1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's read the chapter and then start through it in somewhat detail. If there's any passage in the Bible that I know of that would show what it means to live by faith, I think these people in this church, after hearing the gospel, changed their lives and began to live a life based on believing in Jesus Christ. And that would make some changes if you'd never heard of him before, or if you've heard of him all your life and begin to live your life by faith. That's what we're called to do in this world. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, under the church of Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much afflictions, with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we add unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Let's go back to verse one and think about in more detail what we've just read. Paul and Silvanus, that is Silas, and Timotheus, that's Timothy, under the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. A church in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. As far as I recollect, this is the only letter that Paul wrote that he used those words. I don't know that this was the only church that was in God, but he uses those phrases here to describe this church that's in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're in something, if you're within something, then you're a part of that something. And you become one with that something, if it's a something. But if it's God, what a statement. That a church is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not so much as in their hands, though that's wonderful, but just within their being. Kind of a part of them. John 17, 21. This is Jesus' prayer that He would pray just shortly before He was crucified. That they all may be one. Praying of the followers there. That they might all be one. That they might be united. That they might come together in oneness. That they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, each in the other and the other in them, and the oneness of the Trinity, the unity of the Trinity, the oneness of the Godhead. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. that the church, that the followers, that the disciples would be one together, one with another, a united body. And not just that they'd be united, Father, and then Father, you and I'd be united, but that they would be united and they'd be in us too. That we'd all be one together, Father, Son, and followers. And he speaks of the church here in Thessalonica as being in the Father and in the Son, Jesus Christ. A unity and a oneness, a togetherness and a closeness. We get a picture here of something that we can't even imagine or describe or get a grasp on, quite honestly. But the Bible oftentimes, the New Testament oftentimes talks about the church, how she's made up of individual members, but the members together are one body. that we'd have the spirit of unity and oneness together, that we would function as a, not as a group of individuals, but as a corporate body together, not as a club or an organization, but as something that's even alive, it seems the scripture describes. The church, the body of Jesus Christ, he's the head, but here it's not describing him, the head, and us, the body is describing us as a church being in him and in the Father. John 14 20 in the sermon just previous to praying that prayer in John 17. we find in John 14, 20, at that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Jesus said, I'm in the Father, and then you're in me, and I'm in you, and a dwelling of the Spirit within us, but then a dwelling of us in Jesus, and a oneness there that just keeps going from within us to, he's within us, and then we're within him, and a togetherness that's hard to imagine because we don't understand the spiritual world very well. but some way in spirit we're together as one. So many times in God's Word, in Paul's writing specifically, it speaks of us being in Christ and in Him, according to He has chosen us in Him, and have been put in Him by God the Father before the beginning of the world, and in whom we have a redemption and we have forgiveness of sins, and in the Beloved we have grace, In Him we have His righteousness. God made Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, though we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That position of being in Him, and it seems to be an eternal position, that we were in Him before the foundation of the world and will ever be in Him in whom we have an inheritance that will one day reside in Him, in glory, and this togetherness is an eternal relationship that's described in God's Word. And there's therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus. As in Adam all die, and Christ shall all be made alive. Those verses go on, and there's more that I haven't quoted. But it's oftentimes that we're talking about being in Jesus, but not as many times as we're talking about being in the Father. But if Jesus and the Father are one, and if we're in Jesus, then we're likewise must be in the Father. And he says that here, that this church is in the Father and in the Son. A closeness that's beyond what we can imagine. Grace. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing grace, let it never cease to be amazing. Living grace and dying grace and saving grace, redeeming grace, all manner of different words that we can tie to the word grace, grace that's in you and grace that is Christ. Amazing grace and peace. to be at peace with God by the reconciling of Jesus Christ. The peace that He made when He died for us and brought us as our carnal mind is enmity against God and sinful man is God's enemy, but Jesus made peace. To have the eternal peace that Christ established and then to have the peace of mind that passes understanding in the midst of our troubles that we can feel peace. In this world you shall have tribulations, be of good cheer, I've overcome this world, my peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you." Jesus Christ, when he came, the words were, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That God would have goodwill towards us and not animosity and anger and wrath toward us. That Jesus made peace with the holy God and sinful man. The two things together, grace and peace, what a blessing we have to have those things. Verse two, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Giving thanks to God always. Paul would tell this church at the end of the little book here to pray without ceasing. to give thanks in all things, to give thanks for all things, he tells the church in Ephesus. Paul says, I'm praying for you all the time. Says to the church at Rome, Romans 1 and 9, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Philippians 1 and 3, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making request with joy. Speaking of them often, always, continually, those are the kind of words Paul uses. I make mention of you always in my prayers. Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy. Making mention of you always in my prayers. I don't know how you're supposed to pray, but I've got a feeling that I'm not a very good prayer. I make mention of every one of you every day in my prayer. I call your name and many others, and my prayer list continues to grow. And it has become a thing that is memorized. And I can do it not with half a mind, almost with no mind. Almost like you can say Mary had a little lamb without even thinking about it. And I can go through my prayer and make mention of the names that are on my prayer list and I'll, Lord bless, Casey and Janae, and Aspen and Cruz, and Lindsey and Jesse, and Stella and River, and Christy and me, and Ted and Mary Ruth, and Mom and Jenny, and John and Lisa, and I'm doing my Mary Had a Little Lamb. That's the way I do it every day, it's in that order. And I go on from John and Lisa to Joshua and Jerrianne, and Joshua and Emily and Jay, and Jerrianne and Ben and Danalee. And then I extend out a little further in the family, And I can rush through that in the morning. Then I get to the church and I get to my prayer list and I call the names that are on my prayer list. Sometimes I'll have to pause there a little bit because I'll forget somebody. I'll think, well, I know somebody comes right there next, but who is that? Then I'll think of the name. Then I'll get to the church and it started out how they sat. They don't sit that way anymore, but that's still the way they are on my list. And I've got you memorized as to where you are on my list. I make mention of you every day. And I doubt most days whether that prayer gets past the ceiling. But if I change it, I'll leave somebody out. Just quit doing it, I feel terribly guilty about that, that these people have asked me to pray for them, and these are my church people, these are the sheep that I pasture, and this is my family. So I've got to keep doing it, it seems like, but it's almost like a superstition, I fear, instead of a prayer, that I'm doing it more for good luck than I am to really be talking to God. And I struggle with that, that I make mention of you, not always, but every day in my prayers, I make mention. I've included a couple of prayers here that Paul included, or that the Holy Spirit included, in his letter to the church at Ephesus. He starts out with Ephesus and he tells them that he prays for them every day like he does most of his letters, but then in the first three chapters of the Ephesian letter, we find two of his prayers. Here's the way Paul prayed for them every day. He didn't just mention their names, I don't believe. He did that, perhaps, but then he went on and prayed well-thought-out prayers, not well-rehearsed prayers, but prayers that said something for him and asked something in their behalf and acknowledged of God. who could fill their needs. I want to share with you a couple of prayers that Paul prayed. And perhaps if you had a pastor like Paul that was praying prayers like this instead of just rote memory kind of prayers, then maybe things would be going better. And I don't mean to be just beating myself up totally with this thing, but I realize when I read where Paul says, I make mention of you always, that he's not just calling names, though he might be. But it seems to me that with Paul it would have been much more sincere and much more real and much more devout and much more from the heart instead of some memorization. Jesus said vain repetitions. That's what he said we shouldn't be doing. And that's what I admit I've just described to you, vain repetitions, empty repeating the same thing over to the point that it becomes empty and not real. But let's look at a couple of prayers that Paul prayed. Let's look at how deep he got in his prayers and how sincere he was for wanting these things for this church at Ephesus. I realize we're in the church of Thessalonica, but we don't particularly have a prayer listed or recorded for us that he prayed for that church, so let's talk about the prayers that he prayed for Ephesus, two of them. Ephesians 1 and 15. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith, When I realized how faithful you were in your following the Lord, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love of all the saints, I was hearing that your church was prospering, that you were strong in belief and faithful in your love for all the saints. So I ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. But He is making mention, it goes much further than just, Lord remember the church at Ephesus. I've got my church list too, come to think of it. And I pray for different churches. But it's more than just calling the church by name. Here's what I pray for He seems like every day. It goes like this. Making mention of You in my prayers that... Here's His prayer for the church at Ephesus. When He makes mention of them, here's what He said. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of Glory. Boy, he starts out with high, exalting words about God, doesn't he? Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. A good prayer ought to start out with praise. Not gimme, gimme, gimme, but Paul's long enough to tell God who he is. He knows who he is, but I think he kind of likes for us to tell him, to exalt him with our words and with our thoughts. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. That's a good prayer. If he'd have stopped right there, that'd have been a great prayer. If God would just do that for us, give us His Spirit with power. Give us His Spirit, just a pretty good measure, or a little bit of a measure of Him. Jesus had the Spirit without measure, and the rest of us get it with some degree of measure, with some portion that we get of the Spirit. Just a little crumb of Spirit ought to just fill us up and bust us wide open, you'd think. Well, that's what He's praying for, that God would send His Spirit to a church. If God sends His Spirit to the church, We don't much have to worry about what else to pray for, quite honestly, I don't believe. If the Spirit would come down upon us with power, maybe not as big a power as He showed at Pentecost when He came down with the cloven tongues of fire, but if He'd just come down with just a portion of that, and dwell upon us, and dwell within us, and dwell among us, and get started working on folks around this area, and my goodness gracious, we wouldn't have to tell God how to do it. Just God, send us Your Spirit. Send us the Spirit of Revelation. Send us the Spirit of Wisdom. Send us your Spirit of Love. Send us your Spirit of Power. Send us your Spirit of Understanding. Send us your Spirit, Lord, in whatever way you'd want Him to pour stuff upon us. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him. My preaching's kind of changed over the years, probably for the worse in some ways of thinking about it. Obviously, maybe in some ways of looking at it. I used to, I'd work hard trying to come up with clever illustrations and fancy ways of saying things and fancy ways of doing things. I can remember one time at Evansville, I jumped out of the pulpit and started down the aisle. And there were some of them that seemed to like that. One man was offended and called me a showman, and he was right. It hurt my feelings, but it was right. I was trying to put some kind of crutch under the Word of God to hold it up. Like it needs something like I could contribute to make it better, or to make it more appetizing, or to make it more appealing, or to make it more attractive, or to make it more popular. And at about that time, I was spending a significant amount of my time not studying God's Word, but thinking about what you could do to be a little more flashy and those kind of things. And we was having pretty good crowds for an old Baptist church. Had a lot of kids coming. And I regret that we don't have that now. But somewhere along the way, and it wasn't any magic moment, it's just slowly along the way, I think I've realized that I'm not called to put on a show or to try to hold up God's Word with some kind of activities or some kind of a fancy way of speaking, or clever sayings, or looking up a quote of the day, or those kind of things. You're just supposed to have a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I can give that, then I'm doing my job. Paul says to Timothy to preach the Word. It'll come a time when they'll have itching ears and they'll desire to have something different to the Word, something more appealing than the Word. But just preach the Word. Paul says right here that the Spirit would come down with wisdom and revelation that you'd have the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That you'd know about Jesus. The first song we sang tonight, More About Jesus. More about Jesus would I know. And the only place that you're going to find more about Jesus that's not made up is in God's Word. This is really God's Word. This is really the Word of God that He spoke, that He inspired, spoke to men and had them write it down. And there's nothing better, there's nothing else needed. But it just seems to not work these days. I don't just try to be dull. But I've sort of tried to get me out of the picture a little more. Not meaning that I quit studying or that I've quit trying or I've quit thinking about what I'm going to say or those kind of things. That's important to study and to pray and to present it. But just to present Jesus Christ, Paul said that he had determined to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Tie everything some way to that cross. And something about that cross, It's the wonder of the cross. When I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, it just ought to make everything else pale and come into shadow and kind of diminish and amount to nothing except for the cross and what He's done for us there and the way He suffered for us and the gift of His Son, God Almighty, and Jesus giving His life and the hope of glory that waits for us and just to know about Him. ought to just fill us up and make us bust wide open, but it seems like it doesn't seem to do that much. I don't know how to do it, but Paul was praying for the Spirit to come down so that it might work. For the Spirit to come and Him be the one to reinforce the preaching and to give the Spirit of understanding and revelation and wisdom and such so that the knowledge of Jesus Christ would touch something inside here where the Spirit was and just make everybody Glorify Jesus, and that's what it's all about, that everybody would glorify Jesus. Paul's stopping in praying a prayer like that. Maybe if I took time to pray prayers like that more every day instead of the vain repetitions, maybe things would work out better there too. That's a thought that maybe I need to pursue. But we just try preaching Jesus. And we decided here a year or so ago that it wasn't all about competition of how many churches you could go to and how popular you were going around the country and preaching. So I started turning down appointments and saying, Lord, I find a pattern in your book that says I'm supposed to stay with my flock if I'm the pastor. And I've tried to do that much more the last couple of years instead of being gone once or twice a month. And I don't know. Well, they say just to keep trying the same thing over and over, when it has repeatedly not worked, that's a definition of insanity I've read. To try the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, but I feel like I don't have much choice but just keep trying it over and over and preaching Christ. And if it doesn't work, maybe that's insanity on my part to think it will someday. Or maybe the Lord is just testing us and seeing if we'll start praying more devoutly and turn more sincerely to Him and find more truths in His Word. And it's a fascinating book, I find it to be. But it gets kind of boring, I guess, when you come and just preach the Word and have verse after verse and go to place after place and try to say the same thing over and over the way the Bible said it. But it seems to me like that's what Paul's praying that the Spirit would come and empower that, that it might not just be a boring repetition of the same old thing, but yet that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. that they'd have a spirit of wisdom and revelation about the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that their eyes of understanding would be enlightened, and that they may know what is the hope of His calling, that the hope of eternal life, the certainty of His calling, He that begins a good work in you, he'll see it through at the coming of Jesus Christ. He that calls you will have you with Him someday. To know the certainty of that hope, the reality of Him having called your name, and put His Spirit within you, and holding and reserving a place in heaven for you, and that we might be enlightened to that, and marveled by that, and amazed by that, and thankful for that, and if the Spirit would come into us in just a A new and living way, we'd realize it in a bigger way than we've ever known it before. That's what Paul's praying for, I think, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Well, they knew a lot. They knew all about it here at the church at Ephesus. I didn't look it up, but best I remember, he spent maybe three years with Ephesus. Man, they knew about the gospel, and they knew about the plan of salvation, and they knew about all kinds of stuff, and He gets away and writes them back a letter, and wants them to understand it better, and wants them to understand it deeper, and wants them to understand it realer, if that's a word, more real to them. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, that you might just get some kind of, though maybe through a glass darkly, some kind of soul image of heaven, where you get a picture of glory in your mind and in your heart and in your soul, and you kind of get a a glimpse of what's waiting for us and the wonder of it all and that that might stir you and move you and motivate you and empower you so that you could have a hope of your calling and know the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints and know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. And it's the same kind of power, the same kind of mighty power according to the work of His mighty power which He wrought, that is, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. If you could understand how spiritually dead a carnal man is, and what a marvelous thing it is, the new birth, that he raises you from that deadness and gives you eternal spiritual life. Well, you're going to one day be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, to awaken His likeness and be satisfied. That's the hope of your calling. That's the riches of the inheritance that waits for us, that we're going to be joint heirs with Him and we're going to be like Him, and we're going to see Him as He is, and we're going to know as we're known, and we're going to experience glory. and the working of God's power, what great power it took to make the likes of me fit to be in heaven forever with God." That was Paul's prayer in chapter 1. That's a pretty thought out prayer seems to me like. I don't know how much of that prayer, I mean this is the inspired word of God, maybe the Holy Spirit told him to write it just like that, and I guess that's what happened. But I bet Paul, after he wrote it like that, I bet he started praying like that maybe after that and thought, you know, this must be important to pray these kind of prayers for the church and to lift her up to God and ask that the Spirit come down and empower the church that she might, that individuals in the church might see the glory of what waits for them and the glory of what they possess right now and the wonder of it all and to know about Jesus, to know about Jesus. And then comes chapter 3 and Paul prays another prayer for them. prays a prayer to God in their behalf, making mention always of them in his prayers, ceasing not. God is my witness, I cease not to pray for you. And here's the way Paul prayed for somebody. Ephesians 3 and 14, for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Those who carry the name of God given to them by God, the family name. Those in heaven, already passed on, Moses and David and Abraham and the like. And those still on the earth and those yet to come. The eternal family of God. Historically, going back at least as far as Abel, not much mention about Adam and Eve. It's not our place to know who the elect and the unelect are, who's God's children, who's not. But at least back to Abel, we've got him mentioned that he had faith, and faith is a fruit of the Spirit, and the Spirit comes at the new birth. So Abel, clear on to the last child of God, the whole family, the whole family, whether they're in heaven or in earth, he carried the family name, that he would grant you, that he would give you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that God would make you strong inside, not some kind of self-promoting, do it yourself, and you've got some kind of power within you, and that's the world's way of looking at things and promoting the self-image and this hidden power within all of us that we can... We're not talking about something that's in man, that wasn't put in man. We're talking about something that's put in man by God, even his very spirit. In and of ourselves, we have very little strength and very little ability to change anything. But we've got a God within us, the Holy Spirit, one of the Trinity, the real God dwelling within us, according to the riches of God's glory, that we would be strengthened. Strengthened with might. Not just made a little stronger, but made to have might. Mighty powers. To the knocking down of strongholds. To the standing and resisting, the one who would attack us as a roaring lion, seeking whom we may devour. We don't fight against flesh and blood these days, it seems to me, like we're fighting against principalities and powers. We need a mighty strength within us, a godlike strength within us, to stand up to that foe, Satan, and put him in his place and rise up above. Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world, we're told in another place. That you might have this mighty strength inside of you. Boy, if God would give that to the people in a church, that ought to be a pretty good church. That's what Paul's asking for. Paul shoots for the stars when he asks in prayer. That he would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. A big old oak tree is rooted and grounded in the earth. A taproot that goes way down and other roots that go out sideways and it can withstand the forces that come against it for hundreds of years. that we might be strengthened, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we being rooted and grounded in love. Love. That's what God has for us in a way we can't imagine, in the depth that we have no idea. to such an extreme love God has for us that He'd give His Son to die for us. That's a real love. And an understanding of that love is going to ground us and root us and be a foundation for us and establish us and make us strong. When we can get a glimpse of the love of God and what He has for us, That it's an everlasting love. That it's an inseparable love. That it's a love that nothing can take us away from Him. And He'll never lose us. That kind of love. When we can get a grasp on that love that God has for us, that's the biggest moving motivational force in the universe. That God's people can understand God's love that He has for them. And that's where Paul's going right here. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in this love that He has for you, that you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, that you might know the love Christ has for you, that you might know the love that God has for you, that you might know the length of it, and the breadth of it, and the depth of it, and the height of it, and the expanse of it, and the bigness of it, and the wonder of it, and the greatness of it. But you just might get a little idea of what you mean to God. That He's always loved you, and He'll always love you. And He'll never lose you. And He gave His Son for you. that you may be able to comprehend with all saints the breadth, the length, the depth, the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." After Paul praying that we'd know it, he says, well, really, you can't know it. But we can know something about it. We can know a pretty good bit about it. We can know enough about it that it'll ground us and root us and establish us and make us solid and steadfast. Though we can't understand the completeness of it, as you can't understand the completeness of God. As Moses wasn't able to look upon the face of God, but he got to look at his hundred parts. If we could just see the backside of God's love, if we could just see a bit or a piece of it. What an empowering thing that would do if the Holy Spirit taught us how much God loved us. and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." Now that ought to bust somebody wide open. How big is God? He fills the universe. The universe can't hold Him. But that we would be filled with all the fullness of God. Throughout the book of Acts, There were different occasions where different men and even churches were filled with the Spirit. And when they got filled with the Spirit, man, there was profound things that happened. Amazing things that happened when a preacher or a church was filled with the Spirit. I've probably spent more time in my ministry making snide remarks about a church that's filled with the Spirit, then I've been praying that I might be filled with the Spirit at the church I pastor. I'm not for making something up. I'm not for putting on a show. I've tried to say that already. At one time I probably was for those things. I'm not talking about pew jumping and gibberish. It says, in God's Word, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, where it describes a worship service, and he's talking about speaking in tongues, and he's talking about going crazy in church, and it says, let all things be done decently and in order. And I think it's saying against those kind of things. I'm not trying to stand here and tell you tonight that I'm advocating those kind of things, but instead of praying for the power of the Spirit and the way the Spirit would come down upon us, I'd be almost afraid he might come down on us and we might do something that would look like something they might be doing. God forbid and God forgive that the power of the Spirit would come down upon us in a magnificent way and make it where we had something that we couldn't stand to keep from sharing with somebody. Not going out and sharing with somebody because you feel guilty or feel like you ought to. Going out and sharing with somebody because you got to, because it's busting out of you. If you're filled with the fullness of God, that's got to come out somewhere. When your cup runneth over, literally, spiritually, by being filled with the fullness of God, with all the fullness of God. Paul prayed big, didn't he? That almost sounds dangerous, fearful. to be filled with all the fullness of God. In Ephesians chapter four, I don't have it written down here, but I'm reminded of the passage in Ephesians chapter four where repeatedly, Paul is trying to edify and build up in the pastor's job. He's not trying to, he's telling the pastor what his job is and to build the church up to the stature of Christ, to the height of Christ, that she might be a body fit for him and grown to his greatness. Wow, for a church to rise up to have all the fullness of God and come up to the stature of Christ and be truly a bride fit for her husband. That's not too big for the Lord. I don't know how to do it, but the Spirit could do it, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able, to him that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, He has no limits. There's nothing he can't do. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Standing facing the rage of that king and the glow of that fire. We're not careful. We're not full of cares to answer you about this thing, O King. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from that burning fiery furnace. No God could deliver somebody from that fire, but God did. What a crazy thing to say. No, what a full of faith thing to say. God is able to deliver, said those three boys. And he was, and he did. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we'd ask or think, our greatest imaginations. I realized one time that David got in deep trouble for numbering the people. But I stood here this afternoon in this sanctuary and I counted the pews. And I got out my phone with the calculator on it and I started multiplying. This place with chairs that hold 200 people. And I was praying. Don't you think God's able to find 200 people? It seemed like so many to me. It seemed like such a big prayer this afternoon, but after reading this verse right here, it just... The God that can get you out of the fiery furnace without even the smell of smoke on you. Maybe there's 200 lost sheep that need the knowledge of Jesus. Not some kind of entertainment, but just To keep trying the same thing that repeatedly doesn't work and expecting it to change, maybe that's not insanity, maybe that's faith. God, if we do it long enough your way, maybe you'll bless us. Or if you don't bless us, God, if we can come here together and have six or eight or ten people that are Still wanting to be fed from your word, O Lord? Maybe that's my calling. Maybe I'm still thinking too prideful. Who needs 200 when you've got 10 good ones? Maybe that's the way I ought to be thinking. But God's able to fill these 10. Bless us above the world. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above, all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, a power in us that can do that. And that power is not me, it's God within me. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Not a prayer limited to the church at Ephesus in the first century. A prayer that extends as long as the world's here. to the rest of the world till it ends. May this prayer bless God's churches with God's power and God's spirit to magnify and lift up Jesus Christ to the glory of God. Amen, Paul says. That's maybe what Paul did when he prayed for churches. May we turn to the Lord and pray. Paul in Ephesians chapter 6, he said, and pray for me that utterance may be given, that I might have the right words to preach. In Isaiah chapter 50, Jesus prayed in prophecy. It wasn't Jesus living at that time, but there was prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 50. And it is Jesus, it seems pretty certain. And he woke up every morning and prayed that he might have a word for the weary in season. At that season, that day, that time, that he might have the right word for the weary, that they'd be blessed by his preaching that day. May God empower us to preach with His power and not with our ingenuity or our man's wisdom that we might want to interject into it, but that we would just preach Christ, preach the cross, preach salvation, preach the riches of our inheritance and the hope of our calling and the mighty working of God within us. and might God work within us individually and within us as a body, a group, that we might give Him praise and give Him honor and give Him glory. I really had in mind, and what I worked on this afternoon more than anything, was verse 3. The work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope. But we didn't get to verse 3. I thought we were just going to read through those first ones and then focus our thoughts there tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we beseech you that you would send down the Spirit that Jesus promised before he left this world. The Spirit that he talked about in his last sermon, where he told them that he would ask the Father and the Father would send the Spirit. And they'd know all things. And they'd have all power. And you'd be with them always, even to the end of the world. And Lord, they magnified you and they honored you and they served you. And most of them were killed for it. Give us that kind of love for you, Lord, that we'd be willing to die for it. Give us the kind of power that you have at your disposal that we might, might lift you up and honor you in what we say and what we do and how we live. Forgive us where we failed and guide us and direct us, we pray. These prayers that Paul prayed, we pray those prayers to you, God, for this church here today. Bless those who especially need you. In Jesus' name, amen.