The Essentials: Glorious Inheritance

If you weren't here when we talked about this about a month ago, on August 25th, there's a gathering on Stone Mountain called One Race.

And uh, you know, it's it's it's really interesting.

Um, 55 years ago, Martin Luther King gave a speech, very famous speech, the I Have a Dream speech, and he references Stone Mountain in that speech, and that's because on Stone Mountain, uh, the first cross ever burned by the Ku Klux Klan happened there.

It's where it happened.

And so, you know, we live in a time right now in our country when racism has really come to the forefront again, and there's a lot of different opinions about it.

There's a lot of people that blame it on different groups of people, and there's a lot of people that disagree on the cause of it or whatever, but the reality is it's there.

And the solution, the solution really is Jesus.

You know, racism is something that's really easy to diminish, I think, especially those of us who are who are white, it's very easy to diminish racism.

Um, but and when I say this, like some people it might sound a little intense, but just hear me out.

Like, racism is demonic.

It's it's like it's far from the heart of God as you could possibly get.

God is a father.

Today is Father's Day, and I think to those of you who are fathers and your children have grown, there's probably nothing you'd love more for Father's Day than to see all your children come together.

And you wouldn't really care what their differences were, right?

You want to see all your children together.

Well, that's the heart of our father.

And so constantly through scripture, we're reminded that we are all brothers and sisters, but but this part of our country has had racism as as a as a part of its like foundation almost.

Like it's just been prevalent, but that that's starting to go away, and it needs to.

Um, and the church should really be at the forefront of it, and the church really always has.

And so on that day, we're gonna we're gonna kind of retake Stone Mountain in the name of Jesus and in love.

And there's gonna be thousands of Jesus followers of every race and every ethnicity there, and we're just gonna join together.

We're gonna worship God on Stone Mountain.

It's gonna be an amazing experience.

There are a ton of really amazing worship bands that are gonna be leading us in worship that night.

It's just gonna be awesome, and I'd love to invite all of you to be there with us August 25th.

Put that on your calendar, and we'll be giving more details in the month to come.

Look forward to that.

Um, I'm gonna pray one more time just because it's been kind of a crazy weekend for me, and my brain's going a thousand miles an hour.

And so I just want to pray that God opens our hearts to what he's gonna say.

And guys, fathers, I know it's Father's Day.

I know that lunch is close, and I'm aware of that, and I'm gonna net this one out.

You got it?

All right, here we go.

Lord, open our minds and our hearts right now to what you have for us.

I pray, God, that you would humble us in the sense that you would you would make us in this moment very receptive to whatever you want to teach through your word.

That we would hear it, that we would understand it, that we would pay attention to it, that we would apply it to our lives and leave this place better for it.

We pray this in your name, Lord.

Amen.

Well, I'm sure that a lot of you can relate to this.

Um, do you have a prized possession at home?

Maybe something that's very valuable to you, but the average person might look at it and go, I don't see what's so special about that.

Maybe something that you value very much because of sentimental reasons, and maybe other people would like, I'd throw that away if that was mine.

Anyone have something like that?

I actually brought my wife's prized possession with me as a as a as an example, and I'm gonna pray that I don't throw my back out when I grab this.

Hold on.

Okay.

It weighs like 30 pounds.

It's a candle.

I hate this thing.

I had to be, I had to be really careful bringing it here because like this is really important to my wife.

And so when I when I got in the car this morning, um, I was like, I'm gonna get this to church.

And so this is actually what I did.

Um, and uh it worked pretty well.

I wasn't staged, I literally was like, I don't know how I'm gonna get this there, and then I was just like, Oh, I just I guess I'll buckle it in.

And it it did great.

Um, way better behaved than my children in the car, like way better.

So it's got that.

No, I I hate this stupid candle, but my wife loves it.

And she loves it because she inherited it from someone that she really loves.

Susan Craig was one of the founding pastors of our church.

Susan gave this to Megan back in 2008.

It wasn't like a birthday gift, it was just Susan went through a closet of hers and found this and was like, I don't need this, and who would need this?

And you know, I don't even know why they make this.

But she said to Megan, hey, would you like a giant candle?

And Megan said, Yes.

And ever since then, it's been very precious to Megan.

Susan was a very important person in Megan's life, really mentored her spiritually, and and especially when Susan passed away a few years ago, it's just taken on a whole new meaning for Megan.

And so, like, if I broke this, oh guys, pray that it gets back home.

Like, if I broke this, I don't like the candle very much personally.

Number one, it's not practical in any way.

We have this thing called electricity, we use it all the time, and so we don't need it.

Even if we wanted to light it, Megan would not let you light this candle.

It's a 30-pound candle that we can't use.

And I know I'm gonna have this thing for the rest of my life.

I know there's gonna be a day where we downsize and we're living in some tiny, you know, place where it's just the two of us, and this candle's gonna be there.

I'm gonna look at this thing for the rest of my life.

We've we've moved several times since Susan gave us this candle, and every time we move, this is the one thing that Megan oversees my packing.

This is the one thing where she while I pack the candle, nothing else but the candle, she's she's washed, she's like, um, will you bubble wrap it?

I've bubble wrapped this candle.

Like, literally, bubble wrap this candle.

And and I get so frustrated when we move because it's so heavy and it's so bulky, and it's just like, why do we even have this?

We don't really have a place to put it.

We just put it somewhere in our house.

That the last time we moved on the box that this was in, I wrote the words giant freaking candle.

Because I wanted Megan to read that and understand how I feel, right?

That's what this is.

But to Megan, it's a prized possession because it's an inheritance of sorts from someone that she loves.

The word inheritance is actually a really important word in our faith.

To really understand who you are and what you have because of your relationship with Jesus, if you've given your life to Jesus, you've got to understand the word inheritance.

Right now we're in a series called The Essentials, and what we're doing is we're looking at the second half of Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We finished the first half a few weeks back.

And in this part of Ephesians, Ephesians being a letter that a man named Paul, who was like the leader of the early church, Paul wrote this to early Christians.

And he wrote this saying, hey, this is what I want you to understand, this is what I want you to know.

And in the second half of Ephesians 1, he tells us what he prays that we would understand, what he prays that we would experience.

And it's really interesting because Paul is the most influential follower of Jesus that has ever lived.

He's probably the most well-read author in the history of humanity.

And we get to see what this man hopes we experience.

And as Paul describes what he prays for, what he prays that Jesus' followers would understand, we come across five things that in Paul's mind are essential.

These are five essentials that Paul would look at you if you could have a conversation with them and you could say, hey, help me, help me out, help me grow in my faith.

He would say, make sure these five things are understood by you completely.

Make sure that you don't miss these ideas, make sure that you get these concepts, make sure that you have these experiences.

And today the essential that we're going to look at is the idea of inheritance.

Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 18, I pray that your hearts will be flooded 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.

Ephesians 1:18

It's not the first time Paul has used the word inheritance in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

In fact, in verse 11, he said, 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.

In verse 14, he said, the Spirit, talking about the Holy Spirit, is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised, and that he's purchased us to be his own people.

He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

So we see inheritance, inheritance, inheritance.

And if you were reading Ephesians 1 quickly, which you could do, it'd probably take you five minutes, tops, you might think that Paul's just driving the same point home.

He's just hammering the same nail, you know, inheritance, inheritance, inheritance.

But that's actually not what's going on.

Because as he's talked about this concept of inheritance, Paul actually communicates two very distinct ideas that he would say are essential for us to understand.

And that's what we're going to unpack today.

These two ideas about what it means to understand inheritance in God's kingdom.

Number one, in verse 18, he called us an inheritance.

He said that we are God's glorious inheritance.

Meaning that you personally are an inheritance to God.

But then earlier in Ephesians, the verses we just looked at, he says that we have an inheritance.

Because of our relationship with Jesus, we have an inheritance.

So we have an inheritance and we are an inheritance, and what does that mean?

What does it mean to be the inheritance of God?

In the Old Testament, God spoke to this nation, this group of people called the Israelites, and he chose them.

He chose them out of among all the peoples of the earth to be like his people.

And he tells them some really amazing things.

In Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, he says, For you are a holy people who belong to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 7:6

Of all the people on the earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

Now, if you know anything about ancient culture, there were some pretty powerful civilizations about this time.

Like you had the Egyptians.

And the Egyptians, they were shaping the world.

The Egyptians had culture that was so rich.

They had art.

The Egyptians had like structures and buildings, technologically, they were on a level that doesn't even really make sense to us.

I mean, they built things that are still standing.

The Egyptians were mighty and powerful, and God didn't choose them.

You had the Assyrians and the Babylonians, these conquering nations that had vast armies that were coming up with advances and making civilization go places it had never gone before.

And God didn't choose them either.

He didn't choose these powerful, mighty nations.

He chose the Israelites.

They were shepherds.

They were nomads.

They were nomads.

They were like, not to be mean, but they were kind of dinky.

You know?

No one would have looked at the Israelites and been like, wow, those people, they're going places.

You know?

Not at all.

Like he he chose them, even though it didn't make any sense.

And he called them his prized possession.

He says, You're my treasure.

You're my own special possession.

I've chosen you.

In other words, God was looking at Israel saying, You're my giant freaking candle.

Like, I love you.

It's not going to make sense to anyone else in the world.

They're going to look at you and they're going to be like, What is wrong with these people?

These people are strange.

These people aren't worthwhile.

But God chose the nation of Israel.

He called them his treasure.

And Paul says that that's actually extended to us.

That because we've put our faith in Jesus, we've been included in this, that we are God's treasure.

Before Jesus came, there was a prophet named Ezekiel.

And God spoke to Ezekiel about a time when through Jesus, God would reconcile all people to him.

In Ezekiel 37, 27, he said, I will make my home among them.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

Let that sink in for a second.

Let those words sink in.

He says, I will be their God and they will be my people.

There's this idea of possession, and it's kind of a two-way street.

Number one, God says, I'll be theirs.

God has said that He will give Himself to us, that actually, through the Holy Spirit, He will live in us, that He will make our hearts his home.

So that means that when we talk about God, we don't have to talk about God in some distant way.

We don't have to talk about God in some type of like ethereal way or there's a God out there somewhere and we believe He exists.

We actually get to talk about God as if we possess Him.

That's why we can say things like my God and my Jesus.

Because He's been given to us, because He belongs to us.

He actually says, I'll be theirs.

And I think it's important for us from time to time just to stop and think about the fact that the God of the universe, the God who created all things, has said, I'm yours.

He's looked at you and He said, I'm yours.

That's awesome.

That's really cool.

Because I got a lot of stuff that I think is pretty awesome, but like God, He tops it all.

It's also important, though, to stop and think about the fact that He says that we're His.

It's not one way.

He says, Hey, I belong to you.

I've given myself to you completely.

He says, I will be their God, but they will be my people.

See, we belong to God.

We belong to God because He made us.

But we also belong to God because He bought us.

So we we we belong to God twice over if we've given our lives to Jesus.

There's this old story, it's it's uh kind of like a modern parable of sorts about this little boy who loves sailing.

And so he builds a toy boat and he puts a lot of love and care into the boat, and then one day he's got it out on the water, but a breeze comes along and the boat drifts beyond his reach and it's gone.

And he fears that it's lost and he kind of gives up on it because he thinks it's gone forever.

But then two weeks later he's in town and he sees this pawn shop, this secondhand store, and in the window, there's his boat.

Like it's there.

And so he goes up to the owner of the shop and he says, Hey, that's my boat.

The owner of the shop has a different opinion.

He says, No, that's that's my boat.

And the boy says, No, no, you don't understand.

I made it by hand and I know that's my boat.

Like it's it's mine, that's my craftsmanship.

And the owner says, Well, if you want it, you're gonna have to buy it, but it's expensive and it's it's a high price, so the boy has a choice to make.

Am I gonna abandon my boat?

Am I gonna go make another one?

What am I gonna do?

And what he decides to do actually is to work and save and buy it back.

And he does, and when he gets home, he's not upset at the hassle of it all, he's actually filled with joy, and he exclaims, You're twice mine.

You're twice mine because I made you and I bought you.

See, if we've given ourselves to Jesus, we are twice God's.

We belong to him twice over because he made us.

Like if you're here and you haven't given your life to Jesus, that's something you're still figuring out, you're thinking about, man, I'm so glad you're here, but but understand that if that's you, you belong to God because he made you.

So he cares about you.

That's that's really good news.

He made you, he cares about what he makes.

He's proud of what he makes.

So even if you haven't given yourself to Jesus, know that that you're God's.

But if you have given yourself to Jesus, you're God's in a different way.

In a way that should give you so much more value because not only are you someone that God has made, you're someone that God has purchased.

And we've talked about this before, but you were really expensive because the price was Jesus.

See, in the world, the market determines the value.

So something is only as valuable as someone else is willing to pay for it, right?

And apparently, in God's eyes, you're so valuable that Jesus was an acceptable price.

That's how Jesus saw us, by the way.

Jesus did not go to the cross unwillingly, he went with 100% participation and agreement with God the Father that we were worth his sacrifice.

And so the price that God paid for us was the blood of his son.

And Jesus went to the cross and he believed it was worth it.

He believed that you are worth it so that he could say, You're twice mine now, because not only did I make you, but I bought you.

You belong to God, you're his inheritance, you're what he's looking forward to.

You ever think about it like that?

Like, what does God look forward to?

Like, I look forward to sleep so much, you know?

I love I love my children so much when they're awake, and I just love them this much more when they're asleep, you know?

Just this much more.

What does God look forward to?

And the answer is you.

See, you look forward to an inheritance, and God has called you his inheritance.

You're his giant freaking candle.

That should make you feel good, you know?

That's a compliment.

It may not seem like it to me, but it's a compliment.

You belong to him, right?

You are an inheritance, and that's a powerful thing to think about.

That's essential, Paul would say, to understand.

Not only are you his inheritance, though, you have an inheritance.

You know, go back to Ephesians 1.11.

He says, Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we've received an inheritance from God.

For he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

You have an inheritance.

And it's interesting, what you actually have to inherit, like what you've been given as an inheritance, is glory.

So he called us his glorious inheritance, and the inheritance that he's given us is glory.

In Romans 8, 17, Paul wrote, Since we are his children, we are his heirs.

If you don't have an inheritance, you're not you're not an heir.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

We'll get to that in a second.

But he says that we are actually set to receive the glory of God.

The glory of Jesus is our inheritance.

We will inherit that with Jesus.

I mean, it's really crazy to think about.

Have you ever known someone that always talks about the good old days?

Or maybe found yourself as one of those people?

It's kind of human nature to look back on some era that's gone by and go, those were the good old days.

It just depends on how old you are, what the good old days are.

It's totally subjective.

And so if you're someone who was born in the 60s, you may look at the 70s and go, those were the good old days, you know?

And if you're someone like me, you may look at the late 80s and the early 90s and be like, those were the good old days.

Nostalgia is really powerful.

When I was in high school, right before my senior year, I was I was visiting with family, and an uncle of mine told me, you better enjoy your last year of high school.

He said, Because this is gonna be the best time of your life.

And I remember thinking, oh God, please let that not be true.

Right?

I mean, like, no offense.

I I enjoyed high school, fine.

High school was all right, but I'm thinking, like, is this as good as it gets?

High school is as good as it gets?

Like, God, if this is the pinnacle, I've got to find another mountain to climb.

Because please don't let high school be the peak of my life.

And here's the reality: I I love, I love my uncle.

He made a lot of really destructive choices post-high school, and he's kind of paid the price for that for his entire life.

And so to him, high school was the best time of his life.

And it must be really hard to live life believing that your best days are always behind you.

Sometimes we get tempted to believe that.

As we kind of look back at the good old days.

But see, if you have an inheritance waiting for you, your best days are always ahead.

Always.

And the inheritance that we have isn't some minor inheritance, it's actually the glory of God.

Like, I don't know if we really understand glory.

I don't know if I really understand glory.

It's a word we use, but but its meaning, it's kind of tough to grab a hold of.

Like, what is glory?

I think about all these words that we associate with God, words like praise and adoration and awe and wonder and majesty.

It's almost like if you could somehow combine all of those things, that would be glory.

We live in a world where people receive glory, right?

There's people who get a lot of glory.

There's people who are celebrated, there's people who are famous.

There are people who are worshipped in this world.

And they get a lot of glory from the people around them until they make a mistake and then everyone rejects them.

But as long as they do it right in the world's eyes, they get glory.

And if you can picture someone in your mind who you think gets a lot of glory in this world, just know that whatever glory they receive wouldn't amount to like a speck of dust in comparison to the glory that's due to God.

Like not even not even a speck of dust, because the Bible says that all of creation cries out regarding the glory of God.

That the heavens cry out the glory of God.

That one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

See, all the glory in the world belongs to God, all of it.

And he has decided to share that glory with you.

That's powerful.

That you are going to be given the glory that Jesus has won.

That's what he says.

He says that together we are co-heirs with Jesus of God's glory.

Think about the glory that Jesus has won for himself.

And the idea that one day he's going to look at you and he's going to say, Here, I want to share this with you.

Paul said that if we're going to share in his glory, we also have to share in his suffering.

And I think that's where a lot of us go, oh, hold on a second.

Let's talk about this.

You know?

Because Jesus had some pretty extreme suffering.

I don't know if I want to share in that suffering.

Paul had a different perspective.

Paul was a unique guy.

Paul, like, he didn't mind suffering for Jesus because he lived his life desiring to have everything he could possibly have in common with Jesus.

Like he just wanted to have everything in common with the Lord.

And so if the Lord suffered, he's like, I want to suffer because I want to have common ground with Jesus.

But Paul also lived constantly comparing what he was going through now to what God had promised him.

And so in the very next verse in Romans 8, verse 18, he says, Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Romans 8:18

You might be here today and you might be going through a very difficult time.

Life may not be going well right now.

This may not be the season that you wished it would be.

And Paul would understand that.

Because he understood suffering to a degree that most of us probably never will.

But Paul would look at you and he would say, Hey, I know it's bad.

I know it hurts.

I know it's not fun, but please understand what you're going through.

And this may actually seem really, really rude.

Like really, really unfeeling and uncaring.

He would say, It's nothing.

It's nothing compared to the glory that you have coming for you.

Because as a follower of Jesus, you are set to inherit the glory of God.

Whatever that means, whatever that is, I wish I could explain it perfectly.

I can't.

I think it's too big to understand, but you're set to receive it.

You have an inheritance.

And that should really affect the way that you live your life.

That should affect your perspective every day.

If you live believing that you're an heir of God's glory, that should that should affect the way you go about your day.

This is not just powerful and profound, this is practical.

Like, have you ever received an inheritance other than a giant candle?

You know?

Some of us have had that experience.

That's actually something that I've had.

There's a person that passed away and left me an inheritance.

I still work here, I still drive a 2006 sign with a duct tape mirror on the side, you know, just for perspective.

But no, it was actually a really generous inheritance.

Pretty life-changing for me, actually.

And so it was interesting.

It was a it was a the only time I've ever had this experience in life when I found out that I was gonna receive this inheritance, I was in awe, I was humbled.

I was like, are you serious?

Wow, okay.

And then it took two years for that inheritance to come.

But it's it's funny.

Even though for two years, because the whole thing had to go through probate and all that kind of stuff, and that's that's all new to me, um, it still kind of is, I don't understand it.

Even though I had to wait two years to receive the inheritance I was promised, I lived life very differently for those two years.

I just spent money left and right, no, not really.

Um but it was like I I had to remind myself that there's something coming.

And there was like a piece that came just from knowing that that was true.

There were even some dreams that that came from knowing that was true.

There were things that Megan and I could kind of dream about really exciting dreams, like minivans, you know?

We had our fourth kid, we're like, our children don't fit in our cars.

That's probably not good.

There might be a time where we all have to go somewhere.

And so we needed a minivan, but you know, we don't have car money laying around.

But because of this inheritance, we were able to buy a car.

It's funny, we didn't we didn't get it until right before Eli was born.

But we started shopping for cars before that.

We started looking because we knew it was coming.

You see what I'm saying?

Like when you when you know that you're set to inherit something, you look at life differently.

You have a different sense of expectation.

What I'm trying to say is that you've been given an inheritance by God, and it's powerful, and it's amazing, and it's more than you can imagine, and it means that your best days are always ahead of you.

There are no good old days behind you.

The good days are ahead of you.

The good days are coming because you're an heir of God's glory.

It's coming, you just have to live like it.

It's interesting in worship team.

You guys can make your way out.

In Ephesians 1:14.

Ephesians 1:14

We read this already, but but Paul says that the Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance that he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.

And he did this so we would praise and glorify him.

And here in just a second, we're gonna sing one more song, and we're gonna praise and glorify him.

That word guarantee in the Greek, it's the word Arabon.

And Araban was the word that you would use for a down payment.

Erebon was actually the word you would use for an engagement ring.

It was the first installment of something that where there was much more to come.

So if you were to go and and make a purchase, you're gonna buy a house.

Your down payment, your deposit, that would be the Arabon, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, right?

If you've ever bought a house, you know that your down payment, which is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is more coming.

Well, God says that the Holy Spirit is just the deposit of what's to come.

What that means is that whatever experience you've had with God, however great it's been, that's just a taste.

That's just a taste of what you have coming.

I I very much believe in practical teaching, and it's good for us to learn things in Scripture that that have to do with life right now.

And we focus on that a lot, but look, we're gonna live forever.

Because Jesus defeated death.

So sometimes it's actually really good for us to look ahead, you know, to have our eyes fixed on the reality of who we are and where our life is heading.

The Holy Spirit is just a taste of what's to come.

If you've been here for the last month, it's been very obvious that God is doing something new in our church, something exciting, something like it's happening, you know?

Like we do all this work and we pray and we do all these things so that we can see God show up and we can see people's lives change.

And there's something in the last month that's just been different.

And I know I'm not the only one who's noticed it.

Has anyone else noticed it?

You don't have to say yes, by the way.

Is it okay, good?

Some of us are like, I have not noticed it.

And that's okay, you will if it's real.

But there's just been something different.

And there's a hunger, I think, in our people here to experience the presence of God that hasn't been like it has up until recently.

There's something happening, and it's exciting because it's not manufactured.

And I know a lot of us are desiring to experience the Holy Spirit more than we have before.

And that's really, really good.

But please know that whatever experience you have, no matter how great it is, it's just a taste of what's to come.

There are people who I know here who have experienced God in ways that kind of like make me jealous, you know.

I know it's not good to be jealous, but if you're gonna be jealous about anything, be jealous about experiencing God.

So they've had experiences with God that I'm like, oh man, I want that.

And Jesus would say, by the way, if you want that, ask for it.

He said, keep on asking and it will be given to you.

And when he said that, he was specifically talking about the Holy Spirit.

So it's good to ask for that.

If you haven't had that experience, if you're like, God, I believe in you, but I want to know you're real, I want to have an encounter with you that is undeniable, ask him for that.

Don't worship the experience of God.

That's very important.

Worship God.

You know, even teenagers that were on the trip, you guys experience God and that's awesome.

But don't settle for worshiping an experience.

Worship God.

But like whatever experience you have, whatever experience those people who I might even be jealous of when it comes to what they've had with God, whatever experiences they've had, it's nothing.

It's just the taste.

It's just the down, it's like just the down payment.

There's so much more to come.

We are we are the inheritance of God.

We are his special possession, we are his treasure, we are his prized possession.

That's who you are.

That should give you so much value.

That should give you so much worth.

We live in a world that has no idea how to feel worth.

We live in a world that tries to teach all of us when we're young that we have value in and of ourselves, right?

The school structure that I grew up in was all about self-esteem.

There were posters on every wall telling me how great I am.

And so we live in this world that tells us you're wonderful, you're great, you're great, you're good, and yet depression and anxiety and suicide are like epidemics in our world.

And our world doesn't really have a solution for it.

In the last two decades, the number of medications available and treatments available for things like depression have skyrocketed.

There's more options for treatment than ever before, and yet the rate of depression has not dropped a bit, it's risen.

It's because there's more than just biology at play.

See, I've been told by my world that I am valuable because I am.

And I want to believe that because it sounds good.

But that's actually not why I'm valuable, and it's not why you're valuable either.

You're not just valuable because you're here.

You're not just valuable because of who you are, you're valuable because of whose you are.

You know what I'm saying?

You belong to God.

He made you and he bought you.

You're his prized possession.

And because you are his inheritance, you have an inheritance waiting for you.

So you have better days ahead.

So you should live life looking forward with eager anticipation of what's to come.

No matter what stage of life you're in, no matter how old, no matter how young, you have better days ahead.

Because you are an heir of the glory of God.

So be excited.

Like you're an heir.

Come on.

You should feel important.

You should have like a pep in your step today.

You're an heir of God's glory.

And he says that he did this so that we would praise and glorify him.

So let's just do that.

Let's just step into that this morning.

Let's praise and glorify the God who has made us his possession, who has made us his prize.

Father, we love you.

We thank you so much for all you've done for us.

We thank you so much, Jesus, for sacrificing yourself for us, for paying the price, the ultimate price, so that we could know you.

You made us and you bought us.

And now we belong to you.

And we have value because you have told us that we're valuable.

So, Lord, help us understand today that we are your prize.

And I pray, Lord, that our value and our worth comes from that knowledge and that knowledge alone.

Help us live in light of whose we are, of who we belong to, because that's you, Lord.

And I pray, Father, that you would give us an expectation of what's to come.

And I pray, God, as a church, as we seek your presence, as we say, hey, we want to experience you, we want to feel you, we want to know you, we want to have an intimate relationship with you, we want to have actual encounters with you, God, that we would understand that no matter how great the encounters we have with you are, they're nothing but a deposit of what's to come.

That we are the heirs of your glory.

So help us live a life where we are constantly expected.

Because there's so much more that you have for us that we haven't even experienced yet.

We pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.