The Power to Get Us Home

Main idea: Be confident in the Father’s power to do His will and get you home.

1. Be confident in the Father’s immeasurable power (1:19).
2. Be confident the Father’s working (1:20-23).
   • A life-giving power (1:20a)
   • An exalting power (1:20b)
   • A surpassing power (1:21)
   • A present power (1:21b)
   • A future power (1:21c)
   • A ruling power (1:22)
   • A shared power (1:22b, 23)

• Automated Transcription
• 0:21
  Well, good morning again. I want to add my welcome. Welcome, ITC. We are so thankful for God preserving you. You joining us this morning. Welcome to our visitors. A bunch of our people came first hour to make sure there was room for you. So glad that there's room. Really, really grateful. We got word somewhere around four, 430. We were at a family reunion in Yakima, and we tried for four hours to get somebody to stay at our house who was fleeing. And and you all found places by the time we got back. So you cheated us out of service. Now, if you need service, we are ready to go. Linda and I are. She's like, I don't know, honey. You should talk to me first. But she is she is on for that. So we are praying, and I know there's loss of homes and others talking to law enforcement. There's loss of life, not in our churches necessarily, but in those neighborhoods. So you're going to need to be ready for some serious things. I do want to say a word of thanks for our first responders who are part of our churches. So thank you for the service last last night, continuing service that you're going to going to give to us, and we are really thankful. It's a ministry. The government is to be a ministry of God to the people, and you certainly were last night. So we're really thankful for all that you're, all that you're doing. Some of you have significant losses, and you're wondering now what. I didn't pick this text for this moment. We just are going through Ephesians, but God has power and strength and hope for you. It's in His Word and His promises that He's fulfilled through Jesus Christ. We're going to turn our attention to that right now. So, if you brought a paper Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter one. We are doing a crawl through Ephesians, and we are going to be looking at the last of three prayer requests. I'll read a little bit more than that. So, please stand with me for the reading of God's word. It will be up on the screen behind me. You can follow along, and we will pray for the various situations that are going on in our city. I'm going to start back at verse 17, Paul's prayer request for the Ephesians that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, and He put all things under His feet and gave Him as 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, our God and Father, we thank you for your glory, the glory from eternity past, calling, electing, predestinating your children, those who you would bring to yourself through your Son, the Lord Jesus. We thank you for an eternal plan, bringing everything under the authority of Christ, and you are doing it now. You are doing it in our city, reminding the city of how tenuous and weak human life is, and the powers that are far beyond us, far too often. And you're reminding us that Christ rules over all, and we would pray that we would take it to heart. We would learn more of it, and as the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians, by extension for us, we pray for each other that we would have fuller and greater revelation and understanding of the truths that we possess. I do pray for our city.
  
  4:40
  Start with the governing officials, the mayor, the fire chief, the police chief, and others who have been at the head of coordinating the rescue efforts, the protection efforts, and now the restoration efforts. We pray that you would be at work through them, help give them. To be your ministers, to keep order and to bring and restore flourishing to us. We pray for their protection as they are out on the lines, breathing the smoke, serving their communities. Give them encouragement and strength. I pray for Indian Trail Church fellowshiping with us this morning, many have lost homes, and and also need to pastor, also need to serve, give strength to Mike and others who have lost a lot and feel like they need to both care for the church and be cared for themselves. That's going to be true in many places on the north side. I think of a number of homes that were lost from members of Grace Christian Fellowship and Grace Christian Fellowship North strengthen and help the church rally behind its members as well. We do pray that you would give us an opportunity to extol Christ, the Lord and King over all things. And Lord Jesus, we are reminded we are very weak. The the very earth that we are on is very fragile, and that's due to the curse of sin. But you do have a good and glorious plan, and you are working all things out. Help us be explorers and discoverers of that in the coming days. In Christ's name, we pray, Amen. You may be seated. A number of years back, I was listening to William Taylor at St. Helen's Bishop's Gate in Central London. He was doing a series on authentic Christian ministry, and he was going through Second Corinthians 12, it's the weakness passage, and he talked about knowing genuine ministry. How do you know when you're you have genuine or authentic Christian ministry? And he said, you know it when you feel weakness. And he said here's what it looked like: his early years in ministry, he is new rector. That's senior pastor title in the Church of England, and the IRA, Irish Republic Army, pulled in a truck bomb a half a block from their church and detonated it, shaking the 500-year-old roof, shattering all of the glass. The IRA did it again about a year later, a little bit farther, and he's trying to care for his parish. He's in the parish, and he's trying to serve God's people. And how helpless you feel when you're in a car, and your co-pastor says, "I'm not sure we have a house. Can I coordinate the rescue efforts? What? I'll coordinate the care efforts, but our house might be burnt down. Like I think Mike Street's doing the same thing for you guys. Like, how do you guys do this? You you feel helpless, but you want to help. That is authentic Christian ministry. When the task in front of you is so great, you want to be part of it, but you know that only God can do it. I have really good news for you. This passage tells us that the very power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him as head over all things is working toward you. You may not feel that power, but that power is working toward you. The Apostle Paul would say something at the beginning of Second Corinthians like this: "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. That was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. The power of God that raised Christ from the dead will rescue and rescue and rescue until you're finally home. Paul wants us to know the hope. There's three prayer requests. We looked at the first one last week, that you would know that you had a revelation of knowledge, not that you'd get something new, but you, being small, having given all, would comprehend more of it.
  
  9:29
  The hope that you have, the hope of your calling, that you would know the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints-that is, the possession of God the Father is you, His saints through His Son, and what a treasure you have now and for all eternity. And He turns His attention here to power, and we need that power. I think of the hope of your calling in some simple lines from the Lord Jesus talking to. His disciples, he comes along Peter and Andrew and James, Peter James, and he says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. He gives us a mission. Ephesians talks about our mission. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That's coming in Ephesians. Most of that, the the really significant stuff of that, not all of it, but a significant the significant stuff is to make disciples. Jesus also said to his disciples, Luke 10 three, behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. The rescue mission for souls is a battlefield. Paul recognizes that as well. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. You think natural disasters are a significant enemy? You have. the devil and his minions wanting to destroy you. So Paul sets out the letter of Ephesians, modeling for us the treasure we have, the blessings by praising the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for His varied grace. Now he's praying for us. Interestingly, in Ephesians, we don't have a problem yet. In the book, Paul just knows if you're called into the Christian life, you're called to a battlefield. You are called to trouble. You are called to difficulty. It's from within. It's from without. It's the old man that still resides in you. It is the new challenges. There are things coming, and you need to know the magnitude of God's power toward you who believe. The big idea is something like this: that we would be confident in the Father's great power to do His will and get you home. What is the hope of your calling? Eventually, it is at home, in His presence, in a new creation. Immediately, it is the life you do with Your neighbors, fellow church members, and your family. There are among you, and probably if you have a couple of roommates in your household, or if you're married, one of you is a little more of the doer, and the other is a little more of the doubter. We describe it like this in my house. One person among us is safety first. The other person is safety third. Guess who's safety third? Yes, guilty as charged. We just get in the car. I start driving. Then I turn on the seat. I put on the seatbelts. Stop the dinging. Oh, fine, ding. Like, just go. Some of you are doers who are not always as wise as you should be, and certainly ready to go without checking in with the Lord or being dependent on the Lord. Some of you, though, are doubters, where everything looks so difficult, so challenging, so impossible, so uncomfortable that you're like, I don't, I don't know. I just want to curl up and read a good book. This is a message for doers and doubters alike. Whether you're the 10-year-old bookish girl who would rather do nothing more than curl up in a corner and immerse herself into yet another Anne of Green Gables story, or you doubt that there's any fun it had at all to be had in playing Settlers of Catan with your older siblings, you choose comfort for self over others, and on on the scale goes. What Paul does here for us, if you are in Christ, is tell you the extraordinary magnitude of the power that is toward you to help you serve Him and cross the finish line faithfully. We're all in the face of it. Whatever we're going to do to help our friends and family who are experiencing recovery from fire and damage, be confident in God's great power to complete His mission. Get you home. We're going to take this in two parts.
  
  14:44
  We're going to look at verse 19, which is confidence in the immeasurable power. Paul piles on words about the immeasurable power, and then he gives descriptions or, or for instances at the working of God through Christ. We're going to. Those first, and it's going to help doers and doubters to be confident in the Father's power toward us. Number one, be confident in the Father's power. I picked the Father's power specifically because that's who we're, that's who He's appealing to. Verse 17, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. Here's what you have, saint. You have a father who loves you. You're a child of His, and He is going to equip you and empower you to serve Him, live faithfully, and come to the finish line in faith. God's power toward believers is more than sufficient to strengthen and keep you. Verse 19, he says, "I want you to know the whats. It's the third of the whats. What is the hope? What is the treasure? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might? Paul piles on descriptions of this power. Immeasurable. The Greek word here has the idea of surpassing or exceeding. Great, then immeasurable greatness refers to largeness, size, quantity of something. So this is a surpassing power. It's a power that rises above all powerful people, all powerful governments, all nature, all things immeasurable. Think of a thing that has some kind of power, and this is far beyond it. Think of your mission for the Lord requiring a 100 watt light bulb. You are a 100 watt light bulb. I didn't say you're a 10 watt. No dim wits. A 100 watt light bulb. You need real light. The Upper Falls power plant in Riverfront Park that you probably didn't even know produced power. You know the nice calm water by the by the north side, next to the ice skating rink, that produces enough electricity to power all of downtown. You're 100 watt bulb. It's even that bigger in comparison. You could just keep going with the illustration. Whatever you can think of that is great and powerful: natural forces, atomic forces, celestial forces-whatever you can think of-God's power is above it. It's greater than it. So, whatever mission God sets your family on, His power is exceedingly greater than the obstacle that stands in front of you. Whatever enemy opposes you, your fellow you your fellow believer or the church, sometimes people in the church, God's power is surpassingly greater. A conflict that you're facing in home or marriage, a difficulty, and now scorched earth. God's power is surpassingly greater. And then come the power words. We haven't even talked about the power words. We've just talked about how big they are. There's four of them: power, working, strength, and might. The the strength and might are so synonymous that if you have the ESV, it's translated as great strength, great might, but it's actually another power word. There's four of them. Just he wants to pile it on so you get a picture of how great this is toward you. Notice that he says, "What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. When this this is a directed power at you, if you are a follower of Christ. So we should we should make a point right here. If you're still running your own life, looking to your own solutions, you think it's going to be money that's going to be your savior. You think it's an adequate sprinkler system to be your savior? I've really planned ahead. Sprinklers are running. If whatever you think of is going to be your rescuer, if you don't turn from that to the only true God, the only rescuer, if you don't turn from the thing that fills your soul with happiness and and some kind of pleasure. If you don't turn from a God who gives you pleasure and comfort, or a God who gives you ease and happiness in all situations, if you don't turn from your control of your family to make sure that they're doing that for each other and for you all the time, then what is offered here is not for you.
  
  19:45
  But if you do turn to Jesus Christ, who is Lord, exalted Head, and God over all things, if you repent, like the Thessalonians did, who turned. To, to the living God from idols, who would one day deliver them from the wrath to come. If you turn, you will be rescued. You will be delivered from future judgment and wrath. You will be brought in as a beloved child, and all of this power is going to work toward you. It's going to work toward you, so that you fulfill His purposes for you. Toward you. Here's how they pile on according to the working, the working. It's the idea of action and activity, God is working. He's got power. Power refers to the resources He has within Himself. Whatever He has, He has limitlessly. We just saw that it's surpassingly great. It is working. The word "great" is actually another word for power that makes someone supreme. So, in verse 19, according to his great might, someone who has supremacy over all things. Might refers to strength and ability. So, the Father enables and protects his children with limitless resources that are actively working. It flows from his supremacy and his mighty ability, and it's activated toward you. They are not your powers. Notice they're his powers acting toward you. You don't have a battery pack of his powers. You don't have a green crystal in your chest, like an action movie hero. You, these are powers that you have only if you are united to Him by faith and repentance, dependent on Him in prayer. Having these powers doesn't make you proud or conceited. It doesn't give you Gandalf-like powers to bring things and change things into existence. Unplugged, you're as useless as a unplugged vacuum or a vacuum with no battery or cord. Unplugged, you're useless. Plugged in, you have His power. Paul's writing from prison for the sake of the gospel. Few have suffered more hardship than he had, and he had to reconcile the weakness he experienced with the work God did through him. Remember, in his weakness, the end of Second Corinthians, which is is about surviving in ministry, how to survive in ministry is a good theme for Second Corinthians. He has false teachers. It's what I my best guess of what the thorn in the flesh was. Constantly attacking him, and he's pleading with God, please take them away, please take them away, and God says, "No, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul concludes, "Then therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, because I'm just a pessimist. No, he says, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Then Christ supplies. How do you know when you're doing genuine ministry when you're utterly weak? Because that is the clearest time you can see that God is the only explanation for the work that progresses. So be confident in the Father's immeasurable power. Second, be confident in the Father's work. It's all going to revolve around His working. You can be confident in the Father's power because you've already seen it and witnessed it. You've already seen it. You've already witnessed it. This is not something you're anticipating for tomorrow or for Jesus' second coming, and there will be glory in a second coming. But you have already witnessed the power, and it is working Power. It's it's in the gospel itself. Notice what he says. He says that he worked in Christ, this great working of great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. There's seven descriptions of this power that unfolded through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and what Paul is saying: you have seen the gospel work because the gospel is history. The gospel is God the Son took on the lowest, weakest. Humanity, God the Son suffered on earth and obeyed perfectly, betrayed, arrested, crucified, buried. There's hardly anything weaker than dead and buried, and God raised him from the dead, exalted him. If we're going to complete the gospel, it's not just the death of Christ for sinners.
  
  25:29
  It's not just the resurrection that gives us new bodies, but it is the ascension of Jesus Christ to his proper place as King and Priest over all. So notice how he describes this ascending power. It's life-giving power. Who raised Christ from the dead? God's power is a life-giving power, and that is a physical reality that believers will one day taste when He returns and we have resurrection. But it is a day-by-day power. He's going to describe it in 210. We are in Christ, new creations. We are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So not only did was He raised from the dead, but you're raised to new life, and that power works toward you now. That power works toward you now. It's a life-giving power, a spiritual life-giving power. There's a spiritual reality that you may or may not feel regarding this. It's it's regarding guilt, guilt and shame is often a great power in our life. Fear is a great power in our life. Anxiety is a great power. The desire for control is a great power in our life. But because Christ has been raised from the dead, that seals, that proves that forgiveness is granted, restoration is given, and you are now authentically, truly, eternally a son or daughter of God. Are you buried in guilt? Are you buried in fear? Are you buried in anxiety? Are you buried in depression? There is new life power, spiritual and practical. It's an it's a life-giving power. It's an exalting power. Paul unfolds the gospel as he attacks the ascension, notice this this kind of language. He said, "Seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. Christ is ascended and seated in heaven, and seated. I always say this in the New Testament. Whenever you see Christ is seated, it doesn't mean he's resting. He's not taking a break. By the end of second hour, having stood for all the singing and all the preaching, I really want to sit. So come and talk to me while I sit with you. That's not what it means with Christ. What it means with Christ is He is now reigning. It is called the session of Christ, the reign of Christ. When He sits down, it is as if all His angel attendants look to Him, and He works over the whole world now through His gospel and transformation. One day, by ruling power and a recreation, he is in session. It is an exalting power, and the corresponding truth for the believer: just as Christ was humbled to the point of death, death on a cross, buried in a tomb, he was exalted. One day, you who are humbled, you who die, will be exalted. Paul is so confident of Christ that he can be confident in your union with Him that he'll tell you in a few verses, "You have been seated with Him Already, it's an exalting power. It's a surpassing power. Notice the next set of phrases that we could use: transcendent or far above. Verse 21: far above. It refers to this exceedingly superior status. He uses these these languages of powers far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Some of those words are going to be used in Ephesians six, talking about demonic powers. If you read the book of Daniel, for instance, you'd reckon. That there are angelic, demonic, demon angels who are the forces behind all of the empire shifts in the ancient Near East. There's a demonic power and authority at work behind every government, behind every place, to create chaos, to create pride. Jesus is transcendent above those things. He's transcendent above the demonic powers. He's transcendent above governmental powers, national powers, military powers, all powers. You might look at an election and feel a dread of what's going to happen because something might shift in the national realm in a direction you want. You might feel a desperation because something will not shift in the right, or you might work yourself up into a fretful lather, trying to get everybody with every means possible that you have to get them active, so that we can finally be in charge. Jesus Christ is above all of those things.
  
  31:11
  I'm not taking about taking away from any responsibility and means that God may use, but God is the one who exalted Jesus above all those things. Jesus is above all of those. It's an exalting power. I mean, I think of it in the fatherhood of God. Let's put them together. The Father exalted His Son. One day He will exalt the saint. God the Son is now your older brother, reigning at the right hand of your heavenly Father. So, look through your mountain. Look through your telescope to the mountaintop. Look to all of the beauty that you see. Look to all of the powers that exist, and Christ sits above all of them, surpassing power. There's this funny phrase of "and above every name that is named, what what is that about? He's above all rulers, authorities, and dominions, demonic and and political realms. He's above every name that is named. Think of it as titles that are bestowed on people. So in in the states, we have some titles: president of the United States, Donald Trump's president. You might might have a vice president. There are congressmen, congresswomen, mayors, chief of police. Like they all have these titles, and you could think when one of them comes into power or one of them makes an order, and it seems insane to you, contrary to sound wisdom, against the Bible, you may be tempted to think that man, God doesn't know what He's doing right now. Jesus is above all of the names. I did some research, three minutes of it. Thank you, Copilot, King Charles, who has a title as head of state? It's a cool title. All I know about King Charles is he dresses pretty sweet, and sometimes he's funny. He's the head of state over the UK and 14 other countries still. Like, who knew? I think the people in those countries are like, yeah, who knew? Those countries have prime ministers, and so on. Think of any named name, any any title that somebody has. Jesus is supreme over those. There is this little phrase that shows us the present power. Not only in this age, Jesus was exalted over all in this age, and this is really helpful. This little phrase, "in this age and the age to come, I'll get to that in a second. You could think as a Christian that the ultimate things are the things that He will bring when He brings the new heavens and the new earth, and that is perhaps correct. I mean, that is correct. That is going to be ultimate, but you could think here, you know, we're just slugging it out. You're a pessimist here. I mean, I don't think tomorrow is going to be very good. I think there's just going to be a lot of trouble. But I am glad for heaven, a new body, a new earth. I'm glad for that. What he is telling us here is that Jesus is the transcendent King right now. He is over all things right now. When the problem of evil comes up, like it's going to happen with the fires, like how can a good God let the fires happen? Seems to me to always beg the wrong question. Why is there so much other goodness, and we never give him credit for it? We should have the our debate should be the problem of good. Why is he so constantly good to us, given who we are trying to live independently from him? But let's answer that question fairly. Jesus has many reasons. One is for you to have awe in Him and turn to Him in your greatest hour of need. Another is to experience transforming power. Another is to face your mortality and death and assume and coming judgment. He has many reasons now. He is ruling this age. He is sovereign over this age, and there are many stories that will unfold in the coming days about what's going on in our city. Jesus is ruling it all. There is a future power not only in this age but also in the one to come, and that's an encouragement because there's no person, no demon, no no alliance that's going to form somewhere in the near future that will dethrone Christ. There's no natural disaster that will dethrone Christ. There are no God killers. There is an age to come.
  
  36:25
  There is an age to come where all evil, all curse will be rooted out of the world. No power in the age to come will hinder or usurp His power. You don't have to live happy today, wondering about the shoe dropping tomorrow. You can say thank you today, or you could say work in power tomorrow. If we keep going with the list, it's a ruling power. It's a present power. It's a future power. It's a ruling power. This power that he exercised toward Christ, the Father gave His Son Jesus Christ ruling authority. He says He put all things under His feet, and this is really helpful. Just step back. Whatever's going on, look at Christ. Christ is ruling from the heavens. He is seated and he is active. You may think that the greatest thing going on in in the world at this moment is whatever is going on to you, but Jesus is ruling over all things. He is subjecting all things to himself. If you could step back and take yourself out of the picture and say to yourself, whatever the next 2436, hours, the next five or seven days looks like, Jesus, you reign, and I want to do your will. You are subjecting yourself to His power. You are willingly Serving Him, Jesus isn't waiting to rule; He's ruling. He put all things under His feet. The Father to the Christ is a quote from Psalm eight. How is He doing that primarily today? Through proclamation of the gospel, through discipleship and transformation, through works of kindness and service for those who suffer, for earnest entreaties for those who are wandering. This is the work that He's given. This is the rule that he's taking, and finally, it might not be the right word for it, but I want to get to this. It's a shared power. It's a ruling power. the The last line of 22 gave him his head over all things to the church. Exalt Jesus Christ as the the crowned king of his people as head, so you could just pile on it. He's he's head of the nations. He's head of creation. He is exalted over all of those things. He is also head of the church, Lord or King over the church. I think on a weekly basis, as any elders gather, whether it's to prepare an elders meeting, to serve at an elders meeting, everybody says, "Jesus, this is your church. This is the kind of verse that we take it from. But then Paul mixes his metaphors. We understand head of state like King Charles. Now we have head of the church, and Paul blends the metaphor. He gave him as head over all things to the church. If we thought about ecclesiastical structure and church government, we love to do that because that's like head. Figures, ruling figures. My Baptist friends just geek out on like church government. I think it's like amazing how it works. It is, but look at this. He gave him a head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. He's going to use this head and body metaphor for a husband and a wife and a sacred unity. He's using this metaphor of union with Christ that Christ has so sown Himself into the life of the church that He is its head, and the church is His body is hardly the only metaphor that we have. Bride and groom, but this power that exalted Christ exalted in Him as head and sewed us together in such a way that we're a inseparable unit with Christ. We're the body; He's the head. And this body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. It's the way He demonstrates the totality of His glory, the the brilliance of His Glory. Christ is King. He is also head of the body, and the body is joined with Him. Therefore, sharing in union with Him His power to do His work and will. They share in His power, united to Christ. United to Christ means that the power that God worked when He exalted Christ is at work in those who believe. It's an extraordinary thought. So many things keep us from seeing it and believing it.
  
  42:06
  One of the major things Paul's praying for is like, can I just I want the the crusty junk from your eyes to be shed so you can see. I want the blindness taken away. I want you to at least step up to a hillside or a cliffside so you can get a better vantage point of what's in front of you. I want you to see it. There are all kinds of things that keep us from seeing it and believing it. Pain, pleasure-they both work to keep us from seeing it and believing it. One member buried a spouse this month, another slipped and broke a foot. Another member at the UGM camp had a bat fly into her head, and she started the unique club at Faith Bible Church. The girls who've had rabies shots. Another quietly grieves miscarriage. Another grieves a divided relationship. Another is a new parent. Six or seven got married. One global partner is learning his fourth language, so he can learn a fifth to plant a church. I'm pretty sure all of those things are hard. All of them are hard. And 600 homes are burnt down in Northwest Spokane, which I'm sure is hard. You have the Father's power that worked toward His Son, working toward you, His child. God's called you into a battlefield when you believed to follow. He's called you into a battlefield, living life. life in a cursed earth, He's called you onto a battlefield in ministry and service, and He has supplied you through Christ. What does it look like to use it prayerfully? Certainly. It's not that you don't have it if you don't pray, but God tells us to pray and count on what's coming. What does it look like to use it? I contend sometimes it just looks like making your bed in the morning when you just hardly can muster anything to get cereal in a bowl, it's trusting and taking the next step prayerfully. It's looking at your life for the next five years. Next five years, God's given you some challenges that He's told you about. What are they? Yesterday morning, he gave you some challenges that he didn't tell you about. What are your resources? He wants you to know how confident you can be to face the battlefield With these, let's pray that He would help us see it and take hold of it, Father. Thank you for what You have given us here in this text. Thank you for Your extraordinary goodness, the grace and mercy, not only that rescued us out of sin and despair, guilt and shame and judgment, but now has put us into ministry with each other, with our fellow churches, and we pray that you would be removing the blinders from our eyes, helping us see in a supernatural way, the great hope and treasure and power that has been given to us through Christ, and may we, with confidence, pray together, serve each other, make gospel noise in the city. See friends and family come to faith in you, mature and grow. Give us all these things in Christ's name. Amen.
  

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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