Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, as we pray today, we have in mind Paul's prayer for the Colossians. We ask that for Calvary Bible, for your church in and around the city and around the world, that we would be filled with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we might walk in a manner worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of you. We think of the Davises in Marseilles. We think of Good Shepherd. We think of the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley. This is our prayer that we would be filled with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Our Father in heaven, we acknowledge to you that we are weak people, that we're a needy people, that we're an easily distracted, frail people. And so we pray that we would be strengthened with all power according to your glorious might for all endurance and patience and that we would do this with joy. And we would do this with joy because of the gospel. You have delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of your beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We pray that we would be filled with the knowledge of your will and strengthened with all power that we would display joy centrally because of who our King is, the image of the invisible God and the firstborn before all things. We praise you that he is the one through whom all things hold together. Certainly for Calvary Bible Church in Columbus, he is the head of this church. He is the head of the body around the world. We're thankful that in him we have redemption, that you are pleased for all your fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile to yourself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. So we ask his blessing on this congregation, on this service, on your work, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, I cannot tell you how delighted we are to be here to preach to this beautiful, beautiful church. We have long understood that this is a lovely church, a lovely congregation. We have noted that in many turns. We didn't know how much it could be improved upon. And then this church this week, it just got a whole lot prettier. And Mary Susan, you will agree with the grandmas, is a lovely, lovely baby. And we're so excited and truly, seriously, thank you in advance and from the bottom of our hearts for all the ways that you minister to her. we're deeply appreciative deeply appreciative and deeply deeply thankful for the body well open your Bibles to Ephesians 3 and my prayer I reflected a prayer from Colossians 1 you might look at that throughout the week Colossians 1 9 to 20 that concludes with that great Christ hymn. But this morning we are finishing the first part of Ephesians verses 14 to 21, Ephesians 3, 14 to 21. This is Paul's great prayer and benediction that concludes the first part of his letter to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians 3, verses 14 to 21. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen. Such a beautiful word. Would you just sweep your minds and your hearts down through that text again, even before I preach? the posture of prayer, bowed knees before our heavenly father, every family in heaven and on earth named from him. We're asking out of his resources that he would strengthen us with power in his inner being. Indeed, that in every recess and crevice, an area of our hearts that Christ would dwell, that we would be rooted and grounded in love and that we would comprehend what is incomprehensible, the unknowable, beyond our wildest imagination, love of Christ, that we would be filled to the fullness of God. And we do this knowing that God does more than all we can ask or imagine, not according to our strength, but according to his, and he deserves all glory in the church and in Christ. forever and ever, amen. This is God's word. We ask that the Holy Spirit, Psalm 119, verse 18, would open the eyes of our heart that we might behold wonderful things in it. When you think about the holiday season, think about all the ways that culture makes sure that we celebrate not only the fact of the holidays, but the experience of the holidays. culture is aware, perhaps even unbelieving culture, that we ought to be thankful. Chesterton said that's the great tragedy of the atheist. The worst moment for the atheist is when he or she is thankful and has no one to thank. But even our culture recognizes that we ought to be thankful, the fact of thanksgiving. And then even unbelieving culture celebrates the Christmas season in one way or another. What's interesting to notice is that as unbelieving culture attempts to celebrate, They do so not only objectively, cognitively, in the cognitive domain, but they do so with the experience of the holiday. That's what culture is in pursuit of, is they want to feel the experience of celebration. All sorts of things go into experiencing the holidays, the taste of the food, I'm trying to be disciplined these days with what I eat. And we left Sunday school early. And I don't know who put the pumpkin pie out. But Jamie, I just grabbed a fork and snagged a piece, a little bite, and then made a mess on the floor. And Jamie said, oh, seriously. But there's the taste of the holidays, there's the smell, the potpourri smell of the holidays that we pursue. We put out good smelling things to not just know, but to experience. It's all kinds of entertainment and traditions and music. We pursue the experience of the holidays, even unbelief in culture. But here's a question for you, Calvary Bible. How much do you pursue the experience of Christ? Not just to know it, but to live it and to feel it. Now, if you look at what Paul is praying here in Ephesians 3, 14 to 21, you see, and this is really the big idea, he is praying for the experience of Christ. You can't miss it. Look at the sorts of things that he is asking that would happen at Ephesus and that we're asking for at Calvary Bible, that we would be strengthened with power in our inner being. That's an experience. Brothers and sisters, that's our prayer for you. If you're weak, if you're worn out, we pray that you would be strengthened with God's power in your inner being. That you would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The height, the breadth, the dimensions of Christ's love. that you may have power or strength to comprehend with all saints what are those dimensions, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Now, if you just think about that, he's saying, know what you can't know. I mean, what does that mean? It sounds, we would say in apologetics, we would say it sounds self-referentially absurd. We're praying that you would know what you can't know. But of course, what he means is that you would experience Christ. You can't miss this, that you would be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, Calvary Bible, have you prayed and asked God to do that in your life recently? I understand you've prayed about the gospel. I understand that you've prayed about your material needs. I understand that you've prayed for people you love. But if you ask God, Heavenly Father, would you give me an experience of Christ that fills me to the measure? This is what you're praying for. Now you say, well you start talking about experience of Christ and I know your gene pool, okay? I know who you people are. And we start talking about experience of Christ and you say, isn't that a short step from doing something crazy like, I don't know, raising your hands in worship or smiling at church or, or, or, I mean, you start feeling it. Aren't you awfully close to holding your microphone at that point? And listen, you know, most Christians gravitate more to the cognitive, mental, doctrinal side or the experience side. And we want to be perfectly balanced. We want to display not only objectively what we believe about the faith, but subjectively the experience of Christ as well. Look at this quote from Don Carson. Don Carson says this, because some wings of the church have appealed to experience over and against revelation or have talked glibly about ill-defined spirituality that is fundamentally divorced from the gospel. Here we go. At points, some of us have overreacted and begun to view all mention of experience as suspicious at best and perverse at worst. So we start to be arm's length with experiencing who Christ is. Carson says, and he says it, by the way, relative to this prayer in his book on the prayers of Paul, this overreaction must cease. The scriptures themselves demand that we allow more place for experience than that. And that means we ought to be praying and asking God for the experience of Christ. Or how about this comment from Calvin? Believers must feel, feel all that they possess is heavenly and divine. And indeed, if we do not, we must remain continually in a state of hesitation. If you don't feel that this prayer that Paul prays in Ephesians 3, 14 and following, isn't answered in your life, Calvin says, you would remain in a state of hesitation. It's not enough to know it cognitively, you gotta feel it. You've gotta feel it. Now, that's the central thrust here that we're praying for the experience of Christ But then Paul lays these clauses on top of one another as Paul often does. And it's easy to get lost in this prayer if we don't sort of break it down. And here's the thing, very vividly picture, you want to come out of here today with a picture of how it is that you will pray for the experience of Christ. So I'm going to give you four postures or four parts of the picture to to take and and here's the dream here's the dream that somewhere in the Columbus area this week wherever you live that you will take a few minutes and you will live out the vision for this prayer so Four steps to take. Number one, kneel on good news ground. Kneel on good news ground, or kneel on gospel ground. Kneel on the ground of the gospel. What does Paul say? For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. Doesn't say I bow my knees before my career. Doesn't even say I bow my knees before my family that's the center of everything. Certainly doesn't say I bow my knees before the lottery that somehow all my financial woes might be satisfied. It says no, I take on this posture, I kneel, I get down on my knees before the Father. There's nothing magic is there, right, about kneeling, about getting down. It's not some sort of necessary ritual. Sure does help though, doesn't it? It sure does help to get down on your knees by the side of your bed and remind yourself as you kneel before the Father and you look for the experience of Christ, I bring nothing. I'm here on my knees asking for the experience of Christ, I kneel. You notice this phrase, your students of the Bible here enjoy sitting in on your Sunday school class and listen to people dissect and consider the narrative from Genesis. You say, well it says for this reason, what's this reason? Well, what this reason is, is my rationale for now preaching the whole first three chapters of Ephesians to you. It means for the reason of the whole argument that Paul built so far in Ephesians 1. And of course, we can't preach every detail of it, but we can at least fly over it quickly. When Paul says, listen, for this reason I get down on my knees, church at Ephesus, and pray for you, here's the reason. Number one, the sovereignty of God and his glory in salvation. Look at Ephesians chapter one very quickly. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's blessed us, verse three, with every spiritual blessing, even as He, here we go, chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in Him. I didn't, I wasn't born into a church going family. My family was invited to church, a gospel preaching church. When I was in elementary school, a teacher, public school teacher invited me and I went into this church and I heard the gospel and I knew in my heart of hearts when I heard the gospel, this is for me. And as a child, then growing up, hearing the gospel, I thought it didn't take me long to figure that out. And so that was. I didn't choose God. God chose me. He had that plan in southeast Iowa that I would go and hear the gospel preached. God is sovereign, he is the one who saves. All our security is in him. He seals us with the Holy Spirit. He adopts us into his family. Verse 11, we've obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. so that, as I mentioned, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So when Paul says for this reason, he's thinking about the whole gospel argument that he has laid out. The sovereignty of God and salvation. God deserves all the glory, God alone receives all the glory, and all our security is in Him and not in ourselves. Chapter two, God's beautiful grace. Remember who we were. I appreciated Eric's adopting the narrative that Mary Susan's not born a sinner. Of course, we know otherwise. Here's who we are, Chapter 2, dead in our trespasses and sins, in which we walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, we were by nature children of wrath. Other than that, great people. By nature, children of wrath. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love, made us alive. In these verses that we know so well, for by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. Calvary Bible Church, who are you? Verse 10, you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do. Paul says, listen, first thing I do when I'm praying for the experience of Christ is I get down on my knees on this gospel ground. I kneel on this gospel ground. the sovereignty and security of God in salvation. Number one, the beautiful riches of God, God's riches at Christ's expense, the foot of the cross because of what Jesus has done. And then just flying quickly, chapter three, verse 10. that through the church, the beauty of the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Paul says, for this reason, that God is now showing himself through the church. It was worth the trip today to sing the first song, the first song that we sang today Come behold the wondrous mystery. It's worth a trip to sing that. Come behold the wondrous mystery in the dawning of the king. Paul says, this has now been made known what was not previously known, the wondrous mystery of Christ and the church. A question came up in Sunday School class today, Genesis chapter 18. The question was something like, and how does what happened with Abraham affect us? And then the class is just bubbling up with that. Number one, Jesus. Number one, Jesus. And you go on from there. Think of it. The church is the prism through which God is shining the light of the gospel to an onlooking world. The church is God's plan for making himself known in this age. We often say it this way in our church. The church is as much God's plan for this age as the ark was for Noah's. You realize that? The church is as much God's plan today as the ark was for Noah's, in some ways, more so. And you say, well, I've been in a lot of local churches. They're leaky boats. Nobody wants to work on the elephant deck. There's a lot of stuff to do, and the church, if it isn't too earthy to say, can be at times a smelly place. That's true, that's true. Since it includes sinners such as ourselves, but brothers and sisters, it beats being out in the rain. This is what God's doing. And so Paul says, listen, we're gonna ask for the experience of Christ And the first thing we're gonna do is picture all the truth of doctrine that is built up to this point. For this reason, I kneel before the Father who is sovereign in salvation, who saves us by his grace, who is now making himself known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through the church. So step number one, kneel on good news ground. Step number two, place your hand on the shoulder of the person next to you. He says, we kneel on gospel ground before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. If you are a follower of the King and you're asking for the experience of Christ, you're doing that as a brother and sister or sister who has been adopted into the family of Christ. So we raise our children in Illinois. Christopher went to college here in Ohio at Cedarville and met a young lady from all over, from New Jersey and from Florida, from different places, and they moved to Columbus. And our prayer, The prayer of our lives, talking about Jamie and me, is that God would lead our children to a Christ-centered, Word-centered church. And so I subtly, when they relocated to Columbus, I subtly began to inquire. And if you know the Bronces, you know at least one of them. We're not a subtle people, really. So I was asking subtle questions like, have you found a church yet? How's it going with church? And Christopher started talking to me about Calvary Bible. And I immediately began checking out Calvary Bible. And I realized Champ Thornton is a mutual friend of Eric's. Champ from South Carolina. I guess he's from South Carolina. He's from somewhere. And I Is that right? See, well, that's my point. Okay, this is where I'm going. And I, so I call Champ, and you know, tell me more about Eric's site. Tell me more. Champ finally says to me, you know, Chris, you're asking me about Eric, and Eric's asking me about you. Why don't you two just talk to each other? I thought that sounded good. And so Eric and I were talking and then it turns out that Eric knows far more people from Meredith's family than I could even begin to list. And so by like the second or third time that Chris and Meredith came to church here, Eric says to Meredith, are you Marion Fass' granddaughter? And you know, they do that whole thing. And you say, well, so what are the odds? You're from Iowa, you lived in Illinois, and Your daughter-in-law is from New Jersey and Florida, and you know all kinds of mutual acquaintances. What are the odds? Here's the answer, pretty good, pretty good. You know why? Because we're part of the same family. We're saved into the body of Christ. And when our granddaughter comes here to church, she's part of this family. And listen, we know this family. We know this family. What are the odds? Our granddaughter is a little girl in this church. She doesn't hear the story of Zacchaeus. What are the odds that she doesn't hear about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? What are the odds that she doesn't hear, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Zero, zero, zero. because we're a part of this family and we're committed to the same King. Now, don't lose track of the prayer here. We're kneeling on gospel ground, but we're not doing it alone. We don't pray my father so much as we pray our father, our father. And you know, that connections game that we're playing with Champ and with all these people that we know, we're going to be playing that game for all of eternity. And connections between Ohio and Illinois will be small. We'll be making it between Ohio and France, and Ohio and Cambodia. And we'll do it not only within the dimension of space, we'll do it from dimension of time, before the throne of Christ. And they'll say, where are you from? Say, 2022. And then Jamie will say, you're kidding me. We're from that time as well. And we'll make that. We're part of this heavenly family. We're kneeling on gospel ground. See, this is what Paul says, for this reason, I get down on my knees before the Father. part of this family. So step one, kneel on gospel ground. Step two, put your hand on the shoulders of the people next to you. Step three, and this one's vital, this one's vital, drop your head. Drop your head. Just let your body go. Drop your head and rest in God's strength and who God is. Notice what power we are resting in when we ask for the experience of Christ. We're asking this according to the riches of his glory that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Some of you feel very disillusioned and tired and spent this holiday season. And we say to you that you should ask for the experience of Christ. And you say, I don't know if I can do it or not. I don't know if I can even get through the next week or not. Well, let me strength save you a lot of time. You can't. You don't have the resources to do it. I mean, that's back to being on our knees again. That's a big part of the posture of prayer. Lord, would you strengthen me with all power according to who you are? And I prayed that, Colossians 1, 11. in the prayer today, and there's, just make that note. If you're a note taker, just write down Colossians 111. It's an easy reference to remember because this will serve you so well in your prayer life. Pray that I would be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. You say, to what end? For all endurance and patience. You ever run short of that? Patience. And then I just love that last prepositional phrase there, with joy, with joy. Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. You're asking, you drop your head and you rest in God's strength and who he is. See, our problem, one of our biggest problems is that we come to prayer with a works mentality. We come thinking we have to do it. Even for faith, isn't it interesting, even with faith, we make that a kind of work. Well, I just, we almost get white knuckles saying, well, I just have to believe. I just have to do this. Listen, the reformers picture for faith isn't white knuckles. It's an open hand. It's an empty cup. So it's such a good posture, isn't it, during the benediction to just be like this? Would you just work in my life in a special way? Would you give me this strength? Would you give me the experience of Christ? I wanna not only know it, I wanna feel it too. So for this reason, I kneel on gospel ground. I put my hand on the shoulder of the person next to me. I drop my head and rest in God's riches and strengths. I pray that the Holy Spirit would be at work in my life. Just look real quickly at a collateral verse. Keep your place there and go to Romans chapter five and Paul's review of the gospel here. Paul says, since we have been justified, declared righteous by faith, We have peace with God, 5-1, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that, he says, we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Why is that? Because God's love has been, think of this, has been poured out, picture it, into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. See, that's an experience of Christ. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into our hearts. Doug Moo commenting on this verse says, the confidence we have for the day of judgment is not based only on our intellectual recognition of the facts of God's love or even only on the demonstration of God's love on the cross. Here we go. But it is on the inner subjective certainty that God does love us. How is it that we can be inwardly certain that God loves us It's because the Holy Spirit has been poured out into our hearts. Moo goes on, yes, even emotional sensation within the believer that God does indeed love us, love expressed and made vital in real concrete actions on our behalf that gives us the assurance that our hope will not disappoint us. You say, well, you read that, that God's love has been poured out into our hearts. And you say, I don't know. I don't know that I'm feeling it. Well, listen, pray for it. Pray for it. Pray. Lord, would you fill me to the measure with the fullness of who you are? And then finally, so that takes us through three steps. Kneel on good news ground. Place your hand on the shoulder of the person next to you. Drop your head and rest in God's strength and riches. Finally, consider the love of Christ. Consider the love of God. Paul says, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. as you're kneeling down with your hand on the shoulder of the brother or sister next to you, as you drop your head and rest in the power of God, think about the love of Christ. I wonder, I won't do this, this is rhetorical, don't answer, but I wonder if I started pointing to every section here and said, come up with a verse about the love of Christ, I wonder what verses would be mentioned. Hopefully you would get to John 3.16 pretty quickly. Sometimes my people hold back on John 3.16. They think, well, that's kind of cheating. Everybody knows John 3.16. Well, listen, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God so loved the world he gave his son. Think of the love of parents. We were privileged, Jamie and I were privileged to go to Columbus Hospital this week and watch our son hold a baby. Who, I don't know if you know how this works in Columbus, but was immediately clad in Buckeye gear. I mean, scarcely had her temperature taken before she had a buckeye beanie on. You say, well, Christopher and Meredith, how do they feel about this baby? What's their position towards this baby? They love her. They love her. imperfectly, but they love her. And then you think about the perfect love of the father who so loved the world that he gave as the only begotten son. Would you just contemplate that? Do we get used to that? I'll give the back section credit for John 3, 16. But how about you guys should be able to come up with one how about Romans 5 8? God demonstrates his own love for us and this while we were still sinners Christ died for us God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we're still sinners didn't wait till we were worthy didn't wait till we deserved it which would have never occurred Jeff's prayer and reading so beautifully reflected the Johannine writings Maybe this section would say a new command I give you love one another as I loved you So you must love one another by this will all men know that you're my disciples if you love one another Think about the love of God You say, well, I can put the people back on the side of the sound booth. I could put them in charge of this. Give me a definition of love. Give me a definition. That looks like a pretty sharp section back there. And they would immediately say, this is love. not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. See, we're praying for the experience of Christ, and here's what we're doing. We're kneeling on gospel ground. We're putting our hands on the shoulders of the people next to us, because we're reminding ourselves that we're a family. We're dropping our head and resting in the power of God. And then even as we pray, we're contemplating the love of Christ, that God so loved the world, he sent his son. We're thinking, could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made? Were every stock on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. This is the ground that we're preying on. And you say, well, there we have it. We've concluded then. You said four steps, kneel on gospel ground, put your hand on the shoulder of the person next to you, drop your head, contemplate the love of Christ. It's like, no, we haven't started yet, okay? This is just introductory. Then, when you're in that place, now make the request. Make the request. Lord, Would you fill me with the experience of Christ? I won't get all grammatical on you, but there's kind of three subjunctives here. The Father grant out of his glorious riches, the Father empower you, the Father fill you to all the fullness of God. Have you asked God for that recently? Husbands? Have you asked recently for your bride that she would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of you? Lives? Do you pray that for one another? So many times we make prayer a work. We're trying to do it even as we're supposedly asking God for it. Word, would you fill me with the fullness of who you are? You say, well, what will happen? Ephesians three, what will happen when we pray that? Well, here's what happens. God is able to do far more abundantly all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. God will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power as it were within us. You know what our biggest challenge is in prayer? Our biggest challenge is that we're limited by our own expectations and what we can do. We serve a God of heaven and earth who's able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. thing. I get fuzzy on these dates. But Christopher Meredith moved to Columbus in maybe 2018. And Meredith started graduate school. And then maybe shortly after Christmas of that year, first year in OT school, when she found out that She'd be spending some time in the hospital because of trials that she was going through. While Jamie and I had generally prayed that God would provide a church, we couldn't have imagined that it would be a church as loving and gracious as this one. I left immediately to come out and to make a hospital visit. And before I got there, you know, pastors had already been there. Steps of love were already taken. I've complimented Eric before. Calvary is a really full-service kind of operation. They provide wives of pastors that are type 1 diabetics. Those are specific needs that not all churches can provide, in all seriousness. When you're part of a community where you have multiple people who immediately go through the trial that you're going through, is that not a gift of God? This is who God is. This is who God is. You say, well, that's an unusual story. Not really, not really. This is how the body of Christ works. We get down on our hands and knees before our Heavenly Father. We're praying with other brothers and sisters. We're not resting in who we are, but who God is. We're contemplating the love of Christ. And God, in response, does immeasurably more, abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine. Again, emphasis again, according to the power, His power that is at work within us. And you say, well, what do we do in response to that? Here's what we do, Calvary Bible Church. Here's what we do. We give glory to God in heaven who deserves all glory. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. We ask God, would you fill us to the measure of the fullness of who you are? So that's the question for you. That's our prayer for you. Kneeling on gospel ground, together with brothers and sisters, heads bowed, resting in his power, I pray, I'm looking at your faces, I pray that you would be filled with the measure of Christ to experience the unknowable love of Christ, that God would do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power, that he would receive all glory. The question for you is sometime this week, would you pray that prayer? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven. For this reason, we're on our knees because you chose your people before the foundation of the world. You demonstrated your love for us in this that while we were still sinners, you died for us that in believing in you and repenting and believing that we might have eternal life, that your intent is that now through the church, you would make declaration of yourself. Lord, we're so thankful that it's not unusual to make connections in the family because we're all part of the same family. Lord, we are weak, and so we ask that you would strengthen us with your spirit in our inner being. And Lord, we're so thankful that you are a God of love, that you are love, and that love is defined by what you've done for us. So I ask, Lord, that these brothers and sisters who have much on their hearts and minds, have many people that they're worried about, many people that they're concerned about, would you fill them to the measure of the fullness of who you are? And Lord, we know that you will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us. And Lord, we know that all glory is strictly yours in the church in Christ, not only for our time, but throughout all generations. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.