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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
In Christ - Sealed and Secure
How do you love your people when words feel thin and life is loud? Mark Medley answers by taking us back to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 and showing how intercession becomes the most practical form of love. He begins with a raw, hopeful testimony of wandering and return from Ben Smith, then opens the Scriptures to build a simple, sturdy way to pray that anyone can use. This message continues the In Christ series and grounds prayer where Paul does: “For this reason.” Because God has already chosen, redeemed, sealed, and seated us in Christ, prayer is not striving to get His attention; it is partnership with His willingness. That reframes persistence—“I keep asking”—from pressure to participation. And it sets the tone: thanksgiving first. Before we request anything, we give thanks for our people and for the grace already at work in them.
Mark then teaches the posture of prayer Paul models: to the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the empowering help of the Spirit. Relationship gives boldness, the name of Jesus gives authority, and the Spirit supplies wisdom beyond our understanding. When words run out, the Spirit helps our weakness with groans too deep for words; when we can’t see the path, He prays according to the will of God. Parents carry unique spiritual authority for their children, friends bear one another’s burdens, and churches can shepherd on their knees.
From there, Mark borrows Paul’s language and gives seven clear requests to pray over your people: that God would work at the level of the spirit; give wisdom; grant revelation so the eyes of the heart are enlightened; restore living hope; make His calling loud and clear; open our eyes to the riches of our inheritance; and reveal the power at work in believers—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Isaiah 61 becomes a living prayer map: good news to the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, liberty for captives, comfort for mourners, and beauty in place of ashes.
Along the way, Mark names a quiet thief of our age: the algorithm. It pastors attention, shapes emotions, and drains hope. The answer isn’t shame; it’s a better diet. Curate your inputs, root yourself in Scripture, and let worship interrupt worry. The message ends where Paul ends—seeing Jesus as He is: risen, enthroned, and near. When people truly see Him, everything else takes its proper size. Watch, take notes, and try the seven-point prayer tonight for those you love. Share this with someone who needs courage to keep asking.
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We're in a sermon series right now on the book of Ephesians called In Christ, and we are just desiring to understand more fully what it means to have our identity in Christ. How many of you are thankful that we are we have been made whole by God through Jesus Christ and we are in Christ? He is in us and we are in him. And so we're studying the first half of Ephesians right now and looking at the identity that Christ wants us to have and to understand more fully. And then once we understand our identity, next year we'll jump into the second half of Ephesians where we'll talk about the purpose that God has for our lives based on who he's made us to be. Does that make sense? Let's get the right things first, and then the second things can come after that. The title of today's message is Sealed and Secured. Sealed and Secured. So if you can turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, we're going to read verses 13 and 14, and that's where our message will come from this morning. It says, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Let's pray together this morning. Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you that your presence is already here. We thank you, Lord, for what you're already doing in the hearts and minds of every single person who is here and also those who are watching online. And Father, we just pray in Jesus' name that whatever is in your heart to do this day, that you would do it in perfection, Father. And in spite of my words or my ways, Lord, I pray that you would cause your word to come alive within all of our hearts, that we would understand this truth, and that the truth would make us free. Father, we ask that you'd help us to understand what it means to have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling on the inside of us. And we thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. So most of us can probably quote the gospel message to some degree of precision, right? Most of us have heard it many times. Those of us who've grown up in church have heard it over and over and over again. But as I was studying this week, I was convicted that there's a portion of the gospel message that I tend to leave out. And I don't leave it out on purpose. There's no intentionality at all. It's just that I forget the importance of it, and sometimes I don't say it out loud. And so today we're going to be saying that portion out loud and we're going to be uh proclaiming it according to what the scripture says. So let me just give you a breakdown of the gospel message, and I hope that this comes alive on the inside of you. If you've never heard this message before, my prayer and hope for you is that the Holy Spirit of God will take it and breathe on you the breath of life and cause you to come alive unto God. If you've heard it many times before, I pray that you would be ignited, reignited with passion for what the gospel truly is and what it says and what it means. So we believe that God created the heavens and the earth. We believe that within the earth he created all kinds of living creatures, and on the sixth day, he created Adam, and then later he created Eve, and he put them in the Garden of Eden. And in the Garden of Eden, that says that God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Can you imagine how beautiful of an experience that must have been for God to be with man in that close of a nature, to reach out and be able to touch and hear and listen and smell and all of the things that they must have experienced in the garden? And God gave Adam and Eve one rule. They had one job. And how many of you know they didn't obey that rule? They disobeyed that rule. And because God is holy, and in order for him to remain holy, he had to punish the disobedience or the sin that they committed. And so what did he do? That they would physically die. Did you know that we were not created to die? Death came as a result of sin. And then we also know that because of Adam and Eve and their sin, that every one of us that have been born since then, except for Jesus Christ, have been born dead in our sins and trespasses. All of us followed Adam and Eve's same fate. And you might say, well, that's not fair. Well, let me ask you a question. Is there anybody else that's ever lived that hasn't sinned? The Bible makes it clear for us, for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it also says that the wages or the payment for the sin that we've committed that we deserve is death, which is obviously physical death, but it's much more than that. It's eternal separation from God. That is what is deserved based on the sin that Adam and Eve committed, and that each one of us subsequently since then have committed. Let that weigh on us for just a moment and consider it deeply before I say these next two words. But God. But God, filled with loving kindness and mercy, looked out upon this world and he said, I'm going to send my only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I'm going to send him to the earth. He's going to be born of a virgin. He's going to live a perfect life. He's going to be tempted in every way, just like Adam and Eve were, but this time he's not going to fail. He's not going to give in to the temptation. He's going to resist it and he's going to defeat Satan in the meanwhile, right? Not only that, he's going to walk and talk and express who our heavenly Father is. He's going to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, that there's a chance, there's an opportunity for man to be reconciled back to his relationship with God. Not only is he going to preach that, but it's going to be followed by signs and wonders and miracles and healings, all of the kingdom of God coming to earth and being expressed through the ministry of Jesus Christ. We know that he willingly took upon himself the sins of the world as he was nailed to an old rugged cross. And as he was on that cross, he cried out, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. The wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus as he was on that cross. And can you imagine for the first time in all of eternity, Jesus himself feeling what it felt like to be separated from his heavenly Father for just a moment in time. And then we know just before he breathed his last breath, he said, It is finished, declaring that the work had been done, redemption had been bought. And now all of those who put their faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ can be born again, can be made right with God, can walk with God once again. Not only did he do that, he died, he was buried, and on the third day, what did he do? He rose up from the grave, proving that he defeated sin, hell, and the grave. Jesus, the Almighty God, rose up from the dead. And not only that, but he ascended into heaven. And when he ascended into heaven, he was seated at the right hand of God, and he was given the name above every other name, that every name, every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And how many of you know he also said that if he was to leave, that he would also return one day? And when he returns, he will make all things new and right. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, I miss something. I missed something very important. Can you think of what it might be? Consider it for just a minute. Come on. The gospel is not a complete message unless we add that in. He has poured out the promise of the Holy Spirit on those who believe. We don't have to wait until we get to heaven to experience the presence of God. The Holy Spirit has been poured out. He's been given to us as a gift from our Heavenly Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want us to walk away from today's message with a higher estimation, with a higher understanding, a higher reality within ourselves of the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit, who he is and what he does, and how he wants to affect and influence our lives and the lives of other people around us. Are you ready to go there with me? All right, let's do this. Have you noticed over the last few weeks? Maybe you've seen this pattern in the verses that we've read. Remember, Paul starts this book out with this run-on sentence. He obviously didn't have a mother that was an English teacher like my mom was. But he just starts talking and he can't stop himself. He just lets it, it just flows out. He can't stop. There's a lot of commas involved, right? But Paul, in this run-on sentence, he describes the work of each member of the Trinity. See if you notice this or recognize it. In verses four through six, he talks about the fact that God the Father chooses and adopts us. That's good news. And then in verses seven through twelve, it brings out God the Son redeems and forgives us. And then in the verses that we read today, we see that God the Spirit seals us and secures us. He seals us and secures us. So Paul is praising God for all of the blessings he has bestowed on his people. Blessings that are ours because of what? Because of our relationship to Jesus Christ and the work that he's done. And these things are activated in our lives by the person of the Holy Spirit. There is a reason that Satan fights so hard against the Holy Spirit in the earth. How many churches have been divided over this one subject? And yet, how can you divide the Trinity? Father, Son, and Spirit are one. They are one. So many people have made the Trinity Father, Son, and Bible. And Bible is essentially important. It is the Word of God. We don't look to denote it or to denounce it or to put it in a place that it doesn't belong. But let's not forget about the Holy Spirit of God. Paul starts out this passage by saying, In him you also. Remember, last week Scott brought to our attention that Paul referred to the Jewish people as those who were first to hope in Christ. But now in this passage, he traces the step by which the Egyptians, sorry, not the Egyptians, the Ephesians, and some Egyptians over time, and the Gentiles have been brought into union with Christ. If you're a Gentile in this place, you should be thankful that Paul is expressing to us in the book of Ephesians the fact that Christ has made us one with him and brought us into the family. We have been adopted into the family of God. So who did these, what did these people do? How what did they experience? How did they respond? First of all, it says they heard the bot the gospel. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, God has chosen to save people by using the word of God to call them. One of the things that I promise you, as the lead elder of this church, is that we are never going to move away from the word of God. There are a lot of great things that we could talk about that may be helpful in your daily life, but I'm telling you, we understand that the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is the word of God, by the Spirit of God, that does the good work in each and every one of our lives. And we will never depart from it. Lord Jesus, help us in Jesus' name. Romans 10 describes this beautifully. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. So the work of God, the work of faith within each of our hearts, comes by hearing the word of God. Don't stop reading the Bible. Don't stop listening to the Bible. Don't stop coming to church. Don't stop listening to sermons that are in line with God's word. It's important to us, not just for salvation, but for every aspect of our Christian life. So not only did they hear the gospel, but what else did they do? They believed. They believed in Jesus Christ. Having heard this message, they committed themselves to Christ by a decisive act of faith. They put their faith in the work of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the true object of their faith. It wasn't their faith in their own ability to believe, or their own ability to change themselves, or their own ability to follow God. It was their faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Salvation is found in Him alone. How many of you know you can talk about God all day long with almost anybody and never get in trouble? But if you dare to mention the name of Jesus, demons tremble and people get nervous. There's a reason for that. In Jesus is salvation found. Now, if they believed, it presupposes that they must have repented. Because in order to believe, you have to change something. There has to be a change. There would be no need for salvation unless we needed to turn away from something and turn towards someone. Right? Mark 1, Jesus himself says, as he proclaims the gospel of God, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent and believe in the gospel. So let's just get down to the very base here. What does the word repent mean? Yeah, you're saying it. It means to have a fundamental change of mind, heart, and actions. Turning away from sin and anything that separates you from God and turning toward God. How many of you can say this morning that you have repented, that you have turned away from the old way, from your old life, and have turned toward God through Jesus Christ. And secondly, believe. What does it mean to believe? It means to put your complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel. Now, we can't even get past this point here without bringing the Holy Spirit into the equation. We believe that Scripture teaches that there is a moment when the Holy Spirit, like the paddles that are placed on a person's chest in order to bring them back after they've had a heart failure, we believe that the Holy Spirit hits the inside of us, the spirit that is dead to God, not just sick, but dead, and awakens that spirit so that we can then repent and put our faith in Jesus Christ. That awakening is called regeneration. That is a work of the Spirit. Even the faith that we exercise ourselves and the desire that we have to repent is a gift from God. How many of you tried to fix yourself before God got a hold of you? And how did that work for you? It didn't work so well for me. We need the work of God. We are made alive to God in order that we might believe. Our willing response is that repentance and belief, and that is called conversion. That's the theological term conversion, which includes repenting and believing. And we also believe that if you live any longer here on this earth, that it's good to be baptized as a part of that conversion story, right? So not only did they believe, but they also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. They were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seals us, marking us as children of God. Sometimes I'll ask people, What do you think about Jesus? And I'll get all kinds of varying responses from that. Well, he he was a he was a true historic figure. He was a great teacher. It seems like he was some kind of spiritual person. He was, and then some will say he was he, you know, he died or he was born on Christmas, all those things that people will say about Jesus. And then I'll ask them, what does Jesus say about you? And that is a determiner right there. A lot of times, where a person is in their walk with God. What does Jesus say about you? When a person trusts the Lord Jesus Christ through the gospel of salvation, he or she'll she is sealed through the Holy Spirit of God. Every true believer in Jesus receives the Spirit of God as a sign that they belong to God and are under his protection. Are you thankful for that? He claims us as his very own. Like the indelible impression. Think about a king who has written a letter and he wants it to go specifically to someone else. And so he puts that letter within an envelope. He closes the envelope and he puts uh melts wax over that place where the envelope closes. And then what does he do? He has a ring that he wears on his finger that's called a signet ring. And what does he do with that ring? He presses that into that wax. And when he presses into that wax, and then that letter is taken from his presence and delivered to whom ever it was supposed to be. As long as that seal has not been broken and that signet ring mark is still in that wax, what does the other person know? That this is a legitimate communication that has come from this king. And he's marked it himself. Friends, believers in Jesus Christ have been sealed by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His signet ring has been built, has been placed upon our hearts, and we have been marked by him. We are his. Don't ever let Satan steal that from you. Don't ever let him lie to you about that. We have been marked. We have been sealed if we are true believers. When are we sealed? When we're good enough, when we change enough, when we uh you know act right enough when we when we've been saved for 10 years, when we've been saved 20 years, when are we sealed? We are sealed at the point of salvation. At the point of salvation, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says, For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of what? Of one spirit. We have been baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God. We have been set apart, we have been sealed, we have been made holy, and we are set apart for God. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. This is good news. Can you understand why we need to make sure that we're sharing this as a part of our gospel message? This is where the power lies. This is where the change happens. In fact, that's our next point. The proof of being sealed is true transformation. How many of you know that there are many people who have prayed a prayer of repentance at some point in their life, but there has been absolutely no change, no sign of any kind of transformation within their hearts and their minds and their actions. They've spoken words, but nothing has been transformed. We cannot rely upon that for salvation, correct? Our prayer should be a willing response to repentance and belief. Yes, we need to say the words. Yes, we need to pray and ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. Yes, we need to affirm that uh that the old man is passed away and old all things have become new. But we can't rely just upon a prayer to be the seal upon our hearts. We don't place the seal, God does. God does. You see, the the proof of being sealed is true transformation. Many times, rightfully so, I'm not saying this is wrong, but so many times we focus on the outward sign of the Holy Spirit's presence. We want to see miracles, we want to see healings, we want to see signs and wonders, we want to see demons cast out. Well, maybe not like in our homes, but you know, somewhere else. We want to see uh, you know, speaking in tongues, we want to experience God, we want to feel God. How many of you know all of those things are good? They're good, and we should desire those things. In fact, in 1 Corinthians it says for us to covet spiritual gifts or earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Nothing wrong with that. We should long for that. But if that's all that we connect with concerning the Holy Spirit, something is wrong. Something is wrong. There's more than that. There's the inward working of the Holy Spirit, the work that he does on the inside of us, the work of transformation, the work of sanctification, where he convicts us of sin, where he changes us from the inside out, where we recognize our need to change and where we yield to him. We yield to him drawing us, calling us, changing us. Both of these things are important, both of these expressions of the Spirit, both of these works of the Spirit are important, but only one of them is eternal. Only one of them lasts forever. As we remember in the Sermon on the Mount that we just finished coming through, Jesus Himself said that in the last days, that as people would stand before him, that there would be many who would prophesy and cast out demons who we would tell to depart from him because he never knew them. They weren't sealed with the promise, they weren't his own. Both are important. Please don't ever stop asking and desiring both. But don't neglect the work of the spirit on the inside of us. Some of the greatest miracles sitting in this room had nothing to do with healing of the physical body. They had to do about who you once were and who you are now. You've been changed. Don't forget, your testimony is laced with power. Revelations, it says that they overcame the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives even unto the death. What is the testimony of our lives? It's not just that I've cast out demons. The testimony of my life is I've been changed. I'm not the man I used to be. I've been changed. See, the proof of the Spirit's presence is his operation on the heart, which produces things like real repentance, like husbands that say to their wives, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I shouldn't have done that like that. I'm wrong. Would you please forgive me? It's it produces real repentance. It produces the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 22. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. I think that's all I'll have to check with my three-year-old granddaughter to confirm. She can quote them like crazy. But all of those things come from the inside. We can pretend them, can pretend to love, or pretend to have joy, or pretend to have peace, or try to work it up in our own strength. But how many of you know it's fleeting? It's here today and gone tomorrow. The fruit of the Spirit remains. And not only does it remain within our lives, the nations come to us and eat from the tree of the fruit that is growing in our lives. Holy Spirit's operation conforms us to God's commands and his will. He changes our desires, he changes our passions. Instead of uh the passions for the things of this world, he gives us passion for prayer and passion for praise, passion for worship, passion for loving God, and passion for loving people. This is the work of the Spirit. This is the great transformative work of the indwelling of the Spirit. And Paul wanted these Ephesians, the the this church of Ephesus, and all of the churches that this letter would be distributed to, to understand the depths of the importance of the work of the Spirit in the transformation of their lives and of their city and of their nation. We cannot change the world around us without the Holy Spirit. Our Heavenly Father promised us that the Spirit would bring about this amazing transformation. Look at Ezekiel 36. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, and I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Why would he put his spirit within us? So that we would be obedient. So that we would be obedient, so that we would change, so that the Ten Commandments would no longer be laborious or something that's difficult for us, but it would be something that that we lean into, that we desire. Spirit of God does work that nothing else on this earth can do. Religion tells you grab a bigger hammer and break up the stones of your heart. How many of you know that never works? It never works. I don't care how finely dusted you create the stones within your heart, they're still stones. They have to be made into flesh. And what does God do? God breathes by his spirit into that heart of stone and causes it to be transformed into a heart of flesh where we can live and breathe and have our being. Jesus made it clear that it was essential for the Holy Spirit to come in John 14. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither Neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you, and what will be in you. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us as believers. This is the part of the gospel that we must remind ourselves of on a daily basis. All of it, all of it, but don't leave this part out. John 16 7, Jesus goes on. I'm sure his disciples were murmuring among themselves, what is he talking about? He doesn't need to leave us. We need him to stay. He needs to stay. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, Jesus says, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Jesus told his disciples, it's better for you that I go away so that I can send the Holy Spirit, not just to be with you, but to live on the inside of you. Now here's the problem. I'm sure you're all thinking it. Evan brought it up as he was talking about communion. We live in an already and not yet kingdom reality. What I mean by that is we know that the price has been paid by Jesus completely for us to walk in freedom from sin and all of its horrible effects. The price has been paid. Jesus defeated sin, hell, and the grave. We know this. Believers in Jesus understand, we can understand in this life what it means to be free from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us. How many of you know we can say yes to God and say no to sin? Not preaching perfection, but I'm preaching holiness. We are to be holy as He is holy. Our desire, the evidence of the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us is to have a desire to continue to walk away from sin and to walk toward God and to be obedient towards Him. How many of you know also we are now today as believers in Jesus, we exist in the reality that the penalty of sin has been removed. No longer are we destined for eternal separation from God, no longer are we destined to uh live out our existence for all of eternity in hell. We have been born again. The penalty of our sin has been placed upon Jesus Christ, and He's given us as our substitute His life in the place of what we deserve. We have by the ability of again to say no to sin and yes to God. We still live in a fallen world where the presence of sin is absolute. So we're free from the power of sin and we're free from the penalty of sin. But how many of you know sin is still around us? It creeps at our door, it knocks on the door, it's all around us, it screams at us, sometimes it whispers at us, it entices us, it tries to draw us in. But we also realize that what the scripture is saying is that the Holy Spirit was given to us to be able to stand in the evil day, to be able to stand against temptation, to be able to stand and walk as believers in Jesus Christ until the point in time when Jesus will return. We'll talk about that. I don't want to get ahead of the story here. So next, the Holy Spirit is our guarantee. He is our security, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. The Spirit of God is not only a fulfillment of God's promise to indwell his people, but also is a guarantee that he will bring them to their final inheritance. Did you hear me? The Holy Spirit and the seal that he places upon our life is a seal of security, it's a down payment of sorts or a first installment on our full redemption. The Spirit is a foretaste of the glory of the age to come. It's good news. I used to be in real estate. One of the things that you have to have in order to have a contract is you have something called earnest money. Earnest money is a money that is put forth as a down payment on a piece of property. It means that you want them to hold that property for you until the time that you close on that property. It also means that you promise there's more money to come. How many of you know that earnest money is not the entire amount of the purchase of whatever it is that you're buying, right? But it is saying, I am going to buy this piece of property, and here's the proof of that. I'm giving you this deposit, I'm giving you this earnest money. The Holy Spirit of God is our down payment. He is our earnest money. He has been given as a pledge and a token that there is more to follow in the way of spiritual blessings. This is good news. But there's much more to come. There is much more to come. You see, those who are truly sealed by the Spirit will endure to the end. We will endure to the end if we are sealed by the Spirit. This is God's work, not our own. Aren't you thankful for that? If my salvation was based on my own ability, you might as well just give me a ticket to hell. I'm not even joking, I'm serious. I can't do it. I'm not I'm not capable of doing it. But how many of you realize that we can have blessed assurance based on the goodness of God and his ability in us to do what we can't do in our own strength? Philippians 1, 6 is such an encouragement. And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. God is not somebody who stops a project before it's finished. He's the beginning and the end. He completes the work that he starts on. If he has truly begun a good work in you, he will bring it to completion. Put your faith, hope, and trust in him. Our inheritance is eternal life with God. We shouldn't be looking forward to a destination. So many people look forward to heaven, and heaven is an amazing place. And we've had people recently who have transitioned from this life to the next. And how many of you know they're very much alive today? They're very much alive. And they're in the presence of God in heaven. Heaven is an amazing place. It's a wonderful place. We shouldn't negate that at all. But as much as we're, we we should we should look forward more to be you being united with God Himself. 1 Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it be is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. This is the good news. You see, we will be fully transformed at the time of Christ's return. We're talking about blessed assurance. Some people are going to ask the question does he believe in once saved, always saved? Here's my answer to that. Once truly saved, once always saved. If a person is truly born again, truly transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has moved on the inside of them, taken up residence within them. If he has marked them like a seal upon an envelope, they are we are his. We are his. Now, unfortunately, there are many people who have tried to jump the line on that, and who have attempted to get to God on their own, in their own strength, by being good enough, by doing enough, by praying enough, by going to church enough, by whatever it is. And yet they are their lives have not been marked, they have not been transformed. And here's the reality of all of it God's the only one who knows. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. So live your life. Let's live our lives like Jesus might come back today. Somebody mentioned to me that there was this rumor going around uh social media, I guess, last week that Jesus was going to return. I think it was last Sunday. And uh, you know, the first thing I did when I heard that, Father, I ask that you'd forgive me for any unknown sins, anything that I'm not aware of. I want to be ready. I want to be ready. I want to be current. I don't want to be running from God. I want to be walking with him, talking with him. I want to be in right relationship with him. Amen. Let's not test the edges in hopes that we'll be saved in the end. Let's come all the way in. Let's come all the way in. Let's walk with God and talk with him. We will be fully transformed at the tr time of Christ's return. 1 Corinthians 15, and the the worship team can come on up if you'd like, and we'll we'll get ready to finish this. Behold, I tell you a mystery. Listen to these words with hope. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. My friends, let's not be excited about a place. Let's be excited about a person. We're going to get to see him face to face. And the Holy Spirit of God is the one who saves us, keeps us, helps us, transforms us, and one day will usher us into the very presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul, in finishing this refrain, he can't help himself but just to say to the praise of his glory. God is the only one who deserves the praise, the honor, and the glory for his great work of salvation. You see, the reality is that all of us deserve to be alienated from God. We deserved to be left undone and wrecked by sin and guilt and shame. We were all condemned to die and to live eternity apart from God. The fact that God chooses to save anybody is the miracle. That's the greatest miracle of all. What great love the Father has for us that he would be willing to lay down his life, to send his one and only begotten Son to die for each and every one of us. As we close this morning, I felt led just to ask a couple of things. First thing is, if you're here this morning, and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have not yet been marked by God, that you have not been sealed by the Holy Spirit, that you are not experiencing what it feels like to have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you, warning you, helping you, strengthening you, teaching you, healing you. I'm here to tell you today that you're not here by accident. You're not listening to this online by accident. God loves you. And he put this word in his scriptures and in my heart to share with you today so that you could respond. So that you could respond. Not to me, not to Tyler, but to Jesus Christ. So if you're here this morning and you're ready to recognize your need for change, to change your heart, change your mind, change your direction, and you're ready to put your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ and the work that He did and finished for you. And you're ready to ask that the Holy Spirit of God would come in and mark you and seal you and secure you for all of eternity. I'm going to ask that you would just stand to your feet right now. If that's you here this morning and you're ready for this and you're not assured yet of this great work being done in your life, would you just stand to your feet? I promise you that all of the other people in this room are going to rejoice with you. There's nobody that's going to be uh talking about you or whispering. There's only going to be people that are praying for you and that are rejoicing with you that you have made this decision to respond to what the Holy Spirit is quickening in your heart even now. You're feeling like you're on fire on the inside. You feel this like this thing, like you feel like you're going to explode if you don't do something, if you don't respond in some way. I'm here to tell you, that's not you. That's not a feeling in the room. It's actually fairly cool in here this morning. That which you're feeling on the inside of you is the work of grace. It's the work of God calling you to himself, calling you to himself. If that's you, would you just stand to your feet? Would you stand to your feet and declare before God and everyone else, I am ready this day to acknowledge Jesus as my Savior and Lord? Just gonna give you a moment. Just gonna give you a moment. There's no rush. We're not in a hurry this morning. We don't have to finish at a certain time. We want God to do his work. Lord, would you do what only you can do? Would you do what only you can do? Would you change hearts in this room? Jesus' name. We're gonna leave that call open for just a minute. I'm gonna move on to something else as well, but just know your time hasn't left. If you're still feeling that thing on the inside of you, just respond. Just respond. We just want to pray with you. We just want to pray with you and encourage you. We just want to love on you and let you know that we're with you. We're gonna walk with you on this journey. So this is open to you. Secondly, I also want to acknowledge the fact that even though we may be sealed by the Holy Spirit and we may be called as children of God, there are times in all of our journeys where we find ourselves further away from Him than we need to be. Like I said before, coloring outside of the lines, dancing on the edges instead of being close to his heart. And so I want to give us an opportunity today to repent of that. Repentance isn't a once and done thing. It is once and done when it comes to salvation, but repentance is a continual part of the grace that God gives us to clear out all of the things that try to keep us away from Him. So if you're ready this morning to acknowledge that you need to, that you want to step back in the direction of Him, that you want to turn back around, that you acknowledge your need for change and to be restored to right relationship with Him. That's you, would you stand to your feet this morning? Just stand to your feet. Thank you. Thank you. There's others in the room, would you just stand? Again, I'm not in a hurry this morning. I want to give God all the opportunity he wants to be able to work within each and every heart. Just stand to your feet. That's you. I need this day to return to the God of my salvation. I want the joy to be restored in my life. I'm tired of trying to do it on my own. I'm failing and I need some help. Father, I just pray right now for all of those that are standing right now in Jesus' name. And those that are online as well. Father, I thank you that your grace is sufficient. And Father, I pray that even this day, that there would be the ability given by you to be able to turn, be able to turn back towards you, recognizing, Lord, that you're right there. You're right there waiting. You haven't gone anywhere. You haven't left us or forsaken us. You're as close as the mention of your name. And so, Lord, we call out on the name of Jesus today. And we ask, Father, that you would help each of us on our journeys to come closer to you, to recognize the desire of our hearts that the Holy Spirit puts within us to be close to you, to be in union with you, to recognize that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We pray that in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. And now if we could all just stand. Those who are able. And I'm going to ask one of the things that I just read the book of Acts again, and one of the things that I love about the book of Acts is that the same people that experienced the day of Pentecost and were filled with power from on high by the Holy Spirit asked over and over again to be filled with the Spirit, to be given boldness and courage for walking out their faith in a hostile environment. So I'm going to pray this morning. And if this is you and you're ready to receive, I ask that you would just lift your hands up towards God and just receive the Holy Spirit. A fresh filling of the Holy Spirit of God. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for every single person whose heart is drawn to you right now. Father, I thank you that your word says that you desire for the Spirit of God to dwell on the inside of us. And also, Lord, that we should be being filled with the Holy Spirit, that we should be filled with the Spirit of God. And so right now, in Jesus' name, we ask you, anew and fresh, Lord God, would you fill us with your Holy Spirit and fire? Be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And Father, I ask that as an outworking of being filled with the Spirit, that we would be given boldness and courage to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to stand up in faith and to put our trust in you. Lord God, that no matter what's happening around us in this world, that our hope is in you, Lord Jesus. I also ask, Father, that you would awaken the gifts of the Spirit that are that you desire to be activated within each of our lives. Father, for the benefit of the body of Christ and also to reach those who don't yet know you. Father, stir us up. Stir us up on the inside so that we might have a powerful effect in the outside world. We thank you for these things. And Lord, we lift up your name, we glorify you, Father. And we sing this song of worship to you because you deserve it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's worship together.
