James Merritt - Know God
I am just glad that you're here. Just before World War II, a school fire broke out in the town of Itasca, Texas. It killed 263 children. It was the only school in town. And because of the war, the town went without any school for seven years. Then they finally got together, and they rebuilt a brand new school. But they couldn't forget those 263 children. So they made a vow, "Never again," and they spent tons of money putting in a state-of-the-art sprinkler system. As a matter of fact, they touted it as the finest sprinkler system in the world. They spared no expense.
As a matter of fact, it was so wonderful and so unique honor students were chosen to give a guide to parents and visitors to the school just so they could see this magnificent sprinkler system, this unbelievable technology they had put in, because they made up their mind, "This will never happen again in our town. It will never happen again to our children. We will never go through that again". Seven years went by. The town began to grow. They had to expand the school. They had to build onto the school. And in adding on this new wing to the school, they made an amazing discovery. The sprinkler system had never been connected.
You ever feel that way about your prayers? You ever feel like you're praying your guts out, but you just don't connect? Do you sometimes doubt that God is listening or even hearing your prayers? Well, let me turn it around. How would you like to pray in such a way that you know you're praying correctly? How would you like to know for sure that the prayer that I'm praying, "I know God's hearing this prayer. I know God's going to answer this prayer. No ifs, no ands, no buts, no debate, no discussion, no deliberation, God is going to answer this prayer".
Well, today we're beginning a new series of messages we're calling Prison Prayers. There was a man by the name of Paul. If you know anything about Paul, you know this. Paul knew how to pray. And when you read the way that Paul prayed, you just know he prayed in such a way, he really connected with God. And while he's in a Roman prison, he gives us some model prayers, while he was in this prison. And we're going to study three of them over the next three weeks. And, believe it or not, here's what's going to amaze you about these prayers. What's going to amaze you is not what Paul prayed for. What's going to amaze you is what he didn't pray for.
So I want you to take you back 2,000 years. You're Paul. You're in a Roman dungeon. You are joint chained 24 hours a day to a Roman soldier. You are under the sentence of death. You really don't have any hope you're going to get out of that jail. You don't even have any hope you're going to live till the next day. Now let's just all get honest. How would you be praying if you were in that jail? And don't look at me real holy right now. How would you be praying? I know how I'd be praying, right? "Would you get me out of here? Would you please set me free? Would you please let Caesar give me a pardon? Would you work a miracle and open the door? Would you please let me live? Would you please let me see the freedom of sunlight".
Paul never prays that. As a matter of fact, you know what's amazing, he doesn't even pray for himself. He actually prays for others. And what he prays for is not for God to do something for others, but for God to do something in others. Now I'm going to ask you. I don't normally ask you to do this. I'm going to ask you, whether you take notes or not, I'm going to ask you to write down one sentence. You don't have to. I'm not going to make you. You'll appreciate doing this. Because if you don't learn anything else in this next three weeks, if you'll learn this, you'll learn everything I really want you to know and you need to learn about prayer. Because if you're like me, prayer is hard work.
If you're like me, prayer can be frustrating. If you're like me, you sometimes wonder what's the use? And I'll tell you one of the reasons why we get frustrated in prayer. I'm now convinced we don't understand the real purpose of prayer. So I want you to write this down. Prayer is not to get God to do something for you, but to get God to do something in you. That's where we miss it. We've thought all of our life, I've thought all of my life, you thought about life, "Oh, I know what version. I know what prayers". Prayer is kind of like the magic lamp. Rub it three times. God the genie appears. Gives you what you want. That is not the purpose of prayer.
You say, "How do you know that"? Because of what Jesus said. Jesus said to his disciples one time, "Don't pray like the pagans. Don't pray like the Pharisees. Don't use these rote prayers you use over and over". Why did he say that? He said, "Because heavenly Father already knows what you're going to ask for before you ask it". "Well, now wait a minute, Lord. If God already knows what I need or what I want before I ask it, why should I pray"? Because the primary purpose of prayer is not to get God to do something for you. It is to get God to do something in you, to prepare you for what he wants to do for you. So we're looking today at a letter in the New Testament.
If you bought a copy of God's Word, I want you to turn to a book called Ephesians. It's in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, First-Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter one. Paul is writing to the Ephesians. He's in a prison. He's in Roman jail. He's writing to a church in Ephesus, and he not only tells them what he's praying for them, he says, "This is what you can pray for yourself".
Now here's what's going to blow your mind. This prayer really is all about one simple thing. Knowing God. That's all he's talking about. Knowing God. And Paul tells us there are four things we ought to pray for on a daily basis. And I'm going to make a guarantee to you. Not my guarantee this is God's guarantee. You pray this prayer in the morning when you get up, God will hear this prayer. God will honor this prayer. God will answer this prayer, and it will be a life-changing prayer. Four things we ought to pray every single day. Everybody ready?
Number one, pray that you know the Lord intimately. Every day, "Lord, I want to know you intimately". Now watch this the first thing that Paul prays may surprise you. He said, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of revelation, so that you may know him better". All right, now this is not fair. You don't have to raise your hand. I'm going to ask. You already know the answer. How many of you have prayed that prayer today? How many of you have ever prayed that specific prayer?
I've not prayed it much I'll be honest with you, and it really is kind of surprising. I mean, this is really a radical thought, because let me tell you how most of us pray, and I'm just as guilty as you are. You can basically summarize most of our praying in four words. "Give me. Bless me. Give me. Bless me. Give me. Bless me". That's our prayer. That's basically the extent of our prayers. "Give me. Bless me. Give me, Bless me". Paul doesn't pray for God to give the Ephesians what they want, but for what they need and what we all need.
So I want to give you a thought that hopefully will change your whole outlook on prayer. It's changed mine. Prayer is not for God to give you what you ask from him. It is to grow you in how well you know him. Prayer is not for God to give you what you ask from him. It is to grow you in how well you know him. You know, there's an old saying that really is true. "It's not what you know its... Yeah, it's who you know that counts". That is so true in prayer. Let me tell you why. Do you know what the bullseye is of the Christian life? Knowing God? Do you know what the greatest goal in your life ought to be? To know God. Do you know what is most important for your family?
Is to know God. It is the bullseye of the Christian life. Not knowing of God, not knowing about God, knowing God, and I'm not talking about a philosophical or an intellectual or an emotional knowledge. I'm talking about a real personal experiential knowledge of God. Because think about it. If I were to say to you, "Do you believe we ought to all obey God every day"? You'd say, "Oh, sure, yeah, that's spectacular. Yeah, we ought to obey God, right".
Well, you know what? You're not going to obey God until you trust God. You're not going to trust God until you know God. And this is the way it works. It all starts with knowing God. Because here's what happens. The better you know God, the more you trust God. The more you trust God, the more you want to obey God. It all begins by knowing God. By the way, this is a prayer that you can pray for a believer or an unbeliever. For example, you know how you can pray for an unbeliever? Pray one thing. "Lord, I pray that John, Sally, Sam," whoever, "I pray, they will know God". Well, how do you pray for a believer? "Lord, I pray for Tush. That he'll know God better". I know he knows God. That's how you can pray for me. Pray, "I pray for my pastor. That my pastor will know you better".
Listen, let me tell you something that changed my life. It hit me when I was in seminary. You know what the primary purpose of reading this book is? Listen to me. The purpose of reading this book is not to know what God wrote. The purpose of reading this book is to know the God that wrote it. Can I get a witness to that? The primary purpose is not knowing what God wrote. It's knowing the God that wrote it. God doesn't want you to read this book for information. He wants you to read it for transformation. And the only way your life is changed is when you come to know the God that wrote it.
Listen, you can know theology and not know God. You can know the Bible and not know God. But the whole essence of being a Christian is becoming someone who knows God. Jesus made this statement. He said, "This is eternal life". You want eternal life. He said, "This is eternal life, that they may know you," not know about you, not know of you, "that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent". So what were you made for? To know God. What's the best thing in life? To know God. What gives God the most pleasure? Knowing God. What ought to give you the greatest joy? Knowing God. What is the most important thing that better be true about you before you die? Knowing God. That's the all and in all, and in order to know God, what does Paul say? He says you need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
So what does that mean? You need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Why? I got news for you. The only way you can know God is if he reveals himself to you. You don't know one thing about him. You can't know him at all unless he reveals himself to you. As a matter of fact, we can only know God as God makes himself known, and God makes himself known primarily through two ways: The Word of God and the Son of God. Through the Word of God he says who he is. Through the Son of God he shows who he is.
So we need the Spirit of revelation. But then he says, "Oh, you can't just have revelation. You got to have wisdom". Not knowledge. Wisdom. Now do you know the difference between wisdom... You know there's difference between wisdom and knowledge, right? Let me give you a great illustration. This will be worth coming to church for. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. How many of you know that? Tomato is a fruit. Everybody know that. Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Big difference between knowledge and wisdom. Through wisdom we know the God who has revealed himself, because of the Spirit of revelation. "God, I want to know you intimately. Give me the Spirit of revelation. Show me who you are and the wisdom to see you for who you are".
Number two, pray that you know the Lord confidently, not just intimately, but confidently. Paul's already said, "What's the primary purpose of prayer? To get to know God better"? And the better we know God, the more he'll show us what he's given to us, and the more he'll show us what he can do for us. So the prayer continues. Now this gets a little bit deep. Watch now. "I pray that the eyes of your heart," that's kind of a strange thing. Your heart has eyes? Watch, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you". The phrase, "The eyes of your heart," why does he talk about the eyes of the heart? Do you understand what the heart represents in the Bible?
The heart represents all of us, all of you. The heart represents your will, your mind, your emotions, your desires. You see, you don't really see God with the eyes in your head. You really see God with the eyes in your heart. He says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened". There was a little girl who was on a cruise with her dad. They were going around Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. It was one of those beautiful California days. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining so brightly, and that little girl was standing on the bow of that boat, and she was just kind of staring out into the distance. And she turned to her daddy, and she said, "Daddy, I can look farther than I can see".
And, you know, that's what God wants. God wants us to look farther than our physical eyes can see. He says, "Now I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened". You know what the Greek word is for that? It's the word "phos". We get the word photo from that. A photograph is literally a word of light. And the word for know means to see. So what Paul was really saying was this. Prayer ought to be an eye-opening experience where the light comes on, and you finally see this is who God is and this is the hope he's called us to. He said, "Look, I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened".
Let me give you a practical illustration of what that means. Today is my 46th wedding anniversary. We've been married 46 years. So I was going over my message this morning, and I thought to myself, "I know why she married me". I do. The eyes of her heart were enlightened to see I'm the guy she should marry. It wasn't the eyes in her head that brought her to me. It was the eyes of her heart. And then Paul says, "Pray that your eyes would be open, that you might know the hope to which he has called us". What does that mean, "That I might know the hope to which he's called us"? Let's take the word hope. Hope's not wishful thinking.
You know, for example, I hoped, because of time change, somebody would show up. I hope, because of the cold weather, people wouldn't stay home. You hope that girl will go out with you. You hope you'll get into that dream school. You hope it won't rain tomorrow. That's not Bible hope. Hope in the Bible is that absolute irrevocable, unshakable confidence that whatever God's promised God will do. Whatever God says he will do, God will do. Well, what hope is Paul referring to? Well, first of all, he's talking about the hope of salvation, the certainty that my sins have been forgiven, that I'm right with God. That if I die, I'm going to be with him. That all of my past is gone. The slate's been wiped clean. That takes care of my past.
But then there's the hope that once I get saved, God will come live in me, and God will give me the strength and God will give me the power to live for him. We call that sanctification. That takes care of the present. But then there's this certain hope that one day he's going to come back, and we're going to be just like him. We're going to be with him forever. That's called glorification. That takes care of our future. So when Paul says, "I want you to know the hope of your calling. I don't want you just to know God intimately. I want you to know God confidently".
Here's how I want you to know God. The God that I know has taken care of my past, my salvation. The God that I know is taking care of my present through sanctification. The God that I know is going to take care of my future in glorification. Lord, I know you confidently. But then Paul prays this, "Pray that you know the Lord joyfully. Joyfully". He says, "With the eyes of your heart, let the light come on". And here's what I want you to know. Now watch this. I'm going to go over this real slow. "That you might know the riches of his," he's talking about God, "the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people".
One of the joys, one of the perks of my job, my calling, one of the things I get to do, that you enable me to do, and thank you for letting me do it, I get to do what you can't do, because you don't have the time to do it. It's not your calling. It's not your job. So I get to get into my study for hours, and I get to mine gold out of God's word. And I get to go deep into the Word of God. And then I get the joy and the privilege of coming. And I get to share with you the gold that I have mined. And one of my greatest joys is when I finally come across something that, even I have to say, I've never seen that before. I didn't even know that was in the Bible. I didn't even know exactly what that was saying.
Listen to what Paul says. When you think of the word inheritance, what do you think about? A rich uncle, right? A wealthy grandfather? You think of something that, you know, you're going to inherit. Well, we all know because we're a part of God's family, we know what our inheritance is, right? We're going to get Heaven. We all know that. But Paul's not talking about our inheritance. He's talking about God's inheritance. He's talking about something that's coming to God. You say, "Wait a minute. I know when I die, what's coming to me, a home in heaven, a place with the Lord, golden streets and pearly gates," and the whole nine yards. What's coming to him? Buckle your seatbelt.
You ready, "Us. We, are his inheritance". His inheritance is not the galaxies and the solar systems and the planets, and the world and the universe. He owns all of that. His inheritance is in his holy people. And listen, listen, I'm going to be very honest. If the church right now were a public corporation, nobody would be buying stock. They'd be selling it. The world looks at the church these days, and they just don't see much in us. I've got news for you. God says, "You're so valuable. You're all I want. You are my inheritance". See, here's the deal. When we give our all to Jesus, Jesus gives all of himself to us.
So here's the deal. You ready? We get him, and he gets us. I'm going to confess to you. So I'm in my study, and Scott, I'm in the word. I'm in my study, and I'm seeing this. And I'm so pumped up, "Man, I've never seen this before". You get me. I get you, and then here's the next thought that hit me. I said, "Lord, with all respect, I don't think you know how to make good deals. I'm just going to be honest. I think you get the short end of the stick here. I think you get the raw end of the deal. I'm getting you". "You're getting me"? It's kind of like a husband that said to his wife one time. He said, "You know, men have better judgment than women". And his wife to his surprise said, "I agree". He said, "You must have misunderstood". I said, "Men have better judgment than women". She said, "That is absolutely true". He said, "Really"? She said, "Of course. Just look at us. You married me, and I married you".
I told Teresa this morning. I sent Teresa a text. I sent Teresa a text. You know, I told her this morning, "You got the raw end of the deal. I got the best end of the deal". Let me tell you something. God doesn't see it that way. We are his prized possession. If you have a heart for God, deep down you can't wait to be with him. Well, guess what? He can't wait for us to be with him. He's not just up there, "Well, okay, you got to come". No, he wants us to come to Heaven. He wants us to know how valuable we are to him, how much of a treasure we are in his eyes, how precious we are to his heart, and when you realize that, you know the Lord joyfully. It's not just that the Lord saved us. It's not just that the Lord called us. The Lord wants us for his inheritance.
Here's where we ought to be. All of us have the attitude, "I can't wait to get to Heaven to be with Jesus". You know why? Jesus can't wait for us to get to Heaven to be with him. That ought to encourage the fire out of you if you're a believer. So, we ought to know the Lord intimately, confidently, joyfully. But here's the last thing then we're done. He says, "Pray that you know the Lord fully. Know the Lord fully". Now let me just warn everybody here. This might've kind of been pretty simple. I think about it kind of. You're going to understand what I'm about to say next. But let me just tell you now we're going to go from ankle deep to about thigh deep right now.
So just hang with me, because Paul does something. I believe Paul was so excited when he wrote the rest, part of this prayer, he had to put his pen down. Here's how he concludes by saying this. Watch this. He says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. That you may know his incomparably great power for us who believe". Now listen carefully. If I were to ask you the question, do you believe God is powerful? I think everybody in this room would say, "Oh, yeah, I believe it". Do you believe God is all powerful? "Oh, yeah. Pastor, I believe our God is all powerful". So you believe that if it doesn't contradict his Word or contradict his character, God can do anything. There is nothing God cannot do. You'd say, "Absolutely, I believe that".
Listen to my question. I know you believe that God is powerful. I get that. My question is this. Do you really believe that power is in you right now? Because that's what that verse said. His incomparably great power that is for us, literally in us, do you believe that power lives in you? Because if you do, then here's what you ought to know every day of your life. You ought to know, you know what, "I've got all the power I need to do what I ought to do and to be all I need to be, because that power works in me". Now, you can't really appreciate this until you go back and look at this in the Greek language. And I'm going to take you through it real slowly.
When I read this in my Greek New Testament, it was like Paul was throwing the kitchen sink, trying to tell us and explain to us and prove to us just how great God's power really is. So he calls it an incomparably great power. One word at a time. Incomparably, that word means to surpass or exceed anything you can imagine. Great, that's the Greek word, "megethos". It gives us the word megathon. That's the power of an atomic bomb. And then he describes the power, the strength. And the word for strength is the word "dunamis". It gives us the word dynamite. So he says you've got this incredible surpassing megathon, dynamite power. Then to emphasize how powerful the power is, he says this, "That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted".
Now watch this. The word power is the same word in English he used just a moment ago, but it's not the same word in Greek. That word for power is the word "energeia". It gives us the word energy. The word mighty, as the mighty strength, the word mighty is the word "kratos". You say what is, "kratos"? A democracy, that "kratos" is in that word. It literally means the rule of power. What is a democracy? That's where the people rule. What is an aristocracy? That's where the wealthy rule. But the entire universe is a theocracy, because everything is under God's rule. And then the final word for strength is a word that literally means might and strength beyond measure.
So I'm reading this in the Greek language, and I'm going, "Good gosh". He pulls out every single word in the Greek language about power, and strength, and might, and energy, and dynamite. I mean, megathon, all these words, so let me give you the MTV version. You know what the MTV version is? Anybody know? It's the Merritt Translation Version? Let me give the MTV version, okay. This is what he literally said. "I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, so that you should know the incomparably great power according to the power of the power of his power". One more time. "I pray that you would know the incomparably great power, his incomparably great power according to the power of the power of his power".
Now I know that's tough, but I'll tell you that is a powerful statement. I mean, that statement is full of power. Let me give an illustration. I think what he meant. On December 2, 1942, a man by the name of Enrico Fermi unleashed the power of the atom by splitting it. Now you know the term for that, right? It's called nuclear fission. And we discovered just how awesome the power of one atom is on August 6, 1945, when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. When that bomb triggered the first subatomic chain reaction in history and exploded, it reached the temperature of several million degrees Celsius the same temperature as the core of the sun. When that bomb exploded, four square miles of that city was instantly vaporized. Buildings, plants, pets, animals, children, adults, absolutely, absolutely literally disappeared. The bomb exploded. Produced so much energy.
Listen to this. I didn't know this. The glare of the blast could have been seen from the planet Jupiter, 390 million miles away. The power and the energy that was produced by that one bomb was a byproduct of a subatomic reaction that only needed 1% of two pounds of uranium. In other words, let me make this as simple as I can. One-third of one ounce of uranium, one-third of one ounce of uranium, was translated into an explosion that was two times more powerful, 2,000 times more powerful than any bomb that had ever been exploded in any war anywhere in the history of the world.
Now you say, "Okay, Doc, that's a great lot of information. What is the point"? If there's that much energy in one-third of one ounce of uranium in one atom, how much power do you think the one that created that atom has in his hand? Paul said, "I pray you would wake up. I pray your eyes would be enlightened. Quit believing in a feeble God, and quit believing in a feeble you, because the same power that he has is in you". You've got that power. You need to know that God powerfully. Now, where did God most display that power?
Paul says, "Can I show you a real demonstration of that power? Can I show you just how powerful he is? Here's how much power God has". "That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him as his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and everything that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed," say those words with me. "All things". Say it loud, "All things under his feet. And I pointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way".
Now I know that's a mouthful, so I'm going to make it real simple. This power raised Jesus from the dead. Seated him on the throne of the universe. Put everything under his feet. This is a pop quiz question. What does the word everything mean? Somebody tell me. It means everything. That's right. Good. Everything, you know what that means? The devil and all of his demons are under his feet. Gabriel and all of his angels are under his feet. Everything is under his authority. And God says, Paul said, "That prayer is in every single believer".
The problem is not that we don't believe it. That's not really the big problem. We don't live like we believe it. So, let me encourage you to do this. If what Paul prayed is true, there is no reason at all if you're a Christian, to ever live the discouraged life. There is no reason for any Christian ever to live a defeated life, because we all have a power that's behind us and in us and with us and for us, and it comes from the one who is above us who has everything under his feet. And Paul says we ought to know that Lord fully. So here's what I want to encourage you to do. I'd like to encourage you this week to memorize this prayer.
Now, I know some of you just the word memorize gives you the heebie-jeebies, but I want to encourage you, if you don't do that, would you just try this just for this week. Every morning when you get up, open your Bible, turn to this prayer. Get on your knees and just read this prayer. Just read it. Read it, and pray it at the same time. You're just going to pray this prayer, and I'll make a promise to you. If you'll read this prayer, pray this prayer, and believe this prayer, if you'll let God do what he needs to do in you, he'll take care of doing for you what he needs to do for you.
So I want to close with this. Max Lucado, one of my favorite authors, New York Times' bestselling author, Max Lucado put it best when he said this. "Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble, but since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it, and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference". And they really do, because there is a God in Heaven. And that God we can know. We can know him intimately. We can know him confidently. We can know him joyfully. We can know him fully. And that God that we know does answer prayer.
Would you pray with me right now just for a moment? If you're watching online right now or you're in this room, I want to say one thing to you. One of two things is true about you right now. Everybody in this world, this is true. Everybody in this room right now, one of two things is true. You either need to come to know God, or you need to know God better. One of those two things is true. Either you need to come to know God, or you need to come to know God better. You can't know God on your own. You can't even get to God on your own. You've got to go through Jesus. Jesus Christ, died on a cross, came back from the grave for one purpose, so you could know God, yes, know God intimately, confidently, joyfully, fully. You could know God.