WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:10.480 So, over the next four weeks, I'm kind of kicking us off here on a summer series, we're going to be teaching about some of the images and depictions of Jesus in the Old Testament. 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:14.880 Now, we talk about Jesus a lot, you know, in the Gospels and in, you know, the epistles and so forth. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:26.480 But for me, in my own personal walk, as I come to know the Lord, everything for me personally came into focus when I began to understand that Jesus, all of Scripture is pointing to him. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:31.760 The Old Testament, it's not just about battles and so forth, it's all pointing to Jesus. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:38.079 And so we're going to be looking at some of those stories in the Old Testament and just depictions of Jesus as he was then. 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:41.200 And again, it's just from Genesis to Revelation. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:49.520 You know, oftentimes in our own thinking and just general Christian culture, we think of Jesus as this guy that kind of came around the fourth quarter, like right? 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:54.960 God was just kind of dealing with us for a while and said, okay, send in Jesus, fix this thing up. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.640 But it wasn't that. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:58.719 You know, he's he's this was all instrumented. 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:04.480 This is all a story that's been told sovereignly over time and before time, as we'll get into this morning. 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.280 So that's what we're gonna be looking at over the next few weeks. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:12.480 I am kind of the opening act, and everybody comes for the opening act, I'm sure. 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:14.719 That's why you're here. 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:18.319 Uh before we get into the content, let me pray for us and then we'll keep rolling. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:18.879 Sound good? 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:19.680 Let me pray. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.079 Father, thank you for this morning. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:36.480 What an amazing gift you have given to us, to me and my family in this local church, to come together, to sing your name, to praise you, Lord, to read your word, and to share the good news with each other. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:37.439 What a gift. 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:39.519 Help us see you this morning. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.359 Help our study of your word to be spirit-led. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:49.040 Let it become true for us, that it become true for me. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:54.640 I ask you, Lord, to show us a glimpse, just a glimpse of your glory, Lord. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:55.840 In Jesus' name. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:56.640 Amen. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:03.760 Alright, so the verse we opened up with this morning, in the beginning was the word. 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:08.639 This is without a doubt one of the dynamite passages of all the Bible, right? 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:10.000 This is a big one. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:23.120 Theologians love it for its sense of scale, sense of eternity, a sense of intimacy, and really for succinctly stating the significance of this man named Jesus. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.800 I love it as well. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:30.719 John, the author, is stating how all of Scripture is pointing to this man. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:38.080 You could probably meditate and study this passage for a number of years, maybe your whole life, and never fully unpack it. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:40.639 There's a lot, so we won't get to all of it in 20 minutes. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:41.599 But there's a lot here. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:44.719 We're gonna use it this morning as kind of a basis for our study. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:49.840 Um, we're gonna be looking at John's words about Jesus. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:51.919 We're gonna talk a little bit about space. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.560 It's an illustration, we're gonna talk about science. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:00.719 Um, and then we're gonna talk about eternity, and then we're gonna look at a brief glimpse of the Garden of Eden in Genesis. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:07.599 And we're gonna be basically playing with this idea of scale this morning, the tension of like eternity and intimacy. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:17.360 There's some mind-bending truth here, and I think we we don't think about them all the time, we think about the practical day-to-days, but I think it's useful to kind of step back and try to rack our brains on this stuff. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:19.680 Okay, so let's look at John 1 again. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:21.039 Senor Bulletin. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:27.120 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:29.520 He was in the beginning with God. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.280 So that phrase, the word, we see it here, repeated, right? 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:38.159 We generally in culture refer to, at least Christian culture, we refer to the word as our Bibles. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:45.120 John is using this phrase, the word, that you might have picked up on to refer to Jesus, the God man. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:50.879 Before Jesus was given his earthly name, Jesus, you know, we know he has other names. 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:52.240 Revelation tells us stuff. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:53.680 We know this from the Old Testament as well. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:57.199 King of kings, Lord of Lords, these are like his kingly names. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.240 But John is using the word here as a stand-in. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:06.800 And perhaps more importantly than all that, though, John is establishing here the eternal nature of Jesus. 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:09.039 He's saying, okay, you know this man named Jesus. 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:13.199 These are contemporaries, these people knew him, they saw him, they felt him. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:18.240 Um he's saying, you know him in a slice of time, and there's eternity past. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:21.759 And I want you to really understand and get that. 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:27.439 And so, around along the same terms, that phrase in the beginning, where it starts with in the beginning, it sounds like Genesis, right? 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:28.720 In the beginning, God. 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:34.000 In the beginning, it's actually referring to, if you break it down, it's like before the beginning. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:37.439 Or really, maybe even more interestingly, before time. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:40.480 So time was a thing God created. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:42.160 And God is outside of time. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:43.199 God created that time. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:44.160 So what in the world? 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:46.560 How do we begin to understand that? 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:47.680 That's a big one. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.560 For me, that's an interesting one to wrestle with. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:54.720 So to try to put this in perspective, we've got kind of two short illustrations. 00:04:55.199 --> 00:05:01.279 And the first one, I want you to think back to when you were a young boy or a young girl, you know, five, six, somewhere in there. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.199 And I want you to picture your parents. 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:08.800 I want you to picture, you know, your mom or your dad, or maybe just the person who took care of you if your mom and dad weren't around. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:09.920 Picture them. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:12.959 Now, seemingly they had just always been, right? 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:14.079 They were just there. 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:15.439 You had no choice in this. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.040 You just ended up in their family, and these are your these are your parents. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:21.360 And that's something really fascinating about that. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:26.079 By the time you showed up, they had lived for some time, right? 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:27.360 They lived that. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:32.560 And as a kid, you know this, like relative to your age, uh, they were in some sense eternal. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:38.000 So then as a kid, you start asking questions, you know, okay, so were you around before the car? 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:39.120 Okay. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:41.439 Was electricity a thing when you were a kid? 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:42.000 Or iPads? 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:43.519 Was that, you know, like that's the thing? 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.800 Um, you know, and you almost assume maybe they were just, okay, dinosaurs. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:47.680 I've heard of dinosaurs. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.720 They were they writing on the backs of them, like what? 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:52.480 It's a big thing, right? 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:57.759 These are your parents, and you happen to know them at a particular point in time, like Jesus and his disciples knew him. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:05.199 And, you know, because of your parents' age, you probably assume that they just know everything, too, because they've just been around forever. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:06.399 They're ancient. 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:07.279 Right. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:15.199 Now, what I think is pretty amazing is that it's a bit of a miracle that kids actually get this heavenly concept right. 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:18.720 Really kind of zoom out and say, like, there's wisdom in in this. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:20.319 There's actually something there. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:29.920 Um, kids understand that their parents knew them before they were even all around, before they were even like born into the world, right? 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.959 We knew them, at least in spirit. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:37.439 And the kids understand that their parents knew them before that they could even form a memory. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.240 Their parents are already tracking those things. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:42.879 So that's pretty amazing. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.720 They can't imagine you not existing before them. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:48.399 It's just the fact, it's just the way it goes. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:49.600 But you get the idea, right? 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:55.360 Jesus, our earthly father, seemingly like our parents, he has just always been, and he truly has. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:56.959 That's what John is saying here. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.000 Another one that I hope is useful in establishing. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:01.920 So we talk about this idea of before time. 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:02.959 What does that even mean? 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:04.160 What is God is outside of time. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:05.279 How do we begin to think about this? 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:08.480 There's not many examples of things that are outside of time in our day-to-day. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:09.759 Everything has an expiration day, right? 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:11.759 Everything is gonna just decay and die. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:14.319 And the time is kind of what does that, right? 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.000 Well, something that's really profound to me that I was kind of just studying. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:22.639 This is a personal study that I was kind of getting into, was this study of black holes. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:26.000 So if you're familiar with anybody familiar with like what a black hole is? 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:28.959 Yeah, a few of us, yeah, probably most of us have heard of them. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.839 Um I just kind of got obsessed about them recently. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:33.279 Uh, we can't get into all of it. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:34.720 It's kind of over my head, I'll be honest. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:40.720 It's gonna be not over David Russ's head, probably, but so what is a black hole? 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:46.000 A black hole, I'm I read that, so I I could I've taken a few excerpts from an article that was really just illuminating to me. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:50.240 They really broke it down and told it in plain English that even I could begin to wrestle with. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:51.279 So, what's a black hole? 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:55.120 It says it's essentially a puncture in space-time. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:56.399 I've probably lost you there. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:01.680 Space, I thought space and time were two different things, and space-time is one thing, it's a puncture through that. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:12.480 Think of space-time as a rubber surface of a trampoline, and a black hole as a bowling ball placed on that surface. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:18.399 The ball f causes the fabric to sag, right, drawing smaller objects into the depression. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:29.600 And since black holes are believed to have infinite density, I'm reading here, infinite density, crazy, they create bottomless pits in space-time. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:35.200 It says astrophysicists don't know where matter that falls into them winds up. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:38.639 That's crazy. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:40.720 Things don't just disappear. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:41.840 What is that? 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.759 A few more things that just, again, I just want to share this with you. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:48.000 Uh, they're formed when a star collapses in a stuff. 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:48.879 How are they formed? 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:50.240 A star collapses at some point. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:50.960 That's crazy. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:52.559 How many of them are there? 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:54.639 There's billions, they say. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:59.759 And it's suggested that in our galaxy alone, there's over 400 million of them. 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:00.799 That's in our neighborhood. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:01.840 These things are out there. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:05.200 In some sense, they're invisible, so I'm still curious how they actually find them. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:11.279 Um but, and then the size of these things is also amazing. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:18.559 Again, I want us to get, we're gonna come back to scripture, but this is I want us to get a sense of scale and something that's breaking through time. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:24.240 This is the only example that I think we know of, and there's something that we get to look at this and learn from. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.519 The size of these things, okay, you know the sun's probably the biggest thing we look at, right? 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:30.639 The sun is huge, right? 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.279 On a given day, that's the biggest thing we look at. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:38.799 A black hole can be a million to a billion times more massive than a sun, right? 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:41.440 A million to so who knows how big that's huge. 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:42.320 They're big, right? 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:43.200 Scale. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.120 What's inside of them? 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:45.919 We're almost done. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:48.879 Well, Matthew McConnell Hayes down in there somewhere. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.080 Is the movie Interstellar? 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.399 If you've seen that movie, you know he's down in there lingering. 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:57.200 Uh but no, they say, again, it's a total mystery. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:58.559 It's a total mystery. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:09:59.519 What's inside of it? 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:02.159 And this part really, really, really messed me up. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:05.120 They say, we need to invent new physics. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.120 We need to invent new physics. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:17.679 Which is interesting that they believe that's actually possible to invent new physics, because that's what I thought I was doing at Georgia Tech when I was taking physics a couple times. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:25.840 Like, I my parents are here, they know I took that class a few times, and I was, I thought I was inventing new physics, and it wasn't the kind of physics they wanted to say. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:36.399 But you get the idea, like we understand space-time in our current day better than any civilization kind of behind us. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:39.759 Um, and we're still finding it unknowable, right? 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.440 The depths of God's creation are unknowable. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:49.039 And the amazing thing is that Jesus was here before all of it. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:50.000 Right? 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.799 He was there before there was any concept of space-time to poke through. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:56.639 He was there before all of it. 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.679 Jesus was, not just God, Jesus, the Trinity. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:04.799 This is spoken of in a few verses I want to share with you, but in the Bible. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:06.879 Look at uh Jude 1.25. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:07.919 I'll read it, it's a short one. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:09.519 Jude 125. 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:23.120 To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:23.759 Amen. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:25.519 Again, before all time. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:29.600 Even the writers of Scripture had this in their heads. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:31.200 Before all time. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.120 Now, I want to, before we leave that verse, I want to kind of land on this for a moment. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:41.600 Like, unrelated to our message a little bit today, do you ever find sometimes in your prayer life that you just don't know where to begin? 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:48.159 Either you are completely overwhelmed by something, or you have been praying for something, and you just feel like, I've prayed about this. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:49.679 I don't, I don't know what else there is to say. 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:51.919 I've prayed, I've prayed, I'm not hearing anything. 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:53.440 I've been there. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:58.000 We get stuck on ourselves, I get stuck on myself, on my needs. 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:04.320 But I think what Jude is doing here is he's just literally, he's just describing the qualities to God. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:07.440 And I think that's a useful way to break through that, I find. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:09.919 It's just kind of tell God who He is. 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:14.399 You say, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:20.879 I find, you know, that it just will bring me a perspective that will help me break through a problem. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.519 And eventually it kind of will humble me. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:28.080 It'll say, okay, God is in charge, God is sovereign, God is outside of time, before all time. 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:32.240 We all just did that with the doxology song, right? 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:36.159 We all just said that praise God from whom all blessings flow. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:39.840 Praise him, all creatures here below, praise him, praise him, praise him. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.960 And that's what Jesus modeled for us when they said, How do we pray? 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.960 He started the Lord's Prayer with just acknowledging who God is. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:50.080 This is who you are, this is who you are, this is who you are. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:52.960 2 Timothy 1.9. 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.360 Another good one. 00:12:55.679 --> 00:13:12.000 He saved us and called us to a holy calling, not just because of our works, or sorry, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Jesus Christ before the ages began. 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:15.360 Now that is a powerful verse. 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:20.080 That's a very succinct way to tell the story of the Bible, to tell the story of the gospel, right? 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:26.159 He saved us, which means, okay, God, God's first, saved, which means we we couldn't save ourselves. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:29.919 We actually needed saving because it says, like, it's not because of our works. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:30.879 Nothing we can do. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:34.720 We needed salvation because of his purpose. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:42.720 His purpose is to magnify his son through grace, which he gave us in Jesus Christ before the ages began. 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:46.960 There is no Old Testament God, and there is no New Testament God. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:49.120 Again, we're gonna be unpacking that this month. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:59.840 Scripture tells us the opposite: that before time and into eternity, he is an intentionally gracious Father, a gracious son, and a gracious spirit. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.120 Listen to these words from the book of Proverbs. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:09.759 Now, Proverbs, of course, is was written before the time Jesus showed up in flesh, and it's it's saying something here about him. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:11.679 Pretty phenomenal. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.080 Proverbs 30, verse 4. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:17.120 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.080 Who has gathered the wind in his fist? 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:23.279 Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.799 Who has established all the ends of the earth? 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:28.799 What is his name? 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.120 And what is his son's name? 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:32.559 Surely you know. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.720 What's his son's name, guys? 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.720 You can say Jesus, right? 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:38.080 We can say it, Jesus. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:39.360 Jesus is his name. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:40.399 Feels good. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:49.600 Jesus gathered the wind in his fist, Jesus wrapped the waters in a garment, and he established all the ends of the earth, and he's always been. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:54.000 There's a little picture there of the creation as well. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:55.279 We'll get to that. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:15:03.360 Finally, before we leave this ark, I want to note how we are also mentioned as having been known before time. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:05.279 This is where it gets. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:11.440 You take this profound truth of eternity, which is enough in and of itself, and then it also gets personal. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:13.840 That's where we're going to go to the last half here. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:15.600 This is what Paul says in Ephesians. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.080 This is a bit of a long one, but I want to read it, it's just so rich. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:33.360 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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:40.159 In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:40.799 You see that? 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:44.480 His will, his will, his will is always the plan, sovereign. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:50.080 According to the will and the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:55.919 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:56.639 It's all about him. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:04.080 It's all about him, it's all about him, which he's lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:08.799 Again, his will is something that we'll spend our whole lives and you know just kind of unpacking. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:11.519 According to his purpose. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:15.840 And we talk about this idea of sovereignty and church, this word sovereignty is kind of a big church word. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.720 When you hear us talk about that, think, or when you hear that word, think, okay, sovereign, God is sovereign. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:27.679 That means he is my issue, he cares about, but he is he and he's also like he can meet me in that issue. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:32.080 He's also outside of time, and he's been, he has a purpose, he has a will. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:39.519 The fullness of time to unite all things to him, things in heaven and things on earth. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:47.840 In him 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. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:58.320 So in Ephesians, we just learned that it's not only that Christ was in existence, which is an amazing and of itself, but that the names of his people were too. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:09.839 God glorifying himself through Jesus Christ in the salvation of his people, the salvation of you and me, that's the story of the book. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:10.799 That's the story. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:13.839 It's not just the New Testament, that's the entire story. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:17.920 So we've begun, we're almost done. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:22.319 We've begun to establish this morning about this infiniteness of Christ, right? 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:27.920 Christ outside of time, Christ before time, Christ to the end, to the to the future. 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:34.000 We talked about his scale, the majesty, big things, his eternal nature. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:44.400 The final thought I want to land with you this morning is this Christ is as intimate as he is infinite. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:49.519 Christ is as intimate as he is infinite. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:51.759 He is this, right? 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.279 And he is simultaneously this with you and me, right? 00:17:56.160 --> 00:17:58.480 He is all these things simultaneously. 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:00.559 So we're looking at Jesus in the Old Testament. 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:02.880 Let's quickly pop back to Genesis. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:06.160 Chapter 3 tells us the story of the fall of man, right? 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.240 If you know Genesis 1, 2, and 3, 3 is kind of where things went really wrong. 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.680 Um and that's how we generally look at that chapter. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:18.559 But I think, you know, that's where sin entered the perfect world, a perfect setting. 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:25.200 But if we begin to look at it from a couple other perspectives, some other things I think start to pop out, at least popped out to me. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:26.720 A few observations and then we'll close. 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:40.799 Number one is if marriage is a representation, marriage here on earth, is a representation of Christ and the church, which is what Paul attests to, then in the garden we have a picture of that, right? 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:43.200 We have Adam and Eve. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:48.319 There's a nakedness, there's a vulnerability that they share with one another. 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.160 The husband and the wife, they they fully knew each other. 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:53.839 That's incredible intimacy. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:55.519 There was nothing even to hide. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:58.079 There's nothing to hide. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:01.039 There was a holy and perfect oneness. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:06.319 We tend to fast forward right to the sin and say, oh, it was Adam and Rose of Eve who did it. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.680 This is there's something really special there before that. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:18.319 And number two is like when things went wrong, God sought them in the garden. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.240 God, again, we talked about him being outside of time and knowing all things, but God sought them. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:23.759 He said, He went to find them. 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:24.720 He said, Where are you? 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:25.359 And he knew. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:26.319 He said, What did you do? 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:27.119 He knew. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:28.319 But what was he doing? 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:32.480 He was meeting them, and he was saying, I want you to speak. 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.759 I want to hear you, I want to, I want to hear your voice. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:37.359 That's amazing. 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:45.359 This is the God, this is the intimacy that our God allows us to have with him, while at the same time, he is above all these things. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:46.799 It's amazing. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:51.839 Now, he, you know, things went wrong and they lost some things. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.680 Not to put it lightly, they lost some things. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:55.200 But he made their coverings. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:58.079 He went further, he made their coverings, he protected them. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:05.039 And their coverings, which they then wore in the garden to kind of account for their shame, this was essentially the first image of a sacrifice. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:06.640 We've talked about this before. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:09.680 This is the first sacrifice to atone for their sin. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:11.599 God made these things for them. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:19.119 Jesus, of course, would later become that covering for you and for me, the final covering, the final atonement. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:21.680 So, really, this is it, guys. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:30.880 He is infinite in his being, and despite our sin, he is also infinitely intimate with us. 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:35.359 And so my hope and my prayer for all of us is that we can go there sometimes. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:40.400 Is that when we are dealing with day-to-day issues, we can say, okay, God, you are you are huge. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:43.680 We don't think about God, we talk about God as being personal a lot. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.720 But I think, you know, we talk about there's also the corporateness. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:51.200 He's personal, he's with the church, and he's outside of that, he's huge. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.559 And so I've just found that to be a very helpful thing over the last few weeks. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:56.240 It's all new to me, honestly. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:57.359 It's been new stuff for me. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:59.359 So I'm happy I could share this with you. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:02.640 Rest in that truth this week, everyone, and praise his name. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:04.720 Let me pray for us, and we'll close. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:07.680 God, thank you for this morning. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:12.559 What an amazing thing to get to hear from your word, hear your truth. 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:20.400 Thank you, Lord, uh, for Russ and for Christy for just their constant devotion to this community. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.000 I pray blessings over them as they take some time away to rest. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:27.119 Help it be good for the two of them and good for their family. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:29.519 Um, God, thank you for this church. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:30.480 Bless your name. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:31.039 Amen.