Well, good morning, Church. Hopefully you have had an incredible week this week and that you have gotten all the rest, relaxation that you need because VBS is coming, and it is going to be a great, great week. One more reminder to please be praying for this week. It is an incredible week in the life of our church here. Well, listen, Brian was here last week. A big shout out to Pastor Brian for opening up our series for the summer through the book of Ephesians. Brian kind of got the first crack at the book last week, but he actually got one of the toughest or strongest theological passages in the whole book. In fact, I think he mentioned this, but in last week's passage, most of it was one long sentence by the Apostle Paul that gave us this idea of who we are and where we stand before God. And before we kind of just roll that out as some kind of like, ethereal talk. It's incredibly important for all of us to know who we are, who God is, and who God has made us. Brian last week challenged us to think like we are eagles and not turkeys, right? He made us think last week that we are set apart for Christ. We are chosen and He are adopted into his family. We are redeemed and made whole and we are marked with the seal and with the love of who God is and therefore okay the whole first 15 verses. 

Therefore, we are to be a people of praise. That was kind of where we are. My role today. Okay, My role today is to pick up where we left off last week in Ephesians chapter one, and my role, God willing today and the clock don't run out, is to finish the first chapter, then finish the first chapter today. So if you got a copy of scriptures, I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter one, and we are going to start today in verse 15, verse 15. While you're getting there, many of you know this, some of you don't. I spent 23 years of my life doing student ministry, doing student ministry, and I loved 90% of it, right? I know I loved all of it. It was awesome. I love the passion of the students. I love the reality of you getting to watch just life being transformed. I loved watching them kind of coming in as a sixth grade little oomph, you know what I'm saying? They're moving their way up and they're becoming an adult. I loved watching God get a hold of their lives and then take stands. Well, I loved all of that. But during my time in student ministry not only working here, but at another church. I also, during part of that time, got to do a lot of outside speaking, a lot of camps and retreats and fall retreats and DNOWs and summer activities and that part I loved even more. Here's why. Because when you're the student guy, you're always sleeping with one eye open, right? You never know what these jockers are going to do. You never know how the night's going to go. You never know the craziness that is going to happen. But when you're the speaker guy, all you have to do is speak. You have no responsibility. You don't care how crazy the kids are. You don't care how delinquent the kids are. They can sit down, be quiet for 30 minutes while you're up there. It's a win for you. So I got to do a lot of speaking all over at all these camps and all these retreats, and I would get the breeze in, I would get to speak. Use my funniest stories, all five of them, right? How we get to use my favorite passages that I had. And I would get to walk away being the hero that these kids thought, Man, I wish that was my student pastor only to be humbled when I came back here. That's kind of how it always works in student ministry. Well, I remember about 13 years ago, about 13 years ago, there was this thing that came out that's still a little bit popular today called The Color War. All right. We see them today in races. We see them here. Our students did one last spring. And the basic premise behind the color war is that you take a whole bunch of powdered tempera paint, put it in some big buckets, hand everybody some cups or some plates or some bowls or whatever you want to. You say go. And at the end of it, whatever team or color has the most color all over everybody else. They are the winner of the color war. I was speaking at a fall retreat in the highlands of North Carolina. Beautiful. I was having the best weekend of my life. Nobody was bothering me. I was teaching the word of God. I went to bed at 8: 30 at night while the jokers were running around. I was doing all that I wanted to do. 

Well, the student pastor there came to me at breakfast on a Saturday morning, and said Matt, I want you to think about something. I need a favor from this. I came in no matter what. Hey, I'm here for you. You're paying me. Let's do it. What are we going to do? Right? He's like, I want you to be the master of ceremonies for our color war this afternoon. And I was like, color war, what the heck is a color war? I don't. Okay, I'll do whatever you want me to do. So he hands me a megaphone. He says at 1:00, meet us out on the field. It's like, okay, no worries. So I get on the field. I'm like, What's my instruction? He said, I want you to rally them up. I want you to get him excited. I want you to get them all up against each other. And then I want you to say go. And when you say go, they're all just going to go crazy. Cover everybody with pain. This is going to be a fun time. Like, All right, cool, fun time. No worries. There's a lake over there. If we get a little bit dirty, we'll just go jump in the lake. Not a problem, right? Oh, it was a problem. Watch this. So I'm standing in the middle of this circle, like 250 kids. There's like four churches there. And so I have this megaphone. I'm hyping them up and I'm getting them going. And I got pink over here and purple and yellow and blue, whatever. All the colors were. And all of a sudden I say go, and I put my hands down and I'm just enjoying the scene until I realized that there was a little bit of revolt against me. Against me. About two thirds of the students decide, Forget getting pain on anyone else. Let's only go for the speaker guy. Let's go for the speaker guy in the middle. Let's see how much of this 500 pounds of temper paint that we can pile on to this guy in the middle. So I said, go. All of a sudden the whole thing collapses on me. And about the 97 people that smashed on to me, all of a sudden everything went from clear as day, bright light outside to my whole life went dark. Everything in me went dark. I could not see a bit. One bit. I went blind. And honestly, I'm telling you, I'm not a panicky person. I'm not. I mean, most of the time I'm a go with the flow person. But guys, that day I thought I was blind. I thought that absolutely I'd gone 100% blind. What happened is two kids ran up behind me and went poof, right into my eye sockets with this paint. And it filled my whole eye socket on top of my eye, under my eye around the back of my eye. Both of my eyes were completely full of temper pain, and all I could see was black and one little pink dot right up here, right going out of the side. 

I was like, Lord, I'm blind. This is it. I'm over with, It's gone. I will never see again. Well, here's the good news. The good news is I'm not blind. All right? That's the good news, right? You have noticed I'm not number one. The good news is there was a doctor that was actually there that saw it happened and came to my rescue. I mean, I went down. I was like I mean, I fell over in the field. I was like, hey, maybe I can pretend like I'm dead and they'll go away. I don't know. And they were still kind of giving it to me on the ground. And this doctor came over. He took me over to this water hose and for 45 minutes held two water hoses on my eyes, into my eyes and rinsed them out to where I could see again. That was the good news. The bad news was that I had to speak in 4 hours. I had to speak that night, and I still couldn't focus on anything. So that night I'm looking at the student pastor. I'm like look dude, this is on you. I can't see. I don't know where I am. Everything is blurry. What do you want me to do? He's like, just wing it. I'm like God, okay, here we go. So I had to speak from total memory. Here's the part about that. 

Our physical sight is so important. Is so important. Just ask someone that has gone blind. Just ask someone that's had eye problems. But what Paul was about to show us in this message to the Ephesians and to us is that our spiritual sight is even more important. It's even more important. This morning, what Paul is going to show us is he's going to take all of the stuff that he said last week, this theological, this deep content and this morning, he is going to ask for God to bring it to light, to saturate our souls. Paul is going to take what he taught and he is going to pray that our spiritual eyes are open to these truths. 

Now, here's why this is important. This is important because as believers in Jesus, we can have so much head knowledge, we can have so much memorized, we can have so much just sterile knowledge. That it is God, and God alone, that breaks into that knowledge and presses it into our souls so that our spiritual hearts are enlightened. That's what Paul is going to do this morning in this message to the Ephesians. Now, I was thinking about this week, isn't it absolutely incredible when someone says they're going to pray for you and then you get more than just that hallway conversation and then they walk off in an incredible sometimes mean, you either get a note or a letter or a text or something down the road. This morning, Paul is doing that for the Ephesians. You see, Paul had spent significant time with these people. He actually spent years with these people, living with them, teaching them, leading them, encouraging them. In fact, if you really want to dig into this, it was Paul that started the Ephesians Church. You can go back to Chapter 19 and look at this. And now Paul has been gone for a little while. Timothy's gone, John, John's gone. All these guys who taught them, are gone out of their lives. And now Paul, like all good pastors, wants to speak into their lives for two reasons. He wants to give them some instruction and he wants to give them some encouragement. This morning, we're going to look at Paul's encouraging prayer for the Ephesians and for us. 

All right, Ephesians chapter one. If you haven't found it by now, it's hopeless. All right here it is. Ephesians chapter one, verse 15. Here it is. Here's what it says. Paul says, for this reason. Now, that's a connecting phrase, right? That connects the last paragraph with this paragraph. Paul's saying, Since you're chosen, since Christ is your deposit, since you can trust in the Savior of the universe as yours. Okay. For this reason, ever since, Paul says, I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people. Now stop right there and we've got to ask a question about the text. What did Paul hear about the Ephesians? There's two things. It's a kind of jump out if you're a Bible student here. Number one, you heard about their faith, and number two, we heard about their love, right? Let me mention this. Any time you're reading, anytime you're studying the Bible, yes, we should receive this as a letter to the Ephesians. But also, secondly, we should receive this as a letter to us. That's why it's in the Bible. That's why God has canonized it into the Bible. So we should see this as God's words through the Holy Spirit into the life of the Ephesians. But also we should see it as God's Word to us. So what is God saying to them and to us? He's saying that we should be devoted in our faith and in our love, that we should have both of those things consistently on the radar, right? Faith in God particularly, and love. What he's saying here is for others, particularly special, specifically here for the church. Now, if you've been reading the Bible for a long time, you'll go, Man, that kind of sounds familiar when you're talking about faith and love, loving God and loving others, which you would be true. That is Jesus and the great commandment, right? Matthew 22, verse 37 Jesus replied. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all soul, with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like this: Love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law the prophets hang on these two commandments. So let me just kind of pause right here and ask us all a question, because this is for them and it's for us. 

Number one, how is your faith doing? How is your faith today? How was it yesterday? Not how do you want it to be tomorrow? How is your faith right now? Are you trusting God? Are you leaning into God's promises? Are you relying upon God? Secondly, how's your love? How is your love meter right now? Are you loving people deeply right now, or are you still seeing this world as a movie about you and everybody else is just a supporting actor or actress? Right. How is your love? How is your faith in God? How is your love in others? Now, would Paul honestly be able to speak this praise to you? And that can hit me this week. Would Paul honestly be able to praise me right now in my current situation because of my faith and because of my love. Now, if you're if you've studied the Bible a lot, you're reading this and you're already thinking the same thing that a lot of people are thinking. This phrase is a little bit ironic in the life of the opposing church, because if you remember, Jesus actually rebukes the Ephesian church because of their love, Right. Revelation Chapter two. Listen to what Jesus says. Yet I hold this against you. He's talking to the Ephesian church. You have forsaken the love you had at first.
 
Now watch this. Consider how far you have fallen and repent and do the things that you did at first. Now, it's a little bit ironic that Paul is over here going, Hey, man, I'm praising you for your faith and your love. And then Jesus in Revelation comes across and he's like, Hey, hey, Ephesian church, you're blowing it a little bit. And if you combine all that together, here's the truth that God is kind of pressing into us and it's that faith and love are things that should be consistently pursued in our lives. You see, some of us grew up in churches or in faith backgrounds that as long as you have sealed the deal, it's over with. You've done it. You went to VBS one time and you did that. You said the ABCs, you got baptized, whatever. Fill in the blank. But what Paul is telling us here, that our faith and our love are things that should be consistent drivers of our lives. And write this principle down: faith in God and love for others are a continual litmus test of our soul condition. You want to know how you're doing in your walk with Jesus? It's your faith in God and your love for others. You want to know if you're walking out the sanctification that God has put you on a path. When He redeemed you. How is your love for God? How is your love for others? How's your faith or God? How's your love for others? You want to know if you're winning at this thing called Christianity? It's not that you can talk about it. It's not that you're at church. How is your faith in God and love for others? It tells us where we are right now. Paul is praising them for it. Jesus rebukes him for it, and he's pressing us in to always keep those things in tension. Let's keep reading verses. And he says this for this reason. Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you. Watch this. Remembering you in my prayers. Man, what an assurance, right? You're sitting in the Ephesian church. You've heard about this guy named Paul for years. You never got to meet him. But all of a sudden, this letter shows up to your church to be read over your church, the surrounding churches and the area. And this guy named Paul, arguably one of the most influential human Christians that has ever lived, writes this letter to you and says, Hey, you are always in my prayers. 

Now that is motivating. That's encouraging. In fact, when any of you walk up to me at any point and you're the same and go, Hey, Pastor, man, I just want you to know, I am praying for you. Man, can I just tell you, that lights up my day. When anybody sends me a little card and says I want you to know, I was thinking about you this morning. Man, that lights up my day. So these people get the apostle Paul, who stands up and says, I'm praying for you, too. It's all of us like, Man, I wish the Apostle Paul was praying for me too, which I would say hit the pause button because we have it even better. And here's why. The Bible tells us that even better than that, that Jesus is lifting you up, that the maker of the universe, the savior of your soul, is praying for you. John 17 When Jesus was speaking to the disciples, listen to what he said. He says, My prayer verse 20 is not for them alone, not just for you disciples alone. But I also pray for those who will believe, watch this, in me through their message. You know, that encompasses you. You are a follower of Jesus because of the foundation the disciples laid. 

And therefore, when Christ prayed this as He was walking on this earth, he was praying for you. When Christ walked on this earth, he prayed for you. Even better than that, Romans 8:34 says this: Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died more than that was raised to life. What's this, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. That means that not only did Christ pray for you when he was on this earth, that now in eternity, Christ is at the right hand of God Father, praying, interceding for you. First John tells us again that Jesus as the advocate in front of the Father, Hebrews seven tells us again that Jesus always lives to intercede for you. And I just need to tell you this, this morning. Church, Listen to me. You're not alone. You're not alone. You are known by Jesus. You are loved by Jesus, and you are lifted up consistently by Jesus. You're prayed for by Jesus. Hey, they Ephesians, they can stick it right, we got Jesus. He is lifting us up. So be encouraged this morning, you're not alone. Don't let anyone deceive you until nobody's on your team. The maker of the universe as a follower of Jesus is interceding on your behalf. Let's keep going. Back to Paul. So Paul looks at them and says, Hey, listen, I'm really glad that you're saved, and I'm really glad that your faith is real. I'm really glad that your faith and your love are on display. I'm really glad that you love others. But he keeps going in verse 17, let's read it, it says this. He says, I keep asking. That's a continual ask that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. Now, circle that word known in your Bible high like that, whatever, however you can do it in your Bible. That word no is the Greek word ginosko. So it is the deepest sense of knowing. It's not just kind of knowing about something. It's not just a sterile information of something. It is a deep saturated experiential knowledge. It's the same knowledge that the Bible uses when husband and wife come together and know each other. Is the two becoming one. And I want you to write this down because this is incredibly important. Here's the principle: The most important activity of the Christian life is to know and pursue God more. That is your most important. That is bigger than your marriage. It is bigger than your family. It is way bigger than your kids. It's bigger than your job. As a believer in Jesus, your number one most important activity is to know and to pursue God. 

That is it. And it makes sense. And here's why. All right. This gets a little bit deeper than you can handle. All right, it's late enough. We know that the Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. That means that in some way that we reflect who God is, we represent to the world, who God is. But here's the thing that also means that we cannot know who we really are until, watch this, till we know and understand who God is. You see what I mean by that? If we are the image of God, then we will never know who I am until I know and pursue who God is. In fact, this is why some people listen to me. Students, you're going to come across this this week. This is why some people never discover who they are, because they're always looking at themselves and not looking at who God is. You see, when we're always looking to ourselves to tell us who we are and we're not bearing the image of the one that we are created into, we have a tendency to flop and to go and to morph into whatever is presented to us. But as believers in Jesus, if our goal in life is to know and pursue Christ, that's who I am. That's who He made me to be. And it keeps me from floundering, it keeps me from chasing, it keeps me from being so isolated and having these thoughts in my mind that I'm going to fulfill my heart by becoming something that God has never made me and his image. In fact, Jesus said it like this: This is eternal life. John 17:30 This is the eternal life that they may know. That's the same word ginosko, you God. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Listen to me close, we exist as believers in Jesus to know God better. The more we know God, the more we'll be like Jesus, the more we'll live like Jesus and our faith and our love. Let's connect all those dots. The more we understand also what God has offered us through God, the more we understand as we know and experience Him the resources He's given us, the sacrifice He made for us. And when we know and pursue those things, here's what it does. It changes our hearts. It opens the eyes of our hearts. It defines who we are, How? Through a deep pursuit of God, not through a deep pursuit of me. If I am pursuing myself to figure out who I am, I will always go askew because I'm a simple human being. But if I know that I'm created in the image of God and I'm under his banner, I'm pursuing him to be an image of him. Once again, the goal, the Christian life. Listen, I know I keep saying it is to pursue God, pursue God. How can we pursue more? Do we ask God for some new gift? Do we ask God for some new Holy Spirit? No. We ask God to show us even more of what He's already given us. That's what Paul is praying here. What did Paul say? He says, Please, God, give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation. That's what he's praying for them right here. He's saying, God, give us an attitude, give us a mindset that we can comprehend what we already had in Jesus. I'm going to keep saying that Christ is sufficient. The crisis, all Christ is everything. He is Lord. And in His sufficiency, not the world's sufficiency, that I can come to grips with the fact of God, I am yours. 

You see, here's the thing. When we come to grips with this, that God I'm yours, man. It begins to make all the rest of the stuff that kind of we chase after so much more dim. So much less appealing. Paul says that I pray. Watch what he's saying that you may comprehend what is yours in Christ. And he's implying here it's a lifelong pursuit. Here, here's a thing. I can get up here and preach all day long about what you should do, and it's only going to last like an hour. But when you begin to understand who you are, that can change you. That's what changes you. Because the majesty of who Christ is and who he is made us begin to come out of our lives. Listen, we're not looking for religious rule followers. He's calling out people to live in him and for him. Let's keep moving in the text, because here's what Paul does so masterfully. He doesn't leave us in the ethereal. He gives us three things that we should pray for God to open our eyes to. Watch this, verse 18 he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. 

Wait a minute, Matt. Are we talking about eyes, or are we talking about hearts? Which I would just say yes, right? Yes. Both Right. We're talking about eyes, talking about heart. We're talking about the mind. We're talking about all of this. Physical eyes have nothing to do with it. Any time you read the word heart in the Bible written in a Jewish context, it ties together the knowledge, the emotions, the feelings, the actions, all of that together. It's not just sterile information. It is something that changes us that we physically see differently, that we pursue differently. And when the eyes of our heart see Jesus more intently, here's what it does. It transforms us. It transforms us. So what does Paul specifically want us to see? Verse 18 Read it again. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope that he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Now, you get all that? No, I didn't either. Right. So here's what I want to do. I want to show you the three things that Paul says if you want to be an image bearer of Christ, I mean, begin to pray these things over your life. Number one, he says this. God, open my eyes to the hope that you have called me into. 

Now, this is a phrase right straight out of verse 18. I didn't make these cute. I didn't make them rhyme. I'm just taking the text and explaining it right here. But we need to talk about this word hope for a minute, because this is a confusing word in the English language. Here's why. In the English language, hope most often stands for something that we're hoping for, but we're just not sure it's going to happen. Right? I hope to have a good lunch today. I hope to have a great week. Right. I hope that the Braves win the World Series, but I'm not really sure any of those things are going to happen. Now in the Bible, any time you read about your hope in Christ, it is not the hope that we look at in the English language. In fact, write this principle down. Here is the definition. Biblical hope is certain or unquestionable. It is a life shaping certainty that has not happened yet. But you know that it will. You see the difference? Earthly hope is here. It could happen 50/50, right? Biblical hope is that it will happen. It is certainly something. Tell me. Read the word hope in the Bible. Look at the word certainty. So Paul says this: What God is determined to give you as your son. Being a son, being a daughter, it's going to happen. You are his and he is yours. God has set his life on you for eternity. Now, here's the deal. We all know in our minds that one day I'm going to experience this. One day I will experience his full life, the full sonship and daughter ship. But Paul is saying, I want you to feel. I want you to understand. I want you to ginosko this right now. And here's why that's so important. Because it keeps my life in a position to where I can begin to fend off the temporary things that try to move in. You see when I understand the certainty of who God has made me, the rest of the stuff that tries to creep into my life. It just doesn't seem as appealing right now. It doesn't seem as rich right now. It doesn't seem as immediate right now. Really, When I know the hope of who God has made me, it keeps me in a position to overcome sin and temptation because that stuff I know is going to go away. But the stuff God says is mine is mine. Think about it like this. Many of the things that trap us on this earth like popularity, materialism, outward appearance, approval from others, whatever you fill in the blank for you. I don't know what yours is. It can be avoided if we see or if we ginosko. If we know, we have a much better offer and that is who Jesus is. 

That's the point. You see, when I understand the value of the Kingdom of God, it really doesn't appeal to me a whole lot to have a whole lot of stuff in this world. When I understand that I'm cherished by the make or of the universe. Listen to me no longer seeking the approval of other people. I'm actually thinking of the approval, the one that matters. That's what it means right here that I and his and he is mine. And that's what matters most. And therefore, temptation looks a lot less appealing. Could it be church? Could it be that many of our problems are that we just don't understand who we are in Christ? Could it be that we just don't understand what Christ has already offered us? Is he going to offer it to us? Yes. Has he offered it to us? Yes. That's the point of Paul's message here, that he has already made us his. I read a story this week about a guy named William Randolph Hearst. He is an incredibly achieved newspaper guy, super rich, super wealthy, one of the richest people of his day. And he was an art collector. He loved paintings. And one day he was reading a magazine and came across a painting that kind of drew his eye and drew his heart. And he had to have this painting. He actually became obsessed over having this painting. He was rich. He was wealthy. He tried to find this painting for a couple of months on his own, couldn't find it to buy, couldn't find it, the purchase. He would spare no expense. So he took five of the people that work for him and set them loose with an open checkbook, like an open card to say whatever it costs, wherever you need to go, find this painting and buy it for me and bring it to me. For six months, these five guys scoured the Earth looking for this painting. Racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to try to find this one painting the guy wanted. After six months, they came back into William's office and said, William, we've got good news and we got bad news. What do you want? First, they said, Well, bad news is we cannot find the painting that you wanted to buy anywhere in the world. He was like, What do you mean? I gave you an open budget to do this. And so that's about it. He goes, okay, well, what's the good news? They said the good news is, we looked and we found it in your warehouse. You already owned it. Hey, look, I know that's a funny story, but the reality is that explains so much of our life with Christ. The fact that we live our lives in such a way that we don't realize that we already possess the certainty of who God has made us. And Paul says 

I'm just praying that you begin to live it. That's number one. But let's keep moving. Look back at verse 18, it says this. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope that he has called you into. That was the first one comma, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people. Write this down. God not only opened my eyes to the hope that you've called me into, but number two opened my eyes to the riches of your glorious inheritance. Of your glorious inheritance. Okay, now this. When you got to really look at the text. Why? Because God or because Paul is talking about an inheritance in God's holy people, right? That's what he's talking about. So what is an inheritance? Glad you asked. An inheritance is something of value that one gets when someone dies. That's what inheritance is. The second question is whose inheritance is it talking about right here? This one's tricky because most of us always go to us, right? That's where we read it through. But Paul is not talking about our inheritance. Whose inheritance is he talking about? It's talking about God's inheritance. That's what he's talking about. Wait a minute, Matt. God has an inheritance. He's the creator of the world. He's given everything. What is God going to get when somebody dies? Great question. You. That's what he's going to get it. He's going to get you wholly. He's going to get you fully. He's going to get the holy people, the Saints, the church. Listen, you are God's inheritance. Write this principle down. You are God's greatest treasure now and forever. Now and forever. While this is speaking about God, you're like, Matt, what does this have to do with me? Has everything to do with you. One Because when we are our eyes are open to the fact that we are God's and we are His inheritance and we are His treasure, we begin to see our struggles through something totally different. 

You see, why don't we think we struggle with our values so much? We struggle with value and purpose and identity so much because Satan doesn't want you to know that you are God's inheritance, that you are God's treasure, that you are God's child. That's why that's why Satan isolates us, distracts us, put things into our minds that are not natural, that are not godly. And he wants us to follow our heart. But what if we really knew that we are God's treasure, that we are God's inheritance? That we are made for Him and Him for us? This kind of blew me away, kind of meditating on this week. Think about it with me. What is the only thing that God is not fully have right now? It's you. And He is dreaming. He is looking. He is absolutely excited about the day his church comes home and we are made whole in front of him. You see, God wants us so badly that he doesn't leave us in our sins. He sent Jesus to die for us. His one and only son that tells you your worth before God. So what is Paul praying to these people? Yeah. You need to see the hope that is in you. The certainty is in you. But you also need to see that you are worth it. In fact, write this principle down. Write it down. You are worth it to God. You're worth it. You're worth it. No matter what anyone else says, no matter how sane Deceives your mind, deceives your heart. You are worth it to God. You have a worth to the one that matters. That's what he means when he says that you are in the inheritance of God. You say Matt, what difference does it make? It makes a ton of difference when you know whom you belong to and whose treasure you are, you begin to mimic God and you begin to live towards that. God opened my eyes to the hope that you've made me into. Open my eyes to the riches in the fact that I am your inheritance. And watch this in verse 18, it says that I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. You may know the hope that he has called you to the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people. And verse 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Number three, God opened my eyes to the incomparably great power available to me. Open my eyes God. Here's the prayer. Here's the prayer. I'm asking you to pray this week. God open my eyes to the power that you have already given me. Paul prays that you will know, that you will feel, that you will ginosko that you will experience how much power is in you and how much power they can work through you. 

Now, it gets even better than that, because I want you to notice something. Paul uses something to compare that power with. What does he use to compare that power with? He uses the resurrection. Watch what's what he says in verse 19. He says that power is the same as the mighty strength that God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, and he seated him at the right hand of the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in our present age, but and the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, who fills everything in every way, The measure of the power that God has offered to us is the resurrection. Here's what that means. This one always confused me a little bit. I'm just going to be honest with you, because if this was me writing this story and I was kind of coming up with the greatest power that you'd ever seen in this world, I would have probably said that it was creation right there when God created something out of nothing. That is the greatest power that has ever been had. But it's even better than that when you think about the resurrection. And here's why. Because while God created something out of nothing in the resurrection, God created something out of death in the resurrection, and he sets us free. You see, here's what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying that I pray that you know that you can experience the power of being dead and coming to life when Christ is your king, which is an incredible power. Paul is saying, no matter where you've been, stay with me. No matter what you have done, God is able to create good things out of your bad things. That's why I use this resurrection. God is able to take the nastiest part of your life. Listen, the addictions, the confusions, the hatred, the brokenness, the jealousy, the pride, the obsessions. 

And here's the thing. He can break them. He can break them, He can heal them. He can free you from him. Why? Because Paul says, verse 22, that Jesus is on the throne and that everything is under him. Are you feeling what Paul is saying here? He's saying church, that power is available to you and that Jesus rules and his power is supreme and he's going to win and you no longer have to live in defeat or even death because of what Christ has done in you. Church, do you feel that? Paul is saying have your eyes opened to that, have your mind opened to that, have your knowledge opened to that. You need to ginosko this into your soul for you to experience the fullness of who Christ is. That's what he's saying, Are we praying for that? Are we praying that God would show us the hope? That God would show us that we're the riches of His inheritance? That we have the power of Christ in our life. Paul says, If you will just know this, you will walk in faith and you walk in love and you will give glory to the one who has made you. Now we're going to close the service a little bit differently than we usually do this morning. And here's how. We're going to close the service through probably one of the best displays of the hope that we have in Christ, that we are his inheritance and the power that's available to us. We're going to close the service with partaking of the Lord's Supper together this morning. You say Matt, what does this have to do with any of this? It has everything to do with it. You know why? Because if it wasn't for the body and the blood of Christ, none of this is available to us. None of this is given to us. None of this has set us free. But yet, for the body and the blood of Christ. You want to know an eye opening experience, it had to be the disciples in the upper room that night when Jesus took the cup, when Jesus took the bread, and when he explained to them exactly who he was and what he was about to do. 

In fact, let me read the text. Matthew 26:26. It says, While they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and we given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, take and eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you. This is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, Jesus said, I will not drink from the fruit of this vine now on until the day, watch this, when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Jesus is looking at them saying, Hey, listen, there's hope in me. There's hope in the sacrifice that I'm about to make. There's hope in the fact that I'm about to shed my blood, I'm about to have my body broken, to be put into a grave. But I'm going to rise to give you life. There's not only hope in that, that there is also riches. You are my treasure. And that's why I do this. I don't do this because it seems like a great idea. I don't do this because it's just something that I want to do. Jesus gives his life to make you the treasure of God. That's what he says quite clearly. All through Scripture when he lived a life that I could live, die, the death that I deserved to die, so that I may become the righteousness of God. But he also says in this, You now have my power, the same power that is about to raise him, you can almost experience in your mind, right? He's sitting there, he's walking him through this. He's like the same power that's about to raise me, church. That power that brings death to life is now available in whatever you've got going on in your life this morning as we celebrate this couple of things I want to remind us of this is an open communion.
 
What does that mean? It means that you don't have to be a member of this church. It just means that you have to be a follower of Jesus. You have to be a person that has given your life to Jesus, wants to live your life for Jesus, that has made a commitment to Him to confess your sins before him and have him make you his. This is for you. You say well Matt, what if I'm not a believer? Hey, I'm just going to just respectfully ask you to make this a family thing right now. We love you. And, man, I would just invite you to know Jesus, the maker of the universe and the savior of your sins. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that He can save you, literally deliver you and give you these things that we just talked about. You can do that right now if that's your heart and use your prayer right now, in just a minute when we experience this. Hey, go for it, because you're a believer. You've given your heart to Jesus. I'm also going to ask you to take the bread in just a second. And then you take the juice and just a second to go back. Go back to the day that he set you free. Go back to the day that you experienced the fullness of who Christ is. After I pray in just a second. We're going to worship together. We're going to ask God just to open the eyes of our hearts this morning. When your heart is ready, I want you to open up the bread side and take the bread that's the broken body of Christ. Thank him for that. Then you can flip the chalice over and open up the other side. It's a representation of the blood of Christ that He shared for you. This meal since the first century has been taken by believers just like us, to represent the hope, the treasure we are and the power of Christ has given us. Lord, this morning walk with us, Jesus. Make us yours. 

God, thank you for this time together. It's in your Holy, holy name. We pray. 

Amen. 

Partake of this when your heart is right. After that, if you want to stand in worship or worship in your seats, whatever your heart needs to do this morning. Let's worship.