a Pauls prayer for the Saints - Part 2
Ephesians 1:18-20a · Bob Eckel · Mar 4, 2018
Ephesians (2018-19), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198542248

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Onward with Part 2 of Paul's Prayer for the Saints. I had an opportunity to share this with somebody. I was in the Chancellor's office this week doing my new job, meeting with one of the people I oversee in compliance at the University, and she was telling me I would ask her about her past and everything.

She said that she had gone to a small Christian school, I believe in Illinois, and I'd never heard of this school, and I said, we went on for a minute or two. Are you a believer?" She said, yes. For the next 45 minutes we talked about everything, but of course she was there to talk. I shared what we were doing in this arena here at the Sunday School. Anyways, really, really good. So I've communicated with her by email. I sent her Miles' Hungry Heart. She's been in it already.

And so she clearly was in that position of being raised in a very legal home, not having freedom and really having a lot of concerned historically about where she'd been and anyway now she seems lifted up so we praise the Lord for that so I mean this prayer of Paul's for the church is something that has broad applications to each and every one of us so I'm going to ask Randy to read verses 15 through the end of the chapter and today we're going to pick up in verse 18 where Randy left off last week. Randy, please.

For this reason I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and Do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and a revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised them from 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 every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. who fills all in all. That's that's I'll let you interpret that. All right. So the first verse is finally inspired.

I would have liked to have gone on. You'll see at the end of my lesson. Don't look. You cannot look at the last page yet. OK. Now, everybody is kind of like, don't do that. Your kid does it anyway. So everybody's going to look at the last page. Remember, this is Sunday school, this is interactive, right? This is not upstairs where you have to sit there still and pay attention.

The eyes of your understanding, or hearts in many translations, being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of his glory, of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Wow. Loaded verse here. Now, the previous verse, I think, is a necessary precursor here, and that's why I asked Randy to read from 15 down through the end. We're not going to read all of this, but the verse right before this, and Randy covered this nicely last week, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him going on the eyes of your understanding.

Okay, so, look at the source. Now, what do you make of the complicated anatomy here, eyes and heart? A question to discuss. I'm going to go on, we'll talk about it further, but what are your thoughts here? Eyes and heart, how do we reconcile that into any kind of understanding?

Bob, I did notice that the commentary said that was the only place that phraseology is used in scripture, the eyes of your heart. OK, so it's uniquely Paul's. Well, the idea that that the original Greek understanding is a reasonable translation. That's in the new King James version. So I heart's understanding. It kind of gives you a hint. Anyway, I turned to Calvin here, which I usually don't do. But I thought this was reasonable.

This is a rendering of the ballgate. which is supported by some Greek manuscripts, and the difference is immaterial for the Hebrews, frequently employed to denote the rational powers of the soul though more strictly being the seat of the affections, it means will or desire.

And in summary, I think, you know, this is a metaphor which simply means total inner awareness and the dedication we have with the Lord, which is of Him, actually. So it's really an indebtedness to God for what He's done. That doesn't mean we pay Him back. It's just kind of this total existence that each one of us have because of His great gift of life to us. Remember, for he hath made him sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is kind of the whole essence of our existence, is this eyes to heart and kind of inner awareness of who we are and what's been done on our behalf. Other thoughts, Randy? the previous verse and the idea of wisdom and revelation so that we would have knowledge in him.

And what I think is interesting is that they didn't have the New Testament, but we do. But one of the things I think is really critical in this, we'll say, spiritual enlightenment, and boy has that phrase been used by New Agers a long way, but in the biblical spiritual enlightenment that's here, We have the New Testament that reveals to us a great... It sounds like as you were talking to this person that came to your office, they had a great amount of Christian spiritual training, but none of it... It wasn't enlightening the inner soul, it wasn't. And I'm a vehicle, that's all. I mean, the Spirit showed up here. I had no idea. I was just finding out about her, how she got to her current job, what my responsibilities were to her. And wow, the door got opened. Remember, each of our missionary fields is each of our lives. It's not necessarily in central Africa. That's not an excuse if you're called to those places. Only the Lord knows how to do that. Just an example. Other thoughts about this?

I was just going to say, it's interesting that, this is the New King James? New King James, yeah. What's interesting is there's a kind of variation, and mine has, it kind of has, may be enlightened. The original is the present tense, so actually I like this, being enlightened seems more accurate. So I was just going to point out, I know mine, it says may be enlightened. Subjective tense? I don't remember the verb tense here. Does anybody have the inner linear there? I thought it was present.

Which being enlightened is correct. The Bible says being enlightened. That's a good point. There's various translations. Being enlightened is we have been enlightened. And continue to be. And that's going to come up in the next verse actually. This idea of an active process that's ongoing right now. Okay, let's turn to another verse that I think really reflects this eyes-heart kind of relationship.

In him was life. And the life was the light of men. Maybe you have to think forward a little bit, but the light is what the eyes perceive and that light is of the Lord Jesus Christ working through us. I may be paraphrasing this a little bit too much or spiritualizing it a little bit too much, but nevertheless, the eyes that we perceive the truth of the word of God, ultimately as it dwells within us in our souls, in our spirit-led lives, is a reflection of God's glory being manifested. Alright, that you may know what is the hope of this calling. I think we're going to pause here, something quite interesting. Interesting is the Greek verb for know here. Yaido. What is that, remember this, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly, aido or yaido, kenosis and epigenosis. What does yaido mean in terms of knowing something?

It's facts. There's nothing spiritual about this term. And that's what's so interesting here, I think, that you may know what is the hope of his calling. This isn't experiential, although it could be, but this is facts. This is his calling is factual. It doesn't need to be debated. It's kind of like Yale and Evans is north of Holly Hills. Fact, right? We could argue that to our blue in the face, but his calling is factual.

And by the way, it can be experiential. But yet, that's not the Greek verb that was used here. And I think for know, if you look throughout scripture, I'm interested in what others might think of this. Throughout scripture, how the verb know is used really is very, very important in interpreting what we're looking at spiritually. All right. Let's contrast the biblical meaning of hope from the earthly view. What does the earth hope in? What's an earthly hope? We were behind a guy driving pretty wildly this morning, weaving, tailing the guy in front of him. You know, his hope was to get ahead.

I thought he should be driving a pickup truck rather than this small, what was it, a little Ford Focus? Ford Focus, anyway. And by the way, just as a real aside, I've been paying attention. I drive to work early in the morning and come home during rush hours. My speeds are limited coming home because of the sun. But in the morning, I've made an observation.

Ten pickup trucks pass me for every one I pass. And I'm about ready to write an op-ed about people that drive pick-up trucks. And Ed, if you drive pick-up trucks, you have to identify which one of you could be interviewed. Yeah, and you're the one. But this guy was driving a Ford Focus.

Anyway, all that aside. So what's the earthly hope? What's the earth hoping? How about peace? Everybody prays for peace. And if you hear some prayer, kind of some general event, they always pray for peace. Mainline church, peace. Social gospel, peace. World peace. World peace.

It's funny because really what they're asking for is for mankind not to behave in the only nature that he has in this world. That's called self-righteousness then, is it not? Tom, good to see you. You got out of your car? Okay, good. Okay, what else earthly hope? What's the earthly hope? Have your children grow up? Things go well. I mean, everybody wants things to go well. You know, no trials of any kind.

Other thoughts on earthly hope? The thing with earthly hope is it's always within the constraints of what human reasoning we can come up with. We're always like, well, this is what I can figure out to solve the problem myself. And of course, Israel's hope is what? Israel is a non-believing group of people, right? What's their hope? It's all earthly, is it not? It's all about the land. They want a king. Wait until they get the king, right?

In terms of the nature of that existence. But anyway, we'll look forward to that as we join the Lord in overseeing the earthly existence of Israel in the millennium. Anyway, let's look at some scripture that relates to this. 1 John 3, 1 and 2. I don't know about you all, but boy, the epistles of 1 John are just so incredibly uplifting. pulling verses one and two, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.

Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And the contrast here is really versus the worldview, but moreover, notice it's both now and whenever. In other words, the world doesn't know us.

I mean, that's positional truth. lived out in our lives day in and day out. It's like oil and water. I mean, we live in this earthly existence, so the catalyst is the earthly body we live in, but eternally we're placed in a foreign member of this earthly existence. And our hope here is certainty. Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Now again, now and the day of Jesus Christ. Now, the day of Jesus Christ means much in scripture that's differential between to the church and to Israel. And here we're talking about the believer. This is rapture-related day of birth, day of Christ. Day of the Lord is more related to Israel.

OK, so the earthly hope is all about this earth and now and peace and goodwill and everything done right in a self-righteous manner. I mean, if you think about the Florida shooting, what the heck is that all about? I mean, you know, people say, can there be a God? Well, yes. It's just an inadequate understanding of what God's all about. He didn't cause that. He's allowed it. Welcome to the earthly sphere in which we live. All right. What are present indicative? That means current, now, and indicative is factual. What are the riches of the glory, or glorious wealth, of his inheritance in his saints? What are the riches of God's glory? Tom, what are they?

Christ in you with the hope of glory. Okay. What's Christ in us? What hope does that provide? What are these riches of his glory within us? Just name some. Randy? Let's see here. That we are new creations in him. We're declared just. We're declared righteous. were made, were adopted. Many of the things that he articulated earlier in verses 3-13. We'll have eternal life. Eternal life. Okay, again.

Forgiveness is sin. Forgiveness is sin. Forgiveness, okay. Mercy, okay. What are the riches? Holy Spirit to lead us. Okay. We have a life that's led by the Holy Spirit. That's certainly God's glory being manifested. Everything that God is in terms of what he's portrayed as his son, we identify with that relationship with him.

We fall short because of our old nature that still dwells within us. That's the problem, I think, of the unbeliever looking at the church in general, but also the born-again church. When we fall short, they're very critical of that, aren't they? How do we deal with that when we fall short before the unbelieving world? You acknowledge that you have fallen short and you ask their forgiveness. say you're apologizing, or whatever it is, from their worldly perspective. It's a good way to crack the door open, and sometimes it opens further when you do that, and sometimes it just gets closed short. Tom, did you? Pretty much the same. Yeah, OK. All right, let's go ahead.

When used elsewhere in the New Testament, the emphasis here is on the unworthy, and we're not going to look at those scriptures today just because of time. But basically, this idea of the unworthy The wealth of his inheritance to the saints is related to the fact that we, in Ephesians 2 we're going to get into this in great detail, but nevertheless we're unworthy. We're totally unworthy and the riches of glory in Christ Jesus really come to the unworthy by our faith.

What inheritance? What inheritance are we talking about here? All the blessings, the heavenly blessings. Okay, what else? What is an inheritance? That we receive as a child of the, as an heir. Well, you know, this could be interpreted from the world system which we live in. It's really, it's property received. when we have an inheritance, it's something we possess, and spiritually, it's really eternal blessedness. So this is kind of defined in both earthly terms and also in spiritual terms.

Acts 20.32, So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. What's being addressed in Acts 20, 32 here? And Vern's almost at this point upstairs. What's this inheritance that Luke is talking about in Acts 20, 32 here?

Eternal life. And it's joined among those who are sanctified. So sanctified is being set apart too, right? Now we're not set apart to be prudes. We're set apart in terms of a relationship, which is now and forevermore. Then another verse, 1 Peter 1.4, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. So this inheritance is both our life in Christ now, and the inheritance is that hope we have in the eternal existence, which in fact is to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. You mean this is not a health and wealth history? We're not going to inherit big things now?

Are you in the wrong church? No, but that's what so many Christians think. Is that just a small splinter or is that a large percentage? I think that's a small splinter. This health and wealth view of the world. Maybe that's TV evangelism to some extent. It's not our job to look laterally, it's our job to look up. We also have a responsibility to one another like in Galatians 6. if somebody is stumbling.

I've seen a lot of people who hear health and wealth and they feel like they have to negotiate with God with their works rather than recognizing their righteousness. So there's a discussion we had, maybe you don't throw pearls before swine. There are some people that won't listen. But at the same time, sometimes the Lord brings us people in your life so you can be a sharer of truth. I guess the theme I was thinking about is for some of us to go to these churches and preach a different theology to them.

I don't think that's what we're called to do. I think we're there to bear witness to a world that may be ultimately unsaved to begin with, but also in the body to try to get people moving in the right direction. This is not an elite existence we have here. We're just doing our best to interpret what our lives need to be in Christ Jesus and how that's manifested as we walk day in and day out. Alright, let's go on to verse 19.

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power? As we continue, remember this is Paul's prayers for you and me. So we can forget that sometimes in all this uplifting scripture that we're studying here. What is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe?

What is that? It's his essence. It's the essence of God too. Christ and God. Their essence. And how is that manifested? We are assured not just because we are told what to believe, but we know whom we believe, and we can put full faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, his work, and all that involves. I like that, and what I quote here is from Thayer, a commentator that I read frequently as I prepare these lessons, power is dynamis, which we all I've seen I think once in a while as we study scripture, Thayer states that power residing in a thing is by virtue of its nature. Here those of us who believe is present active participle.

So what's the nature here? What's our nature? It really is. And you know I think I mean, Martin, what was our topic when we were talking about wrong theology and how it plays out so often and how people view our walk in the Lord? I don't know. We were talking about that yesterday. I don't remember the exact circumstances.

But the power that ultimately is given to us by the Lord is that power of the new nature in showing up by faith as to what it really is. That's our nature. is really how power is defined in terms of its virtue. And this power is exceeding greatness. And by the way, exceeding greatness, exceeding is to outdo oneself. It's only used by Paul and it's used five times in Scripture. We won't look at those other verses. But exceeding is superlative. That's overzealous. It's beyond any kind of expectation.

Hard to define that, particularly to a skeptic. But it's really something that by faith we can experience that we're increasingly being, what's the term I'm looking for, I guess enriched in this exceeding greatness of the Lord as we grow by grace and by faith.

Ephesians 3.19, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that's the same exceeding term, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, God's glory. being seen in us. And according to the working of his mighty power. Whose power? His power. It sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? We walk day in and day out these earthly lives that the Lord has given us. Whose power?

I've always said this in in the setting of being evaluated in an emergency room where in fact you're being examined by the psychiatrist for some reason. What happened here was my old nature but my new nature through God's power really wasn't who I really am and you're diagnosed as new onset schizophrenic. Is it really two natures? What's this all about?

Only the spiritually mature would understand what we're talking about here. God's power, working, used only as superhuman power. And by the way, it's God's power or Satan's. This term working out in our lives is, we believe entirely of God, but Satan is also capable of some superhuman power that goes beyond this earthly existence.

Colossians 2.12, buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. No argument there. God's power working through creating life out of death.

Ephesians 3.20. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, same term, abundantly of all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. Us, same power that raised Christ from the dead.

Philippians 3.21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. All of this is superhuman power. It's not earthly power. And then 2 Thessalonians points to Satan's superhuman power, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. So I don't want to talk about how he manifests that today, but nevertheless.

I saw an interesting thing on SportsCenter as I was working out this morning, a story basketball coach called Frank Martin, who coached at Kansas State, more recently at South Carolina. Frank became quite ill with febrile and really undiagnosed for days on days and weeks on weeks. And finally, the diagnosis was apparently given him a pancreatic cancer. That's a baddie, and most people are dead within a year. My brother died of pancreatic cancer, but anyway, it's a bad actor.

And so he described, and his wife described, about this angelic form of a nurse dressed, an Asian woman dressed in white, who showed up at the bedside and ultimately prayed with him. And according to what was shown on the television this morning, the wife also saw this figure leave the room. But then as they pursued the facts around this whole thing, the nursing staff had no idea who this woman was. They did not employ anybody who met this description.

So is that God? The only reason I bring that up, is that God's power being manifested? What about these kind of miraculous, and by the way, he became afebrile, meaning without fever, very soon thereafter, and ultimately walked out of the hospital and was referred to coaching, and now he's alive five years later. So is that God's exceeding power lived out in the human experience? Well, it was interesting because the people at the sports center, the ESPN is a worldly system. Incredibly liberal. I just am a great sports fan and I must admit. But you know what the conclusion was by the commentator?

Well, he's no longer drinking any alcohol. We leave that where it's at. And he's going to church every week. The only reason I mention this in terms of God's mighty power, you know, he's capable of doing all these things and they both he and his wife perceive something here. And I remember my late wife when her dad died. He saw something at the foot of the bed that resembled somebody dressed in a white robe.

These experiences do occur. You can't deny what people say. But this is clearly not exemplary of God's power, perhaps. I don't know. They experience something. But God's power is superhuman. That's all we need to understand from this. This is not something like plugging a cord into the switch and having the light bulb turn on. How do we experience this working power in our lives if this is superhuman? Randy, any thoughts here?

Well, it's one of those things that in contrast to the law, the Holy Spirit empowers us and enables us to have minds that are, as we abide, bearing the fruit of his life and living his life through us in contrast to doing things of our own strength. Okay, can you be more specific? More? I thought that was pretty specific.

Okay, a life led by faith is really beginning to experience God's power working through the spirit, right? How does that manifest? Are you trying to explain this to somebody? How would you do that? Your old habits suddenly get challenged. and you find out as you grow in the knowledge of the Lord and what his word says that this is actually the Holy Spirit at work and it's not any big show deal. highlights the parts of the Bible that you need to learn soonest as you grow.

And he emphasizes in your memory bank whatever needs to be remembered, maybe if you're willing to listen, if you're willing to trust. Okay, but Stephen, what are your thoughts? I guess I would say that it kind of stems back to the death, burial, resurrection experience.

You know, I think I want to discriminate this God's power working in our lives as a distinction between a choice of good behavior versus a life that's being led from above. And I think, you know, we're going to come to this in a section, in a second, in verse 20a. But nevertheless, I think this working power is a positional truth that God Seeing us in his son and positioned above is in the business of working out that position in our day-to-day existence. That sounds kind of vague, but it's by faith from above that ultimately allows this working power to be perceived. and we're going to come to that more detail. I think you're on the right track.

So verse 20a is just predicted, which he worked a rotten Christ when he raised him from the dead. So Steve is looking ahead or had this in mind already. Notice that this power is rotten Christ when he raised him from the dead. Rot is perfect, active, indicative. Okay. So what does perfect, active, indicative mean? God's supernatural power made operative and continuing. Perfect tense? What's perfect tense? Something that happened in the past but has continuing effect. Okay, so that relates to this, doesn't it?

Active. Who's doing this? He's doing it. Yeah, God's power. Mighty power. Right? And indicative? We've been there already. This is real deal stuff. Facts. Isn't that special? Perfect active indicative. God's working power in terms of the way we experience it day in and day out.

JFB, Jason Fawcett and Brown, the raising of Christ is not only an earnest of our bodies being hereafter raised, but has a spiritual power involving by virtue of our living union with him as members with a head, the resurrection spiritually of the believer's soul now and consequently of his body hereafter. Stated a little bit clumsily, but nevertheless, it's now and then, both, or whenever.

So something that we experience now, but perfect act of indicative in the future. And Steve, to return to kind of what you were saying, Romans 6, 8 through 11, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. or in him is probably better, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, and death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise, reckon yourselves also to be dead and eat unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's something that's day in and day out, and that's how God's power gets manifested. We don't rely on just being self-righteous and making good decisions. Yes, there are consequences of bad decisions from an earthly perspective, but that's not the life we live. We live it positionally. And Roger, that's what Ephesians is all about. This is Paul's prayer for us positionally. And until you understand position theologically and put that in spades, your life is always going to be perceived as inadequate and not really living up to some standard that God expects of us. I think this is how God's power works in us, to begin theologically in the right position.

So, Romans 8.11, but if the spirit of him, Steve, that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by a spirit that dwells in you. So, David, I think you're the one that mentioned the spirit. This is the spirit-led life, and it relates to the truth of the cross. And remember, the cross, our sins were totally tuned out and paid for forever. But it's that sin nature that was also crucified there. I've been crucified with Christ, buried with him with baptism unto death, risen with him in newness of life. So, we need to never forget that this act of Christ was not only for our sins, but for sin itself, and that's all of us.

All right, Ephesians 2.4.5, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved. And back to kind of what I was alluding to a minute ago, this is sound theological doctrine. It's so critically important in terms of how we walk the Christian life with his mighty power energizing in us through the power of the Spirit.

Romans 6, 3, 4, as I just kind of clumsily quoted, or do you not know that as many of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And that newness of life is by faith. How do we define faith? Believing what God has revealed. Faith is believing what God has revealed.

It is as true in the garden as it is today. We are so fortunate to have the scripture to really teach us, don't we? You know, it's so funny when you talk to people who believe some aspects of the Bible, but not all. I mean, you know, it's in their picket little micro details about inconsistencies in scripture. But even if there are a few things that maybe aren't perfectly there in terms of dates and things like that, I mean, I'll leave that up to the Lord. The truth is, who are you? Where did you come from? And where are you going? It's a question we all ask. All right.

Philippians 3.28. And this is something that I personally have found extremely helpful, always to remind myself where my citizenship is. And that helps put everything into perspective. It doesn't solve problems, but it puts it into perspective.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's that hope that we all have, the hope of waiting for our Savior. But in addition, where our citizenship is really does reflect on how we view earthly circumstances. It really, really does. And again, when we get frustrated or fall short and all of that, and we take a big step back and just kind of think about our heavenly position and the eternal nature of that, then these earthly trials and tribulations become somewhat pale. That doesn't mean that we don't experience them. It just puts them into perspective. Can everybody identify with that?

So sorry, Roger. So in a sense, this whole positional truth that I'm kind of bringing up relates to the part 20B, right? And what follows. So I'm not going to go any further. But I just wanted to kind of introduce that now, because I think it fits so well with what we discussed. Let me know that that first point just introduces three other points he's got to make about you know, that he bore about in Christ when he raised him from the dead, when he seated him, he put all things in subjection to him, and the last one is he gave his head over the church. So there's three more to come after the first one.

All right, good. Roger, why don't you close with a prayer, please? We thank you, Father. We thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the many blessings we have, Father. We thank you for the wonderful truths we're learning in Ephesians about us being in Christ, and the ramifications of that are so significant in our lives, Father. We ask in His name. Amen. Amen.