We're coming back tonight to our study in what we believe and confess. Tonight we're looking at Lord's Day 20, which is one question and answer, an important question and answer in the Holy Spirit. That is printed for you, I believe. Yes. I will ask the question and please respond with the answer. You'll notice that there. It's question 53 and the short answer that follows. So, what do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? First, that the Spirit, with the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, that He is given also to me, so that true faith, He makes me share in Christ, and in all His benefits, comforts me, and will remain with me forever. Tonight we're looking at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I will read it verse 3 to the end of the chapter. Set the context focusing on verses 13 through 23. This is the word of the Lord. in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have 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 we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And there will end the reading of God's word. Well, we spent a lot of time in John, if you recall, on the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave a lot of attention to the work of the Spirit and told us what to anticipate in the work of the Spirit. and I thought, well, maybe I should just move on tonight into the Holy Catholic Church and explain what that means, and then I felt an inner rebuke. It must have been the Spirit. You're going to preach a sermon on my work. I didn't hear a voice. Don't worry. I didn't hear anything like that. But I had a great conviction that we don't give enough attention to the work of the Spirit. In some ways, you look at that question and answer and you say, well, it seems so short. Did we really give enough attention to it? There's a lot there that is said tonight in that little question and answer in Lord's Day 20. And that's what we're going to be looking at briefly together tonight. If there's anything we need right now in Christianity most, it is the renewing power of the Spirit and to appreciate that. I think Christians are often frustrated because we feel so powerless in this present age. And we wonder, where's this power? We are said to have the Holy Spirit. Where is his power? And Christians have been so frustrated by that question and the experience of things throughout this present age that they've looked to find the power of the Holy Spirit everywhere other than, as we looked at this morning, the Word. So this is an important section tonight for the Apostle Paul's really helping us to understand the work of the Spirit. He's helping us to appreciate the work of the Spirit, to have a perspective of his work. The world is caving in on us, we feel. We feel fear and feel often discouraged by the problems, the evil, the hardship of life, and we forget what Jesus said. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. That is a remarkable statement. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. There's a lot of evil in this world. There's a devil running around like a roaming lion seeking whom he may devour. And he has many angels doing a lot of destruction and a lot of damage. And those three sworn enemies, the world, the devil, and even our own sinful nature, our own flesh, rise up against us. And then the Lord comes and says, but don't forget, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. What a marvelous truth, and tonight we're considering the consequences of that. We want to have a good understanding of that, and that's where I think the book of Ephesians helps us so much, right? Out of the beginning in chapter 1, he's helping the church who was at some points deeply discouraged by all the struggle in the world. The church in Ephesus had a big struggle of being worldly and living in a struggle in Ephesus with all the problems that they had of idolatry and all these things, and Paul writing to them to encourage them of the work of the triune God and his complete work for them. Really, if we appreciate what's said here, I think the effect is something like Psalm 42. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in the Lord. Put your trust in the Lord. He is with you. And he is helping you. And the answer to that tonight is, we have a good understanding, is because he's given us his Holy Spirit. Because he's given us his Holy Spirit. So that's what we're looking at, the gift of the Spirit, the blessings of the Spirit, and we'll end on this note of the power of the Spirit. And that's the encouragement that we need at this hour. One of the great pastoral concerns here is that Christ's sheep would understand and appreciate all that the Lord has done for them and all that he has blessed them with. And the ever-present danger, I think, in Christian ministry is to preach without preaching simply facts and truths, without it connecting to the life of the people, the hearts of the people. Believe it or not, Paul's really concerned about that in Ephesians 1. Paul's deeply concerned about that. So when we looked out tonight at the gift of the Spirit, you'll notice that to begin with here tonight in the catechism, that it begins with reminding us what we believe about the Holy Spirit. What do we say about the Holy Spirit? Boys and girls, what do we believe about who the Holy Spirit is? That's an important question. And you'll notice this simple statement that he is truly God. With the Father and the Son, he's eternal God. The Spirit is not a force. I don't know how many times I've had to say when we ask for our young people a definition of the Trinity and the Spirit always gets the it. I say, he's not an it. He's not a force. He's a person. And he's the third person of the Trinity. Did you know that even in the Bible, the Spirit speaks to us? I think of something like 1 Timothy 4. In the latter days, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter days, some will depart from the faith. When the Spirit speaks in the Scripture, which he did in Acts a few times, When the Spirit spoke, it was a powerful reminder for the church. Something important that needed to be said. And it was the Spirit's word. It was really beautiful. The Spirit spoke this. Under the inspiration we know as we look at 2 Timothy 3, 15 and 16. So here we are tonight and we're studying this. Paul is really in this first section in pressing upon us the work of the triune God upon the people to understand. So you'll notice in this section, this first section, he speaks of what the Father has done for us, God the Father. He speaks of what God the Son has done for us. And then he speaks of what God the Holy Spirit has done for us. Notice what he says right at the beginning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful truth. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What has the Father done for us? The Father has blessed us. How has the Father blessed you? Well, he's given you everything. He's given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That is a remark. How do you even unpack? How do you have time to unpack that and explain that? You have everything through Christ. You have all the rights as adopted children of God. And then he says, Paul says, he chose you. We've had to fight this truth about election and predestination. And we've had in the Christian world to fight this for a long time. To tell people this is a wonderful truth. And they push back on us and they said, that's not fair. You want to tell God that? He chose you, it says. Before the foundation of the world. What's fair? Not that. that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. When you weren't even born yet, he made that decision about you. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he blessed us in the... We have a family. We have a real family. We're brought into a family. And then he breaks into the work of God the Son for you. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. What have we been studying these past weeks from the passion and the death of Jesus in the gospel of John? You have forgiveness of your trespasses according to the riches of his grace. You didn't deserve this. Grace he gave to you. You didn't earn it. which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. And we could go on here. This is just beautiful. In him we have attained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So notice there that he has really all up front in Ephesians explained the beautiful work of the Father, what the Father has done. And then he moves to the work of the Son, God the Son. And this is where now we get a little bit confused about Christian life. Here's where we usually stop. And I think we sort of use salvation that, to be simple here, the Father did something, the Son did something, and now it's up to us to finish this. That's not what Paul says at all. That is not what Paul says at all. Paul's going after that thought, actually. Paul wants them to live in the joy of this comfort, that our salvation is a work of the triune God, and that the good news of Christianity from complete, he roots it all in the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The beautiful truth that Paul now talks about is what your Heidelberg said tonight. Did you know that the Holy Spirit is given to you personally? It's quite a statement. You think of this morning when Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. We know that was in the context of ordained ministry and the ministry, but that is true of all believers. You are given the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit applies this work. The Holy Spirit does the work of preserving you and keeping you to the end. That's what he's going to say here. To keep you to the end. To uphold you to the end. Never think in Christianity, never think that God started this work and the Father did something really good for us and Jesus did something really good for us and now it rests on you to maintain your status, to get there, to be blameless on that day. That is so far from the message. there's a working out of our salvation with fear and trembling but the priority is it's God who works within us to will and to do for his good pleasure there's been a vicious attack on the gospel in this discussion on sanctification where pastors and and writers have so pushed levels of their expectation of sanctification on people you just get the sense of some of these people will never do enough to make it and you have to stop and say, where is this work resting? And that's where tonight is so helpful for us. This is where Paul interjects, and Paul says, I'm praying for you to understand something. I want you to understand who is given to you and what that means. So Paul begins here by speaking of exactly what the Heidelberg reference is when it talks about the blessings that the Lord's work has accomplished for us, the blessings of the Spirit. Notice that the Heidelberg says he's given to me personally so that by true faith he makes me to share in all of Christ's blessings and he comforts me. What is Paul's major concern here? Well, simply this. For this reason I pray for you. There's a difficulty here. He's concerned. To simply understand something about life now since Jesus has been resurrected and raised. There's something I want you, I've heard about your love, I've heard about you as a church, I know the work there, I've labored there, but there's something you need to grasp that is not so evident to you. There's something you need to understand that is not so clear to you at the moment. I'm sure everyone looks at in the church today and looks at their lives and has said at some point, am I really a Christian? Christians do doubt. Christians do struggle. Christians do fear. It's really over pious to act like we can never go through those things. Of course we face those things. That's honest. It's honest. There's an ongoing war inside of you. You know that. it's not a pretty war. Sin is really powerful, and you give into it. The devil is constantly shooting arrows, trying to put you in situations that'll stumble you. How often do we stumble? And we think, is there any victory in this? Is there any strength in this? Is there any power in this. Because I don't seem to experience it. I believe in the Father's election. I believe in the Son's death for me. But I think sometimes we, those things seem so abstract. They seem so far over there. It seems so different than the actual struggles and trials and doubts and sufferings and pains that we actually go through. Paul knows this is a real struggle for believers. Paul wants us to understand something about the life now we lead. Paul wants us to understand something about the blessings that we have in the present. He begins here by giving them the content of his prayer. Now for the life aspect. asking God to do something for them. Notice this here, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Now that's an interesting thing that he says there. That's a beautiful thing that he says there right at the beginning. He's not asking that the Spirit would simply come to them. We're going to come back and consider something that had been said so beautifully. Notice that right at the beginning there, in him, verse 13, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, notice what he says, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it to the praise of his glory. That is a really powerful statement. That essentially what was just said to you is that when we believe the gospel, the Holy Spirit we looked at with Nicodemus, he regenerates the heart, he gives life, you are sealed with the Spirit. He is a guarantor. He is an absolute guarantor of your inheritance. And notice, until we acquire the full possession of it. Well, that's what we're all wanting. We're all wanting the full possession of this. We all want the full possession of glory. That's what I said this morning when I was saying, there's no glory in this. Well, glory is to come. But the Spirit is the guarantor. In a sense, think about this. Jesus is raised and he says, there's going to be a great blessing for you. The Spirit's going to come to you. And that's why it's good that I go away. It's better for you that I go away. You're going into his hands. And he's going to keep you. And he's going to uphold you. He is the guarantor. He has sealed you for that day. He is absolutely holding you for that day. When you get the full possession of all my promises. So this is a beautiful thing that he's saying here. So that when Paul comes now and begins to rehearse the content of their prayer, His simple goal is that they would appreciate and understand what is theirs right now. Father, I want them to understand. I want them to know. I want them to have. Father, would you give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him? Paul is concerned that we all would grasp what we have. What does that tell you? This is one of our greatest problems in the Christian life. We don't grasp what we have. We struggle believing what we have. What does it mean that I've been blessed by God with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? I want them, oh Lord, to understand what is theirs right now. I want you to open their hearts to know what is theirs right now. that you would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge. This is such an important statement in that verse right there. Essentially, what Paul is praying for is that the Father of glory would fill you through the work of the Spirit with a right knowledge of God. It's interesting that Paul prays this. You know, that's not what we treasure today. We live in the most anti-intellectual climate ever. It's hard to get people to read anything. There was just a book put out by Glenda Mathis and Leland Ryken on the lost art of reading. Nobody reads anymore and studies. Probably has never been a period of more doctrinal error and heresy regarding the doctrine of God and man than the time in which we're living. In fact, we become somewhat ashamed of this ourselves as there's a pressure to bring everything so far down to a level that we just don't even have to think much anymore. Paul is thrilled by the fact that he had been called out of darkness into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ who fully reveals the Father, remember Jesus said that, makes known his Father, the one in whom there is access to all these riches, and what he's impressing on them is something that was promised in the new covenant. The day is coming, says the Lord, when they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. I will pour out my spirit on them. Do you know the promise of the new covenant, yes, was forgiveness of sins. But it was a promise that we would have a knowledge of God through the pouring out of the spirit. Notice here, verse 17, is what he's asking. He's asking for the new covenant promise to be realized in you. That God may give you the spirit. The spirit, not just a spirit, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That it would be so abundant that you would grow in knowledge of the Lord. I mean, this is what Jesus said in the high priestly prayer to his father. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That's not a dead knowledge. It's a life knowledge. I suppose if there's often a criticism of Reformed people today, they say there's too doctrinal and no heart. I've heard that over the years, and it's always struck me as wrong. I don't know how you get to the heart without going to the head. That'd be scary and dangerous. But Paul never really taught that. He never looked at things that way. He knew that there was such a penetrating knowledge of the gospel that Christ's love would stir the heart that there would not only be a conversion of the mind but of the heart and of the will. Paul knew all this. Paul knew that the gospel would break into who we are. And notice what he says. So he prays specifically. Something beautiful here. He prays and lets them know in his prayer that he's asking that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. Isn't that an interesting way of saying that? The eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. Paul was praying that the knowledge of Christ's love would break into the heart. That the knowledge of Christ's love would break into the heart. So that you would enjoy a deep and abiding communion with him. To know him. To know his favor. To know what God is like to you. To know how God thinks about you. To know him as he's revealed himself. This is a beautiful thing. Paul is saying that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened. What do we need to know? That's what Paul now rehearses. more specifically for us. Paul is specifically asking at this point for the Holy Spirit to do something for us. The Holy Spirit to do something for us. This is beautiful. Notice verse 18. Verse 18, notice what he says. That you would have the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might? There's three things there that you should know. Did you catch that? Three things that you should know. There's three things that he's asking the Father to give the Spirit to you to help you to know. Show them, O Lord, now listen to this, The magnificent riches of your grace that you've lavished upon them. Show them the heavenly blessings that you've given them. Allow them to ponder the power in the present. And he outlines these three things that you should know. So notice the first thing. What is the first thing that he's asking for you to know? That you would know by the power of the Spirit what is the hope of your calling. I think that's one of the most beautiful things because I don't think Christians live in light of that very much. Hope is not wishful thinking in the Bible. Hope is, the Bible says we're saved in hope. Paul will often reference hope when God's people are facing great pain and great suffering and great trial and great affliction. Remember what Romans said, if we hope for what we see, we wait for it. If hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with eager perseverance. What Paul is encouraging and helping them to understand is that it is the Spirit's work in your lives so that you would live in hope. Whatever you're facing in the present, that you would live in hope. So notice he's focused on the future. That you would have a living hope to know what is ahead of you. Lord, let them live, listen to it, in eager anticipation of what is theirs right now as you try them and test them. Let the Spirit work in their heart so they know they have absolute hope. Peter would say this. I pray that they would know the glorious calling that you've given and this heavenly inheritance that awaits them. That's the second thing that Paul's going to say here. But Paul's primary concern here, I think, is assurance. you know they they um in christianity there's really no other branch roman catholicism doesn't have this there's really no doctrine of assurance anywhere except in reformed churches i don't know if you knew that i'm not saying that pompously it's just a fact everyone would say you're too you're too presumptuous to think you could ever be assured of salvation and churches have kept people back that way. That's not how the New Testament looks at it. That is not what the Apostle Paul is saying here. I want you to live by the power of the Spirit in absolute hope, which is certainty that you will see Christ face to face. That you're going to receive everything that was promised to you. We're not just doing this to do this. That you would have assurance that in this life you really can't be touched. That you would live in the knowledge and joy of this, of your certain hope. And I think that ties together with the second thing he says. That they might know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. See what I said? The Heidelberg tonight says the spirit comforts us. He's asking the Father that the Spirit would work so that we would know hope, and now second, that we would have and know the riches of the glory of the inheritance that is ours in the saints. You know, there's something so glorious that's coming that no New Testament writer could describe it. That's what Paul said when he said, Eye has not seen, nor heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him, and I don't even know how to fully know that. That's the thing you preach. So how do you fully know what is the inheritance of the saints that is yours? I think the effect of this is to say that they would live with such hope that they would have absolute assurance and certainty of what is held out for them, of what's waiting for them. I think we experience this somewhat in life, don't we? We all have things we look forward to. I can't imagine a life where we had nothing to look forward to. We have the daily grind of life, boys and girls. You all get tired of school, and what do you can't wait for? You can't wait for summer. Your parents aren't so excited for summer, but You're really excited for summer. Summer's coming. I get a break from all this work. We look at life this way. We have expectation of things. We have expectation. I had expectation, you know, you're going to get married. And you have expectation of having a family. You have expectations of things. And I think sort of looking forward to things provides energy for the present. We experience this and we get an anniversary break. We get something to come. It's renewing for us. The Lord wants our whole lives lived that way. Our whole lives lived that way. That there is an inheritance waiting for us. This is the work of the Spirit to comfort you. Think about this. to live in hope and to live knowing there's an inheritance for you. I wish I could tell you how wonderful that is. It's so wonderful, again, they couldn't even fully describe it. But he wants you to live in light of it. This is what Peter says right at the beginning when he says, heaven's reserved for you. You're kept by the power of God. You're not keeping yourselves. God's keeping you. And heaven's reserved. It will happen. This is the beautiful thing. I want you to know through all of this, I'm praying that Paul says to the church, through the work of the Spirit, who has sealed you, who is the guarantor. Again, the guarantor of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Now I want and I'm praying that the Spirit would work these truths in your minds and in your hearts so that you would live in light of them. So notice what the two benefits so far. Hope, right? Living in hope that you have the possession. And this is just beautiful. But I want to close with the third one tonight. I think the blessing here, as we look at the Heidelberg and says, it says, you know, the Spirit comforts us and gives us and encourages us and all the blessings that Christ has won for us, the benefits that Christ has won for us. What's the third thing he says here for the present? This is where I made it a whole point in closing because I think this is where we get a little confused. We just have to grin and bear this, don't we? Until we get there. The first petition you could say is passed, hope of his calling. You've already been called. The second position is future, the glorious inheritance that awaits for us. The final petition, present, Paul orders it. What does he say? Verse 19, that you may know, this is great, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. I'm going to come back to that thought in closing. That's a remarkable thing he just said. What is his third sort of thing he's asking here for? For the Christian to understand by the Spirit's work in knowledge and heart? That you would know that in the present there is real power given to you. Real power. Power in the present that keeps you and preserves you to the end. Notice what the Heidelberg says, he remains with you forever. That's exactly what this is saying. There's real power present for you. Paul's praying that we would know and that we would live in the greatness of his power toward us who believe. This is the difficult one with experience. The Christian life doesn't feel powerful. It feels powerless. Sometimes we think that this interim period between professing Jesus and our deaths has this little strength that we walk. And surely there's still sinful nature we struggle with. Surely we have much difficulty. Through much tribulation, we enter the kingdom. But in no way does the New Testament say that we are powerless people. In fact, the thing that he's asking is that the Spirit would make known how much power is actually given to you. Paul knows that God has designed a happy life for the Christian. You can't tell people to rejoice in all tribulation and hardship if there's no real power given to you. You can't tell people to rejoice again. I say rejoice unless real strength is given to you. He has given us his spirit who is living and active to make certain things true in the present in your lives. You know the power he's given to you? Well, this is what's said. Little children, you are of God and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. You struggle with ongoing sin in your life? You struggle with feeling like that same sin that rises up and you give into? The Spirit is given to you so that when you have your mind open to the gospel, and he works on that mind and it gets into the heart, there is a real strength and power to put to death sin in your life. This is why Romans 8.13 says, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. It's the Spirit's work. There's strength given to you. There's power given to you. And Paul's praying that you would receive it. What power is given that you don't even know that is available? And I think that the most amazing statement here that's hard to get over and hard to comprehend is, let this set in tonight. So I think, again, it's a knowledge of these things that gets to the heart that begins to affect the change. Think of what's said. The power that's in you by the Spirit is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I didn't say that. God inspired that. That is the most remarkable statement. Think of the power that raised Jesus. God raised his son from the dead. That's the power that's yours. This is what he wants you to live in light of. God the Father elected you and chose you from the foundation of the world. God the Son came and paid for all your sins and forgave you and loved you. And God the Holy Spirit has sent to dwell in you, has sealed you for the day of redemption. heaven is reserved for you, and he wants you to know and live now in the hope of your calling. You've been called. That was past. You were called. There's a hope in that calling. There's an inheritance that awaits you, and there's power for you in the present. And it begins with giving yourself to the word. For you have to have the mind and heart opened up to know these things. Then we begin to live these things. And I think this is the prayer we should pray, don't you, in our lives. What a way to start the day. You could open up Ephesians and ask the Lord that the things that are said here would be true of you, that they would be real in your life. And you could pray for your brothers and sisters this way, as Paul is. None of the great doctrines of election, the atonement, the sealing work of the Spirit are an abstract. Everything we believe as Christians has a direct bearing on our lives that we live in the present. I'm not painting a rosier picture than the struggle that you're in, but I am encouraging you, as the Paul is doing now in this passage, to say, in Christ you are kept by the power of God, and the Spirit has come to you, and He has comforted you. He helps you. He ministers these benefits to you, and he's not going to let you go. That's the beauty of this. The promise is for you and your children. Do not fear, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. May by the power of the Spirit, then, he who dwells in your hearts bring you the joy of knowing the riches of the grace he has shown to you through the person and the work of Jesus as the spirit dwells in your hearts, comforts you, helps you, and remains with you forever, as our Heidelberg says. A lot more to say, but we'll stop there. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your spirit to dwell in our hearts. And this prayer tonight of the apostle is so beautiful that he didn't stop remembering in his prayers the saints in Ephesus. And he asked certain things. And so tonight, Lord, as a pastor, I pray for these things for myself and the flock here in Escondido, URC. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give this flock the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of the glorious inheritance and riches that we have in Christ. That our eyes, Lord, of our hearts would be enlightened. That we would know that we have a great holy calling from you in our life in hope. That we would know the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints that awaits us. And that we would know in the present by the power of the Spirit the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Let us know these things. Let us understand these things. And so we're asking tonight that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened and opened to receive these things. And enjoy these blessings and benefits. Thank you for sealing us with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.