Lord, we do thank You for Your many blessings. We just ask that You guide, lead, and direct in all things. Help me to hide behind the cross, though I am unworthy to preach and teach Thy Word. I just pray You'll bless it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. What we're going to go over tonight is the fact that Paul states clearly to follow Him. And now to the extreme, this is hyper-dispensationalism. So what hyper-dispensationalism is, and what I was in, was when you elevate Paul's epistles to a place of preeminence rather than Christ. And I could take you to a lot of verses that dispel that. And they say, well, Peter was preaching another message. He did not understand salvation by grace. Well, he had to. His eyes were opened by Luke 24, the last chapter in Luke, as was everybody else. And to say you had two different gospels going at the same time, one of them included works, one of them didn't, That's problematic. So to dispel a lot of that, I want to do that up front, but I do want to tell you the Bible does say that Paul has a place that is unique. Just looking at verse 1. Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. So Paul followed Christ. And he says, follow me as I followed Christ. Now I pray, and here's one aspect. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things. So everything you do, remember what Paul wrote. And keep the ordinances I delivered them to you. Well that straightens out a lot of things, of course, unless you have an ESV. The ESV changes ordinances to traditions. Well, that's a problem. You don't need to keep the traditions. You need to keep the ordinances. What are the two ordinances of the church? They are the Lord's Supper and baptism. How do you know? Well, Paul gave us, in 1 Corinthians, the Lord's Supper and baptism. And you say, well, I thought Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize. He did. But to preach the gospel. So the baptism is not part of the gospel. But yet he baptized. But he wasn't sent to baptize. He was sent to preach the gospel. I'm sent to preach the gospel. I am not sent to knock down trees. But I'll knock down trees. I'm not sent to... You're not sent to clean the church. But we clean the church. You're not sent to do... There was a graduation. I made a little big deal about it. Hey, happy graduation. I'm not sent to do that. I'm sent to preach the gospel. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do a lot of other things. So the point is when you contrast the two, the specific purpose of the pastor and the preacher and what Paul was saying is he wasn't sent to do anything but preach the gospel. It doesn't mean he didn't do a lot of other things. So he says that and I want to give you some other verses. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verse 17. He's writing to the Philippian church and he writes to them and he says in verse 17, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk, so as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." So he says, look, brethren, be followers together, the church, the believers that congregate, and mark them, which are doing the same thing. You mark the ungodly, but you also mark those that are good and sample or an example of what to do and what to be. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1. And I'm just going to give you a few of these. There's quite a few. 1 Thessalonians 1. 6, 5, For our gospel came unto you, not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost. He said, ye became followers of us and the Lord. So those that say, And I was, we were out visiting, I don't, I think we were at the church. It might have been an Episcopal church. And we went there for some reason. I was out on a visitation with this young guy. He just came to Bible college. And so we knocked on the church door and the watchmajigger let me in. I don't know what he'd call him. I mean, the reverend, he would probably call himself that. So the reverend lets us in. And we're talking. And this young guy's trying to explain right division, you know, how to divide the Bible and follow Paul. And this guy, this man of the cloth, says, are you saying that the words of Jesus aren't as important as the words of Paul? And this young kid says, yes. I went, no, no, no, no, no. Because I realized right then and there that that was the conclusion of elevating Paul's words You start discounting Jesus' words because Jesus went to the Jews. And so the natural conclusion is to come to that conclusion that Paul's words are more important. But listen, Jesus' words, they're all Jesus' words first of all. You just can't do that. You can't look at Jesus and go, well, the red letters in your Bible, which people elevate higher, they shouldn't, because all of it's the Word of God. If you have a red letter Bible and you somehow think, well, those are more important words than anything else, that's not right. Just because Jesus said it in the flesh doesn't make all the spiritual things that He said, like the ones I'm reading you right here, less important. So just realize that that red letter addition, it's great to know what Jesus said. Maybe it helps you in your study. You can go, Oh, well, in the red letters, that's what Jesus said. And it sort of jumps off the page. But don't elevate those words above the rest of what Jesus said, which is the Word of God. That's important not to do. Look at another one in 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 7. He says, For yourselves know how you ought to follow us. For we behave not ourselves disorderly among you, neither do we eat any man's bread for naught, but rot with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you, to follow us. So Paul again and again and again says, be ye followers of me, follow us. Listen, I'll tell you this. I would want to say, follow me, as long as I'm going in the right direction. But I'm not writing Scripture, and it's a little different when you're writing Scripture. Listen, if I'm going the right way, follow me. If I'm not, then I shouldn't encourage anybody to follow me, and if I'm not, I shouldn't be leading. I should get on the right track and then say, okay, now follow me. So I want to emphasize Paul's ministry today. I've been here five and a half years. I haven't really done this, but it was a big aspect of my ministry when I thought, And here it is. If you want to know salvation by grace, where's the best place to go? Paul's epistles. Where's the Romans wrote? That's the first book that is in the Bible that Paul wrote. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. And you go on and on. But then there is 1 John chapter 5. You know, it gives you the greatest... The thing on eternal security, these things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life. That's John writing that. But when you study Paul's epistles, you come to an understanding what the church is supposed to do. You go to the book of Acts, and if you try to do everything in the book of Acts, you'll break your neck. Have you received the Holy Ghost? No, we haven't heard of the Holy Ghost. And then they get the Holy Ghost and you go, well, how did that happen? They laid hands on them, they got the Holy Ghost. They sent a handkerchief out and people were healed. They had the gift of healing and all those things in the book of Acts because that was mainly the Jew first. And by going to that Jew first, they were given an advantage. And you have to understand that context of Acts. If you don't, you'll get confused. So when I look in my Bible, I remember I wanted to study Paul's epistles because I wanted to get a grasp of that. You understand what Paul says and you'll understand your whole Bible. How does that work? bring a bullet to the altar, a sacrifice, or a Sabbath day, or a special day. Paul said, all that's nailed to the cross. Well, once you learn that it's nailed to the cross because of what Paul wrote, then when you go back there in the Old Testament, you read about that stuff, you're not going to try to pull it up into your church today and go, hey, we need to make sure that we eat those Jewish rules and restrictions. Make sure we do that. No, you don't. It's a doctrine of a devil to tell people to abstain from eating certain meats. It's a doctrine of a devil to command not to marry. It's a doctrine of a devil to do those things. So how did you get that? Well, I read Paul's epistles. Then I went back in the Old Testament. Oh, I understand that is God speaking to the nation of Israel. Not just us. Now, does it have spiritual application? The answer is yes. So there's a fine line. You can't just throw it all out and go, well, you know, I'm not going to follow because I'm going to follow Paul. Learn what Paul says and it'll give you an understanding that just will blow you away. Look at Romans chapter 2. Romans 2. Now, I'm going to emphasize Paul today, even though I know a lot of people that follow Paul and don't follow Jesus. And that's dangerous. Who's to have the preeminence? Christ. Not Paul. Paul was a sinner just like you and me. Romans 7. He had things that he did that he wished he didn't do. In Romans 2, verse 16, look at what the Bible says. It says, In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. He's going to judge you and me according to the Gospel that Paul wrote. Which is what? 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4. The Gospel is how that Christ died, that He was buried and He rose again. That's very specific. Remember in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John until the very end of each one of those, He hadn't died yet. They didn't understand the Gospel and yet they're out preaching the Gospel in Luke 9. The gospel of the kingdom. That is different. Now it didn't save and it didn't give them eternal security because of this gospel of the kingdom. It was the message. Gospel just means good news. So what is gospel? It's good news. So they went out and they preached the good news of what? The kingdom. What do we preach? I don't preach the gospel of the kingdom. Now I'll talk about it. I'll say, hey, Jesus is coming back. But I'll talk about the rapture. Hey, seven years later he's coming back. That's when he starts his kingdom. After the seven year tribulation or Daniel's 70th week. Then he comes back, destroys all his enemies, starts his kingdom, rules his king on earth for a thousand years. That's the kingdom. And that's what Israel was looking for. Will you establish your kingdom now? So you have to understand some of this stuff and the best way to do it is to find out what did Paul say and how does Paul guide the church? So when you look at Romans chapter 11, we'll just go through as many as we can tonight. Romans chapter 11, look at verse 13. He says, For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. What was Peter? He was an apostle to the circumcision. What was Paul? An apostle to the uncircumcision. Does that mean Peter never talked to a Gentile? Acts 10, he was the first one. He went to Cornelius, and Cornelius got saved, and his whole house got saved, and his workers probably got saved. Paul, did he only speak to Gentiles because he was an apostle to Gentiles? And he didn't speak to any Jews? Very clearly, every place he went, he went in the synagogue first. And he preached to those Jews. Then he said, you've decided you're unworthy of eternal life. Lo, I turn to the Gentiles. Acts 13, 18, and 28. Very specific places and demarcations there. And so he said that. But I want you to understand, he's the apostle of the Gentiles. So what do you? Before you get saved, most likely everyone in here is a Gentile. I don't know that we have any converted Jews in here. I mean, in reality, not in habit. That was a very, what do you call that? Politically incorrect. And if anybody says, well, you heard what he said? What did I say? Quote me on it and see if you can figure it out. Chapter 15, look at verse 16. He says, "...that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." What did he say? I should be the minister. What's he ministering? He's the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. And again, Peter went to the Gentiles. John went to the Gentiles. They all went to the Gentiles. But when you look at that one specific person, like if Eddie Mills, he was called to China. I wasn't. So he was the minister of Jesus Christ to the Chinese or to China. China. I think of that China virus. Look at chapter 16, verse 25. Now this one is, again, he's preaching Jesus Christ. Verse 25, Now to him that is of power to establish you. Now what's that word? Establish, build up. You according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets. What's that? That's the Old Testament. He said, by that Old Testament, according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known unto all nations by the obedience of faith. So listen, you can't just take Paul and disregard everything else because he says, listen, I'm preaching Jesus Christ. So when somebody gets up and says, Paul, Paul, Paul, is he preaching Jesus Christ? Probably not. And I get it. I'm preaching about Paul tonight to show you some things. But each one of the ones, that's just Romans. What does Paul do? He emphasizes Jesus Christ. He preaches Jesus Christ. If we get up here and we preach Paul, then we become hyper-dispensational. You usually become less expansive in your understanding Man, I'll tell you what, if you don't study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you don't study Hebrews, Revelation, the whole Testament. If you don't study all of that, then you are going to have a limited view of what you need to know. So that's a couple in Romans. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And this is what messes people up, because what I'm giving you is an emphasis on what Paul said about being a follower of Him. You follow Him as He followed Christ, and in essence, you're following Christ. 1 Corinthians 3.10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereupon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. So what did Paul say? I've laid the foundation. You want to understand salvation by grace, you really got to look to Paul. Because Paul's the one that's given the abundance of the revelations. But look at what he says. Verse 11, For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So again, Paul's preaching Christ. So what do we need to do? Preach Paul? I have changed my vocabulary. The Apostle Paul said. The Apostle Paul wrote. The Apostle Paul... No, I don't need to... Look at the book of Romans. I'm not saying go there. I'm saying I don't say it that way anymore. Because I don't want to emphasize Paul because Paul would go, please don't do that. emphasize Jesus. So if you've noticed, I mean, if you go back and you think the last five and a half years, I haven't been up here going, Paul, Paul, Paul, but I know many people that do and they get into a rut. I mean, here's what goes on. There are people that are called Mid Acts and they're called Acts 28 people. So what they do is they say the church started midway through Acts with the Apostle Paul getting saved. It's what I was taught. He got saved in Acts chapter 9, Acts 13. He goes in, he's preaching the gospel. Problem with that, he said, I persecuted the church. They were in Christ before me. So they're in the body before Paul gets saved, and Paul persecuted the very faith that he preached and it dispels it all, fixes it all. And then that's mid-Acts. Then there's at the end of Acts 28, and they say, well, the most important epistles in your Bible are Paul's prison epistles. He goes into prison in Acts 28, and nowhere in the books that he wrote from Ephesians on do you really read about baptism. or the Lord's Supper. So there's no ordinances. And they hyper-divide the Bible by following Paul and then following him even stricter by saying they don't follow Paul in Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians or Galatians. And they go, he didn't have the full revelation of the mystery yet. And that is exactly what they say. And listen, it's very appealing when you're trying to work out some things until you go to the Bible and you go, Lord, I don't care what I've been taught. I don't care what I have taught. If I was wrong, show me the truth. And you humble yourself and you say, Lord, if I have to eat crow, I'll eat crow. And God says, here's the bird flapping now. And you just gotta look at it and go, wow, Lord, now it all works. Now it all fits together. And all that stuff about Paul, Paul, Paul, you can't do that. It's gotta be Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. How many times have I told you anything that takes your focus off of Jesus is wrong? You say, well, I pray to Mary. Take your focus off of Jesus? Yeah. I pray to Saint Christopher. Saint somebody. Does it take your focus off of Jesus? Yes. Then it muddies your waters. I preach about Paul, Paul, Paul. Same thing. Same thing. Look at another one over in 1 Corinthians 4. Now, you have to understand, Paul is writing this by inspiration. Don't get me wrong. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be followers of me. For this cause have I sent you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church." He says it again and again and again. He says where we were in 1 Corinthians 11, be followers of me, keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. So the whole point is, look, if you want to know what ordinances there are, you don't look at the book of Acts where Paul shaved his head, made a vow, and then he circumcised one of the brethren so he could reach the Jew. That would be confusing. Circumcision means nothing. Paul tells us circumcision is nothing. So you do have to understand what Paul wrote because Paul was the one chosen by God to be the one that goes to the Gentiles. But just don't get hyper-dividing the Bible. It is a very dangerous thing and it leads to Puffing yourself up. You got all this knowledge. You think, man, I got it all nailed down, but you don't want to come to me and talk to me like that. You don't want to go, well, you know Paul, and I'll go, well, let me show you that Peter preached to the same group. Let me show you what Peter said to that group. Let me show you how Peter understood the gospel. And they'll go, well, you divide Hebrews through Revelation and that's future tribulation. Oh, really? Do you believe they have eternal security in the tribulation? Oh, no, I don't believe that, they'll say. Well, if Hebrews through Revelation is future and there's no eternal security, why does 1 John 5 talk about eternal life? It's one of the greatest, 1 John is the greatest book on eternal security. And supposedly, it's tribulation. You know, and again, it just seems so, you know, Hebrews is written to who? The Hebrews. Who are the Hebrews? Well, they're the Jews. But it's written to Hebrew Christians. And they say, well, you can lose your salvation Hebrews. No, you can't. No, you can't. So, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. We looked at chapter 11. Look at chapter 14, verse 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. He says, if you want to be spiritual, acknowledge that the things that are written are the commandments of the Lord. Why? There are probably people questioning Paul's authority. He said, I'm an apostle. And they probably didn't believe that he was an apostle. You look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. I declare unto you the gospel. What is it? Look at verse 3. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Paul said, I declare unto you the gospel. What is it? How Christ died, that He was buried, that He rose again. So if you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they're out preaching the Gospel, but they don't understand that Jesus was going to the cross. What did Peter do? He rebuked Him. What happened whenever the women came back and said, we've seen the risen Lord, they ran to the sepulcher, and they stooped in wondering to themselves, that which has come to pass, they weren't looking for the cross. So if you want to know where to find out about the gospel, you really go to Paul's epistles after the cross. And that'll give you the greatest, clearest understanding. But then let me ask you this. Can you go to Isaiah 53 and understand the application there of Jesus Christ? Sure you can. But how do you understand that application, Isaiah 53? You gotta know the story. Do you think anybody that doesn't know about Jesus can look at Isaiah 53 and know that it's talking about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ? No, they don't know. That's how come you've got this to point you back there. You can go to the book of Psalms and you can see Jesus. You can go to Genesis and it says, His heel will bruise the serpent's head. That's Jesus. How do you know? Well, you don't know when Moses is writing Genesis. He doesn't go, well, that's Jesus Christ. Moses doesn't know. The Jews didn't know. In fact, Isaiah 61, they were looking for a conquering Messiah that would suffer and then conquer. In Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. But He wasn't going to conquer until later. They should have been looking for a suffering Messiah that was going to go to the cross and die for their sins. And yet, they were instrumental in putting Him on the cross. What if the Jews wouldn't have betrayed Him? He still would have gone to the cross. The Romans would have taken him. I mean, you say, what if, what if, but I'm just telling you that God's plan would be worked out and they were going to reject him because he said in the Old Testament, prophetically, they will reject you. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul has, no doubt about it, a peculiar place in history because God chose him to do certain things that are very important. Look at verse 1. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 1, Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Who's going to present the believers to Christ? Apostle Paul. Not everybody is going to be equal in heaven. The Apostle Paul had the abundance of the revelations. He's going to have a position where he presents the church to Jesus Christ as a chaste virgin. So you just have to accept those things. Look at chapter 12. If you want to understand what Paul went through and whether you would want to go through it, 2 Corinthians 12, look at verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure, you can imagine writing 14 epistles, he could be exalted above measure. through the abundance of the revelations that were given to him. The abundance of the revelations. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. You know what happens? The devil will get after the person that gets the abundance of the revelation Paul did. And he gets after him and he has this thorn in the flesh And he says, verse 8, for this thing I have sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He, that is God, said unto me, Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, Paul concludes, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities and persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. I mean, do you see that? I mean, here's a guy giving all these revelations and God says, because that abundance of the revelation, I've got to protect you from yourself. I've got to protect you from, you know, from Satan letting you get lifted up with pride. I've got to give you something, a thorn in the flesh. And Paul says, man, I prayed three times for that thing to depart. And then God let me know that, look, I am better off weak so that he could make me strong. If I didn't have this thorn in the flesh, man, I would just, I could just do so much more. I could, you know, and I don't know what it was. I just know that it buffeted him. And then when he realized it was from God and he realized it was best for him, he said, man, I accept your will, God. Could you do that? But again, who are we talking about? We're talking about the one that says, be followers of me. So how do you know what books Paul wrote specifically to the church? Not including Hebrews that I believe he wrote to the Hebrews. How do you know that? If you look at Romans 1-1, the first word in there is Paul. 1 Corinthians 1-1, the first word is Paul. All 13 epistles like that from Romans through Philemon before Hebrews, the first word in every one of those books is Paul in order to put it into a group. And if you understand that grouping, you can understand your Bible better. Look at Galatians chapter 1. You say, well, where did Paul get all of this? Obviously, the other apostles were saved before the Apostle Paul. He says in verse 11, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, taught Paul. Yeah. He didn't go to Peter and go, hey Peter, tell me about what I need to preach. God says, nope, I'm saving you on the road to Damascus and I'm not going to be able to use Peter to do this. Peter was hot-headed. Peter had lost his credibility. I go fishing. You know, Peter wasn't the one that he was going to choose. So who did he choose? He chose a persecutor of the church. And so when that persecutor of the church now turns around and starts coming and preaching the truth, it is going to be a glorious testimony to the grace and the goodness and the power of God. And it was, and it is. And that's why God chose Paul, whose name was Saul, until after he got saved. Look at Galatians 2. Galatians 2.7. So he goes to Peter and the others in Jerusalem and in verse 7, I'll just skip down there. But contrary wise, when they, that is the other apostles, the apostles saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the Jews, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. You see that? I mean, he said, look, I didn't learn it from Peter. I didn't learn it from the other apostles. I got it directly by revelation from God. Jesus Christ met him on the road to Damascus. It even says he went three and a half years into Asia. Probably that's where he taught him everything. Imagine. Imagine that. Yeah, let's look at a little bit more. Look at Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3.1 For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words. whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." So Paul said he got it by revelation. He didn't get it by teaching from somebody else. He got it directly by revelation from God. I was taught the Bible. I got a lot by Revelation too. And most of what I read when I was studying prophecy, I read it specifically because I disagreed with it to find out how it could challenge me and where their arguments were. Why did they say that? Why did they believe that? And what did I need to fix and tweak and understand better? That's how I got most of my understanding. My understanding, the basics came in Bible college. Right after graduating Bible college, I learned some of the greatest things I ever learned. Then I wrote a book. Then I learned a whole lot more after the book because there's a lot of things I need to know. But let me give you this one. So look at verse 6. It's now revealed, verse 5, that here's what's revealed, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. You know what he says? We're fellow heirs and in the same body as the Jews. So there isn't a Jewish body and then a Gentile body. There's one body. Who's in there first? We're fellow heirs and we are grafted among them. They're already in the body. So in the book of Acts, chapter one, chapter two, there's a lot of people get confused, really confused on this. The day of Pentecost and all that. The Jews are in the body of Christ And then Cornelius, Acts 10, he gets in the body of Christ. We're fellow heirs. They are already in the body, we come in the body later on. I'm gonna give you one more. We'll look at a whole lot more on this Sunday night. Remember, Sunday morning is question and answer, so we won't be doing this. But look at Ephesians 3. Look at verse 10. He says, "...to the intent now, under the principalities and powers and heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." Let me back up to verse 9. "...and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now..." Now, today. under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." You know what we do? We reveal God. We reveal the blessings of God. That's what the church is all about. The church is like, you know, we get to show the world the principalities, the powers, the angels, the spirits, the goodness of God. The church gets to do that. What an amazing thing to know that we are part of that plan of God to be able to do that. Now, I'm going to go ahead and write down that I stopped in Ephesians 3.10. There's a whole lot more and we'll do my I just don't want to forget. We'll do a lot more on Sunday night. So let's all stand together. Let's pray. Lord, we do ask that you guide, lead and direct in all things. Thank you for making a book that, Lord, it is inexhaustible. You will never learn it all. None of us will ever learn it or master it. Help us to always want to grow more and more in Jesus' name. With your head bowed and eyes closed, just ask God to show you the truth. Ask Him to reveal to you what He wants you to see, because that's what's important.