WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.500 If you are a regular attender here at St. Columbus, you know we've been working our way through 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:09.740 this letter of Paul to the Ephesians for about six, eight weeks now. 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:13.460 And we'll finish up this week and next week on Ephesians 3 and then take a break for the 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:15.460 summer. 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:17.940 Paul writes this letter from Rome. 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:18.940 He's in prison. 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:25.980 It's sometime between the year 60 and 62, 1st century, and he is a prisoner to the evil 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.420 emperor Nero. 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:34.420 And when you come to chapter 3, I think this is probably the least preached chapter in 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:35.420 this letter. 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:40.540 Ephesians 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith, one of the most pivotal passages 00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:41.540 in all the Bible. 00:00:41.540 --> 00:00:42.540 Ephesians 2. 00:00:42.540 --> 00:00:45.460 Ephesians 3, not as often looked at. 00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.540 And I think that's because the big point of Ephesians 3, and especially the passage Douglas 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:52.859 just read for us, is down in verse 6. 00:00:52.859 --> 00:01:00.019 Paul's talking about his own self-understanding as an apostle and who he is, his identity, 00:01:00.019 --> 00:01:02.219 what God has called him to do. 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:06.579 And then he says, God has given me the mystery, the mystery revealed to him, this plan of 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:10.819 God that was hidden in ages past, now unfolded. 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:15.460 And it's this, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the covenant. 00:01:15.460 --> 00:01:18.500 So God revealed himself to Israel in the Old Testament. 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:24.019 And he says, but what God has now revealed is that Gentiles to non-Jewish people, every 00:01:24.019 --> 00:01:28.700 ethnicity in all the world is also a part of God's plan. 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:31.700 Any believer, any person who believes the gospel becomes a part of the church. 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:33.060 That's the mystery. 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:36.099 The thing that used to be hidden, but now has now been unveiled. 00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:40.939 Now, the reason I think that not that, it's not that often that people teach on chapter 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:47.659 3, is because in 2024, you say, I already know that. 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:52.420 There's nothing more humdrum than to say, did you know that Gentiles can also be part 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.259 of the church? 00:01:54.259 --> 00:01:56.179 We are mostly a Gentile community. 00:01:56.179 --> 00:02:01.340 And so everybody says, well, yeah, we're all about inclusion. 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:06.299 We know that Gentiles and Jews are both a part of God's church. 00:02:06.299 --> 00:02:08.180 This is old hat to me. 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:11.859 This is something I've always heard, if you've been around the church for any time. 00:02:11.859 --> 00:02:17.180 If you're a human being in 2024 and you are, you know that in every space you walk into, 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:19.700 we want to include everybody. 00:02:19.700 --> 00:02:21.700 And that begins right here. 00:02:21.700 --> 00:02:26.340 And so I think one of the reasons people don't look at this section as much is because that's 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:27.340 the main idea. 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:28.620 And you say, it's not that striking to me. 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:33.020 I already know that everybody's welcome, that anybody can believe the gospel, join the church, 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:36.300 no matter what ethnicity they come from. 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:41.860 I wonder today what it would take for you to walk out of the service in the middle of 00:02:41.860 --> 00:02:43.860 the sermon. 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.300 Sometimes that does happen. 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:49.460 We have lots of tourists that come in and they often will walk out in the middle of 00:02:49.460 --> 00:02:50.460 the service. 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:55.020 So there are things that will get people to walk out. 00:02:55.020 --> 00:03:01.860 Maybe you say, I would walk out if you uttered blatant heresy and I would say, good for 00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:05.860 you, go for it if I do that. 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:11.420 But the thing that doesn't strike us is that when you hear Paul say something like, listen, 00:03:11.419 --> 00:03:18.019 every single ethnicity is truly part of this one unified body called to love each other. 00:03:18.019 --> 00:03:23.899 That is the kind of thing in the first century that people would walk out over. 00:03:23.899 --> 00:03:25.979 We've talked about this the past couple of weeks. 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:32.379 Most people for most of human history have been wildly divided and divided along all 00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:38.500 sorts of lines, ethnicity, nationality, religion, political persuasion. 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:40.179 We as human beings divide. 00:03:40.179 --> 00:03:41.299 We're hostile to one another. 00:03:41.300 --> 00:03:44.740 We create teams and we don't get along. 00:03:44.740 --> 00:03:47.260 And that has been the norm of human history. 00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:52.540 And when Paul comes in and says something like this, it is radical that every single ethnicity 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:57.380 in the first century is meant in Christ to belong together in the community of faith. 00:03:57.380 --> 00:04:00.460 It's the kind of thing that would have been really, really disruptive and different for 00:04:00.460 --> 00:04:03.740 people when he first heard this. 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:08.620 And that's to say that Paul is, what he's saying here is the big idea of Ephesians. 00:04:08.620 --> 00:04:14.980 Ephesians 110, remember that in the gospel, this great plan of God in the middle of history, 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:21.899 God is bringing together all the pieces in Christ that have been fractured by sin. 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:28.019 Sin destroys, sin separates, sin alienates, sin makes us hostile. 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:33.259 And when you come to see the beauty of the gospel that Jesus took that hostility and 00:04:33.259 --> 00:04:34.860 died for it. 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:40.819 The church is this first great example of God putting all things back together again. 00:04:40.819 --> 00:04:46.620 He says, in Christ, I'm even going to unite heaven and earth, the invisible, invisible 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:48.660 realms together. 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:53.379 And really the letter of Ephesians is all about how the church is the first great example 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:54.379 of that. 00:04:54.379 --> 00:05:00.259 The church is the first very visible example of God putting pieces back together in holistic 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:05.939 ways, shalom, true peace in ways that have never really existed since sin came into the 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:06.939 world. 00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:11.300 I think one of the things you can ask yourself every single week as we walk through Ephesians 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:19.420 is something like, where else would the people in this room all get together and be able 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:23.819 to look around and say to people that many of you don't know, you don't know each other, 00:05:23.819 --> 00:05:26.899 everybody, that's my brother, that's my sister. 00:05:26.899 --> 00:05:30.139 What other space in the world would something like that happen? 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:31.139 There is none. 00:05:31.139 --> 00:05:36.259 The church is the great example in world history of what God is doing in bringing people together. 00:05:36.259 --> 00:05:39.339 You look across the room and say, you know, I don't know that that many people in this 00:05:39.339 --> 00:05:43.379 room share my interests, my hobbies. 00:05:43.379 --> 00:05:50.099 And see, exactly, exactly, because the reason we gather is because we're united, united to 00:05:50.099 --> 00:05:51.099 Jesus. 00:05:51.099 --> 00:05:52.699 That's the most fundamental thing. 00:05:52.699 --> 00:05:54.339 It's the church. 00:05:54.339 --> 00:06:00.299 And so here Paul is saying through his own personal self-understanding of what it means 00:06:00.299 --> 00:06:05.459 for him to be the church, more things about what it means for us to be the church. 00:06:05.459 --> 00:06:08.299 And so there are three more things this week. 00:06:08.299 --> 00:06:10.259 What it means for us to be the church. 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:13.579 We hear Paul here saying, I know I'm a part of the church. 00:06:13.579 --> 00:06:15.899 This is how Jesus brought me into the church. 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:19.859 And it teaches us a few things about what it means for us to be part of the church. 00:06:19.859 --> 00:06:21.779 So let's hear those three things. 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:26.299 There's more than three, lots of detail in these 13 verses that we can't look at. 00:06:26.299 --> 00:06:28.419 But here's the three that I think really jump out. 00:06:28.419 --> 00:06:33.219 The first thing he tells us is that if you're a Christian today, if you're part of the church, 00:06:33.219 --> 00:06:38.099 you are free and in bondage simultaneously. 00:06:38.099 --> 00:06:43.019 And then he tells us after that, that if you're a part of the church, you are part of a body 00:06:43.019 --> 00:06:47.739 that is unified yet diverse, that you are a unity and diversity. 00:06:47.739 --> 00:06:51.500 And then finally he tells us that we are all servants of the gospel. 00:06:51.500 --> 00:06:54.779 So three aspects of what it means to be the community of faith here. 00:06:54.779 --> 00:07:00.019 And Paul's own self understanding and then our corporate understanding of who we are. 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:07.579 First, he says, we are a people free and in bondage at the very same time. 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:10.740 So verse one jumps right off the page. 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:16.220 He says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. 00:07:16.220 --> 00:07:23.140 Now, if you have a Bible, look down at verse one and you will see that there's a dash at 00:07:23.140 --> 00:07:24.940 the end of verse one. 00:07:24.940 --> 00:07:28.260 And then he interrupts himself. 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:32.860 And if you have a Bible, you can jump down to verse 14 and see that he picks back up 00:07:32.860 --> 00:07:34.700 with the same line. 00:07:34.700 --> 00:07:40.380 So in verse one, he says, for this reason, and then verse 14, he says, for this reason. 00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:42.140 And in verse 14, he begins to pray. 00:07:42.140 --> 00:07:46.080 And so what's happening is that in verse one, he's about to start a prayer. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:50.379 And then he interrupts himself and he picks back up with that prayer in verse 14. 00:07:50.379 --> 00:07:52.539 We'll see the prayer next week. 00:07:52.539 --> 00:07:55.139 So we're about to see what he, why he interrupts himself. 00:07:55.139 --> 00:07:59.060 But before he interrupts himself, he identifies himself. 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:00.060 And what does he say? 00:08:00.060 --> 00:08:04.379 He says, I, Paul, am a prisoner of Nero. 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:08.579 No, he doesn't say that. 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:10.579 That is exactly what you would expect him to say. 00:08:10.579 --> 00:08:14.620 I, Paul, in chains, in Rome, prisoner of the evil emperor Nero. 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:19.459 No, he says, I, Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ. 00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:23.300 And it leaps off the page if you're paying attention to the precise language, because 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:29.139 he is imprisoned in Rome by Nero, yet he says, I'm a prisoner of Jesus. 00:08:29.139 --> 00:08:34.139 And he's talking about himself and it's, it's idea that he repeats all throughout his letters 00:08:34.139 --> 00:08:36.379 and he's talking about us. 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:39.860 And it's sort of almost, it's a metaphor. 00:08:39.860 --> 00:08:42.700 He's saying something like, Jesus Christ is my warden. 00:08:42.700 --> 00:08:44.700 Jesus Christ is my prison guard. 00:08:44.700 --> 00:08:47.379 Jesus Christ is the one who has me in bondage. 00:08:47.379 --> 00:08:49.220 When in the world could he mean by that? 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:51.780 In bondage to Jesus Christ. 00:08:51.780 --> 00:08:57.700 And the main idea here, as he's saying to every single human being, every single one 00:08:57.700 --> 00:09:01.420 of us, subtly, we are all servants. 00:09:01.420 --> 00:09:02.660 We are all imprisoned. 00:09:02.660 --> 00:09:04.540 We are all in bondage. 00:09:04.540 --> 00:09:08.540 Every single human being has a master. 00:09:08.539 --> 00:09:12.779 Even if we don't realize it, we all serve a master, we all have a master. 00:09:12.779 --> 00:09:18.539 And he's saying, Jesus Christ is his master, his prison guard, that we're all in bondage. 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:23.779 We're all in servitude to something, to somebody. 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:25.579 Let me, let me try to prove it to you. 00:09:25.579 --> 00:09:30.579 Do you ever, do you ever lay down at night? 00:09:30.579 --> 00:09:35.259 It's coming towards bedtime and you say, you know, tonight, I'm going to get in the bed 00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:36.419 early. 00:09:36.419 --> 00:09:37.980 I'm going to read a book tonight. 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:41.860 I'm going to get 25 pages of this book I've been meaning to read. 00:09:41.860 --> 00:09:45.180 And I'm going to go to bed early, right after I read, and I'm not going to look at my phone. 00:09:45.180 --> 00:09:48.220 And you know, some of you do this, some of you are good at this. 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:49.340 Most of us are not. 00:09:49.340 --> 00:09:52.700 And you, you say, but tonight's the night, 9.30, I'm in the bed. 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:53.700 I'm going to be asleep by 10. 00:09:53.700 --> 00:09:54.700 I'm going to get up early. 00:09:54.700 --> 00:09:55.700 I'm going to be disciplined. 00:09:55.700 --> 00:09:56.700 I'm going to have a great morning. 00:09:56.700 --> 00:09:58.940 The early bird gets the worm. 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:02.580 And you know, you're laying in bed, you've read four pages, it's 9.30, and all of a sudden 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:06.060 you look up, it's 1 a.m. and you are deep into YouTube shorts. 00:10:06.059 --> 00:10:09.179 You know, you are doom scrolling. 00:10:09.179 --> 00:10:13.139 You are looking at meme after meme after meme. 00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:18.500 And you're starting your second Netflix film and it's 1.30. 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:22.699 You know, you say, I just really want to have a great morning, but your nighttime self hates 00:10:22.699 --> 00:10:26.099 your morning self and your morning self hates your nighttime self. 00:10:26.099 --> 00:10:29.179 And it's, it's funny because it's true. 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:36.179 And the issue is, is that we do not have the self control that we want, our desires deep 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:39.620 down within us are all fighting against each other. 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:42.059 We cannot control ourselves. 00:10:42.059 --> 00:10:44.139 Let me give you a more serious example. 00:10:44.139 --> 00:10:48.339 Have you ever had the experience where you know that what you were about to do, you're 00:10:48.339 --> 00:10:50.219 tempted and you know what you're about to do is wrong. 00:10:50.219 --> 00:10:51.219 It's sinful. 00:10:51.219 --> 00:10:53.059 It's a sin against the Lord. 00:10:53.059 --> 00:10:54.059 You know it's wrong. 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:55.419 And yet you just want to do it anyway. 00:10:55.419 --> 00:11:00.379 And you do it and you don't care at all in the moment about the fact that you know it's 00:11:00.379 --> 00:11:02.259 active rebellion. 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:06.139 And in that moment, your will is fighting against your intellect. 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:11.259 You're bent and you're broken and you're, you're pushing against your own self. 00:11:11.259 --> 00:11:13.360 And you realize that you are in bondage. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:17.219 You are imprisoned to your own corrupted desires. 00:11:17.219 --> 00:11:19.379 You can't control yourself. 00:11:19.379 --> 00:11:20.459 And that's every single human. 00:11:20.459 --> 00:11:22.099 We all have a master. 00:11:22.099 --> 00:11:23.099 We're all in bondage. 00:11:23.099 --> 00:11:24.219 We're all imprisoned. 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:28.220 And Paul actually teaches really clearly in Ephesians two and then three, you've got a 00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:31.740 master and ultimately that master is self. 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:33.379 It's comfort or accomplishment. 00:11:33.379 --> 00:11:37.940 It's passivity or activity, but ultimately we worship ourselves. 00:11:37.940 --> 00:11:42.379 And we see this, we see this most acutely in the corruption of our desires. 00:11:42.379 --> 00:11:45.220 We do what we want, but we're broken. 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:46.820 We're fighting against ourselves. 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:48.139 We have no self control. 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:50.379 We're in bondage. 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:55.820 One of the great examples of this, the past we while has been to follow the track of the 00:11:55.820 --> 00:11:57.740 actor Jim Carrey. 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:01.100 Most of you will know Jim Carrey, very famous comedian and actor. 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:08.299 So Jim Carrey in 1998, 99 made a movie and it was about his own favorite comedian, a guy 00:12:08.299 --> 00:12:09.720 named Andy. 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:13.299 And when he did this, he, they've made a Netflix documentary about it actually. 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:17.779 And when he did this, he decided to fully immerse into Andy's life. 00:12:17.779 --> 00:12:23.740 And so he for months and months played Andy without ever breaking character on, on the 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:31.339 set off the set, 24 seven was never Jim was only Andy spoke like Andy, used his phrases, 00:12:31.339 --> 00:12:34.699 everything tried to completely immerse himself in that life. 00:12:34.699 --> 00:12:38.819 Even the director was frustrated with Jim because he wanted to talk to Jim, but he only 00:12:38.819 --> 00:12:42.179 ever got Andy out of Jim. 00:12:42.179 --> 00:12:45.779 And eventually Jim Carrey came out of that when he finished the film. 00:12:45.779 --> 00:12:52.059 And he, this is a paraphrase, but he said, whenever I stopped being Andy, suddenly I 00:12:52.059 --> 00:13:00.059 was back having to deal with me and my problems and my heartache and my desires and my despair 00:13:00.059 --> 00:13:01.899 over my desires. 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:04.220 And he said, and he said, he entered into depression. 00:13:04.220 --> 00:13:13.100 He was so sad because play acting for him had been an escape from the things he was chasing, 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:16.980 the things that he thought were going to fulfill him that never had. 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:22.580 And in some of you have seen this in 2016, very famously sort of a climactic moment for 00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:23.580 him. 00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:27.779 He came to the Golden Globes and the, the announcer at the Golden Globes introduced 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:32.100 him as two time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey. 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:39.060 And he came out onto the stage and he says, I am two time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey. 00:13:39.059 --> 00:13:43.259 And when I go to sleep at night, I'm not just some guy going to sleep. 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:49.179 Oh no, I am two time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey. 00:13:49.179 --> 00:13:52.019 And when I dream, I don't just dream any dream. 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:59.139 No sir, I dream about being three time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey. 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:03.259 Because if I can do that, then I know I would finally be enough. 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:05.139 It would finally be true. 00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:10.899 And I could stop this terrible search for what I know will ultimately not fulfill me. 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:14.419 And then he says, but don't let me convince you that these words are not, these awards 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:16.620 are not important. 00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:17.699 And you see what he was saying? 00:14:17.699 --> 00:14:22.819 He was saying, I have been chasing celebrity and accomplishment my whole life and it is 00:14:22.819 --> 00:14:23.819 my God. 00:14:23.819 --> 00:14:24.819 He knew it. 00:14:24.819 --> 00:14:25.819 It's my idol. 00:14:25.819 --> 00:14:27.580 It's what I worship. 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:30.139 And he knew that it was never going to be enough, that he would never be fulfilled. 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:31.299 And he said, he read Jim. 00:14:31.299 --> 00:14:34.740 Now, I don't know where he is now in life. 00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:36.180 I hope he finds Christ. 00:14:36.180 --> 00:14:41.139 But he knew that everybody worships something and that we're all imprisoned. 00:14:41.139 --> 00:14:42.659 Every one of us has religion. 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:44.259 It's just what do you worship? 00:14:44.259 --> 00:14:52.180 And for all of us to some degree itself, our accomplishments, our successes, David Clarkson, 00:14:52.180 --> 00:14:55.060 an old Scottish theologian and preacher, he talks about this. 00:14:55.060 --> 00:15:00.860 He says, when it comes to idolatry, few of us will own this, but nothing is more common 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:06.820 that if we think of our soul as a house, our faculties, our intellect, our will, our desires, 00:15:06.820 --> 00:15:12.940 our emotions as a home, he says, there is an idol set up in every single room, a different 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:17.419 thing that we're chasing, a different thing that has imprisoned us. 00:15:17.419 --> 00:15:21.620 Paul, we've spent our whole time on four little words, but I want to do that because 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:22.620 they're so important. 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:25.539 Paul says, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 00:15:25.539 --> 00:15:28.539 Every single one of us are in bondage. 00:15:28.539 --> 00:15:33.179 And the question is, do you know that today, that you worship something you always do, 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:37.860 and you can either be in bondage to an idol, to yourself, or to the real God, the only 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:43.299 master that can actually be enough for you, that can actually fulfill you. 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:49.059 And let me ask you, if you're a Christian today, if you are a follower of Jesus, publicly 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:59.579 professing faith today, is Jesus Christ your master, not only in words, but functionally? 00:15:59.579 --> 00:16:05.099 Are you living in the bondage and under the yoke of Jesus? 00:16:05.099 --> 00:16:06.699 Are you still following another master? 00:16:06.699 --> 00:16:10.419 Are you functionally under Christ's lordship? 00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:13.059 Are you living that way? 00:16:13.059 --> 00:16:16.479 You see what he will move on, but what he's talking about here is actually the bondage 00:16:16.479 --> 00:16:18.779 of Christ is true freedom. 00:16:18.779 --> 00:16:20.500 That's the metaphor. 00:16:20.500 --> 00:16:27.779 And at the very end, in verse 13, he says to the Ephesians, please, people of Ephesus, 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.139 do not lose heart that I am currently imprisoned. 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:34.579 And he's saying, you know, don't be worried about it because Nero has got me in chains. 00:16:34.579 --> 00:16:40.819 I'm a prisoner of Nero physically, but I am not imprisoned by my circumstances because 00:16:40.819 --> 00:16:41.819 I'm free. 00:16:41.819 --> 00:16:45.779 I'm in bondage to Christ, and so in my soul, I'm free. 00:16:45.779 --> 00:16:49.419 I'm not a slave to circumstance, not at all, because Christ has set me free. 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:51.339 I have a better master. 00:16:51.339 --> 00:16:57.019 And so if you're in bondage to Christ, you can have freedom from your circumstances. 00:16:57.019 --> 00:16:59.500 Suffering cannot take away your hope. 00:16:59.500 --> 00:17:03.419 If you're in bondage to Christ, you have freedom from guilt. 00:17:03.419 --> 00:17:08.460 No matter what you do, God will say to you, you're forgiven, you're cleansed, you're washed. 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:12.660 If you're in bondage to Christ, if you have a better master, you're free from trying to 00:17:12.660 --> 00:17:17.860 curate your own identity in this life, from being told by the world, by the culture, you 00:17:17.860 --> 00:17:20.860 know, you are however you feel about yourself. 00:17:20.860 --> 00:17:23.460 And that is true bondage. 00:17:23.460 --> 00:17:26.500 Being told that your identity is completely based on your emotions and your feelings, 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:28.259 that is bondage. 00:17:28.259 --> 00:17:32.180 But you can have freedom under the bondage of Christ by being told you have an identity 00:17:32.180 --> 00:17:35.019 that can never be taken away from you. 00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:38.700 You have a true master, the only true master that can satisfy. 00:17:38.700 --> 00:17:39.700 Who's the church? 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:45.940 There are people who are in bondage to the true master and thus truly free. 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:46.940 Who's the church? 00:17:46.940 --> 00:17:53.180 Well, together as well, secondly, and we'll spend most of the rest of our time here. 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:54.180 Who is the church? 00:17:54.180 --> 00:18:00.059 We are both free under the bondage of Christ and we are a great unity and diversity. 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:01.380 That's the other thing Paul tells us. 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:08.220 All right, if you cast your eyes down to the passage and just notice the language here. 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:12.740 In verse two, Paul says, I have the stewardship of God's grace. 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:16.500 I'm a steward of the grace of God. 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:21.180 Then in verse three, he says, the mystery was revealed to me and I've written about 00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:22.180 that. 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:24.059 So I'm a steward of the gospel. 00:18:24.059 --> 00:18:25.539 I know the mystery of God. 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:28.740 It's been delivered to me and I write about it. 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:29.740 Then keep going. 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:34.980 Verse four, he says, you can know my insight into the mystery of Christ. 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:40.259 Verse five, he says, that was made known to me, revealed to me. 00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:45.539 If you go down to the rest, verse six, verse seven, he says, of this gospel, I was made 00:18:45.539 --> 00:18:47.220 a minister. 00:18:47.220 --> 00:18:51.460 He goes on to say, even I'm a servant or a slave of the gospel. 00:18:51.460 --> 00:18:55.819 So if you go through, you can start to register that he's saying, God has given me a stewardship 00:18:55.819 --> 00:18:56.819 of the gospel. 00:18:56.819 --> 00:18:57.819 I'm a slave of the gospel. 00:18:57.819 --> 00:18:59.220 I'm a servant of the gospel. 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:00.220 I'm a prisoner of Christ. 00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:01.940 I'm a minister. 00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:07.059 So he's talking about all the different metaphors for how God has set him apart to deliver the 00:19:07.059 --> 00:19:12.140 gospel to the world, particularly to preach to the Gentiles. 00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:15.940 And in the midst of all that, he's thinking about his own identity. 00:19:15.940 --> 00:19:19.900 He's talking about himself and you get down to verse eight and he says something very, 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:20.900 very important. 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:25.840 He says, to me, I am the very least of all the saints. 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:30.059 This grace was given to me, though I am the least. 00:19:30.059 --> 00:19:34.579 And at that moment, he creates a word in Greek that does not exist. 00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:41.099 When he says, to me, this grace was given, though I am least in all the church, among 00:19:41.099 --> 00:19:42.339 all the saints. 00:19:42.339 --> 00:19:46.539 And the best way we can translate it, different scholars will say different things, but they 00:19:46.539 --> 00:19:52.259 say it's something like when we say leastest, the closest thing would be something like, 00:19:52.259 --> 00:19:56.859 I'm the smallest that would be the literal way to translate it. 00:19:56.859 --> 00:19:57.859 It's a word that he creates. 00:19:57.859 --> 00:19:59.359 We don't have it in Greek. 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:05.179 And he's trying to capture this idea, this utter idea that he really is the most unlikely 00:20:05.179 --> 00:20:13.179 Christian and truly the most undeserving of all the Christians and yet the great apostle 00:20:13.179 --> 00:20:17.899 to take the gospel to the Gentiles, the European world as we know it today. 00:20:17.899 --> 00:20:21.179 And what he's trying to do there is he's trying to get us to think about his life. 00:20:21.179 --> 00:20:24.579 Do you remember his life? 00:20:24.579 --> 00:20:25.579 He's the leastest. 00:20:25.579 --> 00:20:26.579 Why? 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:32.460 Because this man was going around and murdering Christians. 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:40.299 This man was adamant against Gentile and Jew being gathered together in the same spaces. 00:20:40.299 --> 00:20:42.619 One, he hated Christ. 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:49.460 He hated the gospel and he hated the unity that could be had amidst difference in ethnicity, 00:20:49.460 --> 00:20:51.740 socioeconomic class based on the gospel. 00:20:51.740 --> 00:20:57.819 He was the great enemy of that and God encountered him on the Damascus road and changed his life. 00:20:57.819 --> 00:21:03.819 The light of Jesus hit him and showed him Jesus really is the master, the real God, 00:21:03.819 --> 00:21:05.900 and the church is for every type of person. 00:21:05.900 --> 00:21:12.019 And so in God's great irony, the greatest enemy of that message became the greatest servant. 00:21:12.019 --> 00:21:16.740 So he's the leastest among all the saints because he's the least deserving murderer 00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:21.420 of Christians and now the great apostle to all the Gentiles. 00:21:21.420 --> 00:21:26.420 Now in the midst of all that, he says the mystery of God revealed through my message 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:30.340 is that Jew and Gentile belong together in the church, that we're one. 00:21:30.340 --> 00:21:36.940 We really are objectively one in Christ Jesus and he's talking here through his own experience 00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:41.980 about the unity and diversity of the church. 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:43.860 Two ways that that's true. 00:21:43.860 --> 00:21:47.940 One, through Paul, the unity and diversity of the church. 00:21:47.940 --> 00:21:53.299 The gospel is for every type of sinner. 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:57.460 There is no one excluded from the hope of the gospel. 00:21:57.460 --> 00:22:03.140 No matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, Paul can say I'm the leastest 00:22:03.140 --> 00:22:08.380 because he was the worst, the worstest to carry the language forward. 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:11.940 And yet the gospel entered into his life and changed him and brought him part of the family 00:22:11.940 --> 00:22:14.180 of God in the most unexpected way. 00:22:14.180 --> 00:22:17.580 And there is a great unity and diversity of the church because God takes all different 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:22.519 types of sinners from all different types of backgrounds and forgives them for all different 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:26.740 types of sins and brings them together in one body. 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:30.899 And the second way is he's saying very, very clearly, very simply, that means that the gospel 00:22:30.899 --> 00:22:34.899 is for not only every type of sinner, but every type of person. 00:22:34.899 --> 00:22:41.299 Every ethnicity, every race, every nationality, every political persuasion, every single person, 00:22:41.299 --> 00:22:44.460 every age and stage. 00:22:44.460 --> 00:22:48.819 It doesn't matter that the gospel comes and unifies us in the most unexpected ways throughout 00:22:48.819 --> 00:22:52.180 every single type of culture, society and world history. 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:58.140 That's the mystery of God revealed through the cross that God came to save so many people 00:22:58.140 --> 00:22:59.299 and to bring them all together. 00:22:59.299 --> 00:23:04.220 Now, let me give you two practical takeaways of that and we'll start to come to a close. 00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:07.860 Notice as I say, start to come to a close. 00:23:07.860 --> 00:23:10.299 Two practical takeaways. 00:23:10.299 --> 00:23:16.940 One is that that means that the church, Paul is telling us, is the most unified and diverse 00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:19.700 movement in all of world history. 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:24.859 People love diversity today and there's a lot of good in that, but the truth is that 00:23:24.859 --> 00:23:31.180 it's Christianity, it's the gospel that creates true unity in the midst of diversity. 00:23:31.180 --> 00:23:34.980 And the church is the great example of that until Jesus Christ comes again. 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:39.819 There's been nothing like it, nothing like the church in all of world history. 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:44.259 And so he's pointing us again for the third week in a row to see that there is a real 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:48.500 centrality in this letter and in the Bible to see the importance of the church and the 00:23:48.500 --> 00:23:49.980 life of the Christian. 00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:54.139 That you truly are, if you're a believer today, objectively part of the church, Christ's 00:23:54.139 --> 00:23:58.019 body, no matter how you feel about it, no matter how bored you get sometimes. 00:23:58.019 --> 00:24:03.539 You truly are objectively part of the body of Christ and you can't get past it. 00:24:03.539 --> 00:24:07.099 He's calling us to see the centrality of the church and the life of the Christian and what 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:14.899 that means, I think there's a question in that and that's how can we remain laxadaisical 00:24:14.899 --> 00:24:16.980 about the glory of the church? 00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:18.899 How can we be humdrum? 00:24:18.899 --> 00:24:21.500 How can we be bored with it? 00:24:21.500 --> 00:24:24.579 When you see what Paul says about it, when you see what Jesus says about it, when you 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:32.099 see what Jesus says about us, Jesus Christ became the ultimate stranger, alienated from 00:24:32.099 --> 00:24:37.779 God, carrying the weight and plight of our sin at the cross so that we might be set free. 00:24:37.779 --> 00:24:39.699 He became the ultimate prisoner. 00:24:39.699 --> 00:24:41.539 He was in bondage. 00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:46.539 He took on hostility so that he could gather a people together from all parts of life, 00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:50.099 all across the world, freed from guilt, freed from sin. 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:52.500 He says you can't be laxadaisical about the church. 00:24:52.500 --> 00:24:58.539 It's central to God's program of what he's doing in world history. 00:24:58.539 --> 00:25:01.379 Let me get very concrete about this. 00:25:01.380 --> 00:25:05.060 For all of us, sometimes we can struggle with our relationship to God's people gathered, 00:25:05.060 --> 00:25:10.140 to the church, to the local church, the institution, to the church across a nation, like the free 00:25:10.140 --> 00:25:11.420 church of Scotland. 00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:14.740 We all have varying relationships to the church. 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:19.940 But there's a sense in which we're being called, I think, today to break through that 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:26.540 and to really concretely see that God is calling us to love God's people and love the church. 00:25:26.540 --> 00:25:27.540 How can you do that? 00:25:27.540 --> 00:25:28.860 How can you do that in your heart? 00:25:28.859 --> 00:25:34.579 Here's some simple ways, one, some things that help. 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:40.219 Bring your Bible to church and open it up and dig right into the heart of the text every 00:25:40.219 --> 00:25:41.219 week. 00:25:41.219 --> 00:25:46.779 That really actually helps you gather together and gather around God's word. 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.019 Sing the songs that we sing. 00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:53.459 Sing the songs that the church sings and look at every single line and try to sing it to 00:25:53.459 --> 00:25:57.419 God and to each other at the same time. 00:25:57.420 --> 00:26:02.900 Pray with whoever's praying from up front or Fridays and Wednesdays when we gather for 00:26:02.900 --> 00:26:03.900 prayer. 00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:08.620 Pray every line in your heart that the person you're listening to prays. 00:26:08.620 --> 00:26:12.940 Break through, break through and gather together and join in. 00:26:12.940 --> 00:26:18.420 And when we do all that, worship God and speak to one another at the very same time. 00:26:18.420 --> 00:26:20.380 Be the church, Paul is calling us here. 00:26:20.380 --> 00:26:21.380 Know that it's central. 00:26:21.380 --> 00:26:26.860 The second thing, and the last thing, is that he's telling us we're a unity and diversity 00:26:26.859 --> 00:26:30.899 and the implication is that implication, last implication of that. 00:26:30.899 --> 00:26:32.699 It's found in verse 10. 00:26:32.699 --> 00:26:38.019 So if you go to verse 10, Paul says, I've been given the charge to bring the light of 00:26:38.019 --> 00:26:43.579 the gospel to the Gentiles, verse 10, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom 00:26:43.579 --> 00:26:48.179 of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in heaven. 00:26:48.179 --> 00:26:52.500 All right, when he says that little word, through the church, the, here's the word, 00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:54.859 the manifold wisdom of God. 00:26:54.859 --> 00:27:00.339 That's a word that literally translates to multicolored or multifaceted. 00:27:00.339 --> 00:27:04.740 It's a word, it's a metaphor for a diamond as a way to think about it. 00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:09.099 And he's talking about how the manifold wisdom, the wisdom of God and the gospel to bring 00:27:09.099 --> 00:27:13.619 together all sorts of people all throughout world history into one body, one church. 00:27:13.619 --> 00:27:19.619 He says it's like a multifaceted diamond where light is being shone through a million ways, 00:27:19.619 --> 00:27:21.019 a thousand different ways. 00:27:21.019 --> 00:27:23.219 It's multicolored, it's many dimensioned. 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:27.460 You can never get to the depths of how many dimensions there are to the wealth of the 00:27:27.460 --> 00:27:30.579 diamond that is God's wisdom in the church. 00:27:30.579 --> 00:27:35.620 One writer talks about how it's like, it's like at the beginning of the Chronicles of 00:27:35.620 --> 00:27:42.100 Narnia, when the kids go into the home, the great manor house of their uncle, we have 00:27:42.100 --> 00:27:46.620 so many of these around Scotland, so many great homes, so many enormous homes, castles. 00:27:46.620 --> 00:27:51.860 It'd be like going into a home with a thousand rooms and you open the door to every single 00:27:51.859 --> 00:27:56.699 one of those rooms and in every single one of those rooms there's a new wardrobe, a new 00:27:56.699 --> 00:27:59.899 treasure, a new treasure chest to find, a thousand rooms. 00:27:59.899 --> 00:28:00.899 You can't get to the bottom of it. 00:28:00.899 --> 00:28:01.899 It never ends. 00:28:01.899 --> 00:28:06.740 And he's saying the church is multicolored, multifaceted like a diamond because you can 00:28:06.740 --> 00:28:13.099 go to every single room in the church, every single person, every single nationality, every 00:28:13.099 --> 00:28:18.099 single place that God has brought the gospel all over the world and hear a new story of 00:28:18.099 --> 00:28:21.699 grace, a new story of how God is working in somebody's life. 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:25.100 And it's like opening up the door to a whole new treasure chest. 00:28:25.100 --> 00:28:31.299 One gospel, one people, one baptism, so many facets of the diamond gathered all over the 00:28:31.299 --> 00:28:32.500 world. 00:28:32.500 --> 00:28:34.980 Let me give you one very concrete takeaway of this. 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:36.380 You know what that means? 00:28:36.380 --> 00:28:41.460 The diamond that is the church, the prism, thousand dimensions to it. 00:28:41.460 --> 00:28:46.819 It means that we are a unity and diversity in that we are gathered around one baptism, 00:28:46.819 --> 00:28:53.619 one Lord, one gospel, one spirit in so many dimensions, diverse ways. 00:28:53.619 --> 00:28:57.980 And so that means we should never expect all the churches to look the same. 00:28:57.980 --> 00:29:01.980 We should never expect everybody in all the church to wear the same clothes or to sing 00:29:01.980 --> 00:29:08.899 the same songs according to the Celtic jazz or whatever style that a church chooses to 00:29:08.899 --> 00:29:10.579 adopt. 00:29:10.579 --> 00:29:14.899 We should go to all these different places and see the gospel and the worship of the 00:29:14.899 --> 00:29:16.779 church expressed in different ways. 00:29:16.779 --> 00:29:22.259 And that's something to celebrate, to rejoice in, because we are a unity and diversity. 00:29:22.259 --> 00:29:25.779 Give you a concrete, even more concrete example of this. 00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:30.019 Every once in a while, I like to wear a tie just every once in a while. 00:29:30.019 --> 00:29:31.019 Some people like that. 00:29:31.019 --> 00:29:33.259 Some people probably don't. 00:29:33.259 --> 00:29:37.059 Some of you love to wear ties, suits, some of you men. 00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:39.940 Different clothing represented in the life of St. Columbus. 00:29:39.940 --> 00:29:44.220 And if you go back 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, you know that that's different, right? 00:29:44.220 --> 00:29:47.980 That clothing has changed every decade. 00:29:47.980 --> 00:29:51.579 And there's such good in that. 00:29:51.579 --> 00:29:56.259 Look, I myself actually enjoy the tie sometimes. 00:29:56.259 --> 00:29:59.940 But if you, you know the first time a tie would have been worn, a suit would have been 00:29:59.940 --> 00:30:03.819 worn in Edinburgh, in church, about 1830. 00:30:03.819 --> 00:30:07.579 That was probably the first time a suit was ever worn in church. 00:30:07.579 --> 00:30:09.700 And you know what that means? 00:30:09.700 --> 00:30:15.140 That means from the year that Christ rose from the dead all the way till 1830, there 00:30:15.140 --> 00:30:18.059 were no suits and ties. 00:30:18.059 --> 00:30:19.900 And then in 1830, people were in suits and ties. 00:30:19.900 --> 00:30:22.259 And you know what people said then? 00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:25.860 These people in their suits and ties, bringing new clothing into the church. 00:30:25.860 --> 00:30:26.860 What's going on? 00:30:26.860 --> 00:30:30.299 Innovation, right? 00:30:30.299 --> 00:30:33.660 And now we love suit and ties, and some of you love to wear different things. 00:30:33.660 --> 00:30:39.460 And there's glory and beauty in that, because you see clothing changes. 00:30:39.460 --> 00:30:43.220 There's a diversity of expression in the local church, in our church, in the church down 00:30:43.220 --> 00:30:46.140 the street, in the church up the road, in the church across the world. 00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:50.980 But it's one gospel, one spirit, one baptism in every single place. 00:30:50.980 --> 00:30:51.980 We're a unity and diversity. 00:30:51.980 --> 00:30:53.819 All right, let me close with this. 00:30:53.819 --> 00:30:56.660 I can only spend about 90 seconds. 00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:01.380 The last thing Paul teaches us, and we'll get into this next week, is that we are also 00:31:01.380 --> 00:31:04.180 servants of the gospel. 00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:10.220 He says we're prisoners of Christ, we're ministers, prisoners, stewards, servants, slaves, all 00:31:10.220 --> 00:31:14.660 given this message to steward to other people. 00:31:14.660 --> 00:31:20.019 He says in this passage we're called to preach, to bring the light of the plan of God to everyone. 00:31:20.019 --> 00:31:24.060 And so we're going to see next week, we'll focus on this next week, is that he's saying 00:31:24.060 --> 00:31:27.620 to us here, we are all ministers of the gospel. 00:31:27.620 --> 00:31:32.700 It's an every person ministry, stewards of the gospel, prisoners of Christ, stewards 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:36.580 of the gospel, all together, every single person. 00:31:36.580 --> 00:31:43.180 And so the last line here, verse 10, he says this multifaceted diamond that takes diverse 00:31:43.180 --> 00:31:45.380 expression everywhere we go. 00:31:45.380 --> 00:31:51.819 He says God has made known his wisdom to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly 00:31:51.819 --> 00:31:54.019 places. 00:31:54.019 --> 00:31:56.180 Strange language here. 00:31:56.180 --> 00:31:59.259 If you look at this carefully, this is what Paul's saying, and we'll end with this. 00:31:59.259 --> 00:32:05.700 He's saying that when God brings the gospel to all the world, and many, many people from 00:32:05.700 --> 00:32:11.059 diverse backgrounds come to faith and join the church, that the rulers and the authorities 00:32:11.059 --> 00:32:14.619 in the heavenly places gaze upon that. 00:32:14.619 --> 00:32:21.660 Now what he's saying is this, the people who think that the church is most beautiful are 00:32:21.660 --> 00:32:23.900 the angels. 00:32:23.900 --> 00:32:29.059 It's the angels who are looking down and seeing the church, people brought in by the gospel, 00:32:29.059 --> 00:32:34.700 the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, gazing upon that and saying, wow, look 00:32:34.700 --> 00:32:39.419 what our God is doing throughout world history in bringing people together in the church. 00:32:39.419 --> 00:32:42.379 And we have this in 1 Peter 1.12. 00:32:42.379 --> 00:32:47.659 Peter says concerning salvation, the gospel preached to you, the beauty of the church, 00:32:47.659 --> 00:32:52.220 these are the things upon which the angels long to gaze. 00:32:52.220 --> 00:32:57.899 Break through our practical materialism and know today that the angels are gazing upon 00:32:57.900 --> 00:33:03.180 the beauty of Christ's church gathered together all across the world right now. 00:33:03.180 --> 00:33:08.140 And they say, wow, look at what God is building, look at what our God is doing. 00:33:08.140 --> 00:33:12.860 The question today is when the angels say the church is beautiful, not boring, glorious, 00:33:12.860 --> 00:33:18.180 not humdrum, is that our heart? 00:33:18.180 --> 00:33:23.700 Can we say that along with the angels in the heavenly places, that what God is doing all 00:33:23.700 --> 00:33:27.580 across the world, the building of God's people, that's beautiful. 00:33:27.579 --> 00:33:28.579 That's glorious. 00:33:28.579 --> 00:33:29.579 Let us pray. 00:33:29.579 --> 00:33:32.579 Lord, we thank you. 00:33:32.579 --> 00:33:40.139 We thank you that you have saved us from all sorts of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, 00:33:40.139 --> 00:33:48.339 nationalities, political persuasions, and collected to yourself a people that seeing your praises 00:33:48.339 --> 00:33:54.059 in every tribe tongue, according to every tribe tongue language and nation. 00:33:54.059 --> 00:33:58.859 And so we pray today that we would see the glory and the beauty of that diverse expression 00:33:58.859 --> 00:34:01.579 of the church all throughout the ages. 00:34:01.579 --> 00:34:06.339 Even in our city, we know today that there are dozens of communities from all different 00:34:06.339 --> 00:34:08.539 nationalities gathered for worship. 00:34:08.539 --> 00:34:13.420 We know that there are dozens of nationalities and backgrounds represented in St. C's right 00:34:13.420 --> 00:34:14.579 now in this moment. 00:34:14.579 --> 00:34:15.900 So we thank you for that. 00:34:15.900 --> 00:34:21.099 So we see the glory of what you're doing, Lord, putting people once hostile and fractured 00:34:21.099 --> 00:34:26.179 throughout world history together again by the power of salvation in Christ. 00:34:26.179 --> 00:34:29.219 We thank you that you've washed away our guilt. 00:34:29.219 --> 00:34:30.219 We thank you for the cross. 00:34:30.219 --> 00:34:35.579 And we just pray today that we would see the unity and diversity of your church and that 00:34:35.579 --> 00:34:39.059 we would love the gathering of the saints all the more, Lord. 00:34:39.059 --> 00:34:41.940 So strike our hearts with that, we pray. 00:34:41.940 --> 00:34:42.940 We ask for that. 00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:47.299 I pray for somebody today that needs to see that they can be forgiven for their sins, 00:34:47.299 --> 00:34:50.460 like Paul needed forgiveness for what he had done. 00:34:50.460 --> 00:34:54.019 So I just pray today that you would touch somebody's heart with the words of grace. 00:34:54.019 --> 00:34:55.740 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:34:55.739 --> 00:35:23.739 Amen.