I'm sorry, but I get so excited when you guys, when there's beautiful worship, I wanna say some stuff and then I forget to release the kids. But I will say this. I'm getting to know people in the body in a deeper way. And I gotta tell you up front, I am so blessed. So blessed to be your interim pastor. Thank you for the privilege. Thank you for trusting me. Jesus, thank you for trusting me with your body. Because the heart of a true shepherd, and God's teaching me this constantly, is to love God and to love his people so much that you wanna feed them the right stuff so that they can grow in their walk with Jesus Christ. That is my heart until the Lord takes my breath away. My heart is, whether it's here at Bark River or online or wherever, is to teach God's people His words so they can walk in a way that pleases the Savior, the Father, and the Spirit. I know that I'm different. I'm probably different than what you're used to. and I'm learning to adjust with my messages. And it's been good. It's been good. I hate critique. I absolutely hate critique. I hate, but I know critique is necessary. And I'll just say this. A number of you have come, not a number, but a few have come to me and said to me, Pastor, would you do this? Would you do this? I wanna be able to understand your message. And I know I'm different, and I bring it heavy with a hose, right? And I'm learning to adjust here. And so I thank you for that. But I will tell you what I tell my wife when she comes to me and say, honey, I have a suggestion. I say, Lisa, I love you. Thank you for your suggestions. I'll take it under consideration in my final decision. But I do thank you, because I want you to be able to understand these messages. I mean, I can spit out all this theology, and I can spit out all this stuff, but if you don't understand it, and you can't walk away with, what am I gonna do with this, then I have not done what I need to do. So, thank you for your suggestions. I'm doing the best I can. Be patient with me, be gracious with me, because God's not finished with me yet. But I wanna talk about this morning. Again, I walked away last week, and by the way, just so you know this, the most critical person when it comes to the message that's preached and proclaimed on Sunday morning is not anybody sitting out there, it's me. I've walked away and said, oh, Lord. But as long as I'm a vessel and as long as I've said it in a way that's semi-understandable, then then I can bring honor and glory to the name of God and you can learn from it. But I walked away last week and go, Lord, did I do okay? It was so theological, there wasn't a whole lot of practical, applicational, I tried to bring some. Well, another one of these messages today, but I'll just say this up front. If you look at the title, The Mystery of Christ, I'll give you the summary up front in case you don't get anything else to walk away with today. Paul is going to describe in these 13 verses really the mystery of Christ that was hidden in the Old Testament about the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we as Gentiles get brought in even from the beginning. So if you walk away with nothing else, you can celebrate the fact that today if you are a Gentile and you are saved, you can thank God for the mystery of Christ in the Old Testament that Paul was able to reveal as he preached the gospel to the Gentiles. If I can walk away with nothing else, here's what I know as a Gentile. I grew up pagan, not pagan pagan, I didn't worship pagan things, but I lived a pagan lifestyle. I knew who God was and I rejected him and it's only by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ that I stand before you today saved and stand before you with any ability to bring you the word that you need to hear today. I am humbled and I am grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ. So I wanna talk about the word mystery as we begin this morning in chapter three of Ephesians. And I want you to think about what comes to mind when you think of the word mystery, mysterion, I believe it is in Greek. Mystery is just that. It's something that is, hidden that hasn't been yet revealed. It's concealed, and I wanna say this before I forget to say it. Dave and I were talking about this this morning, and I've always never been able to say it just quite right, but I'll say this, because you'll see it in the message today. The Old Testament, or the New Testament is the Old Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. And so to put the two together is absolutely essential. And you've probably heard me say this, and just so you know, I'm not afraid to call people out from the pulpit who I do not believe are teaching the word of God. Are you okay with that? I think it's important that the body of Christ know that there's teachers out there that are not solid. You all know Andy Stanley, right? The son of Charles Stanley. Charles was a great man of God, great teacher. Andy Stanley made a comment a few years ago that we as New Testament believers need to unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament because it's not relevant to New Testament Christianity. I'm here to rebuke and rebunk that right now. You're gonna see in this morning's message that we don't understand the New Testament unless we have a certain grasp of the Old Testament. It's one book with one theme that all fits together, and that's what Paul's gonna reveal today when he talks about the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ that Paul uses in verses three and four. And what I'm gonna attempt to do today by the power of the Holy Spirit alone, is I wanna show you three things, three points from the text this morning that will help us to understand that mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament that now has been revealed in Jesus Christ through the gospel and by the revelation of the preaching of the gospel by Paul to the Gentiles. First of all, in verses one through five, I want us to see that this, what do we see about the mystery of Christ? That it was revealed to Paul. So if you look at your, if you're taking notes, there's a blank that Brittany left. Thank you, Britt, wherever you are. I don't know if she's, she in here? She with the kids? Thanks, Britt, I appreciate that. So if you're taking notes and you wanna fill in that blank, it's a mystery that's revealed to Paul, given to Paul, okay? And so he says this. Paul says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for the sake of you Gentiles. Paul reveals up front that he knows that he is a prisoner for Jesus Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. He says, indeed, you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you. I want you to just think about an application even right here. A stewardship is an entrustment. It's something that is stewarded to you that's not yours, but it's meant to be handled carefully for the behalf of somebody else. And so what Paul's saying here, listen, guys, you Gentiles, I'm a Jew, you're Gentiles. I was given this entrustment, this stewardship of what? God's grace. It doesn't belong to Paul. It's God's grace which has been entrusted to Paul to be given for the Gentiles. Don't you think it's awfully strange that a Jew would be picked to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles? It's always kind of baffled me why Paul wouldn't pick a Gentile. But Paul, or God would pick, sorry, God would pick Paul, a Jew, to go to the Gentiles. He said, I wanted you to know that, that this is for you. And what we see in Acts 9.15, is Paul is arrested by the Spirit of God, by Jesus himself, on the road to Damascus, and he's going to kill Christians. He's going to get letters. Paul was a Pharisee. Paul was going to get letters to be able to justify the killing of the people of the way, the followers of Jesus Christ. He was on his way, on his way. God said, uh-uh, no more. Paul stopped him, and this is when he's Ananias, the Spirit of God comes, the Lord speaks to Ananias. And he says, I'm gonna send this guy to you, who I have saved, and look at what he says, he says, but the Lord said to him, that's Ananias, go, don't be afraid, Ananias, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the sons of Israel. Paul was going to be God's number one representative. Once we get past chapter 13, he'd been using Peter to preach the gospel to the Jews, and now he's gonna pick this Jewish man, and he's gonna use him to preach the gospel to the rest of the world, and we see that in the book of Acts. And later on, he's giving his testimony. I believe it's before King Agrippa. He says, but get up and stand up on your feet for the purpose I have appeared to, to appoint you as a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things which will appear to you. This is Jesus speaking to him, and he's giving his testimony to King Agrippa, rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. God picked him, he hand-picked the greatest persecutor of the church to be the one who would go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Wow! Church, that's exciting! Right? Now think about this. He's chosen us in salvation, maybe not to go and do a big task like this, but what has God picked you and I for as His chosen instrument that He wants to use nobody else for? You know, I hear Christians all the time through the years say, well, I'm not, I really don't feel that important, I really don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. I said, listen, first of all, you were chosen by God and you were saved by Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, that makes you special. And the enemy wants to get you and convince you that you're no good. And that's not true, because you're beloved in the Father, according to Scripture. What is it that God has chosen you and you alone for, that nobody else can do, that He's appointed you to do? Pray about that, church, and think individually. What has God chosen you for? Wow, what a thought, right? And then Paul continues on. Oh, no, here, yeah, in Acts, he talks about that God had chosen him to open the eyes so that the Gentiles would turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they would receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. So this is pretty special. And then we get back to Ephesians 3. And he says this. that by the revelation, so he's talked about the grace given to him on behalf of the Gentiles, that by revelation, there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And I was looking, I was like, did Paul write a previous letter to them? Not that we're aware of, but if you look at it, what he had talked to him about before in Ephesians 1, And just previous to this about being made into one new man, that's gotta be the reference to the mystery that he had written to them briefly about before. He's reminding them of that mystery. As I wrote before in brief. And the mystery that he's talking about here, the word mystery can be used in multiple ways in scripture. Context is always determining what it means. And so what it appears to be that Paul is talking about in the mystery here, is he's talking about the fact that not only talking about the gospel, but specifically in Ephesians, he's talking about the gospel would include both the Jews and the Gentiles from the beginning of time. Because the Jews thought it was all about them. And what God is showing us in scripture, and I'll show you some cross-references in a minute, that it's always God's plan to save the Gentiles. It was not an afterthought, oh well the Jews rejected me so now as a kind of second class I'll go ahead and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. That was not God's plan church. It is always God's plan to pick Both Jews and Gentiles for salvation. And what's interesting in Romans 1, when he talks about, I am not ashamed of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God to salvation for anyone who believes. Both first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. So he went to the Jew first, but then he had always intended to go to the Gentiles and bring them salvation. Are you grateful for that? That we're not just like a second class citizen, like I said last week, it's not an after effect. Like, oh, I only got saved because they rejected. No, that was all part of God's plan. But we were always part, that's what he's trying to get them to understand here. He says, by referring to this, back to what he just said, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. He wants them to know. the mystery of Christ that they are part of. Isn't it interesting that we can understand something on a surface level, but God wants us to understand it in a deeper way? And the illustration I use is the cross of Christ, which we've sung about this morning. Many people over the years I've asked, you know, tell me about salvation. Well, Jesus died to save me when he died on the cross. That's great. But that's not all. It goes deeper. And the more you study scripture in depth, particularly in the Book of Romans, you understand that salvation is so much more than just Jesus died on the cross. What are the implications of the fact that Jesus died on the cross? My penalty's been removed. Now think about that one with me for a minute, church. I was talking to somebody this morning about the grace and mercy of God, and I realized that, you know what, church? There isn't a day that goes by that God doesn't remind me what I deserve is his wrath because of my ungodliness and because of the fact that I was a rebellious sinner. But by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, I've been saved from his wrath forever and ever and ever. Mystery, to go deeper. She said, I want you to understand the mystery of this insight. that I'm talking to you about. And again, for Ephesians 1, 9 through 10, he goes back and reminds them. Look at the word mystery. He made known to us the mystery of his will. And this whole mystery was the idea that everything was about the gospel. Everything was about Jesus Christ. And everything was about that scripture we read this morning. The prophets, when they were prophesying about this Messiah, they didn't know who he was. They longed to look into this Messiah. Angels longed to look into it, why? Because angels can't be saved. The best they can do is watch what God does to human beings when he saves them by his miraculous grace and mercy. Wow, we are on display for the angels, church. What kind of display are we giving to them in terms of our salvation, right? So, that's what he wants them to understand, right? And then he goes on to say, okay, this is 1 Corinthians 2. He talks about, you know, the rulers of this age. And he talks about God's wisdom being a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. All of this, by the way, right there at the end of that verse seven, it's all Old Testament. Can you and I go into the Old Testament and see the inklings of the mystery? Even though it's not fully revealed, can we see the inklings of the mystery that God had planned that He would bring about in the New Testament through the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Man, I love the Old Testament. You know what? I didn't used to preach the Old Testament. You know why? because I was afraid of it, and I did not want to misrepresent the word of God. I got involved in precept-inducted Bible studies down in Chattanooga, and I just was eating up the Old Testament, loving the Old Testament. Now I can preach the Old Testament. Now I can connect it because I understand it. But it's all about what God had predestined, what God had already set up beforehand, before all the ages, to our glory. It was all for us. that he did all this. And then he looks in verse 5, he says, So God took the mystery that was in the Old Testament and revealed it to his apostles and prophets. I love it. I love how God works. Genesis 12, 3, I love this. This is the promise to Abraham. He says, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse the one, and the one who curses you, I will curse. Man, I'm telling you what, I would not want to be cursing Israel and stand before God. Those are his chosen people. I don't know about you, I want to bless Israel. Not because I'm afraid I'm going to get in trouble, but I want to bless Israel because of God's chosen people, church. Are we praying for Israel? Are we standing up for Israel? There's so much hate for Israel these days. We need to stand up as this church and not be part of the problem in terms of anti-Semitism. We need to stand up and defend Israel because they're God's holy people. He says, I will bless those who bless, I will curse those, and in you, this is Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. He's talking about the Gentiles here. Hosea. Right? Talking about the prophets and all that. He says, I will sow for her myself in the land, and I also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they will say you are my God. You know what he's talking about here in context? He's talking about the Gentiles. This is Old Testament. This isn't even the New Testament. This is Old Testament. And it's so cool because Paul quotes it in the New Testament. He says, and he's talking about the Gentiles, and he says, and he also says in Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my people, and her who was not my beloved, beloved. There's the mystery, the inkling of it, that has been revealed through Paul in the book of Romans. And again, I'm not gonna go into this, because I've already quoted it, but you've got it in front of you, you've got the scripture that you can bring home, and I pray that you meditate on this stuff after the service. I pray you don't just leave this in the pew. I pray you take it home, you pray about it, and you say, well, what was pastor talking about? I wanna know more. And I would challenge you to maybe even use this as quiet time devotion, some of this stuff, just to look at God's amazing plan from the beginning of time. I love this, okay? And so when we get to the second point, verses six through 12, if before it was revealed to Paul, now it's being revealed by Paul. You get the difference, the to and the by? So he's telling him how God gave it to him, the mystery. Now he's gonna reveal to the Gentiles what God had told them. And he goes on to say, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus and through the gospel. You guys, I tell you, you can't understand this, church, unless you understand the rift that was between Jews and Gentiles in the Old Testament. They hated each other. The Jews called Gentiles dogs. And not in a nice way. They hated one another. That's why when Peter gets the revelation on the roof of the sheet with the four corners and saying, it's okay to eat. Can you imagine how confused Peter must have been? Yeah, but your law says in Leviticus we're only supposed to eat clean food. And all of a sudden you're like, it appears like you're changing tactics on us. No, it was just God's further revelation. that it was going to be okay, that nothing would be unclean, and it would allow the Gentiles to come in. This is just too cool, that their fellow heirs and fellow members, no longer enemies, but partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, only through the gospel, which Joseph mentioned earlier today. It's only through the gospel that Jews and Gentiles get saved. And then in Romans 16, He says, not to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. See that word mystery? You think mystery shows up in scripture at all? The mystery which was been kept secret for long ages past, that's Old Testament, but now New Testament is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets According to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations leading to obedience of faith. By the way, here's just a freebie this morning. Whenever you see the word the nations or nations mentioned in scripture, Old and New Testament, it's never talking about Israel. It's always talking about the Gentiles. So here, he's making the mystery known to all the nations, which would lead to obedience of faith. That would include us, church, right? And then he goes on to say, in verse seven, of which I was made a minister. By the way, the word minister, people have called me a minister before, and I correct them. I'm not a minister. I'm not a minister. Well, isn't that what a pastor is? No. Minister means servant. And according to Ephesians 4, the real ministers in the body are not the pastors. We're the equipers. Everybody who's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a minister. You're a minister wherever you go. My job is to equip you guys to do your job as a pastor, right? But he said, I was made a minister in a sense according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power. So Paul didn't go looking to become a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles. God shows up and wrecks his life in a good way in Acts 9, and makes him a minister of gospel according to the power of the Holy Spirit. Listen guys, I didn't wake up one day saying, I would love to be a pastor. Are you kidding? I remember when I first got saved looking at a bunch of friends who were Christians, who had been Christians a lot longer than me, and I said, wouldn't it be funny if God called me to be a pastor one day? Ha ha, like that's never gonna happen. And then one day as I was preparing a sermon for seminary, God said, you're mine, and I surrendered. It's like Paul, right? We don't do any of this on our own power. Right? And then Paul says, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. Paul was being questioned in terms of his apostleship in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And he says, look, I didn't go doing this. God made me a steward of his mysteries. Galatians 1, by the way if you want to get Paul's testimony and how he came to receive the gospel go to the book of Galatians because it talks about it. He says, for I would have have you know brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man for I neither received it from man Nor was I taught it, but received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." He had received the gospel directly from Jesus Christ, and they believe, if you look at more in Galatians, that he was on the backside of the desert in Arabia for roughly three years, being taught, instructed by Jesus Christ himself as the post-resurrected Messiah. How cool is that, church? How would you have liked to have been bald, right? And then I love this one. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me accordingly and considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. That was him as an unbeliever. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. I love this. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. I believe this is Paul's reasoning for why God chose him. If you can take the chief of sinners and transform and change them, you can change anybody. You can reach anybody. And you know what? I would argue with Paul that he was the chief of sinners. I think I was. If you can save Paul and you can save me, you can save anybody, Lord, and you can use them for your glory. And that's what he's talking about. Right? And then I love this, Colossians, this is so cool. He says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what's lacking in Christ's afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister, according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God. That is the what? Say it, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his saints. to whom God will to make known, which is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, in the Gentile, the hope of glory. We proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we might present every man complete in Christ. That is my, those last two verses are my pastoral verses. My job is to admonish and teach every man, woman, and child with all of God's wisdom so that you might be presented complete in Christ. That's my motivation for being a pastor and a Bible teacher. Wow, and he does it according to the word of God, according to his power. He goes on in verse eight in Ephesians to say, to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. Let me ask you this real quickly. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is full of unfathomable riches in salvation? Wow, have you experienced them? Are you still experiencing them? Every single day. I'm not going to go, for the sake of time, I'm not going to go into all these verses, but you can see them. It says, I, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. And then he goes on to talk about which was promised beforehand, and he talks about his descendancy from David as man, as a human, and according to the flesh, and then raised by the Spirit to prove that he was truly the Son of God. Do you know what the resurrection's about? It's deeper than just Jesus rose from the dead. It's verses like this, Jesus rose from the dead, to prove that he really was. It was his claim to be the son of God, but this validated the claim that he truly was God. And then in Romans 4.25, he was handed over for our transgressions. That's the cross, that's taking care of our sins, but he was raised for our justification. So the resurrection is just more than he rose from the dead. The depth of the resurrection in my life, in your life, is absolutely incredible. and then goes back to Ephesians 3, and to bring to you, to bring to light, this is his job, to bring light, what is the administration of the mystery, there's that word again, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things. So this mystery, God wasn't ready to reveal the mystery until the New Testament. He gave inklings of it in the Old Testament, but if you really wanna discover what it is in the New Testament, look at verses like this. Right? So that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Isn't this interesting? So the fact that the gospel is found in Jesus Christ, the fact that the Jews and the Gentiles are brought into one body, one of the purposes is to show the heavenly beings God's wisdom. And you know who that would include? Satan himself. Good angels and the fallen angels. God put this on display for the angels, which is why when you go back to Peter, angels long to look into it. They go, what's this thing about Dave Wall getting saved? Becoming a child of God. He was a wretched sinner, man. You know, and he got brought in with the Jews. Not to pick on Dave because I could say that about Jim, I could say that about every one of us in here who is saved. You get why I'm excited about this stuff? Hopefully you're just as excited about it. If you're a Gentile, man, this is cool stuff. And by the way, let me just stop real quickly and say this, that if God is in charge of salvation from the beginning to end, he is in charge of your life right now no matter what you're going through. Do you believe that? If God can handle all this stuff, God's got your life exactly where He wants it to be. And to go back to what Dave's saying, we said this last night. I looked at him and I said, those are great words, bro. But sometimes they're hard to say. Bring the rain for your glory. Do you know what that means when we say bring the rain? That means pain in my life. I don't like pain. I'm a wimp. But if it means, Lord, that I have to go through pain for your glory, we're gonna do it. And church, this is a personal note. You know some of the things I went through, and it stung both Lisa and I, but you know what? To him be the glory, because guess what? Through it all, I get to be your interim pastor. Praise God for his glory and our good. And for you, church, who've been through some difficult times. To God be the glory. God allowed the rain to fall, but you know what? You know what happens when the rain falls? The blessings come according to scripture and things begin to grow. I'm seeing things happening here that are just knocking my head out of the water. I'm watching God work in this body. And he's gonna grow this body. He's already growing this body. And good things are coming for the glory of God. And how many of us, and I told Brother Greg this this morning, when we watch Satan get in here and start fighting, how many of us are willing to put on the spiritual boxing gloves and say, not today, Satan? Not at Bark River Bible Church. We're gonna fight for what is worth it. And Paul does that, right? I'm sorry, I got a little off, but this is just incredible. Colossians 2.15, it says, this is talking about what Jesus did. He says, when He, Jesus, had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. And it doesn't go on to say what says in 16, you can read it for yourself, where He nailed everything to the cross. The enmity, he nailed it to the cross once and for all. His enmity against us and the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles, he nailed it to the cross. Tetelestai, you know that word, it is finished? It means it's done. It's all over. So if you're living in the past, stop living in the past, church. It's nailed to the cross. You can move forward. I don't sit here and people talk about their past and, oh, this and that. I don't talk about my past in terms of the hurt and the pain and all that. I've gone past that, church. I'm living in victory. I'm living in Jesus. And that's what we should all be doing, right? Because all of that's been taken care of. through the cross. In 11 and 12, he says, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose, eternal purpose, which he carried out in Christ Jesus. What you've got there is God's eternal plan. Even before he laid the foundations of the earth, God had an eternal purpose for all of this, which in Christ is just actually physically being played out. This was God's plan all along, church. and it doesn't get played out until Jesus comes. But it was always God's plan, right? For those who are builders in here, I guarantee you don't go build a house without some plans, right? You got your plans laid before you, right? And you follow your plans. You don't build it on the spot. You know, hey Dave, let's go build a house. Like, how does this work? I think we might need some nails. What kind of nails? I don't know, I can't build, right? So I need somebody like Dave. God is eternal and He already had a plan which was going to get played out in the person of Jesus Christ. By the way, have you heard me say this? Jesus Christ is not His first and last name. Right? I don't think we get this. It's really Christ, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, who is Yeshua, or Jesus, in the flesh. So it really should read, the Christ who is called Yeshua, or Messiah, or God saves. It was all about carrying it out in Jesus, in whom, like this, in whom, going back to the Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 1, there you go, chosen before the foundation of the world. Hebrews 4.16, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. We can go confidently, not on our own, we go confidently through the Lord Jesus Christ when we go to him for prayer, right? And we were talking about this in Sunday school. I don't have to go to a building to pray to God. I can pray in my kitchen. I can pray in my office. I can pray as I'm walking, as I'm working. I can pray, and I can approach the throne of grace just like we all can, right? With confidence, let's draw near to Him. Hebrews 10, I love this. Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which was inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, that was on the cross, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, I love this, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. We can go to God with confidence, and He wants us to come. Are you staying away? Are you going boldly through the blood of Jesus? By faith, confidently, we're told to approach God like Paul does. We can go, we have that access, and then finally, the last verse, I made it. I made it, I made it, I made it. Was I too fast? Kind of a little? Okay, I'm sorry. I am who I am. You can turn the hose down a little bit, but you're not gonna shut it off completely. That's just who I am. And by the way, good thing we recorded, guys. So if you didn't get it all, go back and watch it. Go back and watch it. By the way, I'm on fire this morning. The Holy Spirit is just like, whoa, all over me. I love it. All for his kids. Guys, what I'm doing this morning is for you guys, is for His kids. Because I want you to know Him in a deeper way, I want you to walk with Him in a deeper way. And so God has gifted me to be able to unpack the scripture so that you can walk with Him in a deeper way this week. Not just you, me as well. But look at what He says, and this goes back to Dave's song this morning. The request, requested from Paul. So he's requesting something of them. He says, therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations. Because you know, he's already said he's a minister for their sake. He says, I don't want you guys to lose heart because of what's happening to me on your behalf, for they are your glory. Paul had right perspective. He knew that he was suffering for the Gentiles' sake, but he had right perspective. It was okay. He didn't want them to panic or lose heart that, oh no. Because what happens when we see brothers and sisters go through suffering on our behalf? Oh, we don't want you to go through that. Paul says, no, do it. It's okay, I'm okay with going through this because I know it's for your glory. It's gonna turn out for your good. And Philippians 1, he says, Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. So my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else. This is him when he's in the jail in Philippi. and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have become far more encouraged to speak the word of God without fear. Listen, if I have to go through something that's gonna cause you to get bolder for the gospel, bring on the rain. Bring on the rain. If I have to go through difficult times for the sake of the gospel so that you can be bolder for the gospel, bring it on, Lord, because your Holy Spirit will see me through it. Can we say that for other brothers and sisters that we know? Bring it on if it means they're gonna have more boldness to speak Jesus. And then he says this later in Philippians one, for to you has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him but also suffer for his sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me. This is all for his glory. And by the way, Paul knew this up front because Ananias was told this in verse 16 of chapter nine of Acts. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Paul wasn't surprised by his suffering. He knew it was for the glory of the gospel. And the boys, the apostles who came out after being flogged in the book of Acts said this. They said we consider it, we count ourselves worthy to suffer for His namesake. Do we consider it worthy to suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ? Wow. And so here in wrap up, what was communicated to Paul? the mystery of the church, Jew and Gentile together, which was once hidden, but now has been revealed in the New Testament. How is it communicated? By God to Paul and the prophets, and they gave the gospel to men to display the gospel to angelic beings. What things has the Lord revealed to us in our study of scripture? What things have we revealed to others as it's been revealed to us? See, God still wants to use us as his chosen instruments. Maybe not quite like Paul, but God is not done with you, brothers and sisters, until you breathe your final breath. What is it that God has chosen you specifically to do that he's picked nobody else for? It may be reaching that neighbor, that family member. What's he chosen you and I for? Wow, praise God for his word. I pray that I've done a good job, presenting the truth to you this morning. We are going to, we're going to get ready to invite the newest members to come forward. Before we do that, I've been, Jenny grabbed me. She ran all the way down. She goes, I don't like to grab the pastor right before the service, but would you please let people know that the potluck is for everybody? She said there was some confusion. The potluck is for everybody. If you didn't bring food, You don't have to worry about it, stay anyway because God has provided enough. Please stay for the fellowship, please stay, please welcome the new members in and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pray for the food right now and then we're gonna invite the new members who've been welcomed to the church to come forward and we're gonna invite you before we go down to the potluck to greet them and welcome them officially as members of Bark River Bible Church. Father, we thank you so much for who you are. We thank you for the things you're teaching us in your word, taking us deeper as Gentiles and understanding the mystery of Christ that we are part of the hope of glory in us. Father, we thank you for this church. I thank you for the new people that are being welcomed in this morning as official members. I thank you for for everyone here, even people who aren't members, Lord. We just thank you for what you're doing in this body. Father God, we thank you for the baptism that's coming in a couple of hours, Lord, as we welcome three sisters by baptism into, symbolically, who are already saved into the kingdom of God. So Father, we pray for the food, we thank you for your provisions, and we look forward to the fellowship that we get to have with each other as your family, all to your glory and for our good, in Jesus' name, amen.