God’s Will - Purpose & Plan | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. If you remember about two weeks ago when I

shared and I preached on Ecclesiastics on the times and seasons in which we are

living in in which towards the end, I alluded to a portion of scripture

from Efficients chapter one to talk about God's great plan what is it? Nor

if you want to understand times and seasons, we've got to also know what

the ultimate plan is. And then I drew our attention to Ephicians chapter one,

verse ten, and then from there I'm going to continue to build today's

message, and I hope to be able to do a series, maybe since

I'm going to be teaching and preaching here a little bit more regularly, to

maybe just teach the entire Book of Efficients. For me, it's quite a

powerful, powerful book. Why is it? Well, every book in the

Bible is amazing, But in light of what we are doing, in light

of the team for this year that all may know, I think it's important

for us to not just know and have hate knowledge because belief is important,

and I want to make sure that as we teach and deliver and share the

word. We will help encourage you in your belief. But the belief must

not just stay where it is, because if it stays where it is,

it remains in the recesses of our hates. And if believe doesn't turn into

behavior, we will never be doers of God's word. We will always just

be hearers. And it's not good enough if we hear and not do and

carry out what God has asked us to do in and true his word.

Amen. And so Actually, Efficients is a really interesting book. It's a

letter which was written by Paul to the church in Ephesus, and in it

from chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, if

I'm not mistaken, the first half it is establishing the belief. The second

half of it is actually in the doing, in the behavior. So again,

not just doctrine. Sometimes we love doctrine. We come to church,

just feed me, feed me, give me knowledge, give me doctrine.

But doctrine without doing is useless. Also, so you need to have both

the knowledge and the action that goes together with it. Okay, So the

first parts of Efficients, like I said, it's a lot of teaching.

It's not straight away practical, but it can also be so I'm going to

be teaching from Versus eleven to twenty three of Chapter one today. So we

want to encourage your to have your physical bibles. Have your physical Bibles.

I think it's great. We will continue to put slides, but the reality

is, I think all of us should own a physical Bible. We want

to just do you. We're going to start a campaign soon across all our

church plans to encourage everyone to firstly own your own bibles. Uh, and

don't just own it because some of us know we probably have twenty five Bibles

in our house, but if you don't read it. Actually I think I

got that many in them. But anyway, but if you don't read it,

it's of no use as well. So firstly, for those of you

who don't own your own Bible, we want to encourage you to get your

own Bible and then carry it along with you. Learn how to flip the

pages because a lot of a lot of us actually don't know where the positions

of the books of the Bible is because we don't flip now everything. Okay,

even I use sometimes the e Bible only because I can make the phones

really really big helps me. And Pastor John always laughs at me. When

he sees my Bible. He says, I stand five hundred meters away as

well. I can read your scripturality, but I can make it really big.

Everything my telegram is being my one said, is everything is big.

It helps me even the largest print I realize even the largest print print Bible.

Joy can't see. I can't really see the largest print print Bible.

Okay anyway, but I still carry along a physical BIB, but I carry

an architap busy. B is a Malay Malay Bible only because I want to

familiarize myself with the language a little bit more as we go out into the

different interiors here in Malaysia and also to Indonesia. Uh. It's it's natural

to share in English. Not very natural for me to share basa. And

so this is why I carry Malay Bible. But we want to encourage all

of you bring along your Bible. Teach your children to have their own Bibles.

Uh. Yeah, all the teens bible carry by notebook. Okay,

small one. I got some small one and is like a big nough fit

into my handbag. Can I can? Can we try to find they are

very small. Hopefully your eyesight remain good forever. But then again I realized

the next generation the eyesight is worse than mine. Right now, it's like

the next yeah, young all wearing spects within a is Yeah, it's just

because you'll use a lot of the devices more than we do. So oh

well that's life. Okay, I better, I better teach. If not,

you're going to stone me. Okay, Emphicients Chapter one versus eleven twenty

three. I am going to be reading from the n LT. Basically,

I'm going to be talking about God's sovereign plan, purpose and will oh you'll

know it's going to be like, oh no, this is going to blow

my brain. But I stay with me. Stay with me. Just give

me the next hour of forty five minutes to an hour, and I will

try to make sense of God's word so that you not only know it,

you can apply in your life. Amen, I'm reading from the NLT,

and it doesn't matter if you have other versions. That's why I encourage you

to just bring your Bibles in whatever versions, whatever language. Sister, you

have a Ceilon's Bible, bring it, you read it, no problem,

because you you will notice how rich God's word is even different English version.

Versions sometimes uses different words that can help us understand it better. Okay,

I'm going to read it slowly because I want you all to take in every

single one. I'm going to dissect the scripture verse by verse so that we

have a clearer understanding moving forward. Okay. Verse eleven says this. Furthermore,

because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,

for He chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according

to his plan. God's purpose was that we Jews, who were the first

to trust in Christ, would bring praise and glory to God. And now

you, gentiles, have also heard the truth, the good news that God

saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his

own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The

Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised, and

that he has chase us to be his own people. He did this so

we would praise and glorify him. That's the first part, Okay. The

next part, the title says, is Paul's prayer for spiritual wisdom. Verse

fifteen goes on to say this, Ever since I first heard of your strong

faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God's people everywhere. I have

not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you, constantly, asking

God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual

wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I

pray that your hearts will be flirted with light, so that you can understand

the confident hope He has given to those He called his Holy People, who

are His rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the

incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same

mighty power that raised Christ from the date and seated him in the place of

honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above

any ruler or authority, or power or leader or anything else, not only

in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put

all things under the authority of Christ and has made him hate over all things

for the benefit of the Church. And the Church is his body. It

is made full and complete by Christ, who feels all things everywhere with himself.

The Lord blessed the reading of his word. Okay, I know many

of us probably have read this portion of scripture over and over time and time

we probably sang lines of it songs that know, just at different times in

our lives. But let's look at it in entirety a little bit, okay,

so that we get a clearer picture. I want to start off by

saying this, I believe in God's free will? Do you? And I

asked this question only because the reality is, in today's world, we are

always talking about our rights, our will is what's in it for me?

But I believe in God's free will. No. People have been debating about

their own rights, about their own will, their own intent, what they

want, what they need, but they sometimes forget that God has a will

and that he is free. So as we question, like as though,

oh God, you don't give me any choice or everything determined, it's supposed

to be about me, I'm supposed to have the choice. But the fact

is only God is really free. Think about it, because He is the

only one whose will controls everything and who is without limitations on what he decides

to do. Is there anything that you think can limit God? Think about

it. Of course, unless you think that God is not all mighty,

he's not all powerful, he's not all knowing a lot. But sometimes we

put limits to God, but God has no limits in that sense. Of

course. I don't want to go into a theological debate and argument. Some

people like, you know, there's some things God cannot do. Yeah,

I agree. Actually there's somethings God cannot do if you think about it.

He can't lie, he can't sin. And because so that's some people say,

oh, then he's not all mighty, he doesn't have free will.

But okay, let's not go let's not go into that. That's for a

different story. I just want to establish the fact that God is free and

he has a will. But the modern cry is for our freedom, our

rights. I'm saying, let us start by realizing that it is God who

is the only really free person. And if you want to find freedom,

therefore you will find it when you find God. Makes sense. Now,

when somebody says that he or she has a strong will, okay, a

strong will, free will, strong will, it usually means two things.

Okay, the first one is this, and I'm going to believe your stay

stay in me. I'll try to explain it. Okay, if someone says

that he has a strong will, on one hand, it means that they

are able to decide upon a purpose. Basically, they know what they want

to do. Right if you, if you say that I have a strong

will, means you can decide your purpose, you know what you want to

do. And on the other hand, it also means that they have the

power to do it. Two things. Where we're talking about will, talking

about strong will, we talk about someone who has will. Power is not

just to know what you want to do, It is to be able to

do it. Two things. It comes together. And God has a very

strong will. That is why the team of the letter too efficients is actually

the purpose and the power of God, his will and his plan. Okay,

make sense so far. Again, strong will means you are a you

know and you are able to decide upon a purpose, and then you have

the power to do it. So what does all this mean. It means

basically, this God decides to do something, he doesn't need to consult anyone

else. He consults himself only. And God has been having his own conference

right from the very beginning. If you think about it, right from Genesis

chapter one, itself. It actually says that Father's son Holy Spirit were having

their own conference, they were meeting, they were doing, and they created

man in their own image. You actually see the pronouns use in Genesis,

even though it's making reference to God, but it's actually there's an es there

on. It's actually God's so study and you realize that right from the very

start God is one, but God is also Father's son. Holy Spirit is

actually in scripture, and we know that God all he needs to do is

chat with himself and decide what to do. And that is what they did.

And we always for us, we just need to be caught up in

God's plan and purpose and power. Everything is determined by Him. And so

Effhicients Chapter one, eleven to twenty three is essentially doing This is answering two

questions. As we have read all those that we read, it's actually helping

us to answer these two questions. And I hope that just by asking these

questions and getting the answers, we will have a clear picture and you will

see why I'm sharing it as well in light of the team for this year,

which is that all may know. So question number one is this,

how do I come into the purpose of God? How do I become part

of his plan? How can I become part of the plan? And I

give you the answer very simply, and I'll elaborate on it, but the

answer is through preaching. How do you you come into God's plan? How

do we become part of the plan? Is actually true preaching, That's the

first question. The second question that is asking in these scriptures here is basically

just how do I find the power to fulfill God's purpose? How do I

find the power to fulfill God's purpose? And I give you the answer straight

away is actually true praying, Okay, And that is why there will never

be a day when preaching and praying becomes outdated. You ever wonder why sometimes,

oh yeah, every time I come to church us the same thing,

some joker beyon stage telling us things, preaching, sharing the word, preaching

the Gospel, asking us to read a Bible, and then then we'll be

praying, and then we do this routine. They in, they are weak

in wake out. But that is not something that is outdated because this is

the way that God has chosen. He brings people into his purpose true preaching,

and he brings people into his power through praying. I will explain why

what I mean by this, but I hope you see from these scriptures and

it can't be any simpler. And this is why churches never stop doing these

two things, because ultimately, what are we existing for. We are existing

to make sure that people know what God's plan and purpose is for your life.

That's why I think in our startup back, if I'm not mistaken,

probably one of the first questions that you ask when you begin your journey is

what is God's plan for me? Because that's why we want to know,

right we are like what what? Why are we in it? What?

What are we do? Why are we doing this for? Because it is

part of God's bigger plan and purpose? And so by preaching, I don't

just mean not getting up to the bullpit. It includes that. But if

you were just two people talking about Jesus, that's preaching. Uh you notice

not in the Book of Acts Feelip and it open Youna. They were running

well, and Philip was running next to him, and he was they were

talking, they were expounding the scriptures. That's a form of preaching. Whenever

one person tells another person about the purpose of God. And that is what

Philip was essentially explaining to the unit. He's explaining Isaiah the book. I

think it was chapter fifty three that the unit was reading, and he was

explaining that it's a form of preaching. So you can preach wherever you are,

whether you are you have a pulpit, no pulpit, whether you're on

the street, in the bus stop, doesn't matter. You can't preach.

It's not just my role, my function, my responsibility. Each and everyone

of words here we have the ability to actually help people come into and be

part of God's plan and purpose through preaching, and that will be God's way

of bringing people into his purpose. So what is his purpose? What is

the Grand plan? And actually we see that in verse ten, just one

verse before the one that I started reading from, which is verse eleven.

In verse ten, we actually see God's great plan, which is what I

alluded to the last time I taught on seasons, because Ephesians, chapter one,

verse ten says this, and this is the plan. At the right

time, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in

heaven and on earth. That is God's great plan, is his big plan,

and all of us are a part of that plan. Everything in heaven

and on earth will come under the authority of Christ Jesus. Now I want

to ask you this, how do we know that we have become part of

God's plan? Then? How do we know? And the answers this,

if God wills it, it is going to be I know, It's like

so simpler. If he wills, it's going to be. Well, if

God has decided that his purpose is a Christian universe at the end of it,

no one's going to stop that from happening. It's going to happen.

He has the power to fulfill his purpose. How do we know that?

How can we be so sure that He has the power to fulfill his purpose?

Well, let's continue looking at the scripture, okay, Verses eleven to

fourteen. Verses eleven to fourteen of Chapter one, Paul spics of two groups

of people. And I think y'all notice as I was reading this, now

there were two groups of people. Who is he essentially referring to? Well,

he is first referring to the Jews, because we know that all the

early Christians were Jews. The first people to pin their hope on Christ were

Jewish. In fact, most of the Bible, if not all of the

Bible, barring one book, is written by Jewish authors. All twelve Apostles

were Jewish. So we who first pinned our hope on Christ. I believe

what Paul is essentially saying is he's referring to the Jewish Christians makes sense.

But then Paul doesn't stop that. He goes on to make reference to the

second generation Christians as well, which is technically me and you, the gent

towns. Okay, And to the jew that is quite an amazing thing though,

because they couldn't fully grasp the concept that there could be a purpose of

God for anyone who is not Jewish. So for them, what Gentiles also

part of God's plan on her because that is their reality. Their reality is

there was only one nation on earth that can fulfill this plan, and it

is God's chosen people, us, the Jews. But you see, God

had a bigger plan than just a plan for the Jews. He also had

a plan to bring the Gentiles all in as well. Amen, hallelujah.

That's why we are where we are today. And so now let's study what

Paul says about the Jews who first hope in Christ. What does that all

mean? And you can take note of three verbs just from this phrase.

Okay, stay with me. Stay with me. I will explain why I'm

bringing your today so that you see the whole picture. But just from this

phrase, the Jews who first hope in Christ, three verbs you can take

note off. And these three verbs are this hope that's sting and appointed.

And remember all this is God's will unfolding in the scriptures. Okay, hope.

There's a point that you see. Paul actually describes the beginning of their

faith as we who hope in Christ. And I think that's not a bad

definition on how to become a Christian, right, because a Christian is essentially

someone who puts and pins his hope on Jesus, right, that is who

we are. Everyone, every one of us has hopes on. We can

live without some hope that things will get better, right, and not all

of us. Every day the only reason why you wake up is your you're

hopeful that today is going to be a better day than yesterday. And that's

why someone who is usually not well and depressed is someone who is not hopeful

and can't see something beyond. But we are those who can look forward to

things. You are someone who is hopeful. We are always hoping that the

next year will be better than the previous year. Others might pin their hope

on science, politics, education, whichever, it doesn't matter. But essentially

we are people who pin our hopes on something. But Christians are unique in

the sense that we pin our hopes on Jesus. We believe that he is

the one that's going to get us out of all the mess that we are

in. Amen. And so now having said we pin our hopes on Jesus,

Paul says, something has to happen before that, and something has to

happen after that. That's why I'm talking about the tree verbs. Okay,

the first one is this, we pin our hopes, okay, hopes.

So what happens before that? Before we pin our hopes on Jesus? We

already have been destined to do. So this is God's order, he destines.

Again, I start off by saying, who has Who is the one

that has perfect free will? It is God? And so therefore God is

the one that destins and determined. So he destins, and we choose to

respond to the destiny or not. For those of us who are sitated here

and we are believers, well, we responded to the destiny, the destiny

that God has already prepared for us, and we pin our hopes on Jesus,

Amen, hallelujah. And after we pin our hopes on Jesus, God

then says this he appoints us. Makes sense. Now he appoints us well

to do. What what are we appointed to do? And it is this?

It is to live for the praise of His glory. After you have

pinned your hopes in Jesus, you are appointed to live to praise him.

That is what we are doing here right now. That is how Paul is

actually breaking it down. And so at this point, at this point,

okay, to help us understand it even better, we must have some understanding

about human life. Okay, stay with me, guys, stay with me.

Human life. And there are three levels of human life. And this

is something that's logical. Okay, it's logical. The first level is that

human life. The first level is you can live for yourself. Okay,

can imagine me, right, You can live for yourself and you can live

for your own pleasures, no problem. First level. What do you think

the second level of human life is If the first one is living for yourself?

The second one is living for others. Okay, basically you can then

move on to the second level, live for others, serve others in their

need, and that we know is one step higher, and praise God.

There are many people who do this. No, they are not believers,

so they can do this, live for the needs of others, and you

will meet them wherever you go. But you see, there is a higher

calling. There is a third level, something even better than that. And

it is amazing how many people think that if you have reached level number two

you must be a Christian. Ever ever heard someone say, oh, this

person do a lot good works on Christian Uh, and then find out when

this person no Christian, but do a lot good works closet Christian, someone

who behaves like a Christian but doesn't profess to be a Christian. And sometimes

we think, no, that once we reach level two, that's it,

be all in and all. But the truth of the matter is there is

a third level, and that is the Christian life, which is to live

for the praise of His glory. You see, you can live for yourself,

you can live for others, but when you are destined to pin your

hopes in Christ, then there comes that third step where you are actually appointed

to live for God's glory. And this just means that that when people think,

people actually when they meet you, they think about God. They don't

just think about you. The reality is, okay, when I go out

and do community works, and all of you all have been involved, I'm

sure one way or the other doing community works, and people are usually very

very grateful. Right when you do community was then they remember you. They're

like, oh, that's the kind person, so nice, always come and

give distitution. They remember me. But then it's not the end goal because

something is fundamentally not right with our Christian work if we only live to please

others, and so if you live for the needs of others, then they

will think about you, and they will know that you're a good person,

but they will not think about God. But if you live for the praise

of His glory, when they meet you, they will find themselves thinking there

must be a God. This person wouldn't be like this because this person is

constantly living to praise his glory. That's why sometimes I have to remind myself

in the pursuit of helping others, what is the end goal? Because if

I'm helping others just to meet a need, and I can tell you the

needs are endless, it will never end. And sometimes just doing community work

will drain you completely because it's almost like I'm not meeting and it feels like

I'm not meeting any needs to begin with, because there's just so many needs.

But the reality is I have to keep asking myself, am I doing

it so that people can come one step closer to knowing who God is?

Because I'm not just out to serve people. I'm out to live for the

glory of God. That is something that we need to understand and we need

to look at it from this point of view. And so now look what

Paul say Sir Verses thirteen to fourteen six. We pin our hopes on Christ

first, but then we leave to the praise of His glory, and you

heard from us and you believe and you came into it too. Okay,

I'll explain what this all means, because that is how Christianity has sprayed throughout

the centuries. It is really building up so rapidly, and it is all

being done as people live to praise God and tell others that they have pinned

their hopes on Christ Jesus. You know, Christianity has been spreading because you

met someone who really live out the gospels. You know, Others hear the

good news and the belief, and they believe and they are essentially brought into

God's purpose. And this is why our lives actually can be a living testimony

of the Gospel. All of us can witness through preaching. It is not

just left for a few people. Every believer, that's what the commission is

given to every believer. Amen. And so this will become even more obvious

when we understand the process of which we come into the purpose of God.

And now I'll explain the process because it's all in the scriptures. So as

I'm explaining, go back and read the scriptures again. Read it slowly,

understand it. Get the whole picture. Okay, But what is the process

of coming into God's purpose is the next question we have to ask. Everything

has to have some explanation, right, So firstly, is this you heard?

And I can tell you this, you probably will never meet a Christian

who did not first hear about the Gospel. And all of us begin by

that we first heard the gospel, the good news that God wants us to

be his children, and He's prepared to rescue us from ourselves. But you

know that in himself does not do anything. Because many of us hear the

gospel. All of us have to start from there. But many of us

hear it, and many of us don't get caught up in God's purpose straight

away. You know that many people can come to church, they can hear

the preacher, they have a Bible in their homes. In fact, they

can have several Bibles, but they don't get caught up in the purpose of

God. Why not, because after you hear, you must always move on

to the second stage of the process. And what is the second stage of

the process. It is where we believe. Okay, not just hearing,

but believe. And this is not a hate thing, and this is a

hard thing. You need the hate to understand, but essentially you need a

heart to really follow it through because it's a personal relationship where you are essentially

committing yourself to a person. Okay, imagine with me, you have to

undergo an operation, okay, and some of us maybe we have gone through

that before. Right before the day of your operation, you're essentially going to

go to the surgeon and say dude, I'm going to be signing my life

off to you. I hope to God that you are not some quack.

Seriously, I hope that you didn't lie thrue your university days. You cheeterd

you copy in your exams. You somehow found a way to game the system

and became a specialist by pure fluke. Because what I'm doing is I'm putting

my life in your hands right now. That is faith. You know,

I'm trusting my life into the hands of the surgeon. That is an egg

of faith. And so when you hear about Jesus, you have heard the

good news that God send his son to save you. To believe is essentially

to say, Jesus, here I am. I'm signing my life away into

your hands. You help me. Now, you save me. That is

faith. And then from the second step, it leads to the third step.

Okay, step number three, which is a very important step in this

process because it's with regards to the future. You see, you hear the

word, you believe God. But then Paul goes on to say, now

you must be sealed with the Holy Spirit. What is he talking about?

You'll probably be wondering what Holy Spirit? Okay, So the tools that Paul

uses here is the word seal and the word guarantee. Go back to the

scriptures, you'll see it in there. Okay, seal and guarantee, and

these are very important words to actually understand the work of the Holy Spirit in

our lives. So let's study what they mean. Okay, back in ancient

times. Okay, imagine yourself in some market in Greece right now, if

you wanted to buy something. Let's just say you want to buy a big

object, Okay, a very big thing. The buyer will take out something

from his pocket. Basically, it's something called a sealing wax. So he'll

melt that and he'll put that thing that he'll put that that melt, that

sealing wax onto the item that he wants to purchase. He'll take out a

ring which is his own signet ring, a ring with bearing his mark and

his signature, and he will seal it on that object. Okay, this

is how they do business back then, because again it's a big thing,

and so he wants to market. Basically, after doing that, that item

can't be sold to anybody else. Nobody can have it because he's essentially saying,

one day I'm going to come and I'm going to collect what I have

paid for what belongs to me. You see, now, when God seals

with the Holy Spirit, he is essentially stamping your life and my life,

and he's saying that this life is mine, and one day I'm going to

come and I'm going to collect it makes sense. It's actually a simple picture.

And then the other word that is used is actually guaranteed. What does

that mean again, Let's go back to commerce in historical commerce. Okay,

so if you ordered, say twenty secs of rice back then the transaction would

actually be guaranteed by a man giving me one seck first to go home.

Because twenty sex you like, how long to carry all twenty? So the

seller will say, here, take this one sec home first. This will

be the proof of the first installment. Or another word that sometimes we hear

is deposite. And because you have one sec, I will regard that as

a guarantee that the nineteen is yours as well. You can come back for

the nineteen others it's going to be on its way. Makes sense. I

still have to arrange for the donkey to carry or nineteen over to your house,

but that one sec is guarantee. Enough makes sense, and that is

what the word guarantee here means. God is saying this to us. When

I stamp you with my Holy Spirit, that is the first installment of heaven.

That is your guarantee that there the rest is available, because you have

already got a bit of heaven in you. Let's read X nineteen, Okay,

and I wouldn't read the whole thing, but there is an account in

X chapter nineteen, And why I'm making reference to X chapter nineteen is because

Paul is actually at the church in Ephesus in X chapter nineteen. If you

read the account in X chapter nineteen, it is the same church where this

letter is actually written to. And so in X chapter nineteen we are shown

that at the start but this is beginning, okay, slightly different timeline.

But at the start of the church at Ephesus, Paul was preaching to this

group who have been studying the Old Testament, and he studied, studied ver

thoroughly, and they understood no repentance. They were like, oh, I

understand repentance. They even got to the baptism of John, John the Baptist,

and we know John the Baptist is the baptism of repentance that means you're

sorry for what you did, get baptized. Great, but they did not

fully know about Jesus and his baptism because in the Gospels we know that Jesus

said that I am the one that will baptize in Holy Spirit. In fact,

it was actually John the baptist, will say, after me, will

come someone who really firstly, I can't even tie untie his shoelacers and stuff

like that, he said. And then he said, while I baptize in

water, Jesus will come and he will baptized in Holy Spirit. And so

Paul takes them and he preaches to them, and they believe, and they

were baptized in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. And does it

stop them, no, because if you are baptized in Jesus, it doesn't

stop there, because Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit. So paulses, you

are now sealed. And if you read on, you find that God sealed

them with his Holy spirit in x chapter nineteen, stem them with his own

ring and give them basically a full tastes of heaven. And they knew,

and they didn't have doubt because Paul. After that, when he preached about

Jesus they were baptized. He didn't have doubt that they received the Holy Spirit

after that because they were essentially showing the gifts and the fruit bearing in their

life. Mainly they were speaking in tongues, and he knew there was an

outward evidence. Something was made evident about them receiving the Holy Spirit. And

it is now that you know. That is how we end up being a

part of the new universe. You see, before you have been sealed with

the Holy Spirit, you have to believe that you will be part of this

new universe. When you have been sealed, you will also know. And

how do you know? Because that is that guarantee. And when God gives

you a guarantee, you can rely on that guarantee. If somebody says,

how do you know that you are going to heaven, our answers should always

be this, I am carrying a little bit of heaven in me right now,

and all of us have a little bit of heaven in us. And

that's why we see. The Kingdom of God has already been inaugurated, it

has started, it has not been fully consumated. That means we don't see

the full picture yet. But when Jesus first came, he already started.

And there is a peace of God's kingdom here on earth right now. And

I'm telling you where it lives. It lives in you and in me.

I am carrying a little bit of God's kingdom. And the rest is on

his way. Amen. And God is going to come and He's going to

collect what he has sealed and what he has them. That is our assurance.

Now does that mean that we are perfect. It doesn't mean that we

are perfect. It doesn't mean that we are better than everybody else. It

just means that God has given us a guarantee. And I believe having a

guarantee is important. In Bahasa, is actually the word jamming nne. Basically

another word guarantee is assurance. You see, you need to be assured of

your faith because a lot of times were like h I become Christianity next day

a stray area, are doing some funny things, very unchristian like behavior.

You need God's assurance, and the assurance comes in his and through His Holy

Spirit. So you come into God's purpose by hearing, by believing, and

when you are silk with the Holy Spirit, you have a guarantee. You

have got a little bit of the future right now, Amen, And that

gives us assurance. But it does something else as well. It praises His

glory. You will sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. We don't have it

all, but heaven is still beyond our full grasp at this point. But

we have got enough to know that the rest is coming. And because of

this we can praise God. We can praise His glory. That is why

we are able to actually praise God where we are right now, even though

sometimes, yeah, a lot of times, we live circumstantial lives. As

circumstantial Christians. That means my faith is based on what is happening in my

life right now. All time is tough. I'm going to a tough time.

I really can't believe in God. Only in good times I can believe

in God, or you know, I want to believe in God. But

I've seen other people who claim that they are godly people, but again circumstantial

because of the way they live their lives, I cannot believe in God.

Ultimately, we need to come to the faith. We need to hear,

we need to believe, We need the Holy Spirit to come into us because

that is the assurance that we can praise His Holy name and live for him.

Makes sense. Okay, that is just the first part. Okay,

we talk about purpose. Okay, Paster John is doing a sign of the

cross course. He's hoping that I can still grasp it. I will help

you grasp it. Okay, let's move on to God's power. So the

purpose of God comes to you true? What's the first thing true? Pre

ching? Okay, how do we know and how do we come into God's

purpose? Is because someone preached to me. I heard, I believe,

I receive the Holy Spirit. Okay, the purpose of God comes true preaching

you hear, you believe your sil But how do you tempt the power of

God to achieve the purpose. And that's why Paul says this, I pray

for you. You see, he doesn't just preach. He prays, I

don't just talk to you about God, which is preaching. I talk to

God about you, which is praying. So don't just talk to people about

God, talk to God about people. You see, the two ministries will

share with them the purpose and the power of God. And that is what

we need. You see, this prayer of Paul's is a very good Christian

prayer actually, because it has a thank you and the police. And I

think that's the right order, because sometimes we always crush to God with a

shopping list. It's always please, please, please, please please, p

please give me this, give me this, give me this. But no,

paulses thank you first. And this is how he was praying for them.

And you realize when you're reading it, there are three dimensions that he's

praying for them, three dimensions, and that is really the three dimensions that

completes our Christian life. I shared with the earlier service. A lot of

our scriptures are in triplets. You realize that Father, Son, Holy Spirit,

one triplet. Then you the scripture always talks about past, present,

future another triplet. How many of you know what a very famous triplet that

is in the Bible, three dimensions of our Christian life. It starts with

faith, faith, hope, and love. You know it. You know

it because you it's in First Corinthians, right, I believe and so faith,

hope, and love, and he prays that they may have all tree.

So he says this, He says, thank you God when he hears

of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's actually giving thanks. He's

like, thank you, thank you God. There these people that praying for

in the church in Ephesus, they know and they have faith in Jesus.

And then he says, thank you God because he heard that they love each

other, and you really it says that he loved they love the fellow believers,

they love the saints. Some translations say that, but there is one

area in which he feels they are lacking. Mhm. So faith and love,

okay, the area that is lacking, You realize it's a lot.

Please there, Please God help them. And I think that hope is the

area which is most neglected of these three virtues of Christianity, because you hear

a lot of messages said about faith. We love to talk about faith,

we love to talk about love, but sometimes about hope or hard to preach.

So what is hope? Okay, let me help you all. See,

faith reaches into the past and focuses on the death and the resurrection of

Christ. All of us. We come to faith because we know what Jesus

did for us in the past. Right, someone had to preach to you

about the gospel. Someone had to tell you about what Jesus and know every

time Good Friday resurrections Sunday. We are like God, thank you so much.

Thank you that while we were yet still sinners, you died for us.

That is God's grace. And so faith always reaches to the past.

Love reaches the present and focuses on the fellowship of the people of God.

That's why the commandment is love God and love one another. Is in the

present that we learn. But you see, hope is an anchor that is

unseen. Why because where does it reach to. It reaches into the future,

and this is something that is going to happen, hasn't happened yet,

isn't happening right now, but it's going to happen. If you only live

for what Christ has done for you and can do for you now, you

are missing one huge dimension of your life. And that's why the dimension of

hope enables you to think a great deal about what is coming ahead. What

is coming ahead is actually thinking about heaven. You long for it, you

look forward to it. But very rarely people long for heaven, and like

I long for heaven, long for heaven means basically not on earth, redala

right again, it's future. It's something that has not yet happened. And

that's why it's also not easy because it's not something that I've read and seen

about and experience. It's not something that I'm experiencing right now. It's something

that I'm supposed to pin again pin hopes to a future event. But hope

is the anchor. It is the one thing that holds you when you really

when the world gets you down, you need hope. You see the world

is so chaotic sometimes and you're always asking away it's all this going to will

we ever get out of this trouble? But there is an anchor that holds

you to the future, and that is the virtue of hope. That is

what hope does. You know, whenever we do suicide prevention work, maybe

Alex can testify it. Like us Alex all volunteer. One of the things

that it's always lacking in a lot of suicide prevention work is actually this word

called hope and a lot of organization sciences forget. And so the one time

that we work with this organization from Australia, I still remember and they did.

They are doing amazing work. And the first thing that they told us

know when they were teaching and they were sharing about suicide prevention work was actually

the word hope. And I remember this, Lady shed an entire message to

encourage people because people who are suicidal are usually people who lack hope. They

have nothing to look forward to. It's something that they can't see. It

is so bleak and the reality is home is needed. And that is why

Paul talks about predestination and the will of God. I know, all these

big words coming, well, the will of God makes you hopeful. It

strengthens your understanding of the future because if you don't understand God's will, you

don't understand God's plan, you don't understand God's purpose. You will know what

is all this amounting to. But your hope is strengthened when you put your

hope and your trust in God's will. If you look at your own will,

yes, I know. Sometimes it's like, man, if it's if

it's just me that I'm looking at a bit tough because think about it,

how many of us by the second week of January we already broke our New

Year's resolution. A lot of us year and we are like planning the resolution,

planning. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to exercise five

km every day, second week on Toy Day. That's the malaya that we

use, right, But that's the reality of it. You see. The

difference is the will of God is the decisive factor. Humans are weak in

their will, but God is not weak in his will, and that is

the decisive factor, and that is the anchor in which we need to pin

our hope on. And so this is the portion of Scripture where we see

Paul praying specifically for two things. First of all, he's praying for an

enlightened heart. Basically, he's praying that people's hearts will have a kind of

understanding that there's not just it's not external, it actually comes from we did.

It's it's almost like this, no sometimes not sometimes, actually all the

time when before I preach, and I'm sure all our preachers do this,

joy and different ones don't. Before we preach, like God, just pray

out that the words that I pray fall in their heart and they will be

enlightened, because if not, now it's just a bunch of words. It's

like, uh, I'm standing, I'm on stage. I know there are

different faces, and it's it's not the easiest and it's okay, you don't

have to hold back your yawn. It's okay. But sometimes you are yawning.

Sometimes you are nodding, Oh, it's it's okay. My only prayer

is that, and Lisa, some of the scriptures fall into your heart and

you're enlightened that you can see. I'm sorry. Sometimes I'm not the most

entertaining. It's okay. I don't blame you. It might be a long

night, you may have watched football. You may stay and that it's okay.

But you know, we pray that there will be a special understanding that

will be revealed true God's word for each and every one of you. That

is what Paul is essentially saying here. You know he's praying for this enlightened

hearts is the kind of understanding that will bring about three things, okay.

The first is this to understand the hope to which you will called to understand

where it is all hating. Two, that's why scripture and she says,

he who begain a good work, and you will complete it. And one

day He's going to make you perfect in a perfect world. That is the

aim. That is the goal that you may see this amen. It's the

first thing that he's praying, or he's praying, God, help them to

see, help them to see it all, and help them to understand his

hope. The second thing that Paul wants them to see is this, he

wants them to see how rich they are. I'm not making it up.

It's in the scriptures. He's telling them, you need to know that you

are millions. One day you will inherit the universe, and that is what

we stand to inherit as God's children. It will all be yours. You'll

be able to move around freely. The whole universe will be yours to travel.

You need to know and not think that. Sometimes we always think of

us as we're all we're all poor, poor in spirit, poor in possession.

Everything is that we don't have. But Paul is saying that, my

prayer is that you understand and you know that one day this is all yours

and live like you are a million and not like you are a pauper.

And that's why in the Beattitudes it is said, Blessed are the meek,

for they shall inherit the earth. And then the third thing that he wanted

them to understand is the power that is available to us now that you may

actually understand the immeasurable power of God, the greatness of God's power. How

big is God's power? Well, it all starts to say this. No,

it's the same power that took Jesus out of the tomb into the highest

heaven. That is the power that is available to us. Now you see

Christianity actually begin amongst the day. What an interesting beginning, right, because

the semetery to us is the end of everything. But to a Christian,

the symmetry or the tomb is the beginning of all things, is the beginning

of God's new creation. And that is how powerful he is. He gave

Christ a new body, and that is the beginning of the restoration of all

things. That's the beginning of the recreation of the whole universe that will one

day become a Christian universe. This is what we need to understand as believers.

It was his mighty power that raised Jesus from the day and brought him

back to life. And where is Jesus right now? Paul says, he

is at the right hand of God, the Father. He is now hate

of all things. Amen, Amen, I'm not making this up. Is

where and is what we just read and then from the hater, Paul immediately

talks about the feet and Ali and Ben, I'm almost done, Okay,

you can come up. Paul immediately thinks about his feet. Now and try

to imagine again with me. Archaeologists have dug thrones, ancient thrones up in

the Egypt area, and most of the time on an ancient throne, there

is something called a footstool, and on the footstool it's actually portraits of the

king's enemies drawn into the footstool is basically to help the king when he's looking

down realize and see all the nations and the different enemies that he has conquered.

That's what the footstool is for. And then is the picture that is

drawn here. You see, Jesus is the heat over all all things in

the highest heaven. His feet are on top of all his enemies. Amen,

Jesus feet is on top of all his enemies. So there's a heat,

there's a faith that. Now the next important question to ask is where

is the body? Of course, that's hate, that's fit. Where's the

body? And you want to try to answer us, you and me,

we are the body. You are his body. You do realize what that

means. It means that you are under the heat ship of Jesus, but

you are on top of the enemies of Jesus. That's the church. Satan

therefore is beneath the church. Because if any of you understand basic anatomy,

the body comes before the feed. The body is above the feeth. Okay,

unless there is something, yeah, fundamentally not right with your human let

me And therefore, I hope you see this picture. Jesus is the hate

for the Church, which is his body, and his feet have trampled down

on all his enemies. That makes the Church more than conquerors. That makes

you more than a conqueror, true Christ who loves you. And it also

means that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church. And here are

two amazing thoughts I hope to help us close. And you see Paul said,

Jesus has been made hate of all things for the Church, which is

his body, which completes him. It's an amazing statement he's saying at you,

as the Church completes Christ. Wow, I'm like you feel Christ,

because now that he is exalted in the highest Heaven, Jesus is no longer

here, but how is the work of Jesus supposed to continue? It is

us, the body has to continue doing the work down here, and we

cannot stop doing the work. And that's why I always say that we are

privileged to be saved, because we are essentially safe to serve God. We

are safe to minister, we are safe to work. Sometimes we think about

work. We're diet lazy, I don't want to do it. It's always

asking me to do something if i'm if if it's not doing something, then

what are we doing with the faith? Because faith must be seen true the

works in which we do, because faith without action is dead right And I

mean I drew a simple analogy for the eight am service as well. This

morning I was telling them I have a all my mom. My mom is

all. She's seventy five. She stays with us, and they are days.

Sometimes not as our parents come to this more advanced years, we suggest

tend to be like, oh, I should be a good child and good

son and make sure that my mom. Don't do anything. Mom, just

stay stay put, just sit down and do nothing. But if I actually

asked her to do that, I know the only eventulated is that everything will

actrophy if you don't work, it will go, it will deteriorate. That

is the reality of it. And so my mom keeps herself active. I

don't stop her. The only thing I tell her is, Mom, keep

your feet on the ground. Okay, don't climb, don't try to be

superman, don't need clean the fan, No need to keep your feet on

the ground. It's okay, do whatever you feel like doing. In fact,

I got her a dog, okay, mom, dog because after the

kids grew up again and Mom now already so grandma. At one point she

was having the tacare of the kids, and that's a lot. Well,

you know, after that, the kids are all if you don't need to

do anything. Uh, I never got a dog anyway. Besides the point,

but we're called to work, we're called to minister. That is the

function of the body of Christ here on earth. So you, as the

Church, complete Christ. You feel Christ, because he needs a body on

earth to go on doing the work that is still here. You complete Christ,

you feel our Christ. No, you give him something that he needs.

That is our privilege. But it's such a bold declaration or that somehow,

I think Paul probably was afraid that the church would become too big,

hidden and misunderstand the whole statement, not because it can write. So we

think that we complete Christ. You know that means we are like we are

Christ. They are not Christ. Because he doesn't stop that. He says,

the church feels him common who feels all in all. Instead, even

be we must never get too big for our own shoes. We must never

think that because we are God's body, we are so terribly important that we

are Him. We are not Him. Is Jesus who actually completes us.

We complete him who completes us. We feel Him who feels everything. Amen.

And I think what Paul is essentially telling the church here in Ephesus is

this, you need to have a bigger view of God. Don't have a

small view of God. That's why when he's talking about God's plan, God's

purpose, God's will, it's a big view, it's not a small view.

That is what keeps us hopeful. If you think in a small way,

you will say this, you say God is now part of my plans.

But if you think in a big way, you will say I am

now part of God's plans. If you think in a small way, you

will say this, there is a room in heaven for me. But if

you think in a big way, you will say there is going to be

a gret Christian universe. Hallelujah, praise God. If you think in a

small way, you will say I chose him. If you think in a

big way, you will say He chose me. If you think in a

small way, you say Christ helps me. If you think in a big

way, you will say Christ feels all in awe. If you think in

a small way, you will say I wanted to be a Christian. If

you think in a big way, you will say He wanted me to be

his child. And if you think in a small way, you'll say we

have received gifts from God. But if you think in a big way,

you will say this we are gifts of God. I pray that today we

will have a bigger view of God, because that is what Paul is essentially

teaching us. See things from God's point of view. Then you will leave

to praise his Laurie. There's no other way for us to do it until

we see things from His perspective, and then we leave our praises up to

Him. We hope you've been blessed by this message for more information on our

church, please visit aschurch dot org. We are also active on Facebook and

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a hit for you. God bless