A Dwelling Place For God: From Death To Life

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Our Old Testament scripture reading is Genesis 3 1 through 7 and then continue 22 through 24

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Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made He said to the woman that God actually say you should not eat of the tree of the garden

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And the woman said to the serpent We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden But God said you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden neither

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So you touch it lest you die But the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die

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For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good from evil

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So the woman saw that the tree was good for food And then it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise

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She took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate

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Then the eyes of both were open and that they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloth and then 22 through 24

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Then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil now lest He reach out his hand and I'll take also the tree of life and eat and live forever

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Therefore the Lord God sent out from him Sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken

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He drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden He placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned away

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Every they turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life The New Testament scripture reading can be found in Colossians 2 starting in verse 6

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Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus in the Lord So walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving

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See to it that no one takes you captive by the philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition

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According to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been taken

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You have been filled in him who is the head of all authority of rule and authority in him

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Also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God Who raised him from the dead and you were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh

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God made a life God made alive together with him Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands

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This he set aside nailing it to the cross He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing triumphing over them in him

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You may be seated Thank you for your singing it is so good to come together with God's people

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After a long or perhaps short week and to be able to come together and hear other saints sing to the

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Lord It is just wonderful. It's so wonderful to hear you singing I ask for you to open your

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Bibles to Ephesians 2, please the Ephesians chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 the next couple weeks that I have you will go through the whole chapter the whole chapter 2 here if Lord willing

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Ephesians 2 verse 1 and You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world

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Following the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and Whereby nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind

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But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us

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Even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ it's by grace you have been saved and Raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages

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He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have 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 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Therefore remember that at one time you

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Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision Which is made in the flesh by hands

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Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise

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Having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought brought near by the blood of Christ For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down the flesh in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself

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One new man in place of the two so making peace It might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross

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Thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off in peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one spirit to the

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Father so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God built on The foundation of the

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Apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together

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Grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him in Christ in Jesus You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit God in heaven your gospel is Marvelous in our eyes. There's nothing that can compare to this plan of salvation that you have had since before time began it's amazing to consider

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Lord that you have brought and worked all things for the good of Your Saints of the

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Bride of Christ and for your glory as Christ is glorified in us Lord that you would work in this evil and bring about this great end in which we are the dwelling place of God in Which we are the temple of God in which in our deadness you made us alive in Christ.

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It is Marvelous in our eyes God open our hearts this morning for worship

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Lord open my mouth and may I preach Christ crucified and the true gospel

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Lord be with me in my weakness and be with the people before me in their weakness as well as we

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Strive to come closer to Christ utilizing the power of the Spirit that you so graciously give us

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Lord Thank you for this time together. May you bless it For we are needy of you in Jesus name.

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Amen Well two weeks ago If you remember

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I started with a sermon and we went to the second Corinthians 2 9 in which

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I quoted from Paul And there he says what no eye has seen or ear heard nor heart of man imagined

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What God has prepared for those who love him Remember in order to get that great gift

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God has for us and a gift that we can't even fathom We must remember

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Preach the offensive Word of God and we must receive the offensive Word of God And I kind of want to platform off of that that truth

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I want to platform off of that truth and see that Paul actually states these things quite often

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Again, we are here We go to God for the greatest thing we could ever receive from him and we see this again

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Paul repeats himself in a different way in this great book of Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3

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You notice in Ephesians 1 chapter verse 3 He says blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with Some spiritual blessing no with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

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There's this idea that in Christ in this Christianity that we have we are

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Welcome into the greatest gift the greatest thing that God could have ever given to us and to expect nothing less once more

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Like I said two weeks ago is limiting God and what he has given us We must always challenge ourselves to receive more and more from God and to never limit him or put him in a box

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Right away in this beautiful epistle Paul is telling us that this great marvelous truth that he has blessed us with literally every spiritual blessing in Jesus we are not to limit that our worship is not to limit that that is ours in reality if we are found in Christ In fact, he goes on to say in verse 17 and 18 of chapter 1

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His prayer for the church is that we would grow more and to understand

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The depths of the grace and the mercies found in Jesus that we wouldn't limit ourselves that we wouldn't just stay at a certain

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Pace and be like, okay, I'm finished. I'm done, but we would continuously strive more and more to understand this great marvelous

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Gospel this great marvelous salvation that God has prepared for his saints. He says in verse 17.

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It's his prayer that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory

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May give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Christ Having the eyes of our hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you

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What are the riches of his inglorious inheritance in the

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Saints? We can see that his desire is for our hearts to be opened up more and more to this gift that he has given us in Jesus Christ and we could see then in chapter 2

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I believe this is what Paul's doing and he's detailing how we have received this great marvelous spiritual gift from God verses 1 through 10

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We see individually how we have wit from being in sin and dead and our trespasses to being alive together the

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Christ in which we're Receiving these great benefits verses 1 through 10 is what we'll be on in chapter 2

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Today and it's speaking more individually you as an individual Christian What happened to you when you went from being dead to being made alive in Christ and receiving these benefits more and more and more?

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in verses 11 through 20 We'll see how individually we come together to make a corporate body a corporate church in which as a church

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We are actually growing more into the spiritual blessings this gift that God has given us

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And I think it culminates and I want to focus on this verse and then bring it with us as we go through verses 1 through 10 to perhaps hopefully give greater light on these verses that we probably have memorized and gone over our head a lot and that Versus at the very end of this chapter in which he says in chapter 2 verse 22

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I don't even go to verse 21. It's the same thought in Christ the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy

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Temple in the Lord that is the purpose of the church is to be the temple of God and in verse 22 in him you

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Beloved also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. This is the telos of all of creation telos is the goal the plan the desire of God when he made

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Creation was very particular and specific. He didn't create willy -nilly with any kind of plan that might happen

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We'll see what happens when I create the heavens and the earth the spiritual realm the physical realm No God had a very particular what we can say telos when he made his goal was very clear and that is that the physical

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World would be a dwelling place for the spiritual realities of God His desire from the beginning was to dwell in this physical realm that we take for granted that it would be the kingdom of God And the very beginning of the

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Bible we see this in Adam Adam was created all of creation was created the spiritual world

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The the physical world was created and all sudden in this earth We get this garden this very beautiful garden and we get

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Adam being placed in there and we see that he has this one Role this one was to take care of this garden in which

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God intimately dwelled with Adam and we see that he was given a command to obey and Through his obedience.

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He was to bring about this great kingdom on this earth this great presence of God on this earth

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We've all been in Sunday school class. We know what Adam did he didn't obey did he and said he disobeyed

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And so what happens is instead of this great? Dwelling of God with man on earth in which we spread it across the world and said the great kingdom of darkness is spread across the world

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We see this right at the beginning the problem happening that Adam sinned and so all the world falls into chaos and to sin all his offspring all the way down to us

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Where we are born in Adam as our representative head This is the very opposite of the telos of God is it not he wanted to dwell with man and instead

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Sin dwells with man instead disobedience dwells with man instead death is spread by Adam But we know this the whole breadth of Scripture doing not what happens in Revelation 21.

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It's beautiful, isn't it? What is what is declared in Revelation 21? Behold the dwelling place of God is with man

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See the whole purpose of the Bible in between the failure of Adam and that great statement in the end of Revelation is

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For there to be this great thing that's happened that behold the dwelling place of God is now with man again What's happened in between should be marvelous in our eyes that God could say such a statement

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When we had fallen in sin Behold the dwelling place of God is with man

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It is no coincidence that a chapter later the very end of the book of the whole Bible the very end of Revelation All of a sudden we start to see garden

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Talk again. We start to see that river of life. We start to see the tree of life We start to see the garden playing itself out again.

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Only it's the renewed garden the renewed presence of God No longer stained with sin and no longer is it so much a garden as it is the city and that is the new

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Jerusalem and this new Jerusalem is the church It's a church It's a bride of Christ and so we see in between what's going on the way that the presence of God can be with man and man can be the

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Temple of God like he always supposed to was because of what Christ has done And this is really the story unfolding in chapter 2

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How we can go from being dead in sin to alive in Christ Where the dwelling place of God is with man once more and why this should affect our worship

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We shouldn't come in here with boring worship, right? We shouldn't come in here with dead worship any time

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You see the worship of God going on the dwelling place of God and the in the

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Bible It is exciting stuff open up to Revelation open up to when John Beholds heaven and the worship going on in heaven and it will get you pumped up to worship

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God not in a boring way Anytime we see worship going on to God the dwelling place of God revealed

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It is the most exciting worship I'm not talking about the fog machines and the electric guitars and the way that we try to make it exciting because the gospel isn't

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Enough for us. I talk about genuine and true gospel exciting worship. This is our identity

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Why do we worship God because our identity is with him now our identity is no longer in sin is with God This is

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What makes Ephesians 2 22 so wonderful in? him in Christ you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit We enjoy the taste of it today Right God dwelling in our midst today while we anticipate the full completed thing the full completed thing in the future

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That is our hope that is our hope So Ephesians 2 is how we went from being failed

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Representatives of God on earth and Adam to receiving all the spiritual blessings by being true representatives of God in Christ Ephesians 2 is how we go from being failed representatives dead in our sins not representing

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Christ God not dwelling with us By the end of it it can be proclaimed that in him we are being built together to be the dwelling place of God Ephesians 2 is powerful with how this development has happened

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And so we can see at the very beginning Ephesians 2 verse 1. That's what Paul says

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Says in you Again, this is verses 1 through 10 is what we'll be focusing on and it's more on an individual basis

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He says in you were dead You who were once not in Christ you who were once not in Christ you were dead in the trespasses and sins

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I was watching a Think is YouTube video of this man who died base jumping

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Who knows what base jumping is? I? Want to know one knows a bit. Okay, we know we got a couple how many base jumpers do we have in here?

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We don't have too many No base jumping is you know, typically you parachute off from an airplane and that's insane enough

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How many people have done that how many people have parachuted out insanity? I saw maybe a half of a hand so you you went up there you but you didn't jump off then

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I take that as A half the hand it was kind of like that Parachuting typically off of an airplane which is insane enough base jumping is when you parachute off of like an object

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That's on the earth. So a mountain or whatever. It's a very dangerous sport

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And many people die from it as you can imagine It's one of the most dangerous Activities you can do your insurance will will go up pretty high if you if you tell them that you like to base jump and There was this man who you can watch it on YouTube.

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I didn't watch the whole thing. I was kind of got bored, but He died. I shouldn't say that Didn't really bring that together.

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Well, but he died base jumping right? He had an accident base jumping it was a tragic accident and The but the one thing that people kept on saying about him is that although he died he lived

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You know like when he was living he was really alive and the world can understand that there's an aspect in which we can be physically alive but spiritually dead the world understands that the world understands when you talk like that like even while you're alive you can be dead and To the world's understanding with this individual is when he was physically alive.

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He was truly alive He wasn't dead like many people are and Paul. So he when he speaks this way and you were dead

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He's not talking like you were physically dead. You were physically alive, but you were spiritually dead Our minds can go back to that temple to the presence of God, right the telos or the goal of God To be spiritually alive was to be spiritually representing him to the world, right?

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This is what it means to be spiritually alive is that we are fulfilling the mandate the goal that God has for mankind

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And that is to spiritually represent him to the world to the physical world So when we fail to do that When we slow down When we fail to do that We are spiritually dead because we're not following the goal that God has for us

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The spiritual has kissed the physical and the man represents the spiritual but when we fail to do that We no longer are spiritual.

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I've and they were spiritually dead but to the world To be spiritually alive

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To be alive while you're living is more of like in this case It's like a rush, you know, like he he was willing to risk and have a rush, you know

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It's excitement emotional. It's excitement you can hear a lot of times a man who leaves his wife

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Because he just does that feel alive or he feels alive with this other girl, right?

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I just had to because I just I actually feel alive with this other girl, right? It's emotionally it feels good to me, right?

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It's exciting, it's emotionally exciting. So therefore I'm alive we can think of an empty nester a

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Mother who is struggling because she's only saw her livelihood and taking care of kids

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So now outside of that as an empty nester, she can feel almost dead as she walks, right?

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this is a a life that you have a Spiritual vitality if I even may use that that's outside of what

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God has for you You see when Paul talks about being dead, he's not talking about the emotional whatever is up to you.

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Whatever makes you alive That's what he's referring to when he talks about death. He says you're dead in what?

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Trespasses and sins what are trespasses and sins what makes them so bad Trespassing is being where you don't belong.

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Who's the one who identifies where you belong? Not us Not whatever I think in my own heart follow your heart for it's never wrong

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God is the one who decides where you belong and when you are not where you belong you are dead

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Since what does sin mean sin means to miss the mark Who identifies what that mark is?

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Is it our heart who's never wrong? No It is God who identifies the mark and when you miss the mark and you're doing what you are not ought you should not be

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Doing you are dead while you are physically alive The telos of God the objective of God for your life is what for you to represent him well for you to be the temple for him to dwell with you your sanctification and When it becomes something different and I'm alive when

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I'm doing this instead you are missing the mark You are transgressing you are dead

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It's good to be a mother, right? It's I guess good to base jump.

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It's not sinful of itself I don't yeah, I I don't want to think too hard about that But there's certain things that it's good to do

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But when it's not within the keeping of what God has for you to represent him to glorify him to be the kingdom of God Within your own self you are in sin

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You are transgressing you are dead even while you do those things that you think make you alive, right?

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You were dead Paul says And the trespasses and sins Notice who in the sin we are following Notice in the sin who are we are following that's leading us to not obedience, but disobedience

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He says in which you once walked again You were dead in the trespasses verse 2 and sins and once in which you once walked right your lifestyle following the course of this world

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Now that's not bad if the world is not engulfed in sin But you remember what happened with Adam He brought the world in sin.

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So following the course of this world is no. No, it's not good. It's following a corrupted system Why is it corrupted following the prince of the power of the air?

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The spirit that is now at work in the sons of not obedience. This isn't the

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Holy Spirit This is a very different spirit a sinister spirit This is a spirit that leads you not into obedience as we have and the

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Holy Spirit But this is a spirit that leads you on to Disobedience This is a spirit that leads you on to disobedience to where it's not about what

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God would want for me It's about what I would want for me. Isn't this the trick of the devil to Adam? You're not to eat that don't eat it

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But it looked good to Eve. It's not about what God wants Eve misses the mark by saying it's what

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I want and that kingdom of what I want what I want spreads in darkness

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It's missing the mark it's disobedience to God You go and tell someone about how it's important to be obedient to God They will scoff at you the spirit is at work and the nature of being obedient in general

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It's something to scoff at my good old -fashioned punk rock days and in high school was all about disobedience

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It was cool to be disobedient to parents Disobedient to the government disobedience was the cool thing.

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We were being rebels Well, in fact, that's what the devil is working in the system, that's what he is working in our hearts to do to be disobedient

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This is the system of the world It's to be disobedient from what God has for you to do

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To be the presence of God on this earth to be obedient to him and in our natural states

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And our sin we follow the prince of the power at work in the air, which is leading us on to disobedience

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Rather than the obedience he had for us What does he say in verse 3 among whom we all he's probably talking about Jew and Greek alike.

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He says all of us Were once we all once lived in the what is this passions of our flesh?

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Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind right this kingdom of darkness this

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Opposite of what God would have for you. It operates in a way. That's very cunning and very deceptive

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It feels good to feel good It feels good to feel good about a certain action and we do it.

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It feels good I mean, it's very hard to say that even though it feels good. It's not good for you

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You see Satan works in deception in which how he gets his subjects to do what they do

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It's because it feels good to our flesh you know Passions desires those are good things.

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That's good to be passionate It's good to have desires. We don't want to Throw out the baby with the bathwater and say well, no any kind of desire any kind of passion is bad

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It's what is our passion in is it in the flesh? Is it in the self?

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Is it what I want or is it in what God wants and to be the representative of God and to glorify him?

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For him to be the dwelling place with me It's good to have desire. It's good to have passion.

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It's good to have desire But where is our desire in if we are in the world system?

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It will be in things that are in keeping with our own desires our own self desires with no mind for God at all

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We cannot be obedient to God that with desires that run contrary to God and the world

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System the system of the devil the kingdom of darkness that spread from Adam was based off of following your desires your passions

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For they are never wrong Beloved they are always wrong When they're not in keeping with the tell us of God for you to be the dwelling place of God here on earth

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Our desire is our passions our worship It's to be obedient to our

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God and to glorify him forever in all that we do Question is how do we do that or what does he go on to say in verse 4?

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or the rest of verse 3 We are by nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind by nature.

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We are in the state Notice how he uses children because we are born naturally Not glorifying

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God as a temple, but rather in the wrath of God We were created originally to glorify him

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But instead of being children of glorifying our God and said we are naturally children of his wrath

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Whenever we are not following what God would have for us. We are naturally occurring We are receiving his wrath.

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That's just the natural state of things either we glorify him We are obedient to him or there's only thing one left for us and that is

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God's wrath There is no in -between and so in the state of Adam We are born and by nature children of wrath wrath like all a mankind like everyone else.

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This is our state This is who we are instead of being

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By nature temples of God we are by nature the opposites we are receiving his wrath instead

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The next two words in verse 4 is amazing It could say and God You look at verse 4.

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It's pretty bad news, isn't it? It's not that you're just a you sin It's that by nature in your birth you were enslaved to sin and that's what you desired to do from the heart to be the in the kingdom of sin in the kingdom of darkness and Satan's camp

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It's pretty bad news and we could have gotten and God And if we got and God that would be really bad news for us because that would be a continuation, right?

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This is how it was and God continued by pouring down his wrath upon us for eternity, right?

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And that would be rightfully Okay, he has built us made us created us for a particular purpose.

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We rebel against him and God gives us wrath Right, but there's a different word

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It's but That word but means there's something different now. It's gonna happen. It was this way

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We're talking about a certain thing then something completely changes, right? We were deserving of God's wrath in the kingdom of Satan then we get that word but And it's that next word.

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We know it's gonna be successful because it says but God Being what rich in mercy

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Mercy, we don't deserve something or we deserve something and he doesn't give it to us, right? We deserve this wrath

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That's coming upon us right instead of being the temple of God where the temple of Satan we deserve the wrath

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But what does he give us instead because of his mercy because of his mercy He goes on to say being because of the great love with which he loved us

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God Love to us is based off of or it's mixed in with his mercy So it's not like God looked at his elect from before time began and said they're just so darn cute and cuddly

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I got to just you know, give him grace and mercy It's it's because despite the fact that we were unlovable

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God's love is so eternally beyond us that he loved us anyways Where we would not see within ourselves to be able to love someone in this state that has rebelled against the spit in our face

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And instead goes to our enemy God's love is mixed in with his mercy in which he loves us anyways

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Our worship should come forth from the fact that God has loved me when I was unlovable When I was an enemy of his when

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I rebelled against him when I was in the enemy's camp and I liked it It's one thing to be it's one thing to to be forced against your will

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But we were by nature children of wrath it was in our Passions and desires and instead of and God puts the finger down on us puts his hand down on us and smashes us

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But God because of his mercy loved us

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Great love with which he loved us verse 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses

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Even when that was our state He made us alive together with Christ Christ being mentioned here is vitally important You see again

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Adam was to have a temple where he was to have the kingdom of God coming forth from him That was supposed to be what was gonna happen and it said what he gives is the kingdom of darkness the kingdom of Satan But we see this this new thing that God is doing in which at the end in Revelation Say behold the dwelling place of God is with man this new thing is going to be the temple of God, but not quite like Adams not based off of a

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Keeping of the law of ourselves not keeping of the commandment of ourselves But this one's going to be the cornerstone is going to going to be this man named

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Jesus Christ You see we have the sin problem in the way that leads us into the kingdom of darkness that makes our desires wicked that makes

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Us follow Satan, but Christ does something Magnificent in which he forgives us of the sin problem

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So this is why this new temple this new presence of God is going to be the cornerstone Christ Jesus because he takes care of this sin problem

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Says again when we were dead in our trespasses and our sins he made us alive together with Christ How is that?

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We'll look at chapter 1 verse 7 Look at chapter 1 verse 7 of Ephesians in him and Jesus in Christ.

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We have redemption And it's through Jesus's blood and that is the forgiveness of our trespasses

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So with that trespass being forgiven and taken away then no longer are we enslaved to the devil and his king of a darkness

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Well, how does he do it? What did Christ do? He redeemed us through his blood to be redeemed

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To be redeemed is to be purchased we're enslaved to something and we are bought out of it to be free and Jesus buys us out of slavery and he buys us out and what is his payment?

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What is he given to buy us out his blood? He redeems us by his work on the cross This whole thing of what's going on in creation with Jesus coming

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You understand this is all for him to be glorified that there would be a problem in which we're enslaved to sin and we are

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Bought out by Jesus Christ to him be glory forever and ever amen This problem

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God allows so that Jesus can come and be the one who redeems He allows it for the glory of his son to purchase a bride for himself

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We see that this new temple this new behold the dwelling of God is with man despite the sin

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It's because Jesus came and took care of sin. He is our cornerstone. He is our confession

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He is who we proclaim because of his redemption He has redeemed us

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Forgiven us of our sins. So no longer are we following the prince of the power of the air

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No longer are we in the kingdom of darkness because of this forgiveness And Paul says he almost interrupts his thought here

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Because it's Christ working by grace He says in verse 5 by grace you have been saved, right?

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So what does this temple look like? It's the temple of the Lord Jesus Christ his body and it's working along with grace this

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Undeserved favor towards you right if you are in Christ if you are in his body in his temple

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That's because grace has met you where you are That's because he didn't give you what you deserved, which is wrath

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He was merciful to you and said he's given you grace and this grace has brought you into his kingdom in which

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God Dwells with you because your trespasses has been forgiven

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And look what he says in verse 6 He raised us up We are redeemed

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Our trespasses have been forgiven so therefore we no longer have the identity in Satan in the kingdom of darkness our desires and our passions have changed because of forgiveness and look what he says in verse 6 he raised us up with him and Seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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This isn't like a future tense He will raise us up with him When he redeemed us when he saved you in space and time

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Part of what he's done is he's raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus You see

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Christ is seated at the right hand of the father victorious over sin And he brings that victory over sin into your individual life and brings you up to be at the right hand of the father with him

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So as Christ is victorious at the right hand of the father So you are victorious at the right hand of the father.

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How many of us are in heaven right now? This happened to you when you were saved how many of us can say that we've been up at heaven and that's where we're at Well physically no

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Even spiritually it's hard to say we have been and in a certain sense though when we are saved we are brought above this kingdom of darkness this worldly system led by Satan and instead we're brought into the heavenly of heavenlies at the right hand of the

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Father to be victorious with Christ. That is our identity. That is where we belong that is our home is to be where Christ is at the right hand of the father and so Physically, we're still down here though and spiritually

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But then so what are we to be as we're down here? What is a temple a temple is a is the spiritual home?

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So to speak that the dwelling place or the intentional place where God resides on earth And so we become the temples of God because although our identity in our home is in with Christ at the right hand of the

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Father we are physically still walking around to be that kind of presence down here Our worship is to be with the identity that we are sitting at the right hand of the father with Christ We are to be the representatives of God We are to be the dwelling place of God on earth because that is where our identity is

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When you want to be drawn away to sin When you want your worship to stink, right we all have that don't we?

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Am I the only one who struggles with like stinky worship right boring worship just awfully boring

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When we're struggling with that, how do we get out of that? We got to remind ourselves where our home where our identity is

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I'm not saying that we don't you know We can fall into this I don't play tonic kind of view that there's a spiritual realm and a physical realm and the physical realm

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Doesn't matter at all. It's all about the spiritual realm I hear people talk like that quite often like just that's like a

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Gnostic point of view No the physical Deeply matters and we are to know that our identity is found in the heavenlies with Christ and that is to show itself physically in this world so when we're in this world and we're overwhelmed with sin

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Boring worship we remind ourselves of where we belong that is to be with Christ at the right hand of the father

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Victorious over our sin and with that identity with that that that that Objective truth then it gives us the power through the spirit to kind of change how we act

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Verse 6 and he raised us when he saved us up and seated us with him Beyond the worldly way of working beyond the kingdom of darkness rather We are seated at the right hand of the father place where Jesus is so that look at verse 7

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In the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus you see that so that in the coming ages right from this age on forth into eternity.

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Why has he done this? Why has he given us grace through Jesus Christ so that we might show the immeasurable riches of his what?

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Grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus so that we would be the temple of God displaying the grace of God in Jesus Christ who has forgiven us of our sins

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He leaves us here in this physical world for us to be a manifestation a showing forth of the grace of God in Christ All the way into eternity into the renewed heavens and the renewed earth and which will be that temple once more a temple

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Completed right? This is the grace of God displayed in Jesus Christ. I must hurry verse 8 for by grace

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You have been saved For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God Not a result of works so that no one may boast

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God's not gonna have a temple. God's not gonna have the dwelling place of God in which we can dwell in our own abilities

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God allows all that he does and sin and everything so that he can then conquer it Give us the gift of Jesus so that our boasts will be in Christ and not our own works or in Adams works or anything else it'd be in Rather Christ Jesus and his work for by grace.

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You have been saved through faith Grace faith is connected with Jesus, isn't it? Grace has given us something and that given us of something the vehicle of that is trust belief upon the

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Lord Jesus Christ Faith is a vehicle of grace We receive grace through faith

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And look at it's this is he says not your own doing it is the gift of God It's what is it?

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It is grace and faith Many people like to say that your faith needs to be something that you do grace is something he gives to you

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Now the whole kitten caboodle is the gift of God. We shall not boast We will rather boast in the

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Lord Jesus Christ that although I was dead in my sins He's made me alive together with Christ through faith in him by his unmerited beautiful grace upon grace upon grace

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For we I'll finish here Are his workmanship workmanship is

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Something created right if I were to make this this podium if I were to make this pulpit

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This would be my workmanship. I created it right? Well, we are the creation of God We are the workmanship the creation but rather he's not just talking about when we were created in and our mother's womb

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But we are created in Christ Jesus, right? We were recreated We were we were born again in Christ Jesus forgiveness of sins.

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This is God's work He allows sin to come so that he can recreate us. So our boasts will be in him

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No, he says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works

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Which God prepared the good works beforehand that we should walk in them. This is uh, we aren't workless

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Christians Are we our work is animated by grace and the redemption that we have in Christ, right?

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God didn't make us create us to be lazy Christians He created us to be the temple of God And how can we be the temple of God if we're not working these things for his glory?

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These works are no longer by the power of ours. We've seen our works. They are only lead to death

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But the works empowered by grace in Jesus Christ that leads to glorifying him truly as the temple of the

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Lord As Christ Jesus has animated this by his great work on the cross I want to show you this go to Romans 1 as we kind of land this plane down Romans 1

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There's only I believe one other one other place where Workmanship in the

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Greek is used and that's Romans 1 And it's used in a different for a different objective

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We are the workmanship to display the graces of Christ, right? We are created anew in Christ and we are his workmanship of grace so that we can work

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Based off of that grace for the glory of his name, right? So we can do good works based off of that grace that is a workmanship to display the grace

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He says right to show it to the ages to come that is the workmanship that we are in Christ But look at this kind of workmanship in Romans 1 chapter or chapter 1 verse 18 for the wrath not grace very opposite for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all

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Ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth

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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them There is no such thing as an atheist.

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There is no such thing as an atheist Paul has made that clear right there You can't get any more clear for what can be known about God is plain to them

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That is all ungodliness because God has shown himself to them There is no such thing as an atheist because God has revealed himself to every single individual person by his creation

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Look what he says for in his verse 20 his invisible attributes

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Namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly Perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things and there it is that have been made

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Workmanship Remember a workmanship is something that's created that is something

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God has created something. That's his workmanship Well, all of creation is a workmanship from God to display who he is because he's invisible

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We can't see God. Well, we could know what he is like by his creation and by his creation.

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It's his workmanship We receive the wrath of God because we know that there is a God he does exist and I cannot measure up to his glory

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For all have fallen short of the glory of God Creation itself is a workmanship from God to show

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Mankind to show women to show men that they cannot measure up to his greatness.

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That is the workmanship of the world Well, he didn't leave it there.

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Did he but God right in his kindness and his mercy What has he done?

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He has created a workmanship in Christ Jesus by grace Through faith that he would make a temple displaying who he is

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Grace upon grace to the ends of the world to show the world his grace so that more can come in Our God is a kind God He creates a workmanship in which the wrath of God is revealed and he creates a workmanship in the church in which the grace of God is revealed as a beloved, you know our worship our pleasure

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Is to be this revealing of God in the world To be this revealing of God's grace in our homes

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To be this revealing of God's grace to our children to our neighbor To everyone because we know creation is beauty beautiful and all that it is

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But we know that all the creation will do is to bring people to hell But thanks be to God that he has created something beautiful in Jesus Christ Jesus has came died on the cross

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Rose up and he went up in victory forth Going forth from the grave and victory to be at the right hand of the

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Father, but he didn't finish With that he wasn't finished with that. He sends his spirit into the earth and He creates a church a body coming forth from him the presence of God coming forth from him to be a display of his grace for all mankind to see

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So in this little moment we have here as a corporate body We are doing something we were

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Participating in something a taste of something as we await the final reality of God's full measure of his grace being revealed

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In which the presence of God dwells with man and the work of Jesus Christ and his spirit that he sent

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What a beautiful Mandate we have from the

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Lord That our worship is to amount to the mounts of Jesus Christ our Lord who has made worship to God possible

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Not by works of the law, but by grace found in him. It is quite a worship we are to have

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When I get up in the morning and my worship Stinks my lot of say stinks. I said a word last last

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Lord's Day That was not allowed So I hope stinks is an okay one. Sometimes my worship stinks

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It really does and well I what I need to go through in my head as Paul says that you would open the heart the eyes of your heart would

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Be open more to the spiritual blessings that you have in crisis I know that my identity is no longer in the world system of death

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I'm no longer a slave to my sin But Christ has condescended and brought grace to my heart has brought mercy to me has brought forgiveness to me

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So no longer am I a slave to my passions? But I bring my passions and my desires to the cross of Christ This is only possible by being a weak sinner

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Oh Lord be kind to me. Give me your spirit So let my identity be in the heavenlies where he is at So let my worship amount to the glories of Christ and what he has done.

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Let us pray God in heaven. I am truly so thankful that in my own life.

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I remember having dead worship I remember coming to church unregenerated a slave of sin and Having all sorts of issue with everything that you do

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I Hated the hymns. I hated the preaching I hated the word it all was boring to me because rather I was a slave to my own fleshly desires

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But in Christ and his accomplished work He was so kind to me to send me the spirit of regeneration

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So that I can get a taste today Of your presence being made with me as I await the full reality and full regeneration or the

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I should say the full culmination of your work When you come back and revelation you say behold the dwelling place of God is with man

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This is my worship. I Asked Lord that we would remind ourselves of this gospel truth each and every day

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That where we were once dead and sin we can be made alive together with Christ only by his accomplished work

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So that we would be together temples of the Lord We are individually to be a temple to the

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Lord coming together to be the temple of the Lord as we await that final reality I pray that that would be all of our desires today that you would bless our week that would be full of worship and praise