to get in the game, they won’t have time to do the things they’re doing now. 

 

Young people, if you decide you’re just going to  sleep around, or get drunk on the weekends, or cheat and cut corners, if you are rebellious and unmotivated, you need to know those things are only symptoms of a deeper, more fundamental issue. They’ve never made a personal commitment to get serious about Jesus Christ.

 

The same is true for our adults.  As long as just skimming by at church and being there but not really being involved, as long as you’re content with a little touch of Christianity, a little fire protection for eternity, you need to come all the way in and fall in love with the Lord and let your life be flooded with His light. 

 

You’re sitting on the bench when you ought to be in the game. And I will tell you this with absolute confidence:  once you get into the game, once Christ becomes the center of life, no one will have to tell you not to sleep around, and no one will have to tell you, “Don’t get drunk on the weekends.” You just won’t do it. No one will have to remind you you ought to be at church or involved int eh prayer meetings or tithing or sharing your faith. 

 

Once the eyes of your heart are opened, the light of God’s truth will come flooding in and you’ll never look at anything the same away again.

 

Sometimes we worry too much about the symptoms without dealing with the root issues of life. We should pray, “Open the eyes of their heart, Lord,” because when that happens, life will radically change. They will grab their helmet and get in the ballgame for the Lord. They’ll go to the huddle and say, “You call the play, Lord. I’m ready to do whatever you say.”

 

Then Paul talks about

 

 

Verse 18b

 

As Paul prays, he has three things specifically in mind that will result from the eyes of their heart being opened. First, they will know ...

 

 

“The hope of His calling”

 

This reference covers from the moment of their conversion and forward.

 

Notice the elements of this hope that he’s already mentioned in verses 3-14:

 

    Blessed with every spiritual blessing, v. 3

    Chosen in Christ, v. 4

    Predestined to be adopted as sons, v. 5

    Recipients of his grace, v. 6

    Redeemed through his blood, v. 7

    Forgiveness of sins, v. 7

    Wisdom and understanding, v. 8

    God’s plan made known to us, vv. 9-10

    Chosen and predestined, v. 11

    Included in Christ, v. 13

    Sealed by the Holy Spirit, v. 13

    Given the earnest of the Spirit, v. 14

 

All this is ours. They have already been given to us.  These are the permanent possession of every child of God. We are rich and blessed beyond all measure and Paul is praying that we might understand how rich we already are.  Next he talks about

 

 

Verse 1:18c

Now Paul looks ahead.  It would be enough to have everything He’s already presented to us, but Paul wants those he’s praying for to know what else God has promised to us. 

 

One of these days we will see the Lord and it is beyond our capacity to describe the glory of that moment. Sometimes we wonder what heaven will be like.

 

 I think it will be everything we dreamed of and nothing like we imagined. Going to heaven is not so much going to a place as it is going to a person. If I’ve been on a trip, I may say to someone, “I can’t wait to get home again.” But I’m not talking about the literal bricks and the literal carpet.

 

It’s not as if when I come in, I say, “Hello, drapes, I’m glad to see you again. Hello, dining room, I missed sitting in those chairs.” You’d think something was wrong if I talked like that. No, home is precious to me because of the people I love who live there.

 

When I say, “I can’t wait to go home,” I mean that I can’t wait to see Lisa again. It’s the same thing with heaven. The glory of heaven is not the streets of gold or the gates of the pearl or even the River of Life or the angels of God. The glory of heaven is Jesus. Heaven is wherever Jesus is, and when we finally get to where Jesus is, we will be home for all eternity.  Finally, He talks about

 

 

Verse 19a

 

There are four different Greek words for power here. He uses the word from which we get “dynamite,” the word from which we get the English word “energy”, the word that means “muscular strength” and another that means “courageous power."

 

Do you get the idea that Paul wants us to understand God’s power is sufficient for all we need, no matter what we encounter? We may be overwhelmed with fear, we may feel inadequate for what we’re dealing with, we may be insecure about our abilities or feel we are powerless to change things.

 

But the good news is, God’s power is wrapped up in a person, Jesus Christ. This is the power that exploded in Christ when he rose from the dead. If you know him, you have the greatest power source in the universe living within you.

 

Our God has given us all we need. Oh, that we might know the hope of our calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the amazing power of God.

 

It’s all ours and it’s all wrapped up in one Person, Jesus Christ. Oh, that we might know him better. If only we would open to see things clearly. If only we would determine that we would love him and serve him and make him the center of life.

 

What a magnificent encouragement this passage is. Pray, pray, and keep on praying.

 

Pray for each other. Husbands, pray for your wives, and wives for your husbands. Parents, pray for your children.  Teachers, pray for the class you teach.   Pray for those serving on mission trips.

 

Pray for the new Christians in our church.  Pray for the longtime members of the church!  Pray that we will turned on by the truth of God.

 

There are so many ways we should apply this message.

 

First, here is a good guide to praying for each other.  can always know God better than we do. And when you pray, ask the Lord to open the eyes of their heart to let light from heaven come flooding in.

 

Second, we should pray this for ourselves. "O Lord, help me to know you better. Open my eyes, Lord. Let your light come flooding into my heart. Help me to know all that you have given, all that you have promised, and all that you have provided for me.”

 

What if you don’t know Jesus at all? Reach out and take him by faith. He loves you and he died for you. Receive the gift of eternal life through Christ. Open your heart. Crown him as Savior and Lord of your life today.

 

Let’s pray.