THE MYSTERY GLORIOUSLY REVEALED (Eph 3:2-6)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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You saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

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I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my God You saved my soul.

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It was lost when you came for me. Building chains by the end of me.

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But you broke them in victory. Now I'm free,

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I am free. You're my joy and you are my hope.

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I am saved by your grace alone. I will sing of your love for me.

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I am free, I am free. You my

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God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

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I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my God You saved my soul.

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I stand with the king of kings. He has paid for my every sin.

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From now through eternity I am free, I am free.

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You my God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

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I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my

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God You saved my soul. What once was dead is now alive.

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You gave to me the breath of life. You brought me up out of the dark.

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I'm bursting out with songs of one more time. What once was dead is now alive.

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You gave to me the breath of life. You brought me up out of the dark.

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I'm bursting out with songs of praise. I'm bursting out with songs of praise.

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You my God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

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I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my

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God You saved my soul. Welcome to Gathering with the

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Saints as we hopefully this morning each of you has been preparing your hearts, your minds, your affections towards the

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Lord for the Lord's Day and together with His people. But before we start

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I just want to give you a couple of announcements. We have up here on the screen the dates for a new membership class.

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We try and do a new member class. If you know someone or if you're someone that is interested in learning what it means to be a part of this covenant body of believers, then we typically do a class every month to help walk through what that is.

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And we've traditionally just done one class and if you've been through the class, which all of you members have been through the class, you know it's like drinking from a fire hose.

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It's just a lot. And so we've decided to break it into four different weeks. So we have four steps walking through that class.

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And the first one will be August 9th. And if you look at the calendar, you'll see it's on a

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Wednesday night instead of a Sunday. So it'll be at a regular hours, 630 to 730, while everyone's meeting in here.

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But we'll meet over at the house starting August 9th. If you know someone that wants to find out more about what it means to be a part of this body of believers, this is where we start.

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And we'll be walking through what it is about the church, some history about the church, where we're headed.

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The next week, Pastor Jeremiah is going to walk them through the statement of faith. What is it that we believe?

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Why do we believe what we believe? And then Brother Keith, the third week, is going to walk them through the church structure, the bylaws, what we look like, what's a distinguishing thing about 12 .5

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and how we're structured. And then finally, the fourth week, I'll walk them through the membership covenant. So be in prayer for that.

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Pray that God would bring the people that are going to be a part of this body to that class and they would benefit from that.

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And then next we have, coming up this week, we're going to do something special this week.

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We're going to have a week of prayer. Most of you know that the location that we were headed to fell through, and so we are looking for a new place to meet.

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And God has not opened those doors yet, and God uses the means of prayer, doesn't He? He wants

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His people to come before Him. He's got a plan. He's got a plan, and it's not that our prayer is going to change

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His plan. It's our prayers are going to change us in alignment with His plan. And so what we want to do is we want to focus our attention together as a church all week long.

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And so I'm going to be here and we're going to open the doors up from 5 p .m. to 8 p .m. Monday through Saturday this week.

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And I know that I'm not saying everyone has to be there every night and you have to be there for all those hours.

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That's not what that's about. It's so that you have opportunities when you have an open window to come be a part of it.

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And so I encourage you as families, as groups of friends, or even individually, kind of commit to a time.

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Say, okay, I'm going to be there on Tuesday night at 6 o 'clock. I'm going to come and I'm going to pray, and I'm going to pray specifically.

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God, what do you have in store for us? Your will be done on heaven and earth. And we're going to just have an environment to where we can focus our affection on that.

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We're actually going to kind of put a pause on our study on Wednesday night through systematic theology.

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And this week we may have a little bit of music. If I can talk this crew into doing a little bit of music with us.

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We'll come in, we'll sing, and we'll have a really focused time of prayer Wednesday night.

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I encourage you to be here. There's something beautiful about God's people gathering and going before him, right?

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So let's prepare our hearts for that this week and pray that God would mold us and give us wisdom and discernment.

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And what the next step is. Well, before we jump into our call to worship, we often try and pray for a local church, right?

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And so this morning we actually have something special. We've prayed for this church numerous times. But now, today, you guys are actually going to get some faces with some names.

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Because we have some guests with us this morning that, by the way, stay for after Koinonia Feast and for the sermon discussion.

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Because our brother here, Creston, is going to kind of give us a good picture of what ministry in Pine Bluff has looked like.

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And how we can be praying specifically for them. So please, prepare to be here. You're not going to want to miss that.

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But Creston and his family, this whole crew right here, this is the whole crew.

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They are joining us for worship this morning. And they are Christ the

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Redeemer of Pine Bluff, correct? Or in Pine Bluff? Christ the Redeemer. Church.

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Church. Got it. Christ the Redeemer Church in Pine Bluff. And y 'all are familiar with that name because we've prayed for them many times.

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But we want to pray for them, especially this morning. Pray that God will work in their people as they're here.

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He's got another brother there that's filling the pulpit and preaching and faithful there. And so let's go to the

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Lord in prayer and pray that God will work in their midst today. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning and we thank you again.

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Father, you bring us together as your people. You allow us the opportunity for community with unity and union with you,

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Father. With the triune God. So I pray for our brothers and our sisters at Christ the

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Redeemer Church. Lord, I pray that you would be with them this morning as their pastor and his family are away from them.

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God, I pray that you would just allow them to worship you this morning. That in spirit and in truth you would work in their hearts.

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That common means of grace through the singing and the praying and the reading and the preaching,

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Father. I pray for the gentleman that's going to be filling the pulpit. I pray that you give him boldness and clarity.

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Father, I pray that he would rest in you. That he would proclaim the truth boldly.

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And that you would use that truth to mold the minds and the hearts of your people there.

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God, I pray that you would cause this church to flourish in what ways you desire for it to flourish.

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In maturity and in depth and in a hunger and a love and a fear of you.

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Father, I pray for Creston and his family. Lord, I pray that you give them rest as they get to celebrate with us this morning.

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Father, I pray that you give them renewal. Lord, I thank you for them. And I thank you for their commitment to you and to ministry.

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Father, bless them. Work in them. Lord, we thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's start our worship this morning.

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Amen. A call to worship comes from Isaiah 25. There's a few verses here, 6 through 9, that we are going to look to to drive our hearts to truth and to God and adoration and worship.

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He says, On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well -aged wine.

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And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples.

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He will swallow up death forever.

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And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth.

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The Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, I say this.

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This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Joy is his salvation.

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And all God's people said, Amen. Let's pray a prayer of adoration to that great God who has brought about salvation as he promised.

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Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, be honored in our worship. For you are worthy of all praise. You are worthy of honor.

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You are worthy of all glory, Father. And we know that you are the

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God of salvation. Father, you did not leave us to ourselves. You did not simply cast

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Adam and Eve out of the garden in a hopeless state without any future grace or redemption.

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But you made a plan before you had even created us. Father, thank you.

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You have provided for us a way of salvation. And we stand in your righteousness now.

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No righteousness of our own, but the righteousness of Christ for those of us that are in Christ this morning.

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And we can worship you in spirit and truth, Father. For you are building us up into a temple.

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To a household of faith. A place where you mediate with your people.

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You dwell with your people. So, Father, I pray that you would be honored in our worship this morning.

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In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, if y 'all would, just sing along with us.

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Lift your voices this morning. Amen. We got a reason to be excited this morning. Amen. Alone in my sorrow.

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And dead in my sin. Lost without hope.

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With no place to begin. Your love made a way to let mercy come in.

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When death was arrested and my life began. Ash was redeemed, only beauty remains.

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My orphaned heart was given a name. My mourning grew quiet, my feet rose to dance.

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When death was arrested and my life began. Oh, your grace so free.

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Washes over me. You have made me new.

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Now life begins with you. It's your endless love.

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Pouring down on us. You have made us new.

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Now life begins with you.

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Released from my chains, I'm a prisoner no more.

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My shame was ransomed in faithfully war. He canceled my debt and he called me his friend.

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When death was arrested and my life began.

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Oh, your grace so free. Washes over me.

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You have made me new. Now life begins with you.

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It's your endless love.

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Pouring down on us. You have made us new.

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Now life begins with you. Our savior displayed on a criminal's cross.

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Darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost. But then

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Jesus rose with our freedom in hand. That's when death was arrested and my life began.

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Sing it out. Oh, your grace so free.

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Washes over me. You have made me new.

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Now life begins with you. It's your endless love.

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Pouring down on us. You have made us new.

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Now life begins with you. Sing this.

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Oh, we're free, free. Forever we're free. Come join the song of all the redeemed.

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Yes, we're free, free. Forever, amen. Death was arrested and my life began.

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Yes, we're free, free. Forever we're free. Come join the song of all the redeemed.

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Yes, we're free, free. Forever, amen. Death was arrested and my life began.

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That's when death was arrested and my life began. That's when death was arrested and my life began.

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Oh, your grace so free.

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Washes over me. You have made me new.

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Now life begins with you. Endless love.

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Pouring down on us. You have made us new.

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Now life begins with you. Jesus, so much.

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Your endless love, Lord, pouring down on us. Father, I'm so grateful.

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We are so grateful. Lord, we are free. We are truly free.

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Lord, we praise you for that. Lord, forgive me,

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Father, where I fail you and fall so short. For all that you've done and your love that you just pour out upon us.

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Lord, we love you. We praise you. In Jesus' name. Praise the

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Lord. His mercy is more.

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Stronger than darkness. New every morning. Our sins, they are many.

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His mercy is more. Love could remember all the harms we have done.

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All we wish and all knowing. He calls out this song.

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Thrown into the sea. Without water or shore.

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Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

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Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.

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Stronger than darkness. New every morning.

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Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

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When we face the world, wait as one constant. The Father so tender is on our soul.

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He welcomes the weakest, the wildest, the poor.

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His sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

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Sing this with me. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.

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Stronger than darkness. New every morning.

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Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

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His mercy is more. Our sins, they are many.

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His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness. New every morning. Our sins, they are many. Praise the

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Lord. His mercy is more.

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Stronger than darkness. New every morning. Our sins, they are many.

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His mercy is more. Our sins, they are many.

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His mercy is more. Our sins, they are many.

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His mercy is more. We praise you for those truths this morning that we get to sing about God.

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We thank you for this time of worship and praise. Father, may it just be as sweet as we continue this time of worship and giving and offering.

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Father, I just ask that you would be honored in what we do. A selfish desire of giving or boastful or unfulfilled.

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Father, that all things belong to you. That you are creator God of the universe.

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That you've allowed us to be here, to be in this place to worship God. Praise you

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God. I ask that you would open our ears to the word this morning as we hear it. In Jesus' name. Praise the

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Lord. We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter 3.

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Ephesians chapter 3. We're going to seek to cover today verses 2 through 6.

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We'll see how that goes. However, let's read starting in verse 1 all the way through verse 13.

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So that we can get within the context and mindset of what the Apostle Paul is saying here in this text.

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So let's read there in Ephesians chapter 3 starting in verse 1. For this reason

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I, Paul, a prisoner of 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.

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How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly.

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When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. Which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations.

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As it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. Members of the same body and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace.

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Which was given me by the working of his power. To me though I am the very least of all the saints.

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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.

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Who created all things. So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God.

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Might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

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So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you. Which is your glory.

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This is the reading of God's holy inspired word. Let's go to him in prayer once again.

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And ask that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds to this immensely tremendous truth.

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Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father. We come to you once again humbly acknowledging our frailty.

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Our finite minds. And so your word being clear.

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Being precise. We often misunderstand.

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We often distort. So Father I ask this morning that by the power of the

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Holy Spirit. We the believers in this room would be able to see it clearly.

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Or guard my lips from error. Guard their ears from hearing and processing error.

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If that comes forth from this pulpit God. Because your word is the only thing that is infallible.

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Your word is the only thing that is true. So Father help us to trust in it.

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Help us to see it with clear thought. And help us not to just be hearers of the word

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Father. But doers of that word once you've revealed that truth to us. In Christ's name.

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Amen. Well if you were with us last week. You may recall that we focused our attention primarily there on verse 1.

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Here in chapter 3. Where I pointed to the fact that this portion of the letter. It really does seem a bit disjointed doesn't it?

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It seems like this is a little confusing. Because I'm not sure I can follow Paul's train of thought here.

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Because Paul starts out there in verse 1. And then immediately interrupts his thought. Only to pick it right back up later in verse 14.

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Where he just repeats the phrase for this reason. And so we have this big chunk of verses here from 2 to 13.

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What is this? What does this mean? Where's Paul going? And as I said last week. I believe this shows us something about Paul.

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We see the heart of Paul in this. Right? This is a human author inspired by the

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Holy Spirit. And we see Paul's humanity coming out in how he writes. In that he's not so concerned with proper literary structure.

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Paul is more concerned with the saints there. He has a great love for them. And he is concerned with the truth coming forward.

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But also the very people that he is conveying that truth to. And we see his heart here.

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Because when he says that he is a prisoner there in verse 1. And that it's on behalf of them.

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The people that he's writing to. You Gentile believers. I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

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I'm chained to a Roman guard here. And it's on behalf of you. He knows in that moment.

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It's almost as if he realizes how this is going to make these Gentile readers feel. It's going to leave them with great discouragement.

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Isn't it? It's going to leave them thinking. Oh, I feel bad for Paul. What if that's my future?

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Like if it's Paul's future. Like what if I'm going to be in prison? And they become discouraged. And he knows this. And so he pauses his train of thought to further clarify.

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And to encourage. Because of his great love for the saints. Because remember, Paul loves truth.

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And everything that he writes is truth here in the Word of God. Because it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. And he loves that truth.

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But he also loves the people in whom he is trying to present that truth to.

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And he wants to present it to them in a loving, compassionate, understandable way.

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And so we see this here. Because it's precisely what he does here in verses 2 -13.

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He tries to encourage the saints. And he starts off there in verse 2 reminding them of God's calling on his life.

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He's reminding the saints of God's calling on his life. Look at it with me. Let's start in verse 1 so we kind of see the break.

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For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles.

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And most of your Bibles have a dash there, right? It's like he stops his thought. It's like, hold on. Interrupt.

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Here's a parenthesis. I'm going to add this in here. Verse 2. Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

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Now, at a glance, it may seem as though Paul is saying, Hey, you might have heard of this gift that God has given me.

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It might have crossed your path. You might have heard about this calling that God has placed on my life.

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But that's not what Paul is saying in the language that he uses. Because this expression is presumptive rather than suppositional.

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It's basically saying, you have most certainly heard it. They've heard it because, remember,

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Paul has already spent three years with the church in Ephesus. He spent more time in Ephesus than he spent in any of his missionary endeavors, right?

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So he has poured into these people. They know who Paul is. They know this calling from Paul. And so he's not saying, well, assuming that you've heard, in a sense that, well, maybe you've heard.

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No, he knows they've heard. He knows that they have heard. They know. He's assuming, yeah, you've heard of this.

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You know my calling. And what have they heard? Well, look at it. Of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to him.

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Now this word stewardship here, some of your translations say administration. And this comes from a root word in the

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Greek referring to the manager of a household. We have to get some cultural context here,

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I think. How many of you have a manager of your household that's not you?

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I don't think many of us in here do. But in this time, households would have a servant who took care of what allotted tasks and responsibilities that the master had assigned to them to care for.

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And they were managing the household for the master in those areas. Now in our context, we would think of this more as the responsibility of a wife.

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The wife is there at home caring for these responsibilities. And we husbands, we assign particular responsibilities that our wives manage on the day -to -day under the banner of our authority, right?

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So we think of it in those categories. We can see this is a manager of a household.

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And so what Paul is saying here is that, hey, you're aware of the fact that the master of the house...

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Now hold on, remember, if you were with us two weeks ago in this study, back in chapter 2, the very last verse of chapter 2, verse 22,

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I believe. He has just gotten through telling them that we, the church, are being built up into a household of faith.

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The household for God. We're being built up into a temple. And now the master of that house that we're being built up into has assigned this task to the apostle

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Paul. He has made him a steward. He has made him an administrator of sorts.

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So steward of what? What has God made Paul a steward of? What is he telling the church in Ephesus here?

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Well, look at it. A steward of God's grace that was given to him.

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Of God's grace that was given to him. Think about this for a second. Paul is sitting there chained to a

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Roman guard 24 hours a day. He's been wrongfully imprisoned. He's lost all of his freedoms.

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He's lost any kind of ability to go out in the streets and preach the gospel as though as he does. He's lost his ability to really fellowship with the brothers.

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He's lost his ability together with the saints on the Lord's Day. He's lost the ability to do all of these things.

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He's been stripped from anything and everything in his life. He has no means of making money.

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He has to rely on other Christians in the community just to provide for him if he wants to eat. Because the prison system wasn't like it is today.

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They didn't give you three -course meal during the day. Somebody had to come provide for you. He's totally reliant on them.

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He's in this circumstance, and it's on behalf of the Gentiles. He's already said that, hasn't he?

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It's on behalf of the people that he's writing this letter to and laying out all of this theological structure.

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And here, Paul's not complaining. Paul isn't complaining.

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He's actually on the opposite. He's trying to console the saints that he's writing to. He's trying to give them peace in this moment.

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During his circumstances. How in the world does Paul have such peace about his circumstances?

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He's writing this and trying to encourage and give peace to the readers that are sitting in their homes and gathering in their churches and have freedom that he doesn't have.

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How does he have this? It's because of, look at it, God's grace that was given to him.

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His perspective is so different than most of ours is often, isn't it? The apostle Paul's understanding is such big picture, eternal mindset.

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You remember who Paul was before this grace, don't you? It was Saul of Tarsus.

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He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a Pharisee. He was thoroughly opposed to Christ.

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He hated Christ followers because he hated Christ. And what did he do? He hunted them down to imprison them so that he could crush this whole

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Christian thing. Whatever it was, he wanted to destroy it. He was dead in his sins.

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He was a slave to sin just as each one of us was. And that is who Paul was.

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But God being rich in mercy, what does he do? He sought and saved Paul, didn't he? Saved him from his sins.

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Paul refers to himself elsewhere as the chief of sinners. Paul is painfully aware of who he was, of what he was, and the consequences of that.

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Very aware of that past life and his past position.

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But now Paul has been saved by the grace of God. Jesus himself came straight to Paul.

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Saul, why do you persecute me? Called him to himself. And it saved him.

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He has been chosen by God the Father. He has been purchased by God the Son. And he has been sealed by the

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Holy Spirit as we've been seeing in chapter 1. Amen? This is Paul's position.

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And this led him to make declarations like, Listen, for me to live is

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Christ. For me, Paul, anything that I do, I'm not living for my education and academics.

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I'm not living to be a Pharisee. I'm not living for my family. I'm not living for my career.

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I'm not living for an image. I'm not living for myself. I'm not living for my laziness. I'm not living for anything.

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For me to live is Christ. Because Christ in me. I belong to him now.

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Oh, but to die, that's gain. It's a completely different way of thinking. This is how

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Paul has peace. And so with this perspective, his circumstances just pale in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that he's sealed for.

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And he knows that it's not theoretical to him. It's not just theological practice to him.

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It's legitimate life practice. Because that theology has changed his mind.

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It has renewed his mind. And it has percolated into his heart. And it has now changed his heart. And now his entire world is saturated into this great truth.

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That no matter where I am, I can have peace in all circumstances. As he says in Philippians, right?

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This is the perspective that Paul has. And he wants these Gentile readers to be as encouraged about this as he is, doesn't he?

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That's his heart for them. He's trying to give them this theological paradigm of how

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God has chosen them. And how Jesus has paid for them. And how the Holy Spirit has sealed them and working in them.

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He's given them all of the theology. But in the moment, right in the thick of it, before he prays for them, he wants them to understand this changes everything.

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It doesn't just change your position eternally. It changes your position now. It changes your perspective now, doesn't it?

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This is what Paul is doing. Assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

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Again, he's affirming this. My imprisonment is in Christ. And it's on behalf of you

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Gentiles. That's what he said in verse one, right? And now he says right here, it's of the grace of God that was given to me.

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God's grace, he saved me. He's put me into this position. And it's for you. It's for your benefit.

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It's on behalf of you Gentiles. The ones that I'm writing to and trying to encourage in this moment. Later on in this chapter, look at verse eight.

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He says, to me, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given.

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This beautiful grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ was given to me, the least of all the saints, to preach to the

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Gentiles. It's for them. That's what God has called him to. So Paul is essentially saying, don't feel sorry for me,

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Ephesian Christians. Don't feel sorry for me and my circumstances. As a matter of fact, you know when you should feel sorry for me?

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Is if I was still dead in my sins. You feel sorry for me then, but now there's nothing to feel sorry for.

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Because these circumstances are for the glory of God and he's placed me here. He's saved.

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And has called him to steward this calling well, hasn't he? Paul has been called to steward this calling well.

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God has placed him here. What's this calling? What's the calling that he's to steward here?

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He received the grace of God unbeknownst to him, right? Paul didn't receive the grace of God.

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He was given the grace of God. He didn't go chasing after the grace of God. He was chasing the opposite direction.

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God chased him and gave him the grace. So what is it that he's stewarding? He didn't supply it.

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God supplied it. The triune God supplied this grace. But what is this calling that he's referring to?

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It's to suffer, to be imprisoned, to be beaten for preaching the gospel of grace to the

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Gentiles, right? This is what this calling is, to preach the gospel to the

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Gentiles. Now we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in greater detail next week. So I'm having trouble putting a governor on this and dealing with every little circumstance.

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So bear with me. If you think, well, Pastor Nathan left some meat on the bone there, trust me, we're dealing with it.

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I'm just trying to address one thing at a time here, okay? And he's called him to be a good steward of.

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Look what he says in verse 3. You've heard, I'm assuming that you've heard, meaning

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I know that you've heard, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

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You see, Paul is happy to suffer this light momentary affliction because he's been chosen to.

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He's been called to it. The grace that God has given him, all of his circumstances pale in comparison of, right?

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But this light momentary affliction, because he's been chosen to proclaim the mystery of the gospel to the nations.

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The mystery of the gospel. This mystery that had been revealed to him. What is this mystery?

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Well, notice what he says. As I have written briefly. There in verse 3, the end, okay?

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That gives us some insight into what he's talking about here. Now, there's some debate as to what

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Paul is referring to here. As a matter of fact, Calvin believed that, man, there must have been previous letters from the

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Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus that didn't make it into Scripture, and he must be referring to some of these previous letters.

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That's what he's got to be talking about. And some have held that view. There's some debate on it.

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However, it seems as though he is speaking of something previously said in this letter. Something that is more immediate.

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And so what is that? Well, I think we see a pattern of it. Look at chapter 1, verse 9. We see this just connecting, weaving through these previous two chapters.

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In chapter 1, verse 9, he says, making known to us the mystery of his will according to the purpose which he set forth in Christ.

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And we've already talked about these verses. We've already kind of broken those down and gotten the context of these, but we see this pattern of what is this mystery.

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I think it starts here. Making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. What did he set forth in Christ?

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The gospel to all nations, right? And what did he set forth there?

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Look at chapter 2, verse 16. What's the gospel to all nations? Chapter 2, verse 16, he says, and might reconcile us both,

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Jew, Gentile, from every tribe, nation, and tongue, reconcile us to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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This is what Paul's referring to. This is the mystery of Christ, isn't it? This is the mystery of what he's talking about here in chapter 3.

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Essentially, all of this theology of the how and the why we are reconciled that Paul has been laying out over the previous two chapters.

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And what has been revealed to him, as we see there in chapter 3, verse 3? What is it that's been revealed to the

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Apostle Paul? Now, again, I'm not going to spend as much time on this. At the moment, we're going to look at that in greater detail over the next two weeks, okay?

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So bear with me. Just know that Paul feels as though this is an honor worth sacrifice, okay?

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Look at verse 3 again, how the mystery was made known to me. What a calling.

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You can see now why Paul is sitting in prison and going, oh, this is worth all of it.

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The creator of all things bought me from enmity with him to sonship.

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And not only that, now he's even, he's using me to reveal the mystery of the gospel to the nations.

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And how does he do it again, right? By revelation. What is Paul referring to revelation?

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He's referring to divine communication, isn't he? This is divine communication directly from God.

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We see it in a couple of ways in scripture. Either through voice or through vision.

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God is communicating with the apostles and the prophets in this way.

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And we see it in Acts chapter 16 and verse 9 where it says, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

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And God communicates to Paul through a vision. Tells him where to go in that moment. So we see it in vision.

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In Acts chapter 22, verses 17 through 21, we see that Christ actually speaks to the apostle

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Paul in a vision. He quotes Jesus from his vision. So Jesus himself is communicating directly to the apostle

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Paul. Think of Acts chapter 9 that we talked about last week. The account of Ananias, right?

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When God speaks to Ananias and tells him to go to Saul and to speak these words to him.

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He gives him direct revelation in that sense to go and tell what it is that he has him to go and tell.

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And you see that they didn't have the New Testament back then, did they? I think we forget that at times. They didn't have what we have, this revelation of God.

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And so God revealed these truths to and spoke directly to the apostles and the prophets.

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Paul being an apostle to the Gentiles, right? So he speaks to him through revelation.

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Now I have to say, God no longer speaks in this way. There's a lot of reasons that we see in Scripture why he doesn't.

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But I think this is the easiest way to put it. Because he's told us that he has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

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That's what Paul wrote, right? That these Scriptures, they give us everything we need for life and godliness.

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That the man of God would be lacking nothing, right? Everything, right here in his word.

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They didn't have that fully, did they? Before the apostles, they didn't have the

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New Testament. All they had were the Old Testament Scriptures. But now, we have things such as what we're studying.

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We've been here in Ephesians over the past 23 weeks right here in this letter, and we have heard from God from it, haven't we?

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We've heard directly from God through his word. And this is how

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God speaks to his people. Look at verse four. When you read this, think about that for a second.

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When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.

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God spoke to Paul. Paul wrote God's words. And now you and I read them.

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Simple, right? It's simple. We don't need visions anymore.

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We don't need direct verbal accounts from God any longer because God has already revealed the mystery.

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It's done. Now when I say that, let me put a caveat on that. It doesn't mean that the

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Holy Spirit doesn't prompt and guide you at times. That's not what I'm saying.

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It's not as though God is unrelational and detached. God uses means, right?

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But it always is in conjunction with bringing to mind what he's already said here because it's done.

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We have everything we need. And again, on a side note, this should resonate with us.

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If we want to understand God's will, if we want to understand God's purpose, if we want to understand

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God's plan in our lives, what do we do? If we want to grow in the knowledge of him, what do we do? He's given it to us, hasn't he?

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This means to do so. He's given us right here in his word. And I'll be honest with you.

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Sometimes I just don't go to it. And then I stand around and I go, God, why don't you let me know what you want? He's like,

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I wrote it down. Come on, Nathan. All you got to do is go study it.

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But so often we don't, right? So I'm chasing a rabbit. I'm sorry.

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We're going to get back to it. All right. We'll look at verse four again. When you read this, you can perceive, you can understand.

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It becomes obvious, my insight into the mystery of Christ, right? When you read this, it just jumps off the paper to you, doesn't it?

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It stands out to you that it's obvious that he has great insight. God has spoken directly to him.

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God has given him the words to say. He's revealed this mystery to Paul.

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And you can see it. You can perceive it. And again, what is this mystery?

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We'll look at verse six. Let's skip verse five real quick. Let's just jump right to verse six. This mystery is, okay, so now he's telling us.

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I mean, he's just, right? All we have to do is read it. This mystery is that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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We've already seen this glorious truth laid out by Paul in chapter two, haven't we? We've talked extensively about the beauty of what

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God has done to make us one, that there is no longer a divide. He's affirming these

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Gentile believers are no longer strangers and aliens. They're no longer separated from the covenants.

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They now are brought in and the mystery has been revealed to them. So again, what's this mystery?

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We'll look back at verse five. Which was not made, now you can perceive the insight, right?

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In verse four, you can perceive the insight that he has into this, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. Now bear with me here. Remember, he's trying to encourage these believers, isn't he?

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This is his purpose. This is why he's chasing this rabbit. He quit talking about what he was talking about in verse one, interrupts it, jumps right into this to encourage the believers and he does so by reminding them of the same glorious truth that he himself finds peace in back in chapter two, or verse two.

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He's reminding them of the same thing. Remember, we just talked about it. He was once in darkness and he's been brought to light and God's grace has revealed this great truth to him.

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And now he's saying, you too. You were once separated. Remember that.

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Don't lose sight of that. You were separated. You wanna have peace,

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Christian? You wanna be thankful, Christian? Then you must remember where he's brought you from and you were in darkness.

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You were separated. Before, all of this was primarily revealed to really only

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Jewish believers, right? And now it's just opened up. The floodgates have opened up to the nations.

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Again, he's speaking to Gentiles and you've been brought into this great truth and it brings about thankfulness.

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I actually heard this week, scientists have found when they run a neurological study.

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I got doctors in here. You guys will probably call me out on this afterwards. I'm just repeating what I hear, okay? Do a neurological study and they can figure out what parts of the brain are kind of triggering when certain emotions or you're thinking about something, right?

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And they say, they go, it's amazing. Turns out that the part of your brain that's triggering when you're anxious cannot be working at the same time as the part of your brain that is triggering when you're thankful.

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And when I heard that, I laughed. I was like, well, God already told us that. We didn't have to have a neurology surgeon to look at the brain function and tell us that.

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God had already told us, right? Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be unto

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God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds, right? So that's essentially what he's saying.

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He's like, remember and be thankful. And all of the worries, the anxiety, all of that, it cannot, it will not, it has no ability to function at the same time as that.

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It's beautiful, isn't it? That's encouraging. This mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of man and other generations.

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Now here you are reading about and recipients of this glorious mystery revealed while the previous generation had a dim picture of God's plan because this was not made known to the sons of man and other generations.

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Now, this gets a little tricky here. Does this mean that God's plan of redemption of both

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Jew and Gentile was thoroughly and completely unknown before Paul's ministry?

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It's a big question, right? Were the Gentiles 100 % in the dark without any sign of anything or any hope of God's ultimate plan?

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Were they completely? Because it sounds like it. It wasn't made known to the sons of man and other generations.

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It wasn't made known to them. So what is this? Well, look at the rest of the text. He says, as, and that's the key word here.

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This is where we have to define what he means here. As it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. This as needs to be seen in context, okay? Does this as mean that it's not been fully revealed or does it mean that it's not been partially revealed?

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What does it mean when he says as not been revealed? Well, keep in mind this mystery is that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs. That's the mystery, right? The Gentiles are fellow heirs is a mystery and it's not been revealed as it has been revealed.

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Do we see glimpses of this in the Old Testament? That's the question. I ask because Paul mentions both the apostles and the prophets, doesn't he?

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Who's he talking about about the prophets? Come on, guys.

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The Old Testament, right? He's talking about the Old Testament prophets here. Meaning it seems as though Paul is referring to this mystery revealed throughout both the

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Old and the New Testament. The apostles writing the New Testament and revealing it.

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God revealing the mystery in full through the apostles but then impartial in the

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Old Testament from the prophets. So, actually, look back with me. If you want to turn your

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Bibles to Genesis chapter 12. I want us to see a bit of a pattern. We see glimpses of this all through the

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Old Testament. Genesis chapter 12 verses 2 and 3. We see this promise, this covenant made with Abraham here.

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Abram, really, right? We see this promise in Genesis chapter 12 in verse 2. It says,

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And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you

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I will curse and in you all the Jewish families of the earth will be blessed.

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Is that what it says? It says all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, when the

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Jews read this, I think the believers knew what that meant. I think

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Abraham knew what that meant. I think he had a small glimpse of that. But most of the

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Israelites did not know. Because, remember, by the time Jesus comes around, most of them think, well, the

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Gentiles are dirty dogs. They'll never be in the good graces of God. The promises are just for us, period.

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But we see glimpses of it. You can understand this in greater light by what Paul does by quoting that passage in Genesis in Galatians chapter 3.

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Galatians chapter 3 verses 7 through 9. Paul says, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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Okay? And the Scripture... What's Paul referring to?

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There is no Scripture at this moment as he's writing Galatians other than what he's writing in the moment. He's talking about the Old Testament, isn't he?

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The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles. Paul's clarifying it, doesn't he?

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He's clarifying this passage. He says, hey, the Scriptures teach that foreseeing that God would justify the

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Gentiles by faith, preaching the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

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So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

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He's been laying this out for a long time, hasn't he? And here's Paul confirming that.

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Isaiah 49 .6. He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob.

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Right? Talking about people within the tribes. The 12 tribes. But of Jacob.

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And to bring about the preserved, bring about the preserved of Israel, I will make you a light for the nations.

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For the nations. He could have just said the nation, but he says the nations, that my salvation may reach the end of the earth.

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There's glimpses of it, isn't there? Later on in Isaiah 56, six and seven. And the foreigners who join themselves to the

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Lord, the foreigners, not Israel, right? To minister to him, to love the name of the

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Lord and to be his servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenants, these foreigners,

01:00:43

I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.

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Whose sacrifices did God accept? Those that were his, right?

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That's it. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

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Now look back at our text. Ephesians three, verse five. This mystery, the mystery of the salvation of both

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Jew and Gentile, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. This is what we call progressive revelation, right? We see it all throughout, all of scripture.

01:01:34

God has given us a glimpses of this glorious truth all throughout human history.

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And he's done so through his prophets and ultimately now through apostles like Paul. And now, here

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Paul writes, and it has been truly revealed, the mystery that we see dimly.

01:02:03

The Old Testament saints saw it, but they saw it dimly. There's glimpses of it as we just read.

01:02:10

And now here comes Paul and he just displays it all out and goes, revealed, there's no more barrier, there's no more curtain, there's nothing, here's

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Christ. And all that are his that the Holy Spirit awakens to the truth see the beauty of Christ and his majesty and we see it in full.

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The mystery's been revealed. This is encouraging, right? We sometimes think of this and we go, yes, salvation, of course, we take it for granted.

01:02:41

We've grown up in it. I've heard the gospel since the day I was born. It becomes old hat sometimes in my mind, doesn't it?

01:02:48

It becomes old news at times, but that's because I'm not thinking, resting, and placing my faith fully in it, right?

01:03:00

I'm distracted. And I know of it intellectually, but it's been revealed in full.

01:03:08

And those of us that are Gentiles 3 ,000 years ago would have more likely just been left in darkness, never knowing anything.

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But we've been brought in a time where that mystery has been brought to us. See, Paul is encouraging these

01:03:27

Gentile readers not to lose heart, not to be discouraged by his circumstances, because God is using those circumstances to communicate the mystery of his will to you and I.

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And without it, we would all be without hope. But now we are people of great hope.

01:03:46

And now this magnificent plan coming forth from the triune God on full display gives us peace, brings us to peace, lets us rest, and so we have hope in all circumstances.

01:04:05

On that note, we're gonna prepare our hearts to go to the Lord's table as we do each week. If you have tasted and seen that the

01:04:15

Lord is good, if that mystery truly has been revealed personally to you, and you have put your faith and trust in Christ and Christ alone, and you are in good standing with a biblical church, you are welcome to this table.

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But just as I often do, I want to encourage you not to come to this table in an unworthy manner.

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Now, when I say that, I know some of you overthink it and go, I'm never worthy. Well, no, you're not.

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But if you're in Christ, right? Christ is worthy, and this is showing union with him.

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Now, what we mean by unworthy manner is are you in a position where you refuse to repent of a sin or sins?

01:05:02

If you have an open sin in your life, if you have hatred towards your brother or sister, if you have wronged a brother or sister, or you're holding a grudge towards a brother or sister, or any such thing of sin that you go,

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I know it's sin, and I don't wanna repent of it at this moment, I wanna hang on to it, oh, please don't come to this table.

01:05:23

All right, Paul said in 1 Corinthians, some of you are sick and some of you even died.

01:05:29

Be cautious with that. God takes this very seriously, but this, again, this is great union that we, his people, get to remember our oneness in him, what he has done, that mystery revealed.

01:05:43

Remember, they had the Passover meal before, and they had small glimpses of that hope coming. Oh, but now this new ordinance took its place, and it's out in the open, the blood of Christ that was shed on our behalf, the body that was given over for us, the flesh that became sin who knew no sin for us so that we may be made his righteousness, amen?

01:06:08

This is a beautiful thing, but before we come to the table, I actually want us to sing a song of reflection.

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There's a song that we sing fairly regularly here. We will sing, what is it called?

01:06:24

We will feast. I wanna say we will sing. I was singing in the brain. We will feast in the house of Zion.

01:06:31

And I want us to stand, I want us to sing this song of reflection, and as we sing,

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I'm just gonna go ahead and let y 'all know when the table is open, and you can come around and gather and get the elements and go back to your seat, even as we sing, okay?

01:06:47

So let's be prayerful. Search your hearts, but let's sing out this glorious truth to our

01:06:55

Heavenly Father. We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion Gather in the outsides and come and take the elements as we continue to sing.

01:09:21

We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion We will feast in the house of Zion When he gathered in the upper room with the disciples there, and as he establishes this beautiful ordinance for the church, and he tells them, he says, to drink from the cup and eat from this bread.

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And we have bread that comes from the same source. We drink from the same vine because this symbolizes the oneness that we have with the

01:11:28

Savior. And he says, hey, this wine, this represents my blood that was shed for you and my body that was given over for you.

01:11:37

And this imagery lets us be reminded of the unity that we have in him and the unity that we now have with the triune

01:11:49

God and the unity that we now have with each other as brothers and sisters. Amen? Amen.