Knowing God Better

Introduction

A. Think of a good friend. Remember for just a moment how you met and the process you went through to get to know each other. Remember the initial awkward attempts to discover things about each other. Remember feeling like you were moving beyond just chit-chat into real conversations about real topics. Remember wanting to spend time together beyond just passing opportunities. Remember sharing ideas and thoughts that you knew were going to be safely kept. Remember the trust you felt as your friendship deepened. Friendships take time and they are precious. With friendships we learn things about another person that few others will know. ILL. “Husband and wife — favorite flower.”

B. Have you ever thought about how well you know God? I think we know things about God. And I think that we want to know God, but have you ever thought about deepening your friendship with God? Perhaps it just seems odd to even think of friendship with God. Perhaps it seems out of place to put ourselves on a level of human relationship with one who is far above and beyond human. The section we are going to study today is a prayer from Paul to these readers. It is a prayer that highlights the relationship one has with God and the possibility of deepening that relationship. It is a prayer which exalts what God has done and how God sees us. It is a prayer which longs for God’s people to come to a deeper appreciation of God and his work through Jesus. It is a prayer that was meant for these initial readers, but it is a prayer which can deepen our relationship with God as well.

The Text

A. This prayer comes as an expression of what has preceded it. Out of the overflow of praise from verses 3–14, Paul now prays for his readers. God has done so much for them. Paul commends them for their faith and love. Their faith is in Jesus and their love is for others who are sharing their spiritual journey. So Paul prays regularly and frequently for these who know God and are known by him. But Paul prays for something specific.

B. He prays that God’s Spirit will give them wisdom and revelation. Already in verse 8, Paul has expressed that they have received God’s wisdom. So how is this to be understood? The wisdom and revelation is the idea of that the Spirit will enlighten them even more. It isn’t that Paul is praying for more wisdom and additional revelation but that the Spirit will increase the wisdom and revelation already given for a special purpose — To know God better.

C. But this increased knowledge of God will lead to three things in verses 18–19. While the NIV doesn’t pick up a repetitive word, Paul uses the word “what” three times in these two verses to designate the three things he wants his readers to know. “…in order that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us…” Hope, wealth, and power.

1. Hope of his calling is a reference to the past. God has called you, Paul says. This call resulted in your current hope. Hope has to do with expectation. The calling was the call of salvation. Having been called out of sin, we now have hope. Hope to be with God; expectation to be with God.

2. Wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints is a reference to the future. None of the translations I checked adequately captures the full intent of this phrase. Paul’s point is that we are God’s inheritance. Certainly in 1:14, Paul has spoken of our inheritance but this is followed by the point that we are God’s possession. Here in verse 18 the pronoun has changed. It isn’t our inheritance that is the focus but “his” or God’s inheritance. We are his possession. We are the inheritance of Christ’s work. You see Paul wanted his readers to understand that their future was secure. Because God is going to get his inheritance. The end of this world will mean that God is bringing his inheritance (us) to him.

3. Power is a reference to the present. This power is directed toward us. This power is for us. It is a power that is available for us. Paul heaps up four different words for power in this sentence. “That power is like the working of his mighty strength…” The point is that this power is not available but active. Paul goes on to say that the power is the same power that God exerted in raising Jesus from the dead. This power not only resurrected Jesus from the dead never to die again, but brought about Jesus’s complete rulership over all things now and in the future. Including the church. Jesus is the head of the church. This power is presently active and available for God’s people.

Lessons

A. Exalted language. Impassioned prayer. But what’s the point? Two points. First, Paul prays that the readers will know God better. This isn’t about knowing more facts about God. This is to know him better. This has to do with intimacy. Remember the friendship. We can know facts about a person, but it doesn’t mean that we know that person. There is a knowledge of someone that goes beyond facts. God wants you to know him intimately. The prayer is that God’s Spirit will reveal the true nature and character of God. Let me show what this looks like.

1. Someone sins and they think, “God could never forgive me.” They need to know God more intimately. You see they know the facts but they need to know God’s character and nature.

2. Something bad happens and someone thinks “Where is God?” What the person needs to know is God more intimately. God isn’t a fair weather friend. Nor is he a genie to answer all requests the way we may want.

3. How do we know that God wants us to know him intimately?

   a. Jesus. The Hebrew writer reminds us that Jesus is the exact representation of God. He came so that we could know him personally and intimately.

   b. He wants us to call him “Abba.” Romans 8:15 reminds us that God doesn’t want us to be afraid but confident so that we cry out “Abba.” Abba is the what a baby would say learning to talk. It would be the baby’s way of calling for his dada.

   c. He calls us his children. In 1:6, we are adopted. To be called children means that we belong to him intimately; as a family.

4. Some find it difficult to get past facts. But just as you would move beyond facts with a friend to knowing that person’s character, nature, and heart so God desires that you know him that way.

B. Second, power. There is absolutely nothing which can take away God’s power which is available to us. This power has already overcome all that is evil in this world. No ruler, authority, power or dominion can overcome this power. Paul uses these words to denote spiritually evil beings (see 6:12). Nothing and no one can take away this power. The same power which God used to raise Jesus from the dead has been given to us. Not only so that death cannot win, but so that no evil thing can harm us. But what does this power look like and how does it work? Fair questions. ILL. Bulldozer.

1. Discouraged — we have God’s power in our lives

2. Uncertain about the future — we have God’s power at work in our lives

3. Treated unfairly — God’s power is ours

4. Overwhelmed — God’s power is in our lives

5. Frustrated — Use God’s power

6. Feel unappreciated — God’s power

7. Defeated — God’s power

8. We have the same power as the one who sits at God’s right hand. Jesus is head of the church and we are the church. We are filled with him and his power fills us in every way.

9. This is not to say that we don’t get discouraged or feel uncertain, but it is to say that we do not allow the power to sit idle. We use it to bring certain victory.

C. Know God and know what the power you have now. Invitation.

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