Lavished by Grace: Your Identity in Christ | Pastor Adam Mesa

Praise God.

Well, so good to see everybody and happy New Year,

but just a wave of hands.

Who was here on our New Year's Eve service? Was

anybody here?

Yeah, there's a We had thirty five hundred people pretty

much that we're here just at Rancho not mentioned online.

It was packed out in the rain. Man, So I

want to say thank you so much. During this holiday season.

I feel like this was some of the most rain

we've ever had during the holidays. And I'll tell you

this as a pastor in California, anytime we see rain,

we get nervous whether anyone will go to church or not,

because you know, people just can't even drive in the rain,

let alone do anything else. And so it was amazing

that everyone had come and showed out and really made

it about the Lord this holiday season and so incredible Christmas,

Christmas Eve services, New Year's Eve services. Thank you so

much for coming and leaning into your relationship with the Lord.

And like the video we just saw, thank you so

much to all those that consider Patriot your home church.

If you have a physical Bible, I want you to

prepare for the message by turning to the Book of Ephesians.

I definitely want to encourage you specifically during this first

month of January. If you have a physical Bible, bring

one because it'll just help you follow along that much better.

Or open up to your U version Bible app and

go to Ephesians as well and bring that and hold that.

We'll always have it up on the screen for those

that don't have the Bible app or don't have a

physical Bible. But it's just really good to follow along

during this series because we're doing something a little bit unique.

That is kind of one of the.

First things that first times we've done a series like

this where we are giving more of an expositional teaching,

and all exposition means is that we are surveying a

book by chapter by chapter and verse five verse, And

so for the first couple weeks we're going to look

at verse by verse, and then we're going to broaden

in the Book of Ephesians into the last couple weeks

chapter by chapter. It would take us sixteen weeks to

do verse five verse in just the Book of Ephesians,

and so we're doing it in six weeks.

But here's what I do know.

At the top of the year, oftentimes people make New

Year's resolutions, to say I want to get closer to God.

I maybe want to go to church more. I'm gonna

start reading my Bible. You maybe participate in a prayer fast.

And then what happens is when we don't build a

habit in God's Word, or if we open it, we

don't really always understand what we're reading.

That's where those habits tend to die off.

And so really what we want to do is start

the month off not building necessarily a resolution, but a

framework to say, hey, how can we read the Bible?

How can we study the Bible so that you can

continue to do this throughout the year. And so if

you have your Bible, go to the Book of Ephesians. Today,

we're only in fourteen verses Ephesians one one to fourteen.

We won't stand for this series just because we're going

to be looking at verse five verse as we discuss

and maybe later on through the month we will go

back to standing, but we're going to look at the

Book of Ephesians. Ephesians is written by the apostle Paul.

It's often for those that are new churches after Jesus's ministry.

So this is one of the apostles of Jesus. The

Apostle Paul was not one of Jesus's original twelve disciples.

He was saved and converted later on.

He was actually a fierce opponent of Christianity. Early on

he was a Jewish Phariseean scholar. But then he had

a radical confirmation and a radical conversion on the road

where he met Jesus face to face, and he gave

his life to Christ and committed the rest of his

life to following Jesus and specifically planting churches, which is

what the apostle Paul did. So he writes the Book

of Ephesians to a land called Ephesus, which is in Turkey.

It's in modern day Turkey.

If you ever want to take a cruise through the Mediterranean,

they almost always make a stop at Ephesus.

The area still exists today.

It's in ruins, but you can see the original churches

and amphitheaters. It's incredible experience to see for yourself. But

here's the thing that I want to encourage you during

this series. Lean into God's speaking, but also lean into

the Word of God. Not every Sunday is gonna be

a hip hip hoorah. Not every Sunday is gonna feel like, Oh,

I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be

at a place where I just I feel like everything

in my life is gonna be fixed.

These messages stretch and challenge our heart.

They stretch and challenge your relationship with God. And it's

okay to go to church and leave and be like, Lord,

I gotta make some adjustments. I gotta I gotta address

some things. You are always gonna leave and be like, Yes,

sometimes you leave and you're like, Okay, God, what are

you saying to me right now?

And that's where we find.

Ourselves in Ephesian Sophesians chapter one, verses one to fourteen.

What Paul is doing is he's building a foundation for identity,

because before you can ever act or do, your identity

needs to be spoken to. If you are not living

out of your identity with God, and you are merely

following God with habits and rules for your life, then

the reality is it'll never penetrate our heart. So following

God is not about if I say, hey, how do

I know that you have a relationship with God? If

you immediately start sharing about all the things that you

do the habits that you do, it hasn't penetrated your identity.

And so here's what I know.

Any veterans in the house, wave at me wherever you're

at in the Veterans number one, thank you so much

for your service. I'm not a veteran, but I got friends.

And you know, we got a young brother in the

church who recently joined the Navy, and during the holidays

he took a small break to come visit us.

And here's what I know.

For anyone that joins the military, whether it's Navy, Army, Marines.

Before you ever go to boot camp, what do they

have you do in a little room? Was that pastor girl?

Have you swear in? Swear into what? Swear into? What

you commit to, what you uphold to?

What?

Before you ever do they say, hey, out of your

mouth right now, we want to hear from you that

you make an identity commitment before you even hold a gun,

before you ever go off to any deployment, before you

ever put a rank on your caller or on your shoulder,

right now, out of your mouth, make a confession.

They do that oftentimes for doctors.

Doctors have to know the hippolaws before they could ever

do a surgery, before they could ever sit with someone.

Dada's first saying, first thing they have to do is

my identity as a doctor is to commit to blink.

Same thing for lawyers.

Lawyers who go and practice law and defend law, same thing.

They have to make commitments. And even when you go

to the stand, what do you got to do? Right

hand on the Bible, immediately, right now.

Do you make an identity confession? Before a word is spoken,

before a.

Thing is done, do you recognize your identity? And what

Paul does for Afesi chapter one, he is telling believe

before you go out and do, first you gotta know

who you are, who your identity is, and he breaks

it down so beautifully. So if you have your Bible,

let's go to Ephesians chapter one. I'm gonna first look

at verses one to six today here and if you

take notes, here's the first point that we we're gonna

see today. The first thing that Paul shows us is

that you and I have been chosen by the Father.

Your identity is absolutely settled with God, and you've been

chosen by God. Let's look at in Ephesians chapter one

versus We're gonna look at one to three and then

four to six. Here's a couple of things I want

you to note because you're gonna see it, and if

you take notes and stuff like that, this is gonna

this is gonna be overly portrayed to you today. The

Apostle Paul right now says two words over and over,

and it'll be important to note. And it's important for

you to remember. He's gonna say in and through a lot.

Why is that important Because he's making it very clear

that all the things that he's about to say is

in and through only one person, not a multiplicity of things,

not a bunch of stuff in and through one person.

So I want you to look, Paul and Apostle.

Of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the

saints who are in Ephesus. These are the believers that

are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Here's right here.

First, one is in Christ Jesus, faithful in Christ Jesus.

He's not writing the letter to people who claim to

be Christians, who are faithful in their job, even faithful

in their marriage, faithful in their parers. Because a lot

of times you think about it, we engage this thing

called faith for these attitudes and habits and these descriptors

that right away, he's saying, this life, once you become

a believer, it's about being faithful to God. Everything else

flows out of that, but our faithfulness it comes by

first being in Christ Jesus, and then the apostle Paul says,

which is a very common greeting to him, grace to

you and peace from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because if you can never fix the situation, what you

can do is you can ask the Lord for continued

grace from God and continued peace from God. So his

letter greetings don't start with situational awareness situation fixing. He'll

often talk about it later on, Hey, this is what's

going on in your area region, and then he prays

for it. But he always starts with saying to people,

you got to understand that I'm here to wish you

that God's grace, unmerited favor, unmerited grace, this gift.

And God's peace.

Bible says, if you can have God's peace, it surpasses

all understanding. So he hands this to the church that

that's his prayer for them, and then he says, in

Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, blessed be the God

and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has

blessed us in blessing in the look get this in

the heavenly places. God's blessing comes from a kingdom that

doesn't sit here on this earth.

It's a kingdom of heaven that is both in heaven

and here.

And he says, God blesses you from heavenly places. You

may say this seems pretty obvious. No, think about it.

God doesn't bless us from a regional land. God's blessing

doesn't flow friends from Israel. God's blessings doesn't flow from Rome.

God's blessings don't even flow from the White House. God's

blessings flow from heavenly places. There's only one place where

God's grace and peace comes from, and it is not

in a physical location. It's not in Mecca, it's not

in India, it's.

Not in Pakistan. It's in heaven.

And so what happens is we find our hearts often

because we want the physical to draw to a physical.

If I could just get to this physical location or

this place, then I can experience God's grace, then I

can experience God's peace.

No, you can't. If you have access to the spirit

of the Living God in and through Jesus.

Christ, then you have access to heavenly places at all times,

at all times, at all times.

Let's go to verses four to six. Four to six, he.

Jumps in and once again, even as He chose us

there it is again in him before the foundation 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. Why did God create an opportunity for you

and I to be inheritors.

And adopted into the kingdom.

And you want to say, I want answers, God, how

come you have given your children the ability to have

relationship with you? With you, it's because it's according to

his will. It's his desire. It's his desire. That's important

to note, because we'll talk about it in a few moments.

Why And he goes why to the praise of his

glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved,

which is once again a relationship with Christ. So what

happens is the apostle Paul begins to make things clear

and he says, in Jesus Christ, God has chosen us.

Why is in and through so important?

And what's this idea of God choosing us in Him,

in him that's important before the foundation.

Of the world.

What the apostle Paul is telling you and I that

you look at this door and let's just say.

There wasn't an open wall on the other side.

It's just a fully closed door, fully closed wall, and

you want to get to the other side. Well, if

there was, just say the wall continued over here, and

I said, hey, you know on the other side is

a relationship with the creator of the heavens and the earth,

and a relationship with God. And God has made a

way that you and I can have a relationship with him.

Do you desire that relationship with him? If the answer

was yes, and I said, well, there's this door called Jesus,

and if you would go in and through this door,

you can become an adopted child of God.

You can be in relationship.

With the Father because and we'll see in a few moments,

because of what Jesus has done for your life, and

you want to know what many people do in the world.

Who have heard the Gospel.

They look at it and then they say, I wonder

if there's another way to get around this door?

Or can I take things with me in this door?

You know?

I like horoscopes, I like candles, I like crystals like

so is there things that I could take with me

in this door?

And no, you can't take it.

You see when you walk through this door, you walk

through this door the way you came into the world

with nothing in your hands and naked, just you before God,

and so in and through is telling you and I

ain't no workaround, ain't no shortcut, ain't no ladder. You

can build big enough that's gonna get you around and

over that wall. There is not a multiplicity of gods

you can pray to. There is not a location you

could go to. He says, what you're gonna see is

that you've been chosen by God before the foundation of

the world, in Jesus Christ. This idea of Jesus coming

to save us and redeem us was not God's backup plan.

It was his first plan. And so for a Jewish person,

what they would think is they would think, oh, so,

what God just couldn't.

The law couldn't save anyone. So God sent.

Jesus as a backup plan to save us. No, God

gave us the law to show us that you and

I can't live up to the law. The most perfect

person in the world can not live good lives and

perfect lives. So the law shows us that as Jesus

comes to redeem us, there's only one door, and his

name is Jesus, and the only way to access the

Father is through this door. And then he says He's

brought us into adoption. You see, I love this term adoption,

and Paul chooses it very specifically because adoption in Jesus's

day and in Biblical days is not like adoption that

we would do in today's age. You see, adoption in

Jesus's day would often be for full grown adults.

It was for adults.

See what would happen was is if you were someone

that was wealthy, and you were someone that had an estate,

and you had land, and you had cattle, and you

had sheep, and you were now older, you were fifty

sixty seventy years old in that day, and you had

no heir, maybe you only at one point had daughters,

or maybe at one point you just never had sons,

or your sons maybe had died from illness and war

and other things like that, and so you have no

one to pass your legacy, your last name, your heritage to.

What you would begin to do is you would interview

men in the city who were looking to have something

better than what they were living in. And when the

man would interview another young man who was in his teens,

twenties and thirties, he would make a decision and say,

I'm gonna adopt you, and you're gonna be the inheritor

to my estate. And here's some things that would happen

when an adult would be adopted in Jesus' day. The

first thing is they would have full legal status.

In the family.

So according to all of their neighbors, according to all

of their friends, according to the government, whatever that person's

old last name was, whatever that person's old family was,

full legal status.

Is now in this new family.

They're not allowed to identify the maiden life last name.

That doesn't exist no more. They totally erased the idea

of that. The next thing that they do is the

name gets changed, but also they immediately be become part

of the inheritance. They're already a benefactor to win. This

person passes away, they inherit the land. Additionally, what happens,

which actually might shock you, is that if a young

man had any debt whatsoever, the man who was going

to adopt the other man had to pay off all

of his debts. He wasn't allowed to be adopted if

he had any debt to his name. So them student

loans that you got, that you've had for twenty years,

they'd have to be canceled out. He wasn't allowed to

bring old debts into the new family. And then what

happens is it was irrevocable. So that man who was

adopting that other man he had to know without a

shadow of a doubt, because when he made this decision

two months later, if that guy I was just sleeping

in his bed and just eating chips and kicking off his.

Shoes, he couldn't go.

To the courthouse and say, hey, I made a mistake.

I want to erase this. They say it's irrevocable. I

want you to think about that. He has adopted us

to himself, gives you a new name, cancels out all

of your debts, irrevocable, all because you and I've decided

to have faith in this door, to have faith in Jesus.

That's what adoption is. I got this friend that many

years ago, about seven or eight years ago, him and

his wife started the process of adoption. He's in another state.

He's a pastor, and they were going to adopt a

brother and a sister. The sister was an infant and

the brother was a toddler. At the time, the adoption

process was expected to take six to nine months twelve

months at the latest, so they were really excited.

The children that they were going to adopt.

Was coming from another country, a country that spoke Spanish,

and this couple happened to be a white couple. And

so what happened was is they started the process and

after about a year, the process was still going on.

So then after two years, the process was still going on.

So after about the second year, him and his wife decided, well,

by time we get these children. Before when we were

going to receive them, they hadn't been taught a language,

they weren't speaking yet, but now they're speaking Spanish.

And they hadn't even.

Met the children, and they just had pictures of them,

and they sayd so we should start learning Spanish. So

they start learning Spanish, because like when we become their

mom and dad, they're not even going to be speaking

our language. So they start learning Spanish. They start spending

tens if you've ever done an adoption process, tens of

thousands of dollars documentation, and if it's in another country,

it's appearing before judges, and it's going before American judges,

it's going through their country judges, it's going through the

childcare system in that country, childcare system in our country.

And so what was gonna be.

A six to nine month process for him turned into

a process of a little bit over seven years.

It was almost eight years.

And so after about year four, I remember talking to

him and I said, hey, I know you and your

wife really wanted babies. Are you just because he had

every right to be able to do it, I said,

are you ever just gonna call the government and say, hey,

can we pass on those children? And just cause it

was kind of the it wasn't the process.

For that children.

It was the legal process between two that was COVID

was mixed in that and stuff like that. And so

I said, do you want to kind of. I mean,

I don't mean to be disreflect like almost start fresh.

Those children never even met you, do you are like you?

And he said, my heart has already told me and

my wife these are our children. And so he said, no,

I won't start over. And so he ends up receiving

his daughter and his son. When his daughter started as

an infant, and by time he received her, she was

close to nine years old. The brother was close to

almost twelve years old. And in this process, not only

did he spend tens of thousands of dollars, not only

did he become fluent in Spanish so that he could

be ready to receive the children that he was adopting.

But at the same time, I look at the process

I have to biological sons, Matthias and Thomas, and I

look at the process that me and Ashley had to

have them, which number one was fun and when number two,

number two, it really wasn't all that hard in the

grand scheme of things. God was merciful in the process,

with some couple doctor visits, couple scary moments of her

going to the doctor, but relatively speaking, we didn't do

a whole lot of work to receive our sons, and

all day, no one here could convince me just because

Mathi and Thomas look at me. Put that aside, they

look like me and Ashley. You could never convince me

that they're not my sons. You couldn't convince me. And

why do I say that? Because my friends who adopted

his children. If you ever walked out looked at them

and you saw a white couple with these two little

Hispanic kids that have broken English accents and you said,

I feel like you aren't their parents, he would be like, oh,

be quiet, these are my children. I've held them in

my heart for seven eight years before I ever saw them.

I have cared for them now for close to five years.

He would tell you, those are my children. You all can't.

There is no logic you can bring that says though't

aren't his children. And here's why I'm saying that, because

there is often times you and I doubt our sonship

and daughtership when it comes to the father. And because

you've been adopted by God and he's canceled your debts

at He's made an irrevocable decision to bring you into

the family. If you and I could look an adoption

process say, I would never doubt the relationship between those

parents and their mom and their dad and their children.

Do not doubt your relationship with the father.

If you have walked through this door before, and you

are living in Christ and walking your life through Christ,

then you and I are an adopted son and daughter

of God. You become a fool, as Roman eight says,

a full inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

And there's no use in doubting it. So you and

I we got to stop living like spiritual orphans.

You don't need an earn belonging. You need to live

from it. It's not about earning it. If I ask

my friend, hey, what's in it for you to have

waited that long for those children, he'd be like, what

do you mean, what's in it for me?

I didn't do it. What's in it for me?

I did it out of love because I love these children.

And so what happens is often you ask God, God,

what's in.

It for you?

It's not that it's in it for him, it's his

love for us. You don't earn it, we live from it.

And you don't behave your way into the family. You

behave differently because you're already in the family. That's the difference.

You don't earn your right into God's family. You live

from the fact that you're in God's family. You live

from that place, not towards that place. And then here's

the second point we're gonna see is as we've been

chosen by the Father, You and I have been redeemed

by the Son, and your past has been handled. We

are redeemed by the Son and our past is handled.

Look at verses seven to ten, and I want you

to see in seven to ten here it is in him.

Oh, there's that word again. We have redemption.

Through what his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. We

have redemption through His forgiveness for our trespasses. According to

what according to the riches God's grace?

What is it?

According to why are we redeemed through the blood of Jesus?

Because God is rich in.

Grace, He has riches of grace, unmerited favor. God has

forgiveness for tresfastest.

And look at this. I love this.

Probably one of my favorite words in the whole Bible

is in this moment which He lavished upon us. We

some of y'all, My wife don't mind being lavished upon.

When we go out and I get that perfume, I'm

gonna take you to dinner. Hey, let me get you

a nice jack jacket. Whatever way she comes home, she's like,

I've been lavished upon. Look, Look, you've been forgived of

our trespastest through the blood of Jesus, which God has.

He's lavishing on you. He lavishes on you.

In all wisdom and insight, making known to us the

mystery of His will according to His purpose, which he

set forth in Christ. What's the misty of God's will

that he's been made known, which is a relationship with

Christ and a relationship with God, the creator the heavens

and the earth, is through the blood of Jesus. That

is the mystery that God makes available to us. So

whenever it comes to you and says, how do I

have a relationship with God?

It's not a trick question. It's not a pop quiz.

It's not made so.

That people can't find the answer, won't understand the answer.

Is very easy.

But the decision to step forward to it means that

we rid ourselves of our past, which means we set

aside our pride and we receive the grace that he lavishes.

But the mystery that God has opened up to all

of the world is this. The relationship between us and

God goes through Jesus, through the blood his death for

our sins, and his grace is available to be lavished

upon us. It's not a secret. It's not like you know,

you and I are in the holiday parties and some

of you all know stuff and the rest of the

family don't know stuff, and you wait for a chance

for this part of the family to walk out the

room so that you can continue the secret.

Conversation you had before they arrived.

That's not what salvation is God, is it like, Hey,

let's get the centers out the room so I could

talk to He's got these secrets that He's made available

according to the riches of his grace that he's lavished. You know,

it's been said, It's been said, oh I dropped it.

It's been said, how many you guys have ever heard

this before? That most of the diamonds that are held

in the world are actually held in safes and behind

the scenes and actually diamonds. I just want to let

you all know this is fake, Okay, So don't find

me after service. It's from Amazon, so four cart Amazon

diamond it's worth one set. So it's been said that

the Beers is the diamond mining company that holds ninety

percent of the world's diamonds, and they mind ninety percent

and the other ten percent is other diamond minds.

And what they do is.

For decades upon decades, is they store diamonds away and

they only release a few.

And what I mean few, it's still millions.

But when you look at the world globally, they only

release a few annually, so it keeps its rarity, so

it keeps its specialness, and so therefore they can still

set the prices and all that, because if they're harder

to get a hold of it, it means you'll pay

more and we'll want more. But it's been said if

if they just opened up all of their safes and

minds and just flooded the market with all the.

Diamonds that are stored right now.

That the prices of diamonds would go down by like

eighty percent because they would be just that available, Like

you could buy a four carrot for your three year

old daughter if that were the case, Like it's just

so available, and the reality is we treat forgiveness, either

our understanding of God's forgiveness for us or the way

that we give forgiveness to other people. We deal with

it as if it's this massive rarity. Like now, hey, listen,

if I give you this, if I forgive you and

I give you this, you better appreciate it, and you

better make sure that I don't ever have to forgive

you ever again, because I only got a couple of these,

and I only open up the safe once in a while.

And we take our human heart of how we forgive,

and then we apply that to God, and we go

call God's mad at me. God's angry at me because

he's got this rare thing called forgiveness. He's got this

rare thing called grace that he doesn't hand out easily,

that he doesn't make super available. But in fact, what

God does is what we just read according to the

richest of.

His grow He lavishes. He lavishes. He's got so much

that go around, he has.

So much to give access, he's got so much mercy,

he's got so much grace. And you say, God, where

does it end. Where's the wall? There's no wall when

it comes to God's grace. There's no wall when it.

Comes to God's forgiveness. He's made it available to lavish on.

His children, to give to his children for who well,

for those in Christ, for those who have received the

blood of Jesus over their life. Because there's more than

enough blood of Christ. There's more than enough forgiveness of

sin to go around. And so God doesn't go like this.

You again, you were just here yesterday. It's not even

eleven o'clock and I've.

Already seen you three times, saw you in the parking lot,

saw you in your house.

Come on, I'm running out of these things. What are

you doing? God doesn't do that. God lavishes, He lavishes.

You need more mercy, you need more grace, You need

more forgiveness. God has more than enough.

Now you may be here and you say, well, if

God's got all this from mercy and forgiveness, then what's

the point of living holy?

What's the point of not sinning? Then?

If I could sin and do what I want and

get all this at the same time, what's the point.

Well, here's the biggest thing. You may receive.

God's grace, but you will also experience the repercussions and

effects of unholiness.

So grace is we equal to everyone.

But the repercussions of our sin and your decisions and

the effects of how we live. Oh, that that happens

all day. People talk to me all day. But I've

asked the Lord for forgiveness. Yes, the Lord has forgiven you.

But you're gonna live in those repercussions. That is a

part of it, because you are We're not free from

that all the time, but you are free from the

heavenly place where God says, I've wiped the slate clean.

And there are times if we are walking in Christ's

likeness and we're walking in God's forgiveness, that people were

experienced the grace of repercussions falling. But in that case

it takes two to tango. In the Book of Romans,

the apostle Paul says, if God's forgiveness is available for

even every sin, even after you become a believer, if

you do fall into sin, then what's stopping anyone? He says,

should you just be able to allowed to continue to sin?

And he uses a curse word and he says absolutely not.

You could fill in the curse word in Greek. He says,

absolutely not. He says, do not continue to sin because

Christ has died for you. Because what he explains is,

he says, because when you understand that our sin was

pierced in Jesus's body, when you understand he was beaten

where his mother could not wreck him, and he has

enough wherewithal to know all of us were in his mind.

He says, every time we go out there to make

a conscious decision to sin, it's another lash on Christ.

And he says, and if you would understand that, would

you do that consciously?

To our Lord?

He says, We do not live out of that because

we understand what we have been given, this thing called grace.

But here's what you got to remember.

Your past is handled, your present is redeemed, and your

future is meaningful because of the forgiveness of God. And

grace doesn't just erase sin. It will reorientate our life.

When we experience the grace of God, it reorientate us.

Here's the last thought, and the last point is that

you and I go from being chosen by the Father,

redeemed by the Son, and through the Son, to sealed

by the Holy Spirit. Sealed your future is secure. I

want you to see this look at it, the last

verses that we're going to read together.

As we begin to close, Oh well, there it is again.

In him, he making it clear, like if anyone's like,

I'm gonna read the Bible and then they walk away

and they're like, I think there are many paths to God,

it's like, just read fourteen verses of Ephesians and it

will make it clear. There is not many paths to God.

There's one way to God, and it's through Jesus. And

he makes it abundantly clear in him, in him, through him, through.

Jesus, in his blood, in him, because.

He wants to obnoxiously show us, no matter how smart

you are, you are not gonna find no loopholes. You

are not going to find a new scaffold around the door.

There's one door. And he's like, you ain't gonna trick this.

And so he says, in him, we've obtained an inheritance

because he just talked about adoption. So he's like, you

got the inheritance, and he says, been predestined according to

the purpose of Him who works all things according to

the counsel of his will, so that we who were

the first to hope in.

Christ, might be to the praise of His glory.

Why does God redeem us, Why does God bring us

into the family, is so that we would praise Him,

so that we would understand that as He has restored

us to a relationship, that we would give him glory.

And so our primary focus when we gather in the

House of God is not necessarily so that we have

just a fun, grand old time. It's not so that

we fix our lives or we get the answer we've

been waiting for. The first and primary reason why we

gather together is to give praise for what God has

already done, to give God glory for what God has

all ready done. What God does from there is a

beautiful grace of God that is a cherry on top,

because the greatest thing that God could ever do is

give us a door to get access to Him. Anything

beyond this door is a blessing. But a lot of

us we treat other things as the door. We got

these prayers, we got these things. We're mad about God,

and we act like God. If you fix that, I

will walk to the door that will then experience a

relationship with you. But that's not what it is. The

door is Christ. We walk through it. The fact that

God has given us access to a handle to have

relationship with him is to give him glory and praise him.

So when we gather, the primary reason why we gather,

the primary reason why we pray and we read our word,

is not to treat God as a genie lamp that

we rub to get all these things that we want

and need. Is to say, God, I recognize in him,

I have an inheritance. I praise you for that. And

that is endless. That is a well that never runs dry.

Now look at thirteen and fourteen as we close, here's

what it says.

In him, I don't even need a circle it anymore.

You get it.

In him when you heard the Word of truth, the

Gospel of your salvation, the good News of your salvation,

which is the Blood of Jesus that redeems us and

believed in him. We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit who's the guarantee of our inheritance until we

acquire possession of it, till you and I stand before God,

and the Spirit of God doesn't have to guarantee it

in our spirit no more, because we see the Father

face to face. He says, God has sealed you for

redemption until the day we redeem that inheritance and you

take possession of it once again.

To praise God.

God has sealed you till the day that we stand

before him. What was a seal, Well, what happened was

is when somebody would seal not just a letter, but

let's just.

Say an agreement.

So let's just say you walked into a car dealership

and this was Jesus's day and they said hey, and

you walked in and you say, hey, I don't get

paid for six months. I really want this car. Can

you guys hold it for me? And they said, okay, Well,

here's what's gonna happen. We are going to draft a

contract that what happens is in six months, whether you

want the car or not, you still have to pay

for it.

You can't back out.

And if you sign on that, we're gonna put it

in the envelope and I'm gonna put my seal on it,

and you're gonna put your seal on it. And so

the day it'll be broken is in six months, whether

you're there or not, I will be there and I

will be waiting to collect on what it is that

you have said you have promised to obtain. What God

has said is God has said that for anyone that

would call upon the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit,

he would peel put a seal on your life, which

means the day that you and I arrive in heaven

to collect on that promise, God says, I will not

revoke out of it possible. He uses a Roman legal

term to say, I will not back out. Have you

ever doubted your salvation? Have you ever questioned your relationship

with God? I'll tell you this, if you've walked through

that door.

God has made a promise by.

The spear to say you'll never get to heaven and

God will be like you know, Yeah, in ninety seven

I was with you, but in five I kinda I

backed out.

Well, we was good in twenty twenty, but.

In twenty twenty five I cracked.

That letter open and I backed out.

No, God is willing to put everything on the table

to show you and I. He's got no hidden tricks

to show you and I. He sent his son to

die and raise for us. He blood of Jesus, he

is because he's a what else do you? He's adopted

you into his family man, I'll take a back house

in heaven. But God's like, no, no, you plenty of rooms,

plenty of food, plenty of everything. They can all be adopted.

You all can carry his name.

You can all.

That's what Patreon means family. It means that we carry

the name of the Father. That that's what our name

means is family of the Father of God.

Because you carry.

God's family insignia over your name. And so I want

you to know this as we close. You are not

held by your consistency. You are held by God's commitment.

It's not your consistency, it's the commitment of God that

he has over your life. And you may say, well,

why do I need to live a specific way? Why

do I got to well out of the commitment that

God has for me?

I want I want to live that out.

Everything that He's done for us and in us to

redeem us. I want to live through what He's revealed

to us. I don't want to take advantage. I don't

want to be adopted and be like, what's the first

thing I could ruin in here? I want to be

adopted into the kingdom and say, man.

I was headed to Hell, I was headed to burn.

I was headed to be disconnected for all eternity from God,

and he didn't. He didn't just give me an outhouse.

He brought me into the family. Why would I not

want to be consistent? Why why would I not want.

To live this out not? Why how can I take

advantage of this?

Why would I want that? It's because God's committed to

you and I. And if you live anxious about your salvation,

then we misunderstand grace. You don't stay saved because you're strong.

You stay saved because God is faithful. He's faithful to

all of his promises. He's abundant in mercy and grace.

And so what we can see today as we close

is you can see through these three things that you

and I have been chosen by God before time, through

Jesus Christ, and we are redeemed in Christ, and we're

sealed into into eternity. So keep going, as Paul says,

finish the race, fight the good fight of faith. You say, why,

because God's committed to endure it till the end for

you and I.

So let us stay committed to God. And some of us.

Are trying to earn what God has already given to us.

And the new year for twenty twenty six isn't necessarily

about striving harder. It's about standing firmer. God's done all

the hard work. We just need to live in what

God has already done and receive what the Lord has

already done.

And before we ever obey, we need.

To understand our identity, and we got to understand God's

grace before we make an effort. We got to understand

that you're secure before you and I go act out.

So as we leave here today together, I just want

to make an invitation of faith with every head bow

and every guye's close. You know, I couldn't make the

gospel anymore