The Power and Authority of Jesus - Ephesians 1:20-23

The idea of a genie in a bottle dates way back to ancient Middle Eastern folklore, but it has kind of survived all these generations. It makes its way into our pop culture quite a bit. You guys might think of stories or ideas of genie and bottles. If you're a music fan, you might remember the 1999 Christina Aguilera hit. Okay, I see some that age group in the crowd. We'll go back a little further. Maybe you saw the Disney Classic, 1992 Aladdin, Disney Classic. Now, if you're really more mature, you probably remember the 1960s sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie, okay? So a few people that remember, some of you had to be reruns that are shaking your heads. And it makes its way into like a lot of jokes. I've heard a lot of jokes about a guy finds GD in a bottle and Grant's 3 wishes, and so I just Googled genie in a bottle joke. It's like a 100 of them. I'm not going to tell them. They're pretty bad dad jokes, but, uh, and then it makes its way into conversation. I'm sure at some point we've all daydreamed, right? Like, I find a genie in a bottle that grants me 3 wishes, what would my 3 wishes be? At some point, you've pondered that. Unfortunately, the idea of a genie in a bottle has made its way into our view of God at times. And we kind of see God that way. As someone we run to to grant us our wishes, as someone who's there to serve us rather than there, to be served by us. I was thinking about that as we're moving through Ephesians. We're in chapter one, if you want to begin to find your way there. Ephesians chapter one, gonna close out this chapter today. Last week, Pastor Rustin left off at verse 19, touched a little verse 20. Today we're going to kind of pick up at 19 and move on through the last few verses of this chapter. But in the message that Rustin preached last week, the passage that was our focus last week. We saw Paul, the writer of this letter, writing about the prayer that he was praying on behalf of the believers in the city of Ephesus. And he prayed that they would understand more fully what is the hope that they have in Jesus. He was praying that they would understand more fully the inheritance, rather, that we have in Jesus. And then left off, he said, he wants them to really understand the power that we have. And he calls it in verse 19. If you're there, you'll see, he calls it the immeasurerable power of Jesus that's at work in our lives. And so a lot of times we think about the power of Jesus as something we can tap into when we need it, when we want it. But as we move through the rest of his thought here, we're going to see that he's going to talk not just about the power of Jesus, but also about the authority of Jesus. I was going to say, it's kind of the big idea here that I want you to see, is that the resurrection and the exaltation of Jesus offer evidence of his power and authority in our lives. So the question on which you consider as we move through this. Is Jesus a genie in a bottle for you or is he your king? Is he, a genie of all, is he your king? There's a difference between saying, I go to Jesus when I need something when I want something, and I want to experience what Paul calls his, the immeasurable greatness of his power in verse 19. But he's going to say there's more to it than that. Not only is he powerful through his resurrection, but his resurrection also demonstrates the authority that Jesus has in our life, the immeasurable greatness of God's power in our lives was displayed through 2 acts. We're going to look at those to begin with. Verse 20. We're going to see that God displayed, or God demonstrated, or God exercised the greatness of his power in 2 ways. One, when he raised Jesus from the dead. Notice verse 20, verse 20. Verse 19, he said, I want you to know what you experience the immeasurable greatness of his power. Verse 20 says that worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. So when Jesus Christ raised from the dead, it was evidence of the power of Jesus and the authority of Jesus. How so? Well, I'm sure there were many times during Jesus' public ministry, when people would come up to Jesus, they would hear the claims he was making, hearing the promises he was making, what he was saying that he could do, and calling people to follow him. And they probably said to him many times, hey, what, give us some evidence that what you're saying is true. How do you back this up? These are really bold claims you're making. I'm going to speculate. It's pure speculation that that was probably a fairly common question that people had when they heard Jesus. We do know that on 2 occasions for sure, they asked them that question, because they're recorded in scripture. One of those is recorded in Matthew chapter 12. In Matthew chapter 12, somebody came up to Jesus and said, Jesus, can you give us a sign that everything you're saying is true. I ever wanted to ask God for a sign. Maybe if we were honest, probably all of some point said, God, give me a sign, show me a sign. And so they said to Jesus, show us a sign that all these things are true. He said, I'll give you a sign. He said, the sign is going to be what he calls the sign of Jonah the prophet. What was the sign of Jonah the prophet? He said, the sign of Jonah the prophet is this. Just like Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days. I'm going to be in the belly of the earth. And just saw Jonah came out of the fish 3 days later. I'm going to come out of the earth 3 days later, and when that happens, you're going to see the sign of Jonah the prophet, and you're going to know that everything I've said is true. On another occasion, Jesus walked into the temple, and he saw that they had turned a place that was supposed to be a place of prayer and worship into a noisy, greedy marketplace. They were exchanging money and selling items, and Jesus was highly offended by what they've done to the temple, and he drives the money changers out of the temple. You may have read that story before. You've seen it, maybe portrayed in movies about Jesus. He's driving these money changers out of the temple. And somebody said, what gives you the right to do this? What authority can you walk into the temple and just act like you own the place? And Jesus said this, the authority will be that you will tear down this temple, and 3 days later, I'll build it back up. Now, they thought he was talking about the building. But the scripture goes on, this is in John chapter 2, goes on to say that he was talking about his body. And they knew that later when it happened. He said, tear down my body, in 3 days I'll raise it up again. So he said, you want proof that everything I'm saying is true? Stick me in the belly of the earth in 3 days, I'll come back, tear down my body, 3 days, I'll build it back up. That's why the scripture says Romans 14 put on the screen. He was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. He was declared to be the Son of God. His power was declared through his resurrection from the dead. Jesus provided the proof to back up everything he claimed. Now, we're going to talk about some application later, but let me just pause right here and point out something. Your faith in Jesus Christ, if your follower of Jesus Christ is on solid footing. Your faith in Jesus is not based on reason. Because there is faith that we have to exercise, but it's not faith beyond reason. It's reasonable to put your faith in Jesus. Because you're putting your faith in someone who has come back from the dead. You're not just picking a religious leader out of a lineup, like they're scrolling Netflix, trying to find something to watch today. We're not scrolling all religions or to pick one we think will like. You have put your faith in the one who said, everything I'm teaching you, I'm proclaiming you is going to be backed up by my resurrection from the dead, and then he proved it by his resurrection from the dead. Acts chapter one, verse 3. says he presented himself alive to them. This is after his crucifixion resurrection. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days, and speaking about the kingdom of God. Now, we don't have time to go into all the proofs. If you say, give me more about how do we know the resurrection happened. We can spend a whole sermon on that. We don't have time for today, but just anytime you have a question. Use your connect cards. I want to talk to the pastor. This is one of those moments, maybe tonight in your life group. this week in your life groups, you can bat this around. How do we know what are the convincing proofs? But there are convincing proofs that God took on flesh, walked on this planet, got him across and came back from the dead. I was sharing about Jesus with someone one time. And he said, you know, I kind of, I want to believe in Jesus, but I'm just not sure about this whole thing. And I said, what hold you back? He said, well, he said, because people don't just come back from the dead every day. And I said, exactly. Man, you're so close. That's the whole point I'm trying to make here. People don't come back from the dead every day. Jesus did. You want to pay attention to the one who came back from the dead when no one does that every day. People want to do that every day. He said, this is the evidence. This is the proof that everything I'm saying is true. He was his authority, his power was declared through his resurrection from the dead. But not only is resurrection from the dead. Also, for what we call the exalt his exaltation. Let's keep reading in verse 20. See, not only was he raised from the dead. He was also, verse 20 says, seated at his right hand in heavenly places. So God declared or displayed or exercised his power, showing us the power and authority of Jesus, through the resurrection of Jesus, and the exaltation of Jesus. He didn't just come back from the dead, but he ascended back into heaven. We see that spelled out for us in scripture. many places. Here's a couple, Luke 2451. While he blessed them. He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And then Mark 16, 19. So when the Lord Jesus, after he'd spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and he has this and sat down at the right hand of God. He sits down at the right hand of God. Those symbolic place of highest honor, highest authority at the right hand of the Father. Now, here's a little Bible trivia for you. Mark chapter 6, Mark 16, 19 is on the screen there. That phrase sat down at the right hand of God. That's a quote from the Old Testament. I'm going to put anyone on the spot, but it's a quote from Psalm 110, verse one. And here's what's really cool about this verse. Psalm 110, verse one says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. It's a prophecy about the coming Messiah. made 100s of years earlier. about the coming Messiah. Here's the trivia thing for it. This verse on the screen here is the most quoted Old Testament verse by New Testament writers. And so a lot of times in the New Testament, the books that were written after the ministry of Jesus, Old Testament everything before the birth of Jesus, the New Testament writers, quote, from the Old Testament writers, many times. This is the one most quoted by any other writer, far above all others. You'll find this quote in you'll find this quote in 3 of the gospels. You'll find it in the book of Acts, you find it in 6 epistles, and you find it in the book of Revelation. This is a very, very important verse. You ever have a parent that used to repeat themselves over and over again or a grandparent or a boss? He said, man, I get so tired of hearing that. Keep repeating that over there. I'm going to say over and over and over again what's important that I really, really want you to hear this once you know this. That's what the New Testament writers are doing. There's something so important in the Old Testament that we're going to say it 22 times in the New Testament. And that is that Jesus sits now at the right hand of God, the Father. He's not only has been resurrected, but he has been exalted and he sits in the place of highest authority. Now, what does that mean? Well, because of this, because he's been resurrected, because he's been exalted the right hand of the Father. Paul notes several things that are true of Jesus. Number one, verse 21, Jesus is above all rule, authority, power, and dominion. All rule, authority, power, and dominion, verse 21 says, far above. Now, these terms, ruler, rule, authority, power, dominion, these 4 terms, here, are in the Jewish 1st century context, referred to angelic or spiritual powers. So he's saying, as Jesus is above any spiritual power. But it's not just above every spiritual, above every power of any domain. Whatever power exists, Jesus is above it. Not only above it, notice verse 21. Look at it a little closer. It says, not only is he above all rule authority, power and dominion, he's far above. Far above, high above, greatly exalted, above every rule, authority, power and dominion. It's not even close. That's what he's writing here. It's fun to have these debates today about the greatest of all time. And so right now, NBA playout, our finals going on, it brings back the LeBron or Jordan debate. It was the greatest lot. Football season will roll around, and we'll start debating who's the greatest quarterback of all time. Maybe we do it with movies. What was the best movie ever made? What was the funniest sitcom of all time? What was the greatest Christmas movie of all time? I tell people when they visit Kansas City, The number one question I get asked when people visit Kent City, what is it? Where to go for barbecue? And I tell them, you will start a fistfight if you ask that question to a group of guys on a street corner. You go up to a group of people say, where's the best place to get barbecue? An argument's going to break out in the streets over that question? Because everybody has their favorite place, right? And you're going to argue that. And these arguments are fun to have. Here's the deal with Jesus. There's no argument. There's no debate. It's not like, well, there's Jesus, and then there's this power. No, he is far above, is not even close, no debate, no contest. He is supreme over every rule, over every authority, over power, over every dominion. There's not a close second. Second thing he says, Jesus is above every name that is named. Verse 21. He's far above all rule, authority, power and dominion, and above every name that is named. He's greater than any title. There's no name, there's no power greater than Jesus. I was flipping through the channels one day. I don't know what channel it was. I don't know what they were even talking about. I drop in the middle of this panel discussion and it's a panel of religious leaders. And there's like a Jewish rabbi, and there's a Catholic priest, and there's a pastor, Protestant pastor, there's an imam, it's like a joke, which is a legit panel of religious leaders. I don't know what they're talking about, but as I turn it on, I'm listening to the conversation. And one of the, as a woman in the panel, and she says, here's this thing. She said, we all, all of us up here, we all worship the same God, we just call him by different names. No, that's not true. I know that sounds good. That's just a warm feeling about that. We're going to join hands and sing kumbaya. We want to feel that way. It's not true. We don't all worship the same God and call God by different names. There are a lot of lowercase G, God's out there. There's only one true God, and his name is Jesus. And that title is far above any other religious title that can be given to someone. There's one true God, at that name, every knee will bow. There's no other name higher than the name of Jesus. But he continues in verse 21. Not only is Jesus the name above every name. He's the name above every name in this age and the next, and the one to come. Verse 21. He's the name above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. See, his supremacy includes all powers then, all powers now and all powers that will ever be. He's the greatest of all, and he's the greatest of all time. Again, more application later, but let me just pause and point something down here. If this is true, which I believe it is, we're on the winning team here. We're on the right side here. Sometimes I'll be watching football. or any kind of sport, but sometimes I watch football. If the Chiefs are playing, it's very clear that's who I'm cheering for, right? If, if, uh, it's not the Chiefs, but it's someone in our division, then it's very clear who I'm cheering for. for the team that's played against the team in our division. If it's not a division game, it's 2 teams in our conference, I'm going to cheer for the team that has the lowest record in our conference to lock the, right? right, page, you're not a hierarchy here. Once in a while, though, you turn the TV on, it's a couple of NFC teams, and I have no interest in this game at all. There's nothing that's going to impact my life, how this game goes, unless it's maybe just some team I happen to just like, I don't know, for some reason, maybe just being in college in the 90s. I just don't like the cowboys and that hasn't got out of my system all these years later. But, uh, and sometimes my boys would walk you when they were little and they'd say, Dad, who's playing? I'd say, oh, this team, this team. Who do we want to win? And I'd say, I don't care. I just pick one. It doesn't matter to me. And then Mason would always say, who's ahead? Who's ahead? I want to pick the team that's ahead because I want to be on the winning side. And I want to, the odds are my favor. I want to pick the team that's winning, and then I'll cheer for the team that's winning, and what's over, I'll be with the team that won. Let me tell you, if you're going to pick a team, pick Jesus. Because he's winning, and he has one, in the end, he will win, you're on the winning side. You're on the right side of history because we're worshiping the name above every name, not only in this life, but also in the life to come, which brings us to his next point, verse 22, he is superior to all. You wanna make sure, listen, when you pick your authority in this world, you want to make real sure it's the authority in the next world. And you pick a king, you want to pick the victorious king, and this passage tells us Jesus is that victorious king, he put all things under his feet. verse 22 says. He subjected everything under his feet. He's given all authority to Christ. He'll never be defeated. He'll never be unseated. He is the victorious king. You study history. Every kingdom that's ever exists in the history of humanity has a defeated kingdom in its wake. Someone rose to power because some other kingdom got defeated. And, you know, in our day, we look and see nations fighting against nations, every nation, you're not a map, a globe, every boundary, every nation is drawn the way it's drawn because at some time, history, The people in that part of the world conquered the people who used to live in that part of the world. And that's why they get to name it, what they want to name it now, and govern it, they want to govern it. Jesus is king because he has defeated all powers. Hebrews 2, verse 14, says, That through death he destroyed the one who has power of death, that is the devil. And he delivered all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. He destroyed death. He destroyed the enemy. Colossians 2.14. He canceled the record of death debt that stood against us with its legal demands, and he set it aside, nailing it to a cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. The victory was through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, here's the very relevant part to us. The final thing he says is that Jesus, the one who is above every rule of authority, the name above every name, superior to all, is also the head of the church, which is his body. The book of Ephesians is going to have a lot to say about the church. as we move through this in the coming weeks, it's going to pop up again and again. This is the 1st time it's going to be mentioned right here in this verse. He's going to come back to it a lot. Most of Paul's letters that we study in the Bible, when he talks about the church, he's talking about a local church, what's going on in Corinth or what's going on in Galatia or Philippi, here he's using church in the universal sense. There's a big sea church and a little sea church. You're part of the Little Sea, Northland Church, which is part of the Big Sea Church, which is the body of Christ. This is the idea of church he's using. He's saying the church is his body. The collection of believers on this planet or his body, and he is the head. He is the authority over the body, which is the his body, which is the church. So what this means is we kind of follow the logic here. The one who rules over all things is also the rule of the church. But here's another cool thing. If you flip that, here's something really cool. The rule of the church is also the one who's the ruler of all things. Well, why is that cool? That means our leader is the leader. Our king is the king. Our authority is the authority. Again, we're on the right team. We're on the right side of history. He rules over all gods and governments and galaxies, and then he laid on his life for us. And we get to give him the glory and serve him as our Lord and Savior. So what does that mean for us? This isn't just an intellectual exercise walking through this. This isn't just a theological concept to ponder. This is a real implication for our life. It really matters to our lives today. Three things that matter, why this matters, that what we said is that God has declared Jesus, the power and authority through his resurrection and his ascension is exaltation. And because of that, we now know Jesus is the king of kings, Lord of Lords, ruler of all. By the way, you say, well, what if I don't believe that fully? I understand that might be harvesting to believe. Here's what I would say. It's very clear that's what the Bible's teaching. What you can't do. Yeah, you could say, I want to reject all that. I don't believe that Jesus is the one way to know God. You can't do that and hold the Bible still. Like to think that there's a lot of gods by different names and all roads lead to God eventually. It's not something you can do and still follow Jesus. Jesus hasn't left us that option. Does that make sense? You have to, you have to sort of like, you can't hold on to the Bible and this. Because the Bible's very clear. Everything that is very clear. So what does that mean? See, I do believe that. I am following Jesus. I'm trusting Jesus. What does that mean to my life? Number one, we can trust his power. We can trust his power in our lives. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in you. One of the phrases in our song was, I'm alive in Christ. He is alive in me. Did I get that right? The lyric from the song earlier. I'm alive in Christ. He is alive in me. You see, we're talking about the resurrector of Jesus. So for example, at Easter. We were finishing our study of one Corinthians, chapter 15. We noted how the resurrection is the evidence or the hope of our future resurrection. So Jesus came back from the dead. We can live for eternity. Jesus was resurrected, we'll be resurrected. But that's not the whole story. Jesus is also alive in you today because of his resurrection. You've been resurrected. This is what baptism is a picture of. You see people baptized here. I died to my old life. I've been raised up to live a new life in Jesus. So you have this power in you today. You can trust his power today. The resurrection is not just about the future. It's about right now, the one who died and rose from the dead. It was exalted the right hand of the Father. That's the Lord and savior of your life, that you're following today. Here's what's really cool about that. When you have a problem and you take that problem to Jesus, you're taking that problem all the way to the top. You ever call a customer service line, you got some kind of problem, and, and I told you, don't be mad when you call customer service lines. Those people are just trying to make a living. don't yell at them. One, because it's not nice too, because it's not going to help. Because that person, you recall a 1800 number or something and that person probably can't help you anyway. That's the 1st person answering the phone. And if you're nice, you get up the line to the person who can fix your problem. If you're mean, they just call the person next to them, the other cubicle, they're manager, and you're talking to someone else who doesn't have any power. And if you're nice, if you get up to the top, you get like higher up the chain, you get someone with the power to fix your problem. Let me tell you, when you have a problem, you take it to Jesus, you went to the top. You went to the highest level of authority, you can go with your problem. He's the name above all names. He's over every authority, every power, every dominion. You have taken your problem as high as you can take it when you bring it to Jesus. You can trust his power in your life. Second, we can trust his plan. Because he enjoys the position of head over everything, including the church, he's head over everything for the sake of the church. He sits at that exalted position, representing us before the Father. Again, we're on the winning team. We're on the right side of history, the one who controls our lives, controls every single thing about our lives. And we're led by the one who's sovereign overall. You can trust his plan. your life today. Then finally, this is important. We must submit to his authority. Here's the problem. We like the 1st two. We stumble at the third. I want the power of Jesus. I want to know there's a plan for my life and God is sovereignly working through things in my life. We don't like King Jesus. We like genie in the bottle Jesus, but not necessarily king of my life, Jesus. But you don't get to have it both ways. You don't get to tap into the power of Jesus when you want it and not bow down to the authority of Jesus over our lives. Is he the king of your life? Is he the leader of your life? Is he the one you're submitting your life too? You see, we experience his power when we submit to his authority. It's like a two-sided coin. We experience this power when we're in submission to him and his power enables us to submit to him. It's 2 sides of the same coin here in our lives. He deserves not just to run to him when we want something, but he deserves our silent awe, our loudest praise, our full devotion. It's like a, Don't name them or nudge them or look at them, but you might have a friend or relative that only calls you when they want something. You know, people like that? Don't, don't, don't, don't go shouting names. That if you got a call from that person this afternoon. You saw their name on the caller ID of your phone, you would have sort of a negative feeling like, oh, great, what do they want now? Maybe that text message comes through. Hey, what's up? You're like, what's up? Like, what do you want? Right? Yeah, that don't be that to God. Don't be that, hey, what's up, God? Remember me? The one who has not cared about your authority, has not submitted my life to you. I need a wish. And we run to him with it. Are you submitted to authority? Give me an example, because we can think of a lot of them for our own lives, but several years ago, young couple, they're no longer here. This is far enough back, you couldn't figure it out anyway. These young couples visit our church. They come a few times. They said they had some questions. We got together, I love those conversations. We love when you say, I want to talk to a pastor, we love to grab coffee, answer questions. And they said, we're trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus and what that looks like in our life, and they were so close, you know, to understanding what it really means to mythology to Jesus. And so I said, you know, it's not just about trusting Jesus as your savior. It's not making the Lord of your lives. I'm curious. If you were to commit your life to Jesus this week, what would change about your life? Is there anything in your life that you know, if I'm following Jesus, this would have to change, right? And they said, well, they said, he said, we're living together right now. And I said, okay. I said, what do you think about that? I said, well, we kind of feel bad about it. I kind of feel like it's probably something God doesn't want us to do. And if we got married, we'd probably need, if we start following Jesus, we probably need to, I wonder if we probably move out, I guess, or we'd probably get married. And I can tell they're really sincerely wrestling with this. And they came a handful more times and they kind of quit coming. I ran into them in the parking lot, the grocery store, and they said, hey, Pastor Matt, and they ran out. How you been? And they said, hey, could you pray for us about something? I said, yeah, what's going on? They said, we're trying to buy a house. So we're having a hard time. Would you pray and just ask God to help us get this house? I said, yeah, I might be able to do this. Let me ask you, did you guys get, did you get married? And they said, no. I said, oh, isn't that interesting? By their own admission, we're doing something God doesn't want us to do, but if you could pray for us, that we get another place to do the thing God doesn't want us to do, that'd be awesome, Pastor. You see the irony? They wanted the wish, but not the authority. And we've all got those things in our lives, don't we? Where we want God to grant us the power, but we don't want to submit our lives to the authority of Jesus. Is he your king? What do we do with this? Let me give you 2 questions to consider. What is one area of your life where you need to trust his plan? Maybe right now your circumstances are difficult. or challenging or uncertain. And you don't know how you're going to see your way forward. You're overwhelmed, you're confused, you're burdened. And I just want to encourage you that if you're a follower of Jesus, you have in you, the resurrection power of Jesus to see you through whatever you're going through right now. You can trust him. You've submitted your life to the one who is ruler and lord of all. I heard a story one time about a man named William Randolph Hearst. You may have heard that name. If you're from California, there's a the Hearst mansion is there. It's kind of a monument to his wealth. The end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, he gained great wealth as a publisher, newspaper publisher. And he spent a ton of that money on his vast art collection, always trying to add another piece of art to his collection. And one day he learned of this very valuable, rare painting, and he summoned some of his staff. He said, go find it. I have to have it. Go find it, find out what they want for it. I'll pay just about anything to have this in my collection. They came back a few weeks later. They said, we found it. He said, great. Let's go get it. They said there's a problem. You already own it. It's in one of your warehouses already. The thing he desired that he wanted, that he was searching for, he had all along. Let me tell you, the thing that you feel like you're missing, if you're a follower of Jesus, you have it already. You have the resurrection power of Jesus in your life. You have your Lord and Savior that you've committed your life to city at the right hand of the Father interceding on your behalf. What's the area of your life you need to turn over? Maybe it's, um, you're worried. This should be our source of hope, of peace, of streak, and everything we face. Sometimes a larger scale. We always put our hope in something like some political development, or politician, or election, or some development. If this would happen, my problems would be solved, or if this happens, the world's going to fall apart. Let me just tell you, there's no leader or politician or anybody who should be our source of worship or worry if we're focused on Jesus. He's our hope. And in that hope we rest secure. We don't wait on someone else to solve our problems. We don't worry that someone's going to cause the world to fall apart. We anchor our hope in king Jesus, the name above every name, the name today, or we'll be named in the future. It's our source of peace, of rest, to rest in his sovereignty. Some would say one time, our ability to rest depends a lot on our understanding of the sovereignty of God. I found that to be true in my life. But sometimes I just can't rest in peace because and I realize it's revealing that I'm not trusting the sovereignty of God. If I trust him, I can rest in him. To trust his strength. I just, I'm always, you know, I just confess my problems. I'm sure you have your own. I spend all day Saturday worried about the sermon I have to preach, and all day Sunday worried that I didn't preach it very well, instead of just trusting King Jesus to do what he's going to do today. And I'm sure you're the same way in some area of your life. Turn it over to the Lord. Give it to him, trust in him. What's that area right now that's causing you the most frustration or discouragement or fear or anxiety, turn it over to King Jesus. Second, What's the one area of your life where you need to submit to the authority of Jesus? very where you've not made him your king. When Jesus is your king. He sets the agenda for our lives and he reorders our priorities. Where are your priorities out of line? Because Jesus is not the king of your life in that area. Where, uh, are you led by his word? Do you seek his will? What is the sacrifice he's calling you to make? Where have you placed your desires ahead of his desires for you and for the world around you? What is the area of your life where you've not submitted to the authority of King Jesus? Trust his plan. Submit to his authority. If you've never done that before. This is primarily for believers to rest in this. If you're not a follower of Jesus, today could be the day you begin to be a follower of Jesus. Do you recognize that Jesus is the name above every name, that he indeed died on the cross and has resurrected, and you want to make him, not only the savior of your life, but the Lord of your life today, you can call upon him. Let's pray together. If you're not a follower of Jesus, this could be your moment. then you could pray a prayer, something like this. God, I know that Jesus died for me and rose again, I recognize that he is the Lord of Lords and my only hope. Today, I want to repent of, turn from my sin. And submit my life to following and trusting Jesus. That is a prayer, you've prayed, you are a follower of Jesus today. Maybe you would say, Lord, search my heart, show me where I've walking in fear and anxiety and certainty. Because I've failed to rest in the power that lives in me. Maybe it's just Jesus, I trust your plan. Jesus, I trust your power. so powerfully displayed in your resurrection and your exaltation that guides leads me today. God, maybe your prayer would be God, forgive me where I've treated you like a genie and not a king. be the head over my life, the not only the ruler of our church, but of my life and of my family. Father, I pray for the one here has never trusted you, which you draw them to you today. Open their eyes to see this truth, their heart to believe it. Father, for the believers that are walking in uncertainty and fear and anxiety. through difficult, challenging circumstances, remind them of the hope of the gospel that lives in them. But you are alive in them today. And for all of us, when we want to sit on a throne that only you should sit on, Convict us and bring us to repentance, let us submit our lives fully to you. Jesus, be king over every area and priority. corner of our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.