So we're gonna finish the book of Ephesians today. If you'll get your Bibles out. I think a lot of times when you get to the end of the book of Ephesians, not that you don't read the last five verses, but. You kind of just survived what we talked about last week. We talked about the armor of God and getting through all of that and the missiles that are coming at us and all the suffering we go through following Christ. And you get to the end and you kind of just take a breath and go, okay, Paul, just thank you. He wrapped it up and that's it. But yet there's a lot to be said there. And I would sum it up this way. When you're flying, if you've ever been on an airplane, the only thing that truly matters is the landing, yes? All right, now you can talk all you want about customer service, I've had good, I've had bad. You can talk about the pretzels, they've never been good. You can talk about the seeds, were they too close together? But at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that pilot getting that plane back on the ground, yes? It is the ending that matters, but we get so caught up, and rightfully so. I am not condemning anybody. You and I are dealing with parents. We're dealing with health. We're dealing with grandparents. We're dealing with children. We're dealing with great-grandchildren. We're dealing with financial burdens. Just came off Thanksgiving, and now the pressures of Christmas, and all this stuff is swirling around. And you gotta face it, but at the same time, don't forget, all this is just a part of the flying. What we gotta do is make sure we land right. And that's why our relationship with Jesus is so important, because getting this fixed, that done, solving that, crying through this, that's all going to happen, but am I ready for eternity? And I'll give you my story. I haven't told this for probably 25 years. As you know, if you die here in Daytona, you have to go through Atlanta to go to heaven or hell. You know the rules. Since I moved here, they've added Charlotte as an option too, but it used to be just Atlanta. And I don't know where I was going, but I had to go to Atlanta. And so we're landing in Atlanta. Everything had gone perfectly fine. I mean, how complex is Daytona? My friends will fly in here and they'll say, how am I gonna find you? And I say, I'll tell you what, when you get off the plane, you go out the one door you see and I'll be there, all right? And they think it's Orlando and I have to help them. So everything's going fine, security's easy, we're up in the air, and I'm looking out the window, and literally we're 10 feet off the ground. And all of a sudden, full power, straight back up, we're circling Atlanta again. Nobody's talking. I never heard a cabin get so quiet. Captain's not saying anything, I think he was maybe cleaning up some things up front. I'm not sure what was going on up there. But we circled Atlanta for another 20 minutes and the captain says, okay, we are cleared to land again. He goes, let me tell you what happened. He said, I was literally ready to put the tires on the runway and a 747 pulled out in front of us. And he said, so I opted to go over him. I was very grateful for that, and I told him so when I got off the plane, because had the landing not gone well, the rest of the story would have been irrelevant, wouldn't it? It wouldn't have mattered whether the customer service was good or bad. It wouldn't have mattered who I was upset at or how marvelous those pretzels might have been. If that plane didn't land, it would have changed everything. That's the truth about heaven and hell right there. And what you and I need to understand when it comes to the early church, the early church did not reach hundreds of thousands of people across all of Europe and Asia and Africa because they had a slick marketing program, because they had a nice website. They did it because they realized that they were all sent to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was everybody's job. It wasn't the preacher's job. It wasn't the missionary's job. It was everybody's job to go, okay? Now, one sentence. I've already shared it, but there it is. After all the flying, after all the life is over, it's the landing that matters. That's what we're gonna focus on But before we do, I have to tell you, as I get older, I reflect back, you have these flashbacks of friends of yours when you were in school. And I had a buddy, he used to like to write down numbers. There wasn't much to do in the little town of Missouri that I was from. And so, I mean, like this, and he started with one, two, three, and he would get a million in a notebook, he'd set that notebook aside, he'd start again, a million one, a million two, a million three, notebook stacked up. Anybody ever do this? Just one weird friend of mine. Sometimes I wonder what he's up to now. All right. Let's get to work, stand with me out of respect for God's word. Now remember, the last thing Paul said, he went through the whole armor of God, then he said, pray in the spirit, and I told you, that means locking into what the spirit is concerned about, okay? So it's nothing mystical, it's the idea that, you know, well, I'm praying in the spirit that God will give me a new Corvette. No, no, the spirit is worried about what? People's souls? Yeah, children starving. Yeah, brokenhearted people, yeah. So that's what it means. And then he says, pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything. so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that we may encourage you. Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying Love, amen, you can be seated. All right, so this is the end of it. What's he saying? All right, he says, first of all, to remember that you and I are ambassadors. Now, anybody know what an ambassador does? An ambassador represents somebody else. We have ambassadors all over the world. They sit in fancy buildings, live in fancy houses, and make very fancy salaries. And their job is to make sure that whatever we're doing here is explained to the right people in the embassy in that country. That's what an ambassador does. And an ambassador has no right whatsoever to share his opinions, his thoughts. because the president doesn't care. The ambassador works under the president and under the American government. And you can check history. A good number of ambassadors have been called home. When ambassadors have gone rogue and said things to other countries that is not the policy of our country, they have been recalled as ambassadors and new people have been put out there because they're not representing who they were sent to represent. Now listen to me. You and I have but one that we represent. His name is Jesus. That's the story. I listen to my friends on the progressive left, and they believe nothing, have no boundaries for anything, and yet they think everybody's going to heaven. Then I have my friends on the right that are so tight and squeaky that they're pretty sure that nobody's gonna get into heaven except maybe two or three of them. The whole message of the gospel is that Jesus took on human flesh, died three days later, rose from the dead, and his promise is, I'll be back to get all the people who love me. If you've not accepted Jesus yet, go out to room three, guidance point. We have people out there that will help you make that decision. Last night was so cool, we had a young lady in her early 20s, gave her life to the Lord and baptized her. As I was talking to her this week in the office, you can give God a hand, that's awesome, yeah. But as I was talking to her in the office, she said, because usually I say, well, do you want to do it privately, publicly? I wasn't going to give her the option of the beach this time of the year. And she said, I need to do it publicly. I need everyone to know that I've made this commitment. And I'm thinking, man, I said, I hope that motivates somebody else. that they get it as well. And she stood there with courage and gave her life to Christ. It was an amazing, amazing time. But Paul said, that's what we live and die for. Not for a denomination, not from somebody's viewpoint, not for somebody's theology, but for one simple message. Don't overcomplicate it. Jesus died for the world and anyone who will come to Jesus can be saved, yes? Paul said, I'm an ambassador for that. He said in another place, he said, I pray that you would be just like me except without my chains. He realizes this is not a good thing. Second Corinthians, it says it this way. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Now let me ask you something. If God has already decided you're going to heaven, you're going to hell, you're going to heaven, you're going to hell. Why would he be begging people to be reconciled to God? He wouldn't. He wouldn't. Does God know who's going to heaven and hell? Yes. Do you have a free will to choose it? You absolutely do. All right, that is the key difference. He says we're ambassadors and we gotta get out there and give people the opportunity, even pleading with them, to get right with God because we know that the landing Matters now Paul prays. He said this is he asked them for prayer He said I want you to pray that I have the courage to preach the truth. Now. Let me ask you if Paul is telling them what they want to hear if Paul goes into Athens and says hey, I see you have many gods Good for you Good for you. Keep it up. You want another one? Here's Jesus He'd have been fine, wouldn't he? He wouldn't have had any problems. Why does he ask for prayer to be fearless? Because that's not what he's preaching. He's preaching that all those gods are false and pagan and stone and mythic but I bring you the true God. I bring you the living God, the one who raised from the dead. That's why he needs courage to preach. He's going counter to the culture. Leonard Ravenhill said it this way. He said, if Jesus preached the same message that many pastors preach today, he would never have been crucified. It's exactly right. He said, listen, you want to worship Caesar, great. You want to worship the stone, great. You want to worship your car, great. You want to sexually live like that, fine, no problem. Listen, we didn't invent sexual perversion, the Romans, the Greeks, they were really good at it. And Paul stepped into the middle of that and said, guys, This is not how Christians act. Paul asks for prayer that he will have the courage to teach the truth. But the word that he uses there is the Greek word logos, L-O-G-O-S. If you don't know where that word is used, it's in John 1. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Logos, every time, Word. Pray that I will have the courage to speak the Word, speak the Logos, speak Jesus in the midst of a world that believes everything except Jesus. And then he moves on to the second part and he says, we also need to remember each other. And this is a very, it's a personal thing. Paul does this a few times in his writings. He said, and he says it like three times. He says, hey, I'm gonna send Tychicus to you so he can tell you how we are. Okay, why? Because you need to know how we are. And he'll come and encourage you and strengthen you. Well, let's see, he's in a Roman dungeon. He's chained to a wall. Things can't be tremendously good. Would you agree with that? I'm sure there's not enough food. I'm sure he's cold. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of things going on. But he said, I'm sending him so you can know how we are because you need to know how we are. This is why we push so hard here in Tomoka to get you into anything. Small group Bible study, prayer group, support group, ministry group, get on a mission team, work at the thrift store, help in the children's ministry, somewhere where you build a relationship so people know you. Pastor friend of mine said this the other day, and I really hadn't thought about this. He said, Joe, I don't care how well you know people, people are only gonna let you in so far because you're the pastor. And people put up walls. We all do. We all do. But you gotta have a group where you can let all the walls down, where you can cry with people, you can be broken with people, that they know that you need food brought in, they know when you need prayer, The people can, you don't have to brief them. They already know about your kids. They already know about your financial situation. In fact, Galatians 6.2 says that this way, bear one another's burdens. And by doing so, we uphold the entire law of Christ. How about that? Bear one another's burden. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, man, I got my own burdens. You do. Everybody here came in with a big bag. But I use this line for people all the time in counseling. I said nobody wears a sign. Nobody has a sign that says I have cancer that they wear around their neck. Nobody has a sign that said I have miscarriage. Nobody has a sign that said I had to bury two of my children. Nobody has a sign that says I'm dealing with cancer. But everybody here came in with bags. And the whole point of the body of Christ is we're to help. You're like, well, if I've already got a full bag, how am I gonna help somebody else? You'll find out when you start helping other people that your bag's not as heavy as you thought. And you'll find out that there's five other people help carrying your bag, which makes your bag. a lot lighter. So Paul said, I want you to know what's going on. I'm assuming, I'm assuming probably Tychicus is going to say we need food. We need, we need blankets. We need coats. Uh, but he's also going to tell them, let me tell you who we, you won't believe this. Paul just won this you know, number two guy in the Roman government. He just won him to Jesus. I mean, they would have gotten the positive and they would have gotten the needs. They would have gotten both. And that's what happens in any kind of a relationship in a group. But we've got to know each other. Sometimes just calling people by name, patting people on the back, giving people a hug if it's appropriate. That is so important in a world that is ice cold like ours is today. We need each other, yes? Paul said, I need you to know how I'm doing because you need to know how I'm doing. It's like, okay, but there's a reason for that. And I'm gonna throw this in, this is free, but it, I even hate to get into this topic because it's so difficult, but, That's why we see so many people going really awry with alcohol or drugs. Suicide is through the roof. It always astounds me. Every year, Volusia County comes up number one. I live in paradise, folks. It's not minus 31. I live in a wonderful place. But that doesn't mean people don't still hurt and they don't struggle. And the thing is, everybody that gets to that spot, I hear the same story every time. And the story is something like this. They thought they were all alone. And there's 12 people standing there over their body at the hospital. It's like, it wasn't that there weren't people, but somewhere we dropped the connections. So maybe you need to go home, make some phone calls or text, just check on some people. That's what we do for one another. That's what this story is really all about. And then when it comes to like resources, I always find these numbers interesting. You know, we're told you watch TV and you've got celebrities telling us we should give more and help more. And I don't deny that, but I stand in front of the most generous group of people in the whole world. That's the body of Christ. And without the church, you wouldn't have food, you wouldn't have the hospitals, you wouldn't have orphanages. So much of the world's needs are met by the local churches. That's just the honest truth. But then I read a statistic that said 33% of adults in America give nothing to charity. Think about that a minute. That's not even a cat shelter. Cat shelter, dog shelter, nothing. Nothing. People who are totally self-absorbed, but yet think that everybody, somebody, should solve this. Somebody should be here feeding these children. You're absolutely right. The church is the one under the mandate of Jesus that says if you see a man hungry, come on, feed him. Yeah, that's right. That's us. If you see a man thirsty, give him a drink. If he's in prison, go visit him. We need to carry one another's And then finally, we need to remember that we operate under grace. I so appreciate how Paul ends this. That the grace of God be over everyone who loves Jesus. All right, let me ask you a question, all right? I have a reason for this. You don't even have to be crazy. If you love Jesus, just raise your hand. All right, now keep them up. If you're perfect, you've not yelled, you've not gotten mad, you've not done anything wrong in the last week, all right, keep your hand up. So apparently, I can love Jesus and not be perfect. Yes? It's a good thing, isn't it? Because we look at that verse and say, oh, I do love Jesus with an undying love, but yet I did this, and I did this, and I did this, so his grace must not be with me. Nonsense. When Jesus died on the cross, the grace was transferred. over to us. It's not an excuse to keep living wrong. It's a motivator to keep moving toward Christlikeness, but we live under that grace, and that's what we hold on to. I was not up to see this, but last weekend, the Indianapolis Colts were playing the Chiefs. Same thing. It was dang cold in Kansas City. and people were lined up out to the interstate on Highway 70 to get into the Kansas City game at 2.30 a.m. Now, I pondered this. I understand it was the Chiefs, so it made a little bit of sense to me. But as I thought about it, it's like, okay, these people all have tickets. It's cold. They have tickets. It's very cold. They're going to be out there all day. Why would you do this? Well, same thing happens at the Daytona 500. Same thing happens at concerts. Because what really, and I'm not judging everybody because I've been in these parties, but what your God is, who your God is, there'll be nothing that you're not willing to spare. So it takes my whole day. So I'm out here freezing. So what? So what? I'll be cold and I'll be hungry and I'll be this. But when it comes to our commitment to Christ, sometimes you're like, oh, that seems like so much hardship. And again, I read that post. I read it twice, my buddy. Minus 31. And then he just said, see you in church. Now I don't know how many will be there. I really don't have no idea. I may reach out to him and see if they all show up and if he gives like banners or something. I don't know what he does up there. I can't believe he lives up there, but anyway. But the point is, who your God is, you'll be willing to do whatever's necessary to make that sacrifice. Why? Because we live under grace. And when you live under grace, you're willing to take risk. When you know you're saved, when you know the landing is already secure, you're able to take risk. Because you know what, I'm not taking this money with me. I'm not taking this time with me. I'm not taking this energy with me. So I might as well use it now and give it to the kingdom of God and to help people and to serve the people around me and use it up because one day it's all gonna be gone anyway. The world says no, grab it and hang on to it because you just don't know when you might run out of time. when you might run out of money. And you know what? That's very true. Do we trust him or do we not? I'll finish with this. Like to go to sports, you know that. Every time you lace up, you got a choice. Go through the motions or move like you've got something to prove. And I'm just gonna be honest with you. A lot of Christians I know just go through the motions. They go to church when it's convenient. They give kind of like they're tipping somebody at a restaurant. There's no idea of service. In fact, there's not much preached either. There's not much to do. We just go, we have a nice, cute little service, and then we go home. That's not what you and I are called to. Paul said this, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. He said, we are saved by grace through faith. not of works that any man can boast. It is the free gift of God. So Father, as we finish, there's some things that we've gotta remember here. We need to remember that we're representing you, not ourselves, not our ideas. We gotta remember to know each other and to be mindful of other people and their hurts and their struggles. And when we get down on ourselves to remember that we work under grace, and we're so grateful for that. So Lord, would you let your Holy Spirit bring the truth into each life that is here, each one that's watching online, Bunnell, New Smyrna, DeLand. God, make your word alive in us. In Jesus' name, amen.