"It’s Just So ... Full"
EPISODE 184
Open Your Heart’s Eyes
This week we unfog the privacy glass to see with hope and power. We’re Talking Through Ephesians with a conversation about the last half of chapter one, a prayer to let the light in. We define Heavy Words like enlightened, inheritance, and the heavenly places, learning why Christians aren’t rogue individuals and what kind of treasure awaits us. In our Reach Out question, we explore why informed hope is so important in a dire, dysfunctional world. And we find out where Jesus’ feet stand, what he fills, and what it all has to do with us. Go to biblegeeks.fm/ephesians for the guides, videos, and more!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Through faith, the eyes of your heart can perceive the hope awaiting you and God's power toward you.
This Week's Challenge: Let someone know how often you pray for them.
Episode Transcription
Absolutely. How many superlatives can Paul grow at this thing to try to get us to see? And that word fullness is, it's just so full. [Music] Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 184. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We are in session three in our guided study talking about Ephesians and we kick the thing off really with the first two verses. which is kind of a summary of everything. And then last episode, we talked about, you know, another section of the first chapter. And this episode in session three, we are gonna finish up that first chapter. And again, I think Paul's language here is poetic and it's sweeping. And I was looking for the periods in this section, and there's not a whole lot of them here either. He's very excited about what he's saying here. And I think you can just see that as you read. - Absolutely, yeah. I think you could just record that paste it in at the beginning of each one that it's going to be some sweeping language throughout this whole book, even when we get to those very specific applications. But it's a prayer. He just started with praise and then he goes into prayer. And then we're going to end this first half of the book with praise and prayer. Whenever you're praising God and you're praying to God and you're thinking about all that he's done in this big picture scheme of things, it's easy to get excited. - For sure. And here he's talking about enlightened hearts. So that's what we're gonna talk about in Ephesians chapter one, verses 15 to 23. And to kick this thing off, we're gonna go back and listen to a conversation starter that we dropped recently, and that was called Hand-Cranked. (Wayne's World dissolve) - This is Talking Through Ephesians. - "Hand-Cranked" - A few months back, we came home to a power outage. We dug out our hand cranked flashlight and putting our kids to work, we could generate power to light up a little corner the house for a few minutes. But how much cranking would it take to run our entire home? If it depended on our strength, we'd still be in the dark, powerless to accomplish everything we want to do. Paul frames this first half of Ephesians with praise and prayer, highlighting our need to depend on the Lord. In Ephesians 1, verses 15 to 23, he starts with thanksgiving for their faith and their love, but his prayer focuses on enlightenment and power. So here's the big idea. Through faith, the eyes of your heart can perceive the hope awaiting you and God's power toward you. The word "enlightenment" might conjure images of a cross-legged monk on a mountain, but the enlightened eyes Paul prays for won't come from emptying our mind, but filling it with the word of truth, allowing God's Spirit to seal and strengthen us. Paul prays for wisdom and revelation. He imagines eyes within their hearts asking God to give them light to see the riches of their inheritance. But then as he prays for them to see the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, he starts unpacking what kind of power he needs. That same power raised Jesus from the dead. To grasp it we need to see that Christ now reigns above every power that is or will ever be. ruler overall, who needs nothing and fills everything is our head, and we are his fullness. What more power could we need when we stand with the King who conquers all? So here's the big question. Are you trying to operate from your wisdom and power, or leaning on the Lord? So follow along with this guided study at biblegeeks.fm/ephesians, and may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. So the big idea there was that through faith, the eyes of your heart can perceive the hope awaiting you and God's power toward you. This is sort of a reflection of the prayer that he's offering for the people, for us really. And I think it's interesting that he's talking about how we can see clearer through faith. Recently we replaced all of our windows in our house, but only one of the windows that we replaced was unlike the rest and it was the bathroom window. It was that privacy glass, it's frosted, You can't really see through it. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be interesting if somebody bought all privacy glass, if all of their windows in their whole house were privacy glass? Like that would be unfortunate 'cause you couldn't see outside, you couldn't see anywhere. And I feel like what we're seeing in faith is a clear picture of what our life is about, what God is doing. We see more clearly through faith than we do without faith. Without faith, it's like we're looking through a frosted glass. It's like we can't see things clearly, although we think we can. We think we can make it out. We think we've got it all figured out. But without faith, really, we're not able to see and perceive the hope that's awaiting us and God's power that works within us. - I like that metaphor, that we need clarity. The Bible often talks about seeing through a glass darkly, like this idea of a bad mirror. And yeah, it's hard to see what's really happening when you don't know or believe or understand this reality that only God can reveal to us in His word and tell us what's happening beyond our sight and what our hope is, all those things that you were talking about. So the big question was, are you trying to operate from your wisdom and power or leaning on the Lord? There's this verse back in Isaiah 36 where Isaiah told Israel that leaning on Egypt instead of the Lord was like using a broken reed as a crutch. It only stabs into your hand as you're putting weight on it. And leaning on anyone or anything, including ourselves as a substitute for the guidance, for the strength and all that the Lord gives, is really gonna be more harm than help. As this conversation starter talks about that idea of cranking enough power on your own, you just can't do it. We need to lean on the Lord's strength. We need His power plant in order to give us the light, to see clearly the power to live the way we want to do, the change that comes through Christ, through his forgiveness. All that we will find our spiritual wellbeing in comes from the Lord. - That's a great verse from Isaiah. I love that. That's just such a visceral picture too. You're leaning on something, you're relying on something, but it's only hurting you. And isn't that what happens when we try to lean on our own understanding, our own wisdom versus operating from the Lord's? So maybe let's take a step back here as we like to do and break the ice a little bit. And this is an interesting question we're gonna ask each other. Which of your physical senses do you value the most? I think there is a correct answer here, but whether we pick the correct answer or not remains to be seen. - I think it has to be vision, right? I love music. That would be hard to go without hearing music. I love food. It would be hard not to taste, but man, can you imagine trying to get through a day without sight? My training, my background is as a visual artist and as a designer, and I just feel particularly reliant on seeing, you know me, if I don't have a whiteboard to draw on, if I don't have a slide to talk about, if I don't have visuals, I don't know what I'm doing. I would just be imagining pictures and trying to express them. But what's your answer? Is that the correct answer you were thinking of? - That is the correct answer, I'm pretty sure. Although, as I was thinking about it, I'm pretty sure if I had to, I could get away with living without my sight. But I think the thing that would challenge me the most is living without a sense of touch or being able to feel things. If you've ever fallen asleep on your arm and you don't know what your arm, like your arm is flopping around and flailing, you have no idea what you're touching. I think that'd be a frightening way to live your entire life. I know there's actually a disease out there where people are unable to feel things and they constantly have to check themselves to make sure like, you know, brushing their teeth, didn't shove the toothbrush like through their cheek or something like that because they can't feel pain. It's wow yeah that would be a real challenge I think. So getting ahead of ourselves on a future episode we're gonna talk about deep thoughts. Here's a thought that someone shared with me once. All of your senses are actually the sense of touch. Oh that's true. Because it's light touching your visual sensors, your retina and everything. It's sound waves touching your ears, everything, every sense you have comes from touch, profound thought. So maybe I picked the right one, maybe I picked the deepest one, but who knows. All right, let's get into our first and actually important segment here on the episode and that is finding Jesus. And so it is easy I think for us to, as we're doing this textual study, just focus on the verses that are at hand here. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 to 23 and we're gonna see if we can find Jesus Yeah, it's this beautiful passage. It's hard not to read it. And of course, he has this Thanksgiving for them and their love and faith. And then he has the beautiful prayer for the eyes of their heart to be enlightened, for them to have this spirit of wisdom and knowledge and revelation. And then ultimately, he goes on to talk about the greatness of Christ. So where in all of that did you find Jesus? He's all over the place. He really is all over the place. One of the places I found Jesus here was in Ephesians 1 verse 22 where it talks about how God has put all Things under his feet Jesus is standing on everything If you really want to find where Jesus is standing he's standing on top of the world on all things It's pretty amazing to think about Jesus having that kind of authority to have everything in Objection to him and of course, I think it goes back to our first conversation from the introduction Session one where we were talking you were talking about how Jesus is referred to as Christ here So often in Ephesians and that means he's the anointed one. He's the king He's in charge and as someone who is in charge He is standing on everything and this actually throws back of course to language from the Psalms from Psalm 8 verse 6 Where he's said to be standing on? Everything he's on top he's in charge, but I was actually recently studying through Joshua here at Monte Vista We're doing a study from Joshua right now and in chapter 10 There's a story about how Joshua he finds the five Amorite kings and who are hiding in a cave somewhere And he pulls them out of the cave basically and he has all of the chief Warriors of the people come and they as a sign they put their feet on the necks of each of the kings It's like this weird story about how basically God's people are in charge. They can be strong. They can be courageous. They'll be victorious because God is with them. You know, it's just this language that we see throughout the Bible about things being Christ's footstool, how things are in subjection to him. Just this interesting picture that the Bible constantly gives about things being lower than the Lord because they're under his feet and just an interesting place that we found Jesus here standing on stuff. On the necks of his enemies. That's a very bold and victorious stance. I was thinking about the next verse after that, he's head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. I'm really struck by this idea of filling and fullness. He fills everything, but we, the church are his fullness. And this one author I was reading, Francis Foulkes, paraphrased it like this, the church should be the full expression of Jesus Christ, who Himself fills everything there is. It's just such an amazing thought. Jesus is the focal point of everything, and we're the focus of His attention and power. We're the fullness of the One who fills everything. So He's been trying to get us to get the power and this big picture of how we're tied into the everything of everything. And He's getting, well, Jesus is the everything of everything. He's the one that fills everything and we are the fullness of Him. We are connected to Him in a way that a head is to a body and we are expressing who He is in all that we do. It makes me think about Colossians chapter 1 verse 19, where Paul goes on to say, "For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." So not only is Jesus the fullness of everything and we are an expression or the attention of his fullness, but the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. So it's one step down to the next step, down to the next step. It's like the baton being passed down of the fullness of God really and everything. It's super interesting to think about. He is everything. He created everything. Everything was created for him and by him. It's just, wow. It's so cool to see how Jesus really is the focus of this book. And I think that's why Ephesians is really such a powerful instructor of our day-to-day walk because we're walking with Jesus who fills all in all. Absolutely. How many superlatives can Paul grow with this thing to try to get us to see? And that word fullness is, it's just so full. Everything is to the brim with Jesus. And we are to the brim. It's a very beautiful thought. I love it. All right. So let's get into our next segment here on the episode. And that is heavy words. Whoa, this is heavy. There's that word again, heavy. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull? So we're going from full to heavy here on the episode and there are four words here in this pretty short section that I think like you're talking about these superlative kind of words. These are powerful words. They're big words and we really need to wrap our minds around what they mean to get the sense of what Paul's saying here. So kick this thing off with our first one. So the first word we chose is enlightenment or enlightened. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened and it's the Greek word "photizo" and it just means... Photon! Yeah, you can hear photon, you can hear photograph, you can hear photosynthesis and phosphorescence, all coming from the Greek for light. This word just means to give light. So all these words have to do with light. It's a phrase reminiscent of some of David's statements of his prayer in Psalm 13 verse 3 where he said, "Light up my eyes and what he said that God's law can do for us in Psalm 19 verse 8. We sometimes sing, "The commandment of the Lord is pure in lightening the eyes." And now that's from the Hebrew and now here coming into the Greek, Paul says the same idea, "The eyes of your heart may they be enlightened." God who made the sun and the stars, God is the source of all light. But someday we're going to have no sun and we'll have plenty of light because God will be there, but he's also the one who now gives us pure, clear, inner illumination. I think of 2 Corinthians 4, 6, where Paul says, "For God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." You can tell that's coming from the same writer that wrote Ephesians, just in the, of the, in the, of the, just over and over. And Paul describes our heart as having eyes, which is like a metaphor and a metaphor as this interesting picture. He wants these inner eyes once darkened and blind to have wisdom and revelation through our knowledge of him to grasp our hope, to grasp God's power in us as we've been talking about. So the idea of enlightenment ultimately is having that light switch turned on within us and having it provide visibility for us to see these great eternal truths, like what's awaiting us in eternity. It's amazing how some of these words that we find throughout the Bible have found their way into like hippie dippy circles. And as you were talking about in the conversation starter, how you might picture like a monk, you know, with crossed legs seeking enlightenment, but no, that's obviously not what he's talking about here. This whole entire thought process, like you were saying, is just opening your eyes and seeing things clearly, stop looking through the frosted privacy glass and actually look through the clear window that gives you accurate sight. And then as we move forward towards enlightenment and seeing things clearly, he uses this word inheritance. And the inheritance that he's talking about here, this is part of his prayer towards them, probably the second thing that he's praying for them, wanting, as he wants them to be enlightened, He also wants them to see the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. It's just a cool way of thinking about what God is preparing for us, what he's gonna do for us. And this word inheritance, it's not really too complicated or too nuanced in its meaning. You know, what it says kind of says it on the tin. It's a promised possession of property. This is something that we are expecting and this inheritance language is used throughout the Bible really. And I didn't really think too much about inheritance growing up. This is not a word that I considered a lot. It's not something that I rolled around in my mind, but as my dad got older, he used to totally joke about me with my inheritance and about it. And it was weird sometimes almost morbid in a way, but like dad would pick up the check at dinner or he'd make hotel reservations for us all as a family. And I'd say, Hey, thanks dad for taking care of that. And he said, well, it's just coming out of your inheritance anyway. And it's yeah, I guess that's true this whatever you're making is eventually gonna make its way to me at some point I'm sure and you know fun fact as an only child That was the extent really of the sharing of my inheritance that I'd ever have to do Like I'm not gonna have to split an inheritance with anyone else But you know, it's all going to me and whatever he decided not to spend on himself Was gonna go to me at some point in my life So an interesting way of thinking about inheritance but Paul is not talking here about taking possession of money or land, especially like in the Old Testament, inheritance usually referred to land. He's not even talking about anything really physical, but this is about the internal inheritance. This is about the riches of his inheritance that he's prepared for us. This is something we can hope for, looking forward to. And unlike me, who gets the inheritance all to himself, we are sharing this inheritance in the saints. And that's a cool way of thinking about it. That if we are in the saints, if we are with the saints, then we all have this inheritance. We all share this together as the spirit has guaranteed to us like we talked about in the last lesson. So we all share this riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and that's a pretty cool thing to look forward to in my book. - For sure. And it's really hard to, this way it's such a great prayer. It's hard to think about what that is gonna be, what that inheritance is. You said it's not land, but it definitely is looking back to the inheritance of land from that the Israelites got and This future land that we look to that we will inherit even though it's yeah, it's different It's a new heavens and a new earth. It's a when Jesus says blessed are the meek for they'll inherit the earth I don't think he was talking about this earth I think he's talking about a new earth that is a new heavens new earth new Everything that will be recreated and that is going to belong to us and it's gonna be better than The richest piece of property you could find here. It's almost like it's up in the heavenly places somewhere I don't know. Oh So that's a good transition into our next word which is heavenly places and And it's this word that literally would describe the celestial, things in the sky are having to do with the heavens. A lot of translations just say the heavenlies. But of course, we're talking about something beyond the atmosphere or space. What we were just saying is that realm beyond this universe is where Christ is seated at God's right hand, God the Father's right hand. And in fact, we're already seated with Him there as well in chapter two, verse six, which is a crazy thought. And it describes every spiritual blessing in Christ that we talked about last week in chapter 1 verse 3 that is in the heavenlies so this word it's a pretty unique concept in Ephesians the way this word gets used here, but it's used a lot in Ephesians and you think okay So it's the realm of God. It's like heaven. That's where God lives, right? but it's also the realm of the dark spiritual powers in chapter 6 verse 12 and It comes up in chapter 3 verses 9 to 11 when God is explaining his eternal purpose and how it's fulfilled as he shows his manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through the church. And those rulers and authorities probably referring to some of those same beings that are referred to in chapter 6 verse 12 as those dark spiritual forces. maybe also the good powers and the bad powers, I don't know, but those spiritual beings beyond our sights dwell in the heavenlies. They are our real enemy, but also we are already, so much of us has been renewed and made ready for a new life in the heavenlies where Christ already is reigning. And I love how you were talking about it is a land inheritance because this is a new land. This is a new place and we're going to a place that we've never been before and it very much feels like Abraham So journeying to a new land and going somewhere. We're on a journey We don't know where we're headed, but we're trusting the lord to get there to these heavenly places It's a cool thing to think about and then we move on to our last heavy word here in this section We're going to talk about the word church. Hold on buckle up everybody I think there's been a lot of things said about this term ekklesia And the fun thing about this word that I always love to think about is that it's really not a particularly religious word. This is just a word at its core that describes a bunch of people together. And even in the New Testament, it's used that way from time to time in Acts chapter 19. There's a bunch of confused people running around. They're not really sure what's going on. There's a big crowd gathered together there in Acts 19. And they're described as an ecclesia, as a church. and they're described as just a bunch of people. It's a crowd. And that is the sense of this word that's at its core what it really means. But obviously there's much more to it than a bunch of people milling about when Paul's referring to it here in Ephesians. What he's talking about are the saints. Another term that he's already used that we've talked about. He's talking about the body of Christ as he's gonna go on to describe it here. We are a collection of people, we're a bunch of people milling about, but we're not rogue individuals. I think that's the sense here. We're a collective, we're a group. We all share together, we have a common purpose. Our aim is to glorify God our Father who has adopted us as children, which means we're relatives of each other, we're family. And church quote unquote is not a religious term necessarily but here as he uses it, it's definitely a weightier meaning than just a bunch of people milling about. And it's cool just to think about how he's using this term that we might elevate to this very high status of privilege, but like at its core, we're united together. We've got a common bond and we're all in this together, which is a really appropriate way, I think, of starting this out, especially because he's praying for their faith. And then as he talks about, they're a church, they're united together, they're bonded together, and unity is gonna be a huge focus of Paul's letter. - That's a really great summary of, like you said, a really big idea that we talk about a lot, that yeah, just coming down to this, I love the way you said, We're not a bunch of rogue individuals. We are, we're part of something. We're a group, we're a group. We're a called out group that has come together and we're the congregation of the Lord's people. And what makes us that is our relationship with Christ and therefore our relationship with one another. And so we have to live differently with one another, see each other differently because of this new identity we all share in the Lord. - So those are just four words here in this section. enlightenment, inheritance, heavenly places, and church. There could be a lot more that we could talk about here, but if you've got a word that you're struggling with in this section or maybe in other sections, reach out to us and let us know. And we'd love to cover some of those words going forward. There's a lot of repetition as you're already getting a sense of in this conversation. If there's a word you're coming across and don't necessarily know what it means in these studies, maybe it's time to dig in and let us know. We can dig into it with you. So let's move on to our next segment, our final segment here on the episode, and that is our reach out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ - All right, Bryan, here's our question for today. Which part of Paul's prayer do you need most right now? And we have three choices here. - I love multiple choice. - Yeah, yeah. Enlighten dies, informed hope, or awareness of God's power towards you. And then of course, why would you choose that particular one? - Oh man, yeah. I think all of these things are obviously super important, But I think for me increasingly, living in a hopeless quote unquote world where things are breaking down and there's just a lot of really dire feelings and dysfunction that we see everywhere, I've come to lean on the Lord's hope more and more lately. And you know, obviously not leaning on my own understanding, but leaning on what God is pointing me to, what I'm really journeying toward, and just having that heavenward focus, having the focus that this world and this walk and the way that things are happening right now is not what it's all about. I think it's just such a blessing to have that hope and just a different direction, a different way of seeing and seeing more clearly really. And I don't know, not only of this eternal inheritance someday, but I think also, as we just talked about in this conversation about the church, we have hope together collectively. We have a hope that really we can all share together and we can encourage each other about and just keeping our eyes collectively on the prize, leaning on each other, being there to help each other, refocus ourselves on that hope. If I can keep my eyes on that prize, as we talked about in the last episode, those little annoyances of life, like the onions on my salad or whatever, or even big speed bumps, like big things that happen in our life, they just don't seem to have as big of a hold on me if I'm more focused on what's awaiting me someday. I can be a Debbie Downer sometimes. I can be a guy who looks at the glass half empty from time to time, but the Lord lifts me out of that feeling and those attitudes when he shows me his hope, when he shows me what's waiting for me someday. And it is weird to think that I've never seen it, but I know it's there, and I believe what he says about where we're headed. - Yeah. (laughs) I think that now I'm wishing that I had chosen one of these others because the correct answer is yes to all of these, and I could have picked any of them. - That's cheating. - I picked hope also because I just feel like it does. It changes everything about your power and about the way that you're living. And I was thinking of the same connection too. It's funny you bring up that onions on your salad idea or that question we had last week about what is the obstacle to gratitude. I feel like gratitude and hope are these two sources of joy in a Christian's life. To look forward and know what we have coming always gives this brightened disposition whenever we can hold on to it, just like gratitude does. But it's some, somehow we lose track of it. The other day we were on our way to the beach to just have a great family day. There was a splash pad there. There's this great ice cream shop there, all this stuff the kids were looking forward to. But still they got cranky on this 40 minute drive as kids do. And we were trying to remind that we don't have to do this. We're doing something special and you've got this to look forward to. And this is the attitude you're grumpy because something happened with your sibling or something, choose to recognize the situation you're in and have joy because of it and live from that. And if I can remember where I'm going, I see it a little more clearly. If I can have more certainty and more specificity and more excitement, it really can make a difference in all the rest of what I'm doing. If you think about it, eternity is so big, right? You can't even think about it. Our inheritance is so rich. It's ludicrous to let temptations or tests or discouragements or distractions pull me away from that clarity and that proper perspective. And so that's a prayer that really resonates with me. This prayer that Paul has that my eyes of my heart would be enlightened, that I would see and know the richness of the hope and the glorious inheritance that's waiting for us. - Yeah, I don't think these are three distinct things. I think what we're saying here, really they're all focusing us on the same thing. Open your eyes, see what God has prepared for you, and see how much power he has to make that happen. It's wow, this is just, if you can really latch onto that, like you say, it does elevate your perspective, and it helps you to see eternity in a much clearer and less blurry, often the future kind of way. It's here, we are seated in the heavenlies. That is just such a cool thing to think about. And I love it. I love this section and let's move on, I guess then, to our challenge for the week. - I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. - So as Paul in this section is doing, and as we've mentioned it a few times, he is praying for them. He says, "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." And so as Paul is praying for the Ephesians here, let us take that challenge on and let someone you know how often that you're praying for them. And that's something we can share with each other. Maybe that's a challenging conversation to have depending on the situation, but I think people would love to know that you're praying for them and how often you're doing that. - And Paul is not just doing that here. He talks about this all the time. He's not only consistent in his constant ceaseless prayer for people, he's consistent in telling them how constantly he prays for them. And I do think that matters. I think the prayers matter more, sure. But I've had loved ones tell me, I pray for you every day. And that helps me that it's just, it's, it reminds you I'm not alone and it just helps you understand that you're part of this interconnected community that is all looking to the same source for power, not just for ourselves, but for each other. And I certainly think it's worth telling people often, not just whenever they say, "I've got a need," and you say, "I'll pray for that," but coming back and say, "I've been praying for you all month, "and I just want you to know you are in my conversations "with God all the time." - And so it's definitely appropriate for us to close this thing out with a prayer. And in the study guide, the suggested prayer is to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, to know our hope and your power toward us. That comes from Ephesians 1 verses 18 to 19. And so let's go to the Lord God in prayer. Holy God, how great you are in all that you do. Sometimes, many times we feel like we understand your power and your might, but then we realize how we've only scratched the surface. There's so much more that you've done and that you continue to do for us than we will ever know. We ask that you would open our eyes to see your power and your majesty every day, help us to lift our heads in times of discouragement, to witness your greatness on full display. As we've talked about today, may our eyes see your hope and power extended to us so clearly through your dear son. We ask Father that you would grow our faith and that you'd grow our devotion and you'd help us to see that fact and that reality that Jesus has enabled us to be the kinds of people in the fullness of who you are. We pray that you would help us as our journey continues throughout this life and we ask that you would lead us away from temptations, that you'd lead us away from distraction and from self-pleasure, and that you'd help us to deepen our clarity, to see things with more peace and to accept our role as your dear children. Thank you for extending your rich blessings toward us, and may we turn toward others and extend those to them. Be with us this day and throughout our lives on this journey that we're taking towards home, that hope that we have someday. Give us power to overcome the evil one. All this we pray in Christ's name, amen. - Amen. Well, next week we'll get into our fourth guided study session in our Talking Through Ephesians series. And that one is called By Grace. And it's, you can already start to hear the famous passage it's referring to in Ephesians chapter two, verses one to 10, especially you might think about those last few verses of the chapter, but it's a celebration of God's love and mercy and goodness and grace towards us that we could have never done this on our own. - It's like the hits keep coming. They just, it's nonstop here for these first couple chapters. It's just like good stuff after good stuff. Although on the next episode, we will come to a shocking realization about ourselves and maybe see ourselves in a bit different light than we have previously. So thanks so much everyone for tuning into the Bible Geeks Podcast. You can find us on our website at biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player of choice or at biblegeeks.fm/184. You can also follow along with this guided study, Talking Through Ephesians, there at biblegeeks.fm/Ephesians. And until next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]