Together . . . in Praise and Prayer!

Sermon Summary:

In this powerful message, we’re reminded of our true identity as the church of Christ. We’re not just casual attendees, but part of God’s cosmic plan for redemption. The letter to the Ephesians reveals how God has blessed, chosen, and lavished His grace upon us. We’re called to be the vehicle through which God works in the world, pushing back darkness and bringing hope. Just as God was present with Israel in the Exodus, He’s now present with us through Christ. We’re challenged to see beyond our immediate circumstances and understand our role in God’s grand design. Let’s embrace this calling, allowing God’s glory to blanket the earth through our actions and faith.

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Sermon Points:

• What is God doing? The answer to this question is contextualized by determining what God has already done.
• Ephesians 1:3-14 reveals what God has done: Blessed, Chosen, Destined, Freely Given, Lavished, and Made Known.
• PRAISE – The Jewish tradition of praising God is practiced by recounting how God has worked in the past with an expectation of how He may work in the future.
• PASSOVER – This passage is laden with imagery from the Passover and the Exodus.
• PLAN – God’s great plan of redemption and rescue is to result in the praise of His Glory throughout creation.
• PEOPLE OF GOD: The Church is to be used by God to accomplish God’s plan on earth.
• “The point of it all is the display of God’s eternal and now revealed plan of rescue to show creation that He is the glorious Creator. . . The Church is to be the advance sign to the world the new heaven and earth reality that God plans to make. . .The purpose of God leads to the purpose of the Church. . . The point of the Church is to be so visibly the people indwelt by the Spirit of this God of love and grace and generosity and healing and hope that people will see it and give praise to God the Creator and Redeemer.”

  -N. T. Wright

• PRAYER – We need God’s provision, perspective, power, and presence in order to fulfill our calling on earth as His people.

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Key Takeaways:

• God has blessed, chosen, and destined believers for His purpose
• The church is central to God’s plan of redemption for all creation
• Believers are recipients of God’s lavish grace and revelation
• The imagery of Passover and Exodus is used to illustrate the new redemption in Christ
• The church is called to push back darkness and spread God’s glory throughout the earth
• Paul’s prayer emphasizes the need for spiritual wisdom and revelation to understand our calling

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Scripture References:

• Ephesians 1:3-23

Stories:

• The preacher’s experience at a hardware store, illustrating the importance of knowing what we’re doing as the church
• The story of a West African chief who sought help from a spiritualist and later encountered the gospel through a medical clinic
• The preacher’s personal anecdote about getting glasses, used as a metaphor for gaining spiritual clarity

Transcript

So today, I’ve entitled the message, Together in Praise and Prayer, and the text is found in Ephesians 1, the very first page. We’ll start in verse 3. Let’s imagine that we’re in, remember we talked last Sunday, these, originally when these letters, a letter like the one to the church at Ephesus was received by these churches. These are small house churches. These are gatherings of 6, 8, 10, 12 people. They’re meeting in shops, maybe rooms behind a shop. They’re meeting in an upstairs apartment. They’re meeting in these small gatherings and they’re in towns like Ephesus. That’s where this letter will go originally, but it’ll be distributed throughout that part of the world. That was Paul’s intent. We read in Colossians that Paul says, share these letters with each other. So you might have been in Ephesus and got this originally, or maybe you’re in Colossae or Pergamum or Miletus or Laodicea. You’re in one of those areas and you’re gathering with this handful of people and a letter from Paul has come. Tychicus is there to deliver it, to explain it to you, to read it to you. In fact, yesterday, this morning, I was in Ephesus. This weekend, I did a deacon’s retreat for Pioneer Drive, Baptist and Abilene. And yesterday, the pastor was giving me a tour of their facilities and one of their Sunday school rooms is named the Tychicus Room. And I thought, what an interesting name. Well, if you’re familiar with Paul’s writings, you know, he was one of Paul’s companions. He carried these letters. He explained them to the churches. And so, he’s the one who helped explain this particular letter. So here, here we are, small gathering of people receiving this incredible. Word from the Apostle Paul. He’s in prison in Rome. And this letter now has been hand delivered to our church. And so, let’s look at this text. Now, when you’re reading Ephesians, Paul, he doesn’t write in short, pithy statements. This is not a combative letter. This is not like Corinthians, like 2 Corinthians, where Paul might say, well, you’re saying this. Well, I’m answering you this way. This letter is dense. It is. It’s filled with encouragement. It’s filled with incredible insight and long sentences. So, Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14, let’s start there, is one sentence in Greek. Okay? So, it is a long expression from Paul. Okay? So, look at it with me. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who’s blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reached their fulfillment. To bring unity to all. To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him, we also were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to put our hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who’s a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance to the redemption of those who have sinned. And you also were included in Christ, having been predestined according to the plan of his will, in order that we could be for the praise of his glory. Amen. What a statement from Paul. Again, imagine if you’re in that small group and you hear that. You experience all of this. So here’s the question. What is God doing? That’s what some people want to know today. People have asked that for centuries. Well, the answer to that question is contextualized by determining what God’s already done. One of the ways that we can answer the question, God doing is by understanding what God has always and already done. Because you look at our world today and I get it. You’re watching the news and reading from whatever news outlet you read from and find your news in. It seems a little unhinged, doesn’t it? It’s almost like you wake up every day with a new expression of violence or abuse or war and it seems to be spiraling. There’s anger and injustice and polarization all across our society. But I would just remind you today as Christians that we know that God is at work. God is sovereign. God breaks into history. He has done that in the past. That’s what he does. These people in this first century are living in a world where they’re not alone. They’re living in a world where they’re not alone. They’re living in a time when God has broken into history and Paul has received this revelation from God and he wants to make sure these people know what’s happening. He wants to make sure they know what God is doing. God has sent his Messiah and now through the Messiah’s people, God, the church, God is going to be at work. These uniquely gifted people, the people of the church, they are positioned by God. They’re empowered by God to fulfill God’s purpose in the world. And so again, imagine you’re in that small group of people. They’re gathered in somebody’s shop there in Ephesus or in Miletus or Laodicea or wherever you might have been. And you’re reading this and it almost sounds like you’re at the very center of everything God is doing. Can you imagine how that must have felt to them? I can just imagine them looking around the room going, is he talking about us? Does Paul know that there’s only 12 of us? I mean, does he understand there’s a handful of us here and there’s a few? I’ve heard there’s, a few up in Colossae and, you know, maybe you and I would say, yeah, I heard that there’s a few of us down in Mansfield. And I even heard there’s some of us all the way down in Waco. I mean, but I don’t really know yet because I haven’t ever traveled that far in my whole life. And so we’re supposed to be at the very center of everything God is doing. We’re the recipients of all of this. Well, Paul says yes. And so if you want to know what God has done, well, look at this text. Ephesians 1, 3 through 14 reveals what God has done. Well, what has God done? Well, he’s blessed. He’s chosen. He’s destined. He’s freely given. He’s lavished. He’s made known. Those are the things that Paul says in this one long, challenging, theologically rich, insight-filled sentence. So what has God already done? Well, I want you to look at what he’s done. He’s blessed. That’s what this text says. He’s blessed us in the heavenly realms. He’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In other words, you and I, we live at this in goodness. We live at this in grace. We live at this in love. We live at this in incredible unique intersection where heaven and earth have come together the messiah has come and god is a god of blessing it’s his nature to bless paul was a first century jewish theologian and so he can’t help himself he writes out of a judean context that’s who paul is and when paul thinks about the handiwork of god he’s reminded of all of these stories that he knows so well and how many times has paul read in his scripture where god blessed his people he has blessed abraham and he blessed isaac and he blessed jacob and so it’s god’s nature to bless and so paul says we now have been blessed we’ve been chosen you didn’t just accidentally show up on earth you now are a part of the chosen people of god god has chosen to work through the messiah’s people this is god’s plan all along we’ve been destined the international niv translates it predestined that causes some people to freak out but you don’t need to freak out the bottom line is that word means we’ve been marked out there’s a boundary that’s been drawn out in other words god has chosen his people to give evidence of his life and his grace that are fully revealed in jesus jesus’s people are supposed to reveal jesus that’s what this text teaches us notice verse five we’ve been predestined to be children of god we are now joined joining the family and we are supposed to be connected to jesus and he has freely given us everything that we need that’s what this text says look at verse seven he’s freely given us this grace in christ jesus and i love this next word god doesn’t just barely do things that’s not how god works he has lavished us with god’s grace he has drenched us with god’s grace he has he has given us extravagantly everything that we know and we need to be loved and we’re need. He hasn’t just given you a little bit of his grace. He has lavished you with it. And then he says this, and this may be the key for us in this entire section. In verse 9, it says, he’s made known to us. Now, there’s where we stand out among all other people in our world. There’s something different about Christians, something unique about us. And Paul says, here’s what it is. God has revealed himself to us. Now, once again, I’m trying to imagine these handful of Christians gathering in all these little pockets all over the Asia Minor, and these letters are being delivered to them, and Paul is saying to them, you, I’m talking to you. God’s made known to you. He’s revealed to you the mystery of his will. He’s showing you what he intends to do. You see, the church doesn’t operate in our own strength. We don’t operate with our own insight and our own wisdom. That’s not how this works. We don’t just get together and gather our collective genius and bring all of our collective skills to the table. We do that, but that’s not all we do. What we do is, when we gather together, we come together as people who have been marked and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, and God is revealing himself to us. He is making things known to us, the mystery of his plan. The church is going to be the vehicle through whom God is going to work in the world.

We have to know what we’re doing. Have y’all ever watched somebody do something, and you ask them the question, do you even know what you’re doing? Have you ever wondered that about someone? Do you even know what you’re doing? Well, let me tell you what. The church, we should of all people know what we’re doing. I’ve told y’all before, one of my favorite places to go, you know, whatever the opposite of a handyman is, that’s what I am, okay? So, I am nowhere near a handyman. One of my favorite places to go, there’s a hardware store that I love to go to in this town, because it’s full of a bunch of people who know what they’re doing. And I’ve been in there before, and take stuff that’s broken, and I can’t tell you how many times one of those guys look at me and say, I know exactly what you need. One time I went in there, and I had a part of my toilet in my hand. I said, I don’t know what to do. He said, I know exactly what you need. Takes me back, takes this package off the wall, opens it, and starts throwing stuff in it away in the trash can, because this is all this is going to do is confuse you when you get home. You’re not even going to need it. I haven’t you’re not going to need this. You’re not going to need this. Don’t worry about this. Do this right here. You know what I love about that? He knows what he’s doing. Well, when people come to the church, we don’t know everything about what’s supposed to happen politically in this world. We may not know everything that’s supposed to happen economically in this world. We’re not experts in that arena, but we know exactly what God is doing, and we’re supposed to be experts in that. Because here’s what the Bible says. God has made known to us. He’s revealed himself to us the mystery of his will and all that he’s accomplishing through Jesus. That’s what this text says. Look at verse 9. He’s made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, he says, which he’s purposed in Christ. We are Christ’s people, and we are supposed to know what he is all about. Now, as I said, Paul is a Jewish theologian, okay? And so, he can’t help himself when he’s writing. What did the Jews do? What did the Jews typically do, particularly those first century Jewish worshipers? Whenever they praised God, here’s what that meant to them. The Jewish tradition of praising God is practiced by recounting how God has worked in the past. That’s how the Jews praised God, with an expectation of how he is going to work in the future. And so, when the Jewish people came together to worship in the synagogue, there was a time in the worship for praise, and praise was a recounting of what God’s already done. You would look over your shoulder and thank God for what God’s already done. They would tell these stories over and over and over again. Their minds were saturated with the works of God in history. And as they did that, y’all, it was anticipating what God might do now, and what he will do, in the future. So, this text is a great example of that. You know, this text just reminds us that Paul’s mind is saturated with these Old Testament stories. Now, how do I know that? Well, here’s the problem you and I have today, and I’m going to say this politely. We just don’t know our Bibles well enough. That’s one of the problems we have. We just don’t know our Bibles well enough. Paul knew his Bible very well. He knew his Bible very well. He knew his Bible very well. He knew his Bible very well. And so, when he writes, he’s just filled with Biblical imagery. And if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it. So, let me just show you what I mean by that. In this passage, what we’ll discover is Paul is alluding to the Passover and the Exodus. It’s laden with imagery from the Passover and the Exodus. And so, if you’re paying attention, and our minds are saturated with truth, we’ll recognize those. So, let me just point them out to you. And, you know, here’s the thing. When God delivered his people from Egypt, one of the things that happened to them was he challenged them to build him a tent. Y’all remember that story? Everybody had their own tent, and God told Moses, now build me my tent. Y’all remember that? My tent, it was known as what? The tabernacle. And guess what happened? Once they got it finished, all of a sudden, God came down and met them in that tabernacle. And it was filled with smoke and just the glory of God. Y’all remember that? And there was this pillar of the presence of God. It was a pillar of fire. It was a pillar of a cloud. And the presence of God was there with them to guide them. It was where heaven and earth had come together. And there was a mystery about it, but there was something powerful. There was something incarnational about it, where God was right there with his people. And then eventually, y’all, they’re going to get to Jerusalem and build another one. But this time, it’s not going to be a tent. It’s going to be an actual building, right? The temple. And in the temple, the same thing. It’s where the glory of God was. It’s where God has visited earth. It’s where heaven and earth have now come together. What Paul wants you and I to understand, what he wants these people to understand is, that’s exactly what’s happened in the Messiah. He wants these people to know that just like God was with the children of Israel in the Exodus, now God is with his people in the new Exodus. And now heaven and earth have come together. Where? In a building? No. God’s already told them that. Remember back in 2 Samuel 7, David wanted to build the temple. Do y’all remember that story? And he said, all right, I got a great house. I love my house. It’s built out of this cedar from Lebanon. I’m going to build God a house. Remember what God told Nathan to tell David? You’re not going to build my house. Your hands are what? Bloody. You’re a warrior. I’m going to let your son build my house. But even then, y’all are going to have to learn, I don’t dwell in a house built with human hands. That’s not how it works. So foreshadowing, y’all still with me? In other words, something different is going to have to happen. Guess what’s going to have to happen? All of a sudden, the prophets begin to whisper and speak, and the psalmists write about it. It’s actually going to be in a person, and then in a people. And so the Messiah is that new tabernacle. Come on, y’all. John says, the Word became flesh. And we saw his glory, the glory of the one and only. And then you and I now are the new temple being built up into a spiritual house by the power of God. Paul is laying all that groundwork here in Ephesians. He’s saying, you remember the Passover. You remember the Exodus. The imagery is laden in here. Now, verse 10, if you still have your Bibles open, verse 10, here’s the goal. Everything one day is going to be brought. All of heaven and earth, the entire cosmos. But the imagery is the new Passover has had to take place. The new Exodus has had to take place. So look at verse 7. In him, we have redemption. Now, that Greek word redemption is the Greek word deliverance. Now, Paul and many of the people in Paul’s day, as best we can tell, when they read the scripture, a lot of them did read it in Christ. In Greek, not Hebrew. The Greek translation of the scripture was called the Septuagint. Well, that word, that Greek word for deliverance that you find right here is the word for the Exodus in the Old Testament. It’s the word for redemption, if you will. They were delivered from Egypt. That’s the word Paul uses here. Just like the Jews were delivered from Egypt, you’ve been delivered. And then notice the imagery. Verse 7, we have redemption through his blood. Well, that calls the Passover to happen. The blood was put on the doorposts. So the angel of death would pass over. And so when Jesus makes his announcement and he brings his Messiahship to its fullest measure, when does he do it? Passover in Jerusalem. I mean, Paul knows all of this. But the Jews were not in Egypt because of their sinfulness. And so they weren’t forgiven for their sins. They were just rescued from the Egyptians. But this time, the new Exodus is different because this Exodus is for Jews and Gentiles. And we need to be delivered from something far worse than the Egyptians or even the Romans. We need to be delivered from sin. And the blood of Jesus now makes that possible. And so you and I are recipients, beneficiaries of the forgiveness of sin. Our Messiah is our Redeemer. We have been set free. We’ve been delivered, not just Israel, but the whole world. And so we need to be delivered from sin. And so we need to be delivered from sin. And so we need to be delivered from sin. And so we need to be delivered from sin. And so we need to be delivered from sin. And in Christ, the whole world, heaven and earth, is all going to come together. So the plan of God, God’s great plan of redemption and rescue is going to result in the praise of his glory, not just in the camp of Israel, not just in the land of Judea, but in all of creation. His glory is going to blanket the earth. That’s what the prophet said. That’s what they long for. Heaven and earth are going to collapse together in a new creation. It’s going to collapse together in a new creation. And so ultimately, something colossal, something cosmic is on the horizon. And guess who’s a part of it? Guess who’s right in the middle of that plan? Guess who God is going to use to accomplish that plan? Guess what God is doing right now? What is God doing right now? God is at work through his people, as he always has been. It’s the people of God, me and you. We are to be used, the church is to be used by God to accomplish God’s plan on earth. You see, that’s God’s plan in the Messiah. And so what’s happening here in this letter is Paul, he has no idea what’s going to happen to him. He’s in prison in Rome. He’s not sure how much longer he’s going to live. He doesn’t know. And so he wants to make sure that these churches know who they really are. You’re not just this small gathering of people that somehow or another maybe have attached yourself to a new religion. That’s not who you are. You’re not just this small gathering of people that somehow or another maybe have attached yourself to a new religion. That’s not who you are. That’s not who you are. You’re not just this small gathering of people that somehow or another maybe have attached yourself to a new religion. That’s not who you are. You’re a part of the grand plan of redemption, working itself out from the very beginning of creation. In fact, God has chosen us before the foundation of the world itself, because God is going to redeem all of creation, and his glory is going to blanket the whole earth. Well, how’s his glory going to blanket the whole earth? Through us, through the church. We now, Messiah’s people, that’s God’s purpose for the people of God, to serve his will and his interests all over the world. And that means that the Spirit of God has to be involved, because you and I can’t do it on our own. Paul knows that. So the Spirit of God’s been given to us as a guarantee of what’s going to happen on into the future, to the praise of God’s glory. That means that God is going to blanket the earth with his glory through his people. And what are his people going to do? They’re going to push back the forces of darkness. They’re going to bring messages of hope and healing and redemption. They’re going to be examples of it, pockets of it, in communities all over the world. You know, a few years ago, I was in West Africa, and we were doing a medical clinic with Pastor Emanuel, and he’s our primary partner in that part of the world. Incredible man of God. A chief came to see us, made his way there, and he told Emanuel his story. And they’d had trouble in the village. He had had trouble himself, and he went to the spiritualist in the community. Emanuel, he called him the witch doctor. And this spiritualist met with the chief and took him outside the village and said, you need to sacrifice on behalf of this village. Here’s why there’s so much trouble in this village. Here’s why you’re having so much trouble. Here’s what you need to do. I need three of your toes for this ceremony. So he cuts off three of his toes, and the village is still troubled. The chief is still troubled. And so we’re there that day, and this chief shows up, and he’s visiting with Emanuel. And Emanuel, Let’s talk about our God to him. And he asks him, is your God going to make me cut off more of my toes? And Emmanuel says, no, our God’s going to set you free from that kind of darkness. We’re going to push back the forces of evil in your village. And we’re going to help you find a path to redemption and hope and healing where there’s real freedom. Because Jesus has come to set you and your whole village free. There’s a church in that village now.

Because this chief had been living under the cover of darkness and the force of evil. And guess what? The church is there to push that back to the praise of the glory of God. Because the glory of God is blanketing the earth. Because that’s how it’s supposed to work. And he’s doing it through the church. So come on, y’all. Y’all aren’t just showing up on a Sunday morning. Come on. You’re a part of this incredible, glorious, cosmic work of God known as the church. And every time there’s victory in our lives, something is happening from a heavenly perspective. And we’re fulfilling. We’re fulfilling the purpose and the plan of God. And the forces of evil are being pushed back one more time in one more arena. Let me read to you a quote from N.T. Wright. He shared some of this with us in Houston. Here’s what N.T. says. The point of it all is the display of God’s eternal and now revealed plan of rescue to show creation that he’s the glorious creator. Remember, he said he’s made known this to you. The church is to be the advanced sign to the world, the new heaven. The earth reality that God plans to make. The purpose of God leads to the purpose of the church. The point of the church is to be so visibly the people indwelt by the spirit of this God of love and grace and generosity and healing and hope that people will see it and give praise to the God, the creator and redeemer. You see, God is redeeming his whole creation. Now, let me say this in closing. Can you imagine this handful of people discussing this and going, How in the world could this ever happen? I mean, come on. It’s just us. You and I can think that right now. So, here’s what Paul does. He stops and he prays because he knows this is too much for these people. So, he stops and he prays. Let’s look at his prayer. Look at verse 15. Paul says, for this reason, for this reason, for the fact that the church is going to play this role and I’m afraid you may not understand it. So, for this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all God’s people. In other words, since you’ve joined the family now, I’ve not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. Do y’all see that? Not so that you can have all of your prayer concerns answered. Not so that your life can be more comfortable. But notice what he says. He says, I’m praying that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and knowledge so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he’s called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all. All rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, which is now the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Paul says, I’m praying that you’ll understand who you really are, that you’ll know your God better. And his prayer is laden with messianic imagery that’s drawn from passages like Psalm 110, and Psalm 8, and Isaiah 11. But once again, we don’t know our Bibles well enough to recognize it all. These are great messianic passages in the Old Testament where God gave these people the ability to see beyond where they currently were into a day that was to come when God’s glory would blanket all the earth. And his son, the Messiah, would be seated in the heavenly places with him. And all things would be put under his feet. Here’s what Paul is praying for you. See, here’s what he’s praying for. Here’s what the devil does. The devil is a specialist in spiritual cataracts. See, the devil wants to keep the church’s vision always cloudy, always less than. The devil wants the church to have low horizon thinking. The devil wants to always pull us down just into what’s going on in our lives. He never wants us to really see what’s going on. You know, when I was pastoring in Gemtown, Oklahoma, Sid and I were driving back and forth every weekend, our first church. And I got to notice him. And at night, I had a hard time seeing when I was driving. And I’d never really noticed it before, but it was pretty obvious. And we started having this little running joke when I was driving. I would say, okay, you tell me when you can read that sign. I’ll tell you when I can read it. And Cindy would say, got it. And we’d keep riding. And I’d finally go, got it. And she’d say, you’ve got to go to the doctor, you know, if I’m going to keep riding with you. And so, I’d never been to the doctor in my life. I never thought about going to an eye doctor. I see fine. My goodness, I batted 350. 150 in high school baseball. I can hit a baseball. I know what I’m doing. I went to the eye doctor. Got my first set of glasses. I walked out of that doctor’s office. And I said, so is this what y’all all been seeing? You’re telling me this is what I’ve been missing? That’s what Paul is praying. Paul is saying, put on your spiritual glasses. Get rid of those devilish cataracts. And have your cloudy vision unclouded and see who you really are. And here’s what God wants. He wants you to know him better. One of the saddest passages in the scripture is in Hosea chapter 4 when God says, nobody knows me. God says in Hosea 4, when there’s no knowledge of God in the land. My own people don’t even know me. Here’s the thing, y’all. Our world needs us. They don’t even know how desperately they need us. And if we lose our way, heaven help us. God gives the church perspective and power and presence so we don’t lose our way. So that we’ll fulfill our role. We’ll be used by God because God’s at work reconciling, restoring, and redeeming. He’s redeeming this broken world until one day he returns. He’s calling us to help get this world ready. So come on, church. Let’s praise him. Let’s pray. And let’s be the people of the Messiah. May it be so. Let’s pray together. we thank you.