Hey, man. Well, good morning. Everybody good this morning enjoying the heat? They got quiet.
Wow. Okay. Um, who's enjoying the summer and the book study that we're doing the book of Ephesians? Hey, man, I know we're only a half a chapter in, right?
But what's what of there's some good stuff that is coming out? So I want to encourage you as you come. It's no secret what we're gonna be covering for the next seven weeks or six weeks, right? Seven including today.
So bring your Bible Church. We're gonna be reading right out of it. Amen. And then before you come You can read ahead for next week because in case you haven't figured it out.
We did half of the first chapter of Ephesians last week We're gonna do the last half of a of Ephesians one this week and we're gonna do that every week until we finish So we're gonna do half of two next week and half of two the next week. So you know where we're going, right? So read ahead. I'm in series I encourage you to read ahead because if you read it and read it more than once just read it Maybe every day read all of chapter one in the next half of chapter two when you get here next Sunday And whoever is speaking next Sunday bring and starts talking about what's gonna happen Guns already started putting things in your mind and in your heart that he wants you to know And it's just gonna expand and it's gonna become even more real and even more tangible in your life Amen So I encourage you to read before you get here and bring your Bible with you And so another thing I want to remind you is remember this is it's a letter to the Ephesians to the church and Ephesus Paul Did not write this to you to me he didn't write it to you he wrote it to that church But there are incredible things that we can pull out of it and this is all a scripture Incredible things that we can pull out of it and apply to our life apply to this church amen So that we can all become what God wants us to become amen So I'm gonna read Ephesians the last half of Ephesians verses 15 through 23 And then we're literally gonna just take it line by line and we're gonna look and see what God has in their force this week So Ephesians 1 starting in verse 15 It says this says for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and Revelation so that you may know him better I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of his Glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is like a working of his mighty strength Which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and dominion and every title that can be given not only in the present age but also in 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 So we're gonna unpack a lot of things here today But the first thing I want you to realize remember or look at is if we could go back to the title slide of the series You notice the subtitle of this series is that we are created for good works.
It's on the title slide Right there We are created for good works, right? We're created for good works individually So you each and every one of you were created for good works Amen, and we're created for good work so that we can come together corporately and did you know that God created this church? You want to hear that God created this church? So that we could do good works in Brimmettexis in Washington County in Austin County wherever the tentacles of our church go Amen So as we unpack this book week by week every single chapter or every half chapter that we cover We're going to see just exactly what this means for us as individuals as well as this church GCF Brimmetam that we call home.
So so what is God's plans is overall plan? What is it his overall plan is to create a family that reflects him? Okay, so he's creating us a family the believers of the Lord Jesus Christ He is creating a family that reflects him. So when people see you they should see God Wow Yeah, so I don't look like God.
I don't act like God. I'm not as good as God Yeah, you're right But as we live for him and we build a relationship with him We get stronger and more and more every single day We should be looking more and more like Jesus Christ like God. Amen. So when people look at us They should see God when they come to our church.
They should see God. Amen. They should meet him in a way They've never met him before. Amen.
That's what that's what God created That's that's what he wants to happen in the world What his plan is to create that family that reflects him. What are the means by which that's gonna happen? We're the means I'm the means you're the means we are the ones that are going to advance the kingdom in this world We're the ones that are gonna preach the gospel. We are the ones that are gonna bring the good news We are the ones that are gonna pray with people to see them come to salvation to see them come to a saving knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We're gonna make people see that they too were created for good works.
Amen. That's our dog That's a big job. So come on as we do this as we do this ourselves personally We grow individually the local church grows GCF Brinham grows if you have them noticed lately GCF Brinham is growing amen We have more and more people come on. It's okay to clap for that right?
We have more and more people coming in and it's a great thing. I know you look around you're like well We're not too full today. Well, it's summer right people are on vacation And that's okay, but we're growing the local church is growing and when the local church grows the community that churches in should grow come on Right, I said this in first service and listen I don't think this is I don't think this is bad theology at all But if the church of the Lord Jesus Christ did what it's intended to do we should not have homeless people We should not have hungry people. We should not have cities falling apart.
We should not have a country wondering where it is right now Right come on if the Lord if the church of the Lord Jesus Christ did his part We should have a pretty darn good world, right? Come on, so we need to do what God has called us to do so we can see this come to fruition amen So through you through me when we do our part this is gonna happen And so we're gonna start in verse 15 like I said We're gonna take this line by line and this is the church the church and Ephesus is the church that Paul started himself Remember Matt said in the first the first introduction to the series He said that Paul spent about two or three years in Ephesus and he was preaching and he was teaching him He was teaching them what they needed to know he was starting the church amen and so this is happening He's in prison. That's where he's writing this letter from and and this is what he says in verse 15 He says for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints So the first thing that I want you to realize out of this is remember this is in biblical times. There's no cell phones There's no email.
There's no FaceTime, right? So he's hearing about the church and Ephesus from people that have come across his path that have been to Ephesus that hurt Remember it's a big city back then and so lots of people are going there and so he's hearing oh my gosh You won't believe what's going on in the church there You won't believe all of the things that are going on and the first thing that he tells us is that they have I've heard about your faith in the Lord And so we need to be a church that reflects the faith in Jesus amen Come on any Christian any church should reflect their faith in Jesus Christ amen We can all agree with that right if we're not reflecting faith in Jesus what what are we here for right? Let's just all go to lunch right now because there's nothing if we don't have faith in Jesus. Where is our faith?
Why are we sitting here worshiping him and we don't amen so he said I heard about your faith in Jesus people are telling him He's hearing stories and can I tell you something make grace community fellowship a brim and be known for our faith in Jesus Christ I pray that there are stories of our faith in Jesus Christ that people know and have heard about grace community fellowship because of our faith in Jesus I hope that's happening. Amen. I hope you hope that too So I've heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and secondly he says and your love for all the saints So we need to be a church that reflects a love for each other We reflect a faith in Jesus Christ and a love for each other And if you've been here for any length of time at all and if you heard our announcements You should realize that relationships between one another is extremely important here at grace You should know that you should see that you should be able to see that we have a genuine love for one another We even have some they're called the relationship principles because you know people when they get together sometimes we take each other off Right offenses will come that's what Jesus says that's a promise offenses are gonna come We even have a relationship principles that say listen no matter what happens no matter what you say to me No matter what you do to me our relationship is more important than any of that And so we have a set of principles that we live by where we will handle those offenses to where there's no offenses between us Because our relationship is that important amen So when you walk through the doors whether it's your first time or your hundredth time You should probably encounter someone who's ready to hug you amen Even if you're a hugger or not somebody might hug you somebody's gonna stretch out their hand They're gonna greet you they're gonna smile at you They're gonna welcome you into the church They may ask you where you're from or where what you do or where you live or there you're gonna be People are gonna come and talk to you amen and it's not because we're trying to impress you It's because we're trying to love on you like Jesus loves on us amen So it should be pretty difficult to get to your seat without being talked to or hugged or something and it's a genuine genuine love I promise it is you know you can love people, but that doesn't make you a Christian Okay, it doesn't make you a Christian. There are people that even say they're Christians, but they don't really love people I don't understand that I don't think that that's even possible amen because the Lord Jesus Christ loves us and therefore we love people And so I don't see how you can say you're a Christian if you don't love people My point is this your love for people should be visible People should be able to look at you and the way that you look at them the way when you speak to them You're not like your eyes aren't scanned in the room.
You're looking directly at them You're interested in what they have to say people should see your love amen And here's just a simple question for you. I don't want you to answer out loud I want you to just think about this internalize this and maybe brave out this this week But are you known for your love when people think about you do they think about someone who loves them? Genuinely the great theologian George Strait He Has a song that covers us pretty well and listen I know the context of the song is not what I'm talking about today Okay, but he says this in this song it says if you ain't loving you ain't living Okay, and I know he didn't write that thing now. I wonder if this is bibliclically sound it is biblically sound amen I promise you it is but because as a Christian someone who has faith in Jesus Christ amen If you have not come to love other people you are missing out on some of the fullness of life You are you have to love other people.
I'm gonna say that again if you have not come to love other people As a born-again believer that someone who has faith in Christ if you have not come to love other people You are missing out on some of the fullness of life. Amen. Come on in verse 16 Paul goes on and he says I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers his church must reflect a heart justice Paul has here Are the church must reflect a heart of gratitude and thanks? Come on.
Do you have a heart of gratitude towards this church? Think about that You should and I'm not talking about the building I'm not talking about the pain on the walls and the nice pretty stone and all these wonderful lights and the new parking lot That's coming soon. I'm not talking about any of that I'm talking about you have a heart of gratitude towards this church for the lives that have been transformed because they came here Come on If someone comes to this church and they literally they plug in and they go to life group and they come every Sunday And they hear these messages that we're sharing and they go through discipleship and they go through seven steps and they go through transformation Prayer and they come up and they receive prayer for healing or whatever else we offer prayer for if you do that It is impossible for your life not to be transformed. It's impossible God will not have you go through all of that stuff and nothing changed.
I promise amen He says I have not stopped giving thanks he continues to give thanks This is who this church and this church network are come on You should be excited to the point that you are remembering the saints as I remember you in my prayers You should be excited about when you see someone's life get transformed It's a jig site you enough to pray for them amen come on the people in this church You should be praying for the people in this church all the time I told people in the first service So if you come to first service next time this is on you this is what you need to do when you're sitting in the seat That you're sitting in and someone's you need to be praying for the person that will sit in that seat next time That they hear what God has for them and that their life gets transformed. Amen you sitting here I know this is second service no one's coming till next week That's okay pray for the person that was sitting in and warmed it up for you last service amen pray for them That they heard everything that God wanted them to hear that their life will be transformed because of what God is doing in them What about the people in your life group? Come on are you praying for them that God transforms their life because of this church because of the things that they're involved in here What about the church network? What about GMI come on?
Do you pray for the other churches and GMI are you excited about the other churches and GMI and what's going on? And you're saying I don't know ask there's a lot of stuff going on in the churches and GMI in our church network I was just at GCF Hayes last night and I went to a wedding there and I was able to talk to a couple of their elders I talked to pastor Ryan and a couple of their members there and they were all telling me these things these exciting things that are happening in GCF Hayes and I was I was like man okay, I didn't know some of this stuff some of it I did but some of them man that's great to hear now. I have something to pray for when I think about GCF Hayes What about GCF West? What about West Houston and the church and Katie?
What about her? The church up in Dallas? What about me villain Wharton and Brazosport and New Braunfels? What about I mean come on?
Are you excited about what's going on? I mean did you know that Hurst is like outgrown their church four times? They're in the same building, but I mean they're having so many services and I talked to Brandon last week And he's like thank God Jamie left and took people with him to Waco because it freed up some seats amen What about Waco? In two weeks GCF Waco has their first service, okay?
And it's gonna be it's just the the team that is going to launch that church But I was talking to Trez if you notice dressing in linear here today. I'm like I thought you left It's always good to see Trez in Lee, but I was asking her so y'all I mean the first service is coming right she said yeah two weeks and she said they're meeting in a Baptist church on a Saturday And I'm like wow okay, the whole experience going after that Baptist church right? So she said yeah, they're letting us do it for free Which is hey that the plus amen if the body of Christ should work together like that right so on a Saturday They're meeting there and she said the administrative assistant for that church said there's only one condition she was like uh-oh She said I have to be able to come I'm like come on amen. This is a great thing So are you excited about the anticipation of what is gonna happen in Waco, Texas because of Grace Cominini fellowship amen Come on We should be excited are you excited you have a heart of gratitude and thankfulness towards this church towards this network towards what God is doing here In verse 17 he goes on and he says I keep asking we're gonna stop right there That's a big point I keep asking his church should reflect a place that has continuous prayer I keep asking come on how often do you pray for others?
How often are you doing it Paul says I keep asking are you like the persistent widow in Luke when she went back? And she went back again and she went back again and the judge finally said okay You can have it are you come on are you going to the gates of heaven with your prayers pounding the throne room? Come on. What is it?
Does it we say push you know pray until something happens are you doing that when you pray come on? Did you know when the healing team on every Sunday they're right over here? They're doing amazing job and they pray for healing physical healing in people's bodies Can I tell you I don't know if you've heard I don't know if you've seen maybe we should put a list up Sometimes of the healings that have taken place because of the prayers that are going up and God is healing people physically Sometimes right there when it's being prayed for sometimes a day or two later. Come on.
It's happening But let me tell you something when that team prays for you on a Sunday You walk up and say I need prayer for this and they pray for you they write your name down They write what they prayed for and a list goes out every single week to every member of that healing team and they continually pray They keep asking and they keep asking and they keep asking from the time you go up for prayer to the time you receive your healing That team is praying for you every week. I get an alert. Oh my mom that team I get an alert every week. Here's the list for this week.
These are the healings We saw these are the people we're still praying for and everyone on that team keeps asking keeps asking keeps asking for God to heal you Come on We need to ask people what they need for prayer amen Not just healing but all kinds of things people need prayer and most people if you ask them is there something I can pray for They've got something that you can pray for amen, but listen we need to keep praying Keep praying for what they asked you for keep praying and go out go back to them and say hey Give them a call Hey, I've been praying for you the last couple of days any answers that you get what you need from God is it? I mean come on go back keep asking keep asking keep asking and you may be sitting there saying you know I really don't know what I should be praying for people I'm glad you asked because Paul tells us amen and I'm gonna share that with you in verse 17 We're gonna continue on it says I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious Father may give you the spirit of Wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better You know there are lots of things that we can pray for people for we can pray for good health We can pray for protection we can pray for people's finances. We can pray for their marriages We can pray for them to have joy we can pray for family matters come on But the biggest thing that you and I can pray for someone else for is that they may know God better That they may know God better more completely more fully have a deeper relationship with him because as you know him more Your life will be transformed No matter what else we get in life It doesn't matter what else we have the other things that we get throughout our life If we miss having a relationship and knowing God we've missed everything Nothing else matters. It really doesn't Paul says he's praying so that they may know him better and that Greek word that he use there is Epigenosis and it needs a knowledge gained from a first-hand relationship first-hand experience you and God getting to know one another and Listen, he's interested in you He knows everything about you, but he wants you to come to him He wants you to find out about him.
He wants to have a relationship with you and listen You need to know him because you've experienced him. Amen. There's an intensity in knowing God through your personal relationship Rather than just what you've heard about him. Amen.
Come on. It's not just information It's when you've truly lived out Psalm 34 verse 8 that says taste and see that the Lord is good Come on taste and see that the Lord is good listen people tell me all the time about hey This is a great restaurant. You need to go try it out I guess they think I like food or something So I do that I'm like hey, you got a good restaurant I'll go and they're like yeah, and you need to order this as a best steak you'll ever put in your mouth I'm all about steak so I go to this restaurant and I tell the waiter somebody send me here said I gotta order this amazing steak So I'm order this amazing steak medium raresh and it comes and I just sit there and I stare at it I'm like man. I bet that is good.
I see that it's probably good But if I don't put it in my mouth, I'm never gonna know So when we look around and we say oh man I see God working in his life and I see God working in her life and I see what he's doing there and I see what he's doing there But we don't ever taste it for ourselves Oh, come on Taste and see that the Lord is good come on we've got to do this Paul says I'm praying that you may know God better Through the growing of your own personal relationship with him This is this is what we need to do. You're not ever gonna really know how good God is until you taste him for yourself Come on And he says in this in this passage of scripture that it happens in two ways It happens with wisdom and it happens with revelation wisdom The first one is the practical outworking of our understanding about God and God's ways in scripture again and again and again Wisdom is referenced and it's almost always talking about practical things in life. Okay. We have questions God wrote the manual How do I live my life you read this and you live it this way?
I don't know why this isn't working read this and live it this way if you're not doing it this way You're doing it the wrong way and it's not gonna work. It's not frustrating Unless we're frustrating ourselves amen God says how to do it and it's it's practical stuff, right? Come on. It tells us what we need to know Proverbs is known as the practical wisdom for life if come on if you know God and I mean you know God You're diving in you're trying to have a relationship with him You're growing and what God is sharing with you and and and changing things in your life becoming more and more like rice If you know God that way Doesn't that change the way you spend your money?
I mean it should that was pretty quiet So let me try another one It should change the way you deal with money. Amen. Come on What about the friends you have the friends that you keep if you're practically living out this word There are friends in your life that are toxic and need to go Amen come on. What about your marriage?
There's practical wisdom in this book on your marriage. How do I deal with my wife? It's right here Come on like you Mary people have never had trouble with your wife. How do I deal with my husband?
It's right here. Come on husband. It's easy. Love her like Christ.
Love the church. Amen and guess what happens when you do that? She respects you. Amen.
Come on. It's not rocket science. It's practical living and God gives us the instructions We got to dig into this and find it out. It's up.
There's a practicality to God's wisdom Okay theology with no practical aspect has little to no value Come on if it's just words and it's just in the sweet by and by come on It's gonna be frustrating here, but it shouldn't be because every way we need to live is right here is worth Come on. That's what drew me to this church. Listen when I was looking for a church. I was a heathen Okay, I've never really been a bad guy.
I just I have gotten my life I was a heathen. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't realize that I was as bad as I was So when I came to this church, I'm like I'm looking for a church where I can go on Sunday for an hour I don't have to talk to anybody I can leave and I can come back next Sunday for an hour again, right? That's not this church God knew what I needed and so he brought me here to this.
What drew me what drew me here was that I came here and I'm like Okay, this is this is different This is not exactly what I'm looking for but I saw people living out scripture and I always had this I don't know this feeling or this thought Towards Christians that they were fake But when I came here, I realized these people are really trying to live this out I have a lot of people to thank for bringing me here But I'm telling you that's what drew me is that people were actually living out the wisdom That they're reading in this word. Amen. Come on. It makes it real So wisdom and revelation revelation is God coming down from heaven revealing himself to us speaking to us telling us who he is What he is like what are his ways?
He reveals those things to us his his work in us what he's doing in us He reveals those things to us his ways to living out like all of these things are Revelation that he gives that he gives us and listen this is completely different from the philosophies and the other religions in this world In the other philosophies and religions of this world basically you just go outside you look at the sky and you think What do I need to do here? What is this God little gee? What is this God gonna do for me? What are these gods that are up there?
What do they have for me and you just have to guess God reveals it to us? It's not a mystery. He wants us to know he wants us to get closer to him He wants us to be more like him. He listen He created life who better to tell us how to live it, right?
We don't have to just wonder it's all right here for us and God did this for us in an extremely special way And he took the men who wrote these words down his Holy Spirit and part of these words to them and part of the truth to them They wrote it down so that thousands of years later We can pick it up and read it and see what it means. How do I do this? How do I apply this to my life? He handed that down to us so God reveals himself to us through the scriptures and he reveals himself to us through that still small voice That is constantly speaking to us the Holy Spirit is nudging us directing us gently I heard there was one time a former elder of ours who's gone on to be with the Lord Pat O'Malley He caught at a BFW one year and he he had horses And so he likened the Holy Spirit to the reins on a horse You know when you want a horse to go to the go to the left You don't jerk the horse to the left You just give it a gentle nudge and that bit in his mouth will make that and that's what he said the Holy Spirit does to us He just gently nudges us and you know what we can fight it and we can be frustrated our entire Christian life Or we can respond to it and God will lead us down that straight path that we're looking for in the whole time So the problem is sometimes that we get too busy in our life And so men if you haven't signed up for the book study you need to sign up for it.
Come on. Amen, right? I mean come on. What is it?
What do we always say? I'm just so far busy That's what that book is gonna cover it's gonna teach us because it's a book that a pastor wrote He had a church he had a growing church. He was planting a church. He had all kinds of ministries that he was over He was counseling all the time.
He said I'd go home and I had nothing left for my family He goes and I just eventually my relationship with the Lord just got to where it was bear That's what the book is about the elimination of hurry. We have so much going on that we don't make time for God We can't feel that little nudge from the Holy Spirit We can't hear the spirit speaking to us because our life is so loud So men sign up get that book amen Jack Hayford said this said Revelation refers to an unveiling of our hearts and this isn't an unveiling like surprise. Here's your heart This is an unveiling like he lists the veil from our heart And it says that we may receive insight so when he listed the veil God put something in its place that was previously hidden from us That's revelation came in revelation refers to an unveiling of our hearts And we may receive insight into the way God's word is intended to work in our lives for his glory God's wanting to speak to you. He's wanting to reveal himself to you.
Are you listening? You got to be listening. How many of you have ever misplaced your cell phone? Come on those of you who aren't raising your hand you're lying Everyone okay, we'll try this if you've misplaced your phone your cell phone or your keys All right, I got the rest of you.
Okay, so listen that's the most frustrating thing in life when you don't know where it is I mean you are looking in the cushions. You're lifting up the couch did it fall under there You're going to the kids rooms. Do they take it and hide my phone from me? Did you're going to the refrigerator?
What I got a snack earlier, maybe I left it on the shelf. You're looking everywhere, right? It's a frustrating thing keys your cell phone whichever ones you right? We're frantically searching for that stupid phone.
I know it's a smart phone, but it's a stupid phone Come on When was the last time you saw it after God that way? When was the last time you were sitting on your couch and God threw something into your mind and into your heart that said we haven't talked lately Our relationship is missing and you picked up his word and you said God come on speak to me Were you in your prayer closet? He said I'm gonna be quiet now and I need you to download into me When was the last time you frantically searched for God? See God the loving God Paul is saying this to the church in Ephesus your pastors and elders here are saying it and praying it for you That we are praying that you get to know God better through his wisdom and through his revelation God wants us to have an intimate personal relationship with him It should involve every aspect of your life.
He's interested in all of it Proverbs 4 verse 23 23 says this is out of the message translation It says dear friend listen well to my words tune your ears to my voice keep my message in plain view at all times Concentrate you must know something about us right? Concentrate learn it by heart those who discover these words live really live body and soul They're bursting with health keep vigilant watch over your heart. That's where life starts. Oh, come on I pray for wisdom and revelation so that you may know God better Come on and we should be praying this for each other come on that each one of us the people that are in our life You're the people that are in our church We should be praying for each other and we get to know God better So this brings us to verse 18 and we're gonna read the first half of 19 so 19 a It says I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope of which He has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and is Incompromably great power for us who believe so there's three things here in verse 18 And then the first half of 19 that we need to pick up and the first thing that Paul speaks of is that you may know that your heart And your eyes may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you Come on This is the same language that is that Paul used in Philippians in a chapter 3 verse 12 It says I am laying hold of Christ to find out why it is that he laid hold of me Okay, and listen, this is not just a nonchalant.
You know, hey God what I mean what do you see in me? This is an aggressive going after God because he went after you amen Remember last week Cole shared with us that God chose you He chose you Come on. You believe that God chose you Come on. You should believe it and not only believe it.
You should go after God say God. Why did you choose me? Come on. You know what I've done.
You know what I've said. You know the people that I've hurt why me? Why me we need to go after that find out why God chose you Come on. I'm not the only one asking this question Paul is asking it to it Paul says he says God why did you choose me?
And that's a valid question. You should read the life of Paul to find out who he was before he was the apostle Hey, man. He killed people like us Come on. Why God did you choose me?
And so Paul says now because God laid hold of me because he chose me I'm choosing God and I'm gonna go after him and I want to know I'm gonna aggressively go after God and find out Why did he come get me? What you're calling? What did he place inside of you? What is God gonna do through your life for someone else?
Come on. That's a great thing to pray for others. Amen. I mean that's a great every day I should be getting up and saying God in my wife's life in Leslie's life I pray that she had realized is the hope of the calling that you have in her life.
That's powerful Pray for your kids pray for other Christians That we realize the hope of the calling that he has on each of our lives The second thing that Paul speaks of is that you may know the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints now notice This says this is his inheritance amen the glorious riches of his inheritance Christians are really bad sometimes about personalizing it making they were being very selfish amen saying well That's my inheritance too. You are right it is because it's his inheritance and we can partake in that amen But it's his inheritance, but he nonetheless lets us share in this glorious inheritance And what is this inheritance that we're talking about? It's the family and the kingdom that he's building Come on. We're the family in the kingdom that's doing the work because we're creating for good works, right?
The family and the kingdom that he's building you and I are many brothers and sisters in Christ We're the family we are co-heirs with Christ in his glorious inheritance of the saints That's you and I how many of your saints? Come on. Yeah, your hands should go up. Amen.
Come on pastor. Lee's here every time he gets up here What does he say morning saints right not because he's trying to make you feel better He's calling you who you are amen So we have a glorious inheritance in the saints each and every one of us are inheritance for someone else amen Come on when we come together at life group we go out to dinner together when we come to church together if we're together at all There is an inheritance in our being together Someone in this room has something that you need it might be wisdom it might be a pat on the back It might be a hand that helps you get up There is something that someone in the body of Christ has for you and that's a glorious inheritance Come on. There is an inheritance in the saints. I'm gonna say that again.
There is an inheritance in the saints Come on. I'm gonna even say it again. There's an inheritance in the saints. Come on.
Come on We can't it says don't forsake the gathering together. That's why there's an inheritance when we're here together Come on the word the Caleb shared this morning. There's an inheritance in that there's something that freed somebody up this morning So that they could run into their destiny with God. Come on.
That's not just something that happened Come on. That's God laying it on the heart of Caleb to get up here and share the word have the courage to get up and say I know this is God I'm gonna share this and some young woman came up and was freed up and her relationship with the Lord is restored Oh, come on. There's an inheritance in the saints Come on, you know if you had a rich uncle in Wyoming who died and left you his ranch And you go up to Wyoming you're looking at the land and and you see a guy on there So you're like what do you do this my land? Who are you?
You know, oh off on the oil company and we found a well on here So we're gonna drill for oil and we're gonna put ten million dollars in your bank now tomorrow morning. Hey Chachin right come on. You cannot tell me for one second. You would not access that inheritance Amen Come on, I know that I can't handle ten million dollars because God didn't give it to me yet So I know that that's probably a good thing that I don't have ten million dollars But can I tell you something I have much more than ten million dollars in all of you Because all of you have something for me.
I have something for you There is an inheritance in the saints and we need to access that inheritance It says God and God said that it is not good for man to be alone We cannot do without each other. There is an inheritance in us being together So when we pray we pray that you may know the hope to which he has called you We pray that you know the riches of the glorious inheritance There is in the saints and the third thing that Paul speaks of is that you may know his incomparably great power for us who believe Who's the power for? For us who believe? Come on.
Do you believe? That incredible power flows from the throne room of God through Jesus our Lord down to us Do you believe? And it should flow in every area of our life. Come on.
There is an incredible power that flows into our prayers Come on when we pray in him there is tremendous power Two weeks ago when we started this series off Pastor Matt was sharing with us You know the introduction and sharing about what was going on in Ephesus at the time And if you remember the church was getting started Paul was there for a couple years three years And he was teaching about Jesus and Christ and everything that goes along with salvation People were getting saved and your memory said the church the people in the church and Ephesus those who got saved They started to collect those scrolls and those those antiquities that they had that had instructions in them They said if you if you want this you pray to this God and this is what you say and then you'll get it But what they realized is we were never getting it So we're praying these prayers and they're not being answered But what they were realizing is that when they started praying in the name of Christ Things were happening people were getting saved Lives were being transformed. Come on. Listen not not pinata prayers where you hit it And God you know spills out his fizzy rolls on to you not that kind of stuff right real prayers prayers that are on God's heart that he places On yours that you pray there's tremendous power in those prayers and that power isn't in the words that we pray Come on the power is in Jesus Christ to whom we pray Come on. He has all the power.
He always has he always will he has that power and that's where we pick up in verse 19 It says that power everybody say that power That power is like the working of his mighty strength Which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority Power and dominion every title that can be given not only in the present age But also in the one to come the power is in Jesus amen oh Power there is nothing in this world in this universe that is not under the power of Jesus Christ Nothing not you not president trump not any one not the pope No one not even in the universe that is more powerful than Jesus Christ and that defining moment came when they went to the tomb on Resurrection day and they went inside and Jesus wasn't there because Jesus had risen he had conquered Satan He had conquered sin he had conquered death he conquered the grave and that same power that raised him from the dead is available and in You and me. Oh, come on. I know that's a little hanky wave in part, right? Come on.
Do you believe? Listen you sang a song at the first of worship that said you did I Believe I believe you rose again in victory and that same power lives in me Do you believe? Come on if you don't believe don't sing the song that's just blasphemy amen. Do you believe we sing another song called rattle?
I love that song rattle. It's a good song. It's a strong. It's a powerful song, right?
But listen, it's not because it's a catchy tune and the drums are being loud resurrection power runs in my veins, too Come on. That's a powerful truth. That's not just like I