Paul talks about why it’s important not just to be saved, but to be transformed, to be "Reset."

He tells us that God is about saving people. 

He shares with us that God wants to use us to help save others.

God wants you and I to be an example of what a child of God is like, so we can introduce others to the salvation available in Jesus Christ.

Then, Paul ends with a particularly important statement: “submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.” This should overlay the statements he makes all the way through Ephesians right up to Chapter 6, verse 9, where Paul gives three examples of what it means to submit to one another.

• wives and husbands
• children and parents
• bosses and employees

 
These sections are somewhat controversial and, I think, misunderstood and misapplied by the church. Keep in mind Paul’s overlaying message and purpose, "how God wants us to live and our response to His desire."

​We can not live as God wants us to live without submission. God wants someone He can hold accountable. He held Jesus accountable for our sins, because He loves us. Love submits. Love is accountability. Love knows how to treat others. On the Mission field it is life threatening to be un-submissive. 

Paul’s final argument in the book of Ephesians is that we are in a war—this is not a drill—that the enemy is fighting unfairly and with real bullets. Therefore, we need to be prepared for the battle with tools God has already given us, but tools—weapons really—that we need to employ—the most important of which is prayer—God’s artillery.

Then in chapter 6:21 – 24, Paul signs off differently than other letters—not with “say ‘Hi’ to so-and-so but with a general benediction for peace and grace. In this life we need peace and grace. We need that assurance and God's ability to do through us what we cannot do through ourselves. To submit we need a "Reset." God's word resets our thinking to correctly see and treat one another properly and to use our time wisely. His Word packs our suitcases for our tomorrows.

Ephesians shows us we can take our messed up lives, and through the grace and love of God through Jesus Christ, return our ways of thinking, speaking, and acting, to the way we were created.

This is the “RESET” that God desires for our lives.

​Chapter 4 begins the more practical application of these truths. Paul wants us to “walk worthy of the calling you have received”. We are a new creation, so we need to act like it. He gives a brief sort of character sketch of what this new person should be like. Later he goes into detail about how to apply these character traits in different life situations.

This section tells us that we are all unified in Christ but are also all different in how the character of Jesus works through us. Jesus, as the victor over His enemies (un-redeemed sinners, like Paul) can now give us gifts in the form of responsibilities and areas of ministry for this new building He is creating.
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Christian unity is simply a fact. We are bound together by a common faith, a common life, common purpose and a common loyalty.  We serve on Lord and Master, he is the head and we are his limbs (branches) one body of believer, as in 1 Corinthians 12-13.  We, however, do not all have the same gifts, talents, temperaments or personalities.  What keeps us united as believers is the bond of love.  We must continue to mature and grow in Christ so we can all do the will of God for our lives.

4:17 – 5:20
The latter half of Chapter 4 forms a single thought going through Chapter 5, verse 5. Essentially Paul is saying to look back when you were an enemy of God—what were your values, attitudes, and actions? Look at it in comparison with who you are now—one “being renewed in the spirit” (vs 23). He wants us to put on a “new self”.  This means deliberately discarding the old, selfish way of life, ridding ourselves of former habits and letting the new life change our thinking and remold our patterns of behavior.
With that in mind, he says: “quit acting like you did before you were saved.” Before we knew Jesus, we had no choice but to act in ways not in accordance with His character. Now we have that choice, so Paul says: “act on it!”
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All that we think, do and say must be able to withstand God’s searchlight. In a word we are to copy God’s character.

​Action Step: Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9

Chapter 3 begins with Paul letting us know that what Jesus has done is new—it was only hinted at before, but now it is a mystery revealed. Part of that mystery is that God intended for non-Jews to enter into His grace as coheirs. The reason this has happened is for a witness to the entire heavenly host. Paul also tells us that we don’t have to sneak by the angels and demons to get to God but can boldly access God through trusting in God’s Son.

3:14 – 21 All this leads to Paul’s purpose for writing the letter—his prayer that the saints will comprehend God’s love, be filled with God’s fullness, and with praise to the One who did it all for us!

This should fire up your prayer life! Imagine the God of Heaven did everything for us so that we could be completely and totally blessed, have our prayers answered, and have victory over the flesh and the devil!

There are at least three things that hold us back in the area of prayer.

First, we fear that we don’t pray often enough.

Second, we worry that we won’t use the right words or we fear we’ll say the wrong thing.

Third, we think we don’t have enough faith. Or more accurately, we’re sure we don’t have enough faith to be heard by God.

​That’s why here and there the Bible records the prayers of great saints of God. We listen as Moses beseeches the Lord; we listen as Nehemiah and Daniel intercede with the Almighty. In John 17 we observe the Lord Jesus talking intimately with his Heavenly Father. And scattered throughout the epistles, we have numerous short prayers by the Apostle Paul. These biblical prayers are given to us as models and examples. They are not forms to be slavishly followed, but guides to help us frame our thoughts as we come before the Lord in prayer. If we need help in prayer (and we do!), then we will be richly repaid as we study the prayers of the Bible.
 
I am especially grateful that Paul wrote one of his prayers in Ephesians 3:14-21. Beyond question, this is one of the greatest prayers in the entire Bible. One writer called it “the Holy of Holies in the Christian life.” Another writer called it “a prayer for the impossible.” That is a very apt description. This is the second prayer in Ephesians. We looked at the prayer in Ephesians 1 in the last sermon. That’s a prayer that the eyes of the heart might be opened so that we might know God better. If the first prayer is for enlightenment, the second prayer is for enablement. If the first prayer is for knowledge, the second is for power.
 
As we look at this prayer, once again it’s easy to get lost in the details. At first reading, it appears to be a complex arrangement of phrases piled one on top of the other, all leading to a very powerful doxology in verses 20-21. If we look at it that way, we’ll miss the main point. A better way to study this prayer is to focus on the main request in verse 16 where Paul prays that God might “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” This is a prayer for spiritual strength in the inner being (literally in Greek, the “inner man"). Paul prays for one thing and one thing only in this prayer. He asks God to strengthen the Ephesians by the Holy Spirit on the inside so that they can fulfill God’s will for them. Though this prayer has many parts and builds to a big climax, there is only one basic request. Keep that in mind as we look at this text together.
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How can I be so sure that there is only one basic request? The key is found in verse 13, just before the prayer begins: “I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.” The phrase “not to be discouraged” can be translated “not to lose heart” or “not to give up.” This is extremely relevant because so many things sap our strength: discouraging circumstances, monotonous routine, physical weakness, personal failure, unwanted interruptions, unfinished responsibilities, and unresolved conflicts. Any one of those things could knock us out of commission, but often two or three of them hit us at the same time. And then we are knocked to the floor and find it hard to get up and get back in the fight.
 
Seen in that light, this is a prayer for something most of us desperately need every day—spiritual strength. When we feel weak, prayer can be difficult or almost impossible. In those moments, here is a prayer that is always appropriate. It is a prayer to pray before you faint. If you are on the verge of giving up, take this prayer to heart before you throw in the towel.
 
When you are weak, you need strength. And strength is the exact opposite of “losing heart” in verse 13. To be “strengthened with power” means to be made powerfully strong so that you can overcome the obstacles set before you. The word for power is Dunamis, from which we get the English words dynamic and dynamite. When you are made strong in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, there will be power to blast out the unbelief, and power to overcome despair, and power to rise above anger, and power to keep going when you would rather quit. Note that this power is put to work in the “inner self” or the “inner man.” That “inner man” is the control room of life where every great decision is made. This is the place where we need the most help.
 

​ACTION STEP:  Continue to read Ephesians 4:1 – 16

One of the best ways to learn how to pray is to study the prayers of the Bible. By listening in across the centuries, we learn a great deal about the content of biblical prayer and the intensity with which we should pray. Content is obvious but the concept of intensity may be new to some people. Many contemporary Christians find themselves easily distracted when they attempt to pray. If the truth were told, often we are playing around at our prayers instead of approaching prayer with a holy intensity. How different this is from the prayers of Moses or Daniel or David or Paul. These men of God prayed with fire in their souls. They cried out to God with a single-minded focus that seemed to shut out the world around them.

​The Window of the Soul
There is a great lesson here if we care to take it. Prayer is truly the window of the soul. What we pray for, we care for. We all pray for what concerns us. And the reverse is also true. What we don’t pray about, we don’t care about. That’s a solemn and convicting thought, and though we may try to escape its force, we cannot escape the truth. We can say all we want about how much something means to us, but if we never bring it before God in prayer, we cannot truly say that we care deeply about it. What we pray about, we care about. Until Jesus comes again we will need to make war in the heavenlies but we can rest assured that through Christ the battle is won.

 ACTION STEP: Read Ephesians Chapter 3:1 – 13.