Welcome And Ephesians Setup

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Welcome if you're our guests, an extra special welcome. Just delighted that you're here with us this morning. Quick congratulations to Michael and Allie. They had little Juliet and Marcy on Thursday, so we're delighted for them. I think they're a little busy right now, so you're probably not going to see them today, but we're just delighted and want to thank God for what's taking place there. If you're a guest, we want you to know that we have been in the book of Ephesians. And in the book of Ephesians, we learn some incredible truth concerning who God is and how he has blessed all those who've placed their faith, their trust in Christ alone as Savior. In fact, he opens his letter, the Apostle Paul does, writing to Gentile believers in Ephesus. And what I mean by that is these are people who are not related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So that would be a Jewish person who would be related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the Gentiles are the Goim, the nations. There is the nation, the Jews, and the nations, the Goim, the Gentiles. And so he's writing to Gentile believers because he wants them to understand all that is theirs in Christ Jesus. For at one point they were far off. They didn't know about the prophets, they didn't know about the promises, they didn't know about the prophecies concerning the Messiah to come. They were alone in the world without God. But now, through simple faith in the person of Jesus Christ, they're part of God's forever family. They're part of the one new man, the church, where both Jew and Gentile who believe that Jesus is the Messiah together are the one new man, the church, citizens of heaven, part of a new kingdom. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Part of God's forever family through simple faith in Jesus Christ. And most importantly, they're now the very dwelling place

Spiritual Blessings And Spirit Sealing

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of God. Where does God dwell? He dwells among his people, the church, both Jew and Gentile, side by side, which is why he opens this letter this way in chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Now, five times he uses this term heavenly places. Nowhere else does he use this only in the book of Ephesians. And he's talking about the spiritual realm. Now, don't get me wrong, Gentiles, those who are not related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob throughout the centuries have believed in some kind of a spiritual realm, but they have been under the heavy boot of the demonic idols that they would follow. So we're truly in darkness until the light showed up Jesus. And now though the Jews, who ever God's every intent was that they would be used of God to share the good news throughout the globe, though they failed, Jesus came. And many Jews, in fact, on the day of Pentecost, thousands of Jews came to know that Jesus is the Messiah. And suddenly now the church has begun. And now they have gone out to the Gentiles and shared the good news. So he goes on in verse 13 of chapter 1 in him you also, meaning you Gentiles, now, now you know too. After listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. This is incredible. Even the Old Testament saints were not guaranteed the Holy Spirit of promise would permanently indwell them. The Holy Spirit would come upon David or Samuel or one of the prophets temporarily for a time, but they were not guaranteed that the Holy Spirit would always be with them. Ah, but the promise of Christ is that all those who place their faith, their trust in Christ alone as Savior are sealed by the Holy Spirit. You are indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God. And what does that mean? That means now you are seated with Christ in heavenly places. That means you have authority. You have authority in the spiritual realm to walk well with Jesus and be used of Jesus for his kingdom purposes.

The Wall That Once Divided

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Peace how? Not only peace between man and God, but now peace between the Jew and the Gentile, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of dividing walls, so that in him he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. The church is a something that the Old Testament saints had no idea was going to take place. That the Jew and the Gentile would be equal before the foot of the cross, that we'd have equal access to Heavenly Father, to his throne of grace. In fact, I just want you to see for a minute where this illustration that Paul is using comes from. Here's a picture of the Temple Mount and the temple complex during the time of Christ. So how would a Jew experience the tangible presence of God? Well, he would he would go to Jerusalem. He'd not only go to Jerusalem, he'd go to the Temple Mount. He'd have to go to where he would have some semblance of entrance near, near the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies once a year and then come out and speak to all the Jewish nation. But that tall portion there, that's where the Holy of Holies is. That's only about 2,700 square feet. And that's where there we experience a very tangible presence of God. But something else I want you to know is you see the complex, you see that big open area there. It's the court of the Gentiles. You see the little note up there? Remember when Jesus turned over the merchants' tables? And he said, What are you doing here? My father's house is to be a house of prayer. Access was given to everyone, even the Gentiles, into the temple courts, but only so far. And there's a little wall, a little half wall that you see up there before you get up to the upper level of the temple courts where the court of the women is and the court of the men are, and finally the court of the priest is. And that wall right there, any Gentile could go into that area of the court of the Gentiles, but you cross that wall as a Gentile, you take your life into your own hands. And we actually, through archaeology, we have found some of the some of the marquees that actually have a message, all salted all throughout that wall with these. In both Greek and in Latin, it says this no foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. Now, through archaeology, we found two of these dating back to the time of Christ. This one is actually in Istanbul in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. The second one is in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, demonstrating once again, archaeology proves that everything we're reading in the New and the Old Testament is absolutely true. People want to say, oh, it's just a bunch of stories. Well, no, here it is. Dated back some 2,000 years. So we know what we read, and this very word that we have is accurate and true. Paul is speaking to those New Testament believers, those Gentiles, and he's saying, Listen, that wall is no longer gonna separate us from our access to Heavenly Father. And in 70 AD, that wall came down. The entire temple complex came down. Though thousands of Jews came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the nation as a whole, and the rulers thereof rejected Jesus of Nazareth. God gave them 70 more years to figure it out. And then he said, No, that's enough. And he tore down the temple, used the Roman general Titus to do so. Now we know what Paul says is true. Moved by the Holy Spirit to tell us that we have full access, you and I have full access side by side with the believing Jew to Heavenly Father.

The Mystery Revealed In Christ

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He wants us to understand, and we've we've moved on, we're now in in chapter three, and the Apostle Paul begins by saying, For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, and he says, Okay, I've already reviewed for you what's true through the simple grace of God in your life, through simple faith, you're part of the new man. You're part of God's kingdom, you're part of God's forever family, you're God's dwelling place. And then he steps in and he says, Look, I want to make sure that you remember what I just told you. I want you to understand this this once was a mystery. Now, when we think of the word mystery, we think of something that we still have to figure out. We get our word mystery from the Greek word that's used here, musterion. But that's not the meaning in the Greek. The meaning in the Greek is something that nobody even knew about. Now it's been fully revealed. So in our sense, it's not even a mystery. It's like we know no, we didn't know we didn't know it, and now we know it all. And that's the point he's trying to make. Saying, we Jews, we were ignorant of this because the Old Testament didn't tell us about this. But now we, glory to God in the highest, that's been fully revealed. And in fact, I, Paul, have been appointed specifically an apostle to make sure everybody knows, the Jew and the Gentile, that both of us have full access side by side to Heavenly Father through simple faith in Jesus the Messiah. So what I thought I'd do this morning is we'd just kind of read verses 1 through 13 and ask ourselves a few questions. I don't know about you, but um, sometimes if I have a long drive, I'll put on my Bible app. And uh, you know, while I'm I'm having windshield time, as they say, and I'll listen to my Bible app, you know, because I'm I'm not gonna read it. You'd be afraid if you saw me reading it while I'm driving, right? Or sometimes I am reading and I'm just kind of reading. I'm gonna go ahead and cover a few pages today, and I'm reading, and and it all kind of passes by and I forget to ask good questions. So I'm gonna read this and then we're gonna ask ourselves some good questions. For instance, why why does Paul call himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ? He says, of Christ Jesus. I thought he was a prisoner of Rome. He was under house arrest because of Nero. Why does he say I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus? We'll ask ourselves that question in a few more. We're in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 1 through 13. Here's what he says. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. When do you write before in brief? Just a few verses back. He just finished telling you we have equal access. He just finished telling you we're part of the one new man, not recent, but of new quality man. We're now, we Gentiles, side by side with the Jews, we're part of God's forever kingdom. We're part of God's forever family. We are the dwelling place of God. And he says, Hey, I just wrote that to you. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed in his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise singular in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me, according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Wow. Angels don't know some stuff. God's using us to teach them. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ. This wasn't a new plan. This isn't plan B. God always knew that the Jews would fail.

Israel And The Church Together

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And he always knew he would bring the two together in the church. This isn't in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Now we rehearsed a little bit last week the whole idea that we have a hard time understanding the animosity and the weird line between Jew and Gentile in our day and age. But at the time, time of Christ, the Jews had already gotten the big head. And in general, the religious rulers, they look radically down upon the Goim, the nations, the Gentiles. They consider them fodder for the fires of hell. They wouldn't even allow a good Jewish person to help a Gentile woman in her time of need. It would be a sin to bring a Gentile into the world. If a young Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a young Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, funeral. Family has a funeral for him. We can't put up with this.

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But that was never God's intent.

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God's intent that the Jews would be used to share with us the promises of the Messiah to come. And though they as a nation failed, God didn't fail. The Apostle Paul himself, his eyes are open to the reality. He becomes a believer in Christ. And all the apostles, the the beginning of the church is a bunch of Jewish believers. Paul himself talks about this. He talks about in Romans chapter 9. Boy, I I'd be willing to be set aside for Christ if it would bring my brothers in the flesh to the truth of who Jesus is. They are the people of Israel chosen to be God's adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors. And Christ Himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise. He's weeping over the fact that the vast majority of his brethren of the flesh have not come to Christ yet. Then he makes it clear God's not through with ethnic Israel. He's not through. God has brought the Jew and Gentile together into one new man, the church, but he still has a plan for ethnic Israel. Paul writes in Romans 11, 28 and 29, from the standpoint of the gospel, the unbelieving Jew currently are enemies for your sake. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Promises were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their lineage would one day receive all those promises. And so he says, For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God's not through with the nation of Israel. Church doesn't replace Israel. We're in a time of the church age, when the Jew and the Gentile who believe that Jesus is the Messiah come together in the one new man. But there's going to be a day, the time of Jacob's trouble, when Israel is going to know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. And as a nation, they will turn to him.

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The church is a glorious parentheses in God's eternal plan.

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And you and I, by the grace of God, get in on it. What are some questions that we might ask concerning

Prisoner Of Christ And God's Control

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this passage here? I thought we'd just have a few. Here's one. Why does Paul call himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus? I thought he was a prisoner of Rome, didn't you? He's under house arrest because Nero put him under house arrest. It says it this way in 3-1. He says, uh, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus. Because Paul knows that God is in control. God's in control. Do you know that God's in control? Governor Pilate found that out. He's got Jesus standing before him. The unbelieving rulers of Israel have thrown Jesus up at him and want him crucified, and Pilate's interviewing him and wanting to talk to him, and Jesus won't talk to him. And Pilate's saying to himself, You? You won't talk to me? Don't you know? I have the power, the authority to release you or to crucify you.

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Jesus said, You don't you don't have any authority for one giving you from heaven?

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Here's how it goes in John chapter 19, verses 10 and 11. So Pilate said to Jesus, You do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above.

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You know that God's in control?

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I mean, we we do go through stuff, don't question about it. Do you know that God's in control? We live in a fallen world, and there are evil people in this fallen world, and evil things happen. Do you know God's in control? Chuck Swindall, former president of Dallas Theological Seminary and now Chancellor Emeritus, was about to go speak at one of the chapels, and uh one of the seminary students had a question for him. And he relates it this way. Some time ago, a young theology student at DTS asked me, of all the things the Lord has taught you over the years, does something stand out more than any other? Chuck says, uh, after uh I took a moment to run through more than 70 years of life and fifty years of ministry, my answer came easily. Here's what I've learned. Nothing touches the believer that hasn't passed through the fingers of God. Nothing. As we live our lives as children of God, submitting all things to his mighty hand, nothing happens to us that God hasn't allowed. And because we know that God is all good and all just and all knowing and all wise, we can trust that what comes our way is meant for good, not evil. Even when we can't understand it. Do you know that? Ephesians 1 9, we've been reading over the weeks here. He's made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention. In chapter 2, we read the we have the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. After first service, a young man came up to me and he said, Okay, I uh you gotta clear that up for me. So, I mean, there's there's there's evil people, right? I mean, God doesn't cause evil, does he? So, no, no, he doesn't. So, I mean, how's that how's that all work out? Well, you're mixing categories. Allowing something and causing something are two different things. Don't mix up your categories. God never causes evil. But from time to time, he will allow it, and then he'll flip it on its head. And if you've been around long enough, you know the story of Joseph. Joseph's whose brothers, you know, those older brothers, he had ten older brothers and one younger brother, and they were so jealous of him. This is Jacob's family. This these are the twelve that are going to become the nation of Israel. God's chosen nation. And they sell him in slavery, and he goes through a lot in slavery. But God uses it to make him become the right hand of Pharaoh. And then when famine happens in this sin-cursed world, God uses that famine to send his family to be saved in Egypt because of the wisdom that God has given Joseph in how to prepare for the famine. And as his brothers finally realize that it's Joseph who's looking like the right hand of Pharaoh, with great fear, they think, we sold him into slavery. We're in big trouble. To which Joseph says, What you meant for evil. He didn't tell him, Oh, we know I know you had a good, I know you thought this was gonna happen and you meant it for good. No, no, no. You meant it for evil. I know you did, and you know you did. But God meant it for good. Turned it on its head. There are evil people and evil things happening around us, and you have been done wrong. You wonder, well, is it just me? No, you've been done wrong. But God will flip it on its head and use it for good. Paul knows God's in control. Here's another question. He says, uh, he's the least of all the saints. Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament, he says, I'm the least of all the saints. You ask me, he's a chief apostle. Why does Paul call himself the least of all the saints? He says it here in verse 8. To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given. By the way, this isn't the first time he called himself the least of all the saints. He he talks about himself this way in 1 Corinthians 15, 9, for I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. In 1 Timothy says it this way. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. We ask, why do why do you call yourself the foremost sinner? Why do you call yourself the least of all the saints? Why? Well, we could say, well, because you persecuted the church at one point. You literally put Christians to death. You you jailed them. You went and find men, women, boys, and girls to persecute them, and that's why. But no, why does Paul call himself the least of all the saints? Paul understands that worthiness is not at issue. Grace is. And by the way, so have you, and so have I. You ever mess up? Think, well, God will never use me now. I'm all messed up. No. You've never been worthy. You're not worthy. You weren't worthy when you were being good. You weren't worthy. Scripture says your good stuff is filthy rags. That's what it says. You were never worthy. You will never be worthy. Except for God's grace. Worthiness isn't the issue.

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Grace is the issue.

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You know, sometimes you mess up and you know you mess up, and everybody else knows you mess up. And then you're at a time and a place, and all of a sudden you realize you have something from God to share with someone who needs to hear it, even though they know what a screw up you are. And you think yourself, well, I can't share that. I'm not worthy. You're right. You're not worthy. That's not the issue. Grace is the issue. God wants to speak through you, let him speak through you. You mess up, 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins, believer, he forgives us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness right then and there. Yes, yes, I have messed up. We all know I've messed up, but by the grace of God, I can be used of God for his kingdom purposes, not in my own strength, but in strength that he provides.

Grace Over Worthiness

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Because right now the evil one's beating you up. You don't have to stay beat up.

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But the evil one meant for evil that God will use for good.

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Sometimes you read a passage and you just gotta stop and ask a few questions. Why does Paul call himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus? Because he knows God's in control. Okay, Nero, you want me here? That's fine. God's got a plan. Why does God call himself the least of all the saints? Because worthiness is not the issue. Grace is. Why does Paul ask the Ephesians to not lose heart? Well, they're concerned, they're a great hero. The Apostle Paul, who was used to teach them for nearly two and a half, almost three years in Ephesus, who God used to plant that church and to literally instruct them. He had a little mini seminary gone for some two years that the in the city of Ephesus before he moves on. He's in all locked up. He says this, therefore I ask you not to lose heart in my tribulation on your behalf, for they are your glory. Literally, you should be honored. God's got me here to bless you. The good news Bible puts it this way it's all for your benefit. Why does he tell him, don't lose heart? Because Paul's imprisonment has benefited the church. How? Well, Paul's a can-do guy. Paul's traveling here, there, and everywhere, and he won't sit still. And he's teaching, and they're learning wonderful things, but then he moves on. God says, Paul, I need you to sit down. I need some things written down. I can't get you to sit still. Okay, we'll get you to sit still for a little while. You don't get to travel right now. I'm gonna make sure that Timothy brings you the parchments. I'm gonna make sure that you have what you need. John Mark will bring you the parchments, and you keep studying because I got some stuff that I need recorded. Because it'll be two millennia that the church itself will be reading and studying the clarity that I've given you concerning who I am and what my plan is for them. If it wasn't for Paul's imprisonment, we wouldn't have the book of Ephesians, we wouldn't have the book of Philippians, we wouldn't have the book of Colossians, we wouldn't have Philemon. Those four were all written while he was under house arrest. And Paul says, hey, it's to your benefit. I get to write this with great clarity. I get to sit down and think through it and pray through it and trust the Holy Spirit to give me the very words to write so that you'll have clarity of all that you have in Christ Jesus. Y'all can pass this around. Study it for yourself. Romans 8.28, we all know, says this, or maybe we don't. If you don't, let me just tell you what Paul says in Romans 8.28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love him, to those who are called according to his

Suffering That Serves The Church

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purpose. When he says he causes all things, he doesn't mean all the good stuff. He means all the stuff, in particular the bad stuff. He's going to cause it to be used for good in your life to those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. Here's the problem. I don't know if you love God. Sometimes I'm not so sure I love him. Now I can know if you've placed your faith, your trust in Christ, I know that you've been called to his purpose. That I do know. Because the moment you play, you use your free will to place your faith, your trust in the truth concerning Jesus Christ, that he has fully paid for your sins and he has gifted you eternal life when you choose to receive it as a gift. You become persuaded, convinced you're his forevermore, you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You can't undo that. But I don't know that you love him at any given moment. I don't know if you know this or not, but it's very, very possible for a believer headed for heaven through simple faith to at any moment not love God.

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Here's what Jesus said in John fourteen fifteen.

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If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Here's what he says in fourteen twenty-one. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. Now context is really, really important here. When did Jesus say this? He's in the upper room, the night in which he was betrayed. He's already washed the disciples' feet. He's already said to the disciples, You are all clean except for one of you, the son of perdition. He's got twelve men there. And he basically says, Eleven of you are good to go. Eleven of you have believed my word and belonged to me forevermore. One of you done. And then he says, One of you is going to betray me this very night. Now here they are at what would be their Passover, and they're at a little table that looks more like a coffee table, and they're all leaning on one arm and they're eating like this. And John is right here by Jesus. In fact, the scripture says his head is touching Jesus' chest. And when Jesus says this, all the disciples say, What, what, what, who? Who would ever? I would never do this. I'll go with you until I'm dying. Now I want to know who. And Peter, who's across the table, looks at you, says, Hey, John, ask him who it is. Now, Peter's got a knife, by the way. I don't know if you know that or not. He uses it a little bit later on. He was planning on using it right then and there, but he didn't know who to use it on. So he asks John, find out who it is. So John says, Lord, who is it? To which Jesus, as part of the Passover, he dips the bread in the sub and he says to John, The one who I give this to is the one. And he hands it to Judas.

Love And Obedience Under Romans 8:28

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And he says to Judas, What you do, do quickly. And the scripture says at that very moment, Satan himself entered into Judas. And Judas went out, and the scripture says, and it was night. Here he is, right there before the light of the world, and he walks away from the light, and he goes out into the night. After that, Judas is out of the room. He's talking to the eleven believers that he said, You are clean because of the word I have given you. That's when he says, If you love me.

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Not if you believe me.

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If you love me. You'll know my commandments and you'll keep them. And he tells him the most important commandment, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you have love for one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Now, why do we teach on a Sunday morning? Well, we want to know. What did Jesus have to say? What would Jesus how would Jesus have us live? You remember the bracelets? What would Jesus do? That's what we're talking about. We want to learn about Jesus so we would know what he would want us to do. And it says, if in the sincerity of our heart, by the grace of God, we're follow what we know, then he will disclose himself to you and to me because we will be in the active moment of obeying him. Paul's desire is that we would understand that God will cause all things to work together for good for those who are walking with Christ. So let's say you mess up and you've brought evil upon yourself because you've sinned. And you confess your sin. I agree with you, God, that was wrong. And they say, Lord, I want to walk well with you again. You're now actively loving him. And if you'll do that, he'll take even your stupidity and flip it around and use it for good. You ever seen somebody screw up and then wallow in their sin and just kind of wallow, and now they're going to just go off and just keep on going in the wrong direction? Not necessary. Not necessary. Say, well, you know, yeah, I did this to myself and I deserve all this. Yeah, you do. Deserve isn't the issue.

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Grace is the issue.

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Heavenly Father, may I, in your strength, walk with you again. We're asking ourselves a few questions here. Why does Paul call himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus? Because Paul knows God's in control. Why does Paul call himself the least of all the saints? Because worthiness is not the issue, grace is. Why does Paul ask the Ephesians to not lose heart? Because his imprisonment has actually benefited the church. Paul wants us to know that we have full access to Heavenly Father. Here's the better question.

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What does God want believers to do? Well, let's look a little bit.

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In Ephesians 6, we read this Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So we're fellow heirs, we're part of that one family. We're fellow members of the body, we're part of that one body. We're fellow partakers of the promise. What was the promise? I'm going to send you a helper. I need to go to the Father. Why? Because if I don't go, you don't get the helper. I'm going to the Father because I'm going to send you the helper. The promise is that by the grace of God through simple faith we were sealed by and dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And because we are, we have radical, direct access to God's throne of grace. You know what God wants us to do? He wants us to boldly and confidently go to his throne of grace. So here's what it says Verse 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known. Through the church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. And we think of ourselves, well, the good angels are learning from us, and they are. But let me tell you who else is learning. The evil angels, the demons. They're learning that we have authority, not our own authority, but the authority of Jesus Christ to go before God's throne of grace. We don't have to wallow in our misery. We can go before God's throne of grace. Verses 11 and 12. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way.

Bold Access And A Life Of Prayer

Barkef 45:16

And I love to listen to it. I'd I'd sit there and watch this thing because he's had this table and there's a light, and you couldn't even see what was outside of the table. You could just see Charlie Rose sitting here as the interviewer, and whoever that very interesting guest was sitting here, and they'd just have this conversation. Remember how people used to have conversations? Remember that? So they have this conversation. He has Warren Beatty, who's a famous actor and a director. And he had uh he had just won a number of awards for the movie Reds, which he wrote, directed, and acted in. And uh he was there with Charlie Rose, and Charlie Rose asked him a question. He said, you know, with all your fame, what what do you what's the most valuable thing that you found that you have because of your fame? And his answer was access. He said, when uh when uh put together a screenplay and and uh had it all together and we're about to release it, I happened to know President Reagan while he was president because he was a former actor. And he said, because of my fame, I literally was able to call and have direct conversation with President Reagan. And he invited me to the White House, to the theater in the White House, to see my film before it was released on the big screen. And we sat there together and we watched the film, and he actually corrected a joke that I had written into the film, and he told it to me correctly. He said, I have to say, my fame has given me access to a sitting president. I have to say that is a big deal. I think that's a big deal. You don't have access to the president, do you? Maybe you do. If you do, I want to know you. Because I want to get access through you to him. But you know what you do have? You have direct access to Heavenly Father, the creator of all things. Whatever your struggle is, whatever your loved one's struggle is, you have direct access to Heavenly Father and his throne of grace. You have authority in a spiritual realm. You have the opportunity to go before the Father. Boldly, with great confidence. He specifically says, boldly, with great confidence. Twice in this letter, Paul prays. Paul prays at the end of chapter one after he's rehearsed all these beautiful things that are true of us now in Christ Jesus. And this next section that you'll hear about next week, he says, Because all this is true and we have bold, confident access before Heavenly Father, therefore, I, Paul, bow my knees before the Father. What are you struggling with? What is somebody whom you love struggling with? You're looking for some self-help books? You're looking for a counselor here and a counselor there. Go for it. Look, look, get some self-help books. Go go get counselors, and the abundance of counselors victory.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Are you bowing your knee before the father?

SPEAKER_01 49:15

We have to do that.

Barkef 49:23

You know, we uh the elder board was here this past Monday, and all of us were all here, elders and elders at large, about 20 of us. And we had you, you guys had filled out some cards, some of you had put some cards in these offering boxes, prayer cards, and and there were a lot of them. Glory be to God. And we split up on these chairs and we prayed through all those. And we continue to pray. Some of you are, I'm happy to say, get into the habit of putting prayer cards in there even when we don't tell you to. It's awesome. We have what we call the Quarter Three Strands that we encourage every adult, every teenager to have at least two other people that you get together with on some regular basis. If you're a guy, find two other guys. If you're a gal, find two other gals and get together on some regular basis and pray for one another. And I have a quarter three strands. Men who I tell what's really going on. Stuff that I wouldn't tell you, you go tell everybody.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

But they know. And they pray for me. And they pray for those I love.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

And I pray for them, and I pray for those they love.

Barkef 50:44

Look, if you don't get anything else out of today, I hope you get that you have a high privilege to bow your knees before the Father on behalf of those you love.