Ephesians 3:18-21 – Berris Patience – 2025 11 02

18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

Have you turn to Ephesians chapter three. We continue to make our way through that passage and come to the conclusion of chapter three of the doctrinal portion, as it were, of Paul’s writings. And then he’ll go into the practical aspect of it. From chapter four through to chapter six, we started looking at the prayer that Paul was praying or one of his prayer, the second or third prayer in this passage that he’s prayed for the believers and he is very fitting. We looked at that. He’s praying for spiritual strength for the believers because based on what he was saying from the theological aspect, but not only that, based on what he knows that they are and will be going through and they will need God in those times. They will need spiritual strength, that they will need a deeper understanding, a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ in the di days, weeks, months, years to come. And it’s very fitting for us as well because we do need him. And the deeper we know him, the deeper we gain a knowledge and understanding of who Jesus Christ is, what he has done for us, the deeper we’ll be able, the firmer will be able to stand in our faith for him. And we looked at the fact that we looked at who Paul addressed in his prayer, who was praying to right in the outside the verses 15 and 16, and we saw that he was praying to God the Father. We looked at what that entails, who God is and is being and sort of an encouragement to us to remind us that we need to constantly be going to God in prayer. But not only that, to be reminded of who we’re praying to. This is the same God that called us to himself before he said let there be light and before he separated the waters from the waters, et cetera. This is the same God that we’re praying to the same God that Paul prayed to the same God that Paul was encouraging the believers in Ephesus to pray to. And that is the same God that we pray to. We also started looking at some of the requests in his prayers in verses 16 to 19. We made it to verse 17 where we looked at Christ dwelling in our hearts richly. We saw that Paul prayed that the believers will be strengthened in verse 16, we saw in verse 17 that he’s praying for them to have a deeper knowledge, deeper understanding of Christ who is already in their hearts. So it’s not like Paul was praying that they would come now and have Christ dwell in them because Paul knew Christ was already dwelling in the hearts and the lives of the believers. But he wanted them to have a deeper knowledge, a deeper understanding of the God that dwells in them and that will enable them to live in the way that he calls us to live in the way that they, he calls them to live while very ill. John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, called to his wife and said, read me that scripture where I first cast my anchor after he listened to this beautiful prayer of Jesus that is recorded in John chapter 17. He seemed to forget his weakness. He began to pray interceding, earnestly for his fellow men, not for himself, but for his fellow men. He prayed for the ungodly who had thus far rejected the gospel. He pleaded in behalf of people who had been recently converted and he requested protection for the Lord’s servant, many of whom were facing persecution at this time. As John Knox prayed, his spirit went home to be with the Lord, the man who of whom Queen Mary had said, I fear his prayers more than I do. The armies of my enemies ministered through prayer until the very last moment of his life. And that is profound, that is very paramount to us as believers. Here’s the queen that’s saying, I fear his prayer more than the mighty armies of men. And I pray that this will be true of us as well. That this world will fear our praying more than they’ll fear any army’s, any nuclear weapon that they will ever have to face. So as we continue to go through these prayer requests, which is verses 1819 to the last two verses, because verses 20 and 21, Paul is in praying, he’s praising and he’s offering of praise and adoration to God. So he closes with the doxology. So let us look at verses 18 through the 21. In fact, let me go back to verse 14 so we get a better context. For this reason, I bend my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner self. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the breath and the height and the depth and that. And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be glory, be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever endeavor. Amen. Father, we are grateful for your love and your great mercies towards us. God, I pray that you’ll instill in us in the heart and the passion and desire and the hunger for prayer, Lord. And not just praying for ourselves, but praying for our fellowmen, praying for the world in which we live, that we will be seen and known and described, be described as a people that are passionate about praying to our great merciful, sovereign Lord. Father, as we continue to make our way through this text, may your spirit direct my words and my thoughts. And may your may the words that I utter be edifying, be comforting, be convicting to those who are hearing for Christ’s sake. Amen. So we get to the passage or the point in the text where Paul is now asking for or on behalf of the believers for apprehension. The English word comprehend or apprehend both stems from the Latin word er, which means to grasp. We say that a monkey has a prehensile preens tail that is its tail can grasp a tree or a tree limb and hold on to that limb. Our word comprehend carries the idea of mentally grasping something while apprehend or apprehension, suggest laying hold of it for yourself. So you have comprehend meaning. You have the ability to grasp something, to understand something. And apprehension, meaning you understand it. Now you’re laying hold of what you have appreh uh, comprehended and making it personal. In other words, it is possible to understand something but not really make it your own. And we see that so often in the world. We see that so often in our daily lives. I was sharing with the man this morning in our pre-service prayer that Mark Miller, I dunno what ministry position he has, but here’s a man referencing directly the book of Levi Leviticus, Romans chapter one specifically in parts of one Corinthians and saying that the things that are written in these portions of scripture are hateful, hateful towards. And this is a public speech. So here’s somebody who comprehends what’s going on in the text, but he hasn’t apprehended what’s going on in the text. And he is saying these things, these are hateful words. This is, these are hateful portions in the Bible. And anyone, of course he didn’t specify Christianity as though anybody else would lay claim on these text. Anyone who preaches these things or teach them or in others them should be prosecuted, should be prosecuted. And the fact that he makes this statement means there’s something brewing behind the scene, a bill that will be tabled to become law. So on that we have to be on guard and we know it’s coming. It’s not, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to us. And again, this is why we need depth in Christ. This is why we need to be rooted and grounded in our faith so that when these things happen, when these talks become bills, and when these bills become law, we will stand firm and still stay by the grace and the mercy of God. Homosexuality is wrong and anything other than what is prescribed in God’s word is wrong, is sinful in God’s eyes. And we need to take that stand. So there’s again he, he has the comprehension of these texts because he knows what they’re saying, but he hasn’t apprehended the text. And this is where these two need to go hand in hand. We need to not only comprehend, we don’t need, not only need to understand, but we need to lay a hold of these truths and make them personal in our lives. The verb that Paul uses here or choose chose to use for grasp is more, is a more colorful word or colorful way of expressing the idea of knowing our comprehending something. So in a literal sense, the verb that is used or the verb that was U, is used for the capturing of Israelites cities or the Israelite capturing cities. We see that in Joshua eight 19, Joshua 11, Jo Joshua, chapter 19 as well. So that’s the verb that Paul is using. When the Israelites were going out and conquering and they were capturing cities during the conquest, the verb came to have a metaphorical sense of grasping or understanding an idea or concept. For instance, after God gave that dream to Peter where the sheet came down in Acts chapter 10 and Lorded was lowered from heaven and he gave the order rice kill and eat, Peter said after all of this, after this debate saying, no, I no Lord, I’m not gonna eat anything unclean. He came to the realization, he comprehended, he grasped be hap apprehended. What God was trying to say to him, acts chapter 10, verse 34, I now realize, and there’s the word that Paul used there, that same word, realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. And of course that’s in the context of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit and becoming a part of God’s plan of salvation in the same way the Jews did. But there’s a paradox here. There’s a huge paradox and I hope that you grasp that in your personal time going through these text. And if you don’t, you will. After this, Paul wants us to know personally the love of Jesus Christ. But he says this love surpasses all knowledge. He, it surpasses all understanding. He wants us to know this love, but at the same time he’s saying we can’t. We can’t know it because it surpasses all understanding and it’s fascinating his fathom. So Paul gives us a fourth dimension here. We know length with height and he talks about depth. He gives us a fourth dimension that we need to ask God for in comprehending the love of God for us and towards us. And of course this complicates things, seeing that we are three dimensional beings. We think three dimensionally, we act three dimensionally, dimensionally. And there are dimensions, but they cannot be measured again. So again that we see that paradox there, the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge parallels to the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus that we saw in verse eight of this very same chapter, what Paul is trying to bring across is that while we are so rich in Christ that our riches cannot be calculated. And I use that image or this illustration of the temple in India. It cannot be ca, it cannot be calculated even with the most sophisticated of computers. So in praying this prayer in Paul praying this for the believers, and Paul again by default is saying, we need to be praying like this. Paul is reiterating in a rhetorical fashion what he was already said, what he has already said in verse 19 of chapter one, that you can come to know what is the incredible greatness of the power of God to towards us who believe Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to know both the power of God and the love of God. And even though these things are so vast that they can’t be measured, even though these things we cannot fully grasp them as in as finite beings ’cause his love is infinite, his riches and his mercies are infinite. Paul still wants us to have a desire and a passion and that’s how we’re gonna get deeper in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because we’re constantly wanting to know more about the love of God that surpasses all understanding like we just sung in that song. If the entire world, the entire body of water or ink and every stock was a coil or a pen, and every single human being that has ever entered the face of this earth were scribes by trade, you still would not be able to write out the love of God. And some might say that’s an exaggeration. No, it’s an understatement because it is true. We would not be able to write the love of God that he has for us. Paul wants the believers to be confident in the God that they serve and that God can carry out his loving plan of redemption for them, particularly when we consider the spiritual forces that we’re going up against and that we are up against. And he’ll talk about that in chapter six. Paul prays that these believers, and this is my prayer for you and this is my prayer for us, and I hope this is your prayer, that these believers will not only have a profound understanding of the vastness of God’s power in their lives, but that they will also have a profound understanding of the love of Jesus Christ and that they’ll grow deep in this love of Jesus Christ. And he lets them know that the love of Christ is so great again that they will never be able to fully comprehend it. And Paul wasn’t saying that it wasn’t, he wasn’t contradicting himself, he wasn’t trying to deter the believers from studying power saying this is so vast that it requires for us to, to use an analogy, put on our whole scuba gear and go as deep as we possibly can. And when we can’t go any deeper, we still push to go deeper because it’s that much worth finding out how much love God has for us. Paul is not implying that they cannot grow in their knowledge when he tries, when he presents these paradoxes, he’s not saying they will not ever grow in their knowledge of this love that God has for them and has for us. On the contrary, he wants them to know it, to be rooted in it and to be established in it even though they will never be able to fully grasp and fully comprehend the extent of it. So Paul prays that his readers will be able to grow in their comprehension of the divine power and love for God. He wants them to know that they know serve and they are serving an all powerful God, A God who is sufficiently capable of keeping his people under that umbrella of His love regardless. Regardless of what they will face, regardless of the circumstances that will come in their lives, that are in their lives. He that’s the idea behind this. He wants them to know that you are serving a big God, you’re serving a big God, you’re praying to a big God. ’cause if his love and his power, they’re immeasurable, they’re immense. He’s capable of keeping you, he’s capable of sustaining you, he’s capable of bringing you through the worst of the worst. This tremendous love of Christ will also provide incentive for them for us and motivation for us to manifest love towards one another. It’s going to motivate us to manifest love towards each other. Living in an environment where the readers have heard all their lives about the power of our team is which is one of their gods there and her ability to control the cosmic fate and protect her worshipers. And again, Paul is subtly debunking and refuting the concept and the ideology of false worship and this false God that they’re claiming that can do these things, that can protect and control. It is only natural then that many of the new Gentile believers would wonder, they would wonder they’d be thinking about the ability of the new God that they’re now worshiping. Well our team is, was able to do this or capable to do this at least that they thought that that God was. But no Paul say No, you serve a bigger God than our team is. And he’s the one who is actually in control. He’s the one who actually provides and protects. We saw that in him being Father, the provider, the protector. He is the merciful loving God who blesses his people with every single spiritual blessing in the heavenly places that we saw verses one verses three, verse three of chapter one. But they probably thought, can he really do this? So Paul prays that God himself will strengthen them to grasp together with all the believers everywhere. So it’s not just the believers in Ephesus Paul. And with all the sayings that you will grasp, you’ll be able to comprehend the magnitude of the incomparable power and love that God has for you. So it applies obviously to us and that’s why he can close off when we get there with seed. He can close off with this doxology to him who is able to do far more abundantly than anything that we can ask or even think. So Paul is trying to say to them, even in them, him glorifying and praising God, what you’re asking for if it comes in your thought, if it’s in your thought process, the God that you’re serving the father of heaven, the Father of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is able and capable of doing far greater than that. And that’s the God that we serve. And again, he’s writing because he wants to encourage them ’cause he knows tough times are coming. And we, we saw that, we saw that in Acts chapter 20 where he is addressing the elder and say, listen, wolves are coming, false teachers are coming and you need to be prepared. Paul wanted them to know they serve a great God. And I know it’s a statement that we use so often. I know it’s a a phrase that we use so often, but do we actually understand what we’re saying when we, when we say we serve a great God, when we serve a God that is far capable of doing it more than we can imagine or think, I ask for apprehension. And in verse 19, latter part of verse 19, Paul wants them to acquire fullness. He wants them to know the love of God who surpasses all understanding. He wants them to be able to comprehend with all the saints, these four dimensional aspect of the love that God has for them and the knowledge of Christ. But he wants them to acquire fullness. Paul has used the expression all the fullness on two other occasions, both in his letter to the Colossians or both. Both of those are in the letter to the Colossians in his poetic praise to Christ. Paul declares that all the fullness was pleased to dwell in God in Christ. Colossians one 19. So the fullness here refers to the glory and the presence of God that was filling the temple in the Old Testament era. So under this new covenant that we’re now in and that the believers in Ephesus are, we’re in the fullness become coexistent or coextensive with the presence on the power of the Holy Spirit of God in the lives of the believer. And that is what Paul wants them and that is what we have to ask for on a daily basis. The fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let the Holy Spirit take control of your lives. In other words, let him permeate your entire being. Let everything that you do, everything that you say be under the guidance, the direction and the leading of the Holy Spirit, Paul, by praying for the readers in this manner to be filled with the fullness of God. Paul is asking that they experience a greater measure of the divine presence of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives, a greater measure of the of God in their lives. And of course this is consistent with central affirmation that we saw in chapter two, 11 to 22. We’re saying the Lord is near. And of course he alludes to this when he says, for this reason, I pray for this reason. I pray Paul prays that they may experience that nearness to a far greater degree and it makes sense, does it not? Have you ever in your life? I know I have felt like God is distant, felt like God is far from you. In fact feels like he’s nowhere at all. He is unreachable. And David felt this many times in his life. And if we’re being honest, we have felt this way many a times driven mostly by circumstances and situations in our life, whether it’s something bad, tragic, or even if it’s physical ailment, we feel we’re in that we ask the question whether outright or in our minds or in a different way, God, where are you? Where are you? And what Paul is saying, these believers at some point, if not write this moment as he’s writing to them or as they’re reading it, at some point in their lives they might feel that God is distant from them, that God is nowhere in sight, metaphorically speaking, that he is nowhere near and he wants them to experience constantly in their lives on a daily basis the nearness and the closeness of God in their lives. Because he is there folks, he is there and he wants us. He wants us to be reminded of that. And David had to come to the conclusion and say, I can’t escape your presence. If I make my bed in shield, you are there. If I go to the farthest parts of the world, God, you are there. And in times like these, when we feel that God is this and we need to remember God’s promises that he said he is never, he will never leave. He will never forsake. Those aren’t empty words folks. Those are from our great and mighty and awesome God and Jesus, one of so few of his last words before he was exalted into the right, at the right hand of the Father, said, I am with you. When sometimes no, always, always, even to the end of the age, whatever that end looks like He’s near. And he’s dear folks, Paul wants Christ to dwell in their lives and in the lives of the believers to a greater degree than we have ever experienced before. He wants the spirit to impart divine strength to them and desires for them to know and to be rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus Christ. Just as the glory of the Lord filled the temple in the old covenant, he earnestly praise that the divine glory will fill the new temple that is our bodies. And of course I mentioned this, but in one sense the Christian, we are already made full in Christ. Colossians two, nine and 10 reminds us of this. We are complete means we are filled full positionally. We are completing him. And I’m mindful of that song completing the, I’m not sure how many of you’re familiar with it, completing the, the work of mine can never take the place of dine. Th blood has pardon bought for me completing the so positionally we are complete in him. But practically we enjoy only the grace that we apprehend, that we make our own, that we personalize in our lives by faith positionally, we’re complete practically. We need to gain that deeper knowledge and deeper understanding of our God and make it intimately personal in our lives. If we want to constantly feel that nearness of God in our lives. He provided all the resources for us folks. Peter tells us that he has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness so that we can live accordingly. All we need to do is tap in so to speak, tap into the power source, tap into the power source. And as we go through the book of Acts, this is what we’re seeing and what we’re going to see in the life of the early church and in the life of the disciples there, they tapped into the power source, which is the Holy Spirit of God that and dwell them and enabled them to live a life in such a way that people describe them as little Jesus is and that they’re turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ. And Paul will have more, of course to say about this fullness when we eventually get to chapter five verses 18, 18 to 21. So Paul prays that these individuals, these believers, this church and by a large church of Jesus Christ will be strengthened that God but through Christ will grant them according to his riches in glory, strength, power through the Holy Spirit, powering and enabling the inner man to live a life that God has set up us apart to live praying that Christ, they will have a deeper knowledge and a deeper understanding of Jesus Christ who richly dwells in our hearts through faith, praying that we will be rooted and grounded. We will be unshakeable in our faith regardless of what comes our way. We will be, there will be no compromise. There’ll be no or ing, there will be no tossing to and fro with every window of doctrine. We’ll be firm in our faith. Praise that they’ll be able to be a people who comprehends and who apprehends the love of God, the depth to the E, to the length, the depth with. And I height this love that surpasses and on all understand we can’t understanding, but he wants us to dig deeper and dive into getting to understand and know the love of Jesus Christ. And he wants us to be filled with all the fullness of God so that we can constantly feel the nearness of God in our lives. So how then does Paul react to this? And you would expect that this should be a reaction to the recipients of the letter when they hear from verse chapter one up to this point, verse 19 of chapter three, and they hear about the God that they serve and all that he has done for them. You’d expect that they’re the ones who burst out into si. You would expect that they’re the ones who be burst outing into praising God. And I’m sure, I’m sure they did and they were. But Paul, even Paul himself, when he reflects on what was said before and up to this point, Paul couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t help himself. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. How does Paul react to this prayer? He reacts in praise after realizing who we are, praying to what we’re asking for, knowing that he will grant to us this request because it is according to his will. I know that is a big subject in many people’s life. What is God’s will from my life? Read the Bible. It’s there. Read it. It’s there. I guarantee it’s not as complicated as some theologians and some people make it think, read the Bible. It’s there. He knows that he will grant these things to us because this is his will for us to grow and to mature in him. Then how should, how what you and I to respond, how should the church respond individually, corporately, to all that God has done for us When we analyze chapter one through the chapter three, verse 19. And of course the only appropriate response is praise after contemplating such a marvelous spiritual experience is no wonder why Paul burst out into doxology fitting benediction to this prayer. And I want you to note once again, the Trinitarian emphasis in this benediction. Paul prays to God the Father, concerning the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of God who is God but is made available through God the Son. So he doesn’t shy away from that Trinitarian language. And perhaps the best way to grasp some of the greatness of this taxology is to look at it in an outline form now onto him that is able to do all above, all abundantly, above all exceedingly, above all. You get the pictures that Paul wants us to grasp in our mind. There’s like we don’t understand the vastness of the God that we’re praying to. We don’t understand his capability. And Paul wanted to paint this picture in their minds that he is able to do all above all and abundantly above all exceedingly. Above all, Paul seems to want to use every word possible to convey to us, to convey to the believers at Ephesus, the vastness of the power of God as found in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, through the indwelling spirit that is in us. He has ended each of the two previous chapters with praise for the praise to God for his great victory in Christ. He tells us that Christ’s power is so great that he rose from the dead and ascended above all. Ephesians one 19 to 23, he teaches us that his power is so great that he reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other. Something that they would both groups would have seen as an impossible task. And he also reconciled both groups to God. And that he now is build, he’s now building a temple to the eternal glory of God the Father. But in the paragraph that we have before us, verses 20 and 21, Paul shares the exciting truth that this is far above all power that is available to us. This is available to us. It is even above what we can ask or think. In other words, the power of Christ, like the love of Christ is beyond human understanding. It’s beyond human measurement. And this is just the kind of power folks that we need and we’re going to need if we’re gonna live this life victoriously, we need this power. And the word power is, again, dunamis, which we met in verse seven of chapter three. Uh, Paul also talks about working, which is the word that we get energy from that is found in Ephesians one. Some power is dormant, it is available, but it’s not being used. Such is the power stored in a battery. But God’s power is effectual power. Power at work in our lives and through our lives. Power that works in us, power that works in our inner man. It is the Holy Spirit who releases the resurrection power of Christ in our lives. I get, I get, I don’t think we grasp the vastness of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives. It’s the same power that Ray rose Christ from the dead. That’s the same power that we have access to. Of course, we’re not gonna raise ourselves from the dead, but it’s the power so that we can live a victorious Christian life. Many believers have been cut off from the power source due to unbelief, unconfessed sin, careless living worldliness in our actions and in our attitude. And these things rob us of our power because we’re not being led by the Holy Spirit of Christ. And as an a Christian, robbed of power cannot be used by God. Why does God share his power with us? Is it so that we can build great churches for our own glory? Is it so that we can boast in our own achievements? Is it so that we can brag about how spiritually mature that we are? No, it is for His glory. It is to the praise of his glorious grace. We’ve seen that so many times in chapter one. The spirit of God was given to glorify the son of God. We’re reminded in John 1614, the church on Earth is here to glorify the son of God. Is that hasn’t changed? If our motive is to glorify God by building his church, then God will share his power with us. The power of the Spirit is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. It’s not luxurious. It’s necessary. But the amazing thing is that we, that we ha do have what we do have in this power. This power is throughout all the ages. World without end. The great, the church’s greatest ministry folks is yet to come. But what we do here and now is preparing us for these eternal ages. When we shall glorify Christ forever without any hindrance, without any gaps, we will do it consistently for all eternity. But Paul is saying, why wait, why wait? Let’s glorify him now with every aspect of our lives, with every fiber of our being, with every moment of our lives. Because that is possible through the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we can glorify him. Now He is able to do far more abundantly above all that we can ask or think. So I pray, and I hope that you will get your hands on this spiritual wealth by opening your hearts to the leading and the direction of the Holy Spirit and praying like Paul for strength in the enema and praying like Paul for in depth for spiritual apprehension, praying for spiritual fullness. James chapter four, verse two. If you’re not familiar with it, I’ll quote it. So you have not because you ask, not you do not have, because you do not ask. We do not operate in the manner in which Paul is praying for the believers here in Ephesus because we’re not asking for it for whatever reasons why we’re not asking. But I pray as I said last week, that this prayer will become personal to us. And whether it’s reading it, reciting it, paraphrasing it will make it our own. Because folks, we need it. We need this power of God and the enablement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we’re gonna live, Victor, the devil is working overtime to ensure that everything of Paul Christianity crumbles. We should be working overtime so that we’ll be enabled and strengthened for what he has to throw at us. We should be able. We are able because not our own strength, but because of the Holy Spirit, him enabling us to withstand those darts, those fiery darts of the devil. And he’s coming full throttle. No hesitation, no second guesses. And we need to be prepared. And I, as I said, God has given us everything we need to prepare ourselves. We just need to make ourselves available to that Father. We’re so grateful and so thankful for the reminder in these verses, Lord. And the main takeaway is the vastness of your power and greatness and how that can be transferred in our lives so that we can live the life that you’ve called us to live, especially amid what we’re going up against, not flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and rulers of darknesses in the heavenlies. God, I pray that we’ll live our lives in such a manner that it will constantly bring glory and honor to your name. That we will continually ask and pray and desire and seek for strength in the inner self, in the inner man. That your spirit will lead and direct every aspect of our lives. God enable us and strengthen us individually and corporately as a body, as we continue to seek to live our lives in this cruel, crooked world that is coming at us from all angles, with all the attacks, with everything in their arsenal, from the devil, from the enemy. But God in all these things, we are more than conquered through Jesus Christ. And in that Lord, we take great comfort that you have enabled a, provide the enablement for us to not only withstand these darts, But to fight back with your Word through your spirit. Lord, as we once again, Lord, go to your table to commemorate what you have done for us. May these be a constant reminder in our lives of the thing or what you went through so that we Lord can have this power source available to us. So Lord, strengthen us as we walk our daily lives for Christ’s sake. Amen.