You Are Not Alone

Certainly God does see who we really are, doesn't he? He sees behind all the pain, all the difficulty, all the masks that we wear, all the defenses we put up. He sees who we really are. That means we can be real with God. We can open up our hearts. Really let him know what's going on inside, and it also means we should be able to be real with each other. It was March the 6th, 1969, and Ron Greenfield lay in a rice paddy in Vietnam, both legs blown off by a grenade that had exploded near him. In the year of recovery that it took for him to get back, his fiance left him abandoned him because of what had happened to him, and he grew bitter because of all that he had been through. One day on the news he heard about twin boys that had been born in Moscow, both of whom had to have their legs amputated, and something in his heart came alive. He knew he needed to reach out to those boys. Beyond all the barriers that stood in the way, he made it to Moscow, miraculously qualified to adopt those two boys, and into the orphanage he walked. When the boys saw him, they reacted like they did to everybody else that came to the orphanage. They knew that once Ron Greenfield saw them, he would react like everybody else, say a few kind things, and find a graceful way to exit without even considering taking those boys. They were so bitter. They reacted the same way, unwilling to even open up at all to Ron Greenfield until he sat down beside them. And took off the artificial limbs, and once they saw that he was just like them, they threw their arms around him, and a family was started. You see, no matter what you're going through, you are not alone. Someone understands. Someone knows what you're going through, what you're feeling today. The heart cry of your heart is known, first of all to God, and by others who have gone through the same thing. You are not alone. And that's good to know, isn't it? Because life is a struggle. Life is more than a struggle. It's a battle. We're seeing in Ephesians 6 that life really is a spiritual battle, that we fight an enemy who is against us, who is after us, who hates us, who is wanting to destroy us. He's very wise. He's very experienced. But we've also seen that God has given us the equipment, the armor that we need to defend ourselves against that enemy. As we close the letter to the Ephesians today in chapter 6, verses 21 through 24, we will find that Paul, just in closing out this letter with his greetings and well wishes to the church in Ephesus, really contributes even more to what we need to fight this battle. Paul gives us another couple of important ingredients in living out daily life and fighting the spiritual battles that we all face. First of all, he gives us the encouragement for the battle. Verses 21 and 22, Paul speaks of the encouragement that we have to face daily life and the battles that we all struggle with. The encouragement here for Paul and for others is found in a person, his name in verse 21, is Ticacus. Now, some of you call him Ticacus and that's okay. People call him different things and it's possible to pronounce his name either way. Let's just call him Mr. T. Okay? That good enough, Mr. T. Mr. T is his name. Verse 21, Ticacus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord will tell you everything so that you may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage you. Ticacus was an encourager. He was a man who knew what it was like to say and do things that built into the lives of other people, that encouraged and lifted them up. In this passage, Paul tells us, first of all, he was an encourager to God's servant, to Paul himself. He was an encourager, great encourager to Paul. Notice how Paul refers to him in verse 21. He calls him a brother, a family term, a term of a close bond, close relationship that he had with Ticacus as a brother in Christ. But he's not only a brother, he's a dear brother. That word, dear, is actually a little bit of weak translation. The word is literally beloved or dearly loved brother. One who is dearly loved and I have a close relationship with Paul evidently enjoyed a very close fellowship with this man named Ticacus and it developed a deep appreciation for him. But not only is he a dearly loved brother, Paul also calls him a faithful servant. He was willing just to do whatever needed to be done. He was a servant. And whatever he was asked to do, whatever there was to do, whatever he was called upon to do as a servant, he did faithfully. He applied himself to the task at hand and did it faithfully. He was a faithful servant. He's also mentioned in the book of Colossians and in Colossi Paul adds another description of this man, not only is he a dearly loved brother and a faithful servant, in Colossians Paul calls him a fellow servant as well. Indicating that in Paul's eyes, he's an equal. He's a fellow servant. He's an encourager to me and that he's a dear close brother. I love him as a brother. He's been a faithful servant to me and I consider him an equal in God's work. He is a fellow servant along with me. Now how did Ticacus serve Paul? Well he seems to have been a special messenger that Paul could trust as Paul sent out messages to churches or sent out men to do things that Paul could not do because of circumstances in his life. Ticacus was one of those special messengers of Paul. You see in the first century there was a Roman postal system but it was only for official mail. If you had a personal letter to send you had to do that either by a trusted friend or by a special messenger that you would hire to do that. And if the person you sent to carry your mail was an especially close friend you would charge them possibly with the duty to give more information that what was in the letter. He said to tell a little bit more about how you were doing. That's exactly what Paul says he's doing with Ticacus. He says in verse 21 he'll tell you everything so that you may know how I am and what I'm doing. I'm sending him with this letter, the letter to the Ephesian church, but I'm also going to instruct him to give you more information. He's that close to me. He's that trusted, a confident that I can trust him to let you know a little bit more. It would be interesting to study this man's life. He's only found five times in the New Testament, five references to him. The first time in Acts chapter 20 and verse 4 he accompanies Paul on Paul's journey to Jerusalem where Paul is taking the offering. Remember the offering he'd received from Gentile churches to help with suffering Jewish saints in Jerusalem. Ticacus is one of those trusted men that will help Paul deliver that offering. He evidently is with Paul when Paul is arrested in Jerusalem. This two years in prison in Cessaria goes by ship to Rome and is now in prison in Rome because when Paul, from that prison cell in Rome, writes the letter to the Ephesians, Ticacus is there with him and Paul sends the letter by this trusted friend, this dear brother, this faithful servant, this fellow servant. He's found also in the book of Colossians where Paul tells us that he sends that letter by Ticacus as well. Written at the same time in Rome, in prison, the letter to the Colossians sent by the same man and also a personal letter sent at the same time to a man who lived in Colossi, a little letter that we have in our Bible titled to Philemon. And then a fourth letter Ticacus is charged with sending, according to Colossians 416, a letter to the Leotussee in church. So here's a man who's given great responsibility, a trusted confidant of Paul's, an encourager to Paul, one who will serve in his stead, who will do what Paul cannot do because Paul is in prison. He's mentioned two other times at the end of Titus. Paul says, I'm considering Titus sending Ticacus, Ticacus to Crete to encourage you. And we know that at the end of Paul's life, the last letter he wrote, 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says, Timothy, I've sent Ticacus to Ephesus to be an encouragement to you. So it seems like all the time Paul is sending this man to be an encourager to other people. What a special bond they must have had. What a special blessing to Paul to have a trusted friend and fellow worker that could extend his ministry when Paul was unable to go. And a lot of you folks are just like that. We have men here who are trusted associates of mine. I think of our associate pastors as Ticacus kind of guys. You see, I know on the part of some folks sometimes there's the feeling like, especially if you've been used to a smaller church, that the one who stands up front and does the preaching is the pastor and he's the one at all to be at the hospital to see you. And you know, in the nursing homes and visiting all the shut-ins and all those things and doing all the other things. Well, the larger church grows and the more expansive the ministry grows, the more impossible it is for one person to do all of that. So when Jim Simmons comes to the hospital or Judd comes to the hospital or Kevin ministers to one of your children or students or Pastor Jim organizes the finances and the building management and deals with DMAs and music and all of those things. When those men are doing those things, they are extensions of pastoral ministry and I see them as fellow servants. They are equals. They are not second string guys. You're getting the best. You're getting a qualified, dedicated pastor to minister to your needs. So we serve as a team just like Paul and his team did. And when because of various circumstances, I'm not able to be in 40 places at once. I find that a little difficult to do. There are other guys who are doing those things more capable than I could do them. They are ticacous kind of guys. And then there are a lot of you who are encourages just like that. You're a part of a ticacous team. We've even named some teams after this guy in the Bible. Missionaries that we've sent out from our church each have a ticacous team, a t team we call them. Pastor Jim Simmons organized those t teams of people to gather around, be encourages to our missionaries that we've sent out from this church. And so they email and they send letters and they send packages and they pray and they have contact with these missionaries. They are ticacous people and some of you sitting here this morning are in one of those groups encouraging our missionaries. You see, here was a man who was an encourager to God's servant. And every servant of God needs an encourager like that. Every missionary needs encouragers like that. Ticacous kind of people. They don't write the books. They don't get up front a lot. They may not get a lot of notoriety. But Paul's ministry could not have been done without ticacous. And the ministry of missionaries and other servants of God could not be near as effective as it is without ticacous kind of people, fellow servants who come alongside and encourage the servants of God. But not only was ticacous an encourager of God's servant, he was also an encourager to God's people. Look at verse 22. Paul says, I am sending him to you. You believers there in Ephesus. I'm sending him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage you. Paul knew a man who would do the right things and say the right things that he knew would be an encouragement to others. And it seems like he called on this man a lot because he knew he had an encourager here. Someone who would say and do things that would bless people, that would lift them up, that would build God's grace into their lives and encourage her to God's people. And he would act and speak in such a way that would be a blessing. I wonder, are you that kind of person? Are you the kind of person that is looking for others to encourage? You're not thinking about yourself. You're not looking for strokes to come your way, but you're looking for other people to encourage. Are you the kind of person? A medical student tells about his first year of medical school, two months into classes. It's in October. And there's a quiz in one of his classes and he's taking the quiz and he gets down to question 10. And the last question on the quiz is, what is the name of the lady who cleans this building? You can hear chuckles through the room. Somebody thought it was a joke question. And so this guy left it blank, turned in his paper toward the end of class, one of the students raised his hand and said, sir, is that question going to count on our grade for this quiz or is that just kind of a joke? The professor looked at him and said, you better believe that question will count on your grade for this quiz. He said, when you get into your medical practice, you will meet all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. Every one of them is significant. Every one of them deserves a word from you, some time as you have opportunity to give it. And that young medical student said, I never forgot that lesson. And he said, oh, by the way, I found out pretty soon after that her name is Dorothy. Are you the kind of person that looks for others to encourage or do you just slide right by thinking everybody is your servant, everybody's looking to give you encouragement. Do you encourage others? Are you a ticacus kind of person? I think God wants us to be, encourages to others. And it is amazing the difference that can make in someone's life when you reach out to them with words and actions of encouragement. John Nguji was a poverty-stricken young man, little boy in Kenya many years ago. He had a relationship through a pin kind of relationship, a writing relationship with a teacher in Great Britain. This teacher had responded to one of those calls for adopting a child, like compassion and sent monthly some funds to this little boy in Kenya that she got pictures from and letters from. And in every one of John Nguji's letters, it would go something like this. I'm not very smart. I'm not handsome. I don't have many friends. It would just be this whole string of negative things about himself. But there was one positive thing he said in one of those letters. He said, I'm the fastest runner in my class. And that teacher in Great Britain seized on that positive note. She wrote him back and she said, John, that's great. You must really be a good runner. Run hard. Learn how to run even better. Learn how to run even faster. Be the best runner you can be. She just played on that letter after letter. The one positive thing she saw in his life, that little ray of hope. And it paid off. In 1988, John Nguji had made the Kenyan Olympic team. And in Seoul, South Korea won the gold medal in the 5,000 meter race. Just so happens that his journey home went through Great Britain. He made a point to find that teacher. And as he walked into her home, he presented her with his gold medal. And he said, I never would have succeeded. Had it not been for your letters when I was a little boy. You never know what a word of encouragement, what something kind encouraging said to someone in a hallway, said to someone in a classroom, said to someone in a greeting time, or in some other time, what something may do to change a life. William Raspberry, who is a well-noted columnist, writes about a Chicago public school teacher who taught a sixth grade class full of incorrigible children. I mean, these kids were just the worst. And she was certain that all of these kids must have some mental deficiency, you know, because they just were awful. And so one day when she was in the principal's office, and the principal was not in the office, she thought, I'm going to sneak a look. And she started looking for the files of the IQ scores. And she was surprised to find that most of the kids in her class scored somewhere between 120 and 130 on their IQs. That was incredible. She couldn't believe it. In fact, the kid she thought was absolutely the worst kid in class had 145. And she was just blown away by that. So she said, I've got to change the way I do my class. She raised the expectation level. She piled on the homework. She started encouraging them and challenging them to do their very best. And by the end of the year, those scores of those kids and the behavior of those kids had changed so drastically for the good that her principal awarded her a special award. And he congratulated on her for the improvement in her class. After that ceremony, she walked up to him. She said, I have a confession to make. One day when I was in your office, I took a peek look at the IQ scores. And that's what really turned around my attitude toward my class. And he looked kind of quizzical, IQ scores. He said, explain to me what you saw, the folder you got. When she did a broad smile across his face, he said, those weren't IQ scores. What you were looking at was locker numbers. But what encouragement can do to people? What expectation encouraging people that they can do it? What a word of encouragement can do? God wants you to be a ticacous kind of person. Kind of person who says and does the things that build into people's lives, encouragement and hope and blessing. That's the kind of person ticacous was. And Paul knew that. He knew he could send him to Ephesus and he would encourage that church. And you know what? I look out on this audience and I see a lot of you who are encourages. And I thank God for your encouraging ministries. I see many of you here this morning who visit shut-ins and you're a part of the adopt a homebound person ministry in our church. You reach out to shut-ins and you call them and you talk with them and you visit them. You're an encouragement. You're a lifeline to those people. I see some of you who greet folks as they come in the door and hand them a bulletin or serve as a greeter in the lobby or work at the welcome center. Take care of people's needs back there. You're encouraging other people. Some of you teach and lead Bible fellowships and the words you communicate and the way you greet people when they come into class, you may never know maybe the word of encouragement they need to make it through another week. Some of you bless your heart, serve faithfully in the nursery, even when the service goes a little long and the kids are all crying and you just change them and they're wetting in but you serve their faithfully. What an encouragement you are to young families in our church. Some of you work with our student ministries or our children's ministries and in being patient with them and reaching out to them and being kind to them, you are influencing their lives for God. You may never know what you're building into their lives, your encourages. Some of you just speak words of encouragement to others when you're here or when you see them out in town somewhere. You know how to be a ticacus. God wants us to be encourages. Encourages to God's servants but encourages to God's people like ticacus was. And you know sometimes my friend that keeps us going in the battle, doesn't it? Sometimes that keeps us fighting another day when the enemy is so strong and the battles are so fierce, it keeps us going another day. Be a ticacus to other people, be an encourager to others. Paul talks about the encouragement for the battle given by this man but then he goes on to talk about the energy for the battle which is given to us directly by God. The energy from the battle is found in these last two verses which we kind of skim over because they're just closing greetings, you know peace, love, faith, all that stuff to you and we kind of close the letter and that's it. And we miss that what Paul is doing here is really unlike any other letter he has written. In most of Paul's closings, practically all of them he'll mention grace. Couple of three of them may be peace but this is the longest closing wishing the most blessings of any letter Paul wrote to an individual or church. He mentions four qualities that he wishes they would receive from God that will give them energy to fight this battle and really what he's doing is he's drawing together themes from this letter to the Ephesians, from the whole epistle drawing together themes right at the end of the letter and focusing their minds on the things that they need to have the energy to fight the battle. Notice the four of them as we look at verses 23 and 24, peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. Notice the first blessing from God that will give energy for the battle to the Ephesians and to us is peace, peace. You know the world longs for peace. But we live in a world that does not know peace, don't we? I think I may have told you before about this couple that lived in Canada. They were getting ready to retire and they decided they wanted to move to some place in the world they felt would be the safest place in the world, the place that would be least likely to ever see war. And so they did a lot of research carefully, researched places in the world and they settled on one. And so in December of 1981 they sent Christmas cards to all of their friends from the Falkland Islands in April of 1982, four months later. Argentina invaded those islands which were British territories. It Britain responded with a naval and air blockade over a thousand troops lost their lives in a two month fierce war on the Falkland Islands. The one place in the world that everybody said there will never be any strife. There is no place in this world free from strife. People long for peace and can't find it, but the Bible tells us how we can receive peace from God. In fact the Bible tells us about three different kinds of peace. There is first of all peace with God that God wants us to receive. Peace with God. When Paul says peace to the brothers he's wishing the peace with God to everyone. Now what is peace with God? Well the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1, this verse will be on the screen. Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God means that you are no longer His enemy. You are no longer separated from Him because of your sin. You have been brought into His family. Peace has been made. You are reconciled with God. Now that peace has been made through Jesus Christ the Bible says. What Jesus Christ did to make possible that peace was to die on the cross and pay for our sins. So He removed the barrier that stood between us and God which was our sin. He died to pay the penalty for our sin to take God's punishment for our sin so that we might be at peace with God. The only way my friend you can have peace with God and be in His family and know that you are going to heaven to live with Him forever when you die. The only way you can have peace with God is through His Son Jesus Christ. Trusting the work He did on the cross to be the satisfactory payment for your sin. Peace with God, God wishes for you today. But there is also in the Bible the peace of God, not only peace with God but the peace of God. In a neighboring letter, Philippians Paul talks about the peace of God when he says in Philippians 4, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. What are you worried about today? What are you anxious about today? Paul says when you find yourself worried about something, anxious about something in your life, then come to the Lord with it. Learn how to really commit that to Him in everything, in every situation, whatever it may be by prayer which is a word for worship, understanding who God is, that He can meet your need and petition that's giving him the specific request. Do it with thanksgiving knowing that He will do what's right and you can be happy with that. When you come to the Lord in those three attitudes of prayer and lay your request before God, then the Bible says the peace of God will come. His peace will actually guard the word is literally build a fort around your heart and mind to keep the worry out. You can have the peace of God today. If you learn how to come to Him in prayer and really lay your requests before Him knowing that as your father, He is concerned about whatever is bothering his child, the peace of God. So God wishes for you peace with Him, peace of God, but He also wishes a third kind of peace in the Bible, peace with others, peace with others. And that kind of peace can only come through Jesus Christ as well. The Bible talks about that in this very letter, chapter 2, verse 14 of Ephesians, where it says, for He Himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility. Now the two that He's talking about in that context is Jew and Gentile. Two different races who in Paul's day really hated each other. Paul said God has taken those two very different people groups and made them one through Christ who broke down the barrier between them which was the law. You know, the only way people can have peace with each other, whether it's different races, different ethnic backgrounds, different nationalities, or just different viewpoints. The only way people can have peace with each other is through Jesus Christ, through Christ. That's the only way. You know, when people find Christ, Jew and Arab can live together. When people find Christ, black and white can live together. When people find Christ, different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities and different viewpoints can reconcile in Christ because we are then brothers and sisters in Him. 1944, Bert Friesen was a soldier, an infantry man in the United States Army. He was a part of that front group of American soldiers that were pushing their way through Europe and into Germany. And his patrol had been fighting incessantly all day long with the German group and they were pushing them back. They came to the edge of some woods and out in front of them lay an open field and the fighting had died down. There were no more bullets flying. And so they sent two scouts out into that field to try to see what was up ahead. One of them was Bert Friesen. Unknown to this American patrol, there were a group of Germans hidden in a hedgerow on the other side of the field. Bert and his companion got halfway across the field and the fire began. Both of Bert's legs were shattered by gunfire and he fell into a little ditch, a little stream couldn't move. His companion was killed instantly and the rest of the American troops fell back into the woods and the firefight was intense. Bert could hear bullets flying over him, mortar shells landing on either side of him. And then to make matters worse, he could see out of the corner of his eye a German soldier crawling toward him. He thought death is near. I'm going to die in just a few minutes. He closed his eyes just waiting for it to happen. But a longer time passed than what he had expected. The adventure to open his eyes again and to his amazement, he saw the German soldier kneeling beside him, smiling. He also noticed that the firefight had stopped, no more bullets flying. That German soldier picked Bert up in his arms, stood up, carried him back to the American lines, delivered him to the Americans, turned around and walked back to his fellow soldiers, not another shot, was fired that evening. Why? Because a courageous soldier had gone to the enemy side and done for an enemy what he could not do for himself. That's exactly what Jesus has done for you and me. Jesus came down to this strife-filled, violence-filled world and he has picked us up and done for us what we could not do for ourselves. And when a courageous son of God does that, and both sides recognize what's happening, two sides can come together. It's only through Christ that peace with other people can be made. God wishes for you peace, just like He did the Ephesians. But notice, not only peace to the brothers, Paul wishes as he closes this letter, he wishes for love also for these brothers and sisters in Ephesus. And again, he's drawing together themes from this epistle. He's mentioned the word love, 14 times. Use the word love 14 times in this epistle. Fully half of them, seven of those occasions have to do with love for others. And I'm convinced this is one of those, peace to the brothers and love. He's talking about having love for the brothers in Christ, love for other believers, love for other Christians. Evidently, the Ephesian church was very good at loving one another. In the very first chapter of this epistle in verse 15, Paul has said to them, for this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, and goes on to say, since I've heard about that, I've been praying for you, the Ephesian believers loved all the saints. Now that's not easy to do. It's easy to love some saints. Those that you kind of like, those that are like you, those that you're compatible with. It's easy to love some saints. Not easy to love all saints. But the Ephesian church knew how to do that. And I think Paul is saying here, I want you to do that. I want you to have that kind of love for all the saints. Maybe you've heard the little poem. To dwell above with the saints I love. All that will be glory. To dwell below with the saints I know. Well that's another story. Not easy to love all the saints, but we can. We can love all the saints. You see, God has given us the capacity to love all other believers, regardless of whether or not you like them, regardless of whether or not you clash with them or you rub each other the wrong way or your personalities just don't mix. They're like oil and water. God has still given us the capacity to love all the saints. You know why? First John 4.19 says, we love because he first loved us. It doesn't say we necessarily we love him, but just we love because he first loved us. We have the capacity to love in other words because he first loved us, because he's demonstrated what it means to love both the lovely and the unlovely. He knows what it's like to love. He's loved us and because of his love we can love. The Bible also says in Romans chapter 5 that he has shed a broad his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So there's no excuse for us not to love other people, no excuse for us not to love anyone else. Here Paul's talking about the brothers, other Christians, no excuse because God has demonstrated what it's like to love. God has shed a broad that same love in our hearts. And so we just have to act on our will and obey God because he commands us to love one another. Colossians 3, 14, other places where to love one another. We just need to obey God and love one another whether or not you like the person. You say that's hypocritical, isn't it? To act and speak as though I love someone when I don't feel that. It is never hypocritical to obey the word of God. Never. God calls us to an act of our will to obey him, to speak and act in certain ways. And that's what a God they love. The deepest kind of biblical love is is to act and speak in ways that serve the benefit of that other person. Regardless of what your feelings are, you act in their welfare for their benefit and you speak to them in that way. When you do that, when you obey God in that way, somehow the feelings manage to catch up. They may your leg a little behind, but they'll catch up. God's made us that way. For obedient to him, he takes care of the heart issues. Love. Love. God wants us to love each other. Regardless whether we're likable or not. God wishes for us peace. He wishes for us love. Thirdly, He wishes for us faith. You see it there in verse 23, peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this comes from God, even our faith. Again Paul's drawing together themes from this book. He has spoken of faith a number of times in the book of Ephesians eight times. He has referred to saving faith. He has referred to living the Christian life by faith. He has even referred a couple of times to the faith, which is the body of teaching those basic doctrines that make up the Christian faith. So that's the way he's used the word in the book. But regardless of what kind of faith you're talking about, particularly if it's saving faith or Christian living kind of faith, faith is always composed of two elements. Faith in the Bible is composed of two elements. Number one, belief, number two, trust. Both of those elements are always present in genuine faith, belief and trust. In other words, we must believe what God has said in His Word about who He is, about what He expects, about what He wants from us, about what He does. We must believe that. So we must understand and believe the Word of God. That's a part of faith, but that's not where faith ends. Faith does not end until belief has translated into trust, which means we depend on what God has said so much. Not only do we believe it, agree with it, we live it out. We lean on it. We depend on it. We live that because we know it's true. We trust it in our lives. A certain guy was going to build a tavern in a town that up till this time had been dry and a church heard about it and he was already under way, the thing was about halfway up. And a church heard about this tavern that was going up and they decided to have an all-night prayer meeting to pray that God would somehow stop this tavern from being built in their town. Sure enough, a couple nights later, after this all-night prayer meeting, lightning struck the structure and it burned to the ground. The tavern owner decided to sue the church and he had heard about this prayer meeting. He decided to sue the church and hold the church responsible for the burning down of the tavern. The church hired a lawyer and denied any responsibility for the tavern burning down. When the judge got the case, he read the preview and kind of smiled. He said, well, regardless of how this case turns out, one thing certainly is true. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not. Wonder how often that could be said of us, the way we live our Christian lives? Do you really live out what you believe? When you believe God has said something, does it make a difference in the way you live? The way you respond? Do you really trust with your life? What you say you believe? That's faith. So God wishes for us peace and love and faith and He also wishes for us grace. You see it there in verse 24. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. Grace, what a wonderful word. Found twelve times in Ephesians and Paul uses it in three ways in this letter. And I think he's drawing together all his thoughts and reminding them of this great theme of grace which he's talked about in Ephesians. Sometimes Paul talks about it in this letter saving grace like Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. Sometimes it's the fact that God has saved us by his grace. In other words, God offers us salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, relationship with Him, a home in heaven. He offers us salvation with nothing expected from us. We can't earn it, we can't deserve it, we can't pay for it. It is simply a free gift that he offers based on what Jesus has done. That's salvation by grace. Sometimes Paul talks about it in this letter being strengthened by grace. For instance in chapter three he talks about God has given me this grace to be the apostle to the Gentiles. In other words, he's given me this strength to be able to do this ministry. So sometimes we are strengthened by grace. God finds us in a place where we need Him desperately and He just reaches down by His grace and provides the strength we need to go another day to fight another battle. So we are saved by grace, we are strengthened by grace. He also talks about the fact we are spiritually equipped by grace. We are spiritually gifted by grace. He says in chapter four of this book, in verse seven, but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it and He goes on to talk about spiritual gifts that God gives. This is the grace of spiritual gifting. You see, whatever God has equipped you to do in your life, it's by His grace. You didn't deserve it, you didn't earn it. God's given it to you by His grace. You ought to be thankful for whatever He's gifted you to do. How He's wired you, how He's built you and equipped you to serve. That's a matter of God's grace, not something you earn. God wishes that we experience His grace. And this grace, He says in verse 24, is to all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. It's an interesting expression. Loving Him with an undying love, I think Paul is simply saying, a love that is really genuine. I'm just spoken. Oh, I love Jesus, but my life has never changed. No, He's talking about a love that persists. It's not perfect. It fails sometimes, but it's genuine. It's undying. It's lasting. It continues. For those who show genuine evidence of truly being born again, Paul and God extend to you, God's grace. God blessings to energize us for the battles that we face every day. God's peace, God's love, God's faith, God's grace. The energy we need is found in those blessings and provisions of God. I don't know what battle you're facing today. Maybe it's an inner battle. Maybe it's a fight that wars in your own soul over temptation or sin, struggles with how you view yourself. I don't know. Maybe it's an inner battle for you. Maybe for you, the battle you're facing today is a battle at home. It's about to tear your life apart. Maybe it's a battle in your neighborhood or a battle at work. Job is rough. Your employer is unreasonable. Maybe it's a battle in the church. Whatever it is, God offers to you today the encouragement of people like Tickaqas. You can come alongside. When you're in tough times, you need the church more than you need it any other time. God offers you encouragement. And God offers you His peace, His love, His faith, His grace. God is about to gather and ask God to minister to our needs through encouragement and energy that He gives us. Father, I want to thank you today for what you extend to us, through other people and through your own direct blessings to us. Lord, sometimes the battle is difficult. It's hard to keep going. I pray, Father, that you would send along those encourages to folks here this morning, people that need to hear a kind word, an uplifting word, a word of grace, a word of strength. Someone that needs someone to reach out to them and act in a way that shows encouragement. I pray that you would send along. Tickaqas kind of people today and help us all to be those kind of people. And then Father, I pray that we would receive from you your peace, love and faith and grace to have the energy we need for the battle. And Lord, especially for that person who's really struggling today who may have come to church today thinking, I don't know if I can make it to Monday. I pray Father that you would encourage them today. Pray that you'd give them the energy they need. Use us and speak to them directly to their heart. Just start of them right now. Pray in Jesus' name. Just before we lift our heads, while our heads are still bad.