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Lighthouse Baptist Church
Paul's Prayer
[music] >>Thank you for listening to this message brought to you by the Audio Ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church. It's connected in New York. For more great content, please visit us at LighthouseBaptist.org. Now let's open our hearts and minds to the Word of God. [music] >>Chapter number one, and as we get started, I was talking about the cool ribbon thingy in your Bible, and I was gifted something. It gave me like four ribbon thingies. How cool is that? Isn't that awesome? So now I can keep track of all the different passages I go to. So there you go. Thank you, Christine, for the cool ribbon thingy. I don't know what they're called. I call it a cool ribbon thingy. So if you know the actual term, feel free to let me know. But Ephesians 1, we're going to look at verses 15 through 23 this morning. As we continue to study through the book of Ephesians, Ephesians is a great book. And later on, it gives super, super practical. If you don't believe me, just look at Ephesians 4, and you'll find a whole bunch of practical knowledge of how husbands are supposed to treat their wives, wives are supposed to treat their husbands, how we're to be kind one to another, all those different things. And we'll get there eventually. But Ephesians chapter 1 this morning. Please stand out of respect for the reading of God's word as we read these verses. And this message may be a little long, or maybe really short, depending on how long, how well my voice handles this morning. So we'll figure it out. I got cough drops in my pocket too bad. I put them in this pocket because now they're all melted. So I took one out during we were singing that last song and now my hymn book is all sticky. So super cool. I get to now clean that up. And if you saw me lick my fingers, there's a reason why I didn't want it to stick to all the pages. And so there you go. Don't shake my hand afterwards. Ephesians 1 verses 15 down to 23. "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 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. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power? Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come. And have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that filth all in all this morning. We're going to look at God's power eventually. And so if you read those verses with me, you'll get where I'm going. You know, we will talk about that in a bit less once again though. Go to the Lord this time asking him to speak to our hearts. I don't want the messages that I preach just to be messages that I just spew out. I want it to impact you. And your desire as you come into church should be that God will teach you something that you can now live out. That is the goal, okay? It's not just knowledge. We want to apply that knowledge and wisdom in how we live our life, okay? So let's ask the Lord to do that this morning. Heavenly Father, we're grateful for your word. We're grateful for the opportunity that we have to study it. We're grateful for this book of Ephesians sort of ask that this message would impact our hearts so that we wouldn't just be here just because it's Sunday, but Lord that we would learn something that we can apply to our lives. So you are a God of great power. It would help us to understand that this morning, but there are so many needs represented in this place. What we prayed for many of them this morning. But Lord, I ask that we would be reminded of just what you have done and what you're going to do. But I ask that this message would impact our hearts in a very real way. And we pray this all in the wonderful, precious holy name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So if you remember, we are working through the book of Ephesians. So last week, guess what we did? We preached, I preached, you will listen to verses 13 and 14. And so he's kind of continuing on his thought here. So let's kind of back up. Let's read verses 13 and 14. It's just a good, a little context, okay? When we look at an epistle, it's a letter. Believe it or not, when Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, he didn't write chapter 1, verse 1, okay? He wrote a letter. The chapters and verses were added later. So we didn't have to have a big scroll. Aren't you glad for that this morning? That's not like, oh, bring your Ephesians scroll. And then we got to spend 20 minutes trying to find the place that I'm preaching from. And it would be really hard because I would have a whole bunch of scrolls and we'd be in trouble, okay? And so these were added later for our benefit. So as people started preaching, you can say, turn to Ephesians 1, verse 13, okay? And so we got to understand that as we read through these things. So look at verses 13 and 14. "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory." And then he says, "Wherefore." So he's basing it off of what he just said, okay? And so as we look into this, don't forget that verses 13 and 14 are key to our understanding as we look at this, okay? So first, I'll point number one this morning, sorry. I'm going to call periodically, please forgive me, okay? Can we all forgive me? Is we good? Okay. So look at verse number 16 as we start off. So the first point is it's Paul's prayer. You're taking notes, Paul's prayer. Okay, look at verse 16. I'll be Ephesians chapter 1. C is not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayer. So he's praying, okay? And we're going to look at its reason now, okay? So point number one, Paul's prayer, letter A, its reason why is he praying this prayer? Look back at verse number 15. "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus in love unto all the saints, C is not to make mention for you in my prayers." So you see what he says? Because I heard of your faith, now I pray for you, okay? So he's praying for them that God's work would continue, that they wouldn't be just sedentary in their new Christian faith. So the first point here, it's a reason. Their faith in Christ. You see that in verse 15, "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus." We're going to look at some other verses. Can we do that this morning? Okay, so if you have a ribbon thingy, put it in Ephesians chapter one, okay? Now go over to the book of Romans. The Romans chapter one. Romans chapter number one. Romans one, verse number 17. Okay, it says this, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Of course, we know, and if you're new and if you don't know this yet, you're not just and you're not righteous if you don't, if you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ. By the way, this verse is the verse that really impacted the great Martin Luther. It was this verse, "The just shall live by faith." What he had learned from his church was that it wasn't faith, it was works. And he read this and he goes, "Wait a second. What I believe and what I've been taught does not match up with what scripture is actually saying." It's very important. There's a lot of people out there that say things that doesn't match up with scripture. We've got to understand scripture. We've got to Romans 14 verses 22 and 23. Romans 14 verses 22 and 23. It's kind of one of those verses that sometimes in your Christian life, you can think you're doing pretty good. And then you read with some of these verses and scripture and you're like, "Never mind." This is one of those passages that kind of hits me that way. Romans 14 verses 22 and 23. It says, "Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God? Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing, which he alloweth." Verse 23, "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith." Look at this last phrase. "For whatsoever is not of faith is..." Uh-oh. Anybody else feeling the uh-oh this morning? We do a lot of things without faith, don't we? This verse very clearly tells us that whatsoever is not done in faith is sin. We're not as good as we think we are. Okay, that's what I'm saying. We, another passage of scripture, it says, him that knows to do good and doeth and not, to him it is sin. We're not as good as we think we are. And we've got to remind ourselves of that, but faith is vitally important. They're faith in Christ. So he is thankful, he is praying for them because of their faith in Christ. Look back at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 15. "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in Lord Jesus..." Look what he says next, the last phrase here, "and love unto all the saints." So what else is he praying for? What else caused him to pray for them? Their faith in Christ and their love for all saints. Their love for each other. I want lighthouse to be known for one thing, that we love each other. And it's not just words, by the way, scripturally. Love isn't just words, it is an action. Jesus didn't, God didn't just say he loved the world, he did something about it. He gave us his son. Love is not just words, it's actions. The love for the saints. Look down at verse 17. Let's skip over verse number 16, we already read that one. Verse 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. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." So what is the content for his prayer? So let her be, if you're taking notes, it's content. Its reason was their faith and their love for each other. Now he's getting into the content of his prayer. What is he really praying for? First of all, look at verse 17. "That the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." So knowledge, first of all, it kind of helps us to kind of get this. We change the order a little bit from Scripture. Knowledge, it refers to this. Two examples, truths, and commands that God wants us to know and believe. So knowledge, it is things that God wants you to know. It's things that God wants you to believe. It's things that God wants you to do. Now if we study through Scripture, it is pretty clear what God wants us to do. If I took time this morning and I had you raise your hand like a classroom and we mentioned all the things that we know God wants us to do, we have a pretty good list. If you've been coming to church for a long time and you've known Christ for a long time, you know what God wants you to do. But there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. We know what God wants us to do, but the problem is we don't do it. Do it. My kids know what I expect of them. Do they always do it? No. They're children who haven't picked apples. I can't tell you how many times I told Josiah to stop trying to karate chop Ethan. They were like pretend fighting and he was flying through and he was like, "Hi, he's jumping all over the place." And I'm like, "Dude, you're going to hurt yourself or you're going to hurt somebody else." I can't tell you how many times I told him that. Josiah knows he shouldn't do it, but guess what? He doesn't always affect his actions. And before we go, "Come on, Josiah, you know better. We do the same thing." We know what God wants us to do, but wisdom is the application of knowledge. So Josiah flying through going, "Hi, to Ethan." He knows he shouldn't do it. Wisdom is I'm going to stop doing that. That's wisdom. It is the application of knowledge. If you went to school, you probably learned a lot of stuff. But knowing stuff doesn't really make you successful. It's the application of that knowledge. It's now taking what you learned in class and now living it out in real life. My teachers were liars. I'm going to tell you, they were liars. They told me back when I was taking math back in high school, you're not always going to have a calculator, liars. I have a cell phone. It's got a calculator on it. I can eat. I don't even have to type in the numbers. I can say, "Hey, Google, what is this?" And it'll tell me. Liars, I'm just kidding. It is the application of knowledge. And I don't want our church to just be people that know a lot about this book. I want us to live it. It is so important. God is not interested in you just packing your head with knowledge about him. He wants that knowledge to now impact how you live it and how you live your life. That's what he wants. And so Paul here is praying that they would, what did they say here in verse 17? That the God or Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That you would know who God was and that you would live it out. This was his prayer. His faith is great, but that's not the end. Even the great commission, the command that God gave us, it says, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations," right? And then at the end, he's teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. You are to go and you are to share the gospel, but guess what? You're also now to tell them what God expects and how he wants you to live. God is not just interested in your salvation, he's interested in you now changing your life. Why? It is the best life. He's not just up there being like, "I don't want you to have any fun." No, if we live the life that God wants us to live, we will have greater joy and happiness than the world can ever imagine. It's the truth. Think about all the different problems that our world has, the different health issues that they have because they're living a life that is contrary to what God expects them to live. And that's reality. God wants us to have a fruitful and happy and joyful life, and he's given us all things to richly enjoy inside of the confines of what he has said. In church, we got to get that. God doesn't want us to be like, "How are you all saying happiness is the Lord, by the way?" I was watching you. I was about this close. It's going to be like, "Mike, we're singing it again." But then I saw the guys coming up for the offering. I don't want them to awkwardly stand here while we sing it again. We sing "Happiness is the Lord," and you look like you weren't happy at all. Especially you teams. That whole row, I saw you. Let it affect you. It's okay to be joyful. Christian shouldn't be like walking around like, "Boom, life is terrible." You know, I have joy because I know God is still working in me and he has a plan for me. That's all bonus in case you're wondering. That has nothing to do with the message, but that's all bonus. We were at 18th. The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches or the glory of his inheritance in the saints. He says, "Hey, I want your eyes to be opened." Here's the truth. The unsaved person, they see God's Word. They cannot understand it. They are blind to the truth. Why? This is a spirit of God and he speaks to us. Have you ever shared the gospel with somebody and it's like, "Whew!" And they just don't get it. And you come through the gospel and you're like, "Man, that was the best sharing of the gospel. I've ever done my entire life." And they look at you like you have four heads. Why? They're blind to the truth. Unless the Holy Spirit of God starts peeling back those layers over their eyes, they will not see. So Paul's desire for this church at Ephesus is the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened. Hey, I want your eyes to be opened to the truth. I want you to understand, because I don't know all of you here, that we've got to understand that this happens at the point of you accepting the gospel. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, your eyes aren't open this morning. They're not. So I got like a little tiny bit of my cough drop and now it's like I broke it. Give me a second. Okay, it's almost there. It was driving me nuts. It was like, "Oh, my tongue." And I couldn't figure it out. It was like sharp. Okay. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, your eyes have not been opened yet. And you got to understand, you're a sinner. We've all violated God's law. As a matter of fact, Scripture goes as far as to say if you offended one point, you're guilty of all. So if you're a liar, guess what you are? You're a breaker of God's law. God very clearly tells us that we are not to lie. So if you've lied before you are a transgressor, you are a breaker of God's law. Because of that, there's a price that has to be paid. Your sin cannot just be skipped over and God will not just turn a blind eye to sin because he is holy and he is right and he is just. And so therefore there has to be a payment that has to be paid for sin in Romans 623 says for the way to the sin is death. Separation from God forever in a literal place called hell. But God's commandant means he demonstrated, he proved his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Christ, who is holy, sinless, absolutely perfect. He died to take your place and that's a tremendous truth. But you have to accept it. You have to take that for yourself. I can gift you a billion dollars, which I don't have, so don't ask me. I could gift you a billion dollars and I can say it's here, it's ready for you. And you can go, eh, I'm good, I like my life the way it is. And you can walk out and that gift never gets applied to your account. You never put in the bank account, you never now have a billion dollars, that's not how it works. You have to take it, you have to accept it. And Ephesians 2.89 says, "For by grace are you saved through faith." That is you accepting God's gift of salvation. You say, "Okay, God, I now depend on you 100% for my salvation." And church, everyone under the sound of my voice, if you have not done that, you are not scripturally saved. John 14.6 says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comeeth unto the Father, but by me." And that is Jesus talking. Anyone who tells you that it is Jesus plus anything, they're lying, they're not telling you the truth. I want to make this clear because this verse here, talking about your eyes being enlightened, if you don't know Christ as their Savior, your eyes are not. And I pray that you will accept Him this morning. Many continues on. He says, "That you may know what is the hope of His calling." Adam Clark in his commentary said this, "That you may clearly discern the glorious and important objects of your hope to the enjoyment of which God has called or invited you." Can't tell you something, hope in the Bible is not like this. I hope to be a billionaire so I can give you a billion dollars. You can hope a lot of things, right? You can be like, "Man, I hope I get to drive a Lamborghini." That would be sweet, probably never will happen, okay? But man, I hope that would be awesome. That is not scripturally hope, okay? That's not the hope that Paul is talking about. Hope in the scriptures talks about an expected end, the hope of your calling, that God has called you, God has called you out from the world to now live a righteous life. And now you have hope, you haven't expected end because He's not done working with you yet. You have hope. God has great plan for you, Christian. God is not done. He continues on. He says, "And what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Go to Romans 8 this morning, Romans 8, Romans 8. How did I completely skip over the look of Romans? I went from Acts to 1 Corinthians, I don't know what happened there. Romans 8 verses 16 through 18. This is an incredible couple of verses here. And I want all of us who know Christ as our Savior, for us to understand really the scope of what we're about to read. You're not just now bought out of sin and death. You have now had a completely different relationship. Romans 5 actually talks about this, how, for if when we were enemies, we're now reconciled into God. So now it's like you're an enemy, you're contrary to God, you're fighting against Him, now look at Romans 8 verses 16 through 18. He says, "The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God." How can I know, Pastor, if I'm a child of God? If the Holy Spirit is convicting you, I can tell you a certainty you are a child of God. If you sin and the Holy Spirit convicts you, I can tell you a certainty that you are a child of God. Why? Why? Because of this works. Hey, the Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. And then He says in verse 17, "And of children, so if you're a child of God, great, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." Look at verse 18, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with a glory which shall be revealed in us." And He says, "Hey, you are a child of God and you're not just a child, you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ." And He says, "By the lay, the sufferings of this life, the pain, the issues, the bad health, the whatever it is, the poison ivy that doesn't want to go away like porphyse repeat, whatever it is," look what He says, "it's not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us," meaning it does not even hold a candle to a God's God in store for you. There is not even like a tiny bit that makes it kind of like comparable to what God has for you. And you think about what Paul went through and the difficulties he thinks in the ministering of the gospel. He goes, "The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Church God has great things in store for you, the riches of His glory. And I can tell you, we will not fully understand what God's got in store for us because part of it, God told John not to write down. You know why? He said, "This is our secret," they'll find out when they get up here. And you can talk about everything that God has revealed and you can kind of imagine it but I can tell you something, it is far beyond what you can imagine. It is exceeding anything that we could ask or think. It is beyond what we can even comprehend, the glory that God has for you. And then if you look back at Ephesians 1-18 and he says, "And what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." So your joint airs with Christ. What is this inheritance that He's talking about? Go to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4. 1 verses 3 and 4, verse Peter 1 verses 3 and 4. Now we're at some point number 1, so I got to kind of move it so just FYI. In this case if I start moving faster, you'll get it, there's one more. First Peter 1 verses 3 and 4, "Blessed be the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and a faith is not away reserved in heaven for you." What a tremendous thing, this inheritance that God's got in store for you. It is beyond which you can understand. It is incorruptible, it is undefiled, it will not fade away. It is just as pure, just as amazing as it's ever been. And that's an amazing truth. Let's continue on point number 2 this morning, point number 2. Oh, I only have two points, sweet. Point number 2, God's power, okay, point number 2, God's power. So the first point was Paul's prayer, now let's look at God's power, okay? What God, what God can do and what He's done. Ephesians 1 verse number 19, Ephesians 1 verse number 19. I feel like a giant agent taking off right there, okay, verse number 19. Now therefore, that's wrong verse, okay, Ephesians 1 verse number 19, not 2 19, 1 19. I got it. And what is exceeding greatness of His power to us, word, who believe according to the working of His mighty power. So first of all, let's understand it's work, okay? It's work, God's power, it's work. Verse number 20 of Ephesians 1, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Hey, God's work in you really is because of Christ's resurrection. If Christ just died, it'd be a great story, right? The Jesus died for the sins of the world, but it really wouldn't mean anything, would it? He just died, it wouldn't prove that He's God. His resurrection proves His deity, that His sacrifice was accepted by God for our sins. His resurrection is the proof that what He said He accomplished. That's why the resurrection is an extremely important part when you share the gospel. Share His death, His burial, and His resurrection. The resurrection proves that He is different than everybody else. I can claim that I died for Darryl's sins, but that's not going to prove anything, right? My resurrection would, okay, and it's an amazing, amazing thing, so which He wrought in Christ the power, His mighty power, He wrought in Christ. Look at He says, "When He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand to the heavenly places," so Christ didn't just rise from the dead and just kind of go to heaven. He's now sat, sitting down, meaning His work is complete at the right hand of the Father. That is the position of honor, not disgrace, a position of power. Sitting at the right hand of a king is not just a flippant thing, and we don't understand it because of our culture, but this is a big deal. He is sitting down at the right hand of the Father, meaning His sacrifice was accepted. He was sinless, and He always will be, and that's an amazing, amazing thing. Look at verses 21 and 22, so it's work. God's power, God's power is so great that Jesus Christ even rose Himself from the dead. He was talking to me, and He was like, "Man, I'm so glad that the angels rolled that stone out of the way so Jesus could get out," and I'm like, "Hey, Jesus didn't need Him to touch a thing. He could move that stone. He could say, 'Stone, get out of my way,' and the stone had to listen." Why? He created it. He's God. But I want you to understand, God Jesus did that of His own. He didn't need any help. He didn't need a defibrillator. He rose on His own. Ephesians 1, verses 21 and 22 says, "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, and not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and have put all things under His feet, and gave to Him to be the head over all things to the church." You know what this means? It's scope. God's power is not just limited to heaven, God's power affects everything. So let's kind of break this down. All principality and all these different things. So principality is a chief or magistrate, someone in authority, okay? So like your president, your governor, your whatever, okay? Those people. They have tremendous power, right? They can make our life really nice or really terrible, okay? Can I? Nobody? Okay? They can make our life really nice or really terrible, and we see it even in our own country. Can I tell you something? You ready? God's bigger than them. I'm not reliant on upon this election. Now we need to vote, and we need to make our voice heard, and we need to vote according to biblical principles. I get that, and I understand that, but guess what my God is not limited by this election? He's got a plan. He knows what he's doing, and I can trust in it. I don't have to lose sleep this entire month as we get ready for November. I don't have to do that. My God's got this. He knows what he's doing. He's got a plan, and I can trust him. He is above all authority. Chief, magistrates, look at above all power. This carries this authority and jurisdiction, so kind of the first one is the chief or magistrate, like a specific person, and then you think of the power, the authority, their laws. Here in Paul's day, you know where Paul is in Romans? Prison. You know why? He was preaching the gospel. He was, by the way, in prison in Ephesians 2, but that's okay. I said Romans, and I don't know why. Ephesians. He is in prison. You know why he's preaching the gospel. You know what? There were laws against what he was doing. But guess what he did? He continued to be faithful. So we may face that in America where there are laws against what we try to do. But guess what we need to be? Faithful. And it's easy to say, "Yeah, I'll be faithful in those times, but wait a second. I'm going to get a little mean." You ready? It's going to hurt. Okay? Because sometimes we're like, "I'll be faithful when they start persecuting me." Here's my question. Are you faithful now? If you're not faithful now, I can tell you a certainty. You won't be faithful then. A pastor, that's mean. It's the truth. So you think of the churches in China and other places where they're being persecuted and dragged off to prison and being mistreated and all these different things. You know why? Because they've decided we're going to be faithful even in times of opposition. In church, I don't know what God has in store for America, neither do you. And anybody who tells you they know they're lying because they don't. There's one person that doesn't ask God and he has a plan and he knows what he's doing, but we have to be faithful. We have to continue to say, "You know what God? I'm going to show up and it may hurt and it may not be comfortable for me and I may have to sacrifice and I may have to not eat on Wednesday night to come to church on Wednesday night and I get it." The guys, if we're not faithful because of food, we're not going to be faithful when they start to barge down your door and they drag you off to prison, you won't be faithful then. It's just reality. We've got to be faithful. God is powerful, more powerful than all principality than all power. Look at the next thing. Some of all principality and power and might, strength, you know there's a lot of strength that comes up against us, that fights against us all the time, but you know what? My God is more powerful than them. Josiah is getting this and he's like, "Hey Dad, God's more powerful than lying, right? Yeah, he is." "Hey Dad, it's got more powerful than a T-Rex. And could God kill a T-Rex? Yeah, he can." And he's starting to get it. He's starting to understand that yes, there are things that Daddy can't fight physically. If it was me against the lion, I would die, okay? I'm not David. I would die. I would not have a chance, but my God is bigger. And we may face incredible opposition and we may face things that we seem like it is hopeless. There is no way God can turn this nation around, baloney, baloney. Well, it's never been worse. You know in America we used to sell human beings? I've been worse, okay? It's been worse. We don't sell human beings anymore. We don't. Praise the Lord, and it's right, and we shouldn't, but it's been worse. You know what God did? God caused revivals. People got saved. God did work. It's been worse in America. You know at one point we were killing each other? Yeah, reality, civil war. It happened. It's a real thing. It's been worse. So don't believe all the hype. Don't believe and say, "Well, it's never been worse in America," baloney. It has always been wicked. America has always been wicked. There's always been wickedness going on. Now it's more prevalent. Now it's out and about and praised. I get it, but America has not always been 100% righteous. We haven't. And we got to understand that yes, we face incredible opposition and yes, it's hard to share the gospel, but it's never been easy. Do you think it was easy for the Apostle Paul? No? Okay? If you do, you need to start coming to Sunday school in the book of Acts as Pastor Pete preaches through it because you're going to find out it wasn't easy. It was difficult and he faced opposition and he was shipwrecked and he was beaten and he was left for dead. It was hard. It was difficult and it's going to be difficult for us too because it's not a physical fight. It's a spiritual one, but you know what? My God is powerful. Let's continue on. Far above, far above, by the way, not just a little bit, far above all principality and power and might and all dominion and dominion, lordship, those that kind of like, you know, they take over certain parts of the land. That is more powerful than that. Do you think he's kind of getting at a point here? God's more powerful than all these different things. Do you think God can handle our situation? Come on. When I struggle with my health, God can handle it. When I struggle with my finances, God can handle it. When I struggle with people, God can handle it. When I find that I'm being mistreated for something that someone says about me, that is not true, God can handle it. Why? He is all powerful. You're not. He is. He is all powerful. Look what he says here at the end and every name that is named, he's far above every name that is named, every creature, every rank. And when you continue on with this, he doesn't have to stop there, he says, but also, okay, not just in this world, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. Meaning, he is far above every name, every creature, everything that's ever been created. You know why? He created it. You know how much far above something has to be to create something out of nothing? God didn't have, like, you know, Legos, you know, if you can create something cool with Legos, right? If I had a Lego set up here and we spent, you know, hours working on it, we could create some really cool stuff. But you know what you have to have to create something out of Legos? Legos. Imagine, nothing, absolutely nothing, a zero with the ring rubbed out, nothing, and God makes everything, not by getting down and, like, molding things, but by speaking it. We are still trying to explore the great reaches of the universe and we haven't reached the end, and you know what God did? He just said, "Let there be stars." And it was, planets, things that we cannot fully understand. These huge giant planets that have nothing on it, why? So we could look at it and say, "Wow, look at my God." I encourage you to do something. I want these beautiful fall nights when there are no clouds, I want you to go outside. Maybe you find a really dark place. Maybe you all go to Jim and Kirby's house, Jim and Jenny's house, because they live out in the middle of nowhere, go out there, wall stand in their backyard, and we're going to do this. You know what that does? That teaches me I'm that small, and if I'm that small, I'm this little tiny speck on this little tiny planet, rotating around this little tiny star, and God cared enough to send his son for me, he's got what I'm facing, he can handle it. God is exceedingly, he's above all of his creation, every name, not just in this world, but in the world to come. Look at what he says in verse 23, "And I've put all things under his feet." It's kind of like you look at Scripture and sometimes it's like he has made the earth his footstool, kind of like God's sitting on a recliner and he's like, "Who puts a split on the earth?" That's kind of the picture. That's how big your God is, and look what he says, "And gave him to be the head over all things to the church." He has done a tremendous work. Let's talk about his church as we finish up this message. Look at verse, the second part of verse 22 of Ephesians chapter 1, and then we'll get into verse number 23, and it says this, "And to be the head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." I'm so thankful for God's work in the church. The church is mostly comprised of Gentiles, people that in the Old Testament really didn't have a lot to know about God. God revealed himself to his people, the nation of Israel, and we didn't really know a lot about him. The nation of Israel was meant to be a shining beacon to the world and to show them the God of the universe and to show them God and how he wanted them to live and how he blessed them and what he did. They failed, the church so do we, but God has done an amazing thing in this body, the church. Look at Romans 12 verses 4 and 5, Romans 12 verses 4 and 5. We're almost done. I know you're looking at the clock and I guess 12.09 pastor, you're running out of time. I'm just kidding. Nobody does that, which is cool. I don't think. It's too bad. We're still going. Okay. Scroll 9. Romans 12 verses 4 and 5. For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members, one of another. We're a body. When we come together, we're not just an assembly of a bunch of different bodies, we are to assemble to be one body. Now, it's not like Frankenstein, kind of weird. We all have different responsibilities. We all have different jobs. Tonight, we're going to continue on. We're studying the spiritual gifts and the gift of ruling, the gift of administration. We're going to look at that tonight. I encourage you to come back. We all come together. We all have different roles. We all have different jobs, but guess what? When we're all working together, great things happen. He has caused us to be one body. And he, guess what? It belongs to him. It belongs to him because, first of all, we got to understand this because he purchased it. Go to Acts, chapter 20. Acts, chapter 20. We're almost done. I didn't know I'd say that all the time. Acts 20. And you know whenever a pastor says, "Hey, I'm almost done." Give him about 20 more minutes and he will be. So just get your water. There won't be 20 minutes. So Acts 20, verse 28, "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God." Now, look at this, "What ye have purchased with his own blood." Guess what? The church belongs to him because he purchased it at tremendous cost, his blood. And guess what? God has every right to tell the people that he purchased with his blood how he wants them to live. Well, it's not fair. Everybody else is doing this. It doesn't matter. God has every right to tell you how to live. He purchased you. He bought you. And just like how your bag of potato chips doesn't tell you how to eat them, okay? He does. It's just the same for us to try and say, "Okay, God, don't use me this way." God, I don't want to go to the mission field. God says, "I don't care." That's where I've called you, and that's what I've equipped you to do. And we got to understand that, too. God has every right to tell you what he wants you to do. Just like how my cell phone doesn't tell me how long I play Clash of Clans on it. Okay, now I do it, but I don't actually play Clash of Clans, but whatever, okay, it's a good example. And we say, "Okay, I'm going to play this for a long time, and it can tell you how long you played it, but it doesn't tell you what to do. You do it." And we got to understand that God has every right to tell us what we get to, what he wants us to do, and we are expected to say, "Okay, God, I surrender to it, and I'm going to do it." Okay? That's what I want you to understand with this. He has every right to tell you what to do. Go back to Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 23. So this is an interesting verse, and verse number 23 says this, "Which is his body, the fullness of him, the filth, all in all." Now, I want you to understand, we're not physically the body of Jesus Christ. Okay, we understand that, right? We're not actually his body, but we're to act like it, meaning we represent somebody far bigger than me. My dad always told me this whenever I went over to somebody's house, he said, "Remember, you're an Utley." You know what that meant? There are certain things that I expect you to do, and I expect you to live differently because of the fact that you are an Utley, and how much more should we live differently because we are Christ child? Do you know what I'm saying? We should live differently because I don't just represent the Utley name, I represent my Savior, Jesus Christ. And by the way, that is what should motivate you now to live for him, which is his body, the fullness of him that filth, that filth, all in all. Adam Clark in his commentary said this, he said, "How, in any other sense, the church can be said to be the fullness of him who fills all in all is difficult to say. However, as Jesus Christ is represented to be the head in the church, the body under that head, the individual being so many members in that body, and as it requires a body and members to make a head complete, so it requires a church or general assembly of believers to make up the body of Christ. When therefore the Jews and Gentiles are brought into this church, the body may be said to be complete, and thus Christ has his visible fullness upon earth. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, he is the head of the church, but guess what that requires? People to fill in the rest. The church hears the thing, God's not done yet. Well, why are we still here? Why hasn't he taken us away? Because there are still people we need to reach with the gospel. You get it? That's my responsibility. That's yours. There are still people that God says I'm not done yet. Maybe he's being compassionate and being long-suffering to allow more people to come in, and allow more people to come in, and allow more people to come in. But we have to be busy. We have to be. We can't sit around and go, "Well, the world's terrible. You're right." It is. But it is our responsibility to share the gospel with them, and they may not like it, they may not treat you nice, they may not be like, "Wow, you're the best Christian ever." But we are called to do it. God has tremendous power. When you look, go to Matthew chapter 28, we're going to finish with this, because I think this is a great way to finish it. Matthew 28. I know you all close your Bibles, and now I'm making you go, and you're like, "You close yours." I know, but I'm opening it up again, Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. We're actually going to start with verse 18. This is commonly called the Great Commission. Is Jesus' last command to his disciples that are standing there, watching him ascend into heaven? Look what he says here. In verse 18, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore.'" Do you see what he's saying? Hey, guys, I've got all power in heaven and earth. Now you go because of that, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And look what he says, "And lo, I am with you all weight, even unto the end of the world and men." That means to me, I am to go in God's power, because he's got the power to handle it. And when I get scared, I don't have to be. Why? He promised to be right there beside me. The one that is all powerful, the one that is great, the one that says, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth." He says, "Go ye therefore," because of what I just told you, the one by the way, you're not going alone. Church, that's what I want you to get. God's power is a tremendous thing, but he has called you to go and share the truth, but he said, "You're never, ever alone." This task is daunting. This task is too great for me to do. But God said, "Hey, I've got all power, so when you go, I am right there with you." We're all going to stand. We're having time of invitation this morning. I know I went a little long. I get it. I hope it impacted you, because God's power is a great thing. First, maybe, maybe this morning, we need to say, "Okay, God, I know you're all powerful. I know you're great, and I know you can do great things, but God, this morning I am surrendering to your power." God, I don't know what you have for me. I don't know what you're going to do, but God, I'm willing to go, because I know you have tremendous power, and I know you're right there with me. Let's do business with Him this morning, let's do business with God. God has done a great thing. God has given us great power. He has great power, and He wants us now to go in that power and reach people with a gospel. That'd be trying to find a page here. We'll let her. The altar is open. You can do business with God right in your seat. Let me say, "Hey, pastor, I don't know if I'm saved this morning. I don't know if I have this tremendous relationship." You talked about being joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and I don't know if that's me, pastor. Here's what I encourage you to do. Come forward, get my attention. I will get someone in our church to take you in a private room, to take the Word of God, and show you how you can know. God doesn't want you to live in doubt. God doesn't want you to live in question marks. God wants you to know without a shadow of a doubt where you're headed this morning. But for the rest of the church, and knows Jesus Christ as their Savior, God doesn't want you to just kind of live your life. We're like, "Oh, life is terrible. No God wants you to impact others with the gospel." We hope that message was an encouragement to you. To stay up to date with us, please follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook, and LBC is connected. If you would like more information on how heaven can be your home, please visit LighthouseBaptist.org/TheGospel. [music] (upbeat music) You