A New Community of Faith (Ephesians 2:11-22)

I'm going to read from verses 11 down to the end of the chapter. Therefore remember that it one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel in strangers to the covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who is made us both one and has broken down in his flesh. The dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances. They might create a name self one new man in the place of two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him. We both have access in one Spirit to the father So then you are no longer strangers and Aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints. And members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ. Jesus himself, being the Cornerstone in, whom the whole structure. Being joined together, grows into a holy Temple in the Lord in him. You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. It's an amazing passage because it speaks about unity in Jesus. It speaks about worship. And what it means that we draw near to the father and have fellowship and communion with him that we actually now as the church are the temple. And for these Ephesian Believers hearing this, they knew what temples were now they, they may not have been thinking of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem where the animal sacrifices were held, but they have a temple to Aphrodite and Apollo and all the Greek gods, right? You read Percy Jackson and they had temples in Ephesus to all of those Gods. This is the place where God the Gods in their world were supposed to be manifest to be localized. And here we see, That we join together. Grow into a holy Temple in the Lord. A place for the dwelling place of God by the spirit more on that later. But this brings us to this subjective worship. And unity and being a new Community of Faith. And what we see in this passage is that we become United, not So Much by reasoning it out and and rationalizing it. But by remembering the word remember is used Over and Over In this passage and verse 11, where we're starting today pics right up from verse 10, where we ended last week that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. For good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We are his poiema in the Greek. We are his handiwork, his work of art, the church. End it now he's going to just start reflecting on what it means to be the church, The Community of Faith, this United group of Believers and he says that we are brought together, not only for Unity but for worship nothing to be Verse 18. In fact, the driving verse that we're heading to his Verse 18 in him. Jesus. We both in the context, Jew, and Gentile. Anybody, we draw near to the father in Jesus, by the spirit, that's what we have now, this is incredibly good news, isn't it? That the one who made us the one who has rights over us? That the one that we sang by All rights, should punish us for our rebellion in dad loves us and gives us his son so that we could be with him forever. Which goes back to chapter 1. What we heard in that very opening sentence that God the father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless. Before him in his presence, he sees us as his inheritance that he's receiving to himself and now he's just reflecting on it and chapter 2 and saying. Listen, this is really good news that old Covenant that had a dividing wall of partition between Jew and Gentile has been torn down and now for us I mean I would assume the vast majority of us in this room who are not Jewish we were without hope and without God but we've been brought here, we've been welcomed into the family. So that we could be with the father forever. Now, what does this have to do with worship? What worship is one of those words that intuitively we know because we're all worshippers even if you're not a Christian here, this morning you are a worshipper you worship something. Now, could be that you look in the mirror. Any worship yourself. You say, yes, your majesty as it were. It could be that you worship success. You worship Your Name In Lights, it could be that you worship, pleasure. And you want to find your joy and satisfaction in drinking and drugs and all of those things.

Are we were created by God to worship. And the problem of sin is that we no longer worship, God, we worship the creation. Whatever that is But Paul here is talking about worship as a response. Worship is a response to to this good news of the Gospel. Now even our worship that is idolatry which we when we don't worship God, it's a response to something. Maybe we find temporary pleasure in a relationship. And then we begin to worship that other person. It's a response to this pleasure. We find that it doesn't always satisfy. It doesn't always last. In fact, the only worship the only response that is satisfying is to the one who made us. So Paul's getting at and the biblical language around worship. I wish I could walk you through my worship class at Cornerstone Seminary, but there's three words in the Bible that orbit this language of worship in. The first one is the one. We're just going to sit on in the sermon is the word remember. The other two are submission and service. And I find it fascinating to both the Old and New Testament, translate the word submit as worship, and translate the word serve as worship. Because they flow together really well. Think about it this way. If you are not serving God why aren't you serving Well, it's because you're not submitting to him as king wanted to be your own King and if you're not submitting to him as king, why is that? Will because you're not remembering who he is, and what he's done, you're not remembering that he's The God Who made you. That he so loved the world, he gave his son to die for your sins to bring you into right relationship. And so remembrance is at the heart of everything. Remembrances, the foundation. And we can motivate people, a lot of different ways I can motivate you with guilt. Maybe I say well you need to serve the Lord in your not serving, so I'll use guilt. Or maybe I motivate you with fear. Your punishment for being Outcast, fear of, not being in the right circles, or maybe I motivate you with peer pressure, all the cool kids are doing it. Serving the lord. I don't know if that's true, but that's sort of motivation. Those are all inferior. Motivations why? Because they don't last. They might motivate us for a season for a time for 11 years, but they don't motivate us forever. The only thing that will motivate us is having our affections. Our desires changed. That's it.

To oversimplify Jonathan Edwards. Great thesis is that we basically do what we want, we always do what we want. So when we want something else more than God, we we follow that and that's called worship. So how do we change our affections and desires? We can't in an of ourselves, that's what scripture says. That's what we saw last week. We were dead, but God is rich in Mercy. Made us alive by the spirit, our desires or make new, and it's not by works. It's by faith. That's what we saw last week that were saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves. If it's not of Works, gift of God bless any of us would boast and brag. And ironically, if we were boasting and bragging, we turn back to worshipping ourselves, look how great I am. Look at what I've done.

The reason I'm going over this in, in great detail, is because this idea of remembrance This is really going to help you tomorrow morning when you wake up this week. Thinking about what you have to face your trials. What's the first thing you think about? When you wake up? What's the last thing on your mind when you go to bed? Are you prone to forget who God is and what he's done for you? That's the easiest way to fall down and trials, isn't it is to forget that we have a god who's for us. That's so loved as he gave his son and if he did not spare his son, how will he not with him freely? Give us all things. Romans 8. but he's committed to us that the spirit is a down payment and pledge of our inheritance Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14 Remembrance is a key semen in worship. And this idea of remembrance, the word remembrance, is not always use. Sometimes it's the concept to meditate to lay upon the heart to not forget.

And hear Paul begins. He says, remember verse 11. That at that one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. Remember verse 12 you were separated from Christ. Alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope and without God starts very similar to chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, doesn't it? Not flattering, not something. I really want to remember. But it's good to remember where we were apart from Christ to remember how great a Salvation it is now that we have Jesus. And in. So In this passage by remembering that we were far off and now brought near into this new Community of Faith. We are now able to worship the father as he intended because where the Temple of the Holy Spirit Our worship is acceptable to him, we draw near to him, we can come into His presence. So my first point verses 11 to 13 is remember that we were formally far off, but now we're brought near. Again, Paul is not wanting you to Simply wallow in this idea that you're far from God, because that's what was true before. Jesus, you're not far from him anymore. If you're in Jesus, if you believe the gospel you've been brought near now, you may not feel. Like you're near to God. Have you ever had that experience? Maybe your sin. Maybe Temptations, maybe just the cares of Life, make it feel like God is so far from you. You ever have that feeling when you pray and it, it feels like it bounces off the ceiling and doesn't even make it to the father. I felt that way. And so, what we have to do is remember that, that's not true. Remember that show? That was the case when I was far from Jesus, that he didn't hear my prayers. But now that I'm a Christian now that I put Faith In Jesus, he's near He's near to me.

So Paul says, verse 11, remember the nature of your your past that you were pagans who didn't worship God, you're sitting in your life, you were despicable in your own eyes and in God's eyes as it were verse 11. But you were Siri says the Ephesians, they were called the quote uncircumcision. That that's a racial slur. We don't often think of it that way but that's what the Jewish people were saying about. Uncircumcised people. It was not meant to be a neutral language. It was meant to be a slur. and if you've ever been put down for your looks or your accent, or your parentage, or your origin, or your height, or any of the circumstances of your birth, then you have some idea of what Paul is telling them to remember as it were, you were called the uncircumcision. And isn't it amazing that that word Gentile in our English language? That just means anybody who's not Jewish and it's not a neutral word, it was a word that was meant to be derogatory. And then he goes on to say, Made In the Flesh by hands. It was also a negative phrase. It was used to refer to Pagan idols and temples that are useless because they're made by man's hands. So all of the Gentile life was considered worthless and Pagan and derogatory and inferior. Impulses, remember that? You were, this is what was considered of you. And then verse 12, like, you were treated poorly in verse 11 but then inverse 12, there really was a legitimate problem. It wasn't merely a racial slur, it wasn't merely bad attitudes. It was you were separated from Christ. You were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and the important thing about that is that you were strangers to the covenants of Promise. Meaning the promises that God gave to his people, you were without hope and without God what an incredible thought.

That pause, just you're saying this is, what was the reality prior to the coming of Jesus? If you wanted to draw near to God, you had to go to Jerusalem and you had to go into the court of Gentiles if you were a gentile and that's the closest you could get to the Manifest presence of God on the earth, and you had to become Jewish if you wanted to draw any more near to God. But now, verse 13 in Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Know what Paul does here is there is a sense in which he saying, these reminders of alienation are so heavy and dark, that it can make us feel like we're gasping for Spiritual are. However, he doesn't leave us there. He says in an in an Essence, remember your chains. But remember, they're gone. Remember that one time you were in prison but now you're free. Remember it one time you were dead but now you're alive. Remember it one time you were blind but now you see, You're not there anymore. That's what was true. What's true of you now is you are in the family of God. You are now part of the promise. You now have hope. This is so important to remember. Why? Because tomorrow you go back to work. You go back to your trials, even this afternoon. You come away from this break of being together with the people of God and you face the reality of your burdens. And Satan would love to tempt you to think that God is far from you. Maybe it's tempting you to think you about send the grace of God. Continue to think that you got to clean yourself up before you can draw near. Tempting, you to think that you got to do more be better, Nike theology, just do it. It's Ally Christ. Did what we couldn't do and he brought us near

So remember your new identity verse 13. You are in Christ noticed. It's contrasted with verse 11. You're no longer in the flesh you are now in Christ. You've been brought near verse 13 near to Jesus and near to one another. you see, when you want to call yourself a failure, a liar, a hypocrite a pervert, a betrayer, your father calls, you his child because you're in Union with his son, As profound. That is Hope. That is joy. That is something that the world cannot take from us. And it's through his blood verse 13. We are united to Jesus and we have the power of his blood to take away our sin. My identity in Jesus means my identity is no longer fixed by my birth determined by my Heritage or spoiled by my sin. That's the reality. It's renewed. It's transformed, its reborn by my savior's blood. We are in Christ. We're New Creation, the old has passed away. The new has come that is really, really good news. Because I don't know about you, but I sin every week every day and I wish I didn't and the more at the longer I'm a Christian, the more I see the perfect Holiness of God, and I see that, I don't measure up. It's like this Arrow of my understanding of God's holiness is going to heaven to infinity and my growth in Holiness is never making it looks like it seems like it's flat, but maybe I am becoming more like, Jesus. I have to believe the promises. What what fills that Gap? It's not our works. It's not our righteousness, it's the finish work of Jesus. The cross fills that Gap, the cross is what is sufficient for us to stand before. God holy and righteous to where the father no longer sees our stand, he no longer sees our failures. He sees the righteousness of his son, he looks at us and he is pleased and happy and wants us to be near him. That is incredible. That's good news.

Well, this pattern was true in the Old Testament, as well. Israel was called To Remember over and over and over again. They had the Passover that was the highest point of their year, the Passover, and what were they supposed to do in the Passover? Remember, remember that God, brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, into the promised land and establish them as the people of God. That's a really good thing to remember. Now, we have a new covenant.

Ordinance to remember. And we're going to do it here after the sermon. To take the table to remember Jesus, body broken for us. His blood shed for us.

They also had the stones of remembrance, maybe you've heard the word Ebenezer, cuz you watched A Christmas Carol Ebenezer, Scrooge, abenezer is a Hebrew word. It comes from two Hebrew words actually event, which is Stone and Ops are which is help. God is a stone of help. And so these Ebenezer's, the stone of helps were to be placed in Israel. Either is Alters like at Bethel or in the River. Gorge So Joshua told the parents, the dad's as you walk with your kids by the River, Jordan, you point to these Ebenezer's and you remember, this is how far God brought you that he brought you out of Egypt and right through the Jordan River into the Promised Land. And this is what Paul is calling us to do. Is to remember, remember how far God has brought us what he's done in our lives to change us to save us? I am amazed being back home here, living near where I grew up in Vallejo and running into old friends. I am amazed at how many of them ruin their lives. Went to prison. Went to jail died. Life cut short, because of sin because of bad decisions. Because of A lifestyle of rebellion against God. I just heard the other day that another high school friend of mine had died.

And it doesn't cause me to think. I'm so much better than them. It causes me to think. Well, by statistics is the grace of God that I'm still alive. That I that I haven't ruined my life, that I haven't made a wreck of things. But I'm not lifelong in jail. This is Paul's idea of remembrance. Here's remember where you were in. Remember where God brought you, this is meant to be hopeful, which is why he moves on and verses 14 to 18 to speak about. Remembering Christ has brought peace to us. Through his reconciling. Death himself is our peace who has made us both one and is broken down in his flesh. The dividing wall of hostility that's between Jew and Gentile and he did it by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances, that's the Mosaic law. The Ten Commandments that he might created himself one new man in the place of two. So making peace. And reconcile us both in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility. Now this word reconcile in verse 16 is a great word, a cuddle. Ah, so it was used of ships when a joint in a ship. They were putting them together. They would put the ship together. So the ship wouldn't leak these wood joints, and it was this word to reconcile that they would bring it together. What I always think of is my brother, Kevin. When he was young, he went up with the Boy Scouts to go snow skiing at Kirkwood and he's following these older kids, and they go up to the wall, Double Diamond, black run at Kirkwood, and Kevin at 12 years of age, or whatever it was, is not a Double Diamond snow skier. Nor is he today? And so what did he do? He fell off the wall and he broke the ball of his shoulder. He broke the ball off. It was just hanging by the meat and the the you could imagine the bone was just shred it. And my dad gets the message. He wasn't up there with him and he gets the phone call. And the doctors up a Tahoe or saying, we don't want to do surgery because it might affect the growth plate and then he could have a short arm and so we're going to try to put it back in and said it. So they took x-rays before and they set the bone. And they took an x-ray after and it perfectly reconciled it perfectly fit and he never had to have surgery. You can glass come out, painful. That was I'm sure. He'll tell you the story but the idea is the reconciling. These, this bone that was fractured and splintered when it was set back together. It fit perfectly and he's never had a problem with the shoulder as far as I know. Play as other issues but not his shoulder.

This is what Jesus has done. As he has reconciled us to God and us to one another. This is what the cross does Christ, blood brings peace versus 14 and 15th, you know, Isaiah 9 that great promise of a messiah that he's going to be the Prince of Peace. He is the one who brings peace and makes peace because he is peace.

I was at the Heritage Presbyterian service this morning and they're a little more liturgical than us and they had a whole time of greeting one another that they called a time of peace and all the people did as they walked around here. Just a couple hours ago is they said peace be upon you may God's peace be with you may you have peace. What an incredible thought that this idea of Shalom. The Hebrew idea of peace is this idea of life is the way it oughta be, is Barber, okay there? Okay. Alright. so this idea of peace, life is the way it oughta be intended. Let me just go ahead and pray for her real quick. Father, thank you for the opportunity to pray for Barbara as we gather, whatever she's going through right now. Physically, would you heal her body minister to her? We love her. We're grateful for her. Jesus name, amen.

so this idea of peace, This is incredible. This is a Jew and Gentile, didn't have peace. There was a dividing wall a barrier, but Jesus brings peace, and not only peace in relationships, but Peace In Worship. peace in the, in the temple in communion and so, This is what God is doing to create a new Humanity verse 15. He says he's making one new man in the place of to its yuc verses in Galatians, they say there's neither Jew, nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. But all are one in Christ, what does he mean? It doesn't mean the distinctions are erased. We obviously can look around the room and see the distinctions of gender, and of our hair ethnic Heritage, and where we grew up in age and all of those things, that means those distinctions are no longer relevant when it comes to worship Drawing Near to God the ground at the foot of the cross is level. We are all saved the same way by grace through faith. And so, this is this is really good news and so that's the last thing he says is he says, this is what's reconciling us to God and I want to go to verse 18 verse 17. He came and preached peace, to those who are far off, peace to those who are near but this is where he's been heading. The whole time Verse 18 for through him, we both Jew and Gentile have access in one Spirit to the father. In one Spirit to the Father. The final reason Paul urges piece is that Jew and Gentile share access to the father by The Same Spirit through Jesus Christ. It's why we're called a priesthood of Believers. All of us it's why we can call god, father and noticed. All of the Trinity is at work. In this verse Jesus is the one that we are in in him we are drawing near to the father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I would remind you that in chapter one. He said that the spirit is the down payment and pledge of our inheritance verse 14. And then he prays that you would know what kind of power versus 15 223 are at work in your life. The resurrection power of God by which he raised Jesus from the dead in the power of the holy spirit. So when you come to 2:18 and your draw, Near to the father by the spirit you're realizing this is the resurrection power of God. The third person of the Trinity who is the Lord and Giver of Life. John 6:63, who is working on your behalf to bring you near to God? All of the Trinity is saying, draw near. We are for you and not against you. That's incredible because some people make it seem like the father's always against you. And it takes the sun to calm down the father, or the father is remote and distant, and it takes the spirit for you to have the the power to even get into his presence. And that's not what we see here. This was the father's plan in chapter one. This was his purposes in love and he sent his son to die for you. And he poured out his Spirit to bring you to him and all three persons of the Trinity or at work. to bring you into communion and fellowship with them forever, not just today, but forever

And so we finally remember our new privileged position in Christ verses 19 to 22 verse 19 you're no longer strangers and aliens. Your fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God, I would say verse 19. Remember that your dear to the father, dear to him. What do I mean by that? You're part of this family, Prince family.

I'm not trying to embarrass my children. But last night for the first time in seven months, I had all of my children in my house and we sat and watched old movies, family movies. And I was, I mean, I could die and go to heaven. I was happy Other than I'm doing this fasting thing and I couldn't eat after 6 p.m. so I was cranky about that but I was really happy that my family was there.

Your father in Heaven considers you family. Look at verse 19. You're no longer strangers and Aliens, your fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the House. Hold of God. What's he saying? You're part of the family. You're welcome, you're seated at the table. You have refrigerator rights. You're welcome to be there. He wants you there.

First 20. You're also secure in him, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ, Jesus himself being the Cornerstone. So this image that Paul brings up is your part of the house of God and he's thinking of a family. But he's also thinking of the building because then he goes to the picture of a foundation and he says the apostles and Prophets built the foundation, and the Cornerstone is Jesus. And what he's getting at is that this new Community of Faith is a house, but not just any house. A Holy House, a temple. He's moving from the family metaphor to the temple metaphor, saying that the temple is not just a, a place of worship. It's a family place of worship. It hasn't inspired Foundation the apostles and the prophets. No one can question our rights to these privileges because the inspired word of God through the apostles and Prophets has declared it to be. So Isn't that incredible? Thought this is a course, why we preach the Bible? Why we hold to the inerrancy in the sufficiency of the scripture is because it was given to us from the father, through both the apostles and the prophets. The apostles are the New Testament writers of scripture, and the prophets of the Old Testament writers of scripture, and that's the foundation. And then, what's the Cornerstone? Cornerstone is, the Lord Jesus himself were built on him. He the Cornerstone. That's something that's foreign to us in our construction. We don't use cornerstones anymore, but an older construction. The idea was that the Cornerstone was the first stone put down and every other Stone was measured against that and related to it in the Cornerstone held everything together. The closest thing we would have would be like, in this roof picture. Here we have these beams that are holding the roof up. Now, imagine if there was just one beam one Center beam that was holding everything up. If you don't have that centerbeam, you don't have the roof. If you don't have the Cornerstone in this ancient way of doing the foundation, you don't have a solid foundation. So Jesus is the Cornerstone and you're growing into this Temple. Every other the position of every other stone is determined by him. But it doesn't end there. He doesn't just say that your precious to the father, your secure in Jesus. He says that you are useful to him vs. 21 and 22 and doing the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy Temple in the Lord. What a, what a picture. I don't think of anything. I don't ever think of a building being alive and growing Me Maybe these new environmentally, you know, conscious I took, it doesn't mean that I don't want to use that illustrates and I took a class at Davis and we were looking at ways to do Roofing, that would be create energy through. Photosynthesis in. So they were living buildings but that takes us away from anything I'm talking about and I chose to say it rather than skip it and I don't know why forgive me, I got a laugh out of it so then that just encourages me to keep up with that kind of stuff. The whole structure joined together, grows into a holy Temple in the Lord in him. You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. What a picture that this Temple is no longer the building in Jerusalem. It's us and it's growing, but it's not being built, so that the spirit will come in. The spirit is already here, who's the one, who's giving the life, to grow the building. So, that as we grow together, we will be offering up worship. That is to the praise of the father's Glory. Despite the presence of God. In our midst. Is a reality. And he is bearing fruit and life in US using us so that us as the church are the witness. Think about it this way in the old Covenant if you want to get into the presence of God, you would go to the temple in Jerusalem. And depending on Pawn, you know, where you were at in, in these clean and unclean laws, you could go in a certain way but only the high priest could go into the holy of holies and only once a year. And even when he went in once a year, there was this fear that he was going to be struck dead. but now, Any of us, all of us can draw near. Not only that this idea of being built together is that if God is dwelling in our midst, the place where people come to see God, now, the Manifest presence of God is no longer Jerusalem. It's What a privilege? It's a little intimidating. I'll be honest. The idea that the place on Earth where people come to see God Is Us. Well man, we already heard in this chapter. There wasn't really much in us to commend us. But this is what the spirit of God is doing in US. He's taking as Paul says isn't to the Corinthians cracked pots, clay pots. Vessels of that were throw away paper plates in our context and he saying, I'm taking these paper plates, these clay pots, so that the glory is not in you, but in God, but he is using us and the spirits indwelling us to look at it another way. The presence of God In the Garden of Eden that first, prototype Temple work Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden, the presence of God, which was lost because of sin, the presence of God that filled the Tabernacle in later. The temple Above The Mercy Seat in, the holy of holies is now inside of us. We've been born again. Regenerated were part of the New Covenant. We are the temple of God. The place where God's glory dwells and Soul by remembering. That we were far off. Remembering that were brought near into a new Community of Faith means that we are able to worship as God intended because we're filled, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, were filled with the spirit.

This is Paul's going to go on and chapter 3 to reflect upon this impact for the gospel and then remind us again that we need to know how deep and high and wide and long. The love of Christ is so that were filled with all the fullness of God talking again about that Temple image of being filled with the presence of God. What an incredibly powerful reality and so really the application is simple here this afternoon, isn't it? What are we to do? Or to remember we're to remember Where we are apart. We're apart from Christ, and where we are now we're to Remember Everything Jesus has done for us. We're to remember that God is our father and that the spirit of God isn't dwelling. Us were to remember that where the temple, and when that happens, it changes our affection. So that then we worship God and serve him back to my three words. If you're remembering who Jesus is and what he's done, then you're submitting to God. Aren't you? You're saying I'm Yours Lord. Do with me, whatever you want to do, whatever he wants is a life of service and worship of a pleasing him of glorifying, him of loving people. And this is what it means to be the church, the new Community of Faith in this new covenant, where we have forgiveness of sins, Unity with one another piece. Imagine if this reality was seen in our community, if the Lord would see fit to use us as a witness here of what, true, peace true. Unity. True love looks like in the power of the spirit It would change our community. That's what Revival is called. We need to be praying that God would see fit to send Revival again in our context. Let's pray, father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this, great reality and reminder of everything we have. Thank you that we are the body of Christ and that are unity in Jesus.

It reconciles us to you and it reconciles us to one another. We want to be a people who remember. Who tell the story over and over in, remember everything that you've done in Jesus. Remember that we were far off and we were brought near remember that we had no hope and now we have a great hope that will never put us to shame. Remember that we had no home but now we have a kingdom that will not be shaken. That we have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of your beloved Son. The one in whom we have Redemption, the Forgiveness of our sins. We have a home. We have a hope. We have peace. We have joy unspeakable.

We have a family, we have life, we have love.

All-father. Remind my brothers and sisters of this. Not only now, but this afternoon When Trials come tomorrow morning when they wake up and they face whatever sin that they face in their life, whatever struggles.

May they remember who you are and what you've done in Jesus, that they're not alone. They have your spirit to strengthen and Empower them. I pray all of this in Jesus name.