WEBVTT 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.239 If you're new or visiting, my name's Mark. 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:32.799 I'm one of the leaders here at the church, and we are in the middle of a short three-week series which we will talk more about in just a moment. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:36.479 We began the start of Ephesians last week. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.439 We're going to pick it up at verse 15 of chapter 1. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:45.439 The longest battle, excuse me, indulge me for a second. 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:46.560 I really like history. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:50.240 I particularly like wartime history, so I'm going to tell you about a battle. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:51.119 You're welcome. 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:55.520 The longest battle in World War II, the longest naval battle was the Battle of the Atlantic. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.799 See, Ravash is right with me. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:00.880 He's like, yeah, I'm Keyden from the first moment because we talk about history all the time. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:17.120 In the Battle of the Atlantic, if those of you who weren't familiar, the Allies uh were defending the Atlantic against the uh the German U-boats in order to keep open the trade lines that existed between the two countries. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:25.680 And so what would happen is that US and British uh naval destroyers from the fleets uh would escort merchant ships. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:38.239 So merchant ships were bringing supplies, munitions, that sort of things from America to Britain, primarily, because uh Europe hadn't been uh counter-invaded yet, across that water. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:45.200 And because there were German U-boats, submarines, that is, they had to be defended along the way. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:50.719 Now, the most treacherous part of that journey was a five-day stretch. 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:58.879 There was a five-day stretch during that journey across the Atlantic where the ships had no air cover because they were too far from land. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:05.439 And so they were left on their own, exposed and vulnerable. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:14.159 Uh last year uh the movie Greyhound came out uh on Apple uh TV Plus, and uh it's uh based on a book by H. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:14.319 M. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:27.919 Forster called The Good Shepherd, uh, but it was written and starring Tom Hanks, and he's the captain of one of these destroyers called The Greyhound, and it documents this passage uh across the Atlantic. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:29.759 It's his first command. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:31.280 He's been newly promoted. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:36.080 He was a he was a paper pusher within the US Navy. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:47.120 He was a a desk uh a desk uh officer and is given this command of this naval destroyer leading this group across the Atlantic. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:59.520 And there are great moments of the uh of battle scenes, of action scenes, but one of the things that the movie, and the book as well, really majors on is the psychological component of the crossing. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:15.680 So if you've seen the the movie, one of the one of the most haunting uh moments are when the German U-boat captains uh tune into their radio frequency and say the wolf pack is hunting you, and they're coming at this really trying to lower morale. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:19.199 It's really a very good uh movie. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:26.479 Um it's good because one of the things that it focuses on is not just the action, but Hank's own wrestling with himself. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:42.800 The kind of fear of uh letting down his crew, second-guessing, self-doubt, the the pressure of leading not just the people on the destroyer that he's on, uh, but leading uh this whole convoy. 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:59.439 Last week we looked at in the first of our sermon series of Navigating Change about how it was important to have the right goal, the right fixed point. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:03.919 And we saw from the first 14 verses of chapter one that that was Christ. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:10.400 He is that Polaris, that that north star, that fixed point in our night sky. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.360 But this morning it's slightly different. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:22.319 It's not just enough to know exactly what your destination is, it's that we need to know what sort of mindset in order to navigate us there. 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:32.399 What sort of character do we need to exhibit in order to navigate the changes of life that we go through as followers of Jesus? 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:38.720 Tom Hanks's character and those in the Battle of the Atlantic knew their fixed bearing. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:56.319 They knew that they were heading to Plymouth, that was their destination, and yet there was the need of resolve and character and courage in order to help them to navigate those waters. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:11.120 And so this morning, Paul prays for these Christians, and you'll see that actually it links back because at the start of verse 15 he says, for this reason. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:23.360 That is, given all that I've just said, given the fact that I've just told you about what God is doing on that grand eternal scale of bringing everything under Christ, united in him. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:33.920 That's the that's the destination, that's the that's the spiritual plymouth of all of history, of all of every time and every people. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:37.040 That's where all of the cosmos is going. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:39.439 It is being brought under submission under Christ. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.120 It's for this reason. 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:51.519 I'm gonna pray for you now, and I'm gonna pray certain things for you because you need them in order to be able to navigate the waters until you reach that point. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:52.480 Do you see? 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.240 And so let's look at uh three things. 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:04.959 Not normally a three-point sermon sort of guy, just FYI, but this so happens to be a three-pointer. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:11.199 Let's look at three things uh that Paul prays for or points us to. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:15.040 There's more in these verses, but we'll draw out three. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:21.199 The first thing that Paul prays is that they would have wisdom and revelation. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:35.759 And so part of our navigating through seasons of change with Christ as that fixed point, is that that's something to pray for, that's something to seek in our own lives, to seek wisdom and revelation. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:53.120 Um, looking down at verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:09.920 Uh my cousin growing up, when he and I were small, he's four years younger than me, uh, he had a catchphrase uh that still kind of he gets teased for in our family. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.560 Uh he would always say, I know this. 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:17.519 Whatever you were telling him, he'd say, I know this, or I know that. 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:23.040 He never wanted to acknowledge that he had learnt anything or that he'd been corrected. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:24.160 I know this. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:26.480 And so he was nicknamed for a long time in our family. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:28.720 I know this! I know that. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:49.519 One of the mistakes that people make is uh never wanting to acknowledge uh that there are areas in which they need help uh to grow or need to receive teaching or correction. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:58.000 It's an immature person, isn't it, that thinks that they have nothing to learn, no more wisdom to seek. 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:06.480 And sadly, it can creep from time to time into our discipleship as followers of Jesus. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:11.279 We can think that we have mastered what it means to follow him. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:23.120 We find it hard uh to take the input of others, even if it's loving advice or correction, we feel like we get defensive or we just want to go, I know this, like my cousin. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:30.720 But Paul knows that these young Christians need wisdom and revelation from God. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:37.919 They have that fixed point, that constant bearing that is Christ. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:50.240 But in the day-to-day of how to get there, of how to pursue him in the various areas of your life, to keep on following him, especially when it's hard. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:55.039 Well, the first thing that Paul acknowledges is that requires wisdom and revelation. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:00.720 Now, that phrase wisdom and revelation, what does it mean? 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.000 It's funny, isn't it? 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:10.240 When you read the Bible, you can kind of kind of you can skirt over and think, oh, I know what that means, but when you stop and think, ah, what does he mean by wisdom and revelation? 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.960 Revelation, that word, has two main uses in the Bible. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:25.200 The first use uh of the word revelation in the Bible is to describe uh the disclosure of God's purposes in Christ. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.639 The revealing, the disclosure of God's purposes. 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:38.000 That's why it's called the book of Revelation, because it begins with the words, the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, the disclosure of Jesus, the unveiling. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:42.720 It literally comes from the word to pull to pull back the curtain on. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.120 And so it can mean that. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.600 That's why it's the book of Revelation, not the book of Revelations. 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:53.759 It doesn't have lots of revelations, it has one revelation, it's Jesus. 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:57.519 Okay, that's the first way that it's used. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:17.120 Uh the second way that it's used in the Bible is to mean uh illumination, spiritual illumination or enlightenment of one's mind to understand what God has disclosed, and how to make sense of that and your place in that. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:26.399 Paul here in his prayer seems, I think, to be using the second sense of illumination, of enlightenment. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:27.039 Why? 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:31.759 Well, because he's just spent 14 verses giving the disclosure. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:51.200 So he's shown them everything that God is doing in the universe, and they say, My prayer is that God would more and more enlighten your hearts, your minds to understand the implications of that for your life and how you orientate and find your place in that. 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:06.960 Growing as followers of Jesus, especially through seasons of change. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.279 We're going through a season of change as a as a church. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:14.960 You may uh probably be aware though if you're visiting, you won't be. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:17.840 This is our penultimate Sunday in this in this place. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:20.080 Next Sunday we move. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:28.960 The van shows up and we pack up all of our stuff and move to our our new home uh over at the the Odeon Movie Theatre. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:32.159 And so we are going through flux. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:32.960 What will that mean? 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.000 A brand new area of the city as Anya prayed for, new people to to reach. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:50.480 It'll be a change for us all, not to mention the changes that uh you individually have experienced over these last months, whether you've recently moved to Ireland, recently moved to this church. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:12:24.960 And so one of the things to do that Paul would encourage us is to pray that in the midst of all of that flux, that one, we would have that constant fixed point that is Jesus, that constant bearing in the you know, looming large over the horizon of our lives, but that also that we would be seeking wisdom and that illumination to understand the implications of what that means and all of the changes that we're going through and what God is teaching us in that. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:28.720 That we would ask him. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:46.720 You when you're when you're feeling adrift, just to use another kind of nautical uh uh metaphor, when you're feeling adrift or you're not quite sure what your what the best direction is for you right now, have you asked God? 00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:48.159 Have you sought him? 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:57.919 Have you said, can you give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand how my life fits into this context of what you are doing in the world? 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:15.039 To ask him what he is doing in a particular circumstance, to ask him what you need to see, what you need to know, what you need to learn. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.399 One of the mature ways of dealing with change is to ask God, what are you what are you trying to teach me? 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:24.960 What are you showing me about yourself? 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.200 What are you revealing about me? 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.080 I mean, how doesn't COVID's done that? 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:32.639 COVID's revealed a bunch of stuff about us. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:40.559 It's revealed a bunch of stuff about about what we value, about what we find harder, where we run when things are hard. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:48.320 It's worth kind of taking a little bit of time and processing that with God in prayer and thinking, what are you teaching me in that? 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:50.799 What are you revealing about yourself? 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:59.039 The result of this prayer for Paul is there in verse 18. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:10.240 This is why another reason why I think he's talking about this kind of illumination idea, is because in verse 18 he says, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:30.240 That is that we would be able, with God's help, to see beyond the realities of the immediate situation, and to gain a uh a bigger perspective of what God is doing. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:54.080 And that's so often the case, isn't it, that when we're when we're in the stress, and change is stressful, when we're in the stress of uh of change, whether it's in in our family circumstances, whether it's in work or whatever it is, one of the things that can happen is that the horizon of our world begins to kind of shrink, and all we can see is the are the things that are immediately in front of us. 00:14:54.320 --> 00:15:27.360 One of the things that Paul prays for is he's like, I want your spiritual eyes to be uh to be awakened and to be given sight so that you can almost in a second, almost in a sense, step back and expand your horizon and see what God is is doing in and through you just for just for a moment to help you to navigate your way through the eyes of your heart enlightened. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:41.679 And he goes on, and this is the the second point, that part of God's enlightening work through asking him for that spirit of wisdom and revelation is that you would have hope. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:52.559 So part of the way that we navigate change is by seeking that wisdom and revelation from God in verse 16. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:16:00.159 Another way that we navigate change is that is that we press into hope as we seek to be full of hope. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:04.080 To lose hope is a is a dreadful thing. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:30.000 Uh I'm full of I'm full of war uh imagery and analogy, especially Second World War, but uh Victor Frankel, uh who uh wrote the book Man's Search for Meaning, uh, was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, and he has a very evocative passage which is a bit long for our time now that I that I won't read, which talks about what happened to people in the camps when they lost hope. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:41.360 The hope was more deadly, Frankel says, than uh than dysentery or or typhus or or cholera or any of the diseases uh that uh that ravaged the camps. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.240 To lose hope was deadly. 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:47.120 It's when people just they just gave up. 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:50.720 And they were literally dead within days. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:17:01.840 That if you can see nothing beyond your circumstances, and those circumstances overwhelm and drown you. 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:33.279 One of the things that is interesting or perhaps even scary about the predominant worldview in our culture at the minute in the West is that there's no clear future component to it. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.079 You think of the Christian worldview, the Christian worldview has that future component. 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:39.839 We've talked about that, that's that's Jesus. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:55.839 Many other worldviews and religions have that future component, whether it's uh Hinduism and the uh and the the movement towards uh the uh that oneness with the uh with the all-soul, there is that future component that helps you to move through suffering. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:10.079 But in the West right now, one of the things that uh the the Gen Z and uh and people are growing up with is this lack of something to look forward to in the future. 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:25.599 There's such an emphasis on expressing yourself in the moment and being uh true and authentic to yourself in the moment that we lose sight of anything that is that is calling us forward to something else. 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:46.640 It's part of the reason why COVID has been uh so hard for people because it has curtailed those avenues of expression in the present, and because there's no future hope in that worldview, people feel anxious and and and fearful. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:59.119 Paul's prayer is that the followers of Jesus would know that future component of the Christian life, that they would know that hope to which they have been called. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:04.400 That they would have that sure and certain knowledge of the future. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.720 And that's what Christian hope is. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:15.519 People use hope in a vague sense, in a in a in a sense of, oh, it may or may not happen, like I hope it doesn't rain later. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:17.359 Yeah, good luck with that. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.480 Um it's kind of vague aspirations. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:23.920 That's not the way the Bible uses the word hope. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:33.039 The Bible uses the word hope in a in a in a concrete, sure, certain sort of way, a certain knowledge of the future. 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.279 And Paul says, I want you to know that. 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:53.119 And imagine if that was bedded down into your heart, bedded down into your mind and your soul, how that would actually help to stabilize you through seasons of change, if you really were clinging to that immovable, unshakable hope. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:20:02.240 Can't you see how that would be uh a helpful resource that God has given you through the seasons of change as you navigate them? 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:05.920 And Paul's saying, I want you, Christian, to have that. 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.200 I want you to know that hope that God has called you to. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:16.400 That is what biblical hope is and offers us. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:25.759 It is a certain and strengthening reality that we need for the changes of life. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:28.400 But hope for what? 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:30.000 Or hope in what? 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:43.599 Yes, in a sense, it is hope for the future return of Jesus for all things to be united under him, but there's more than that here. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.720 Look at the second half of verse 18. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:57.119 So he says, When the eyes of your hearts enlighten, that you might know the hope to uh what is the hope to which he has called you, and then he's got this interesting phrase. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:03.920 What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:12.000 What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:19.599 Paul has already talked about an inheritance back in verse 11. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:22.160 We saw that last week. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:31.759 He said that the Christian was moving forward to uh to obtaining an inheritance that the Holy Spirit has been given us as a guarantee, as a down payment of that. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:41.759 And so we concluded last week that the inheritance that the uh that the Christian is moving forward to is to is to have all of and to enjoy God. 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:50.319 That that is the greatest gift of salvation, not not eternal life necessarily, though that is a consequence of it, not even redemption, though that is a consequence of it. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:59.119 The inheritance that we move forward to is more of God, enjoying Him, having Him satisfy our souls. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:02.160 But the sense of verse 18 is slightly different. 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:07.039 The sense of verse 18 is actually the other side of the coin in a sense. 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:19.839 That when he says that you would know what are the riches of his, that's God's glorious inheritance in the saints. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:21.839 I think it really means this. 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:23.920 I think it can be best rendered as this. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:35.759 He's saying, Christian, I want you to have hope that comes from the knowledge that you are unfailingly God's. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.559 That you are unfailingly his. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:45.200 His glorious inheritance in the saints. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:49.759 That is, the saints are God's glorious inheritance. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.119 And that's how he's always talked about God's people in the Old Testament. 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.839 He's talked about them in terms of them being God's inheritance inheritance. 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:12.880 And just as he said in verse 11 that God will be yours, he's saying in verse 18, you are unshakingly, unswervingly, unfailingly God's. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:14.480 You are his. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:18.559 Derive hope from that. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:20.079 Do you see? 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:42.640 Paul wants this to fuel and to fire our hope now that the Christian is unswervingly and eternally God's. 00:23:47.200 --> 00:24:09.839 Moreover, this hope that we need is further strengthened, made more sure by the immeasurable greatness of his power that is displayed towards us who believe. 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:11.839 Verse 19. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:20.319 And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his great might? 00:24:22.400 --> 00:25:03.119 That is, Paul is praying for you this morning, that you would see with the eyes of faith these glorious realities that you are God's, that you belong to Him through faith in Jesus, and that you would see with the eyes of faith the greatness of the power that he has displayed in your life, in redeeming you, in saving you, in making you his, in how he has preserved and has been patient with you. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.039 Isn't that hard to see sometimes? 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:17.359 It feels like progress in the Christian life is so incrementally slow. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:36.400 Paul wants your spiritual eyes to be wide awake so that you would see his power at work in ye, and that that would give you hope for the future. 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:44.799 That power that God has given us did something else previously. 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:48.000 That's where Paul goes in verse 20. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:58.319 That power that God is working in you is power that raised Jesus from the dead. 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:00.319 Verse 20. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:20.160 That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:26.079 What is this power that God is working in you? 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.400 What has it done previously? 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:31.599 It raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:33.920 And where is he now? 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:38.799 He's seated in heaven, and we're going to look at that in the third point a little bit more. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:45.279 But the implication of Christ being seated in heaven is that he's ruling and reigning. 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:46.160 Over what? 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:53.599 Over every rule, every power and authority, over every enemy. 00:26:55.119 --> 00:26:59.279 Christ is supreme over all. 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:13.279 What news that is what hope-giving, life-giving news that must be for us. 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:16.160 Can you fathom? 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:28.160 I just this week just been slack-jawed and broken-hearted for people in Afghanistan for the images of what is being wrought there. 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:35.759 Images of people handing their children across barbed wire to escape. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:42.240 Of people fleeing to the mountains because they are believers in Jesus. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:06.640 Every enemy of the people of God, and that they are unswervingly and unfailingly and eternally His. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:17.519 May those brothers and sisters whose names we don't know, may the Lord by His Spirit impress that on their hearts and give them courage. 00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:25.119 Give them peace in ways that we cannot even begin to fathom right now. 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:45.519 But if we want that to be true for them, may we long that it would be true for us as we look to our own challenges and changes to navigate that seem to just bleach and pale into insignificance. 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:51.680 It's almost overwhelming, isn't it? 00:28:52.319 --> 00:29:05.440 Here's the thing technology, technology, 24-hour news media, the fact that you can access all of this just on your phone first thing in the morning. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:06.880 You know what that does? 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:10.640 It gives you a sense of omniscience. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:17.119 It's almost like we know more about what's going on in the world than anybody else in history, right? 00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:28.559 So we have a sense of omniscience, a kind of all-knowingness, because we can just pull out our phone and get whatever knowledge we want to access. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:36.240 And yet, and yet, what we don't possess is omnipotence. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:39.759 We're not all-powerful, omnipotent. 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:52.960 And one of the consequences of that is if you are all-knowing, which we almost can be now, but are not, we haven't increased in power, that's overwhelming. 00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:05.200 We need to come and cry out to the one who is not just omniscient, but omnipotent, not just all-knowing, but all-powerful. 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:07.440 And to trust him. 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:30.960 We want to seek wisdom and revelation, to be full of hope, and thirdly, to be humbled by astounding grace. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:39.359 In normal series, two, one to ten would be a whole other sermon in themselves, a great evangelistic text. 00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:49.440 But in this series, in this morning, I want to set it in the context of what Paul has already been saying because it flows on through, begins with and. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.000 So there is a connection again with what has gone before. 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:06.880 Keep verse 20 of chapter 1 in mind, this idea that God has raised Christ and seated him in the heavenly places. 00:31:09.440 --> 00:31:30.240 Now, Paul, at the start of chapter 2, in a sense pulls back, goes back in time a little bit, and reminds you, believer in Jesus, how far he has brought you, how far we have come because of him. 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:34.559 He reminds us of what God has done for us in the gospel. 00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:38.319 And this is the essence of the Christian faith. 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:40.559 2 verse 1. 00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:49.119 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. 00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:58.640 People like to say that Christianity is a crutch, that Christianity is an emotional crutch for the weak. 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:05.440 It's far more accurate to say that Christianity is a defibrillator for the dead. 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:12.400 It's not just that we are weak, it's that we're dead. 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:15.759 Sin has killed us. 00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:17.200 We're dead. 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:24.720 We're dead because you cannot be anything else if you turn from the source of life. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:27.920 And that is what we have all done by nature and choice. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:31.839 If you turn from life, you become dead. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:33.440 That is what we did. 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:41.200 That is what our first parents did, and that is what we do before God acts to save us. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:43.599 We were dead in our sin. 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:44.880 And what is sin? 00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:50.480 Sin is our addiction to me and myself and I. 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:52.640 And it kills us. 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:56.559 It is the natural state of us. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:33:02.160 That is why Paul at a couple of different points says, look, this is the same as all mankind. 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:04.079 All of us were like this. 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:07.920 Following our own way, seeking our own desires. 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:19.759 Even the good things that we would do come tainted by our desire for recognition, adulation, and praise. 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:24.960 And so God needed to act. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:28.400 And why did God need it to act? 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:30.319 Because we were dead. 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:33.599 Corpses don't tend to do much. 00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.480 Clean up your act morally to a corpse. 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:46.240 Not going to, not going to move, not going to say anything. 00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:50.079 Something outside of us needed to act. 00:33:50.480 --> 00:34:03.839 And so we read down in verse 4 but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses. 00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:05.680 See that? 00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:08.320 He loved you while you were dead. 00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:10.559 He loved you before you could do anything for him. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:14.800 He loved you before you could reciprocate in any way. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:16.719 That's when he loved you. 00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.760 He made us alive together with Christ. 00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:27.119 By grace, you have been saved. 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:29.199 And what has he done? 00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:30.559 Verse 6. 00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:40.079 He's raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:42.480 Think about that. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:44.719 Can you believe it? 00:34:44.960 --> 00:35:01.039 He's just told us in verse 20 of chapter 1 that the perfect, beautiful, glorious, transcendent, eternal, gracious Lord Jesus has been seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. 00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:08.639 And on one level, although that blows your mind if you really think about it, but on one level, even our minds say, well, that makes sense. 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:10.159 He deserves that. 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:12.559 He's pretty wonderful. 00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:26.719 But then he astounds us by saying that he has taken dead people, people who have turned from God the source of life. 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:33.440 He's not just made them alive and said, right, try again, off you go. 00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:35.440 No. 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:45.280 He has plucked us from the grave and seated us on a throne with his son. 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:50.800 We are seated with him. 00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:58.480 Jesus died a death that he didn't deserve. 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:02.239 He died the death that we deserve. 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:08.239 He was raised, and he was given what he deserved. 00:36:09.039 --> 00:36:15.199 The Christian is raised with him and given what we do not deserve. 00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:16.639 That is grace. 00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:28.000 The consequence of that grace is there for us in verse 9, where he says, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:33.920 We contribute nothing to our salvation. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:46.320 It is not about how much money you give, how good you are, what you wear, what you do, what you do or do not eat, what you do and do not drink, where you do or do not go? 00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:59.760 Your changed life might result in a change in those things, but it is not secure the change in the first place. 00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:03.920 That is only and always the work of God. 00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:06.639 And so how can we boast? 00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:09.840 How can we boast in our own efforts? 00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:12.079 How can we boast in our own goodness? 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:22.719 This amazing grace must astound us again into humility. 00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:34.880 To not thinking first and foremost of ourselves, but humbly, faithfully, trusting God through the seasons of life. 00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:37.519 We walk humbly. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:42.000 That's why Jesus says when he calls his disciples to him, he says, What does he say? 00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:44.639 If you try to save your life, you'll lose it. 00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:49.280 But if you lose your life for my sake and for the gospel, you'll save it. 00:37:49.440 --> 00:37:51.840 Take up your cross and follow me. 00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:54.239 How do we navigate change? 00:37:54.480 --> 00:38:01.280 We navigate change, brothers and sisters, with the splinters of our cross on our back. 00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:26.079 We navigate change as an army marching on its knees, blown away by the great grace that he has lavished upon us, astounded that he would make us alive and seed us with him. 00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:45.280 We cannot go through this move in two weeks' time and think that it is because we have done marvelously in expanding the reach of City Church. 00:38:46.559 --> 00:38:56.159 We cannot go through this change thinking much of ourselves, but seeking to make much of the Lord Jesus. 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:10.880 He loved us enough to make us alive with his son. 00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:18.480 May that give you confidence, courage, perseverance now. 00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:40.559 That with the changes and stresses and particularities of your situation, that he loves you still and will bring you on that last day to that eternal shore where sin and death will be no more. 00:39:41.599 --> 00:39:43.280 Let's pray together. 00:39:49.840 --> 00:39:55.440 Strengthen us, O Lord, we pray, by your grace. 00:39:56.079 --> 00:40:03.039 Give us, as Paul has prayed, so we pray, that spirit of wisdom and revelation. 00:40:03.440 --> 00:40:23.119 Enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we might see the hope that you have laid up for us, the hope in the knowledge that we are unswervingly yours, the hope that Christ is ruling and reigning, and that we, dead people, have been made alive and seated with Him. 00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:29.199 Strengthen weak knees, we pray. 00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:33.119 Give us increased faith, we ask.