Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning we are continuing the series on the Apostle Paul’s prayer life.

Several weeks ago we began this sermon series with one goal in mind.

That goal was to improve our prayer life.

If you will remember we are not focused on necessarily the quantity of our prayer life, although most of us will admit that we need to pray more.

I am primarily concerned with the quality of our prayer life.

We tend to spend most of our time in prayer asking for physical temporal needs- help Johnny to get over the flu, help Sally to find a new job, help Faith to build a new building.

There is nothing wrong with praying for these things, in fact we should be praying for theses things.

But we also need to be praying for spiritual eternal things as well.

As we study the content of the Apostle Paul’s prayers we discover that Paul is concerned primarily with Spiritual requests rather than physical requests.

So I am proposing that we all need to adjust the content of our prayer life so that we too are focusing primarily on the spiritual nature of our prayers.

Last time we asked the question:

What should we be praying for?

Paul’s example of prayer displays for us several important requests that should be at the heart of every believer’s prayer life.

I. Spirit Filled Knowledge

Three key elements:

A filling of the Holy Spirit

A thorough knowledge of God

An enlightened love

Knowledge of His will + all Spiritual wisdom and Spiritual understanding =

II.

An Illuminated Heart

Eyes of your heart (not understanding) being enlightened

(φωτίζω- to shine, or illuminate something, to enlighten or make know in reference to the inner life, perf, passive, part)

This is a passive verb, so you cannot illuminate your heart.

Someone else must do this illuminating work in your heart.

Someone else must cause the knowledge of God to shine in your hearts.

Someone else must make know the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God.

So again Knowledge of God + the filling of the Holy Spirit = an illuminated heart.

This morning we will focus on the reason or the purpose for this illuminated heart.

Paul uses several purpose statements in relation to this idea of an illuminated heart.

Why does Paul want the eyes of our heart illuminated?

A. A Hopeful Calling

18 πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας °[ὑμῶν]

(that) the eyes of your heart may be enlightened

`εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς

That you may (continue to) know (perf, act, infin)

τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ,

what is the hope of His calling,

If you know Christ as your Savior, then you believer, have a hopeful calling!

You have one hope!

One, singular, your hope is one and it is in One!

In Christ Jesus and in His blood in which you have been brought near to God is your one hope.

The hope of your calling is centered in Christ and in His blood.

Illustration:

River and Phillip being called into the KGB office, stop preaching the gospel we know where your kids go to school.

That Sunday they met in the wilderness as a church and preached the gospel.

Why?

Because they understood the Hope of their calling.

Application:

That you might know, not with a head knowledge, but with an illuminated heart- the hope of your calling.

B. A Glorious Inheritance

`εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς

That you may know (perf, act, infin)

τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ,

what is the hope of His calling,

τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ

what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance

ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις,*

in the saints,

2 options:

1).

Talking about our inheritance.

2).

Talking about His inheritance, the portion which belongs to God- in other words us- His people.

What does that look like?

Illustration/Application:

Seth- son don’t get your hopes us for your inheritance.

Your dad has five boys and also has a pastor’s salary.

But I want you to know, I pray daily for you to know that you are a part of your heavenly Father’s inheritance.

And one day you will stand with the redeemed of all the ages and be unto the praise of His glory.

I pray that your heart would be illuminated to this reality and that you might not wait for that day, but right now might live to the praise of the glory of His wondrous grace.

C.

An Infinite Love

May be able to comprehend (to know), in order to know this kind of love, the breadth, length, depth, and height, one must be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man.

The love of Chris is so great it is so grand that the empowering work of the HS is required for us to begin to comprehend it.

It is ultimately that which passes all knowledge (infinite), but yet still knowable.

We will just have to spend eternity in our pursuit to comprehend the love of Christ.

And this knowledge of the love of Christ will fill the believer will all the fullness of God (same word used in Eph 5.18, be filled with the HS).

Paul prays for the hearts of these believers to be enlightened, that (purpose) they might know the infinite love of Christ.

Illustration:

Hymn- The Love of God:

Credited to Frederick M. Lehman, all except the third stanza.

The third stanza has its roots in an 11th century Jewish poem called the Hadamut.

Fast forward about eight hundred years or so when the third stanza of this epic poem was found penciled on the walls of a patient’s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave, the general opinion was that this inmate, in rare moments of sanity wrote these precious words which Lehman later adapted to the hymn we now sing:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure

The saints’ and angels’ song.

Conclusion:

Believer what are you praying for?

How is the quality of your prayer life?

Are you praying for an Illuminated heart?

Who are you praying these things for?

Are you praying them for your kids, your spouse, your church?

When is the last time you prayed that someone might know with an illuminated heart

1).

Their hopeful calling

2).

God’s Glorious Inheritance

3).

Christ’s Infinite Love

Imagine if we would pray and God would give us Spirit Filled Knowledge, that would translate into an Illuminated Heart to really know and understand these things how it would change and impact our lives for Christ!

What are you praying for?