Sunday Worship Service

I want to direct my comments to the ladies of the group, from the little ladies, the young ladies, the mature ladies, all ladies in between. We have an event coming up here, it is September 10th, Saturday, at 6 .30, what's going on you.

Ask?

I'm glad to hear your inquiries. Did anyone get a paper like this last week? We started handing these out. This is announcing our ice cream, social, and movie, again, it is on Saturday, September 10th at 6 .30, weather permitting, technology permitting, I think we're going to be outside, so bring a blanket and a chair.

Your contribution is to come and bring sundae toppings, that will enhance our make your own sundae. Whipped cream, you can never have enough, just a shameless plug there. So, I have a couple F's for fun, friends, fellowship, hope you come.

What are we doing? Also, we are going to see a movie, that is Magdalena. Magdalena is actually a mission produced movie, I don't want to say too much about it to ruin it because spoilers, no. It is released from Shane, it is based on scripture, it is specifically produced for actually women in cultures where women are unseen, and it is a dramatic unfolding of how very much seen we are based on what God says in scripture.

So everyone who has seen it wants to see it again, I've seen it four times, I can't wait, and you want to see it for the first time and also walk away and say wow. So sign up in the lobby, Saturday, second Saturday in September, 6 .30, please come, we'd love to meet you.

Nobody has ever accused Kristen Haynes of not being seen, we see Kristen. We also want to see our brother John, John is going to come up and give us an announcement.

As well.

You know, I just realized that it is neat the way things work out, the way God works things out. It was unplanned, but we had an announcement for the ladies and now you have an announcement for the men.

We're all about equity here. So the second weekend of November we're having our men's retreat, and all men 14 years and older are invited. We are going, this is the third year in a row that we've gone to the builder's summit it's called, and we're going to see a short video right now of testimonies of men who were there last year.

I'm up at the builder's summit at the Mount Pocono Bible Camp, and I've got to tell you, it's been a joy to be here.

Get away from the hustle and bustle of everything else that's going on in our lives sometimes and just recharge.

The builder's summit for me was a total wake up call. Absolutely incredible experience.

The individuals here all had a hunger to let God's word transform their lives.

It is so uncommon for men to get to speak to other men, men to imbibe manly hood from other men who are Christians. In this time we have the teaching of the word that informs us and guides us, and then we have rich and wonderful fellowship.

It was so great to know that there was a like-minded group of guys that are just trying to get things right theologically so that they can get their lives in order.

This isn't a pep rally. This is to strengthen, uplift, encourage, build one another up as men.

This experience, both last year and this year, have honestly been essential to me as a man.

I'd highly recommend coming to the builder's summit.

I traveled 500 miles to be here, and I loved every minute of it, and I'll do it again next.

Year.

It is absolutely edifying because we're here building each other up in the name of Christ.

We're learning from great men of God.

The fellowship in between the sessions is phenomenal.

It's very rare. It's very needed. It's very good for your soul.

You know, the greatest thing about the builder's summit is it's men sharpening other men.

Everybody should come.

It's profoundly beneficial, so I'd encourage you to come.

Come on down, come be a part of us, participate in the fellowship, be encouraged in grace and the hearing of the word.

I cannot recommend it enough. I cannot recommend being with fellow men who all believe in Christ, exalting his name, and just growing. Please join us.

And share this as much as you can. God bless.

So you see that there's a website, a web address up there, builderssummit .org. You can go on there, men, and find all the information that you need regarding the speakers, the schedule, the location, what to bring, registration costs, and everything.

Second weekend in November. I know that seems a long way off, especially with temperatures at what they are, 90 degrees. Nobody's thinking about November, but it'll be here quick, and I know you make some plans, put some money aside.

So that's that. The second announcement for the men is we meet monthly. There's a group of men that meet monthly. We have a men's monthly breakfast. And we study a book written by Christian authors. We've gone over several books over the years, and the book that we're just starting next is called Global Reset, and I'd like to invite you to that as well.

Our next meeting will be September 12th at 6 a .m. here at the church. And this book, I just want to read one sentence from this book just to give you an idea what it's about. Global Reset opens our eyes to how pandemics, natural disasters, and political unrest point towards the impending universal economy and godless global government of the Antichrist.

You've been hearing a lot of that type of stuff from the pulpit. So this book was released just this year, so it's very current, and we'd love to have you come. If you can be here at 6 a .m. on September 12th to sit around, and we just want to dig deeper on these topics and thoughts.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, John. And I was at the Builder's Summit last year, it was really wonderful. John actually missed it, so we're looking forward to seeing you there this year, brother. Yeah, that'd be great. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, thank you for all of these things we've spoken of. There's a lot of activity at the church, Father. There's baptisms coming up, Father. Lord, there are meetings about the land that you have purchased for us, and Lord, we just desire to do your will in these things, Father.

We have mentioned, Lord, that you would please heal some of those in our congregation, Father, and we're thankful for that. And please comfort, Lord, those who are grieving. We are so grateful, Father, that you are here with us.

You are a good and a wonderful God, Father, and we pray that the rest of this service continuing on would just be all about exalting the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're so thankful to be here, and we pray in your name.

Amen.

Let's sing a few songs together. He is singing, I will trust in you. In the silence, I will wait. I will stand upon my step. He's shaking my soul. In the last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.

He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and he is the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Let's sing together, how great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

Come, taunt to setting sun. Your glory far exceeds all human thought. So with each breath, I'll bless your name, O God. Your name will be read as generations. You're strong and are always near. O God, most high, your name will end greatly to be praised.

He is the Lord. He is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Your gracious hand. He is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Your praise is this morning, lifting our voices, proclaiming your greatness for all that you've done for us.

The wounds that you suffered, the death that you did not deserve, all of that because you loved us so much, and you wanted us to spend our future in heaven with you. We thank you for the freedom that you give us.

Only by the power of your name, my savior bled for my Jesus said. Grace flowing from his so greater sack. He's done what he's done. All the glory to the sun. My sins are forgiven. My future is heaven.

I praise God.

He's done.

Even death is dead and is over. Say the name above all names over every broken place. He is risen from what he's done. My sins are forgiven. My future is heaven. I praise God. Welcome to the king. He is worthy to receive all the worship we can bring.

What he's done. He's done. My sins are forgiven. My future is heaven. I praise God. Praise God. Lord, as we open up your word, please open our eyes through your Holy Spirit.

I was going to pray again, but boy, Michael. Michael prayed for exactly what I was thinking. That's for sure. Thank you, worship team. Thank you guys working the sound back there. It's good to see you all this morning.

I got the call. Actually, I called Thursday night after our care group. I was all fired up. We studied the Bible in the care group, and we're all having a great time. We missed some people around. We didn't see you guys, but I'm glad you're here now.

I had to ask the pastor a question. I called him up late Thursday, and I said, Pastor, I had a question about the baptism. He said, Well, did you get my message? Because I have a question for you too.

I said, Well, why don't you go first? He said, I don't feel that well. I was like, That's a shame. I said, I really hope you feel better. I won't be able to preach on Sunday. Really? Okay. Good thing Pastor John's coming back this week.

He's like, No, no, John's not coming back this week. I said, Well, praise God for Tim. I love Tim. He's our youth pastor. He goes, Tim's at the youth retreat. I was like, Wow. That's quite a problem you have there, Pastor.

What are you going to do about that? Obviously, he asked me to preach. That was Thursday night. Be ready in season and out of season. Preach the word. When that happens, you just have to say, Whatever you're going to bring.

It will be of you. We'll praise your name today and just so thankful. I haven't had a lot of time to prepare, but it's been a joy. The early service was a joy too. I've got to ask everybody, Did everyone have an opportunity to listen to the testimony of our brother, Russell, on the Pastogram that went out this week?

I hope you did. Russell, thank you very much for that. Praise God for that. Our brother just speaks very straightforward. This is how it is. I'm going to trust in the Lord. It was really great. If you're not on the Pastogram, get your e-mails to me, to Michael, to somehow.

We can get them to Jeff, and then that will all go out, and it will all be settled. I'm sure there's a way to do that on the church app. That's something that's really great. Pastors, of course, send out a lot of information on those Pastograms too, so we want to be taking part of that as well.

This morning, what are we going to talk about? Well, we're going to talk about our identity. Now, our identity is very interesting. The dictionary definition of identity, I'm going to have to read it because it's a little bit wordy-girdy here.

It says,.

The fact of being who or what a person is. The fact of being who or what. So it involves truth, what we are, who we are, and it involves facts. So it's not something we make up. It's not something that's just kind of like, well, we want to be something else.

We can just be whatever we want to be. No, our identity is who we are. Now, it's interesting how our identity gets tagged in certain ways. For instance, if you're the mother of a lot of children, and all your children are running around and they're having fun, they're playing with other kids in the neighborhood and everything, you're not necessarily known as, I'll say, Don Hoek.

You're known as Luke's mom, or Caleb's mom, or any of the other 25 children she has, mom. And that's a correct label, though. It is an identification, and it is based on the truth. Sometimes it's a label we don't necessarily respect.

Well, can't I be just known as Don Hoek? Mrs. Hoek, maybe? In our neighborhood, we got labeled as cupcakes, father and mother, dad and mom. That's our doll. Because everybody in the neighborhood knows our doll.

We walk the doll, and everybody's like, oh, cupcake, cupcake, cupcake. And they love cupcake, and they don't remember who we are. So they just say, oh, yeah, yeah, you're cupcake's dad. I remember you.

Where's cupcake? They don't care about us too much. But that's okay. We love those types of identifications. Those are sweet, and they're great, and they are based in the truth. But I'll tell you, we are having an identity crisis in the country we live in and in the world we live in, don't we?

You know, it used to be that when people grew up, we would know our identity is based in truth. We're created a certain way. And that creation, that knowledge of being created a certain way has dignity in it.

Dignity in creating the image of God. And that was an inherent knowledge in our society. And if for some reason you felt less than, if you felt like you were different, if you felt like there was something wrong with your life, you were constantly encouraged, don't worry about it.

You have been made perfect. Don't change who you are. You are perfectly the way the Lord wanted you to be, and you need to embrace that. And our society was taught that, even in secular schools and things like that.

We were taught those things. We shouldn't try to change ourselves. We should try to embrace who we are and even love who we are. Now, the Bible doesn't necessarily say that. The Bible assumes we love ourselves, commands us to love others.

But these days, people are looking for their identity outside of who they were created to be. They're searching for something. They're searching for something to make them fulfilled. They're searching for something to make them comfortable, I guess.

And I looked up this week, because we know there are many people in this world that say, I identify as this or I identify as that. And it's not based in the truth. It's based in some sort of a notion that they are going to receive peace and fulfillment if they take upon this moniker, this name for themselves and kind of act a certain way.

And I read that, well, how many genders, actually? Gender is a big part of this. How many genders are actually defined these days? 72. How is that even possible? 72 different genders you can supposedly claim yourself to be at this point.

It's sad that folks are trying to trade in who they have been created to be for something that they think is going to bring fulfillment, but it's going to bring heartache and pain into their lives and eventual discouragement.

And I'll tell you, if you're a person listening to this and you are searching for something and you think there's something out there, you have been created with a beautiful identity by God's hand. Now, there's sin in the world, and we have fallen due to sin.

But we're going to hear today how we can have a new identity because we can have a new life in Jesus. And that is the identity I want to talk to you about today. But there is also a problem with spiritual identity because even though I just said those who have a new life in Christ are identities in Him, there are those who would say you need more than that.

You know what? Jesus isn't enough. You need to search for something else that's going to fulfill your life. Paul had to deal with this in the book of Colossians, the Church of Colossi, because people were saying that Jesus isn't enough.

You need other things. And so he dealt with those things. In particular, they said, well, yeah, Jesus is good, but you can have superior knowledge higher than Jesus. You can have superior rituals, do these things in religious formats.

You can have superior experiences that are up and above the knowledge of the Lord and the Scriptures and your life in Christ. If you seek all of these things, you are going to be on such a higher spiritual level than just this little level down here that you have in Jesus.

You need to seek these things. And they tried to get people's eyes off of Jesus Christ. So let's turn to Colossians 2, verses 4 and 5. And we're going to look at Colossians 3 today, eventually, but we're going to spend a lot of groundwork in chapters 1 and 2 to see what Paul was dealing with.

So the Church of Colossi was a church that Paul never visited. It was 100 miles east of Ephesus. So it's kind of like in the middle of Turkey, just to give you a little geographic information. And he had never been there, but he had heard how this church had been born.

And he had heard how they had been founded in the truth of the gospel. But now he's hearing about things that are happening in the church. The false teachers have come in, and they're trying to take people's attention away from Jesus.

So let's see what he says here. In verses 4 and 5, it says this, I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in the body, nevertheless, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

So Paul says he's absent from the body. He's not there with them physically, but he's there in spirit. And he wants them to hold fast to their stability of their faith in Christ. That is the bottom line.

He says that is what you should be holding to. But he says there are people who have come into the church who want to delude you, and they are persuasive with their arguments. Paul is warning this church, there are those who want to take your eyes off of Jesus and put it somewhere else.

Let's look at Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. He says this, see to it that no one takes you captive through the philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

And again, he's saying there are those who are going to come in. They want you to trade your faith in Christ for the teachings of men. They want to deceive you. Let's see what it says in Colossians chapter 2, verses 18 and 19.

It says, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement. It's kind of like self-denial, harsh treatment of your body for some religious exercise. By delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without a cause by his fleshly mind, not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

They taught self-denial. They taught that if you do these certain works, if you do these certain rituals, if you are engaged with spiritual beings, worship of angels, if you have these spiritual experiences, these revelations, these continued happenings in your life that are extra-biblical things, outside the scriptures, outside the knowledge of Christ.

If you have all these things, you are really a superior spiritual person. And that's what the point of it all is, exaltation of themselves, and it's a pushing down of who Jesus Christ is, and they base all of these things in experience and works instead of the knowledge of Jesus.

They're false teachers. Let's read chapter 2, verse 20 -23. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourselves to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with the using, and Jesus talked about that, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

These matters which have to be sure of the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. They like to make rules.

And people who like to make rules like to have control over you, and they like to feel superior to you. Paul's warning the church of this. Now this was back 2 ,000 years ago, and these people were called Gnostics because they liked to focus on the superior knowledge they had.

They liked to focus on the superior gifts and abilities they had. They liked to focus on the superior experiences they had that they could boast about and inflate themselves. That was 2 ,000 years ago.

What about today? Are there people teaching in the church that would want to take our eyes off of Jesus, that would want to put our eyes on spiritual experiences, that would want to put our eyes on man-made religion and man-made works?

There's nothing new under the sun, folks. There are still those around that are teaching such things. And the idea of being spiritually superior is still unfortunately very, very prevalent amongst many of the churches in our country and really even around the world.

My wife did a little look-up on some things, and she said that what she found was possibly about a half a billion people were tied up in ministries that promoted these types of things. Half a billion.

If I do my math right, I think that's one in every 12 people on the earth, if there's 6 billion people on the earth. I think that's about right. That's incredible. Why would we trade in our relationship and the knowledge of Jesus for these things?

Well, there's an appeal somehow to it. There's an appeal to superiority. There's an appeal to us doing something to make things better. And we need to be careful of that because these things are prevalent today just as they were back then.

Let's see how Paul addresses it. The first question I think we should ask ourselves is this. Is Jesus enough? Do we have everything we need in Jesus Christ? The answer is yes. Paul's going to help us answer that question right now.

Let's turn to Colossians 1, verses 9 -12.

It says,.

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

And I'm going to read 13, too, for I like that, too. For he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. That's what Paul says about wisdom and knowledge.

Now, he used a term in verses 9 and 10, which is a term in the Greek called epigonosis. Epigonosis is knowledge. Epi means a full knowledge or a superior knowledge. Now, notice he's using that word because he is combating those who say they have superior knowledge.

He says the superior knowledge that I'm talking about is based in the knowledge of the Lord himself and of his will. All spiritual wisdom and understanding is given to us by the Lord. That is the superior knowledge.

And notice what he says about being empowered. He says if we're empowered by the strength that the Lord gives, he doesn't say we're going to have great visions. He doesn't say we're going to do great things like miraculous work.

What he says is if you are empowered by the Lord, you're going to be steadfast. You're going to be patient. You're going to joyously give thanks to God for what he has done. Those are the things that display the power of God.

You'll be able to be thankful in the midst of hardship. You'll be able to be patient in the midst of very trying circumstances. God has great power, and he works that power out in these things in the believer's life.

But the folks that are trying to deceive the church want them seeking other things, not God himself. Let's look at Colossians 2, verses 1 through 3. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face.

They haven't seen Paul. That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Jesus Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

He uses that term again, epiknosis. He uses it in verse 2, saying the true knowledge of God's mystery is Jesus Christ. If you want to have superior knowledge, it is found in Jesus Christ. And if you want to seek treasure that is above all things, seek Jesus Christ, because he is full of all the treasures, all the wisdom, and all the knowledge.

He is the only one we need to go to. We do not need to be involved in these other things. Let's see what Colossians chapter 2, verse 9 and 10 say. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority.

Are we lacking anything in Jesus? The answer is no. Paul says we are complete in him. We have everything we need for godliness and a divine relationship with him. And not only that, he says all the fullness of the deity dwells in Jesus in bodily form.

He is God Almighty. He is God in human flesh. And that is so important to understand. The people who are false teachers quite often will twist who Jesus is, and they will always try to push him down, always try to push him down to something less than he is.

The scriptures, the Holy Spirit, the power of God in your life, always should be exalting Jesus Christ to the position with a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord, he is God Almighty.

That is the beauty of knowing Jesus our Lord. Is Jesus enough? Yes, he is. There is nothing else to add to our salvation experience that is going to improve our situation. Jesus is everything. He is the one who gave his life for us.

He is the one who had an eternal plan with the Father, that eventually he would lay down his life for the sins of those people who committed against him. And he would eventually be raised from the dead, giving victory to those who would claim his name.

He has made some great promises. He indwells the believer. He is coming back for his church. He is over all and above all. And it says right here, it says he is the head over all, rule and authority. Paul exalts Jesus in these first two chapters of Colossians.

And it is very similar to what he has done in some other books of the Bible, like Romans, where he teaches doctrine for about, well he teaches for eight chapters, and then he talks about Israel for three chapters, which is beautiful.

And then in chapter 12, he transitions, he says, I urge you therefore, brethren, because of all these things, I beseech you, to give yourselves a living sacrifice to the Lord, which is your holy and acceptable service.

So he gets into the practical application of these wonderful truths. Well, he is going to do the same thing here in Colossians. And that is what we are going to read next. But before we do that, I want to ask a question of ourselves.

If you were the Lord, big hypothetical question there, if you were the Lord, and you knew from all eternity past that you were going to have your son sacrificed for the sins of mankind who rebelled against you, you wanted to redeem a holy people for yourself, to bring back that which is lost from the Garden of Eden, in a beautiful relationship that would be one with his son and one with the Lord God Almighty again, that that precious relationship that we had in the Garden of Eden that was lost would be restored by the sacrifice and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ.

And then you had people teaching that Jesus wasn't enough. You had people teaching, you need to take your eyes off of Jesus, and you need to put them on these works, you need to put them on these experiences, you need to trust in what I'm telling you, not what the Bible tells you and not what Jesus told you.

How do you think God would feel about those false teachers? Let's turn to Luke chapter 17 verses 1 and 2. Because Jesus actually told us. Because when Jesus walked this earth, there were many who tried to get the people's eyes off of himself and onto their teaching.

In this particular section, we're talking about the Pharisees. The Pharisees who would love to make up man-made laws to draw people's attention away from the Lord and onto their superiority and their laws.

What does the Lord have to say about men who do such things? Luke 17 verses 1 and 2. He said to his disciples, It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they have come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. And Matthew says, one of these little ones who believe in me, and he's talking about little children there as well.

Somebody who's earnestly seeking the Lord. Somebody who is a child of God. And men want to put stumbling blocks in their way. The Lord says it would be better for them if someone hung around a 90-pound millstone and threw them into the sea.

We don't know what the worst state is. We just know it would be better if that happened to them. So the Lord takes very seriously those who would mislead those who would believe. Paul does also. We should also.

We should stand up for the truth and teach and preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. All of this other stuff we see going on in the name of Jesus, it's nothing more than a sideshow. We need to make sure we have our eyes on the author and perfecter of our salvation.

Him alone. And we need to point out the false teaching when it's there. That's what Paul does. And after he gets through all this, we turn to chapter 3 in Colossians, because he has better things in mind for us.

He says, If he who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. This is where Paul wants us to be, with Jesus. He said, if you have been raised up with Christ, if you have experienced the new birth of him coming into your life, yes, you have died to your old self.

You have died in Christ and you have been born again unto a new life. He's going to talk about that a little bit later on in verse 10. The new life that is given is created in the image of Christ himself.

You have a new life in Jesus and it is not like your old life, folks. You have freedom, you have forgiveness, you have eternally to be held in God's hand and he is not going to let you go. You have all of his promises, you have his presence.

And he ministers to your heart through the spirit. If you have been raised up with him, keep seeking things above. And he actually says, your very life is in him. Your identity is in Jesus Christ. Everything we have is wrapped up in him.

And that's a beautiful thing because he's God Almighty and he's called us into his family. And he's given us the mystery of how to live out this life. He says, set your mind on the things above. What's that mean?

Well, it certainly means to think on Jesus. It also means to think on where Jesus is right now, seated at the right hand of the Father, having gained victory for us and entered in the Holy of Holies in the heavens, offering the sacrifice for sin, knowing that he's paid that payment once for all, knowing that we have an eternal inheritance, undefiled, unblemished, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us by the power of God.

Yeah, we need to think about all those things. Let's turn to Hebrews 1, verse 3. Michael actually read this verse earlier. I'm just going to read one last little snippet from it. So Hebrews 1, verse 3, it says,.

And he is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Sat down. His work was finished, and he sat down at the right hand of the Father. That brings us back to what Paul said a second ago. He said, Set your mind on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Think about what Jesus has accomplished and the fact that his work is completed. None of the priests ever sat down, but as Jesus' high priest, he offered his own blood once for all, an eternal sacrifice that would bring salvation to all who would believe in him, and the work was completed.

In the Old Testament, the priest would offer sacrifice after sacrifice, and there would never be a time where the priest would sit down. But our high priest in heaven has defeated sin and death for all time, and he is seated in the heavenlies.

It also says that we're seated in the heavenlies with him in the book of Ephesians. We need to think on these things. He says, Set your mind on these things. There is nothing left to do for your salvation and your life in Christ.