The Paradigm Of (Gospel) Inheritance

Deuteronomy 6:10-15 and the Warning Against Forgetting the Lord

The Old Testament reading of God's word is from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6. If you please stand with me in honor of God's word. In the pew bible it is on page 151. Deuteronomy chapter 6 starting verse 10.

Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build and houses full of all good things which you did not fill and hewn cisterns which you did not dig vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant and you shall eat and be satisfied.

Then watch yourself lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the Lord your God and you shall worship him and swear by his name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you.

For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you and he will wipe you off the face of the earth.

Romans 14:17 and the Kingdom of God

The New Testament reading this morning is Romans chapter 14 verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You may be seated.

Well good morning. It feels great to be back. It's been, feels like forever. I was planning on being gone for two weeks in a row but then I had that illness, that 102 temperature that Tim stepped in for me at the 11th hour which I'm appreciative of and so now I return before you and plan on preaching that same sermon I was planning on doing that day and I'm grateful to be back.

I ask you to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5 please to the book of Ephesians chapter 5. I'll read 5 verses 5 through 7 and we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Ephesians 5 verse 5. For you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Let us pray Oh Father in heaven I ask that your word would be open before us Lord and that our hearts would be ready to receive it Lord.

I pray that you would use me as your mouthpiece as an imperfect one but Lord you delight to use weak vessels. And so I pray Lord that your spirit would be among us and that you would help me to proclaim your truth and your word would be received by unbelievers and the saints alike so that Christ would be glorified and believed upon and the process of sanctification would be furthered.

We pray for this man in Jordan God there are many enemies of Christ Lord and we pray for their salvation but if it's not your will for them to be saved we ask God that you would cause them to fall into the traps that they have made.

That you would cause them to fail in their mission to stop the spread of the gospel that you would Lord see fit to break their plans. God in heaven I pray that you would strengthen this man to preach the gospel in harsh circumstances both abroad and in his own home.

I pray God that you would help him to stay steadfast to you and faithful to you because you have proven to be such a faithful savior not only to him but to the church at large. So I pray Lord that we would even learn from that that we would see that although we may not have persecutions like he has right now we know that we have the persecution of sin that constantly lays before us in our own hearts and may we prove to be just as much of a fighter as he is right now to hate the system of the devil wherever it may reveal itself whether it's in the antichrist of the false prophet Mohammed and his followers or if it's Lord again in the world system that's before us and secularism and all the temptations of sin that comes with it.

May we Lord hate the works of the devil love the works of Christ and cling to him as our savior and champion and leader. We thank you for his great work and may we look to him to you now in Jesus name, amen.

The Land of the Imperatives and the Temptation to Sin

Well if you remember where we have been in Ephesians 5 we have been talking about the imperative land and the good land of the imperatives the land that Jesus Christ has opened to us by his grace and mercy that is he has this land of commandments that is from Jesus our Lord and he has opened the way to it by his grace by his blood, by his resurrection so that we no longer have to live according to the world according to sin.

But now we have this land of imperatives commandments of Jesus opened up to us that we get to enjoy here in Ephesians 5 and if you remember we talked about how despite this beautiful reality beautiful land, beautiful truth that these temptations to sin come and we can be joyfully enjoying Christ in this land and all of a sudden a temptation to sin drops right in front of us and becomes so massive, so big even though it's completely against everything that Jesus has done for us but here it is before us and it looks so pleasing the temptation to sin looks so good even though we know of the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan this temptation to sin looks far too good to ignore and if you remember we talked about how Paul in Ephesians 5 he kind of brings us up and gives us the perspective and you remember what the perspective is is that temptation although it looks like life and goodness and everything you want and think about that feeling you have you know the feeling when that temptation to sin is before you Paul says, but look where it leads to it actually leads to, it is, idolatry and it leads to wrath it is not going to lead you to the inheritance of the kingdom and so then with that perspective you come back down you see that temptation and it's supposed to shrink in size as you see, oh I know what's behind this and it causes you to say I will not go now it's at this juncture I want to pause for a Lord's Day, for a sermon and I kind of want to do a topical well I do want to do a topical, I am going to do a topical message and what I want to answer and it's going to seem almost silly but why is the inheritance of the kingdom of Christ and God why is that better than idolatry and wrath?

I know what you're thinking, well come on we just know it is, we just know it's better to be in the inheritance than idolatry and wrath but in the moment of temptation when you give into it, you know what you're saying?

Idolatry and wrath is actually better here and so we might think right now as we're all good Christians sitting with our ties and polos and dresses and everything that well we know that the inheritance of Christ is better than idolatry and wrath but yet when we give into that temptation to sin we are saying quite the opposite and I want to get fundamentally why is the good inheritance of Christ better than idolatry and God's wrath?

This is what I want to answer and I want to answer it with three major phases of the sermon it will be the paradigm of inheritance the paradigm of idolatry and the paradigm of gospel inheritance. So again, why is kingdom inheritance better than idolatry and wrath?

Because of the paradigm of inheritance of idolatry and the paradigm of gospel inheritance. So to begin with this let's start with the paradigm of inheritance. What does that look like, what is that? Well I think it's good to start look at again, Psalm 1611.

Go there, Psalm 1611 and I want to begin with the paradigm of inheritance to answer the initial question is what is it that we all want? So in Psalm 1611 I think it answers that question very well. And the question is what is it that we all, every single one of us wants?

Now I know it's hard to believe that in our society as polarizing as it is the most polarized it's been since the Civil War perhaps that we can actually commonly say we all want the same thing. I know it's hard to believe that but we are all made by God and we all do want the same thing believe it or not whether you're a liberal, a conservative, a republican, a democrat female, male whatever race you are we all want the same thing.

And we see that in Psalm 16 verse 11 when the psalmist says you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy. And at your right hand oh God, are pleasures forevermore. You see we all want you see those three main words there life, joy, and pleasures.

We all want that no matter who you are you and we all want life, joy, and pleasure. We all want life in our soul. We all want joy in our heart. And we all want pleasure in our senses. That is a universal desire of all of humanity.

And I think a helpful way to describe this in order to understand the paradigm of inheritance is to understand that these three things collectively are called good. We all want goodness. We want what's good all things being considered or all things being equal.

Life is good. Death is bad. Joy is good. Sadness is bad. Pleasure is good. Pain is bad. We all understand these things. And it's important to understand that collectively these things are called good.

And it's important to understand that they collectively all come from God who is goodness himself. Look at what the psalm 16 verse 11 says once more. You make known to me the path of life. Who is that?

That's God. He says in your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. We all want goodness or good and it only comes from God who is goodness himself. When you see a sunrise come up we say that is good.

But it's not goodness itself. It has received good properties. But it's not goodness itself. Every single thing that you see good around you it's not goodness itself. It comes forth from the God who is goodness himself.

And so as we consider the paradigm of inheritance consider we all want we all want to inherit what is good. And since God is goodness himself we can only receive it from his right hand. And so that's what's laid out before us right now.

We have God, goodness himself. We have us who wants goodness. But there's a problem if that's all there is God, goodness or goodness God and us. And that's all there is. There's no way for it to intermingle.

There's no way for it to come together. For God is far beyond us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He's a being an eternal being that we cannot even fathom or come close to. So if that's all there is is God, goodness and humanity there would be no hope for us to receive any goodness.

What do I mean by that? We'll look at the scriptures to underline that Isaiah 55, 8 and 9. For my thoughts, God says, are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways. My ways declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways.

And my thoughts, your thoughts. He's far beyond us. So if we are looking for the inheritance and we see God is goodness himself and we are humans there is no way those things connect. But it's not as if we don't receive goodness.

Why? Because since God is so good he has done something for us so that we can receive his goodness. He has made a medium for us to receive it. He has made creation. Think of it this way. We've had some pretty good hot spells this summer and last summer.

And imagine in the middle of a hot spell your little, little toddler is really, really thirsty. He really needs a drink of water. Let's say you're in an area where there's just not water around. And he's really needing it.

And all you had was a fire hose. It'd be very difficult for you to give him a drink of water with that fire hose. It'd be too much. It would come gushing forth to him. It would knock him over. It would be impossible for him to get the drink that you want him to get.

He would need some kind of medium or some kind of tool to get the abundance of the water out of the fire hose into his mouth. He would need like a sippy cup. You know, he would need a cup and preferably a sippy thing on it.

Because if you've ever seen a young toddler try to drink from a cup of water it is torturous. They can't do it. And so he would need a nice medium. He would need a cup. He would need a sippy cup. He would need the water all the water coming forth from the hydrant in that cup.

So he could then enjoy the goodness of the water. And it's the same as us we have all the goodness found in God. He's so eternally rich and abundant and all that. But we need a medium a middle thing a tool for us to receive that goodness.

And creation is that thing God has given for us to enjoy that goodness. Have you ever noticed in Genesis 1 how often God declares it to be good right? Six times. He's making creation doing all these things on these days.

And each time he says this is good this is good. This is the same thing we're talking about right now. God was on a mission to make a very good creation that would reflect his eternal goodness of itself.

You understand that he's good of himself. And he says I'm gonna make a creation to reveal that. But notice it goes from this is good, good, good, good, good to very good. When what? When man was put when female when man and woman was put in that creation to drink up that goodness.

You see creation wasn't very good until until man and woman made in his image was put in there to receive that goodness. That's what made creation very good. The whole telos the whole purpose of Genesis 1 is to say I'm gonna make a very good creation that reflects my eternal goodness and put man and woman in it so they can drink of my goodness in there.

And therefore it is very good. Now it's very important though for man to use creation rightly. For man to use creation rightly to be in creation and to use it rightly. It's a very very important aspect that we see in Genesis 2 25 when Moses writes.

And the man and his wife were both in this good creation they were both in it naked and not ashamed. Right. Those words I know as toddlers we kind of as kids we joke about that. But to be naked and unashamed was vital for them to be able to drink up the goodness of creation around them that God poured into it.

They must be naked and unashamed within God's good creation in order to use it rightly to experience the good God who is eternally above them. This is the paradigm of inheritance. In fact we have a a little paradigm going on if you can imagine it in your head you have God right.

You have God and eternal goodness. And then you have creation as the great medium as a tool. And then you have man who can drink of God's goodness in creation. Creation doesn't isn't an end of itself but it's a means to an end to enjoy the goodness of God.

So you see that paradigm in your head. God creation. Man. Or if we go the other way as men and women we think a man here we are. This is who we are we. You have your being right around you. You have creation surrounding you.

And the whole point of this creation surrounding you is for you to understand and to enjoy the abundant eternal perfect goodness that is God above you. There's a whole purpose of everything. So what's the then paradigm practice within this paradigm.

What's the practice of the paradigm. Well as Adam and Eve walked this creation without guilt or shame they had life in their souls joy in their heart and pleasure in their senses. Every square inch of creation revealed to them the goodness of God and their souls received it perfectly.

Imagine that imagine that existence for a moment. Every square inch was used to enjoy the goodness of God. Imagine that every blade of grass every chirping bird every rustling leaf every sun ray every conversation every Adam causing joyful and pleasurable worship to God.

Imagine that existence for a moment. Everyone wants that existence. Everyone wants life joy and pleasure. And they are even willing to abuse alcohol drugs and each other in order to get it. That's why they're doing it.

Yet it is God's good pleasure to give it as an inheritance in his creation. It is a simple thing. Really sin. What it does is it makes everything complicated. But really God says it's a very simple thing.

I made creation to reveal my goodness and then I put you in it to drink my goodness. That simple. But we complicate it with sin as we'll get to in a moment. This is the inheritance of this is the paradigm of the inheritance.

This was the purpose all along. And so what happened. Because that's not reality. Is it that is far. That'd be beautiful. Imagine all the problems float away because everyone is too busy enjoying God in creation.

Every square inch we use to be annoyed with God. Be annoyed with our circumstances. Imagine that paradigm and it's practice. What in the world happened. Why are we here. Well in order to explain that we must understand the paradigm of idolatry.

The Paradigm of Idolatry in Genesis 3 and Romans 1

We must understand the paradigm of idolatry. Remember this is what Paul says in Ephesians 5. Those who are idolatrous will not inherit the kingdom. There is a paradigm of idolatry that happens. And so generally speaking to understand it you remember that paradigm.

God creation. Man you remember that paradigm. Well the paradigm of idolatry is say hey cut God out. You still got a good creation. And just enjoy the good creation without God being annoyance. Do you get what I'm saying.

Just cut God out. The creation's good in itself. Just enjoy the good creation itself enjoy it as an end. That doesn't need to be a means to God. Just cut God out and let it be an end itself. This is the paradigm of idolatry to treat something else as God who is not God.

And this is the paradigm of idolatry again. It is to cut God out and say we can enjoy the good creation of itself. You ever notice. That's exactly how the first sin happened. It was a drawing a wedge between Adam and Eve and God.

Genesis 3 6. Go ahead and go there. Go ahead and go there. Genesis 3 6. Look at look at the goodness of creation. But then the wedge is being created. You remember the serpent comes and says hey you know God didn't really mean this not eat the fruit.

He didn't really mean that. In verse 6 we see. So when the woman saw that the tree was what bad. No even though it was told not he was. She was told not to eat. It didn't make creation bad. Didn't make it bad at all.

No it was good. It was good for food. And that it was a delight to the eyes. And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took up its fruit and ate. You see the problem is it was a great tree great fruit good.

God made all things good. But what made it not good. You know in a certain respect is God said you will not eat of this one. And what God is doing. There is he saying are you going to treat my good creation as if it's God.

Are you going to do that. Adam and Eve. Are you going to do that humanity. Are you going to treat this good thing that I've done to reveal my goodness so you can treat me as God in it. Are you instead going to treat this as God by disobeying my command and taking of the goodness of creation as if you can enjoy it without me.

This is exactly what this temptation to sin is doing. It's saying will you treat this fruit as an idol. And we know that Adam and Eve did as we just read. They saw the goodness of it. They saw it was most delightful.

And so they took it and treated it as an idol. They said that we can have the goodness of creation without God himself. And so what happens. Well goodbye to naked and not ashamed. Goodbye to that necessary important thing for Adam and Eve to have to be naked and unashamed.

Goodbye to that with their sin against the eternally good God. Look at this verse seven of Genesis three. Then the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked. Bye-bye that's gone. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. Goodbye to naked and unashamed.

Now they are full of shame. Now they have become idolaters. Now they have fallen into sin. No longer is that beautiful inheritance paradigm intact God creation man creation God. Now there is a creation and man kicking God to the curb so to speak.

And then this has the result of what we see all around us with us Adam and Eve's offspring Romans one 24 and 25. We see how this has implications for us here in light of the paradigm inheritance paradigm of idolatry.

Romans one 24 and 25. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. Right our hearts should desire after God in all creation. Instead the lust of impurity is that I can use creation of itself that is damnable sinful lust to the dishonoring.

He goes on to say of their bodies among themselves Romans one 25. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the what not the creator the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. They have become. We have become idolaters. This is the paradigm of idolatry that we would treat the creation as if it's as if an end of itself as if it's God itself. And you see the trip up because it is a good creation God has made it good for the purpose that he would reveal his goodness.

But we take it and we say ah I can have God with this all by itself. And so if you look at Romans three ten through twelve we see Paul go on to say as it is written Romans three ten none is righteous.

No not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. We should be every square inch of creation saying I want to take that and seek my God. How is he displaying himself in this. How is he revealing himself praise God for this.

That fear is of amazement that equals worship in every square inch of creation. And Paul says there is no fear of God before the offspring of Adam and Eve's eyes. In fact I don't know whose this is. It's a Sunday school thing for children.

But it says what does it mean to fear God. It does not mean to be afraid of God or mistrust him. For those who belong to God this fear means trusting in God and responding to him in awe and worship because of who he is and what he has done for us.

Boom. Right there exactly what we're talking about here that is what we should be doing. The paradigm of inheritance is that fear of God in all every square inch of creation. But in the paradigm of idolatry there is no fear of God before their eyes.

Right. God has made sex to be good feels wonderful. It's great. Right. In a lot of different ways. And Satan says hey use that in a way that's unlawful to God and you'll really enjoy life. And we see there's this conviction within you all know someone who is many people who they think that the goodness found in sex is to do it with whoever you want in whatever way you want.

Right. And so they kind of twist the goodness of that activity in a way that dishonors God. And so now all the goodness of it is gone. Right. And if you really think about it much of our temptation to sin if you really think hard about what you should you'll see that there's something good that is about it at its nucleus typically.

Right. And it's just now Satan's saying I'm going to twist that goodness in disobedience to God and it'll lead you to death. But he won't tell you that part he'll just try to showcase the goodness of it in some capacity while he's trying to lead you to death.

And the examples could go on. Right. Alcohol. Alcohol is given to us by God as a gift. That doesn't mean everyone should be doing it. Don't don't hear that. But there's no doubt that God has given us alcohol as a gift.

And if we use it and worship to him it is treated it is used as such. But how easy is it to twist that good thing into disobedience to God as if it's an end to itself. And then it becomes a great curse.

So that is what temptation is Satan using God's good creation as an end itself. And he makes it since it's good creation he makes it look just good enough for us to want to grab hold of it. But since it's used in disobedience to God it leads to God's wrath not inheritance.

God is way too good to let us use his good creation in a way that disobeys him. And what God does is he replaces inheritance with it with his wrath. And what wrath is is a sucking away of his goodness.

He says if you're going to use this in a way that disobeys me I'm not going to take the goodness away from it and I'm just going to put wrath in its place. And what you see happen is that wrath comes in part today.

That's why people are miserable in their sin. And it comes in completion and eternity when in hell there is no more goodness left in creation for them it is only his angry wrath. No more good to enjoy.

No more sin to enjoy just simply God's wrath. This is the inheritance of idolatry. Wrath in part today a taking away of the goodness in part today and a full taking away in eternity. So what is the solution.

What do we have here before us. The paradigm of inheritance paradigm of idolatry. We're in this paradigm of idolatry state. What is the answer for us. Is it to try even harder to avoid idolatry and overcome temptation to sin.

Okay. Fine. Then I just got to use everything to glorify God. I really got to get good and strong at this. No the days of being naked and without shame are long gone that is not open to us anymore. That will only lead to more and more shame.

The Paradigm of Gospel Inheritance in Christ's Obedience and Righteousness

No we need the clothing of the one who succeeded where Adam and us where we failed. We need the paradigm of gospel inheritance. Jesus had no wedge between him and the father as he walked this creation.

He had no wedge. No nothing in between nothing hindering his good relation with the father and the inheritance of the kingdom there in he had no wedge there. We look at Matthew 3 16 17 when Jesus was baptized and immediately when he went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him.

And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The father was well pleased with the son.

We see the same thing whenever with the transfiguration where Jesus is up on the mountain. And what does the father say. I am well pleased with my son. And John 8 29. Jesus says. And he who sent me that is the father is with me.

He is with me. He has not left me alone. For I always always always always do the things that are pleasing to him. No wedge between Jesus and the father. And it was Jesus was pleased with God as well.

It went both ways. He says my food is to do the will of him who sent me to accomplish his work. There was no wedge between Jesus and the father. Jesus did not fail when tempted to use creation separate from God.

And we needed that as well. You understand when Satan came and tempted Jesus. What Satan was doing is use this creation separate from the father just like he tempted Adam and Eve the bread. Right. It was God's will.

The Holy Spirit sent him into the desert too fast. It was not God's will for him to eat of the creation the good creation of bread. And what does Satan do. You're the you're Messiah. You're the son of God.

Change this rock into bread and eat it. Use this creation outside the will of the father enjoy creation without him. And of course our champion succeeded when he told him that man does not live off bread alone.

Man lives by God. You cannot enjoy this without God. What about the kingdom right. I'll give you all this kingdom. Satan says the world I'll give you the world. I'll give you this kingdom. Simply bow down to me.

You don't need to bow down to the father. You don't need to do what he wants you to do. You can enjoy these kingdoms of the world creation without him. And what does he say. You are to worship God and God alone.

He succeeded where he was tempted to use creation without God the father. And if it was just that he could just say ha ha. I did it. And you can't. You losers. But Jesus also did the work of the cross and resurrection to put that inheritance on us beloved.

Isaiah 64 6 says. We have all become like one who is unclean. All our righteousness deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and all our iniquities like the wind take us away. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We might put on the righteousness of God Philippians 3 9. And be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Revelation 3 5. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments no longer naked no longer ashamed but rather clothed with the garments that Jesus provides by his accomplishments. And I will never blot out his name out of the book of life.

I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Revelation 19 8. It was granted the church to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

When we became blind to God's goodness through our idolatry. God the son took on flesh to reveal full eternal goodness in the flesh. When we became ignorant to what true humanity is in this good creation God has created God the son creator of all things entered into true humanity to reveal what godly inheritance looks like.

When our nakedness became a great source of weakness and shame under the heavy weight of idolatrous pursuits God the son Jesus Christ our lord and savior knitted together a pure garment for us to cover our shame and empower our weakness.

A garment made up of his blood sweat and tears. When the paradigm was broken because we cut God out of his creation. So to speak our God entered into the creation himself to restore the paradigm to a gospel inheritance.

Living by Faith in Christ and Receiving the Inheritance in Part and in Full

So what's the paradigm practice. What do we practice in this paradigm. What does that look like. Well look at Galatians 2 .20. Look at Galatians 2 .20. This is the practice of this blessed gospel inheritance driven by our lord.

Galatians 2 .20 is our blessed practice. Paul says. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

So the paradigm practice is everything I do now is to live in obedient faith to my beautiful savior who has done great things for me. Your whole life becomes one of practicing faith in this one who has done all for you.

You remember the paradigm practice of the inheritance at the beginning was using creation to enjoy God's goodness. The paradigm practice of idolatry is using creation as an end itself through temptation to sin.

But the paradigm practice of gospel inheritance is using temptation to show your faith in Jesus. Yes as you build a habit of seeing that temptation and saying this is going to be used as an act of faith that I cannot receive the good things of this world without God.

I'm going to place my faith in Jesus instead of grabbing hold of the sin as you build a habit of that in your life you get the inheritance of the kingdom in part today and in full in eternity. So instead of receiving wrath in part today and full in eternity as you place your faith in Jesus in light of that temptation to sin you receive an inheritance in part today and full in eternity.

What does that mean. An inheritance in part today you start growing in maturity and sensitivity to the most common and basic blessings around you. It is in our sin. You all we all know. Don't you. When you are in a grumbling sinful state nothing looks pleasurable around you.

All the goodness around you has been sucked dry by your sin hasn't it. You know the feeling. But then all of a sudden if you're living in obedience to Jesus forsaking sin as you do that and so mature as you as you do that as a common practice of your life forsaking sin for faith in Jesus Christ.

All of a sudden in your maturity in the Lord all of these little things of creation around you you grow in your appreciation of it you grow in your love for it. This is an inheritance in part that Jesus can provide you today.

All the longing of the heart is found in faith in Jesus Christ as he returns us to that inheritance of the kingdom life in part today. Well I was taking a walk at the LaRue Park there because of my I have a thing if I'm in my office too long I had nothing like just my heart gets hardened and I just my mind doesn't work.

It's it's you know. And so it just helps to go on walks it helps to get out and enjoy God's creation. And I just in the LaRue Park and there's those mature trees where Joel and Libby got married. If you were there and and you could just hear it's like a orchestra the leaves just just rustling and just sound like a bunch of worship to God sound like a crowd like as if you're in a sporting event.

It was all like a like a great like loud noise to the Lord. And it's like it reminded me that that as Christ you mature in the Lord all these things to become attuned to it. You're like wow the goodness of God is there.

He's there in ways I never even noticed before in my sin as I gave into that as if that would provide the inheritance. No the goodness of God is there and you become all the more sensitive to it as you forsake the temptation to sin and faith in Jesus Christ.

You receive the inheritance in part today. And beloved. There is a hope for us that in eternity we will receive it in completion. There will be no more battle no more fights no more temptations before us.