SPEAKER_00: Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Ephesians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be starting in verse 1 in just a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: Our sermon series that we're continuing is called Made for More.
SPEAKER_00: And why do we call it Made for More?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've wondered, who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Does my life really matter?
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians answers a powerful, hope-filled answer to that question.
SPEAKER_00: You are made for more.
SPEAKER_00: More freedom, more purpose, more joy.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us exactly what our identity is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel reshapes every part of our lives, our identity, our relationships, our work, our worship.
SPEAKER_00: You were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: And the encouragement from this series is to live the life that you were called to live based on that new identity you have in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually our whole theme for the year.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry that the church, each of us in the church, might grow up in every way into Christ, into the head that we're all connected to.
SPEAKER_00: So as we're all connected, as we're all working together properly, we become more and more like Jesus from one degree of glory to the next.
SPEAKER_00: When each part is working properly, it builds itself up.
SPEAKER_00: The body of Christ builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_00: So, like you are wanted here, and in that body illustration, you are actually needed here.
SPEAKER_00: It's essential for you to be here, for you to contribute to the causes of Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: As we fulfill the work of Jesus, we're all aspiring to become more and more like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not more and more like James.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not an important part of the body.
SPEAKER_00: I'm no more important than any of you.
SPEAKER_00: We all have this purpose that we're working together to become more and more like Jesus Christ, the head.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're these different body parts with different functions, equal in dignity, different in function.
SPEAKER_00: We have different gifts, we have different roles, but as we're working together properly, we're able to fulfill the labor, fulfill the work, the good work that God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in those.
SPEAKER_00: We should be built up in love.
SPEAKER_00: We should be united with Christ the head.
SPEAKER_00: We should be growing in maturity, becoming more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This happens when we remain connected to Jesus, the head, and his body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to be able to say, okay, I'm connected to you, Jesus, but let me just go do that in a silo.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just go do that on my own.
SPEAKER_00: As we're connected with both Jesus and his body, we are equipped to be working properly.
SPEAKER_00: So that was the theme, that was the reason why the elders chose this to be our focus for the year, these theme verses, this idea that we want to see the church grow up in Christ to become more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see the church experience maturity and joy and purpose of knowing that we're made for more and living that out.
SPEAKER_00: So part of where we see how we're made for more in this is in Ephesians 1.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about the first week where we see all of these different identities that we have in Jesus Christ, that we're saints, that we're in Christ, that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing, that we're chosen before time, that we are holy and blameless, that we were predestined for adoption, that we were beloved, that we were redeemed through his blood, forgiven of our trespasses, united in him, inheritors, saved, steal with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And there are more of these.
SPEAKER_00: We just ran out of room on this slide.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I want to encourage you, if you want to see like what is my identity in Christ, open up your Bible, go to Ephesians and say, where does it say what my identity is in Jesus Christ, and just start writing down.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want an easy win, you can just take a picture of this and start there and build off of that.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot more that God tells us about our identity in Christ, and it's important for us to recognize that.
SPEAKER_00: Because in those moments that you might feel inadequate or worthless, this helps us to remember that you were made for more, that in spite of you, Jesus chose you.
SPEAKER_00: He called you to be his own.
SPEAKER_00: He made you for more.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see how much he loves you, walk through Ephesians 1, say, Who am I in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 2, it talks about how God doesn't just want to take bad people and make them good people, but he wants to take dead people and make them living people.
SPEAKER_00: That we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.
SPEAKER_00: But God, because of his great love with which he loved us, makes us alive in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not based on your merit, not based on what you do.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, some of the most famous verses in all of Scripture, say, By grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.
SPEAKER_00: We weren't saved on our own merit, which is great news because you didn't earn it.
SPEAKER_00: That means you can't blow it and lose it.
SPEAKER_00: That's our great hope.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 10, it says that we are God's masterpiece, that we're his workmanship.
SPEAKER_00: There's this word poema that where we get the word poem that comes from this workmanship word.
SPEAKER_00: We are his workmanship, his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: Like there are good works that you can do that you can walk in that aren't my good works to walk in.
SPEAKER_00: God has prepared good works that you uniquely are equipped with, that you uniquely have the opportunities to fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: Would you walk in those good works that he's prepared for you?
SPEAKER_00: That's where you're going to experience his joy as you see him moving through you in power, as the Spirit empowers you to see those good works and then give you the ability to walk in those, to fulfill those, to walk and do those.
SPEAKER_00: He saved you not by good works, but for good works that he prepared beforehand.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your good works that you can earn your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's in spite of us.
SPEAKER_00: He saved us, and he's given us this new life, and he's given us good works that we should walk in and fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: Then it talks about there's this other alienation.
SPEAKER_00: So we were alienated from God because we were dead, and then we're alienated also because we were Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: We were outside of the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: And in this time, uh, we might not see that as much.
SPEAKER_00: You might say, well, as long as I've ever heard the good news of Jesus, I've been welcomed on the inside, yes, but that wasn't God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the way that the Gentiles experienced God's plan back then.
SPEAKER_00: See, they knew that there was only so far that they could get into the temple before there was a dividing wall where they couldn't go any further in because they weren't born with the right last name.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't born as Jews, so they couldn't get any closer.
SPEAKER_00: And there was this animosity or enmity between them and the Jews where they would say, okay, there's a Jewish church, there's a Christian church for the Gentiles as well, a Jewish Christian church, a Christian Gentile church, and Paul's saying, no, there's no dividing wall of hostility anymore.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for that.
SPEAKER_00: And though we may might not experience that separation for being different based on us being Gentiles and not Jewish by heritage, what we do experience is that there are churches that are very different, and that there you could go to a white church or a black church or a Spanish-speaking church.
SPEAKER_00: You could go to these different churches that kind of separate based on ethnicity.
SPEAKER_00: You could go to a church that talks a lot about politics and really uh talks about the donkey and how that's great you should uh vote a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: And there are churches that also will talk about how if you're not um Republican and you're voting, are you even really saved?
SPEAKER_00: And it's weird that we still experience this division that Paul's saying, the dividing wall of hostility has been torn down.
SPEAKER_00: Or there are churches that say, hey, spiritual gifts are active, and here's the way that you need to exercise those.
SPEAKER_00: And there are churches that say, Ah, those ceased.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not let's not go there, let's not be weird.
SPEAKER_00: The church is divided all over all sorts of stupid things that it shouldn't be divided over.
SPEAKER_00: We should make the cross our main thing, and everything else is subservient to that.
SPEAKER_00: And we can celebrate differences.
SPEAKER_00: We can celebrate that there's diversity in the way that people vote in this congregation.
SPEAKER_00: We can say, we can celebrate that there's differences in ethnicity because our purpose is to reach every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_00: That's not every man, woman, and child if there is certain ethnicity.
SPEAKER_00: That's not every man, woman, and child if they vote like me.
SPEAKER_00: That's every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_00: And because every man, woman, and child is important to God, every man, woman, and child is important to me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm his ambassador, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that I should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we keep the main thing the main thing here at TBC.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we experience this unity together in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that I have more in common with.
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend visit from Morocco, he's a missionary, he and his wife and a few of their kids came over to our house last Saturday, and we had them over for dinner, and there he was telling me stories about some folks in Morocco.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you if you're like an American and you're living in Morocco, you can go and you can sing all the songs, you can preach Jesus and Him crucified.
SPEAKER_00: If you speak in Arabic, you can't sing certain songs.
SPEAKER_00: There's like an approved song list.
SPEAKER_00: If you start to worship Jesus, you lose your livelihood, you lose every job opportunity that you have because anybody who uh is not following Islam is cut off from work opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: They're cut out from their family.
SPEAKER_00: And so as he's telling me these stories of uh these tragic, heartbreaking stories of people that are losing everything to be sincere in following Jesus, I'm saying, wow, like it's crazy to me that I have more in common with the woman that I've never met in Morocco that's a grandma that's wanting to just faithfully follow Jesus than some of my believing, my unbelieving family that has the exact same genetic makeup as me.
SPEAKER_00: I have more in common with this person I've never met in Morocco that's a sweet old lady that's giving up everything to follow Jesus than my own unbelieving family.
SPEAKER_00: We're united in Christ, and it's this mind-blowing thing.
SPEAKER_00: And as we look at this, he takes it a step further.
SPEAKER_00: And you might be saying, James, it sounds like you're talking about a lot of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't even started Ephesians 3 yet.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you why we're doing that.
SPEAKER_00: It starts off with these three words.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He says, for this reason.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you see for this reason, you need to look back at what was before to find out what reason he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: So as we're gonna read Ephesians 3, 1 through 13, I want to invite you to stand up for the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read, and by let's read I mean I will read, and you will stand and hear the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read this together.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
SPEAKER_00: To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the ability to proclaim your word in fellowship together without fear of interruptions, without fear of uh intervention from hostile groups.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray uh that your kingdom will move forward in power as we look into your word, that you would hide me behind your cross, that you would speak to your people.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as you do, would you meet us here?
SPEAKER_00: Church, I want to invite you at this time to pray for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh pray that the Lord would speak to you through his word today.
SPEAKER_00: And if you would pray for me, that I would proclaim God's goodness in a way that would make sense, that it would be clear.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Lord, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: And we need you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you use this time to build your church?
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, we're gonna have three points from the text, and then we're gonna have one application question.
SPEAKER_00: Three points from the text.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is verses one and thirteen, the beginning and the end.
SPEAKER_00: These are sort of half thought, half ideas.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, he was starting a prayer, and he interrupts his own prayer by going off into this basking in the goodness of God for the mystery of uniting the church into one body.
SPEAKER_00: So you guys have had your prayers interrupted.
SPEAKER_00: He interrupts his own prayer because he's so excited about the mystery of God bringing the church into one body that he interrupts himself to go off on this discourse to then talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: But he introduces himself strangely.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus for your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was preaching the gospel of Jesus that he lived the perfect life we could never live.
SPEAKER_00: He died the death on the cross that we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He rose from the dead so that anyone who would call on the name of the Lord would be saved to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's doing that, he gets imprisoned.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't call himself a prisoner of Nero, he doesn't call himself a prisoner of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm compelled by Jesus to share the good news of Jesus with anyone and everyone I come into contact with, and because of that reason, I'm a prisoner of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to suffer joyfully because of Jesus, because I'm serving Jesus as I serve you, Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: The Ephesians were Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, As I share with you, Gentiles, I've been put in prison on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And then he wraps it up as he starts to go back into his prayer that we're gonna talk about next week.
SPEAKER_00: As he pauses, he says, I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I know that I'm the one in prison, but I'm asking that you don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: The guy in prison is telling those that are reading the letter, don't give up because I'm in here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up because I'm in chains, because the gospel is not bound.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not in a prison cell.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is moving forward in power, and we can celebrate that together.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, I'm a prisoner for Jesus, I'm doing this for Jesus, don't give up for what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Your glory is in you get the opportunity to hear and respond to the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Don't lose heart because I'm suffering so that you could hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up because I've done this for Jesus on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: So, Paul's ministry, the first part that we're going to look at, Paul's ministry was to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's ministry was to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: As a Christ-centered missionary, followed the will of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He was a prisoner of the king, he was a shepherd of the people, looking to their interests, not just his own, as he's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm in prison for you, I'm suffering for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm the one saying, Don't give up, don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he's a prisoner of Caesar, he says, No, I'm a prisoner of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he's imprisoned by Rome, it's for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: On behalf of y'all, the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: As he's experiencing this tribulation, he's also experiencing divine revelation.
SPEAKER_00: As he's going through the hardest of times, he's hearing the clearest from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when we suffer, we also know this to be true.
SPEAKER_00: In the unspeakable, unthinkable, most difficult circumstances, God meets us there.
SPEAKER_00: And he's gracious to meet us in that difficult, desperate, hopeless, by the world standard place to remind us of his great love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see here with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not worried about me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm worried about you guys.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see you grow in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: And this idea shouldn't be crazy for us because we we get it.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are willing to go through the hard thing for the better part that's on the other side of that.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to go through the difficulty because we know what's ahead is better.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we can do hard things when we see the greater good on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we will joyfully suffer when we see the greater good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one example of this would be potty training.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we will become prisoners in our own home for two to three weeks, depending on how fast your kid can learn, maybe what age they are when you're trying.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna become prisoners of our home so that on the greater side of this, so that the glory on the other side is what?
SPEAKER_00: Changing a few less diapers.
SPEAKER_00: You're still gonna be changing them, but not as many.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually, hopefully not at all for a while.
SPEAKER_00: A few less diapers, we see the greater glory, we can say, okay, it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, or a few weeks ago I tried uh wake surfing, and I was willing to get the sinus rinse, like misery of being baptized by fire and getting all the water all in my nose and uh not being able to breathe, almost feeling like I was gonna die, trying to stand up on the board for the greater good of standing up on the board, which never happened for me.
SPEAKER_00: Never happens, didn't get it figured out.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm willing, we're willing to do the hard thing when we see the better side just on the other side of that.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to suffer joyfully for the hope of what's on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: Childbearing is a great example of this.
SPEAKER_00: Two a days before football season is another great example of this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, going to fire school to prepare to be a fireman is another example of this.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go through the difficult stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'll train my buns off so that I can get that job, so that I can have a position on the team.
SPEAKER_00: Something hard now that prepares you for something much greater on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to endure that, right?
SPEAKER_00: But are we willing to endure that for gospel proclamation?
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to endure that so that more people might come and meet Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to invite our neighbors that are on our blessed list that we're praying for every day because we love the bless app?
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to open up the app or open up the email even if we don't like spam emails?
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to see more people come to know the best news ever.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see more people meet Jesus face to face.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to suffer for something great.
SPEAKER_00: And like this is this is a deep part of the text, and so I want to kind of pause and talk about suffering briefly, because Paul's ministry was to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: But suffering and affliction, it's part of all of our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's part of all of our ministry to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: Like those in Christ will suffer for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you've believed in Jesus Christ, your life is not sunshine and rainbows, it's not all cupcakes and gummy beers, you're gonna go through some hard things for Jesus' sake.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk about briefly what the Bible says about suffering, because this is really important for us to get this.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering for the sake of Christ is part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: God will use suffering to help followers of Jesus further identify with their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: It's also often the means that God uses to test a believer's faith and prove it to be true and lasting.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can suffer from For a day, will you suffer joyfully, consistently over time to prove that you're genuinely in Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: The word suffering in Ephesians 3 13 is the most common Greek word for suffering, thalypsis, which quite literally means affliction, oppressment, oppression, or harassment.
SPEAKER_00: The verb form of that means to press upon, crowd, to squeeze, to squash, to press.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of being pressed by negative circumstances of life is what it means when he's talking about suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering is part of being in the ministry or service of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul writes about it beautifully in other places.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, 16 through 18, he says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
SPEAKER_00: Like the suffering with Jesus is connected to being glorified with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There is heavenly reward that is tied to our suffering with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost identical to the point that we're making from this text.
SPEAKER_00: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's hard today, but there's glory on the other side, church.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him, cling to him, rely on him through the suffering, through the difficult, through the pain.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: We do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
SPEAKER_00: For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: All believers should anticipate suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Paul saw himself as the least of all these.
SPEAKER_00: He rightfully suffered immensely for Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he's following the example of Jesus in his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Jesus suffered in the service of the Father, so Paul suffered in the service of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I was reading last night to my son Luke, where Jesus is begging the Father, if there's any other way, let this cut pass for me.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, I will go through the hard thing if it honors you.
SPEAKER_00: If it's your will to save the world, absolutely, Father, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: He brings his grief, his sweaty blood to the Father, saying, If there's any other way, let's go that way.
SPEAKER_00: But not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: He was being pressed by that moment, bleeding through his sweat glands.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, believers should anticipate suffering in the pattern of Jesus as his beloved and his beloved apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Every believer should anticipate suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It's not if, but when.
SPEAKER_00: We're either headed into, coming out of, or in the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We should not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon us to test us as though it was some unexpected, strange thing.
SPEAKER_00: We should be ready for suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an option or a choice for the spiritually elite.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's for all of us who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is every believer's experience.
SPEAKER_00: It can come externally through persecution, by peers, overseers, family, friends, strangers.
SPEAKER_00: It can come naturally through suffering, through a health issue, catastrophe, accidents.
SPEAKER_00: It can come internally because you're sad and disheartened or depressed in response to some external events.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we limit it to like those big, terrible moments or suffering.
SPEAKER_00: No, we need to grow our view of what suffering is and say, this is an opportunity for me to be conformed to the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is an opportunity for me to suffer with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Our suffering is not arbitrary if we're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to glory to those who suffer and those who are being built up by the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Just as each person who's in Christ must share in his suffering, so too will each share in Christ's glory.
SPEAKER_00: The great hope of the return of Christ is joining him in his triumphant glory.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's ministry was to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: We see that very clearly here.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're going to see next is, he goes into who they are in this next section, who the church is in this next section.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 2 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Assuming you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written briefly.
SPEAKER_00: When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't made known before, it wasn't made known in other generations, but now it's been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, those who wrote the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They have this new knowledge, this new insight, which is what most of us are used to hearing, right?
SPEAKER_00: But it was news to all of them that we're hearing this.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery that Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the same body, fellow partakers of the promise of Christ through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery is gospel unity for every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_00: And we've sort of talked about this already that every man, woman, and child is important to God, so every man, woman, and child is important to me.
SPEAKER_00: There's this mystery of gospel unity for groups of people that maybe otherwise had no chance to be united, have a way to be united in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The dividing wall of hostility has been broken down.
SPEAKER_00: We can all come with the same access because the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's not like, hey, I'm better than you.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for that in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Especially not Taylor Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for this air of superiority.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're all coming equally to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That means we count everything we had before Christ as lost for the sake of knowing him and being found in him.
SPEAKER_00: We were saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: We can't boast.
SPEAKER_00: The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Man, uh I'll tell a sort of embarrassing story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I used to, I used to, when I first moved to Austin, we used to play a lot of sand volleyball.
SPEAKER_00: And I found that I was better at it than I anticipated.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was winning a lot of games in the sand volleyball and losing a lot of friends.
SPEAKER_00: And it was because I was a jerk when I played the sport.
SPEAKER_00: I was rude to others as I played the sport.
SPEAKER_00: I was knocking people over so that I could take the better shot.
SPEAKER_00: I was not just physically knocking them over, but like the air of like superiority that was in me was not compatible with the spirit of Christ that was in our group.
SPEAKER_00: And so this was an area that I had to turn and repent and grieve that there was sin in me that was becoming evident in those social fun situations because I cared more about winning than building community.
SPEAKER_00: I cared more about how much fun I was having or how much I was winning than what was going on as a whole in that group.
SPEAKER_00: We were there to build community, not tear it down.
SPEAKER_00: I was missing the whole point.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that this same idea happens in the church where we have this air of superiority, or this is I've got the right interpretation on this scripture, and you you just don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: And that same way of maybe you're not knocking them down to hit the better shot, but we tend to tear each other down when we miss having our sights on the main thing of Jesus Christ being the main thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we lose sight of that, then we will lose friends, we'll lose the unity that God wants us to experience.
SPEAKER_00: That gospel unity is precious and beautiful and so important to God, and that's why it has to be important to us church as his ambassadors.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of crazy the way Paul's talking about it because he's talking about him being the least of the saints, but also like, hey, I've got the best news ever.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else has heard it before.
SPEAKER_00: God gave it directly to me to give to his church, but I'm the least of these.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm the I'm the worst of the worst.
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm going through the worst and the worst of the times, but God has given me like this incredible mystery to proclaim to all of you.
SPEAKER_00: This mystery of unity for every man, woman, and child in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That we all are saved by grace through faith in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's no room to boast, there's no room to look down on others because they're slow to get it.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers.
SPEAKER_00: There's like all of these uh words in the Greek that it's like S-Y-N, the same prefixes on them.
SPEAKER_00: And we kind of miss it in the way that it's translated, unless it was really literal in the translation where it said, co-heirs, co-members, co-partakers of the promise of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's this three words where he's saying, Hey, we're heirs together, we're members together, we're partakers together.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the unity?
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to get the church to see the unity that we have in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That God broke down that wall of division, he brought us near so that we could be on equal footing before God.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's a sweet line in uh the book and the movie, uh, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, where uh the teacher or the play director says, There are no small parts, only small actors.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea is the same in the church.
SPEAKER_00: There are no small parts in the body of Christ, uh, only smaller individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's no place for an air of superiority in that body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're not less significant if you're a toe, than if you're a finger, than if you're an eyeball, than if you're a shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't have an increased significance if you stand on a stage.
SPEAKER_00: There's no room for that in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We've all been brought near in the same way, and it's when we lose sight of that that we become arrogant, insufferable Christians.
SPEAKER_00: When we lose sight of us being bought by the blood of Jesus, that we become really difficult for a new person to walk in here and say, Yeah, that's my church.
SPEAKER_00: I could belong here.
SPEAKER_00: And God can use those in any circumstance to advance his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He can take your worst circumstances and use them for his good purposes.
SPEAKER_00: He can take your mess and turn it into a message, he can take your test and turn it into a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: He can use anything, even the one who says that he's the least of these.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're saying, I'm too broken, I'm not worthy, he still wants to use you to show his goodness to the world.
SPEAKER_00: He has unique work that you would walk in.
SPEAKER_00: So don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up, don't walk away.
SPEAKER_00: It's not meant to be easy, it's not gonna be easy.
SPEAKER_00: Our suffering is meant to make us more like Christ, it's meant to shape us to be like him.
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen the ministry of Paul, gospel proclamation, we've seen the mystery of Paul, gospel unity for every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_00: And now let's see the purpose of the church that's disclosed here.
SPEAKER_00: What's the purpose of the church?
SPEAKER_00: To display God's wisdom to the watching world.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the church is to show off God's wisdom to the world that is watching.
SPEAKER_00: We as a church get to show off Jesus' goodness to the world that is watching.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Paul was the very least of the saints, he was given this grace to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to bring delight for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Hey church, you get to show angels and demons the plans and purposes of God that God never told them.
SPEAKER_00: You get to show through your supernatural, mind-blowing unity the purposes of God, to unite all things in himself through the Son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this in Ephesians 1, 9 and 10, where it says, What's the purpose of all of this?
SPEAKER_00: To unite all things in himself, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose set forth in Christ, a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Showing this incredible supernatural unity displays God's wisdom to the watching world, both natural and supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: Like even the angels, even the demons, the authorities and rulers in heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't like God's surprise plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like a whodunit mystery.
SPEAKER_00: It's like now it's made visible to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's uncovered so that you can all see it.
SPEAKER_00: It was always his purpose, his eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: How can Paul speak so confidently if he's really the least of these?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has boldness and access through Jesus Christ, his perfect life that was imputed on us who believe.
SPEAKER_00: So now when God sees me, he doesn't see how much of a mess I am.
SPEAKER_00: He sees his perfect son Jesus and what he's done for us.
SPEAKER_00: So don't lose heart, don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the church is to display God's wisdom to the watching world.
SPEAKER_00: This grace and power are so mighty that Paul, the former Pharisee, said, Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, count them as garbage, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing on this earth compares with the vastness, the greatness, the unsearchable riches of knowing Jesus and being found in him.
SPEAKER_00: The incalculable riches are made known to Paul as he shows off the mystery hidden in ages in God.
SPEAKER_00: God is stitching people from every race, gender, ethnicity together into a beautiful work of art, the church, that masterpiece, to demonstrate to the spiritual world and the physical world what God's kingdom looks like.
SPEAKER_00: This mosaic of beauty, of bringing all people from all places, every tribe, every tongue together to worship Him.
SPEAKER_00: People with different worldviews, people with different beliefs prior to meeting Jesus, people that still might vote differently.
SPEAKER_00: He's uniting in his son Jesus to demonstrate what God's kingdom looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Showing this picture of Satan to Satan of God's victory and Satan's defeat.
SPEAKER_00: Demonstrating a world of what it looks like when heavenly values operate in history.
SPEAKER_00: What does this look like in real life?
SPEAKER_00: What does this look like when the tire meets the road?
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: It looks like uh churches partnering together to showcase the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is last week I preached at FBC Taylor, uh, and it was great.
SPEAKER_00: I preached the same message here as there as I'm preaching now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh got to practice a week early uh here at FBC Taylor in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at their screen here, you can see there they prayed for a building for Taylor Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Like here we are at FBC Taylor.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a big Taylor Bible Church logo on the screen because they said, Hey, how can we pray for Taylor Bible Church?
SPEAKER_00: What are you guys praying for?
SPEAKER_00: You're praying for a building.
SPEAKER_00: We want to pray with you guys for a building.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we're in competition, this makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't go and help another church and preach for them.
SPEAKER_00: You don't swap pulpits with them if you're competing for the same resources.
SPEAKER_00: No, but if you're in collaboration together saying, how can we reach more people with the best news ever?
SPEAKER_00: How can we reach every man, woman, and child with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: You do stuff like this where you go and you preach at another person's church because you want to showcase the goodness of Jesus and show God's manifold wisdom to the whole watching world.
SPEAKER_00: So you're willing to do this, you're willing to pray for another church that they might have a building in a church home.
SPEAKER_00: You're willing to go and preach at another church, you're willing to work together and say, how can we strategize to see more bridges built to see the broken made new in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: That's their purpose statement.
SPEAKER_00: How can we reach more people with the life changing around Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How can we help more people to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because the purpose of the church is to display God's wisdom to the watching world.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we partner with like-minded organizations to reach more people.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we want to reach people that will never walk through the doors of Taylor Bible Church, wherever we may be, wherever those doors might be.
SPEAKER_00: If you know, that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell me when you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, would love to know where those doors would be.
SPEAKER_00: Would love to partner with more people, like Hand in Harvest, with the back to school bash that we're packing a bunch of hygiene bags for, where we say, hey, everybody that can, please stay after and pack hygiene bags to support another uh nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00: Like Hand and Harvest is not Taylor Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: We love Hand and Harvest.
SPEAKER_00: We are not Hand and Harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a great, that's really important for us to distinguish because we want to partner with other organizations that are not us to see more people reach with the best news ever, to sow more goodness into Eastern Williamson County that is suspicious of church groups and might not walk into a church building for a hot second.
SPEAKER_00: But they will come and get a bag so that they can clean up.
SPEAKER_00: They will come and get a pantry bag so that they can eat.
SPEAKER_00: They will come and get a backpack at the backs of school bash.
SPEAKER_00: And we love Hand and Harvest.
SPEAKER_00: I've got another picture of Tim and Mandy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just because we love Tim and Mandy and they're uh persuasive.
SPEAKER_00: You can go see that bus in person if you just walk outside after church today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we did our Thanksgiving back, our Thanksgiving meal with them, community Thanksgiving, because we wanted to partner with Hand and Harvest to feed hungry people.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna continue to show up and serve the Greater Taylor area, Eastern Williamson County, because we love Jesus and we want to partner with him in what he's doing here.
SPEAKER_00: And so we say, okay, let's write a check for$5,000 and gift it to Han and Harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Let's write a check for$5,000 and gift it to that new church plant that just started this week with Life Story Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's partner with like-minded organizations to advance the kingdom of God because those are God's resources, not mine.
SPEAKER_00: Those are God's resources, not Taylor Bible Church's resources.
SPEAKER_00: So we use those for God's purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Those gifts that we receive are not our own.
SPEAKER_00: They're gifts that God has given us to steward for him and to use for his kingdom advancement.
SPEAKER_00: So even if we don't benefit directly from some of this activity, even if we don't benefit directly from some of where those dollars go, we praise God for his provision and we praise God for his kingdom moving forward in power.
SPEAKER_00: So last Sunday we had uh Josh Jackson preach here.
SPEAKER_00: You guys saw him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he preached for us, we gave him a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they had their soft launch service, we got a picture of that too.
SPEAKER_00: Uh their meeting in Farley Middle School, we prayed for them in our service.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see the big se church win because that's how we display God's wisdom to the watching world.
SPEAKER_00: We are for the big sea church.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that that's abundantly clear, not just today, but all the time that you're a part of Taylor Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: We we don't want to talk bad about another church, we don't want to bash another church.
SPEAKER_00: That's not who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We are for God's kingdom moving forward in power.
SPEAKER_00: So if any church preaches Jesus, if any nonprofit is doing good in the name of Jesus, we say, How can we partner with them?
SPEAKER_00: How can we support them?
SPEAKER_00: How can we love them?
SPEAKER_00: How can we encourage them?
SPEAKER_00: So, church, we've seen Paul's ministry to joyfully suffer for gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen the mystery of gospel unity for every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen the purpose of the church to show off, display God's wisdom to the watching world.
SPEAKER_00: How do we live this out?
SPEAKER_00: The question is this are you displaying God's wisdom to the world?
SPEAKER_00: If you're here and you haven't trusted in Jesus, join the family.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with joining the family, belonging to his family, trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here and you're a Christian, it starts with you trusting and valuing God's purpose in you.
SPEAKER_00: Valuing the saints from the least to the greatest, valuing the ministry that he's given to you, regardless of your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: How do we value his divine purpose in our lives for our lives?
SPEAKER_00: He wants to use your suffering to advance his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to use your ministry to unite all things in himself.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to use our unity as a witness to the world that is watching.
SPEAKER_00: We need one another.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're a body.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't get to just say, I don't really, I'm not really feeling it today.
SPEAKER_00: The World Cup's on.
SPEAKER_00: Let me go and watch that instead.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're a body.
SPEAKER_00: Belong to the body, enjoy the body, be a part of the body, be connected to the body.
SPEAKER_00: Make it a priority to worship together.
SPEAKER_00: Make it a priority to be involved in each other's lives, not just in the Sunday worship gathering, not just in the small group environment, but beyond that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Be part of the family.