The Riches of God (Ephesians 1:1-3)

We're starting the book of Ephesians here this morning.

So we're going to be opening it up to chapter one, and we're just going to be covering the first three verses because really we want to get a lot of context and a real good foundation as we launch off into this book.

Before we even read our text, though, I want to give us a little bit of a background on the book of Ephesians.

You know, as you know, as a church, we go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, through the Bible.

All but a few Sundays a year we're doing that.

And in the big picture, what we've been doing as a church for over the last four years is making our way through the New Testament.

And what we've been doing is we'll take a handful of books, usually letters, epistles, and then we'll go back to one of the gospels.

And then we'll take the next handful of epistles and go back to one of the gospels.

And that's what we're doing here this morning.

You know, two Sundays ago we finished the Gospel of John.

Before that, we finished Galatians.

So in this pattern, we're going to pick up in Ephesians.

We're probably going to stay in the letters until probably about 2 Timothy or so.

So that's kind of the schedule we're on.

But today we're starting off in the book of Ephesians.

So I want to really, as I was saying, set a foundation for this book before we even do our opening reading as we normally do.

We're going to see in verse 1, the Apostle Paul is the author of this letter.

This is the man that was once a Pharisee of Pharisees, steeped in law and legalism.

Pete was talking about that last week.

And he went from passionately persecuting the Christian church, the early Christian church, to having this dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.

And then he became the greatest proponent of grace in the whole New Testament.

Going from the Pharisee of Pharisees steeped in the law to the greatest proponent of grace that we see in the New Testament.

You know, he ended up turning into one of the most influential church planners and authors in Christian history.

Writing almost half of the New Testament books that we have in our Bibles that we're holding here today.

Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us a huge percentage of our doctrine that we hold as Christians.

And we gained much of our theology from these books that he wrote.

And Ephesians is one of those books.

We're going to gain a lot of doctrine and a lot of the theology we have from this book.

And this is considered one of Paul's prison letters.

And those prison letters are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

We know this because in Ephesians 3:1, he calls himself the prisoner of Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:1

In chapter 4, verse 1, the prisoner of the Lord.

In chapter 6, verse 20, an ambassador in chains, he calls himself.

And this is most likely what he's referring to is most likely the first imprisonment that he had in Rome.

In Acts 28, we learned that he was under house arrest during this time.

He was chained to a guard during this imprisonment where he was able to receive visitors.

He was obviously able to write letters and things like that.

So he has some freedoms, but he's homebound and he's chained to a Roman soldier 24-7.

Now it's so easy, I think, for us to think about this and think, that's not that bad, right?

I mean, it's not like he's in a dungeon or anything like that.

So to get our minds out of this, I think it's important for us to understand this as we jump into Ephesians.

I want you to put yourself in his place.

This is important for us to keep in mind.

So place yourself in this position.

This afternoon, say you go out to lunch or something like that, you start to tell somebody that Jesus loves them and that he died for them for their sins, and you get arrested.

And then they transport you to another country, they place you in a small apartment with a local police officer that you don't know, and you're chained to that officer 24-7.

You can't leave the apartment, all of those freedoms are gone.

You can write letters, people can come and visit you, but that's it.

You're just sitting there all day long with a foreign police officer in a foreign country in the small apartment that you're unfamiliar with.

That's basically Paul as he's writing this letter to the Ephesians.

So, in that place that he's in, he decides I'm gonna write an encouraging letter to the Christians in Ephesus.

And I'm gonna tell them about God blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ Jesus.

At this point, Paul has lost almost all of his earthly freedoms.

You know, we don't know if he has a single earthly possession at this point, maybe other than the clothes that are on his back.

And he writes to this church about how rich we are in Christ Jesus.

Paul sees himself as the richest man alive, which obviously has no bearing on his life circumstance at this time.

You know, and I mentioned all this because we need to remember as we go through Ephesians that Paul's not talking about earthly possessions when he's talking about all that we're gonna talk about here in Ephesians.

He's not talking about an earthly inheritance.

All that he's talking about is in regards to the kingdom of God as he sits in prison.

So please remember that as we go through the position that Paul's in and how it has no bearing on his circumstance and no bearing on his possessions.

Now we have a map here just to kind of show you a little bit of the geography.

So Paul's over here in Rome, and he's writing to this church in Ephesus, and just for reference, Israel is kind of down here somewhere, but he's writing to this uh this church in Ephesus, it's on the west coast of what was considered Asia Minor at this time.

This is modern-day Turkey that we're looking at.

So Ephesus is located right in there.

And though it's addressed to the saints in Asia in Ephesus, it's widely thought that this letter would have been meant to be circulated throughout that whole area around Ephesus and Asia Minor.

Because as we go through, you'll see that it lacks a lot of personalization.

He's not talking to people by name, he's not addressing specific issues within the church.

So, in a lot of ways, it lacks the specifics.

So it seems to be something that was meant to be circulated beyond Ephesus.

Ephesus was huge, by the uh, by the way, but Ephesus was a very strategic city in the Roman Empire.

At this time, it's estimated that the population was 350,000 people.

That's a huge church, especially at this time uh in history.

It was the center of trade for the uh ancient Roman uh road.

There was an ancient Roman road that went through this called the Royal Road, if you want to look that up.

And it really connected the east and the west of the Roman Empire.

Also, Ephesus was a port city at this time.

There's been a lot of silt since then, so it's not really that close to the coast anymore.

But at the time it was a port city, so it was full of maritime trade as well.

So lots of traffic, lots of trade went right through this city, which made Ephesus very, very rich.

You know, it was considered at the time the Bank of Asia Minor because it held so much wealth, and it held one of the seven wonders of the world at this time, which was the Temple of Artemis.

The Greeks called her Artemis, the Roman equivalent would be Diana, and her temple was this incredible architectural feat.

And we have a rendering here that I want you to take a look at.

I know it's very pixelated, it's hard to see this is the best image, but this is what they think it looked like at the time.

For reference, these are people right here.

So it shows you the scale of how giant this temple uh would be.

And they did this with hand tools.

Isn't that incredible that they were able to do this with hand tools?

This temple was really the center for idolatrous worship, and it housed some of the greatest art treasures in the world at this time.

People would make pilgrimages, long pilgrimages to it.

So this was really a destination for paganism.

It was also a source of revenue.

So a lot of the merchants in the city made money off of this temple and made money off of the pilgrimages that people were making to it.

So Paul's writing to this church in Ephesus that's surrounded with wealth, that's surrounded with idolatry, surrounded with incredible art, amazing feats of architecture.

You know, it seems like this city had all the world had to offer at this time.

So, what does Paul write about to them?

He writes a lot about the riches of God in Christ Jesus.

He writes a lot about the inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus.

He writes to them about our bodies and how they are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Their local temple was filled with physical wealth.

Our temples are filled with spiritual wealth.

Warren Wearsby has a quote that I want to read to you because it's so great for what we're talking about here this morning.

He says, Paul's letter to the Ephesians is as carefully structured as that great temple of Artemis.

And it contains greater beauty and wealth.

We inherit the wealth by faith and invest the wealth by works.

And I love this so much, specifically because of that last sentence.

Because Paul will focus the first half of this letter, all the way through chapter three, on how we inherit the spiritual wealth of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

And then the second half of this letter will focus on how we invest the wealth that we have been given in Christ Jesus.

So, real quick, turn to chapter 4, verse 1.

This is where Paul really changes his tone between those two things, from inheriting to investing.

He says in chapter 4, verse 1, therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received.

And he's gonna go on for the next three chapters talking about what it looks like to live out our faith.

How to invest those spiritual blessings that we've been blessed with in a way that is worthy of Christ's call on our life.

And he's gonna give very practical everyday advice for the rest of the book.

It's very, very practical, those last three chapters.

You know, I think Paul can write this book in such a way because he's very familiar with Ephesus.

He first, uh, or well, I should say we first see him there in his second missionary journey.

And if you want to read about that, that's in Acts 18.

That's where Paul visits Ephesus with Priscilla and Achillah, and that's around AD 52, 53, and they're well received by the small group of believers that are there, and it's a short visit for Paul.

Then, somewhere between AD 53 and 56, on Paul's third missionary journey, he comes back to Ephesus, and that's when he stays from anywhere from two to three years.

He's there in Ephesus with these believers.

You know, he spent some real quality time with them.

That's a long time to spend with a group of believers.

And he was really establishing a church of these existing believers, but then also adding many new converts as well during this time.

So Ephesus really served as a hub of evangelistic outreach for Paul in this time.

And we also learn in Acts that he taught in their synagogue until he was no longer welcome there, and then taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus during that time as well.

So toward the end of that stay, of that two to three years that he was with them, there was this huge riot that breaks out in Ephesus.

You can see that in Acts as well.

Breaks out because of the spread of Christianity and the influence that it was having on the culture there in Ephesus.

Literally, idol sales were down because of the spread of Christianity.

And there was this silversmith idol maker that started to make us think about it because his prophets started to go down.

So he incited this huge riot, and Paul had to soon leave after this because there's just chaos in the city.

So he left Timothy behind to oversee this church.

First and 2 Timothy are letters that Paul wrote to Timothy while he was in Ephesus.

Later, there's strong evidence that the Apostle John lived in Ephesus at the end of his life, maybe around 90 AD or so.

Quite possibly some of his writings, maybe all of his writings, took place while he was in Ephesus.

And Jesus himself wrote a letter to Ephesus through the hand of John, of course.

That's Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

We see that letter addressed to the church in Ephesus.

All that to say, this is a very important city.

This is a very important church that has a lot of early church history taking place in this area.

Now, when Paul left Ephesus after the riot, he left this strong church that was still maturing.

You know, that really should be any healthy church, a still maturing church.

Nobody has arrived.

No church has arrived.

We should always still be maturing in Christ.

So this book of Ephesians is really a follow-up letter to Ephesus.

It's about 10 years or so after his long stay and the riot that took place.

It's uh it's dated probably between 60 and 62 AD that Paul wrote this and had it delivered to Ephesus, which makes the church that Paul's writing to about 12 years old or so.

So, maturity-wise, it's about 12 years old.

And this church needs some added direction at this point.

They need some reminders from Paul.

They need some encouragement in their faith, really.

And I think that's where we as a church are going to reap the largest benefit from this letter.

The church is going through similar things that we go through here today, that we're dealing with as believers here in Atascadero in 2025.

They're dealing with literal idolatry, you know, statues, false gods, and pagan temples.

They literally bowing down to these things.

Our idolatry here today might be a little bit more discreet than theirs, but it's not different.

They were dealing with the idol of wealth back then.

Having wealth is not a sin, enjoying wealth is not a sin, but can so easily become an idol for each and every one of us.

Can so easily steal our time and attention away from God as we try to maintain or manage our wealth or maybe gain more wealth.

And if you're sitting here today and you're thinking, well, that's not me, because I'm not wealthy.

According to a World Bank study, if you make more than$3,000 to$4,000 a year, not a month,$3,000 to$4,000 a year, you're part of the top 50% of the wealthiest people in the world.

If you own a home in a taskadero, you are part of the top 5% wealthiest people in the world.

I think in America, we all have to be careful and aware of the idol of wealth.

Whether that's wealth we have or wealth that we wish to have.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19–21

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

These words of Jesus, I think, sum up Ephesians so well.

The whole book.

Paul's going to expand on this idea throughout the whole book of Ephesians.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Because God wants you to know that if you're following Jesus, you're the richest person that has ever walked the face of the earth.

And I want to ask all of us, do you believe that?

Do you believe that if you have Jesus, you are the richest person that has ever walked the face of the earth?

Maybe more importantly, do you live like you're the richest person on the face of the earth?

I think we need to continue to ask ourselves this throughout the book of Ephesians.

Do we live like the richest people on earth?

I want you to take a second and imagine.

Imagine a church filled with believers that lived like the richest people on earth.

And the effect that it would have on this community if we did that.

You know, if people who are not following Christ and are chasing worldly chasing worldly riches or the idols of this world, if they see us and their mind is blown when they see how content we are, how loving we are, how calm and peaceful we are when the world seems like it's on fire all around us.

Think of the effect that that could have on the world around us.

Think of how we would stand out.

Think of the undeniable light that we would be if we lived like the richest people on earth.

There's no reason for us not to.

Because we are, because we have Jesus.

You know, I'm afraid we're just blending in with the poverty of this world.

Caught up in the same things that the world's caught up with.

Having our joy stolen just like theirs gets stolen by circumstance.

Having our peace stolen just like theirs is stolen by circumstance.

So I want to encourage all of us, myself included, I'm just as guilty of all of this as anybody else in this room.

But please keep asking yourself that question as we go through Ephesians together.

Am I living like the richest person in the world?

Because Paul's about to tell us about our limitless wealth that we have in Christ Jesus.

So that's the foundation that I wanted to share with you about Ephesians before we even jump into verse 1, which we're gonna be doing right now.

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

We're gonna be reading verses 1 through 3.

It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, to the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

Will you please join me in prayer?

Lord, we thank you for the excitement of a new book that we get to jump into.

Lord, we thank you in advance for all of the things that you have for us in this book.

Lord, help us to glean everything that you desire for us through everything that we're going to be going through in this next series of Sundays as we continue on in Ephesians.

Help us to approach you with openness.

Just realizing how much we need, realizing our dependence upon you, but also realizing that our dad is rich with every spiritual blessing.

And we thank you so much for that.

Help us to grasp this and to live this out, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So, real quick, the way that this first half of Ephesians 1 is broken up is we have the intro.

Which we're covering today, verses 1 through 2.

Then we have verses 3 through 6, which includes the thesis statement of this book, but within the context, it talks about the riches that we have in God the Father.

Then 7 through 12 is the riches that we have in God the Son.

And then 13 through 14, the riches we have in God the Holy Spirit.

Fun fact in the original Greek, verse 13 through 14 is one long sentence.

In the CSB, that's 186 words.

That is a very long sentence.

But today we're just going to be tackling through verse 3 because, like I said, that's really the thesis statement.

But first, let's jump in to the first half of verse 1.

It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God's will.

You know, Paul can say this with the utmost confidence and certainty.

As we're talking about, God dramatically called Paul to his apostleship.

It wasn't like, you know, I think God wants me to proclaim the gospel and maybe go plant a church.

It was a dramatic calling that left no doubt in his mind of what his calling in Christ was.

You know, some of us have dramatic callings like that.

You know, no doubt about what the Lord wants us to be doing.

Some of us find ourselves already serving in our calling and might not even realize it because it's just something that's happened by faithfully saying yes to little things along the way, and then we find ourselves in the middle of that calling.

Some of us might not even know what our calling is and might not be in the center of it anyway, but I hope Ephesians is going to help us see that a little bit.

But if you're a follower of Christ, you have been called to serve the body of Christ, to serve the kingdom of God to some capacity, which we're going to be getting into as we continue through this book.

But Paul's calling is a no-doubter.

He knows exactly what he's supposed to be doing.

Look at the second half of verse 1.

So the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.

Notice Paul's already calling these saints faithful.

You know, saints, that can be a little bit of a confusing word for us in modern day.

Simply means holy ones or a most holy thing.

Really, the idea of being set apart.

If you're a follower of Christ, you are a saint.

It's not a special title that's reserved for a few super Christians.

You are a saint if you're following Jesus Christ.

Because we're made holy in Christ.

And we're therefore holy ones in Christ.

We are set apart for him.

So Paul's addressing all the believers in Ephesus.

Not just a select few in Ephesus.

He's every one of them that claims to be or is truly a follower of Jesus Christ.

He's addressing this letter to all of them, the whole church.

You may remember when we went through John 17, Jesus' prayer talks a lot about this.

He's praying to the Father.

He says, I have given them your word.

The world hated them, speaking of his disciples, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I'm not praying that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

They're not the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them by the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

We are set apart.

We're different from the world.

We're holy ones in Christ, and we're being sanctified in Christ through the truth of God's word.

That makes us saints.

That makes all of the Ephesian church that's following Jesus.

That makes them saints as well.

And Paul here goes as far as saying, faithful saints.

So if he's writing to faithful saints, faithful saints, why would he write at all?

If there's really no correction that we see in this letter, if they're already considered faithful, why write to this church?

I think because even faithful mature believers need some course correction, need some encouragement, need some admonishment along the way.

Don't we?

All of us here in Atascadero, right?

You know, they have found some ancient manuscripts of Ephesians that say to the faithful saints in, and it's left blank.

Some ancient ones that were in circulation.

And the thought is, these were some letters that were meant for circulation so those reading it could fill in the name of their city.

To the faithful saints in a taskadero.

This letter is very applicable to our church because we all have a tendency to become complacent, don't we?

We all have a tendency to desire comfort over obedience, don't we?

To get caught up in the things of the world, to struggle with idolatry.

We all have a tendency to not live like we are the richest people on earth.

So Paul writes to all the followers of Christ in Ephesus.

He's not writing to a Timothy or a Titus, not to another pastor or elder or apostle.

He's writing to the church, all the Christians in Ephesus and the surrounding area.

This letter is for all of us, every one of us sitting here, about the riches in Christ and how to invest those riches that we have been given.

Now look at verse 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is Paul's typical greeting that he has in his letters.

And I'm probably going to mention this every time that we come across it here at Abide.

You have to have the grace of God before you can ever experience the peace of God.

In order to have peace from God, you have to have peace with God as well.

You know, Paul can write this to them because they have come to Christ and already have peace with them.

So he can encourage them in this way.

Romans 5, 1 says this.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Peace with God through his grace by faith is what leads to the peace of God.

So Paul writes to these believers grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, before we tackle verse 3, once we jump into the riches of God, I want to ask all of us another question.

Lots of questions this morning.

But I want us to consider something, and I want each of us to consider it for ourselves.

Have you ever had the thought, man, it would have been so nice to have been born into a wealthy family.

Like U.S.

standards, wealthy family.

You know what we think of living in a mansion, driving the nicest sports cars or trucks as soon as you got your license, eating out whenever, wherever you wanted, nicest restaurants, buying the nicest clothes whenever you wanted, traveling the world, going to college wherever you wanted, you know, things like that.

You fill in your own blank of what that may have looked like if you were born into a very uh worldly wealthy U.S.

standard, I guess, wealthy family.

When we commit our lives to Jesus and follow him, Scripture tells us that we're born again into God's family as sons and daughters.

And Paul's about to tell us how rich the family is that we've been born into.

But we have to get our minds off of earthly riches, off of worldly riches when talking about this, and onto the riches that will not perish on this earth.

Off of what we can't take with us.

We have to get our eyes off of those things.

You know, hearses don't have toe hitches.

You know, you've probably heard that before.

We need to get our minds on the riches that we can store up in heaven.

Like we already read Jesus' words in Matthew.

With that, we're gonna look at verse 3 today and next week.

And we need to keep our mind on those things of what are the heavenly riches compared to the worldly riches that we cannot take with us.

So look at verse 3.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

If you're a highlighter and underliner, that word every right there.

Do whatever you need to do to make that pop out the next time you read it.

And I'm calling this the thesis statement, verse 3, because really everything else that's coming in this book is going to be in support of what Paul says through the Holy Spirit in verse 3 here.

How we inherit every spiritual blessing and how we invest those things back into God's kingdom.

So let's define, let's talk about a little bit.

You know, what are spiritual blessings?

What are the riches of God that we're talking about already?

You're going to be talking so much about as we go through this book.

Well, we've already talked about a good number of them.

Salvation in Christ.

You know, being born again into the family of God, being adopted into God's family, the inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus, sanctification, you know, that whole process of becoming more like Jesus, God's grace and mercy, peace with God and peace of God.

An eternity in heaven waiting for us.

You know, we're going to be talking about things like the Holy Spirit indwelling us, sealing us, and being the down payment of our inheritance.

We're going to be talking about the spiritual gifts that are bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit.

And the list just goes on and on.

Those are just some of the spiritual blessings that God has blessed us with.

He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing, though.

There's so much more.

And it says, in the heavens, in Christ.

These are not worldly blessings, but heavenly blessings.

And if you're anything like me, you may ask, you know, if they're heavenly, then how do we experience them now?

We have a spiritual union with Christ.

We're united with him in his resurrected life.

That oneness that we talk so much about in John, we have that union now.

Paul's gonna say in chapter 2, verse 6 of Ephesians, he also raised us up with him, with Christ, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.

We're already seated with Christ in heaven.

Let that tie your head in knots real quick.

This speaks of the position that we have in Christ Jesus.

You know, talk about a spiritual blessing.

So we sit in Christ's position in heaven while we're still living on this earth.

Meaning we have access to Jesus' heavenly privileges and spiritual blessings and his power as we walk in this world.

I mean, what greater riches could we ask for?

As Christians born again into God's family, we have this dual reality really that we're living in right now for the time being, of being on earth but also seated in heaven in Christ.

I'm still wrapping my head around it.

I don't know if I ever will this side of eternity, how that all works, but it does.

He tells us it does.

Next week, we're gonna be digging into more of what those riches look like, specifically in the three persons of the Trinity, and how we enjoy them now, but they're ultimately fulfilled in heaven.

But that's for next week.

For this week, I want us to focus on verse 3 here.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Nothing withheld, and all for the praise of his glorious grace, as we're gonna see as we continue on through verse 6.

You know, we worship a God that wants to lavish us with the things he desires for us.

We end up desiring through our flesh a lot of things that he does not desire for us.

We wonder why he's not blessing us with those things.

But he wants to lavish us with the things that he desires for us, with those spiritual blessings, those heavenly spiritual blessings, with every heavenly spiritual blessing.

Our dad is rich, you guys.

But do we live like it?

You're gonna get tired of hearing me say that as we continue through Ephesians.

But I want us to just keep thinking about what God can do with a church that lives like they should, that lives like the richest people on earth.

This week, will you please keep asking yourself that question?

I'm challenging myself with this as well.

In every interaction, in every decision, in every circumstance, we need to ask ourselves: am I living like a true son or daughter of the owner of the whole universe?

Am I living like the richest person on earth?

Because we are.

In Christ Jesus, we are.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for everything, Lord, just in that short amount of text that you've shown us here this morning.

God, that is my prayer for all of us.

That you would show us what it looks like to live like the richest people on earth that have inherited every spiritual blessing through Christ Jesus.

Lord, help us in the ways that we fail in doing this, to do that well, or to live out differently than the world, to not get caught up in the things of this world and the idols of this world and the wealth of this world, but to live like we are spiritually wealthy because we are, and you have given us every spiritual blessing.

And we thank you so much for that, that you have desired that for us and have offered that to us.

Show us how to live that out regardless of circumstance, regardless of possessions.

But just thinking of Paul being in prison, chained to this guard, under house arrest, and how he decides to write to this church that has every earthly wealth that man could think of at the time, and tells them how rich they are in Christ Jesus.

Help us to grasp that, surrounded by wealth here on the central coast of California.

Help us to not get caught up in the same idols as the Ephesians, but to truly desire what you desire for us.

God, would you implant your desires for us into us?

Help us to desire those things, to grab on to those things that are already ours, that we've already inherited in Christ Jesus, and to live that out in our faith, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.