The Power at Work in You

Well, good morning. Morning. It is a pleasure, it's an honor to be here with you. Uh, I have been praying for you, uh, fervently over the last few months, and I've just been, uh, it's a pleasure to be here with you. If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Ephesians. We'll be at the book of Ephesians chapter 1. Again, I, I have been praying for you.

We at Sovereign King Church have been praying for you. We've known some of the difficulties, the difficult, painful season you've gone through. I'm friends with your previous pastor, and I'm friends with your elders, and friends with many of you here, and have seen the hurt that all the sides have gone through. And one of the things I've really appreciated is the faithfulness of your, your elders to do what they believe is right, what, what was right before God, to make difficult decisions.

And so you've been in my prayers. And so as I've been praying, I've been praying about what to preach. And, well, I'm praying, I'm praying for you, praying about what to preach, and I'm like, well, let's preach about praying. And so I keep coming back to the book of Ephesians. I'm we're, I'm preaching through the book of Ephesians at my church, and sometimes when you're preaching, people really need to be convicted of their sins.

They need a prophetic word of rebuke or exhortation and, and shown the depth of their depravity, and they need to repent. Sometimes when we're preaching, we have to dig into the deep of the commands of God and make it very practical and applicable. But there, there are other times, and I think today is one of those times when we just need to sit and hear God loves us.

So I-I'm Presbyterian, but I grew up Baptist, so you're getting a great old Baptist sermon, Jesus loves you. So we're preaching through Ephesians 1 at my church, and, and, and, and Ephesians 1, Paul shares his love for the church, and he shares what God he, in fact, he breaks out into prayer, and then after he prays, he tells them what he prayed about. You know, sometimes, especially during a difficult season, we can spend a great deal of time thinking, we can spend a great deal talking, planning, worrying, and then we forget to pray.

We become so focused on what has happened, what needs to happen next, that we can lose sight of what God has promised us. But prayer has this, uh, uh, power. It lifts our eyes up, and it reminds us that the church belongs to Jesus Christ, and that h-his power towards his people is not diminished. You know, it's easy to lose heart when we look around us too, right?

So not just even in our own lives, we look around at the church, you know, you have probably heard people say this, I don't need to go to church to be spiritual. Anybody ever heard that? I can stay at home with my Bible and pray. I don't need to go into a building filled with hypocrites. Or maybe you've know the person who bounced from church to church.

They start off super excited at a church, right? And new place, they finally found the place, and they're telling everybody this is the place, and then like 3 months in, something happens, and suddenly it's not the place anymore. Like they, they, uh, they didn't get their toes stepped on, or someone didn't reach out to them at the time that they thought they should be reached out to, and so this is not where they're supposed to be anymore, and they need to move on to greener pastures where, where that new place will really be the place.

So you've seen that. That's disheartening. We also see sometimes there's some really atrocious institutions calling themselves churches. You don't have to look hard to find teachers and preachers proclaiming some very idiotic things. Right, right next to our church building is a Presbyterian church with a drag queen for a youth pastor. Pink haired feminists as preachers, right? You've seen that. Or Rolex wearing, diamond ring wearing, kiss stealing, willy and a dilling, limousine riding, jet flying shysters.

Is that a professional wrestler, Ric Flair, or is that a pastor? No, that's a pastor saying you can get rich. Sometimes it might be effeminate seminarians in churches who tell you to hate your fathers, or obese bump-country bumpkins saying if the King James was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for me, and therefore pledge allegiance to the Israeli flag and Calvinism is wrong. So we know the church in America is in desperate need of revival.

Times can look and feel pretty tough. The church can look weak, and even in a good church, and you guys have experienced this, you know this, there's problems. Good churches are filled with people who sin, who still fail, still misunderstand one another, still need to grow. In fact, no matter where you grow, you go, you're going to find a hypocrite in the church. You know why? Because when you got up and you looked in the mirror today, voila.

There you are. You're going to find conflict in churches. We're going to find immaturity, personal differences, disappointments. The church often appears weak and divided and compromised, but here's the truth, one of the truths I want you to see in this prayer that we're getting ready to read is that Jesus Christ is risen and he is reigning, and he has all authority in heaven and earth, and the same power at work in him which raised him from the dead is at work for the good of his church, and it's in work in you.

Now, sometimes we can end up asking ourselves, where's that power at? And again, this is not all just the problems out there, right? We go through difficult seasons personally or as a local church, and we start again thinking, what happened? What happens next? Who's going to preach now? Who's, who's going to lead? How long is this thing going to last? When is it going to get back to normal?

I'm sure you're asking those questions. They're understandable questions, and some of them need to be answered. But in the middle of all this, it's very easy for us to forget Jesus is king, and then we forget to pray. And sometimes we don't even know what to pray. The greatest need that you have, Clearnote Church, is not to have every question answered about your situation and the thing going on right now.

Your greatest need is to know that God is working in you by the Holy Spirit. Your greatest need today is not the plan for the next pastor or how we get through this. Your greatest need is to know that God comforts the hurting. He strengthens the weary, and he gives wisdom to his church. So, uh, I want to say, I'm trying to convey all this to you.

This is my introduction. It's a long-winded introduction, by the way, but, uh, I can't promise you there won't be more difficult days ahead, but what I do want to promise you in this sermon is that God is not against you, he is for you. He loves you, and his power has not been diminished, and I want you to pray for that. I want that to be your prayer, that God would open your eyes to see this, and that's my prayer for you, and actually that's the prayer that the Apostle Paul prays for the church.

So let's go ahead and dive into the text, and let's look at it. So before we read it, here's the big idea, just so you get this in your head. During this season, which I'm sure is unsettling, pray, pray for your church that God would open your eyes to see that he has not changed, your calling is secure, and you are precious to God, and his power is at work in you.

That's the big idea. So we're going to read Ephesians chapter 1, 15 through 23. You have the tradition here of standing, so please stand with me as we read. In my church, before we read, I say, this is the word of God. It is eternally true and applicable for all of life. So... For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe. These are in accordance with the work, the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Would you join me as we pray for the preaching of God's word? Heavenly Father, I pray you would give me wisdom, boldness, confidence, most importantly, the power of the Holy Spirit would be in my words as I preach.

Strengthen and comfort your people. Open their eyes to see what you have done for them and what is theirs in Jesus. And may they leave here with greater confidence in your love, your promises, and your power. Bless us now as we come into your word, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You can be seated. Let me just say I love hearing the cries. It just takes me back to my church, and so we don't feel so strange and weird, see, because that's all you hear at our church.

So, how can I pray for you? That's a good question to ask somebody. In fact, this is your homework for today. You get homework at church. So as soon as church is over, I want you to find somebody in the congregation and ask how can you pray for them? How can I pray for you? And when you know, when you ask somebody that question, what do you usually get?

You get all kinds of answers. You get, uh, well, there's an illness in the family, there was a death in the family, upcoming doctor's appointment, uh, a broken arm, situation with their boss at work, or some other pressing need. You know, sometimes when you ask some people that question, it catches them off guard, and they start looking through their mind to find the doctor's appointment or all the stuff, right?

They're trying to find the things that you know you're supposed to pray for. And these are all good kinds of things that we should pray for. And when you ask somebody, if they ask you, they tell you that, pray for them. But you know, sometimes we don't really know the true things, the serious things, the even deeper things that we ought to be praying for. And the scriptures teach us.

There are areas of prayer that we often neglect. We don't even know to pray about. Of course, having said that, this assumes that we are praying, a praying people. The Apostle Paul is a man of prayer. In fact, he mentions prayer often in his writings. In fact, he writes to the Ephesians, tells them his name, tells them who they are, and he immediately busts out in a prayer.

If you go back to the previous verse, he is a man of prayer. And now, here's a strange thing about me. I'm weird. And one of the weird things about me is when I thought about the disciples praying, I'm like, well, they don't need to pray. Now, you might, I just saw the weird look. What my thought was, they've got the Holy Spirit working them. They're doing miracles.

They've talked to Jesus. Like, like if anybody needs to pray, it's me. Why would they need... And then, then I started to be like, I'm stupid, right? So they pr-they are walking by the power of the Holy Spirit. They do have a relationship with Jesus. Oh, and that's because they pray. Right? That's why they pray. They pray. And so the Apostle Paul prays. And if you want to know the power of God, you need to be a praying people.

So after his initial greeting in this book, the Apostle Paul bursts into prayer, praises God, and he praises God for what he has done for his people. God has blessed us, the Apostle Paul says, blessed past tense us with every spiritual blessing. And he chose us before time began to be adopted as his sons, and he redeemed us in time through the blood of Jesus, and he gave us inheritance, and he gave us a down payment on that inheritance, which is the Holy Spirit.

This is the Apostle Paul's prayer that he led with, and then when he gets done with that, he tells him, I'm, I'm praying for you. And that's when he starts in verse 15. He turns from praising God to telling him how he prayed. And so, if you want to know how to pray for somebody, even though you don't have even talked to them, this is a good way.

So what does he do then? Let's break this down. What's his prayer for them? Well, first of all, Paul gives thanks for the work of God in these Christians. Paul says he does not cease giving thanks for these saints. So start there. If you want to know how to pray for your church, you want to know how to pray for the church in America because you see it's weak, or you you think it's weak, it's actually not.

God's with it, but you see the problems and you want to know how to pray. If you want to know how to pray for an individual, brother and sister, start not with requests, start here, give thanks, give thanks. First of all, Paul gives thanks for the work of God in these Christians. Again, give thanks. You know, we often pray for people when something's wrong, don't we? Like when they're sick, they're struggling, they're grieving.

But you know, you can pray for people when things are going good too, right? In fact, maybe that's even more so to be praying. Paul teaches us to pray for people when something is right. And guess what? Even when you're sick, even if you're dying, if you're in Christ, something's right. And so you could be praying for that. When you see the grace of God at work in someone else, stop and thank God for that work.

The work of God in election, predestination, redemption, adoption, salvation, all of it's glorious, and it's meant to move us to praise and thanksgiving. In fact, if you go in your, if you have your Bible open and you go back to that first part of the Ephesians, I want you, you'll see how many times the Apostle Paul uses this phrase. He says, to the praise of his glory, which is, that's one of the reasons you were saved, to the praise of his glory, maybe the primary reason, that God would get the glory.

And so when you think about what God has done in others, you give praise, you give praise, give thanks for the church. And before you write down all the wrongs, lift up your church to God and do it often. Do it often. The Paul says he does not cease giving thanks. You know, there is much to be thankful for your church and your brothers and sisters. The moment you cease giving thanks, though, I'll tell you this, is the moment you will find bitterness in your hearts beginning to grow.

That's when you become the guy that writes the 50-page letter about all the wrongs in the church. I-ask me about how I know about 50-page letter, because I'm an idiot. But... pray thankfulness and then give-give-give thanks specifically. The Apostle Paul says he mentions them in his prayers. He's particular. The Apostle Paul, in fact, he spent years laboring in this city that he's talking to, and now it's been 7 years, but he's still praying for them.

I'm sure he's mentioning them by name. So don't be generic in your prayers. Pray for people by name. Pray for those people specifically. And here's one, pray for those people you are in conflict with specifically. Okay, okay, but how do I give thanks for them? Well, Paul gives thanks because these people heard the gospel and they believed. He heard of their faith in Jesus and their love for all the saints.

Paul isn't giving thanks merely because he gives along with somebody. Oh, I get along with that person, I give thanks. No, he's praying thankfulness because of the evidence of God's work. So when you see faith in somebody, thank God for it. When you see someone grow in obedience, thank God. When you see someone loving the saints, praise God. And when you struggle with someone to see eye to eye, when they've offended you, look for the grace of God in them.

Is there grace of God in them? Now, in order to do that, sometimes you have to set aside the offense and put that away from you and ask God to help you to see the fruit of his work in that person. Maybe that person's immature, but do you see any work of grace in their life? Then give praise to God. It is very difficult to remain bitter at someone while you are giving thanks for them.

It's difficult to remain suspicious of everyone when you're deliberately looking for evidence of God's work in them. We are not meant to be fruit inspectors. I've heard that said a million times in churches. Yes, we can know a tree by its fruit, but we're not meant to be with a magnifying glass in everybody's life. We can see fruit, and then we give praise for it, but we're not meant to be nitpicking people to death.

And if you give thanks for people, you won't be suspicious. Of course, that doesn't mean we ignore sin, obviously, but you should notice grace. And so, let me just do this. Whenever I think about Clearnote Church, I give thanks. There's a lot to give thanks for here. I'm thankful for the way that your elders have remained faithful during this season. Are you thankful for that? I'm thankful for elders who have carried heavy responsibility and painfulness, even what felt to some of them like losing a best friend.

I'm thankful for men like John Klug, who patiently but firmly stood firm and lost his job because he wouldn't call a man a woman or a girl a boy. And he wasn't loud and braggadocio about it, and he didn't have like a, a, a face page, Facebook page created just for this to tell everybody about, but his boldness has been an encouragement. Has it been an encouragement to you?

Good. I'm thankful for men like Daniel Myers. Where's he at? We've gone street preaching at gay pride events, and Daniel has corrected me at different times and, and, and through the work of the presbytery. Very thankful. Thankful for Dan George and seeing him work with his son through the, the accident and seeing his son today and talking with him is such a blessing. I'm thankful for Tim Dukeman and for the work God has done in his life through the men at this church.

I'm gonna tell a story about Tim, so if it's okay. Uh, Tim visited our church before he ever came here, and uh, we were very small. We didn't know how to do everything, and Tim knew that we didn't know how to do everything. You know how I know Tim knew we didn't know how to do everything? After the service, he pulled me aside and gave me a list of all the things that we did wrong.

You can't believe he would do something like that. But I've seen him mature since coming here, and I know there's been conflict and things, but I have seen him mature, and it's good. Praise God for that. Huh? It was a short list. Thank you. I'm thankful for calls with Martin, and so I could just go on and on. If I didn't mention your name, it's not because I'm not thankful.

Some of you I don't know, but I'm still thankful to see your smiling face. These are just a few things. You know, there are great many evidences of God work among you, and he is good. Don't ever forget that. So if you want to know how to start praying, start with thanksgiving. But then let's move on. Because secondly, Paul prays for God to show them his continuing work in the life of the church.

Paul asks God to continue working in the people for whom he's thankful. This is what he says in verse 17 through 19. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe.

This is actually prayer is thoroughly Trinitarian. He's praying to the Father of who? The Lord Jesus Christ. When you see the word Lord there, that's a reference to Jesus's divinity. The word Christ is not his last name, that's actually a reference to his humanity as the Messiah. So we have the Lord, the God-man Jesus, and then we have the Father, and then we have to pray for the Holy Spirit to work.

Fully Trinitarian there working. We, that's what we pray. We pray to the Father through the name of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what does he pray? That God would give them a spirit of wisdom, of revelation in the knowledge of him, to enlighten the eyes of their hearts. Now these Christians already had the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul told them as such, it was the down payment.

The Holy Spirit is a down payment of our inheritance. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise. So he's not praying that unbelievers would receive the Spirit for the first time. Rather, he's praying that the Holy Spirit who was already in them would dwell within them and work within them for greater wisdom, illumination, and understanding. You know what, brothers and sisters, we should not be afraid to pray for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Reformed Christians, like, we're Reformed, right? So we get squeamish when we talk about the Holy Spirit. That's partly because there's been serious abuses and all that stuff. But let me tell you, abuses should not lead you into another ditch. God is not stopped working among his people, and you do not need to be afraid to ask for the Holy Spirit to work in you. This is what Clearnote Church needs.

You do not merely need me to tell you that Jesus reigns. You need the Holy Spirit to help you see it, believe it, rest in it, and live in light of it. You and I both need God to give us great confidence in his work for us. And so the Apostle Paul prays that this is what God would do. Give them a spirit of revelation. Now, not a new revelation, something they could add to the scriptures.

Paul's not asking for new doctrines to be given. He's asking for the Holy Spirit to open their eyes to the revelation that they have so they would understand, believe, and experience the truth. Now, what does he pray that this spirit of revelation, a spirit of wisdom, this enlightenment would do? He prays 3 things. He prays that this Holy Spirit will work in their hearts to know 3 things, and this is what I want you to know today.

First, they will know the hope of God's calling. Now, the hope of God's calling. What does it mean by hope? Well, we might say, I hope to be an NBA basketball player, and you might look at me and say, well, keep wishing, Alice, right? Because there's no real confidence when I say that. That's not what the future holds. Wishful thinking. The hope Paul is talking about is not that kind of hope.

He's talking about the Christian hope which rests upon what God has already done in Christ and what he promises he will yet do. It's not saying, well, I hope everything's going to work out. No, it's a confident expectation that God will fulfill every promise he has made to his people. And the Apostle Paul wants the church in Ephesus to know this, and he wants you to know this.

There's a confident expectation that God keeps his promises, brothers and sisters, and I want you to know it. And God's called you for that. His calling creates hope. He called you out of darkness, out of guilt, out of slavery to sin, and he called you into fellowship with his son. And he gave you a purpose, which is to be holy and blameless before him. Brothers and sisters, your sins are forgiven.

That's a great hope. Christ has risen. Death has been defeated, and God will preserve his people. Christ will return, and our bodies will be raised. We will see God, and we will dwell with him forever. That is a hope that we ought to live by. You know, we live in a dark world, a dark world, a world that can make you feel the despair, but I want you to know this, you don't live in a hopeless world.

You don't live in a hopeless world. You live with the hope that God will make you what he has called you to be, one of his children, holy and blameless before him. And so Paul prays that these saints will know that no matter what struggles or face, temptations that come their way, God will accomplish that. And that's my prayer for you. You know, one of the things we do well in Evangelical Presbyterian is we speak plainly about sin.

Praise God for that. We know how to call men to repentance. That's good and necessary. But you know one area where I think we need to grow in is learning to rest more fully in the assurance that God has called me his child. Brothers, you have hope, and it's not because you've done enough good deeds. It's not because you've made every right decision, you've handled every problem and every trial perfectly.

No, if your hope was in that, forget it. You have hope because God has called you his own. That's amazing. The God of the universe calls me his own. And that leads us to the very next thing Paul says he wants them to know, which is what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? Now, there's competing interpretations of what it means by his interpretation here, and I think we have to be careful.

Paul does not say your inheritance. He says his inheritance in the saints. Now, we have an inheritance. Paul just previously said that, actually. So you go back, Paul says we have that. When God adopts us as sons, that's not just, oh, hey, cute, we get to have a father. We do have a father, but we're adopted as heirs. We have an inheritance. That's true. But here, the Apostle Paul is speaking about God's inheritance, which is us, the church.

Here, the emphasis then is on how precious the saints are to God. The Apostle Paul wants you to know, brothers and sisters, how precious you are to God. The church may appear weak, unimpressive, and foolish in the eyes of the world, but God regards his people as a glorious inheritance. You should pray, pray, brothers, that this church and all the church will see her as God says they are.

Pray that we will not despise those whom God has purchased with his blood. Pray our greatest treasure will not be money, comfort, entertainment, reputation, or earthly success, but it will be our joy found in Christ Jesus and his people. Brothers, I want you to know how precious the church is to God. In other words, this is what I want you to know. God loves you. Is it okay if I say that?

God loves you. Jesus loves you. I know that's become kind of a pat phrase in modern terms because people wield it at everybody and crazily, but again, don't let one man's error push you into another. Jesus loves you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? If you don't, I'm praying that you will. Brother who is struggling to start a business and provide for your family, Jesus loves you.

Wife, you're struggling with anxiety and you wonder if you'll ever measure up with the rest of the women in the church. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you, elder, even when you feel like you haven't fed the sheep enough, pastor. Your father in heaven loves your children. And I can s-I can say this all day long. You know how I can say it? Because it says it here in the scriptures.

You go back just in Paul's prayer, and he says, in love he predestined us. In love he chose you. He chose you when? Here's when. When did he choose you? Before the foundation of the world, which is before your birth, before your cute little face existed. It wasn't because your cute little face. By the way, you know babies, people say they're cute, like when they're first born.

Give it a few days, okay? Give it a few days, then they'll be cute. Uh, parents always think it's so cute. This is the cutest baby, and you're like, man, mine. But before your cute little face was cute, God loved you. Before you were in your mother's womb, God loved you. Before you were conceived, before your parents were conceived, before your grandparents were conceived, before your family line existed, before America was a nation, before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, before Europe was Christianized, before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, before the prophet spoke, before David sat on a throne, before Moses received the Ten Commandments, before Abraham left Ur, before Noah built an ark, before the blood, the flood came upon the world, before Adam and Eve sinned, before the first tree grew in the garden,

before there was a garden, before there was dry land, before there was sun, moon, stars, before there was light. Before the foundations of the world, God set his love upon you. Wow. Brothers and sisters, that means God's love for you is older than the creation itself. More than 6 million billion years. That's not true. 6,000. God loved his people before you ever believed. Before you ever obeyed.

Before you ever failed. So his love for you doesn't begin when you become useful. It doesn't begin when you clean yourself up. It didn't begin when you finally got serious about Jesus. It didn't even begin when you believed. His love for his people is older than the world itself, and the Apostle Paul prays that the Holy Spirit would press this on their hearts, and I pray, brothers and sisters, that this would be pressed on you.

God loves you. He also prays this, that they would know what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards those who believe. What is the surpassing greatness of his power to those who believe? We all know that God is powerful, right? Amen. We sing all hail the power of Jesus' name. We know that God is almighty. In Romans, Apostle Paul says that the creation displays his eternal power.

When you look at the heavens at night and you see the stars shining brightly, when the sun sets and it paints the sky that beautiful, haunting hue of purple and pink, when a mountain peak stands majestically with the clouds of mist circling it, when waves crash upon the beach, thunder cracks through the air, and lightning at nights of force, rivers rage in flood, and tornadoes carve path of destruction.

Well, you see something of the power of God. That power is at work in you. We know that God is powerful. Paul's prayer, though, is not merely that you would know that God is powerful. The demons know that God's powerful. He wants you to know the surpassing greatness of God's power is directed toward you. He wants you to know that God's mighty power is at work for your salvation, your preservation, your sanctification, and your final good, the glorification.

That is, the Holy Spirit is in work in and through you. The Apostle Paul, which is filled with the Holy Spirit, so we might as well just say God wants you to know the power that he has at work towards Christians. Brothers and sisters, we don't need to live as if the church is wimpy. We don't. Christians, you don't have to be wimpy. You don't have to be losers.

God's power is at work, in work, in his people, and I want you to know that God's power is yours to enable you to repent of sin, to endure suffering, to proclaim the gospel, to fulfill your callings, to resist the devil, to understand scripture, to love your family, to forgive your enemies, and to persevere in faith. Then, after the Apostle Paul says this, he kind of gets carried away, actually, and he starts going on and on about the power of God, and he wants you to know the power of God, what it is.

And he speaks of it. He says, he's piling words upon. He says, it's the working of God's strength. Some of you are strong. Well, God's strength, he speaks, and the cedars trees snap into pieces. The strength of his voice caused the deer to calf. That is, deers are pregnant. They go ahead and give birth because he speaks. They're so scared. He strips whole forests bare. His voice shakes the wilderness, and he delivers his people by his strong arm.

Apostle Paul speaks of the mighty power, the mighty power of God. You think of the power of the United States military dropping bomb after bomb after bomb, and like laying devastation to area, and that is nothing, nothing compared to the might of God, who scripture says he speaks and mountains fall down. This strength and might have worked and are still working in God's people, and even more, this power is the same power, the same power, Apostle Paul says, that raised Jesus from the dead.

Dead people don't just raise up. Jesus did. By the power of the Holy Spirit, and that's only something God can do. It's a miracle. The resurrection of Jesus is a miracle, and guess what? That same miraculous power is the same miracle that saved you from your sins, resurrected you. Miracles still happen today, brothers and sisters. They haven't stopped happening. God's not stopped working. In fact, every con-every conversion is a resurrection.

You were dead in your sins and trespasses, but now you were made alive. You didn't need just a little advice, you needed resurrection. It is a miracle that I am saved. I look at my sins, I look at how the stuff I did, it's a miracle, and I'm sure you think the same. In fact, why don't you do this? Turn to your neighbor and say, it's a miracle you made it here today.

Some of you feel that more than others, I'm sure. Right? But it's true. Every Christian is a living demonstration of resurrection power. Don't downplay this. You didn't save yourself, God did, and it was no small thing. The Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation, the Holy Spirit that hovered over the tomb of Jesus is the same Holy Spirit that hovers over our hearts to recreate us and then lives in us.

That's amazing. And if he raised you from spiritual dead, he will complete the work he began in you. He won't leave you in the tomb. He will make you holy. He will use you to make his name great. He will lead you and guide you, and one day he will raise your body from the grave. There is no grave that can hold us down. Johnny Cash is right.

And it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, also the same power that exalted Christ above every authority. God raised Jesus from the dead, but he didn't stop there. God seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. Listen here what Paul says. He says he's far above, far above, not just slightly, far above all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion, far above every name that is named.

What does that mean? Well, he's far above, not slightly elevated. He stands in absolute authority over all, and over who, and over what? All rule, authority, power, and dominion. In scripture, those terms are used for two different things. One, for all spiritual powers, demons. In fact, the next chapter, it talks about we were dead, and we were under enslaved to the prince of the power of the air.

Demons are real, the devil is real, and unbelievers are under his sway. But Jesus is over the devil. He's over all angels. But it's also used to describe kings, rulers, governors, those who are sent by kings. In other words, Jesus is over President Donald Trump. He's over our Supreme Court. He's over all of it. He reigns. He's king. And he's above every name that is named. So do you have a name?

I hope you got a name. I hope your parents weren't lazy. Right? Jesus is above you. And Paul says this is not only true in this age, in the age that he lived, but in the one to come. And the Apostle Paul is using the distinction between the present age and the coming age, and basically he's saying Jesus is over all kings and all rulers and over all demons, now and forever.

There is no government on this earth that could ever exalt itself over Jesus. They may try. And you know what happens? We were just going through Joshua the other day, and when God's people went in, they conquered kings, and those kings came against them, and then they end up putting those kings right under their feet. That's a picture of Jesus reigning. In fact, it's not just that God placed him over, it next says he put all things in subjection under Christ.

They're not, he's just not over them, they're under him. They're under his feet. Therefore, brothers and sisters, you don't need to be terrified. In this dark age, you don't need to freak out about all the stuff that you read on news. It's easy, isn't it? Jesus is in control. Do you believe that? And the power that put Jesus that's in control is in working in you. The same power that exalted Christ is defeating his enemies at work towards us who believe, which is why Jesus told his disciples that soon, uh, they would, the devil would be under their feet.

Last thing he says about the power is it's exercised for the good of the church. Paul says that God gave Christ as head over all things to the church. So, Christ rules over the church, but also he rules over all things, all those other things for the good of his church. So governments and all those things are supposed to serve for the good of the church. Everybody is God's working for the good of his church, whether they want to or not.

So you must stop thinking that God worked powerfully 2,000 years ago, then he stopped. He is not. He's still working, and the Holy Spirit is still sanctifying, equipping, guiding, illuminating, convicting, strengthening, and empowering. Brothers and sisters, Clearnote Church, your future does not rest upon the strength of any one man. The head of this church is not a pastor or even a board of elders. The head of this church is Jesus Christ.

And Christ is doing and has been doing, and he was doing it a couple months ago, what is good for you and for this church and for his church. You believe that. Believe that the resurrection power of the reigning Christ is at work for you. Now, let me end with this, and I'm, I'm so glad I wrote this in my notes because when I got here for Sunday school, you were actually talking about it, so this is amazing.

Why does the Apostle Paul want us to know this? Why is it important that the eyes of your heart be illuminated to the power of God working in you? Why is that important? Because there's a great difference between possessing something and knowing that you possess it. There's a difference between having help and realizing that the help is there, between being surrounded by God's power and living as if you were alone.

In 2 Kings chapter 6, the king of Syria sent an army to capture the prophet Elijah, and they came by night and surrounded the city with horse and chariots. And early in the next morning, Elijah's servant went out, and he saw the army, and he saw the soldiers everywhere, and the entire city was surrounded, and he ran to Elijah and said, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

Which is a pretty good question. Right? We're surrounded. It's just me and this old prophet. What are we going to do? We're weak. We're outnumbered. And Elisha says, do not fear. What, what? For those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And I'm sure the servant was like looking around. Who are you talking? Are you seeing things? Sounded ridiculous. I can count.

There's one, two. Uh, okay. And then there's a whole army out there. But then Elisha prayed. He prayed. Oh Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see. The apostle's prayer. The apostle Paul prayed something very similar, right? And then the Lord opened the young man's eyes, and he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. The army of the Lord was already there.

The servant's problem was he just couldn't see. It was not that God was weak. This is what the Apostle Paul prays for us. Father, open their eyes that they may see what is already true. They have a hope of their calling. They are precious to you as an inheritance, and the glorious greatness of your power is at work in them. Brothers and sisters, your problem is not that Jesus is weak.

Jesus has been raised from the dead, and he's seated. He's King of Kings. He's the sovereign king. The problem is we often live as if none of that's true. You see weakness in your nation, corrupt rulers, false churches, demonic ideologies, your own weaknesses, the sins that beset us, the problems in our families, and everything wrong with the church. That's what we see, and we cry out, just like that servant, alas, what shall we do?

And Paul says, Father, open their eyes. You need to pray that. Father, open my eyes. Christian, what would change if the eyes of your heart were open to know the power of God working in you? What changes would you make in your life today if you knew that God's power was with you? Brothers and sisters at Clearnote Church, God is for you, and he is with you, and his power is with you.

He has not abandoned you. So why don't you tell the neighbors about Jesus? His power is with you. You can. Let's do it. You can look around, you can see an empty pastor's office, and you may have questions about the future, and you may be tired, but you know this, Jesus is king, and his power is working towards you. And not one of his promises will fail.

So pray that God would open your eyes to see what has not changed. Changes happen, but what has not changed is your calling is secure, and God has called you out of darkness and made you his own. You are precious to him, and his power is at work, and Jesus is reigning. Therefore, application, don't give yourself to fear. Don't give yourself to suspicion. Don't spend all your time looking backward at what happened or forward at what you think is going to happen, has to happen, and be anxious.

Give thanks for the grace of God that's happening right now. Pray for one another, pray for your elders, and then stand firm like Christ reigns. Love one another white like Christ reigns, and serve the church like Christ reigns, and then face the future like Jesus reigns. Brothers and sisters, I love you. All the brothers and sisters at Sovereign King Church send their greetings and their love to you. Jesus Christ is King. Now, at our church, when I say Jesus Christ is King, we say long live the King. So let's try that. Ready? Jesus Christ is King.