Episode Transcript
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Kelly Kinder (00:02):
Would you open
your Bible?
This morning, we're going tocontinue on in our study of
Ephesians in a book that is just, or letter, that is just really
fabulous, and we're in a seriescalled In Christ, in Christ,
and all these speak of this, andwhat we really have and as
you're turning to Ephesians 1,or you can watch it appear on
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the screen is what is, I wouldsay, really profound theology.
It's theology in the clouds, ifyou will, and it's being
brought down to our place byPaul here, and what it does?
It gives us a perspective,really, of the.
It's almost like a cosmic viewof God's purpose and plan for
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our lives past, present, futureand so this is wonderful stuff,
and the truths that you findhere, if you can grab a hold of
them, they will literallytransform how you walk out your
Christian life, and it reallythe sense of this.
I'm always living in defeat.
If you can grab hold of thesetruths, you can live above the
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defeat, and the enemy wants totake you down, as we've kind of
heard this morning, though, inour study this morning, I have
so much anticipation for whatGod wants to show us today, and
I hope you do too.
Before we get into our message,though I want to give you some
more of a I guess what you calla preview and a review, because
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we looked a little bit at itlast time.
But, going forward, we're kindof walking through this really
slowly and it's going to go oninto the next year and so I want
to kind of give you sort of abig picture view of the book
again.
So I'll give you just threewords here and you can write
these down and kind of rememberthem.
Give you just three words hereand you can write these down and
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to kind of remember them Sit,walk, stand, sit, walk, stand,
Sit is chapters one throughthree, walk is four and five and
chapter six is stand.
And so you know, I got thisfrom a book I read years ago on
the book of Ephesians, by ayoung Christian commentator or
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Christian watchman, and it'salways kind of stuck with me and
I just every time I read thisbook I think of that sit, walk,
stand.
It will help you.
So now we're just in chapterone and, as I say, we're going
slow.
We'll be looking at versesseven and eight today, if you
want to go there, and you mightthink, wow, just two verses,
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just two verses.
That's a lot less than wenormally do, but there's just so
much meat here and we want toget every bite of it and that's
why we're going through throughit slow.
This chapter one verse, versesthree through 14, is actually
one single long, complexsentence in the Greek and it's
almost like Paul is.
He's piling up phrase uponphrase.
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It's almost like he can't getthe words out fast enough on the
page to tell you about what Godhas done in Christ.
And what has God done in Christ?
Well, verse three tells us hehas blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in theheavenly places, and we're going
to find out more about that inchapter two.
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But so far what God and this iskind of looking back at a
little bit of review what Godhas done for us from eternity
past we talked about that.
He's chosen us and he's adoptedus.
Now, in 7 and 8, we move fromthe past to the present.
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Just two verses on this grandtheme of redemption.
Redemption In verse 7 and 8,let's just read it together.
It says in him we haveredemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of ourtrespasses according, we have
redemption through his blood,the forgiveness of our
trespasses according to theriches of his grace, which he
lavished upon us in all wisdomand insight.
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Let's pray, father.
We're so grateful for your wordand I just ask you, holy Spirit
, would you just open ourunderstanding to your word this
morning, lord, that we wouldgrasp and grab hold of
everything that we see that youwant us to understand, that we
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would walk the walk, Not justtalk the talk, lord, but walk
the walk that you called us to,and that you would make us more
today, like Jesus, and we askfor that in Jesus' name, amen.
So when you hear the wordredemption, what do you think of
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?
What comes to mind?
Think about that just a second.
What comes to mind when you hearthe word redemption?
Just a second.
What comes to mind when youhear the word redemption?
John Schwant, who was presidentof Redemption Seminary which is
kind of ironic, it's the samename of what we're talking about
here.
He observed the word redemptionstirs something in us, even in
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everyday life.
It's a term that pulls at theheart, used to describe
comebacks, homecomings andstories where things are finally
set right.
We cheer when our team redeemsa season.
It's even sweeter when weexperience it ourselves, when
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what was lost is recovered, whatwas broken is restored, and
when justice or vindication.
Isn't that true?
So, as Christians, we know, thegreatest story that we've ever
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heard is the story, the biblicalstory, of redemption, what
Christ has done for us.
Paul says it like this in 2Corinthians 8, 9.
He says, for you know the graceof our Lord, jesus Christ, that
though he was rich, yet foryour sake he became poor so that
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you, by his poverty, mightbecome rich.
How many of us would do that?
How many of us would becomepoor so that somebody else could
become rich?
I would venture to guess nobodywould raise their hand.
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Entered, I guess nobody wouldraise their hand.
The truth I want you to grabhold of this morning is that
God's extravagant gift ofredemption proves and reveals
what he thinks about you.
God's extravagant gift ofredemption proves and reveals
what he thinks of you.
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So, with that in mind, let'ssee what God has to say to us
this morning, to teach us, andwe're going to look at this in
two ways.
It's just two simple ideas,main ideas First, the blessing
of our redemption and thensecond by the way, I guess, more
of application the power of ourredemption.
First, let's look at theblessing of our redemption.
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He says here the first thing Iwant you to see is that
redemption is our pricelesspossession, and that's found in
verse seven.
He says there in him we haveredemption through his blood.
Redemption is our pricelesspossession and and you know, we
probably heard this termredemption tossed around a lot,
but maybe we've never reallystopped and said to ourselves
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what does that really mean?
What does that word redemptionmean?
So this is really important forus to know, because redemption
is the primary biblical themethat runs all the way through
the scriptures, from beginningto end.
For example, in Genesis we seeredemption occurs at time that
that very first sin in Genesis,when God tells the serpent I
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will put enmity between you andthe woman and between your seed
and her seed.
He shall bruise your head andyou shall bruise his heel,
genesis 3.15.
And that word there, the seed,is more than just general
mankind.
It's more than mankind ingeneral.
It speaks of a person who willcome and defeat our enemy, a
single person.
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It's in the singular.
Satan is going to be defeatedand God will restore all that
was lost through sin throughthis person.
And this is a remarkable versebecause it's even called the
proto-evangelium of the gospelthe first gospel, because it is
even called the proto-evangeliumof the gospel the first gospel
because it is the Bible's firstprediction of a savior.
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Even from the beginning, godwas thinking about you and me.
By the time we come to the restof the Bible, it's just kind of
as we go through it.
The Bible is really all aboutthis unfolding drama of
redemption.
Some people have called it thescarlet thread of redemption,
and the primary example thatmaybe sticks out from all of
these that you'll find is thisstory we call the Exodus, the
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Exodus story, where God's peoplewere redeemed or bought or
brought out of slavery fromEgypt from those who were over
them by the time we get to thebook of Revelation.
I'll just fast forward to theend.
For us, john, in the Revelation, this redemption theme, it
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culminates in a new song Worthyare you to take the scroll and
to open its seals, for you wereslain and by your blood you
ransomed people for God fromevery tribe and language and
people and nation, and you havemade them a kingdom and priests
to our God, and they shall reignon the earth.
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Revelation 5, 9 and 10.
Well, let me just kind of giveyou this is redemption.
Let me give you kind of thecore idea here, because
redemption is.
There's just so much in theBible.
We could talk about Grand theme, but let me just give you the
core ideas.
Simple definition, if you willRedemption is simply deliverance
by the payment of a price,deliverance by the payment of a
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price.
A lot of that comes out of theOld Testament and we could spend
a lot of time there.
But there's really two NewTestament words from the Greek
language that speak ofredemption.
The first of these is a word,agorazo, we find in the
scriptures.
You've heard somebody who isfearful of public places.
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That's called agoraphobia.
It has that word agora,marketplace.
It means marketplace.
So agorazo means to buy out ofthe marketplace.
Sometimes it's got a littleword in front of it, x, meaning
out of, so it's buying out of.
You go to the marketplace, youfind something you like, you
want to buy, you buy it, youbring it home and it's yours
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because you bought it.
That's agorazo.
There's another word, lutrao orapolotrosis, and that word for
redemption means to pay a priceto free someone from bondage.
To pay a price to free someonefrom bondage, and in that day it
was used for people who wereactually prisoners of war, and
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they would use that word tobasically pay someone to let
that person go, to release them,to free them.
It also was used in the termsof someone that were like 50
million slaves in the ancientworld and it was really rare to
have someone come and buy yourfreedom.
In fact, if they had the moneythey could buy their own freedom
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.
But this word here, lutrao, isa word that means not only to
free prisoners of war but freeslaves from their bondage, and
so we kind of get this idea inthe back of our mind that we're
going to talk about a little bittoday.
You know, a missionary in WestAfrica years ago was trying to
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really kind of explain to thepeople he was working with this
the meaning of the word redeem.
And so when he was talking tothe person that was in the
Bambara language and so he askedhis African assistant, he said
in his native tongue how do yousay you know redeem in your
language?
And the guy said well, we sayit kind of like this that God
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took our heads out.
God took our heads out.
He said I don't get it.
What are you talking about?
God took your heads out.
He said well, god took ourheads out.
He said I don't get it.
What are you talking about?
God took your heads out.
He said well, he told them manyyears ago and when the slave
traders had come to Africa, someof his ancestors, who had been
captured by slave traders, hadbasically been chained together
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and driven to the sea coast, allchained together.
And he said, as they weredriving through the villages,
sometimes a chief wouldrecognize a friend or a relative
and he would stop the truck andhe would say I'll pay you for
my relative.
They would pay them throughwith silver or gold or ivory or
brass and he will pull him offthe truck, unchain him and and
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pull his head out of the ironcollar and his relative or his
friend would become freed.
He said that's how we think ofit.
What an unusual and graphicillustration of the word redeem.
In him we have redemptionthrough his blood and this is
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the grace with which he hasgraced us.
He's highly favored us.
Paul is basically, he wants usto feel deeply the value and
importance God has placed onevery person.
Notice, redemption.
A few things here.
Redemption, first of all, is apresent possession or reality.
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We have it.
It says you have redemption.
Literally, it says we arehaving redemption, which means
we got it and we still have it,and it's being applied to us
even right now, while you'resitting in your seat.
If you're in Christ, you arehaving redemption.
Ever thought that?
What is it's?
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It's the ongoing rescue fromyour sin, and God is always at
work in you to bring you out, tobring you in, just like he did
the the people of Egypt.
He brought them out to bringthem into a new place, to a new
land, from sin, from self self,from Satan.
And God is out to rescue all ofus, some of us, it takes a
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little longer than others.
Right, redemption is a presentpossession.
You have it right now.
Right now.
Redemption, secondly, waspurchased at a tremendous cost,
tremendous cost.
The price paid is the blood ofChrist, the blood of Jesus.
He died on the cross for oursins and that is intended.
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The blood is intended as agraphic metaphor in some sense,
not a metaphor, but a picture ofhis violent death that he
experienced to pay for our sins,to sacrifice himself on our
behalf.
This was the means of ourredemption.
So I think the point there isjust don't take it lightly.
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He paid it all.
Let me add a verse from 1 Peterthat says for you know that it
was not with perishable thingssuch as silver or gold that you
were redeemed, from the emptyway of life handed down to you
from your ancestors, but withthe precious blood of Christ, a
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lamb without blemish or defect.
God took his own son and hegave him on our behalf.
Yeah, redemption is costly.
Third thing out of these versesthat redemption is only found in
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him.
That's our series title.
Redemption is only found in him.
He's the source, and sometimeswe look everywhere else but the
source to find our healing anddeliverance, and that sounds too
simple sometimes, doesn't itthat our deliverance from sin,
self and Satan is in a person.
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How sad, then, when we don'tbelieve.
We don't believe it and we tryto work out our own salvation
without Jesus.
So redemption is reallypractical.
Do you believe that he canredeem your marriage?
Do you believe he can redeemyour past?
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Do you believe he can redeemyour past?
Do you believe he can redeemyour reputation or your purity,
or your bad habits, or yourpassion for God?
He can.
Psalm 103, verse 4, says he isthe one who redeems your life
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from the pit Is your life, thepits.
This morning he can get you outof that pit.
Psalm 103, verse 4.
Romans 8.32 says since he didnot spare even his own son but
gave him up for us all, won't healso give us everything else?
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So a lot of us feel like thatwe lack something.
They're walking around thisearth like we don't have enough.
That's that old problem.
Derek talked about it last weekNot enoughism Do you suffer
from?
Not enoughism?
Do you suffer from notenough-ism?
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Cs Lewis said you can't go backand change the beginning, but
you can start where you are andchange the ending.
So this is our pricelesspossession, this of redemption.
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There's a second thing here.
I want you to see thatredemption is a measureless gift
.
That's what he's talking abouthere when he says the
forgiveness of our trespasses.
Trespass in the plural meansyou've stepped over the line
somehow of God's standard.
But here our focus is onforgiveness, isn't it?
Because that's what we all needForgiveness.
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The word Ephesus simply meansto release you from a penalty.
Colossians 1, 13 and 14 says hehas delivered us from the
domain of darkness andtransferred us to the kingdom of
his beloved Son, in whom wehave redemption, the forgiveness
of sins.
That means he took you fromwhere you were and he
transported you to a new place.
And the place he took you fromwas not a good place.
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It was a place of bondage anddarkness and powerlessness.
To a good place.
It was a place of bondage anddarkness and powerlessness.
To a new place in Christ, whereyou have power, you have
freedom, you have blessing, youhave everything you need for
life and godliness.
Charles Coulson, who wasassociate in the Nixon
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administration.
He eventually became aChristian.
He tells of watching AlbertSpeer, who was an associate in
the Nixon administration.
He eventually became aChristian.
He tells of watching AlbertSpeer who was being interviewed
one morning on Good MorningAmerica and Colson was watching
him.
And Speer was the Hitlerconfidant who was
technologically a genius and hekept the Nazi factories running
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all through World War II.
He was brilliant and so he waslistening to this interview on
Good Morning America, colsonWise.
He said he was the only one ofthe 24 criminals the war
criminals there at Nuremberg,the trials after World War II to
admit his guilt the only one,and he had served 20 years in
Spandau Prison.
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In the interview he referred toa passage in one of Speer's
earlier writings and he said toSpeer, albert Speer, he said you
have said the guilt can neverbe forgiven, or shouldn't be?
Do you still feel that way?
And Colson said he'll neverforget the look of pathos, of on
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his face, of Spears' face.
As he responded I served asentence of 20 years and I could
say I'm a free man.
My conscience has been clearedby serving the whole time as
punishment.
My conscience has been clearedby serving the whole time as
punishment but I can't get ridof it.
This new book, he says I waswriting, is part of my atoning,
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of sort of clearing myconscience, if you will.
And the interview kind ofpressed him here he said you
don't really think you'll beable to clear your conscience
totally.
And Spear shook his head and hesaid I don't think it will be
possible.
Colson says for 35 years Spearhad accepted complete
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responsibility for his crime.
His writings were filled withcontrition and warning to others
to avoid his moral sin.
He desperately sought expiation, all to no avail.
In Colson comments.
Here he says I wanted to writeSpear to tell him about Jesus
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and his death on the cross,about God's forgiveness, but
there wasn't time.
His death on the cross, aboutGod's forgiveness.
But there wasn't time.
The ABC interview was his lastpublic statement and he died
shortly after.
See, the tragedy for Spear isthat he never knew that there
was an answer to escape hisaccusing conscience.
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And today you may be a personhere who is accused by the enemy
.
Your conscience is alwaysbombarded by lies and
accusations and things thatyou're not enough and you did
this or you did that, or thissin was the last straw.
Those are lies.
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In Christ, the writer to theHebrews tells us that it is the
blood of Christ that will purifyour consciences from acts that
lead to death, so that we mayserve the living God.
See, if you're living under theaccusation and guilt and shame
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of the enemy, guess what?
He's successfully shut you down, and there are many in our
churches today that are shutdown and we won't do anything
because we feel so condemned.
We're not enough, not enough,something wrong with us,
something wrong with us.
Redemption tells us that's alie.
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It's a lie.
See.
The enemy loves to bring upyour past and my past and never
let it go.
See what you did this week.
God could never forgive that.
But God is different.
We serve a magnificent andmerciful God.
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Listen to what Scripture says,and I'm just going to read some
of these and let them sink intoyou and me.
Psalm 103, 12 says as far asthe east is from the west, so
far does he remove ourtransgressions from us.
You know how far the east isfrom the west.
That's infinite folks.
Isaiah 44, 22,.
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I have swept away your sinslike a cloud.
I have scattered your offenseslike the morning mist.
Oh, return to me, for I havepaid the price to set you free.
Jeremiah 31, 34.
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For I will forgive theiriniquity and I will remember
their sin no more.
See, we have a problem in ourhumanity, don't we?
We have memories, but God isabove our own, remembering
things.
He says I will forget it.
Say, how does he do that?
I don't know.
He's God, but he basicallytreats us like it wasn't even
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there.
Is that sinking in?
That's amazing.
Micah 7, 19.
He will again have compassionon us.
He will tread our iniquitiesunderfoot like dirt.
You will cast all our sins intothe depths of the sea.
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That's beautiful.
And then this last one from theNew Testament.
This is the one you hang on towhenever you mess up and you sin
.
And it says in 1 John 1, 9,.
If we confess, that means tosimply agree with God about it.
If we confess our sin, he isfaithful, he's faithful, he is
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faithful and just.
It means he's right to do it.
He he's legally right to do it.
He is faithful and just toforgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from allunrighteousness.
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I could see say more, but we'vegot to go on.
Let me go on.
He says something else herethat's so good.
Our forgiveness is a.
What it says.
It's according to the riches ofhis grace, according to Notice.
It says according to, not outof.
There's a big difference thereNot according to, or it's
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according to, not out of.
So I guess think of it likethis.
I was just trying to think ofthis analogy.
This week I found out and itkind of goes back and forth Elon
Musk is the richest guy in theworld right now as of September,
from what I understand with anet worth of between $350 to
$450 billion.
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So I can't even comprehend that.
So I don't know whether it's$350 or $450.
What's a few billion dollars,right?
Listen, if Musk wanted to giveaway his riches, there are two
ways he could do this, right?
He could either give them outaccording to his riches or out
of his riches.
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According to one source, muskin 2024 made more money in one
day than he gave away all year.
That was like about 6%.
That would be out of his riches.
You see the difference.
I'm not making the point to diselon, I just say this to make
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this point.
Our god is a super generous god.
He gives according to theriches of his grace.
And what is his grace?
It's an unmerited favor.
You didn't deserve it, but yougot it anyway and he's.
He's washing you, overwhelmingyou with it.
God's riches and I like tothink of it like this.
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This is always helpful thislittle acronym G-R-A-C-E God's
riches at Christ's expense.
That kind of reminds me that Ididn't earn it myself, but it
cost Jesus to give it to me.
So do you see it?
Our redemption is our pricelesspossession because he paid our
sin debt.
It's our measureless giftbecause we have total
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forgiveness to cover our sin anda supply of grace that never
runs dry.
And you think, well, I got tobe out of grace for me.
No, that's not what it said.
It never runs dry.
Paul's final thought regardingour present blessings here I
want you to see it is thatredemption is our deepest
treasure.
It's our deepest treasure and Ifind this fascinating, really,
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because it basically speaks thatthis redemption that we have
now is is still actively at workin us.
That's because with ourredemption, you see, we receive.
What comes to us is spiritualdiscernment.
We don't see it often, but itsays there in verse eight, which
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he lavished upon us in allwisdom and insight, this grace,
this grace that he covered us,he lavished us with it in all
wisdom and in insight.
And, as I say, this is often anunseen blessing of redemption.
We maybe never even thoughtabout this.
But here it says we're giventhe spirit's wisdom and insight
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to sort of help us navigate ourjourney through life.
If you're not a Christian, youdon't have this.
But a Christian, someone who'sin Christ, has at his access
God's own wisdom, christ's ownwisdom.
Listen to these verses.
He says in 1 Corinthians, 2.10,.
But it was to us that Godrevealed these things by his
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spirit, for his spirit searchesout everything and shows us
God's deep secrets as a resultof our redemption.
So there's something you needto know, something you need to
have some wisdom and insight youneed to understand to get you
along the path.
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Just ask him.
That's what James 1 says If welack wisdom, he will give it to
us.
Here's another verse Colossians2, verse 3.
It says in him lie hidden allthe treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, and I can just sortof picture this as that all the
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things that we want the most arefound in Christ, and they're
beyond our comprehension andvalue.
And then one more 1 Corinthians1, verse 30, it says because of
God, you are in Christ Jesus,who became to us wisdom from God
, righteousness andsanctification and redemption.
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So here in chapter 1, verse 8,it says he lavished this grace
upon us.
He lavished this grace upon us.
The Greek word there translated, lavish, means super abounding,
it means to overflow, it meansto get more than you need so
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that you have more than enough.
Have you ever, um, have you evervisit anybody, ever visited
niagara falls?
Who's visited niagara falls?
A few of you, you know.
I have never had theopportunity to go there and see
that, but for the people thathave and if I guess we talk to
these folks, uh, people saywho've been there for the very
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first time, they go there, andit says they're awed by the
sight and sound and sense, thisoverwhelming sense of it all and
every minute, what I understand.
200 000 tons of water plungeover the niagara falls into the
niagara river gorge and, uh,it's a.
It's a thunderous ovation to thegenerous, magnificent nature of
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god.
God created it and when hecreated the falls, you know, he
could have used a whole lot lesswater, couldn't he?
He could have built the fallslower, in fact, but he didn't.
He built them 12 stories high.
And because they are what theyare from the creative hand of
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God, and because they are whatthey are from the creative hand
of God, people come from allover the world to see this, just
to come and stare.
What a picture of God's grace inChrist Jesus.
It's like a Niagara Fallsdeafening out the sound of our
enemy.
His grace In him we haveredemption through his blood,
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the forgiveness of ourtrespasses, according to the
riches of his grace which helavished upon us in all wisdom
and insight.
God's grace toward us.
You see, it's not squeezed outlike an eyedropper and it's not
carefully rationed like we werein some kind of drought.
Not at all.
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His grace is a Niagara of superabundance, so lavish that we
marvel at its display.
If we can just get a hold ofthis.
So we see, then, in these twoverses the blessing of our
redemption, and that's our textthis morning, but you know, I
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felt like that we needed someextra help in seeing its
application.
So let's look now at what Ijust call the power of our
redemption.
This is our present reality,folks, that we live in this
redemption as believers.
During the final days of the oldDenver Stapleton Airport, a
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crowded United flight wascanceled and a single agent was
there rebooking everybody whowas like.
It was chaos.
And there was this long line ofof really unhappy people
inconvenience travelers andthey're waiting to get their
tickets so they could get onboard.
And, uh, suddenly this angrypassenger comes up and he slaps
down his ticket on the counterand he says I have to be on this
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flight and it has to be firstclass.
And the agent replied calmly.
She said sorry, sir, I'm happyto help you, but I've got all
these people here that I got tohelp first and I'm sure then,
once I help these people, I'llbe able to help you.
And the pastor?
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He was not real impressed.
He asked loudly so everybodycould hear him.
He said do you have any ideawho I am?
And, without hesitating thegate attendant.
She smiled, she grabbed herpublic address microphone and
she said may I have yourattention please?
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Her voice kind of bellowing outthrough the terminal we have a
passenger here at the gate whodoes not know who he is.
If anyone can help him find hisidentity, please come to the
gate.
And you can imagine, with allthese people behind him laughing
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hysterically.
The man glared at the Unitedagent and gritted his teeth and
basically retreated andeverybody was applauding loudly,
as you probably would have too.
But I give you this all toooften the followers of Jesus
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Christ live frustrated lives.
They don't know who they areeither.
All too often we somehowbelieve that we are worthless,
incapable, unlovable.
Much of what we do is anattempt to be more lovable, to
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be more likable, to be worthy ofjust some love.
And if we can just look thepart, play the part, act the
part, maybe, just maybe, someonewill love us.
And I can guarantee you, everyperson in this room, including
me, came in today.
Even though we might have anoble, I'm going to love other
people and focus on other people.
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We're desperate to be loved,every single one of us.
Our addictions are temporaryfixes to fill the emptiness that
only Christ can fill.
So we're desperate to be loved,but often, I think, feel this
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overwhelming and this is theenemy the overwhelming sense of
rejection.
Rejection, there's somethingwrong with me.
Deep within myself, I justthere's something wrong with me
and and well, there is there.
You're not there yet, you're inprocess, but it's not hopeless,
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and God in Christ doesn't seeanything wrong with you.
You know, I just I'm amazed bythis thing we call rejection, or
feel this sense of rejection,and I can say that probably
there's no one, even if you puton a good face, there's no one
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here that doesn't think.
I wonder if they'll listen tome, if they'll like me, if
they'll love me.
They'll pay attention to me.
Whatever Do I matter.
Where do we get that?
This couple of weeks ago, mylittle two-year-old
granddaughter was back in theback playing at our house.
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We have toys back there and shejust runs back there when she
comes in.
But the one thing she does iswhen she comes in, she grabs my
wife's hand and she come playwith me and they go back there
and play dollhouse or somethinglike that.
Well, this one particularmorning my wife and my daughter
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were there and they were busybecause they had to get
something in preparation forsomething we were doing maybe
some job and she said to mylittle granddaughter she said
I'm sorry, honey, I can't rightnow.
Nana's got to do some otherthings.
She was kind of hollering backthere Come play with me.
You know that kind of thing.
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And that's what she said.
Well, pretty soon I heard I wasin there in my office in the
study, and I heard her walk backto the front in the kitchen
where my wife was working andshe looked at her and she said
why are you crying, honey?
And I guess she had tearsflowing down her eyes and you
know what she was feelingRejection.
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You don't love me.
And you see how the enemy playsoff our lives in certain ways,
so that what might not even betrue is true for us, because we
believe it's true and what Godwants us to do is believe the
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truth, not the lies.
You and I are unworthy, butyou're not worthless On our own.
We are spiritually destitute,stained by sin, darkened by sin,
but in Christ you are forgivenand loved beyond what you could
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imagine, bought and paid for,washed clean by the precious
blood of Jesus.
Scripture reminds us that Jesusgave himself for our sins, to
deliver us from this presentevil age and our society
messages us to tell us thatwe're not worth very much To
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deliver us from this presentevil age according to the will
of our God and Father.
It's God's will that you havebeen delivered from the place
that you are oppressed by theenemy into the freedom of God's
dearly loved kids.
Someone has said that redemptionis not only a destiny changing
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truth.
It transforms life in the hereand now.
Life in this world inevitablybrings difficulties, but this
makes it an ideal school inwhich to learn to continually
and joyfully place ourconfidence in God for all that
belongs to this life and allthat belongs to the next.
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The whole Christian experienceis in fact summed up in six
words, thrice quoted in the NewTestament the just shall live by
faith.
And so the question for us willwe believe in the redemption
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Jesus has paid for us, and wehave power over the lies when we
do.
Let me give you a few ways tokind of practically bring this
home, and then we'll just finishup here.
First thing, I think it was nomore condemnation.
I am accepted, not rejected.
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That's what Romans 8, verse 1.
You're accepted in the beloved.
Second one is divine favor isrestored.
That was lost in the garden butin Christ.
When you came to Christ, christdied on the cross for your sins
and you were placed into him.
Divine favor is restored.
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God is for you, not against you.
I have to say that though wekind of know that with our head,
but we don't know that in hereand I don't imagine what I say
here will change that.
But I'm praying that the HolySpirit will get a hold of you
and me that we will begin toactually believe it.
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This is faith, right.
Divine favor is restored.
Third thing no more guilt.
You're not guilty.
You don't have to carry arounda guilty conscience because that
guilt was taken by jesus.
I mean, you might be in need ofof confession because you've
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done some, but, but god takesthat.
There's no divine punishment.
That's the next one.
I may experience discipline.
And guess what?
If you belong to him, youshould welcome discipline,
because it says that Goddisciplines those he loves, like
his kids.
But Christ, you see, took mypunishment on the cross.
That's the truth.
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His wrath doesn't fall on meand it doesn't fall on you.
So we're not looking like,we're looking, waiting for the
sky to fall on us.
Stop believing that it's nottrue.
And then there's real joy.
If you can grab a hold of thesethings, there's like okay, you
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can walk in total freedom andhave absolute joy.
It means inner contentment.
You're not like walking andjumping around giddy and happy.
It means that you are content,at peace, because you can live
in the true freedom and joy,knowing that God loves you all
the time.
All the time, I mean.
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That was when I came tounderstand this.
It was transformative for me,because I sin, just like you do,
but I don't live there.
I just reject the enemy'saccusations against me and I
confess my sin and I move on.
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Let me give you a couple ofother verses here.
Number the first one 2 Peter 1,3.
It says His divine, divinepower.
Circle that word in in yourmind.
Power, his power has granted tous all things that pertain to
life and godliness.
How, through the knowledge ofhim.
The more you get to know jesus,the more power you will have in
this life.
Very simply, if you're notreading your bible, if you're
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not spending time in his word,if you're not spending time
getting intimately acquaintedwith him, you're going to
struggle, and I believe that'swhy many of the things that we
we deal with in counseling aresimply because people haven't
been in his word.
You can.
You can find healing in theword of God.
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You really can.
So here's the lesson.
The next one it's Colossians2.10.
He says so.
You also are complete.
That gets rid of all the notenough-ism.
You are complete, everythingthat you need.
You are also complete how?
Through your union with Christ,who is head over every ruler
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and authority.
That means he's over the enemyand everyone who tries to bring
you down in the heavenly places,in the spiritual realm.
He's over them and they can'ttouch you.
They can't touch you.
You know, remember what Job wasin his experience, even though
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he didn't know what was going onwhen he had so much suffering
in his life.
And this conversation betweenJob and God, and God says you
can do this, but this alone, godlimits what the enemy can do to
us, and it's only when heallows it.
It's for our good purposes.
God didn't do it, but hesometimes allows suffering to
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get us to the next level and hewill do that.
But we're complete in him.
So, yes, it's true, redemptionis what we long for at the end
of every story, including ourown, and I say it again God's
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extravagant gift of redemption.
Basically, it just proves andreveals what God thinks about
you and what he thinks about meyou are his treasured possession
.
Do you believe this?
Do you know that you'reredeemed this morning?
That's another question Forthose who don't yet know that
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they've never trusted Christ.
You live outside of God'sredemption and it says that
God's wrath is on you.
You pay for your own sin, andguess where the payment is?
The payment of the wages of sinis death, eternal death,
separation from God, a place ina place called hell.
I would encourage you, ifyou've never trusted Christ
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today, that you would see thisas your opportunity today and
that you would respond to hisinvitation to confess your sins
and to believe that Jesus died,he was buried, he rose again for
you and he sits at the righthand of God, making intercession
for you and for us who are inChrist.
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It's just a plea for us tosimply start believing what he
said about us.
Plea for us to simply startbelieving what he said about us,
and there we'll find that weare more than enough.
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More than enough, you know.
It was the blind hymn writer,fanny Crosby and I'm sorry about
the name, Fanny Crosby.
She said it best in her famoushymn blessed assurance, because
in christ, if we know him and webelieve these, these things, we
have assurance right and wedon't question our salvation
because we know the one webelieved in.
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But she said in her her hymn.
I just want to kind of readthis because I think it says
everything.
She tells these in these threestanzas, the things that kind of
stick out.
I want you to listen for thatwe've been purchased by God and
that, even though she's blind inher physical abilities, in her
sight she sees it in herspiritual vision.
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And then listen for the lastone.
She says she's happy in hersavior.
This is where she finds her joyis in him.
So let me read and finish withthis blessed assurance.
Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory.
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Divine Heir of salvation,purchase of God, born of his
spirit, washed in his blood,perfect communion, perfect
delight.
Visions of rapture now burst onmy sight.
Angels descending bring fromabove echoes of mercy, whispers
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of love.
This is my story.
This is my song, praising mySavior all the day long.
This is my story.
This is my song, praising mySavior.
All the day long, perfectsubmission, all is at rest.
I, in my Savior, am happy andblessed, watching and waiting,
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looking above, filled with hisgoodness, lost in his love.
Yeah, so this is God's will forus in Christ Jesus.
So this is God's will for us inChrist Jesus, and let me just
pray for us, and we'll bedismissed.
So, father, we're thankfultoday for your word, for it has
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great power in our lives andthis redemption that you paid
with your own precious blood.
Lord, I pray that you wouldmake this more real than ever
before to us In this season, asTyler prayed, this is our grand
opportunity, I believe, for usto be what you called us to be
and not shrink back and be lessthan what you've made us and
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called us and created us for.
Lord, help us to believe it and, as we go from this place, lord
, give us great opportunities toshare our faith.
Bless us and restore us wherewe're broken.
Lord, heal us where we'rehurting and bring us into the
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freedom that is ours in ChristJesus.
That we pray in Jesus' name,amen.