1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Welcome to Bible on the Beach. Today we'll be in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through 23. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Glad you could be with us today. Paul has some wonderful words of encouragement. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,000 I'd like to get right into it. Verse 15 says, 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Because of this, since I have first heard about your strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:26,000 and your tender love towards all his devoted ones, my heart was always full and overflowing. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,000 But thanks to God for you as I constantly remember you in my prayers. 7 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:39,000 This makes me think of so many people in my life that I've seen discover God in a real and genuine way. 8 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:44,000 They literally have the living water of Jesus flowing in their inner life. 9 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Have you ever met someone like this? This is someone you want to be around. 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 This is someone that inspires you. This is Adam Watts. This is Nico Otspeed. 11 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:01,000 This is Steve Martinez. I could go right on down the line of people that you get around them 12 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,000 and you realize they have a water, a living water flowing through their life. 13 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:12,000 It makes you when you're not around these people, it makes you pause and give thanks for them in your life. 14 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,000 This is what Paul is doing here. He's remembering the disciples of Jesus 15 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,000 and the people that had stirred up a fondness in his heart. 16 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 It's a reminder that those are the types of people that we want to be in our life. 17 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:29,000 We want to be the type of people that have that water flowing through us, 18 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,000 that have that joy that we emanate to other people. 19 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:38,000 He says, I pray that the glory of God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 20 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,000 would impart to you the riches of the spirit of wisdom and revelation 21 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,000 to know him through your deepening intimacy with him. 22 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,000 And this is our hope and our prayer and our desire in our life that God would give us the wisdom. 23 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:55,000 What is wisdom? It's God's thoughts versus our thoughts. 24 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000 God's thoughts versus our thoughts. 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000 Being intelligent, that's your IQ, that's what you read. 26 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Wisdom is God gives you his thoughts for a specific moment and a specific decision. 27 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:17,000 And you take that download, you take that information and you act in real time. 28 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Did you know there's a continuous software update that God wants to download to you 29 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 into your brain and into your life every single day 30 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,000 that will help you avoid mistakes and help you be more successful? 31 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,000 It's called God's wisdom. 32 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000 Now the problem is we pray for God's wisdom and when he tells us things that we don't like 33 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,000 or he tells us things that we don't hear, we then say, well, I don't want God's wisdom. 34 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:51,000 It's only wisdom if you're given information that contradicts the information that you already have. 35 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,000 If God gives you information that you don't like or it contradicts what you know, 36 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,000 but he asks you to trust him, you have to go with that. 37 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,000 So we need to say in our life, God, give me your wisdom, give me your ideas today. 38 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Whether I understand them or agree with them or not, ahead of time, 39 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 I'm going to come in alignment with you and I'm going to agree that whatever you put in my heart 40 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000 and my spirit, I'm going to follow that. 41 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 It's one thing to pray for wisdom. 42 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 It's another thing to have the courage to accept, to trust, and to act on it. 43 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:29,000 So Paul says, I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, 44 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:37,000 flooding you with light until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling. 45 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:43,000 And that is the wealth of God's glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones. 46 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:51,000 So God has an inheritance, a plan, abundance in our life that we're not even aware of 47 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:55,000 that he wants to give us and have us flow in and operate in. 48 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,000 But again, we've got to come into alignment with what he's asking us to do. 49 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000 He says, I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power 50 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 made available to you through faith. 51 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:16,000 So there is a power, there is a strength that's available to us when we ask for it. 52 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Have you asked for it today? Have you asked for God to give you strength? 53 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,000 Have you asked for God to give you power? Because if you ask him, he will help you. 54 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:31,000 He says, then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you. 55 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:36,000 That's what we want to be. We want to be God's marketing. 56 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000 We want to be God's advertisements in the world. 57 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:45,000 It's a great way to think about being a disciple of Jesus, being a follower of Jesus. 58 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,000 Our lives should emanate in such a way that people think when they think of us, 59 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,000 wow, that's somebody who advertises for God in the best way possible. 60 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Not in a loud, obnoxious, rude, antagonistic way, but in a deep, meaningful, loving, kind, humble, tough, persevering way. 61 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:12,000 That's the type of advertisement that God wants us to be. 62 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:17,000 He says, this is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead 63 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:22,000 and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm. 64 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:32,000 And now he is exalted at first above every ruler, authority, government, and realm of power in existence. 65 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:38,000 So God is exalted above every ruler, every president. 66 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:46,000 The shrewd politicians always claim God is their own. That's a fool's errand. 67 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:55,000 There's not a politician on the planet or a country on the planet that has a corner or has a market 68 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:03,000 on the King of Kings, on the Lord of Lords, on the Alpha and the Omega, on the beginning and the end, on the first and the last. 69 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:12,000 The shrewdest politicians simply take the teachings of Jesus and they co-opt them for their own agenda. 70 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:19,000 That is not what it means to follow Jesus. What it means to follow Jesus is that you acknowledge you're the Lord. 71 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,000 There's your agenda, not my agenda. 72 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:34,000 And so people with the most power in this earthly world have the hardest time being humble. 73 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:39,000 You see, people with power don't like humility. 74 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Jesus says, if you want to come into my kingdom, you have to be humble like a little child. 75 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:54,000 That means that you have to say, whatever you want, God, I'll follow you. Not my will, but your will be done. 76 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:02,000 This is why God reminds us that every ruler, every authority, every government, every realm of power in existence, 77 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:08,000 the Bible says every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God the Father. 78 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:17,000 That's every politician and every country from the beginning of time to the end of time, not just in our time. 79 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:25,000 You see, the politicians change, the geographical boundaries of the countries change, but Jesus and his kingdom never change. 80 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 There's one hero in the Christian faith. It's not you, it's not me, it's Jesus. 81 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:36,000 There's one prerequisite for entering the kingdom of God in this world, and it's humility. 82 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:48,000 That's why the Bible says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess, because we start on our knees and we end on our knees. 83 00:07:48,000 --> 00:08:00,000 We have to submit to God in order to follow God. We don't ask God to submit to us and then ask him to bless everything that we can think of. 84 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 He is gloriously enthroned over every name that is praised. 85 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:18,000 Think of the most influential person that you can think of on earth, and they can't scratch the surface of the power of the name, of the prestige of Jesus Christ. 86 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Not only in this age, but in the age that is coming. You see, from the beginning of time to the end of time, there's one name that matters, Jesus Christ. 87 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:36,000 He alone is the leader and source of everything needed in the church. God has put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ. 88 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:42,000 God has put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ, and he's given him the highest rank above all others. 89 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:49,000 Now we, his church, are his body on earth, and that which fills him is being filled by it. 90 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:54,000 We can take comfort today, and God is in control from the beginning of time to the end of time. 91 00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:01,000 If we just have the humility to align with him, he'll give us wisdom to live each day in a successful, fruitful manner. 92 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:29,000 I'm so glad you got to join me today here from San Clemente. Until next time, the Bible on the Beach. I hope you have a beautiful day.