Three feelings bring about this sermon on this Easter Sunday. The first is, think that when you come to Easter, you feel, if you're a true Christian in America, a little bit superficial. You feel like you're supposed to be making a big deal about something. And the resurrection, you know, you're supposed to be excited and new beginning and get dressed up and take pictures. And he's alive. Everyone's happy. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming and this sort of thing. Yet it can feel as hollow as one of those plastic eggs that doesn't have any candy in it. And nevertheless you kind of feel then sort of external about it. Your soul feels empty and nevertheless you start trying to pump something and get excited and you feel that way. But then maybe a second feeling, if you're a true Christian, you start thinking, well, it is kind of the article, literally, by which the church stands or falls. I should be thinking something substantive about it. And maybe start thinking to yourself, now what does the resurrection mean? Or what is the big thoughts I'm going to have in my head about it? And maybe you come up short and empty and you feel like, I really don't know. And so, you feel kind of down about that, and maybe start pulling up sermons and articles, you hope maybe there's something on Desiring God about it, and maybe there's a clip, or maybe just start Googling, like the resurrection, looking for something, or you scroll Facebook, what are other people sharing, so that you don't just feel superficial about it. and kind of gloomy and dank and just empty for this day. And you're just taking pictures, getting dressed up as though you're just boasting in your children, and that's all it's about. I had a third feeling. I thought, well, since we're almost done studying through this book of Ephesians, I wonder what would happen if we just looked back through this letter and asked, what have we seen in this letter about the resurrection? And what would we find if we asked, what does Easter mean according to Ephesians? And what should I think about the resurrection? What should I have in my mind so that I can have some substance in my soul on this day? If I look to Ephesians. So I'm just going to call this sermon, Easter and Ephesians. Easter and Ephesians. And the first subject this book tells us the resurrection should make us think differently about is the subject of power. So if you look at chapter 1 and verse 19, it is evident that everyone in this world in one way or another is constantly grasping for power. It's evident that The church seems to lack so much power. It seems to be just unimpressive. Everybody wants power. You have these two things. Everybody wants power and the church seems unimpressive and powerless. You want to be a supervisor, rule over people, tell people what to do. You want your YouTube channel to have more followers. You want to be an influencer. There's things in life that are obstacles and arranged in ways that you wish they were not, and you just want the power to move them and get them in the right spot. I mean, people are just spending lots of energy How can I become a celebrity? They want the power to make it happen. And so, Tolkien tells us that men, above all else, desire power, and it's true. And then you come to the church, and to be honest, y'all just look so weak and unimpressive. Y'all are unimpressive and so am I. Very unimpressive. You ever get discouraged? You come to church and you think, well, it just feels pathetic. It just feels weak. It just feels like dead almost. Like there's no life or there's no power. And this is a true feeling. You are weak. and powerless in some ways. And this is what causes the church to try to grasp for something to prop up the gospel. to, you know, what book can we get? What study can we do? What seminar? What trip can we take? How can we get everyone excited? We have a gift for you in the foyer? What can we do to just get people excited about coming to church? Can we have a slide? You know this, but this is where it comes from. I'm saying this is the psychological place where all of that comes from. And it causes us to despair in ourselves and go searching to try to become impressive. And we just think if we could just find this one thing, you know, then we could have a platform. Then we could have standing. Then everybody would want to just, you know, Q&A us all the time. They want to know your opinions are glorious and awesome. What do you think? I should do, and what do you think about this?" And we just have such a wonderful view, and you could have sway in the community and be somebody. But according to Paul here, he tells us the great need of the church is not to obtain some new power, but to realize the power you already have in the gospel. He says in verse 19, if you look back at verse 18, he's praying that these Ephesians may have the eyes of their heart enlightened, so that they will know not only what is the hope of the Gospel, and not only the beginning of the end of verse 18, what is the value of it essentially, the riches of the glory, but thirdly, this is what we're looking at, what is the surpassing greatness of His power. toward us who believe. So, the gospel is first of all the power of God, surpassing greatness of His power. The problems we face in this life are surpassingly great problems. And Paul is telling us that nothing but surpassingly great power can fix them. We are not in such a way that President Biden could send us something and help us out. We are in a plight where only God can help us. Gabriel announces the virgin birth. That is to be our good news. And he says, with man, it's impossible. With God, nothing will be impossible. So it's the power of God And then he tells us it's the power of God in Christ. This is another reason why we feel weak. I mean, in one way, we're here today to rejoice in someone else's glorification. It's like, well, it's good for him that he was raised from the dead. We're still here dying. And Paul, in a sense, says that, but notice he says, this surpassing greatness of the power is in accord with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ. So the locus of the power of God is in Christ. Christ is, Paul says, the wisdom of God and the power of God. I am the resurrection. is what he said to Martha. And this power of God in Christ is what is manifested, Paul says, when he raised him from the dead. So the resurrection is the power of God in Christ. Who else could bring someone back from the dead? Who else could build a snowman for the second time and bring Olaf back from all of his pieces other than the one who made him? And who else could bring up the dead from the sea and put molecules back together again so that Jeffrey stands up here again in a new body? No one but the Creator could do that. And so it was the power of God in Christ in the resurrection. And then the session, he says, and he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. So this is like where you become president and you sit in the White House. You're now like the gown, the track coat. You sit in the seat and you got the levers in your hand. and it's running and it's full of gas and all the alamites have been, you know, properly dealt with and it's oiled and greased and you're in the seat of power. And everything's at your disposal. It says, He seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, both human and demonic. Every name that is named, there's no incantation, there's no abracadabra that could spook you or bother you. And He says, and not only in this age, but also in the one to come, there's never going to be a time where some power will arise in the universe greater than Christ. And the subjection is next, and He put all things in subjection under His feet. Every single molecule floating as a gas through the air is under His power. And he presented him to the church this way. He gave him as head over all things to the church. Like the Great Commission, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, therefore, go. He presents him to us as our Joseph, exalted in Egypt, full of power. And our brother now has all this power. But we need to go search for a new power? You see, that's to forgive. It's to be like the Christian in Pilgrim's Progress in Doubting Castle. He didn't even realize the key of promise is in his pocket. He didn't need another key. He didn't need another power. And that's what Paul is saying to us here. So that's the first subject the resurrection makes us think differently about according to Ephesians. Power. The second is the church, because Paul not only tells us we need to realize the power that we have in the gospel, secondly, he tells us that it is the power of God. After he says the power of God in Christ, he goes on to say in verse 23, which is through the church, the power of God in Christ flows through the church. And this is the amazing part, that while I am weak, I can be strong. The weak church is the conduit through which flows the power of God in Christ. So this is a different view of the church. He defines the church as His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." In other words, just as my head has a body. Annabelle was making a drink last night and I told her, I said, look, your head wants to turn that on and have this spin, but you need your hands to do it. Your head needs a body. Your head is insufficient. without a body or to use a marvel analogy where those guys are sometimes like controlling the whole body like from inside the head and then they're moving the arms and things. Like Jesus is pictured by Paul as the head in relation to a body And in one way, Jeff Johnson said it there in the Q&A there, I thought about it when he said it, that in one way he's independent, but another way Paul says he's filling up what he's lacking, that Paul really is necessary. The body is what he uses to get his work done. So in other words, the instrument through which He manifests His power in this world is you. To get a feel for it, the Roman Catholic Church has a doctrine called the vicar of Christ on earth, like the word vicarious, substitute. And they say the Pope is that guy. He's the vicar of Christ on earth. Paul tells us here that grandma, grandpa, husband, wife, child, Liam, is the vicar of Christ on earth. the manifestation of Him. Remember what He told Mary? Mary was the first one to come to the tomb and see Him. And I think she did what only any of us would have done, totally natural. She clung to the Lord, it says. She clung to Him. After all, Joshua said, cling to the Lord. I would have clung to him, I think, or either that or been in a state of shock and worship and all. But she clung to him in amazing command and said, stop clinging to me. You ever wondered what that means? Stop clinging to me. Come unto me, all, and also stop clinging to me. Well, he gave the reason he's not yet ascended and he's already said in that gospel, unless I go away, then the helper, it's to your advantage that I go away. Put it this way, would you rather he had stayed on earth the whole 2,000 year church history? He could make a little pilgrimage and go talk to Him and see Him? He said that it would be better if he didn't have that. That's something. Why would it be better? If all of the power of God is contained in Him right there, and we're all this big line, we're just in death until we get to Him, and you've got to wait on everyone else. The world has billions of people on it. And it's like, how much time would you get with him? Before the next guy, you feel bad. I've got to hurry up and just shake his hand and move on and put a picture up in your house. I saw Jesus. Like you met the President one time or something. He actually says that would be bad. That's amazing. It would be bad if he just stayed and you got to see him one time. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us why. 1 Corinthians 12, just look at this one verse. I wonder if it has ever shocked you. 1 Corinthians 12. He starts telling us this familiar analogy. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body. And then you expect him to say, so also are we. that he says, so also is Christ. He literally identifies Christ with the body of Christ. He calls the body of Christ, Christ. How do you feel about calling Trevor Christ? I mean, that's kind of hard to do. It's hard to roll off the lips. But Paul is saying that the Spirit of Christ comes to indwell his people, and the way that you cling to Christ today is by clinging to the church. The way you confess sin to Christ today and you receive forgiveness, this almost sounds Roman Catholic, but you can see it. Why did he tell Mary, stop clinging to me? Because the church is His body. You feel forgiveness and you feel help. Where do you feel grace and truth today? As I said before when we were here. Through the hug of someone, through seeing the face of another brother. You see, they wouldn't be here, they wouldn't be thinking this. Why does their mind operate that way? The Bible tells us it's the Spirit that causes. And that Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. So when a brother ministers to me as a Christian, it's really Christ ministering to me. It's like on Ratatouille where he's up in the hat, you know, telling him how to cook and all that. I mean, there's someone else up here in my hat. I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't be thinking that way. I wouldn't have ever wanted to read a book or study anything. It's all the Spirit of Christ. I'd be talking to you about something terrible that'd be no good for him. So the way the world has changed today is through its people. I thought of this sister was here this weekend, and I passed her once. I wanted to meet her, and I didn't get to. And I thought, dang, I wish I wanted to meet her and see who she was. And I sat down at Tampin Grind yesterday evening, and someone pulled up in a car to get some coffee before they were going out of town, and it was her. And she introduced herself. Her name is Elizabeth. And she was talking to Challi. She was like, I so enjoy talking to your wife and encouraging her and everything. And we were having a good conversation. And her husband just passed away. She just turned 40. It's like a couple of years ago, he had brain cancer and passed away. And you could tell, I mean, she was sweet. She was walking with Laura, but you could tell she was broken. And Chali said they were up talking and it was her and one other woman in there and she was talking about him and losing him. And she just stopped for a second and she said, I sure do miss him. And you think like she's broken like that, but she ministered to Chali. You know, you think something like that can overwhelm you. And you think, what is there a reason to go on living? What purpose is there to life? And it's such a wonderful encouragement to realize, like, you are the body of Christ. Like, you can still help others. Like, you can use your life. She affected Chali. Like, did something that God wouldn't have brought her here that Chali needed. This is how you find purpose to go on living, that God not only has this surpassingly great power unleashed in Christ, but He wields it through weak vessels like me, that He may get all the more the glory. Like in Gideon, it's like, you know, well this guy just has too much of a platform, I can't use him in your life. This guy has written too many books, I can't use him in your life. But here's this nobody woman from Arkansas who's all broke to pieces, now I can use somebody to help you. Because the glory goes to Him. It always strikes me when they make a movie about Samson, they always make him look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And it's just so weird. Did anybody take logic ever? The guy that says people are wondering, what is the secret to his great strength? Well, if he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger, nobody would be wondering that. So the point is, he obviously looked like a normal guy. And basically, you think of Paul saying, what I'm getting at is there should be a secret to our strength, like the unimpressiveness. Paul says, all the more gladly, I love to look like a nothing and a nobody, and I have no power. And oh, you're so dead, Paul. Can anything good come out of you, Paul? Because then the power of Christ can rest on me. And it'd be evident, he tells the Corinthians, even in my preaching, when I came to you, I wasn't persuasive, I wasn't a mover and a shaker, and y'all wondered, could anything come out of this? And yet God used me, and you knew it He was using me, He was speaking to your heart, in order that your faith might not rest on the clever wisdom of man, but on the power of God. This is why a man, a father, a husband, no matter what he's done all his life, can get his little family together and say, let's read the Bible and pray. You know, people struggle with that and you feel convicted, I haven't done that. And then you just feel you have to give up. You feel it's too late, it's too... You know, and I heard Piper once, he was trying to exhort men to do this. He said, well, I don't know how to study. He said, can you just read a verse? Just read the verse and just pray the most, Lord, help us to understand this. If that's all you can do, just do that. Because you're the father. Paul tells Timothy in one place, you might have many teachers, but you don't have many fathers. God has wired your children to want their daddy to tell them how to live. They want to hear their mother be there with them and help them with their emotions. They want that. They want it. So your words come out and like, like tons, and someone else's words come out in pounds. That's just the way it is. But you have this view that, no, it's okay, I feel weak, I feel like nothing will come of this. Good, now God can use it. Do you realize how powerful it is? Do you realize what a victory is won when a husband says to his wife, like, let's just start reading the Bible. Power is unleashed. You say, well, I don't know. You're a Christian, just read it and whatever comes to your mind, maybe make a comment. You think, well, okay, we'll just read it and not make a comment this time. Whatever. But power is unleashed when you do that. Because you're the husband. No one else is the husband. And what wife doesn't want her husband to say, come and let's read the Bible. And what child doesn't want that? So this is an encouragement to you to be reminded, hey, you feel weak, you feel like nothing can come of it, that's the way God designed it. But trust that the power will flow through your weakness. So I say so far it reminded me that we need to think differently about power. We need to think differently about the subject of the church. That's what we were just looking at there. And then third, this book tells us through the resurrection to think differently about salvation. Look at chapter 2. This classic text about salvation is before and after. Verses 1-10, this is who you were, but God did this. Notice Paul pictures this power that converted you as connected to the resurrection in verse 5. He says, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. So Christ is alive and full of power, and you somehow were brought into the vicinity of that and in the radius of that, and you got carried up and associated with that. What that means is, He did not simply save us just to save your soul, and then you just kind of just, you know, arm out the truck and go down the road and come to church and just not really do much for forty years until you go to heaven. That's not the reason He saved you. He saved you to make you useful. That's what he just said in verse 23 of 1. The church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. This is the original intention of creation. You think of a vehicle like a car, like a hot rod or something, the motor goes out. I'm going to put a new motor in it." And then now you keep going with this thing. God's original intention to fill the earth with His glory, image bearers to His glory, that broke down in Adam, is the very same intention that is picked up in Christ. That is re-empowered through Christ to fill the earth with His glory. And so, maybe you think of the book of Philemon. You remember, Paul wrote that book, Philemon. Anesimus had escaped from his slavery. He was owned by Philemon as a slave, and he escaped, and then he's converted through Paul, and then he really needs to go back because it was wrong the way that he left, and Paul writes the letter and sends it with him, and he says, I really would like... So he's saved now, he was converted, and Paul said, I really would like it, basically, Philemon, if you would... be gracious enough to just count it all, and I'll pay for anything that needs to be paid for, and send him back, and he says, for he is useful to me. Ain't that something? Every Christian is not just saved. The Lord doesn't just save you, but makes you useful. I think of Romans chapter 6. Remember how he puts it there. In Romans 6, how he compares salvation after you've been saved, he says in verse 12, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. And verse 13, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." It's like the civil war is going on and you left the North and joined the South, or you left the South and joined the North. The point is you now take your musket and point it the other way. You now take your bayonet and point it the other way, you now employ all your ammunition. And so he's saying just as your eyes and your hands and your feet caused sorrow on the earth and grief and sin and destruction, and you were doing damage to the kingdom of God, think of Paul, he was dragging women by the head. doing damage to God's kingdom. He's now saying use the very same ideas, the very same mind, the very same skill set, the very same graces that God gives you naturally and spiritually, and employ it in doing damage to the kingdom of darkness. The whole idea is useful. There's more to do than to just be saved and to do damage The kingdom of darkness is to do damage to depression, to do damage to hopelessness in people's hearts. To find the afflictions and sorrows and depressions and isolations and griefs that are burying human beings and to become a savior yourself, to go in with the grace of God, and it says that in one of the minor prophets, and there shall go forth saviors, plural, with the power of God and redemption, and to rescue people through your gifts. Which brings us to the fourth subject, Ephesians tells us to think differently about in the resurrection. There are five of them, if you were wondering. So first of all, according to Ephesians, the resurrection, we should think differently, renew our minds about power. Secondly, about the church. And then thirdly, about our salvation, realizing what we're saved for, to join in this work. Like in Narnia, you're unfrozen to join Aslan in defeating evil. And here we see the fourth subject to think differently about is gifts. Look at chapter 4. You remember what we learned there? What Paul taught us? Chapter 4, verse 7 to 10. We saw there that there are these gifts of Christ that were obtained through the gospel of Christ. Verses 8 and 9, His descent and ascent. And they are for the goal of Christ. Verse 10, to fill all things. Exactly what we just saw in 1 Cor. 1.23, that He might fill all things in every way. So this is how you're useful. It's not only that faith is a gift, He doesn't just give you the gift of faith, He gives you other gifts. And notice how it begins with but, there, verse 7, but. The idea there is He's just been emphasizing unity, right? Verse 4, there's one body and one Spirit. One hope and one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. But to each one of us, grace was given. So he says there's all this unity, but now there's diversity. The kind of unity that we're talking about, like we heard in the Sermon on the Trinity, is a unity of diversity. The Trinity is a unity not of the Father and the Father and the Father, but of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. It's a unity of diversity. And it's actually the fact of diversity that motivates the unity and binds the Trinity together in some ineffable way through love. Grace, and to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gifts. It's actually the gifts are viewed as residing in people, that God has put graces in different people. And people are different, they're like colored or something different. There's various grace in a certain person, in a certain mixture that's just not the same as another one. I thought of Exodus 31 verses 1 to 11. to get a sense of what Paul is trying to tell us here. That, you remember, there was Azalel and Aholiab, these two men that God had especially equipped and given the Spirit and given grace to build the temple. All these purple fabrics and all this wonderful work and the priest's clothes. They were given this grace to build the temple. Well, in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, every single Christian is them. Just, listen to this, just your smile and your countenance, you are a unique image of God. Just people seeing you. And you smiling at them is a means of grace for them to go on. Paul writes to Timothy, he says, I long to see your face. That's an amazing thing. You think, what could I do? Just coming and seeing a Christian? Or not just here, What difference would it make if a Christian just, I've just come to have a lunch with you one day. It's just like that could almost carry you for like, you just, something happened there. It happened to Jeremy Poe not long ago. I remember that a couple of families had been coming, and they live far away, but they've been coming. They paid for his meal one day there. He was eating by himself at the Mexican restaurant, and he didn't know it until he got ready to go. Just that little, you think, how small? It's not small. It's the cup of cold water like the Lord sees it. And sometimes it's just so powerful. Sometimes it's that that's needed and not necessarily the sermon. So you minister grace to people just by letting them see your face, letting them see your image of God. letting them see your goodness. You're like a moon reflecting the light of the sun. They see God through you. And they're reminded that God loves them through your love for them, because you're the image. And it therefore helps them recover from their sorrow and get back. Get this, this is no man-centered, romantic, feel-good type message where, oh, we need each other. That's not what I'm talking about. This is God-centered. Paul says that God places the members in the body, each one just as He will, and He on purpose gives graces to each one of us that the others don't have, so that if we're hungry for grace, we're forced together. We're forced to be unified together because I don't need you in the sense that this is like a sanctification thing, I need to be good to people and I need to learn how to live with people. No, I need you because I suffer without you. There is grace from God that I will never get this side of heaven without you. in my life. You see, you can't really believe that and say, oh, I don't need you. So it's not a romantic thing, I just want you to feel valued type thing. No, it's believing what Paul said, that he's given graces to different ones. And finally, there's one more truth, if you turn to chapter 5. This one you can see these gifts are given as a result of His resurrection. If you turn to chapter 5, there's one more, a fifth subject that Ephesians tells us the resurrection should make us think differently about, and which might be the most encouraging, and so we'll end with it. And it's the subject of truth. So we've had power, we've had the church, It should give us a different view about our salvation. It should give us a different view about gifts. And finally, a different view of truth. It should renew our minds about truth. Because in urging us to cling inward to the church, remember there's a call to go outward, to feel all things, to go into this dark world, to go into Lebanon that was mentioned, or to go to one another's houses, or to text or call, or be in the world and just be there dealing with sin and ministering grace everywhere we can. But in order to do that, we have to administer truth. That's hard for us because, wow, look in chapter 5, verse 11, when He's telling us to put on light, He says, "...do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them, for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light." This is that when you're bringing a truth to somebody, it's like you know that Christianity is not fully palpable in this world, and that gets you into trouble by speaking the truth. You know it's not always going to go right. I mean, God told Ezekiel to go to these people and tell them whether they listen to you or not. So, Paul says the message is life to one person, death to another. It is the power of God and the salvation of those who are being saved. It is foolishness to those who are perishing. So to even preach the truth, it's kind of like being in sales in one way. A lot of times people use sales in the wrong way for Christianity, like we're selling something. But you've got to go through a lot of rejection to be in sales. I am told I'm not in sales. In that regard, I guess I am, you've got to go through a lot of rejection to preach the truth in a fallen world. And boy, it's hard. When you're younger in the faith and you're just kind of more fleshly, you're like, oh, I told them how it was. But when you begin to see the value of people and you lose a relationship over the truth, Like I've been wishing ever since that day that my Pentecostal friend got offended by the truth finally. Every time I go to the coffee shop, I'm hoping I see him, that he'll come back. And I even asked Jeff Johnson, I said, do you think I said anything the wrong way? I need to apologize. He didn't feel like I did. He felt like maybe Satan was trying to beat me down or discourage me from it. But you know it's the truth that saves, you know it's the truth that offends, it just is hard to tell it and not get beat down and discouraged. So Paul encourages here though something about the resurrection life of Christ. Look at verses 13 and 14, something positive about the light. So it's that negative thing about the light that's like, yeah, everybody's really going to like this, I'm going to go and just expose them. I mean, who is thankful for that? But verse 13 says, all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. And then there's something cryptic here, and all commentators try to wrestle with it, but I hope you can at least see the point. We wish Paul had kind of elaborated a little bit more, but we get like a tip and you think you can kind of see the sense of it. He says, for everything that becomes visible is light. And notice the four at the beginning of that part, it's the very end of 13. He says, this is why you should turn on the lights, because it's disgraceful what's going on, it's unfruitful, it's unhelpful, it's not good and righteous what's going on. And you'll expose it, it'll all become visible. And that's about the point where you think like, yeah, that's the reason I don't want to tell the truth, Paul. But then he says, four, everything that becomes visible is light. Everything that is sitting under the visibility of the light becomes light. He just used that back in verse 8. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light. So being light is a metaphor for becoming a Christian. You remember the Gospel of John says, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. And He was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. I think this is saying, if you stay under the light, it's like if I could use an illustration, what Paul has in mind is, yes, it's offensive, but it's like a magnifying glass where, you know, a little science project, the kids maybe get a little magnifying glass, and they hold it, and the sunlight gets concentrated, and it's like a beam there on this timber that you're using, and then there's the smoke, and then there's the fire, and now this thing has become light. Light begets light. What he's saying is, yes, it's initially like this, someone pulls back, but eventually they're drawn towards it. The light has a power so that you become like the sunflower. You're just looking for the light, like the light of God's Word. You're just wanting to drink in light like a liquid. Because if you just sit under it at first, it doesn't feel good, like Hebrews says. It doesn't feel joyful. I'm being exposed. I'm being humiliated. Everybody knows, like, you know, yeah, we've been singing that song, nothing in the hands I bring, but I now know I've got nothing in my hands. And you're there, but then it begins to... like a spiritual photosynthesis happens or something, this light produces a life in you. And so the encouragement to a dad, like, why get the children? He said, well, they're not interested. This is a promise here to believe. Like, Lord, I'm just going to do the verse, and I'm going to pray the prayer, and I'm going to shine the light on my kid's soul all the time that they're in my house. And I'm just going to hold that magnifying glass and put the word of God in there and hold it and pray and hold it. And then all of a sudden, it becomes light. Because there's power in the Word, not in me, not in all my illustrations, where I'm just trying to get to this hard heart, but the Word itself, the light begets light. So if they're offended, hold the light on them anyway. have more faith in the power of God's Word over the world than the world over God's Word. His Word made it all. His Word created it all. His Word brought beauty out of chaos, where there was darkness and nothing, it was void. So anywhere in this world where we get to be encouraged now, we're not succumbed to hopelessness, because there's nothing you can show me. There's nothing you can ever... You say, look, this is just chaos, Jeffrey, this is just darkness and void. And only God, well, good, because that's what we have, the Word of God. And so you can just shine, you just sit here like a puppy, I'll put you under the heat lamp, until you're better. And if you do, you will get better, because light, everything, everything that sits under the visibility of the light, becomes light. So just don't run off like in John 3. When it begins, when the surgery begins, just have faith in the Word of God and wait. Don't do like, and light came to the world and men ran because they hate the light, but love the light and just let the light do surgery on you. And so what's amazing about this is verse 14. He says, for this reason, it says, and nobody knows what the it refers to in the Old Testament. There's a combination of verses in Isaiah maybe, but he says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. This is the spiritual parallel of your mother saying, rise and shine. And I'll tell you, this is amazing that this is in this book. How many times have Reformed people preached on Ephesians 2, over and over, you're dead in your sins. Man is dead in his sins. I mean, he can't do anything, he's dead in his sins. And isn't it something that the apostle that said you were dead says, awake! You can be fully believing in the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man, and talking to somebody and saying, wake up. Please, wake up. Look at this verse right here. Doesn't it wake you? Wake up. Arise. Come out of the stupor. You should talk to them like that. I just made a joke with Abram the other night. We were putting him to bed after we read and prayed, and he was going to bed, and he can't even talk. But I tell him, like, it says, don't say in your heart this and that. You can pray, Abram. Pray to God. Cry out to God. And you might be thinking it's funny. You might be thinking, I already have that. I'm already a Christian. So if you are already a Christian, then just take it as a reminder to keep doing it. and grow. But it's the same gospel that sanctifies that saves. Awake. Arise, Christ will shine on you. What a promise. Well, hopefully now you don't feel so superficial about Easter Sunday. And hopefully now, despite what Everyone else is doing and may make you feel superficial about the holiday. You have some things in your mind of substance. And your mind's been renewed, hopefully, about five subjects. Power. It's all right to be weak. It's all right to be a little bitty, right? Those are the people God uses. Renewed in your mind about the church, and your need to cling to somebody, and your need to be somebody to be clung to, because He manifests His power through us. Renewed in your mind about your salvation. If you're a Christian, you have natural gifts that you already have. You have things that can help people and make a difference. And people, use them. Use them. Be active. It's something. You got something. If you're a Christian, you have something. So be renewed in your mind about the gifts. The particular natural common graces you have and special graces you have. And then finally about the truth. You know, we should... I'll just end with this. There's this thing that we do, we fall into, and I hope this thing about Paul, his view of salvation there, being able to say that, that we need to grow. He talks about growing up and speaking the truth in love. We need to grow into speaking the truth to one another. It's so easy when you get in a conversation. And someone's telling you something just to kind of say, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, alright. Be praying for y'all. And you know, we never speak a verse. I mean, what would be wrong if I'm talking to Elizabeth And she's just struggling with what's going on with her husband. And I've been in the Word, and so I'm rich in the Word. I have a Word like, remember Isaiah says, the Lord awakens me morning by morning to give me the tongue of a disciple that I may know how to sustain the weary one with the Word. And then here I am and I say, oh Elizabeth, I don't even know what to say, I just know your heart must be so low dealing with this. But I just feel like the Lord wants me to remind you, remember what Paul told the Ephesians, to each one of us grace is given. Like you still have a purpose here, you still are able to minister to people here. So don't let this sorrow overwhelm you. See, that's shining the light into that darkness. So may we grow in that and speak the Word to each other. Quote the verse. Say it. You know? That would be amazing. Because it's light. And it's expelling the darkness. I hope you do it to me. If I'm the one sharing something like my soul is open and all the darkness and fruitlessness is there, shine the light in there. Say something. And let's pray. Lord, thank You for today. Thank You for giving us a good study in Your Word after such a long weekend. It could have easily been very tiring. Just thank You for these truths and pray You to use at least some of them, Lord, in all of us in one way or another to renew our minds and encourage us in our faith. And Lord, I pray for every person, I pray for every family, every marriage, every single person, every child, that your truth would be getting into them and be giving light into their heart and that they would find the needs of their soul met in you. In Jesus' name, amen.