In Ephesians 6, the message centers on standing firm with prayer and perseverance. Explore the closing truths of Ephesians 6 and what they reveal about faithful Christian living, spiritual strength, prayer, and perseverance. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
A major emphasis is the believer's response to God through prayer, surrender, worship, and spiritual hunger. The message challenges passive Christianity and invites listeners to pursue God intentionally, trusting that transformation grows as we bring our desires, habits, and decisions under the authority of Scripture. The goal is a faith that moves beyond information into communion with God and obedient action.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Ephesians 6, standing firm with prayer and perseverance, spiritual strength, standing firm with prayer. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Ephesians 6 teach about standing firm with prayer and perseverance? It also considers how should standing firm with prayer and perseverance shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Ephesians 6 teach about standing firm with prayer and perseverance? | How should standing firm with prayer and perseverance shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Ephesians 6 in everyday life?
Ephesians 6, standing firm with prayer and perseverance, spiritual strength, standing firm with prayer
-
Nobody actually called me out on this, but I'm going to call myself out. We actually skipped a section of the scripture in order to jump to the armor of God. We were going from talking about wives and husbands and parents and children. And then there's this weird section in Ephesians six that talks about slavery. Who's excited to talk about slavery today? Anybody? >> Come on. But here's what's so cool. I I was as I was going through this study even before we we started this series, I really felt like God wanted to show us that there's a thread all the way through Ephesians that he's calling us to to live by. And when I came to this passage, I was like, it's it's fitting that it's really at the end of the letter, right before Paul charges everybody and says, hey, you know, there's going to be battles. We're not we're not fighting against flesh and blood. You know, it's the rahrrah at the end. But right before he gets to that, he talks about servantthood and he talks about being a slave. And so as we read this today, I I I want you to see even looking back on this series, if you've been a part of of this so far and looking at Ephesians, we talk about the heart. We talk about being a son and daughter and becoming a dwelling place. And then we shift into all these ways that we're called to live our life. But this passage to me is the call and the charge that God desires all of us to live by. So let's read this together. Ephesians 6 5-9. It says, "Bond servants or slaves, open your earthly, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ. Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondervants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord whether he is a bondervant or is free and masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him >> let me just pray over this God would you bless this word would you open up our eyes illuminate the eyes of our hearts to see the call to more and the call to become like you as we read this passage today. Jesus name. Amen. Again, so often we skip this passage because I'm not a slave. I've never been a slave. I've never owned slaves. And so we kind of label this as a a contextualized piece that was really just for the church of that day, right? And we can often say too like this is incredibly offensive, right? Because we're talking about slavery. In America, this passage was used to even justify slavery. They even made Bibles that were just for slaves. And it's also offensive because you'll notice God and Paul does not condemn slavery. And again, historically, slavery has been an issue. Child slavery is a major issue around the world. I remember we we used to take missions trips to to Haiti. And we would work with all these different families specifically with special needs. And there were lots of children that were called Restick. Have you ever heard that phrase before? Restivix. Basically, if a family wasn't able to feed their child, they would sell the child to another family to go and work in their household. And this is still happening today. This is a common practice, not just in Haiti, but in other countries as well. And and the child would never actually receive any of the money. The money would just be sent to the parents so that they could feed their family. And it's even a a a bigger thing happening around the world with with slave labor and and sexual exploitation and all these different things with human trafficking. And it's wrong. So when we read this passage, so often we look at it from this context of like slavery is wrong. right? Like this th this is an evil this is a bad thing. Why is God even saying to them that you know you need to obey your masters? This doesn't make any sense to me. But again, context is so key. Why didn't God condemn slavery in the Bible in the Old Testament and even here in the New? And it's kind of funny because this is a interesting argument. I've heard people say, "Well, the Bible doesn't talk specifically about transgenderism, or the Bible doesn't talk specifically about abortion, or the Bible doesn't talk specifically about Republicans and Democrats, right?" And we and we play this game of like, "It's not being addressed, so therefore, it's up for interpretation. He's not condemning slavery. So therefore, it's up to our interpretation. And this kind of logic is really divisive and it negates the intent and the heart of God. And again, the reality of all this is is really hard to fathom. And again, we we skip over this passage because we want to get to the spiritual warfare armor of God. Rah rah rah, right? But God is showing us something in here. God is choosing to get to the heart of the issue rather than making a bunch of rules for us to follow. Because if the Bible just flat out said slavery is wrong, it's evil. You can't do it. We would find a way to work around it, right? we would find a way to find the gray area in that process. And that's really what when we look at the New Testament in the life of Jesus, he's coming in. He said, "Hey, you know, if you're going to continue to follow the Pharisees, there's over 600 laws and all these things that you got to follow, and yet still your hearts are far from me. You can do all of these things, all these works to try to accomplish and be this certain way, but at the end of the day, where's your heart?" So again, when we read this, what what is at the core and at the heart of what God is trying to say? Again, following rules makes us legalistic and outward focused rather than addressing our hearts. And all throughout Ephesians, all throughout this series, Paul is pointing us to this that God wants our hearts transformed because it's a transformed heart that changes the world. >> Come on. And Paul is talking to Christians in this passage as well. If the Bible said, "Let's get rid of slavery." Think about what would happen to all of these believers who are in a culture and context where slavery is celebrated. Imagine the government who their entire way of life is based on slavery. how they would react to Paul saying slaveryy's wrong. Like I don't think Christianity would have progressed like it did if that was the statement here. Again, that's not to justify condemning or not condemning, but it's important that we understand the context of what Paul is saying. The root of all of this is the heart. And even this this word bondervant or slave, a bondervant was someone that was willingly choosing to become a slave. Again, so often we look at slavery from an American context, but in Roman times when this was written, there were more slaves than there were free across the the Roman Empire. And it was way more common for someone to give themsself willingly as a bondervant or a slave than to be forced into it. And so when he's speaking to bondervants, it's someone that chose to become a servant. Again, there were prisoners of war and there's tons of movies about that, right? Spartacus. Yeah. There were slaves forced into labor by the government. There's gladiators. There's all these things. But many people actually gave themselves to be slaves because of debt or because of a desire for education. Because here I am in in poverty and I'm uneducated, but there's this this man who if I give my life to him, he'll train me up to become a lawyer or I'll become a scribe or I'll have some kind of profession that I can then walk in. And so it was actually advantageous for a lot of people that were in destitute places to become slaves and to become a bondervant. They were specialized again as teachers, scribes, lawyers, all these different things, even accountants. They could live a life of poverty and squalor or they could choose to serve a master and live in his house and eat his food >> and be clothed by him. And in that day, a servant would actually pierce his ear, pierce his nose, or wear specific jewelry or even get like a tattoo that says, "I belong to this person." So, we're all going to go get matching tattoos after this service. I belong to Jesus. It's going to be great. But Paul is saying to these bond servants who again, so many of them chose to come into this life. He's saying, "Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with the sincere heart as you would Christ." And this is a beautiful picture as you would Christ because we are bondervants of Christ. We are servants and slaves to Christ. And again, we even saying the word slaves, it can bring up a lot of weird feelings, right? I'm not a slave. But if God is our master, what does that make us? We should submit to him like we would an earthly master. God loves us. His grace goes beyond our comprehension. But he is also our master. He's our king. He's our lord. He's our boss. Amen. So again, we're we're not in this place where we're equal with God, but we submit ourselves under him. We may not like the language, but it's true. We are bondervants of Christ. When we submit and bring ourselves under him, it's God's desire for us to actually live like this is our reality. Because God is watching us. We serve him and he loves us and he desires for us to do good works and we've we've read all about that in Ephesians and we he wants us to do it with excellence and be fruitful. Again, it says obey with a sincere heart as you would Christ. In verse six, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers. Paul's calling it out. He's saying, don't just live for God when you think others are watching. God is watching. We're not here to please people. We're here to please God with our lives. We should all embrace servantthood to God. But again, culture is is so often pushing this ideology of independence, right? That I mean, that's what America is all about, independence and freedom, right? But it ends up bringing up this this spirit of if I was in charge, I'd do it this way, right? Or be your own boss. Burger King, have it your way. Get paid what you're owed. Follow your passion. You need to do what's right for you. Don't disrupt your peace. And but if we back up and recognize that there's a level of this that we've kind of been programmed to think and programmed to almost be in opposition of what the word of God tells us to to walk in. When we look at it, we can recognize that everything in my life is made to serve me. We want our lives to be easy, fun, and peaceful where we are in control. But really, when you when you look at your life right now, every product is made with me in mind. The clothing that you're wearing, the phone that you're carrying, the house that you're in, the apartment that you're in, the car that you're driving, all of it is made with us in mind and what we would want. The customer is always right. Right. And again, we've been programmed to to to think this. And no, I know again, nobody likes to think that they've been programmed, but I mean, get on social media or have conversations with with people on a day-to-day and and you'll see that everything is circling around your opinion. And the decisions that we make, it's all about our opinion and what we want. We make decisions based on what we want and what we think is best for us. And and again, there's nothing wrong with this really. The problem is is that when that replaces what God wants for our lives, then who are we a slave to? Are we bond servants to Christ or are we a slave to our own desires? I remember um years ago, one of my first jobs, it's actually my second job. I started working at a video production company and I for me I I wanted to operate the camera. I wanted to film. I wanted to direct. You know, this was this is what I wanted to do. But I started out working there and you know what my job was? Getting coffee. I wanted a latte, double shot, vanilla, two pumps. You know, I had to remember I didn't remember it. But I usually wrote it down, but I would go and I'd do the coffee run or I'd be running errands or I I was put putting together furniture in somebody's office because, god forbid, you know, an executive puts their own furniture together, you know. I started editing videos. I started carrying equipment and doing all this stuff. And and I I started to get excited because like, oh, I'm going to be on set and stuff and I'm going to have to hold the camera. No, you're holding the microphone. uh you're setting up a light and you're just gonna stand over there in the corner until we need you, right? Until we call you. And I'm not gonna lie, like I I understand now that this was kind of the process of like if you can handle and be entrusted with this stuff, you know, then we'll let you hold the camera and and see if you can do these different things. But I can remember like these thoughts in my mind. Again, kind of said this already, but if I was in charge or if I was the director, I would have shot this differently. Or if I was holding the camera, I would have done it differently, right? I would treat the other employees this way. or thoughts of what do I need to do to impress my boss so that I can be elevated, so that I can get promoted, so that I can get paid a little bit more money. Or I started even questioning, is this even worth my time? Because I'm giving all this time, all this energy, and I'm doing a good job, but maybe I'm doing too good of a job, and they're going to keep me in this spot. And then of course the Jesus juke of is this what God really wants me to do. And I start questioning everything of you know man this used to be so much fun. This used to be exciting. This used to light up the passion within me. But I'm not at peace anymore. So maybe it's time for me to to move on again. Constantly thinking about how I can benefit or how I can move up or how I can be doing the things that I want to do or making my life easier. And I've realized looking back that whenever I was prioritizing my preferences, it ended up producing a lack of peace. when it was all about my preference, it killed my peace because I was never satisfied. Have you ever felt that way? You're in you're in a job, you're in a position, and it just doesn't satisfy you the same way that it did before. And we're seeing what everyone else is doing and how everyone else is living their life and oh, they're getting blessed over here or they've got opportunities here, all these things, but here I am. What do I need to do to elevate myself? And it's very quiet in this room. And that's okay because I know that you're all thinking the same thing. It's true. And again, it's it's looking all around us and there's this constant pull to comparison and this constant pull to my life could be so much better if whatever it might be. The grass is always greener. We're always striving for the next better thing. And it's easier to criticize your current reality than to consecrate our need to control to Christ. You guys like that alliteration? a lot of C's there. It's easier to criticize where you are right now than to consecrate our hearts and to put aside our need to control. And we need to realize who our master actually is. The master who our peace actually derives from. We want peace. Stop going to the world or to some job. Go to the one who can give you peace. Amen. God gets to the core of the issue by addressing the heart of the bondervants and addressing the heart of the masters. And he's speaking to our hearts today that and he's calling us to live as bondervants to Christ and not to the world. But again, we all want to be in charge. And that's really the core problem. We all want to be served. And everything in this world is telling us that you should be served. And this is where so many of our conflicts actually come from in our marriage, family, kids, work, on teams, and even in the church. We want in some way to be in charge or to have our say. We want control. We want position or we want authority in some capacity. But here's what's so powerful. Jesus came to serve. >> Remember this. Remember in in Matthew 20, some of you may have read this before. the mother of of the two disciples, the sons of Zebedee. She wanted her sons to sit beside Jesus in heaven. And Jesus said to her and to the disciples, you don't know what you are asking. You want this position, but there is requirement to even be seated in this position. And it's not even up to me. It's up to the father. He said it's the way of the Gentiles to exercise their authority over their subjects. But if you want to be great, you know what he says? You need to be a slave. If you want to be first, you have to be last. And I love this in Matthew 20 verse 28. Jesus said, "Even as the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus came to serve. >> And aren't we trying to be like Jesus? >> If Jesus came to serve, then then we're called to serve. >> Think about this in marriage. Ready? Maybe instead of fighting for my needs all the time in the relationship, what if I chose to serve my spouse, even when she's not watching? Even when she's not asking me to do whatever it is. Again, the the world pushes personal preference and compatibility and chemistry and all these different things. But real love like Jesus looks like servantthood. Like chemistry and compatibility doesn't matter if you're a servant. What if I go out of my way to make my boss look like the greatest boss on the planet? If I chose to honor him with my talk behind his back and to his face. Because get this, imagine the favor that would come onto your life. Instead of what I'm gaining, it's about my heart and how I am serving. because I don't have to prove anything to anyone but God and he sees my heart. Buckle up. Even in the church, we've been programmed to look at churches as consumers. How was worship? What programs do we have going on? What events are happening? How are the facilities today? Are there any celebrities attending this church? Or again, we look at it like it's a first date. You know, are we compatible? Is this going to work for me? What am I getting out of this? There's a there's a study that I found. It's actually about Franklin, Tennessee. You ready for this? Franklin, Tennessee's well-known Christian culture has been associated with hypocrisy, spiritual apathy, Christian nationalism, and consumerism. Welcome to Franklin, where some people treat church engagement for social status and connection rather than a deep transformative faith. And many claim that aspects of this culture can fail to reflect core Christian tenants such as humility, charity, and a love for one's neighbor. And there's several articles and several studies that kind of back up this whole statement. Here we are in one of the most Christianized cultures in America and yet so often we look the least like Jesus. But what would it look like for a church to say, "I don't care what the stats say. As for me in my house, we're going to serve God." What would it look like for a church to actually believe in miracles >> and see them happen? That when we pray, it's not just talking to an empty room, but it's talking to God. And when we say the name Jesus, there he is. What would it look like for us to be that church to be that people again? Because I I don't know about you, but I I hate getting grouped into groups. I hate being labeled by what other people are being labeled as. And maybe that's the American part of me of independence and, you know, all that. But when we look at what's killing the church globally, not just here, but what's killing the church is focusing more on our preferences and how the church serves us how God prefers we serve him. That's what's killing the church. It's when our preference supersedes his preference because God prefers to be worshiped in a certain way. God prefers that we pray in a certain way. God prefers that we follow him a certain way. God prefers our obedience. And even Jesus says this in John 13:16. He says, "Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." But when our preferences are above his, who's the master? If everything is made to serve us, is our preference more important than God's? Are we putting ourselves above God? And and it's interesting, too, because even as I was studying this, I I was taken to Isaiah 14, and it's referencing Satan. And it says, "How you are fallen from heaven. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high." This is this is Satan again speaking about his heart that he would put himself above God. But then we look back on Ephesians 2. It says, "When you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. I will ascend. Whatever makes me feel good or feel better than or feel at peace. We want to live where there is no one above us. And we don't even realize that that mentality is actually a deception into demonic thinking. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't work hard, that we shouldn't get promoted, that we shouldn't pursue excellence, but the goal is not promotion or authority. The goal needs to be serving God. Is my heart his? Am I obedient to him? Am I living like Jesus? These are the questions that we should be asking. Not did I like the worship this Sunday or is my wife doing all the things that she needs to be doing or whatever we want to criticize and throw out. Are we looking at our own hearts and saying God am I serving you with everything I am today? Am I following you? Am I becoming more and more like you? And whatever it takes to see that happen, I want to become like you. That should be the call of our hearts. Are we living like Jesus? Are we actually obedient or are we living in disobedience by making our preference the priority? Again, Jesus is such a great example of this because I look at a Philippians 2. It's as though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He humbled himself to death on a cross and he says, "Follow me and be like me." It's when we serve that God elevates us to places that glorify him. >> It's when we're obedient, God opens doors. Humble hearts God can entrust with his plans. We don't serve to get noticed or promoted by people. I want to be noticed by God. I want to be noticed by God. I want him to know me and I want to know him. We are bond servants and we say I will follow Jesus. This is what living a spirit life is. Spiritfilled life is. Jesus could have taken authority. He could have given into temptation to elevate himself. Remember he was led into the the wilderness and he fasted for 40 days and the devil came to him and tempted him. He brought him and and if you look in Luke 4, the devil, he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory for it's been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will." You can have all of this. You can have all the authority, your say, your opinion, your kingdom, your preference. And what does Jesus say? It is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. serve. I'm here to serve God, not make myself above God. In John 5, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." Jesus submitted himself to the Father. and wasn't going to do anything outside of what God wanted him to do. I say what God tells me to say. I do what he asked me to do. What would our lives look like if we did the same? If we actually followed him. This is what it means to follow Jesus. We should be the most humble people where we say, "God, I just want to please you. I want to serve people and I want to serve and be like Christ." And Jesus, he spent his whole life serving people, giving everything away, giving his life away. And he calls us to do the same. But it's so fun, you know, we we read scripture and we read even the beginning of Ephesians about being a son and a daughter and the riches of his glory and all the things that we have access to and we want the benefits of being a son and daughter of God, but we don't want to live like Jesus because he was a servant. And this has been something that that I've been wrestling with throughout this whole series is that an entitled spirit refuses to do what is required by God. And I wonder if I wonder if the grace of God has been tolerating my entitled attitude. I wonder if it's because of his grace that he's putting up with me. You ever felt that way? Is God just tolerating my disobedience today? He's so patient with me. He's so patient with us. His grace goes on and on. And so many times I've done what I've wanted to do rather than what God wanted me to do. And it's his grace that that covers all and and calls me back into alignment with him. And that's the invitation for us even today. Do we really want what God wants? Because we're all going to stand before God. And it could be today. That used to be like the the statement that I heard at every single youth night is like, "You could die right now. Stand before God. Are you ready?" 90s kid. Hey yo, listen. We're all going to stand before God and your position on this earth is not going to matter. like all the the stuff that you accomplished and did and you know in your job and how much money you made or how attractive your spouse is, you know, it's not going to matter. I have a very attractive spouse, so I've already I'm already winning. You know, cuz when God when you stand before God, is he going to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." He doesn't say, "Well done, good and faithful Christian." It doesn't say well done, good and faithful son and daughter. It says servant. And I think of all the the times I've even read the the passage of scripture when it says, "Many will come and say, Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name. We did all this stuff." But then he says, "Away from me. I never knew you." And when I see that word servant, faithful servant, it begins to to move in me this heart that goes, if I want to know God, I need to be a servant. If I want to be known by God, I need to be his servant. and everything just begins to to shift in me. And it begins to to stir up this this heart and desire to to please him with my life and to say, I I'm not going to do it the way that I prefer. What does the word of God say that I need to align my life in? What does it need to look like? Am I am I looking to to him in in prayer and in scripture of how I align my life? Or am I looking to culture and looking to the comparison and and looking to my own preferences? And it's a hard thing to grapple with, but I I I'm telling you right now, it's what's killing so many of our faith journeys. When our preference takes the place of God, it's an idol. And it's exactly what Satan desires is that he would be above God. It's probably the most demonic thing that we face when it comes to spiritual warfare is the the draw to put ourselves above God. because it's exactly what the devil did. We get to know our master by serving him. Matthew 23, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalt exalted. God is looking for who really serves and who is really becoming like his son. And Ephesians paints this picture of experiencing God's grace, his immeasurable love, his transformative power. And again, it invites us to become more and more like Christ. Jay, you can come. We're going to wrap this up. Again, I I look all throughout this series and I'm going to pray a prayer that kind of summarizes everything that we've studied. But maybe maybe you've drifted from being a servant of God and maybe you haven't always been obedient. Maybe you haven't served others the way that Christ calls us to serve. And maybe God is inviting you to repent. I think it's funny. I I I saw this. Someone said this the other day that if God doesn't invite you to repent every time you encounter him, you may not be praying to God. [Music] Like if if the invitation isn't clearly there for us to repent because we are sinners, we're not always doing it right. Sometimes our preferences get in the way of making him the priority. But if we're not always repenting when we come into his presence, what are we doing? Are we really praying to God? Or like I said during worship, is it are we praying to an idea of him that that is more inigned with what we like or what we prefer. If you stood before God today, would he call you a servant? Would he call you a faithful servant? [Music] And what's so beautiful is the invitation is here and now to start to reset to begin to walk in the fullness of of God in your life. Again, I I think it's I think it's Franklin culture, but I think it's so much of Christian culture where we we can't humble ourselves, especially if we've been in the faith for a long time because it's like, I should have gotten over this by now, or I should have been better than this by now. But the beauty of following Jesus is we're always failing to some degree and his arms are always wide open to receive us back and say, "Are you are you giving your life to serve me? You're not always going to get it right, but if you'll just come back, if you'll just begin to be obedient in these different things, watch what God will do in transforming your life and heart. Where where is your heart in this? And and again, I'm I'm smiling because I'm excited because I know that God is getting ready to move in this room that hearts would repent and we would lay our preferences at his feet and just say, "God, I'm sorry that I made this about me. Help me to make it about you." [Music] It can shift our entire faith and reality if we can live from this place. [Music] I want to pray today that God changes our hearts. Maybe again we've given into the lie that it's about our preference or promoting oursel rather than becoming like Jesus. The goal is to become like Jesus. nothing else matters. That's the high priority for each and every one of us. And that's what Ephesians is all about. It's becoming like Jesus. And when I look at this scripture, it's it's so often hidden in this place, but it's the thread that goes all throughout this story, this scripture, that we would be servants. It's the thread all the way through. You're a son and daughter, but you're called to serve. You're you're a child of the king. You You have the riches of his glory, but you're called to serve. You're called to serve him. You're not you're not going to live in disobedience or in preference or satisfying your flesh. You're going to live to satisfy him. You're going to live to to do what he prefers and what he calls us to do. So, I want to invite the worship team up and I want to pray this prayer over us as we wrap this up. This is literally all of Ephesians 1-6 in a prayer that I want to pray over us as we move forward. But even as I pray it, I want to ask the Holy Spirit to open up our eyes to see the thread of servantthood through it all, of what it means to actually follow Jesus and become like him. Would you stand? And I'm going to pray this over you today. Then we're going to sing. We're going to worship and it's going to be awesome. [Music] I'm going to put it on the screen behind me. You might be able to see it some of it. You can pray it to yourself, but I want to I just want to pray this over you. [Music] We thank you, Jesus. Our father in heaven, we thank you that in Christ, you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing. You chose us before the foundation of the world. You adopted us as your children, sons and daughters, and sealed us with the Holy Sp
