Knowing God's Hope, Inheritance, and Power - Ephesians 1:15-19

My wife and I had the privilege, this last week, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, a little earliest June 9th for our actual wedding anniversary, but we're both going to be out of town that day in different places. So we said, let's take our 25th wedding anniversary trip a little early. And so we went out to see Zion National Park, the canyon there, and the Grand Canyon, and we just had this amazing trip. Before we went though, I spent a lot of time. I tend to overplan thing. So I was watching a lot of YouTube videos about Zion Canyon, and the Grand Canyon, and the trails we should hike, and the things we need to know before we got there. So I had all this planned out. And I knew about the canyon, had knowledge of them. I never been there before, though. And when we got to Zion Canyon, and we went through the visitor gate, kind of the official gate. You show your past. I became an official visitor to Zion Canyon. The same thing happened at the Grand Canyon. And I wasn't more of a visitor, by the end of the day, we e-biked through Zion Canyon, so you can get on bikes that have some motives that assist you, so that I wouldn't make it on the bike, just peddling, like, you know, some regular slob. I had a little motor that helped me. And so we e-biked through the canyon. I wasn't more of a visitor at the end of the day, but I absolutely knew more about the canyon. I had seen videos of it. I was aware of it. Same with the Grand Canyon. As soon as we passed the gate, we were visitors officially. But as we explored both Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon, our eyes were opened to its beauty, to its majesty, to know, not just intellectually. I mean, I had knowledge of both of those. I had seen videos. They don't do justice. You ever get a chance to go. The videos, when they say it doesn't do justice, they're absolutely correct. We saw more and more of the beauty of the Grand Canyon and Zion as we kind of spent time there. Maybe you've had the same experience. I mean marriage is like that. You're no more married after 25 years than I was the day I got married. Once I said, I do, unless they said, I do. We were married. We're not more married now, but we understand marriage more. If you're a brand new parent. If your kids grow up and they're in the 20s, both of our daughters are in the 20s. We're not more of a parent than we were the day or our children were born. Were the same amount of parent, but we absolutely understand more about it. We recognize, our eyes have been opened more to the beauty of Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon, and marriage, and parenting. When we stopped, our 1st very 1st stop in Zion Park, was at a place called the Court of the Patriarchs, you pulled off and here's a picture of it, we can show you on the screen. And it's just 3 peaks named after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so that was the 1st kind of mountain peak that we saw, and it struck me that in the passage, we're looking at today in Ephesians one to 15. Paul's praying kind of 3 things for the Ephesians, and I think to them, to us, that he's praying for these 3 peaks that are popping out of these 5 verses that he wants us to be aware of. One of them is the hope of God's calling us into his holiness, the hope that we have in that, his inheritance, God's inheritance, and then his power to accomplish these things. I want you to see these 3 peaks in these verses we're going to look at today. The main idea of the message is very simple, come straight out of that. It's this. Pray that God will open our eyes to see more of the hope of our calling and his inheritance and power. Pray, as Paul does, that God will open our eyes to see more of the hope of our calling and his inheritance and power. If you have your Bibles, Ephesians chapter one, verse 15 to 18. We have Paul's thankful prayer for the Ephesians. If you've been with us the last 2 weeks, we start a new series in Ephesians. Matt was highlighting kind of what God has done in Christ for those who are as followers, that in Christ we have redemption. In Christ, we have hope for the future. In Christ we have an inheritance. In Christ, we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. In Christ, God's working out his plan to redeem this fallen world that is cloaked in sin and death, that in Christ, victory has been won. And then he says here in verse 15, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, in your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul had gotten a message about the Ephesian church and probably other churches in that same area. This letter more than likely went to the church in Ephesus and then was passed around to these other churches, and he says, I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love toward all of the believers. Love God, love others, a recurring theme in scripture. that we love God, which rightly orients our worship and who we are created for, and because of that, we can love others. In fact, any love that exists in the world is from God because God is love. And he says, I've heard of your faith in Christ. And I've heard of your love for others, the evidence of your faith in Christ. He says, because of that, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Who's he giving thanks to, though? He's not thanking the Ephesians. He's not saying, Ephesians, thank you so much for your faith and love. I think he would if he saw them, but he says, I don't cease to give thanks for you. He's giving thanks to God for what's going on in the Ephesian church. that maybe as if you're a teacher, you've done this before, maybe you're a parent, you've had the opportunity, you went to a parent teacher conference, kind of that day in school, and you met with the teacher, and they just thank you as a parent for your kid. Like, thank you so much. So-and-so is such a great kid. And the thanking you, because they recognize that parents have such an influence on their kids as they grow up. Or maybe you've been to a party. And there was all these people that you were just so glad this whole group got together and you thank the host. He said, thank you so much for hosting this get together, this party where we can all gather that you've put it together and you thank the host for all the people who are there. That's what Paul's doing. He's thanking God for the Ephesians for the way they are. They're faith in Christ and their love for each other. And he's thanking God, that he's gathered them together as a church. He says, I don't cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers. This is going to be critical for this part of Paul's letter. He says, I'm praying for you. Paul probably prayed like officially 3 times a day. He'd have had 3 set times of prayer. But Paul tells us throughout the day, he's always praying. Many of you probably do the same thing. You have very set times when you pray. And then throughout the day, you're just kind of throwing up prayers. Paul says, I'm always remembering you in my prayer. So you understand the power of prayer that we can tap in to God and talk with him and ask him things. He says, I'm always remembering you in my prayers. And here's what he says. He praying for them. He says, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. God's working in the Ephesians. Paul said that, I see your faith in him, and I see your love for the other believers in Ephesus for each other. Paul sees that God is working in the Ephesians. And I think he would say he's working in us. But sometimes we can fail to perceive like the greatness of God. What God has for us. The hope that he has for us. He's working in us. We're believers, but we can oftentimes not experience his full majesty. We don't fully understand everything about him. And Paul is now praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. He's very specific who he's praying to. In Ephesus at the time. If you would have just said, I'm praying to God for you, they would have asked, which one? So if church gets over today, you said, hey, we're going out to eat at a restaurant. Someone's gonna ask you, well, which one? Because restaurant is generic. You going to 54th Street? Are you going to Chick-fil-A? Well, you're not going to Chick-fil-A today because it's closed on Sunday. So if you go there, you're going to have to wait. But you would go, which one? When Paul talks about praying to God, we hear the word God, and it's a very definite person, that we just go, there's only one option there. In Ephesus, there would have been a lot of options. And he says, let me be specific. I'm praying to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. the father of glory. He's point pointing the God who revealed himself in the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's explicitly saying, which God is it that I'm praying to, because they would have had a whole host of gods in temples on display. in their culture, much like in ours more and more today, but way more in the 1st century. Paul was telling him exactly who he's asking for this to happen. What is he asking them? He says, that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him. Now, we know from Ephesians 113. you just go back 2 verses from where we started. Paul says this about the Ephesians. In him, in Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you heard about Jesus who died on a cross for you, who rose from the dead, who forgives us of our sins, who reunites us with God, they believe that. He says, and you believed in him. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So the Ephesians already had God's spirit, dwelling within them, connecting them to him. connecting them to God. So they already had that. So Paul's not praying that God would give them the spirit for the 1st time. He's praying that the Spirit would let them see more and more the wisdom of God and the knowledge of him. Wisdom is kind of right living in the world. It's how do you navigate the world in the right way? You can have knowledge of the right thing to do. Still not do it means you're not wise. And to be wise, you need to have correct knowledge. Now, God is a source of all wisdom and knowledge, and Paul's praying that the Spirit would let them see more and more about God and who he is, and then they would live into that more fully. And he says it this way, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. When I was at Zion Canyon and then Grand Canyon, they're both canyons, they're not the same canyon. In the same way that God's saying, I'm praying that you have knowledge of me. You have wisdom and how to navigate, and that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened. What does he mean by this? The picture I want to show you. We woke up one day. We were at the Grand Canyon. We said we're probably never coming back to this place. We want to see a sunrise and a sunset at the Grand Canyon. The sun rises at the Grand Canyon, fairly early. And we were staying an hour away in Williams. And so we realized we have to wake up at 3.30 in the morning to get on the road to get to the Grand Canyon to get to the spot we want to watch before the sun starts rising. So we get out there. And this picture here is of the Grand Canyon. It's amazing looking, isn't it? I mean, that's majestic. The canyon is so beautiful. You can't see anything of the canyon. We just stood there in the pitch dark and went, I'm assuming something amazing is going to happen here, but right now, it's just dark outside, and it was cold. It's dark and cold and we're waiting and we're waiting. And then slowly the sun began to rise. And at 1st you just saw the sun. Here's another picture of the canyon, as the sun rises, and as the sun rises and illuminates the canyon, bounces into our eyes. Here's what happened. Our eyes did not create the Grand Canyon. It was there all along in the pitch dark when we stood on the rail and looked out. It was still there. The sun rose and illuminated our eyes, enlightened our eyes, and we saw the beauty and majesty of the canyon that had been there all the time. This is what Paul's praying. He says, I'm praying that your eyes will be enlightened by God's spirit. He illuminates the truths of who God is, what he's doing in our life. That's there all along. We don't create that for ourselves. It's not that we go. Paul's going, I pray that you'll create a God that is good to you and works for you. The canyon was there before the sun ever rose to show it. God is there. And we were already in the park. We were already visitors at the Grand Canyon. If you're a follower of Christ, and the Ephesians were, Paul saying, you're already a follower. I'm just praying that you see more of God, that you understand more, God, that you experience more of who he is as he enlightens your eyes as the son, not the SUN, but the S-O-N, rises more and more in our life when we begin to experience him. And that's where he prays for these 3 great peaks of things that he wants us to experience. Paul is praying for us to know these things. The hope of our calling, the riches of God's inheritance and his power that accomplishes it. Let's look at the hope of our calling. Ephesians 118. Paul prays that our eyes would be enlightened to the truth that's already there that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. When Paul writes. He talks about this idea of being called of a calling and of the called ones. The calling is the gospel message, the good news that Jesus Christ, God the Son, came to the earth, died and rose again. so that we can be forgiven for our sins, that we can be restored to him, that the powers of darkness, of the devil could be defeated and that life could be victorious. That's the good news. And Paul speaks of that as a calling because when we go out and share the gospel with people, this good news, it's not simply to say, here's some information. Here's something you may want to know, take or leave it. is to call them and said, God's calling us back home, if you're here, and you're not a follower of Christ, God's calling to you, saying, come home, come back to the one who created the whole universe, who loves you so much that he died for you, and rose again so that we can be united with him. He's calling you home. Paul then talks about those who have accepted that calling, who have said yes to Jesus, and he calls them the called. He said, hey, you've been called. Not just that you got invited, but you said yes. So he would talk about the called ones, as those who have accepted. And he says, I want you to know what is the hope to which God has called you. This idea of hope is so critical in life without hope. We end up giving up. Now in English, our word hope in English, we can use it in different ways, we can use it in kind of the deep, meaningful way that Paul's using it, but we can also use it almost like, I sure hope this happens. I wish it happens. We were scheduled when we booked our travel, you know, a couple months ago. We were flying back on Saturday and the cheapest flight out of Vegas on Saturday, yesterday, took off at 5 o'clock, which meant with the time change, it was going to get here at like 11 p.m. And I was like, as it got closer and closer to like the trip, And while we're on the trip, I was like, this is gonna be horrible. We're going to land at 11 p.m. if things are on time. And then I got church on Sunday morning. I got to preach. Okay, this is going to be rough. So as we got closer to our time of leaving the day before, like I said, I wonder if we could change our flight to an earlier flight without having to pay more money. And she was like, I sure hope we can. Now, there was no anchor, and I was like, sure, hope we can. So we send an alarm at midnight and changed our flight and actually left at 11.45 and got in at 4.30, which was way better for both you and me. But we just had, I sure hope it works out. That's not like real hope. And that didn't have any sustaining power. And we even, I sure hope the plane takes off on time. I sure, hopefully, everything works out. That's just wishful thinking, right? Sometimes we can use the word hope that way. But Paul's talking about the kind of hope that anchors our soul. The kind of hope that sustains us in dark times that we build our life upon. It's not just wishful thinking. It actually directs all that we do. When I was in Zion and the Grand Canyon, We did some hikes. And we were in Grand Canyon, and we would hike down like a couple of the trails. We went down like the Bright Angel Trail and the kebab trail to about the 1st checkpoint, mile and a half in or so. Beautiful, amazing the hike into the Grand Canyon. Not amazing to hike out of the Grand Canyon, if you've never done that. Down's easy, ups hard. So think a mile and a half of stairs going up. That's what we did. And as we're walking up the stairs, you're starting to feel it. And I saw other people doing this, and I was like, that little kid's gonna make it. I can make it. I have hope. I'm powerful enough. But then I started seeing, like, other people not making it. I'm like, this isn't good. Maybe I'm not as good as I thought. And eventually we made it out, but it was, like, my hope and my ability began to wane more and more, as we started walking, I looked down and went, we've gone a half mile. We have a mile to go, honey. My hope and my ability is waning. Paul is wanting us to see that the hope that we depend on isn't our own strength, our own power, but it's in Christ. It's the hope to which he has called us. It's a hope that is dependable. He says, I want you to see more of this hope. I want you to understand more of it. I want you to experience more of it. Not just have a knowledge of it. I read it in the Bible and I know it to be true, but you experience more and more as life goes on. The 2nd peak he wants us to see, is that he wants us to see what are the riches of his glorious inheritance and the saints. Or the riches of his inheritance. I looked up this last week. who are the richest people in the world. thinking about an inheritance, you know, thinking, how much could someone inherit? Top four. I asked for the top ten. Here was the top four. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world right now worth approximately $793 billion. Billion. Then you have Larry Page. He at a paltry 317 billion. And then Sergei Brand is at 292 billion, and poor Jeff Bezos Amazon is only worth 266 billion dollars. That's a lot of money. That's a massive inheritance. But it's nothing compared to the inheritance of God. Nothing. Jesus himself. If we're gonna trust Jesus, Jesus said, don't store your riches, your ultimate inheritance, where moth and rust can destroy, where the market can collapse. where businesses can change and you can go from wealthy to broke. So don't store your ultimate inheritance there. He's not saying, don't say for retirement, those kind of things. He's just saying, if where you have your ultimate hope is in your $793 billion, you've shortchanged yourself. You're actually very poor, because this life in this world that's fallen will end. And you will die. But there is another life that God wants to give us. And that's where Jesus says, put your inheritance there. In God's kingdom, in heaven, where wroth, moth, and rust, and the market can't collapse. Nothing can destroy that. He says, I want you to know more and more what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Now, when you read that phrase, his glorious inheritance. It can be read one of 2 ways. One is that God has an inheritance for us and we need to know about it. And the other one is that God has an inheritance. Like, it's his inheritance. So if you think of receiving an inheritance, you would go, well, that's my inheritance. And I think Paul, when he writes, has both ideas in mind. Not just that we are receiving from God an inheritance, but that God himself has an inheritance. And that inheritance is his people. Ephesians 2.19. Next couple weeks, we're going to start preaching through Ephesians chapter 2. Paul writes this, so then you are no longer strangers. He's writing to the Gentiles. In Paul's day, there were Jewish people, those who were part of Abraham's family, through Isaac and then Jacob, and then Moses, and then the Jewish nation, and then everyone else was Gentile. And now the Ephesians were mostly Gentiles, and they had become followers of Christ. And Paul said, now you are part of God's family. You're part of God's people. And he says this. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. You've been joined into God's people. that goes all the way back to Abraham. In the Old Testament, when God called the nation of Israel out of Egypt, he said these words in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 20. He says, but the Lord has taken you. That's the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be a people of his own inheritance. that God was inheriting his people. As you are this day. Deuteronomy 329. But the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is allotted heritage. What does this mean? That God, when he looks at the church, those who are in Christ, he goes, that's my heritage. It's his inheritance. God so values the church, and he says, the church is his inheritance. Now he says, because you're in Christ, you're going to receive an inheritance that Jesus has received also. So Paul's doing 2 things. He's saying that the glorious inheritance of God is both God's inheritance of his people. And also the inheritance that his people receive from God. We see in 1st Peter 114 that we have an inheritance that is undefiled, imperishable and unfading, waiting for us in heaven with Christ. And when he returns, and becomes the ruler of this world, inherits his kingdom. All of creation that those who are his followers inherit with him. And Paul's saying, I want you to know the riches of your glorious inheritance and the saints. An inheritance that earlier on in Ephesians chapter one, verses 10 to 12, Paul said this way. God has a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on earth in him. In him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the council of his will, so that we who were the 1st to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. That God inherits his people and his people inherit what God has for them. And Paul says, I want you to recognize the riches of God's inheritance. Now just think about it for a moment if you are going to inherit Elon Musk's wealth. 793 billion dollars. I imagine that would give you some confidence about paying your bills in the future. If you're thinking, you know, I got a house payment, got a mortgage, slowly paying it off, but $793 billion, probably cover that. There'd be this sense, a little bit at least of, okay, there's some peace. You, as a follower of Christ. inherit everything Christ inherits, the entire world. Yes, death is going to come for all of us. Yes, there'll be hard times, but that's temporary. And Paul says, I want you to know more, not just knowledge of it, but the experience of the riches of his inheritance. And then he goes on and shows us the 3rd peak, which is the one that accomplishes the 1st two, this hope that we have, this inheritance that we have. And he says, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. I want you to understand God's power more and more. According to the working of his great might. He's piling up these words. He says, I want you to understand the immeasurable greatness of his power, according to the working of his great might, this verb upon verb and language piling up on itself about God's power that he has. That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him in his right hand in the heavenly places. When we were coming back from the Grand Canyon, we had to fly out of Vegas, so we were driving back. And as I did all my research, one of the things it said was, oh, as you're coming back from the Grand Canyon to Vegas, you got to stop by the Hoover Dam. And so we pulled off at the Hoover Dam. Now, the Hoover Dam is massive dam, that power is a large part of the southwest. I'd heard of it. I'd been aware of it. I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about it. So we pulled off. It's massive. Here's a picture of the Hoover dam. I didnt take this one. I found this one on the Internet. This is massive dam that was created that backs up the river that then powers a large part of the southwest. The Hoover dam produces, like in any one instance, if is it, peak capacity, 2.08 gigawatts of power, which I'm sure for most of you know exactly how much that is. You know what, like, 100 watts is. That's a light bulb. You know, 60 watt light bulb, 2.08 gigawatts. Here's that's translated into like normal language for humans who aren't intelligent. So for all of us, except maybe a few of you. For myself for sure. It can power one million homes. In any instant, it creates enough power for a 1000000 homes to be powered. That is massive amounts of power. And most of the time, no one's thinking who lives out there about the Hoover Dam, that the power comes from them. Pop quiz time for Northland Church. If you know, the 2 main sources of power, not like what we do, but the names of the places that power Kansas City. Raise your hand. Does anyone know the two main sources of power for Kansas City? First service didn't either. Bob thinks he does. The number one source is Wolf Creek. a nuclear power plant outside of town. And the other one is the Itan coal mine. If you're going up to God's mountain, if you went to the minsry tree, it's that big structure on the left. Those are the two main. We have about seven different things that produce power for Kansas City. You never think about it. Never crosses your mind. When you woke up this morning and flipped on your light switch. didn't think. Thank you, Wolf Creek. for powering me. Now, last week a storm came through. We were out at the Grand Canyon, and we're like, and my daughter was at home alone, and we're like, oh, storm's coming through. So we hopped on YouTube and we were watching the local news to see how bad it is. And then, you know, weather meant. It's the worst storm ever in the history of ever. We were like, I wonder if power goes out. Jordan's not going to be too happy about that. We don't think about power in our homes ever until power goes out. And our 1st thought is the power line got knocked out. No one thinks Wolf Creek got knocked offline. The itan coal mine. Co plant got knocked offline. You just think there's a connection between the plant in my house. It's been knocked down. Every G's going to come out and fix it and it'll be up soon. But we just run about our day not thinking about the source of the power that drives a large port of our part of our life. We were at this plane. I was going, this is so powerful. But they can measure it. 2.08 gigawatt, maximum capacity. Paul says, God's power is immeasurable. He says, I want you to know more about this power. As we sat there over the Hoover dam. I got a sense of, that's a lot of power. There's a lot of power coming out of this place that's being generated. And it's God's power that is immeasurable, that is the basis of our hope and our inheritance. Paul's saying he wants their eyes enlightened more and more to see. And then Paul gives them an example of this power. He points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says, let me give you the quintessential example of how powerful God is. How powerful is he? He raised the dead man, to never die again, to defeat sin and death completely, the greatest force in the world, that we all run up against, is death, that things are falling apart, that things are decaying, that things are collapsing. We work extremely hard to keep things from falling apart, right? At your house, if you don't maintain it, it's going to fall apart eventually. If we leave things alone, they just begin to crumble. We work very hard to make sure our bodies don't crumble, but we know they're going to crumble eventually. Paul says, Christ has overcome that. That's God's power. It's measurable power that no one can grasp. He says, I want you to know more and more about it. I want you to see more and more of this great power. Paul writing 2000 years ago to the Ephesians, prayed these 3 things for them as he thanked them. What do we do today? What are we supposed to take away from this message today? Some things I want us to think about? One is, as Paul gave thanks for the Ephesians, we should give thanks to God for the faithful believers you know and live so that others can thank God for you. that think in your life this week. Who is it that you can look at that has been faithful to Christ and loved others and thank God for them? Now, I'd encourage you also to text that person, call that person, go see that person, say, thank you so much for your faithfulness and your love for others, but before you thank the person, Thank God for what he's done in that person, that the source of their faithfulness, the source of their love is God himself. Be praying for that. So often we can neglect that. It's so easy to forget, to be thankful for those that God's put in our life, to be thankful for those who have faithfully served him, who has demonstrated in their life, the work that God's doing in them by their love for others. So thank them. And then second, live our own lives. Say, God, I want to live in such a way and faithfulness to you in love for others that someone's out there thanking you for my life. They're thanking God for you. Thank others for what they've done, how they have been faithful, but live your own life in a faithful manner, in the place God's called you, in the situation he's called you to, to say, I want to live faithfully to you, God, so that others could see that and be thankful for what God's doing in your life. Second, is pray to see more of Christ's hope and inheritance. Each time at the end of our service, when the band comes up for a final song, we have a prayer corner right here in the back. We startled it this year, as we want to emphasize prayer more. If you ever have a chance, I just want to pray. I want to pray to thank God for something. I need someone to pray with me about a struggle in my life. You can always go back there during that song and pray and be a part of that. Brad told us back there. He'll pray with you if you would like him to do that. But pray and come to see more of Christ's hope and inheritance in your life. To see more the hope of your calling. That some of you here today you need to experience, not just the knowledge of who God is, you have that, if you're his follower, but you need to experience the hope. Be praying for that. and be praying for others that you know need that hope. We've all encountered someone recently that's struggling, that life is the valley and not the mountaintop right now, and it's difficult. Be praying for them, that their eyes would be enlightened to see more of the hope of the calling in Christ. That the darkness of this world, which is still here, it's still real, isn't the final thing, that light will break out, that their eyes would be enlightened, to see more of that hope than that inheritance, that we can rest knowing that God has us. Rest, knowing that we have his inheritance, that this fallen world, with its struggles, and its sinfulness, and its problems is not the end. that there is a great inheritance awaiting us. And then finally pray to see more of God's power. Not just knowledge, but to experience it. Pray that we would trust in God and rely on his power more than we do electricity. Again, if you're like me. I woke up this morning, I flicked on the light. I never even thought once about it not coming on. It didn't cross my mind. That there wouldn't be electricity there. I've never spent any length of time in my whole life worried that we wouldn't have electricity. It goes off occasionally, to be on in the morning. It'll be on the next day. We just have a deep trust in electricity because it's been so reliable for so long. It doesn't have to always be here. When we went into the Hoover Dam, you have to go through a security checkpoint. Because if someone destroyed that dam, electricity to a large part of the southwest would go away, and average G is not going to come out with their trucks and fix that in a hurry. It would just be gone. A 1000000 homes at peak capacity would be gone. And they're not replacing it right away. that we want to pray to experience more of God's power, to understand the depth of that power, to let it sustain us in our hope, and knowing about our inheritance, Be praying for that in your life and in the lives of those who need their eyes enlightened. Paul was praying for the Ephesians, to see more clearly and deeply the hope, inheritance, and power that we have in Christ. My wife and I stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon again. The canyon was there all along. And we knew it was there, but as the sun came up and our eyes were enlightened, we experienced it in a much deeper way. Not just knowledge that it's there, but reality of it. the experience of it. We pray for that for each of us. Pray for that for those around you. May it be our prayers, as it was Paul's, that our eyes would be enlightened to see and experience God's hope, inheritance, and power today. Will you join me in that prayer? Father, we thank you for your son, for his death and resurrection, that you have called us to yourself. Father, empower us to be faithful to you, to love each other deeply. And Father, we pray, I pray that my eyes would be enlightened, that our eyes would be enlightened. to know the hope to which you have called us, the hope in your son, a victory over death, father, to see the inheritance that you have for us and that you have in us, to know how much you value your people. in this amazing new heavens and new earth that you have in store for us. May we store our treasures there and not hear. And Father, we pray this week, that we would experience your power, that we would recognize that nothing in this world is greater than you. The problem we encounter, no struggle that we have, nothing is more powerful than you. Father, we're relying on something else. in this life. to replace you. Open our eyes to see that it's not as powerful as you. that you are the source of ultimate power and strength, to guide us into your truth this week. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.