Praying for One Another- Part 1

[0:00] The scripture reading for today is taken from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 23.! Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

[0:20] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

[0:46] In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

[1:02] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

[1:34] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

[1:53] In him you also, when you heard of the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promise, Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

[2:14] For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also the one to come.

[3:21] And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

[3:35] This is the word of God. Thank you very much for reading, Joan. This week I was speaking with someone about the importance of being an active part of a local church where we can experience biblical community.

[3:57] And I was making the point that one of the blessings of biblical community is that we experience the gift of mutual care, the gift of caring for others and also being cared for by others.

[4:15] And when we think of biblical community, it is really rooted in knowing one another. It's rooted in knowing others and also being known by others.

[4:33] And so it's really not a matter just of church attendance. It's not just a matter of gathering regularly as we do on the Lord's Day. But it's a bit more than that.

[4:45] It is intertwining our lives, interconnecting our lives with others that we may know and we may be known and we may experience a gift that God has given to us as his people.

[5:00] And so we need to be connected to one another in vital ways. And when we think of biblical community biblically, it is not optional.

[5:16] And it's not personality driven. As a matter of fact, when we look at biblical community, we're commanded to be engaged in it.

[5:27] And the way we know this is when we look at the New Testament, the New Testament has almost 60 distinct commands that call us to act and think towards each other in some specific ways.

[5:45] And they generally call the one another commands. In the context of the local church, we are commanded to relate to one another in particular ways, how we act and how we think.

[6:01] Because that's the way that we experience this gift of community that God has given to us. And so, for example, we are commanded to love one another.

[6:14] We are commanded to live in harmony with one another. We are commanded to accept one another. We are commanded to serve one another and to have equal concern for one another.

[6:32] We are commanded to show hospitality to one another. We are commanded to seek to do good to one another. And we are commanded to pray for one another.

[6:49] And that's the focus of this sermon series that we are commencing this morning and over the next three Sundays. We are commanded to pray for one another.

[7:02] And my hope is that this series would encourage us and strengthen us in this duty that we have towards one another. And what we'll be doing over the next three Sundays, including this morning, is we're going to be considering three prayers of the Apostle Paul.

[7:20] Three prayers that he prayed for three specific churches. This one, we start with this prayer for the Ephesians. And then next Sunday, we'll consider the prayer that he prayed for the Colossians.

[7:32] And then the following Sunday, the prayer that he prayed for the Philippians. What I hope that we would do is that we would pay attention to how Paul prays for these churches.

[7:46] In other words, to the content of the prayers that he prays for each of these churches. And I pray that we would be inspired and encouraged to pray for one another in broader ways than we are praying right now.

[8:03] We pray for the particular needs that we have, temporal and spiritual. But I think it's fair to say that we can expand and broaden how we pray for one another in spiritual ways.

[8:17] Sometimes the demands that we may be met with when we consider each other, sometimes they can crowd out the broader ways that we can be praying for one another.

[8:29] So my prayer is that as we hear this series, that we would be stirred and inspired by the Apostle Paul, by his example, by the contents of his prayers to pray for one another in similar ways.

[8:44] So let's begin this morning asking the Lord to do that for us. Father, we give you thanks that we are able to gather this morning. Thank you, Lord, that you have saved us and joined us not just to yourself, but to one another.

[9:05] Lord, you have given us the gift of biblical fellowship, of community with brothers and sisters of like precious faith. And Lord, we ask that you would help us to grow in our responsibility to pray for one another.

[9:26] We ask, O Lord, that you would enlarge our hearts and minds about how we can do that. Use these prayers that we are considering from the Apostle Paul to stir us in this direction, O Lord.

[9:40] And Father, we pray that as we do this, as we pray for one another, that it would deepen our fellowship and the concern that we have for one another.

[9:55] Would you meet us this morning? Would you meet us throughout this series? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, though this morning the text for this sermon is Ephesians 1, 15 to 23, we began in verse 1 because it sets the context for this prayer that we are going to be considering.

[10:24] And what we see is the Apostle Paul in verses 3 to 14, he blesses the Lord for the particular blessings that the Ephesians, and indeed all Christians, come into when they come to Christ.

[10:45] He blesses the Lord for blessing his people with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He blesses the Lord for electing them for salvation before the foundation of the world.

[11:00] He blesses the Lord for predestining them for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, and then for redeeming them through Christ and his death on the cross, and then for sealing them with the Holy Spirit for all eternity.

[11:18] And as wonderful as these blessings are, what we see the Apostle Paul doing is the Apostle Paul begins to pray for the Ephesians to understand what God has done for them in greater measure.

[11:33] That's what Paul does in verses 15 to 23. Paul expresses a burning desire for God to grant to the Ephesians, and by extension to all believers, spiritual comprehension, and insight into these blessings.

[11:54] Notice that Paul tells the Ephesians in verses 15 and 16 that because he heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love towards all the saints, he constantly gave thanks for them and remembered them in his prayers.

[12:12] And brothers and sisters, we can give thanks to God for one another. And we need to be remembering one another in prayer in an ongoing way.

[12:26] And so Paul wants the Ephesians to understand some spiritual realities. And what I want to do in the remainder of our time this morning is I want us to consider three spiritual realities that the Apostle Paul prays that the Ephesians would come to know in this passage that we're considering from verses 13, verse 15, sorry, to 23.

[12:54] And the first virtual reality that Paul prays that God would cause the Ephesians to know is the hope of God's calling. We see this in verses 15 to 17.

[13:09] That is, Paul constantly gives thanks for the Ephesian believers. He constantly prayed for them and he interceded for them in an ongoing way. And look at the prayer that he begins to share with them, that he prays for them, that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

[13:34] Now we know from verses 13 and 14 that the Ephesians had already received the Holy Spirit. He was indwelling them and God gave them the Holy Spirit as the seal of their salvation, the guarantee of the inheritance of eternal life.

[13:54] And therefore we know in verses 15 to 17 that Paul is not asking God to give them the Holy Spirit in that way. Instead, Paul is praying for the revealing work of the Spirit to be active in the lives of the Ephesian believers.

[14:15] Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit would give them spiritual wisdom and revelation, that they might understand these spiritual realities that he is praying for them to come to know.

[14:31] Starting with this first one, to know the hope to which God called them. And Paul prays because this is not knowledge that we will come to on our own.

[14:46] None of us on our own will come to know the hope that is attached to the calling that we have from the Lord.

[14:58] In verse 18, Paul is alerting us to the fact that God has called his people to a particular hope. And he's alerting them that the Spirit's help is needed to comprehend it.

[15:18] This expression, the eyes of your heart, is really an Old Testament concept. It refers to spiritual insight and illumination.

[15:32] And Paul is praying that the Spirit would shine his light and insight into the hearts of the Ephesians that they might see, that they may understand the hope to which God has called them.

[15:49] Later in this letter in chapter 4 and verse 8, the Apostle Paul will say to believers, he says, you no longer live like unbelievers who are darkened in their understanding, meaning they cannot see spiritual reality.

[16:06] But Paul prays that God's people would be given the light of the Holy Spirit in their hearts that they might see these spiritual realities. Now, it's easy to miss an important truth that the Apostle Paul touches on in this very first aspect of the prayer that he prays for the Ephesians.

[16:28] And that truth is the call of God. In last week's sermon, as we concluded our series in the book of Jude, we considered the order of salvation, starting with the first step.

[16:42] which is election. How before the foundation of the world, God, in his sovereign grace, chose particular people who he was determined to save.

[16:58] And we also consider the second step, which is calling. And that's what Paul addresses here in verse 18. Paul brings us face to face with the second step in the salvation process, which is calling.

[17:15] Not only did God graciously elect particular people for salvation, but also he graciously, in time, called them to himself through the gospel.

[17:26] They hear God's word in the gospel, calling them to repent and bringing them to saving faith in Christ.

[17:40] But also in verse 18, Paul is alerting us to the fact, again, that God has called us to a particular hope. hope is one of those words that's easier to describe than to define.

[17:58] I think we all know what it feels like to have hope. We feel optimistic. We feel positively expectant about the future.

[18:10] I think most of us have lived long enough as well to know what it is to have false hope. know what it is to have hope that is eventually dashed.

[18:23] The truth is that some of us have experienced dashed hope so much that it becomes even difficult to hope because we try to protect ourselves from the pain of dashed hope.

[18:37] But that's not the hope that Paul has in mind that is attached to the calling that God has given to us. It's not a false hope.

[18:49] It's not a hope that would be disappointed or dashed. It's a divine hope. It is a hope that endures in this life when all the other hopes of this life are dashed.

[19:03] And it's a hope that endures beyond this life when death comes and takes our lives away. God has called us to a hope that cannot be broken and cannot be shaken by anything in this world or anything in the world to come.

[19:25] Let's think about that for a moment. The hope that we have cannot be broken, cannot be shaken. If it is, that's not the biblical hope that the Lord has called us to.

[19:39] The hope that he has given to us in the midst of all of life's disappointments and trials, that hope remains steadfast and it endures through those disappointments and trials.

[19:57] Listen to how the apostle Peter describes this hope before he goes on to encourage his hearers who are being grieved by various trials and temptations.

[20:12] He writes in 1 Peter 1 and 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

[20:27] Through the resurrection, resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Brothers and sisters, that's the hope that we've been called to. We've been called to a living hope and it comes to us because Jesus Christ has been victoriously raised from the dead.

[20:50] It's more than just a happy feeling. It's more than just a jubilant feeling that is subject to change. hope. The hope that we have, the hope that we've been called to, is a confident expectation that is rooted in Christ and belongs to his people.

[21:13] Later in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul will again describe how unbelievers lived in the world, how he said that we were separated from God and we were living in this world without hope and without God.

[21:30] Part of the reason that we need to understand biblical hope, the hope to which we've been called, is that if we do, we will be spared the disappointments about the Christian life.

[21:46] hope. The hope to which we've been called does not mean that we will not suffer disappointments as we serve the Lord.

[21:56] hope. Sadly, some who belong to Christ have been taught to adopt an unbiblical view, an unbiblical definition of hope that once you come to Christ, your life is supposed to be wonderful and balmy all the time and the sun shining on you all the time with no unfair weather coming your way.

[22:24] That kind of view sets us up. for disappointment because when they suffer sickness and they suffer financial hardship, they suffer relational breakdown, they suffer a dead-end career, the death of a loved one or some other undesired circumstance, their hope is dashed.

[22:46] And they question everything. They question God, they question the Christian life, except their wrong definition of hope. and their wrong understanding of the Christian life.

[23:03] Serving Christ does not exempt us from the effects of living in a fallen world. world. The same things that unbelievers experience, we experience in our broken and our fallen world.

[23:17] But the difference between us and them is we have a divine hope. We have a hope that the Lord gives us, that is steady in our souls even when tears are in our eyes.

[23:29] when our hearts are broken, we can have that hope in the midst of it all. The hymn that captures so well this hope that we have been called to is the hymn, It is well with my soul.

[23:46] And many of us know it. It's a hymn, sadly, that's relegated to funerals. But it's not a funeral hymn. It's a life hymn. The author of that hymn wrote this when life met him with many, many trials.

[24:08] The first verse of the hymn, which you know, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, that was taught me to say, it is well.

[24:23] it is well with my soul. That's the hope that we have, brothers and sisters. It is a biblical hope that enables us to say it is well with my soul, whatever our lot is.

[24:40] Whatever our lot is. Whether our lot is like a peaceful river, or whether our lot is one sea billow after another, buffeting us.

[24:55] If we keep sight of that biblical hope that we have, we can say, things may be difficult, but it is well with my soul. When people come and they say, hey, is everything well?

[25:09] We can say, no, all is not well. But what matters is well, it is well with my soul. the second verse of the hymn gets to the ground and the reason that we can say it's well with my soul.

[25:25] Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this bless assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his blood for my soul.

[25:41] we have a living hope, brothers and sisters, not in a vacuum. We have a living hope because Christ has shed his blood for our soul to secure that for us, to purchase that for us, that we may know it, whatever our lot might be.

[26:04] And see, we need to be praying for one another, that this would be to the fore of our minds, that we would know the hope to which the Lord has called us, not just academically, but experientially.

[26:18] And that we would know it so well that when these trials come, when the difficulties come, when we are buffeted from the left and the right, that will be in the front of us and we remember, I have a hope that's beyond all this.

[26:32] This is transient. The worst trial that we experience in this life is not permanent. It has an end. And start and it has a finish. But our hope is an enduring hope beyond the trial and indeed beyond this life.

[26:53] And here's what I know about all of us this morning. Although we're different in so many different ways, one of the ways that we are all the same is that to one degree or another, in one way or another, all of us are broken people.

[27:16] All of us are people who are facing trials and temptations of various kinds if we're serving the Lord. The Bible says none of us are exempt. And so we need to have this hope when the hopes of this life are dashed.

[27:36] And so we need to follow the Apostle Paul's example, praying for one another in this way, that God through the Holy Spirit would enable us to know the hope we have through his call in salvation.

[27:50] and so yes, let's pray for our brother who is sick. Let's pray for our sister who's walking through heartbreak, financial difficulty, whatever the circumstance may be.

[28:04] But in addition to praying for those temporal matters, let us pray that they would know the hope to which God has called them. That they would know that whatever they're going through, that hope is unaffected by it.

[28:25] That's the first spiritual reality that Paul prayed that God through his Holy Spirit would enable the Ephesians to come to know the hope of his calling.

[28:36] The second spiritual reality that Paul prays that God would give to the Ephesians is that they would know the glory of God's inheritance.

[28:48] Paul expresses this in verse 18. Notice what he says.

[29:00] It's the second what in verse 18. He prays that God would, through the Holy Spirit, enlighten the hearts of the Ephesian believers to know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

[29:17] it's easy to misread what Paul is praying for in this second aspect of his prayer.

[29:29] In verses 13 to 14, Paul highlights the inheritance of God's people in salvation. salvation. For example, in verse 14, he tells us that God has given to us the Holy Spirit as a seal and a guarantee of our inheritance until we come to acquire full possession of it.

[29:55] But here in verse 18, Paul is not referring to our inheritance. Instead, he's referring to God's inheritance. He refers to it as the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

[30:14] Paul is referring to God's people as God's inheritance. The apostle Peter describes the same truth in 1 Peter 2 verse 9.

[30:29] He writes, but you are a royal king. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[30:52] Peter uses the same language that was used to refer to God's people under the old covenant, to refer to God's people in the new covenant.

[31:05] And he does that because God has one covenant people. But he doesn't have two covenant peoples, but he has one covenant people comprised of believing Jews and believing Gentiles.

[31:20] his and his people whom he has redeemed are his glorious inheritance. so what do you see when you see brothers and sisters in Christ?

[31:41] In Christianity explored, in one of the sessions, we're shown an optical illusion. We're shown this picture, and we're asked, what do you see?

[31:53] And most people, the very first time you look at it, it appears to be an old woman. And generally, it's only when you're invited to look at it again, would you see that really it's not an old woman, it's actually a portrait of a beautiful young woman.

[32:16] And it's an optical illusion because when you first look at it, it appears to be other than it really is. in a lot of ways, God's people are an optical illusion.

[32:31] God's people are an optical illusion because when we look at one another, we generally don't see that we are God's glorious inheritance. We see all manner of other things.

[32:43] We see flaws, and we see warts, and we see shortcomings. the Bible says that God's purchased possession, his people, they are his glorious inheritance.

[33:03] inheritance. We need the eyes of the Spirit. We need the Spirit's help to be able to see that, see that for ourselves and see that for one another, and to help each other to see that we are God's glorious inheritance.

[33:25] inheritance. And he's not ashamed of us. He perfectly knows us, everything about us, past, present, and future, and he says, you are my glorious inheritance.

[33:44] You're my treasured possession. It doesn't matter who we are, it doesn't matter what we have done, if we belong to Christ, we are his glorious inheritance, and he delights in us.

[34:02] He's not ashamed to call us his child, and Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brother, his sister. This is a marvelous truth, and I think we can see why we need the Spirit's help to see it, and we need to be praying for one another that we would see it.

[34:28] We are God's glorious inheritance. I think when we understand that we are God's glorious inheritance, it helps us to understand the eternal nature nature of our salvation.

[34:54] It helps us to understand the eternal nature of our salvation because if we are God's inheritance, he will lose none of his inheritance. inheritance. You know, some people in life lose an inheritance.

[35:06] No, not Christ. He holds on to his inheritance to the very end. All who have been redeemed by Christ, he holds on to them.

[35:20] And it's not us holding on to him, although we are called to do that. Ultimately, it is his hold on us that will keep us to the end, even when we feel like we are faltering and failing.

[35:34] And so, this is a precious truth that we need to comprehend and pray for each other to comprehend. Deceased British theologian Frederick Bruce, he explains it this way.

[35:48] He writes, that God should set such a high value on a community of sinners rescued from perdition and still bearing too many traces of their former state might well seem incredible were it not made clear that he sees them in Christ as from the beginning he chose them in Christ.

[36:21] This is why we are God's glorious inheritance. This is why he delights in us. This is why he finds no fault in us. Because he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

[36:34] And he sees us in Christ. And this is a prayer that we must pray for one another. It's a precious truth.

[36:47] It's precious truth when we live in a world that marginalizes those who belong to Christ and persecutes them and treats them like the scum of the earth.

[37:02] We need to be reminded that we are God's prized possession. We are his glorious inheritance. And he is not ashamed of us.

[37:17] God's will pray for the Ephesians to know this truth. And again, likewise, let's do the same for one another.

[37:28] So Paul prayed that God through the Holy Spirit would enable the Ephesians to come to know the hope of God's calling salvation and the glorious of God's inheritance.

[37:43] And then third and finally, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would come to know the greatness of God's power. We see this in verses 19 to 23.

[37:57] It's the third what. What is the immeasurable greatness of God's power towards us? What Paul is saying, because God's power is immeasurable, the only reason something can be immeasurable is it's infinite.

[38:20] It is without beginning or end. There's no starting point to start to measure it. There's no ending point to try to measure it. Paul is praying that God through the Holy Spirit would reveal to the Ephesians that his power is immeasurable.

[38:38] power is without limit. And Paul goes on to point to God's power, which he displayed in several ways.

[38:54] When he raised Christ from the dead, reminding us that God has the power to raise the dead. when he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places with all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come.

[39:20] This is the language of spiritual warfare. And it is a reminder that Christ's authority and power has no equal in this age or in the age to come.

[39:35] He also displayed his great power when he put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.

[39:48] So why does Paul intercede for the Ephesians to know the immeasurable greatness of God's power? And why should we be praying for one another likewise?

[40:02] That we would not forget the immeasurable greatness of God's power and how he has displayed it for us. And how he raised Christ from the dead, how he seated him on the right hand.

[40:16] on his own right hand. And how Christ is exalted above all with dominion and power and a name that is above every other name.

[40:33] I think one of the obvious reasons that Paul prays in this way is that we live in a world world.

[40:46] Where power is made to be everything. A day does not go by that we don't see some display of a power play with people.

[40:58] And we see it regularly. Whether it's world leaders throwing their power around, whether it's politicians throwing their power around, whether it's the wealthy or people in authority, whether employers, parents, an older sibling.

[41:25] You see these power plays all the time. And sometimes we can forget that all power belongs to God. We can forget that God is the one who has power and any other power that we see is really delegated power and permitted power.

[41:46] Sometimes we can forget this. And sometimes it can cause us to lose heart. Sometimes we can forget and we can think that we are at the mercy of these displays of power these abuses of power that are all around us and God's immeasurable power can be crowded out before our eyes.

[42:22] Paul says we need to be praying for one another to see this. I think it's an even greater reason for us to remember the immeasurable power that belongs to the Lord that he's put on display when he raised Christ from the dead when he seated him at his own right hand and exalted him above everyone and everything.

[42:53] we need to remember God's power because it gives us assurance that the one who began a good work in us is able to complete the day of Jesus Christ no matter what our circumstances look like no matter how daunting they may seem it gives us the assurance that from election to glorification God can and will complete our salvation.

[43:29] Commenting on all the ways that Paul describes God's power in verses 19 to 23 theologian Peter O'Brien writes this Paul has piled up equivalents because he wants to convince his readers that God's power working on behalf of believers is incomparable and able to bring them to final salvation.

[44:04] That brothers and sisters is the ultimate reason that we need to know the greatness of God's power. Now just for the things that he can do for us in this life the things we can believe him for to do in this life is for the most important thing that we need in this life and that is that he will complete the work that he began in us and that we can be assured that we will make it all the way home.

[44:30] that we need to be afraid of all of the turmoil in the world, the wars that are happening and that are looming.

[44:44] We need not be afraid of any of that because it's all subject to the sovereign Lord and his power. And we can live day by day with confidence. confidence. He would bring this to a conclusion in accordance with the purpose of his will.

[45:02] And the verses we read, not a part of the text this morning, but verse 11 is a verse that we should all take to heart. Ephesians 1 11 tells us that God works all things according to the counsel of his will.

[45:22] All things means all things. And it doesn't matter whether we understand it or not. There is no stray thing out there that is not subject to the counsel of his will.

[45:35] And because God is God, God is able to work in it and fulfill the counsel of his will. That includes evil. And so we can be assured and press on in this way.

[45:49] And therefore we need to be praying brothers and sisters for one another. That as we live the Christian life that we would see this. Finally, in verses 22 to 23, Paul tells us that God has put all things under the feet of Christ and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

[46:24] Paul is saying that the display of God's power is that he has set all things under the feet of Christ and that the church is the body of Christ over which Christ is the head.

[46:41] There are some people who make much of the position of the church in this picture that Paul gives us. But that's not the point of these verses.

[46:52] The point of these verses is not to see opposition but to see God's power who has brought us the past. fullness. And this fullness that is being referred to as relates to us is not an active fullness.

[47:09] It's not a fullness that belongs to us or that is produced by us. It is a passive fullness that relates to our connection to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's simply just reminding us of Christ's universal and sovereign reign and that there's not one single part of God's creation that is not subject to his reign.

[47:37] Christ is reigning even now. Christ, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 110, he is seated at God's right hand and his enemies are being made his footstool.

[47:55] Let's pray brothers and sisters that God would cause us to increasingly comprehend the power, his power that he has displayed through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[48:11] His power towards us, those of us who believe. No matter what turmoil is going on in our lives, no matter what turmoil is going on in the world and around us, that we would know God's greatness, God's power surpasses all of that and therefore we can live with confidence, we can live with assurance looking to the Lord.

[48:36] one of the things that has encouraged me about this passage as I studied it is that Paul not only was praying for the Ephesians, what Paul did was he wrote to them and he told them that he was praying for them and he told them how he was praying for them and just reading how he was praying for them, no doubt encouraged them, it encourages me.

[49:09] And I think in addition to praying for one another, let's share with one another, brother I'm praying for you, sister I'm praying for you, and here's how I'm praying for you.

[49:19] God. And our prayers then would have just a, it's just a dual effect before the Lord, but also in the hearts of our brothers and sisters that they may be encouraged and they may be strengthened to know not just that we're praying for them, but how we're praying for them.

[49:44] I pray God will stir our hearts, brothers and sisters, I pray that we be stirred to pray for one another.

[49:57] As we're driving, as we're doing various tasks, praying for the congregation, broadly praying for particular ones, God may bring to mind, let's pray for one another.

[50:09] I heard someone say the greatest kindness that you can give to me is to pray for me. And we pray for one another, that is a divine kindness.

[50:25] So let's pray for one another. Amen. Lord, we ask that you would use your word, stir our hearts.

[50:41] Would you remind us to be praying for one another, following Paul's example. Lord, would you enlarge our prayers, would you enlarge our hearts to intercede for each other corporately and individually.

[51:00] And Lord, may we be strengthened in our salvation. home, under the God of our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name.

[51:12] Amen. Signed our closing song.