WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:07.480 We are finishing up a series together in the book of Ephesians, and Ephesians has been a wonderful book for us. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:12.770 And so what I'm going to do is kind of recap and put a nice end cap to the study that we've gone through in the series together. 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:20.370 And then starting next week, we're going to begin a series called Six Hours With Jesus, and we're going to look at the six hours of which Christ spent with his disciples, 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:24.840 on this earth and the impactful things he taught them. 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:32.439 You can think when you're coming to the end of your life, when you realize you've only got so many more hours to live those last few hours, you're going to get the most that you can out of the life 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:34.060 that you have and the time that you've been given. 00:00:34.660 --> 00:00:38.280 And I think Jesus says some very significant things for us as followers of him. 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:42.320 And so we're going to look at the last six hours of Christ's life together through the Easter season. 00:00:43.180 --> 00:00:47.450 And I just want to encourage you as a church to during Easter, we have a tradition here as a family. 00:00:47.660 --> 00:00:54.240 We after church, we head over to Wines Park, and we throw eggs all over the park for our kids and we make hot dogs to go for everyone. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:55.380 You can stay as long as you want. 00:00:55.480 --> 00:00:58.480 You can leave right after your kids are done looking for eggs or stick around in fellowship. 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:00.510 Usually we have people there for a couple hours. 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:07.340 just so you know, if you are interested in inviting family members to church on Easter, it's a great opportunity to do that. 00:01:07.440 --> 00:01:12.840 We have over 1,000 eggs in Wines Park, and there's money and candy inside of that. 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:19.680 So that is a wonderful temptation even for parents to get involved and just beat your kids to the eggs. 00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:21.360 Right now there's an age limit. 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:21.600 Parents. 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:23.880 I know some of you are kids at hearts, but you can't do it. 00:01:23.880 --> 00:01:23.980 All right. 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:26.780 And so that's coming up on Easter for us. 00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:28.270 And so feel free to invite. 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:32.430 I know some people don't like the word Easter, so use Resurrection Sunday if that makes you feel better. 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:32.780 All right. 00:01:33.740 --> 00:01:40.660 The book of Ephesians, what it means to us, believe this or not, this morning I'm going to start with the book of Genesis. 00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:41.380 All right. 00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:48.120 And if you got if you've been here for any amount of time, I route everything back to Genesis. 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:52.350 Genesis, the first three chapters of Genesis, they're my favorite in the Old Testament. 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:55.270 And Ephesians, the book of Ephesians is my favorite in the New Testament. 00:01:55.360 --> 00:01:59.600 It's like, this is like pastoral delight for me today to talk about both of these. 00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:03.650 But there's a reason I want to talk about Genesis, because we're going to talk about the entire Bible. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:04.580 I'm just kidding. 00:02:04.660 --> 00:02:05.600 I'm not going to do that to you. 00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:06.860 Sit down. 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:08.240 66 books ready? 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:11.120 Genesis sets the tone. 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:15.260 Through which all of the Bible communicates to us. 00:02:16.140 --> 00:02:21.620 And if you see it communicated in Genesis, it you can look for it in the rest of Scripture. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:29.700 And if you're seeing something in the New Testament that's not really communicated in Genesis, probability is maybe you're erring in some of your theology because 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:33.260 Genesis really sets the tone for what God's focus is in creating us as human beings. 00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:42.040 And in chapter two of Genesis, he starts off explaining his purpose for man to Adam can 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:46.380 imagine at this point in Scripture, Adam is the only human being on earth. 00:02:46.420 --> 00:02:46.520 Okay? 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:52.100 All of a sudden he's there and he's looking around and he's just wondering, okay, now what? 00:02:52.100 --> 00:02:52.680 God, here. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:53.240 You've made me. 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:55.060 Now, what in the world is it I'm supposed to do? 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:56.120 Get some clothes on? 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:56.700 I don't know what. 00:02:56.740 --> 00:02:57.590 What do you want me to do? 00:02:57.600 --> 00:02:58.080 God. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:01.550 And God speaks to him in Genesis chapter two and verse 15, he says this. 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.120 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden. 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:16.120 I like this to work it. 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:16.120 That's how you got to say it and take care of it right? 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:16.750 This will help some of you guys if you men feel like you're, messy human beings sometimes. 00:03:17.640 --> 00:03:19.780 Interesting thing about the way God created the man and the woman. 00:03:20.100 --> 00:03:23.500 He created man outside of the garden in the dirty, dirty world. 00:03:23.980 --> 00:03:24.830 And then put him in the garden. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:25.260 Right? 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:32.820 And so and so when you come home, guys, and maybe your spouse is getting on to you for being a little messy, just be like, girl, I'm working it. 00:03:32.820 --> 00:03:34.300 You know, I wasn't made for the garden. 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:35.860 I was made to roam the wild and the free. 00:03:36.220 --> 00:03:37.700 You know God put me in that garden. 00:03:37.740 --> 00:03:39.480 That's not where I started this mess. 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:40.070 This is me. 00:03:40.260 --> 00:03:41.920 You know it's biblical, right? 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:43.510 That's bad theology. 00:03:43.740 --> 00:03:44.270 Don't do that. 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:46.940 That's going to start a marital fight. 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:50.220 Or was I on that? 00:03:50.260 --> 00:03:50.300 But. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:51.620 But God tells God. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:58.500 God speaks to Adam in the middle of this, and he tells him to work it and to care, care of it. 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:06.380 And the interesting thing about these verses, when you when you begin to study them in the in the original language they're written in the Hebrew text, is the way that 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:09.960 God describes man's duty to Adam. 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:11.340 Is. 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:17.500 It really communicated well for us when it translates into English and the word work, work it. 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:25.920 Some translations have different ways of phrasing this, but the word work, it comes from a Levitical priesthood statement, and 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.970 it's the Old Testament word, an Old Testament word for worship. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:35.800 And what God is saying to Adam is, Adam, I'm I'm putting you in this world to care for this world. 00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:41.500 And the way that you care for this world is a symbol of your love and worship towards me. 00:04:43.460 --> 00:04:50.120 And then after he tells Adam to worship him by working this earth, he then tells him to take care of it. 00:04:51.060 --> 00:04:52.060 And I love the beauty of the word. 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:55.450 Take care of it, because work at it is the Levitical priesthood, word of worship. 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:57.970 But the word take care of it is a word of shepherding. 00:04:58.220 --> 00:05:05.260 It's really where the New Testament gets the word for pastor, and it carries this idea that a shepherd is primary duty is to 00:05:05.420 --> 00:05:07.680 tend and protect and take care of the flock. 00:05:08.700 --> 00:05:15.500 And this word actually derives from a root word from the root word of this derives from another word which the Hebrew people would use for thorns. 00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:20.780 And the idea was when the shepherd would go to protect his flock, and they were out in the middle of the open. 00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:24.740 In the night, the shepherd would gather thorns throughout the valley, and he would. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:31.750 He would circle around the sheep in order to protect them from any danger that might come in this thorn fortress of protection around them. 00:05:33.320 --> 00:05:35.800 And God's called us to this responsibility. 00:05:37.640 --> 00:05:40.620 God's desires for you to love and worship him. 00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:45.840 And the greatest way we demonstrate that is through caring, through the things for which God has given us. 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:50.300 And as we care for it, we're also seeking to protect it. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.330 To shepherd over it and to look after its needs. 00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:02.230 And from the beginning of Genesis, God has identified for us his purpose for man. 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:08.520 And we know as Jesus comes on the scene, he tells us the greatest two commandments love the Lord your God and to love others. 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:13.760 And when God identifies for us the primary way through which we work this world is through our relationships. 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:22.480 When he told Adam and Eve in the beginning that you're to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the world, he's telling Adam and Eve, listen, be fruitful and create 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:26.580 family and let your family be a blessing to this world and all of you together, collectively. 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:29.670 Work it right and care for it. 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:32.860 It's God's goal for us. 00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:40.520 You read throughout all of Scripture, and I believe God's driving to that point through every book in which he communicates. 00:06:42.760 --> 00:06:48.900 To know and love God more and to demonstrate that love by the way we respond to this world for Him and His glory and goodness. 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:50.680 And we call that worship. 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:59.300 It's not just about coming on Sunday and singing a song with all of our hearts, but it's about walking out the door and doing for the sake of Christ in this world. 00:07:00.940 --> 00:07:01.480 And we worship. 00:07:03.280 --> 00:07:10.640 And the reason I love the book of Ephesians for us today is because I feel like the context of what the book of Ephesians is about is it takes this 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:14.020 verse and it just expands on it for us today as people and understanding. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:16.930 What does it mean to really work it? 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:19.020 How does that look for me today? 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:26.860 And Paul wrote this book of Ephesians as an expansion of this, and I love what he said in just the very first verse. 00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:30.940 We saw this together, the basis or the audience through which Paul is gearing this book. 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:40.500 He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:41.090 Christ Jesus. 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:45.150 You think about. 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:50.560 The responsibility that God has placed on us. 00:07:52.840 --> 00:07:54.820 To see his work conducted in this world. 00:07:54.820 --> 00:08:01.620 And I want to say when I say responsibility, it's a very light burden to bear because we simply follow him and he provides the strength and the source. 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:02.720 He produces the fruit. 00:08:02.760 --> 00:08:03.940 We don't work to produce the fruit. 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:04.820 God produces the fruit. 00:08:04.820 --> 00:08:06.150 We're just faithful to him. 00:08:07.320 --> 00:08:09.340 But a look at this verse and I consider our world today. 00:08:11.440 --> 00:08:12.840 Got what you've called us to do. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:14.880 And to worship you. 00:08:16.320 --> 00:08:17.520 And to caring for this world. 00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:22.670 You think even just the consideration of America in the last few decades? 00:08:24.060 --> 00:08:26.660 We talked to most people about the present situation of our country. 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:29.600 The tendency is to speak more negatively than positively. 00:08:31.260 --> 00:08:34.650 You're describe the condition of our country from where it was to where it is today. 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:42.080 You would probably describe it in terms that is losing its identity and who God is as a country that was founded by God, no longer seeking after his face. 00:08:43.880 --> 00:08:45.150 How do we even begin to do that? 00:08:47.140 --> 00:08:54.200 Sometimes even as a pastor, you want to as just a follower of Jesus, even you just want to be the Superman of the world and throw it all up on your 00:08:54.260 --> 00:08:56.840 shoulders and just be the next Billy Graham, right? 00:08:57.080 --> 00:09:03.740 See, all these people come to know the Lord and the world just praising and how in the world are we ever going to do that in American society today? 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:11.460 I think Paul points to us in this chapter in verse one, just the effects that we have on our culture 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:19.920 through one simple idea is that we as people, to those who are at Ephesus, he says in the very last lines, who are faithful, faithful 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:22.880 in Christ Jesus. 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:27.820 You think about the early church and everything that they had in opposition to them? 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:32.020 I mean, at the time Paul's writing this letter, he's writing this, for Pete's sake. 00:09:32.020 --> 00:09:32.440 He's in jail. 00:09:33.800 --> 00:09:36.520 And there is sacrifice to be made for Christ. 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:39.860 And people are beginning to be persecuted because of their faith in Jesus. 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:47.200 And pretty soon Paul's going to have his head cut off by Nero, and Christians are going to go to the Roman Coliseums and lose their lives for the 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:48.400 sake of Christ. 00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:52.540 Coining the term for us, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. 00:09:52.780 --> 00:09:55.360 The church grew on their sacrifice. 00:09:55.580 --> 00:09:59.480 And if we want to have that sort of impact in our society, we may not all be Billy Graham. 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:04.490 But the one thing that Paul recognizes for us is what God calls us to do, and that is simply just be faithful. 00:10:07.660 --> 00:10:09.650 God doesn't call you to take the weight of the world on your shoulders. 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:13.600 He just calls you to be faithful. 00:10:14.680 --> 00:10:16.380 You read the calling of Matthew 2819? 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:18.500 Go on to the world and make disciples. 00:10:20.180 --> 00:10:22.630 And you then consider what that looks like as we gather on Sundays. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:28.760 I know for some of us as mothers with children, just to get to church on Sunday and make it through the week is a miracle, right? 00:10:29.420 --> 00:10:36.540 Or if you're working double jobs and just to find time to gather with God's church and praise his name and encourage the Body of Christ, 00:10:36.760 --> 00:10:40.240 it becomes an adverse and an opposition for your life. 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:44.120 Can I tell you as an encouragement? 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:48.010 To parents and followers of Jesus. 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:51.760 God doesn't call everyone to be a Billy Graham. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:53.740 God doesn't call people to be Superman. 00:10:53.920 --> 00:10:55.500 He calls us just to be faithful. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.000 You ever think about the importance of your role as a parent? 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:03.750 Mom or dad? 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:04.180 You. 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:07.480 You may not be the next great Saint Patrick of Ireland. 00:11:09.300 --> 00:11:10.000 Well in your home. 00:11:11.100 --> 00:11:12.370 Your children could be. 00:11:14.140 --> 00:11:15.590 How important it is to be faithful. 00:11:17.540 --> 00:11:24.660 And if it's not your children, what if your impact on your child is such that your child impacts someone else 00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:28.400 and that person becomes the next Saint Patrick of Ireland? 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:31.690 Do you see the significance of just being faithful? 00:11:34.180 --> 00:11:35.820 Could think we sing be thou my vision. 00:11:36.140 --> 00:11:40.060 The church has sung it for over 100 years, and the English language now. 00:11:40.300 --> 00:11:46.880 And the person that wrote the poem in the eighth century had no idea that there would even be an American society existing, worshiping God. 00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:48.260 But what he was just faithful. 00:11:51.540 --> 00:11:52.440 God, this is your world. 00:11:54.160 --> 00:11:54.540 The Lord. 00:11:54.540 --> 00:11:56.640 I choose to worship you in this. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:01.620 God, I want to love you by responding and loving this world for your sake. 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:07.600 And protecting it from the things that desire to harm it, that it may know you as I know you. 00:12:09.260 --> 00:12:12.290 And Paul is looking at a society today in the church of Ephesus. 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:23.040 In a town that when you read in acts 19, Paul walks into the city and all he had was 12 people in a town of 250,000. 00:12:25.020 --> 00:12:27.520 Predominantly slaves coming to know the Lord. 00:12:28.520 --> 00:12:30.340 God, how are we even going to change the city with this? 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:33.880 And we look at it and say that all they had was 12 people. 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:36.710 And God looks at it and says, I have 12 people. 00:12:38.140 --> 00:12:39.660 I mean, Jesus on the earth. 00:12:39.660 --> 00:12:42.300 All he used was 12 people. 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:44.710 And the world is turned upside down. 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:46.500 Because. 00:12:48.280 --> 00:12:50.100 They're driven to the idea of being faithful. 00:12:52.780 --> 00:12:53.370 From the beginning. 00:12:53.620 --> 00:12:55.270 God, you've called me to worship. 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:58.960 And together we've looked through this book of Ephesians. 00:13:00.040 --> 00:13:02.640 We've broken it down into two sections for us. 00:13:02.640 --> 00:13:03.360 Chapter one to three. 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:06.860 God identifies who we are in light of who he is. 00:13:06.920 --> 00:13:10.600 For the first three chapters, all Paul wants to know you to know is your position in him. 00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:12.800 What does it look like to be in Christ? 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:17.940 Understand in chapter one your position before the King, and then he gets to verse 15 and he just prays for us. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.660 He says that you may know him. 00:13:22.160 --> 00:13:27.740 And the idea is this the more that you know God, the more you desire to bear the fruit of the Lord in your life. 00:13:30.260 --> 00:13:32.280 Christianity isn't a solution of morality. 00:13:32.300 --> 00:13:32.560 It isn't. 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:33.020 We do bad. 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:34.530 So now let's come to church so we can do good. 00:13:35.020 --> 00:13:36.220 It's we've sinned. 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.790 We come to God and God transforms our heart. 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:43.450 We know him and he transforms our lives to mirror him in this world. 00:13:44.260 --> 00:13:47.120 It's not by our working, but it's by his. 00:13:47.220 --> 00:13:50.800 And so Paul prays for us and he brings up this interesting thought in chapter two. 00:13:50.800 --> 00:13:53.200 He says, we were dead in our sins. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:14:00.200 When we consider the holiness of God and trying to live up to the standard, we're incapable, so incapable that the Bible describes us 00:14:00.460 --> 00:14:02.660 as literally dead before God's presence. 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:06.660 Then we get the famous verse of Ephesians two eight. 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:12.880 For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. 00:14:12.880 --> 00:14:16.700 It is the gift of God. 00:14:17.400 --> 00:14:24.560 God is lavish and an extraordinary love in your life that has brought you back to life through faith in Christ because of 00:14:24.640 --> 00:14:27.420 what he's done bearing your sins on the cross. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.080 And the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:34.020 It's not about what you do. 00:14:34.020 --> 00:14:35.260 It's about what he's done. 00:14:37.180 --> 00:14:42.990 And we as people respond in praise to the God who shown infinite love to those on this earth. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.580 And he tells us at the end of chapter two that what God desires then is to build a community. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:57.500 He says in verse three, this community was a mystery in the Old Testament, but today we see it as the church, and God has built this community together 00:14:57.500 --> 00:15:00.560 for him, that we're pursuing the love of God in that. 00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:06.400 And he gets to chapter four and he says, this church, be diligent to love one another. 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:10.720 And the idea is this to love each other doesn't come naturally. 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:14.060 People make it hard to love. 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:19.960 But Paul says to work, to labor, to sweat. 00:15:20.560 --> 00:15:27.620 That's literally what it means to diligently unite and love each other, because the community that God desires to work 00:15:27.620 --> 00:15:28.360 through is here. 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:33.700 And so work to achieve that we may worship the Lord together. 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:37.530 In chapter five he tells us to make the most of our time. 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:37.620 He. 00:15:38.160 --> 00:15:40.560 He then goes on to describe the areas of our lives. 00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:42.630 He described the church in chapter four. 00:15:42.800 --> 00:15:45.380 He then describes marriage in chapter five. 00:15:45.380 --> 00:15:51.080 He says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church sacrificially giving to her. 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:58.200 And he even says to the men, as you love your wives in such a way she becomes more lovely, and the beauty of the love that she lavish upon her the 00:15:58.260 --> 00:15:58.520 same way. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:00.630 Jesus, we love him because he first loved us. 00:16:02.060 --> 00:16:02.320 And wives. 00:16:02.500 --> 00:16:03.560 Respect your husband. 00:16:04.680 --> 00:16:09.340 With the respect that allows him to lead, knowing that the accountability of your marriage rests upon his shoulders. 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:12.110 He is responsible for your family. 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:14.990 And God is holding that weight upon him. 00:16:16.460 --> 00:16:21.200 The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter five that we honor and serve one another in that relationship. 00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:26.280 And as we think of the health of the marriage, it then relates to the health of the family. 00:16:26.900 --> 00:16:29.140 Marriage isn't about the children, the marriage is about the marriage. 00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:30.260 But it's the marriage is healthy. 00:16:30.460 --> 00:16:31.800 Then the marriage can work on the kids. 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:34.900 And so in chapter six, he tells us about being godly parents. 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:44.520 How to encourage and love and nurture kids to be that family that God describes in the Book of Genesis to be fruitful and multiplying and subduing it, 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:46.560 doing it God's way and not our way. 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:50.540 And then he talks about being employers and employees. 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:54.020 How to work in that area. 00:16:54.420 --> 00:16:54.740 I love it. 00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:58.560 God talks about the four areas of our lives and applying Genesis chapter two. 00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:02.460 Church and work, and marriage and family. 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:08.819 And in case in case that didn't touch any of your lives, you get to chapter six and verse ten and he says this just put on the whole armor of God. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:12.000 Put it all on. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:12.980 It's God's power. 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:13.619 God's words. 00:17:13.859 --> 00:17:14.839 God's faith. 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:15.599 God's prayer. 00:17:15.760 --> 00:17:19.250 All of these things God has given you to make an impact in this world. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:21.520 Do that for the sake of Christ. 00:17:23.260 --> 00:17:23.480 And worship. 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:28.580 God may we worship. 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:37.460 And so Paul tells us as he wrote this book to the book of Ephesians, what kind of effect would this even have if, as 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:39.760 we've allowed this word to impact our lives? 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:45.300 Paul, as we look at this letter and you're communicating to us the worship that we should have for God, what would this look like if we did this? 00:17:45.980 --> 00:17:49.220 I mean, what could you do with the city of Ephesus if we did this? 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:56.340 And then he tells us in chapter 19 and verse ten of the Bible in Acts it says, all who lived in Asia, this is talking about the 00:17:56.340 --> 00:17:56.880 church of Ephesus. 00:17:57.220 --> 00:18:03.080 What they did, all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. 00:18:05.040 --> 00:18:06.720 If we take one simple thought. 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.780 God has called us to be faithful, understanding these. 00:18:08.900 --> 00:18:13.100 He's put us in this world to worship him, to work it, and to and to care for it. 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:15.220 If we're just faithful to that. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:18.180 The city of Ephesus not not just took over the city. 00:18:20.120 --> 00:18:20.960 Took over all of Asia. 00:18:22.540 --> 00:18:25.060 Asia at the time wasn't the size that we know Asia today. 00:18:25.100 --> 00:18:26.250 It's an entire continent today. 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.320 But during the time that Paul wrote this letter, it was the size of Turkey. 00:18:31.740 --> 00:18:36.530 And when you read the book of Revelation, we said this before, but when you read the book of Revelation, it's written to the seven churches. 00:18:36.600 --> 00:18:40.820 Do you know, all seven churches in the book of Revelation are found in the country of Turkey. 00:18:42.660 --> 00:18:48.000 As Paul writes this letter to the book of Ephesians, he also writes another letter to the Colossians. 00:18:48.980 --> 00:18:50.380 You know, Paul never even went to that city. 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:57.800 The Ephesians went to the town and started that church because of their love for Christ. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:03.040 And you think, God, the weight of this world, it seems so overwhelming. 00:19:03.040 --> 00:19:07.220 And the sin in this world and the effects of our country and the things that are happening. 00:19:07.260 --> 00:19:10.280 Lord, there is just no way I can wear that cape. 00:19:10.300 --> 00:19:11.320 I am not Superman. 00:19:11.800 --> 00:19:13.030 I am not Billy Graham. 00:19:13.300 --> 00:19:14.580 I am not Saint Patrick. 00:19:14.580 --> 00:19:16.420 Just to get here on Sunday. 00:19:17.700 --> 00:19:18.740 It's an obstacle for me. 00:19:20.530 --> 00:19:22.170 God, how could you even use that? 00:19:25.060 --> 00:19:25.540 And Paul says. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:27.680 Guys. 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:28.120 Just be faithful. 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.700 There are seasons of your life where you find yourself more enamored in certain areas and others. 00:19:37.020 --> 00:19:38.420 But may you press to be faithful. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:44.740 If you desire to see your family change for the sake of Christ, don't. 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:46.000 Don't do it by your own power. 00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:48.740 Or your spouse changed. 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:48.840 Don't. 00:19:49.060 --> 00:19:50.100 Don't do it by your own influence. 00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:53.360 Just be faithful. 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:58.400 We put on the armor of God. 00:19:59.760 --> 00:20:00.380 And pray. 00:20:01.740 --> 00:20:05.840 And read the Word of God and use it to impact the hearts of the people you encounter. 00:20:08.180 --> 00:20:08.980 Just be faithful. 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:15.220 It means when you walk out this door, you don't have to encounter every person in the world and just spill. 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:15.980 Jesus. 00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:16.420 You just. 00:20:17.020 --> 00:20:17.760 Just be faithful. 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:27.190 Wherever God has put you in this world and whatever impact you're making, whether it's a busy mom at home or working diligently at a job in that situation. 00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:28.540 Be faithful. 00:20:30.280 --> 00:20:34.860 And the results are not just a city that's changed for the Lord. 00:20:34.860 --> 00:20:37.080 It's an entire region for the sake of Christ. 00:20:37.120 --> 00:20:38.440 It becomes infectious. 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:42.820 And Paul ends this book with some thoughts for us. 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.640 I'm going to talk about this guy in just a minute. 00:20:46.780 --> 00:20:48.240 I feel I feel bad for him when I read his name Tychicus. 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.760 I feel like if he had trouble pronunciation as a kid, he just spit all over. 00:20:52.900 --> 00:20:58.290 My name is, someone stuttered or something and he got an extra cuss on the end. 00:20:58.320 --> 00:21:04.080 So Tychicus Paul writes at the end, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord will tell you everything. 00:21:05.940 --> 00:21:07.120 I should probably say if anyone's name Tichicus. 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:08.320 I'm sorry. 00:21:08.500 --> 00:21:12.000 So that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:20.460 I'm sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that we 00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:21.260 may encourage you. 00:21:22.560 --> 00:21:27.320 Peace to the brothers and sisters in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:33.060 Grace to you all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. 00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:37.710 I'm just going to read these last two verses together. 00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:39.720 There's just four words. 00:21:39.780 --> 00:21:42.180 I want to create just some ideas in our mind. 00:21:42.180 --> 00:21:43.720 And what Paul's talking about here. 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:46.900 He just all he does is in closing this verse, we do this as a church. 00:21:47.060 --> 00:21:49.380 At the very end of our service, we say, grace and peace to you. 00:21:49.380 --> 00:21:49.940 You are dismissed. 00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:54.780 The Apostle Paul closes his section in his letters the same way he talks about grace. 00:21:54.860 --> 00:21:55.380 He talks about peace. 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:56.920 He talks about a couple other things. 00:21:57.380 --> 00:22:03.060 But Paul is firing just these biblical images and these words for us that are expressing an entire theology. 00:22:04.800 --> 00:22:09.040 It's important to gather this proper perspective on these words in which Paul is using for us today. 00:22:10.320 --> 00:22:12.580 He says in verse 23, peace to the brothers and sisters. 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:15.680 We'll talk about peace and love with faith. 00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:18.700 We'll talk about love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:23.580 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. 00:22:25.340 --> 00:22:26.680 Think about Paul closing this letter. 00:22:27.800 --> 00:22:34.800 He's finishing these words written to people who are about to sacrifice for the sake of the Lord, who have given up everything to pursue 00:22:34.800 --> 00:22:35.350 Jesus. 00:22:35.800 --> 00:22:40.000 When Paul last left Ephesus, there was a massive riot that happened within that town. 00:22:40.040 --> 00:22:44.320 He can't help but wonder about the condition of the believers he knows in these pages. 00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:48.620 He's just called them to certain sacrifices of maybe even their lives. 00:22:49.040 --> 00:22:50.270 And so he ends this letter. 00:22:50.540 --> 00:22:57.680 And knowing that our responsibility is to worship through these word images that just capture within our mind one final time 00:22:58.120 --> 00:22:59.740 this great God whom we serve. 00:23:01.180 --> 00:23:03.280 And the first that Paul mentions is the idea of peace. 00:23:05.280 --> 00:23:10.380 And the thought for us as believers is that just because you come to Jesus, peace isn't everywhere. 00:23:11.620 --> 00:23:18.800 In fact, when we talk about biblical direction from Christ, when he described to us what it would mean to come to him, he says, take up 00:23:18.840 --> 00:23:20.580 your cross and follow me. 00:23:20.820 --> 00:23:27.500 I'll put mother against daughter and father against son and brother against brother and sister against sister. 00:23:27.520 --> 00:23:29.480 Following Jesus isn't easy. 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:32.500 It more than anything, what it's not producing is peace. 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:38.400 And so when Paul talks about peace, he's not talking about peace in every area of our lives. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:43.710 What he's talking about, most importantly, is the peace that we experience in our relationship with Christ. 00:23:44.940 --> 00:23:47.260 When you choose Christ. 00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:48.690 You have peace. 00:23:51.540 --> 00:23:58.620 I like when a happy Christian encounters the world, a joyful Christian encounters the world because 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:01.520 the world looks at that and they just see you as delusional, right? 00:24:02.100 --> 00:24:02.780 Are you kidding me? 00:24:02.800 --> 00:24:03.520 What are you excited about? 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:06.040 How is there peace and joy in your life? 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:08.120 Do you not look at society today? 00:24:08.380 --> 00:24:10.410 Watch the local news that makes everyone a hypochondriac. 00:24:11.060 --> 00:24:12.320 The world is falling apart. 00:24:12.340 --> 00:24:13.580 We should be running through the streets. 00:24:13.900 --> 00:24:15.380 There's nothing to be happy about. 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:19.520 As Christians, we talk about peace. 00:24:19.560 --> 00:24:21.020 We aren't delusional. 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.400 We are unrealistic in understanding what the world is about. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:27.800 God has already told us the world is sin, and sin falls apart at the end of sin is destruction. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:28.960 We know that. 00:24:30.860 --> 00:24:37.880 And when we talk about biblical peace, the reason that we can celebrate and the reason that we have joy is that as we look through 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:44.960 the pain and the suffering of society, we know the one who takes the sorrow and takes the sin and brings out 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.140 victory and joy and reconciles all wrong in our lives. 00:24:51.300 --> 00:24:51.940 There is hope. 00:24:53.420 --> 00:24:54.000 And in that hope. 00:24:55.140 --> 00:24:56.340 We experience peace. 00:24:58.380 --> 00:24:59.860 And Paul's writing to the believers. 00:24:59.860 --> 00:25:06.920 And I love the first word that he chooses here, because when he considers everything that they're about to give for the Lord and all that it could cost them, he reminds them, guys, 00:25:07.020 --> 00:25:08.220 this place isn't your home. 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:10.360 You serve the King who has already won. 00:25:10.560 --> 00:25:16.000 One day he's coming back to claim his victory, and in your life all things will be made whole. 00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:17.840 And there is peace. 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:19.650 And in that. 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:23.840 You can look at your problems and just say. 00:25:24.900 --> 00:25:26.390 And this too shall pass. 00:25:27.340 --> 00:25:31.360 Thanks to the king I serve. 00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:31.970 This is gone. 00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:34.660 And the Bible creates a beautiful picture. 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:42.540 In revelation, as Jesus returns, he says, there will be no more pain and there will be no more sorrow and no more 00:25:42.540 --> 00:25:43.290 suffering. 00:25:43.820 --> 00:25:45.420 There is peace. 00:25:47.660 --> 00:25:48.180 For eternity. 00:25:50.340 --> 00:25:57.640 And Paul goes on and he reminds the believers of the peace that they should have in the Lord because of all that he has accomplished for 00:25:57.640 --> 00:25:57.920 them. 00:25:59.540 --> 00:26:06.540 And he reminds us in saying this word, peace, as we've seen throughout Scripture, this peace, it happens in our lives because not 00:26:06.540 --> 00:26:10.070 because of anything that we've done, but because of everything that Jesus has done. 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:14.600 The Bible describes our position before God as separate. 00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:16.180 Sin. 00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:22.240 It tells us in Isaiah 59 and verse two, our sin has separated us from our God, but Jesus has become flesh. 00:26:22.520 --> 00:26:24.560 God became flesh, died for your sin. 00:26:24.560 --> 00:26:27.400 And everything that Jesus has done has brought you forth peace. 00:26:27.600 --> 00:26:30.470 It's not about morality, it's about Jesus. 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:34.080 It's not about attempting to strive to get near to God. 00:26:34.360 --> 00:26:36.810 God has already come near to you. 00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:44.790 Jesus even says in Matthew chapter seven and verse 21, talking to people who think morality is the solution. 00:26:45.180 --> 00:26:49.280 They come before Jesus and they say, Lord, Lord, do we not do all of these things in your name? 00:26:49.300 --> 00:26:51.070 Do we not cast out these demons? 00:26:51.100 --> 00:26:53.540 Do we not do wonderful things for your sake? 00:26:53.540 --> 00:26:57.100 And in verse 23, Jesus says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. 00:26:57.400 --> 00:26:59.120 I never knew you. 00:27:01.740 --> 00:27:08.370 Meaning the reason for which Jesus came to establish peace in our lives as a sacrifice for our sins. 00:27:09.340 --> 00:27:13.080 There are individuals who go in this world striving to achieve morality to please God. 00:27:13.140 --> 00:27:14.820 And God says morality isn't the solution. 00:27:14.820 --> 00:27:16.150 It can't please me at all. 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:18.790 If you want peace, you come to the cross. 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:23.180 Come where I've sacrificed my life for your sins. 00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:27.010 And gave yourself over to me. 00:27:28.740 --> 00:27:34.700 And in the price that Jesus has paid and that sacrifice for us, we receive reconciliation and that reconciliation. 00:27:35.940 --> 00:27:38.210 We receive peace. 00:27:39.140 --> 00:27:43.640 The Bible goes on and describes it not just peace that God has given you, but think about this word picture. 00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:44.440 It's also love. 00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:51.440 When we talk about biblical love, it is far more profound than any love we experience in this world from what the world calls love. 00:27:51.600 --> 00:27:57.440 Because when he talks about love in Romans five eight, God tells us that God demonstrates his love towards you. 00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:04.560 And while you were yet sinners, Christ loved you, saying while you were unlovable in your most ugly, sinful 00:28:04.560 --> 00:28:10.600 state, there is someone who still loves enough about you to even give his very life for you. 00:28:11.520 --> 00:28:12.640 Jesus loves you. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:18.040 And if you're going to this world and just ask people, why do you think God should love you? 00:28:19.460 --> 00:28:21.660 You know, the common solution that people often give? 00:28:21.660 --> 00:28:26.620 Well, I go to church and I obey these certain amount of rules and I'm better than my neighbor. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.620 God in a in a sense, should love me because I've made myself lovable. 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:34.370 Look how lovely and lovable this loving thing has become. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:36.880 My mama said so right. 00:28:38.220 --> 00:28:40.300 And then when you take that thought to the Bible. 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:49.260 The Bible does this unthinkable idea for the person who sees himself as so lovely, it strips you 00:28:49.260 --> 00:28:50.000 bare. 00:28:52.120 --> 00:28:53.080 It says all. 00:28:53.100 --> 00:28:57.750 Get this, all your righteous deeds in Isaiah 64 are filthy rags. 00:28:58.180 --> 00:29:01.600 No matter how good you think that you're doing before God, it looks as if it's filthy rags. 00:29:03.580 --> 00:29:08.640 Bible tells us in Romans 310 that there are none righteous, none that do good. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:12.100 In Jeremiah 17 nine, the heart is deceitful. 00:29:13.660 --> 00:29:20.720 Meaning when the Bible paints a picture of me apart from God and the loveliness that I think I possess, it is void because the 00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:24.720 description that God gives of me apart from him is. 00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:28.840 Ugly. 00:29:29.420 --> 00:29:30.660 And so you ask the question. 00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:34.360 Well, then why would God even love me? 00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:37.530 And then there I say. 00:29:39.080 --> 00:29:40.630 That's the answer. 00:29:41.220 --> 00:29:43.740 That's why Paul says love in this passage. 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:51.800 Because when there's no explainable reason in your life for a god to do anything, there's nothing you're going to do for God that he can't do for himself. 00:29:51.800 --> 00:29:55.440 There's nothing special about what you do for God. 00:29:57.380 --> 00:30:02.300 But God chose to love you anyway, and he chose to become flesh. 00:30:02.360 --> 00:30:08.840 And he chose to come down to your level and express himself by just dying for your sin, that ugliness that you hate. 00:30:08.900 --> 00:30:09.880 And here's the beauty of his love. 00:30:11.860 --> 00:30:14.070 So it gives us opportunity to be honest with who we are. 00:30:15.740 --> 00:30:16.950 To know that even in our sin. 00:30:18.280 --> 00:30:20.220 We can come before God. 00:30:20.520 --> 00:30:21.330 And he still loves. 00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:24.270 And we can just be honest with that. 00:30:25.460 --> 00:30:26.760 And say, Lord, look at this. 00:30:26.800 --> 00:30:28.910 What I've done apart from you. 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:30.020 The Lord. 00:30:30.020 --> 00:30:34.140 I can come to you because I know the way you have received me. 00:30:34.980 --> 00:30:35.850 It is just love. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:39.240 It is love and you have given me hope. 00:30:39.320 --> 00:30:41.730 And in that love you have brought forth peace. 00:30:42.020 --> 00:30:49.100 And so Paul says in this next verse or the next phrase, he says love with faith that God has given us 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:55.120 love with faith, just the ability to even place our conviction and our hope in him. 00:30:55.180 --> 00:31:02.260 That's literally what the Greek text says is a conviction and truth that God has prodded your heart to trust in him, and to experience 00:31:02.260 --> 00:31:09.460 that love and peace and allow God to transform your life from the inside out, making you a new creature in him and experience 00:31:09.460 --> 00:31:12.040 a joyful relationship in him. 00:31:12.040 --> 00:31:15.640 Not delusional, but joyful because you know the hope that he brings. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:18.420 There is faith. 00:31:20.620 --> 00:31:22.320 That we would trust him along the way. 00:31:24.560 --> 00:31:26.580 As God sees fit. 00:31:26.580 --> 00:31:30.620 As we trust in him, he provides all that we need. 00:31:32.380 --> 00:31:36.150 And the word for that, we paint the picture of all that God has done. 00:31:36.700 --> 00:31:37.820 Verse 24, he says this. 00:31:39.260 --> 00:31:40.180 Some grace to all. 00:31:41.860 --> 00:31:45.600 Disgrace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. 00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:54.100 Grace is a way of saying that God is an unparalleled giver that cannot be matched in anything in our lives. 00:31:55.040 --> 00:32:02.120 That and yet, despite our sin and through our sin, he desires to love us because he seeks to grow within you 00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:09.970 a new creation, responding to him and living a life of Genesis chapter two where we worship and protect. 00:32:11.560 --> 00:32:14.380 God desires to reach down to you. 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:19.300 God is gracious because he is a peacemaker and a lover and a and a faith giver. 00:32:20.580 --> 00:32:25.780 He looks at a world in need and does what it takes to see that world come to know him. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:31.280 The word grace to us says, you can walk in this world and feel like a complete failure. 00:32:31.600 --> 00:32:34.140 You can feel like you screwed up everything. 00:32:34.660 --> 00:32:36.820 But God is so gracious that he forgives. 00:32:36.820 --> 00:32:41.320 He doesn't see who you were in your sin, but he sees who you can become in light of Christ. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:45.200 God doesn't care. 00:32:45.260 --> 00:32:50.440 He wants to make the past the past so he can see the saints of tomorrow being worked in your life. 00:32:52.540 --> 00:32:57.900 And so that grace becomes powerful in the way that it changes us and who we are in our identity, in him. 00:32:59.800 --> 00:33:07.320 And Paul gathers these last thoughts, these last pictures as believers for us as his finality and the fireworks show. 00:33:07.360 --> 00:33:10.980 You know how it goes when you gather on the 4th of July and the fireworks go off. 00:33:11.040 --> 00:33:11.460 There they are. 00:33:11.460 --> 00:33:12.120 You're kind of paying attention talking. 00:33:12.540 --> 00:33:12.780 There they are. 00:33:12.980 --> 00:33:15.620 But all of a sudden, lo and behold, the explosion takes place. 00:33:17.150 --> 00:33:18.980 Well, this is the end, right? 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:23.620 And Paul saying to the believers, guys, this is the end, but think of these words. 00:33:23.620 --> 00:33:30.800 These are word pictures expressed in our lives that transforms us from the very nature of who we are as people, and faith and 00:33:30.800 --> 00:33:33.760 love and grace and peace. 00:33:33.860 --> 00:33:36.760 God has given you this to see a world changed. 00:33:39.480 --> 00:33:43.320 All of these things we experience because of Christ. 00:33:44.600 --> 00:33:45.100 What can I say? 00:33:45.100 --> 00:33:49.840 All of these words we looked at, we experienced best in Christ. 00:33:50.820 --> 00:33:56.280 You haven't truly ever experienced peace until you've seen the reconciliation that Jesus can bring in your life. 00:33:56.900 --> 00:34:04.000 You've not really ever seen love as God describes love, because most of the love that we have displayed today is a love we have to earn and prove our worth. 00:34:04.140 --> 00:34:05.400 And that's not biblical love. 00:34:06.680 --> 00:34:07.400 In Christ. 00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:07.920 Is that love? 00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:11.300 In Christ is that grace in Christ? 00:34:11.300 --> 00:34:17.219 As you place your faith, it's far better than any faith you place on anything else, because this faith will never disappoint. 00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:20.219 It always comes through. 00:34:22.699 --> 00:34:28.800 These pictures of our lives become important for us as inspiration in pursuing Christ, as we desire to be faithful. 00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:32.620 And so let me leave you with this thought. 00:34:35.159 --> 00:34:37.199 At the very beginning, I skipped my man here. 00:34:38.199 --> 00:34:39.620 I guess that's a guy's name, right? 00:34:39.699 --> 00:34:40.340 Oh, he calls him a brother. 00:34:41.060 --> 00:34:41.480 Tychicus. 00:34:42.780 --> 00:34:50.040 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus will tell you every things that you also may know how I am and what I 00:34:50.080 --> 00:34:50.500 am doing. 00:34:51.380 --> 00:34:57.380 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know who we are or how we are, and that he may encourage you. 00:34:59.580 --> 00:35:01.990 I tell you, as a church, it's had a wonderful blessing. 00:35:02.120 --> 00:35:06.440 This past week, I'm going to talk about Tychicus here and being around a bunch of tychicus. 00:35:08.420 --> 00:35:14.140 we had our filled council for missionaries in the state of Utah through Biblical Ministries worldwide. 00:35:15.040 --> 00:35:16.340 And some of you guys know some of you don't. 00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:18.740 But Stacy and I technically are considered missionaries here. 00:35:18.740 --> 00:35:23.800 We're pastor, and when we walk out of the church, we become missionaries in certain positions. 00:35:24.640 --> 00:35:28.420 And we work with biblical ministries worldwide all over the world planting churches. 00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:30.370 And there's a there's a lot of churches here in the state. 00:35:31.380 --> 00:35:38.520 And we got to gather together this past week in Provo with a bunch of these churches that are getting ready to start and churches that are going, and 00:35:38.540 --> 00:35:45.600 churches that have been here for years, all of us asking the same question, God, how can we live out Genesis two in our lives and all of us 00:35:45.860 --> 00:35:52.860 serving like tychicus here, just faithful servants of the Lord, some of us in positions that have just struggling and fighting and some of us over joy 00:35:52.980 --> 00:35:53.960 with things God is doing. 00:35:54.180 --> 00:35:57.500 But we're just being faithful to what God has called us to do. 00:35:58.040 --> 00:35:59.810 I say that because I have my boss here today to you. 00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:01.580 I'll introduce him a minute. 00:36:01.740 --> 00:36:03.940 I want to close and have you pray for us, if that's okay. 00:36:06.460 --> 00:36:07.390 What a joy it is. 00:36:08.720 --> 00:36:11.300 To see people like Tychicus in this world. 00:36:12.940 --> 00:36:14.320 Faithful to the Lord. 00:36:15.300 --> 00:36:20.000 And you think what tichicus gift is without Tichicus? 00:36:20.900 --> 00:36:21.880 We don't have the book of Ephesians. 00:36:23.880 --> 00:36:30.070 Tichicus took this letter from Paul and carried it to the church, that we could even have this letter today. 00:36:30.940 --> 00:36:32.560 You think about, wow, that's a big deal. 00:36:32.600 --> 00:36:33.960 Do you know what Tichicus ministry was? 00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:37.540 He could walk, he walked. 00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:41.380 He changed the world through his life in Christ. 00:36:41.620 --> 00:36:44.560 By walking, I mean you think about God. 00:36:44.600 --> 00:36:45.420 I feel so insignificant. 00:36:45.420 --> 00:36:48.580 And the things that you do through me. 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:51.320 God, what in the world are you even accomplishing by? 00:36:51.560 --> 00:36:52.000 By me? 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:52.900 Just being faithful. 00:36:53.240 --> 00:36:54.580 Well, you look at Tichicus, man. 00:36:54.740 --> 00:36:55.720 He just walked. 00:36:56.940 --> 00:36:59.860 He went from jail to Ephesus. 00:37:01.500 --> 00:37:02.980 And here we are thousands of years later. 00:37:04.640 --> 00:37:07.330 Reading this word is encouragement to our lives. 00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:09.710 And the idea is this. 00:37:11.240 --> 00:37:15.610 When you walk away from the book of Ephesians, my hope is that you take it this week and just read it every day this week. 00:37:17.190 --> 00:37:19.200 Like God, saturate your life with it. 00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:26.320 But when you walk away from this book of Ephesians, Paul's plan is to equip you to go out into this world in whatever area of life that you're in and see 00:37:26.320 --> 00:37:28.020 things happen for the sake of Christ. 00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:31.320 And you don't have to look at this world like Superman. 00:37:33.180 --> 00:37:33.880 You just look at it like tichicus. 00:37:35.960 --> 00:37:36.760 I'm just going to be faithful. 00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:43.720 And I'm going to go out throughout my day and in this world loving you and just leaving it open. 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:48.440 God, however you direct my life and when that opportunity comes, God, I just want to be faithful. 00:37:51.080 --> 00:37:52.770 And the results of that. 00:37:53.700 --> 00:37:58.220 God is overjoyed in a people who desire to worship and protect his earth in the. 00:37:58.440 --> 00:38:02.740 And the earth is blessed through an individual who loves the Lord so much that they just walked. 00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:06.520 I just handed off a letter. 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:08.740 And through that. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:10.500 Bit by bit. 00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:12.800 The world has changed. 00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:16.660 I hope for us as a church. 00:38:18.160 --> 00:38:20.110 My prayer for us as a church. 00:38:21.380 --> 00:38:27.300 So we're looking at moving into a bar and raising more money and all that God has. 00:38:28.620 --> 00:38:35.750 So we become people of the book of Ephesians, because our hope is that we become a church like the church of Ephesus, 00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:43.480 and seeing not just our town, but our region and our world for the sake of Christ and however overwhelming that may 00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:47.620 feel, just think God, let me be like Tychicus.