Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, good morning. Usually we have some readers up today, but I've asked to kind of read this scripture because it's a prayer from Paul, and I want to pray it over you and read it. And the reason why we do that is we want Scripture to be preeminent above any words that I speak.
[00:00:20] It is infallible, and we want it to be spoken first and honor it that way. And so here's what I want to do. I would ask you just this morning if you could close your eyes and as I read it, just receive these letters, these words of Paul and receive this prayer.
[00:00:38] It's Ephesians 1, 1523.
[00:00:42] For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
[00:01:42] And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Michael Tropea. I serve here as the campus pastor and get the privilege of opening and teaching and serving the body in this role. And it is an immense privilege that I don't take lightly. I want to welcome those online, welcome those who are new, if you are visiting us for the first time, we are in the second, second week of a series where we're really that's going to be taking us through the Advent season where we're going to be unpacking Ephesians chapters one through three.
[00:02:28] And after, after the new year, we'll go through four through six. But the big idea I want to I laid out last week for these first three chapters that I want us to remember is this big idea that will be on the screen. Everything finds its ultimate Unity, Christ, everything we have, everything we are comes from being in Christ. Let me repeat that. Everything finds its ultimate unity in Christ. And everything we have and everything we are comes from being in Christ. That's why the name of the series is Everything in Christ.
[00:03:05] So last week we touched upon the opening lines that Paul, who's speaking to these churches in and around Ephesus that are deeply religious people, deeply supernatural, believing in the supernatural, and people that are personal to Paul because he spent a lot of time in Ephesus establishing the churches. He laid out this idea of God's plan, God's plan for them in Jesus. From the foundation of the world, he laid out God's plan that was deeply personal to them in Christ, talking about his redemption, them being sons and daughters, them being forgiven.
[00:03:43] It became personal to us in Christ at the cross. And God's plan at large is to bring everything into Christ, moving towards him ultimately.
[00:03:55] And with that in mind, now we're gonna be turning in this section like the first one. And it's funny, when you actually study this, it's like one almost one big run on sentence. It's like Paul's catching, trying to. He can't share it fast enough. And he's trying to get all of this truth out in one breath. And it's a prayer of thanksgiving for what is happening in the life of these believers, but it's also a prayer into them.
[00:04:20] And as I teach today, I pray it's not only preaching, but this is my prayer into us as a people as well, to see Jesus in deeper and truer ways today. And so we're Gonna Unpack Ephesians 1, 1523.
[00:04:36] As a kid growing up, we didn't go on tons of vacations, but we went to a lot of state parks as a kid. And if you remember going to any parks, they usually have these things that you put 25 cents in and you can see things that are far away.
[00:04:52] And about 80% of the time they eat your money and don't work because they're out of order. But 20% of the time they do. And what happens, we are able to see things that are far away in closer clarity. And we see the depth and the beauty of them. And so at a young age, I just started to get fascinated with seeing things and looking at space because for most of human history, people would just look up at the stars and they would just know certain aspects about things. The moon, they thought it was flat.
[00:05:24] They would know constellations and such, but it never really changed the throughout Much of human history until around 1608.
[00:05:32] You see, in 1608, Hans Lippershee, I'm going to call him Hans because I don't want to say the last name and butcher it even more. Hans Lippershey created what we would now know today as the first telescope.
[00:05:45] He put a lens in a tube, and about a year later, someone we all know generally, Galileo would continue to grow that and deepen that to see things. And here's the fascinating thing about what Galileo suddenly did when he created a better version of a telescope.
[00:06:05] Humanity started seeing things they had never seen before.
[00:06:09] Like Galileo looked at the moon and he saw that its surface wasn't perfectly smooth.
[00:06:15] He looked at Jupiter and saw and discovered moons orbiting it.
[00:06:21] Looked into the sky and realized there were far more stars than the naked eye could actually see.
[00:06:27] But here's what's fascinating.
[00:06:30] None of those things appeared, just merely appeared. When Galileo looked through the telescopes, they were already there.
[00:06:36] The moons had already been orbiting Jupiter. The mountains, the ridges of the moon already existed. The stars already were burning. The reality didn't change. Their perspective did.
[00:06:47] And over the next 400 years, we continue to advance by getting bigger and bigger telescopes.
[00:06:54] And I think I have a picture of one of the largest one. It sits on a mountain on the island of the Canary Islands. I think this should be a picture for us.
[00:07:04] I don't know if that's the first one, that's the next one, but here we are anyways, on the mountains. This one's 34ft across, made up of 36 separate mirrors.
[00:07:16] And because there was a larger mirror, the more light it collected, and the more light you collect, the deeper into the universe you can see.
[00:07:25] And this is the one they're constructing right now. This is the size of a basketball court, 128ft across.
[00:07:36] You see? Think about that progression from a small telescope.
[00:07:40] A little tube in Someone's hand is 1608.
[00:07:43] That led to larger mirrors on the top of mountaintops, on the top of mountains.
[00:07:48] And now they're constructing an eye again, the size of a basketball court.
[00:07:52] But with every advancement, we can see farther and farther and farther. But here is what hasn't changed, what's out there.
[00:08:00] The universe didn't become larger because our telescopes became stronger. We simply developed better eyes to see what had been there all along.
[00:08:09] You see, when coming to this passage, that was a beautiful picture for me of what Paul prays for the church in Ephesus.
[00:08:18] Because after spending 14 verses telling them about everything they have in Christ, Paul doesn't Just pray God give him more. He says he prays the letter I just read. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know. In other words, God give them eyes to see what's already there in the vest be.
[00:08:39] And so we will begin to unpack that reality together. So if you have your Bibles, I encourage you to bring a physical Bible. If you do otherwise, pull out your phones. It'll be on the screen. We're going to work through this text today in full.
[00:08:52] And where does Paul open? He opens with this for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
[00:09:07] We'll stop there. What do you see Paul simply doing out of the gate? He's just thanking God for the faith of these believers.
[00:09:14] He's thanking them for their love in action because of what God is producing in them. He's just saying, this is encouraging to me and I'm giving thanksgiving to God for who you are.
[00:09:27] He just sees their faith in action and he responds in thanksgiving. And so before I just gloss over this, I don't want to just gloss over this. This is my prayer of thankfulness and thanksgiving for you.
[00:09:39] Each and every week I get the ability to serve and see not only with my staff. I'm grateful to God for them, but grateful for the ways you serve. You love one another, you walk with one another.
[00:09:53] And so I just don't want to gloss over that because I get to see the beautiful faith in Jesus and how it moves beyond these walls to share with people around you. And I just wanna say thank you.
[00:10:07] And so what I get to see further from there is he's saying he wants to acknowledge you are growing. We see it, I know it. I'm thanking God for that. But then he turns it from a prayer for them towards a prayer into them. And this is where he goes in 17 and 18 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope. And I want to cut it off there at the first part of that verse.
[00:10:47] What does Paul begin to pray into them?
[00:10:50] He prays into them. The reality of God continuing to work deeper and deeper into them and awareness of who he is. Yes, he sees them. Yes, he sees their faith. He sees their love being produced from hearts of faith. But he that it goes Deeper and deeper and deeper into their.
[00:11:08] Into them, saying the eyes of your hearts, enlighten, enlighten, meaning to shine, to have penetrating spiritual light to continue to penetrate and go deeper into their hearts.
[00:11:21] That's why the reality here as long as I get to serve you church, my prayer is that we go deeper into the heart of the gospel and know we never graduate from it to where the awareness of God and the spirits working in us make us more like Jesus, just powerfully transforming us day by day. That's the enlightening Paul is desiring and opening the eyes of my heart. Open the I won't sing it too far for you, right? You don't want to hear that. Trust me.
[00:11:52] He wants their eyes of their hearts to. To be transformed by deeper reality of the gospel.
[00:11:59] But what does he want to shine into them? What does he want to bring to light? What is he desiring and praying that would have a deeper grip of their hearts with hope everlasting, Right?
[00:12:14] Biblical hope.
[00:12:17] And who agrees in our time and space, we kind of need, right, standing biblical hope.
[00:12:24] The simplest definition for us of what biblical hope is the confident expectation of a guaranteed result.
[00:12:34] That's what biblical hope is.
[00:12:37] Think about hope Just generally for a second. You came in this morning and you probably didn't think about actually sitting down in your seats. Why? You expected that your seats were going to hold you. Right? You didn't think much about it, but you had hope that your seats were going to hold you. Now, they don't always hold up. I will be honest with you.
[00:13:00] The piece on the end has fallen off before and I've fallen, but generally they do.
[00:13:07] Like last night, you generally didn't think.
[00:13:11] I mean, you generally weren't anxious before going to bed thinking you wouldn't wake up the next morning. Why? Because you had hope that it would just happen. You didn't think about it, but you had hope, the expectation of a result that you expected.
[00:13:28] But we put our hope in things all the time without even realizing it.
[00:13:33] We simply expect it.
[00:13:36] But we also know when we put our hope in things that is misplaced. We put our hope in money and we scramble when it's not there or fret when it's disturbed.
[00:13:46] We do it all the time with relationships or vocation when our health goes awry, our children don't act as they should, or our future plans don't turn out the way we thought they should.
[00:14:00] You see, none of those are ultimately bad things. But horizontal hopes make terrible, ultimate biblical hopes because they cannot guarantee what we're asking them to give us. Eventually, they inevitably fail and don't hold up under the weight of themselves.
[00:14:17] And our hopes can become misplaced. It begins to distort our idea of reality.
[00:14:24] So Paul prays into them. God, open their eyes.
[00:14:29] Help them see the hope they already have because they are in Christ.
[00:14:34] Just like the telescope didn't put the stars in the sky, but helped people to see what was already there, Paul is praying that God would give them eyes to see the deeper reality that is already theirs in in Christ.
[00:14:48] And so he points forward to hope in three different ways.
[00:14:52] One, the hope of our calling.
[00:14:56] Secondly, the hope of the riches of our inheritance. And third, the hope in the immeasurable greatness of his power.
[00:15:03] And so we're going to begin to look at each of those in our time together.
[00:15:08] So first, the hope of our calling. I think it's right there on the screen.
[00:15:13] Where do I get that? Having the eyes in verse 18, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. Other versions say of your calling, of our calling.
[00:15:26] So what is Paul praying them into from a hope perspective?
[00:15:30] Well, if you look up back at what we just read in 3 through 14, he's praying that they grab hold of all of those realities he just placed in front of them.
[00:15:41] He wants them to remember that they are chosen by God.
[00:15:46] He wants them to remember of their identity as sons and daughters of God.
[00:15:52] He wants them to remember that they are redeemed, that they are forgiven, that he has lavished grace upon grace upon them.
[00:16:02] He's saying, these things are true, these things are secure.
[00:16:08] Be confident in them if you are in Christ.
[00:16:12] So why does he pray this? Why does he pray this into them?
[00:16:17] And why is this a prayer for us to receive today?
[00:16:21] Because we can say all those words and still live as if we're not sure they're actually true.
[00:16:27] We can say those words and not still live as they're actually true. Like, I can wear the Christian T shirt doesn't mean I actually believe it.
[00:16:38] How many of you have ever questioned whether you're truly loved by God?
[00:16:44] Have you ever wondered, am I really his son? Am I really his daughter? Because you've had a poor relationship with your earthly parents, so you question whether God can actually love you to the extent that he says, do you ever question, well, God, when you hear words of God delights in you, do you ever actually think God delights in me or just tolerates me?
[00:17:07] Have you ever believed you're redeemed, but live maybe like you're only partially redeemed, as if Jesus covered some of your debt, just not all of it.
[00:17:18] Or maybe you believe God gives forgives sin in general, but you're not completely convinced he's forgiven your sin in full.
[00:17:26] So what do we do? We hide.
[00:17:29] We carry shame. We keep parts of ourself from God. Because it's funny when we say that keep parts of ourself from God, even though he already knows the whole thing.
[00:17:37] But we leave parts of ourselves from God. Because I think if he really knew, if people really knew. Maybe you believe his grace is sufficient for everyone else's story. But when you look at your own failures, your own past, the thing you did again, the thing you promised you'd never do, you quietly wonder, is his grace actually sufficient for all of this?
[00:17:59] And Paul says, God, open their eyes.
[00:18:03] Let them see the hope of their calling.
[00:18:07] Let the Gospel move from something that we can recite to something that has gripped their hearts and our hearts. And let me say this. If you are in Christ today, you are not partially adopted.
[00:18:18] If you are in Christ today, you are not partially redeemed. If you are in Christ today, you are not partially forgiven.
[00:18:26] Jesus did not pay most of your debt.
[00:18:32] His grace.
[00:18:33] Don't think that his grace is only sufficient for everything except that one thing that you're ashamed that you've never shared. You are his. You are redeemed. You are forgiven, past, present and future.
[00:18:45] And his grace is sufficient. And Paul is praying that the eyes of their hearts would realize that to be opened it and to be remembered, to walk in that.
[00:18:54] The hope, the confident expectation of the guaranteed result, that it is ours because of Christ.
[00:19:01] That is what Paul is praying into them. That's what I pray for us.
[00:19:05] That when we want to lose sight of those things, we go back to what is true in Christ. This has been secured because of his perfect record, not our account, the hope of our calling.
[00:19:22] Second, what else does it say?
[00:19:26] Verse 18 goes on to say, what are the hope of the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? He prays this, and it should be up on the screen. The hope found in the riches of his glorious inheritance.
[00:19:44] You see what Paul gets into here?
[00:19:47] He wants their eyes lifted beyond what they can see right now to what awaits them if they belong to Christ.
[00:19:56] Like we.
[00:19:57] I say this from time to time. Oftentimes we live for the dot and not the line.
[00:20:03] We live so much as if this is all there is when the line of eternity is infinite.
[00:20:12] And Paul wants to elevate their eyes and pray that they see with more perspective the glorious inheritance they have because of Christ.
[00:20:21] He wants to remind them that there is a day coming when everything we talked about last week will be fully realized. Everything united in Christ, like a new heaven and a new earth.
[00:20:33] Sin and death gone, creation restored, and God's people dwelling with him forever. We just got done with a wedding yesterday, and Preston Reese officiated the wedding, and he talked about how at the beginning of creation, there is a wedding, and at the end of the day, there is going to be a glorious wedding.
[00:20:54] Paul's elevating their eyes to see the glorious depths of who God is and what awaits us in Christ.
[00:21:03] And Paul is praying God open their eyes to how rich they actually are. Are.
[00:21:11] See, it's like, imagine with me for a moment.
[00:21:16] Tomorrow, you or I, I'll say, I, in this example, wake up, and I get a message from Elon Musk, right? He. Maybe he's watching the stream. Maybe he's convicted or I don't know. But he's like, hey, I want to let you know I'm dropping 500 million in your account. I'm like, is this happening?
[00:21:35] Is this real? What do I do? I run to the bank, I find out that I inherit something I didn't get. And I'm like, is this real?
[00:21:43] So suddenly, I go from pretty average in life to incredibly wealthy.
[00:21:49] That night, I tell Alexa, you know what? We're getting a private jet. We're flying up to New York City. You're gonna. You can get an appetizer off the menu. You know what I mean? Like, you know, dessert. You want it? Two of them. Here we go.
[00:22:04] We fly back.
[00:22:07] And then the next morning, right, Imagine if I did this.
[00:22:13] Imagine if I did this. We go back to living as if nothing actually happened. I'm clipping every coupon. I don't clip coupons, but imagine I did, but I go back living as if I have nothing.
[00:22:27] And then Alexa comes to me, hey, can we replace this thing, this lawnmower that's broken? I'm like, absolutely not. We do not have the money for that.
[00:22:37] And then she comes back to me.
[00:22:39] Have you forgotten what's in the bank?
[00:22:43] The issue is that I don't. The issue isn't that I don't have riches. The issue is that I'm living like I'm actually poor when I'm incredibly rich.
[00:22:52] And spiritually, we can do the same exact thing.
[00:22:56] We live often as if this life is all we Have.
[00:23:00] And I get that. I struggle against this mindset all this time. I cling to possessions because I forget what's coming. We are so nearsighted as a people, and I get that that's the human reality. But Paul is praying that they understand the riches that awaits us. That's why Jesus calls it mansions.
[00:23:20] But at the end of the day, the richest thing we could get is dwelling with God forever.
[00:23:27] And here's what we do. We settle for just merely surviving our marriages, surviving parenting, surviving work, surviving another week.
[00:23:36] But you haven't been given the riches of Christ merely to survive until heaven.
[00:23:42] Your future inherited. Change is how you live right now.
[00:23:45] You see, when you know what's coming tomorrow because of Jesus, you can live differently. Today.
[00:23:50] We can begin holding loosely our possessions and giving them to what God has called us to give them away to. We can walk through disappointment without being defined by it, because this moment isn't the end of our story.
[00:24:07] You can pour yourself into your marriage to continue to let it be a reflection of the ultimate marriage that is coming.
[00:24:15] We aren't just called to hang on until heaven. We've been given a down payment of that inheritance today. And the seal of the Holy Spirit, as Ephesians talks about before any of you there today, where you just feel like you're trying to make it right now, losing sight of what's to come.
[00:24:31] Like, I get it. I come from a financial background. And when, like when you put $100 in right now, you're like, that's a lot of money.
[00:24:39] But the compound interest that grows over time, it's a glorious inheritance. And we so often look at the hundred and forget the 1.2 mil that can come.
[00:24:50] We look at so much right now where we forget the inheritance that are coming. That's what Paul is praying to them. He wants them to elevate their eyes off of their very real lives, to know the riches that await them and it's coming in full.
[00:25:05] That's the hope that he wants them to know that is fully secure, that this isn't all I have, that this isn't all there is. And this isn't where my story ends because of what Christ has secured for me. So we talked about the hope of your calling.
[00:25:21] We talked about the hope. And again, I could go so much deeper into this.
[00:25:25] The hope that is in his glorious inheritance of the saints. And lastly, what else does Paul bring out? The hope and the immeasurable greatness of his power, 19 through 21.
[00:25:43] And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. I love that wording according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
[00:25:59] Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come church. This is one of my most important prayers for us as a people. If I could even say that.
[00:26:16] That we realize that the Gospel doesn't just forgive us, doesn't just redeem us and secure for us a future inheritance, but God has placed his very, very Holy Spirit within us.
[00:26:29] That we would live and be reminded and live in submission to the Spirit of God who resides in us.
[00:26:36] That we would have a confident expectation that we don't have to walk through this life feebly, fleshly, powerless, defeated by the lies of the enemy.
[00:26:48] And get this, the gravity of this scripture says. Paul says the power of God is toward us who believe. The same God who raised Christ from the dead and brought to the heavenly places and is now the Spirit of God that resides in us. That's incredible.
[00:27:05] Think about that picture for a second. Like Jesus is buried, tomb sealed, and the power of God brings life where there was death.
[00:27:16] And if you are in Christ, that very resurrection power is at work in you.
[00:27:22] And here's what that means.
[00:27:25] Sin does not get the final word in your life.
[00:27:28] Like, maybe it's legit a sin. You've battled for years, maybe you've stumbled so many times and you started saying, this is just the way I am.
[00:27:38] Like, I'll never actually beat this until you fall again and again. I'll never change.
[00:27:45] But listen to me. You may need confession, you may need accountability, counseling, community, and a long road of obedience. But don't confuse a difficult battle with an impossible one.
[00:28:00] Sin may still wage war against you, but in Christ, it no longer owns you. The spirit of God is at work in you, transforming you.
[00:28:08] Like the same is true with addiction.
[00:28:12] There can be real consequences, treatment, recovery, setbacks, and a need for others to walk alongside you. But there is real hope for freedom because this very spirit of God is alive inside you. If you've submitted to him as king and Lord, don't assume you can't see a path forward. God is. And believing the leg that God is incapable of making one, don't believe that lie.
[00:28:34] The spirit of God can soften your heart, produce humility, empower, forgiveness, rebuild marriages that at one time believed they were broken. But God can Bring dead things to life through his Holy Spirit.
[00:28:47] Our brokenness is never more powerful than God.
[00:28:52] And your shame doesn't shine brighter than the gospel.
[00:28:55] And hey, guys, I've walked through many conversations with different people, and I've heard the narrative, and I believe the narrative, that the worst thing we've done or the worst thing maybe he has done to us can become the loudest voice telling us that's who we are.
[00:29:13] But if you are in Christ, your shame doesn't get naming rights over your life. Jesus does, by his Holy Spirit.
[00:29:21] And the other part of the equation is neither does the enemy.
[00:29:25] We have a very real enemy that I don't think we really acknowledge often. And that's what Paul's gonna get deeper into when we get into Ephesians.
[00:29:34] He will whisper, you are still that person. You are too weak. You are too broken. Nothing will ever change. You don't have worth. But Paul says Jesus has been raised and seated far above all rule, all authority, all power. And Domin Satan is not Christ's equal.
[00:29:53] The enemy has defeated. He can accuse, he can tempt, he can deceive, he can lie. But his lies have no authority to refine who Jesus says you are.
[00:30:02] And his spirit is alive in you. So maybe the question isn't, am I strong enough to overcome this? Maybe it's, do I actually believe the spirit of God is powerful enough to change me?
[00:30:15] Where have you already surrendered ground?
[00:30:18] Where have you decided that's just who I am. That's just the state of my marriage.
[00:30:23] That's just my addiction. That's just my anger. That's just my shame. I'll always be this way.
[00:30:30] Paul prays God open their eyes to see the immeasurable power that resides in them. By my spirit, because the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive, the enemy is defeated, and the spirit of God raised.
[00:30:43] Christ from the dead is at work in you. The hope. He's praying into them, the hope of their calling. He's praying into them the reminder of the great riches that are inherited, the future reality that exists that we live from today. And he's praying into them this idea, the immeasurable greatness of his power.
[00:31:04] But where does Paul, in my closing moments, say all this hope comes from?
[00:31:11] Does he say he drums it up himself? No, not from us at all. From Christ. We see that in Ephesians 1, 22 and 23.
[00:31:22] What does Paul say?
[00:31:24] And he, God put all things under his feet, and he gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in.
[00:31:37] Paul doesn't say, hey, try harder.
[00:31:40] He doesn't say, hey, you know what? Be more positive. Dig deeper and stir up your own hope.
[00:31:46] Christian hope, biblical hope, right? Hope isn't something we manufacture inside of ourselves. Our hope is rooted in what God has already done in Jesus.
[00:31:56] Jesus went to the cross, walked out of the grave, ascended to the right hand of the Father above every power and rule that we just read, and God has placed all things under his feet. Paul simply prays God, give them eyes to see Jesus, his perfect accord and account.
[00:32:17] And as I begin to go, think back to the telescope you see over hundreds of years, 400 went from a small tube with a couple of lenses to massive mirrors on mountaintops capable of seeing farther and farther into the universe. But those telescopes never created anything in the sky.
[00:32:39] They simply gave us better eyes to see what had been there all along.
[00:32:46] And maybe that's an action for us this week.
[00:32:50] Ask God simply to open your eyes to the deeper reality that is already yours in the Gospel.
[00:32:58] And then intentionally put your eyes there.
[00:33:01] Open His Word before you open everything else. Fighting for your attention.
[00:33:10] Maybe pray before your panic and what you want to worry about where your body's starting and your nervous system is starting to go. But pray and get on your knees before that happens.
[00:33:21] Remind yourself what is true, that you are redeemed, you are forgiven, not partially, but in full before allowing your circumstances to tell you what is true. Get around people that will point you back to Jesus when you can't see clearly for yourself. That's why we encourage community here. Not just Sunday gathering, but deeper community.
[00:33:41] Maybe every morning this week, before your feet hit the floor, simply pray Paul's prayer. God, open the eyes of my heart today. Open the. Yeah, now I'm gonna do that.
[00:33:51] I really want to. Part of me really wants to.
[00:33:55] No.
[00:33:57] Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Yeah, right. That's my wife's gig.
[00:34:05] God, open the eyes of my heart today.
[00:34:07] Help me to see what is true because I am in Christ.
[00:34:12] Maybe your circumstances don't have to change this week for your hope to change.
[00:34:17] Maybe you need clear eyes to see who Christ already is reigning in the middle of him. The reality hasn't changed. Jesus is still risen. He is still reigning. Your calling is still secure. Your inheritance is still coming. His power is at work in you, in the in between. God, give us better eyes to see what has been there all along. That is Paul's prayer into the Ephesians. Let's pray church.
[00:34:38] God, I thank you.
[00:34:42] I thank you that we are adopted because of what Christ has done. I thank you that I and in this room and there are believers that have been chosen and predestined and redeemed for all the mystery of those words and what it all means that we have been chosen and adopted as sons and daughters. Those realities are true. Let us understand that they're guaranteed because of Christ, God. And let us not be so nearsighted where all we see is this world just trying to hang on to what is here. But. But realize the glorious inheritance and riches we have that are awaiting us in the saints and how we are walking towards that together in this time and space.
[00:35:26] And God, I pray that in the in between we don't just feebly believe, we're just getting by. But your spirit, the very same spirit that rose Christ from the dead is alive in us. And we don't just fall victim to the lies of the enemy that want to say, this is just what you are. You are yourself. No, the very Spirit of God has marked us as your own and we can walk out of these things by your grace.
[00:35:52] Today let us be reminded that you are coming again and we await that day with expectation. Yes, there will be trial, but you've overcome it all. And because you have overcome it all, we can lean into that. So I pray that the eyes of our heart are open today because of the hope we have, of our calling, of the inheritance, inheritance that is coming. God, and also the immeasurable power that you have given because you are ruling all in all. God, we need you and apart from you, that we can do nothing. If there's any person in this room that does not call you Lord and Savior, I pray that they realize that they cannot do this life on their own. They will be eternally separated from you due to their sin, but you have paid for it in Christ and they repent and believe and walk in true freedom. By your Spirit today we pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.
