Ephesians 1:4-10 - ”Yesterday Today Tomorrow” - Journey Through Ephesians

good

morning Our Old Testament scripture

reading comes from Deuteronomy 7

6-11 For you are a people holy to the

Lord your God The Lord your God has

chosen you to be a people for his

treasured possession out of all the

peoples who are on the face of the earth

It was not because you were more in

number than any other people that the

Lord has set his

love on you and chose you For you are

the fewest of all peoples But it is

because the Lord loves you and is

keeping the

earth keeping the oath that he swore to

your fathers that the Lord has brought

you out with a mighty hand and redeemed

you from the house of slavery from the

hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt

Know therefore that the Lord your God is

God the faithful God who keeps covenant

and steadfast love with those who love

him and keep his commandments to a

thousand

generations and repays to their face

those who hate him by destroying

them He will not be slack with one who

hates him He will repay him to his face

You shall therefore be careful to do the

commandment and the statutes and the

rules that I command you

today Our New Testament

reading comes from Ephesians 1:es 4 to10

Even as he chose us in him before the

foundations of the world that we should

be holy and blameless before him In love

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 In him we have redemption

through his blood the forgiveness of our

trespasses according to the riches of

his grace which he lavished upon us in

all wisdom and insight 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 to

unite all things in him things in heaven

and things on earth This is the word of

the Lord Thanks be to

God All right we're continuing in

Ephesians Um and by the way I'm much

happier person for this and I will take

no more recommendations for Old

Testament texts So

um I I just happen to know a bit about

Ephesians I got to study it quite

intensively and um it is a wonderful

book If you haven't had a chance to read

it through uh Ephesians is Paul's

systematic theology What I mean by that

he's not writing to one particular city

He's writing a general thing to the

multiplicity of cities So he uses all of

his theological language I'm going to

tell you what you'll notice about this

text if you read it seriously is I think

the first 14 verses are one sentence Did

you guys know that like this guy And

Christina says "I run on in my sentences

when she has to edit I'm just very

Pauline as you see." Um but it's so

dense isn't it The amount of information

that's coming at you So we're going to

take a little time to understand what

exactly Paul's saying cuz Paul's telling

us some pretty important truths if you

want to be a a faithful Christian All

right But before we get there we have to

live in his world a bit And by the way I

just Ross sent me a an article about the

rise of the occult and this stuff's

starting to come back But I'm going to

let you guys know that what we'd call

the occult or paganism as it was known

then uh was a very common thing and the

way they looked at the world was

extremely different including the way

they looked at time Have you ever seen

something like

this This is a pagan calendar Okay and

why it's important This this was there's

there's all kinds of different ones I

believe this one is uh is a an ancient

um uh what was I going to say Celtic one

But there's all kinds and they all look

relatively the same Okay Whether it's

ancient Greek And what I want you to

notice is there's four major uh life

events here on the top Can you guys see

birth up there And then you see life Do

you see that And then you see down here

morbid morbund I mean that means not

doing so good and then death And what

you'll notice in this circle it looks

like the earth cuz the earth it's pagan

just means the earth by the way and it's

a worship of the earth and what they

were worshiping were the cycles of the

earth So think of birth being spring

Okay life is summer Morbund is when

things start to fall apart That is the

fall and death is winter And that's how

they celebrated And every year they

would go through this cycle again and

again And this is how they saw life What

was interesting though is there's

nothing linear in their world Everything

just happens again and again There is no

hope

All they know is one day again somebody

something new and life is going to start

again And they saw their lives in this

way Their lives were they had youth then

they had life and then they got older

you know like me and then they died And

when they died that was it That was

their hope And that's

paganism Now imagine that that's your

whole new world Now you guys are a

little different Do you know what you

guys think You think linearily not

circularly when you think of time So

when you think of time you think of time

moving along time growing tents you have

something called hope Their hope was

just that the the grass and everything

and and their uh

um agriculture was good that season Okay

And that's all they thought It's just

going to be the same thing And there was

never any hope The reason you think

linear line Literally

lit Maybe I'm at the Tower of Babel

right now and I'm just losing my

tongue But what's serious about that is

we think that way because of

Judeo-Christianity No other culture did

No other culture does And what's funny

I'm watching now as people are leaving

Christianity they're now getting caught

into this cycle again of just what's

happening this year of your life and

your hope in the spring and all of that

But one thing Christianity did is it

took us into the promise of something

better a linear hope that freed us from

this world where you just think that you

go through the same thing over and over

and over and then you die Do you see the

difference It was a very sad existent

paganism So this section in Paul when

he's writing he's writing this to take

on the world view of the pagans Okay

Remember who this is being written to

But before we do that let's

pray Heavenly Father we thank you for

your goodness and your graciousness We

pray your Holy Spirit will fill us

May you be given all praise and glory

for whatever is said And may you open

our eyes and our ears so that we might

understand what you're saying to us and

who we are in you in Jesus' name

Amen We must understand the world that

Paul exists in if we're going to

understand Ephesians because he wasn't

he's not a 21st century North American

He's a first century helanized Jew and

he's come out into this world and he's

met Jesus Christ and unbelievably now

he's out ministering to Gentiles which

is making the Jews quite upset cuz they

were the people of God by blood So the

first issue he has is what to do with

Jews and Gentiles And these churches are

growing with Jews and Gentiles And if

you read Acts it's all about this The

main issue of the early church was Jews

versus Gentiles there was the main issue

And how do we put these two together All

right So that's the first thing you must

understand when you're reading Ephesians

That's his main

problem But now he's got to try and take

these people who think they're the

people of God by bloodline his bloodline

the Jews and have them worship with

these people who used to worship in

three different ways And they have three

issues Number one they were

pagans Okay And he's dealing with a

bunch of people that come from paganism

who saw time as circular But the other

things about them is they they worshiped

Artemis and Diana These were uh fickle

gods contractual gods who said to the

people "If you provide meat through

sacrifice or even sexual relations or

something else that satisfies me I will

protect you and bless you." These were

not personal

gods These were gods that were wrapped

up into the earth cycles And all of them

were wrapped up in human behavior For

example Diana was known as the goddess

of the hunt and the goddess of fertility

Two very important things back in the

ancient world Zeus the god of war All of

these gods exist and this is what they

lived And well Paul is talking about a

very different god isn't

he

Secondly you've got these guys called

the mystery religions These guys are

floating around and they're the guys

they're the guys you hate to see at

church because they think they're so

spiritual they can see through you Have

you ever met these guys And they're so

spiritual because they know a special

understanding of spirituality and

they've got the inside track This was

the mystery religions And these guys did

all kinds of crazy stuff like cut

themselves and all of that other stuff

One person said the mystery religions

was like ancient Scientology I thought

that was a very adapt These things

though exist and Paul's going to have to

speak to them because they're always

worried about the heavenly places and

they hate the earthly world Well Paul

will deal with them as well And finally

Paul's dealing with the cult of the

emperor This is a big one This is your

imperial reality that you had to be

faithful to the empire above all things

And when you did that you had to worship

the emperor as God More Christians die

because they won't do that than any

other thing Did you know that he will

kill you if you don't So this is the

world that Paul's writing Ephesians in

And he's telling these truths to the

Ephesians to help them deal okay with

these realities they live in

So when we're listening to his letter

let us listen closely and

note that at times he's saying things

very clearly that is debunking one of

these things For example when you hear

Paul say Jesus Christ Jesus the king

Well who was the king in

Rome You're allowed to

respond

Caesar You know I was warned when I was

a preaching prof never ask

questions but I'm trust this This looks

like a bright group We're not going to

get crazy answers The Caesar was king So

when Jesus says Jesus Christ every time

he says that he's saying "No there's a

different king." What else did the

Caesar call himself Lord and Savior Have

you heard that title was somebody

else How about son of God He called

himself that Paul funny enough calls

Jesus Lord and Savior son of God You

think he knew what he was doing He was

telling the truth of course about who

Jesus is but he's also debunking So

let's get into the text today and it's

heavy So please I could preach each one

of these lines for a week There's so

much stuff but I'm not going to torture

you So here we go

even as he God chose us in in him before

the foundation of the world Was anyone

listening to my good friend Laura who

did a great reading Thank you Do you

remember what it said about

Israel Do you remember that Were you

listening You were

listening It said "Israel my

chosen

people." And he starts with this And

remember he's dealing with this Jew

gentile thing and he says even as he

chose us he's placed them as Jews You

see that what he's saying in this

section is that the God of heaven and

earth has fulfilled something he planned

where Israel is no longer just bloodline

Jews And don't forget this is a

bloodline Jud teaching this And he's

saying now us the church of Gentiles and

Jews who are believers in

Abraham by faith are now true

Israel We are the people of God We are

the church We are the people of God That

connects right through the Old Testament

Just by saying that he is told that and

he's and he's telling these people who

don't get along you better get along

because you're the people of God Right

in that sentence even as he chose us in

him That's the key in him in Jesus 36

times This is all about the locust of

Jesus This is a Jesus story before now

He says this blows their mind He made

this choice before the foundation of the

world What's he doing here He's telling

them about their past isn't he Well

think of that pagan calendar where

there's really no past is there There's

just a cycle Well he's saying "No I'm

going to tell you about your past You

were chosen before him You are true

Israel." and he planned it before the

foundation of the world In other words

God has had this plan to have his people

before anything showed up

here Isn't that something Now why is

that important Because the good news of

that is sometimes we think well that was

just by chance Anybody else think like

that sometimes One thing Paul says is it

ain't by

chance God is in control Sorry folks

You're in a reformed church here You're

going to hear this This is our

wheelhouse I'm telling you right now

that biblically where the worst thing

churches go is to think that God is weak

or is kind of surprised by things

happening What if I told you he knew

what Jesus was going to go through long

before Adam and Eve even showed

up Well that's what scripture

says before the foundation of the world

that we should be Now here's his purpose

He did all this so we would be holy and

blameless These two words have to do

with a sacrificial system You know when

they sacrificed the sheep and then they

made the people blameless This is this

word holy means different It means

forgiven and

washed before him in love In love Notice

he predestined us Now people are going

to get mad and say "Are you telling me

that you're talking about some people go

to heaven cuz God wants it and some

people go to hell cuz God want?" No

that's bad predestination theology What

is it then What does it mean he

predestined us He made the plan for our

salvation long He predestined it long

before we were

around In other words here's the thing

people don't like about these texts

Guess what You and I aren't in charge of

anything Your decision is not nearly as

important as

his Nobody's mad now

Okay Because much of Christianity is

about what have you done What have you

chosen What have you done Well Paul

starts off and says "Look what he did

Look what he did Look what he did and

you had better get your mind around that

he did it and now you can have your

confidence in him That's why he's

telling this These aren't like the

fickle gods who choose you in and out

He's saying the these are the true gods

This is the true God who has chosen you

before the beginning of time In love he

predestined us for adoption What a

powerful word Ancient world adoption was

something that would only happen in

Greek homes

And what would happen is Greeks would

have their children right And oftent

times they

couldn't And so what did they do They

adopted

slaves Did you know that And once you

were adopted if you got adopted into

that family your life turned around

because everything the parent

owned you owned

everything you said when you became a

son in a Roman family and I went out and

did business let's say and I went down

to the miller I did the business I did

it in my father's name I had the

authority of my father And Paul uses

this word to talk about what's happened

to us Isn't that

powerful This isn't just about getting

our sins forgiven This means we become

children as people who weren't children

And he's definitely talking to the G

Gentiles here isn't

he Adoption to himself as sons This word

can mean sons and daughters Okay So

there's no sense of just male at all As

sons and daughters through Jesus Christ

he's done all of these things He has

done this He's made us blameless in love

All predestined us for this through

Jesus Christ according to the purpose of

his will In other words everything

that's happened to us was always part of

his plan It wasn't a

mistake I remember hearing a theology a

sermon one time on Adam and Eve and why

Christ had to carry the cross and he

said everything was going to be great

for Adam and Eve and then she ate the

apple and then God oh no I have to now

send my son for the cross

I tell you the truth When God made

humanity if you are a biblical

theologian you're going to have to deal

with this He knew the cross was

coming because he knew giving free

choice to humanity was that and he had a

plan from the beginning and he stuck

with

it You ever heard that

before The cross was not sorry the fall

of man was not a surprise to God He's

not like what what Eve did

what I can't believe it And Adam

too He knew And he's good And what

Paul's trying to say here to these

Ephesians and he's sitting in jail

telling them this is that God is

faithful and

good And he's made you children from the

beginning of time He's planned this as

sons through Christ Jesus according to

the purpose of his will not our

will to and this he says again and again

this is all happening because to the

praise and g and of his glorious grace

it's always so we would praise him

because he's the only one worth

it He's done this for us so we'll be in

right relationship and when we're in

right relationship we praise

The most honest thing you do my friends

is when you get together and you praise

God That's the most true thing you

should do because he's the only one that

deserves

it Well and Jason Jason too

But that was a

joke He doesn't deserve it

No with which we will be ble which he

has blessed us in the beloved who's he's

blessed us again he's given us remember

that language I told you last week where

you go on your knees and you hand

everything out he's done that in Jesus

Christ it's an incredible perspective so

he's talked about the past what about

the

now and he gets deeper in him we have

redemption what is this language

redemption redemption is all wrapped

around

slavery and when a slave is redeemed he

gets a mark and he is set free Now he's

definitely undoubtedly thinking of

Israel We are true Israel And when was

Israel redeemed by

God The Exodus right And yet he's

continuing through here And in him we

have redemption We've been set free of

slavery because of Jesus Christ You're

saying "What slavery have I ever been

under?" I'll tell you we've all been

under this slavery called sin death and

the

devil And at some point it had control

over all of us and his cross destroyed

it Isn't that good

news Through his

blood Through his blood he does this

This has been heavily debated What does

he mean Well you go back to the

sacrificial system He's the blood of the

lamb He's the true lamb He's the clean

And he pays for our sins And he destroys

Satan it says on the cross Something

through the blood set us free from being

bound to destruction for eternity

we were

redeemed But he doesn't stop there The

forgiveness of our trespasses This is an

interesting way to say it He doesn't say

forgiveness of sins here He uses a

different word Sins can mean missed the

mark Okay That just means you're trying

to do something you didn't get it right

so you missed the mark Trespass is much

worse Trespass is not oh I just missed

the mark I didn't act it right Trespass

says I'm going to see the sign that says

don't do this and knowing in my head I

shouldn't I'm trespassing and I'm going

to go do

it He forgives you of the things that

you know you should not do and you do

Isn't that

powerful It isn't just whoop I made a

mistake cuz I'm human and I missed the

mark it He I forgive you the things you

know you did the things you knew was

wrong the way you did things and I have

forgiven you That powerful stuff He's

just throwing stuff at us isn't he

According to the riches of his grace

he's got so much grace Do you know what

it says That his grace cannot be

overcome by your

sin Isn't that something

How many people walk in this life as

Christians and say "Oh I blew it again I

guess he's not for me." His graces

overwhelm your

sin He has forgiven you those trespasses

when you mess up Amen We should be

praising God right now because guess

what I know a secret about you You guys

sin I know cuz I'm one of

you Well need press Pentecostals in here

man Wow Okay

which he lavished upon us Listen to that

word He lavished I love this He lavished

this grace upon us I so tired of people

with this angry God who just I guess I

have to forgive you because you believe

in me

Darn He lavishes grace upon us That

incredible in all wisdom and

insight Unlike the wisdom and insight of

the of the mystery religions this is

God's only wisdom and insight Making

known to us the mystery This word

mystery doesn't mean like a murder

mystery It means something that wasn't

known before He made known to us what

was unknown before in Israel According

to his purpose which was the forgiveness

of sin the pouring of

grace the adoption of children which he

has set forth in Christ So today what

does he say Adoption forgiveness just do

before predestination chosen And then

what does he do He goes to the

future because he's creating a linear

way of thinking in a world that thinks

circularly And he ends with the future

And it's beautiful And he has a plan for

the fullness of time This is what's

going to happen We're not there yet to

unite all things in

him things in heaven and things on

earth Did you guys know that that is our

eternal

hope That one day God will take all

things in heaven and earth according to

Paul and unite them The word unite means

knit them

together on heaven and earth

So when someone tells me "Oh Betty died

She's in a better place floating in the

clouds." I

[Music]

go "Because that is not our hope that

she might be floating in the clouds

someday My hope is the resurrection."

And one day we live with the truth that

one day God is going to take heaven and

earth these two dimensions and put them

together And we will be truly human

eternal beings without sin forever

and we will be there because he's

forgiven us He's adopted us He's taken

us in And it was always part of his plan

Do you see this section

now This is the best news section I

can't preach to you a better news

section And if you're not touched by

this section I'm not going to be able to

find you a better one because there is

no warnings in this is there There is

just truth about what's happened to

you So what are those truths again

The past your

past you were

chosen You were

chosen Well hold on Emry I know me I'm

not one worthy of being chosen Have you

read Jesus very much He doesn't choose

the worthy

ones does

he And yet you were chosen to be part of

his church in

Christ That's incredible That should put

your head at bed Even when you've had

your worst day that should put your head

on your pillow and help you sleep like a

baby because God chose

you He chose this

church He's chosen us in

Christ Number two he predestined us This

was all part of a plan Plan to be his

church his people his true Israel from

day

one and all of this before the

foundation of the world This is not a

fickle God So if he's not a fickle God

why are we worried that he might leave

us when he chose us Now I understand

this is hard to get our mind around

because we often have trouble planning a

week

ahead but he has planned this forever

John Calvin said "Although we cannot

conceive either by argument or reason

how God has elected us before the

creation of this world yet we know it by

his declaring it to us and expering

itself vouches for us sufficiently when

we are enlightened in the

faith." I'm giving you an invitation

right now in this section alone if you

take nothing else to walk out of here

and say "I have been

chosen." to walk out of here and stop

talking to yourself as if everything's

chaos behind you There is a plan for

you and it's in him and you're here for

a

reason But the other side of this is I'm

going to tell you I don't care how many

of you thought you did an incredible

thing and how lucky God's had to have

you because you chose him You

didn't I'm going to tell you something

that is really offensive to some

evangelicals You were saved because of

what he did not what you

did And nowhere does it say

otherwise Carl Bart was asked on what

date he was saved and he said 33 AD

Goltha The best answer anyone gave I

thought the problem in evangelical is we

tell people this the gospel and they say

"Do you get it?" And then we say "Oh you

were saved that day You were not saved

that day You were saved when Jesus

Christ died on his cross Oh you awoke to

it for sure." And I'll tell you what

else that means is we don't have to hang

on to it because it was never ours to

begin

with I once heard people who you know

have you ever heard the date the debate

are you saved Are you always saved Or

could you lose your salvation Anybody

heard that Raise your hands Okay see

some of you I've always found the people

who say you can lose your salvation and

they always say because they always say

um you know once saved always saved Have

you ever heard

that But what's funny is the other side

I've I've noticed that it's once saved

always

anxious There's some truth to that

because it's located in yourself And if

you're fickle and the Bible says we are

we're going to have bad days which we

would choose otherwise But he chose us

My beautiful teaching

prof said this about Paul Paul's

salvation is not grounded in himself

Paul's salvation and all that salvation

means is grounded in the free sovereign

grace's choice of the livinging

God That's good news folks because

you're sitting here and saved because he

chose

you You believe because he chose you You

said yes to his yes And now all you have

to do is keep your faith on the one

that's already chosen you not on you

whether you can keep it

up which I think is

idolatry And in the

present here's your present It wasn't

written to you but it was written for

you So I want you to believe these

things because these are truths about

you right now sitting here Okay You have

adoption redemption forgiveness and

grace right now But Emry I had a bad day

yesterday and I sinned You have adoption

redemption forgiveness and

grace That's what you have every day you

wake up Every day as Carl Bart says that

a man looks backwards he's staring at

the forgiveness of

sins A Christian

Jonathan Edwards Jesus Christ is both

the only price and sacrifice by which

eternal redemption is attained by home

for by believers We are redeemed We are

no longer slaves And I'm telling you

what because we're free we will not be

bound to the hell or whatever else you

want to call it because he's freed us

already in the cross And he did it by

grace alone Not cuz he thought we were

worth it Cuz we weren't worth it Not

because he said "Well that person over

there is rather likable Oh look at Ross

He's the greatest thing ever." He did

not say that And I know Ross can believe

this He said "I love Ross And I am going

to enlighten him." Praise the Lord And I

have no choice of Ross He is sitting

here right now and he has grown in

Christ Praise the Lord And he is

redeemed Not only that but he has

forgiven your sins I love this Charles H

Spurgeon This is truth You say this to

yourself Your sins are

forgiven It is true that Jesus saves his

people from their sins Earth knows it

Hell howls at it And heaven chants it

Time has seen it and eternity shall

reveal it You are forgiven from your

sins because our Lord went on that

cross And when he said it was finished

he didn't mean "Oh hey guys bring it up

some more

He said "It was finished." Well hold on

Emry I've done bad things Yeah he says

"Confess it But you're

forgiven We should be the happiest

people in the world but because we don't

believe this stuff we look like we're

sucking lemons when we leave

churches."

No Oh you haven't been to some of the

churches I

have We should be just blown away every

time that this God has forgiven us and

has chosen us and has done all these

things And not only that he's forgiven

our

sins He's justified us But you know what

That's not even the greatest part You

know what the greatest part

is That's pretty good stuff isn't it But

you know what the greatest part is

You're

adopted You've been adopted into a

family

You are in God's

family You're his

child

Everything that a child gets you

get That's way better than

justification That's even better than

forgiveness of sins That is so much

better because as my old friend Ji

Packer says I know you can't read this

but justification is a forensic

idea conceived in terms of law and

viewing God as

judge Whereas adoption is a family idea

conceived in terms of love and viewing

God as his as father In adoption God

takes us into his family and fellowship

and establishes us as his children and

heirs Closeness affection and generosity

are all at the heart of the

relationships To be right with God the

judge is the great thing But to be loved

and cared for by God is by far the

greatest A lot of people say "Well I'm

forgiven in Christ." You are But they

miss the better part You are children

adopted into his family for relationship

and

love That is far

greater That

amazing So when you're lying in bed and

that awful voice of the accuser comes to

you and says "You're not

worthy." Anybody else been

there I

have Remind yourself This is why Paul

gave us

this You're an adopted child of

God And by the way next time you hear

that voice that says you're not worthy

you go "No I'm not but he is and I'm in

him." And then there's the

future All unite revealed all unite all

things on heaven and earth This is what

we get to look forward to

We have all of that stuff now given to

us We have the past saying it was always

part of his plan And the greatest news

is we have a

hope We don't just have a vague hope A

vague hope that they go somewhere nice A

vague hope of this world that maybe I

was a good enough person because they

weren't by the

way But a real hope because we have an

empty tomb right

And in Jesus Christ's body heaven and

earth came together right And he's an

eternal being physical isn't

he And what does he say at the end He's

going to take everything and make it

right now I don't know you guys but I

guarantee you guys have lost loved ones

Anyone out here lost loved ones Of

course And what this text and they lost

him in Ephesians says is by the way not

only are we sealed today not only we

were chosen but guess what it's all

going to be set

right and these two worlds are going to

come together on that day that is the

good

news John Sto doesn't get better than

him but all things normally means the

universe which Christ created and

sustains So Paul seems to be referring

again to that cosmic renewal that

regeneration of the universe that

liberation of the growing groaning

creation of which he's already written

in Romans God's plan is that all things

which were created through Christ and

for Christ and which hold together in

Christ will finally be united under

Christ by being subject to his headship

For the New Testament declares him to be

the heir of all

things My friends your hope in the

future is not just that somebody some

someday you'll die One day this world

which is so full of evil and so sick

will be destroy will be

transformed and all things will be right

made right And can you imagine on that

day Can you imagine on that day these

people who for no other reason by God's

grace who were chosen who were forgiven

who were adopted and then they on that

day come into that new world and see the

people like

them for the first time in

generations What will that be like

You're invited to

speculate You should be the most hopeful

people in the world No matter how many

tell you that if you didn't vote right

the whole world's going to blow up

No matter how tell you that

the sun's going to blow us up I don't

know whatever they're talking right now

about global warming I don't even see

that shows how much I know about global

warming We have this

hope and all of this is because we're in

him See this is where the praise comes

in

All of this stuff and I just gave you

all the good news towards us is all

because he's so

good That's why it says in Christ in him

36 times because he's the one worth

praising and worshiping When we come in

here to do praise and worship when

Jason's leading praise and worship or

Cat or Laura or Christina or whoever

else they're not doing that to entertain

us They're doing that so that we all can

sing songs about this amazing

truth and who he

is And we should sing with all our

hearts All of this happened because of

what he

did Mman said "In the cross of Christ

God is taking man dead

seriously so that he may open up for him

the happy freedom of Easter." the

resurrection God takes upon himself the

pain of negation and the god-forsakeness

of judgment to reconcile himself with

his enemies and to give godless

fellowship the godless fellowship with

himself Guess who he's talking about

right there You and

me That's what the cross is

about He did the cross And I can tell

you you can trust him because he didn't

finish

Sorry he did

finish and now we live in faith in

that So now we got the

question so what Emry these are all good

things How do I live Well I tell you

what if you take this seriously you

can't help but love this

God You can't help but take serious this

God And you're not going to be able to

if you take this seriously If you really

let this come into your heart do

anything but worship

him Dietrich Bonhaofer in talking about

what it should be to be human said "The

justification of my life before God is

to live because of and towards the

living dying and rising of Jesus

Christ." That's why he says "Abandon

your life and follow me." You know why

Because he's worth it

He asks you to do that because he's the

only one worth

following So what are we going to

do We don't live in a world where time

is circular We live in a world of time

is

meaningless We live in a world where

people don't believe in God and think

that time is just going to disappear and

is absolute meaningless And they live

their lives like it's true don't they

Well you've just been told that time

matters The past you were called The

present you're

forgiven redeemed and

adopted And the future you're part of

when he puts all things together

including those you've lost

You should be a light in this world that

has lost any

hope and live like this is true And I

tell you what people want

truth They want this They long for this

hope If you believe

this people will

notice and they will talk to you and you

might find one day that they finally say

yes to this God who has chosen them

They'll finally say yes to this God who

is willing to forgive them and adopt

them and finally say yes to the God

who's got everything in heaven and earth

for them for

eternity I guess it's your choice if you

want to believe

it Let's pray

Heavenly Father this is an incredible

truth that you gave us all of that on

the

cross It's unbelievable that you chose

us to be your people before the

foundation of the world that you've

always had this as your plan You've

always planned relationship

It's unbelievable that

today we are

forgiven that we are

redeemed that we are adopted

children Oh and what a hope you've given

us that you will return and set all

things new all things on heaven and

earth knit

together

Help us believe this in a world that

doesn't Help us put our praise into you

because Lord Jesus you're the only one

that's worthy of the

praise of

this And every Sunday we come may we

remind ourselves why we praise and

worship you Because you are this God and

you deserve

it in Jesus

name Amen