Riches more precious than gold

In dictionaries that tell you what names mean, one of the meanings of Ephesians is "desirable ones." The big thrust of Ephesians is being in Christ and what it means to be in Christ.

Jordan explains, "The Father said about Christ in Matthew 3, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,' and where am I? I'm in Him. That gives me some assurance about how the Father thinks about me. He sees me IN the merits, IN the person, IN the identity of the one who is well-pleasing to Him. Not in me; not in myself. Not in who I am. The issue is who He is.

"When Paul in Ephesians talks about 'to the saints and the faithful,' it isn't just that they are saved; it's that they've come along in the edification process to the place where they are fully functioning as Believers. They've grown up in Him. They are living in the fullness of the Christian life; in the maturity God's given them in Christ.

"Paul spent three exhausting years of ministry in Ephesus proclaiming the gospel and doing the work of the ministry. He struggled and pleaded with those who opposed him. There was the great religious center to the queen of heaven at Ephesus and for three years he shed tears over the souls of the Ephesians. He says that in Acts 20, 'I wept over you for three years.'

"The end result was a body of Believers who he could call, not just the saints, but faithful in Christ Jesus. Fully functioning and you see it in chapter 1. You get on down and see there's people in Ephesus he's writing to where he didn't even know them. He just heard of their faith.

"After he left there some folks got saved that weren't saved under him. He didn't lead them to Christ. The saints that he left there kept doing the work of the ministry. You want to see one of the most explosive ministries in the Bible go back and read Acts 19. He just blew the whole territory up with the gospel. And when he left, he left saints that were carrying on with the work. They didn't need him there stroking them, pushing them forward.

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"The will of God is not what you're doing; the will of God is what He's doing. If you just get that shift in your mind . . . if you want to do the will of God, find out what He's doing and let Him will and do that in you and you'll be doing the will of God.

"If you learn to think like God thinks, when you go through the details in your life, you'll be able to think about them the way God thinks about them. And if you think about them the way God thinks about them, what will you do? Won't you do what God thinks? You will be doing the will of God in those circumstances.

"God wants you choosing the thing of greatest value. You've got everything off the stage of your life that shouldn't be there. Everything God says don't have in your life, you've put away. You've denied ungodliness and worldly lust. You took it out of the way.

"All the satanic policy of evil, all the thinking of the Adversary, you took out of your life. You took out the worldly lusts, the course of this world. You see it and you say, 'That right there doesn't belong in my life. Out!' Why? 'It's a waste of my time! I could put something else there!'

"I take out of my life all the things God says don't put there and I begin to put in their place the things God says to put there. As I begin to add those things into my life--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness--I live soberly, righteously and godly. I think soberly; I think in the reality of what God says.

"Righteously means I live with other people in that right activity. Godly. I live toward the Lord the way He says. The identity He gives me. I begin to put that into my life. As I do that, you know what that is? That's doing the will of God.

"I know who I am; I know what my job is. I'm the vessel through whom He lives. I belong to Jesus Christ. That's who I'm doing this for. I'm not doing it for the praise of men; I'm doing it because of Him. It's God's will that I'm a part of. I'm down here having what God's doing living in me. And it's God who wills and does His good pleasure as I take His Word and let it be my thinking; my life.

"God has this great cosmic plan to make everything in the universe center in His Son. That's what I'm about. That's what my life's about. I know who I am. I know what I'm doing. I know who I'm doing it for. And I know what the authority is. I'm a part of this great thing God's doing today.

"Paul writes in Ephesians 3, [9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

"God said, 'I've got this plan, I planned it before the foundation of the world. I'm working it out. It's all focused in my Son.' And right now--not in eternity, not in the ages to come, not after the Rapture--under the principalities and powers in heavenly places, we've got the privilege of manifesting that wisdom!

"That's what God's doing, so my life right now is not about the little peevish stuff. I mean, are you like Paul today? Are you in prison? Maybe your prison is illness. Maybe you've got some infirmities. Maybe your prison is persecution. Maybe there's some assaults laid upon you. Maybe your prison is family and friends. Maybe your prison is a husband or a wife. Maybe it's work; maybe it's your boss. Maybe your prison is finances, afraid the phone is going to ring because it's a bill collector.

"Maybe your prison is just your own restlessness of heart and spirit. You look around and you feel like, 'I ought to have something I don't have; others have it and I need it; I want it.' That discontent.

"Maybe your prison is just an angry spirit; resentment about something that's been done to you in the past. Maybe your prison is just a sense of a total lack of well-being. I was at the doctor last week and he asked, 'How is your sense of well-being?' I thought, 'What?! I want to know how my heart's beating.'' But that's a good question.

"Paul was in prison when he wrote these verses and in prison he could say, 'I know who I am and I know what I'm doing, and I know who I'm doing it for, and I know the assignment that I'm on. It's the assignment of what God's doing. I'm a part of what God's doing! And my circumstances aren't where I determine who I am, who I belong to or what my job is. I'm not looking out here at how I feel about my circumstances; I'm looking to one thing, and that's who God has made me in Christ Jesus.'

"Now, all of that is not cliches and euphemisms to Paul. They're going to be 150 more verses where he gives you details about what that's going to mean. This is substantive reality about what God's doing and I've got this comprehension of this grand, cosmic design God has in His Son and He's made me a part of it.

"Paul says in Ephesians 1, [17] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

[18] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

[19] And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 

"Never come to the place where you think that your progress in the Christian life is going to be enhanced by your performance. It's enhanced by understanding who Christ is. But when you understand who He is and who He's made you, you know what? 'Christ in you the hope of glory' begins to live out through you."

Regarding Ephesians 3:8, Fannie Crosby wrote this classic song:

Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Wealth that can never be told!
Riches exhaustless of mercy and grace,
Precious, more precious than gold!

(Chorus)
Precious, more precious,
Wealth that can never be told!
Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Precious, more precious than gold.

Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Who shall their greatness declare?
Jewels whose luster our lives may adorn,
Pearls that the poorest may wear!

Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Freely, how freely they flow,
Making the souls of the faithful and true
Happy wherever they go!

Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ!
Who would not gladly endure
Trials, afflictions, and crosses on earth,
Riches like these to secure!