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Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to Pillar's Abide in Me podcast, a weekly opportunity to abide in Christ through weekly pillar sermon and worship reflections. I'm Trish.

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And I'm Christian. Hear these words from the book we love. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Christ exalted above it all. The image of God exerting mighty strength to raise Jesus from the dead and to seat him in the heavenly realms, in whatever ancient conception of the cosmos the writer had, they're saying, God has brought Christ from the lowest place and exalted him to the highest place, from rock bottom to king of heaven, from utter humiliation to enthroned above, from hell to heaven. And the power that it would take to bring a whole human from the lowest place to the highest place, that's the power that God has somehow given you by his spirit. Christ is above all, far above all rule and authority, far above any power and dominion, far above every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. Christ is exalted above all, which means he's not only more powerful than any evil or corrupt forces in the world, he has total authority over them, unranking any spiritual or political threat we could imagine. Evil will not have the final word. Evil does not have the final word. Every knee is going to bow to Jesus one day. Every tongue is going to confess that he's Lord one day. He's seated in the highest place. Pastor Anna encourages us to consider that we are there too, and that it's present tense rather than a future promise. He's saying this is somehow true of us right now. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. He became what we are so that we might become what he is. God became human so that humans could become like God. Thanks be to God.

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So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com and receive this blessing. Go forth in joy to love and serve God in all that you do. We are sent in the name of the risen Christ. Let us bless our Lord. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah. May the God of peace who raised to life the greatest shepherd of the sheep make us ready to do his will in every good thing. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen.