"Now to Him Who Is Able" Ephesians 3:20-21 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Ephesians chapter three, the end of Paul's prayer, verse twenty and twenty-one.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Many Medal of Honor recipients were praised for heroic acts that they did not do.

In 1995, FBI agent Thomas Cotton was hot on the trail with phony medals.

And he found his military collectible shop where he found two of these counterfeit medals, which by the way, you're not supposed to sell.

And instead, he arrested the salesman.

But after a bit of digging, Cotton realized that there was something bigger going on here.

And so he dug a little bit deeper and he found out that the one company in the United States that was authorized to produce real medals of honor, HLI Lordship Industries, had been selling some fakes on the side.

About$75 a pop.

Which for my money is cheap.

That seems really cheap.

Now, his job was to track down where they all went.

One went to an Illinois judge with a drinking problem who got caught because he tried to get a Medal of Honor license plate.

That didn't work out.

Another went to a Menlo Park businessman who was pretending that he had flown some heroic missions in the Korean War in 1956.

Unfortunately, the war reached a ceasefire in 1953.

So you can understand why he was caught.

Another imposter, Jackie Albert Stern, was caught and was forced by the court to write apology letters to all living 157 actual medal recipients.

And in his letter, he wrote this quote, I had no right to wear this prestigious medal, as I had done nothing of merit to earn it.

I know that my actions have cheapened your honor.

Brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by all kinds of imposters.

Good things, wonderful things, good gifts of God that do not deserve your worship.

Politicians, celebrities, careers, success, health, friendships, marriages, food, television, safety, comfort, millions of good gifts have become to us vacuums for our worship.

They do not deserve it.

Our world is filled with all kinds of good things that, like those Medal of Honor imposters, do not deserve the glory and yet take it anyway.

But brothers and sisters, there is one who does deserve the glory.

And I wonder if you're here this evening and you have been tricked by an imposter.

You have been taken in and asked, begged, convinced to give your worship, to give your heart, your time, your affections, your money to something or someone who does not deserve it.

When there is only one.

One who is himself, the origin of all glory, who deserves your worship.

The God of glory himself.

At the end of this prayer, we just heard this morning, just astounding things that Paul is praying.

He finishes by just exclaiming worship to God.

Paul has extolled in chapters 1 through 3 the high heights of who God is in the Trinity and what God has done to save his people through the gospel.

And in the next three chapters, he will go on to exhort the Ephesians to live rightly in response to these truths.

But sandwiched in the middle here, in between this theology and practice, is doxology, is worship.

At least.

Worship to the one who deserves.

Look at verse 21.

To him be the glory.

Or to him be glory.

It's a kind of prayer, a kind of exclamation.

To him.

That is, Paul is talking about God the Father.

The 97 or so doxologies enumerated in some fashion in the New Testament, most of them are addressed to God the Father, and this one's no different.

To him, Paul says, be glory.

In the original, the glory.

And there are two ways that Paul could mean this.

He could be talking about glory as in God's intrinsic glory, or he could be talking about glory as in ascribed glory to God.

Intrinsic glory is that glory which is the sum and reflection of God's character.

It is his holiness going public.

The sun cannot exist without shining its rays, so God cannot exist without being and manifesting himself as glorious.

That would be his intrinsic glory.

Or Paul could mean here, to him be glory, ascribed glory.

That is, whatever it is that we love and worship and exalt, we exalt him.

Magnifying a thanksgiving.

That's not to say that God needs that glory to be glorious.

God is glorious whether you acknowledge it or not.

But it is simply fitting to ascribe glory to one who is already glorious.

That's why David writes in Psalm 29: ascribe to Yahweh, O heavenly beings, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

Ascribe to Yahweh the glory to his name.

Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness as ascribed glory.

And that in fact, grammatically, has to be what Paul is talking about here.

Paul is saying in the center of this doxology, to God the Father, we must ascribe all glory.

Paul's exhortation to us in this text is very simple.

Give God glory.

He deserves it.

He is due it, and so we give it.

C.S.

Lewis wrote, The glory of God is the real business of life.

Do you realize that's what you were made for?

A cup holds water, a pen writes words, you give glory.

That's your function.

And the question in this text is not, do you give glory?

It is to whom do you give glory?

We are all hardwired worshipers.

We cannot not worship.

You will and are, in fact, right now, are in the process of worshiping something with your affections, with what you love, with what you're setting your mind on.

The question is not, do you give glory?

It is to whom do you give glory?

And Paul's answer is to him.

Be glory.

To God alone.

Paul's burden in this text is that we would glorify God and not a fraud.

That we would not settle for substitute recipients of that which we were made to give.

But instead, that we would be reminded of the God who deserves all glory.

So what I want to do as we look at this text tonight, I want to expand our view of God.

I think we think of God as parochial and small and provincial so often, and He is so huge, so massive and glorious, and that's what this text shows us, and that's what we need to see.

Listen, if you got a big God, he's gonna get big praise, right?

Little God, a little bit of praise.

And so we need to see a big, massive, weighty, heavy, glorious God.

If we would give him the glory he's due.

And so we're gonna do that in three parts.

It's real simple.

Give glory to our transcending God.

That's the first part.

Give glory to our transcending God.

And if we would give every fiber of our being to do what Paul is exhorting us to do in this text, then we need to see that God is so much bigger than us.

That he exceeds us, he surpasses us, he is beyond us, he transcends us.

And so Paul begins in verse 20.

Now to him who is able.

Paul could stop the sentence, and I would just be right.

To him who is able.

God's control over all things does not need extra qualifiers.

He's able.

Theologians call this God's omnipotence.

He is all-powerful.

47 times in the Old Testament, God is called the Lord Almighty.

Psalm 115.3, our God is in the heavens.

He does all that he pleases.

Let me clarify for a second.

This does not mean that God can do anything.

God can't do anything.

What a horrible thing to say.

God can't do everything.

God can't sin.

God can't lie.

God cannot not be God.

A simple way to say it is God just doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do.

Whatever is outside of his will, God will not do.

But whatever God wants to do, he will do.

And so he is able, all powerful and able.

Paul continues, to him who is able to do.

You should ask yourself this question.

If God has all of this ability, all of this, so to speak, potential energy, how does it work itself out?

What does God do with this omnipotence?

Given nearly limitless eternal power, how does God put it into action?

Lightning bolts?

Glory clouds?

Voices from heaven.

Well, actually, he has done a number of those things.

But what does he normally do with all of that power?

The answer is actually kind of simple.

Everything.

God does everything.

It's called providence.

God's sovereign control over the entire universe.

Psalm 147, 8 to 9.

He covers the heavens with clouds, he prepares rain for the earth.

He makes grass grow on the hills.

He gives beasts their food and to the young ravens that cry.

Everything on earth that moves, that lives, that breathes, whatever it is that happens, it happens under the watch and under the control of God.

Paul has already said in Ephesians chapter 1 that God is he who works all things after the counsel of his will.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

That is to say, that at every moment, at every point, every single atom in all of the universe is God doing.

God does.

God, of course, works in miracles.

We see this all throughout the scriptures.

And as we heard this morning, of course, God works in us in his spirit, and we'll talk about that more later.

But the primary way that God is working all the time is in providence.

He literally does everything else.

Did it happen?

That was God.

He did it.

And I think you could honestly stop right there, and that would be enough fuel for worship, wouldn't it?

We're talking about this omnipotent, all-powerful, all-wise God controlling every last instance in this universe for all of time.

Surely that is enough for worship, and yet Paul doesn't stop there.

He continues now to him who is able to do far more abundantly.

This is the ESV's attempt to translate three words in the Greek that really are all getting at the same idea.

Beyond.

More than.

Surpassing.

If you translated it woodenly, it would sound like he who is able beyond all to do beyond abundantly more than.

Do you get the sense?

Over and above, beyond you.

Whatever your limit is, God goes further.

One of these words, Paul literally just makes up.

He's just jamming stuff together, trying to figure out how do I say all this exceeding capacity of God.

And this isn't new in the book of Ephesians.

We've already seen this.

This word for surpasses immeasurable.

We've seen it in 119 and 2.7, and just this morning in our prayer.

To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

It's a similar kind of word.

Just add the word super onto the front of it, and that's what you get.

It's the surpassing, immeasurable greatness of power.

So what is it that God is surpassing then?

If he is so beyond, what is he beyond?

And Paul gives us two things.

Here's the first one: he is beyond all that we ask.

Paul's saying, listen, your prayers undersell God.

Jesus says it this way in John 16.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he'll give it to you.

It's kind of a blanket statement, isn't it?

How often do your prayers sound like this?

God, I pray that I'd have a good day.

Pray that we'd be safe.

Traveling mercies.

There's not wrong things to pray for.

They're just small.

Do you know who you're talking to when you pray?

Do we feel the bigness of God in our prayers?

I think if we did, we would realize this.

What Paul is saying is that you cannot pray too big.

You say, God, deliver me from this sin in this moment.

Amen.

How about deliver me from this sin for a lifetime?

You say, God, I want to see my neighbors come to Christ.

Amen.

Pray that.

How about I want to see the nations worship Jesus?

How about I want Jesus Himself to come back and fix this earth?

Rather than I just want the pandemic to be over.

John Newton wrote in a hymn.

Thou art coming to a king.

Large petitions bring.

For his grace and power are such none can ever ask too much.

But Paul takes it a step further.

He doesn't just have the ability to exceed and go beyond all that we pray.

It's all that we ask or think.

Or think.

Even our thoughts undersell God.

God's ability exceeds our capacity to imagine it.

You cannot imagine, you cannot conceive in a coherent way in your mind all that God can do to glorify himself.

And quite often it is the case that God uses the most unlikely things, the things you would not think, in order to glorify himself.

I mean, who would have thought in the Ephesian church, reading this letter 2,000 years ago, crammed in a tiny little house, probably?

Who knows how many?

40, 50 of them?

Who would have thought that nation upon nation upon nation would be filled with sanctuaries like this, with lights and cameras and the Bible at the front and Jesus Christ being preached?

Did they think that?

I think it was beyond what they could conceive.

Isaac Watts wrote in a hymn, but who can speak thy wondrous deeds?

Thy greatness all our thoughts exceeds.

Vast and unsearchable thy ways, vast and immortal be thy prey.

But I want to take this a step further.

I don't know that we often take this beyond language seriously enough.

If it's true that God works in providence, all things, to glorify himself, that every last instance in this universe is under the sovereign control of God in order to demonstrate his majesty and his worth and his might.

If that is true, brothers and sisters, then that means God is glorified in cancer.

That God is glorified in the car crash.

That God is glorified in the deepest moment of suffering in your life because He is working beyond us.

Far more abundantly, success, kids, cars, beds.

Or we just kind of baptize it a little bit more into respectable Christianity.

Big churches, lots of missionaries, Christian politicians.

That's far more abundantly.

But I want to argue if it's true that God is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, well, then that must mean that it's beyond what we ask or think.

Far more abundantly may look like you getting passed up for a promotion.

It may look like a call from the doctor with some bad news.

It might, friends, look like a virus spreading across the world and shutting down the global economy.

You realize that might be God doing far more abundantly?

Here's the question you have to answer: did God do that?

And if he did, is he still able?

Is glory still due to him?

Can you give God glory in a shrinking church?

Can you give God glory when she left it?

She took the kids.

Can you give God glory at the graveside, brother and sister?

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Darlene and I had a friend in California.

His name was Ray.

Darlene got to work with him, and everyone knew Ray because he ended all of his sentences by saying, Glory to God.

Glory to God.

Hey, is that a saying what you're eating?

Glory to God.

Nice weather outside.

Glory to God.

We love Ray.

And when we moved back here to Northern Virginia, we kind of lost touch.

Then about a year later, we got a call from him.

He said it's terminal.

So we cried.

We prayed.

We told him somehow we'd see him again.

You know how he answered that call.

He finished it.

Glory to God.

That is far more abundant than all I could ask or think.

For someone to be so transformed, to so love the glory of Jesus, that even death itself brings glory to God.

I mean, if beyond us means something, it means something, right?

It's beyond us.

We won't always understand how it is that God is working in this world to glorify Himself.

That's Paul's point.

If you did, if you could put all of God's plan in a box, you probably shouldn't worship that God.

But if you can't, you really ought to.

But what do you do when it is beyond you?

Do you run back to the impostors?

Do you run back to the other things that when you worshiped them, they gave you a little bit of satisfaction?

No.

No, when life is beyond us, we look up to heaven and we cry, though he slay me.

Yet I will praise him.

To God be the glory.

We give glory to God because he transcends us.

And one day we'll be able to look back on all of this.

That'll make more sense.

John Flavil appeared and said, Providence is like Hebrew script.

It has to be read backwards.

And so it is.

You won't understand it.

I won't.

So give glory to God.

God's part is to know and to do.

Ours is to worship.

So we give glory to our transcending God.

We also give glory to our descending God.

This is part of how God works this phenomenal cosmic power to put it in the least likely place.

Look at verse 20.

Paul writes, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.

According to, meaning fit to the measure of, as much as.

It's a quantity term.

And power here is actually kind of the same word as able.

The God who is able to do absolutely anything he wants to do to glorify himself, focuses his power in this way.

And then Paul gives us three prepositional phrases in us, in the church, and in Christ Jesus.

God is working from inside of his church to glorify himself by the indwelling power of his spirit.

If there's anything that glorifies God in this great world, it is his indwelt church.

When he says in Christ Jesus, of course he's talking about the person of Jesus, but I think specifically he's talking about Jesus as he works in his people.

This is the most common way the New Testament describes believers, as those who are in Christ Jesus.

And we've already seen this, haven't we?

Verse 16.

That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with the power through his spirit in your inner being.

That's what Paul is talking about.

When he says, To God be the glory in us, in the church, in Christ Jesus, he means by the power of the Spirit, transforming us so that we cry out to God, glory for who he is.

That is God's plan to get glory.

It's not just to show his power outwardly, but it's to show it inwardly.

Causing us to worship him for it.

Now, Paul has been setting this up for three chapters.

He's been talking to us quite a bit about the church itself.

What is the church?

What's it doing?

How does it glorify God?

If you go back to chapter 1, verse 3, he's going to use this phrase, the heavenly places, to tie all this together.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And then in chapter 1, verse 19, he says, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great mind that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places.

So somehow God is working in Christ, raising him to this place of heavenly adoration, and he's blessing us in that same place.

How did that happen?

Chapter 2, verse 6, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That is, God in the gospel has used the very same power that he used to raise Jesus Christ to raise us.

Such that we have been spiritually raised.

It's almost as if we're sitting there with him right now.

And then he goes on to culminate this in chapter 3, verse 10.

So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Do you see what God is doing?

In the church, he is taking sinful, vile, wretched sinners like you and like me, and he is setting up shop in us so that we would be raised spiritually to where Christ is.

We would see his glory and we would say something about it.

And that is what God does to glorify himself in the church.

He changes people like you and like me from the inside out.

What's the big deal?

The church.

The church is the big deal.

The church is a massive deal because God has chosen us to be the trophies of his condescending glory.

And what's he doing?

Well, Paul says in verse 20, according to the power at work within us, God is working.

That's what God is doing in the church.

He is changing our desires, revealing Christ to us, shaping us into his image.

If you had to simplify it, chapters 1 through 3, he indwells the church.

Chapters 4 through 6, he works it out in the church.

He gives this power, this heavenly, beyond us power.

And as we learned this morning, this fullness comes to dwell inside of us so that we could be transformed and live like chapters 4 through 6 are true.

God's transcending power and his descending power.

Jonathan Edwards said that this kind of balance of transcending and descending, this is diverse excellencies of his glory.

Reginald Heber, you know the hymn, said it was God being merciful and mighty.

Revelation calls him the lion and the lamb.

He is unapproachably holy, and yet he is tender towards sinners and even lives inside of them.

And I think this is one of those truths that we just get so comfortable with.

We just stop thinking about it.

We get so used to it, we stop being astounded that the transcendent God would abide in us.

I mean, think about it for a moment.

This beyond us infinite power God could have just rolled up on earth like Napoleon and just said, I'm taking over England, and that's that.

We're done.

Everyone's my subject now.

Worship me.

But that's not what he did.

Instead, he condescended.

He wanted to show off more than just his external power.

He wanted to show off his gentleness, his tenderness, his mercy, his love, and so he enters in to sinners like us.

Do you remember the story of Mephibosheth?

This is one of Saul's sons, who's crippled in his legs.

And David ascends to the throne.

And in any normal circumstance in the ancient Near East, that guy would have been dead ten hours ago.

David should have taken him out.

But instead, he says, Come to my courts.

And Mephibosheth thinks, this is it.

This is where I'm going to die.

So he falls on his face.

Do you remember what David says?

You're part of my family now.

Come on in.

In fact, here's all the lands that your dad owned.

Those belong to you now.

And guess what?

Every single day you're gonna eat at my table.

Do you remember Meph's response?

What is your servant that you should show regard for such a dead dog as I?

The text goes on to say that he ate always at David's table, quote, like one of the king's sons.

To God be glory in the church.

Bunch of dead dogs like you and me.

Dead in our trespasses and sins.

And God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.

He sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, so that he might send his spirit into our hearts, that we would cry, Abba Father, that we prodigal sons might be embraced by the Father and brought into the house and given the family name and sat down at the table and said to worship with him forever.

That's the kind of reception we have been given in the church.

When Paul says in the church and in Christ Jesus, he is talking about this glorious adoption that you and I have received by becoming sons and daughters of God.

I mean, am I the only one reading this?

Does it strike you as fantastic news?

And it gets so good.

He sets up shop in us, he's sending our his spirit into our hearts that we would talk to him like a dad instead of like a boss.

And he's changing us day after day.

Should we not then give him glory?

Down at the cross where my Savior died.

Down where for cleansing from sin I cried.

There to my heart was the blood applied.

Glory to his name.

I am so wondrously saved from sin.

Jesus so sweetly abides within.

There at the cross where he took me in.

Glory to his name.

Just biographically, friends.

If God were not a descending God, I'd probably still be at the bottom of a bottle right now.

Instead of standing here telling you about how wonderful Jesus is.

And friend, if you feel stuck in your sin right now, here tonight, if you feel stuck in your sin, remember Paul says this is according to power.

This is a power that is commensurate to the full measure of God Himself and His power.

Do you think He can help you overcome your sin?

You will never meet an idol more powerful than God.

Or a sin more able.

To God be the glory.

Finally.

We give glory to our transcending God, to our descending God, and hey, Paul finishes it out with our never-ending God.

Our never-ending God.

It's not only that he transcends us, he condescends to us, but he does it forever.

He receives our ongoing, persevering worship because he is and forever will be worthy.

The end of verse 21.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Like the rest of this doxology, Paul's just piling up words.

You don't have to say it twice, but he just does because he's so astounded by the breadth and the length and the depth and the height.

Throughout all generations, just kind of a Hebraic way of saying, as long as there's people and they continue to exist, so too.

Must we give glory to God.

Forever and ever.

Woodenly, you could translate it of the age of the ages.

It's kind of a typical expression for talking about time without end.

Every coming epoch, we get to see and we get to worship God because every era that would come will contain the worthy God.

I just want to make a couple observations here.

First, wonder that eternity holds at least one person worthy of worship.

If everyone else fades away, if you were to stop existing, worship would still exist because God will always exist.

The object of our worship is forever.

Because he is Yahweh, the eternally self-existent one.

He always was and he always will be.

He depends on nothing and no one else to exist.

He is always worthy to be worshipped.

And just as a quick application of that, just consider all of the things that you do end up worshiping and you do give your heart to.

How long do they last?

Money, success, obedient kids, like ten seconds.

Sleep, grades, being right on Facebook.

How about forever?

Do they last forever?

God does.

And so he must always be worshipped.

Secondly, I want to observe, Paul actually tells us that there are two other entities, at least, that will exist forever.

The church and Christ Jesus.

You and I, friends, will exist forever.

We will not be extinguished.

And why?

Because we've got a job to do.

To give God the glory.

And that's what we're going to do in all of eternity.

Worship.

And friends, if all that ever existed was us and Jesus, you would never run out of material, of fuel for the fire of worship.

Third, let me observe this.

Paul says, throughout all generations, forever and ever.

The technical meaning of these Greek phrases is that's a really long time.

You've been listening to this sermon for what?

40 minutes?

And you're already bored.

I can tell.

You're out.

You're done.

One time I ran a marathon.

I know I hide it well.

And it was like hours long.

And by the end of that thing, I was done.

I'll tell you what.

One time, someone tried to get me to watch my favorite movie series all through, back to back.

And like in the middle of Cloud City, I was out.

I was done.

I couldn't handle it anymore.

You know, even really good things in this life get a little bit boring after a while, don't they?

You've got forever ahead of you.

And Jesus will never be boring for one second of it.

You won't ever want to stop worshiping.

We will be giving glory to God forever and ever and never get bored.

So, what, friend, does that say about him?

Is he worthy?

Does he deserve it?

We sang this morning.

When years of time shall pass away, when earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who hear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love so sure will still endure.

All measureless and strong, redeeming grace to Adam's race, the saints and angels song.

That's what we'll be doing for an eternity, and we will never regret one moment of it.

God be the glory.

And so Paul finishes this incredible doxology with one word.

You know it.

Amen.

Truly.

Surely.

This is true.

May it be so.

Absolutely.

No doubt.

Here's my question.

Can you say amen?

Can you say amen to Paul's Prayer that all glory would go to the transcending God, the God who is above all things and beyond all things and works all things for the glory of his name.

Can you say amen to the fact that God in his infinite glory has condescended to live inside of a sinner like you or like me so that we might be redeemed to worship him forever and ever without end and never be bored?

Can you say amen to that?

Amen.

If you can't, if you've never in your life said amen to that, I want you to know that God, in all of his glory, has his eye on you.

Right now, in this moment.

Nobody else might see you, but he can.

And he has made you, friend, for this purpose.

That you would magnify his worth.

That you would see and enjoy him forever.

Do you want that?

He wants you.

And he wants you to be able to say, Amen.

So would you go to him?

And say, I don't have that kind of power.

To change my life to make me say those kind of things.

Well, guess what he does?

Would you go to him?

And if you're here and you are, you want to say amen, but man, you're struggling.

This is just a hard season.

Listen, there's a prayer you need to pray.

To God be the glory.

Please.

I don't know how.

I don't know when.

I don't know where.

But God, please get the glory for yourself.

And if you just say amen and amen and amen, friend, I want to stir that pot.

Turn with me to Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

This is where we'll finish.

I just want you to see, I'm trying to think, what is the most glorious passage in all of Scripture that shows us God's church, whom he has indwelt, glorifying him.

And I think this is as close as I could come.

That the beginning of the end, they're looking for who will inherit this world in Revelation 5, verse 5.

Revelation 5:5

One of the elders said to me, Weep no more.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll in its seven seals.

And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

And I looked and I heard around the throne of the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that's in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen.

And the elders fell down and worshiped.

To God be the glory.

Let's pray.

Father, we we've just tried to grab at the hem of your garments.

Just to get a glimpse, just a taste of your infinite glory, so that we might respond and give you glory back.

I pray that you would descend, that your spirit would be at work in us.

That you would make Christ know.

Father, I pray that as we come to your table, this would be a sobering moment.

As we consider the weight of your glory and the weight of this call to glorify you.

As we remember the blood that was shed on our behalf by our Lord Jesus Christ, may it overwhelm us.

Would you show us true worship?

And would you glorify yourself?

That's what we want more than anything.

Please, Lord, do it.

Get the glory.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.