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Skip Heitzig: You've been saved, you have peace, you have purpose, all the benefits that you and I have in becoming a Christian. The feeling that you get of security when you came to Christ, that feeling may go up, may go down, but all of that, all that you have experienced so far is simply a preview of coming attractions. It's earnest; it's a down payment. What's going to follow is heaven, resurrected body, ruling and reigning with Christ, the whole list of things in the future.

So it speaks of ownership and security. He put His seal on you; you belong to Him. He owns you. And security, He gave you enough that you can taste that the Lord is good. I remember when I first got saved, how good it felt. I tried to explain to people what it was like and I was telling my friends, "I can't explain what it's like, but it's like I'm, I'm..." and a friend of mine says, "Skip, have you been born again?"

And I said, "That's what I feel like! Where'd you get that term?" I asked him. "Where'd you get that term? That's a perfect description of what happened." He goes, "Uh, Jesus said you must be born again." I didn't know that. But I thought, he couldn't have come up with a more fitting description of what it feels like. I'm born anew.

Well, all of that is simply earnest, a down payment. There's more to come. He's the guarantee of our inheritance, or earnest of our inheritance, down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. One day, you and I are going to arrive in the port of heaven and His stamp of ownership is on you.

Therefore, verse 15, "Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints." What an awesome group of people the Ephesians were for Paul to make mention of the fact that he heard of their faith and their love for all the saints. "Therefore, after hearing all that good stuff about you," verse 16, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers."

Now we have a great principle right here in the "therefore" of this verse. Therefore, because I hear all this awesome stuff about how good you're doing, I'm praying for you. Why is that important? Because typically, we reserve our prayers for people who are really doing bad. Let's put their prayer requests on the screen; they're not doing very good. We better pray for them. That's good to do that.

But how about praying for those people who are doing good, who are having awesome days and growing in their faith? You know why you need to pray for them? They're a target. They're a bullseye for the enemy. So Paul was right in saying, because you're excelling in all these Christian virtues, therefore, I'm very thankful to God, and I'm praying for you.

Well, that's good, Paul. What are you praying for them about? Well, he tells exactly what he's praying about. Verse 17, he begins, "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." If I could sum that up, I would say this: number one on Paul's prayer list, that they may know the person of God, that they might know God better.

Jesus said in John 17, that high priestly prayer in the garden on the way to the cross, he said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." And so Paul prays that they'll know God and get insight and wisdom into knowing God better than they already know Him now. They'll grow in an intimate relationship with Him.

I remember when somebody first asked me, "Do you know God?" And I said, "Uh, pardon me? I just, what?" It was a weird question to me because we usually don't think of God on those terms, like He's that familiar. Like, "Oh yeah, God and I, we're like this." But he said, "Do you know God?" And I just, I was flummoxed. I didn't know how to answer it. And I think I might have said, "No, I don't think—I mean, I know who He is, yeah." "No, do you really know Him?"

And you know, I hemmed and hawed, and then I think I might have said, "Well, okay, I guess I do." Then his next question was, "How well do you know Him?" And that's always a question for us, isn't it? How well do you know Him? You may know things about Him, but do you know Him? Do you walk with Him? Are you in fellowship with Him regularly? Is there an intimacy? Do you refer to God as the "Big Guy upstairs" or the "Good Lord" or "my Father"?

So I'm praying that you'll get to know God better. God cannot be known unless He reveals Himself. Well, we're in luck; God has revealed Himself over and over again through the prophets, through the apostles, in the word. We have 66 books that reveal the character and nature of God. So I'm praying that you'll know the person of God.

Second request, that they might know the plan of God. Verse 18, "That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling." Do you know what God has called you to do, to perform, to be, what gifts you have? "The hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Let me unpack a few of these thoughts in that verse.

First, when he says, "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened," the Greek word for "understanding" is "cardia" here in the text. It's the "heart," the eyes of your heart. And it is translated in the New King James, your "understanding," your ability to think through and understand something. Speaks of your mind. Why is that important? Because here in Western culture, we think the heart is the center of what you feel, right? It's your emotional center, that's your heart. Do you feel it in your heart, man?

The ancients didn't do that. 2,000 years ago, the ancients believed the heart was the center of your intellect, your mind, your will. The feelings, they believed, took place in the gut, the bowels. So the old King James speaks about "bowels of tender mercies" and you read that and go, "Ooh, that's gross." But back then they just thought you feel some mercy deep down in your gut for somebody. That's where the emotions take place.

So we want to feel certain things and call that our heart. The Bible talks about the heart as the center of your intellect, so it's translated "cardia," heart, is translated that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling. And look at this, this is awesome. "And what are the riches of the glory of," what? What does it say? "His inheritance in the saints."

Now, if you go back to 10, "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ," 11, "Which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also," watch this, "we have obtained an inheritance." But that's our inheritance. Now in verse 18, he's speaking about something completely different: His inheritance in the saints.

Do you know that that's how God views you? You're His. You're His inheritance. Here's the crux of his prayer: Father, open the eyes of their heart, their understanding, that they can process through and really get insight into the fact that they are so valuable to You. May they understand their value to God. That's what he's praying for. You are God's inheritance. You need to understand your value before God.

You remember the story of the prince that turned into a frog and what would break the spell? A kiss. Kiss of a beautiful princess. It's a beautiful story if you're a frog. Not a great story if you're the princess. But for the frog, awesome. But that was like her inheritance, that prince, and all she had to do is, you know, just get enough nerve to bend down and kiss that frog and what she'll get is a super reward, a handsome prince. It's a great story.

It happens to illustrate the truth of what happened. You and I are the frog that was turned into something special because of the touch of a Savior. And now you belong to Him. Now you are His inheritance. And now you are valuable to Him. Jesus gave a parable and said the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, Matthew chapter 13, and when he found one pearl of great price, he sold everything that he had to buy that pearl.

Now, I've heard that interpreted wrongly. That that's the believer, that's us. We found what's most precious and that is Jesus Christ and salvation, and we sold everything, and everything that we get rid of is worth that pearl of great price, salvation in Christ. That's not what it's about. First of all, you don't sell anything to buy salvation. Second, you don't have anything valuable enough to merit salvation, even if it's all that you own.

Guest (Female): You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps make clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching available to people searching for truth, purpose, and hope. And this month, we want to thank you with a pair of powerful resources to help you understand your identity in Christ and God's design for your life and relationships.

When you give, you'll receive the Expound Ephesians 9-CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. Together, these resources explore the richness of the gospel, reveal your place in God's family, and show how biblical truth brings strength, restoration, and lasting hope to your relationships. We'll send both resources as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: It's a story of the kingdom of God is like. It's a story of Jesus finding you and it was worth Him leaving heaven to come to earth to pour out His life to death to purchase you. You're the pearl. You're the treasure. Well, we don't typically think we're that—I'm not that good. I hear Christians sometimes get down on themselves, "Oh, I'm not that smart, I'm not—" Stop deprecating God's property! You have no right to do that. You belong to Him. He purchased you. He thought you were valuable. You keep talking down about yourself, you are depreciating what God values. He thought you were important enough to die for.

So I pray, Lord, You'd open up the eyes of their understanding that they could see the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Third request in verse 19: "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."

These are names of angelic beings. They're rankings like generals and colonels and sergeants, etc. "Far above all principality, power, and might, dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age which is to come. And He has put all things under His feet and given Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

The third request is they might know God's power. I pray that you'll know God's person. I pray that you'll know God's plan. I pray that you'll know God's power. And notice something about His power: it is according to His—to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Now we as human beings, we respect power. The word, by the way, here for power is "dunamis," "dunamis," dynamic or dynamite. Dynamic is a better translation. Too many people are going to pieces already, so dynamic.

It speaks of capacity. You have a new capacity. With God's calling comes God's capacity. If God's called you to something, God gives you the capacity to do it. God would never call you to do something you could never do. If He tells you to do something, go do it. "I can't do it." You can do it. With the calling comes the capacity.

Lord, help them understand the power that they have. How much power? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That's pretty powerful. If you ever went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and you see that, those huge launching pads, and if you've ever seen a shuttle being launched into space or a rocket, the payload weight upon takeoff of that contraption is 4.5 million pounds. 4.5 million pounds. It sounds like they're not getting off the ground no matter what they do with that weight. They're earthbound, man. Gravity has a huge impact on 4.5 million pounds.

But what they do is they apply in the rockets the equivalent thrust of 7 million pounds of pressure of thrust. 7 million pounds can take something that weighs 4 and a half million pounds up through earth's atmosphere, given the gravitational pull, and launch it into space. That's power. Well, what kind of power does it take to raise a dead person back to life? Much more power.

And God is omnipotent, all-powerful. And He displayed His power in the resurrection from the dead. So, Lord, I'm praying for Your church at Ephesus, I'm praying for the church in Albuquerque, that they will understand Your power, what power You wrought when You raised Jesus from the dead that can work through their life in a new capacity to do what You've called them to do. That sums it up.

By the way, please notice he does not ask God for more power. Just that they would realize the power they already have. You know, sometimes, "Lord, we need more power." No, you don't. "Oh no, I need more power." No, you don't. You would be dangerous with more power. But you know, we used to sing a song even around here, "More love, more power." No, you don't need more power. You just need more of the power God has already afforded you. You need to know what that is and live in that capacity. You have all that you need. You have all sufficient power.

And so he prays for that, prays that they will realize that. And he closes off the chapter: "He has put all things under His feet and given Him, Christ, to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Do you realize God's plan is the church? So to all those people saying, "You know, I'm not really into church very much," then you're not into God's plan, which is the church.

"Well, I don't like organized religion." What, you like disorganized religion? What you're saying basically is you don't want to be accountable to anybody else. You want the freedom to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. You don't want anybody telling you, God or otherwise, what to do. Because one of the things the church, the body of Christ, does is in unity keeps us all accountable, keeps that power under control, keeps us all accountable, and in unity spreading the kingdom of God.

So the church is God's plan. Jesus said, "I will build my church." And Paul the apostle says the church is the pillar and ground of all truth. It is God's plan in every generation. So that's chapter one. Now, we have a few minutes to dip into chapter two. And you'll notice the chapter two begins with your favorite subject: you. It says in verse one, "And you..."

Now, you go, "I take umbrage to that, that's not my favorite subject." Well, if we took a picture, a group picture of all of us sitting here tonight and at the end of the service, it was displayed in a huge format in the foyer and you went up to that picture, who's the first person in that picture you would look for? It's who we are. This is why Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." It's not a sermonously saying, "Well, you gotta learn first to love yourself so you can love people." No, the implication is you already do love yourself.

And because you love yourself, and it's proven by the fact that you get up, look in a mirror, put a comb through your hair, put clothes on your body, feed yourself, love people that much. That's the idea of that. So he begins and he begins in chapter two, taking us now from the heights of chapter one, the glorious Alpine heights of the vista of Ephesians 1 down to the pit of darkness of your life and my life before Jesus Christ.

And he says, "You and I, we were dead. We were dead in our trespasses and sins." If I were to paint a picture of my life, I'm not a good artist, but if I were a good artist, I would—I can see what it would look like. I would choose all dark colors, very dimly lit scenes of childhood, teenage years, rebellion, where I grew up. I'd have those scenes painted, but it would be very dark, very dimly lit.

Then in one of the corners up at the top, I would have the brightest white tiny little speck of light that shines through the picture and gets bigger and bigger and brighter. And then eventually I would take all the white paint I had and just pour it on the canvas. I went from darkness to light. So he gives us a picture of you and I, when we were dead and in darkness and stepped into the light of the gospel.

And he says this: "And you He made alive." Now in your Bible is that little phrase, "He made alive," in italics? It is in mine. You know what that means when it's in italics? It's not there. It's not there in the original. It is supplied by the translators of this version. It is a phrase lifted up from verse five, where it says we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

The translators lifted that phrase out of verse five and stuck it into verse one, probably because, you know, this is such a dark scene, they want to give you a little jolly-up as you get into this darkness of your old life and let you know where it's going. But it really reads this in the original: "And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins." The translators have added, and it's true, He did make you alive, but you don't get to that till verse five.

This is your past life. You were dead. Let's just start there. You were dead. You were born dead. You were born stillborn spiritually. You were, when you entered this world, even though you looked so pink and so cute, that's only on the outside. You had a sin nature. You were born DOA, dead on arrival, separated from God. You weren't just—the unbeliever isn't just sick. The unbeliever is dead. And because dead, incapable of change. It does take God's revelation and conviction before a person can change and regeneration, which is a work of the Holy Spirit. But you were dead in trespasses and sins.

Guest (Female): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember: your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it's needed most. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you the Expound Ephesians 9-CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. These resources will help you understand your identity in Christ and see how God's design brings strength and restoration to your relationships. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection. A connection.

Guest (Female): Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.