Good morning. It's good to be with you again. I hope you got a little rest last night and we're ready to go through. We've got a lot to cover. For those of you that haven't been with us, we're flying at 30,000 feet. We're going through the book of Ephesians in just a couple days. If you'll take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 2, we're going to read the last section of chapter 2 beginning in verse 11, chapter 3, and a few verses of chapter 4. So I ask that you would stay attentive as we read the Word of God. It's a little bit longer than we probably normally read, but it'll help us if you can get this picture in your head, if you can get what God says, and then as we go through it and try to explain it, hopefully it'll all come together. Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 11, he's just come through the very well-known verse, it's by grace that you've been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing, this is a gift of God. Not of works, so that no one shall boast. And the first thing, the therefore, that means this is based off everything he's just come from. Therefore, you look back to what he said and you realize that this is built off that. So we've been told about this grace. Therefore, this is then what we should do with it. And so he's going into this. So he says, therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So what's he talking about? You had Jews, you had Gentiles, you understand that? Jews were allowed in the temple, they were allowed to go where God was. The Gentiles were far off, they were estranged. I don't know how many Jews we have here by natural birth. It doesn't tend to be as big of an issue, but as we look at this, you've got those that have nothing to do with God, those who had to do with God, and now all of a sudden being reconciled together and brought together in one place. This is a big deal. It is a very big deal in the beginning of the church, and that's what's happening, and that's what he's forming. So now in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, therefore killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also were being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Remember the Ezekiel scene, God breathing life, putting tendons, flesh on bones. Where does he do that? He's telling us in the church. For this reason there in chapter 3, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly, When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by working of his power. To me, through whom I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is for your glory. For this reason I bow my knee before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body. one spirit, just as you were called to that one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. This is the word of God. Let us go before him. Our Father in heaven, we thank you as we come again to your word. I pray that you would help us to behold a mystery that was hidden for other generations that now we get to behold that. Angels long to look into. The mystery that is right in front of us, the amazing grace that is right in front of us within the Church of Jesus Christ. Help us to see. Help us to love what you love. Open our eyes, open our hearts, open our minds to grasp the beauty of what you are doing within the church. May we see it in your word. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. One thing that the Lord has really showed me from my time in college to now and continues to is something we can often miss in the beginning of our Christian life, but we're not intended to. So Paul is saying that, he's saying, if you get the Christian life, then you need to get the church. If you see how important grace is, then you need to see how important the local church is. And I think it's sometimes God takes us through paths that I wouldn't recommend for other people, but were best. But when I went to college, I was there and you're in a Christian kind of bubble at Cedarville. But the local church was not as big a priority in the sense that it should have been in my life at that time. And part of that was because we talked about my call to ministry, my testimony, but I was, elected to be one of seven guys who preached every week on campus because there were certain students didn't have cars and so they put services on. So seven of us were elected by the student body to then preach every week. And we did that. And so eventually about a month into that, I looked around the room and we were discussing what was going on. Do you realize like we got picked because people think we're spiritual and none of us are in church? Do we not see a problem here? And the campus, Pat, we begin to work on it anyway. But the Lord began to open my eyes, not because of my perfection, but because I was in a place I shouldn't have been, and I began to see how important it was that I needed to be where God had said was so important. And being with people is so fundamental and important to all of us. Being with the right people is whether there's life or death. And so from fraternities, to sororities, to organizations, to online gaming communities, we long to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Every one of you does. We want to be a part of something. We want to make a difference. We want to be loved. We want to love. We long for that friendship and community. We're made for it, even those of us that are introverts. I can't get that word out this weekend, but you know what I'm saying. All right, so even those of us that are not extroverts. We long for that. And we've been walking in the world. He's been telling us that you walked just like the rest of the world. So you were searching for it just like the rest of the world. But now by grace everything has changed. You're no longer living for the world. You've got new citizenship. You've got a new belonging. In sports, it seems like teams have to motivate themselves by outside sources and headlines all the time. So I'm from the Midwest. So Indiana, and then there's Ohio right beside us. And then there's Michigan up north. And a lot of my family loves Ohio. And that's where my wife's from. And so the Ohio State University, whatever you think of that. I know we're in Penn State territory. Anyway, they don't like the team up north. That's what they call it, Michigan. But remember, Michigan won the national title last year, I think it was. And they had a slogan on their shirt, Michigan against the world. Wasn't really true, but it motivated them. Man, when you're converted, There is such a change and there needs to be such a change that there is a reality that there's that sense where it's like, this is me against the world. It can feel like that. We're converted. We no longer belong here. We no longer live for here, but we're still here. You get converted, you don't get transported to another dimension or eternity. You wake up in the same house, in the same city, same school, same place you were before. You still have the same relationships, but all of a sudden you realize that you don't fit in anymore. And the wonderful beauty of the wisdom of God is he gives us a better place. And that's the church. The very same thing that separates us from God separates us from one another. It separates man from man. Your greatest problem in heaven is your greatest problem on earth. Sin separates. Therefore, your greatest answer to your problem in heaven is also your greatest answer to your problem on earth. Grace unites. So Paul takes us and he points us after this great peace that Christ brings us into relationship with God, into peace with God. And he first then says, now that you're at peace with God, I want you to understand that now you also can have peace with men. Enough so that grace overcomes the barrier between a Jew and a Gentile. It overcomes the barrier. and I don't, we'll stick with that, I don't know that it'll work, but between an Ohio State fan and a Michigan fan, people who hate each other, who had nothing in common, grace overcomes that, now they have everything in common. And Paul introduces us to what we long for, is that beauty and that importance of that. The church is essential to the Christian life, to walking with Christ, walking with grace. I don't know what your parents let you watch, don't watch. Maybe you've seen or seen some sense of it, but there was a movie a long time ago called Gladiator, and it kind of gives you a sense into the world and the Roman Coliseum where they were tortured and so forth. So I'm not saying go watch it, but it gives you insight into that arena. one of the people in gladiator was in the Roman army. And so what we're seeing now and going to see in Ephesians chapter six is Paul referring to a lot of that Roman army in the armor of God that he's kind of looking around going, OK, that and applying it to what we have in Christ. And so at one scene, he kind of says, OK, if we're going to if we're going to survive, everybody get back to back. And they take their shields and they form this barrier, and they're all back to back. And they manage to survive. And I think at that time, the scene it was supposed to be depicting were an invasion of one old war that happened and at the end it's like, wasn't the others team supposed to win? But because they had been put back to back and what Paul is going to describe and what he described is that God unites people that wouldn't have necessarily been together but all of a sudden we're back to back and our shields are shield and shield together and there is such a strength in what God has done and God has put together that if God is for us, who can be against us? And in the church, Paul, he's so excited to move us into that, the beauty and the importance of what God has given us in the grace of God, not just in our life, but how that brings us into relationship with all of these other people with whom grace is at work within them and the strength that that then gives us. And the first thing that he seems to go into, if I can summarize it up, is the reason why the church is so important and so beautiful and gives us such strength is because it is within the church that God dwells. And I know that sounds like, yeah, duh, but I want you to think about how important it is that God dwells here. There's these phenomenal statements about our change of our citizenship that he's going through in chapter two, and we're heavens now. We're not earths now. We're heavens now. We're gods now. And yet, it says we're heavens now, but we're not with him, are we? Like, we're not in heaven. We're still here on earth, facing everything that is still here in this fallen, broken world, and yet we're citizens of heaven. There's a whole newness about us. And the beauty of the church is that God says that this is the new temple. So when we are united and we fellowship and we function as the church is instructed to function, he says that, yes, you're heavens, but what is the glory of heaven? God is there. This is the place on earth that you get to experience that God is here. You get to experience the glory of heaven because the glory of God is dwelling within the church. And that's why this is the safest place that you could possibly be as a Christian. But I'm also going to tell you that while this is the safest place, this also can be the most dangerous place because God dwells here. Remember what happened to people that would touch the Ark of the Covenant. C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, and I don't have the quote written down, but I know it enough to get real close to it. So remember, there's a scene with the Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, and I think Lucy's asking the question, and they hear about Aslan, the great lion, the ruler of the area, and I think it was Lucy that then says, well, is Aslan safe? And one of the beavers said, oh dear, who said anything about safe? But he's good. God, we have this amazing grace that's brought us into relationship, but he's not safe. He's an all consuming fire. He's a he's a holy, wonderful, powerful God. He is God. So who said anything about safe? But he's good. He's given you his grace. And that's a wonderful thing if we're in grace. That's a dangerous thing if you're here and not in grace. God is shaking up the world within the church. Says in Scripture, the apostles were men who turned the world upside down. They were the barriers were being broken between Jew and Gentile. And all of the sudden, this great separation is now being united. And God's doing it within the church. Who could do that but God? And in verse 14, it talks about the breaking down of the wall. The imagery there reminds me even of when Christ dies upon the cross that the curtain is torn from top to bottom and the holy of holies now is there's no curtain dividing it. And that's not just for the Jews. This is for all who receive grace are now brought into the dwelling of God, brought into the presence of God. This is the household of God he talks about. It's the Christ who is the cornerstone, Christ who is the head, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the perfect Trinity, all here in the church, dwelling with his people. This is holy ground. Take off your sandals. And therefore, part of the beauty of that, so wonderful and why it's so good that God dwells here, because this is the very place and the very institution that he promised the apostles that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against. When you become a Christian, we'll look later on, you're going to have a new enemy. You're going to face very difficult temptations and trials, but God promises that those that are His and those that are in the church and the power of God dwelling in them are the gates of hell. The worst that hell can throw at us will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. It better be important to us, Paul's saying. It better be beautiful to us. It's the safest place for Christians because God is there. in society that is so much against Christianity. And I know you as young people, you hear that. And it is, it's going the wrong way. One of our pastors says, we're at the end of Romans one. We've exchanged what's good for what's evil and we call what is evil good and there's so much in the world that is against Christianity. It is against God. It's always been that way but it seems like it is so magnified. What are you going to do? Too many young people don't have a big enough place for the church in their minds and their lives. We live too individualistically, too self-sufficiently, but you have been given everything you need in the grace that God has given through the apostles and the teaching and the gifting and the church to stand. But you desperately need the church to stand. And God has gifted it to you to stand. He is here. If God is for us, who can be against us? Secondly, the church is where God works. There is statements here in this mystery, this mystery hidden for all ages in chapter three by God who created all things. And it's this manifold wisdom of God that is being displayed so that the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places can see it. We can kind of gloss over that because that seems kind of lofty. It ought to be amazing to a Christian. There used to be a commercial, a long time ago, Sports Center on ESPN has some of the greatest commercials, and they had one with a drink called the Arnold Palmer. I actually saw a gallon of it here during the function, but maybe you don't, but it's half tea, half lemonade, but it's named after a real golfer, Arnold Palmer. I was catching you up there. But he's from Pennsylvania, so you might wanna know him if you're around here. but he's no longer living but he was a legendary golfer but he had this drink that was named after him and it's just lemonade and sweet tea so you can drink it but in the commercial these sports casters are there in a room and Arnold Palmer's going up and there's this drink station and he goes up and there's a thing of lemonade and there's a thing of tea and he gets his lemonade and he gets his tea. And you see these two sportscasters look at each other and go, that was awesome. They just got to see Arnold Palmer mix an Arnold Palmer. All right, maybe not that great to some of you, but when you get to see the man himself do the work, what Paul's saying, that's part of the beauty of the church. We get to see God himself do what God does. Man, you should never miss a baptism in the church if you can help it. Because in a baptism, you get to hear of a testimony of grace. You get to hear of what God, and you get to see it visibly, where when we baptize people, we say that you have died with Christ, and you have been raised to Him in the newness of life. I'm not sure if that's the exact phrase that everybody uses, but that's the symbolism that is there, that you've been died and buried with Him, and now you've been raised to the new, this is the, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is the work of God within. You get to witness that within the church. That's where you get to. And you get to witness that working out in one another's lives that God's at work in you. That's what we're seeing. God is so present and so active that we are getting to watch firsthand Enough, Paul says, to comprehend the width and the length and the depth and the height of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, blowing our minds. He said sometimes we're not amazed enough by grace, and if we're not amazed enough by grace, then we're not really amazed by what we're seeing when we're seeing it. Some of you have no eye comprehension of who Arnold Palmer is, and if some old guy was up at a drink getting lemonade and tea, you'd be like, what? Dude's making a suicide, he's messed up. You still call him those? I don't know. But when you know Arnold Palmer, you realize that's Arnold Palmer making an Arnold Palmer. When we know God and we see God at work within people's lives, we say God is doing what God does. God is giving grace upon grace, and God is taking sinners and redeeming from their sins, and God is taking those whom He's redeemed and He's sanctifying them. And we get to even go to funerals where we realize that somebody has gone from the process of sanctification to now glorification. God is doing exactly everything He said He would do. He's doing more than we can even ask or imagine. Men can imagine amazing movies. They can imagine amazing comic heroes and inventions. But he's saying we can't imagine all that God is capable of, but we get glimpses of it when he dwells within the church. In Christ, the church of God is reconciling what seems to be irreconcilable. I mean think of even the Apostle Paul, you know how awkward that was the first time he walked into church? He went from persecuting the church, potentially people had relatives who had been killed or helped to be killed by Saul, who now is the Apostle Paul, and now he's sitting next to you singing a hymn. God is reconciling that which seemed so irreconcilable. Sinners. being reconciled to God and reconciled one to another. The reason wars take place because of what goes on in our heart is now finding peace within the church. So much so, and just let this sink in for a second, the powers of heaven are watching. You think, what? Angels long to look into this mystery of redemption of men, of Jews and Gentiles being reconciled to God and reconciling to one another. They are so excited because Samaritans and Jews now love each other and dwell in peace and harmony. People who once hated God now loving God and now loving one another. You think of the church as ho-hum, I'm going to the church we're tempted to, aren't we? Maybe I'll skip today, I'll, I go every week. Maybe this week I'll just take it easy. Wake up. Set it aside. This is not a, you know, there used to be a, my family's gonna be at church every time the doors are open, and we miss a little bit of that in church, but like, did you hear God is gonna be there this week? Did you hear God is going to do what God does? He's going to display grace upon grace. And we really only know that when we're also then reconciled with other people. We get to hear what He's doing in their lives and we get to care about what He's doing in their lives. And that happens within the church. My wife often says she wants to be at church because she knows the Spirit works there and she'd hate to be like, well, you missed a revival last week. You missed the Spirit pouring Himself out. We don't know which way the Spirit's going to move, but we know that the Spirit's going to be there, and we know God's going to be there. The presence of Christ is there. Be there. I don't believe that the Bible teaches holes-in-heaven theology like country songs, you know, that they're watching over us. But there is something within scripture that tells us, at least for the angels, they long to look into and they look into the redemptive history of God doing what he does within the church. Hebrews 12, verses 22 through 24. When we come to the church, we come to Mount Zion. This is our opportunity. You can just note that, because we've got to go for time here a little bit. But it talks about there in the writer of Hebrews that when we come to the church, we come to Mount Zion. This is our opportunity to take place what is already taking place in heaven. And I know you're all young people, but I've heard this said before, if you've lost loved ones who are saints and you don't come to church, it makes no sense because this is the one place you get to participate with them still. There's already the worship of God going on in heaven. This is where the worship and the presence of God takes place upon earth. It's where we get glimpses of heaven. It's where we get to do what we're preparing to do. So I just ask you, what was your last excuse that you used to get out of looking at heaven, of what God is doing? What is your last excuse you used to the reason you didn't gather with the church? Thirdly, the church is where God fills with love and power Do you ever feel as if you're not close enough to God? You're not strong enough to stand firm in a fallen world? You're swimming upstream and it's making you far too weary? Do you sing, do you know the hymn, Come Thou Fount? Come thou fount of every blessing, and does it seem like you feel the lines prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love a little too enthusiastically? You get to that. It always seems remarkable, because when I hear most congregations sing that, that's the part that everyone sings the loudest. It tells me about something. I'm not even sure theologically that that's all together You can still sing it, but I'm not sure it's altogether correct. But there is something that the hymn writer has caught, that we feel our own weakness. And so I know that you're not alone, and I mean that in a way of saying that others feel that way, but I also mean that as that's the exact answer that the church, that God has given to us in the church, you're not alone. You're not intended to do this Christian life all on your own. He's given you other people to walk with you. God is with us and we experience that most fully and most deeply when biblically and actively involved. with our commitment to the local church. And the language in Ephesians is often taken singularly. So we read this, and even the armor of God, and if you look at the original text, it's all plural. This is talking to y'all, that's Southern for you all. It's talking, and actually the real Southern is y'all, all y'all. It's saying this is the collective of the body of people that he's redeeming. and he puts you together because you need to see this grace, this is where you grow, this is how you grow. I know some people, we have one of our daughters who's much smarter than her father, and I remember going into the parent, meet the parent meeting, and they're like, we're just afraid your daughter is bored in class. We're like, she's fine. Like, she needs it. Let her help the other students if she's really doing that well. I don't care. She needs to be, like, we think we can grow faster on our own, right? But we've been around enough to know that that's not true. Let her deal with her boredom if she needs to. She's gonna be fine. She turned out fine. It worked out fine. But we tend to think we're gonna grow faster on our own, and that's the pride of our own eyes. It's not what God intends, and it's not what he intends within the Christian life. You may grow, but you're gonna be so lopsided. So my son likes to work out a lot, and he would play football, and he would work out with these guys, and he'd be like, Dad, So many of these guys skip leg day. I don't really care. I don't do leg day or chest day. But anyway, he's like, so many of these guys, they skip leg day. They look like they're going to fall over. And that's exactly what happens if you try to grow on your own. You might grow in one area. You're going to be that guy who only works his biceps. He's got these huge biceps, but he's got no neck to support it, no whatever. Basically, what's really going to happen is you're going to have this huge head with no neck to support it. That's what's going to take place. You're going to be completely out of proportion. Jerry Bridges has written wonderful books. I would encourage you to read anything that Jerry Bridges. But one time he was just speaking and he said he had traveled and he had spoken in so many different places because of the opportunities God had given to him. And he said, I have never met a healthy Christian who is not a part of a local church. You cannot grow the way God intends you to grow without using the means of grace that he has given. God's word is true. And he's given it to us. He doesn't make mistakes in his plan or his word. You and I need the church. And it's in the church that he promises he's going to fill us. He's going to fill us with the fullness of God. Makes perfect sense though, doesn't it? Where does God dwell? He dwells in the church. Dwells in the temple. He dwells with his people. Where are you going to get the fullness? What has he designed to keep you from being prone to wander and prone to leave the God you love? His grace in other Christians in the church. Fourthly, the church is where God walks with us. He finishes in this chapter, and he begins this whole theme of walking, and we'll try to catch some of that in the next session too, but this walking in unity and walking worthy of our calling, all the gifts that God has given to us, he has given to the church. He doesn't say he gave me this wonderful gift of preaching, and it's for me to, no, he said, He's gifted that to the church. And so I have to use it within the church. That's where it works. That's where it's effective. Same as any gift he's given to you. So we we function as a body. The kidney has to do its job. The heart has to do its job. The feet have to do their job. The arms have to do their job. And he's going to bring us with a body. And he he walks with us there. He's with us there. And and the beauty of that is we walk with him as his body that one one person has said at one point that he said. And there's such great strength in that, because if the head is in heaven, then the body will never drown. That's what's going to keep you. That's what's him walking with you is so vital. And so keep in step. So how do we how do we get in? How do we get access to the church? And it's grace upon grace. The kingdom of God is made up of sinners, adulterers, murderers, thieves, idolaters, lusters, you. Who have been transformed by grace. Those who have been disobedient to their parents also thrown into those kind of lists. And where do we see that grace and grow in it? Where are we transformed? It's within the church of Jesus Christ. How do we grow in grace? A.W. Pink says it well. He says to grow in grace is to grow downward. It is a heartfelt recognition that we're not worthy of the least of God's mercy. That's why it's so important as we walk within the church that we really are amazed by grace. Judges will often, when someone's convicted to die, I was watching like an old Western where they're getting ready to hang him one time. It was actually like one of those true life documentaries. But they were getting ready to hang him and the judge said, guilty. May God have mercy on your soul. I thought, you know what? That's exactly who we are as a church. The law comes down and declares, guilty. And Jesus says, in me, God has mercy upon your soul. Why are you here? Grace. Condemned, declared guilty, sentenced to die, your only hope. How do we go downward? We understand who we were and what way we once walked and now why we are who we are. We have a tendency to walk into the church and think, I deserve to be here. I look good, got the suit on, sports coat. Some people walk into church, church is not cool enough for me. They don't do everything the way that I prefer. They're not enough people my age. We come up with all these things that have nothing to do with grace, do they? By our old nature, we're entitled in our mentality. We deserve, it's what one comedian calls is we have the me monster. Me, me, me, me, me. If we get grace, we've been crucified with Christ, therefore we no longer live. And Grace says, I cannot believe I get to be here. I can't believe I get to be where God dwells. And he dwells in you and I see it. And I get to see him at work in your life. And you get to see him at work in my life. And so the best church members are the ones who are the most amazed by Grace, because there's no one they won't talk to after a service, right? We want to run to people that we want to choose. And the church and grace says, no, you get to run to the people that God has chosen. There's no one they won't serve during the week. There's no one they won't use their gifts for. They, like Paul, say, I'm the least of all the saints. Paul was so mightily used by God, but there was so much of it, he's declaring that in the sense that he was the last, he wasn't one of the apostles that walked with Jesus while he was here on earth, but he met him on the road to Damascus and so forth, so there's all of that. But Paul looks at this and goes, man, I am the chief of sinners. I get why I'm here. That's what Paul, I get why I'm here. But God. And if you want to go and grow in grace and grow in Christ, you have to grow downward this way. Downward is laying our life down for people who don't deserve it. Just as we didn't deserve it. Forgiving others just as we have been forgiven. The church is a collection of people who are growing in that understanding. They're like the thief on the cross, and another pastor's used this more famously and betterly than I have, but can you imagine the thief on the cross arriving in heaven? And you kind of go, looking through my lips, how did you get here? What's your membership card? What are your credentials? How many of the Puritans have you read? What kind of education did you have as a young person? And to get to the end of all of these questions, and you can see where this is going, the thief on the cross, he goes, the man on the middle cross, Jesus, said I could be here. That's how we get in here. Not that we've earned it, but that Christ declared not guilty to those who were guilty. And the more we see that beauty and grace, the more we begin to see, how did, because you look around and you know, there's a lot of people within your church that you probably like, I don't really want to go on vacation with those people. How did they get in here? And then you'll remember. Jesus said they could be here. And if we love him and know him then we will love one another. And so it's amazing we get to see him at work. I just can't get over that. You know we. I love our prayer meetings at our church and I hope you love yours as well because we get to see prayers answered that we have no business praying other than in Jesus name. Would you save this person? Would you save that person? Would you encourage this person? Would you encourage that? What other basis do we have to even pray the things that we pray except grace? Take a minute, just as young people in the youth retreat, take a minute this morning, I want you to see, you have been witnessing grace for the last two days. And you may not have even realized it. Where have you missed grace? I've been watching it and I've been amazed. I've been amazed, you all young people, you've listened well. It's been a joy to be with you. I've seen things in your life and your answers and your comments and thanking me and different things like that. And I hope I don't offend some people, but I've watched old people. come to this youth retreat to drop off food and fix food and vacuum the floor after you guys get done playing games. They're up till later than they probably, you think, well, all old people are asleep by now, but they're here. And why are they here? Because you guys are just the most amazing group of people that have ever existed on the face of the earth, the mean monsters. They're here because they, Christ loved them when they were first sinners. When they were sinners, Christ died for them. And they want you to know that love and that grace. And they're here serving and coming up with games and coming up with things and working beforehand and afterhand and here when their kids are sick and all different kinds of things. You go, why are they doing that? Because this is where God works. And they long for you to see what the angels long to look into. how mighty God works, and how mighty His love is, and how you can be filled with that love. As a young Christian, you say, how do I then show this grace? And I would challenge you, if you get it and you're grasping it, even if you're grasping part of it, you say, I don't have it all yet, but okay, so God is there, so make church a priority. And then if you make God a priority, what Paul is saying, then make others a priority. You can begin to even display this grace. Yes, talk to other young people, encourage other young people, put your shield right up against their shield so that you can stand firm. But how about the people that are not like you? How about the little kids that might be looking up to you? How about the older people who they have all the wisdom, but not all the energy anymore? Go talk, encourage, be encouraged, be interacting. You know, Jew and Gentile, old, young, male, female, all the things that now are made one in Christ. Be one. You don't have to wait till you're 21 to do that. You can do that now. Some of my best friends in the church were because older saints reached down to me, and one guy would take me golfing. I loved to golf, obviously, Arnold Palmer illustration, but he'd take me golfing, and we became such good friends throughout the years, and he's older than my parents. And now I get to hang out with 30-year-olds and still feel like, when you get to 50, you're like, I still feel closer to that age than I do, but they wanna hang out with me. They want to come over and interact and talk and encourage each other and stay with me after the service. Because I'm great? No, because grace is great. You get to be a part of that. Be a part of that. It's the safest place for you if you are saved and being saved by grace. God will use it to keep you. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Find your place within it. So I said it's the safest place but I also said it was the most dangerous place, right? And I haven't really gone back to that and hopefully you kind of caught on that. If you can come here or your church back home and God is here and he is nothing to you. If you see the power of God raising other dead young people to life and that is nothing to you, that is one of the most dangerous places you could ever be. And I'm not saying then get out of church. That's not the point because it's the only place where God dwells. But the point is that people don't encounter God and remain unchanged. People don't encounter God and remain unchanged and scripture tells us that new icon. I'm not gonna be changed. Yeah, you just hardened your heart You went out of here harder than you came in you went out of here more numb than you came in you were in the presence of the Almighty God and it was nothing to you and Imagine watching the best movie that was ever made in the world and being unmoved. Everyone in the theater is weeping, and then laughing, and then weeping, and you feel nothing. You're either going to realize that there's something incredibly wrong with you, or you're going to walk out of that movie more proud than you walked in. Stupid people. How can you cry? How can you be moved? That's just a movie. When God's at work and he's displaying his might and power and angels are longing to look into you, angels are longing to look into what God's doing here this weekend. And you don't care. That's a very dangerous place. And so I beg of you. I know you won't leave unchanged. but don't leave more hardened. Don't leave less emotional to what ought to move you to cry out for mercy. You're in the best place imaginable because God is here and God saves sinners. But if you can encounter that mercy and that grace, and it be nothing to you. May God have mercy on your soul. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Oh, what a privilege and a joy that you delight to meet with your people who once were not your people, Help us to see your glory. Help us to long more for what angels long to look into. Help us to participate more in what coming to Mount Zion and what heaven is already participating in. The glory of God and the grace of God being revealed. Cause us to grow, cause us to grow downward. That we might be more humbled, that we might be more exalted. And Father, we pray for mercy. Don't let teens and adults that are hearing this morning to be hardened by that which is intended to cause us to draw near to God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.