SPEAKER_00: Did everyone get an Ephesians journal last week?
SPEAKER_00: Does everyone have a journal version of the book of Ephesians?
SPEAKER_00: Was anyone not here that didn't get one?
SPEAKER_00: Kylie, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else not get one?
SPEAKER_00: Clay Legs.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, I only got two more left, so I'm gonna order more so you can get more later.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm just gonna give you that one to you.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Well, keep your hand up if you don't have one.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have one, two, three, four, four, five.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna order some more.
SPEAKER_00: I'll have more for you all next week.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so sorry if you haven't gotten one yet, I'll order some.
SPEAKER_00: Now, guys, just a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I got you that journal because I want you all to be in the book of Ephesians yourself, not just on Sunday night, but throughout the semester.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the schedule that's on our student ministry table out there, it tells you the next passage we're gonna be in.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you guys, read the next passage we're gonna be in throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: Read through the book multiple times a week.
SPEAKER_00: It takes, I'm not kidding you, maybe like 15 to 20 minutes just to read through the whole book of Ephesians in one sitting.
SPEAKER_00: And just do that as many times as you can.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I even challenge you all to memorize it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see if any of you are up for the task.
SPEAKER_00: So, uh now before I go any further, I forgot to say this in announcements, but I did see Camp Rock 3.
SPEAKER_00: It's my second favorite.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk about it afterwards, come and talk to me.
SPEAKER_00: I love the movie.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being dead serious.
SPEAKER_00: Love Camp Rock 3.
SPEAKER_00: Please talk to me afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: What's up, Kayla?
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what Camp guys, Kayla doesn't know what Camp Rock 3 is.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a watch party.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so, real quick, my favorite song is Echo.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that, let's get to the business at hand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna encourage you all, either in your journals or in your Bible, if you could turn to Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: That would be great.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're turning there, uh, I just want to share a little bit of a story with you all, if that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you in this room like hiking, camping, going outdoors?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we got a few more than I expected.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I love hiking.
SPEAKER_00: I love camping, I love being outdoors.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife, Lexi, trying to get her there.
SPEAKER_00: But one time when we were still dating, we went to this place in Kentucky called the Red River Gorge.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful place.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been there, highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been there.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember, hey, there we are! Look at that, barely a beard.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'll get to where we are in a second, but we were at the Red River Gorge and we took this hiking trail that I kept hearing about that they said, hey, the end of the trail, that's what makes it.
SPEAKER_00: The end of the trail is the best part.
SPEAKER_00: And as we're hiking, you know, my mom and my wife both went with me, and they're like the whole time kind of wondering, Gabe, like, where are we going?
SPEAKER_00: We just keep, we're like shoulder to shoulder next to different trees and rocks and boulders.
SPEAKER_00: There's no clearing, there's bugs, and you know, we may or may not have had to take a restroom break on the way.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there was a lot going on, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It was rough out there.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom and Lexi were like, Why are why did we take this trail, Gabe?
SPEAKER_00: You led us astray.
SPEAKER_00: We trusted you, and we've just kept going through trees.
SPEAKER_00: All we've seen is trees.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, guys, just listen, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I just looked up online.
SPEAKER_00: All the people that I don't know, that for some reason I put all my trust in, said this was a great place to go.
SPEAKER_00: And so we finally get to the end of it, which is right here, and we get it.
SPEAKER_00: We get why this is the trail in the Red River Gorge.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you get to the end, you go to where we are right there, and this picture doesn't even begin to do justice to it, but you go out on this rock, this cliff, that basically gives you 360-degree views of this gorge, valleys, uh, hills, mountains, huge rocks jutting out.
SPEAKER_00: And you can just turn around and pick a spot and you could stare at that spot for hours.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a bunch of people that'll take this trail and they'll literally backpack in with camping gear and all that stuff, and they'll just camp right near the end of the trail, just so they can spend a few days at that view.
SPEAKER_00: Because that view is worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why I share that with you guys today is the passage we're going to be in.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, it is wavy, it is glorious, it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul literally just stacks illustration after illustration after big word after big word on top of one another.
SPEAKER_00: And as we're going through it, you're gonna be like, Gabe, why did you have us go through the book of Ephesians?
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: But my prayer is that, like this hike, we would get to the end, and you would all would get a 360-degree view of the greatness of your God.
SPEAKER_00: I hope we get to the end of this, and you at the end get to the place where you're like, I didn't know God was this good.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know God was this grand and this big, I didn't know he was this unthinkably great.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually gonna end our time with singing King of Kings again.
SPEAKER_00: And my hope is when we sing King of Kings again on the back end of this, the first song we sing, you're gonna say, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna want to sing that song as loud as you can, and you're not gonna be worried about what the person to the right or left is thinking of you because it's not that loud with uh our worship team because all we have is two guitars playing.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to just sit and look at our amazing God.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you want to see the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: You're in the right place tonight.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see him, but you gotta hang with me, you gotta let your brain be stretched, and I promise you, you will be left in awe.
SPEAKER_00: So, if you guys are in Ephesians 1, 3-14, let me hear you by saying, We got a big God.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got a big God, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: So, guys, as we go back in, just a reminder, Paul, he's actually writing this in prison.
SPEAKER_00: I think I failed to mention that last week.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is at the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He actually probably wrote this letter around the same time as he wrote Philemon, which is the book we're in on Sunday mornings for those of you that gather with us.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, what's interesting about this book, as we're about to read, is Paul doesn't have something specific about the church to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you read Paul's other letters, he's gonna talk about an issue going on in the church.
SPEAKER_00: But here in Ephesians, he just wants to remind them of what the gospel is, who the Lord is that saved them.
SPEAKER_00: And after we get done with this passage, Paul isn't gonna tell us to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't gonna say, all right, go take the hill, serve better, try harder, do better.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, after this passage, which this is the passage we'll be in next week, so I don't want to get ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Once Paul is done with the passage we're about to read, he prays.
SPEAKER_00: You wanna know what Paul prays for?
SPEAKER_00: For the Ephesians to understand what he just wrote.
SPEAKER_00: And that's my prayer for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us understand what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read, picking up in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Even as he chose, he the Father, chose us in him, Jesus, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_00: In love, he, the Father, predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved, who's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In him, Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth the Father in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_00: In him, in him, Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: In him, Christ, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, these are weighty truths.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing in such a way that he's making us use our brains, and it's gonna break us if we don't have your help.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are born in sin, having an unclear view of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I can't take away any distractions that might be going on in my friends here's hearts, whether they're thinking about school tomorrow or a project that needs to get done or a test that's coming up this week, or something going on in their family.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't know what is distracting any of us here tonight, even myself, but I ask that you would remove it and that you would open the eyes of our hearts to see you as you truly are.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in your son Jesus' name that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, guys, who wants to explain that passage to me?
SPEAKER_00: All right, no takers.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so real quick, let's just get the big idea down so we know where we're headed.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, the big idea that I think is clear in this passage is that God is worthy of our praise because of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_00: God is worthy of our praise, our worship because of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_00: You'll even notice that I have verse three referenced there.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what verse three is saying.
SPEAKER_00: I think verse three is Paul thinking about, as he's writing this letter to the Ephesians, just the greatness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he just explodes from there into praise.
SPEAKER_00: And all the other verses after verse three are trying to support verse three.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, blessed be, or blessing be, or praise be to God and the the and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Why is God worthy of praise?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says right after that, who has, or because he has blessed us, God has been kind to us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, union with Jesus, we have what?
SPEAKER_00: Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Which is just a fancy way of saying that when you trusted in Jesus Christ and you were brought into union with him, the Spirit has come and blessed you, spiritual blessings, with all of the blessings that come from where God dwells.
SPEAKER_00: That is what that means.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying he's worthy of our praise because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: Because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what's interesting here in just verse 3, we already see the Trinity, which we're gonna try to unpack and understand tonight.
SPEAKER_00: We see God the Father blessing us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, I think the rest of the time, Paul's going to unpack how each person of the Trinity, the three persons of our one God, has blessed us and been gracious to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, guys, we're going to unpack this, and again, my hope is that even when it's hard to understand or things are fuzzy, you come away shocked at who God is.
SPEAKER_00: This 360-degree view.
SPEAKER_00: And so that begs the question then.
SPEAKER_00: If God's worthy of our praise because of his glorious grace, you all know what grace is, because we just talked about it together.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's love for undeserving sinners, his free love for us.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul's gonna do is he's gonna show us how God displays his glory with his grace.
SPEAKER_00: And namely, the first way that God displays his glory with his grace is that the Father chose and adopted us.
SPEAKER_00: The father chose and adopted us.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be here in verses four through six.
SPEAKER_00: Verse four, even as he chose us in him, he being God the Father, chose us in him, him being Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to catch that because he's using he and him all the time, but even as he, the father, chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So first we see here that the Father chose us before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I was a sophomore in high school, I'd been saved for two or three months, and when I read this verse, everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: I understood my Lord and God in a way I didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: So let's try to explain this.
SPEAKER_00: So, stick with me here.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be going back to this illustration a lot tonight, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all hanging with me?
SPEAKER_00: We good?
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: So let's say right here is 33 AD when Jesus is on the cross dying for us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's say this is Jesus, all right, and we're gonna go over here.
SPEAKER_00: This is you and I over here in present time.
SPEAKER_00: Hi, it's me, Gabe.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul does in explaining our salvation and God's grace to us, he takes us all the way back over here, off the timeline, outside of the timeline, to God before he created time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not something I can fully explain to you.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is that God himself created time, he is the creator, and here he is, the father.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4 says, He chose us in Christ, he chose us for Christ before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that means your salvation was not by accident.
SPEAKER_00: That means that you knowing Christ right now was not just you getting lucky and coming to it on your own terms.
SPEAKER_00: Remember last week Paul said, I'm an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the will of God right here.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God in eternity past, before he even thought about creation and everything else, he thought about a people that he would save.
SPEAKER_00: Both the collective and individuals, and he appointed them for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you came to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: You came to Christ because the Father, looking into eternity, saw a whole host of sinners who chose sin for themselves and separating themselves, and he looked at him and he said, You are the ones I will give my grace and mercy to?
SPEAKER_00: And now that brings up a tension in you that I already am anticipating.
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that God chose some and not others?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that I had no responsibility in my salvation?
SPEAKER_00: And friends, I'm just gonna be honest with you, that's something that's been debated for years, for centuries even.
SPEAKER_00: How this all works together that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world right here.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, it is not a problem to be solved, it's not a mystery to cause tension, it is a truth to be embraced that assures us that we're his.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, God is completely sovereign over salvation and who comes to him, and also all of us are responsible to answer to the free gift of God in Christ for us.
SPEAKER_00: These two truths make sense to God, even if they don't make sense to us.
SPEAKER_00: Even if they don't make sense to us.
SPEAKER_00: But the point of it is not to cause a problem in your heart where you're questioning God's character, no, it's an assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is bringing them back here and saying, You're not here by accident, Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't come to Christ just on your own terms.
SPEAKER_00: The Father here in eternity, past, chose you.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, it's the same for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you have come to Christ, it's because all the way back then the Father planned for you.
SPEAKER_00: He elected you, He chose you because you could not choose Him in your own strength.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you, He wanted you from all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that good news?
SPEAKER_00: Because even tomorrow, if you go and sin, you're still chosen.
SPEAKER_00: He chose you knowing that would happen.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing will reverse his choice or his will.
SPEAKER_00: But you're chosen in him.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you, he's wanted you from all eternity past, and he got you for those who have believed and trusted in him.
SPEAKER_00: But notice this, because when we talk about God choosing us, it can lead us to thinking, well, I can just cruise then.
SPEAKER_00: But no, look, look at what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why did he choose us?
SPEAKER_00: That we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, God choosing us for himself and saving us according to his sovereignty is not something that should cause us to shrink back and just go on autopilot and say, Well, he chose me.
SPEAKER_00: I can do whatever I want now.
SPEAKER_00: No, friends, he chose us, why?
SPEAKER_00: So that we might be holy, meaning set apart and blameless, meaning pure before him.
SPEAKER_00: And we will be completely when we come to him in glory.
SPEAKER_00: And this life right now is all about us trying to conform to that future reality here, to grow in holiness, to grow in blamelessness, because our Father has chosen us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe to help you understand it a little better.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know bringing up illustrations with parents can be hard sometimes, but just hang with me here.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, when are you more likely to obey your parents?
SPEAKER_00: When you feel distant from them, or when you're assured of their love for you?
SPEAKER_00: When are you more likely to obey your parents?
SPEAKER_00: When you feel like they're just telling you what to do all the time and don't really care about you?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you more likely to obey them when they're like, you know what, my mom and dad, they care about me?
SPEAKER_00: It's an actual question, you can answer it.
SPEAKER_00: The second one, thank you, I mean, great.
SPEAKER_00: Probably the second one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, it's the same for us.
SPEAKER_00: The father's choosing us is to be an assurance to us to continue to follow him in love and obedience because he's chosen us, he's loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And not only has he chosen us, he's adopted us.
SPEAKER_00: End of verse 4, end of verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: In love, he predestined.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's just going back.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same kind of word and phrasing used for choosing us before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: God in eternity past destined you for what?
SPEAKER_00: Adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
SPEAKER_00: So hear this, friends.
SPEAKER_00: First, I want to make note that choice that God gives isn't just random.
SPEAKER_00: The Father in eternity past, he's not just saying, Oh, you're chosen, you're not, you're chosen, you're not no.
SPEAKER_00: It says it's according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That means God wisely chose you according to his love.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't flippant, it wasn't just him going through a list of names and sorting things out.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was intentional.
SPEAKER_00: And see how intentional it is.
SPEAKER_00: The father chose us, why?
SPEAKER_00: So that he could adopt us to himself as sons.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul's trying to communicate there, friends, is when we were born, we were not just children of God straight from the womb.
SPEAKER_00: Later in Ephesians, it's going to say we were alienated from God, separated from him.
SPEAKER_00: We were not children of God, we were children of wrath, deserving of God's perfect judgment and justice over our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And the Father over here looks at us and he says, These are children worthy of wrath, they're rebels, they're children of the darkness, and I will make them mine.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus takes us orphans.
SPEAKER_00: Or rather, the father.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm already getting lost here.
SPEAKER_00: It's confusing.
SPEAKER_00: But the Father predestined us to adopt us, to make us his children.
SPEAKER_00: As sons.
SPEAKER_00: And now already, maybe the ladies in the room, you're like, I don't want to be a son.
SPEAKER_00: What the heck does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: He's not excluding women here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses the word son because actually sons in that time got the inheritance of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul is actually doing is he's giving complete affirmation of both men and women being children of God by saying, even women become sons of God in the sense that they get the exact same inheritance as men.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we when we were born were like these punk kids running the streets doing our own things, and then this perfect, holy, loving dad who already has a kid of his own, who's perfect, Jesus, decides, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take you for myself.
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel the weight of that, friends?
SPEAKER_00: I know many of you grew up in church, many of you have known Jesus for a long time, but there was a definitive point, even if you can't remember it, where you were a children of the darkness and now you are a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is Paul bringing this up?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing these things so that we might praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing these glorious truths about what the Father has done so that we would praise him.
SPEAKER_00: We would ascribe worth to him, we would give him our lives.
SPEAKER_00: This truth about what the Father's done, it isn't just random knowledge that's going to float up there, friends.
SPEAKER_00: No, it is truth that changes us, that should get inside our hearts and lead us to worship and adoration.
SPEAKER_00: That yes, I was a sinner, I was a child of wrath, and yet before eternity passed, the Father chose me and He planned to adopt me and bring me into His home with the full rights of Him.
SPEAKER_00: That should do something to you.
SPEAKER_00: That should make you feel something in here about your God.
SPEAKER_00: Going forward, at the end of verse 6, he brings up this idea of being blessed in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: That's a reference to the beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so going on in verses 7 through 12, another way God displays his glory with his grace is that the Son redeemed us and restored us.
SPEAKER_00: So we have the Father choosing and adopting us.
SPEAKER_00: Then we have the Son, Jesus, redeeming and restoring us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, it says, In Him, Jesus, we have redemption through his blood.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, redemption in this time is Paul kind of taking us to the auction block.
SPEAKER_00: All right, for those of you who are with us on Sunday morning, we're talking about Philemon, who's a bondservant, who's a slave.
SPEAKER_00: Redemption, this word redemption comes from this idea of when people would put themselves out there to be their either willingly go into slavery or indentured servitude to pay off a debt or to get some sort of security in their life if they were low down in life.
SPEAKER_00: And they would go on this auction block, and if someone purchased them, that would be them redeeming them, bringing them into a new home.
SPEAKER_00: Just like adoption, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like adoption too.
SPEAKER_00: And redeeming them, bringing them in to their home.
SPEAKER_00: It implies a cost.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, in the same way, Paul is saying we were slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see how Paul keeps building on these analogies?
SPEAKER_00: We're children of wrath.
SPEAKER_00: We're slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: Too, but there's a cost to our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul makes it very clear that that cost is nothing less than blood.
SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Adoption is a costly process.
SPEAKER_00: Redemption is a costly process.
SPEAKER_00: What is the price God will pay for us undeserving people?
SPEAKER_00: So we have the Father choosing and adopting here.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, that's what comes to right here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, who is truly God, became truly man, fulfilled all righteousness, lived the life you and I should have lived, and then goes on this cross and dies giving his blood.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There can be no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Israelites had the whole sacrificial system to remind them that something else, someone else had to give their blood so that their sin could be forgiven and they could be restored to right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that was all pointing to Jesus, the true Lamb that would go up on the cross and die and spill his blood to purchase you, to adopt you, to bring you home.
SPEAKER_00: What happens where we're redeemed?
SPEAKER_00: He goes on.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness of our trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: According to what the riches of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: What compelled Jesus to die for you?
SPEAKER_00: His grace.
SPEAKER_00: His love for you that you don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: His free love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing compelled Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Even here, going back to the Father, it doesn't even tell us why the Father, it doesn't give us all the reasons for why the Father chose us, but what we do know is it's according to His grace.
SPEAKER_00: Because He chose to set His love on you.
SPEAKER_00: So how is it that the Father still wants me and chooses me even when I sin?
SPEAKER_00: Christ has spilled His blood to cover all your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: And with His grace, He not only redeems us, so He not only buys us out of our slavery to sin, and now we're free to worship Him and follow Him.
SPEAKER_00: He also restores us.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_00: It could have stopped at the Father choosing us and predestining us and adopting us.
SPEAKER_00: It could have stopped at Christ redeeming us, but no, Paul has to keep going on.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the love and grace spilling out of the Father, Son, and Spirit for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: He keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: Not only has he redeemed us, he's restored us according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of the Father's will, according to God's purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I don't even know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even joking.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to explain that passage to you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't know if anyone fully can explain what that means, but what it does mean is that not only has Jesus redeemed us, he's also restored us and given us knowledge and brought us back to our purpose, which is to be united to Him along with all things, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_00: God is saying that all of history is pointing to what Jesus did on the cross to unite everything to him.
SPEAKER_00: And we're a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you zoom out of this, this passage isn't even completely about you and me.
SPEAKER_00: It's about God, a father making a plan with his son.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll get to the Spirit here in a second.
SPEAKER_00: But if you read these verses, it's really about the Father giving to his son that he loves a prized possession for himself, which is you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And we are just a small consequence of this grand, glorious, eternal plan in the mind of the Holy God.
SPEAKER_00: Can you guys see how hard it's it is for me to try to even explain this to you?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like grasping for words here right now, using words you may not even mean.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't explain it any other way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm struggling up here.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, he's redeemed us and he's restored us.
SPEAKER_00: He's brought us into his purpose for all eternity, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's restored us to an inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, in him we've obtained an inheritance, having again been predestined, there it is, according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, this is ultimate reality.
SPEAKER_00: But why does he do this?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, Paul leaves us in no uncertain terms, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: So the Father has chosen us and adopted us, the Son has redeemed and restored us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: To praise him, to give glory to him.
SPEAKER_00: God did not save you for you, he saved you for him.
SPEAKER_00: God made you for God.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, do you see this?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he worthy of our praise?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he worthy?
SPEAKER_00: But friends, it doesn't stop there, though the fountain is not ended yet of life and love and joy that God is spilling out to you and to me.
SPEAKER_00: So the Father's chosen and adopted us, the Son's redeemed and restore us, but now, right now, what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit seals and assures us.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna wrap up here soon, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13 In Him, in Christ, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, guys, so do a leg day today, cardio day.
SPEAKER_00: We got the Father over here choosing us, adopting us.
SPEAKER_00: Running over here.
SPEAKER_00: We got Christ here on the cross, AD 33, dying for us to redeem us and restore us.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, over here.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: We got you and me over here.
SPEAKER_00: Hi, what's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: That work of the Father in eternity past, of Jesus in time and space 2,000 years ago, the Spirit is now bringing to you and to me.
SPEAKER_00: The choosing and adopting and redeeming and restoring gets summed up when you heard the gospel, believed in it, and the spirit applied all of that work to you.
SPEAKER_00: Here.
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Spirit came, see what Paul said.
SPEAKER_00: When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This was always God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, what does sealing mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does that word seal mean?
SPEAKER_00: Have you guys ever gotten a letter with like an envelope and then there's like this ink stamp in it or something with like a logo or insignia?
SPEAKER_00: Have any of you ever gotten something like that?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a few of you, you might know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, what a seal is, is it marks the possession of something.
SPEAKER_00: So let's say if tomorrow for some reason the FBI thought you like owed them something.
SPEAKER_00: They would send you a letter and it would have the seal of the FBI on it.
SPEAKER_00: It would have the logo, so to speak, to show, hey, this is real, this is from the FBI, right?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, in the same way, when this when you believed in the gospel and the Holy Spirit dwelled in you, he is now acting as a seal.
SPEAKER_00: You are God's.
SPEAKER_00: You are owned, you are possessed by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You are not your own.
SPEAKER_00: And you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you to attest to these other realities we've just read.
SPEAKER_00: You are owned, you are possessed, you are his, he is yours, you're sealed.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Again, you can't undo this.
SPEAKER_00: A seal can't be undone.
SPEAKER_00: It's finished, it's over.
SPEAKER_00: He is yours, you are his, you have God forever.
SPEAKER_00: So he seals you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have that sealing, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Assurance comes.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: What's a guarantee?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you guys will be old enough one day to hear this word called down payment.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a word that gives you fear and treachery.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The adult leaders know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: A down payment is the money you pay up front on a house or something else to own that thing.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of houses right now, they're expensive, all right?
SPEAKER_00: For like an okay house, it's probably like$250,000, maybe$300,000, okay, in the Franklin Township area.
SPEAKER_00: Well, none of us can pay that up front unless the Lord has ridiculously blessed you.
SPEAKER_00: And so what you do is you put a down payment saying, hey, I'm gonna pay$20,000, 30,000, 40,000, 10,000, whatever deal you make with the person who owns that house, to say, hey, I'm gonna pay off the rest of this.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna put a down payment here right now.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, Paul is saying that's what the Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: If you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, that is God's down payment on you.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're going to glory.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're going to join me in the new heavens and new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, the work I started in you, I will finish at the day of the completion.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because the spirit is living inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: Attesting to these realities.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit right now is guaranteeing that the inheritance that's being held for you by Christ at the Father's right hand really will be yours.
SPEAKER_00: That you will be in glory with Jesus someday, with me and Kayla and Ree and Josh and Lucas and Scythe.
SPEAKER_00: We're all going there.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, I know that was a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I know that was a fire hose, and you might have more questions than answers.
SPEAKER_00: But if you zoom out, do you not see what Paul is doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, look at who our God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's done in eternity past over here.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's done on the cross in real time and space 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's doing right now in your life here and now, as we wait for when we go to glory with him over there.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, in 12 verses, has just unpacked to you the whole meaning of life and existence and who our God is.
SPEAKER_00: And it hurts.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard to comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even have a clever way to end this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna leave it there, and I hope in our small groups we can continue to enjoy this together.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to pray for us, and then I hope you all are ready to sing to this God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the God you're singing to.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you can see this God, who he is, and then just have your hands on the chair in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: This God is beautiful and glorious and mysterious and lovely.
SPEAKER_00: Can we sing to him?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you that you have trusted us with passages like this that bend the brain.
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, Lord, help us to see that we exist, we've been saved by you because of your glory, because of your grace, your free love to us.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for these students that they would see that.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that as we sing right now, before we go into groups, Lord Jesus, that you would help us to love you more.
SPEAKER_00: It's in your Son Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Till that stone was through for good, for the live had conquered death, and the dead rose from their tombs, and the angel stood in all for the souls of all who come to the father's story.
SPEAKER_01: And the church of Christ was born, and the spirit lived the flay.
SPEAKER_01: Now this gospel truth of all shall not fail, shall not fail by his blood, his name, and his freedom by every free for the love of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Go your guys in small groups.