Ephesians 1:1-3 - ”In Christ” - Journey Through Ephesians

good

morning Today's Old Testament reading is

from

Exodus 19:es

1-6 On the third new moon after the

people of Israel had gone out of the

land of Egypt on that day they came into

the wilderness of Si they set out from

Refidum and they came into the

wilderness of Si and they encamped in

the wilderness There Israel encamped

before the mountain while Moses went up

to God The Lord called to him out of the

mountain saying "Thus you shall say to

the house of Jacob and tell all the

people of Israel you yourselves have

seen what I did to the Egyptians and how

I bore you on eagle's wings and brought

you to myself Now therefore if you will

indeed obey my voice and keep my

covenant you shall be my treasured

possession among all peoples for all the

earth is mine and you shall be to me a

kingdom of priests and a holy nation

These are the words that you shall speak

to the people of Israel

Our New Testament reading is from

Ephesians 1:es 1 2 and

3 Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the

will of God to the saints who are in

Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus

Grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ 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 This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to

God Thanks be to God that Genesis is

done Oh man Anyways I found out that

there was some guests the Sunday I was

preaching on the nakedness of uh Adam or

sorry Noah You know that's an awkward

text at the best time and they hadn't

been to church in forever and I was like

"Okay thank you Lord They're not here

[Laughter]

today." That's a joke by the way I don't

think they could come but um it is true

And that's the problem when you preach

Genesis you end up with texts that and

you know me I'm going to preach what's

there And anyways we got through it Eh

woo Bless you guys Now we're back to my

I'm at like So for me just a quick

background I studied Paul intently This

was the guy I got into I learned Greek

I'm like going back into a nice warm

bathtub right now That's what it feels

like I'm in my world And so you're going

to get probably a lot more details than

you might otherwise get because I know

this a little better So be patient with

me I think Ephesians is one of the most

wonderful books that we have And I'll

tell you it is And I'll explain to you

why in a minute But I'll tell you what I

think it's actually got better Oh boy

I'm going to get hit by some Calvinists

here or Lutheran But I actually think

it's got better more concise doctrine

than Romans

Oh boy there See I heard that Every

reformed person's got their eggs out now

So let let me explain All

right But before I do that there's

something I'm

noticing We don't know who we are

anymore There's a lot of anxiety in this

world because we have no idea who we are

Our identities have been shook to the

core

Just to give you an example and I've

been told that I bring up American

politics as examples too much So I'm

gonna focus on Canadian politics

because because that is so polite right

A and if I get these Canadian politics

wrong I can say sorry

Anyways about 5 years ago I was told by

these guys that to be a Canadian was to

uh oppose mandatory vaccinations Do you

remember these guys These were called

the truckers Okay And I was told that

that the government was uh too

doineering Our government was too long

And that was to be a true Canadian would

to be stand against that and stand for

freedom This is by the way not making a

political comment of one being right or

the other wrong Okay So if you hold

these views strongly that don't worry

that's not what I'm saying I'm saying

this is what we were told And of course

the opposition said these people were

traitors and remember that and the news

were saying how awful they were because

they went into Ottawa and that was what

but there was Canadian flags and then

this came down after those 5 years and

you drive along and you would see a

Canadian flag usually on a very large

pickup truck with a commentary on

Trudeau I can't

share Do you remember

that That was one side of being Canada

So I was like "Okay that's what it means

to be Canadian

right?" But

then somebody who will not be

named he's like Voldemort we can't name

him got in power and everything changed

And then there were other people

grabbing their Canadian flags And this

is from a few weeks ago on Parliament

Hill called the Elbows

Up Protest Now here's the thing There

were no 4x4s There were no

truckers There were a lot of middle-aged

boomers very passionately with their it

says elbows up Canada strong which was

ab which was interesting If you looked

at the other one it had Canada strong

but with very different

issues So now these people like

government The other guys didn't like

government These guys really like

government

The other guys they really really didn't

like vaccines or government telling them

what to do These guys say we love

government tell us what to

do and just don't make us Americans

And so I'm going which is this Cuz I'm

pretty sure these two people don't hang

out on for dinner

dates And I haven't seen a a commentary

on Trudeau on the back of these people's

trucks Do you see

Now my point being

is I don't know what it means to be

Canadian

anymore I just thought we were just kind

of this nice you some of you grew up

like me where it was like oh yeah we're

just not American That's what it means

to be Canadian

right And and and then when hockey would

come we'd be like yeah crazy right For

like two weeks and then we'd be like I'm

sorry e And then we'd be like and and

that was kind of Canada But now Canada's

become this

very difficult thing to know who you

are right Anybody else feeling like

this And so there's people who feel you

have to choose one or the

other Well let me tell you something I'm

really glad this is happening Not for

the reasons you might think I'm really

glad this is happening because nothing

ever changes

Identity is always what human beings

cling on

to Identities are these things that

people hang on to and they give

themselves purpose and meaning If you

want to know why there's so much anger

right now in the political sphere is

people's identities in who they are are

being

questioned Okay

Well let me tell you my friends what

Paul's doing in Ephesians is he's

telling them their identity in a world

they already had

identities And what he's going to do is

he's going to strip back the veneer and

he's going to say this in God is who you

are And you know the good news about

this my friends is this identity in

Christ does not change every five

years Let's pray

Heavenly Father I thank you that you

have been faithful to us We thank you

for this country whatever it is mean to

be or whatever it'll be but we thank you

more that you've given us your son and

your kingdom Open our eyes and our ears

so that we can

understand what you're saying to us

today

Amen So back then what was this letter

about The only thing I'm not going to

get in the details By the way I do have

the Bible studies on YouTube if you want

to watch them where I go into the

details that I can't do up here And if

you go to a small group you get those

details So I'm just letting you know

There's some stuff you might have

questions You can always ask me after

but there's stuff I can't teach you

right away All I'm going to say to you

about this letter which is important is

this letter wasn't written just to

Ephesus It was definitely written to

Ephesus but the letter itself the early

documents have two and then a blank spot

And what they used to do when it was

called a circular letter so it was

written to a bunch of churches in an

area is they would hand out the scroll

and the scribe would take it to the city

and when he got close to the city and he

said "Okay this one's for Ephesus." He'd

say "To the church." And then he would

write in Ephesus But we have other

scrolls that don't have it So what I'm

telling you is this was written to a

bunch of churches probably 10 churches

in Asia Minor that were near Ephesus and

it was definitely also written to

Ephesus Why that matters is he's not

going to speak to particular situations

in a particular church Like if you read

Romans he's going to say tell Chloe or

that's Corinthians or he'll say to

somebody or acknowledge this person He

doesn't do any of that here because he's

writing to a bunch of churches Okay And

Paul is doing that And he's writing into

this area And this area just like BC

let's just say it's like BC Most people

think the same or have the same issues

or the same points of of order And they

all of these people are dealing with

identity issues Okay Just like we are

And so the biggest identity issue in

this new church has to do with this Jew

or Gentile We have a a little bit of

tough time understanding this in our new

world But in the ancient world of Rome

the Jews saw themselves as completely

separate from the Romans They were the

holy people the chosen ones They were

the ones who were going to be part of

God's esquetology which whatever that

meant most of them thought the

resurrection And then you had these

other groups called the Gentiles They

are a uh they were the unclean They were

never to be talked to Um you did

business with them but by holding your

nose Okay And the Gentiles looked at the

Jews as this if they were this

significantly insignificant people That

one person said those strange little

people Undoubtedly no doubt how

Americans look at Canadians Like the

vast majority were Romans like the

Americans and the Canadians kind of were

like the Jews Like so few of us Do you

know what I mean That you didn't even

pay attention And into this world now

this church starts And the identities of

one is I've been a Jew since I've been

born The other one I'm a Gentile since

I've been born And now there's this

church And here's the crazy thing Unlike

any time before you've got these two

groups coming

together Now remember what I said They

don't like each

other And now they're coming together So

Paul's going to write his whole letter

on that identity Who are you really Are

you really Canadian Do you see Are you

really gentile Are you really okay And

now these pagans that are coming in the

Jews have their identity They have all

the scriptures The pagans are coming

from a totally different world with no

reference to Jesus Christ They have no

reference to the Old Testament They have

no reference to how to do sacraments

These are really truly off the street

off-the-boat

people okay And then they also have

their own identities they're coming out

of because they also lived in a world

with identities and there were three

particular identities that were really

important Number one we all know they

worship pagan

gods and that was one thing that they

all identified with It depended which

god you identified with Okay So I put up

Artisan Art Artemis's temple here

Artemis was the uh goddess of fertility

and the hunt She had the biggest temple

in Ephesus It was the one of the seventh

wonders of the ancient world It was much

bigger than the Jewish temple And what

she would do is she would have a

contractual relationship like all these

gods that if you provided gold silver

food meat and rest for her and sexual

favors to be honest she would provide

then the land with water She would also

provide your you for you could have

children Thus the fertility concept and

you would have successful hunts which

were really important So that was the

contract This wasn't a relationship like

God in Jesus Christ This was a contract

with a god who was very fickle and if

you didn't do it right they would lift

off their protection and then you'd be

vulnerable to your enemies People

identified with these gods back then

This is what half the church is coming

out of But then there's another group

coming out called these mystery

religions Now I will go over this again

and again till you get it Mystery

religions were like u someone once said

they're like the Scientology of the

ancient world except they were way more

popular And the mystery religions in the

ancient world basically taught that um

they're linked to the Greeks Hidden

knowledge you know there's this hidden

knowledge out there that you could get

And these guys didn't hang out in

temples They kind of hung out together

and did little things And they would

talk about this hidden nosis where we'll

end up with gnostics And you could grab

it through spiritual awakenings And

there were a group of people who had

embraced that And they believed that the

spiritual world the heavenly realm was

good and the earthly realm was evil Okay

And they were very concerned with

getting to the heavenly places through

these secrets So those guys exist and

there are people have identities like

that And then finally you have people

who have identify with Rome the power I

mean the imperial power just like people

today there are people who identified

and embraced the powers that be and the

emperor was a god to you everyone had to

worship this god by the way that's why

in re revelation the saints are getting

killed because they refused to do it so

this is another one and you and he is

called ready for this son of god God

Lord and Savior Does that sound

familiar So when Paul is writing son of

God again and again what he's doing is

he's saying there's somebody better and

bigger Don't miss it When he says Lord

and Savior he's making a political point

as much of anything else So into this

world you've got this quagmire of people

with identities and all of a sudden

Jesus shows up and he's saying "No you

got to come worship together." And then

the question is how How can we do this

Well now you're getting to the point of

the letter to the Ephesians The letter

to the Ephesians is telling them you

need a new

identity All of your identities

including

Judaism are not going to work anymore

with Jesus Christ All right So Paul

begins "Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus

by the will of God." I'm sorry folks

you're going to get sick of me but I'm

telling you that first line has so much

loaded in it The emperor used to have a

guy named the apostle He would send the

apostle out to cities with are you ready

for this With the good

news Did you know that So he sent out an

apostle The emperor Caesar would send

out a guy to your city and he'd say "Go

tell them the good news They have a new

Lord and Savior son of

God." Does that sound

familiar What Paul's doing is he's

saying "Actually that's not the king."

That's why he starts with Christ Jesus

Christ meaning king or

Messiah He says "Paul a true apostle

unlike those false apostles of the

imperial cult." Do you see Of

Christ Jesus by the will of God not the

will of Caesar So what he's saying is

the true kingship is God not Caesar

Isn't that amazing how he does that in

one

line and then he goes and says to the

saints bad interpretation this is ours

It is actually to the holy ones

Now that's why that's important because

that's right out of the Old

Testament who are in Ephesus Okay Well

that in Ephesus was that part I said

wasn't in the original documents This

one was a later document What I'm saying

is this is the one that was sent to

Ephesus This circular letter to the

saints to the holy ones Well what's he

talking about now He not only says that

we have I'm a true apostle of a true

king but he's also saying you all Jew

and Gentile are something new What is

holy one Well he's quoting right out of

Exodus to Israel And you shall be to me

a kingdom of priests and a holy nation

or holy

ones So what he's done in line two

number one line one he's undone the king

Caesar And number two he's undone Israel

Gentiles division because he's just said

to them to you Jew and Gentile you are

Israel Do you see You are the holy ones

Wow That was all in We haven't even got

to verse

three Do you see how wonderfully smart

this man is What he's doing is he's

taking their identities and flipping

them on their head Number one I'm the

guy that's sent out by the true king

Everybody else is false Oh and by the

way you guys Gentiles and Jews you're

Israel

Now remember these people were raised

that I hate Gentiles and in one line he

does that Let me say it again to the sa

to the holy ones who are in Ephesus

means the Israel that's in

Ephesus So for Paul and we'll hammer on

this Paul believes the church Jew and

Gentile together is true

Israel And true Israel is the ones that

follow the true God who's the true

king Most people in the church do not

realize what they're called to be

because they don't understand what Jesus

did And we are called to be children of

Abraham We are called

Israel Now don't start wearing those

Hanukkah things or whatever they're

called That could be

fun Who are in Ephesus and are the

faithful in Christ Jesus Why does he say

Christ Jesus No he doesn't always say

Christ Jesus King Jesus Think that way

And remember this Every time he says

Christ he's juxtaposing it to the

emperor So we are the people that are in

the emperor So not only are we Israel

we're also under the true king which

makes the king that everybody's afraid

of and identifies with out the

door Two verses and he's already knocked

the identities away But does he stop Oh

no Then he does something amazing If you

were a Gentile and you went and shook

hands or you wrote a letter you would

say this word favor or fortuna or luck

Okay And the word for favor is a a verb

out of of of um

grace but it was more like the gods give

you favor And that was it That's how you

greet it Now if you were two Jews that

met on a road what would the word you'd

be You'd say what do they still do it

Shalom What does shalom mean Peace What

does Paul do Tell me he's not brilliant

He's got these two people in one church

one Israel He uses

both You see that And he doesn't just

say favor because favor meant from the

gods He uses the word uh

charisma not oh it's not you You Oh darn

it It will come to

me Grace Come on Emry Can't remember it

off the top of my head which is really

embarrassing because it's like a first

year

word but it's unmmerited

favor It's unmmerited favor

It's not just you get favor You have

been given unmmerited favor to you and

shalom wholeness from God What he's done

by these two greetings is he's now said

"Guess what guys I'm going to greet you

because you're one and I'm going to use

your different identities to do it."

Isn't that brilliant

Caris Yeah Charisma Caris Thank you

Google

Um now thank you Thank you I know that

too

[Music]

Don't Don't you hate when your mind does

that And it's happens more when you get

older I'm going to tell you right

now I couldn't remember my dog's name

yesterday I

Jeez So he's done that and he's laid out

this incredible foundation of these two

getting together He's done this thing

where they're now greeted together in a

new greeting because they're new people

And then he does something incredible He

says "Blessed be God the Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ." Okay Now there's so

much in here but blessing is not a word

like I hope things go well or I want to

give you something It's a physical word

where you would get on your knees and

offer everything So the word blessed

means I'm going to offer you everything

Okay

And then who he says he's who is he

doing it to he's doing it to God the

Father and Lord Jesus Christ What he's

done there is he's not only is Jesus

Christ the King he's also God How do you

know Well what did those Jews say every

morning here O Israel

the is our God

the Now go back to this He says "Grace

and peace from God the Father and

the So who's the Lord if it isn't

God in all of Israel's language." So now

he already begins this trinitarian

formula Do you see it Right from the

beginning right away from the Lord Jesus

Christ and he doesn't just leave Jesus

he says Jesus the King You see he's

wrapping this whole thing together Not

the emperor who calls himself God Our

God is Jesus That's why he can be true

king And then he flips it and he shows

this generous God Remember how I told

you blessing was like kneeling down and

offering all you had Well listen to how

he describes God who has done

that to us in

Christ That

incredible He has kneel down and offered

everything to us in

Christ who has blessed us in Christ with

every spiritual blessing And then he

uses in the heavenly

places Now the mystery cults we talked

about them They like the heavenly places

They had all these

secrets but here he throws that out the

door and he says "No the real heavenly

places God's already blessed us in You

don't have to go and find a secret He's

already given you

everything." That incredible greeting

Read this stuff closely my friends Once

you learn it it'll blow your mind what

he's saying to us He has taken these

three verses and you say "Well are we

going to go through three verses a

time?" No But the greeting you have to

understand what he's doing He has

undermined all of these other identities

and put it around Jesus Christ And he's

saying to this church this is who you

should be And for us then our identity

must be different if we take this

seriously It was written to them but it

was written for us So for us we have

identities We just talked about two of

them in Canadian politics That's not all

of our identities We know that people

identify with sexuality or gender or

race People identify with political

parties People identify right now with

nationalism Big

one What does a Christian do in this

world Well Paul's saying "Actually I

expect there to be identities and I'm

going to tell you what your real

identity if you're going to be faithful

is going to

be." The first one that we here have to

understand is that we all are true

Israel And that's a hard one for some

people to get

around But in Jesus Christ he fulfilled

the mandate of

Israel Israel was called to be a light

to the world who was a light to the

world Israel was called the son of God

in the Old Testament Who was called the

son of God in the

new always and over and over again

Everything he did he did as Israel He

walked through the the he brought us the

new Exodus He fed us on a mountain right

He gave us a law Bang bang bang bang He

is the fulfillment of what Israel was

supposed to be And when he was crucified

and rose again he made it very

clear that his followers then are in him

And if he's true Israel then they're

true

Israel Now you say Emry that sounds

anti-Semitic What about bloodline Jews

99% of the first ones were bloodline

Jews

The difference is it's not anti-Semitic

at all because it was Jews

first and then the Gentiles got grafted

in But when you got grafted in you got

grafted into the people of God the God

of Israel and you became the pe the true

Israel Don't believe

me I've got receipts

That is why it depends on faith says

Paul to the

Romans in order that the promise may

rest on grace and be guaranteed to all

his offspring He's talking about Abraham

not only to the adherence of the law the

bloodline Jews but also to the one who

shares in the faith of Abraham the

Gentiles who is the father of some of

us of us

all my friends He says to the Galatians

there is no more male or female Jew nor

Greek slave nor free We are one

in

Jesus He has created a new people And

the first identity we must have and take

it serious is we are the people of God

God's chosen people That's why we can

relate to the Old Testament peoples cuz

we're their offspring We're by faith not

by blood but we are walking along And so

number one all of those stories speak to

us because we are the inheritors of

those stories

But I'm saying when you're true Israel

start finding your identity in God's

story in the

Bible You're part of those

people If you didn't one last

proceed Justin

Martyr first

century 40 45 years after the death of

Christ Okay So this is what they saw

themselves

as We Christians are the true

Israel which springs from Christ for we

are carved out of his heart as from a

rock That's the first identity marker we

must have is that we are Israelites by

faith We are followers of Abraham and

that's where I identify as and that's

why we are saved in Jesus Christ our

Lord That's your number one thing How

many of you thought you could be good

Jews Now don't go run down the street

and tell your Jewish friends that I'm a

Jew and you're not or something like

that because bloodline Jews are part of

this but so are

we I I don't have a lot of

dispensationalists in here I think I'm

okay What do you think

Ross Number two what he's going to

emphasize a lot and he doesn't quite

hear but he will We are citizens of

heaven This is a brutal thing in

antiquity They believe their citizenship

was Roman and it was held so

dearly Israelites didn't care so much

about the Romans held to their

citizenship because it gave you power

Look at the battle right now in America

around

citizenship Think of that But Paul has

no interest even though he was one of

the few that was a Roman citizen Never

once mentions it But what does he

mention Well listen to him in

Philippians But our citizenship is

in not in

Canada And we eagerly await a savior

from there the Lord Jesus Christ

You see because we're in Christ because

he took us into himself when we came by

faith Where is he right now Is he on

earth He has ascended hasn't he He's

king He lives in the heavens Sorry folks

There is a heaven That's where he

lives And he sent the spirit down to

deal with us So if we're in Christ then

that means our citizenship is in heaven

And there's the good news My friend

that's why you don't have to be afraid

to

die Because if your citizenship is on

some national power here it's going to

be

destroyed But a citizenship in heaven

does not rot What did he say Remember

when he says "Why don't you build up

your treasures where in heaven?" Because

on earth things rot And despite what he

was trying to say to them is put your

faith in me that's going to be in heaven

That's never going to change

We y'all are not safe because you're

Canadian

citizens Do you

understand You are safe because you are

in Christ and you are a citizen of

heaven by his grace alone And that's

unbelievable

and we await a

savior because there's something else

that's going to happen but I'll get to

it So if we're citizens of heaven then

the next thing is we should be different

from this

world And what does that mean We are

also now resident aliens in this

world Even though we have citizenship

I'm pretty sure most of you have

citizenship of some form I am a Canadian

citizen

My Christian teaching tells me that

actually Emry you're an illegal

immigrant You're a resident

alien Because right now you're not

living in your homeland which is

heaven You are living here as a resident

alien That's what the Bible says Again

I've got receipts

Peter dear friends I urge you

as

and well hold on a

sec Peter is talking to a church full of

Roman

citizens And yet they're being called to

be foreigners and exiles Why Because

their kingdom they're citizens of heaven

Do you see it

And so he wants them to live like the

the values of their former country

heaven in a world they don't belong

earth So what does he say to abstain

from sinful desires which wage war on

your soul live such good lives among the

pagans And here the pagans are people

who aren't part of the citizens of

heaven He switches that too by the

way that though they accuse you of doing

wrong they may see your good deeds deeds

and glorify God on the day he comes

back I don't like the word he visits us

because it sounds like he's going to

come in you know take your basement

suite for a week and go back He's not

This word he's coming

back And what that means is we are not

only to identify ourselves as Israel

We're not only to identify ourselves as

citizens of heaven That's where your

That's where your citizenship

is So whether you become a 51st state or

not doesn't matter actually I don't want

to be but it actually doesn't matter to

a Christian because we're citizenship

isn't here

anyways Do you understand Oh I'm going

to get in trouble I'm Shut

up But we're here now as resident aliens

We should feel uncomfortable here We

should feel like exiles because the

world is different I love what this guy

says The more deeply we reinforce our

identity in Christ the more

forified we will be against the

onslaught of opposing voices in our

lives One thing I've noticed with all my

Christian friends they're always saying

to me is at the end of the world the

reason they're saying that is because

they're living in a world that doesn't

take them seriously anymore There was a

time they would listen to our voices

There was a time you ready for this That

the prime minister of Canada would call

the head of the Presbyterian church in

Canada and ask him his

advice Can you believe that There was

also a horse and wagons

But but the truth that used to happen

And you know what's funny The church

wasn't like "Oh when's the world is the

world going to end?" Because they're

like "Oh we like this." Because we

didn't live like exiles because we were

the guys And we forgot and it was one of

our mistakes and this one of the reason

this denomination's dying is they forgot

they were resident

aliens Well I'm telling you what that's

what we are And we're called to be

different and we're called to be

uncomfortable And by the way is Jesus

going to return Yes Tomorrow Have no

idea And finally and most importantly

we're citizens of the kingdom of God

We're citizens of heaven We're true

Israel and we're resident aliens But

this is the most important point God's

kingdom has come and is going to come

And we are citizens in his kingdom And

what's going to happen one day Your

kingdom come Your will be done

on as it

in one day that citizenship of heaven is

going to come in to earth That's called

the resurrection

Okay And one day we are now citizens of

the kingdom of heaven Now go the kingdom

of God One day that will be fulfilled

That's the savior I was saying we're

waiting for That's what he's talking

about

there Jesus

came says Gregory A Boyd to establish

the kingdom of God as a radical

alternative to the versions of the

kingdom of the world Whether they

declare themselves to be under God or

not we are invited to be that radical

difference as a community And how do you

do

that You love the guy with a Canadian

flag that you don't agree with

politically That's the kingdom of

God You break bread with a person who

doesn't believe in Jesus

Christ because you can show their love

You forgive your

enemy That's so easy isn't it I find

that so

easy I can't even forgive the guy that

cut me off yesterday He's still bugging

me We be a different people cuz we're

citizens of a different country And the

king has shown us what it is like to be

part of that kingdom And we don't just

do this because we want to get to heaven

You're already citizens of heaven You're

already saved You do it because you're

called to shine the light of the kingdom

So people who don't know him who are

living

death

might impact him turn

around and find life like you

have That's why we do this folks

Now here's the good news that Paul will

not stop hammering on No matter what you

see in this political sphere it's got a

due

date No matter how bad it looks for you

when you're watching your news it's got

a due

date And that's why Paul's saying don't

focus on

that Focus on Jesus Christ Focus on his

kingdom

Tim Keller beloved Tim Keller the

kingdom of God is the permanent reality

while the kingdom of this world will

eventually fade

away

Okay One day believe it or not no one's

going to care that Emmery had a Canadian

citizenship Nobody When his kingdom

comes they're not going to care about

the protests and how many flags were

there or what we said about Trudeau Well

they might not like that

but they're actually not going to care

on that

day how angry you got on social

media You know on that day what's going

to matter is did we look like Jesus Did

we identify in Jesus Do we find our life

in Christ And did we embrace our

citizenship in heaven

That's the day where we'll see whether

we were really people who believed in

Abraham by faith Whether we were really

truly Israel forgiving loving and

lifegiving or whether we really embraced

the world and its

kingdoms I'm telling you right now

choose these identities as we go through

Ephesians These are

life They're different and they will

transform you And even amongst the worst

protests they will give you

peace because you're sealed in heaven

You're in

Christ And that's going to last forever

no matter what happens in the here and

now Let's

pray Heavenly Father you are amazing

We get co so caught up in

our present

issues that we forget who we really

are and then we become

ineffective Seal in our hearts that we

are true Israel your people by grace

because of the cross

seal in our hearts that we are citizens

of heaven that we already in you have

our citizenship there and it will not be

revoked and we will not be

deported Seal in our hearts Lord that

this is not our home Help us to live

like

exiles like resident

aliens and seal in our heart that we are

children of the kingdom of God

Lord we pray your kingdom come your will

be done on earth as it is in

heaven Help us to focus on your

kingdom which Edward said was the

prime the prime motive of every true

Christian And so we say come Lord Jesus

bring your kingdom And while we wait for

it make us true citizenships citizens of

the only kingdom that

lasts the kingdom of God In Jesus' name

amen