SPEAKER_00: Well, uh uh, you know, I in the lobby, I was trying to say hello to everybody.
SPEAKER_00: All everybody else wanted to do was say you're wearing a coat.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, once a year I get I get it on.
SPEAKER_00: So uh it's good to see everybody this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if I'd have known y'all were gonna come, I'd have prepared something.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I remember the first time I I was uh was asked to preach at uh at the at my church in Dallas, and I remember being just terrified because there's you know it's two services, and you know, I don't know, 1500 people, whatever, and I remember being so terrified thinking about that.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember the one thing that made it okay, and that was the fact that I was not going up here alone.
SPEAKER_00: I was not going up here to to deliver a TED talk that was going to do whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I I went up on the authority of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, with that, like I can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can read this, I can understand this, and I could proclaim that.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna do this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is not uh, hopefully, it's not the insight of Steve.
SPEAKER_00: It is the it is the word of God, hopefully uh unpacked and made clear.
SPEAKER_00: A man dying on a cross and then coming back on the third day is an amazing story.
SPEAKER_00: And to say he is risen is a beautiful sentiment.
SPEAKER_00: But the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus 2,000 years ago is not simply a good story.
SPEAKER_00: This historical work of God and Jesus is the eternal hinge point of all human history and will continue to reverberate throughout eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Jesus Christ will never not matter.
SPEAKER_00: What was accomplished in these things will never be undone or reversed.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of God for all those who believe for salvation from eternal death and unto eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: From eternal death unto eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But we must not miss why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the why of these works of God in Christ Jesus is what gives us hope.
SPEAKER_00: We have to understand why this God man uh put himself in the flesh, uh, live the perfect life, die the death we deserve, was raised on the third day, ascended, and we know we'll will come again.
SPEAKER_00: Why then?
SPEAKER_00: To what end?
SPEAKER_00: To what purpose?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for his glory and our good.
SPEAKER_00: Spoiler.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say this.
SPEAKER_00: So let's say you go on a vacation, and when you're on vacation, if someone comes and you know, uh, I don't like not today, not today.
SPEAKER_00: Today's weather is nice.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not from this area, this is not, we're faking it.
SPEAKER_00: This is not Mississippi.
SPEAKER_00: So don't think about moving here until you see what it's like in July.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be tricked.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, so anyway, uh, so let's say you go on vacation and somebody in the middle of July, and you know how hot it is, you know the the birds we call mosquitoes here.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's say uh let's say, let's say somebody, you come back from vacation and somebody has cut your grass.
SPEAKER_00: Your grass is is nice and and cut.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now that's that's great, that's so nice, but you want to you want to understand why that happened.
SPEAKER_00: If it were a company, you would assume what is the why?
SPEAKER_00: If it's a company, you would assume the why is that they would be paid or they're trying to get new business.
SPEAKER_00: If it were a neighbor, the why was because maybe they need somebody to cut their grass when they go on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a favor.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if it were a family member, the why, we assume, would be out of love.
SPEAKER_00: And your love for them would grow.
SPEAKER_00: The why matters.
SPEAKER_00: The why matters somebody would cut your grass.
SPEAKER_00: It changes then how you move forward.
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna have to pay an invoice?
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna have to return a favor?
SPEAKER_00: Or does my heart grow in love?
SPEAKER_00: This morning, what we celebrate is that the eternal God of all creation did a work that we could never do for ourselves, and the why he did these things is his great love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, there are no invoices to be paid this morning, there are no favors to return, there is only a shout of praise and love for the power of God for our eternal salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There is only our hearts captured by his love and then growing in love for him.
SPEAKER_00: On this special Sunday, what I'd like you to know is that God's word tells us that he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And so he cares for you, and therefore he will never abandon you.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's so basic.
SPEAKER_00: Even our four-year-old can sing Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, as a 48-year-old, sometimes it's real easy to forget that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, okay, is this why we're here this morning?
SPEAKER_00: It's so that we can hear that Jesus loves you, and let me tell you the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to forget.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to allow that to be our functioning, working understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Every day we face, remember, Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Every lie the enemy tells you, remember, Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Today, what I'm gonna spend my time do is making the art time doing is making the argument from scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not my TED talk.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my TED talk about the love of God for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: This is the argument of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So then, to do this, we'll look at a passage we recently considered, but this morning I want to drill down on the why of all these things.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, Ephesians 2, 4 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read this passage, Ephesians 2, 4 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading from the ESV.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Right off the bat, in this passage, we see the why.
SPEAKER_00: There's no invoice, there's no favor to be repaid.
SPEAKER_00: Hear it.
SPEAKER_00: Again, 4 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: By grace you've been saved and raised up, raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We'll stop there.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for this day that you gave us.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I pray that we would remember that you gave us this day.
SPEAKER_00: You command the morning light.
SPEAKER_00: Father, may we remember that you commanding the morning light to come up today was a common grace.
SPEAKER_00: A common grace that we would uh we would remember that not only are you in control, but that you care for us because we know if the morning light doesn't come up, we are in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: To the trouble we are in.
SPEAKER_00: The problem we are we have if we are stuck in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are thankful for this hinge point.
SPEAKER_00: But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love you have for us, you sent Jesus Christ to do these things, to work these things out.
SPEAKER_00: To make us alive, to seat us with your son.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be able to, for all of eternity, grow an understanding of the immeasurable riches you have for us in your son, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we ask your Spirit to help us see these things, that we would not be numb to these things.
SPEAKER_00: May they land on good soil, good soil.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the name of your Son Jesus we pray this and all things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So then let me give you a purpose statement, a summary statement of this morning from that passage.
SPEAKER_00: By considering the great worth of Christ, we are captured by his cost, convinced of his care, and made confident of our eternal and infinite joy.
SPEAKER_00: So to summarize, Ephesians 2, 4 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: By considering the great worth of Christ, we're captured by his cost, convinced of his care, and made confident of our eternal and infinite joy.
SPEAKER_00: So three things, three legs to that stool.
SPEAKER_00: His cost, his care, and our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: So first, his cost.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 and 5, it's on the screen, it's in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: The great love with which he loved for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's the why.
SPEAKER_00: So what is that great love?
SPEAKER_00: If you read a story of a person in the Philippines spending 3.5 million Philippine pesos on a gift for their spouse, that would be interesting, I assume.
SPEAKER_00: You would say, well, that's that's that's neat.
SPEAKER_00: But you cannot understand the weight of that gift, I assume, unless you've looked it up.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot understand the weight of that gift unless you understood how much a peso is worth and how long it would take someone to earn that much money.
SPEAKER_00: The answer for an average family is 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: So understanding now, you're like, oh no, that's a really good gift.
SPEAKER_00: That's 10 years' wages on a gift.
SPEAKER_00: And so by understanding that, you can say, wow.
SPEAKER_00: So to begin to understand and feel, just like with the Philippine peso, to understand and feel the weight of the truth, great of great love with which he loved us, we must understand the great worth of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So if Christ is what God sent, if that's how he paid for our ransom, it makes no sense to just say, okay, to understand the weight of it, we would have to say, but how much is that worth?
SPEAKER_00: How much is Christ worth, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to look at Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So if giving Christ is what our being made alive costs, then who is Christ to God?
SPEAKER_00: The longer you treasure something or someone, the more it or they mean to you.
SPEAKER_00: We learn in John 1 that for all of eternity Jesus was with God before his face.
SPEAKER_00: The Trinity for all time has delighted in one another in perfect fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity, in case you didn't know this, eternity is a long time.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot imagine, then, the love of the Father and the Spirit for the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Their love for one another is greater than any love we could ever even relate to.
SPEAKER_00: Tracking?
SPEAKER_00: They've been together for a while in perfect fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: The second person of the Trinity, Son of God, that's who Jesus, that's who God sent in love.
SPEAKER_00: You understand the weight of that decision?
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I remember as a kid hearing someone say that an artifact was priceless.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you say, oh, that that thing, that thing in the city in the museum, that's that's priceless.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking as a kid, that doesn't make sense, is there not a number that could be offered that would eclipse the value of that thing?
SPEAKER_00: Like, name your price, there's gotta be a number.
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody will sell it for something.
SPEAKER_00: How can it be priceless?
SPEAKER_00: And I realized that when something is priceless, it means it cannot be replaced.
SPEAKER_00: No dollar amount could satisfy its loss.
SPEAKER_00: It is too precious to put a price on it.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what we read in John 3.16 that God so loved us that he sent one of his sons, his only son.
SPEAKER_00: His only son, that is his unique and only son, to come to earth and pay the cost for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: So to appreciate the great love of God for us, we must consider the great worth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And connected to that, we must also remember that Christ did not go with a grudge.
SPEAKER_00: No, he willingly emptied himself of that which was his.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in Exodus chapter 33, when God told Moses that he would give the promised land to the children of Israel, but he would not go with them?
SPEAKER_00: And remember, they've been wandering the wilderness for a while.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And he God was God was provoked to anger, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is he is steadfast in his love, but he can be provoked to anger.
SPEAKER_00: So he's provoked to anger.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Okay, Moses, I'm gonna give you the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you the thing that you've been journeying to, all the land you want, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what they want.
SPEAKER_00: The people want their land, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna have the land.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send an angel, the angel's gonna defeat all the military forces in that land.
SPEAKER_00: You can have your land, I'm not going with you.
SPEAKER_00: What does Moses say in response?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want the land.
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather stay in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm paraphrasing.
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather stay in the wilderness than go to the promised land without you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the land.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want your presence.
SPEAKER_00: This is my inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: This is what makes me a people, is your face.
SPEAKER_00: Do not bring us out of the wilderness without you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Keep us in the wilderness if Dad is where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Side point.
SPEAKER_00: Like, can you in whatever suffering, and I know there are people in this room suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God, if this is where you are, if you meet me in my suffering, if you meet me in my confusion and in this dark valley, if this is where you meet your people, if if the green pasture is where I'll forget you, if that's where I'll forget you, I want to stay here.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stay here.
SPEAKER_00: If this is where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was that was a bonus point.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, it just hit me.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta chill, but I think it's the AC.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So great.
SPEAKER_00: I wear a jacket.
SPEAKER_00: So, and so, see the great love of Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: If the great hope and treasure of eternity is a relationship, think of Moses, I don't want the promised land, I want you.
SPEAKER_00: If the great hope and treasure of eternity is a relationship, then see that Christ bankrupted himself for us.
SPEAKER_00: His wealth is the Father's face, and he lost it for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ took our sin upon himself and drank the full cup of God's wrath upon sinners, he gave everything he had.
SPEAKER_00: If the great wealth of our eternity is the face of God, Jesus Christ bankrupted himself on the cross when he took our sin upon himself and it went dark.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great love, the great love of God upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Understood by seeing the great worth of Jesus to the Father and the great worth of the Father to the Son.
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: See how much God loved the Son.
SPEAKER_00: See how much the Son loved the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Understand Christ bankrupted himself on the cross when the face was turned, and understand that Christ and God sent the Son in love.
SPEAKER_00: You want to understand that Jesus loves you?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the great worth of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And before we move on to the next point, see verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: It's on your screens.
SPEAKER_00: Yep, it's still nobody deleted it.
SPEAKER_00: It's still on your screens, and it's in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: So again, this is what the great love, this is the consequence of the great love.
SPEAKER_00: We were dead in our trespasses, we are made alive.
SPEAKER_00: If you're very sick and dying and go to the hospital and someone saves your life, that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: But you know that the saving is temporary because there'll be another day when you will pass away.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, you celebrate, but you know, okay, that's a temporary thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Conversely, let's say you were in prison and died there, but then a year later someone found some new evidence that showed you were innocent.
SPEAKER_00: That would be great for your legacy and maybe a comfort to your family, but it would not change your fate.
SPEAKER_00: So, my goodness, two thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: You're in a hospital and somebody saves your life, and you celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, that's so great.
SPEAKER_00: I I I live another day, but you know at some point there will be a day when that is not going to happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, but okay.
SPEAKER_00: And on the other side, let's say again, you're in prison for for for you know, and and that's where you die, and then they find new evidence, and it says, Oh no, actually, he he or she didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: That is a great comfort to your family, but you you're still in tune, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I say that.
SPEAKER_00: At great cost, Jesus died for those who were dead.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord for the cost he paid on the cross, but also on the third day he arose.
SPEAKER_00: That means that the great love of God is not just to pay a dead man's debt, it was to make dead men alive.
SPEAKER_00: The work of love on the cross was that we are forgiven, but again, God did not pay such a great price so that we would simply be forgiven in our tombs.
SPEAKER_00: He paid the great price so that we could also have life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And we need both.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection without the cross would make us like Lazarus, it would simply prolong the death that was inevitable, and the cross without the resurrection would only mean that our tombstone would declare us as innocent.
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
SPEAKER_00: We need both.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be innocent dead men, and we don't want to just simply uh have another temporary life.
SPEAKER_00: But with both, those who are dead in their sin are made alive eternal.
SPEAKER_00: What a grace fueled by the great love of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at second.
SPEAKER_00: His care.
SPEAKER_00: So his cost, now his care.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at this one passage, 1 Peter 5.7, and then we'll jump back to the Ephesians passage in the end.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5 7, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, another illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's say your friend gave everything they had, they emptied their bank account to purchase a piece of art.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I oh, I gotta have that piece of art.
SPEAKER_00: They sold everything they had, and they purchased this piece this piece of art.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Hey, I want to come see it.
SPEAKER_00: So you go over to their house, you come to see it, and they and you're looking for it in their living room over their mantle, and they say, Oh, it's in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Okay, you must have a really nice garage.
SPEAKER_00: And so you go into their garage, and it's like our garage, and it's not that awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so you go in there, and it the this piece of art that they emptied all of their accounts for that they sold everything they had, and they they they used their bank accounts, and they saw they bought this piece of art, and it's sitting on the ground, and it's getting dirty, uh, and it's got oil splattered on it, and whatever else.
SPEAKER_00: I assume you would say that's strange.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, you you gave everything you had for this piece of art and now it's in your garage?
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't even care for it.
SPEAKER_00: And we in our family, if it's in the garage and on the floor, it probably means Goodwill's about to get a donation.
SPEAKER_00: So it would be strange for you to go and see this thing that uh that somebody gave everything they had for on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: So then, let's be thoughtful about what this great cost and love mean for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Do we think that God sent his son in love, and that son emptied himself on the cross and into the tomb, to then say with resentment, there I paid for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't mess up, I'll see you when I see you.
SPEAKER_00: So, do we think that when we are struggling and we feel alone, when we are up against insurmountable feelings or hardships or addictions, that our king with the stars in his hands is now saying, I don't care what you're facing, suck it up.
SPEAKER_00: Do we think we are in his garage covered in dirt and oil, and he is indifferent to what we are going through?
SPEAKER_00: And I know again, I understand because of the illustration, everybody's saying, of course not, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: But my goodness, I'm telling you, this week when I when I remembered 1 Peter 5 through 7, uh 1 Peter 5, 7, like I was like, oh, God cares for me.
SPEAKER_00: God cares for me.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else we could ever need or want, but God cares for me?
SPEAKER_00: God cares for me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who God is?
SPEAKER_00: Putting these two things together, the worth of the son, the cost, and the logical argument of his concern for us, he's not putting you in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes this in Romans 8, Romans 8 32.
SPEAKER_00: He who did not spare his own son, he being God, the creator, in the beginning, that's him.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking things into existence when there was nothing, there was something.
SPEAKER_00: He, that he, who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he also not with him graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: Still, haven't we all at all haven't we all at times felt like we've been forgotten and neglected?
SPEAKER_00: Where would that thought come from?
SPEAKER_00: The thought of neglect.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come from our logic.
SPEAKER_00: I assume you think it's strange that somebody put an expensive piece of art in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: You think that's strange?
SPEAKER_00: You understand that Christ was costly, a costly price to pay for your salvation, you understand that.
SPEAKER_00: So then, if we are logical, if God has made us to be rational, where would the thought come from that in your hardship and struggle, you would say, God has forgotten me?
SPEAKER_00: Where would that come from?
SPEAKER_00: That's not our logic and our rationale.
SPEAKER_00: We don't function that way in any other part of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why would we think this when we have so much evidence against it?
SPEAKER_00: In the presence of difficult things, where would a lie come from that we've been abandoned?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5.7, remember, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: We know that verse.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what comes after that in 1 Peter 5.8?
SPEAKER_00: The answer to why we would have this thought about God putting an expensive piece of art in the garage, to use the illustration.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5.8, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Be sober-minded.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the thought that he doesn't care for you is not sober minded.
SPEAKER_00: Be watchful.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a liar.
SPEAKER_00: Who?
SPEAKER_00: Your adversary, this comes right after Castor cares upon him.
SPEAKER_00: Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
SPEAKER_00: Where does the lie come from that you don't matter to God?
SPEAKER_00: Where does the lie come from that he has abandoned you?
unknown: It's not
SPEAKER_00: From God, it's not because you're rational or logical.
SPEAKER_00: It's from the adversary.
SPEAKER_00: And understand that clearly in this context, this is not saying, child of God, be careful of a big, scary lion of your nightmares.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the terrifying beast of a horror movie.
SPEAKER_00: This is an enemy whose fangs of an attack are a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And to be devoured, then is to believe that lie.
SPEAKER_00: How does the roaring lion that is like the enemy?
SPEAKER_00: How does the enemy who is like a roaring lion devour us with a lie?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Horror movies do no good because they show you some beast that's coming at you with a pitchfork.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy comes beside you with a lie that says, I don't think God cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Look in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Look at look at look at your deficiency.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your chemistry.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the job you didn't get.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the spouse you didn't have.
SPEAKER_00: Like, look at all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And the lion roars.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to devour you, trying to separate you from the one who does love you at great cost.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the lie again?
SPEAKER_00: In your anxiety, in your concerns, in your life, in your struggles against sin, in your physical sufferings, your king, the lie is that your king does not care for you.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot and should not even try to cast these things upon him.
SPEAKER_00: He is not there and he does not listen.
SPEAKER_00: You are not worth his attention.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the enemy whispers.
SPEAKER_00: So then, child of God, what are we going to do?
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to resist the devil, this vendor of lies and accusations?
SPEAKER_00: The best way to appreciate and understand God's care for you is to turn your eyes upon Christ, see his great worth, and then push back on the whispers of the enemy that tempt you to believe a lie.
SPEAKER_00: A lie that says, Because you have sin in your life, because you struggle, you have no value to God.
SPEAKER_00: You may be a part of his household, but you are in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: Because you took the fruit, you should run and hide from God.
SPEAKER_00: Cover yourself from him and others.
SPEAKER_00: Let your shame lead you away from God instead of to him.
SPEAKER_00: And we take that thought, that temptation captive, and we say, He paid too much.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his words, he paid too much to bring me home.
SPEAKER_00: He has not and will not ever leave me alone.
SPEAKER_00: So then, child of God, memorize 1 Peter 5 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: Memorize Romans 8:32.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Christ did in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke back to the devil with God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't tempt me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put the Lord your God to the test.
SPEAKER_00: Man shall not live by bread alone.
SPEAKER_00: So then, in the in the lie, oh, I think you're in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: Steve, I think you're in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what that person said to you?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think God cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: I say, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what the answer is not?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is not.
SPEAKER_00: I go to my bathroom and look at my mirror and say, Ah, I mean, God cares for me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: How could God not care for me?
SPEAKER_00: I wore a suit on Easter.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's not a suit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's out of hand.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, the emotion got me.
SPEAKER_00: It's a jacket.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I wore a jacket on Easter.
SPEAKER_00: How could God not care and love me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the answer to the to the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the answer to the one who walks around like a roaring lion.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is we go to the mirror and say, then we turn our heads up and we look at the worth of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That was point one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Look at how much, look how much God loved the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Look how much the Son loved God.
SPEAKER_00: And he came in love, great love, so that we I could be made alive.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm gonna listen to this that I'm not worth it.
SPEAKER_00: That God purchased me at great cost and then put me in the garage.
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even spare his own son.
SPEAKER_00: How will he not give everything, everything?
SPEAKER_00: How will he not continue to empty himself for those whom he loves and love?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: We're rational, we're logical, don't listen to the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Third, our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Finally.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at verse 6 and 7 of Ephesians 2.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been flipping back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Again, remember how we started Ephesians 2, 4.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great love.
SPEAKER_00: So again, 2, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is again more of the consequence of the great love.
SPEAKER_00: The great love is the why, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uninvoiceable.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a word.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's not gonna give us an invoice.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so here's what else that means.
SPEAKER_00: He raised us up with him, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to look at that for a little bit longer here.
SPEAKER_00: In seeing the cost of Christ and his present care for us, again, we're not in the garage, Paul also wants us to see that we have been transferred into a whole new realm.
SPEAKER_00: Having been united with Christ in death and then made alive in his resurrection, look at what comes next.
SPEAKER_00: He raised us up with him, raised, past tense, raised us up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we get Colossians 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you know Colossians 3, the beginning of Colossians 3, it says, There will be a day in which you will be revealed in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So in a certain way, we've been we've been transferred already in the not yet.
SPEAKER_00: This is again an already reality for those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul wants us to understand is that we are no longer, here's what he wants us to understand, hear this clearly.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to understand that we are no longer under the captivity and the authority of the prince of the air.
SPEAKER_00: Seated with Christ already means that we are no longer under the captivity and authority of the prince of the air, the one who is like the roaring lion.
SPEAKER_00: We are no longer slaves to sin and captives to its demands.
SPEAKER_00: That in Christ we already sit in authority over sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerful transformative truth.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian is meant to understand and know that we do not have to obey sin.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I know all these things are so obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Why did I get dressed up for this?
SPEAKER_00: He just keeps saying things I already listen.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: When the temptation comes, can you just say to the enemy, I've already been seated with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Already, I actually do not have to obey this temptation.
SPEAKER_00: You can speak back.
SPEAKER_00: I do not have to do this.
SPEAKER_00: It actually doesn't have authority.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have authority.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I know that sounds simplistic, but it's but it is not the goal of the enemy to remove our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Is it not the goal of the enemy to remove our confidence in the fight against continued sin?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what the enemy wants?
SPEAKER_00: To remove your confidence, the weapons against the temptations of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Have you not sometimes felt like you were a victim of an overpowering force in your temptation?
SPEAKER_00: That it was no use even putting up a fight, that there was no grace of escape to be found.
SPEAKER_00: Again, when temptation whispers to us and entices our hearts to find satisfaction apart from God and from his will, we can speak this truth.
SPEAKER_00: We say, I do not have to obey your demands.
SPEAKER_00: You are not my master.
SPEAKER_00: You are like a lion, you are not the lion.
SPEAKER_00: That lion rose again.
SPEAKER_00: Your lies have no teeth.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, I see in authority over these wicked designs.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, I sit in authority over these wicked designs.
SPEAKER_00: And we say this boldly with the confidence of Christ over sin.
SPEAKER_00: We've already been raised up and seated on thrones over these things.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the continual logic of Paul in the New Testament that we would see and become what we've already been made to be in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul moves from what the great love of God, as shown by sending his son at great cost, means in this current age to what is to come in the future ages.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: His care and concern, cast all your anxieties upon him.
SPEAKER_00: Christ, God cares for you, Christ cares for you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And also the fact that we've already been seated, right, past hence with him over these things.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh uh we have dominion over, we have authority over sin.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to obey it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer our master and whom we are captive to already.
SPEAKER_00: And then he moves to future.
SPEAKER_00: And I like the future.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you another illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, going back to the R piece.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the R piece that didn't get put in the garage?
SPEAKER_00: Because that would be ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that R piece?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all remember what it looks like?
SPEAKER_00: It's probably, you know, something nice.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, going back to that R piece.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say your friend gave everything they had to purchase it and then brought it home, hung it up over their mantle.
SPEAKER_00: That's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: And then, okay, then an art historian came one day to look at the R piece that, you know, hey, I gotta see your friend's R piece.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently it's really nice.
SPEAKER_00: He gave everything he had for it, or she gave everything she had for it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see it.
SPEAKER_00: It's in, it's you know, you got the nice lighting.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's called gallery lighting, appropriately so.
SPEAKER_00: And so they go, you go, the this art historian looks at it and they say that's a fake.
SPEAKER_00: That's a fraud.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how much did you pay for this?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: If the art is a fraud, who is put to shame?
SPEAKER_00: Who's put to shame if the art is a fraud?
SPEAKER_00: The buyer.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a fake, and then immediately you look at the buyer and say, You you've been had.
SPEAKER_00: And there's shame.
SPEAKER_00: The buyer's like, I didn't do my due diligence.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I was buying.
SPEAKER_00: Why did I buy that?
SPEAKER_00: Why did I leverage everything for that piece of art?
SPEAKER_00: What have I done?
SPEAKER_00: So shame on the buyer.
SPEAKER_00: Shame on the one who paid the price.
SPEAKER_00: You've bought a fraud.
SPEAKER_00: You should have known about this, these things.
SPEAKER_00: You get it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that God knew everything about you before he sent his son?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know he knows that?
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 139, he knows your first breath, he knows your last breath, even the one you haven't taken.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know God knows everything?
SPEAKER_00: He's done his due diligence, he created you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: He's researched what he's purchased.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that Christ knew your first and last breath in this age and that all that you would say, think, and do before he gave himself for you?
SPEAKER_00: He will not be put to shame by what he has purchased.
SPEAKER_00: He is at work and he will finish his work.
SPEAKER_00: For our part, we've been called to believe that and continue to trust that.
SPEAKER_00: When we consider the cost of Christ, we are made confident.
SPEAKER_00: He paid everything.
SPEAKER_00: So then, are you gonna look at Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He paid everything, right?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna then look at Christ and say, You purchased a fraud?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna put shame on Christ because of what he paid for you or for us?
SPEAKER_00: Child of God, our hope is confidence.
SPEAKER_00: When we fall short, when our lives deny Christ three times before the roost of crows, what will we do?
SPEAKER_00: Will we believe the lie that God made a mistake, that you are an imposter and a fraud, or will we meet him on the shoreline of his grace and be reminded of his love for us?
SPEAKER_00: Be reminded that he knew before you did, and he is not a fool.
SPEAKER_00: His love for you is not a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: God is not a day trader, his finger is not on the button, ready to trade you because you're looking at because you're looking like a loss.
SPEAKER_00: We can be confident that what he has purchased, he will not sell.
SPEAKER_00: The great danger of our continued sin is that the enemy will leverage it to make us believe a lie.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that?
SPEAKER_00: The danger of your continued sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it doesn't please God.
SPEAKER_00: But the great danger of your continued sin is that the enemy then would come beside you in your continued sin and say that I think I think you defrauded God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he knew.
SPEAKER_00: And he'd make you feel like an imposter, and he would separate you from the love of God and the understanding of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: That we should not have confidence before God.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, if our perfect life is our confidence before the Father, then we are underdressed.
SPEAKER_00: But we stand before the Father in Christ, and He is our righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If you're 100% sure that a paper house will protect you in a storm, then your strong confidence is a folly.
SPEAKER_00: But if you enter a storm, a storm shelter with shaky knees and a 51% trust, then your confidence is well founded and you will survive the storm.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: You can be 100% sure that a paper tent or a nylon tent is going to protect you from a storm.
SPEAKER_00: Even in your 100% confidence, you will be found in want when the storm hits.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have 51% confidence with shaky knees, you enter a storm shelter, then when the storm hits, you'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: So don't think it's about the size of your confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It is about the object of your confidence that saves you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, our confidence is as good as the thing we put it in, and our confidence is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So then, child of God, our hope is not fragile.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is the most sturdy thing in the universe.
SPEAKER_00: It is a rock that will outlast any storm.
SPEAKER_00: It is a covenant that cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_00: It is an amen that cannot be muted.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence has no term limit.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence already inhabits eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence has always been in yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence took on flesh so that it could become our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: And even when the sun was blotted out and our confidence went into a sealed tomb, it was not a hesitation of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: It was the delivery room of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: It was the moment in which our confidence went into the darkest depths and proved that it was greater than them.
SPEAKER_00: Greater than them.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not naive.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not folly.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not vain.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not an opiate for the masses.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not tethered to our wall or a statement of our finances.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not found in our medical records.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not secured by monitored security systems.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not a coin flip or a matter of coincidence or good luck.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not in us being too big to fail.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not abstract.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is not fragile.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is a person, the God man, our Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he has never been, nor will he ever be, frustrated from his sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: He will accomplish what he has set out to do.
SPEAKER_00: Every single person in this room, myself included, are in danger every day of putting our confidence in one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta stop looking in the mirror and at our bank statements and on our subdivision and at our privacy fences and finding confidence in those things.
SPEAKER_00: Those things are so temporary.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Moth and Russ will destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a thief could break in and steal it.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence is in a person named Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And his care and concern and love of you.
SPEAKER_00: So then, therefore, put your weight on that confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: We're okay.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, whenever uh, you know, like you get anxious, here's a bonus illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you ever get anxious, like, okay, like you're packing for a trip, you're going on a trip.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Chris and I do this all the time, and you're like, okay, like, do I have this, or I have this, or I'm thinking, you're trying to think of all the things that a family of 47 needs on the trip.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so you're going on the trip, and you're like, okay, well, even if we forgot something, we have our wallets, and we'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can just, we can buy, you know, the the you know, socks or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we can we can do that.
SPEAKER_00: We you have your wallet, you have your phone, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, okay, those are the exceptions.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta have that.
SPEAKER_00: In our entire lives, here's the thing that we should say, okay, even if for this, even if we go here, even if we don't have this, here's what we should say.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I may not, or I, you know, all these things, I may not have all these things, my finances may, whatever, whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: The house I live in, whatever, whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, my office.
SPEAKER_00: We should take a tour right now of my office.
SPEAKER_00: I went in on Tuesday morning and the whole roof had collapsed because of a of a leak in the toilet.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: I prepared this sermon from a coffee shop.
SPEAKER_00: I usually do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh listen, listen, if your confidence is in the things that you expect from this this world, then you're gonna be left in one.
SPEAKER_00: So then what do we say?
SPEAKER_00: Not our confidence is well, I have at least my at least I have my wallet, at least I have my phone, at least I have my house.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Our confidence we say at the end of the day is at least I have Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Like I have him.
SPEAKER_00: What more could I want?
SPEAKER_00: What more can I possibly have?
SPEAKER_00: He's everything I need.
SPEAKER_00: Put your weight on that, put your trust in that.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, leave, give yourself to it.
SPEAKER_00: He will not be put to shame, and therefore, those whom he purchased will not be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: When this age has ended, there will be zero regret from those who have trusted him with their already lives.
SPEAKER_00: His kingdom will not be emptied, his promises will not be broken.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I remember being very confused by the concept of a number called infinity, and I probably drove my mom and dad nuts trying to count to it.
SPEAKER_00: But infinity is not a number.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of the grace of uh of his grace in kindness toward us good in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read that again.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, a lot of preposition.
SPEAKER_00: So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in life that is beyond this life, our eternity, he we will be shown the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is, for all of eternity, we will continue to grow in understanding of the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: His goodness is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: We will not exhaust belief, or we will not exhaust the kindness that he has for us.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that the joy found in his presence is immeasurable.
SPEAKER_00: And just like a child confused by infinity that confuses us in our finitude, we can't imagine a joy, a happiness that continues to grow eternally.
SPEAKER_00: An eternal crescendo without a culmination or plateau.
SPEAKER_00: And we tell, I mean, we just, you know, there's there's a couple of y'all in here that uh I recently had the joy, I wore a jacket that day too.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was a suit.
SPEAKER_00: I got to marry, and you know, in marriage counseling, one of the things we need to say is, hey, remember, there's this honeymoon phase, it's not forever.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And and you know, you just want to see how realistic we are.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh now now I'm I'm 20 years in, I'm still honeymoon, right?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come in for all these people.
SPEAKER_00: We say, listen, it's not forever.
SPEAKER_00: Like the honeymoon phase will wear off.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says our eternity is not a face.
SPEAKER_00: So then, we need not temper our imaginations about what will be.
SPEAKER_00: Again, in the when we say the honeymoon phase, we say, okay, yeah, I know, I know it's gonna be hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's gonna be a struggle, I know it's not gonna last forever.
SPEAKER_00: This feeling that I have, I know that's not forever.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says something different about our eternity.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a face.
SPEAKER_00: It says that forever, every moment will have an increase of joy, pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: It will only increase forever.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no dips, plateaus, or valleys.
SPEAKER_00: This is what his great love has purchased for us.
SPEAKER_00: So then, we need not temper our imaginations about what we'll be.
SPEAKER_00: This is forever.
SPEAKER_00: Do we think we're gonna get bored with the goodness and beauty of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Do we think in eternity we will ever say, that's nice, what else is there to do around here?
SPEAKER_00: That would mean that the goodness and beauty of our King and Savior is limited, that we could count to that which is called infinite.
SPEAKER_00: And so, by saying or feeling that we are going to be bored in eternity, we are actually taking the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me out.
SPEAKER_00: That is, we are emptying him, his name, of the truth of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: We are diminishing him by our small imaginations.
SPEAKER_00: You say you think you might get bored in heaven because how good could it be?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's eternity, that's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: When you say that, when you think that, we need to repent of that because what you're doing is you are limiting the goodness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying there's a limit to it.
SPEAKER_00: I will come to the end of the internet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get to the end of his goodness and kindness and grace.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be one day I'll be like, Yeah, I already saw that.
SPEAKER_00: That's to take the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the commandment says.
SPEAKER_00: Don't empty him of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: It's forever, continual.
SPEAKER_00: Don't diminish him by your small imagination.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that at his right hand are pleasures forevermore, that his riches of kindness and grace are immeasurable.
SPEAKER_00: They are infinite.
SPEAKER_00: For all of eternity, far from being bored, we will walk in increasing understanding and astonished awareness and awe of the beauty of our King and all of this without the decaying consequences of sinful hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So then, therefore, we will be actually happily, more happily ever after.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ has secured for us as we await the consummation of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Dead men made alive, seated with him, that one day, to one day be revealed in him to dwell in his eternal presence and increasing infinite happiness of his goodness and in his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Let me conclude.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few words, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: So then, now what?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with all of this unimaginable grace and hope?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with the great love of God for us in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We do now what we will do then.
SPEAKER_00: We turn our eyes upon Jesus, we consider the cost of his life, we are made sure of his care in this age, as we confidently await the infinitely growing happiness that is to come in his perfect presence.
SPEAKER_00: So then, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Put your faith in him, trust him, see his beauty, see the great love of God for you in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing that, we begin the triumphal procession of our eternal lives today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for this day that you gave us.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, again, we acknowledge that you gave us this day.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, on this day.
SPEAKER_00: In a special way, our eyes are turned to the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: We are reminded that you didn't just send your son in great love to pay for our sins to be that we could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: You sent your son, Jesus Christ, that he would empty himself, bankrupt himself for our sake and for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be forgiven, but then also that we would be filled up, that we would not again just be forgiven, that we would be made alive, that we can now be seated with him in the already, in authority over sin, no longer captives.
SPEAKER_00: But Father, see your son's face in full clarity, and that we will then forevermore, without hesitation, without speed bump, without plateau, we will grow increasingly in joy as we gaze upon your son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: His beauty is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: Father, on this day, may we start that.
SPEAKER_00: May we look at Christ.
SPEAKER_00: May we enjoy him.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is our confidence as we stand before you.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.