Continuing an expository series through Ephesians, the sermon takes up Ephesians 1:15-23, which the preacher frames under the heading "Thanksgiving and Prayer." The message opens with a pastoral question: if you fell asleep tonight and woke tomorrow, would you still be trusting Christ? The preacher recounts John Piper's reflection, in his seventies, on watching loved ones diminished by dementia and speaking cruelly to spouses after forty-five years of faithful love — a picture of how fragile human constancy can feel. But, echoing teaching from the previous week, the sermon insists that the believer's assurance does not rest on the strength of one's own will or memory. It rests on the Holy Spirit, given as a seal and guarantee, who preserves what God has begun and will surely bring it to completion for those chosen before the foundation of the world.

The sermon then turns to Paul's thanksgiving. Paul gives thanks for the Ephesians' faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints, and the preacher stresses that these two cannot be separated: faith that does not work itself out in love toward others is, in James's terms, dead — not merely weak, but non-existent. The sermon applies this directly to the congregation, expressing gratitude for the many unseen acts of love sustaining the church's life — musicians, audio-video teams, cleaners, maintenance workers, finance and accounting volunteers, counselors walking with families in crisis, and the labor of planting a new congregation in Springvale ahead of its first Sunday service on March 2. Genuine faith, the preacher argues, is always visible in this kind of costly, ordinary love.

The sermon then moves into Paul's prayer, which asks that God give the Ephesians a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they may know him better, and that the eyes of their hearts be enlightened. The preacher unpacks what it means for the "eyes of the heart" to be opened by comparing this to Matthew 13:13, where Jesus says the crowds see without seeing and hear without hearing. Judas Iscariot becomes the sermon's central illustration: he saw Jesus physically for over three years, witnessed the calming of the storm, witnessed Lazarus raised from the dead, yet his heart remained blind, enslaved by love of money, and he ultimately betrayed and sold his Lord. The warning is aimed squarely at habitual churchgoers whose hearts remain closed even amid regular exposure to the word — true seeing, the preacher insists, is a work only God can perform in the heart.

Paul prays that this enlightenment produce understanding of three things. First, the hope to which God has called believers — a hope fixed before the world was made and sealed by the Spirit. Second, the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints. The preacher illustrates this with a hypothetical millionaire offering ten checks of $100,000 to the most attentive listeners in the room — everyone, he notes, would suddenly listen closely — only to conclude that the inheritance God has actually promised in Christ is infinitely more precious than any such prize, because it means being made children of God with an unshakable claim on his love.

Third, and the point Paul develops at greatest length, is the incomparable greatness of God's power toward those who believe. The preacher first contrasts this with worldly power on display in recent headlines — the reassertion of control over the Panama Canal, sanctions against the International Criminal Court, and an aborted plan to relocate 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza — power that is real but limited and often overreaching. God's power, by contrast, is described through three demonstrations: the power that raised Christ from the dead, greater than death itself (pictured as an ocean that swallows everything, as with the Titanic, yet could not hold Christ); the power that seated Christ at God's right hand; and the power that placed Christ far above every ruler, authority, and dominion, including demonic powers named in Ephesians 6:12. The sermon acknowledges that although Christ has already won the decisive victory — as pictured in the fall of Jericho, after which Israel still had to fight to possess the land — the war for the believer's day-to-day obedience is not yet fully over, and Satan continues to prowl, seeking to corrupt marriages, families, and worship through pride, greed, and comfort-seeking. The appropriate response is not fear but persistent prayer and dependence on Christ's finished victory, quoting Colossians 2:15 on Christ disarming the rulers and authorities at the cross.

Finally, all things have been placed under Christ's feet, and he has been given as head over everything for the church, which is his body — the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. The preacher invokes Abraham Kuiper's famous line that there is not one square inch of the universe over which Christ does not declare "Mine," and connects this to the church's calling in Melbourne, Springvale, Sydney, and Jakarta to be the vessel through which Christ makes his lordship known. The sermon closes by citing John Calvin — that true knowledge of God is born out of obedience — and recounts Stephen Tong's own experience of clinical death and revival as evidence that God still has unfinished work for his people, urging the congregation toward continued prayer and obedience so that, with hearts enlightened, they may increasingly know and experience the hope, the riches, and the power that are theirs in Christ.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 1:15-23: The primary passage expounded, covering Paul's thanksgiving for the Ephesians' faith and love and his prayer for enlightened hearts to know the hope, riches, and power of God's calling.

• Matthew 13:13: Used to explain the difference between physical sight and spiritual sight — seeing without truly seeing, as with those whose hearts remain closed to Christ.

• 1 John 3:23: Cited to show that believing in Christ and loving one another are a single, inseparable commandment, not two.

• James 2 (faith and works): Referenced for the principle that faith without works — specifically works of love — is dead.

• Ephesians 6:12: Used to identify the "rulers, authorities, powers, and dominions" of Ephesians 1:21 with the spiritual forces of evil believers still contend against.

• Colossians 2:15: Cited to affirm that Christ, at the cross, already disarmed and triumphed over the rulers and authorities.

• 1 Corinthians 15 (O death, where is your sting): Referenced to connect Christ's resurrection power with the believer's future victory over death.