Coming out of Sunday’s teaching, “Ephesians: Knowing God” spend some time in prayerful reflection and dialogue with your Home Church/Friends/Family around any combination of these questions:
Read Ephesians 1:15-23 before starting. Pray and ask God to speak.
- How did God speak to you through the text and/or Sunday’s message? What jumped out to you? Why?
- In verse 17, Paul prays that the Holy Spirit would give revelation us “so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.” The greek word for “knowledge” here is the word “epignosis”, which speaks to a more ‘experiential’ kind of knowledge as opposed to head knowledge. What’s so significant about that? What is Paul praying for here?
- What is the difference between “head knowledge” and “heart knowledge”? What makes both so important in our relationship with God?
- What are some of the dangers of depending on ‘head knowledge’ alone in our relationship with God? What are some of the dangers of depending on ‘heart knowledge’ alone?
- Jeff said, “It’s possible to know ABOUT God without knowing God PERSONALLY.” What does this mean? How does this happen? How can someone begin to know God personally (instead of just knowing ABOUT him)?
- In verses 18-20, Paul prays that as we come to know God more, that we would experience three things in our lives as a result:
- That we would become more confident in our identity in him (V18, “Confident hope”)
- That we would become more like Jesus, as God’s treasures (V18, “God’s Holy people” “His inheritance”
- That we would experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives (V19-20, “God’s power for us who believe”)
- Which of these three things most resonate with you currently? Why? What would it look like for you to experience more of this in your daily life as you come to know God more?
- Jeff said that the most powerful prayer we can pray for others (our kids, friends, church etc) is that they would come to know (head and heart) God more (as opposed to just praying for their daily practical needs). What makes that prayer so powerful?
- Jeff concluded his sermon with two reflection questions: 1. Do you KNOW God? Or do you just know a lot ABOUT God? 2.What’s blocking you from knowing Him more?
- How do you respond to these two questions?
