Ephesians - Chapter 1

Are you ready? Ephesians chapter 1. Before we start, remember I said we want to study this like it was Paul's letter to us. He himself taught the church of Ephesus for two years, but that means we have to become like the Ephesians. Most of them were pagans. They'd been in idol worship. Some may have been Jews used to worshiping Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel. But one of the things we have to avoid is bringing with us and reading into all the other information we have because they didn't have that. They may have had Paul's letter. This may be the only thing they had. They may have had a copy of the Torah and some of the prophets. They didn't have any of the Gospels. They didn't have the book of Acts. They didn't have Bible. The only Bible they would have had would have been the Old Testament, what we call our Old Testament. We're not even sure they had that. So here Paul had been their teacher for two years and he's gone. He's probably writing this from in prison and it's a letter to us and we want to let's try to get from it together. And that's all I want to ask some questions and you be ready because some of you read this week and studied this week and so I want to invite you to interrupt me or raise your hand or have a question or make a comment. Now you may need to do so a little loud so everyone can hear you. It's okay. Something new, something different. Isn't it good to do things different? Not the same way all the time, but let's get started. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1 and I think you we have it on the overhead up there so you can. Samuel you will bring up verse 1 up there. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God. We know from Paul's story he wasn't signing up for this. He's an apostle. An apostle means one whom has been sent and Jesus met Paul. Paul didn't sign up and say can I be your can I can you send me. Mm-hmm. Jesus chose Paul. Remember Paul was Saul of Tarsus, the enemy of the church. We studied, we talked about that last week. So that's why that's why Paul is saying it's through the will of God. I am the Lord sent me to you according to his will what he wanted. And do you notice something? It's not just Jesus. It's it's Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus. Why is that? Who can tell me the significance of that? Messiah. Right. Anointed one, an anointed one was the way a king chose to designate the person that had his authority. And there are many Jesus's in those days. Actually it would have been more like Joshua or Yeshua, but this is not any ordinary Yeshua or Jesus. This is the Jesus that God the Father anointed. The Jesus Christ. And Paul uses that and if you'll you'll notice in this letter to us that it's always Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ and sometimes just Christ. It's very rarely just Jesus because it's the Jesus God the Father anointed his chosen one, his representative. That's so important. And then he says to God's holy people in emphasis believers in Christ Jesus. Now some of your versions may say faithful. Well, that's an opinion. Um, but here's what is not an opinion to God's holy people who can tell me what the word holy means. What's the basic meaning of the word holy set apart, set apart from what from the world. That means there better be a distinction between us and the world. There better be a difference in the way we live than the way the world lives because we're set apart unto God, but not just set apart. The world likes to be different. We got Gothic. They like the goth. They dress in all black. They want to be different. You got, you got the red necks, whether they still call themselves rednecks anymore. You can tell by looking at them. That's their identity. They, they, they, they, they're cowboys, you know, or you got, you have your others that you may want, may want to look whatever it is. But the only thing that should set us apart is we are believers in Jesus Christ. That's our identity. We are followers of Christ. That's what sets us apart. Not just being different of itself. No, what sets us apart is that we are believers in Jesus Christ. Verse two, grace and peace to you from God, our father in the Lord, Jesus Christ grace. Do you understand that? What that is? Grace and peace. Paul wants us to receive grace to continue to receive grace. You know, what is that? Who can, can we sum that up? Do we really know what that is? Yeah. Yes. Very important. All of those things undeserved means there's nothing we do to earn it. You know what grace is? I like to put it this way. Grace is all that God wants to do and can do because that's who he is. He was that way before we existed. He is the God of grace, the God of all grace. And it's what he wants to do. He wants to do it. Not because of anything in us. It's what he wants to do. And Paul wants the believers in Ephesus. And we should want his grace to abound to us, not just grace, but peace as well. And the idea of peace, Irenae in the Greek language means everything works together like a whole. You know, the problem with some of us is we got areas of our life that are going well, but man, we are troubled by those areas that are out of sync. We got problem areas, the peace of God. God has the ability to cause all things to work together. So they in sync, there's harmony, peace with him, peace with others, peace in your home, peace on the job, peacemaker, grace and peace be to the believers there from God, our what God, our, what our father, the God of the universe, the creator of the universe is not just a God or an idol. We worship Paul is reminding us God is our father. You know what that makes? What does that make us family? We're family. Now we've got some, we've got some parents here, Ben, and I'll pick on Ben and Mariah back there. Let's see. They had three children and who's supposed to take care of who are the children supposed to take care of them? Are they supposed to take care of the children? Well, God's your father. He doesn't need us to take care of him. He's trying to take care of us. He's the one looking out for us. He's the one who guards us and guides us. Yes. He wants us to recognize him. Yes. He wants us to serve him, but he's the father. He's the one there to take care of us and to make sure we have everything we need. God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is it? Why does Paul add Lord here? Now it's not just the anointed one that the one God has chosen. Now he adds the term Lord. What does that mean? Curiosity degree. Who could tell me what Lord means? What's another word for Lord? Huh? King could be. That's one word. Yeah. Say, well, he is a savior, but no Lord means this master. They only use this term for a person with absolute authority. If someone was your Lord, he could tell you what you're doing. And if Paul is reminding the believers, Jesus Christ is not just the anointed of God. He's your and my Lord. He's master. He owns us. He bought us with his blood in Paul and his letter. Romans said, if, if we confess with our mouth, something, what are we supposed to confess with our mouth? Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised from that. We shall be saved. If you do not want Jesus to be your master, to tell you what to do and how to live and what to say and how to respond, you won't have him as your savior. He told a parable himself about a king, a nobleman who called his servants together and gave them gifts to work. And he himself went away to be made King, but a group of his citizens of this nobleman didn't like him. They hated him. And they sent a delegation after him to say, we do not want this man to be our Lord. We don't want to be under him, but he was made King. This nobleman was made King. And when he returned, he dealt with his servants. And after dealing with his servants about the talents he gave them, he said, now call all those people who did not want me to be their Lord. And you know what he said to do, slay them in front of me. You don't want me to be your Lord. You're not going to live. Now you say, well, that's, that's kind of hard. What do you think the idea of heaven and hell is? What do you think hell is made for? Hell is made for the people who do not want Jesus to be their Lord. They don't want to live the way he says they don't want him to be master. Paul reminds us, Jesus, the anointed one is our Lord. He's master. Didn't Jesus say all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. It didn't Paul say in one place, one day every knee will do what bow and every tongue will confess. And what will every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord. He, maybe the world don't want to say it now, but when he stands in the day of judgment with all his power and glory, no one's going to be arguing with him, Jesus Christ. And Paul reminds us, Jesus Christ is Lord verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ has blessed us is something in the, uh, in the original language is an heiress tense. It's not, it's not focusing on the fact that he has already done it. It's focusing on who is doing it. The heiress means without limit. So who is the one who blesses us? God, the blessed one. God is the one who blesses us. And here's the good news with every, what kind of blessing spiritual blessing. You know why that's such good news? Cause some of us are in a natural setting. We can't change. We're poor. We don't live on the right side of town or we don't live. We're not, we're not in high society. We're scraping it to get by. You know what? It doesn't matter. Spiritual blessings can be enjoyed by everyone everywhere. Even those in prison blessed are the poor in the eyes of the world for God has chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. And the fact that they are spiritual blessings, Paul reminds us, tells us you can have them now in this world, but you're not going to find them in this world. Don't look for the blessings to be money. Remember that song, count your many blessings. The last verse is when you look at others with their lands and gold, think that God has promised you his wealth untold count your blessings. Money cannot buy your reward in heaven and your home on high. See if they're spiritual blessings, can you see why Paul says, set your mind on things above? There are realm that's not here on the earth. These spiritual blessings that God has given us in Christ, as Larry said, are not in the realm that we need to be looking for them here. That means that everyone here has access to them regardless of your earthly state, but they're spiritual in nation, in nature. Verse four, just as if your version starts for he chose us in him, it means in accordance to that. He chose us in him. He's tying two things together. Every spiritual blessing is in Christ. You want to be blessed. You better know Christ. You're not getting blessings outside of Christ. You see, you catch that every spiritual blessing is in Christ. There is no such thing as having a relationship or God's blessing outside of Christ. Every spiritual blessing is in Christ. And accordingly God chose us in him. Does anybody here want to be chosen by God? Then you better know Christ because you're not getting chosen apart from Christ. You want God to take you to heaven just because you are, you had better be in Christ because that's how God chooses people. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. In other words, he had it in his mind before he even made the world that those he chose, he's going to choose in Christ. And why did he chose us? Not only did he chose us in Christ, why did he chose us? What does this say? Why did he choose us? Right. And holy means set apart. So he chose us to be set apart from the world to himself and blameless. Let me give you another word for blameless without blemish. Now, what does that bring to your mind? What is the idea of something be without blemish bring to your mind, especially before God, when you think of God and blemishes, how does God look at blemishes? Remember the sacrifices of the old testament with your shadows and types? When you brought a sacrifice to God, what was it supposed to be without blemish? The priest looked at your sacrifice to see are there any blemishes? And you know what? There was a blemish on it. You couldn't offer it. God wouldn't accept it. And it says here, and we better take this serious, that God chose us in him before the creation of the world in order for us to be set apart and to have no blemishes. That means we need to continually be cleansed by the Lord Jesus Christ, washed and cleansed. And this is the good news. If any man, if we sin, God is faith or we confess our sins. God is faithful and just to do what forgive us our sins. And not just that, what else cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if God cleanses us from all unrighteousness, guess what we will not have. We won't have any blemishes. We'll be blameless before him. And then you notice, you notice it, is it here in that verse? Yeah. You see that period, holy and blameless in his sight, period in love. The reason that is that way, scholars weren't quite sure whether in love goes at the end of verse four or the beginning of verse five. I like to think it goes at the beginning of verse five. So I'm going to read it that way. Verse five in love. He predestined us unto adoption through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. This is what's beautiful. God is acting in love. Why did he do this? Because it's the most loving thing he could do in love. He predetermined, he pre set a boundary. That's what predestination means. It's pro or read zone or read zone means to set a boundary. He set a boundary before him in his love. He set a boundary, a destination on his horizon. He saw something and you know what he saw? He saw us being declared his sons and daughters. That's what adoption means. He in love, he predetermined that he would declare we were his children. Now, when someone declares someone to be their child, how is that different than natural birth? Parents that love each other and, and, and a child forms in the womb, a mother gives birth. Have they declared that child or do they accept whatever comes out? They wanted a child, but they didn't really, they didn't see that child. But what does it mean when God looks at you and he says, I want you, I declare you are my son. That's a choice. God made a choice to call us his sons. Behold what manner of love the father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God. And that is what we are. And God predetermined to do that in accordance with his pleasure and will. The word pleasure is a combination of good, the word good and thoughts. God's pleasure is always his good thoughts. What he thinks is good. And in God's mind, it is a good thing to declare us to be his children through Jesus Christ. And it will here is just another word for desire. Verse six to the praise of his glorious grace. So we have been predetermined, predestined, predestined by God to be declared, to be his sons, declared sons. That's what adoption means to the praise of his glorious grace. That when it says to the, that's a direction that they preposition. So why is God declaring us to be his sons? What's, what does he get out of it? What is his purpose? Because this is Paul explaining his purpose. I'll tell you what it doesn't say so that we can all get our souls to heaven and not go to hell. That's too bad for many. That's your purpose. That's not why God declared you to be a son here at Paul state. He declared us to be sons for the praise of his glorious grace, which means our lives should be so dynamic as his sons that it causes other people to praise his grace. They should see it's amazing grace because they see what it did to us. Why is amazing grace the song so powerful? Why it's, it's one of the most popular Christian songs out there. You know, one of the reasons it's the most powerful Christian songs out there is because of the person who wrote it. You know, who wrote it? A slave trader, a slave trader who, who captured people and abused them and sold them for years, a rotten, stinking, drunkard, uh, hateful, aggressive sailor named John Newton before he became a Christian. And he was so dynamically changed that he was one of the most humble, gentle, broken, godly, loving men you could ever meet. And people were astounded at the change in his life. And it brings an honor, a value to grace. And that's why we are made sons to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. That's an interesting statement. The grace that God has given us is in the one he loved the one. It's a singular, not grace given us in those he loved. No, in the one who's talking about, what does it make you think of the one he loved? What does that make you? Didn't it make you think of another verse or another place in the Bible? Yeah. I can't hear you. The only begotten son, but close, but there's another place where God actually declares out loud his love for his son at the baptism. What happened? The heavens open and the holy spirit descended down from heaven, like a dove and lighted upon Jesus. And the voice of God declared, this is my beloved son. The one I love the one person I love. You know why God loves us? Because we are in the one he loved. You want his love. You better live in the beloved one. You get it. We are loved by God because of our relationship with the one he loves. That's it. If you, you want God to love you, but you don't want Jesus, you are in trouble. For God so loved the world that he did one thing. He gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish in him is the only way we have life. We have this grace given to us in the one that God loved verse seven. Yes, brother. Well, believe, believe is something that you, you accept as truth with your heart and it causes you to act consistently with that. There's no such thing as I believe in there's a God and you don't serve. No such thing. That's dead. That's some kind of mental thing that falls short of real faith. Genuine faith produces a response to God. You respond to him. And usually the response is you do what he says. That's genuine faith. Okay. That's a verse seven in him. Now I want you to be back to it. The, these Ephesians believers in him, we have redemption. Now redemption has become a church word. That's a church word. That's not how they would have heard it. You know how they would have heard it in him. Someone paid for us to not be slaves anymore. That's what the word was used for. I want you to picture a bunch of slaves up there on the market and someone comes up and pays the price and sets them all free. That's what Paul's saying here in Jesus, God paid for us to be set free from slavery. Did you realize you were slaves? If you're not in Jesus, you are still slaves. What slavery is everybody in who has not been redeemed by Jesus? The slavery to sin. Jesus said, he who sins is a slave to sin, but whoever the son sets free, that person is free indeed. And how are we free in him? We, he paid the price to free us from slavery. How? Through his blood. Okay. How does that free us from slavery to sin? I want you to think with me. Paul wanted the Ephesians to understand this. We need to understand this. How does his blood set us free from slavery to sin? You know, sin causes us to have to pay something, puts us in debt. The wages of sin is death. And we know from the, from your Testament that the life is in the blood. So what is it going to take for us to be set free from slavery and what we owe death because of our sins, Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sins with the life in his own blood. And that sets us free from slavery to sin and the consequences of death. And it says the forgiveness of sins. Can anybody give me a concise definition of what it means to have your sins forgiven? It helps to know the original language. The original language, it means to be sent away. And that is such good news because the Bible talks about God's ability to throw our sins as far as the right direction, East from the West, never to be what never to be remembered again, Jesus death and the shedding of his blood allows God to send our sins away from us. Because if they were still on us, the nature of God is to judge sin, but he's able to cleanse us, free us, send our sins away from us in accordance with the riches of his grace verse eight. And he lavished this forgiveness. He set us free from slavery to sin. He sent our sins away from us through his blood in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. So God is lavished upon us. Everything we need to know and understand now lavished means he makes it available in such amounts that it's more than we can even use. Do you need wisdom? Do you need understanding? God is not stingy. God gives liberally everything we need, this, the riches of his grace, he lavishes them on us, which is, it's good. But you know what that also makes us? It kind of makes us accountable, doesn't it? You're not going to say, well, I don't, I don't have the wisdom I need. Everyone who asks receives everyone who seeks. And if the door is closed and you can't open it, what can you do? You can knock. Everyone who knocks the doors open. God lavishes what we need. The riches of his grace are lavished upon us. He's not stingy. Okay. He's generous. Verse nine. And get this. He makes known to us. There's that aorist tense again. That's why you can translate an aorist tense into present tense because it's universal. He makes known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in Christ. Now the mystery of his will, what is it? Why is it a mystery? What does the word mystery mean? Okay. Yeah. It's hidden. You don't see it. Who didn't see it? Why is God? Why is Paul here calling it a mystery? Who didn't see it? Adam didn't see it. Abraham didn't see it. Moses didn't see it. David didn't see it. The prophets, the prophets didn't see it. Now they spoke about it. Didn't they, Robert? It says that the prophet spoke about the grace that was coming to you and they long to look into it because they did not understand the things that they said. They were moved by God's spirit and they spoke things that they didn't even fully understand. What is it they didn't understand? What was it? What is this mystery that get this? They didn't know it, but God is making it known to us. He's making known the mystery of his will to us in accordance with his good pleasure. And this is the mystery that he had purposed in Christ. Now we've already been kind of talking about it. What did God purpose from the very beginning? That he would choose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and choose us to be what he would choose us to be his sons and daughters. He would declare us to be his sons and daughters in Christ from the beginning before the world. He had planned this and no one fully understood it. It looked like when you're reading the old Testament, he just wanted the Jewish people. It's all about the Jews and him. Not we're Gentile. What does that have to do with us? Because there was something going on that no one in the past in the old Testament fully knew. Yeah, brother. Yes, please. All right. But we, people of God, we are bound to give thanks to God, always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief of the truth. So the choosing is not made to declaration to be God's children. It's choosing unto salvation, which is a part of a declaration. And even the word sanctification, they're also the setting apart, saving us and setting apart for his wonderful glory from the very beginning. In Philippians chapter 2, Philippians 2 and 13, you had mentioned earlier regarding all this done by our sovereign master, who does according to his will, the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay the same. What are you doing? Nobody can say that. He's the sovereign master. He has divine authority and exercises it according to his good pleasure. In verse 13 of chapter 2 of Philippians, scripture says this, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I'm thankful that God has not only declared before the foundation of the world that we should be his sons and daughters, chosen us unto salvation itself, granted us the gifts of repentance and faith, but that he enables us. He works to bring it about. Yes, exactly. He effectually works in our heart. In other words, what the sovereign master has ordained, he will make it. He brings it about. He brings it about. And in this particular, the next verse 9, 9 and 10 together, if you look at this, he makes known to us the mystery of his will that Rick has been reading about in these passages, Thessalonians and Philippians. It says in verse 10, it's put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment or in, you might say in the appointed season. And what, what, what is put into effect in the appointing season to bring all things together in heaven and earth under one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, king of Kings, Lord of Lords, the vision. Remember the vision that Daniel saw the dream Nebuchadnezzar had about the great big statue made of different stages, gold, and then silver, and then bronze, and then, and then steel or metal, and then clay and metal mix. And a rock was hewn from the mountain and it came and it struck the statue and it broken into pieces and the, and the rock became a kingdom and set up to rule the earth. And that rock is the Lord Jesus. And in the appointed season, the virgin gave birth to the son of God born by the power of God to be called the son of God, God with us. And he went into in the right time. He started preaching, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The season is here. The Lord, the anointed one, God's chosen is here calling men to repent and submit themselves to him because the mystery was that God from the beginning is going to set up all things. He's going to sum it all together. It's all going to come to this head. Jesus Christ is Lord. He will rule heaven and earth and he will rule in righteousness. And Paul is reminding, that's the mystery that, that, that being made known. It's not just about God and the Jewish people. No, it's that God, his son is going to reign over heaven and earth in righteousness, all things. And it goes on to say verse 11 in him, we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Just like Rick said, God, didn't just plan it. God works to bring about what he plans. He brings it about because he is able to do this verse 12. And why again, again, why does he do this? We have been predestined according to his will that we would live under the authority of his son, that Jesus Christ will rule heaven and earth in righteousness. And we in him will be there with him and in him. And in him, we were also chosen in order that verse 12, we who were the first to put our hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. This is the second time Paul uses that expression. Why, why are we in him? And what does he mean by we who were the first to hope? Okay. Early believers became Christians before later ones. Let's say some of us here, you've been a Christian first. You, you became a Christian before me. Now I'm supposed to look at your life and your life is supposed to cause me to glorify God because of the dynamic thing I see in you so that the people following you will see this wonderful transformation. That's why it's not just, we were the first, we get to be in heaven first. No, if we come to the knowledge of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we are the first ones to hope in him. I mean, someone behind us should, should begin to praise God and glorify God because they're watching us. That's the purpose of a church. They're not supposed to look in here and see hypocrisy. They're not supposed to look in here and see contradictions. They're not supposed to look in here and see divisions. We believe in Christ to bring him glory and praise so that others will come to believe after us. That's what Paul's reminding the Ephesians here. Verse 13, and you were included in Christ. This is the win. You were included in Christ. This is how the process works. God knows from the beginning, God has chosen us in him, but how does he work it out? How does it process? You were included in Christ when what happened? What does it say? You read? What's the process? You're included in Christ. Here it is. You hear the word of the truth. And when you hear the word of the truth, what comes from hearing faith comes by hearing, hearing through the word of Christ. You hear the word of the truth. This is how you're included in Christ. You hear the word of the truth and having believed you are what, what happens when you hear and believe what happens? You're what? Sealed. What does a seal mean? What is a seal? A seal usually was on, on a ring, the face of a ring and a seal was a sign of authority. A person had his seal and you could, if something you wanted to make sure it was official, you could, you could melt some wax, put the wax on whatever it is you were sealing, put your ring into the wax and it would, it would, others could see the impression. This was yours. This was authentically yours. How does God seal us? What does God do to stamp his authority that these are mine? His spirit. If you don't have God's spirit, you're not sealed. You can sit in this church and not be sealed. You can say your catechism and not be sealed. You can be religious of all kinds. If you are God's, his authority that you are his is that he gives you his Holy Spirit. And if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he's not of him. And there are people who Paul warns about later in his letters that they don't have the spirit. You remember, why would Paul say this? Remember, we talked about the apostle Paul last week when he came to Ephesus. You remember what he asked? He met 12 men there and they had been, they had been discipled and taught by the Apollos, another early messenger in the church. You remember what he asked them? What did he ask those 12 men? Did you receive the spirit when you believed? And they said, what? We haven't even heard there is a spirit. Then he goes, well, what baptism were you baptized in then with? And they said, we were baptized in the of John. He said, John baptized for repentance. And Paul had them rebaptized in the name of Jesus. And Paul placed his hands on them. And then God put his authority on it by what he gave them the Holy Spirit. That's the only way you and I can know we are genuinely God's is he gives us his Holy spirit. He shares him very self with us. That's how God seals us through his Holy spirit. And you know what it is? We'll stop at this last verse 14. We'll have to take up here next week. We get what the spirit is for us. It's just a deposit. It's the earnest money. The deal's not closed. It's the deposit until the possession, the taking of possession. Some of us know this. When you buy a home, you sometimes you give what, what they call earnest money that shows them you're sincerely desiring, but you don't get the house. You can't take possession of the house until something happens. When you get to take possession of the house after the closing, after all, everything is done. Everything is legally done. We're not at the closing yet. We just have the earnest. The Holy spirit is the earnest. What's closing day for us. What's taking possession of all this God's promise for us. The Lord Jesus coming from heaven, destroying the wicked, setting up his kingdom, a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, no more sorrow, then no more pain, no more temptation, no more doctors, no more dialysis, no more needles, no more medicine, no more cancer, no more hernias. That's possession day. That's taking possession day, new heaven and new earth. All we have right now is a deposit. We have the earnest money. God's spirit is with us. And Paul says, we who have God's spirit, we groan inwardly, wanting to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because have any of you noticed that these bodies are kind of wasting away? They're kind of weak and frail. That's okay. Hang on to your earnest money. God has prepared a new place for all of us. Okay. We're not there yet. That's what Paul's reminding the Ephesians. You're not there yet, but you've got your earnest money. And if you have the Holy spirit, God has put his seal on you. You're his. That's why it's important. Everybody here. Listen, it's important. It's important that you know, you have the spirit of God. It's important that you know, you're not just some religious person. How do you know you have the spirit of God living inside you? Jesus said, when he, the spirit of truth comes upon you, you will receive something. What do you receive? Power. You suddenly receive an ability to do God's will. Yes, brother. Just to add here, put that earnest money down. The deal is ready to be sealed. You start planning what you're going to put in your house. Yeah. So maybe we should lay up our treasures and start planning on having that house. Yeah. Treasures from heaven. Yeah. And wait for closing time to move in. Yeah. Instead of trying to live in these huts down here, you know, wasting it all. Yeah. Good point. Thank you. Okay. This is let me turn this.