WEBVTT 00:00:00.790 --> 00:00:01.240 Wonderful. 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:04.740 We're on a series together in the book of Ephesians. 00:00:04.820 --> 00:00:07.630 If you brought your Bible, I'll feel free to turn to that book of the Bible. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:09.420 If you want to follow along, make notes in your Bible. 00:00:09.860 --> 00:00:11.820 It's it can be a good thing to make notes in your Bible, right? 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:13.880 And helps us in our study. 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:19.720 You've, it's kind of a joke, but maybe I should say you've heard the joke before, right? 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:23.410 Miss America pageant comes up, you get to the all important round. 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:25.200 We need to know what she's thinking. 00:00:25.220 --> 00:00:28.410 If she becomes Miss America, how is Miss America going to change the world? 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:28.540 Right? 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:30.880 Miss America, if you had. 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:38.060 I don't know how I know this, but if you had, if you had just one wish to have to have 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:39.860 answered, what would that wish be? 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:46.640 I tell you, if you guys ever compete for that position, the answer is always world peace, right? 00:00:46.700 --> 00:00:48.640 I want I want world peace. 00:00:48.680 --> 00:00:49.980 You're going to have to you get that right. 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:50.820 It's going a little bit. 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:54.720 The answer is always world peace. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:02.660 And the premise of her idea is there's something wrong with the world and the solution to all of it is if we just could be just more peaceful 00:01:02.660 --> 00:01:03.560 people, we can. 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:05.200 Can we all just get along right? 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:12.920 And I think some of us long for opportunities for a world to become better for us. 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:14.560 I think we all have that longing within us. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:22.900 I like sometimes in my life when maybe things aren't going perfect as planned or circumstances aren't always 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:23.540 the best. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.060 There's a there's a song I always put on. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:28.260 My wife knows this very well. 00:01:28.300 --> 00:01:30.780 It's the Louis Armstrong song. 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:31.180 Right. 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:33.200 So great in our house because I sing it. 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:33.990 I want to turn this off. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:35.020 It's not. 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:44.660 I listen to the song? 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:45.820 Is that on? 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:48.660 Test, test, test. 00:01:48.660 --> 00:01:48.880 There we go. 00:01:49.300 --> 00:01:50.460 The Louis Armstrong song. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:51.280 You guys ever heard of it? 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:52.560 Right, I. 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:02.260 Okay. 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:02.260 Thank you. 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:04.700 The song of Louis Armstrong starts off right in our home. 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:09.500 Always sing it like Louis I see trees of blue, right? 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:11.930 So it just makes my circumstances so much red. 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:13.580 Robin I don't even know what he says. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:16.960 I just get so happy when I sing that song right. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.590 It's a wonderful world between Louis Armstrong and the wish of Miss America. 00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:22.680 This world is so much better, isn't it? 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:26.840 And I consider questions like this. 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:32.540 I think it's wonderful that, if you want to win Miss America, you got to also want world peace. 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:40.440 And I think it's great that Louis Armstrong sings songs about about a world that is, could be so 00:02:40.440 --> 00:02:41.020 much better. 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:42.860 And he thinks about what a wonderful world it could be. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:43.880 Can I switch back to this? 00:02:44.420 --> 00:02:44.680 Okay. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:45.720 Thank you. 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:49.560 And then I consider the question because I follow Jesus. 00:02:51.940 --> 00:02:53.000 What is it Jesus desires? 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:57.300 What is it Jesus craves and wants? 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:03.540 And I wonder that same question if God were just to tell us. 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:08.100 One thing about his heart's desire for this world. 00:03:08.100 --> 00:03:08.200 What? 00:03:08.660 --> 00:03:10.960 What would that be and what would that look like? 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:17.560 And it tells us in Ephesians chapter one and verse 14, this is when we look at the text of Scripture today. 00:03:17.720 --> 00:03:20.940 This is what we are all motivating and moving towards together. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:21.480 This is the goal. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:22.760 I'm going to go and show you the goal in the beginning. 00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:32.100 It says in verse 14, we have a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of 00:03:32.140 --> 00:03:32.680 his glory. 00:03:34.940 --> 00:03:36.620 God's goes a little bit different than Miss America. 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:41.100 It could have Miss America in mind, Louis Armstrong. 00:03:41.480 --> 00:03:48.820 But the thought of God is that he could redeem this world to his own possession and for his own glory. 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.130 When God thinks about his desire, his one wish. 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:59.220 God's desire involves all of us being gathered together for his great name. 00:04:01.100 --> 00:04:05.990 And when you consider the scope of this thought of God, it's not just us. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.920 We're the crowning glory of God's creation, but it involves really the world. 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:16.980 Because it tells us that one day Jesus will return and Jesus will establish his kingdom, and Jesus will take away all 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:21.899 pain, all suffering, all sickness, and he'll rule on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:29.840 And the Bible tells us the sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave in chapter five, six, and seven, that kingdom that he describes will happen perfectly on this 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:31.860 planet as he recreates it. 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:38.030 God's desire is to redeem this world for his own possession. 00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:46.720 We're driving towards that motivation today to consider that we're looking at what the apostle Paul tells us 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:54.220 about that in his complete desire as he shares this portion of Scripture in this with us is to motivate us in 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:55.680 greater worship of who God is. 00:04:56.820 --> 00:04:58.660 Because if I if I were to ask you the question this morning. 00:05:00.700 --> 00:05:02.200 What is your plan for life? 00:05:02.220 --> 00:05:02.290 Do you remember? 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:03.820 We started with that last week? 00:05:03.820 --> 00:05:04.170 What is what? 00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:06.040 What would be your dream or your wish? 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:06.840 New year's resolution. 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:16.740 In verse two, it told us that we can see wonderful things in our lives happen if we are faithful in 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:17.440 Christ. 00:05:18.940 --> 00:05:20.060 And so I ask the question, what? 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:20.980 What is your dream? 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.360 Or what is your motivation for life? 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:31.060 And I got to say, if we begin our desire for living in this world with the wrong perspective on what life is about. 00:05:32.580 --> 00:05:34.880 Your life will settle for less than its purpose. 00:05:36.140 --> 00:05:38.760 And I believe your soul will never be satisfied. 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:48.280 If we begin that question in life without God involved in it at all, and we seek the desire within ourselves of how we want to live, we will 00:05:48.280 --> 00:05:50.520 find temporary things that satisfy who we are. 00:05:50.520 --> 00:05:52.720 But within the end, in the end, they don't fulfill us. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:59.800 And so we look, we crave for more, more opportunity, more things, more possessions that can satisfy us, at least for a temporary period of time until 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:01.030 I get tired of it and move on. 00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:05.540 What about if we pursue God in our lives? 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:06.720 You think about this. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:13.600 What if our pursuit of God can be a good thing, but it's not a great thing? 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:15.180 Let me give you an example. 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:20.140 Sometimes we come to church because we have needs, right? 00:06:20.860 --> 00:06:21.420 And that's good. 00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:26.160 I come to church because I have a need, and I want to see how the Lord fulfills it, right? 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:34.320 What if what if you come to church to worship and the reason you come is because your marriage is a wreck and you feel like 00:06:34.320 --> 00:06:35.280 it's just hopeless. 00:06:36.260 --> 00:06:39.440 And so you come to church and you desire for God to just fix your marriage. 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:42.140 And we begin to really treat God. 00:06:42.140 --> 00:06:44.340 It's a good thing to allow God to have the opportunity to do that. 00:06:44.380 --> 00:06:48.400 God is glorified in that because we're recognizing before God, God, you're capable of doing this. 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:56.220 But the problem is, if our pursuit is just for that reason, that the moment that God begins to answer that request within our lives, if that's the motivation 00:06:56.220 --> 00:07:00.460 behind why we're praising the Lord, the minute that God answers that, we're done with him. 00:07:01.900 --> 00:07:04.140 We use them like a tool, we use them and lose them. 00:07:06.340 --> 00:07:11.740 Is there a motivation within our lives, the reason for which we seek after God that can propel us just beyond a circumstance? 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:13.430 Do you see what I'm saying? 00:07:14.440 --> 00:07:19.540 As there's something about God and our relationship with him that is greater than just a simplistic need. 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:21.040 Think about this for a minute. 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:21.560 What? 00:07:21.780 --> 00:07:26.220 What if I walk into church and I come in and I say, God, I have this need, and I want you to answer it. 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:26.800 What about this? 00:07:27.840 --> 00:07:29.490 What if God doesn't answer it? 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:35.500 What if I come in to worship the Lord because my marriage is struggling? 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:38.650 And my marriage doesn't get fixed. 00:07:40.280 --> 00:07:44.640 Or what if I come in because my life is with my children is difficult. 00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:50.180 And my relationship with my kids don't get stronger. 00:07:51.080 --> 00:07:58.120 What if I what if I come into church because I'm facing an ailment or a sickness, and I want God to take care of 00:07:58.120 --> 00:07:58.260 it? 00:07:58.340 --> 00:07:59.520 God, I'm just praying you heal this. 00:07:59.700 --> 00:08:02.020 And God continues to allow me to endure cancer. 00:08:03.340 --> 00:08:03.540 What if? 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:06.540 Would we continue to worship? 00:08:09.380 --> 00:08:16.320 So the motivation for what we drive behind as we worship God can dictate whether or not we continue to praise his name. 00:08:18.280 --> 00:08:20.420 We think about this for just a moment. 00:08:21.460 --> 00:08:23.660 What if our motivation is never to come before God? 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:24.560 Because I want him to answer questions? 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.640 What if my motivation in coming before God is simply because he's worthy? 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:37.260 You think about this regardless of what God ever does in my life, I come to worship him because he is worthy of praise. 00:08:37.280 --> 00:08:42.480 He is of infinite worth and I can worship him in his holy name. 00:08:44.660 --> 00:08:47.280 When you look at the life of the Apostle Paul or Jesus. 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:49.920 Or even Timothy. 00:08:51.920 --> 00:08:57.200 When Paul worshipped the Lord and Paul served the Lord, Paul saw lots of great things that God did within his life. 00:08:57.280 --> 00:08:59.780 But we also find that there were prayers that Paul never had answered. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.010 Paul prayed, God, would you heal me from this thorn in the flesh? 00:09:03.260 --> 00:09:04.600 And the thorn in the flesh never went away. 00:09:05.900 --> 00:09:12.940 He told Timothy, Timothy, take some wine to help settle your stomach, because there's an ailment in which God is just not going to take care of it is 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:14.500 what you are to endure in life. 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:17.480 Jesus himself suffered on the cross. 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:21.780 You think of the disciples and the apostles, all of them dying a martyr's death, but one. 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:26.550 When we follow Jesus, it doesn't dictate that life always goes perfectly. 00:09:26.640 --> 00:09:29.980 So how do we praise God in the midst of even the storms? 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.600 The good benefit to that and thinking about praising God for his worth. 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:40.240 Because as we focus on his kingdom, we focus on his goodness. 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:44.050 We focus on his glory and who he is in our lives. 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:48.920 Bible tells us, as we do that God begins to transform us. 00:09:50.140 --> 00:09:52.110 And God can move in the hearts of the lives of other people. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:10:00.620 You see in Ephesians chapter one through three, the way, the way that the Bible starts in the first three chapters is it shares with us the beauty 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:01.500 of who God is. 00:10:02.560 --> 00:10:09.600 It talks to us about understanding the worth of our worship towards God, apart from anything that God would ever 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:10.500 do for us. 00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:13.420 And what we find is as we live for his kingdom. 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:18.060 God then begins to strengthen our lives here on earth. 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:22.460 Doesn't necessitate that things always get better, but that they could. 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:31.140 So when we talk about living for God's kingdom, God's God isn't interested in always taking care of circumstances in a in an earth 00:10:31.140 --> 00:10:32.280 that is failing. 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:34.860 The earth is passing away. 00:10:34.880 --> 00:10:36.040 This earth is sinful. 00:10:36.060 --> 00:10:38.320 He doesn't desire for our hope to be here. 00:10:38.540 --> 00:10:43.120 He desires for our hope to be in a place in which all things will be perfected in his Kingdom for his glory. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:46.980 And so we talk about verse 14. 00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:49.340 What's God's picture for us? 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:56.130 It says that God has a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:01.620 That regardless of whatever happens in our lives, God is worthy of our praise. 00:11:03.800 --> 00:11:09.720 God is worthy of our worship, that God desires for us to place our hope in his goodness. 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:11.790 And so what Paul does in this passage of Scripture. 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:20.690 Paul has this pervading thought for us that God's desires to collect those of us who desire to be a part of his kingdom, 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:25.420 to focus on the redemption that's to come in his glory, for his goodness. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:30.460 And he just wants to excite you about that worship of that great God. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:38.860 Paul is so excited to tell you about why God is so worthy of our worship, apart from any circumstance we endure in this world, that he 00:11:38.860 --> 00:11:42.320 does this in one sentence, in a prayer. 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:44.150 That's all we're going to look at today. 00:11:45.160 --> 00:11:47.160 I'm coming to church, and you're going to look at a sentence and a prayer and then. 00:11:47.300 --> 00:11:48.020 Amazing, right? 00:11:49.780 --> 00:11:51.660 God desires for us to have a godly perspective. 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:52.940 It starts in verse three. 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:53.810 Here's the interesting thing. 00:11:54.260 --> 00:11:58.180 When I talk about one sentence, I talk about one sentence within the Bible. 00:11:59.020 --> 00:12:00.610 you don't know this in English. 00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:03.020 Run on sentences are a bad thing. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.700 You do that in 12th grade grammar and your teacher flunks you right? 00:12:06.180 --> 00:12:10.120 In the Greek culture, run on sentences were beautiful. 00:12:10.300 --> 00:12:14.320 And in verse three Paul starts a sentence that doesn't end till verse 14. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:18.140 You can imagine about that's an F in college today, right? 00:12:18.140 --> 00:12:19.600 What Paul's thinking. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.850 But in his time they considered that he's so smart. 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:22.460 Right. 00:12:22.780 --> 00:12:30.100 And what he does as he begins to list this for us in our worship for him, Paul just lists for us five things that he wants us to understand as to why we 00:12:30.100 --> 00:12:30.970 gather together. 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:35.300 It's not about what God's necessarily going to do for us, but it's about who he is. 00:12:36.340 --> 00:12:39.860 And in focusing on who he is, God then begins to transform our lives. 00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:41.980 God works in us and through us. 00:12:42.020 --> 00:12:44.980 The goodness of his kingdom can be seen in the life in which we live. 00:12:45.040 --> 00:12:46.380 But we don't do it for that pursuit. 00:12:46.380 --> 00:12:48.110 We do it for knowing him. 00:12:49.980 --> 00:12:51.900 And so Paul starts his story this way. 00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:58.960 He says in verse three, blessed be the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:02.550 with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. 00:13:03.660 --> 00:13:07.240 Paul's literally saying in the Greek text it says, blessed be in the very beginning for us. 00:13:07.260 --> 00:13:09.180 And this word means it's a word of adoration. 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:11.340 It's a word of worship. 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:14.240 He's saying to us, listen, adore God, worship God. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:21.600 I'm about to tell you the reasons why and recognizing for us that your worship becomes the echo of God's 00:13:21.620 --> 00:13:22.580 glory in this world. 00:13:23.180 --> 00:13:24.420 I love the way that God works. 00:13:24.900 --> 00:13:28.300 He's given nothing else in creation, really a mouth to express his goodness. 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:30.700 You can look out in the mountains and see the goodness of God. 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:34.210 You can look into the valleys and see the goodness of God, but you as a creature. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.770 He's created with a voice to echo his goodness into this world. 00:13:39.560 --> 00:13:45.520 And he's saying to us as people, listen, this is something you need to get excited about for what I'm about to tell you, this is something that you need to adore. 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.640 That you need to worship him because God has blessed you. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:49.720 This is a different word for blessed. 00:13:49.900 --> 00:13:51.220 It literally means he's blessed you. 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:54.500 You know, you hear the old lady in the supermarket, you ask her how her life's going. 00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:56.450 I'm just so blessed, you know it's. 00:13:57.160 --> 00:13:57.820 And you're blessed. 00:13:57.980 --> 00:13:58.580 That's what it means. 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:02.140 Adore God because you're blessed with every spiritual blessing. 00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:04.930 And what in the world is he talking about with these spiritual blessings? 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:09.380 Well, Paul's about to list every reason in these spiritual blessings for which we can praise God. 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:16.340 The good thing about the Bible is if you've got a question about a passage of Scripture, just read the next verse and it begins to open itself up. 00:14:16.380 --> 00:14:16.480 Right? 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:24.500 And so when we think about what is the spiritual blessing that God has given us, we don't have to invent it because he tells us in verse four it 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:24.830 says this. 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:28.140 Just as he chose us in him. 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:30.600 Before the foundation of the world. 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:35.960 That we would be holy and blameless before him and love. 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:41.760 First reason that Paul gives us that we should desire to praise God. 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:44.100 It's because we have the privilege. 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:49.020 Of experiencing him and love. 00:14:51.300 --> 00:14:54.500 Do you seek God so that you can be loved? 00:14:55.800 --> 00:14:58.760 Or do you seek after God because you are loved? 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:01.600 You see what it says in verse four? 00:15:01.900 --> 00:15:09.220 This passage of Scripture, God has chosen you in the foundations of the world to experience life with him in love. 00:15:09.220 --> 00:15:12.880 It tells us at the end of the verse that we should be walking in him, holy and blameless. 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:15.960 A picture for us is that our relationship would be perfect. 00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:18.520 I love what he says before the foundation of the world. 00:15:18.520 --> 00:15:23.760 If you consider this for just a moment, do you do you come to God so that you or do you live for God so that you can be loved? 00:15:23.760 --> 00:15:25.160 Or do you live for God because you are loved? 00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:26.400 Do you come to God so you can be loved? 00:15:26.680 --> 00:15:28.660 Or do you come to God because you are loved? 00:15:29.180 --> 00:15:36.460 The Bible says before the foundation of the world, before you did anything to even be lovable, before you thought that you were just so lovely 00:15:37.560 --> 00:15:39.220 or anything to not be loved. 00:15:39.640 --> 00:15:41.560 God desired to love you anyway. 00:15:42.680 --> 00:15:44.080 Isn't that a wonderful thought to consider? 00:15:45.160 --> 00:15:52.480 You do nothing to earn the love of God, but God within his nature chooses to love you despite anything 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:53.220 you've done. 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:56.580 Or because of anything that you've done. 00:15:58.360 --> 00:15:59.980 He didn't do this based on you. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:02.000 He did this. 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:03.920 Based on him. 00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:07.760 God doesn't love you because you're lovable. 00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:10.690 God loved you before you even existed. 00:16:11.800 --> 00:16:12.660 Because God is love. 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:21.240 You read first John chapter four and verse eight, it says that very simplistically, God is love. 00:16:23.140 --> 00:16:26.460 And the expression of love is always about giving itself away, isn't it? 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:28.240 Love is selfless. 00:16:29.920 --> 00:16:33.180 And within the nature of God and His selfless identity. 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:39.700 Being love, God desired to give that away towards a creature. 00:16:41.560 --> 00:16:45.800 And he created you in his image that he could lavish his love upon you. 00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:49.970 I love when you think about the expression or the statement. 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.160 The theological thought of God is love. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:54.800 It doesn't say that God loves. 00:16:56.460 --> 00:17:03.770 When we say something about I love you, it's a determination of my will to place my affections towards that thing for which I love. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:03.940 Right. 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:07.000 I made a decision, a conscious decision, that I would love something. 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:11.660 But when you say something, you say something like this God is love rather than God. 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:13.250 God does love. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:18.000 It totally changes the identity of and the scope of what it's communicating to us in love. 00:17:18.460 --> 00:17:22.960 It's saying to us, God doesn't choose to love, but the very nature of his character is love. 00:17:23.280 --> 00:17:27.760 If you cut God up, what you see within the inside of God is nothing but love. 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:28.760 God is love. 00:17:28.760 --> 00:17:30.120 It's his character. 00:17:30.140 --> 00:17:30.560 It's who he is. 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:31.390 It's his being. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.140 God desires to love. 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:33.940 God loves. 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:35.700 God is love. 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:39.900 And before the foundation of the world, no matter what you've done and who cares what you've done? 00:17:39.900 --> 00:17:40.660 God is love. 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:44.560 It doesn't matter what you do from this day forward, God loves. 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:52.160 He's working all things to the redemption, calling all people in verse 14 because God loves you. 00:17:53.360 --> 00:17:54.560 A thought along with that is. 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:57.420 In addition to that, God is lovely. 00:17:59.320 --> 00:18:06.520 Not only is God expressing his love towards you, he's expressing it in such a way that it makes him lovely and appealing towards 00:18:06.520 --> 00:18:06.620 us. 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:09.780 I thought about this week. 00:18:10.620 --> 00:18:10.760 What? 00:18:11.340 --> 00:18:16.280 What is the number one reason or the number one thing I love about my wife? 00:18:18.560 --> 00:18:21.400 If I were to ask you that question, what would you maybe answer? 00:18:22.820 --> 00:18:23.700 I love my wife. 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.420 Number one thing I love about my wife is she cooks good, right? 00:18:26.760 --> 00:18:27.440 Or ladies. 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:28.220 What would you say about your husband? 00:18:28.300 --> 00:18:28.920 He's got big muscles. 00:18:29.560 --> 00:18:30.380 I love that, right. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:32.560 That's Stacy's for me. 00:18:34.830 --> 00:18:36.440 I feel like you're laughing at me. 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:37.090 Not with me. 00:18:37.600 --> 00:18:38.960 All right. 00:18:39.340 --> 00:18:42.240 What is it that you love about your spouse? 00:18:44.100 --> 00:18:46.520 Do you love the way that they give you a back rub? 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:51.820 Do you love the way that they speak good thoughts towards you? 00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:55.340 What is it that you love about your spouse? 00:18:55.380 --> 00:18:57.180 Can I tell you what I think the biblical answer should be? 00:18:58.660 --> 00:19:03.970 The thing that I love about my spouse is that she's giving given herself to me. 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:12.420 You realize the gift of what marriage is about when you go before the altar to the person that you love to join in union with 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:12.740 them. 00:19:13.020 --> 00:19:17.240 The picture of that identity that God has created for us is about giving yourself away. 00:19:17.600 --> 00:19:18.930 That two would become one. 00:19:20.560 --> 00:19:27.740 And the experiences that you receive, the reason that you love the particular things about your spouse or the things that they do for you, is because first and foremost, they've 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:30.440 given themselves for you and towards you. 00:19:32.120 --> 00:19:39.160 And not only is it loving that God loves us, but it's also lovely that we can look back at 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:43.140 God and we see that he's given us the greatest expression of love towards us as people. 00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:44.200 He's given us himself. 00:19:45.660 --> 00:19:52.660 And how far has he demonstrated the love for which he's given himself by coming to this earth and becoming flesh and dying for you 00:19:52.660 --> 00:19:53.740 on a cross? 00:19:54.880 --> 00:20:02.100 The greatest extent for which someone could express love in this world is by laying themselves down and offering themselves towards you, and God 00:20:02.100 --> 00:20:03.100 has done that. 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:10.480 Not only are you loved because God is love and he's loved you, but God also looks lovely to us because what he's done in demonstrating 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:11.020 that. 00:20:12.520 --> 00:20:21.020 And Paul says, Praise God because we have the privilege of experiencing him and love. 00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:26.740 Some people had asked the question for those who are Calvinist, what does it mean that God chose us before the foundation of the world? 00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:34.780 I would just simply say this we follow Jesus in our lives because Jesus has been passionately pursuing us with his life. 00:20:36.460 --> 00:20:38.840 I love God because he first loved me. 00:20:40.120 --> 00:20:47.400 And because Jesus has demonstrated himself, because Jesus has been pursuing me with everything that he is, at some point in my life, God has awakened my 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:51.540 dead spirit from not understanding the beauty of God and allowed me to see the beauty of who God is. 00:20:52.280 --> 00:20:57.640 And my response to this lovely God is to praise or adore and bless him for all that he is. 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:00.680 Verse five says this. 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:02.130 Oh, excuse me, I have to click. 00:21:03.600 --> 00:21:08.360 He predestined us while he's loving you towards a relationship with him in holiness and blamelessness. 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:17.120 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:18.840 of his will. 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:24.460 Paul saying, Praise God because we are adopted in his kingdom. 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:27.680 You think about the word adoption. 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:30.800 If you need to be adopted, does that mean you have a home? 00:21:32.020 --> 00:21:32.140 No. 00:21:32.600 --> 00:21:33.220 Right? 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:33.960 The answer is no. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:35.730 That was not a rhetorical question. 00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:37.160 Let's try that one more time. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:39.540 If you need to be adopted, does that mean you have a home? 00:21:40.020 --> 00:21:40.320 No. 00:21:40.760 --> 00:21:41.260 You have nowhere to belong. 00:21:42.120 --> 00:21:42.380 You're orphaned. 00:21:43.820 --> 00:21:51.020 And God is using this word adopted to say to us, we have no kingdom for which we should be belonging 00:21:51.020 --> 00:21:53.100 to, or we could be belonging to. 00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:57.660 And it tells us in this verse that Jesus Christ has come to save us. 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:00.560 Now, we've said this many times in our life. 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:00.680 You've. 00:22:00.760 --> 00:22:07.940 You've said the word Jesus Christ, but the name Jesus Christ and the word adoption means something particular and specific and special 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:09.130 to us as people. 00:22:10.060 --> 00:22:15.980 The word Jesus Christ literally means Yeshua Messiah. 00:22:17.780 --> 00:22:20.680 Or translated saving. 00:22:21.780 --> 00:22:22.020 King. 00:22:24.560 --> 00:22:28.020 Jesus is adopting you as a saving king. 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:30.000 Why does he need to save us? 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:31.030 Well, you have no home. 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:32.820 You are in a place of despair. 00:22:33.080 --> 00:22:36.320 God needs to come into your life and rescue you. 00:22:37.500 --> 00:22:39.340 And so the saving king comes to you. 00:22:39.340 --> 00:22:40.220 And we talk about a king. 00:22:40.220 --> 00:22:41.160 There's always a kingdom. 00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:41.940 There's got to be a kingdom. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:43.440 You can't be a king without a kingdom. 00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:46.480 I know some of you guys call yourself kings in your little castles at home, right? 00:22:46.740 --> 00:22:47.760 Well, the same is true with God. 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:50.040 God owns everything and he is the king. 00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:53.380 The saving king has come to this world to adopt you. 00:22:55.020 --> 00:22:59.370 Into a place for which you did not belong, accepting you into a kingdom for which he has called you to belong. 00:23:01.520 --> 00:23:03.210 We ask the question that begs the question. 00:23:05.620 --> 00:23:06.800 What keeps us from that kingdom. 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:11.110 The answer to that is sin. 00:23:13.600 --> 00:23:17.200 We have a theological problem in our lives when we hear the response of that. 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.040 God wants to adopt us for his kingdom. 00:23:21.080 --> 00:23:22.120 He's a saving king. 00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:24.700 What he's saving us from is sin. 00:23:24.820 --> 00:23:26.420 Because right now, I'm a slave to sin. 00:23:26.420 --> 00:23:28.380 I need him to adopt me. 00:23:28.700 --> 00:23:33.680 But when we hear the word sin in our lives, we tend to have a theological problem with the way that we think about that. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:41.160 Because when I often say, or when someone says to you that's sinful, the immediate response that we have within our mind is that, oh, I need 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:42.740 to do better, right? 00:23:42.840 --> 00:23:43.480 Oh, I'm bad. 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:44.110 I need to do better. 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:46.800 When we talk about sin, I'm bad and I need to do better. 00:23:46.980 --> 00:23:51.940 And if I do better enough, then maybe I'll be good enough for the king that's supposed to save me. 00:23:51.940 --> 00:23:52.860 To allow me to come into his kingdom. 00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:57.620 The problem with that is that we're not identifying what this verse says. 00:23:58.060 --> 00:24:01.580 We're not doing the saving, and we're not living the good enough to get into this kingdom. 00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:05.100 The verse tells us that we didn't adopt ourselves to God's kingdom. 00:24:05.120 --> 00:24:08.780 God has adopted us to his kingdom, and we think about the word sin. 00:24:08.780 --> 00:24:10.320 It's not about you need to do better. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:12.690 The Bible doesn't describe it in that way. 00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:16.260 When the Bible talks about sin, it's not saying you're bad. 00:24:16.260 --> 00:24:19.040 When the Bible talks about sin, it's saying you're dead. 00:24:20.260 --> 00:24:28.040 In a matter of fact, if you turn to Ephesians chapter two and verse one and you look at that, it says, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, meaning 00:24:28.040 --> 00:24:32.820 it doesn't matter how good you do for the rest of your life, you can't bring dead back to life. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:34.810 Dead is dead. 00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:41.460 Bible tells us in Romans 623, the wages of sin is what? 00:24:41.860 --> 00:24:42.740 Death. 00:24:43.780 --> 00:24:46.440 When we talk about sin, dead is dead. 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:47.500 Sin means death. 00:24:47.580 --> 00:24:48.500 It doesn't mean you're bad. 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:49.680 It doesn't mean try better. 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:51.060 It means you're dead. 00:24:52.060 --> 00:24:59.100 And so what Paul is saying to us is the beauty of who Jesus is that he's coming to a dead man's world, of a kingdom 00:24:59.100 --> 00:24:59.980 in which you did not. 00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:01.340 You did not belong. 00:25:01.340 --> 00:25:04.720 And he's offered you his kingdom as a saving king. 00:25:04.780 --> 00:25:07.940 God has brought the dead back to life. 00:25:10.380 --> 00:25:11.500 And he's made all things new. 00:25:14.500 --> 00:25:16.140 Praise God because we are adopted. 00:25:17.600 --> 00:25:18.120 In this kingdom. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:23.120 And God is loving you with a relentless love. 00:25:24.580 --> 00:25:29.120 I love how he says it at the end of verse five, according to the kind intention of his will. 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:37.000 Can I tell you before you want to humbly submit to a king that's offering such a glorious kingdom, you've got to believe that last part. 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.720 According to the kind intention of his will as it works within our lives. 00:25:43.780 --> 00:25:50.900 So I've seen a lot of people in this world fight against the goodness that God offers them, not really believing that God's will is good for them, but their will 00:25:50.900 --> 00:25:51.670 is better for themselves. 00:25:52.260 --> 00:25:59.420 I'm going to say in some respects they've got a very good reason, because growing up in religious systems that have just robbed you of the joy of understanding a great relationship for God 00:25:59.780 --> 00:26:00.300 and with God. 00:26:02.300 --> 00:26:06.600 But God has called you to something better than any misrepresentation of any religious system that exists. 00:26:06.980 --> 00:26:08.180 God's called you before his goodness. 00:26:08.220 --> 00:26:08.620 He loves you. 00:26:10.360 --> 00:26:11.480 And he's called you into his kingdom. 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:12.120 He's adopted you. 00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:16.360 Meaning the goodness of his kingdom you get the opportunity to possess. 00:26:17.620 --> 00:26:19.720 But you've got to believe that it's according to the kind intention of his will. 00:26:21.260 --> 00:26:22.480 This is the way we rebel against them. 00:26:23.280 --> 00:26:23.980 I just want to be free. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:24.660 I don't want to be. 00:26:24.840 --> 00:26:25.800 I don't want anything to do with God. 00:26:26.540 --> 00:26:27.390 I just want to be free. 00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.840 And you know when God hears us express ourselves in that way. 00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:32.630 I got to be thinking from God's perspective. 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:36.540 And I have to believe that God would just consider that really suicide. 00:26:37.300 --> 00:26:39.420 Because what we're saying to God is, God, I've got this. 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:40.690 I'm just going to be good. 00:26:41.280 --> 00:26:44.570 Dad can come back to life, I can I can do good enough and resurrect myself. 00:26:45.060 --> 00:26:45.200 Right? 00:26:46.860 --> 00:26:53.920 It's like this as a child, as a parent, you think about your children going outside and they say, mom, I'm listening to what you have to say, but today I just want to be 00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:54.240 free. 00:26:54.980 --> 00:26:57.480 I'm running around my skippy's out in the road, right? 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:01.820 I am free, and you look out the window and your kid's just running down the street like arms spread wide. 00:27:01.840 --> 00:27:03.220 I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. 00:27:03.220 --> 00:27:03.500 Right. 00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:04.720 And you're thinking, kid, that is crazy. 00:27:05.760 --> 00:27:06.250 That is suicide. 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:07.880 Here's what I want for you. 00:27:08.520 --> 00:27:09.260 I want you to be free. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:09.520 But. 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:11.780 But I want you to be free in my kingdom where I can protect you. 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:13.480 I want you to be free. 00:27:13.600 --> 00:27:13.920 Where I'm. 00:27:14.060 --> 00:27:15.900 I'm bringing my life upon you. 00:27:16.180 --> 00:27:20.960 I want you to be free in the yard that I've created for you and the kingdom for which I possess. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:23.100 The one that I've called you to out in the street. 00:27:23.260 --> 00:27:23.720 Run around naked. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:24.770 That is not free. 00:27:25.020 --> 00:27:25.720 That's anarchy. 00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:26.360 That's chaos. 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:29.520 But God has called you to be free. 00:27:31.300 --> 00:27:33.680 According to the kind intention of his will. 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:37.560 Praise God because we are adopted into his kingdom. 00:27:39.740 --> 00:27:40.750 Gives us another reason. 00:27:40.760 --> 00:27:47.280 In verse six he says to praise to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. 00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:56.760 We ask the question we see in verse 345, God has bestowed his blessing upon us, that we are to worship him, that God has called 00:27:56.760 --> 00:27:59.790 us to so much more, even in this world doesn't go the way that we desire. 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:03.640 We just focus on his goodness and glory because he has loved us before the foundation of the world. 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:08.520 Someone loves you more than anything that you could ever imagine, and he's adopting you. 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:15.900 He's called you to something so much better than any freedom that you might want to express in any other avenue in this world, and we call the word for that 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:16.380 grace. 00:28:18.040 --> 00:28:20.020 God has extended his free gift to you. 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:27.180 Verse six, you've done nothing to earn it, but he's given it anyway because he loves you regardless of what you've done or not done. 00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:28.320 God loves you. 00:28:30.040 --> 00:28:34.330 And so he begins to explain what that grace really means for us in verse seven. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:40.140 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. 00:28:41.340 --> 00:28:42.660 Saying to us, Jesus has come. 00:28:42.840 --> 00:28:44.560 Jesus has become that sacrifice for you. 00:28:44.600 --> 00:28:48.480 Jesus has laid himself down to pay for your sin because you couldn't afford to pay for it. 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:49.150 You were a dead man. 00:28:49.980 --> 00:28:52.880 And in verse eight, which he lavished on us. 00:28:54.300 --> 00:28:55.240 In all wisdom. 00:28:56.360 --> 00:28:56.680 An insight. 00:28:58.560 --> 00:28:59.780 I love the way it says it in verse seven. 00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:03.520 Some translations, I think, do a poor job of this. 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:06.880 The Greek word is better translated rather than redemption as ransomed. 00:29:08.600 --> 00:29:11.650 You think about the two images that God has given us about who we are as people. 00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:15.660 He has adopted us because we didn't belong and he has ransomed us. 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:20.860 And a few years ago, more than a decade ago now, there was a movie called ransomed, right? 00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:21.940 Mel Gibson made it. 00:29:22.600 --> 00:29:23.300 His kid got stolen. 00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:24.870 Saw the way. 00:29:24.900 --> 00:29:30.000 If you've seen the movie how he behaves towards getting his kid back, he is recklessly abandonment. 00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:37.400 Just going towards that goal of finding his child and purchasing him out of the darkness of the people who've kidnapped him and bringing them back into 00:29:37.420 --> 00:29:38.690 the home in which he's loved. 00:29:39.620 --> 00:29:44.960 And Mel Gibson is willing to pay whatever the cost is just to have that child back with him. 00:29:46.300 --> 00:29:53.660 And saying to us in the same verse that God desires to ransom you, that he's created you for his kingdom, to experience a relationship with 00:29:53.660 --> 00:30:00.940 him, that we've been kidnapped from his presence, and God is going to this world paying whatever the cost would be that you 00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:04.640 may come to know Him in His Kingdom. 00:30:06.840 --> 00:30:09.010 And he has ransomed you. 00:30:10.560 --> 00:30:13.630 In verse 911, it goes on, we're going to go a little bit faster here. 00:30:13.800 --> 00:30:20.940 But it says, and he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him with 00:30:20.940 --> 00:30:24.220 a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times. 00:30:25.340 --> 00:30:29.600 That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.100 And things in the earth. 00:30:34.600 --> 00:30:40.480 God is saying to us as people that he's been working throughout history, revealing his will to us. 00:30:41.360 --> 00:30:48.360 And throughout the Old Testament, people have longed for the coming of this Messiah who would rescue us, who would offer himself for us, who would 00:30:48.360 --> 00:30:52.880 invite us to his kingdom, been longing to see this Messiah in the flesh? 00:30:54.280 --> 00:30:55.890 And now we've been able to see him. 00:30:57.320 --> 00:31:04.260 I love the beauty of what Christianity is for me, because not only not only spiritually does it satisfy my soul, but logically it makes so much sense. 00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:07.740 I was reading this week about a man named Anthony Flew. 00:31:09.380 --> 00:31:11.980 Anthony Flew served in World War two. 00:31:11.980 --> 00:31:14.900 He was a philosopher and he was also an atheist. 00:31:16.220 --> 00:31:18.000 Anthony flew hated God. 00:31:18.780 --> 00:31:22.480 And I think a lot of that came from seeing the destruction that existed within World War Two. 00:31:22.860 --> 00:31:29.860 And so he literally lived his life in England, traveling around the world as a philosopher and ecologist, teaching as a 00:31:29.860 --> 00:31:32.900 professor, proclaiming how God isn't real. 00:31:34.580 --> 00:31:35.280 And towards the end of his life. 00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:40.640 As Antony flew got closer to going to eternity. 00:31:42.580 --> 00:31:44.240 He began to question his own theories. 00:31:46.180 --> 00:31:53.240 At the end of his life, Antony Flew finally came out and stated, out of all these years that I've taught against God, I've come to 00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:54.400 realize that God is real. 00:31:56.020 --> 00:32:02.660 And as we begin to study about God, he then said to all the people that he had taught for centuries that not only is he real. 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:08.100 But I'm pretty sure it's the Christian God that I'm to follow. 00:32:09.660 --> 00:32:12.000 It's the Christian god out of anything that makes sense. 00:32:12.260 --> 00:32:14.420 It's a Christian God. 00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:19.980 And the reason Antony Flew was able to see that in his life. 00:32:21.620 --> 00:32:23.880 It's because of what verse 9 to 11 says. 00:32:25.620 --> 00:32:32.660 God has been culminating throughout history working his plan, redemptive, redemptive plan for us as people to adopt us, to create us as his 00:32:32.800 --> 00:32:36.870 own possession, to the glory of his praise, that we may experience the goodness of his Kingdom. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:40.480 And we've seen that Jesus has come. 00:32:41.840 --> 00:32:47.180 Prophetically fulfilling the Cummings hundreds of years before Jesus walked on the earth. 00:32:47.260 --> 00:32:54.260 Prophecy dictated what he would do, where he would live, how he would die, what it would look like, specific things that would happen, where he would 00:32:54.260 --> 00:32:54.600 live. 00:32:56.060 --> 00:32:56.720 Where he would be born. 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:01.900 And we have copies of manuscripts of Jesus's coming. 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:09.000 The prophecy fulfilled hundreds of years older than Christ, prophesying that Jesus would die on 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:11.840 a cross before the cross even existed. 00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:19.700 It's mind blowing, unless you consider that God has been working this out from the beginning of creation, that we may see 00:33:19.700 --> 00:33:20.050 it fulfilled. 00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:26.300 Praise him because we have seen the joy of his hand at work. 00:33:27.800 --> 00:33:28.640 And finally Paul says this. 00:33:30.780 --> 00:33:31.200 Praise him. 00:33:32.580 --> 00:33:34.660 Because we have the eternal promise that cannot be broken. 00:33:37.280 --> 00:33:44.440 It says in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things out after 00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:51.440 the counsel of his will to the end, that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:52.120 of his glory. 00:33:53.160 --> 00:34:00.560 In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed this 00:34:00.560 --> 00:34:01.040 is important. 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:05.490 You were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. 00:34:06.800 --> 00:34:13.940 Who he has given us a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. 00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:17.940 I want to point out one thing somewhat related to this text. 00:34:18.040 --> 00:34:22.040 If you pick up in verse three and you read, it begins to tell us according to God the Father. 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:25.639 And then it says, working itself out in Jesus Christ. 00:34:26.020 --> 00:34:29.210 And you get to verse 13, of which you were sealed in the Holy Spirit. 00:34:30.520 --> 00:34:33.300 I love this about God, because what it's saying to us is the Trinity. 00:34:33.780 --> 00:34:35.659 I won't get into the theology of that today, right. 00:34:36.020 --> 00:34:41.840 But the idea of what the Trinity is working itself together, collectively within you. 00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:44.739 God and the Triune God. 00:34:44.940 --> 00:34:47.440 He's working himself in your life. 00:34:48.219 --> 00:34:50.230 You talk about love for just a moment. 00:34:50.659 --> 00:34:51.400 God is love. 00:34:51.420 --> 00:34:56.480 And the way that we know that God is love is that God has been able to express his love before the foundation of the world. 00:34:57.240 --> 00:34:58.100 God lives in community. 00:34:58.840 --> 00:34:59.520 Father, son and spirit. 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:03.660 And before anything ever existed, God was love. 00:35:04.940 --> 00:35:06.020 Loving itself in community. 00:35:07.520 --> 00:35:08.640 And you were created in his image. 00:35:10.360 --> 00:35:11.900 And in being created in God's image. 00:35:13.180 --> 00:35:15.350 You also desire to be a part of community. 00:35:17.460 --> 00:35:19.960 Ever think within your soul how you just want to be close to people? 00:35:20.220 --> 00:35:21.200 Sometimes. 00:35:21.460 --> 00:35:23.170 You want to be a part of something bigger than yourself? 00:35:24.680 --> 00:35:27.020 God created you in his image and God created you for community. 00:35:28.740 --> 00:35:30.560 And so it tells us that the Holy Spirit has sealed us. 00:35:30.560 --> 00:35:31.230 I'm going to do this quickly. 00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:32.100 He sealed us. 00:35:32.680 --> 00:35:36.300 And sealing literally means it's a king's stamp. 00:35:36.860 --> 00:35:40.940 When a king would make a law during the Old Testament New Testament time, he would seal it. 00:35:41.860 --> 00:35:48.740 And the law stated that when a king sealed something, the seal could never be broken unless someone of higher authority than the king would break it. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:51.620 And no one was of higher authority than the king. 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:54.380 Today it's like a stamp on an envelope. 00:35:54.540 --> 00:35:59.010 Today you go to mail a letter, you address it to someone and you put your name on there and it's stamped. 00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:00.660 That's sealed according to our laws. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:07.740 And no one can open that envelope unless it's the person who's it's addressed to, or the person who wrote the letter and addressed their name on the outside. 00:36:08.340 --> 00:36:09.100 Binding it's law. 00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:12.620 And what God is saying to us that God has stamped you. 00:36:12.660 --> 00:36:19.800 God has sealed you by His Spirit, promising you that you belong to him, and nothing is ever going to take you away from that kingdom. 00:36:21.320 --> 00:36:21.780 Your Christ. 00:36:23.740 --> 00:36:24.760 And Paul gives us. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.160 Five reasons to praise him. 00:36:29.060 --> 00:36:30.620 And so he says in verse 14. 00:36:31.540 --> 00:36:39.040 Your pledge of the inheritance, and this with a view to the redemption of God's own purpose, to the praise of 00:36:39.040 --> 00:36:39.580 his glory. 00:36:42.260 --> 00:36:43.040 Won't stop. 00:36:43.040 --> 00:36:45.380 And I'm going to close with just a prayer. 00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:48.520 Paul writes for us, but I'm just going to say this as a church. 00:36:50.140 --> 00:36:52.540 If you've been if you've been in Churchianity long enough. 00:36:54.160 --> 00:36:59.740 You've probably at least heard some of these points that we've talked about today, right? 00:36:59.820 --> 00:37:07.040 Matter of fact, there could be a place in our lives that we're so calloused to everything that was stated today that you're saying to yourself, this is nothing 00:37:07.040 --> 00:37:08.260 new, homie, right? 00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:10.980 You did not tell me anything I didn't already know. 00:37:11.500 --> 00:37:12.900 Give me something to get excited about, Paul. 00:37:12.940 --> 00:37:13.200 Tell me. 00:37:13.200 --> 00:37:13.640 Get excited. 00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:16.720 How am I going to get excited about something I don't already know? 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:20.520 All right, I got to tell you, this is the goodness of who God is. 00:37:20.520 --> 00:37:23.160 This is the reason he's called us to adore him. 00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:28.040 There's no where else you're going to go in your life and be able to experience what God has talked about. 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:31.160 And if this doesn't excite you for what God has done. 00:37:32.560 --> 00:37:34.840 We say it here sometimes, but your wood is wet, right? 00:37:36.160 --> 00:37:37.620 You need something to light your fire. 00:37:38.820 --> 00:37:40.600 Because this is what I believe the world is craving. 00:37:41.780 --> 00:37:46.640 Everything that we just stated and all of these verses that Paul said in one sentence, believe it or not. 00:37:48.440 --> 00:37:50.100 Every thing that he just said. 00:37:50.200 --> 00:37:53.440 The world wants to see that it's real. 00:37:55.960 --> 00:37:56.420 Jesus. 00:37:58.280 --> 00:38:02.080 I would think within our own hearts desires to see that this is real in our own lives. 00:38:03.940 --> 00:38:11.100 That we really believe this, that in a place where people are desperate for hope, a place where we feel dead, 00:38:11.260 --> 00:38:18.280 a place where we just want to be loved and we're trying to so tired of trying to be accepted that we just want to find a place to just gather in 00:38:18.280 --> 00:38:25.700 something and be loved and feel community and know that we're a part of something bigger than ourselves and have a hope that lasts forever. 00:38:25.720 --> 00:38:29.380 And regardless of what happens to this world, to know that everything is going to be okay. 00:38:29.460 --> 00:38:30.660 If we could just see that. 00:38:33.220 --> 00:38:36.380 And to that I say, man, if God's people could just live it. 00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:44.380 If we stop coming to church because we're treating God like he's a tool to be used and say, God, I need this, you fix it, and now I'm done. 00:38:44.460 --> 00:38:47.440 And we just start saying, God, I'm coming here because you're worth it. 00:38:47.620 --> 00:38:53.520 I'm coming here because I want me myself to echo the praise of your glory in this world. 00:38:53.740 --> 00:38:57.480 Then the world is going to see the goodness of who God is. 00:39:00.720 --> 00:39:05.840 I have to believe that if we just focus on what Paul is talking about here in the goodness of God. 00:39:06.300 --> 00:39:07.940 Guys even going to begin to transform our own lives. 00:39:10.240 --> 00:39:17.000 I love the way Paul started it in verse two, writing it to those who are faithful in Christ. 00:39:19.160 --> 00:39:19.990 You're just faithful. 00:39:21.720 --> 00:39:22.440 To Christ. 00:39:24.520 --> 00:39:31.320 God transforms you for a kingdom whose glory will not end, and a King whose glory will not fade away. 00:39:31.680 --> 00:39:34.900 And in doing that, God can even make this life better to. 00:39:37.140 --> 00:39:44.230 He shows us in the first three chapters the goodness of who God is and the last three chapters how it makes our world such a better place. 00:39:46.150 --> 00:39:48.310 The world aches to see this as real. 00:39:50.500 --> 00:39:51.840 So here's my prayer for us this morning. 00:39:51.920 --> 00:39:53.010 It's the same as the Apostle Paul. 00:39:53.100 --> 00:39:54.020 We'll just close with this. 00:39:55.300 --> 00:40:02.560 Paul is saying to us, listen, I'm going to tell you all this, and sometimes it's going to fall on deaf ears and sometimes it's going to fall on calloused 00:40:02.560 --> 00:40:02.900 hearts. 00:40:03.180 --> 00:40:06.520 But I want you to know that this is my prayer for you. 00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:14.840 And so he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling 00:40:14.840 --> 00:40:17.060 it so much better than any hope we put anywhere else. 00:40:17.900 --> 00:40:20.600 What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? 00:40:20.980 --> 00:40:28.220 And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us, who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ 00:40:28.220 --> 00:40:35.660 when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and all authority and 00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:40.920 power and dominion, and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 00:40:41.580 --> 00:40:48.700 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who 00:40:48.860 --> 00:40:50.330 fits all in all. 00:40:52.080 --> 00:40:53.390 Jesus is worth it. 00:40:54.720 --> 00:40:56.020 Is worth it regardless of what happens. 00:40:57.580 --> 00:40:59.400 And I want you to focus on the hope of that calling. 00:41:00.780 --> 00:41:02.040 And so I conclude with this thought. 00:41:03.960 --> 00:41:05.340 Miss America wants world peace, right? 00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:08.620 And Louis Armstrong wants a more beautiful world. 00:41:09.980 --> 00:41:11.420 And who cares? 00:41:12.860 --> 00:41:13.880 That is not the solution. 00:41:14.780 --> 00:41:15.960 I mean, you get peace. 00:41:16.260 --> 00:41:17.500 What does it offer you beyond this? 00:41:17.500 --> 00:41:18.210 And the world gets okay. 00:41:18.320 --> 00:41:19.540 What does it offer you beyond this? 00:41:19.820 --> 00:41:26.980 But if you can get Jesus, not only does it give you a hope for the kingdom to come, but it also gives us an opportunity to see a better world in which we 00:41:26.980 --> 00:41:27.400 live. 00:41:27.720 --> 00:41:28.660 Miss America, take your peace. 00:41:29.260 --> 00:41:30.480 I take Jesus right? 00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:37.290 I want Jesus and to adore him and allow my worship to echo his glory.