Well go ahead and have a seat. So great to worship with you today. Hopefully you brought your Bible with you and you can grab those and open them to Ephesians chapter 1 today. Ephesians chapter 1. We’ll be in verses 11-14. I’m going to begin by simply reading our text. But you know that this is week three that we have been venturing through what is Paul’s longest sentence in the New Testament.
And verses 3-14 in the original Greek, over two hundred words, one sentence. A doxology igniting worship in the hearer, igniting worship in the Ephesian church as they recognize that God the Father, God the Holy Spirit was at work before the foundation of the world in their salvation. It’s miraculous.
And even as we enter into it today, I think as I’ve just been saturated in it the last few weeks I still don’t grasp all of God’s love in this. I still can’t comprehend all of the love that’s been lavished on the believer. And it’s something frustrating to us in the finiteness of our human minds of what we can’t understand. And so we just keep bumping up against a wall and at times you just have to let go and say, “Lord, I’m Yours and I marvel at it.” And hopefully that’s where this continues to lead you as you become and behold all that God has done for you if you are saved.
Let’s get our eyes on Ephesians chapter 1 starting in verse 11. Now hear the Word of the Lord. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-14)
This is God’s Word for us today. And the big idea of the sermon that I want to preach to you this morning is this: the sooner I realize what I’m guaranteed in Christ, the sooner I’ll stop living for lesser things. How many things in this life are guaranteed? Not too many. But when God guarantees something to the believer, you’d better believe that it will come to pass. And the sooner you realize what you’re guaranteed in Christ, the sooner you’ll stop living for lesser things.
Now I just wanted to share with you a couple stories that Jesus told. Jesus said in Matthew 13:44, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-45)
Obviously the men in these parables that Jesus is telling knew the immeasurable wealth and value of what they had found concerning this pearl and concerning the treasure. They knew that the treasure of the pearl was more valuable than any and all that they had ever accumulated on this earth. So what may have seemed small would provide for them more than anything they could have accumulated on the earth. Likewise, Jesus told another parable in Mark 4:31. He said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4:30-31)
Again, what was obtained in the mustard seed seemed small, seemed undefined. But it would eventually expand to fill the earth once it was planted in the earth, watered, and it grew. And so it is with the kingdom of God. So it is with the riches of the inheritance that we have if we are in Christ. Do you realize what you have been given? That’s what Paul is trying to write to those in Ephesus. Do you realize not only what you have been given who you are in Christ Jesus?
Now I was reading a couple of weeks ago about a man named William Randolph Hearst. He was a very wealthy man. He was a business man, a newspaper publisher. And he died in 1951, but he loved to collect fine art. And he had a mansion in California and he had bunches of warehouses all over the place where he would store the fine, exquisite art that he would find.
One day he heard about this very rare piece of art in the world and he’s like, “I just have to have my hands on that piece of art.” And so he hired a team of people and he sent that team of people out to scour the earth for this one of a kind piece of art. And they searched and searched and researched and he spent time and energy and money. And months went by.
And finally the crew came back with their heads hung low. And he said, “Did you find the piece of art?”
And they said, “Sir, you have owned this piece of art the entire time, and it was in a crate in the back of one of your warehouse.” Can you imagine spending that much time, that much energy searching for something that you already own? And the men in Jesus’ parable, they were living their lives like they had obtained all that they’d ever needed.
And my fear for many professing believers, definitely the world but even professing believers, is that we spend our lives looking for a treasure that we have already obtained, a treasure that far surpasses anything that this world could ever offer us. No doubt that we’re prone toward temporal things.
Maybe you want a treasure that’s tangible that you can hold in your hands, that you feel adds value to your life right now. Perhaps you’re dissatisfied with your life and you want more. Maybe you want a better job or more money or a nicer house or more leadership or more freedom or more popularity. Maybe you want a relationship.
And none of these are bad things, but they’re often where we get our sense of accomplishment from. They’re often how we measure whether or not we’re being successful in life. Maybe for you the measure if you’ve reached your potential or you haven’t reached your potential.
And all the while Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 is exclaiming, “Hey, if you are in Christ you have no idea what you’ve already obtained! You have no idea what you have waiting for you in the heavenly places. And you have already obtained it, and it blows away the temporal longings of this world.”
And if you can get your eyes there you will certainly long and hope for something so much greater than anything this world could ever give you. The sooner I realize what I’m guaranteed in Christ the sooner I’ll stop searching for lesser things.
Now point number one this morning is this. God the Father gives me an inheritance far greater than anything this world could offer. God the Father gives me an inheritance far greater than anything this world could ever offer.
Let’s look in verse 11. It says, “In him.” Twelve times Paul uses “in him” in verse 3-14. I’m going to tell you every week. It’s so important. In him we have obtained an inheritance. “In him” is in Christ. The most important position you could ever find yourself in in this life. And yet in Christ we see that we have obtained an inheritance. It’s the pearl of great price. It’s the treasure or the mustard seed.
To obtain something in this case is to have it secured. Our inheritance in Christ has been established in your life. You haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, as we’ll see in verse 14. You haven’t fully acquired it. But if something was so certain that it could not possibly fail to happen, the Greeks would speak of it as if it had already occurred. They would have a phrasing and verbage for if it had already occurred. And that’s exactly the language that Pual uses when it concerns obtained and inheritance.
It’s as if Paul is saying, “Our inheritance in Christ is as certain as if it has already happened.” And an inheritance is not something that you earn, right? We’ve understood that. We’re learning that through Ephesians chapter 1. It’s something that is passed down to you, passed down through the family. We said in Roman culture and even in the Old Testament we always saw a father passing on his inheritance to his son.
And so you ask the question, “How did I obtain this inheritance in Christ?” Well the God of the universe adopted you as His adopted son. Remember we learned about that, that God already had a Son, but because He loves you so much He takes His enemies and He adopts them to be His beloved children. He purchased your redemption through Christ’s death on the cross. And you become one with God just as Jesus Christ is one with God. And every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer that would be passed on to Jesus is now passed on to you if you are in Christ.
The inheritance that I am given by God the Father far surpasses anything that this world could ever offer me. But not only are you given an inheritance, you are the Son’s inheritance. That’s how Jesus looks at you. You are the inheritance that God has bought through the sacrifice of Jesus. You were living dead in the world, cursed by sin, and yet Jesus’ death was the payment so that you could be bought back from the world and be a beloved, chosen child of God, an heir with Christ. You are Christ’s glorious and holy possession.
Now in the Old Testament the word “inheritance” was used to talk about the promised land, the land of Canaan. And so you’re like, “Is that my inheritance now, like a plot of land in the Middle East?” And no, it’s not. We’re in the New Covenant. Christ has come. Our King has come. And the promised inheritance that you have now is that you would be an heir of the world, but it’s not this world. It’s the world that is to come whenever. We saw last week God will come, Christ will come again, and He will unite all things in heaven and all things on earth to Himself. And you will be an heir of that world.
And it’s there that you will fully acquire the inheritance that waits for all those who are in Christ. Every promise God has ever made is your inheritance. Every promise that God has ever made is your inheritance. Isn’t that an incredible thought that all the promises God has made in Scripture are my inheritance as a sinful human being.
1 Peter 1:3-4 says, Peter writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses Paul’s updated language. He says, According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So God the Father caused us to have all of those things.
And here’s what you’re born from the dead to. Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading. And it’s kept in heaven for you.
How many things in this life that you get your hand on, how many things are imperishable and undefiled and unfading? All of the things that we accumulate here on the earth are slowly wasting away. And yet you have been given an inheritance kept in heaven and it will never fade, will never be defiled. It is imperishable.
2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul writes this: For all the promises of God. How many of them? All of them. Right? All the promises of God find their yes, not their maybe, not their “no”s. All the promises of God find their yes in Him. In who? In Christ the most important position you could ever find yourself in. and that is why it’s through Him that we can utter our amen to Him for His glory.
All the promises of God. you ask, “Can I live after death?”
Absolutely you can.
“Can I be perfect and never deal with heartache again?”
Yes.
“Can I dwell in utter perfection?”
Yes you can.
“Can I have victory over my addiction, over my lust, over my pride?”
You’d better believe you can.
“Can I be set free from my back pain and from my cancer and from my headaches?”
It’s as good as if it’s already been done.
And you may be saying, “How could it be this good? How would the God of the universe pour out this blessing on me?”
Well look at verse 11. In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Verse 12. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
How do I know that I have an inheritance, that I’ve obtained an inheritance, that I’ve been given an inheritance? Because God who has a will has given me one. Because God who has a purpose has given me a purpose. Because God who is in control of everything in the cosmos and everything in this life and in the life to come, He loved me before I loved Him so that one day I could love Him to the praise of His glorious grace.
How do I know that I’ve obtained an inheritance? Because God who works all things according to what He wills has worked out what I never could. He has given me, the sinner, a destination and I am destined to an inheritance shared with Christ. And God is so powerful that He thought about it and He planned it and He had the means to secure it before the world ever began.
It’s remarkable. Have you ever worked on something so hard and you just couldn’t wait to get to the final product? I was thinking this week about my daughters. A winter or so ago they wanted to recreate the Nutcracker. And so they got to work like coming up with all the different scenes of the Nutcracker. And they got the costumes ready and they got the music and they were going to meticulously film every scene and have the dance parts come in just right. And they would redo it. And then they got all the pieces and they started editing it together. And then the day came when our family would sit down and we would view the Nutcracker. And we all sat down. It was as if everything was perfect in the world, as if it was meant to be. We sat down and the music started and the production went on.
And my daughters came out and they were like, “Wasn’t that so good mom and dad?”
And we’re like, “Yeah, it was. Great job.”
God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have been planning where all of this life is heading since before time began. And it’s all moving toward a day when we will sit down with the triune God and they will show us the glory of all of creation, the glory of our salvation. They’re orchestrating together toward a master plan.
And you say, “Well if God is so in control, if God is so big and mighty, why is there sin in the world? Why is there so much heartache in the world? Why are there hurricanes that wipe out cities in a matter of moments? If God is sovereign, those things wouldn’t happen.
But listen. Sin and heartache and the pain of the world and hurricanes and all of that, it poses zero threat on the sovereignty of God. Sin is just another opportunity for God to show us how glorious and powerful He is. Just as you have obtained an inheritance in Christ, sin has already obtained its inheritance. The inheritance of sin is demise and destruction and it will be done away just as you are waiting to fully acquire your inheritance in heaven.
Sin knows that when Jesus comes again it will fully acquire its destruction, and it will be done away with. And when sin finally acquires its inheritance, the glory of God will be seen not only in His just punishment toward evil and unrighteousness but the fullness of His mercy and grace will be experienced by all those who have called upon the name of the Lord.
Absolutely God will deal with heartache. Absolutely God will deal with injustice. Absolutely God will deal with sin. But all those who have called upon the name of the Lord will stand back and say, “God, I’m so unworthy. Why would You buy me back from this world? Why would You call me Your beloved child? Why would You bring me in when I am so far from holy and blameless and I deserve to be cast from Your presence? And yet in your love and mercy You have invited me to come by the precious blood of Jesus.” And all of it will be for what verse 12 says, to the praise of His glory and grace.
Now number two this morning is this- God’s Son is the hope of my inheritance, so I must believe that He is all I need. God’s Son is the hope of my inheritance, so I must believe that He is all I need.
Yes, you’ve been given an inheritance. You’ve got to live like it. You’ve got to act like you’ve obtained it. You’ve got to tap into the inheritance. We have responsibility in all of this as believers. You’re not some kind of robot that God has programmed to be His little Christian child here on the earth. When we start to get our philosophy in it, when we start to think about God being in control, our minds like to go all of these places.
You have responsibility in this thing called salvation, and that’s where Paul goes next. Let’s read starting in verse 12.
So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Verse 13. In him (there it is again) you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
So true heirs with Jesus who have obtained an inheritance, they came to find out about their inheritance by putting their hope in Christ by hearing the truth, which is the gospel of your salvation, and they believed in Jesus that He is the way, the truth and life and no one gets to God except through Him. They didn’t reject the gospel. They didn’t mock the gospel.
Remember when Paul was in Greece and he was on Mars Hill and he preached this very message, the gospel of our salvation. Many mocked the message. And many went away from the message saying, “I don’t want anything to do with that.”
And yet some wanted to hear more. And some put their hope and trust and faith and belief in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we learned last week that from verse 7 it is only in Christ that we have redemption through His blood for the forgiveness of sins.
So this free, unmerited gift of grace that has been extended to me in Chirst Jesus is me denying myself to the right and the thought that I can do something to earn or obtain the inheritance of heaven and my salvation. Salvation is a self-denial, not a self-preservation, which we are all wired to be set in. My salvation is a recognition that there is nothing I can do to save myself, so I hope in a God who is in control of everything, because God created me and God saw sin curse me, and God sacrificed His Son for me and He offered His free unmerited grace for me so that He could buy me back from a world cursed with sin and so that I could love Him as my heavenly Father for the rest of eternity.
That is the beauty of the gospel, but many will never put their hope in Jesus Christ. Many in this life. I mean it sounds like such a sweet deal, doesn’t it, as you read Ephesians 1 as a believer. It just keeps getting better and better and better. And you’re like, “God, how could You be this good to me?” but many will never understand, never receive it, never have faith to believe in something this good because the thought that God is in control or the thought that God is sovereign or the thought that God, as verse 11 says, works all things according to the counsel of His will. Many will never hope in Christ because all of that is so offensive to our human nature.
From the beginning of time we wanted to be God. We want to be in charge. In the Garden that was our problem. We want to be in charge of the master plan. As human beings, we want to be in charge of our own salvation. It’s why when we read passages like this and we see the choosing and the adopting and predestining and words like this, we’re like, “God didn’t choose me. I chose Him.” We want to be in control of this, and yet God is so much bigger than you. God is so much more powerful than you.
And until you give up control and believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him, until you put your trust and belief that there’s nothing you can do to earn your salvation but it’s already been done for you and purchased at the cross of Christ, you’ll never experience the inheritance obtained by all those who are in Christ. But if you have believed the gospel, then you must live like Jesus is all you need, like you’ve obtained this inheritance.
And my fear for many who profess to be Christians is we live our lives like William Hearst, searching for something in this life that we already obtained and secured in the heavenly places. If I’m being honest, we have it made here in Granger, don’t we? Like Michiana, Gospel City Church. We have it made. And if you’re not careful, Paul was commending them for putting their hope in Christ alone. If you’re not careful you will put your hope in Christ plus your income or Christ plus your comfort or Christ plus your social status.
And when you start to hope in these lesser things, these temporal things of the world, you’ll start to believe the lies that they are worth living for and then you won’t be living like you’ve obtained an inheritance with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You’ll just become someone who professes that Christ is Lord of your life, but you will be unfulfilled because the reality is you just really love yourself way too much.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:24, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Is it bad to have riches? Is it bad to have money? Is it bad to have possessions and comforts on this earth? Absolutely not. God is a Father who gives good gifts to His children. But you’ve got to be careful that the gifts that you have don’t have you. There are means for you to bring praise and honor and glory to God, not for you to find comfort in and satisfaction in and act as if you have potential or don’t have potential based on what you’ve accumulated on the earth.
And the riches of earth, all of us in this room are rich based on the world. The riches make us soft. They can make us independent. They can make us unreliant on a God who works all things according to the counsel of His will. And when we become soft we live for the temporal comforts rather than the eternal weight of glory. And it’s then that we become lukewarm. And a lukewarm Christian God spits out of His mouth. It’s then that we lose our first love.
Paul is commending the Ephesian church here for having their hope in Christ alone. But we saw a few weeks ago that eventually they left their first love because they began to grab hold and on to the things that the world had to offer rather than exalt Christ over all.
So if you have believed in Jesus Christ and come to hope in Him as the Lord of your salvation, if you’ve heard and believed the gospel of your salvation, then hunger and thirst for righteousness. May that be your longing every day. Lord, make us more desperate for You. have eyes to see the people that need to experience the love of Christ.
When you walk into your high school, when you walk into your workplace, when you walk into the grocery store, Lord, give me eyes to see people the way that You see people. Serve the poor and the widows and the orphans of the world. That is God’s heart through the believer, through the church.
Use your gifts to absolutely serve your guts out. Are you going to get tired of serving? Are you going to get weary? You’d better believe it. Galatians 6:9 Paul writes this. Then don’t grow weary of doing good. You get weary when you do good things. But hold on for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. What will we reap? We will reap every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places when we spend our lives pouring out so that the glory of God is known on the earth, serving the church, serving the lost, serving the city with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to explore the inheritance that we’ve obtained in Christ on the earth while you wait to fully acquire possession of it.
I was talking to my brother Matt D’Amico this week. He’s a sage of a human being. And he told me, “Too many Christians live their lives as if they’ve had the keys to Buckingham Palace and they never went in.”
Imagine if Queen Elizabeth gave you the keys to Buckingham Palace. It has 775 rooms. Imagine if you walked in, just walked the hall, but you never entered one room. You have free reign of the entire Buckingham Palace but you never take advantage of all that you have been given, all that you have obtained. And many of us live our Christian life exactly like that. We have wealth of treasure, so we’ve got to live in it.
Paul says glory in it. Find your identity in your inheritance. Stop worrying about the things of this life. There is freedom in knowing who your Father is and all that He has given you.
I read this week that nine-year-old Prince George, which is Prince William’s son, he told a classmate after an argument (he’s nine years old). After an argument, he said, “My dad will be king. You’d better watch out.” Like what nine-year-old could resist, right? But that kid is living like he knows what he’s about to inherit.
How much more should we as believers live like we know who our Father is? Like we know what we’re about to inherit? It’s kept for you in the heavenly places. Start tapping in. start taking advantage of it. Start leaning into the riches of every heaven, every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer because you are secure, and it’s as good as if it’s already been done.
It’s good news, right? You want more good news? I’ve got more for you, because Paul’s sentence keeps going. And point number three this morning is this. God’s Spirit guarantees my inheritance, so I can stop searching for what only Christ can satisfy. God’s Spirit guarantees my inheritance, so I can stop searching for what only Christ can satisfy.
You noticed in each point had God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The entire triune God, the whole Trinity, was at work on your salvation. The entire godhead had a part in redeeming you. Isn’t that beautiful? All of who God is was a part of saving you and sealing you and carrying you on to glory.
Not only did these believers in Ephesus put their hope in Christ, they heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation. They believed in Christ. But then God does something so much more astounding. Look in verse 13.
In him also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. So much to marvel at in those two verses.
First, let’s just marvel at the fact that we have received the promised Holy Spirit. You remember Jesus on the Mount of Olivette. Hey disciples, you’re going to go to the ends of the earth. Don’t go yet. I’m going to send a promise from heaven. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and He’s never left.
The Holy Spirit took up residence in the life of believers, and then all who called upon the name of the Lord from that point forward would be filled with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of heaven, to be your helper, to point you in the right direction, to illuminate God’s Word, to convict you of sin, to help you walk in righteousness in this life. The Holy Spirit fills you up on salvation.
The second thing that we can marvel at is that it says that we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. If you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit you have both security and assurance of your salvation. Those are two things that every person is searching for. I want security. Man, I want to know what’s going to happen in this life. What’s next? I want assurance. How do I know if I’m in Christ? How do I know if God chose me, if I’m a child of God?
If you’ve obtained the Holy Spirit you’ve obtained the security of your forgiveness. You have the assurance of belonging to God, who adopted you as His beloved. And the Holy Spirit shows the ownership of God over your life. You belong to royalty if the Holy Spirit has been placed inside of you. You are God’s divine possession not so that you could just boast about it, not so that you could be comfortable. You have been set apart and given authority to proclaim and to teach and to minister and to defend the gospel in the world. That’s your purpose in this life if you have been filled with the Holy Spirit and set apart in Christ Jesus.
The Spirit of God in your life is God’s seal on your life. The language of sealing in this day as Paul is writing the letter, they would have taken a letter that was written and they would have put hot wax on it. And the person who is sending the letter would have marked that letter, that hot wax, with this signet ring. And so it would be destined for a place, predestined you might say, as the writer is sending it somewhere.
And as it would be carried there, it was authenticated when it arrived by the signet ring’s marking. The person that sent this letter had this ring, therefore I know it’s from him. God has stamped you with His signet ring,and it’s called the Holy Spirit. God has placed His mark on your life and you have been signed and you have been sealed and you will be safely delivered to the Promised Land, to the inheritance that is in heaven because God who has marked you with His Spirit will carry you through, and it is a guarantee.
That’s the third thing that we can marvel at. All of this is a guarantee. The Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. A down payment from God has been placed on your life. Literally God has put the first installment of your inheritance on your life. If you were buying a house, you’d put a down payment as if to say, “I have obtained this, but more money is to come.” God has put a down payment on your life and there is so much more to come.
It also could be translated to an engagement ring. God has given you an engagement ring when He put the Holy Spirit inside of you. The Holy Spirit inside of you is what an engagement ring is to a future wedding. Isn’t that awesome?
When you get engaged, the anticipation starts. You realize that a big day is coming. You start to plan and you start to get everything in order and you want it to be perfect. You want everything to be right. And when the day finally comes there’s joy and all the anticipation. There’s hope and longing.
All of life is moving toward a wedding day, the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. I want you to see in Revelatoin. The Bible, Paul is pointing to this. And listen. Revelation 19 starting in verse 6. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peels of thunder crying out, this is what’s crying out in the heavenly places on the wedding day, the marriage supper of the Lamb, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.”
YOu are the bride. If you are in Christ, you are the bride that is making herself ready for the wedding day. And it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Revelation 19:6-8)
God bought you from the sin-cursed world and He’s given you fine linens. He’s given you the ability to walk in righteousness. You’ve obtained an inheritance, but Paul in Ephesians 4 says, “You’ve got to walk worthy of this calling with which you’ve been called.”
That’s why you start living in righteousness. That’s why you die to the things of the world. That’s why you’re like, “I’m not going to go my way anymore. I’m going to hope in heaven. And so I’ve got to live a life that’s holy and blameless. And when I mess up, the Holy Spirit will help me. He’ll help me see that I’m a sinner and that I need the grace of God and that it’s already been forgiven at the cross.
And so I repent. I confess my sin to those that I sin against. I forgive my enemies. And I try to walk today in holiness, try to walk today in righteousness. And I don’t have to do it on my own because the Spirit is in me and He’s guiding me. And it’s a guarantee that I’m going to make it through. I’m not where I once was. I’m not where I want to be, definitely not. But man, the Holy Spirit has carried me this far. He’ll continue to do it until I reach heaven.
So tap into the inheritance of heaven. Start reading your Bible. The Holy Spirit wants to illuminate for you. If you’ve grown weary of it, ask a brother or sister in Christ to help you, hold you accountable. Try something new as you read your Bible. Get in a new study. Get in a small group. Get in Core classes. Get in a class here, a Bible study, men’s group on Wednesday mornings. Start praying, boldly seeking the face of Jesus. Start worshiping. When you worship God and behold God, you’ll become like the one that you worship. Start serving others. The Holy Spirit will move you to become more like Christ.
I want to close this way. Is there anyone in the room who has been walking with Jesus for less than one year? You’ve confessed your sins. You’ve put your faith and hope and trust in Jesus. You’ve believed in this message, the gospel of your salvation. But you’ve been walking with the Lord and you truly believe you are for less than one year. Would you stand if you’re in the room? Anyone willing to do that? Less than one year walking with Jesus. Anybody? Anyone?
The 11:00 is the mature crowd. We’ve been walking with Jesus for a while. How about less than two years. Anyone? Amen. brother Chris. So Chris…Yeah, give the Lord a hand. He redeems. So it’s not easy walking with Jesus, right? You wake up everyday and you know that you have this inheritance in heaven, but it’s not super tangible sometimes. And so you’re like tempted probably to do the wrong thing and that just reveals your desperate need for Jesus.
And yet you know that God is holy and God is good in your life. And you know that the Holy Spirit is helping you and moving you. Yeah, every day. So you’re dependent on the Lord. you don’t have it all together, but the Holy Spirit is helping you see that God has got it all together and you can put your trust there, right?
Stay standing. Now dare I ask, is there anyone in the room who has been walking with Jesus who has repented and believed, anyone who has been walking with Jesus for 60+ years. Would you stand up? I see this woman back here waving her hands. I love that. Energy. Love it. Praise God. And Laura down here. 60+ years. Praise God for what He’s done in your life.
Now listen. Laura and my sprite young lady here in the back, you would say like it’s not easy. And every day you still wake up and you’re not perfect and you’re not holy and blameless. Amen? And yet the Spirit of God is working on your behalf, right? And you didn’t know if you’d make it sixty years walking with the Lord. but look, you’re standing here today. You’re giving praise to God and that’s all because of the Spirit in your life. Amen? And your continual belief in this gospel that can change your life.
God is a God who saves throughout all generations. And whether you’ve been walking with the Lord for three days or you’ve been walking with the Lord for 60+ years, the Spirit of God has signed and sealed you and He is carrying you on to glory to His inheritance that is kept in heaven for you. And you’re going to make it! So hold onto the hope that’s in Jesus Christ. Hold onto every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And trust every day in the cross of Jesus Christ where your freedom has been purchased by God.
Let’s all stand together. And all of this is to the praise of the glorious grace of our God. Let’s give Him our worship as we close. Father, we come. We adore You. We magnify You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit at work in my life, at work in the saving of Your saints, continually drawing us and making us more like Jesus.
Lord, would You help us to praise the glorious grace of God as we stare at our salvation week after week? And Lord, as we are confronted with our sin day after day, Lord would it just continue to cause us to run to the cross, to run to the blood of Jesus Christ. God, would Your Spirit help us and move us? And every day that our feet hit the ground, would we be living in the Spirit of God, by the Spirit of God, having our hope and our eyes set on an eternity that is to come.
And along with Paul, even here this morning, we sing. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of Kings. C’mon let’s sing it again in this place. Lift Your voice. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of Kings. Let’s go out praising Him. Let’s sing this.
