Well, good morning, if I haven't already said so to you.
For some scheduling reasons, I needed to fill a one week gap in our preaching schedule.
! And so, I would like to speak with you about a topic that has been on my mind on repeat lately.
Ambition.
Is it okay to be ambitious, to desire to achieve?
The Puritan Thomas Brooks once called ambition, quote, a gilded misery, a secret poison, end quote.
Scripture often agrees, warning against selfish ambition that breeds conceit and disorder and vile practices.
Philippians 2.3, James chapter 3.
However, the Apostle Paul states that he was himself ambitious.
In Romans chapter 15, verse 20, he declares,
I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.
So, where's the balance?
If ungodly ambition is characterized by conceit, disorder, and vile practices, what characterizes godly ambition?
I want to do my best to answer that question by considering Nehemiah's godly ambition.
So, will you join me at the beginning of the book of Nehemiah?
And turn there with me in your Bible, and I'll pray for our time together.
Father, we ask this morning as we take up your word and think about this idea of ambition,
that we would rightly think about what godly ambition is.
That you'd help us to learn from your word without error.
We would rightly apply what it says to us in our lives.
That we would honor the Lord Christ in our time together.
We pray this in his name.
Amen.
I find we, myself included, are often far too ignorant of the books of the Old Testament.
I once heard a pastor tell the following story.
Quote,
A preacher made the mistake of showing two boys the text he would be preaching from that Sunday, the previous Saturday afternoon.
When he turned his back, the boys glued some of the pages of his Bible together.
So, on Sunday, when he stood to read, he read,
And Noah, when he was 120 years old, took unto himself a wife, who was, then turning the page,
300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, built of gopher wood and pitch within and without.
Puzzled, he paused, read it again, and then looked up at his congregation and said,
I have read the Bible through many, many times, but this is the first time I have ever read this.
Yet I believe the Bible to be true from cover to cover, so I accept it as truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Perhaps we ought to be a bit more familiar with the text than this.
So, as we peel apart the pages of Nehemiah, let me give you some brief background that will be necessary for our study this morning.
The book of Nehemiah takes place near the end of the Old Testament story.
It's not ordered that way in our modern Bibles, but that's where it takes place chronologically.
More than a century earlier, the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temples, tore down the walls, and carried the people of Judah into exile.
By Nehemiah's day, the Near East power had shifted to the Persians.
There are some Israelites still in the land.
Some have returned.
The temple had been rebuilt.
We read about that in the book of Ezra.
But the city still lay exposed.
Its walls still broken down.
Its gates were burned.
And God's people who were in the land lived in shame and reproach.
Around 445 BC, Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to Artaxerxes, the king of Persia.
When he heard about Jerusalem's condition, he wept, fasted, prayed, and acted.
Nehemiah ambitiously sought to remedy a problem.
We will note in just a moment why this news was so troubling to him as we consider the first and most important characteristic of godly ambition.
And I have five for you this morning from the story of Nehemiah.
Now, first and most important foundational godly ambition seeks God's glory.
Look at chapter 1, beginning in verse 1.
The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakala, something like that.
Now, it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah.
And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.
As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.
And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants.
Confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.
Even I and my father's house have sinned.
We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.
Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the earth,
from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.
Now I'm going to pause for a second at the end of verse 9.
He says at the beginning of verse 8, remember to God.
Of course God remembers, but God is very pleased when we pray to him, his promises.
So what he prays is an amalgamation, but a clear place you can find it is in Leviticus chapter 26.
I'll begin reading in 38 and then following.
There God says, and you shall perish among the nations and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies lands because of their iniquity and also because of the iniquities of their fathers.
They shall rot away like them.
But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery and they that they committed against me and also in walking contrary to me,
so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies, if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham.
And I will remember the land.
So Nehemiah is biblically informed, right here.
He's praying back to God a promise that God had made.
And then first 10 back in Nehemiah chapter one.
They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
Oh, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name.
And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
Referring to the king, Artaxerxes.
Now I was cup bearer to the king.
Why is Nehemiah distressed by this news that he hears?
Because the people who are in the land and those who have returned to the land, God's people, the remnant there in the province.
Are not doing well.
They're in great trouble and shame.
Jerusalem is in shambles and cannot provide protection for dwelling and commerce.
And therefore, in Nehemiah's correct estimation, God's glory was being profaned.
Now, before you think for a moment that the aim of our time is to convince you to build something, let me be clear.
That is not what I'm hoping to accomplish this morning.
I will not roll out blueprints at the end of our time together.
Under the old covenant, the glory of God was directly tied to the well-being of his people.
Come and see, cries the old covenant.
Go and tell, cries the new.
However, ambitious people build things.
Families, businesses, communities, cultures, and yes, churches, which do meet in buildings.
Godly ambition does so for the glory of God.
This is the great concern of Nehemiah, the heartbreak.
Not just that his fellow Israelites are not doing well, but that God's glory is being profaned.
Godly ambition seeks to make little of self, to forget self, and to make much of God.
Notice the foundation of Nehemiah's concern, right?
He knows his Bible, and he knows the promises that God has made.
Promises that he seems to not be keeping.
Nehemiah prays with confidence because he knows that God is a promise-keeping God who is zealous for his glory.
Even as he grieves the condition, he goes to God in prayer because he knows that God cares about his glory.
This is the most foundational characteristic of godly ambition.
Nothing else I will say this morning matters if we don't get this one right.
If our ambitions don't aim at God's glory, they are misguided and they are trivial.
Often, our ambitions mirror the world's aimed at success, security, significance.
But scripture calls us to aim higher.
2 Corinthians 5, verse 9.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please God.
As C.S. Lewis once said in your bulletin quote,
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you will get neither.
Ungodly ambition is not too big.
It is too small.
As concerns ambition, we can err in two ways.
First, which has been mentioned, ambition can be self-serving and not seek God's glory.
It can be about our glory.
But also, secondly, it could just be altogether lacking.
No ambition whatsoever.
However, I think apathy is the opposite of ambition.
No concern.
May we not be apathetic on the one hand or have selfish ambition on the other,
but be energized to see God magnified in everything that we do.
Godly ambition, firstly and most importantly, seeks God's glory.
Secondly, godly ambition thinks and asks big.
Thinks and asks big.
I am saying to you that we ought to be ambitious
and that that ambition ought to be aimed at God's glory
and therefore it ought to think and ask big.
Now look with me at the beginning of chapter two of Nehemiah.
Here we see recorded in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes.
When wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
Now I had not been sad in his presence.
And the king said to me, why is your face sad?
Seeing you are not sick.
This is nothing but sadness of the heart.
Then I was very much afraid.
It's not supposed to appear sad for the king.
He seems to have made every effort not to appear sad before the king.
His own record is that he had not been sad in his presence
and the king sees through it.
And he was afraid for the way his countenance was before the king.
Verse three, I said to the king, let the king live forever.
Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves,
lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
Then the king said to me, what are you requesting?
So I prayed to the God of heaven.
And I said to the king, if it pleases the king
and if your servant has found favor in your sight,
that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves,
that I may rebuild it.
And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him,
how long will you be gone and when will you return?
So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
And I said to the king, if it pleases the king,
let letters be given to me,
to the governors of the province beyond the river,
that they let me pass through until I come to Judah.
And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest,
that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple
and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy.
And the king granted me what I asked,
for the good hand of God was upon me.
I believe that we are meant to note the date in verse 1,
as we were also told the date in chapter 1 and verse 1.
Chislev or Kislev to Nisan.
About four months have passed from the time that Nehemiah received the news
of Jerusalem's state until we see this encounter in chapter 2.
Four months have gone by since in verse 4 of chapter 1.
He says,
As soon as I heard these words,
I sat down and wept and mourned for days.
Four months worth of days.
And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
The conclusion I believe we ought to draw
is that Nehemiah has been troubled all this time.
He has been in mourning and fasting with prayer.
The prayer of chapter 1 is an example prayer of the prayers that he prayed.
It was the substance of what he was praying across this time.
And I think that during this time,
he has considered a remedy to the problem.
He is troubled by this.
How might this trouble be solved?
The confidence of Nehemiah's prayers expresses confidence
in a God who can accomplish whatever he desires.
But Nehemiah's actions evidence that he knows
that God doesn't despise the means used to accomplish his will.
Nehemiah thinks big.
I'm imagining here, but in this time frame,
I think he's going,
maybe I should go lead the rebuilding of the wall.
The rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem was a massive task.
The wall was 1.7 miles in circumference.
It was 6 1⁄2 to 12 feet thick,
depending on the place of it,
and an estimated 20 to 25 feet high.
This is a huge, huge project.
There is no natural reason for Nehemiah to think
that he would be the instrument of God's choosing
to rebuild Jerusalem's walls.
He's not a builder of walls.
That's not what the chapter tells us at all.
That's not what he was trained to do.
He's a cupbearer.
He's been living in captivity.
He's the servant to King Artaxerxes.
He selects wine,
and he drinks from the king's cup before the king
to ensure his wine hadn't been poisoned.
This is the role that he played.
He is trusted as the cupbearer.
Often throughout history,
cupbearers gave counsel to the king
because they were always around,
because they were giving their life,
perhaps for the sake of his.
Sometimes the question would be asked,
what should I do in such and such circumstance?
So he is there.
He is trusted.
He is in a position to speak to the king,
but he is just a cupbearer, a servant.
Why does it enter his mind
that he could have this kind of ambition
to go back,
to ask that God would restore the wall,
and I'm saying perhaps use him to accomplish it?
It's because of his confidence in this God, right,
who upholds his own glory,
and we cannot know exactly what's going on
in the mind of Nehemiah, right?
Again, I think it's imagination here,
but I do think it's reasonable to think
that he, being troubled by the news,
being persistent in prayer,
is convinced in that process
that given the opportunity
that he should act.
I believe that he asks big things of God,
and then, when the time is right,
big things of the king.
He asks massive things of this king.
The king says to him in verse two,
why is your face sad,
seeing you are not sick?
This is nothing but sadness of the heart.
Then I was very much afraid.
I mentioned already,
this was not okay to be in front of the king forlorn.
So what does he do?
He responds,
the city is destroyed.
Why should I not be sad?
And the king asks him,
what are you requesting?
And notice what he does in verse four,
so I prayed to the God of heaven.
I just imagine as he goes,
Lord, help me.
I'm about to open my mouth,
and I'm going to ask for something big of this king,
a thing that the king could have lopped his head off for.
If it pleases the king,
verse five,
if your servant has found favor in your sight,
let me go.
Let me go rebuild the wall.
And not only does he request to be freed
from his duty to the king,
but also for an armed guard
and a blank check
to gain the resources that he needs for the project.
It is a huge ask.
That's ambitious.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
this is the quote on the children's bulletin section
of your bulletin.
A little drawing that's there.
He once said,
prayer pulls the rope below
and the great bell rings above in the ears of God.
Some scarcely stir the bell
for they pray so languidly.
Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope.
But he who wins heaven
is the man who grasps the rope boldly
and pulls continuously
with all his might.
Do we think and ask big?
Are we ambitious for the glory of God
in all the areas of our life?
Let's not just ask that God would save our children.
I hope we do.
But that he would save them
and that he would shape them
into mighty citizens of the kingdom of heaven
for his glory.
Let's not just ask that God would bless
the work of our hands,
but that he would bless abundantly our labors
that we should spend and be spent for his glory.
Let's not just ask that God would give our church influence
in our homes and in our neighborhoods,
but that he would give us
a little feeble group of people
that he would use us
to have a measurable influence
for generations
and to the very ends of the earth.
Let's be ambitious for his glory.
Think and ask big.
Godly ambition seeks God's glory.
Godly ambition thinks and asks big.
And thirdly,
godly ambition plans diligently.
Notice verses 11 through 16 of chapter two.
So I went up to Jerusalem
and was there three days.
Then I arose in the night
and a few men with me
and I told no one like God
to put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.
There was no animal with me
but the one on which I rode.
I went out by night
by the valley gate
to the dragon spring
and to the dung gate
and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem
that were broken down
and its gates
that had been destroyed by fire.
Then I went on to the fountain gate
and to the king's pool
but there was no room
for the animal
that was under me to pass.
Then I went up in the night
by the valley
and inspected the wall
and I turned back
and entered by the valley gate
and so returned.
And the officials did not know
where I had gone
or what I was doing
and I had not yet told the Jews,
the priests,
the nobles,
the officials,
and the rest
who were to do the work.
Notice the repetition
in verses 12 and 13 and 15.
Then I arose in the night.
I went out by night.
Then I went up in the night.
I take this to mean
that the three days
mentioned in verse 11
was the time it took
for him to inspect the wall.
It would not take three nights
to travel 1.7 miles
around the circumference
of the dilapidated wall.
So what is he doing?
I believe he is making
diligent plans.
He's looking at each section.
He's plotting out
a course of action.
Now let me say again,
God who created the world
ex nihilo from nothing
does not despise means.
He uses his people
to accomplish his purposes.
So once we have ascertained a path,
godly ambition plans diligently.
Sees a destination
and makes a plan
to reach that destination.
I have found
that I accomplished
nothing meaningful
without planning to do so.
I never bumble my way
through the right thing.
We do well not to ask,
what do I feel like doing?
But rather,
what am I supposed to do?
We will not be able
to answer that question
without a plan.
Whatever the ambition may be,
how will you accomplish
that godly ambition?
What is the path
to get there?
Men,
I know that right now
you feel like you're surviving
with littles in your home.
Those days are coming
to a completion
sooner
than you think.
What is the plan
to raise up your children
in the fear
and instruction
of the Lord?
I never do well
when I'm bumbling
my way through it.
Plan,
follow through.
How do you intend
to accomplish
the goals at your job?
Witnessing to your neighbors.
Any of these things
require diligent planning.
So godly ambition
seeks God's glory,
thinks and asks big,
plans diligently.
Fourthly,
godly ambition
works hard.
Nehemiah chapter 2,
verse 17 and 18.
Then I said to them,
following his inspection
and his diligent planning,
you see the trouble
we are in,
how Jerusalem lies
in ruins
with its gates burned?
Come,
let us build
the wall of Jerusalem
that we may no longer
suffer derision.
And I told them
of the hand of my God
that had been upon me
for good
and also of the words
that the king
had spoken to me.
And they said,
let us rise up
and build.
So they strengthened
their hands
for the good work.
Now,
I don't know exactly
what that phrase means.
There may be somebody
who knows their Hebrew
better than I do.
It doesn't seem to me
like they go to work up
some calluses
on their hands,
but they're making a decision.
They're strengthening
their hands.
They're getting ready.
There's a big work
ahead of us.
We will be ready
for that work
to be accomplished.
And then Nehemiah chapter 3,
which is a summary
of the builders
and their accomplishments.
You get this list
of all of these
different people,
a bunch of different names
that are very difficult
to pronounce.
I'm just going to read
a few of them for you.
Here's what they accomplished.
Here's the work
that they set themselves
to beginning
in verse 15
of chapter 3.
And Shalom,
the son of Kol Hosei,
ruler of the district
of Mizpah,
repaired the fountain gate.
He rebuilt it
and covered it
and set its doors,
its bolts,
and its bars.
And he built the wall
of the pool of Shalah,
of the king's garden,
as far as the stairs
that go down
from the city of David.
After him,
Nehemiah,
the son of Azbuk,
ruler of half the district
of Beth-zur,
repaired to a point
opposite the tombs of David,
as far as the artificial pool
and as far as the house
of the mighty men.
And it goes on
and it goes on
for the entirety
of the chapter.
This is many hands
at hard work,
resetting massive stones
and beams.
You have heard it said,
many hands make light work.
We like to adapt
that saying to say,
many hands make
ambitious work possible.
We would do well
not to underestimate
the difficulty
of this task
that they set themselves to.
These men, though,
had godly ambition.
They saw God's favor
on Nehemiah.
They said,
surely the Lord
is with us
in this work
and so we will
work hard.
We're going to wait around
for the stones
to levitate themselves
and the wall to appear.
They went to work.
They were seeking
God's glory,
thought of a task
worth accomplishing,
right?
So they strengthened
their hands
for the good work.
They had Nehemiah's plans
and his oversight
and they took up
their part
of the work.
Not one man
built the entire wall.
They shared
in this large task.
In total,
it only took them
52 days
to rebuild
the wall.
What a work
that was.
What might be accomplished
if you
strengthened
your hands
for a good
work?
what might you
see
get done?
What might
we
be able
to build?
Godly ambition
seeks God's glory,
thinks and asks
big,
plans diligently,
works
hard,
and lastly,
expects
opposition.
Expects
opposition.
There's a common
sentiment
in today's church
that seems
averse
to opposition.
It seems
to be framed
up theologically
like God
couldn't possibly
ask us to do
anything hard.
If we encounter
some difficulty,
perhaps we have
strayed from God's
will,
goes the thinking.
Just because
something is difficult
doesn't make it right.
But I can attest
that everything
good that I've
ever seen
accomplished
was accomplished
with difficulty.
there were
oppositions.
There were
things that
could have
shut the
whole work
down if
people weren't
willing to
push through.
Beloved,
you sit in a
congregation this
morning that
would not
exist
if countless
people,
including you,
didn't work
hard in the
face of
opposition.
Nehemiah
faced opposition.
They expected
it and they
put themselves
to the work
all the
same.
This
opposition is
introduced to
us in chapter
two.
The weight
of this
opposition
verses nine
and ten.
He says,
then I came
to the
governors of
the province
beyond the
river and
gave them
the king's
letters.
Now the
king had
sent with
me officers
of the
army and
horsemen.
But when
Sambalot,
the Horonite,
and Tobiah,
the Ammonite
servant,
heard this.
And these
guys,
Sambalot and
Tobiah are
trouble and
trouble.
It displeased
them greatly
that someone
had come to
seek the
welfare of
the people
of Israel.
A Horonite
and an Ammonite
that were
profiting off
the land
were troubled
that someone
came to
seek the
welfare of
the people
to whom
the land
belonged.
After the
plan is
made,
and the
decision to
rebuild has
been established.
They've
strengthened
their hands
for the
good work.
Verse 19
tells us,
but when
Sambalot,
the Horonite,
and Tobiah,
the Ammonite,
servant,
and Geshem,
the Arab,
heard of it,
they jeered
at us and
despised us
and said,
what is this
thing that you
were doing?
Are you
rebelling
against the
king?
Then I
replied to
them,
the God
of heaven
will make
us prosper
and we,
his servants,
will arise
and build,
but you
have no
portion or
right or
claim in
Jerusalem.
Right?
Bold,
bold words.
Then chapter
three gives us
the record of
work going
on,
that this
large task
being accomplished,
but chapter
four tells us
more about
the opposition.
I'm going to
read it to
you in
large part.
Verse one,
now when
Sambalot heard
that we were
building the
wall,
he was angry
and greatly
enraged and
he jeered at
the Jews and
he said in the
presence of his
brothers and of
the army of
Samaria,
what are these
feeble Jews
doing?
Will they
restore it for
themselves?
Will they
sacrifice?
Will they
finish up in a
day?
Will they
revive the
stones out of
the heaps of
rubbish and
burned ones at
that?
Tobiah the
Ammonite was
beside him and
he said,
yes,
what they are
building?
If a fox
goes up on
out,
he will
break down
their stone
wall.
And then in
response here,
oh,
our God,
for we are
despised,
turn back
their taunt on
their own
heads and
give them up
to be plundered
in a land
where they
are captives.
Do not cover
their guilt and
let not their
sin be blotted
out from your
sight for they
have provoked
you to anger
in the presence
of the builders.
Verse six,
so we built
the wall and
all the wall
was joined
together to
half its height
for the people
had a mind
to work.
I love that
phrase.
But when
Sambalat and
Tobiah and
the Arabs and
the Ammonites
and the
Ashdodites heard
that the repairing
of the walls of
Jerusalem was going
forward and that
the breaches were
beginning to be
closed,
they were very
angry and they
all plotted
together to come
and fight against
Jerusalem and to
cause confusion
in it.
And we prayed
to our God
and set a guard
as a protection
against them
day and night.
In Judah,
it was said,
the strength of
those who bear
the burdens
is failing.
There is too
much rubble.
By ourselves,
we will not be
able to rebuild
the wall.
And our enemy
said,
they will not
know or see
till we come
among them
and kill them
and stop the
work.
At that time,
the Jews who
lived near them
came from all
directions and
said to us,
ten times,
you must return
to us.
So in the
lowest parts of
the space behind
the wall,
in open places,
I stationed the
people by their
clans with their
swords, their
spears, and their
bows.
Remember the
Lord who is
great and awesome
and fight for
your brothers,
your sons,
your daughters,
your wives,
and your homes.
When our enemies
heard that it was
known to us and
that God had
frustrated their
plan, we all
returned to the
wall, each to
his work.
From that day
on, half of my
servants worked on
construction and
half held the
spears, shields,
bows, and
coats of mail.
And the leaders
stood behind the
whole house of
Judah who were
building on the
wall.
Those who carried
burdens were
loaded in such a
way that each
labored on work
with one hand and
held his weapon
with the other.
And each of the
builders had his
sword strapped at
his side while he
built.
The man who
sounded the trumpet
was beside me,
and I said to the
nobles, the
officials, and the
rest of the
people, the work
is great and
widely spread, and
we are separated
on the wall far
from one another.
In the place
where you hear
the sound of
the trumpet, rally
to us there, our
God will fight for
us.
So we labored at
the work, and
half of them held
spears from the
break of dawn till
the stars came out.
I also said to the
people at that
time, let every
man and his
servant pass the
night within
Jerusalem, that
they may be a
guard for us by
night and may
labor by day.
So neither I,
nor my brothers,
nor my servants,
nor the men of the
guard who followed
me, none of us
took off our
clothes, each kept
his weapon at his
right hand.
Godly ambition
expects opposition
and, we will do
well to see,
responds appropriately
and presses on.
They didn't stop the
work, but for a
moment.
They heard an
attack was coming,
they all got ready
for the attack, and
the text tells us,
and they returned
to work.
They expected it, and
they just pressed on.
So be ambitious.
Don't be apathetic, but
have godly ambitions.
Pray that God would
work in your godly
ambitions for your
home, your work, your
community, your
culture, and for our
church.
I hope that you will
find yourself reflecting
on lessons from
Nehemiah's godly
ambition.
Godly ambition
seeks God's glory,
thinks and asks big,
plans diligently,
works hard, and
expects
opposition.
I will close with the
doxology from this
morning's call to
worship.
This is from
Ephesians 3, verse
20 and 21.
Now to him who is
able to do far more
abundantly than all
that we ask or think,
according to the power
at work within us, to
him be glory in the
church and in Christ
Jesus throughout all
generations forever and
ever.
Amen.
Let's pray together.