Thank you, Ruth, for inspiring our hearts, preparing us for God's Word when we consider the love of God. Father in heaven, you demonstrated your love for us. And while we were yet sinners, your Son, Jesus Christ, died for us. Thank you for that reminder this morning. And Father, I pray that as we open your word, Lord, we might begin to understand the riches we have in Jesus Christ, our Savior, knowing that he is ever with us and he will never leave us nor forsake us. Speak now through your word, we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. If you will take your Bibles this morning, let's begin in the book of Ephesians, okay? So if you turn to Ephesians chapter one with me, we're going to again read the scripture reading that we had this morning. We're gonna start here because the Apostle Paul had a prayer for the church. the church at Ephesus, but this prayer, of course, from his heart, is a prayer for all believers, the entire Church of Jesus Christ. And here in verse 18, look what he says. Again, here's his prayer. Ephesians 1, 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." I want to focus two points here in this passage concerning Paul's prayer. First of all, He says in verse 18, I pray that your eyes would be, eyes of your heart would be enlightened. The eyes of your heart. Did you know your heart has eyes? You didn't know that, did you? The doctor never told you that when he looks at your heart. No, he's talking about the spiritual eyes we all have as believers to be able to see things in the spiritual realm by faith. If you have a King James Version, instead of the word heart, it reads, the eyes of your understanding be enlightened. I pray that the eyes of your understanding will be enlightened. But it's talking about the inner man, the inner me, my mind, my soul, that I could see spiritually the things. And his prayer is that the eyes of my heart would just open up and I would begin to see these things about Jesus Christ. What are they? One, the hope of His calling. Secondly, what are the riches of His glory, of His inheritance in the saints. But here it is in verse 19 is what we focus on. His prayer is that your eyes, the eyes of your heart would be enlightened or lumined to the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might. But there in verse 19, Paul is saying, I pray that your spiritual eyes would be opened to see the surpassing greatness of His power toward us. I think many times I go through the day and I totally forget the power that is living within me through the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in me. That the resurrection power is in you and in me, and it's available to help us gain faith and go through any circumstance and situation we find ourselves in and come out victorious, come out more strong than when we went into the storm. And here the Apostle Paul is saying, I just pray that your eyes would understand this, understand exactly how great the power of God is at work in our lives. And we're gonna see that this morning over in 2 Kings 6. So if you'll turn with me now, let's go to 2 Kings 6. We find the account here of the prophet Elisha, who had taken over the ministry of Elijah, And we are going to pick it up at verse 8, 2 Kings 6, verse 8. Let's read 8 through 14 together. Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel, and he was counseling with his servants, saying, in such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, and that happens to be Elisha, saying, "'Beware that you do not pass this way, for the Arameans are coming down there.' And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, so that he guarded himself there, more than once or twice. So just picture this, okay? Here's the king of Aram. He's in his secret chambers, and he's planning with his generals another guerrilla attack, guerrilla warfare attack on Israel. And they've picked out a place. Nobody knows this except them. They're in the room. And so God tells Elisha, He reveals to Elisha this plan, what the king has been planning in his heart. And so he goes and tells the king of Israel to warn him saying, you better not go to this place because God told me that if you go there, you're gonna be attacked. The army of the Arameans will be there waiting for you. And so he avoided that place. Finally the king of Aram gets wind of it that because he shows up there and there's no Israelites Verse 11 now the heart of the king of Aram Was enraged over this thing and he called his servants and said to them. I Will you tell me which of us is for the King of Israel? In other words, which one of you guys are spies? One of you guys is, you know, gotta be sharing, you know, our plans that we have. Look at verse 12. And one of his servants said, no, my Lord, O King, but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." Whoa! That just must have stunned the king. So, in other words, the king realizes that this prophet of Israel, Elisha, somehow hears what they're saying in their bedroom. It's almost like, you know, Elisha's there eavesdropping. He's doing his firework, but it's all God. It's all God, and he can't believe it. And so he says, we gotta get rid of this guy. This God of Israel prophet. Man, he's ruining our plans. And so look what he says. Verse 13, and he said, go and see where he is, that I may send and take him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he, Elisha, is in Dothan. And he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city." Now, I want you to get this picture in your mind, okay? Because here is Elisha in this little town of Dothan. He's there with his servant. What does the king do? The king of Aram doesn't just send, you know, four or five guys and go on, you know, go down and just bring Elisha back. I mean, you know, he figured Elisha is, you know, he's just one guy, shouldn't be a problem. But what does he do? He says there, he sends a great army with horses and chariots. He's not gonna take a chance that maybe some Israelites will show up and begin to fight him. So he sends a great army and he surrounds the city, surrounds the city. The Aramean army here is a picture of your enemy and my enemy this morning. Satan is all around us. and his demons, and he's at work, and he's seeking to come and attack us from all sides. He surrounds us every day, and he wants to do us harm. And suddenly, circumstances in our life suddenly change. And suddenly, this army, whatever it is, this thing that you fear has suddenly arisen And Satan wants to use it to threaten you, to threaten your heart, and get you and I to stop trusting God. To stop trusting the Lord and His Word. And he wants us to back off and live in fear. And here is the man of God, Elisha, who is in this little town, And we're going to see his response. Now, the servant we're going to see here, he's not named. So this is a servant that came after Elisha's old servant, Gehazi. If you remember that story of Gehazi, Gehazi became materialistic. He sinned in his heart, coveted, and therefore God caused him to become a leper. But look at verse 15. So put your shoes now in the servant's shoes. Now when the attendant or the servant of the man of God, Elisha, had risen up early and gone out, behold, an army of horses and chariots was circling the city. He knew they were there for them. And his servant said to Elisha, Alas, my master, what shall we do? What are we going to do? Okay, picture it. You got up in the morning. You look at the sun out the window. It's going to be a beautiful day. You go outside to get some fresh air and all of a sudden you look and suddenly you see all these horses and chariots and army circling the whole town, and there they are in front of you. And he knows that they have to be there for Elisha and him. Okay? So suddenly, fear grips him. And you and I, my friends, this week there may be something that's going to come into your life, maybe it's already there, and suddenly you see it, and you are gripped with fear. You see this army, it may be cancer, it may be bad news from the doctor, it may be loss of a loved one, maybe loss of a job, a marriage that's separated, problems between your kids, parents, grandkids. Whatever the issue is, maybe it's just trying to survive again, getting through this whole COVID situation. And then on top of that, the change in our government and administration and all the evil in the country that we see rising up. Suddenly it's so easy to get afraid because our eyes see it. And we respond to what our eyes see. And that's all he was doing. The servant was responding to what he saw. It's a natural reaction. And so look what Elisha says to him when he comes back. And how many times have you said to yourself or to the Lord or to your family, what are we going to do? Are you at that place this morning where you're saying, what am I going to do? I don't know where to go. I don't know what the next step is in my life. And suddenly there's that unknown. What are we going to do? We ask that question. And so he goes to Elisha. He asks him this question. Look what Elisha says to him in verse 16. So he answered, do not fear. For those who are with us are more than those who are with them. All right, you're the servant, Elisha's talking to you, and Elisha says, calm down, calm down. There is more with us than are with them. How would you, what would be going through your mind? Uh-oh. Elisha's lost it. Yeah, I'm sure he's gone. He's gone. Because the servant is gone. He looks at Elisha and he starts counting. One, two. And he goes to the window. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. He sees the chariots out there and he's gone. Your math is bad, Elisha. I don't know what you see, but I'm counting. And you're saying there's more with us? Elisha says, yes. There is more with us than are with them. And here is where we are going to suddenly begin to see that Elisha is looking from a different perspective. He is looking at the situation in his life through the eyes of faith. through the eyes of trust in God Almighty and His great power, the power the Apostle Paul was talking about, the surpassing greatness of His power, the power that raised Jesus from the dead. And so, Elisha was in trembling in fear. He just told the servant, don't be afraid. And all throughout scripture, we see that phrase, God says it, do not fear. Jesus says, fear not. You see that fear not throughout the scripture. And here he's telling his servant, don't be afraid, God's got this. There are more with us than are with them. Jesus said to his disciples, remember, fear not, I am with you. He's still out there on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the storm. Turn to Matthew chapter 6 with me, if you would. We'll come back here, but I want you to go to Matthew 6 with me, verse 25. Matthew 6, 25. This amazing message of the Lord Jesus Christ there on the mountain. to his disciples, and this is what he says to them, verse 25, Matthew 6, 25. For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life. Are you anxious this morning about anything in your life? Jesus is saying, stop worrying about it. Be anxious, don't be anxious for your life as to what you're gonna eat or what you shall drink. nor for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life worth more? Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" You know, back then, people were looking for their daily bread. You know, when you go home today, you go to your, you know, refrigerator or freezer, and you open it up, there's your daily bread. See, but back then in Jesus' time, most of the people were poor. They didn't have refrigerators, they didn't have all the stuff, and they had to look for their daily bread because anything else would just rot after a few days. And so they constantly were looking for their daily bread and their food that day. Or their clothing would wear out. They didn't have hardly any money. Jesus came, spoke to mostly poor people, those who had nothing. And so people would say, oh, what am I gonna do? I need some clothing for my kids. Where's that gonna come from? And the father, I need food for my family today. How am I gonna get it? And maybe you're worried about different things. It might be financial in your life. And suddenly you're gripped with some fear over what's happening financially in the world and maybe in your bank account. And how are you gonna meet your needs? Jesus is saying, I don't want you to be anxious, my dear children, about any of this, the things of this life that you have need of. Jesus goes on and says, verse 26, look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet, what? Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to your lifespan? You know, by worrying about it, am I going to live longer? No. Jesus says, and why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so erased the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do not be anxious then, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? With what shall we clothe ourselves? for all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek, verse 32. The world is seeking these things. The world is panicking. The world is saying, this COVID has shut down businesses. It's done all kinds of things to people's lives. And suddenly there's panic and they're seeking to meet these needs. He says, this is what the Gentiles worry about. have anxiety about. But he says, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek first, what? His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Jesus is basically saying, your Heavenly Father has got you. He's watching you, He's with you, He's gonna take care of every one of your needs. The problem lies in that the eyes of my heart don't see God many times. And I don't see the resurrected Christ in my life. And yet, right now, He is here with us. Where two or more gather together in His name, where's Jesus? in the midst. He's right here with us right now this morning, and you can't see him, but he's here. But Jesus is saying, notice he says, look with your physical eyes. He says, you want some evidence that God's gonna take care of your needs? Hey, look out the window and look at those birds. Watch where they go. Where do they find food? Wherever God lays it for them, and he brings them to it. He brings them the food. Secondly, he says, hey, you're worried about where you're gonna get your clothing and meet those needs? Hey, look at the fields out there. Now, don't look now, all you see is white. So, but just think of spring now. I bet you're already thinking of that, aren't you? But spring, you know, you get these, the flowers budding in the field suddenly are arrayed with beautiful flowers, the wild flowers, and it's just absolutely gorgeous. And God, God dresses them. How beautiful it is. But here we have to be concerned about the eyes of our heart that we haven't closed. And the Lord wants us to live with eyes wide open. eyes wide open so that I'm walking in such a way that I can spiritually picture Jesus and God the Father and His angels all about me. That my mind and heart is living in a spiritual world, even though I have to deal with the physical world around me. And so Jesus is saying, don't, do not worry. Let's go back then Because here this servant is all worried. He's worried about his life, what's going to happen to him. 2 Kings 6, if you go back with me there. And here, look what Elisha then prays. Okay, verse 17. Then Elisha prayed and said, O LORD, I pray. Open his eyes that he may see. Open his eyes that he may see. Elisha asked God that he would open the eyes of the servant so the servant might see that which is invisible. And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw. Suddenly he saw the spiritual realm. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So suddenly, between Elisha and his servant and the army of the Arameans, there was an inner circle. There was a circle there. It was a circle, the chariots of fire. God's army had showed up. The angels' kids had shown up. And can you imagine kids seeing an army that made up a fire, chariots of fire? Remember that old movie, the chariots of fire? Well, that's where it's taken from. Here, God opened the eyes of the servant to say, I have you protected. And Elisha knew all along, Elisha may not have seen the angels, but he knew they were there. Because he was living his life in such a way that he could see the spiritual realm without actually seeing it. Because he knew, believed in the promises of God, that I will never leave you, I will protect you, I will deliver you. And so he knew that the angels were there. And how wonderful it is to know that God's eyes are upon you and me. And He has sent His angels to watch over you, to keep you in all your ways. And my prayer this morning is that we all would have eyes wide open spiritually, that the eyes of our hearts would be opened up, that we might actually, in our mind's eye, see God right in the midst of our trouble, right in the midst of the trial that is up against us. You know, David said in Psalm 23, you prepare a table before me in what? the presence of my enemies. And that's what God will do. And that's what God's doing here, setting a table before him. Michelangelo, the great sculptor and painter, he was pushing a heavy rock up an incline, up a small hill. He was pushing it to his home where he wanted it. And a neighbor looked out and saw him doing this. And he watched him for over an hour as basically Michelangelo was trying to get this rock into a certain place and pushing and pushing. Picture Michelangelo doing this and getting it up there. And finally, a neighbor came to Michelangelo and says, why do you labor so hard over that ugly, heavy piece of rock? This is what Michelangelo said to him. because there is an angel inside it and I wanna get it out. Think of that. He said, because there's an angel in that rock and I wanna get it out. What do you mean by that? It meant that when Michelangelo looked at that rock, he could envision and see an angel inside that he would carve and make out a sculptor. And so he could picture it in that rock. So he didn't see just a rock like the other guy did, but he saw that there would be an angel inside once he got inside and began to carve it away. And there would be this beautiful angel he could create. And so it is, you and I have to have those kind of eyes spiritually. And we need to pray, Lord, open my eyes this week that I might see the invisible. Lord, that You might show me in my spiritual eyes, show me through faith that these promises are true. Turn in closing to Hebrews chapter 11. Let's go to Hebrews 11. Here's the faith chapter. Some people call it the hall of faith. instead of the Hall of Fame. But we want to look at, briefly here, Moses. What is written of Moses in Hebrews 11. Look at verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here's where Moses' faith starts to kick in. Verse 25, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. How could he do this? How could Moses do it? Give up all the beautiful palace and all the riches of the world as a son of Pharaoh? He threw it all away. What? Look at verse 26. Considering the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he was looking to the reward, the reward in heaven that God would give him one day. What did that mean? That means Moses was not just looking at his physical eyes, because if he was, he would have looked at Egypt, looked at his bedroom, looked at the palace, looked at everything he's got, looked at his clothes and gone, I'm not leaving this. I got it made. I got it made. Verse 27, "...by faith he left Egypt, not fearing..." There's that fear not. "...not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing..." What do you have in your Bible? "...him who..." What? "...is invisible." Or unseen. Some translations, my translation says unseen. As seeing Him who is unseen, as seeing Him who is invisible. In other words, it's saying here that Moses saw the invisible God. Not with his physical eyes, but he was living every day, every step, with a picture of God in his presence. And he was seeing with those eyes of his heart the presence of the Lord with him through it all. And therefore he could endure, because he believed that the angels, the Lord, camped around about him. And, of course, you know all the Scripture concerning angels, how they are ministering spirits sent by God to watch over you and to protect you and to keep you safe, to keep you from stumbling. They are all about you. And so my dear friend, as we close this morning, when you leave here this morning, would you ask the Lord, say, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, wide open, that I might begin to see you, the invisible God, through my spiritual eyes, through my eyes of faith, that I know that you are going to take care of me, that you're going to watch over me, that you have a plan, and you will guide me every step in my life. Trust Him, dear believer. Trust God with everything in your life. Be not afraid. He is with you, and see Him with your eyes of faith, and suddenly you will find a peace that passes all understanding. Let's pray together. Dear believer, as we close by our heads before the Lord, perhaps this morning you came with the fear in your heart, you came with the anxiety, you came with the uncertainty, and all you've been looking through is your physical eyes at your situation. Would you ask the Lord now to open your eyes like he did the servant's eyes? Say, Lord, help me to begin to see that you are with me, that you are surrounding me with your presence, your angels, and I don't need to live in fear. And I know that you will provide my needs, my every need. Ask God now to give you those eyes of faith, dear believer. If you're here without Christ, I invite you to accept the Savior into your heart right now. Become a Christian, for the Bible says that once we are all born into this world, we are born with blind eyes. Oh, we have physical eyes to see with, but spiritually we're blind. And the Scriptures say that the enemy, Satan, has blinded the eyes of those in this world. And only Jesus can open the eyes and save somebody. If you're not saved this morning, would you trust Christ now to save you? Just pray a simple prayer like this. If you believe that Jesus is a son of God, and he died on that cross for your sins, and you believe he rose from the dead, trust him now with your life. Turn your life over to him and say, Lord, come and save me now. Pray a prayer like this with me now, quietly in your heart. Say, dear Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, and I'm sorry for my sin. I believe you died on that cross for me and took the punishment for my sin. Come into my heart right now. Wash my sins away. I receive you today as my very own Savior. Thank you for dying for me and rising from the dead, Lord Jesus. And with heads still bowed, if you gave your heart to Christ, you're now a child of God, member of the family of God. Your sins have been forgiven you, you've been given the free gift of eternal life. Welcome to the family. Father, take our decisions, encourage our hearts today, and Father, I pray that you might continue to strengthen our faith, Lord, that we might be looking through those eyes of faith from our heart, we might see you in all your glory and all your power. And we ask this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. As we conclude our service, I invite you as we sing, If there's a decision you made, whether you accepted Christ as your Savior today, and you prayed that prayer, I invite you to come down front here. I'll meet you here and pray with you. Or Christian, if you are saying, today, Lord, I want to start living with the eyes of faith, I invite you to come and make it a public declaration right here down the front here at the altar. Would you come as we sing? Please stand with us as we conclude our service with His Name is Wonderful. His name is wonderful, His name is wonderful, His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is the mighty King, Master of everything. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He's the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages, Almighty God is He. Bow down before Him, love and adore Him, Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you of that wonderful name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that Lord that we would go out this week and speak the name of Jesus. that we would have the courage and boldness, Lord, to share your love. Father God, I pray that you would just be with us, Lord. Open the eyes of our heart, Lord, that we can see you in all that we do. Father God, we thank you for your grace. We ask all these things in Jesus' precious name, amen.