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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church. Knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. Let's just pray and we'll start.

[0:12] Father, thank you for this day that you made. Thank you for your word. And thank you that you lead and guide us in truth. Even hard things to understand that Paul or Peter writes, you allow these things to be maybe hard to understand, so we dig a little deeper and get a bigger understanding of you.

[0:29] And your word. And we can marvel at these guys that wrote these letters back in the day, turn of the century, if we will, and years before that, that had so much truth and so much understanding of you and your word.

[0:43] And just thank you for that. Thank you that it is challenging to study the hard things of God. And as we proceed in the word today, just open our eyes that we would see what you have in it for each of us.

[0:57] As we look at this last verses in Ephesians chapter 3, and as we launch into chapter 4, which is our walk as a believer, that you would help us in our day-to-day walk, where we easily get distracted and turn aside maybe from your truths to other things.

[1:15] And help us to walk with you. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to clarify one of the announcements. Ed and I aren't planning anything on that day. It's just we're going for lunch.

[1:25] And if you want to go to lunch at Al-Qaeda with us, go to lunch with us. If you don't, we don't. It's not a big deal. It's not a competition. We're going to go eat. We thought if others want to come, and we want Wally to enjoy Al-Qaeda and Kevin, if that all works out.

[1:40] So I'm taking a different approach maybe to this section of Scripture than you might be expecting. I don't know. But just ride it with me. And I don't know why things come to me the way they do.

[1:53] I blame God for that. He made me. I didn't make myself. So if you have exception, take it up with him. You can say something to me, but I'm going to say, hey, I was made this way, you know.

[2:05] So whatever. My kids would say if I say a joke, it's not funny, Dad. And yeah, I know. It's not funny. So if it's not funny to you, I don't care.

[2:16] If it is, fine. Enjoy it. It is kind of directed more toward the older crowd here, not the younger. And that's somewhat intentional. And the reason is because this particular book, I have my King James Bible.

[2:32] It's a Schofield Reference Bible. In this particular book, there's markings and there's references that it's my study Bible. And so when I was looking at this passage, I'm like, I'm going to preach out of this because I'm familiar with it.

[2:47] When I flip to verses and you follow along and flip to verses in your Bible, we'll do it the old way where you hear that and then you turn to that passage and I'll read it or you can follow along however you like.

[3:00] So here's some things. Society has really changed, right? Since the 1960s and 70s. Some of us grew up in the 60s and 70s. I was born in 1961. Graduated high school in 1979.

[3:13] So I have a little bit of reference to that era. But they're an interesting time. In 1960 was the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

[3:24] And John F. Kennedy won that debate. Richard Nixon, they say, didn't look very well. His makeup person was not very good. So he looked terrible. He was pale. There was a Cuban missile crisis.

[3:36] That was the nation of Cuba off the Florida coast. There was an event that happened in the 60s. A couple assassinations. John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas in 1963.

[3:49] His brother Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

[4:01] And I believe they wore a coat and tie. They called that the British Invasion. That's when rock music from England came to America. And that had a big impact on the culture.

[4:13] The Catholic Church had Vatican II. That was a big deal. If you're older, you don't remember. Younger, you have no idea what I'm probably talking about.

[4:23] But 1962 to 1965, a period of three or four years of bishops and stuff, gathered in Rome. And they changed how the Catholic Church presented itself to the people. It used to be masses were in Latin before that time.

[4:36] The altars were turned backwards. So the priest had his back to you. Then they turned it around. They remodeled churches. If you didn't grow up Roman Catholic, you're thinking, okay, no big deal, whatever.

[4:48] It was a big deal. Vietnam War, 1965 to 1973. What was significant about that, again, is television and media.

[4:58] It was the first time where those images came into our homes and we saw these soldiers being carried off. It wasn't a war movie. It was real film. It changed the culture view of war.

[5:11] And when I was a kid going into first grade, our cat was outside. One of our cats. We had two. This cat's name was Caesar. And Caesar had bit my brother, which I would have done that too.

[5:27] Bit my sister, which probably wouldn't have bit her. And then I picked it up. It was outside. It was in the summer, like August. It was outside. We normally didn't leave it outside. And I went and picked it up. It was in my neighbor's bushes to bring it inside and attack my head.

[5:40] So it scratched my head on top of my head and my cheek right here with its claws. And that almost went all the way through my cheek. That's why I have a scar there. It wasn't from a knife fight like I've told a lot of lies about. But it was from our cat.

[5:51] Well, it was 1960-whatever. I remember during the Vietnam War, and I was at St. Joe's Hospital, and they stitched it up. They butterflied it, stitched my head, and they wrapped my whole head in gauze. And then I remember my parents standing, and I look in the mirror, and I go, boy, that looks like I'm a soldier from the Vietnam War.

[6:08] Because my head was in gauze. And I went to school that way the first week of school, drinking shakes through a straw. That's kind of a side. That was 1960s. Phrases from the 60s.

[6:19] Dave, you probably knew some of these. Hey, boss. Remember that one? Or that's boss. Hey, man. That's cool. Some of those still hang around.

[6:30] You got any dough? That started in the 60s. It didn't mean bread. It meant money. How about I was booking? That meant I was going really fast, you know? Chinese fire drill.

[6:42] Who knows what that is? Raise your hand. You know what a Chinese... Oh, see, that's multi-generational. All right. Who's done it? Oh, wow. Okay. Who knows what slug bug is?

[6:56] Oh, okay. That was fun because you'd be riding in the car with your brothers or sisters or friends and a Volkswagen bug would go by. Man, you... That was all out. That gave you... You could clench your fists and hit the person next to you as hard as you could.

[7:08] And we did. I mean, that was back when you could hit people and not get in trouble. Don't be a Bogart. All right. All right. We'll pass that one over. And who was the man?

[7:22] Who's the man? Huh? Any authority, right? Could be your boss. Could be societal structure. Could be the government, right? Don't listen to what the man says. There are songs like that.

[7:35] 1970s. This is going to sound crazy. Boeing 747, New York to London. The first commercial airline that flew from the United States to London from New York. Now, you guys...

[7:46] Yeah? That list was groovy. That list was groovy. Thank you. Yeah. 1971, the 26th Amendment. Voting rights from 21 to 18. You hear those...

[7:58] Anyway. 1973, 49 years ago, Roe v. Wade. Isn't that interesting? Now, today that's been overturned, but that's a whole other thing. The movie Jaws came out.

[8:08] It was one of the classic early horror movies. It was one of the first ones I ever saw. It was PG. First PG movie I ever saw. 1977, Star Wars. Empire Strikes Back, I think it was called. Yeah.

[8:20] 1977. That was a pretty cool movie. We actually snuck in down there on South County. We bought tickets, but then the door opened. We're like, okay. I won't sell that story. Steve Jobs and Steve, this other guy, Wozniak, 1976, the Apple Corporation.

[8:36] Microsoft, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. This is going to surprise you. The first MRI was tested in 1977. Now that's like common, isn't it?

[8:47] Sometimes you've got to get approval, of course, to get it done. But about this time, mid-70s, late-70s, our family, my family, bought their first colored TV.

[8:58] My dad won it at an auction. Up to that time, we had a black-and-white TV. As a matter of fact, my wife and I had a black-and-white TV when we first got married. She bought it for me. And it was only about this big. We had that for years.

[9:09] I mean, that was 1986, 88, 89. Yeah, I know, but I know when we got married. 38 years ago. This Wednesday. I know that. Dress codes.

[9:21] Yeah. Dress codes. This is a killer. So my brother was a rebel, and he wouldn't wear socks. He would go to church without socks on. Yeah.

[9:32] My dad used to get on him about that. How about hats? You never wore a hat inside. Men never wore a hat inside.

[9:42] And my father-in-law says, you don't wear a hat when you're eating dinner, right? That's still true. You don't go in restaurants and wear a hat. That's not right. You know, ball games. We wore coat and tie, some people did in the 50s, 60s.

[9:54] You know, airline flight. You got dressed up when you flew. Now you get dressed down. You know, it's total comfort when you fly. Before it was, you'd wear a suit. Talk show hosts and talk show guests wore coat and tie or leisure suits, you know, in the 70s.

[10:09] How long has the iPhone been out? 15 years, right? A couple weeks ago. It was 15-year anniversary of the iPhone. Talk about change, right?

[10:20] Talk about things really changed. Well, all that to say I'm going to preach out of the King James. But to do a Bible study in 1980s and 1990s, this is what you did.

[10:32] This is how you studied the Bible. If I was given this passage, I would have a dictionary, because you have to look up the word in English. Vines. This is one commentary.

[10:44] It was hard to have. A bunch of commentaries are expensive. Strong, concordance. So you look up the Greek, the Hebrew. You'd have multiple translations of the Bible. These were here at Bethel. I'm sure none of the younger ones.

[10:54] Unger's Bible Handbook. Greek Word Studies. This is a good one. Matthew-Henry Commentary and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. So you'd lay all this out on your table or your floor, and you'd study the Bible that way.

[11:06] And you'd have a cross-reference Bible, or you'd have a study Bible. Ryrie or, you know, Schofield, something like that. That's how you study. It's totally different today.

[11:17] You just open your phone. I mean, you've got to, you know, but it's just different. That's all. Just different. So today we're going to preach out of the King James. Just, that's the intro to all that.

[11:29] So let's look at our Bibles. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. And we'll go from 13 to 21. And I want us to understand that this is like the last part of this introductory part of the book.

[11:41] And the reason I wanted to use my Bible is because in the front of my Bible in this book of Ephesians, I have various outlines. And if you take notes or want these, I'll read them.

[11:51] But the book of Ephesians can be broken down really quickly or simply. Wealth, walk, warfare. If you like acronyms. Wealth, walk, warfare.

[12:03] So wealth is chapter 1 to 3. Walk is chapter 4 up to around Ephesians 6, 10 where you put on the full armor of God. Watchman Nee had a little book called Sit, Walk, Stand.

[12:15] Sit, your position in Christ. What Christ has done for you. Walk, the believer's responsibility as a Christian. Stand, take on the full armor of God, chapter 6. Or done, doctrine, duty.

[12:26] That's a good one, right? The work of Christ is done. It's done. 1 through 3, it's done. Chapter 4 starts, your duty as a believer. And then, so that's, or done and do.

[12:40] Another way to look at it. 1 through 3, done. 4 through 6, do. Or a combination of these. Big thoughts in the early chapters. Election, redemption, inheritance, right?

[12:50] So as we hit chapter, the end of chapter 3 today, we have this prayer from Paul. And he says, verse 14, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant to you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

[13:28] And the crescendo right here. Now unto him, who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.

[13:46] Amen. Amen. Oh, crud. There's a devotional on my phone. I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to fire it up and find it.

[13:57] I'll roughly quote it. But Steve St. Clair, one of his favorite expressions, many of you know, is what? What did he say about people? Daniel, what did Steve say about young men or people?

[14:13] Lots of things. One of the phrases I remember about Steve was, he went on to do useful things for the Lord. When Steve would talk about students at Faith Academy, he'd say, that young man went on to do useful things for the Lord.

[14:27] And I want us to understand that that's what God wants to do in our lives. He wants us to go on and do useful things in our lives. My abilities, your abilities vary, right? You know, you compare us.

[14:38] We always compare ourselves this way, horizontally. But God looks at us more vertically. He's looking down at you saying, I love you. I expect a lot of you. I take what you'll give me and I'll use it.

[14:50] You know, that's the way God looks at us. And that's the way, just like the loaves and fishes in our first meeting, you know. What do you have? Five loaves, two fishes. Have them sit down.

[15:00] I got this, you know. God's got this. The little devotional I was going to share was about a guy in India who every day he'd have pots. And he'd go, he had two pots, one on the right, one on the left.

[15:12] And he'd go down to the water and he'd come back and one had crack pots. It was a crack pot. And as he'd walk back, that one would pour out and get back to his house. And one would be full and the other pot would be half full.

[15:24] And then one day the half full pot said to his master, I'm sorry that I'm not living up to the expectations of a full pot. You know, I mean, how I'm letting you down. And the master, the owner of the pot said, well, you don't know this, but every day when I come back to get water, on that side of the road I've been planting seeds.

[15:45] And for the last two years those seeds have taken root and they're growing and there's flowers along the road the whole way back from where we get water to the house. And every day I pick flowers and put them into my house.

[15:56] And my house is beautiful because you're a crack pot. And that little illustration to me is what God wants to do in your life, in my life. He's going to continue to use you. And we feel like, God, I'm not usable anymore.

[16:08] I get that oppression sometimes. God, I'm done. Certainly you can't use me anymore. But he says, no, I'll use crack pots, you know. You're flawed. I know I'm flawed, God.

[16:20] I still want to use you. I don't know why. Why do you want to use me? I say I'm a knucklehead, you know. But God says I still want to use you, you know. And occasionally you'll see the flowers that have been planted along the way and you go, okay, Lord, thank you for doing that.

[16:34] And I'm going to be a part of my life, you know. So here we have the Father, verse 14. This is an expression of the Father's authority over all, over angels, saints in heaven and earth.

[16:48] And if you look back to Ephesians 1, 7, it says, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. He's over everything.

[17:01] In Ephesians 4, 6, it says, One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. And you could also look up Philippians 4, 19 to 20.

[17:12] And that says, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

[17:27] God has authority over everything. In verse 16 we see the riches. He owns it all. And this would be like the first point of these verses to me. I have a little one there that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory and be strengthened by his might.

[17:44] He owns it all. Strengthened. It's, you know, if you're thinking about a soldier in the battle coming up, you want to be properly prepared, right? You want to be strengthened. You want to have endurance.

[17:55] And he does this by his spirit in the inner man. Romans 9, 23 says, And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared unto glory.

[18:16] You know, he prepared these things for us beforehand. But it's known the riches of his glory. He's going to use us to demonstrate his riches in our life and in the world.

[18:30] And then we need to be strengthened in the inner man by the spirit. I see this as the omnipotent one. The omnipotent God. All powerful.

[18:41] Strengthening us. Isn't that neat? You know, he has everything and he wants to empower us. In verse 17, I have a little two in my Bible. That's the second part of this passage.

[18:55] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love. Dwell means to be, you know, it's deep. Abide. Reside in your heart. And what abides in us as believers?

[19:08] The Holy Spirit indwells us. God himself indwells the believer. How do you become a believer? It's by faith.

[19:19] Right? By faith in the finished work of Christ. For by grace you say through faith. Not of yourself. It's the gift of God. It's not by works. You know, how do you walk? You walk by faith.

[19:30] You know, it's Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 10. But verse 10 says, We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

[19:46] You know, we're his workmanship. We're his work of art. It's precious. We're precious to him. And there's a lot of other verses you can go to.

[19:58] You could go to Colossians chapter 1. Let's see if that's one. Let me go to Romans 8.10 instead. Romans 8.10.

[20:13] And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. You know, God is in us. Christ is in us. John 14.23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him.

[20:37] And he will come unto him and make our abode with him. God the Father, God the Son will make his abode with you. There's an element of obedience in that in John.

[20:47] It's more discipleship. But as you're walking in the light, you will have his abode. You'll have fellowship with God. Why would he do this?

[20:58] Verse 18. Or what's the why in this section? Verse 18. That you might be able to comprehend with all the saints what's the breadth, length, depth, and height.

[21:09] The phrase comprehend reminded me of God being the omniscient one.

[21:20] You know? He knows everything. Right? And he wants you to comprehend him. Well, we know that's not going to happen on this side of eternity. Right? It's going to take a long time.

[21:32] Ephesians 1, 17 to 18 says, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

[21:49] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. That's a lot there, isn't there?

[22:03] That verse. It's loaded. The Father of glory, give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. He wants you to know him in a deep way.

[22:18] The omniscient one, the all-knowing God, wants you to know him. I think it's kind of ironic that the way these verses parallel to other things. And he says, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.

[22:30] That he would quicken you, you know, quicken your mind to understand him. I become dull of hearing, you know. I become dull.

[22:41] I become selfish, rude, arrogant, whatever. Instead of being compassionate. Instead of being understanding.

[22:53] Instead of being Christ-like. You know, the example of him and how he treated other people. How we're going to see how we're supposed to behave in the next couple chapters. That's where we need to have our walk right.

[23:08] I like this verse in 2 Timothy 2.7. I bet some of you know that verse by heart. Daryl Lynn always quotes this verse. Consider what I say.

[23:20] And the Lord give the understanding in all things. The omniscient God wants to give you understanding in all things. And Paul just restates it in another way.

[23:32] That God would give you understanding in all things. Isn't that what we want? That's called, we would call that wisdom. In a sense. You are applying what God tells you into your life.

[23:42] That's wisdom, you know. To know something and not do it, you become hypocritical. To know something and do it, you become truthful. And you fulfill the calling in your lives, right?

[23:53] Does that make sense? You know? That you may know. I think it's interesting in this, in Ephesians here.

[24:04] I just keep seeing these little pictures of God. Like in this verse 18 it says, You may be able to comprehend what is the breadth, length, depth, and height.

[24:17] And to know the love of God which passes knowledge. And when you think of length, breadth, you know, what are you thinking about? Some dimensions, right? I think about God as omnipresent.

[24:32] The omnipresent one. You know, it goes on from east to west forever, right? They say the universe is continually expanding, you know.

[24:43] And it's like, that's God. You know, this omnipresent one. So he's there in the length, the breadth. He's there everywhere. Anything you can build, God's there.

[24:53] Does that make sense, you know? I know it's kind of, it seems like, where are you going with that? Where did you get that from? I don't know. It just seems like those things came out of me, these attributes of God were just kind of showing themselves in the words that Paul chose here.

[25:07] And then verse 19, you know, again we see that, comprehend. You know, love of Christ which can't be comprehended.

[25:19] Greater love has no man than this. He laid on your life for his friend. And he did that. His love surpasses knowledge. It's infinite. It's incomprehensible, right? It can't be understood.

[25:29] Yet he asks us to try to understand him. For all eternity, he'll declare his love for us. I've heard people say that, like, he's just going to unroll or open up this thing and he'll just say, well let me explain this.

[25:42] And you go, oh my gosh, you know. Oh, that's really cool. And for ages to come, in eternity, we'll never exhaust the love of God. Well, you know, what's heaven going to be like?

[25:54] Amazing. Amazing. We'll have this God demonstrating forever his love for us and how extensively he loved us. And I don't, I don't even, I can't even grasp it.

[26:09] In John chapter 1, verse 16, it says, about Jesus, it says, of his fullness we have all received grace for grace.

[26:20] You know, we've received the fullness of Christ by faith when we believed. Romans 8, 35 to 39.

[26:31] These are real familiar passages to some of us. What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Can anything?

[26:42] Can anything? Can anything? No, nothing. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. No, and all these things are more than conquerors from him that loved us.

[26:55] The fullness of God loved us and he will not be separated from him forever. Nothing will separate us from Christ. Nor height. I am persuaded that neither death, life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.

[27:12] Here's that phrase. Nor height, nor depth, right? Nor any other created thing shall be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The length, the breadth, the width, the height.

[27:25] Nothing created. No spirit world thing is going to separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus made a show of them openly when he ascended up into heaven. You know? No, they're not going to hold me down.

[27:36] They're not going to hold you back. When you die, what happens? If you're a believer? To be alive, to live, Paul said, is Christ. To die is gain. You die, you're in the presence of the Lord.

[27:47] Forever. You're filled. The third point I would say in this is verse 19. You know, you're filled with all the fullness of God.

[27:58] You're filled with the triune God. You're filled with the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, God says. Be spiritually mature. You can look up verses like in 1 Peter 1, 8, and 9. Or Colossians 2.

[28:15] Colossians 2, 9, and 10. You know, talk about being complete in him. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.

[28:28] He's over it all. God is over it all, and you're part of that if you're a believer. You know, if you've trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation, his shed blood is enough for your salvation.

[28:41] You're complete. You're complete. Amen. Verse 20 to 21. I guess there's several questions.

[28:58] Like, just, you know, what, how, when. Let's just read those verses, and we'll talk about them for a second or two, a little bit. Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

[29:14] Unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The what. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.

[29:33] I don't feel like that's where I live my life, right, day to day. But he is able to do that. The how. By the power that works in us.

[29:47] He's given us his power, his Holy Spirit. I sometimes quench it. Don't quench the Holy Spirit. Don't choose things that are against God and his ways.

[30:01] That's the next section, you know, how to live the Christian life. The why. Why should we do it? For his glory.

[30:13] The glory in the church. I don't often think about it, but we're able to live a life like these people we read about in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

[30:25] You know, God has equipped you just like he's equipped them. To live a life worthy of our calling. I don't think of myself like, I feel more like maybe Samson, you know.

[30:38] Good days, bad days. Doing right, doing evil. Lust, no lust, you know. Doing it right, you know. Mom and dad, get me that, you know. Rather than some of these real spiritual guys, you know, that you think about.

[30:49] Like Noah, a preacher of righteousness for 120 years. Well, he is almost like, you almost think of Noah as like almost sinless. But we know he's not. But of all the people, you know. Of the world at that time.

[31:03] Or Enoch, like we were mentioning. You know, Enoch walked with God and was no more. They say he was just walking along, fellowship with God. Next thing you know, God took him up. Enoch never even knew the rest of the earth probably is what people think.

[31:15] He was in the presence of God and walking. Now he's in the presence of God, not walking, in spirit, you know. I think this section, verse 20. I think this section is here for the reader to understand that we are fully equipped by God to perfect or fulfill the Christian walk, which is the next part of the epistle.

[31:33] Which is, I kind of already mentioned that. And in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13, 20 to 21.

[31:52] This is the conclusion of this letter. And the author says, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom he glory forever and ever.

[32:16] Amen. Just see these various verses, like this continuity, don't you, of these expressions and these sayings that these authors put in there. As we end, you know, I didn't know, like, for sure how long I would be speaking, and I was thinking about giving my testimony, and there's not time for that.

[32:36] And that was part of the reason I was kind of bringing up the 60s and 70s. But maybe briefly I could just say a few things about that. When you ask somebody, you know, are you going to heaven?

[32:51] And they say, I hope so. You know? They've lived 90 years plus, and they say, I hope so. That's flawed theology.

[33:03] That's wrong. You can know. You know? John said in his gospel, I've written these things that you may know you have eternal life. It's not something hidden.

[33:16] God did not do it in a vacuum where, you know, where he didn't explain it clearly. He explained it clearly. You know, you're, for all is sin and fall short of the glory of God.

[33:28] Right? The wages of sin is death. Everyone sins. You're born in sin. You have sin nature. You never have to teach a child how to disobey.

[33:40] You're constantly instructing children how to obey. We raise five kids. We know that. We're watching our grandkids being raised by their parents. They don't have to instruct them how to be bad.

[33:50] That's easy. Just let them go. And you look at our culture today, a lot of those things that are happening are kids that were let go. They were never told no. You know, Jim Fitzgerald used to tell me, Tom, there's people that have never been told no in their life.

[34:04] And, you know, sometimes when you're dealing with the public, tell them no. No, I'm not going to do that. Because they were never told when they were a child. But when you're raising your kids, you know, tell them no.

[34:15] Teach them what no means. You have to do that like the Bible says. You know, right of correction. By the Board of Education, a seat of knowledge, as J. Vernon McGee used to say.

[34:26] But we're called. We're saved by grace, right? And how are you kept? By your works? You're kept by grace, too. Right?

[34:38] If he wasn't gracious like that. We're quickened by the Spirit. We're empowered by the Spirit. And we're sealed by the Spirit, right? That's what the Bible teaches. We would say, I would say that we would believe that the dead body doesn't have faith.

[34:57] It becomes quickened by the Holy Spirit. And can then acknowledge that Jesus is their Savior. You know? You are dead. And the Bible says the Spirit comes and quickens your heart.

[35:08] You're made alive in Christ Jesus. And you're empowered by the Spirit. He fills you. And you walk by faith with the power of the Holy Spirit. And the other thing the Spirit does, he seals you until the day of redemption.

[35:21] It's a done deal. You have an inheritance in heaven that's secure. Because of the work of Christ. But the Spirit was given as a down payment. The guarantee of our future inheritance. So, the musicians want to come up.

[35:35] And we'll wrap this up. But whom he called, he also glorified, right? We're complete in him. You know, in 1980, that's the year I got saved.

[35:46] Sean Collins witnessed to me. Gary Vineyard witnessed to him. Sean Collins and I witnessed to my wife about that same year. She got saved at college.

[35:57] I got saved at home. We both kind of went our separate ways. We came back. We lived in the same neighborhood because our family moved into our neighborhood. And we were friends.

[36:08] And we started dating. And then we got married. But there's a lot there, you know. But God has been able to do exceedingly abundantly in our lives more than we could ever ask or think.

[36:20] And it's the power that's working in us is not us. It's the Holy Spirit. It's God's love for us. And we don't deserve, I don't deserve the life I have.

[36:32] I deserve much worse. Just on the physical level. There are a lot of things that happened in our life that would have been very destructive. And they were destructive. Emotionally destructive.

[36:44] And scars that we both have now. Things that still impact my daily life sometimes because of my thinking habits. And things like that, you know. But yes, God has overcome a lot of that.

[36:56] But it doesn't take it all away. You know, some of the worst memories, some of the strongest memories I have are some of the worst memories. I don't know if any of you have experienced that.

[37:07] But it's like some of the things I remember most vividly are some of the worst things I ever did in my life. And some of the worst situations I was ever in. And if you're younger and haven't gone down that route, or older and haven't gone down those routes, don't.

[37:19] You know, avoid those things because it doesn't do you any good. It's traumatic. And yeah, God does save us and deliver us from many things. But the consequences of what we've done doesn't always go away.

[37:33] So just remember that God's faithful to us. He wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all we think or ask. And in the next sections of Ephesians, we're going to get into how. Let's just thank the Lord and sing another song.

[37:46] Lord, we thank you for what you do in our lives. Thank you that you are faithful to us. Even if we sometimes deny you, you don't deny yourself. And you're in us, so you always keep us and will preserve us in Jesus' name.

[38:00] We thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[38:18] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[38:29]  Thank you.