Prayer that Reflect the Heart of God Part 3 - Ephesians 1:15-23

1:10He really wanted this piece of art as a priceless painting. And so he sent out his agent for him to go and secure or buy this piece of art. He sent him off to Europe. The guy was gone for several months. Finally came back to California, returns to Mr. Hearst and reports, I'm sorry, Mr. Hearst, you I found the paintings, but you can't buy them. And Mr. Hearst was like, What do you mean I can't buy them? I want them.

1:39I've got money. I will pay anything to get them. Get me those paintings. He said, I'm sorry, you can't. And a little frustrated, Mr. Hearst said, why not? Please tell me why I can't have these paintings. And the agent went on to tell him, it's because you already own them. You already possessed them. They're in your warehouse. You just don't realize it. And so that's why you can't buy them. And I think, and I tell you this story because I think it relates to our passage this morning. I think many Christians today, many of us believers here this morning, if we're honest, we're like this man in how we pray. And we're constantly searching and praying for and asking for God to give us more, right? More faith, more hope, more strength, more power, more spiritual richness, right? We ask God for these things. And it's similar in the fact that when we actually sit down and realize and we read from the scriptures, we already possess all of that. Everything that we need, everything that we have is in Christ. We possess it already in Christ. We don't need to pray for it. For more power or more faith, we just need God to help us understand that which we already possess in his son. He has given us everything. And Paul understood that reality, and it transformed his life. It transformed his prayers and how he prayed for the Ephesian believers. And so that is, I think, if we can come to understand that like Paul did, it will transform our lives as well. Well, if you're just joining us for the first time this morning, or perhaps you were not here a year ago when I preached and the year before that, it's actually taken me three years just to get through the end of Ephesians 1.

3:46That kind of happens when you only preach once a year. But we're going to be finally finishing chapter 1 this morning of Ephesians. And by way of review, I want to quickly make several observations that we've made so far and kind of bring us all back up to speed. And then we'll get to our text this morning, which begins in verse 19 through the end of the chapter. But first of all, in verses 3 through 14, we saw Paul's praise to God. It was Paul, again, one sentence in the Greek, verses 3 through 14. And it's an outburst of praise for the blessings that God has given us.

4:30In Christ. He's blessed us with all the spiritual blessings in Christ. And then he goes on to list them all. He chose us in him. He predestined us. He adopted us. He redeemed us. He forgave our sins. And then he sealed us for all eternity with the Holy Spirit. We see that in verses 3 through 14. And then in verses 15 through 23, we see Paul's praise towards God turn into a prayer for the believers there at the church in Ephesus. And his prayer really becomes a model prayer for all of us. And the last time we made several observations about his prayer. First is that we observed that it possessed the right motivations. Paul's prayer was motivated by the right things, and specifically by the grace of God in the lives of others. That is the reason he was praying in this passage. We saw that in verse 15. It was the faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints that motivated Paul to pray in the first place. Second, we observe that it produced the right attitude in his heart. When Paul heard that the grace of God was at work in the lives of the believers there at Ephesus, it produced in him an overwhelming attitude. Of thankfulness for the church, for the believers there. And it was a thankfulness to God. And it says he did not cease giving thanks, right, while making mention in his prayers. That was verse 16. And then, third, we observe that it petitioned the right request. You see, a prayer that reflects the heart of God is always going to be asking the things that God desires. It's going to be a prayer that God can answer. And in verses 17 and 18, we find that Paul's primary prayer request is not for more power, not for more blessing, but for the full knowledge of God, right? That the believers there would come to a knowledge of God. He was praying for spiritual illumination. He says it differently in verse 18: he prays that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened, right? That they would be enlightened and enlightened to know and understand the vast, rich blessings that they already possessed in Christ. That was Paul's prayer. And then, specifically, he prays that they would know three blessings. Again, all of this we covered the last few times together. But in verses 18 through 19, he prays three things. You can see them there in your text. Very, very clear. That they would know the hope of his calling, right? That they would know the vast, rich. Of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And then, third, that they would know the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe. And that is where we left off last time. And so, this brings us to our text this morning in verses 19 through 23. Let me read them for us, and then we'll start working through them. Starting in verse 19, he prays that we would know what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about 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 every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection 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 all.

8:39Well, these verses are not the beginning of a new thought in Paul's prayer. This is not a new prayer request. This is rather an expansion of this last request to know the greatness of God's power in the life of a believer. And so these verses really become kind of a climax for Paul's prayer. An exclamation point, if you will, at the very end. And so that's what I want us to look at this morning. And of course, Paul's greatest desire was that they might fully comprehend this great power that was at work in them. And my prayer this morning for all of you is that God, through his Spirit, would illumine your minds, that he would open the eyes of your heart to see and comprehend the surpassing greatness of God's power that is at work in you and it would work in me. And I think if we can grasp this truth like Paul did, it's going to radically change how you pray. It's going to change how you live, how you think, how you speak, all of these things. And so, in order to more fully comprehend these things, Paul directs our attention to three great displays of power in the life of Christ. Three displays, three actions that will provide the outline for us this morning. Let me highlight them for you. The first is found in verses 19 through 21. We see that it's the power that he brought about in Christ, that he brought about, specifically in the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. Number two, in verse 22, in the first part, it's the power that he used to put into subjection all things under the feet of Christ. He put. Into subjection.

10:33Number two. And then number three, in verses 22 and 23, is the power that he used when he gave, right? He gave him as head over all things to the church. So that's the direction that we're heading this morning. And let's begin working our way through it and look at the first display of power, the first display of power. The first display that Paul wants us to see is the power that God brought about in Christ through the resurrection and ascension. Look at what he says in verse 19. The power that's in us is in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. Now, notice what kind of power we're talking about here. This is God's power. You see all the personal pronouns in there? We're talking about his power in accordance with the working of the strength of his might that he brought about when he raised him from the dead. This is not man's power. This is not the power of angels. This is the father's power, the father of glory, as he's titled earlier in this chapter. It's God's power. And it's because it's God's power, it Is a great display of power. It is great.

12:05It says in verse 19, it talks about the surpassing greatness of his power. It's a power that surpasses all others. It's immeasurable. You can't calculate it. You cannot beat it. You cannot overcome it. In fact, Paul could barely even describe it in this verse. He uses four different words for power to try and describe the kind of power that's at work here. And you can see them in the English: the surpassing greatness of his power, according to the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about or he worked, right? All of all different angles, all different ways to describe God's power here. And it's great. And it is also the same power that was brought about in Christ. And that's important. It says it's in accordance with, right, the same kind, the same quality, the same magnitude and degree that was at work in Christ, specifically when he raised him from the dead and seated him in heaven, is the same power that is in us. And that is what Paul is drawing attention here to. Do you see that? It's the same power in us. Now, let's unpack that a little bit.

13:28Let's talk about the resurrection. Where did God raise Jesus from? What does it say? It says he raised Jesus from the dead, from the dead. Do you realize that the greatest power that faces humanity is the power of death? That is the greatest power that we as individuals will face, will come to face. And we know from the scriptures that Jesus, God in the flesh, came face to face with death, even death on a cross, and he really died. Jesus really died. He experienced a real death. He was deceased, right? He departed. He breathed his last breath, hung lifeless on the cross.

14:22There was a separation that took place in the death of Christ. You remember if you were here a couple weeks ago when Pastor Tom preached through chapter 19 of John, and he, you know, Jesus cried out, it is finished. And then what did he do? He, yeah, he gave up his spirit, right? The King James, he gave up the ghost. He gave up his spirit. It departed from him. There was a separation of body and spirit. He was, in fact, dead, right? And after he died, they took him off the cross, right? They didn't break his legs because He was dead, and they wrapped him in burial clothes, and they buried him in the tomb for three entire days. So, friends, this was not a magic trick, this was not a smokescreen, this was not a fake, he didn't fake his death, he really died. The power of death reigned in his body for three days in the tomb, body was decaying, but as you well know, the power of death could not keep him there. The power of death was no match for God's great power, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. So, the father directed his power to Christ's lifeless body that was lying there in the tomb, and he brought it back to life. Now, that's pretty incredible power, right? It regenerated, it resurrected, caused him to come to life again from the dead. And so, not only did Jesus really die, but he was really made alive.

16:08He is alive now, and the Gospels testify of this with many, many proofs, right? He came and appeared to his disciples on many occasions. He walked with them, he talked with them, they touched him, as we've seen in John here recently on Sunday mornings. They felt the scars. It was a tough. The physical body. Jesus ate, he drank food with them before he was ascended. All of these testify to the fact that he was really dead, and now he is really alive.

16:44Right? So, this is the power that was brought about in Christ at the resurrection. It was a resurrection power, it was a power that overcame death and it gave new life, a life-giving power. But it doesn't stop there, right? Look at what it says in our text next. Notice where he raised him to. Where did he raise him to? He raised him from the dead and he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. So, he took him from the grave to earth and then from earth to heaven. In the heavenly places, God displayed his power by seating him on his throne. Now, this is the ascension, right? This is the ascension of Christ, and it speaks of a completed work. Jesus had finished the task that he came to do. He endured the cross, he conquered the grave, the door for eternal life had been opened, and then God, by his great power, raised him up to heaven and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Hebrews 1:3 says another way that when Jesus Had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down. That's what he's talking about here in Ephesians 1. He was seated. It was finished, right? His task was complete. But it also speaks of a setting apart, a setting apart. This act of God seating Christ on his throne was also an act of sanctifying and setting him so far above all others, exalted above all others as the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

18:40It speaks of his position, right? He was given a position of supreme honor, supreme authority and power. And you guys, this is the power of God in Christ. It was and is a sanctifying power, exalting him so far above that where no one else could touch him. No contest. And I shared this illustration in the first service, and I'll share it with you all. And I gave the disclaimer as well that, you know, trying to illustrate truths like this, most illustrations fall pretty far short, but I'll share this one with you anyways. When I was in high school, I was on the wrestling team, and We, in practice, we used to play a game. And that game was called King of the Circle or King of the Mat. And you kind of get the idea. We'd line up our entire team, and we'd line them up from the smallest guy on the team to the largest guy of the team, right? And they'd all stand there on the side. And the name of the game was: you start with the smallest ones, you put two of them out there in the middle, and the first one to score wins and stays on the mat. And then the next step up, right? And again, I'll let you figure out which end of the spectrum I started on. But that's kind of how the game works, right? And the goal was to make it through to the heaviest guy on the team and be the king of the mat. Well, one practice, I was feeling exceptionally well and thought I was going to accomplish this great task as one of the smallest guys on the team. And I did pretty good. I started at the beginning. I worked my way up all the way to the heaviest guy on our team and was quicker and faster than he was, and actually won and thought I had become king of the mat. And I turned around, and my coach used to be on the power team. I don't know if you all are familiar with the power team. I didn't see many nodding heads in the early service. Power team was, I think, popular by Back in the 80s, these big bodybuilder power lifter guys would go around and tell people about Jesus and rip phone books in half and bend wrenches in half right there in front of you. And anyways, he was on the power team at one point. So he was this big dude and he was standing in the middle of the mat like big trees planted in the middle, right? And it's probably 250, 300 pounds. And so you can kind of get the idea, me at 100 and probably 10 pounds, and him 300 pounds of solid muscle. There was really no contest there. I had no chance of even coming close to rivaling his strength or his power. And that is, again, pales in comparison to what we're talking about here in regards to Christ and his position. But you get the idea. God, in his power, exalted him. It raised him. It set him apart to a position far above all else. And that's what it says here. There are no rivals. There is no close second. Far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion. Literally, all the ranks. This is probably referring to the ranks of demons or evil angels. We see this in other parts of Scripture, but the point is, all ranks of power do not compare. He's far above. That in every name in this age and in the age to come. So, this speaks of a sanctifying power, and it speaks of a position that is secure, a position that will endure. The power that was at work in Christ in the ascension is an enduring power. It's an enduring power. Jesus was seated there, and he will reign there forever and ever and ever and ever.

23:00And so, this is the kind of power that we see God bringing about in Christ in the resurrection and the ascension. And it's the kind of power that is at work in you and in me. Did you know that? Do you live like that? Do you live as if you have you possessed that kind of power? The power that resurrected Christ from the dead is the same power that resurrects you in your spiritual deadness. And he raises our souls and gives them life. Chapter two of this same letter, Paul says that even when we were dead in our transgressions, dead in our sins, what did he do? He made us alive together with Christ. He made us alive. You and I are alive because of the resurrecting power of God in us through Christ. And the power of sin, the power of death has been overcome, it's been conquered. And we've been given a new life in Christ. And then we've been seated with him, right? It gets even better. He seats us with Christ. We've been set apart in Christ far above all of these things. Just as Christ has been set apart, so we have been set apart with him. And we share in that sanctifying power and in that enduring power. Because Christ endures, so too we, and our position in Christ is secure and will endure for all eternity. Paul reminds us in Romans that certainly he was convinced, and so should we, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the kind of display of power that we see here. And that's the first one that Paul mentions. The second one can be seen in the subjection of all things under Christ. The subjection of all things under Christ. Look at verse 22. Let me read it. It says, and he put all things in subjection under his feet. All things in subjection under his feet. Now, let's notice first, I want you to notice the action that is taking place here. Action. What did he do? He put in subjection. He subjected. And this verb could be translated or literally means to arrange under, right? To bring under, to subordinate oneself under a leader. Some of you may have served in the military or know someone who has or familiar with that, and we see that concept working out in the military. You have different ranks of officers, and the lower-ranking officers get placed under the higher-ranking officers.

26:07Those of you with small children or who are parents are probably teaching your children what this means on a daily basis, that they do not rule the house that you do, and they have to fit under your authority. They have to be subjected to your rules, and they do so happily, I'm sure, as my kids all the time do. They're good kids. But so you get the idea, right? It's a bringing under. It's a subjecting. And we see these commands throughout the rest of Scripture. And we see in Romans 13 of us being commanded to subject ourselves to the governing authorities that exist. In Romans 13, in Ephesians 5. We are to subject ourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. Colossians 3: Wives are to subject themselves to their husbands' authorities. This speaks of a voluntary arranging, right? This is a voluntary submission of bringing yourself underneath someone else or something else. But what we're talking about here, when we're talking about God's display of power in the subjecting of all things, it's a little bit different.

27:29This is not a voluntary submission that we're talking about here. This is something that God is doing, right? This is an action that God is taking. It is the power of God on display. And notice what he subjected. He subjected all things, all things. And I made this comment in the first service, but I'm not a Greek scholar, but I did take Clyde Wilton's Greek class. And I think there's probably a few of you out here who have taken that over the years. Clyde, if you don't know him, he passed away about a year ago, but he loved the Greek language. He loved it so much. And in fact, he translated the entire New Testament just because he loved it so much. He studied every day, and he taught me a few things. One of them, he taught me about this phrase. And we'd come across this phrase quite often in our study of the Greek. And he would tell me, you know, Matt, Let me tell you what all things literally means. In the Greek, it literally means all things.

28:39It means all things. That's all it means. It talks about it's talking about everything, right? It's no hidden meaning in that. It means all things. And it speaks of something comprehensive. This includes everything. It includes everything in the entire universe, everything in the heavens, everything on earth and in the earth, the physical realm, right? All created things would be included in this. The spiritual realm, all the angels, both good ones and bad ones, Satan himself, even death would be included in this phrase. All things are subjected or brought into subjection to him. And of course, this lines up with what Jesus said about himself in Matthew 28 as he's about to be lifted up into heaven. What does he say? He says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All authority. So that's the scope of this power. And then notice where all these things have been subjected. It says they've been subjected under his feet. This is under the feet of Christ. Now, this is kind of a funny picture, right? A funny picture. To say that all things are under the feet, under his feet.

30:05Let me give you a couple of examples that might help us understand what's being said here. Turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 10. In this part of the book of Joshua, Joshua is in charge. He's leading the army of Israel against the Amorites. And we come to this narrative in chapter 10, verse 16, where you have these five kings. Kind of set the stage for you. There's these five kings, and they had fled from Joshua and the army of Israel, and they've hid themselves in a cave, the cave of Makeda. And Joshua finds out about this, and he tells his men to go block up the cave, right? Go put the stone in front of the cave and trap these five kings in there. And so they did that, and then Joshua and his men go out and destroy their whole armies, take their city. And then they come back.

31:11And Joshua commands the sons of Israel after they had completely decimated the armies. And in verse 22, Joshua tells them, Go open the mouth of the cave and bring these five kings out to me from the cave. And 22. They did so, and they brought these five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmeth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. And when they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him: Come near and put your feet on the necks of the kings. And so they came near and they put their feet on the neck of the kings. You can kind of get a mental picture of what that would look like. You have these five guys laying down on the ground and the men of war with their foot on their neck.

32:12That's the image that we get here. And we see this image in several other parts of Scripture. One is probably a familiar song, Psalm 110, where David writes, The Lord says to my Lord, speaking of Christ, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool, for he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. So you get the idea of a general subduing his enemies. And the kings that were under, in the context of Joshua, had been stripped of all of their authority. They were at the full mercy and control of the ones whose feet were on their neck. And they were in. Total submission. That's the picture here. Total submission. We also can think about it this way.

33:10When we hear about a king's throne in scripture, or it's depicted in the movies or whatever else that we read about, we know that a king's throne was on an elevated platform. It's typically seen that way, kind of like this with a chair. We read about Solomon's throne that was elevated. It had steps leading up to it. Isaiah talks about the Lord's throne being high and lifted up. So you have this elevated throne. And one of the symbolisms of that is that when a subject, a king's subject, would come in and bow down, his head, their heads, would be at the feet of the king or below the feet of the king. And so showing subjection to him or submission to him. And so certainly this concept fits, right? It fits within the verses that we're studying this morning. Jesus, as we have said, been exalted and seated on his throne far above all these things, and all things have then been subjected to him, brought under his feet, under his authority. And so this is the kind of power that God is displaying here. It's a subjection. Subjecting power, a power that subdues all things and places into the control of the King of kings, King Jesus. And certainly one day, this power will be on display for all to see when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess our Christ as Lord.

34:55So, how does this apply to us? We can observe that God, in his great power, subjected all things to Christ, but what does that mean for us? Does that mean we can go out here this week and start subjecting things? Is that what Paul is getting at? No, I don't think so. What I think he is getting at, and what he is saying, is that the same power, the same subjecting power is at work in our heart. And it's at work in our heart through God's Spirit to continually bring our hearts and bring our will and bring our thoughts and our actions and our desires and our entire being into submission and into subjection under the rule and reign of Christ in our life. That's the kind of power that is at work in you and in me. You know, one of the, this truth is one of the most impactful truths that.

36:01That we get to share when we do take people through biblical counseling and even counseling ourselves through reading the scripture. If you could learn this truth, it changes you. When you can learn that you no longer serve sin, sin is no longer your master, but that when you come to Christ, you come under his rule and his reign, and you have a new master. And he's a gracious master and Lord, and he graciously and patiently strives with us to bring us under his rule and his reign. And when you can grasp that, that you have the power residing in you to say no to sin and say yes to righteousness, it changes the way you live. And I believe it will change the way you live if you can learn this.

37:03So, seen the first display of power in the resurrection and ascension of Christ. The second one is in the subjection of all things to Christ or under him. And the third is the last verse and a half of our passage: the presentation of Christ as head to the church. It says at the end of verse 22, and he gave as head over all. Things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Now, that's kind of a jam-packed full statement, a mouthful. So, let's start unpacking that a little bit with the time that we have left this morning. First, again, notice the action that is taking place. Notice the action. What did he do? He gave. He gave.

37:57We can think of this as a giving of a gift, right? We are familiar with that. You can think of it as bestowing or furnishing something that is necessary, supplying something. You can think of it as an appointing or a presenting of someone as a leader or a master. All of these elements, I think, can be summed up in this action of he gave, he gave. Certainly, all would fit here. And what did he give? Notice what he gave. What did he give?

38:36Anybody? He gave him. He gave him as head over all things, right? And this is what we've been talking about. He gave the, he's talking about Christ's headship, Christ's lordship. He is Lord over all. He's been exalted to the highest throne above all rule, all authority, all power, all things. Things were put in subjection, and now we see him being given as such as the supreme head over all things. Now, who did he give him to? He gave him to the church. He gave him to the church, literally the ones called out, the called out ones, the assembly of those who have been called out by God to be in Christ.

39:29In the verses 3 through 14, these are the ones who have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, the ones who have been chosen by God the Father, the ones who have been predestined, adopted, redeemed, sealed, all of these things. This is the church. And God has given Christ to the church. That was the action. That's the action on display here. Now, notice the analogy real quickly. Notice the analogy that Paul uses to illustrate his point. It says that he gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Now, let's think about this for a moment, about the relationship. He's talking about a head and a body, right? That's the picture that he gives us, the analogy. And let me make a few observations about that relationship. Number one, the head controls the body, right? We know this.

40:30That the head is where our brain is, where the decisions are made. The head gives direction to where we're supposed to go, and then the body follows that direction. The head gives instructions about what to say and to do, and the body then speaks and acts. It's under the direct leadership of the head. In other words, what the head says goes, right? That's the relationship there. And I think the same can be said of Christ and his church. He is the head of the church. And so, in the same way that our head directs and controls and guides our physical bodies, so Christ controls and directs and guides and leads the church, his people.

41:19And observation number two: the head has to be connected to the body. This is a must. I think experience and science tells us this: that if our head ever becomes disconnected from our body, the body dies. The game is over. We don't win. We're dead. The head is essential to the body's existence. The body desperately needs the head. It cannot be separated. It must be connected to survive. And this is really, I think, what Paul is getting at here. There is a connection that takes place. When God gives Christ to the church, there is a connecting power that is happening or that happened. He connected the head with the body and created this incredible union that cannot be separated. And that is the power that is at work in us.

42:22God's power connects us and unites us to our head as a church. He connects us to Christ. And friends, we desperately need this to happen. We need to be connected to Christ. We have to be connected. And friends, that is what we are doing here at Emmanuel Baptist Church. That is what our entire mission, as you come in and week by week, you sit under the teaching, our hope and our prayer is that you don't hear our words. You don't see the preacher behind the pulpit, but you hear the words of Christ and you are through them connected to him, right? That you are connected to your head because it's in him that we derive our strength. It is him that we find our true joy, our true satisfaction. No one else can satisfy us like Christ can. All of our needs are met in him. Our spiritual growth is found there. It's sustained there. We must grow up into him. And that is what God is doing in you and I who believe. He's connecting us to Christ, unified to our head. Now, this last phrase that Paul concludes his prayer, make a final comment.

43:48When the head is connected to the body, we have a completed picture. We have a completed picture. Notice that last phrase. It says the church, which is the body of Christ, is the fullness of Him who fills all in all, the fullness. Now, what does that mean? Well, in some sense, the church completes Christ. We don't really think of it too often that way, and we shouldn't think of it in the sense that Jesus is lacking anything, right? He's not lacking something that the church provides. But in some way, somehow, the church, when it's connected to Christ, provides this complete picture.

44:31For example, a bride without a groom, that's an incomplete picture, right? A bride without a groom, a vine without branches is an incomplete picture. A shepherd without sheep is an incomplete picture. And likewise, a head without a body, it's incomplete. It's not the full picture. And so when God gives Christ... As head of the church, which is his body, and he connects the head and the body, we have a completed picture of the risen, the resurrected, and glorified Christ of the universe. Do you see that?

45:16We have the fullness of him who fills all and is in all and created all, and all things were created through him and by him and to him, as it says in Colossians. We have the entire picture of Christ. And, friends, that is the kind of power that Paul turns our minds to as he prays for the Ephesians. And I, as I said in the beginning, I hope and I pray that as you leave here this morning, that God, in some greater sense, would illumine your minds to understand these great truths: that the resurrecting power of God, the sanctifying power of God that endures forever and connects you to Christ, it's at work. You already possess all of that, it's at work in you, and God will bring it to completion. He will. And I pray that you understand that and that it would change the way you live today and this week and on into the future. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for this time this morning. We thank you for the words of Scripture that are true.

46:30That we can study. We thank you for the insight that we can gain into the power of God that is at work, that you are working in us. God, help us to understand these things, help us to apply them so that we can glorify you as we live our lives. In Jesus' name.