to Ephesians chapter number 1. Ephesians chapter number 1. I'm glad that one of the great treasures that I have is a Bible. Aren't you glad you have a Bible? What a blessing that is. You're turning there. I just want to let you in on something. There's something better than the Super Bowl happening tonight. It's right here at Calvary Baptist Church. It is. It's better. I can promise. Even if the Cowboys were playing, and they never will again. It's better. That's how you stop Tom Brady. Of course, he retired before Jerry Jones could get him and end the Super Bowl streak. But anyway, however it works. You all know I'm a Cowboys fan, but anyway, I say that in shame sometimes. No, I don't. I've been faithful, but this time of year, I'm always a little down. So I don't care. I'm excited about here, but I would be anyway. And tonight, we're going to learn how to be God's friend over the next several weeks. You don't want to miss the start of where we're going on Sunday nights here for the next little while, and I trust you'll be a part of it. And I want to be God's friend, don't you? And God called a man to be His friend. And God tells me He's my friend and He wants me to be His friend. And we're going to learn how from a man by the name of Abraham. Trust you'll be back tonight for that. There is a search going on in our world. Did you know that? It is a frantic search. It is. It's going on all around us. You may even be a part of it. You might be. You say, preacher, what kind of search is it? It's a search for significance. It's a search for meaning. It's a search for satisfaction and purpose. Something to bring some kind of fulfillment in our lives. People are frantically searching, and they want that significance and meaning, and so they accumulate stuff. And the more stuff that I get, then hopefully somewhere in all of that stuff I'm going to find some kind of significance, I'm going to find some kind of lasting meaning and purpose for my life, some reason why I'm here. Another person may search for it in people. If I can just have this relationship, if I can have that man, if I can have that woman, if I can have this or that in this relationship, if I can have all kinds of friends, whatever it might be, then I'm going to be significant because I've got friends or I've got 5,000 friends. I've maxed out my friends on Facebook. But yet you still feel friendless and alone. Some people, it's pleasures. They move from pleasure that they indulge in, and the greater the pleasure, then supposedly the greater the significance and meaning and purpose and satisfaction and all of that. And people go through life with stuff and people and places and pleasures and all of these things, only to come up empty every time. Over time, people become disillusioned with life. You know, that's one of the reasons why, among young adults, the suicide rate in America is the highest it's ever been. We're at epidemic levels right now with drug addictions, overdoses. I mean, folks, we are in a crisis. in our land. Right here in Stokes County, Forsyth County, Surrey County, we're in a crisis in the lives of our young people that are looking for some type of pleasure or escape or drugs or whatever it might be. That if I can get this, then somehow or another, if I can't find significance, I can escape from it. And it winds up killing them. Ecclesiastes is God's test case. Now we're not going to go there, we're in Ephesians, but it's God's test case. King Solomon had wealth, he had women, he had wine, luxury, pleasure. I mean, he said, whatever my heart desired, I went after it. Come to the end of his life and he summed it all up because he's an old man and he's writing about it and he said, I hated life. I bet you if we went out right here and maybe went down to Walmart and we'd been in one of those interviews on the street that we would find more than one person that if they really were honest with us, here would be their view of life. I hate life. Wouldn't you agree with that? There might be some of you here today and that's how you're feeling. I hate life. He goes on to say, "...Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity." You know what he's saying? It's like chasing the wind. You know, when I was a little boy, the wind would blow and you'd try to chase the wind. And here's what you can find. You can chase it, but you'll never catch it. And that's true of this world. You can go for all the stuff and all the pleasure and all the position and all the stuff the world has to offer in so many ways. And in this world, you will forever chase it. but you'll always come up empty. But not so for the child of God. No, when you come to Ephesians chapter 1, you're going to find that our significance is in Christ. All of my meaning is bound up in Him. I'm significant in Him. I'm somebody in Him. I'm worthy in Him. I'm not in any of myself. And if I look into myself, I'm going to come up empty. But when I come to Him, because in Him are found all the treasures in the companion book to Ephesians in the book of Colossians in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You're going to find it all right there. You are. When you come to Ephesians chapter 1 where we're at this morning in verse number 3, it's God's run-on sentence. It's the longest sentence in all the Bible. I call it God's treasure chest. Because you're going to find, according to verse number 3, it's filled with all spiritual blessings. Look what he says. Let's begin reading verse number 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul gets so caught up in all that he has in Christ, he can't help but bless the blesser. Can I tell you, let's not come to church just to be blessed, let's come to church to bless. Not just everybody else, but let's bless Him. And let's bless His name and worship His name. Because it's not about us, it's about Him. It's for His glory, right? And He's saying, God, it's all about You. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. You're already blessed, dear child. It's already yours. blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." Look at verse 6, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace." wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Do you know what I believe Paul is saying right here? I am so blessed. And last Sunday, out of this long sentence, we began to unpack the blessings. Let's keep unpacking and see what God has for us today. Let's pray together. Lord, we love You. We thank You for Your goodness, Your mercy in our lives. I pray, Lord, that You'll enlighten our minds and our hearts to Your truth today. Speak to us individually, Lord, from this passage. Bring life change. Lord, we don't want to stay the same. We want to be changed. We want to grow up in You. Lord, help us to see Your treasured chest of blessings. throughout the book of Ephesians as we work our way through it in the coming weeks and months. Lord, help us to learn of You and love You and bless Your holy name. Lord, if there's someone here today that they're chasing the wind, Lord, their life's empty. Help them to know, Lord, that when they come to You, when they know You, Lord, that they've found life's greatest treasure and they'll never have to search again. And I'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, we've come to this place and Paul says, I am so blessed. He's saying, let me tell you what we have in Christ. Let's open God's treasure chest. And the first thing, the truth that we saw was that there is a source to our blessings. We see that in verse number 3 when he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. We are so blessed. And God's saying that it's not something that I'm going to do for you in the future, it's something I've already done for you as my child. I have blessed you. And we bless God in turn, and it's bountiful. He has loaded us with His blessings. Isn't that wonderful? I'm going to get ahead of myself. I'm going to take an illustration I gave at the end of my message at 8.30, and I'm going to put it at the beginning of the message. When my daughter was young, she had to go to the orthodontist, and I told everybody my first four-wheeler and bass boat was in her mouth. And so anyway, we go there and her orthodontist, I believe if I'm not mistaken, had a little treasure chest. If you were good at the orthodontist, I believe I'm right, it's either there or somewhere that they would go and they could dig in the treasure chest and they could get something. Okay? And they would go in and they'd dig in the treasure chest and they'd come out with something in that, and it was either the doctor or the orthodontist, one or the other, and they'd come out with that little treasure out of that treasure chest. Well, here's the good news, okay? When it comes to God's treasure chest, God doesn't send every one of His children up there to dig and you get one blessing. Oh no, He gave us the whole treasure chest. Listen, I have a treasure chest and you have a treasure chest. We have it all, the total package. And what we need to do is just unpack it in our lives and possess our possessions and live out all that we are and all that we have in Christ. Because dear child of God, we may have nothing in this world, but we are rich in Him. with blessings that money cannot buy. He is the source of every blessing in our life. And we ought to bless His holy name. And then we began to see some substance of it. What is in the treasure chest? And we began to look into it and we found that God as a loving Father has great plans and desires. You have desires for your children and God has desires for His children and He's telling us about it right here in this passage. And we find that God as a loving heavenly Our Father has great desires for us. And so He begins with lavishing His love upon us. Look at verse 4. He lavished us with love. Look at verse 4. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. God made a decision about you and about me, dear child of God. He did. It's the great doctrine of election. God's not choosing who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved. God's not choosing anybody to salvation in this passage. When you look at it, God has chosen that we should be holy before Him. that when I believed on Jesus Christ, God determined way before the world was ever created that those who would trust God's Son, He made an elective choice in His sovereign will, that all of them would have a position of standing before Him holy and without blame. And you know what? In simple country fashion, that's just saying that we stand before God with all of our sins gone and we're blameless and God doesn't see me in who I am and who I was. He sees me, who I am in Jesus, and He receives me because He received His Son. I am holy in Him and without blame before God. And that's what the Bible's telling me. And if God's chosen me to be holy, you're going to find in the whole last part of the book of Ephesians, He's going to teach me how to be holy. One's my position, this is who I am, that every day of my life I may not live holy, but my position before God is holy. Now that doesn't mean that God's not going to chasten me for wrongdoing. Doesn't mean that God's not going to get my attention and let things go by in my life in a very practical and real way. But positionally speaking, before Him, I am in His sight, holy and without blame. And God said, I want that to translate in how you live on Monday. You see, if God says, I am holy, I ought to live holy. The Bible says, Be holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. Isn't that what He says? Holy in what we say, holy in what we see, holy in what we wear, holy in where we go, what we do, how we conduct our lives, how we transact in our world. They're all to be about us, a pursuit of holiness. The Bible said, Without which no man shall see the Lord. Now that doesn't mean that if you don't live the way you ought to live, that if you're saved you won't go to heaven. What He's saying is that I'm not going to see Him clearly and I'm not going to be in fellowship with Him. I'm going to be out of fellowship with God. And He's going to tell us as we get into chapter 4 on what holiness looks like. Dear child of God, one of the greatest treasures you can have or have is that right now, as His child, you stand before Him without sin in His sight. I am righteous in Jesus Christ. It's not my righteousness. It's His righteousness. And thank God my sins are gone. I have no record in heaven of my sins. Isn't that a blessing? And the Bible says, if you look in verse 4, that it's in love. That God has lavished his love upon me as his child. What a joy that is. And we're going to see it even deeper as we work our way through the passage and unpack some more blessings. But let's look at the next blessing that we're going to unpack. And we're going to find it in verse number 5. Not only have I been lavished with love, but I have been lifted as a son. We've been lifted as sons. Look what he says in verse 5. Having predestinated us under the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ Himself. Now, what does that mean? Well, let's unpack that and let's start with the word predestinated. Let's start there. It's a Bible word. We don't have to be afraid of it. Okay? And it means to mark out beforehand. It has the idea of determining a destiny beforehand. But again, God's not choosing to predestine or the destiny of some people's heaven and some people's hell and there's nothing they can do about it. No, that's our choice. If anybody in this room perishes in hell, God didn't put you there and God didn't plan for you to go there. That's a choice you're going to make in your own life. God did make a choice about us, but it's not about unsaved people. It's about saved people. Predestination, every time you study it in the Bible, has nothing to do with the destiny of the unsaved, has nothing to do with heaven or hell, has everything to do with God's marked out destination and goal for every person who becomes His child through Jesus Christ. And we're going to see that. It's a sovereign choice or act of God whereby He has set a goal for every one of those who belong to Him. Let's establish it. Let's see what the destination is of your salvation. When God saves you, you think, boy, I'm saved and I'm going to heaven. Can I tell you that that's just part of it. God's more interested in a person than He is a place. You're going to see that. And heaven's the by-product. That's what we're thinking. Boy, heaven's my home. Praise God! But God said, I've got bigger goals than that. Let's see it. Look over at Romans chapter 8. Would you do that? Look at Romans chapter 8. Write Romans 8, 29 in the margin of your Bible, right there beside Ephesians 1 and verse number 5. That word predestinator in your margin or in your notes. I want you to notice what he's going to say in verse number 29. He tells us in verse 28 that all things are going to work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to His purpose. There's predestination. God has a purpose, a goal, a plan for every one of His children. Look at verse 29. Here it is. For whom He did foreknow. That means to know beforehand. God knew me before I knew Him. You say, Preacher, how do you know that? Because He knows everything and I don't. He knew me before I was born. He knew me before I was saved. God foreknew. And we understand that just because God foreknows someone doesn't mean that God caused them to be saved. It just means He knew they would be saved because God knows everything. And He knew who would trust His Son, and God made a decision about them. He predestinated all those who trust His Son. Look what He said. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. to mark out beforehand, to be conformed to the image of His Son. That is God's goal and God's destiny for every child. Do you know what God's doing in your life right now? He is working in your life through the process of sanctification to make you like Jesus Christ. Hey, you know what? I'm tired of me. I want to be less and less of who I am by nature and more and more of who He is in my life. And that is God's goal for you, and it will be accomplished. I can either cooperate and it go easier, or God does it the hard way. But either way, you're going to get there. And you're going to be, when we get to heaven, dear friend, God's goal and purpose for us will become a reality, and every one of us will be perfectly, morally like Jesus Christ. Friend, can I tell you, I don't want to be like me. I pray, God, help me not to be who I am in myself. Make me like Jesus. Oh, friend, Paul prayed that Christ might be formed in us. Oh, friend, what a joy that is. What a goal that God's going to make us like Jesus. What a destiny for every child of God. And that's the destiny beforehand. But here's the process by which He does it. It's called adoption. Go back to chapter 1 in verse number 5. Now, many of you know that when I was a little boy, that my dad, that my dad right now adopted me. He gave me his name, okay? He's not my biological father, alright? But he's my father. You know, can I tell you it takes more than just being a dad by fathering a child. It takes a whole lot more than that. There's a whole lot of people that can father a child, but they're not a father. Don't let that be true of us Christian men. Amen? And my dad loved me enough that he gave me his name and he adopted me. I became his son." That's not Bible adoption. I know we hear that preached many times, we sing it in songs, but that's not Bible adoption. You've got to understand that what we do, if we're not careful, is we impress our culture on the Bible rather than understanding the culture of that day, which is totally different from our culture. And I know that there are instances where a Roman, wealthy Roman autocrat or whatever, didn't have a son and he took one of his slaves and adopted him and made him his son and all of that. And that's preached that way, but that's still not Bible adoption. Okay? And we want to understand that it meant something. Everybody in Paul's day knew exactly what it meant. And so this word adoption doesn't mean to be son-made. You can jot that down. It's not son-made. We are son-placed. we are placed in the family as a son. Whether it was a slave or a natural born son, that Roman father could place him publicly as a son. But not just any son, an adult son who has great privileges and right and equality within the family. Because before they come of age in a Roman home, that child was no different than the slaves. Oh, he may have come from a wealthy family. His dad may have had great wealth and stature in Roman culture, but the child had no rights. We hear so much today about that, don't we? Had no rights, and it was no different than a slave. Matter of fact, they played with the slaves' kids. They were under tutors and governors that trained and taught them. But there was a day, as time went on, where that little boy would come of age. It was in that culture, 21 years of age, and then a great, great event would take place, whether it was in a small town, or whether it was in Rome itself, the large city in that culture. There would be family, there would be friends, magistrates, they would come to this, and they would go to the public square, and that Roman father would take his son up before them, and he would say, My son has now come of age. He's no longer a child. I am placing him in my family. as a son. He now has status of equality with my other adult sons and he can draw on my wealth. He has the family ring and he bears the family name and he can carry out the family business. He is son place. I have adopted him today. and I've given him status and wealth and importance in the family. That is the picture. As a child, he couldn't inherit anything, but as an adult son, he could inherit everything. You see the difference? Everybody with me? Okay? And that is Bible adoption. You say, preacher, why is that important? Because here's the case. Look back if you would, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. God has predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. If you're a child in that culture, in that day, if you thought of inheritance, you couldn't get it. You're a child. You have no rights. You have no access to the wealth. But if you're a son, you have access to all the wealth. Do you see the difference? Alright, so I was born into God's family as a child. But friend, at the same moment, God placed me in His family as a son. I was a child that needed to grow. But friend, listen, I was a son that could draw on all the wealth of my father. It's all mine, and I can possess it right now. Hey, I don't care if you've been saved one second or a hundred years. You're a son in the family, a daughter in the family, and it's all yours, friend, every blessing in Jesus Christ. And you can have it. That's the adoption. I've been lifted as a son. He took us out of the pit of sin and placed us as sons in the family. Oh, what a blessing that is. And friend, what a joy that all the wealth of the Father is at my disposal. Friend, I can draw on mercy, and I can draw on His grace, and I can draw on His strength, and I can draw on His wealth because my Father owns it all. Look at verse 11, I have an inheritance. in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." These are decisions that God has made about His children that are in Christ that we would obtain an inheritance. But if you're a child, a baby, you can't have the inheritance all. But if you're an adult son or daughter, you can have it all. Do you see the difference? That's what God's given us. Jot down Romans 8.15 in the margin of your notes. We're heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Oh, we don't have it all now. We may not inherit it all now, but we will. There's coming a day it's all ours. Listen to what he says, Romans 8.15, For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Children were thought of as in bondage. They were under tutors and governors. You have not received the spirit of bondage, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, I once was an outcast stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth, but I have been adopted, my name is written down, an heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown. Oh, friend, we've been lavished with love. We've been lifted as sons. But listen, we're still unpacking the treasure chest. We've been led into His presence. Look at verse number 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace. Now watch this next phrase. Wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. Oh, I'm accepted. Not only have I been adopted, friend, I've been accepted! Wow! That word accepted is next of kin is the word grace. It means to welcome, to show favor. It means to welcome. Grace and peace. You're accepted. You're accepted. I've never accepted in myself. Oh friend, we're accepted in the blood. There's a story told of a little boy in London. And he wanted to see the king. Oh, he wanted to see the king so bad. And he was standing at the gates of Buckingham Palace, peering through the gates, and he said, Oh, I want to see the king, and I want to talk to the king, and I want to know the king. And there were those stoic guards staring and barring the way, and the gates barring the way, and the little boy couldn't get inside. And oh, he was crying, I want to see the king. And suddenly a handsome, well-dressed man walked up and he said, son, what's the matter? And he said, I just want to see the king and these men won't let me in and the gates won't open up and I can't see the king and I just want to see. He said, take my hand. Oh, when he took that man's hand, the soldier snapped and the gates opened, and again to walk through the doors, and the mansion opened up, the doors of the palace, and they walk in and they see the tapestry, and the beauty, and the images, and the art, and all of the things, and they walk down corridors, long corridors, and they found servants bowing, and soldiers saluting, and they make their way to two great big doors, and they open up of their own accord, and they walk into this great big room, and there's the king. And the little boy walks up to the king, and the king begins to speak to the little boy. And what made the difference? He didn't know it, but he had taken hold of the hand of the prince of Wales, the king's son. And he couldn't get it on his own. But when he took the hand of the king's son, he was welcomed, he was accepted, he was brought right on in. And friend, there was a night when I was 17 years old, I took hold of the king's son. and when He led me right into the presence of God, the King of the universe, and I can come in any time I want to, and now He's my Heavenly Father, and I can speak to Him, and I can call on Him, and I can look to Him, and I can lean on Him, and He says, Son! You've been blessed. You don't put a price tag on that, that the God of the universe accepts me into His presence through His Son. When was the last time you visited? When was the last time you went into His presence? When was the last time you talked to the King? I can talk to Him anytime, anywhere, about anything, because that King is now my Father. I've been accepted in the Beloved. Do you realize that God loves you like He loves His Son, Jesus? That's what it means, in the Beloved. Jesus is the beloved. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But now He says, I'm accepting you just like I accept Him. Isn't that amazing? I don't barge into His presence. Oh no, we come humbly into His presence, but yet we come boldly because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad you took hold of the King's Son? Let's finish up quickly. Not only see the source of our blessings and the substance of our blessings, we've been lavished with love, lifted as sons and led into His presence. I don't know about you, but you can soak in this for a while, if you will. Oh, don't let this message just be one you heard and blessed and walked out the door. Why don't you take a few moments this week and soak in what God's given you? Just open the treasure chest this week and say, God, let me look at this thing about being your son or your daughter. I'm adopted and placed and all the wealth of heaven is mine. Friend, I don't know how we get over all that, do you? Let's notice very quickly the sphere of His blessings. Notice, if you would, verse number 3 again. Would you look at that? They're spiritual. He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. You see, if I look in this verse, the Blesser is God, my gracious, loving, heavenly Father, who is infinitely wealthy. The blessed are us, blessed us. And notice the blessings, all spiritual blessings. Now when you and I think of an inheritance, we think of material wealth, money, houses, lands. You know there's some things we've already learned. Money can't buy. Isn't that right? And if you had what money could buy, we've already learned. It's not going to give me significance and meaning. I'm going to be chasing the wind and I'm going to come up empty. Oh, but what I have in Christ is very real. It's very tangible. It's spiritual, not material in nature. Money can't buy it. It's of inestimable worth. You can't put a price tag on it. Notice the Bible calls it all spiritual blessings. A newspaper once held a contest, offered a prize for the best definition of money, and here was the answer. They wrote this, money is an instrument that can buy you everything but happiness and pay your way to every place but heaven. Money can just do about anything but two things, give you happiness and take you to heaven. Isn't that amazing? But Frank, can I tell you, God can do both. And what the treasure chest of the Lord has done all of that and more. And God said they're all. That means it's all inclusive. When you were saved, as I said earlier, you got the total package. And I just need to unpack the treasure chest and see what all God's given me. And they're not just all inclusive, they're all encompassing. That word all means of every kind of blessing. All that we need and they're for all time. Chapter 2 and verse 7 that says, in the ages to come, He's going to show us the exceeding riches of His glory by Christ Jesus. And so they're going to stretch into eternity. See, I can only get blessings now. I'm going to get blessings later. And they're already all mine. I just hadn't entered into all of them yet. And God said they're mine. And God has given us blessings without end. And He tells us where they're at. They're in heavenly places. It reminds us of the world we're truly living for. If you're chasing this world, it's like chasing the wind. But friend, when I live for the world to come, God said I'm laying up treasure in heaven. That moth and rust and all this is not going to corrupt. I'm living for something. It's going to last. It matters. Notice they're in Christ. He said, in heavenly places, in Christ. We have a life in Christ. We have a life that can never be forfeited. Did you know that? We have a righteousness that can never be tarnished. We have an acceptance that will never be questioned. We have a title that will never be clouded. We have a position that can never be invalidated. We have a standing that will never be disputed. If God be for us, who can be against us? Justification that will never be reversed. We have a seal that will never be violated. We'll see that later on in our verses. We have an inheritance that will never be alienated. A wealth that will never be depleted. A resource that will never be diminished. A bank that will never be closed. We have possessions that can't be measured, portions that will never be denied, a peace that can't be destroyed, a joy that can't be suppressed, a love that can't be abated. We have a grace that can never be arrested, a strength that can never be exalted, a salvation that can never be annulled, a forgiveness that will never be rescinded, a deliverance that will never be thwarted, and an assurance that will never be disappointed. We have a nature that can never be changed, an access that'll never be discontinued, an attraction that'll never be superseded, living for heaven, a comfort that'll never be lessened, a service that'll never be unrewarded, an intercessor that can never be disqualified in Christ. I have a victor who can never be vanquished. I have a resurrection that'll never be hindered, a hope that'll never be disappointed, and a glory that'll never be dimmed. Oh man, listen, all of that in heaven too. No wonder the psalmist said, Bless me the Lord who daily loatheth us with his benefits, even the God of our salvation. Can I give you this one last thing and we're going to be done? Look down at verse 6 again. They're undeserved. I don't deserve any of this. Do you? to the praise of the glory of His grace." It's for His glory, isn't it? And His grace. Did you notice that grace is going to be found 12 times in the book of Ephesians? His undeserved love. The love that God has lavished on undeserving sinners like you and me. We don't deserve any of it. Do you realize not one of us deserves one of God's blessing, much less the whole treasure chest? Yet God says, I've given it all to you in My Son. Oh, we're rich in grace, aren't we? Rich in grace. There's an old prospector. Gold prospector, an old 49er. They found his skeleton where he died out in the Yukon wilderness. Not too far away, they found his old mule. Evidently, he had tied his mule, and he was sick, and he died, and the mule stayed there tied up into that bush until it died. There in the bones of that old mule when they found the remains was the prospector's saddlebags full of ore. I mean, they were just bulging. Well, they dug into those saddlebags and opened them up and found a note there. And that little miner had scribbled a note before he died. He said, I died rich! Ha ha! I died rich! And then they emptied the saddlebags and come out on the ground. And here's what they found. That old 49er, that old miner, what he'd been packing around wasn't true gold at all. It was pyrite. It was fool's gold. You know, you think about it. There he was out in the wilderness, living hard with that old mule. Maybe died in agony and pain. And all the time he was just carrying around saddlebags full of worthless dirt. Thought he was rich, but he was really poor. He didn't have anything. Thought he had everything, but he didn't have anything. You know, that's the problem with today. People are living and scraping and scratching and clawing for everything they can get out of this. If I can just get a nugget of gold, if I can just get... To come to the end of life and found out it's just pyrite, it's fool's gold. It's not true riches at all. Young person, you can chase the wind, but you'll never catch it. You can try to dig out and scratch out every nugget of gold this world has to offer, only to find when you come to the end of life, all you have is fool's gold. And it'll leave you right where you started, empty and broken. But friend, I'm glad that in Christ, I have it all. I have true riches that'll last forever. I have the significance, I have meaning, I have purpose, I have everything. Oh, I have a reason to live, a purpose to live. Dear child of God, listen, if you chase the world, what I'm saying to you means absolutely nothing right now. Not a thing. Because you're living in an illusion. And there are going to be people who walk right out those doors and you're going to start chasing the same fool's gold you've been chasing. Until one day you wake up and realize what you have in Jesus Christ and start living your life for Him. And start living life on a different plane for a different purpose. And you start unpacking the treasure chest of God's blessings and living it out in your everyday life. And you'll find out what true life and true living really is. And friend, here's the thing though. You can never have the treasure chest until first of all, you have the Savior. You have to have the one who owns the treasure chest. And God wants to bring you in a right relationship with Him. Say, if He wants you to know His Son, He wants your sins to be gone and He wants you to have the joy of heaven, but He's got more than just that for you. But you'll never have any of it and you'll just chase the wind till you come to life empty and broken and spend eternity apart from God in hell. And that's not God's choice for you. You'll have to choose which one you're going to live for. Are you going to live for the fool's gold or are you going to live for the true gold? You'll have to make the choice. Let's bow our heads in prayer.