Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / Ephesians 1:15-23
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: Okay, we had a slight hiccup in the recording. And so we'll be picking up. if this doesn't sound seamless like it normally does, now you know why. So Rainey, you pick back up. All right, I think we finished verse 17. And the last part of that on my notes here is just note too, these things are gifts. So they're given through a prayer of Paul. He's asking that the Lord would give the feet on Ephesus. And we also read in Colossians. Well, welcome back to the Accidental Bible Scholar podcast. Last time we talked about Ephesians 1, the first 14 verses, ⁓ time we're going to go 15 through the end and just start chapter 2. what's there? ⁓ 1 verse 15 and 16 is where we'll start. So, at it. He's kind of did the introduction of this. that gives spiritual wisdom, spiritual revelation, spiritual understanding, grace lavish upon us, that's Peter's prayer now, and all three are saying that we would grow in the knowledge, intimate knowing of Jesus Christ. Yep. Okay. All right. Let's go. Let's back up, read 17. Yep. 17, 18 and 19. How about that? Sounds good. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of Him. big huge sentence that kind of highlighted a lot of stuff that's happened for us or that happened for us at the cross and Christ's through the blood of Christ. ⁓ now he's going to go into a prayer. He has a prayer here and he has a prayer in ⁓ Ephesians chapter three. We're going to look at one in Colossians one. One thing that Paul does, he always prays for his people that he's writing his letter to ⁓ and he'll talk ⁓ what he's praying for. What I would recommend ⁓ since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened, so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength." Okay, so previously he's prayed for wisdom, knowledge, or wisdom, revelation, knowledge to what purpose? back up before I go there. for our audience and something I've done, I've just went and created a sheet of all those prayers. And then I changed the word slightly to include me and my family, you change the singular nouns to plural or ⁓ Because they're great prayers. In 1 5, 14 and 15, it says that if we pray in accordance with God's will, that we know he hears us. And if we know he hears us, then we know we have what we ask for. When we know this is God's will. ⁓ sense of eyes and heart being light. We talked about that your heart is generally in Bible terms is your spirit. So he's saying that you're now that your spiritual eyes are enlightened that you may know again, ⁓ trying to intimately know and there's in our versions there's three times it says what is or in the NET. What is the hope of his calling? What is ⁓ for believers, these things that Paul's praying, and we're gonna see that the stuff he prays is spectacular. You the things you're just like, ⁓ my goodness, yes, I want that. I hope I can have that. I don't want that, want my wife to have it, I want my kids to have it, I my grandkids to have it. So anyway, we're gonna look at one of these and then we'll go right on into the part of chapter two. I've done that for a while too, pray, and ⁓ based the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us. So those are the three things that in this prayer Paul's praying for them that they are to understand. First of all is the hope of his calling. Remember hope is not the western mindset of thinking hope is like a wish. Hope in biblical terminology is a confident expectation of good. So he's wanting you know that that there's a confident expectation of good instruction from you, but is you can pray with confidence. You can pray if you ever wonder what to pray for. There's plenty of stuff in there to keep you busy. yeah, turn them, like you said, into your own words or not your own words, but, you know, make it where it's personal or whatever is you're praying for your family or it's neat. You need to be able to do that. And I'll tell you another thing is our faith. that is in your calling right here. So what the Lord's plan for us and is calling for us is good. And that's probably an understatement ⁓ how good it is, right? And his Paul's prayer is that through this spirit revelation, understanding and wisdom, they would understand and know that hope of that calling. The second thing he's wanting to talk about, that he wanted them to know is the wealth of their glorious inheritance. So verse 11 in is God is the author, or the originator, and the finisher of our faith. He also talks about Paul mentioned in the report how about growing in faith. So our faith is something that we can grow in as well. how do you grow by exercising your faith? So faith to be fully convinced by divine revelation. Belief means to be fully convinced or fully persuaded. So if I'm not fully persuaded, Last podcast talked about inheritance and now verse 18, he only added even more wonder to it all. talking about growing up and receiving this as inheritance right now. So in the Inglisians three and four, Paul talks about when the Jews were underneath the old covenant, the old covenant was their supervisor. that I can't pray in faith. if I don't know God's will, then I can't pray in faith. Because have to be fully persuaded of what his will is. These are great places to start. If you ⁓ have something you really need and you feel like it's from the Lord, but you don't know for sure if it's God's will or not, ⁓ one, but then back that off a little bit till you find something that you know is God's will and then start there with your prayer life. was there kind of like a child, their nanny if you will, that kept them, even though they were heirs, they couldn't participate in the family business, they didn't participate in the inheritance, they were under the supervision of the law. But now that the law, or that the new covenant has come, now we've grown up into mature, the Jews have and the Gentiles have been grafted into that, and now they can participate in this inheritance. And as you see that answer, thou build your faith to take you to the next step. And then all the while you've prayed to the Lord to ask, what's your will? Is this your will here? Or is this the left turn or right turn? Which way do I go here? What's your will? Once he tells you, then you can pray that. And that sounds weird. Well, if it's his will, why do I need to pray it? Well, you need to quote unquote approve it or authorize it to use the terms of Romans 12.2. You basically put They're no longer a servant in the house. They're able to exercise the full rights of a child, son, and daughter. bring it into the authority that he left us here, you know, back to the covenants in Genesis one, but wants to co-labor with us in order to accomplish his will on earth and his heaven. So ⁓ we know his will, then we participate ⁓ prayer to bring about his will. But anyway, that's a ⁓ quick side note, but these are great. Everyone God's promises is his will. Everyone of commands is his will. I said, but now under grace, their sons and daughters and they're old enough now, put in some arturian lines, they're old enough to drive the car. They've always had the car, but now they've got the license, right? They're grown up. They can participate in the family business or run the family estate and, ⁓ and adjoin heirs like we are. And then the third thing, which Paul's going to elaborate on here a little bit is the incomparable power or the incomparable greatness of his power. And note too, that he says his power is toward us. And every one of these prayers that Paul prays, we know it's his will. And so if we start there, we have great confidence to pray a prayer of faith that then the Lord will answer because we know it's his will. And then back to verse 3 through 14, is that the whole, that's the one sentence, no punctuation? Yeah. I mean, my Bible has tons of periods and new sentences, but Paul is probably so, like you said, is static. It's that same power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that God is leaning into us with. He has this power toward us. put here it's the same power that's available for the alcoholic or the porn addict or the gospel or the self-righteous one, the lazy person. It's that same power to heal all of those things. And Paul wants them to know this and grow in this knowledge of wisdom. And my challenge to us is that, let's pray that. and just like, dude, he so lavishly blessed us and he just can't stop. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. He just never got over. Yeah. You know, it's crazy. he's just, ⁓ all the way up till today, he's executed. He's learning things from the Lord and ⁓ we do exactly the same thing. There's some people that are a little bit skittish to the word revelation. Right. You know, a new revelation. for our spouses, let's pray that for our children, for our friends, other parts of our family. Now I would call on that to be our homework today, ⁓ this week is pray for our family members that they would have all spiritual wisdom, all spiritual revelation. They would grow in their knowledge of Christ. Their eyes would be enlightened, the eyes of their heart, that they would know in God's hope and his inheritance and his power. see in his prayer, he prays for the spirit of revelation or for spiritual revelation. When I say we have new revelation, we're not talking about we're gonna write a new chapter in the Bible. I'm just saying that ⁓ book, which is infinite because it is the infinite word of God, there's layers of revelation on every verse that you can do that God wants to reveal. It is his good pleasure to reveal the mysteries of his will. We read that. That's my challenge to us. So now the next few verses, Paul's going to talk about this power. And let's keep in mind that the power he's talking about is a power that's within us. We'll go read Romans 8.11 here as an example. But he now goes off on this power that is toward us, that the Father has given to us through authority. And I think it's Luke 24. couple of times in the last podcast. So how many times you read it, read a verse and went, dude, I've never, I never saw that. Yeah. Like, it's the Holy spirit bringing in, you know, joining with the word of God with the spirit of God and then joining together within your spirit. And it's living in active, right? Living in your fourth world. Yeah. It's the only book in the world that when you read it, the author shows up. Yeah. And if the author hasn't shown up, keep reading it. The author will show up as you read this book. Jesus says to his disciples, don't leave Jerusalem until you're clothed with power. This is the power we're clothed with. Yeah. So read 20 and 21 there if you don't mind. This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above every 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. All right. That's a mouthful. Okay, that's free of charge that part. Free of charge. right. How about, let's just start there 15 to 16. Are gonna that? Sure. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. Okay. A couple of things there. He's praying for these folks, right? So we should pray. It's in his example, we should pray for our family, friends that he's praying for. ⁓ my goodness. So this power that he's talking about that's toward us, this power that we're clothed in, is the power that raised Christ from the dead. It's not only raised him from the dead, but then he took him and he seated him in his right hand, far above everything. So when Jesus, Matthew 27, Matthew 28 says, I've been given all authority over heaven and earth. That's a picture of the power. a church here, we should pray for our fellow members of our churches that we're going to. Both the lost and the believers we need to pray for, obviously. And he's giving thanks for them. That's an interesting thing. ⁓ should be thankful for the folks we're praying for. And what spurred him on to pray was he heard of their faith and their love. He saw, I'm sure, I mean, he's so excited with these churches. So many of them he started that he's that got exercised in Jesus. And what's funny is you and I will sit there and pray. We'll keep trying to be good enough instead of resting in the fence work of Christ. We'll pray silly little prayers that about have some version of making our life easier or making little Johnny's life easier. Our kids, you know, instead there's power for whatever we are up against and there is power to make was. Collosians is example of a church he didn't start, but he still sent a letter to, but he sent a letter to them to encourage them. He's back from these folks or from witnesses of those folks that they have faith and love. There's this participation in the great work ⁓ God there. Anyway, had a lost it. Let's go to verse 17 here. us and our kids make our lives not easy, but effective and well spent. We only get to spend this life once. And through the power of Jesus Christ, we can make it well spent and make it effective for his kingdom. I want to highlight a couple of these powers. Go to Romans 8 11, if you don't mind. This is one that we have memorized because there's a couple of promises in there, I want to emphasize a couple of things. Romans 8 11. Moreover, if the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of Him. All right, so there's this prayer. The prayer starts here. I think it goes to like verse 19 or 20. We'll look at it when we get there. Well, it doesn't stop there because he keeps going to this description about God's power. But right here, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you. So here's his. lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his spirit who lives in you. So this incomparable power that's talked about in Ephesians 1, there's the same kind of idea written to the Romans in chapter 8 verse 11 that he's saying the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. In Ephesians 1, Ven. 8, would say the same power, the incomparable power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. He's asking that they may give. First of all, what is it? Spiritual wisdom, spiritual revelation, and growing knowledge of Christ. who doesn't spiritual wisdom and spiritual revelation? Let's go to a couple of, I'll go to, why you go to St. Peter one two, and I'm gonna go to Colossians one. That's the access we have. And then he ties it specifically to our physical health. He says that this same power that raised Christ from the dead will breathe life into our physical current body, our moral bodies. That's one of those I'm always thankful that Paul put the word mortal in there. he not put the word mortal, we would have this for some million years from now, future event. And like, no, it's the mortal body verses nine and 10. And the one that I'm doing, Cautions 1, is another prayer that I pray for our kids fairly regularly, Angela and I do. This is just a portion of it. But a different church, similar prayer, Cautions 1, 9, 10, for this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you. that I'm living in right now, the temporary one. I have resurrection power living within me, he's breathing life into ⁓ mortal body. Just example, let's go to Romans 4.13 now. with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God. What's interesting is still, this is spiritual wisdom and understanding. spiritual word, cautions of spiritual wisdom and understanding, Ephesians of spiritual wisdom and revelation. Luke 4 13 says, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. My point here is this inheritance that we have, this incomparable power that's toward us, this Luke 24 being clothe in power is because of the righteousness that is a gift. It's not anything that we've done. It's not us becoming our own righteousness, which is impossible. but it is because that we have said amen and thank you to the receiving of this righteousness, this right standing before God that is a gift. Pretty amazing stuff. I have a statement taken from 6.15.521 that says, am the righteousness of God in Christ. That's something that I would recommend repeating to yourself until you believe it, until you act on it, until you start to see the fruit of righteousness that comes out, until you can go boldly and confidently before throwing grace without any shame or any guilt. That's what being in the right standing allows us to do. Righteousness, as we talked about earlier, allows you to stand toe to toe with an accusing devil and go, no, not today, out. That's because a result of us being a son or daughter in a right standing before father. We'll look at Christ was placed to the highest authority. So we kind of talked about this last part. There is a man, a human being seated at the right hand of God and he is above all and his father through the church is making the whole universe his footstool. We'll look in a little more detail later on. And that man that's at the right hand father is my brother. He's your brother. We're joint heirs with him side by side. with the same inheritance as Jesus Christ. That's a thought that we need to absorb into our heart. Anything to add before we go on? No. Okay. Let's go to read 22 and 23. Got to go back to it. Alright, 22 and 23. And God put all things under Christ's feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things. Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Okay. Let's talk through that. And God put all things under Christ's feet. That's a picture of authority. Come at His name being above every name. But here's a kicker that. happened also in Matthew 28, he says, I have authority therefore go. He's commissioning and giving us his authority. Here it's more, a little more explicit. And he gave him, so God gave Jesus to the church as head over all things. Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Let's talk about that for just a second. What does body mean? He is our head and we are his body. There's a discussion in I think it's 1 Corinthians 12 about body parts. You know, how can the eye say to the foot, I don't need you. Yet the foot is maybe a little less honorable of a part than the eye. Those are words that Paul uses. Yeah. I don't think that's what he's talking about here. He's not talking about we have we have individual body parts combined to make one body and we all have our callings and our giftings and our responsibilities. That's all true. But what is he here is speaking of authority. And what's authority mean? What do you have to have to have authority on the planet? You have to have a body. You have to have a living, breathing, real body. We talked about that when we were talking about the covenant of Adam. And I use an example of a inheritance that the couple didn't agree on. Right. So the man's ⁓ got ⁓ ⁓ will felt according to what he wanted. Right. And then he passes away. And then now the lady's left there and she can now go make the will whatever she wants, because he's doesn't have a body on planet Earth anymore. So he's got no say in it. He exists. He's everlasting. He's in heaven. The one we're talking about are believers, is my grandparents. But you have to have a body to have authority on planet earth. That's Genesis 1, 26, 27, and 28. That's one of the reasons Jesus had to come to earth because of that. And we've discussed that whole thing. But here he's saying, he's put all things under his feet and he's given us as he's the head and we're his body, the church is his body. So Jesus Christ right now, physically it's... a human physically has a human body. He's also God, of course, and he's seated at the right hand of the Father. You and I are down here and he is in us. So he executes his will on earth that is in heaven through us, through the delegated authority that the church has. That's an important thing to understand because he's, that's the way he does it. That's how We are co-laborers with him to accomplish his will. And that's our thing. You know, that's why I talk about, or one of my prayers is, what do you want me to say? What do you want me to pray? What do you want me to do? Because those are the three ways that I accomplish his will on earth. Those are the three ways that I execute authority on the earth is by speaking. That's the primary way. By praying. Praying in accordance with God's will. And then doing. You know, put your hands and feet to the to whatever the task is. Those are the three things and I don't want to do anything but what he wants me to do. So I just pray. But this this body is a fullness of him who feels all in all. That's the church. That's it. I mean, how many people think of the church as the fullness of him who feels all in all? Right. Let's go read Caution's two real quick. OK, this is Tom. We're just talking about here about the church. This is maybe a little bit more of the individual believer. but we're all put together as a church. this is, I've had this verse memorized for a while so I can meditate on it. It's just, it's. astounding. keep running out of words to say, but anyway. So Colossians 2, 9 and 10. Colossians 2, 9 and 10. I'm going to go to Hebrews because it will come back, because I'll read that. 2, 9 through 10. Yeah. For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form. And you have been filled in him who is ahead over every ruler and authority. word filled and you have been filled in Him and the prior verse, the fullness of deity and body, that fullness and filled are the same word. Now one's a noun and one's a verb, but they're the same word. So to the extent that He is the fullness of deity in bodily form, to that same extent we have been filled in Him. and then him who is what? Who has authority, who's been given as a head with authority over everything. That's why I'm saying this discussion here in verse 23, 22 and 23 in Ephesians. I'm using Colossians 2 to show us that talking about authority, it's talking about us having his authority, and then we are to... do his will on planet earth here. find in a minute. Ephesians 2 gets even more exciting. Let me read Hebrews 1-13. Hebrews 1-13, but to which of his angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? That's we're kind of joined a conversation here in Hebrews midstream. What I want to bring out is what God the Father said to God the Son, sit at my right hand. until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." And then I'll go to Hebrews 10 ⁓ 12 and 13, because the right of Hebrews don't come back to us. But when this priest, this is talking about Jesus Christ as the priest, but this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God. Where he is now, and we talked about a couple of times, where is Jesus now? He's at the right hand of God. where he is now waiting until his enemies are made his made a footstool for his feet. what he's waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. Who does that? was say, well, they already are. Yeah. I mean, that would be my first response to that, I think you're going with ⁓ someone them there. Yes. Who's left on planet earth to do that? You and ⁓ the church. So he's now waiting for his enemies to make his footstool, but God the Father is the church. In the early line it says, well, his father makes him his footstool, but his father's gonna do it through the church. We it by operating in authority, being clothed in his power, and using the name of Jesus Christ. And we can talk authority more later, we'll talk a little bit when we're, because we're seated with him up there. We'll talk about that when we get to Ephesians chapter two in the next podcast, but. But these are just off the chart things to kind of think about. when we get to starting verse four and chapter two, it's going to get even more spectacular. it's and I. are in the process of making his enemies a fustu when we use our authority against the kingdom of darkness that can't stand up to us. Luke 10, 19 says that we have the power to tread on serpents and scorpions and on the full power of the enemy and nothing will by any means hurt us. And that was spoken by Jesus to his disciples that were not born again yet, didn't have the Holy Spirit. And even those guys, and he had not established that he had all authority yet, because it took the cross to do that. And so anyway, now you and I that are joined one with Christ, that are seated with him. Right. We'll talk more about that here in the next part. Questions, comments for removal. Well, just thinking, so as we dealing with the enemy, we can say, ⁓ ⁓ where are we telling them to go? To Jesus Christ. Go. Go there. be his footstool. Yep, exactly. Yep. There's a ministry that I talked to you about in town that helps people out who are severely demonized to be from that. And that's exactly what they do. And I've used the same thing many times. Go to the feet of Jesus for judgment. When I say go, you go. Yeah. And that's using the authority that's making his enemies his footstool. His enemies are not flesh and blood. His enemies are powers and dominions and principalities and thrones that are part of Satan's kingdom, kingdom of darkness. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. All right. Let's go to Ephesians chapter two. Paul's going to shift gears just slightly and then he's going to come back to this incomparable power. But first, before he shows us how even more awesome this incomparable power that is toward us is, he's going to stop and just take a second to show us, to remind us where we came from. This is not where we are. Because of the power of gospel, this is no longer us. Paul's very clear on that. So we talked about the praise his glory from the previous session. We need to fully believe this and walk in that that's not us anymore. So gonna talk about it, obviously. Paul talks about it. Remind us where we came from, but he's not telling us this is who we are anymore, okay? Because we're different, because we are brand new. But his shift gear kind of takes back here, this is who you guys were, just so he can show us even more how ⁓ God is and praiseworthy in his glory is for ⁓ having put us, because the next thing he's talking about is being at the right hand of the Father. But okay. Read the first three verses there in chapter two. think this is another blurb of no punctuation, right? Yeah. And although you are dead your offences and sins in which you formerly lived according to the world's present path according to the ruler of the domain of the air the ruler of the spirit That is now energizing the sons of disobedience among who all of us also formerly lived out our lives and the cravings of our flesh Indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind and we're by nature children of wrath even as the rest. Yeah. I mean, he can't even finish it because then he has to come in to verse four, which is like, we're seated at the right hand of the father, but God came after us. And it wasn't because we were all cleaned up and ready to go and we weren't sinking him, but he literally changed time and space. He took on flesh because unless he did that, we were doomed and God would spend eternity without us. And that sounds like a very arrogant thing. I'm just His love for us is that great. And it's not for us to, you know, it's just for us to receive and ⁓ receive all that that means. Okay. He chose to become a man so he could redeem us. And he paid a horrible price so that he would change. He changed his eternity so he could change our eternity. He went from the son of God to the son of God who is also a human. He put on human flesh forever. He changed his eternity forever just for us. And I put here despite, let me just read a few things I wrote down. Despite our disgusting thoughts, words and actions, despite our stiff neck rebellion, right? let that sink in. not victims. We were full participants according to verses one through three. We were full participants in this cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of our flesh and mind. We were by nature the very wrath of children wrath. Said we followed the kingdom, the ruler of the of air, the ruler. of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, the sons of rebellion. That's who we, that's what we were. This impacts our right now. It changed our right now, right? We're not waiting for, you know, the gospel is not about a ticket to heaven. Right. That's a benefit. But the gospel is about knowing Jesus Christ and knowing his father. We won't go there for the second time, but John 17, three, go turn. Jesus defines eternal life. He defines that you may know God. Yeah. What did say? Know God and His Son. Father. Eternal is ⁓ the and knowing the Son. Isn't that an amazing thought? Yes. So we already have in our living eternal life right now. It's not about going to heaven someday. It's about knowing the Father. It's about coming into a right relationship with God Almighty Himself. And that by definition is righteousness, being in a right standing before Him and therefore I can know Him. And He and I can have a relationship through Jesus Christ. So to deny that we're righteous is to deny even to have the ability to have a relationship with the Godhead. The gospel ministry from in the gospel is powerful. It changes our here and now. It has great power to change everything about each of us. But only if we accept and believe the gift of righteousness. We've got to quit denying it and accept it and live it out. And then as per our previous discussion, then we will receive where we will display God's glory through us, through the salvation that he has called us to. Yeah. I want to end on one quick thing. I don't have pictures here to show. If I was in a classroom, I'd show you pictures, but you've heard the story about just I went to Argentina once on a mission trip and we had this pastor, the pastor of a pretty good sized church there in the town we were in. And then they had several mission church plants in other parts of the city. And he took us to one of his church plants and, know, nice ⁓ or decent, know, a South American nice building that was their church that they had built. And then it was in a neighborhood that was your, you know, basic South American neighborhood, know, cement block houses with block fence around it. But Houses with roofs, kids playing in the street, bicycles riding by, sidewalks, pavement, and what you would just see as a typical South American middle class to maybe lower middle class neighborhood. He took us, he goes, well, let me take you to part of town where I want to plant our next church plant. So he took us there and we got out of the van. said, be careful. drug needles everywhere. Just make sure you don't step on them and they go through your shoe. You don't want to get poked by a used drug needle. like, well, that's good advice. And that's that kind of paraphernalia is everywhere. All the roads were dirt. of the houses were finished. They weren't even very close to each other. There's a lot of vacant lots with just dump and trash everywhere. The houses that we saw had three and a half walls, two a half walls. Some had roofs on, some didn't. All of them had a fire inside with smoke coming out of the but no glass on the windows, no doors on the front. And don't know that we ever saw a completed building there. No sidewalks, ⁓ no And what struck me, he said, before the gospel came to that previous, the neighborhood we were just in, it looked just like this. And he said, when the gospel comes to these places, it changes everything. Yeah. Even the people that don't accept the gospel, it even changes their lives and it changes their economy and everything. He goes, we will plant a church here. And in a few years time, this neighborhood will look like that neighborhood. And I was like, ⁓ my goodness. That's such a great picture of the power of the gospel change everything. Right. going to Africa, going to places that the gospel is, ⁓ is not prevalent. It's sad. It is sad. it prosperity. Not a but it brings prosperity. does. Yeah. It brings prosperity so much better than a Cadillac. Yeah. And you can trace the Christianity's movement around the planet from Jerusalem. in Acts chapter two, going north and then around the planet over these 2000 years and everywhere the gospel shows up, ⁓ middle class rises up. Before it gets there, there's the haves and the have-nots. Yeah, that's true. And it's a handful of haves ⁓ gazillions of have-nots. ⁓ when the gospel shows up, it changes the economy. It brings prosperity. It fixes the corruption. Yep. That's... people from having opportunities. It creates opportunities. And middle class is born. Right now ⁓ has a middle class that has come up over last few decades and they have almost as many as the United States has people. I think last I like 300 million Christians in China and a big middle class and probably the last place it's going now is into the Middle East into Africa. So what we'll see, think, is pretty quick. We'll see Africa start to have a rising middle class because the Gospels has come in and is starting to change that. And it's interesting, kind of then it will have come clear around the planet. Yeah. Huh. I never thought of it moving like that. And there's a, not just a spiritual component, those spiritual geographic, spiritual, that area has changed, but just physically, if you just take and add morality, the 10 commandments help society just in general. then the gospel, the power, immense power behind that affects ⁓ most change. But yeah. I mean, if you believe Daniel 10 and you take Daniel 10 as a ⁓ kind of a glimpse into the spirit realm, there are principalities, there are regional commands in the spirit realm, in the demonic. The angel that came and answered Daniel's prayer had to go through the Prince of Persia. There were multiple kings ⁓ Persia in there. This prince had a hierarchy underneath him that Michael and this angel took on. And he said, hey, heads up, the ⁓ of Greece is coming. So these geographical and political or geographical, geographical and political things have deities associated them, demonic powers associated with them. So when the gospel comes, it takes that on too. It takes on in the spirit realm to take that on to eliminate the spirit of poverty, to get rid of the spirit of fear, to get rid of the spirit of infirmity and these ⁓ spirits are ruling over a geographical or political situation. Great. Okay. Here's a glimpse of what we'll do next. But God, I love that. After the first three verses, saying you guys are a bunch of knuckleheads dead. God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, ⁓ though we were dead in transgressions, us alive together with Christ by grace you are saved. Amen. That'll be But God, what a great statement. homework. Go take Ephesians 1, 16 through 19. Put it in your own, put it words that make sense to add your family's name in there. pray for them this week. It takes 10 minutes to change the verse and then 10 minutes to pray that, but pray it. And know it's God's will and he'll do it. You need to great faith by doing that. And that'll build your faith as you see those things start to come true in your family. Just a testimony. Anytime, I do it on a pretty regular basis because I have days of the week associated with different prayers of Paul. But Colossians 1 and 9 talks about understanding the knowledge of his will. So when our kids are coming up with a big decision, we'll intensify our prayer, Angela and I, with Colossians 1, 9, and 10 over them. we have seen within just a matter of days, them into an understanding of God's will and then boom, here they offer on their next adventure or their next calling or task. It's great stuff. Okay. Thanks, Randy ⁓