Unlocking the Unseen Power of God - Ephesians 1:15-19

Well, good morning. Good morning, Northland Church. Riverside. Very excited to be with you again. Man, look, I love our bucket here. Let's keep catching the water for us. Don't look at it, okay? That's the life of being in a church plant, but very excited to be with you this morning. Hey, if you have a Bible. Turn to Ephesians chapter one, and that's what will be planted today. If you need a Bible, we always have plenty back here in the back if you'd like to borrow one or to have one. We have plenty of extra. So we'll be in Ephesians chapter one. But to start, I want this to look at a story in 2nd Kings. You don't have to turn there, but in 2nd King 6, we enter in into an interesting situation. Maybe a dire situation for the Israelites. The king of Syria knows the location of the Israelite army, and he looks to ambush them and take them out. He has now gathered a great army. He's equipped them, and now he sends them to the place where the Israelites are meant to be. The army marches, they gather, they get around this place, and they look down, and the Israelites aren't there. They must have been tipped off. We have no idea at this point. What happened? So they march back to the king of Syria, and they say to him, we don't know where they went. And the king of Syria rightfully, he grabs his servants, his assistants, and in anger. He says, who who among us is for the king of Israel? Who among us has tipped them off to the plan that we had to wipe them out? And his servant says, no, no, there's not a spy here. There's nobody here. It's the man of God, Elisha. Elisha was the predecessor of Elijah, great prophet of God. And they said to the king of Syria. He knows what you're saying in your bedroom because of what God is telling them. So the king of Syria is like, okay, well, that's a problem. I can't be having a spiritual spy, so to speak, knowing all the things that we are trying to do against his people. We got to take him out. We got to capture him. We gotta kill them. So he gathers that same army that he sinned against the Israelites, and he sends them to the place they know he is. They said, go to Dothan. So they're going to Dothan, they gathered around the city. Uh, Elisha is sleeping during the nighttime, and his assistant wakes up early, and, you know, if we were to kind of contextualize it, and he's making his morning coffee, he gets it. He's walking to the window to look outside. He takes a sip of coffee, and he spits it all over the window because the armies of Syria have gathered around their city to come and take Elisha. So he runs to Elisha. What are we going to do? Look around. There's tons of them. There's 100s of them, 1000s of them. And like she says, don't be afraid. He said, he says, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And his assistant probably looks around. What are you talking about, Elisha? There's 2 of us. And then he says, this phrase in verse 17, O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the Lord, open the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. The servant needed the Lord to open his eyes to a more a deeper reality of what was going on. He only saw the enemies. He only saw what was surrounding him, but there was a deeper reality at hand, and that God was watching over them. And he needed his eyes to be open for his mind, his heart, to be expanded to the Lord's might in keeping Elisha safe. The servant was brought deeper into faith in God and able to see in a deeper way what God was already doing. Similarly, a few weeks ago, when Tyler introduced the Ephesians, he was talking about we are being invited in to experience life in Christ in a more real and deep way. A lot of us sit on the surface. We come to church, we do the things, we read our Bible, but Ephesians is inviting us in to see in a more real and a more in a deeper way what it means to be in Christ. So today, we're going to be looking at that, and Paul is praying a prayer specifically for the Ephesians, is an invitation for them to truly experience what it means to live in Christ. Just like the servant of Elisha, the Ephesians need to experience Christ in a deeper way. We need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see all that God is doing in Christ. Ephesians one, 15 through 20, Tyler's going to also cover 20 a little bit next week, but it's important for our text as well. This is what it reads. 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 the right hand, at his right hand in the heavenly places? Let's pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for faithful men and women of old. Lord, thank you for faithful men who have recorded prayers that we can read and that we can study. Lord, I pray that you would open up the eyes of our heart this morning. Lord, that we'd be able to enter in to really understand in a deeper way, a more full way what it means to be in Christ. May we understand the hope that we have in Christ. May we understand the riches that we have in Christ and the immeasurable power that you have toward us, those who are in Christ. God be with us in this time, in Jesus name. Amen. So Paul is thanking God in the very beginning of this. He says, for this reason, the reason is that they have faith in the Lord Jesus, and that they have love towards all the saints. But we know this, that this is not always true, that the Ephesians weren't always faithful to Jesus. They weren't always loving each other. Actually, in Acts 19, we get a glimpse of what it looked like before these people were believers. Paul comes in in Acts 19 to Ephesus and he finds 12 believers. They hadn't been baptized correctly, so he baptizes them. They receive the Holy Spirit. And then from that point on, Paul is preaching in the synagogues to the Jews, and he's preaching in the hall of Tyrannus to the Gentiles. And he's preaching the gospel boldly. And the Holy Spirit is moving in a very mighty and evident way. People are coming, they're sick, and Paul is praying for them. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, they're healed. Their diseases are being healed. The Holy Spirit is working so evidently that actually the handkerchief of Paul is being carried far away, and that when people touch this handkerchief, they're being healed. The Holy Spirit is moving, God is moving in a mighty way in Ephesus. During this time, there's these guys, they're called the 7 sons of Skiva. They're Jewish men. They're very zealous Jewish men. They're not believers, but they're seeing what Paul is doing. In the name of Jesus, they're seeing what he's doing in this name. So there's a demon possessed man who needs help. These 7 sons of Skivas, Skivas a person, come to him and they say, we adjure you, adjure you by the Jesus that Paul, Paul proclaims, the demon possessed, looks at them and responds, Jesus, I know. Paul, I recognize, but who are you? These people do not have any claim over this demon because they're not in Jesus' name. But at that moment, the man jumps on them, beats them up, strips them naked, and sends them running back to Papaskeva. Like they're absolutely defeated. They have absolutely no claim over them, and they're utterly embarrassed. But the people around are watching the Gentiles and the Jews, they're watching what's happening here. And it says a great fear fell among them. Read in Acts 19, 17 through 20 with me. It says this. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell among them, upon them all, and the name of the Lord was extolled. It was lifted high. Also, many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices, and the number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them, and it found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver, a ton, a ton of books. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Upon hearing this, the onlookers, their eyes are open to the majesty and the power and the sovereignty of Jesus, that they begin to realize that their pagan arcs, their magic arts. The Jewish people are realizing that their desire to be fulfilling the law perfectly, that none of that had power, that none of that was what is actually life giving, but they see in Jesus' name, miracles being done, and their eyes are opened. to who Jesus is. They begin to confess and divulge their practices, their believers, that they're putting their faith in Jesus for salvation. The rise are open to God and to his son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the savior of all. Paul is thanking God for this salvation, that he is thanking God that they have opened, that God has opened their eyes. And now we actually see this, now that their eyes are opened, now that they're claiming Jesus as their savior, that now they're acting like Jesus. That's something crazy has happened, that these 2 groups of people that are not meant to like each other, Jews and Gentiles did not mix. The Jews thought that the Gentiles were unclean. They're pagan arts, the way that they ate food. All the thing about Gentiles were detestable. They were unclean. They wouldn't even walk in the same area without them, without having to wash afterwards. But they would not be together, but what we see is that the miraculous faith that they've been given is actually turn their hate for each other into love for one another. That their eyes have been opened in such a real way that it's caused life change, behavior change. Their eyes being opened in Christ has now transformed them. Now are seen a more a deeper reality of living that Christ came to seek and save all of the lost, and that they get to participate in that mission. They've already begun to experience life in Christ, but Paul knows that there's more to experience yet. Now look at me in verse 16. He continues, says, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Remembering you in my prayers, that the Lord, God, 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. Paul's prayers of thanksgiving have turned to a request from God. I'm remembering in you in my prayers often. I'm always thankful for you, and I'm always asking this thing from God for you. That God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, some translations interpret this to be more of a disposition, like give them a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of revelation of knowledge. Like we would say a spirit of peace. We know those people in our lives. We look for those people who have spirit of peace in a time of trouble, we come to them, we're looking for that. Some translations would have us to have more of this dispositional look. In the ESV, it is translated, it's interpreting it as the Holy Spirit. And in that sense, it'd be Paul is saying, God, give them the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Jesus is telling his disciples in John 14. We preached a few weeks ago. Jesus on the night that he's betrayed. Remember, he says, I'm about to leave you. I about to go be of the Father. I'm going to leave you. We've been together for 3 years, but don't be troubled. It's actually good that I'm leaving. Because when I leave, the Holy Spirit's going to come in and he will live within those who believe in me. In verse 26 of John 14, he says, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. At salvation. We know this, that we have the Holy Spirit, that we have the Holy Spirit, of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have him dwelling within us. Jesus promised them in John 14. But Paul here is now focusing on 2 characteristics of the Spirit that he wants to be cultivated within the Ephesians. He wants them to recognize that the spirit is these things, that he is wisdom, that he is the revelation and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So he is the spirit of wisdom. You can think about wisdom in multiple ways. I like to say that it's knowledge applied, that it's not simply doing good things, but it's recognizing what is right and applying that to your life. Wisdom applied, knowledge applied. So there's action here. We need the spirit to apply the knowledge of Christ rightly. This is immoral. This is something about our being. This is a disposition. This is a wise spirit. As the spirit lives in us. He grows us in wisdom. He opens our eyes to wisdom and how to live more like Christ. We learn how Christ lived and how we ought to live also. And by his power were able to obey. He's also the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Christ. The spirit teaches us as we read his word. He reveals who Christ is in its pages. In John 14, the Spirit was given to the disciples to remind them of Jesus because they have been living with him for 3 years. But we have not lived with Jesus in a tangible way for 3 years. We have the written, his written voice, the written story of his time here on earth. So as we're reading this, the Holy Spirit is drawing to remembrance all that Christ has done in his word, and all that he's done in ancient times of old, and now today. He is drawing our minds. He's reminding us of Christ, as he pulls the memory of things of Christ found in his word. In 2nd Peter one.3, we read this. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. The Spirit uses the word to reveal Christ to us and teach us about him. As the spirit of wisdom and revelation of Christ works, our eyes are opened to a grander realization of our life in Christ as Christ becomes more known and experienced through the Word. Verses 1819. Paul says, that you would have the spirit, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, which are the riches of this glorious inheritance in the saints. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? The Holy Spirit is working to open the eyes of the heart in this particular situation in 3 ways. Number one, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the hope in Jesus, the hope in Christ. We need the spirit to open our eyes to the hope that we have been called to. What is this hope? What is the hope that we have? It's that Jesus is the savior, is that Jesus is the Messiah, is that our hope is in somebody else. Our hope is not in ourselves. He is our hope. He is the founder and finisher of our faith, not us. This week I was, I was in the kitchen cooking or something, and Kara Lee came up, my wife, and she was sharing a story, and you know, on Facebook, people like to pour out their heart, right? to show everybody what's going on. We have a friend that we've known in the past that is sharing a story about their deconstruction. And as we're always depressing, especially if someone that we know, and our hearts break for them, and the conversation that was being kind of presented was, how much of my salvation am I in charge of keeping hold of. And how much of my salvation is God in charge of keeping hold of? What does that look like? What's the balance? Now, to be fair, this is a question that we might ask ourselves. In our low moments, we may be thinking, well, Lord, I think I messed it up. I think I went too far this time. Or Lord, do you really got me? am I able to go this far? Where's the line? right? We ask this question often. And this person's asking this question and it made me just think about, um, what is it, what does it look like? Now, the questions we may be asking is Jesus saved me. Now I must keep it. Thoughts are go in our head or maybe, I must make sure that everything is right. I can't mess this up. I can't slip up now. How much can I slip up before I'm lost forever? Questions we may be asking are people are friends that may be deconstructing. It made me think about the Coast Guard. Anybody big Coast Guard fans? That's a weird question. Have you ever seen a Coast Guard water rescue before? Maybe you've seen something like this? There's a movie out there. I can't remember what the language is like in it, but it's a movie called The Guardian. Ashton Kutcher's in it with Kevin Costner. Anybody seen that movie? Great movie. It's an incredible movie. But Coast Guards are incredible people, right? They are in helicopters and they go into storms whenever a boat or something or somebody is in peril, right? And they jump from these helicopters in the middle of whatever weather, and they swim out to these people, or they're dropped onto a boat, and they drag these people through stormy waters, frigid waters, deadly waters to a cable that's just dangling in the water, and they hook these people up to it, and they drag themselves up to the helicopter. Now, when we think about that, imagine you're the person that has been saved. It had been rescued in this way. When you get home and in your nice, cozy, warm bed and your nice, fuzzy pajamas, did you start trying to tread water? No. Are you, like, walking through your day, screaming at the top of your lungs for help? Help, save me, save me. Are we looking for ways to looking for things to hold onto so that we're not going to go under? We're not gasping for air as we drive our car. No, because you've been saved. You've been delivered from the water. You're no longer in a place where your life is at risk. Christ has saved us for sure, and our salvation is set in Christ because he is our rescuer. You are not. We are not focused on our salvation. The hope we have. is not in what we have done, but it is in the finished work of Christ on the cross and in the grave. Our feet are firmly planted on the cornerstone of Christ's finished work. He dove into the grave of sin and death and raised us up in eternal hope in the finished work that he has accomplished. Our hope is not in something that we can do. Our hope is not in something that we shouldn't do. Our hope is in his finished work. Colossians 113 says, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We're no longer in the deep, tumultuous waters of sin. We are set on the rock of Christ. The Holy Spirit. He opens our eyes to a deeper reality that we are set eternally in Christ, forever, despite our past, present, or future failures. We are forever set in Christ. Number two, the spirit opens our eyes to the riches in Christ, in Christ. His glorious inheritance in the saints is what it says. Now, there's 2 ways to interpret this. It's either that we are his inheritance, that he is gaining us, that we are, that he has full claim on us, which is a good way of interpreting it. But I would interpret it the 2nd way where it is, sorry, that we are gaining an inheritance in Christ. And I read it because of verses like verse 11 in here, it says, in him, we have obtained an inheritance. Verses 13 and 14 says, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. to the praise of his glory. So we have, we are gaining an inheritance. And what is that inheritance? If the Sunday school answer would definitely work here. It's Jesus. It's Christ. It's not a salvation. It is Christ. We gain him, the perfect father, the perfect king, the perfect everything. We gain him. You've been saved to be with Jesus forever. The Holy Spirit is moment by moment drawing you nearer to Jesus, nearer to Christ, making you more like him. A phrase I've been using a lot lately as our relationship with Christ grows, as Christ grows in us. And as our hope is set on the richness of that truth, we become more like Christ. And we're already in Christ at salvation. We've been placed in him. We've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, but we will even yet be able to behold him even more when we're in his presence. This has always been the plan. Since the very beginning, God created man. He created Adam, and Eve, in his image, to be in his image, to be in his presence, to be his possession forever, and that we gain him in this relationship. But our ancient ancestors decided to not listen, and they wanted to be the king. They wanted to be the boss. So they sinned and they decided to take what they weren't supposed to take. And now that sin and that attitude and that disposition, if you will, has been passed down to all of us, as their ancient descendants. And now we are separate from Jesus. We're separate from that inheritance, that ultimate glory in Christ. But Jesus came to deliver us. He came to give us salvation. He came diving into the waters of human sinfulness to raise us to be with him forever. That's the point, to be with him. Salvation is merely the vessel that carries us to the king, to the treasure. Imagine this week, you get home from work and there's a package on the front door. You open it up every day, it's Amazon, newlyweds, am I right? You get a package on the front door, you open it up, there's a letter, and it says, dear Mrs. or Mr. so-and-so, whatever your name is. I know your guys' names, but I'm not going to go through all of that. Dear Mr. or Mrs. whatever. I am glad to inform you that you are the sole beneficiary of the king's inheritance. Enclosed in this package is a treasure that is merely a fraction of what you now possess. You're like, this sounds good. I'm excited about this, right? You open up the package and it's this really old, like, treasure chest, like a pirate's chest, right? Like super cool. Connor's getting excited about it, I can tell. You open it up and it's full of gold and diamonds, $100 bills, like the deed to a giant castle. What do you want, Shannon? Lamborghini. There a Lamborghini key in there. It's whatever you want is in this chest. What do you do next? You dump all that out, you grab the chest, and you run away excited. Look, I got a chest. Now, that chest, that treasure chest is absolutely important. It is carrying the treasure. But in reality, it is pales in comparison to the worth that was inside. The goal of it was the treasure. We do not focus merely on the vessel. We don't carry it, sorry, we don't value it over the treasure. The treasure is Christ. Paul says, open, oh Lord, open their eyes to see the riches of Christ in their life. Look up from your muddy hands that find sin so often and find the crown of Christ that's been placed on his head forever. Look up and realize that you are set in Christ forever. No nothing can take you away from that. That is richness. That is value, and he has lavished it upon us, as he said earlier in this chapter. We have blessing upon blessing in Christ. Have you called out to Jesus to be your treasure? Do you treasure him today? Or are you still trusting in yourself for your own salvation? Are you like that person who dumps out all of the value and carries the thing of less value? Number three, the Holy Spirit causes us to see the immeasurable power in Christ, the immeasurable power in Christ. Paul writes, 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, and he worked, sorry, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. This is power to those who believe those who have faith. This is resurrection power as demonstrated in Christ. A case study is Abraham. Maybe you've known Abraham. He is in Genesis, right? And he's written all throughout scripture. In Romans 5 in particular, they're writing about Abraham as a man, maybe a pillar of faith. A pillar of trusting in God. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were childless, and they were 65 and 75 years old respectively. Now, I'm not a biologist or whatever, as you can tell, but that's kind of past the age of having kids, right? But it brought to the Lord, and he said, God says this, you will have a son through your wife, Sarah. You will be the father of nations. He says, look at the stars in the sky. Your offspring will be just like them. You can't count them. There is a giant number. The you, Abraham, who have no kids, will have offspring, that will cover the beaches, like the sand covers the beaches, right? Or the stars in the sky. They've never had a kid on their own. They were more likely thinking about the end of their life than the beginning of a new one, but God Almighty, the king of the universe. He made a promise. And the text says that Abraham didn't question them. But he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. Abe's eyes were open to the immeasurable greatness of the power of God towards those who believe. And as he believed, he saw even before Jesus rose from the dead, that God was able to give life to the dead. The deadness of his body, the deadness of his wife's body. He fully believed that God was capable of doing exactly what he said. Now Paul prays for that faith for the Ephesians. That they would have their eyes open to the power in the resurrection, not as something in the past, not as something to move past, but it's something for now. A resurrection power in Christ is here today, that we can trust in the Lord with things that seem large. God brings the dead things back to life. He takes impossible things and he makes them possible. As God is working all things in accordance with his will, we can be sure that there's nothing too big for him. He is over all things. In these 3 things, Paul is wanting their eyes to be opened to a deeper reality of what life in Christ looks like. They have a saving faith. They have good works, but Paul wants them to experience in a real, tangible way, life in Christ, like Elisha's servant on that morning when his eyes were opened, and he saw the power and majesty of God surrounding him. He wants them to experience that. Now, Paul can speak on this thing with personal experience. As a form of Pharisee, Paul would travel around, and he was zealous for God. He trusted the God of the Old Testament, and he believed that he was doing what God wanted him to do when he was hunting down Christians, bringing him before the courts. And whenever he was there responsible for the death of Stephen. He thought he was honoring God. He was zealous for God. In his mind, he knew this, but he was blind to Christ. He was blind to the Messiah, that the Old Testament speaks so often about. Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And remember what happened, he falls down, his eyes are blinded. He says, who are you, Lord? He says, I am Jesus, the one that you were persecuting. And then he sends them to the road. He sends them to Damascus, and there would be a man who would share the gospel with Paul. And Paul receives that gospel. And he now becomes the man who wrote this story that we're reading, this letter that we're reading. And much of the New Testament. But right at that moment when he receives the gospel, something like scales fall from his eyes. And now he's able to see in fullness the God that he is so zealously thought he was following, but how God has delivered us through his son, Jesus Christ. He thought he knew God, but God opened his eyes to a fuller reality found in Christ. Today, I'm praying that scales would fall from our eyes, that our stale faith would be renewed in Christ, that this hope, his hope would be realized, his richness would be treasured, and his power would be trusted. Now finally, I want you to notice this. There's not a single command in this passage we just read. Paul is not coming up to the Ephesians, hitting them upside the head with a Bible and said, you need to hope better. You need to be better. You need to treasure Christ more. You need to be more aware of his power. I'm commanding you to do this. No, not a single command, but a request. Not from the Ephesians, but from God Almighty himself. God, would you please open their eyes to see all that you're doing in Christ? Just like Elisha, when he's praying for a servant. God, please open his eyes so he will not be afraid and see all that you're doing right now, that you have us safe in your arms. The truth is that you can't be better. You can't hope better. You can't count the riches better. You can't see the power better. You need God almighty by his Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart, to see what is the hope of his calling that he's called you to, to see the riches of life in Christ. The riches of his immeasurable, great power toward us who believe through resurrection power. You need Christ. You need the Holy Spirit, and you need God to send him into your heart so that you can cry out to him. So come to him. Ask him to open your eyes to his will in Christ. Meet him in his word and ask the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ to open your eyes to all that God is doing in Christ. I need that. You need that. We all need that. And I would add an extra part of this. Paul is a brother in Christ writing to this church. Now there's going to be some correction happening here. But he's saying this prayer, For some people, he doesn't even know. Maybe. He knows some of them. Why can't we be a church that prays this prayer on behalf of others? We pray for each other's health. We pray for each other's jobs. We pray for each other's families, but the most important thing that I need that you need that we all need is to truly know Christ in a deeper and real way. Because when we are doing that, the body of Christ being formed together and knitted together, all becoming like the head, is operating in the way that we're supposed to. The mission that he's given us to continue to, by his spirit, build the church by sharing the gospel and calling sinners to repentance, is only possible by his spirit. I'm so encouraged when we go back here and pray, and we're asking the Lord to bring lost people to himself. Because we can't. We could have the coolest events. We could have the coolest worship, the coolest whatever. And none of that matters if God doesn't open the eyes of our hearts, the eyes of the hearts of lost people. So let's join in together and pray for each other for these things to happen in our life. Let's pray. God, you are good and you are gracious. You have opened our eyes. Lord, we have seen the goodness of Christ. If we're believers, we have called on you for salvation, and we have already began to taste and see that the Lord is good. But Lord, you are not limited to the 31 years of my life. You are far more magnificent than I can even imagine, that we can even imagine. Lord, there is no limit to your hope. There is no limit to your richness in Christ. There's no limit to your power. Lord, would you day by day, by your spirit, make us more like Christ, and may we be able to even more since Christ in our life? Lord, would we be closer to you today as a result of reading your word? Lord, would your Holy Spirit be calling to memory all that is in Christ? And Lord, let us love one another. Let us serve one another. Lord, we do pray that your Holy Spirit would go before and come behind. Lord, we can do nothing apart from your grace and your Holy Spirit. God, would you send forth your spirit to call people, to have people be interested in hearing the gospel? God, we will continue to be faithful. We'll continue to come to you. We'll continue to gather here and to lift up your name and praise and in supplication, asking you to move. God be with this church, be with all of us. We love you, Jesus' name. Amen.