Ephesians: "The immeasurable greatness of His power for you..."

Well, good morning to everyone.

My name is Tyler.

If I haven't met you yet or had the pleasure to meet you yet, I serve here on the operations team.

I serve mostly I serve mostly as security because they looked at me and said that you should serve on security.

And my beautiful wife Ashley just led worship here this morning.

We're so thankful to be a part of what Kingdom City is doing.

I'm going to bring the word from Ephesians 1 this morning.

We're reading verses 15 through 23.

If you want to follow along, it should be on the screen.

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body and the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

This is the word of the Lord.

Awesome.

Well, good morning, everybody.

How are we doing?

Let's go.

Love the energy.

Why was that funny?

I genuinely love the energy.

Well, if we haven't met, my name is Blake.

I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Kingdom City.

Like so many have said, you know, when we we moved here kind of at the at the beginning of 2024 with like nothing except a dream and a lot of prayer.

And what God's done over the past little bit has been really amazing.

The summer is always so funny because I feel like I feel like every single week we have a completely different church.

And because people are vacationing and doing different things.

And so no matter whether it's your first time, your tenth time, whatever it is, we're just glad you were in the room.

Not because, not because we look at this and go, like, man, this is the goal, but because we look at this and we go, man, this is this is this is God's people gathering together.

And what's sitting in this room is a lot of potential for God to use and work through in order to make a huge impact in the city and in our community and for the sake of the kingdom.

So so man, if you don't have a dream for your life, I want you to know that we do.

And and Jesus does too.

So just glad you're in the room.

The year was 1996.

Nice segue.

The year was 1996 when the unthinkable happened.

The legendary Chicago Bull star, Michael Jordan, was abducted by the Looney Tunes.

Any Space Jam fans in the room?

Yeah.

The Looney Tunes had been challenged to a basketball game for their freedom by aliens from Moron Mountain.

The Toons squad in this basketball game trailed the Monstars 66 to 18 going into halftime.

Their backs were against the wall, a seemingly impossible challenge in front of them.

So his heiress, Michael Jordan, brought them together in the locker room to inspire them.

But there was no use.

They were beaten up.

They were dejected and they were hopeless.

And that's when Bugs Bunny revealed the secret weapon that would inspire the Toon Squad to a legendary comeback in victory.

Can anyone name it?

Michael's secret stuff.

Michael's secret stuff.

Bugs Bunny breaks out this water bottle full of Michael's secret stuff.

And he begins to give it to the entire team.

And as they all drank this magical potion, they were re-inspired, reinvigorated.

Muscles began to heal, exhaustion began to flee, and they took the court.

And with the help of Bill Murray coming off the bench, were able to hold the Monstars to just 11 points in the second half on their way to a legendary 78 to 77 win.

Oh man.

Why do I say all this?

Because when your back is against the wall and you're in a crisis of power, you need something.

Right?

The the Toon Squad, they had no idea that what ultimately Bugs Bunny gave them was just a water bottle with duct tape on it that said this was Michael's secret stuff.

And he kind of tricked them into something.

But the reality is that we have all been in a position in our lives where our backs are against the wall and we feel like what is needed for the moment we don't have access to.

Right?

That what is needed in our lives, what is needed for maybe the thing that God's put in front of us, what's needed in the moment we don't have access to.

I know, I know for me, I can feel this way so many times, whether it's whether it's in leading, you know, maybe maybe you're here and you lead something, and you have opportunity, you have moments where you're leading and you're trying to figure out answers that you don't have and people are looking to you and you don't know what to do or where to go, and you need access to something that can help you.

Or maybe you're here and you're a parent and you've you've been awakened for the 13th time at 2 a.m.

and you're going, I literally cannot do this anymore.

And you need access, you need power that maybe you don't feel like you have access to.

Your back's against the wall and you need something.

Maybe you're here and and and just life has put you in a position before where you go, man, there, my life, the circumstances that I'm in, I just need access to power, to something that can that can help me.

And I because I don't know where to turn, I don't know what to do.

Have you ever felt this way?

Back's against the wall, and you need something.

And uh Bugs Bunny's not standing there with Michael's secret stuff, but you know I need something.

And I think for all of us, we reach for things in those moments.

In those moments where your back is against the wall, you reach for something to provide you the comfort, to provide you the distraction, to provide you whatever you need in those moments that's gonna give you some kind of answer or just some kind of temporary solution, whatever it may be.

You just need something in that moment that's gonna give you either real power, the feeling of power, a temporary relief from the moment of pain that you're in.

But ultimately, we all hunger and we long for power in our lives because we understand that we have limitations in our lives, that you are limited.

I am limited.

And those limitations get stretched and get challenged, if not every single day, very often.

And we need access to something.

And the question is, where do you turn when you're in a moment where there's a crisis of power?

I think ultimately for many of us, we don't have the power we need for the moment we're in or the life that we feel called to.

There's so many of us.

I talked, you know, I'm obviously with people often, I meet with people often.

I sit across from so many men who have this vision and this dream of the kind of husbands that they long to be, the kind of men that they long to be, the kind of fathers that they want to be.

And they go, there's this life, there's this image of something that just feels so unattainable.

And I don't have the resources, I don't have the power needed for the life that I feel called to live.

Others of you, like, you really want to follow Jesus.

Like you really want to be faithful.

And yet there are these things in your life that are holding you back from being the person that you really believe that God's called you to be, that you long to be.

Some of you act outside of your character and the person that you want to be.

You want to be loving, you want to be kind, and yet you lash out, you criticize.

Whatever it may be, there's so many, there's so many moments where you have a vision in your head, maybe it's been given from God, or maybe it's something that you just have an idea in your head, and you go, that's who I want to be.

And yet I consistently fall short of that because we don't have the power we need for the moment we're in or the life that we're called to.

You know, there's a crisis of power in the church.

There's a crisis of power in the church.

That ultimately the church needs power for the cultural moment that we're in.

That the church needs a power that is that is outside of what we can do in our own human limitations.

I think the reality is that we have seen the best that we can do with our own creativity and our own strategy in the Western Church.

We have never had more resources at our disposal, more man-made resources.

We've never had more intelligent people, we've never had bigger buildings, we've never had bigger budgets than the Western Church has today, and yet, and yet, we've been in consistent decline for the past generation.

Because there's a crisis of power in the church, and we need power for this moment that we're in.

Richard Owen Roberts once said, the sobering truth is that the greatest hindrance to the growth of Christianity in today's world, not Christianity as a brand, but Christianity as a life-transforming force found in Jesus, is the absence of the manifest presence and power of God from the church.

The reality is that there are so many people who attend church consistently and are very busy and very active, yet their lives are not transformed.

Right?

Some of us are extremely active.

We do all the things, we go to all the stuff, and yet our lives are not that different.

What is happening to us?

I remember for me when I was in college, I came to this point in my life where I was, I was either going to say no to Jesus and yes to all that the world had to offer.

I was going to say no to the world and yes to all that Jesus had to offer.

And I was kind of in this season of my life in college where I was, I was kind of weighing the two.

And man, for a season there, I was, I was the definition of a hypocrite.

I was standing in, I was, I was kind of going over here and standing in things over here to go like, okay, is this, and then I was standing over here and things like this, and I was going, like, okay, what does this have to offer?

And uh, and it was a miserable, a miserable season of my life.

But I remember the thing that that made me that that kind of was the the the transformative moment for me was when I began to read in the New Testament and I realized that God longed for me to have power and transformation even more than I did.

I was reading the book of Acts, and I was, I was, I was beginning to see this church move in power.

I began to see this church experience transformation in a community.

I began to even Acts 19, where we read about the church in Ephesus, and an entire economy was flipped upside down because people's lives were actually being changed.

And I was going, God, that's what you're saying you're offering, and it's not what I'm experiencing.

What's the problem?

Like what's the what's what's the issue?

And I remember I say this line often, but it was the thing that was kind of given to me in that season is this if all you had were the words of scripture to give you the expectation for the Christian life and not your personal experience, what would you expect?

If all you had was the New Testament, all you had was the pages of Scripture, all you had was the scriptures to be able to give you a vision, an expectation for the Christian life, not your personal experience, not what you'd read about, not what you'd seen, not what you had gone to and attended, but just the pages of scripture.

What would your expectation be for your Christian life?

You you would read those scriptures and you're going, like, man, there's power, there's transformation, there's missional impact.

Jesus is moving in power.

Things are happening.

People, it's not weird for people to come to faith in Christ.

Now we look at that and we go, like, oh my gosh, that actually happened.

And we're shocked and surprised that God actually moved in power and moved in someone's life.

And it's going, man, this was a day-to-day occurrence, and it happened through the lives of everyday ordinary people, not in some specialized event, but on the street, in the workplace, in the home, in the neighborhood.

And I think for so many of us, maybe you in this room, you're at that same spot in your life where there's a they call it the crystallization of discontent, where ultimately you're going, something has to change, something has to give.

And what what you're longing for, what you're hungering for is power.

Is for the words and the on the pages of scripture to become your lived experience.

That's what you're longing for and hungering for.

That's what I'm hungry for and longing for.

But I think for so many of us, once again, we're at a crisis of power.

So there's a crisis of power in the church, but there's also a crisis of power in our in our personal lives.

Like you need power to face the reality of life.

I think for so many of us, we we feel like our backs are against the wall with no way out or or through.

I think for some of you in this room, like, man, you've been trapped in fear for longer than you can even remember.

You're just scared all the time.

You maybe not even maybe you're not even able to go to identify what it is, but you're just scared.

You're just trapped in fear.

Others of you, you're trapped in sin.

Like you cannot overcome this thing that has been plaguing you for so long.

Others of you, you feel trapped in a marriage.

Others of you, you feel trapped in singleness.

Others of you, you feel trapped in suffering or trapped in despair.

There's so many of us, we feel trapped in our lives.

And I think when it comes down to it, the average American Christian feels trapped in a life that is not to the level of the vision that they have or the one that God has.

I think ultimately the average American Christian is busy, overwhelmed, and powerless.

And maybe you feel like that.

I'm busy, I'm overwhelmed, and I have no real power.

And I think we've seen that we can do a lot with no power.

We can go to a lot of things, the church can do a lot of things, we can put a lot of things on the calendar, and we can even manipulate or manufacture experiences that can make us feel like power, but ultimately power is verified through transformation, right?

Like true power is authenticated through transformation.

It's not authenticated through emotionalism or experientialism, it's authenticated through transformation.

You can know that someone has actually experienced power, has a life of power as their life is being increasingly more transformed into something that it didn't used to be.

That's what authenticates power.

And 1 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul actually says the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.

Like God moves through power.

And yet, I think so much of the Western Church is a matter of talk.

We have so many ideas, we have so many conversations, we have so much content, so many podcasts, so many videos, so many conferences, so many things, and yet very little power.

And we need power to overcome our human limitations.

You need power.

We need power as the church.

So what do we need power for?

I think there's a few different things.

It can be a list of a hundred, but I try to kind of sum it up in really these five things that ultimately, when the scriptures talk about power, he's trying to produce this in our lives.

First and foremost, we need power for salvation.

Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Why?

Because it's the power for salvation.

He's like, there's a power that we need for salvation, and that power is found in the gospel, in the good news of Jesus.

That God has actually stepped into human history in the person of Christ to do what you could not do for yourself, to live the life you couldn't live, to die the death that you deserve, to take the payment for your sin, for your brokenness, for your all the things that separate you from God, to take that onto himself, to lay down his life in a replacement for you, to raise up out of the grave so that he can now offer you life, forgiveness, and freedom.

Like he's saying, man, that that good news, like that is power for salvation.

He's saying, You need salvation.

You can't do this on your own.

You need a power that's beyond you in your own limitations, and that power is found in the good news of the gospel.

You need power for salvation.

That the the natural person is separated from God, cannot get themselves to him in and of themselves.

There's not enough religious activity, there's not a thing you can do or say or a way that you can operate, a way that you can clean yourself up.

There's nothing that you can do in your own power to get you in right standing with God.

What you needed was for God to step into human history and to step into your story.

And he has.

And that's the good news of the gospel.

And he said, Man, we need power for salvation.

The good news of this is that maybe you're sitting here and you're going, man, I do long to be, I do long to be united with God.

I do, I do long to be one with him.

I do long to be a beloved son and daughter.

I do, I do long to have confidence, standing in his presence, to know that he's for me and that he loves me and that he's with me.

And the good news for you is that that is beyond your limitations.

That's bad news in the sense that you can't do it yourself, but it's good news if God has indeed provided a way and he has in Jesus.

The second thing is you need power for holiness.

What do we mean by this?

This is a this is a word that's spoken throughout scripture.

And you may hear this and go, like, okay, when I think about that, I have a few different thoughts.

Ultimately, what what what the scriptures are painting to when they talk about holiness is being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, into the likeness of God.

When the New Testament talks about this, God says, I am holy, therefore you must be holy.

And you're going, okay, but I you just told me I couldn't do that in and of myself.

Exactly.

So what what's the issue here?

Jesus steps into the story, you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you're given the Holy Spirit, and what is the Holy Spirit's agenda?

To make you holy, to transform you into the likeness of Jesus, to give you power that you did not have in order to become what you could not become in and of yourself, to transform you, to make you clean, to heal you, to give you wholeness, to turn you increasingly more into who you long to be and who God longs for you to be, but you cannot make yourself.

You need powerful holiness.

Three, you need powerful resilience.

Like you need endurance.

As we read throughout the New Testament, we're consistently seeing a church that's facing persecution.

And what we read, obviously, when you look at the scriptures, is we're getting we're getting a window into what God is doing through the church.

We're not getting a window into each and every single person's personal life, but we know these people were married.

We know these people had families, we know these people had jobs, we know these people had everyday lives.

And so not only are we getting a window into the persecution that they're experiencing as Christians, as members of the church, but there's also a whole backstory that we don't know about, that we're not privy to.

The suffering that was happening in their everyday, ordinary lives.

Like you endure so many things in your life.

And the reality is your life is gonna continue to be hard.

And the more faithful you are to Jesus, probably the more difficult it's gonna get in your everyday life.

And what you need is resilience, is a toughness.

We don't talk like this very much in the church.

You know, we talk about comfort, we talk about peace.

No, you need toughness.

Like you may not be an athlete, but I was and I've gotten to be around a decent amount of athletes.

And what you realize is that when there's moments in games that are really, really, really hard, the people who are able to endure and be resilient in that moment and ultimately, you know, come out on the other side victorious are people who prepared for that moment and had built up resilience over time to prepare them for that moment.

And so there's so many of us that we don't, we don't start trying to be resilient until we're in a moment where we need to be resilient.

And then we get there and we don't have the resources.

Why?

Because we we haven't been increasingly empowered as walking with Jesus and receiving from him so that when we get to the toughness of the moment, we're not prepared for it.

And we now need a power that we don't have access to.

And what he wants to do is by the power of the Holy Spirit to give you endurance, to make you resilient, to make you tough, to give you what you need to live this difficult life, to give you hope for the future that drives you, that wakes you up every single morning, regardless of circumstances.

You have something to wake up to and hope in.

Like you're not meant to be dragged out of bed every morning.

We're meant to wake up and have a hope that we're clinging to even in the midst of painful life circumstances.

He wants to make us resilient.

He wants to give us endurance.

Fourth, we need power for service.

We need power for service.

When you look at the New Testament and it talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, he he also says that when the Spirit fills you, when he when he when he indwells you, what does he do?

He gifts you, he gives you gifts, he gives you special abilities that are yours by the spirit, but he gives you for what he gives you these for what reason?

To serve, to specifically to build up the church, to build up the body.

And there's so many of us that that we are actually not accessing the power that's available to us because we're not utilizing it the way that God calls us to utilize it.

And you say, Amen, like you're made to be a servant.

And if you're in it, and if you're in Christ, then then you have the spirit, the spirit of a servant, our servant king, our servant Lord, who made us to serve one another, to put to put other people's needs ahead of our own.

And that doesn't just mean on a Sunday, on a Sunday gathering, that just means a lifestyle of servanthood where you place the needs of others above your own.

That's what he writes in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

He says, he says to humble yourself like Christ.

And what did Christ do?

He place your needs above his own comfort and convenience when he went to the cross.

And he's saying, that's the same spirit that he wants to give you, where you begin to leverage your life for the good of others, where you begin to put yourself into a community.

And so say, man, is God wanting to build something and do something here?

Well, how can what I have and what he's done in me and what he's gifted me with, how can I throw that in the pot, begin to leverage that for the sake of what he's doing?

You're made to serve, gifted by the Spirit to build the body.

And so so often we we actually leverage what God has given for the sake of him and his church, and we use it for our own personal agenda.

We use a we use a God ordained and God given power for the sake of man made agenda.

And we actually end up defiling the gift that he gave.

And then, fifth, we need power for mission.

We need power for mission.

You know, there's there's once again, I think we're In a moment where a lot of people who walk with Jesus and are in the church, like if I were to ask you, hey, like, how can someone become a follower of Jesus?

That you would probably be able to give me a solid, a solid answer.

It may all sound different, but you could probably do it.

And yet, and yet, evangelism, like going out and sharing your faith with people in the world, in your neighborhood, in your network, in your job, in your family.

If I start talking about that, all of a sudden you begin to go, I don't know who Jesus is.

I don't know how you get to him.

I don't know what any of this means.

All of a sudden, you don't, you have nothing to offer.

Why?

Because you're afraid.

You're afraid.

And what do you need?

You need power that is greater than your fear, that leads you to walk out in love, to love people who are difficult to love.

Some of y'all need to say, Amen.

Like you got some people in your life that you need love to be able to love well because you're trying to, you're trying to love them in your flesh and you ain't got enough love for that.

And so you need love.

You need compassion, you need boldness, and you need power for engaging culture and reaching the lost.

Sometimes this can be harder with family than it is for the random person on the street.

And and man, when you look at the New Testament, there's a lot of these people who put their faith and trust in Jesus, and because they came from a Jewish background or they came from a Greek idol worshiping background, what did they do?

They lost their family.

And like there's so many of us that man, we want to we want to be faithful to Jesus up to a point until it becomes time for to have to have hard conversations.

I mean, this isn't, the goal isn't to experience separation or to experience, but it is saying, Man, my love should drive me to invite and call people to life and to love them in the face of really difficult seasons and circumstances, to show up for them, to pray for them.

There's so many of us, man, we need power for mission because God's called you to make a difference and live a life of purpose.

And yet, when it comes down to it, you don't or you can't because you feel like you don't have the resources you need.

And so when Paul is writing here in Ephesians chapter one, and he begins to talk about this power, he points us back to a few different things that we need to look at.

Because once again, if we to kind of remind ourselves where we're coming from, you know, according to last week and what he's been trying to do throughout this whole whole letter is he's trying to get you to see what is yours in Christ.

Last week we talked about how he's how the prayer that he's praying is that is that the spirit of wisdom and revelation would open or enlighten the eyes of your heart that you could see, that you could actually see and know and believe and take hold of what is yours in Christ.

Because some of you, you are in Christ, and yet you do not see and have not yet taken hold of all that is yours in Christ.

And it's there for you.

But you don't know how to access it, or you don't see it, or you don't live in light of it.

We walk ignorant of it.

And what Paul is trying to do is he's trying to say, look, this power is yours, and let me tell you where it's coming from.

And that's what brings us to this passage in Ephesians chapter one.

We're gonna start in verse 19.

And once again, he's he's saying, Man, I want you to see, and I want you to know, and he uses this phrase, his uncomparably great power for us who believe.

His incomparably great power for us who believe.

So he's saying, he's saying, man, one of the things I want you to know is God's power for you, for the believer.

If you believe in Jesus, this is his power and it's for you.

And you go, man, I want that power.

I need that power.

So we've been talking about is I need that power.

I need those resources.

I need, I need what is mine in Christ.

He's saying, man, it's for you.

And you're going, okay, how do I access that?

How do I get that?

How do I get Jesus' secret stuff?

How do I get the spirit?

How do I get this the power and the resource of the spirit to begin to actually have dominion in my life?

And he says, He says, Look, look, man, you can know that this power is for you because it's rooted in these three things.

First and foremost, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

He's saying, He's saying, This incomparably great power is for us who believe, and that power is the same as the mighty strength that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.

And so he's saying, He's saying, look, you have evidence of this.

You don't have to wonder or be curious if this power is actually available because there's a historical moment, a fact, a reality that you can look back on and say, I know that power is available because he exerted it.

He exercised it when he raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

That is my proof and my evidence.

That is what I look back on to know that this is available to me and it gives me hope for the future, to know that I have these resources because it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

And he's saying, This is yours.

This is yours.

And he roots it, he roots it in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead because there is a great enemy that all of us have to face, and that enemy is death.

An enemy is death.

Dinesh D'Souza once wrote, Is death the end or is there something more?

Because there's two options when we die.

Either we die and nothing happens, or we die and something happens.

It's a great debate.

And D'Souza says, Is death the end or is there something more?

This is the great question.

This is the ultimate question.

It's been the defining issue for entire cultures, from ancient Egyptians to the present.

In truth, there is no more important question that any of us will face.

It is the issue that makes every other issue trivial.

If you have doubts about its significance, go to a hospital or a funeral or talk to a parent who has recently lost a child.

You will discover very quickly the apparent normalcy of everyday life is a sham.

Death is the great wrecking ball that destroys everything.

And Paul's looking at this church who's enduring.

And he's saying, There's a power available to you, and you know it's yours because Christ has resurrected, he has defeated, he has walked through the one enemy that you cannot get through.

And he's saying, That same power is available to you.

Listen, man, I've I've been in the hospital rooms, I've been by the gravesides, it comes, it comes with the gig.

I I have I have kneeled by the bed of a two-year-old boy whose body was filled with tumors, and I looked in the eyes of his parents who were really good who are really good friends of mine.

And I saw that look.

And I and I felt it then, but I felt it a lot different when I had a two-year-old boy.

I've prayed over the mom of two kids who was days away from losing her battle with cancer.

I recently went to the funeral of a really good friend of mine who I went to college with and was in a Bible study with who lost his battle with cancer.

I've been in the rooms and doctors say that there's nothing more that they can do.

I've seen chemo and radiation take their toll on people.

I've seen surprise death hit an otherwise joyful family in the face.

I've performed the funeral of an elderly lady who lived a long life, and I've performed the funeral of a baby who never got a shot at life.

And all of them, all of them are filled with grief.

Why?

Because death is the great wrecking ball that destroys everything.

It is a tragedy to look death in the face.

And death shakes us and exposes our deepest and biggest questions about life and faith.

And we need resources and power beyond our human limitations to be able to face death.

And what Paul says is this Jesus conquered over death.

And he offers us.

The reason Jesus is able to offer eternal life is because he's conquered over death.

He's conquered over the very thing that threatens eternal life.

And he says, I'm now able to offer you life because I've conquered the thing that takes away from life.

The enemy came to bring death and destruction, but Jesus has come to give life and life to the full.

And he's saying, I'm able to offer that.

You're able to have that power and those resources because I have dealt with that great wrecking ball, that great enemy.

And he's saying, You can have power, and you know that this power is real because Jesus has shown his power.

He exerted his mighty strength when he raised from the dead.

But then he didn't stop there.

Paul goes on and he says, He said he exerted this strength when he raised Christ from the dead.

And then he said, and then he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion in every name that is invoked, not only in the present, but also in the age to come.

And so the second thing he says is that the enthronement of Jesus over evil.

When you see him talk about, when you see him talk about the powers and the principalities, they're always talking about both spiritual evil, but also forces of evil that step into the human story in our everyday lives.

In Philippians chapter 2, Paul writes, he says, Therefore God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Once again, talking about those powers.

And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In Colossians chapter 2, he says, Jesus forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He's taken away, nailing it to the cross.

And then what did he do?

He disarmed the powers and authorities, and he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.

He's saying Jesus has conquered over these evils, and he's been enthroned and seated above all of these principalities and powers and darkness.

Why is this important as he's writing to this church?

Because once again, Acts chapter 19, we see this church being birthed in the midst of one of the one of the great Greek idolatrous cultures.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And there's all of these forms of worship, and there's a darkness that's in this community, in this city.

And they're sitting there and they're going, Do we have the strength to endure this darkness?

And he says, Yes, you do.

Why?

Because Christ is enthroned and seated above them all.

And so for those of us, man, this is this is why when whenever, man, I've I've I've been in Haiti where they practice black magic, and I've and I've I've walked in those streets, and there's an amazing and beautiful thing that you're able to do when you stand there and you know you're filled with the Spirit and you know Christ is seated and enthroned above all the evil darkness and powers and demonic forces, is I'm able to stand there and know what?

I'm good.

I'm good.

And the beauty of this is why is this important for the apostles in the local church of that day?

Because they are encountering people who are not good in the face of demonic forces.

But what do they have?

The power to free and liberate those people.

Because this is the reality is that when we preach and proclaim here, what are we preaching to?

We're preaching, we're preaching the demise.

We're not just preaching to you, we're not just preaching for the sake of the Lord, we're not just preaching to our spirits and our souls, we're also preaching to the to the principalities of darkness and demonic forces to say you are not in control and you're not winning.

And it and what does it do?

It encourages your soul, but it also further, further just solidifies and preaches to them to know, hey, we know your demise because Jesus has shown us.

There's so many of us we walk around with a weakness and an insecurity because we don't know or realize or taken hold of, we haven't been enlightened that Jesus is seated and enthroned over evil.

So you fear evil.

No, we should be aware of evil, but we should not live in fear because he's enthroned.

And you may look at this and you go, okay, so why?

If Jesus is enthroned over evil, why is there evil?

And the beauty of what the scriptures teach is that is that Jesus has dealt with evil, and yet one day he will display his enthronement over evil.

So we can know he has dealt with evil already, but then in the coming ages, he will display his enthronement over evil.

What's he talking about when Jesus returns and absolutely wipes away evil, death, sin, and darkness.

And he's gonna wipe it away, and we're and now our faith is gonna be made sight when we see Jesus enthroned over all evil and it wiped away and dealt with.

So what we need to know is that evil cannot thwart or overturn God's purposes and promises.

Can't.

Like if you're in Christ, God's purposes and promises for you cannot be thwarted by evil.

It cannot separate you from God's love.

They cannot stop the expansion of God's kingdom.

God's kingdom becoming all in all, what he what he writes about, that he is everything for all things for all time.

That is an inevitability.

God's kingdom is going to become the fullness.

One day his glory will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas.

That's inevitable.

They cannot determine the outcome of history.

God, Jesus is enthroned over all of human history.

And they cannot escape their inevitable judgment when Jesus will return and wipe it all out.

And so, why does God tolerate evil and suffering?

The scriptures speak to this.

Peter writes to the persecuted church, who once again is feeling this tension.

You're telling me that Jesus is enthroned over all of evil and yet I'm experiencing suffering.

You say he's died for me, you say I'm in him, you say I have his power, you say he's my Lord, you say he's looking out for me, he loves me, he's taking care of me.

Why am I experiencing this?

You ever prayed that?

And Peter says, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise.

Some of you go, man, he's so slow.

He's like, he's not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

What is he?

He's patient.

Why is he patient?

Because he doesn't want anyone to perish, but he wants everyone to come to repentance.

What's he giving time for?

For the church to expand the kingdom of heaven on earth, to increasingly liberate people, to see them saved, to see them become all that God longs for them to come, become, so that they can be in him and experience the same thing that you've experienced, so that they don't then go to a death and a darkness and an eternity that is separated from God, but can actually experience salvation in him and life in him.

Why is he patient?

Because people need him.

That's why he's patient.

Because you need him.

Why did God not deal with you as quickly as he should have dealt with you when you were running away from him, walking away from him, treating people the way that he calls us not to treat them?

Pursuing a way of life that he doesn't call you to pursue.

Why was he so patient for you with you?

Because he desired that you should not perish but come to repentance.

Why is he being so patient with that person that just, man, you're like, if he don't do it, I'm gonna do it.

Why is he being so patient?

Because he longs that that person would not perish but come to repentance.

He's patient.

He's saying, Man, as you face darkness and evil, as you're attacked by darkness and evil, you can rest confident that he is seated and enthroned over all of it.

And the last thing Paul points us to, so that we can see, so that our hearts can be enlightened, is the headship of Jesus over the church.

So he says God placed all things under his feet, Jesus' feet, and he appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, but the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

That Jesus has been placed as head over the church.

And what does he say?

He says he's head over everything for for the church.

For the church.

And he's saying, he's saying, look, Christ is seated over all of evil.

He's seated over all of human history.

And you need to know he's also head over you, the church.

And how is he exerting this power in his dominion?

He's exerting it for you.

I'm doing this for you.

How am I gonna leverage my power?

I'm gonna leverage it for you.

That Christ is saying, I'm going to build my church and I'm gonna make sure that my church is gonna be victorious at the end of the day because I am leveraging all of my power and all of human history for the sake of the mission through the church.

And so as we take all of our resources and we take all of our gifting and we take, we take all of our life, we align it with Him, we pour it into the mission of Jesus.

As we do that, what are we doing?

We're investing in that which will not fail.

It won't fail.

There's so many other things that we invest our lives in that we distract ourselves with, that we pour so much time, energy, and effort in, and it will burn at the end of the day.

Like it won't endure.

But he's saying, look, when you invest your life in that which is mine, going where I'm going, doing what I'm doing, it will last.

It will last.

And he's saying, and you can trust because I'm leveraging all of my power for the sake of the church.

So what does he mean when he talks about the headship of Jesus over the church?

It really means three things.

One, that Christ is head over the church, meaning it's his, he's the authority.

And so our responsibility here, this isn't, this, this, if you look at an org chart, it's not, it's not me here and this is and this is mine.

No, he goes, look, no, no.

Jesus, Jesus rules the church.

And then his people are the church.

And he's saying, the church is mine.

And so the responsibility of those who lead in local congregations, what is it?

To have their own vision, to have their own strategy, to be as creative as they possibly can be?

No, to do whatever's gonna statistically work and bring the most forward.

No, it's to get God's heart and God's vision and to exercise that in the everyday life.

He's going, no, I got to get Christ's heart, I got to get Christ's vision, I got to get Christ's agenda, and we've got to lead and put our lives in alignment with him and his mission and his purpose and his agenda.

And he says, if you do that, all my power and all my resources are at your disposal.

Because I know that you're aiming for what I'm aiming for.

And guess what?

That makes me really want to support that.

So he tells the king Asa, he says, in 2 Chronicles 16, he says, he says, Don't you realize, Asa, that my eyes are wandering all over the earth and I'm looking for, I'm looking for people that I can give my strength to.

He's saying, like, do you understand that that's my posture?

I'm looking because I'm wanting to give my strength to you.

But what does he say?

He says, You got to get your life in alignment with me.

He says, I can't, I'm not gonna give you power to do something that I'm not doing.

I'm gonna give you power when you're going where I'm going and doing what I'm doing.

Christ is head over the church, is his.

Second, Christ is head over all things for the church.

He's doing it for us, doing it for you.

When he talks about the church, is he talking about, is he talking about this, the the branding of this church or that church down the right?

No, he's talking about his bride, all of those who belong to him are and are in him.

And so the beauty of this is that we are united and aligned with those who are reading the scriptures and praying for one another under the cover of darkness in persecuted spaces and places.

He's saying, No, man, I'm I'm for them just like I'm for you.

I'm working for them.

I'm leveraging my power for them, I'm helping them, and I'm I'm helping you.

He's going, Man, I'm doing this for my church, for all those that belong to me, who I'm gonna come back for when I return.

And then lastly, Christ is the source of life and power in the church.

And so he's the authority, he's the work, he's the power, but he's also the source of life and power.

And so, when why do we gather?

Why do we do this?

Why do we pray and ask?

Because if anything, if anything real is going to happen here, not just hype, not just experience, not just emotion, if anything real is going to happen here, it's gonna have to happen through him.

He's gonna have to pour out his spirit, he's gonna have to show up and move.

Why?

Because the source of the life and the power that we long for and that we need, he is the source of that.

It's not some ethereal different thing.

It's not some do this and you get this, it's not some vending machine.

He is the source, and so we're attached to him.

There's so many of us we want the power of God, but we don't stay, we don't abide in the vine.

You don't stay attached to Jesus, and yet you want the resources of Jesus.

And he's saying, No, you if you want what's mine, you be attached to me.

You stay with me, you abide in me, you get with me, you you you do everything that you can to stay with me, and you get rid of everything that threatens you staying with me.

Why?

Because he's the source, he's the source.

And so, man, ultimately, as we land, here's here's where we want to land is that this is the life that you're made for.

I want you to hear this is what Paul's trying to get you to see.

He's trying to try to say, I need you to open your eyes.

I want the eyes of your heart to be enlightened.

Why?

Because he's saying, This is what you're made for.

Like this is what you're made for.

Hey, hey, Church of Ephesus that's enduring suffering, this is what you're made for.

Hey, Christian who's tired and weary, this is what you're made for.

The one whose back's against the wall, and you're desperate for that which is beyond your limitations.

Say, man, this is what you're made for.

Is that you're you're not made for a life where you're just dragging yourself through, limping through life, but you're you're meant to live a life of power and impact.

See, like this is what you're made for, and somewhere along the line, when the church began to you know, we began to value things and talk about authenticity and vulnerability.

Big fan of authenticity and vulnerability, but what we began.

To do is we begin to actually see more validity in a life of brokenness and despair than we did beginning to see a life of power and transformation.

And if we're walking with Christ, if we're abiding in Him, we're meant to have a life that increases in transformation and power.

While maintaining a humility, knowing that it's despite our weakness and brokenness that he uses us.

And it's like, you know, so many communities and groups, you begin, if you step in and you go, man, how's everybody doing?

What immediately happens?

Well, you know, I just don't, I just don't know if I can do it anymore.

And man, that man, there are gonna be seasons of our lives where we're gonna feel that.

That's not meant to be the culture of our lives.

And it doesn't mean we begin to paint some kind of facade.

You know, it's been really, hey, but he's good.

You know, we begin to spiritually bypass.

But it's that even in the midst of this, in the face of this, the source of my power is enthroned above it all.

And yet his heart is for me, his power is towards me, his hand is outreached to me.

And man, I'm rooted in that.

And my hope is in that.

And then as a community, we wrap our arms around one another and we begin to encourage one another, literally to put courage into the hearts of one another, to say, get your eyes off of that and get your eyes here.

Get your eyes up.

May the eyes of your heart be enlightened to see and to know that he's he's been raised from the dead.

There was once um, there was one theologian, he was, he was once asked, are you an optimist or a pessimist?

He said, I'm neither.

Christ is risen from the dead.

He's enthroned over all evil.

We don't have to fear.

And he is head over the church, his mission will be fulfilled.

And there's nothing better to dedicate your life to than the mission and agenda of Jesus.

And so, man, as we move into a time of response, here's here's ultimately what we're saying is like, you gotta get your eyes up.

And you need to know.

This is what Paul's saying.

He's like, you need to know these things.

And so, for some of you, what do you what do you need?

What how do we know these things?

We preach these things to ourselves.

Like you need to get your eyes on these things every single day.

Some of you need to read Ephesians 1 every single day and get your eyes on these things and to know these things and to get them into your heart, to know them, to believe them.

You need to start to live a life of surrender to Jesus, to actually begin to devote yourself to him.

There's so many of you want the resources of Jesus, but you don't devote yourself to Jesus.

You want to abide in him.

And then lastly, this is the beautiful thing that's what we're moving into right now, is in Luke chapter 11, Jesus says, Ask for it.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Ask for it.

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give what?

The Holy Spirit.

Give who?

The Holy Spirit to those who what?

Ask.

Ask.

Some of you don't have power because you don't ask.

And you don't ask because you don't believe.

You say, man, you got to get your eyes on this, you gotta start to believe this, so that you begin to ask for this and you begin to live a life of power, of hope, of resilience, of holiness, of mission.

So, Holy Spirit, we just invite you to come to move.

Lord, every single one of our hearts needs to be enlightened.

We need to see.

There's so many of us, we have really great theology, we've been in church for as long as we can possibly remember, and yet we don't see, and we don't live in light of what we see.

We're not enlightened anymore.

We've forgotten, or we're not living in light of these things.

We walk around like our feet are stuck in concrete.

And you call us to a life of buoyancy with the fruit of the spirit that is joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Those are the fruit of your spirit that has filled us and indwelled us, and our life is meant to embody that, to look like that increasingly more.

And so many of us, that's not what our lives look like.

And it's not because we don't know you, it's not because you're not for us, it's because it's because we've lost, we've lost access to that which is the source.

We've stopped asking, we've stopped believing, we've stopped abiding.

And Lord, this is an opportunity and invitation to attach ourselves to the vine, to the one who is the source, to the one who is, who has raised from the dead, who has conquered the great enemy of death, the one who is enthroned over all of evil and all of all of over all of human history, and the one who is the head of the church, who is leveraging his power for the sake of his mission, for the good of his saints.

And so, Lord, may we believe, may we ask.

Right now, may we receive, may you pour out your spirit, may we receive the resources of heaven.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We got our prayer team up here.

If you need prayer, you can respond in worship.

You can stand, you can sit, however, you feel called right here, right now.

Listen.