Ephesians Part 1 - Seated With Christ

Mark: Who's glad to be here today? Y'all good? Y'all awake? All right. I'm excited ⁓ to begin today a series on the book of Ephesians. ⁓ it's this is the Ephesians crew right here. They all said it together. They were excited. I'm gonna look at you guys because I can tell you're already into this. ⁓ but Ephesians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. ⁓ we could really spend the next six or twelve months ⁓ just camped out here, but we're gonna spend the next probably five or so weeks. Unpacking all that we can in here and I I want to encourage you to make every effort to be here. I want to encourage you to be here. And if you have to miss for something, I encourage you to w listen online to it so you don't miss these weeks. They're gonna be good. Also want to encourage, can I give you an assignment right from the beginning to read ⁓ this week, Ephesians one, two, and three, and ⁓ just spend some time in it. Maybe read a chapter and a half in the morning and a chapter and half ⁓ at night, and and and just repeat that all week long. Cause what'll happen is that the Lord will begin to prime. Prime you for what ⁓ we're talking about, and ⁓ you'll be able to not only hear what what I'm saying, what we're saying, but you'll hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you in a new way. Amen. So I want to encourage you to to do that. Well, I remember ⁓ shortly after my 40th birthday ⁓ that I started noticing something strange. Have have you ever noticed something strange after your 40th birthday? ⁓ and it's this when I would when I would read a book. Or I would look at my phone, I had to keep going like this, further and further and further away. And ⁓ what was happening is things were getting a little fuzzy. ⁓ things were becoming less clear. Some of you know what I'm talking about, right? And I remember, I don't know if you were like this as a kid, but when I was a kid, I always thought, ⁓ it'd be so cool to have glasses. Like, you know, people that had glasses, like, ⁓ that's so cool, like trendy, whatever. And so I wanted glasses, you know. And then I became an adult and had to have glasses. And although they're helpful, they are a pain sometimes, right? ⁓ so, anyways, I'm thankful for glasses. so I went to the eye doctor, you know, after kind of putting this off, and sure enough, I realized I needed glasses. So I got some, and and ⁓ for a while. What would happen is that every few years, ⁓ this whole scenario would start again. The words would start getting blurry. I'd be straining to see, and I'd have to kind of pull my phone back, my book back. And so then eventually I'd go back to the doctor, and guess what? I'd have to have a new prescription. And that new prescription would then, you know, have new lenses, new glasses, and suddenly I'd be able to see. Everything became clear again. And I think. In many ways, ⁓ that's exactly what Paul's letter to the Ephesians does for us. It helps us to see clearly. Helps us to see clearly. And church, we need clarity in this hour. We need clarity in this hour. ⁓ that that's actually what all of Scripture does. ⁓ it gives us the lens with which to see true reality through ultimate reality we see through the word of God. And I'll say this: if you don't have a relationship with the Word of God, you're not gonna be able to see. You're not gonna be able to see rightly. ⁓ you're you're not gonna be able to stand because you're gonna be shaken by every headline, every crisis, every opinion. You'll be shaken by the ups and downs that life sends your way. I've watched people that are not rooted in the word of God get blown apart. We need this word in us. So that we can stand in the hour that we live in. I feel like there should be more amends over this, but that's okay. So what my new prescription did for me, I believe that Ephesians does for us. I we could say like this: Paul writes this letter ⁓ like a divine eye doctor. He adjusts our lens in only six chapters, we begin to see God. clearly, we begin to see ourselves clearly. We begin to see the mission of the church clearly. It's it's just powerful. Is it are you getting excited about Ephesians or okay, okay. I'm gonna forget about you now. Pastor Diego, ⁓ he this this last week he told me about this book. ⁓ this little book by a a Chinese pastor named Watchman Ni, ⁓ called ⁓ Sit, Walk, Stand. ⁓ and ⁓ I guess it's a real classic, and apparently, ⁓ you know, as I've been telling people about this book that I've read, everyone's read it. So I may be the only person on the planet that hasn't read it, but I've read it now, and I'll tell you what, it is just powerful, powerful little book. ⁓ I couldn't believe I hadn't read it, but but He breaks the book of Ephesians into three positions for the believer. And ⁓ it just really kind of gives a a structure, a framework for the entire book. And he he breaks it into these positions: sit, walk, and stand. Thus the name of the book. ⁓ it's it's just I found it so helpful this week as I've read through it. I and I just want to show you a couple verses here that'll help us with this framework before we tackle. Chapter one this morning, okay? ⁓ look at look with me at Ephesians chapter two, ⁓ starting with verse five and six. It says this even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us. Everybody say, seated us, seated us with him. In heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So, what is this saying? It's saying we were dead, but we have now been made alive. And now we are seated somewhere. We are seated in heavenly places. So the first position that we have as a believer is the position of rest in a chair. Okay? We are seated, we sit. We sit. The second position is He talks about his walking. Ephesians 4 1. Paul says this. He says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk. Everybody say to walk, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. So first we sit, then we walk with the Lord. And walking with the Lord is ⁓ it's my position before people. It's it's my position in the world that I'm walking in, walking with, and in my walking, I'm actually showing the world the one that I'm sitting with. Okay, that's what we're doing. Because we're we're walking, we're actually displaying the one that we are seated with. And then the third position is out of Ephesians 6, and it's it's it's about warfare. And it says this in verse 10, Paul says, Finally be strong in the Lord. You probably know this one, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. Everybody stay to stand, to stand against the schemes of the devil, having done all to stand firm, stand. So I want you to get this. First we sit, then we walk, then we stand. Standing in your position against your adversary. See, we are in a battle, right? We are in a battle, but but that battle is only understood and only won through the finished work of Jesus Christ. If we try to battle outside of that, we will lose. We battle out of what he has done. And the only way that we can stand is if we understand where we are seated. So we'll get into walking, we'll get into standing in the next weeks, but first we sit. Turn to somebody and say, first we sit. We sit, we sit. All right. Ephesians chapter one. If you have your Bibles, open them. We're gonna be camped out here the rest of our time. And Paul opens this way He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. So he is writing to believers, okay? The context of this letter and this message is to the church. It is to those who believe. And he says this he says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of this letter, the Apostle Paul, ⁓ if you'll remember, most of us have have understood this, but if you don't, ⁓ before Paul was Paul, he was Saul. And Saul was this highly educated, and intensely zealous Pharisee. And he was, he was committed to the Jewish law traditions. And I think it's actually important for us as we get into this to actually remember that before Paul encountered Jesus, he actually hated the name of Jesus. ⁓ he hated the church. He was one of the fiercest ⁓ persecutors of Christians. In fact, ⁓ Until Acts chapter 9 happened, ⁓ and he had an encounter with Jesus, it says that Paul was actually breathing threats and murder against Christians. And on his way to Damascus, where he's actually gonna tie Christians up and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, he has an encounter with Jesus. And it says in that encounter in Acts chapter nine that suddenly a light came from heaven. Flashed around him, and the scripture says he actually fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And that voice was actually the voice of Jesus Christ. And Saul said, Who are you, Lord? And the voice said, I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Can you imagine that moment? I'm the he's on his way to persecute the church, and he says, I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting. And in that moment for Paul, Saul, everything changed, and Saul becomes Paul, and he ultimately becomes the apostle. Through that encounter, what happens? Paul discovers grace. He discovered grace. The man trying to erase the name of Jesus from the pages of history encounters the resurrected King of Glory. He encounters grace. So this is why I I give that context when we see this opening verse. And he says, Grace to you and peace from our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not merely offering information, he's speaking as a man who has encountered this very grace and peace that he's extending to us today. He's not a man with a theory, he's a man with an encounter. And he's offering it to us. Grace and peace. Verse three he says this blessed be the God and Father. Of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Turn to somebody and tell them you're blessed. You're blessed. Not someday, not eventually, not one day in heaven, but right now in Christ, you are blessed in heavenly places. Every spiritual blessing in The heavenly places. This is now our location. How many know location matters? Location matters. Well, you know, when you're buying a house, what will realtors or you're selling a house? They'll say, location, location, location, right? That's what matters. When we bought our house that we're living in now, one of the one of the highest priorities for us was location. ⁓ we wanted to be close to the church. So There were other houses that looked really great, but they were on the other side of town, and we're like, we don't want to live over there because we want to live close to Hope Church. Location matters. And what Paul is getting at, and what he wants us to understand, is our true location. Our true location. As Paul writes this letter, he is actually sitting in a prison cell in Rome. ⁓ his friends are living in Ephesus. In all kinds of different circumstances. I imagine that many of these in the church in Ephesus are some of them are in good jobs, some of them are in difficult jobs, some of them are thriving in relationships, some of them are having a very difficult time. Their relationships are painful. Some are in great health. Some are not in great health. Some are in great pain physically. And I believe just like In this room here this morning, ⁓ people are in all kinds of circumstances. But what Paul is getting at here is that our circumstances are not the whole story. Are you with me? Our circumstances are not the whole story. What he wants us to see is that whatever you are facing, whatever you are looking at in your life is not the entire story. Paul's physically in a jail cell in Rome, but Paul is also seated in heavenly places in Christ. And what he wants us to see is so are we. So are we. You can be in Rome and still in Christ. You can be in Springfield and still be seated in heavenly places. You can be in joy or you can be in pain at the same time, you can still be seated. You can be in grief and you can be in uncertainty in life and still be seated in heavenly places. Your circumstances may describe where you are, but they do not define who you are. Your address is in Christ. Okay, I'm preaching good and thank you, Josh. Thank you, Josh. This is good. I'm telling you, this is good. If this is just information to you, it won't be good. If this gets in you, it will be good. It will be transformative today. The address is in Christ. Boulevard. Heavenly places heaven. I don't know. You know heavenly places like Springfield, Missouri, Heavenly Places Missouri. Okay, that I d yeah, that's terrible. ⁓ In Christ. Paul uses that that phrase or that equivalent in Christ 36 times in this letter alone. That's a pretty important thing to grasp. In Christ, Paul isn't transported out of Rome or out of the jail in order to be in heavenly places. Sometimes I think that we think the reality of heavenly places and in Christ is determined by what's going on in our life. I want to tell you, it has nothing to do with that at all. It's that in the midst of those places of life, whatever those places might look like, he is also in heavenly places. How many know some of those places we find ourselves in in life will feel blessed, and some of those places in life will not feel blessed. But in the midst of whatever we are facing, whatever we see, whatever it looks like, Paul wants us to be clear, guys, on our location, and that is in Christ. Seated in heavenly places, blessed with every spiritual blessing. Okay, so that sounds great. Spiritual blessings. Amen. Praise the Lord. What is what are those spiritual blessings? And I don't believe that this is a full comprehensive list of the spiritual blessings, but Paul spends the rest of this passage unpacking some of these spiritual blessings that are ours. And he organizes them around three persons in the Godhead. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We were singing about that this morning. And what we see here is beautiful. What we're gonna see here in these next verses is that the Father blesses, the Son secures those blessings, and the Spirit seals those blessings. Okay, and what Paul wants us to understand is this: your position gives you access to possessions. Okay? Because you are seated in Christ, there are realities that now belong to you. Not because you've earned them or performed well enough, not because you had a really good week, but because you are in Christ Jesus. And here's the first blessing. It's a blessing of the Father. Verse 4, he says this: even as he, talking about the Father, chose us in him, Jesus. Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. So the first blessing is this the father chose you. The father chose you. He didn't have to, he wanted to. He wanted to love you before the foundations of the world, before there was son. Or the stars that Chris was talking about a minute ago, before there was a moon or oceans or mountain mountains, that's before you had a chance to do right, before you did wrong, before your greatest success, before your worst failure, God chose you. Now the the the the world the world operates on performance. Our father does not. Culture says, perform and then you'll be accepted. Jesus says, you're accepted. Now let me transform you. Okay? Before you knew him. He knew you. Just think about that for a minute. Before you knew him, while we were yet sinners, Christ died, right? Like before you did anything to deserve anything, he made this decision. He knew you. Before you chose him, he chose you. And I think if you've grown up in church, it's easy to breeze through this, but church, we can't breeze through this because this is where our security lies. This is where it lies. Our salvation is not grounded in our ability to hold on to God. It's grounded on God's decision to hold on to us. Our confidence is not in our grip on Him. Our confidence is His grip on us. And we need to sit in that and rest in this. But notice what he chose for us, what we just read. Paul doesn't say that God chose us in him before the foundations of the world so that we could go to heaven and be with him forever. That's not what he says here. He says, so that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, which is about the character of the followers of Jesus Christ. He chose you to make you look like Jesus, his son. This is his plan. His plan is this, the Father looks at the Son. He says, Son, I've got, I I I've I've chosen Joshua Thompson. I've chosen him, and the Holy Spirit knows the will, and the Son knows the will of the Father. And guess what? They are committed to the choice of to to his choice of us to make us who the Father desires us to be. And that's holy and blameless. See, sometimes we think, ⁓ I gotta work on being holy and blameless. Guess what? The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are committed to making us, transforming us into the image of this reality. To make Josh, to make Dan. To make us. Are you with me? Like he's committed to that. I think sometimes in charismatic Pentecostal circles, we focus so much on what we're to do that we forget about what he has done. And I want us to rest in that today and get that in our foundation because guess what? When the storms come, when life happens, we got to be rooted and grounded that we have been chosen by him. That he loves us. God saw you just as you were, as you are, every failure, every weakness, every struggle, every sin. And he still said, I want that one. I want that one. Come on. You say, ⁓ well, you you don't know what I did, you know, in my past, what I did last week, last month, whatever, five years ago. Here's what I want to encourage you in. This is what we what's gonna happen. You gotta stop focusing on what you did and sit down in what he has done. This is so huge. I meet with people all the time and I'm telling you, that alone will set you free. You need to get your eyes off of you and get his view on you. Stop looking on your weakness and actually start focusing on his choosing. That he chose you because as that sets in on you, that's when actual transformation is gonna happen. He chose you to be holy and to be blameless. Many of us don't believe this for your life because of the things you've done. And this is what happens: your conscience becomes the judgment seat of your life. And every day, the the replay of the failures and the replay of rehearsing the shame. But but the Lord, I tell you what, the Lord is gonna wash over that today with His word. And I believe you're not gonna leave the way you came in. Do you know that we're supposed to be transformed in these moments? I hope you didn't come just to sit and hear another sermon, because if you did, it's not gonna work. But if you came here and you say the word of God will actually transform me, I'll renew my mind in that and I will leave different. That's what the gospel does, it's transformative. When this actually washes over your mind, you'll stop thinking the way you were thinking and you'll set your mind on how he's thinking about you. Verse 5 says this He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved. I want you to look at this one more time. Is it behind me? Look at this. ⁓ verse five. He, everybody say he. He predestined us for adoption to himself as the son as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his, everybody say his, his will, to the praise of his, everybody say his, his glorious grace, with which he, everybody say he, he has blessed us in the beloved. Why do I want to emphasize that? Because it's not about you. It is not about you, it is about him. It is about what he has done. Second blessing of the father, we just read it, is adoption. Predestined for adoption. Now we hear that word predestined and we think, well, that's a big theological word. And ⁓ I just encourage you, don't get don't get stuck on all the debate that this word raises. Paul's point isn't to start an argument here. His point is this: you have a destiny. We have been destined for adoption. And in the Roman world, when a when a wealthy man didn't have an heir, had no son. ⁓ He would want to adopt someone so that so that they would have full rights as a son. So ⁓ w that's what they would do. When he didn't have a son, ⁓ no one that could take over what he had, they would adopt someone and they give him the full rights as a son. And that that servant would literally go from rags to riches overnight. ⁓ nobody could inherit everything in a moment, go from poor to absolutely crazy wealthy. And here it is what God's saying. He's saying, predestined to adoption. Think about this though. God the Father has a son. And how many know he really likes his son? He's very pleased with his son. ⁓ He doesn't need to go looking for someone else to be the heir of his wealth. But out of sheer grace, he decides to bring us into the family, anyways. Come on. May this never become an old story to us. May this never become, ⁓ I've heard that, I know that. Let it be alive in us. Let it be alive in us. Theologian J.I. Packer, I was reading this, he argues this that adoption is actually that just a second, I'll give the quote in a minute, but that adoption is actually the highest privilege that the gospel offers. He he says, he argues that it's higher than justification. Because justific in justification, ⁓ God the judge declares, of course, that sinners are not and never will be liable to the death that their sins deserve because of what Jesus did on the cross. But he says this, and I love this quote: he says, adoption is higher because it is a family idea conceived in terms of love and viewing God as Father. In adoption, God takes us into his family. And fellowship and establishes us as children. Closeness, affection, and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. He says to be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater. Isn't that so good? It's powerful. I don't know what your father was like. Maybe he was loving, maybe he was amazing, maybe. Maybe he was absent. Maybe your father was harsh. Maybe, maybe he was inconsistent. Maybe he was ⁓ not showing up in your life, whatever that is. I want to tell you, we have a good and a perfect father. And you have been given full rights as sons and daughters. Verse six then says, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us. In the beloved. Turn to somebody again, say, You're blessed. You are blessed. You are blessed. Here's what we gotta get, not because you're impressive. Not because you're you wow people with your gifts and your talents. Not because you've earned it, but because you're loved. Because you're chosen. Because you're adopted. These are the blessings of the Father. ⁓ man, that it would get in us, that it would come alive in us. Do you know what I've run into? People that have been in church their whole lives on journeys like this, like all of us. Do you know what I find that when the real crisis comes, it's a crisis of this. Am I really loved? Am I really in? And when this is established in us, I will tell you, it will save you from all kinds of messes. That's why this matters today. I'm praying that the Spirit of the Lord will give us revelation on this today. Now Paul turns to the blessing of the Son, and it starts in verse 7. It says this in him, Jesus, talking about Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So redemption is a loaded word, but it it means basically to buy back. To buy back. It's a word used. ⁓ for slaves being set free, prisoners being released, captives being liberated. Someone else pays the price to win you back, to purchase you back. This is what happened through the blood of Jesus. Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus, the Bible says there's no remission of sin. God knew that to redeem you, the Son's blood must be shed. And I love this. Jesus says this about himself in in Mark 10:45, he says. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. There it is, for many. So when the Father sees you, he sees the redemptive blood of the Son. The blood of Jesus is sufficient to redeem us today. He's not only bought us back and brought us into family, but guess what, church? He has actually dealt with our past. And if he has actually dealt with our past with his blood, why would we ever bring up our past again? Why would we bring up stuff that he's actually already dealt with? He's dealt with it every sin, every failure, every act of rebellion. He's forgiven us, he's actually loosed us. You were guilty. Guess what? The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. Jesus took on what we deserve by becoming the Lamb of God. He took away the sins of the world. For some, your past, your shame has become the judgment seat of your life. But when the blood touches your conscience, your conscience gets cleansed. Accusation gets demolished. I believe that his blood actually, as we're reading this word, is actually touching memories and minds right now. I'm telling you, if we don't apply this, it's just a bunch of information. I believe that the word of God wants to wash over us right now, that he's actually cleansing your conscience right now by the realities of his word. I believe that his blood is doing this. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in me, me, me, right? When we need to get our eyes set on he. That was cheesy. On what he has done. I'm telling you, do you know how many people I've told in last two weeks? Don't fall for the tactic of the enemy taking you, spiraling down, all about you, you, you, you, you. You gotta get off that train and get your eyes set on him. Who is he? What has he done? What does he say? That's what we're talking about. Some of us need to receive the blood, I believe, right now, apply the blood. Some of us are chained to our past. Jesus says, I've redeemed you. I've called you by name. You are mine. You are free. My blood is enough. Stop focusing on what you've done and fix your eyes on what He has done. If you sin, confess it. Repent. Turn from it. Go the opposite way. Don't go back to it. What do you do? You make right with people things that need to be made right. Own it. Don't just say, ⁓ the blood covers it. No, you got to go back and make some things right. But don't stay in guilt and condemnation. You're forgiven. You're washed. You are set free by the blood. And Paul says this, that this all comes according to the riches of his grace. Verse 8, we're gonna keep going. I gotta move, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. I love that word lavished. Lavished, what does that mean? It means not measured. It means not stingy. It means not reluctant, not barely enough. He lavished. On us his love. He poured it out. It's overflowing. It's abundant. God is not stingy with his grace, church. He lavished it upon us. Verse 9, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, verse 10, to unite all things in him, things in heaven. And things on earth. So the word mystery here is ⁓ referring to God's ultimate plan for the world, God's ultimate design for what's coming. How many, how many know there's a lot of narratives about what's coming in the world? How many know that Jesus is the ultimate narrative? He is the ultimate. This this is where this is where history is headed. This is what he's talking about, where everything is going. I want to tell you today, where everything is going, Jesus. Everything finds its meaning in him. That's what he's getting at. This is the mystery. Everything finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Everything broken will be restored in Jesus. Everything will be made right in him. Jesus isn't part of the plan. He is the plan. He is the plan. I'll tell you this: you have to read the news through that lens. You can't listen to the weirdo people out there trying to give you this narrative and that. You've got to read it through the lens of Jesus. You have to take all that's happening in the world and everything that's happening in your life and see it through him. His purposes are going forth. All the lines of history point to him. We just read it. Things in heaven, things on earth united in him. That sounds big. That sounds cosmic, right? And it is. From the foundations of the world, we just saw this. God's plan was to sum up all things, reconcile everything in him through the Son. Say, what does that mean? Do you want Josh's paraphrase? Be found in him. Know him. Stay close to him. Walk with him. He's the mystery. He's the key to everything. So many times people get so stressed out by all that's going on in the world. I want to tell you, you got to fix your eyes on him. You say that sounds too simple. No, it's not. He is the mystery. His will is going forth. Everything points to Jesus and He's coming. He's returning. Know Him, love Him. Be with Him. Stay close to Him. Verse 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things. Everybody say all things. All things according to the counsel of his will. His will. There's a lot of theology there. But here's my simple paraphrase. Chill out. Sure. Chill out. God's not nervous. Nothing in your life or in the world has caught him off guard. In Jesus, we have an unbelievable inheritance. He is working. Did you hear that? All things according to the counsel of his will. Not Iran's will, not President Trump's will, not Netanyahu's will. Not that guy that at your job that's driving you crazy and making your life miserable. His will. Are you with me? His will. His will. Romans 8 28. For for those who love God, all things, right? All things work together for good. Notice God does not cause all things. But he is able to work through all things. And absolutely nothing escapes his notice. Nothing falls. Falls outside of his reach. I'll tell you what, this is an anchor for us. He knows the price of gas. It's come down a little. Many of us live as though everything depends on us. Paul's saying, sit down. See, see from this chair. Rest, trust. God is working. God is moving. God is working all things according to the counsel of his will. I don't know about you, but you should be feeling hope right now. I mean, I feel like we should at least have a couple people dancing a little bit here because this is the good news of the gospel. It really is. And this isn't just dreamy fantasy. I'm telling you, we get so caught up in all the things. This is reality. This is why we need a prescription that we're talking about here. So we can actually see this way in the midst of the noise. Verse 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Do you see the theme of praise? Everything resolves in praise to the praise of his glory in him. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. You heard and you believed. Look at that. People have a choice. We have a choice. The Ephesians had a choice, they and they believed. We have a choice. When you hear the word of truth, it actually demands a response. We have the choice to repent and believe and surrender, or we actually have the choice to reject the invitation. But when you heard and you believed, something happened in that moment. And that brings us to the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the third movement here. It says this: you were sealed. With the promise of the Holy Spirit. Verse 14: Who is the guarantee? Get that of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. It ends with praise. The Father chose us, okay? So, just in context here, the Father chose us, the Son redeemed us, and the Spirit seals us. What does this mean? It to be sealed. This ancient word, a seal, represented ownership. It represented protection. A king would place his seal on something to indicate this belongs to me. This this belongs to me. This this one is mine. And the moment you believed, God put his Holy Spirit inside of you. That the Greek word there is Arabon, and it's this down payment that. First installment, the spirit living in you is God's way of saying, He's mine, she's mine, I've started something in them, and I am going to finish it. I am going to finish it from now until eternity. Simply put, church, God's got us, it's gonna be okay. I guess I could have just told you that and we could have just had five minutes. Telling you what, God's got us, it's gonna be okay. Now that doesn't mean it's it's not gonna be hard, doesn't mean that there's not gonna be trials and tribulations. She said, In this world, you all have trouble, but I have overcome. The point is, we're focusing on us, we gotta focus on his overcoming and what he did, and what what he has done. Instead of what we're trying to do, we focus on what he has done. This is where the peace is. I see so many people bent out a shape out of all kinds of things. And I want to tell you, this is freedom for us. This is freedom for us. The Father chose you, the Son redeemed you, the Spirit sealed you. We just read all these things. You are chosen, you are adopted, you are redeemed, you are forgiven, you have an inheritance, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. And every one of those blessings belong to you because you are in Christ. In him. Do you have dancing music right now? We need to dance. I'm just kidding. I'm gonna close with this, okay? I'll just share this with you. Over the last couple of months, I've developed an issue with my hip. ⁓ and it came out of nowhere really. never had any hip issues before. In fact, and I didn't it's not like I played football. my wife thought that was funny. I just developed this thing. I and ⁓ anyways an MRI found that I I have a what they call a labral tear and a hip impingement. And ⁓ let me tell you, it has not been fun. ⁓ it's been literally a pain in the hip. that's bad. But he this is something I found over the last couple of months is that when I'm when I'm on my feet all day, I end up with a lot of pain. When I'm standing, when I'm walking around, when I'm when I'm doing things, I'm I'm on my feet. Why? Because my hip and my legs are carrying the weight of my body. But on the days where I'm actually sitting most of the day, which is Many days, because I have lots of meetings, sitting with people. When I'm sitting, my pain is so much less. Why? Because the chair is carrying the weight. The strain doesn't actually rest on my muscles and my joints. The chair, we could say, is bearing the load. Now I told the Lord I didn't need this hip issue for a good analogy. But I think this is how it works in the spirit realm. This is what Paul's teaching us. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What does this mean? It means to sit is to simply rest our entire weight, our entire load, our entire lives, our entire future, our everything upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And I I wonder, I wonder if for some of us our vision has gotten a little fuzzy on this and we're we're kind of off-roading by a degree or two and we gotta come back to the center. Do you know what the center is? The center is Jesus. Maybe some of us need to stop carrying what only Jesus can carry. Watchman knee, he said this in his book. He said, Christianity doesn't start with a big do, it starts with a big done. That's actually Ephesians from the beginning to the end. Christianity is ultimately about our dependency upon what He has done. ⁓ that we would be rooted this. On the cross, Jesus cries out: it is finished. He finished the work that we could never ever do. Will we walk? Yes. Will we stand? Yes. But first, first we sit. First we sit. Amen. But we're gonna stand right now. We have one minute left. Did you see how I think it's three times in that passage it says to the praise of his glorious grace? Could we just for a moment lift up our praise in this place and just could we actually give him a shout and a clap of praise for what he's done? Come on. Come on, just give him a let's just praise him for a bit. Forget about you and just just offer praise to the Lord right now. Come on, church. Let's let's really do it. Jesus, we thank you for salvation. We thank you for adoption. We thank you for freedom. We thank you for healing. We thank you that you redeemed us. We thank you that you put the Holy Spirit in us. You've sealed us. We thank you that everything is gonna be okay in you. I thank you, Lord, that you lift the heavy load today. You lift the heavy load. Load today, you lift the heavy load today, you lift the heavy load today from people, people that have been carrying shame and pressure and bondage. You lift the heavy load, you carry the weight that we are not intended to carry. And I pray in Jesus' name today that you would set your church free from everything that isn't ultimately rooted in you. I pray that over minds right now, where condemnation and shame no more because of your word and because of what you have done. I thank you for the renewing of minds right now. I thank you for the washing of consciences. In Jesus' name, you are worthy of our praise. And the church said, Amen. Amen. ⁓ Amen. One more time. Come on. You guys. I think we should do it for 60 seconds more. Come on. How can we not? How can we not? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Freedom! Freedom for the captives. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. Church, we love you. Go out in the strength of this, in the hope of this. We'll see you Wednesday. God bless you.

Acts 9 · chapter mention Mark 10:45