1. "A church that preaches a high view of God should see its prayer meeting filling up. And a Christian that believes that God has so loved him as to have elected him before the foundation of the world, according to the counsel of his will, should see in this God such a loving Father that he should naturally turn to him with his heart's fervent requests."

2. "Why pass the gas station when the car is almost empty? Why pass the full refrigerator when we're starving? Or the flowing fountain when we're thirsty?"

3. "Some of the most difficult people you work with might benefit more from your praying for them than your talking about them."

4. "When you get to know some people, your desire to know them better diminishes. But when you get to know others, you want to know them more. God is the ultimate example of that second type."

5. "Brothers and sisters, love for all the saints does not come naturally. Have you not gotten to know each other? Some you will love naturally, but some you won't. So that love must come from God. In that sense, our love is the appearance of God's power in this world."

6. "Paul's praying for God to enlighten them doesn't stop Paul from penning five more chapters of instruction to them. He prays for God to act, enlighten them, and then he keeps writing. He keeps instructing them further. There's no conflict between that."

7. "God is the point of all His gifts."

8. "Dear brother, dear sister, you never need to feel threatened by the church being opposed. I promise you, your church is going to be, if it's preaching the gospel, it will be opposed by the world from now until Christ returns. But I promise you, the world will not win."

9. "We don't believe in the supremacy of any color or ethnicity or race. We are Christ supremacists. We believe that Christ is above all others for all time."

10. "Don't assume that our meetings with our friends to pray, our meetings with fellow members, are fruitless and pointless just because we don't see all the fruit. Pray in confidence not of the future you can't see, but of the past you know from God's Word."

Observation Questions

1. In Ephesians 1:15-16, what two things does Paul say he has heard about the Ephesian believers, and what is his response to hearing this news?

2. According to verses 17-18, what specific things does Paul pray that God would give the Ephesian believers through "the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation"?

3. In verse 18, Paul prays that the Ephesians would know three things. What are the three "what is" phrases that describe what he wants them to know?

4. According to verses 20-21, what did God do to Christ, and how does Paul describe Christ's position in relation to "all rule and authority and power and dominion"?

5. In verse 22, what two actions does Paul say God took regarding Christ's relationship to "all things" and to "the church"?

6. How does Paul describe the church in verse 23, and what phrase does he use to describe Christ's relationship to "all in all"?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Paul begins his prayer with thanksgiving for the Ephesians' faith and love (v. 15-16) before moving to his requests? How does the sermon explain the relationship between praise and intercession throughout chapter 1?

2. Paul prays that the Ephesians would know "the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe" (v. 19), and then immediately points to Christ's resurrection and exaltation (v. 20-21). Why is the resurrection the supreme demonstration of God's power for believers, and how does this parallel the Exodus in the Old Testament?

3. In verse 18, Paul prays that the Ephesians would know "the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints." The sermon explains this as God's people being God's heritage rather than the inheritance believers receive. What does it mean that we are God's valued inheritance, and why would knowing this deepen our relationship with Him?

4. How does Paul's pattern of both praying for God to enlighten the Ephesians (v. 17-18) and writing five more chapters of instruction demonstrate the relationship between God's work and human effort in spiritual growth?

5. What is the significance of the phrase "the fullness of him who fills all in all" (v. 23), and how does Christ's headship over the church relate to His supreme authority over all powers described in verses 21-22?

Application Questions

1. The sermon challenges us to examine whether we are strong in thanksgiving but weak in making requests, or vice versa. When you pray this week, how might you practically begin by thanking God for specific answered prayers before moving to new requests?

2. Paul thanked God for the Ephesians' faith and love because he heard about it from others. What is one testimony of God's work in your life or another believer's life that you could share this week to encourage someone, and who might benefit from hearing it?

3. The sermon states that "some of the most difficult people you work with might benefit more from your praying for them than your talking about them." Is there a specific difficult person in your life for whom you could commit to pray regularly this week instead of complaining about them?

4. Paul prayed that the Ephesians would know God better and know His blessings better. What is one practical step you could take this week to grow in your knowledge of God—whether through Scripture reading, meditation, or conversation with another believer?

5. The sermon emphasizes that love for all the saints is a mark of true faith and requires God's power. Is there a fellow church member whom you do not naturally love or connect with easily? What is one specific action you could take to demonstrate Christ-like love toward that person?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Philippians 1:3-11 — This passage shows Paul's similar pattern of thanksgiving and intercession for another church, reinforcing how praise leads to prayer and what spiritual growth Paul desires for believers.

2. Colossians 1:9-14 — Paul's prayer for the Colossians closely parallels Ephesians 1, emphasizing knowledge of God's will, spiritual wisdom, and the power of God who has delivered us into Christ's kingdom.

3. James 2:14-26 — This passage develops the inseparable connection between true faith and works of love that the sermon emphasizes as evidence of genuine conversion.

4. 1 John 3:11-24 — This passage expands on how love for fellow believers proves our love for God and demonstrates the reality of our faith, a theme central to the sermon.

5. Matthew 16:13-20 — Jesus' promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church connects to the sermon's emphasis on Christ's supreme authority and the certainty of the church's ultimate victory.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of How We Learn to Pray

II. Lesson One: Look Up and Around—Praise God and Pray for Others

III. Lesson Two: Look Back and Ahead—Thank God and Make Requests

IV. Lesson Three: We Must Pray—True Faith Brings Love That Prays

V. Lesson Four: We Shouldn't Only Pray—God's Work Doesn't Replace Our Work

VI. Lesson Five: Consider Why We Should Pray—To Know God Better

VII. Lesson Six: Remember That God Takes Sides—Christ Is Supreme Over All

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Prayins a very simple question I want to ask tonight is this: How do you learn to pray?

How do you learn to pray?

In the past, most people probably learned from their parents, praying at the table or their bedsides. In family devotionals. I remember praying with my family before meals when I'm not sure any of us were really even Christians at the time. It was culturally normal, at least in our extended family, to give thanks before we ate. In fact, I can remember in our public schools in Kentucky beginning each day with a Bible reading and prayer over the public address system.

Everyone in their seats in their homeroom, and a short Bible passage read, and a short prayer prayed.

And then, of course, we learn things at church. These prayers may be shouted and spontaneous and rhythmic, or they may be quietly read from a book of common prayer, or something in between. But millions of people every Sunday across our nation hear God prayed to. Praying is common in Christian churches. Whether or not we're paying attention to it.

We are being given examples of how we too can pray. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But all prayers we hear suggest something to us about prayer. So how can we learn to pray? In this time together, I want us to turn to Paul's letter to the Ephesians that we've begun to study this year.

Let's look at the last last section of chapter 1, verses 15 to 23, and see in this example of Paul's own praying some things that we can learn about praying for our own prayer lives. So follow along as I read from Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 to 23.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. All.

This prayer should instruct us about our prayers for ourselves and for others. Let me suggest six basic lessons we learn about praying from Paul's example here. These are lessons that I think are very simple and they are wonderful. When you pray, number one, look up and around. Look up and around.

I don't mean that literally, like look up and around. I don't mean that. What I mean is look up in the sense of what Paul is doing here in chapter 1. He praises God and then look around and then pray for those around you. Really take this from looking at all of chapter 1.

If you look at our passage at verse 15, notice how it starts. Paul says, For this reason.

Paul is really pulling together the whole chapter here. He is most immediately referring to the Ephesians' believing, which he referenced up in verse 13, and which he restates here in verse 15 as your faith in the Lord Jesus. In a larger sense, though, for this reason, pulls together the one long sentence that makes up verses 3 to 14. And this long sentence in verses 15 to 23. In the Greek, those are just two sentences.

He's pulling them together here. He's saying, All this up here in verses 3 to 14 leads me to say what I'm saying in praying here in verses 15 to 23. That is, because God is who He is and has done what He's done in you, then I am doing this and doing this in this particular way. What was Paul doing? He was giving thanks for these Christians in Ephesus and he was praying for them to this great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us an everlasting inheritance by uniting us to his Son through faith in him and his promises.

Now I realize that these days when you look at churches like us that are dislocated, we're not meeting in our normal neighborhood gathering, churches may look weak. But Paul here has begun this letter by recognizing that we Christians are blessed by God in Christ, that we have been predestined according to God's purposes. This particular assembly named after where we normally meet, and Lord willing to meet again there soon, the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, gathers together confident of God's blessings to us in Christ. Which blessings are far more powerful and long lasting than any virus could hinder or vaccine could help. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that if the Lord tarries, the pandemic will slip from public memory?

Even if it stays in the front of our thoughts for a few years, other things will happen. People will talk about other things and be concerned about other things, but the promises of the gospel that we cherish together now will continue to be the center of our lives and our life together. We repeat this pattern every week when we come together. Did you notice that? Did you notice how Barak gave a prayer of praise?

And then after that, after we've reminded ourselves of who God is, and what He's like, I come and I lead in a prayer of intercession where we ask. So in our own congregational gathering we reflect this pattern we see here in Ephesians chapter 1. So in chapter 1 here we see You see, the praise of the first half is related to the prayer in the second. The praise of the first part of the chapter is balanced and completed by the intercession of the second part. We see in this whole chapter taken together the importance of both praise that gives rise to the intercession and the intercession that is the flowering of the praise.

Adoring the God who blesses us with every spiritual blessing and purposes and works all things according to the counsel of his will, naturally leads us to turn and pray and to pray along these very lines. Because we know that this God is able to hear and He's able to answer. We know that this God is willing to hear and more willing to answer than we are to ask. He is merciful and loving. He has given His Son for us.

He has sent His Spirit to us, living in a fallen world as we do, to praise God as Paul does here and then not pray to Him, including very often asking of Him. Would seem strange indeed to consider a God so able and so loving and then to Ignore him. Why pass the gas station when the car is almost empty? Why pass the full refrigerator when we're starving? Or the flowing fountain when we're thirsty?

Friends, a church that preaches a high view of God should see its prayer meeting filling up. A church that preaches a high view of God should see its prayer meeting filling up. And a Christian that believes that God has so loved him as to have elected him before the foundation of the world, according to the counsel of his will, should see in this God such a loving Father that he should naturally turn to him with his heart's fervent requests for himself and for those he knows and loves. Just consider the answers that we have seen among us. Our very meeting here now is an answer to prayers first offered in the 1860s in our neighborhood.

And continuing to be offered and answered since then. How many of you sitting here actually came to know the Lord in part through the answer to prayers of other people sitting here tonight? That would not be all of us, but that would be many of us. The Lord is so incredibly kind and faithful to hear and answer our prayers.

Friends, prayer seldom seems to grow in the blighted land of churches that do not praise God in the terms we see earlier here in chapter 1, that do not adore God as Paul does here. Biblical theology fuels biblical prayers. Joining knowledge of God's goodness to knowledge of His power naturally causes prayers to spark in the believing heart.

And that's what we see happening here in the heart of the gospel, is this great apostle writes in his pen as he shares his heart's fullness with these Ephesian believers. Such praise as we see here demands prayer, and such prayers require a God sufficient to hear and answer them, a God who is worthy of our praise. Friend, if you're here tonight and you've come with someone and you are not a Christian, we're very glad you're here.

Do you know a world without this kind of love and concern for others?

Do you understand what it means that there is a God who is like this, who cares? We've got great news for you about Jesus Christ. You may hear and understand it in this message I'm giving you, or you may do better in a personal conversation afterwards.

But let me encourage you, if you have not understood that there is a God who actually cares about us as individuals, please speak to the friend you came with. Ask him or her what the preacher meant when he said that God cares for us as individuals. Explore that. Anyway, simple lesson number one on prayer. Look up and look around.

That is, praise God and pray for others. Lesson number two, when you pray, and I'm really taking this from the whole passage I've read to you, verses 15 to 23, look back and ahead. Look back and ahead. Now, once again, I don't mean this literally, not talking about the turning of your head. I'm just characterizing what Paul did here in this prayer.

If you look again at just verses 15 and 16, For this reason, because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you. That's what I'm calling looking back. Giving thanks for what God has already done. Remembering you in my prayers. That's looking forward.

Praying for what God has not yet done, but what God might do. Looking back, thanking. Looking forward, remembering to pray for what's coming. And this is Paul's typical pattern. You can find other prayers of Paul like this in Philippians chapter 1 or Colossians chapter 1 or Philemon verses 4 to 6.

In each of these prayers when praying for someone else Paul both looked backwards and thanked God for what God had already done and then looked forward and asked God for blessings still to come. He offered thanks and requests, thanks and intercession. You see that in verse 15 and the first part of verse 16 as Paul gave thanks for what God had done in them and then in verse 16 turned to interceding asking God for these Christians his Spirit so that they could know more of God's future for them, his riches and his his power. So Paul thanked God for what God had done in these Ephesian believers. God had already caused them to love Him, and now Paul asked that that love would be deepened with further knowledge of the truth.

You know, when you get to know some people, your desire to know them better diminishes.

But when you get to know others, you want to know them more.

Have you found that with God?

God is the ultimate example of that second type. Paul knew that these Ephesian Christians had already come to know God and he thanked God for that. But now Paul wants their hearts further enlightened and that further enlightenment would require further knowledge because Truth about God begets love in redeemed hearts.

By means of such praying, beginning with thanksgiving and then going into intercession, Paul is reminding us that God has already shown Himself powerful and good by what He has already done in the lives of the very ones we're praying for. And this should encourage us to what? To ask still more of Him. As we take note of what He's done, we're encouraged to ask still more.

So, my Christian friend, I wonder how you're doing in your own prayer life. Are you one of those with developed, thanksgiving muscles, but your requesting muscles are puny? Or are you the other type who rushes into the Lord's presence asking this and this and this, and never stopping and taking stock and taking time to thank Him for all that He's answered of what you've asked before?

Too often that latter one is like me. I'm good at teaching you to give thanks. I'm better at that than I am at giving thanks. In my own quiet times every morning, I'm pretty good at meditating on Scripture, pretty good at praising the Lord, good at interceding, but I don't think I'm as practiced as I should be at Thanksgiving, and I'm instructed and encouraged by this passage. So, as you pray later tonight and tomorrow morning, join me in trying to self-consciously begin your praying by thanking God for answering your earlier prayers.

You know, many Christians in the past would keep literal logs of prayers made and answered. A book I've mentioned many times before by Samuel Prime called the Power of Prayer. Many books are called the Power of Prayer. Many of those I would not recommend you read. This one is by Samuel Prime.

Not Derek Prince, Samuel Prime. Not even Derek Prime, a dear Scottish brother, wonderful man. But this is particularly Samuel Prime. It's a 19th century book, the Power of Prayer. It's a straightforward, you could even say boring, account of the prayer revival in New York City in 1858 where they met at noon and they would just write down requests.

Of prayers for about an hour. And then they would write down answers to those prayers that they had made yesterday. And the book is just filled with captain of this ship prayed for on Tuesday, Thursday word of his conversion comes. I mean, just prayer after prayer made and answered. And friends, that's typical of God.

That's typical of God in the past, and it's typical of God in our own lives. And if that doesn't seem what God is like to you, it's because you haven't been paying attention.

He is faithful to answer our prayers. God will do that for us. He will do what we could never do for ourselves. We could never give ourselves spiritual lives, but He has done it for us and for all of us who are Christians here today. We could never even preserve our physical being for a single instant, and yet here we are alive with our being.

Friend, what are some of the desires you have for yourself but this seems beyond your ability to bring them about.

Have you prayed about them? If you haven't, why not? And you know, you don't have to limit your prayers to those, to only praying for those that you feel a natural affection for. Some of the most difficult people you work with might benefit more from your praying for them than you're talking about them.

So let's say there's somebody you work with who's in real pain and you have a budget of 100 words to expend about them this week. Only 100 goes very quickly 100 words. Three or four sentences and they're gone. You could expend gaining sympathy from a friend as you commiserate, or you could go to the Lord. And expend those words in praying for that person.

Brothers and sisters, when you would pray, thank God for what He has done and then ask for more. Lesson number three about prayer.

We really see this in verse 15, and it's this: We must pray. Lesson number three is simply that we must pray. What I mean by this is that true faith in God will bring about love for His people and loving them will include praying for them.

The little letter of James teaches us that faith, true faith, breeds love.

And love will naturally show itself in prayer. So we're not surprised to read here in verse 15, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Paul has both described in that what happened in them. They had faith in the Lord Jesus and they loved all the saints. The two things are related.

And he's demonstrating that himself. And he has heard of their faith. He's heard of God's answer to that prayer. And now he's demonstrating love for them by praying for them. And even informing them of that prayer.

Paul, you'll notice, wasn't congratulating them for their having believed. He was thanking God for them. He was assuming that this wonderful conversion that they had known was the outworking of God's marvelous plan that we've seen earlier in chapter 1. Their being included in Christ was the result, not of any physical birth, it wasn't an ethnic matter, it wasn't a matter of family tradition. They were members of Christ's body because God had incorporated them.

He had regenerated them, given them the new birth, the spiritual birth, In short, He had saved them. What a ground of thanksgiving we have in our salvation. God has not only ordained this wonderful ancient plan in chapter 1, but He has included us in it if we're Christians. This is the outworking of His ancient plan. That's why Paul would thank God for their faith in the Lord Jesus, because their faith is one of the good works of God, giving this gift of faith, as Paul will write more about in the next chapter of Ephesians that we turn to next week, Lord willing.

Faith in Jesus Christ honors God because Christ's promises are God's promises. So Paul also thanks God for their love toward all the saints. So he doesn't thank them, though he's telling them about it to encourage them, but he's thanking God for them because their faith and their love are the gifts of God to them. If you want to read more about that tonight, just go ahead and skip over to chapter 2 faith in Christ and love for the saints are happy companions. They're never really separated in true Christians.

They go together. What does it mean if we don't love someone not only born in God's image, but reborn and filled with the Spirit of Christ? If you want to mull this over, this connection a little bit more, just tonight before you go to bed, read the two very short letters in the New Testament, one by James and then 1 John. They both talk about this connection of faith and love. Paul had heard of both their faith and their love.

When you find the one, you will find the other. True faith will show itself in love. And when Paul is giving thanks to God for their conversion, he mentions both their saving faith in the Lord Jesus and also their love for the saints that prove their love for God. Sounds just like what the Lord Jesus taught in John 13:34 and 35, By this the world will know that you are My disciples by the love you have for one another. That's the telltale sign.

That's how the world will know we're His disciples. The same strength of God which has given us faith in Christ works the mighty work of giving us love for all the saints. Brothers and sisters, love for all the saints does not come naturally. Have you not gotten to know each other? Some you will love naturally, but some you won't.

So that love must come from God. In that sense, our love is the appearance of God's power in this world. It advertises our faith in Christ and His promises. So, brothers and sisters, just ask, how have we done as a church family in advertising our faith in Christ by our love of? Have Christian churches in the DC area risen to the challenges of this season?

Have we made them opportunities? I don't think our trials are over quite yet. What could we do that would be a still better witness for Christ in our community? Pray for us and for sister congregations that we seize these days to be loving witnesses for Christ to those all around us. People talk.

They're going to be saying something. Paul had heard about these Ephesians' faith and love. I wonder who's heard about ours.

I wonder what they've heard.

I wonder what they've heard about yours.

So lesson number three about prayer is that we must pray.

And I mean that in the sense that true faith in God will bring about love for His people. And loving them will include praying for them. So faith breeds love. We must pray. Lesson number four about prayer, we see these in verses 16 to 18, and that is that we shouldn't only pray.

We shouldn't only pray. By that I mean God's work doesn't replace our work.

Look with me at these verses again, after Paul says there in verse 16 that I do not cease to give thanks for you. He goes on to say, Remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glory to the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe. So in these verses we see that there is God's work and ours. Paul, after thanking God for God's work, prays for more. He moves to intercession there in verse 17, praying first in verse 17 that they may know God better, and then in the rest of the chapter that they may know God's blessings better.

Paul asks the Father of glory to give these believers the Spirit of wisdom. And by the Spirit of wisdom, some of your translations may have a Spirit of wisdom, like to give them wisdom. But I think the translations that have that Spirit capitalized and view it as the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit are correct. I think that's a better reading of it. The Spirit of God, because given the close connection between God's Spirit and wisdom in Paul's writings and elsewhere in Scripture, that just seems to be much clearly the case.

The Spirit is the one who reveals God to people. As he enlightens and enlivens their hearts to repent and believe. And Paul also prays in the rest of the chapter that they may know God's blessings better. This is how God's Spirit has worked in our lives. He illuminates the Scripture by enlightening our hearts.

He did that with the Ephesians then, and he does that still with us today. But, and this is what I really want you to notice here, Paul's praying for God to enlighten them doesn't stop Paul from penning five more chapters of instruction to them.

So he prays for God to act, enlighten them, and then he keeps writing. He keeps instructing them further. He keeps giving them more information. There's no conflict between that. So what that means for us is that while we should we shouldn't only pray.

God still intends us to work, just like the apostle did in writing and sending this letter of instruction, just like he did in praying for them. He saw no inconsistency in asking God to do and in he himself continuing to work. Paul tells them that he prayed that they might know God better. That's really a summary of verse 17. You see that end phrase, the knowledge of Him, that Him is God.

Paul prayed that they would know God better, and to this end he prayed that God would further fill them with His Spirit and that His Spirit would reveal more and more of God and His ways and will to them. And then Paul wrote down a summary of other things that he prayed for them and five more chapters of this letter to help them do just that. How encouraging for Paul to share with these Christians what he was praying for them even as he had been encouraged by hearing the truth about what was happening among them. Aaron McCollum, you tweeted that out yesterday to answer my tweet. I thought it was great.

It's sort of an encouraging circle. You know, he heard about them and then he informed them of his prayers for them. And that's the way it is. As destructive as negative gossip is, positive testimonies about God's work in our own lives or other people's lives, that's helpful. It's encouraging.

So, lesson number four about prayer is we shouldn't only pray. We shouldn't only pray. God's work doesn't replace our work. Now, when you pray, consider lesson number five, consider why we should pray. Lesson number five, consider why we should pray.

All of our prayers are to be ultimately for God's glory. Any gift God grants us or others in answer to our prayers are all to bring to our minds and hearts our fear and our love of love back to God Himself. God is the point of all His gifts. God is the point of all His gifts. Just consider what Paul prayed here for these Ephesian believers.

He was praying three basic things for them. You see, you can tell them the way I read it in verse 18, that you may know, and you have three what is phrases after that. That you may know the hope to which God has called them, the riches of God's inheritance in the saints, and the power of God. You see that there in these verses. First, there is the hope to which God has called them.

These are the future certainties like salvation and resurrection and eternal life.

And then he also prays for them to come to know more of the riches of God's inheritance in the saints. Now this is interesting. We can do a whole separate sermon on this. This is not the inheritance we receive as believers fundamentally. Paul has talked about that back in like verses 11 and 14, if you look up and you remember that from our last Ephesians sermon.

But rather, the inheritance here is an Old Testament image of God's people as God's heritage. We are His inheritance. He values us. He has set upon us that value. We are His inheritance.

And among other things, coming to know this better will bring us to understand and to know God Himself better. But what Paul spends most of the time on in this prayer is praying that the Ephesians will come to know even more of the power of God and how great it is. So if you've been looking at this chapter and you're at this prayer and you're trying to understand these last five verses on Christ, Why does he just go into this sort of doxology on Christ? Because Christ is distractingly praiseworthy? Yes.

But also, logically, in the Old Testament, when you mention the power of God to save, what are you almost always going to be hearing somebody talk about? In the Old Testament? The Exodus. Exactly. And in the New Testament, when you hear somebody referring to the power of God in saving us, what are they going to be talking about?

The resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's going to be the great example in the Old Testament of God's power in the Exodus. The great example in the New Testament, the resurrection. And what do we have here?

Paul talks about them coming to know the power of God more, and what does he turn and talk about? The exaltation of Christ, His resurrection and ascension, and how great it is. That's verses 20 and 21 and 22. Now he understands that as Christ's coronation, as the heavenly Son of David, the one whose rule and reign has now begun and which will come to full fruition upon Christ's return.

So brothers and sisters, the point of all of God's gifts to us in Christ is to bring us to know and love Him more. And this then should be the point of our prayers for ourselves and for others. After all, what better purpose could we have in asking for God to do this or that than to bring us or those we're praying for into a better and closer relationship with Him. Is there a better purpose for our prayers? That's lesson number five, why we should pray.

To know God better. Last lesson, number six, when you pray, remember that God takes sides. Remember that God takes sides.

What we see in these last verses about God's power shown in Christ's exaltation is that exaltation includes victory over Christ's enemies. That means that God has friends and enemies.

Have you considered that? God shows His power, we read in these last five verses. He says in verse 19 that He wants the Christian to grow in knowing What is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might. So God's power is great, but how great? Well, that's what we see in these final verses.

It's been demonstrated, we see in verse 20, we've seen God's power supremely in God's exaltation of Christ. And then in verse 21, we see that this exaltation has made Christ supreme. Christ our Savior has been raised above all others for all time.

And then in verse 22 we see this description of God's great power explains that this exaltation is for us. Who is this that God has raised over all? He is none other than the one whom God has made head of the assembly, head of the church. He is over all. And in this final verse of the chapter, verse 23, We see this power of God in Christ is now being expressed through us.

He fills all and all with His fullness through the church. Christ is specially expressed in and through Christ's body, the church. That's why Paul can later write in chapter 3, verse 10, Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. He has made us His new house.

We are where He lives.

My Christian brother or sister, whatever power you encounter against you and your faith, whatever trial you may face, whatever temptations may come, Christ is greater still. This One who is exalted above all is up to the challenge. Christ's messianic reign has begun now, and He includes us in it. We read it a few verses later in chapter 2, verse 6, He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You may say, Mark, I sure don't feel like I'm reigning right now.

I understand. And yet you remember, if you look back in chapter 1, earlier, in verses 11 and 14, we noticed this with this inheritance. Inheritance. We notice the idea of verse 11, that we have obtained that inheritance. But then, down in 14, he says, He's the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

So we have obtained it, and yet we will, in the future, acquire a full possession of it. Friends, it's the same reality that that Paul is drawing from here. Christ's reign is not yet complete, but it is very, really begun. And my guess is, if you and I have five minutes to talk about it, if you're a Christian here tonight, you can see that in your own life, how His reign has begun. Christ's power is supreme.

As Christians, we don't believe in the supremacy of any color or ethnicity or race. We are Christ supremacists. We believe that Christ is above all others for all time. That's what we see here in verse 21. He is far above, far supreme over all rule and authority and power and dominion.

And there, Paul is not just referring to earthly powers like governors and presidents, but he's referring to the demonic opposition to God. And God's people. And this includes the demonic opposition to the church. Dear brother, dear sister, you never need to feel threatened by the church being opposed. I promise you, your church is going to be, if it's preaching the gospel, it will be opposed by the world from now until when?

Until Christ returns. But I promise you, the world will not win. There is no danger that the world will win.

When the church is first founded by Christ in Matthew 16, what does He say? The gates of hell will not prevail against it. The gates are the strongest part of the city wall. They will not prevail against the assault of Christ's church. So, brothers and sisters, there is no danger that the church will fail.

This power, this supreme power, is all for us. Paul says in verse 22, the head of the church is over all the all things in verse 21, the all rule. All of these opposing powers we see have been placed under his feet. In the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where I was a couple of weeks ago, they showed us a few different thrones of pharaohs, and in front of the thrones were footstools, and these footstools would literally have on them the faces of kings that they had conquered. The enemies were placed under their feet to show the power and authority of the ruling pharaoh.

So all demonic opposition is placed under the feet of the reigning Christ. And if we are His, we are united to Him. That victory is ours. What does it mean to be Christ's enemy? What a sobering phrase.

It means to be one who is living under the lordship of someone other than Christ. For purposes other than His. With motivations other than His glory.

Is that you tonight?

Friend, you're in a perilous position to be an enemy of this Almighty One. And yet can I give you a word of encouragement? The man who wrote this letter was such an enemy. The man who wrote this letter was literally searching out Christians to have them jailed and perhaps even killed. And yet God converted him.

The man who's preaching this sermon was one such enemy. I used to mock Christians and express truths that I thought were against them. And yet God won me over to make me a preacher of His gospel. You you are not beyond the reach of God's arm, for it is long and none knows how long. Your sins can be forgiven because of Christ's death on the cross for all of us who would turn and trust in him.

God raised him from the dead, as Paul writes about here. He accepted the sacrifice Christ provided, and he calls us all now to turn from our sins and trust in Christ to forgive us. And save us because of His substitution for us. Oh friend, we want you to come to know that. This church is full of people who used to not know that and now do.

And we would love to have you join our number. Talk to me or any of the other folks here about this afterwards. Christ is powerful for us. He has put us in His kingdom and His family on His side. We read in Hebrews 7:25 that He is able to save us to the uttermost.

Uttermost, that is, to keep us to the very end. We see that God expresses His power through us. The fullness of Christ is specially expressed in and through the body of Christ, the church. That last phrase who fills all in all is just pregnant with significance. Again, we could go off and do another sermon just on that.

In that little phrase of God's being in Christ and Christ filling all in all, we see God's immensity. We see God's omnipresence. And as Richard Sibbes reasoned, He who fills all must see and know all. God's omniscience is here implied. We could go on and on.

One thing this means is that Christ is reigning now through the church. And of course, His enemies are His people's enemies, and their defeat His heavenly kingdom is now being manifested through the church. God's kingdom is being manifested through the church. Christ's fullness is being presented through the church and he has promised to be with us. The promises of God to his people are everywhere from Psalm 23 in the valley of the shadow of death to Matthew 28 when Christ promises he will be with us to the very end of the age.

This is the last lesson about prayer. When you pray, pray in line with God's will and purposes because God takes sides. So ends this great first chapter of Ephesians. I hope you've seen that God is sovereign, that He centers on lifting up Christ, and then He incorporates us in Christ. Friends, you need to know that the Christian religion doesn't ever suggest that God's will is something that we make up.

No, we are told clearly that God will accomplish His purposes. And you and me pray? We pray out of confidence in God that He will complete those purposes. So would you be included in those purposes? Then repent and believe.

Friend, if you want to participate in this great plan for God's history, listen to the news about Christ, to God's verdict on your life and His work in Christ like these early Christians did. Hear and believe and pray. That's how you show that you've heard and believed. You pray. 143 years ago this weekend, the Capitol Hill Baptist Church formally came into being.

A few years earlier, according to a story in the Washington newspaper, the Evening Standard, years later, the reporter in the Standard wrote, It was on a Monday night in November of 1867 that Mrs. Celestia Farris called into her home a group of friends for the purpose of of prayer. At that time there was no church east of First Street or north of Pennsylvania Avenue in the eastern half of the city. The prayer meetings were regularly held after this and the attendance at them steadily grew and soon the desire arose for the establishment of a Sunday school. Well, a Sunday school did form in 1871 and the prayer meeting which became a Sunday school then led to the purchase of our current property and the building of a first building there in 1876. And finally in 1878, over the last weekend in February, the Metropolitan Baptist Church, our old name, was then constituted.

You can still read our original church covenant with those original 31 signatures hanging on the back wall of the West Hall. The next time you're in our building. The prayer meeting continued on week by week as it has throughout the rest of the 19th century and the 20th century and now into the 21st century even as we had once again this morning as Tiago addressed us and as we hope to have it next Sunday evening at 5. You see how all this in Ephesians 1 is not merely abstract theology It makes all the difference in the world what you know about God. Because when you know what we do about God, you pray to Him.

And from those meetings to pray, who knows what all God will do? Think of all the things that have come out of this meeting. Did you hear Jenny sharing this morning about Josh's internship program at RAK? And the pastors from Nepal going back to Nepal? Brothers, that's not even talking about a mission board.

Sisters, this prayer meeting was initially an all-women's prayer meeting. Don't assume that our meetings with our friends to pray, our meetings with fellow members, are fruitless and pointless just because we don't see all the fruit. Pray in confidence not of the future you can't see, but of the past you know from God's Word. You know what God is like. Draw on your confidence in that for your prayers.

I pray that in years to come, this dear congregation will continue to be marked by good teaching and earnest praying, like we see here in Ephesians chapter 1.

Let's pray now. Let's take a few moments of quietness. As we prepare our hearts to pray.

Oh God, we pray that you would teach us more of the hope to which you've called us.

We pray that you would teach us more of the riches of your glorious inheritance that you give us in the saints.

And we pray in these days that you would teach us more and more what is the immeasurable greatness of your power toward us who believe.

Do all this, we pray. As the holy, loving, self-sacrificing God that you have been toward us. We ask Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Christ's name. Amen.