October 5, 2025 • 53 mins
How do you love your people when words feel thin and life is loud? Mark Medley answers by taking us back to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 and showing how intercession becomes the most practical form of love. He begins with a raw, hopeful testimony of wandering and return from Ben Smith, then opens the Scriptures to build a simple, sturdy way to pray that anyone can use. This message continues the In Christ series and grounds prayer where Paul does: “For this reason.” Because God has already chosen, redeemed, sealed, and seated us in Christ, prayer is not striving to get His attention; it is partnership with His willingness. That reframes persistence—“I keep asking”—from pressure to participation. And it sets the tone: thanksgiving first. Before we request anything, we give thanks for our people and for the grace already at work in them.
Mark then teaches the posture of prayer Paul models: to the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the empowering help of the Spirit. Relationship gives boldness, the name of Jesus gives authority, and the Spirit supplies wisdom beyond our understanding. When words run out, the Spirit helps our weakness with groans too deep for words; when we can’t see the path, He prays according to the will of God. Parents carry unique spiritual authority for their children, friends bear one another’s burdens, and churches can shepherd on their knees.
From there, Mark borrows Paul’s language and gives seven clear requests to pray over your people: that God would work at the level of the spirit; give wisdom; grant revelation so the eyes of the heart are enlightened; restore living hope; make His calling loud and clear; open our eyes to the riches of our inheritance; and reveal the power at work in believers—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Isaiah 61 becomes a living prayer map: good news to the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, liberty for captives, comfort for mourners, and beauty in place of ashes.
Along the way, Mark names a quiet thief of our age: the algorithm. It pastors attention, shapes emotions, and drains hope. The answer isn’t shame; it’s a better diet. Curate your inputs, root yourself in Scripture, and let worship interrupt worry. The message ends where Paul ends—seeing Jesus as He is: risen, enthroned, and near. When people truly see Him, everything else takes its proper size. Watch, take notes, and try the seven-point prayer tonight for those you love. Share this with someone who needs courage to keep asking.
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:02):
We're in a sermon series right now on the book of
Ephesians called In Christ, andwe are just desiring to
understand more fully what itmeans to have our identity in
Christ.
How many of you are thankfulthat we are we have been made
whole by God through JesusChrist and we are in Christ?
He is in us and we are in him.
(00:24):
And so we're studying the firsthalf of Ephesians right now and
looking at the identity thatChrist wants us to have and to
understand more fully.
And then once we understand ouridentity, next year we'll jump
into the second half ofEphesians where we'll talk about
the purpose that God has forour lives based on who he's made
us to be.
(00:45):
Does that make sense?
Let's get the right thingsfirst, and then the second
things can come after that.
The title of today's message isSealed and Secured.
Sealed and Secured.
So if you can turn in yourBibles to Ephesians chapter 1,
we're going to read verses 13and 14, and that's where our
message will come from thismorning.
It says, In him you also, whenyou heard the word of truth, the
(01:09):
gospel of your salvation, andbelieved in him, were sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit,who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquirepossession of it to the praise
of his glory.
Let's pray together thismorning.
Father God, in the mighty nameof Jesus, we thank you that your
(01:30):
presence is already here.
We thank you, Lord, for whatyou're already doing in the
hearts and minds of every singleperson who is here and also
those who are watching online.
And Father, we just pray inJesus' name that whatever is in
your heart to do this day, thatyou would do it in perfection,
Father.
And in spite of my words or myways, Lord, I pray that you
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would cause your word to comealive within all of our hearts,
that we would understand thistruth, and that the truth would
make us free.
Father, we ask that you'd helpus to understand what it means
to have the Holy Spirit of Goddwelling on the inside of us.
And we thank you for this inJesus' name.
(02:15):
Amen.
So most of us can probablyquote the gospel message to some
degree of precision, right?
Most of us have heard it manytimes.
Those of us who've grown up inchurch have heard it over and
over and over again.
But as I was studying thisweek, I was convicted that
(02:36):
there's a portion of the gospelmessage that I tend to leave
out.
And I don't leave it out onpurpose.
There's no intentionality atall.
It's just that I forget theimportance of it, and sometimes
I don't say it out loud.
And so today we're going to besaying that portion out loud and
we're going to be uhproclaiming it according to what
(02:56):
the scripture says.
So let me just give you abreakdown of the gospel message,
and I hope that this comesalive on the inside of you.
If you've never heard thismessage before, my prayer and
hope for you is that the HolySpirit of God will take it and
breathe on you the breath oflife and cause you to come alive
unto God.
(03:17):
If you've heard it many timesbefore, I pray that you would be
ignited, reignited with passionfor what the gospel truly is
and what it says and what itmeans.
So we believe that God createdthe heavens and the earth.
We believe that within theearth he created all kinds of
living creatures, and on thesixth day, he created Adam, and
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then later he created Eve, andhe put them in the Garden of
Eden.
And in the Garden of Eden, thatsays that God walked and talked
with Adam and Eve.
Can you imagine how beautifulof an experience that must have
been for God to be with man inthat close of a nature, to reach
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out and be able to touch andhear and listen and smell and
all of the things that they musthave experienced in the garden?
And God gave Adam and Eve onerule.
They had one job.
And how many of you know theydidn't obey that rule?
They disobeyed that rule.
And because God is holy, and inorder for him to remain holy,
(04:22):
he had to punish thedisobedience or the sin that
they committed.
And so what did he do?
That they would physically die.
Did you know that we were notcreated to die?
Death came as a result of sin.
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And then we also know thatbecause of Adam and Eve and
their sin, that every one of usthat have been born since then,
except for Jesus Christ, havebeen born dead in our sins and
trespasses.
All of us followed Adam andEve's same fate.
And you might say, well, that'snot fair.
(05:04):
Well, let me ask you aquestion.
Is there anybody else that'sever lived that hasn't sinned?
The Bible makes it clear forus, for we all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory ofGod.
And it also says that the wagesor the payment for the sin that
we've committed that we deserveis death, which is obviously
(05:25):
physical death, but it's muchmore than that.
It's eternal separation fromGod.
That is what is deserved basedon the sin that Adam and Eve
committed, and that each one ofus subsequently since then have
committed.
Let that weigh on us for just amoment and consider it deeply
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before I say these next twowords.
But God.
But God, filled with lovingkindness and mercy, looked out
upon this world and he said, I'mgoing to send my only begotten
Son, Jesus Christ.
I'm going to send him to theearth.
He's going to be born of avirgin.
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He's going to live a perfectlife.
He's going to be tempted inevery way, just like Adam and
Eve were, but this time he's notgoing to fail.
He's not going to give in tothe temptation.
He's going to resist it andhe's going to defeat Satan in
the meanwhile, right?
Not only that, he's going towalk and talk and express who
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our heavenly Father is.
He's going to preach the gospelof the kingdom of God, that
there's a chance, there's anopportunity for man to be
reconciled back to hisrelationship with God.
Not only is he going to preachthat, but it's going to be
followed by signs and wondersand miracles and healings, all
of the kingdom of God coming toearth and being expressed
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through the ministry of JesusChrist.
We know that he willingly tookupon himself the sins of the
world as he was nailed to an oldrugged cross.
And as he was on that cross, hecried out, Father, forgive
them, for they don't know whatthey're doing.
The wrath of God was poured outupon Jesus as he was on that
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cross.
And can you imagine for thefirst time in all of eternity,
Jesus himself feeling what itfelt like to be separated from
his heavenly Father for just amoment in time.
And then we know just before hebreathed his last breath, he
said, It is finished, declaringthat the work had been done,
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redemption had been bought.
And now all of those who puttheir faith, hope, and trust in
Jesus Christ can be born again,can be made right with God, can
walk with God once again.
Not only did he do that, hedied, he was buried, and on the
third day, what did he do?
He rose up from the grave,proving that he defeated sin,
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hell, and the grave.
Jesus, the Almighty God, roseup from the dead.
And not only that, but heascended into heaven.
And when he ascended intoheaven, he was seated at the
right hand of God, and he wasgiven the name above every other
name, that every name, everyknee should bow, and every
tongue should confess that JesusChrist is Lord to the glory of
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God the Father.
And how many of you know healso said that if he was to
leave, that he would also returnone day?
And when he returns, he willmake all things new and right.
This is the gospel of JesusChrist.
And yet, I miss something.
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I missed something veryimportant.
Can you think of what it mightbe?
Consider it for just a minute.
Come on.
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The gospel is not a completemessage unless we add that in.
He has poured out the promiseof the Holy Spirit on those who
believe.
We don't have to wait until weget to heaven to experience the
presence of God.
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The Holy Spirit has been pouredout.
He's been given to us as a giftfrom our Heavenly Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I want us to walk away fromtoday's message with a higher
estimation, with a higherunderstanding, a higher reality
within ourselves of theimportance of the work of the
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Holy Spirit, who he is and whathe does, and how he wants to
affect and influence our livesand the lives of other people
around us.
Are you ready to go there withme?
All right, let's do this.
Have you noticed over the lastfew weeks?
Maybe you've seen this patternin the verses that we've read.
Remember, Paul starts this bookout with this run-on sentence.
(10:15):
He obviously didn't have amother that was an English
teacher like my mom was.
But he just starts talking andhe can't stop himself.
He just lets it, it just flowsout.
He can't stop.
There's a lot of commasinvolved, right?
But Paul, in this run-onsentence, he describes the work
of each member of the Trinity.
See if you notice this orrecognize it.
(10:37):
In verses four through six, hetalks about the fact that God
the Father chooses and adoptsus.
That's good news.
And then in verses seventhrough twelve, it brings out
God the Son redeems and forgivesus.
And then in the verses that weread today, we see that God the
Spirit seals us and secures us.
(10:59):
He seals us and secures us.
So Paul is praising God for allof the blessings he has
bestowed on his people.
Blessings that are ours becauseof what?
Because of our relationship toJesus Christ and the work that
he's done.
And these things are activatedin our lives by the person of
the Holy Spirit.
(11:20):
There is a reason that Satanfights so hard against the Holy
Spirit in the earth.
How many churches have beendivided over this one subject?
And yet, how can you divide theTrinity?
Father, Son, and Spirit areone.
They are one.
So many people have made theTrinity Father, Son, and Bible.
(11:45):
And Bible is essentiallyimportant.
It is the Word of God.
We don't look to denote it orto denounce it or to put it in a
place that it doesn't belong.
But let's not forget about theHoly Spirit of God.
Paul starts out this passage bysaying, In him you also.
Remember, last week Scottbrought to our attention that
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Paul referred to the Jewishpeople as those who were first
to hope in Christ.
But now in this passage, hetraces the step by which the
Egyptians, sorry, not theEgyptians, the Ephesians, and
some Egyptians over time, andthe Gentiles have been brought
into union with Christ.
(12:27):
If you're a Gentile in thisplace, you should be thankful
that Paul is expressing to us inthe book of Ephesians the fact
that Christ has made us one withhim and brought us into the
family.
We have been adopted into thefamily of God.
So who did these, what didthese people do?
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How what did they experience?
How did they respond?
First of all, it says theyheard the bot the gospel.
When you heard the word oftruth, the gospel of your
salvation, God has chosen tosave people by using the word of
God to call them.
One of the things that Ipromise you, as the lead elder
of this church, is that we arenever going to move away from
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the word of God.
There are a lot of great thingsthat we could talk about that
may be helpful in your dailylife, but I'm telling you, we
understand that the word of Godis quick and powerful and
sharper than any two-edgedsword.
It is the word of God, by theSpirit of God, that does the
good work in each and every oneof our lives.
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And we will never depart fromit.
Lord Jesus, help us in Jesus'name.
Romans 10 describes thisbeautifully.
How then will they call on himin whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe inhim of whom they have never
heard?
And how are they to hearwithout someone preaching?
And how are they to preachunless they are sent?
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As it is written, how beautifulare the feet of those who
preach the good news.
But they have not all obeyedthe gospel, for Isaiah says,
Lord, who has believed what hehas heard from us.
So faith comes from hearing,and hearing through the word of
Christ.
So the work of God, the work offaith within each of our
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hearts, comes by hearing theword of God.
Don't stop reading the Bible.
Don't stop listening to theBible.
Don't stop coming to church.
Don't stop listening to sermonsthat are in line with God's
word.
It's important to us, not justfor salvation, but for every
aspect of our Christian life.
So not only did they hear thegospel, but what else did they
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do?
They believed.
They believed in Jesus Christ.
Having heard this message, theycommitted themselves to Christ
by a decisive act of faith.
They put their faith in thework of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus is the trueobject of their faith.
It wasn't their faith in theirown ability to believe, or their
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own ability to changethemselves, or their own ability
to follow God.
It was their faith in theperson of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is found in Himalone.
How many of you know you cantalk about God all day long with
almost anybody and never get introuble?
But if you dare to mention thename of Jesus, demons tremble
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and people get nervous.
There's a reason for that.
In Jesus is salvation found.
Now, if they believed, itpresupposes that they must have
repented.
Because in order to believe,you have to change something.
There has to be a change.
There would be no need forsalvation unless we needed to
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turn away from something andturn towards someone.
Right?
Mark 1, Jesus himself says, ashe proclaims the gospel of God,
the time is fulfilled, thekingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in thegospel.
Repent and believe in thegospel.
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So let's just get down to thevery base here.
What does the word repent mean?
Yeah, you're saying it.
It means to have a fundamentalchange of mind, heart, and
actions.
Turning away from sin andanything that separates you from
God and turning toward God.
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How many of you can say thismorning that you have repented,
that you have turned away fromthe old way, from your old life,
and have turned toward Godthrough Jesus Christ.
And secondly, believe.
What does it mean to believe?
It means to put your completefaith and trust in Jesus Christ
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and the good news of the gospel.
Now, we can't even get pastthis point here without bringing
the Holy Spirit into theequation.
We believe that Scriptureteaches that there is a moment
when the Holy Spirit, like thepaddles that are placed on a
person's chest in order to bringthem back after they've had a
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heart failure, we believe thatthe Holy Spirit hits the inside
of us, the spirit that is deadto God, not just sick, but dead,
and awakens that spirit so thatwe can then repent and put our
faith in Jesus Christ.
That awakening is calledregeneration.
That is a work of the Spirit.
(17:30):
Even the faith that we exerciseourselves and the desire that
we have to repent is a gift fromGod.
How many of you tried to fixyourself before God got a hold
of you?
And how did that work for you?
It didn't work so well for me.
We need the work of God.
We are made alive to God inorder that we might believe.
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Our willing response is thatrepentance and belief, and that
is called conversion.
That's the theological termconversion, which includes
repenting and believing.
And we also believe that if youlive any longer here on this
earth, that it's good to bebaptized as a part of that
conversion story, right?
So not only did they believe,but they also were sealed with
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the promised Holy Spirit.
They were sealed with thepromised Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit seals us,marking us as children of God.
Sometimes I'll ask people, Whatdo you think about Jesus?
And I'll get all kinds ofvarying responses from that.
Well, he he was a he was a truehistoric figure.
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He was a great teacher.
It seems like he was some kindof spiritual person.
He was, and then some will sayhe was he, you know, he died or
he was born on Christmas, allthose things that people will
say about Jesus.
And then I'll ask them, whatdoes Jesus say about you?
And that is a determiner rightthere.
A lot of times, where a personis in their walk with God.
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What does Jesus say about you?
When a person trusts the LordJesus Christ through the gospel
of salvation, he or she'll sheis sealed through the Holy
Spirit of God.
Every true believer in Jesusreceives the Spirit of God as a
sign that they belong to God andare under his protection.
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Are you thankful for that?
He claims us as his very own.
Like the indelible impression.
Think about a king who haswritten a letter and he wants it
to go specifically to someoneelse.
And so he puts that letterwithin an envelope.
He closes the envelope and heputs uh melts wax over that
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place where the envelope closes.
And then what does he do?
He has a ring that he wears onhis finger that's called a
signet ring.
And what does he do with thatring?
He presses that into that wax.
And when he presses into thatwax, and then that letter is
taken from his presence anddelivered to whom ever it was
supposed to be.
As long as that seal has notbeen broken and that signet ring
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mark is still in that wax, whatdoes the other person know?
That this is a legitimatecommunication that has come from
this king.
And he's marked it himself.
Friends, believers in JesusChrist have been sealed by the
King of Kings and the Lord ofLords.
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His signet ring has been built,has been placed upon our
hearts, and we have been markedby him.
We are his.
Don't ever let Satan steal thatfrom you.
Don't ever let him lie to youabout that.
We have been marked.
We have been sealed if we aretrue believers.
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When are we sealed?
When we're good enough, when wechange enough, when we uh you
know act right enough when wewhen we've been saved for 10
years, when we've been saved 20years, when are we sealed?
We are sealed at the point ofsalvation.
At the point of salvation, 1Corinthians 12, 13 says, For in
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one spirit we were all baptizedinto one body, Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free, and all weremade to drink of what?
Of one spirit.
We have been baptized into thebody of Christ by the Spirit of
God.
We have been set apart, we havebeen sealed, we have been made
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holy, and we are set apart forGod.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
This is good news.
Can you understand why we needto make sure that we're sharing
this as a part of our gospelmessage?
This is where the power lies.
This is where the changehappens.
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In fact, that's our next point.
The proof of being sealed istrue transformation.
How many of you know that thereare many people who have prayed
a prayer of repentance at somepoint in their life, but there
has been absolutely no change,no sign of any kind of
transformation within theirhearts and their minds and their
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actions.
They've spoken words, butnothing has been transformed.
We cannot rely upon that forsalvation, correct?
Our prayer should be a willingresponse to repentance and
belief.
Yes, we need to say the words.
Yes, we need to pray and askJesus to be our Lord and Savior.
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Yes, we need to affirm that uhthat the old man is passed away
and old all things have becomenew.
But we can't rely just upon aprayer to be the seal upon our
hearts.
We don't place the seal, Goddoes.
God does.
You see, the the proof of beingsealed is true transformation.
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Many times, rightfully so, I'mnot saying this is wrong, but so
many times we focus on theoutward sign of the Holy
Spirit's presence.
We want to see miracles, wewant to see healings, we want to
see signs and wonders, we wantto see demons cast out.
Well, maybe not like in ourhomes, but you know, somewhere
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else.
We want to see uh, you know,speaking in tongues, we want to
experience God, we want to feelGod.
How many of you know all ofthose things are good?
They're good, and we shoulddesire those things.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians itsays for us to covet spiritual
gifts or earnestly desirespiritual gifts.
Nothing wrong with that.
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We should long for that.
But if that's all that weconnect with concerning the Holy
Spirit, something is wrong.
Something is wrong.
There's more than that.
There's the inward working ofthe Holy Spirit, the work that
he does on the inside of us, thework of transformation, the
work of sanctification, where heconvicts us of sin, where he
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changes us from the inside out,where we recognize our need to
change and where we yield tohim.
We yield to him drawing us,calling us, changing us.
Both of these things areimportant, both of these
expressions of the Spirit, bothof these works of the Spirit are
important, but only one of themis eternal.
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Only one of them lasts forever.
As we remember in the Sermon onthe Mount that we just finished
coming through, Jesus Himselfsaid that in the last days, that
as people would stand beforehim, that there would be many
who would prophesy and cast outdemons who we would tell to
depart from him because he neverknew them.
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They weren't sealed with thepromise, they weren't his own.
Both are important.
Please don't ever stop askingand desiring both.
But don't neglect the work ofthe spirit on the inside of us.
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Some of the greatest miraclessitting in this room had nothing
to do with healing of thephysical body.
They had to do about who youonce were and who you are now.
You've been changed.
Don't forget, your testimony islaced with power.
Revelations, it says that theyovercame the enemy by the blood
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of the Lamb and the word oftheir testimony, and they loved
not their lives even unto thedeath.
What is the testimony of ourlives?
It's not just that I've castout demons.
The testimony of my life isI've been changed.
I'm not the man I used to be.
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I've been changed.
See, the proof of the Spirit'spresence is his operation on the
heart, which produces thingslike real repentance, like
husbands that say to theirwives, I'm sorry, I shouldn't
have said that, I shouldn't havedone that like that.
I'm wrong.
Would you please forgive me?
It's it produces realrepentance.
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It produces the fruit of theSpirit.
Galatians 5 22.
Love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness,
faithfulness, self-control.
I think that's all I'll have tocheck with my three-year-old
granddaughter to confirm.
She can quote them like crazy.
But all of those things comefrom the inside.
We can pretend them, canpretend to love, or pretend to
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have joy, or pretend to havepeace, or try to work it up in
our own strength.
But how many of you know it'sfleeting?
It's here today and gonetomorrow.
The fruit of the Spiritremains.
And not only does it remainwithin our lives, the nations
come to us and eat from the treeof the fruit that is growing in
our lives.
Holy Spirit's operationconforms us to God's commands
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and his will.
He changes our desires, hechanges our passions.
Instead of uh the passions forthe things of this world, he
gives us passion for prayer andpassion for praise, passion for
worship, passion for loving God,and passion for loving people.
This is the work of the Spirit.
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This is the greattransformative work of the
indwelling of the Spirit.
And Paul wanted theseEphesians, the the this church
of Ephesus, and all of thechurches that this letter would
be distributed to, to understandthe depths of the importance of
the work of the Spirit in thetransformation of their lives
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and of their city and of theirnation.
We cannot change the worldaround us without the Holy
Spirit.
Our Heavenly Father promised usthat the Spirit would bring
about this amazingtransformation.
Look at Ezekiel 36.
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And I will give you a new heartand a new spirit, and I will
put within you, and I willremove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heartof flesh.
And I will put my spirit withinyou and cause you to walk in my
statutes and be careful to obeymy rules.
Why would he put his spiritwithin us?
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So that we would be obedient.
So that we would be obedient,so that we would change, so that
the Ten Commandments would nolonger be laborious or something
that's difficult for us, but itwould be something that that we
lean into, that we desire.
Spirit of God does work thatnothing else on this earth can
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do.
Religion tells you grab abigger hammer and break up the
stones of your heart.
How many of you know that neverworks?
It never works.
I don't care how finely dustedyou create the stones within
your heart, they're stillstones.
They have to be made intoflesh.
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And what does God do?
God breathes by his spirit intothat heart of stone and causes
it to be transformed into aheart of flesh where we can live
and breathe and have our being.
Jesus made it clear that it wasessential for the Holy Spirit
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to come in John 14.
And I will ask the Father, andHe will give you another helper
to be with you forever, even thespirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because itneither Neither sees him nor
knows him.
You know him, for he dwellswith you, and what will be in
you.
The same spirit that raisedChrist from the dead dwells in
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us as believers.
This is the part of the gospelthat we must remind ourselves of
on a daily basis.
All of it, all of it, but don'tleave this part out.
John 16 7, Jesus goes on.
I'm sure his disciples weremurmuring among themselves, what
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is he talking about?
He doesn't need to leave us.
We need him to stay.
He needs to stay.
Nevertheless, I tell you thetruth, Jesus says, it is to your
advantage that I go away, forif I do not go away, the helper
will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him toyou.
Jesus told his disciples, it'sbetter for you that I go away so
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that I can send the HolySpirit, not just to be with you,
but to live on the inside ofyou.
Now here's the problem.
I'm sure you're all thinkingit.
Evan brought it up as he wastalking about communion.
We live in an already and notyet kingdom reality.
(31:26):
What I mean by that is we knowthat the price has been paid by
Jesus completely for us to walkin freedom from sin and all of
its horrible effects.
The price has been paid.
Jesus defeated sin, hell, andthe grave.
We know this.
Believers in Jesus understand,we can understand in this life
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what it means to be free fromthe power of sin.
Sin no longer has dominion overus.
How many of you know we can sayyes to God and say no to sin?
Not preaching perfection, butI'm preaching holiness.
We are to be holy as He isholy.
(32:10):
Our desire, the evidence of theHoly Spirit dwelling on the
inside of us is to have a desireto continue to walk away from
sin and to walk toward God andto be obedient towards Him.
How many of you know also weare now today as believers in
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Jesus, we exist in the realitythat the penalty of sin has been
removed.
No longer are we destined foreternal separation from God, no
longer are we destined to uhlive out our existence for all
of eternity in hell.
We have been born again.
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The penalty of our sin has beenplaced upon Jesus Christ, and
He's given us as our substituteHis life in the place of what we
deserve.
We have by the ability of againto say no to sin and yes to
God.
We still live in a fallen worldwhere the presence of sin is
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absolute.
So we're free from the power ofsin and we're free from the
penalty of sin.
But how many of you know sin isstill around us?
It creeps at our door, itknocks on the door, it's all
around us, it screams at us,sometimes it whispers at us, it
entices us, it tries to draw usin.
(33:36):
But we also realize that whatthe scripture is saying is that
the Holy Spirit was given to usto be able to stand in the evil
day, to be able to stand againsttemptation, to be able to stand
and walk as believers in JesusChrist until the point in time
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when Jesus will return.
We'll talk about that.
I don't want to get ahead ofthe story here.
So next, the Holy Spirit is ourguarantee.
He is our security, who is theguarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession ofit.
The Spirit of God is not only afulfillment of God's promise to
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indwell his people, but also isa guarantee that he will bring
them to their final inheritance.
Did you hear me?
The Holy Spirit and the sealthat he places upon our life is
a seal of security, it's a downpayment of sorts or a first
installment on our fullredemption.
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The Spirit is a foretaste ofthe glory of the age to come.
It's good news.
I used to be in real estate.
One of the things that you haveto have in order to have a
contract is you have somethingcalled earnest money.
Earnest money is a money thatis put forth as a down payment
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on a piece of property.
It means that you want them tohold that property for you until
the time that you close on thatproperty.
It also means that you promisethere's more money to come.
How many of you know thatearnest money is not the entire
amount of the purchase ofwhatever it is that you're
buying, right?
But it is saying, I am going tobuy this piece of property, and
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here's the proof of that.
I'm giving you this deposit,I'm giving you this earnest
money.
The Holy Spirit of God is ourdown payment.
He is our earnest money.
He has been given as a pledgeand a token that there is more
to follow in the way ofspiritual blessings.
This is good news.
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But there's much more to come.
There is much more to come.
You see, those who are trulysealed by the Spirit will endure
to the end.
We will endure to the end if weare sealed by the Spirit.
This is God's work, not ourown.
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Aren't you thankful for that?
If my salvation was based on myown ability, you might as well
just give me a ticket to hell.
I'm not even joking, I'mserious.
I can't do it.
I'm not I'm not capable ofdoing it.
But how many of you realizethat we can have blessed
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assurance based on the goodnessof God and his ability in us to
do what we can't do in our ownstrength?
Philippians 1, 6 is such anencouragement.
And I'm sure of this, that hewho began a good work in you
will bring it to completion atthe day of Jesus Christ.
God is not somebody who stops aproject before it's finished.
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He's the beginning and the end.
He completes the work that hestarts on.
If he has truly begun a goodwork in you, he will bring it to
completion.
Put your faith, hope, and trustin him.
(37:16):
Our inheritance is eternal lifewith God.
We shouldn't be looking forwardto a destination.
So many people look forward toheaven, and heaven is an amazing
place.
And we've had people recentlywho have transitioned from this
life to the next.
And how many of you knowthey're very much alive today?
They're very much alive.
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And they're in the presence ofGod in heaven.
Heaven is an amazing place.
It's a wonderful place.
We shouldn't negate that atall.
But as much as we're, we weshould we should look forward
more to be you being united withGod Himself.
1 Peter 1, blessed be the Godand Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to his greatmercy, he has caused us to be
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born again to a living hopethrough the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, toan inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, andunfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power arebeing guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealedin the last time.
In this you rejoice, though nowfor a little while, if
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necessary, you have been grievedby various trials, so that the
tested genuineness of yourfaith, more precious than gold,
that perishes though it be istested by fire, may be found to
result in praise and glory andhonor at the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Though you have not seen him,you love him.
(38:44):
Though you do not see him now,you believe in him and rejoice
with joy that is inexpressibleand filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, thesalvation of your soul.
This is the good news.
You see, we will be fullytransformed at the time of
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Christ's return.
We're talking about blessedassurance.
Some people are going to askthe question does he believe in
once saved, always saved?
Here's my answer to that.
Once truly saved, once alwayssaved.
If a person is truly bornagain, truly transformed by the
work of the Holy Spirit, theHoly Spirit has moved on the
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inside of them, taken upresidence within them.
If he has marked them like aseal upon an envelope, they are
we are his.
We are his.
Now, unfortunately, there aremany people who have tried to
jump the line on that, and whohave attempted to get to God on
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their own, in their ownstrength, by being good enough,
by doing enough, by prayingenough, by going to church
enough, by whatever it is.
And yet they are their liveshave not been marked, they have
not been transformed.
And here's the reality of allof it God's the only one who
knows.
It's a mystery.
It's a mystery.
(40:11):
So live your life.
Let's live our lives like Jesusmight come back today.
Somebody mentioned to me thatthere was this rumor going
around uh social media, I guess,last week that Jesus was going
to return.
I think it was last Sunday.
And uh, you know, the firstthing I did when I heard that,
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Father, I ask that you'd forgiveme for any unknown sins,
anything that I'm not aware of.
I want to be ready.
I want to be ready.
I want to be current.
I don't want to be running fromGod.
I want to be walking with him,talking with him.
I want to be in rightrelationship with him.
Amen.
Let's not test the edges inhopes that we'll be saved in the
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end.
Let's come all the way in.
Let's come all the way in.
Let's walk with God and talkwith him.
We will be fully transformed atthe tr time of Christ's return.
1 Corinthians 15, and the theworship team can come on up if
you'd like, and we'll we'll getready to finish this.
Behold, I tell you a mystery.
Listen to these words withhope.
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We shall not all sleep, but weshall all be changed in a
moment, in the twinkling of aneye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, andthe dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall bechanged.
For this perishable body mustput on the imperishable, and
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this mortal body must put onimmortality.
When the perishable puts on theimperishable, and the mortal
puts on immortality, then shallcome to pass the saying that is
written Death is swallowed up invictory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, andthe power of sin is the law.
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But thanks be to God who givesus the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers,be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of theLord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain.
My friends, let's not beexcited about a place.
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Let's be excited about aperson.
We're going to get to see himface to face.
And the Holy Spirit of God isthe one who saves us, keeps us,
helps us, transforms us, and oneday will usher us into the very
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presence of our Lord andSavior, Jesus Christ.
Paul, in finishing thisrefrain, he can't help himself
but just to say to the praise ofhis glory.
God is the only one whodeserves the praise, the honor,
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and the glory for his great workof salvation.
You see, the reality is thatall of us deserve to be
alienated from God.
We deserved to be left undoneand wrecked by sin and guilt and
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shame.
We were all condemned to dieand to live eternity apart from
God.
The fact that God chooses tosave anybody is the miracle.
That's the greatest miracle ofall.
What great love the Father hasfor us that he would be willing
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to lay down his life, to sendhis one and only begotten Son to
die for each and every one ofus.
As we close this morning, Ifelt led just to ask a couple of
things.
First thing is, if you're herethis morning, and you know
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beyond a shadow of a doubt thatyou have not yet been marked by
God, that you have not beensealed by the Holy Spirit, that
you are not experiencing what itfeels like to have the Holy
Spirit living on the inside ofyou, warning you, helping you,
strengthening you, teaching you,healing you.
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I'm here to tell you today thatyou're not here by accident.
You're not listening to thisonline by accident.
God loves you.
And he put this word in hisscriptures and in my heart to
share with you today so that youcould respond.
So that you could respond.
Not to me, not to Tyler, but toJesus Christ.
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So if you're here this morningand you're ready to recognize
your need for change, to changeyour heart, change your mind,
change your direction, andyou're ready to put your faith,
hope, and trust in Jesus Christand the work that He did and
finished for you.
And you're ready to ask thatthe Holy Spirit of God would
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come in and mark you and sealyou and secure you for all of
eternity.
I'm going to ask that you wouldjust stand to your feet right
now.
If that's you here this morningand you're ready for this and
you're not assured yet of thisgreat work being done in your
life, would you just stand toyour feet?
I promise you that all of theother people in this room are
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going to rejoice with you.
There's nobody that's going tobe uh talking about you or
whispering.
There's only going to be peoplethat are praying for you and
that are rejoicing with you thatyou have made this decision to
respond to what the Holy Spiritis quickening in your heart even
now.
You're feeling like you're onfire on the inside.
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You feel this like this thing,like you feel like you're going
to explode if you don't dosomething, if you don't respond
in some way.
I'm here to tell you, that'snot you.
That's not a feeling in theroom.
It's actually fairly cool inhere this morning.
That which you're feeling onthe inside of you is the work of
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grace.
It's the work of God callingyou to himself, calling you to
himself.
If that's you, would you juststand to your feet?
Would you stand to your feetand declare before God and
everyone else, I am ready thisday to acknowledge Jesus as my
Savior and Lord?
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Just gonna give you a moment.
Just gonna give you a moment.
There's no rush.
We're not in a hurry thismorning.
We don't have to finish at acertain time.
We want God to do his work.
Lord, would you do what onlyyou can do?
Would you do what only you cando?
Would you change hearts in thisroom?
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Jesus' name.
We're gonna leave that callopen for just a minute.
I'm gonna move on to somethingelse as well, but just know your
time hasn't left.
If you're still feeling thatthing on the inside of you, just
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respond.
Just respond.
We just want to pray with you.
We just want to pray with youand encourage you.
We just want to love on you andlet you know that we're with
you.
We're gonna walk with you onthis journey.
So this is open to you.
Secondly, I also want toacknowledge the fact that even
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though we may be sealed by theHoly Spirit and we may be called
as children of God, there aretimes in all of our journeys
where we find ourselves furtheraway from Him than we need to
be.
Like I said before, coloringoutside of the lines, dancing on
the edges instead of beingclose to his heart.
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And so I want to give us anopportunity today to repent of
that.
Repentance isn't a once anddone thing.
It is once and done when itcomes to salvation, but
repentance is a continual partof the grace that God gives us
to clear out all of the thingsthat try to keep us away from
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Him.
So if you're ready this morningto acknowledge that you need
to, that you want to step backin the direction of Him, that
you want to turn back around,that you acknowledge your need
for change and to be restored toright relationship with Him.
That's you, would you stand toyour feet this morning?
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Just stand to your feet.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's others in the room,would you just stand?
Again, I'm not in a hurry thismorning.
I want to give God all theopportunity he wants to be able
to work within each and everyheart.
Just stand to your feet.
That's you.
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I need this day to return tothe God of my salvation.
I want the joy to be restoredin my life.
I'm tired of trying to do it onmy own.
I'm failing and I need somehelp.
Father, I just pray right nowfor all of those that are
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standing right now in Jesus'name.
And those that are online aswell.
Father, I thank you that yourgrace is sufficient.
And Father, I pray that eventhis day, that there would be
the ability given by you to beable to turn, be able to turn
back towards you, recognizing,Lord, that you're right there.
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You're right there waiting.
You haven't gone anywhere.
You haven't left us or forsakenus.
You're as close as the mentionof your name.
And so, Lord, we call out onthe name of Jesus today.
And we ask, Father, that youwould help each of us on our
journeys to come closer to you,to recognize the desire of our
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hearts that the Holy Spirit putswithin us to be close to you,
to be in union with you, torecognize that we are in Christ
and Christ is in us.
We pray that in Jesus' name.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Jesus.
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And now if we could all juststand.
Those who are able.
And I'm going to ask one of thethings that I just read the
book of Acts again, and one ofthe things that I love about the
book of Acts is that the samepeople that experienced the day
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of Pentecost and were filledwith power from on high by the
Holy Spirit asked over and overagain to be filled with the
Spirit, to be given boldness andcourage for walking out their
faith in a hostile environment.
So I'm going to pray thismorning.
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And if this is you and you'reready to receive, I ask that you
would just lift your hands uptowards God and just receive the
Holy Spirit.
A fresh filling of the HolySpirit of God.
Father, in Jesus' name, I prayfor every single person whose
heart is drawn to you right now.
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Father, I thank you that yourword says that you desire for
the Spirit of God to dwell onthe inside of us.
And also, Lord, that we shouldbe being filled with the Holy
Spirit, that we should be filledwith the Spirit of God.
And so right now, in Jesus'name, we ask you, anew and
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fresh, Lord God, would you fillus with your Holy Spirit and
fire?
Be filled with the Holy Spiritof God.
And Father, I ask that as anoutworking of being filled with
the Spirit, that we would begiven boldness and courage to
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preach the gospel of JesusChrist, to stand up in faith and
to put our trust in you.
Lord God, that no matter what'shappening around us in this
world, that our hope is in you,Lord Jesus.
I also ask, Father, that youwould awaken the gifts of the
Spirit that are that you desireto be activated within each of
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our lives.
Father, for the benefit of thebody of Christ and also to reach
those who don't yet know you.
Father, stir us up.
Stir us up on the inside sothat we might have a powerful
effect in the outside world.
We thank you for these things.
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And Lord, we lift up your name,we glorify you, Father.
And we sing this song ofworship to you because you
deserve it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Let's worship together.
We're in a sermon series right now on the book of
Ephesians called In Christ, andwe are just desiring to
understand more fully what itmeans to have our identity in
Christ.
How many of you are thankfulthat we are we have been made
whole by God through JesusChrist and we are in Christ?
He is in us and we are in him.
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And so we're studying the firsthalf of Ephesians right now and
looking at the identity thatChrist wants us to have and to
understand more fully.
And then once we understand ouridentity, next year we'll jump
into the second half ofEphesians where we'll talk about
the purpose that God has forour lives based on who he's made
us to be.
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Does that make sense?
Let's get the right thingsfirst, and then the second
things can come after that.
The title of today's message isSealed and Secured.
Sealed and Secured.
So if you can turn in yourBibles to Ephesians chapter 1,
we're going to read verses 13and 14, and that's where our
message will come from thismorning.
It says, In him you also, whenyou heard the word of truth, the
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gospel of your salvation, andbelieved in him, were sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit,who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquirepossession of it to the praise
of his glory.
Let's pray together thismorning.
Father God, in the mighty nameof Jesus, we thank you that your
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presence is already here.
We thank you, Lord, for whatyou're already doing in the
hearts and minds of every singleperson who is here and also
those who are watching online.
And Father, we just pray inJesus' name that whatever is in
your heart to do this day, thatyou would do it in perfection,
Father.
And in spite of my words or myways, Lord, I pray that you
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would cause your word to comealive within all of our hearts,
that we would understand thistruth, and that the truth would
make us free.
Father, we ask that you'd helpus to understand what it means
to have the Holy Spirit of Goddwelling on the inside of us.
And we thank you for this inJesus' name.
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Amen.
So most of us can probablyquote the gospel message to some
degree of precision, right?
Most of us have heard it manytimes.
Those of us who've grown up inchurch have heard it over and
over and over again.
But as I was studying thisweek, I was convicted that
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there's a portion of the gospelmessage that I tend to leave
out.
And I don't leave it out onpurpose.
There's no intentionality atall.
It's just that I forget theimportance of it, and sometimes
I don't say it out loud.
And so today we're going to besaying that portion out loud and
we're going to be uhproclaiming it according to what
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the scripture says.
So let me just give you abreakdown of the gospel message,
and I hope that this comesalive on the inside of you.
If you've never heard thismessage before, my prayer and
hope for you is that the HolySpirit of God will take it and
breathe on you the breath oflife and cause you to come alive
unto God.
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If you've heard it many timesbefore, I pray that you would be
ignited, reignited with passionfor what the gospel truly is
and what it says and what itmeans.
So we believe that God createdthe heavens and the earth.
We believe that within theearth he created all kinds of
living creatures, and on thesixth day, he created Adam, and
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then later he created Eve, andhe put them in the Garden of
Eden.
And in the Garden of Eden, thatsays that God walked and talked
with Adam and Eve.
Can you imagine how beautifulof an experience that must have
been for God to be with man inthat close of a nature, to reach
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out and be able to touch andhear and listen and smell and
all of the things that they musthave experienced in the garden?
And God gave Adam and Eve onerule.
They had one job.
And how many of you know theydidn't obey that rule?
They disobeyed that rule.
And because God is holy, and inorder for him to remain holy,
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he had to punish thedisobedience or the sin that
they committed.
And so what did he do?
That they would physically die.
Did you know that we were notcreated to die?
Death came as a result of sin.
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And then we also know thatbecause of Adam and Eve and
their sin, that every one of usthat have been born since then,
except for Jesus Christ, havebeen born dead in our sins and
trespasses.
All of us followed Adam andEve's same fate.
And you might say, well, that'snot fair.
(05:04):
Well, let me ask you aquestion.
Is there anybody else that'sever lived that hasn't sinned?
The Bible makes it clear forus, for we all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory ofGod.
And it also says that the wagesor the payment for the sin that
we've committed that we deserveis death, which is obviously
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physical death, but it's muchmore than that.
It's eternal separation fromGod.
That is what is deserved basedon the sin that Adam and Eve
committed, and that each one ofus subsequently since then have
committed.
Let that weigh on us for just amoment and consider it deeply
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before I say these next twowords.
But God.
But God, filled with lovingkindness and mercy, looked out
upon this world and he said, I'mgoing to send my only begotten
Son, Jesus Christ.
I'm going to send him to theearth.
He's going to be born of avirgin.
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He's going to live a perfectlife.
He's going to be tempted inevery way, just like Adam and
Eve were, but this time he's notgoing to fail.
He's not going to give in tothe temptation.
He's going to resist it andhe's going to defeat Satan in
the meanwhile, right?
Not only that, he's going towalk and talk and express who
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our heavenly Father is.
He's going to preach the gospelof the kingdom of God, that
there's a chance, there's anopportunity for man to be
reconciled back to hisrelationship with God.
Not only is he going to preachthat, but it's going to be
followed by signs and wondersand miracles and healings, all
of the kingdom of God coming toearth and being expressed
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through the ministry of JesusChrist.
We know that he willingly tookupon himself the sins of the
world as he was nailed to an oldrugged cross.
And as he was on that cross, hecried out, Father, forgive
them, for they don't know whatthey're doing.
The wrath of God was poured outupon Jesus as he was on that
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cross.
And can you imagine for thefirst time in all of eternity,
Jesus himself feeling what itfelt like to be separated from
his heavenly Father for just amoment in time.
And then we know just before hebreathed his last breath, he
said, It is finished, declaringthat the work had been done,
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redemption had been bought.
And now all of those who puttheir faith, hope, and trust in
Jesus Christ can be born again,can be made right with God, can
walk with God once again.
Not only did he do that, hedied, he was buried, and on the
third day, what did he do?
He rose up from the grave,proving that he defeated sin,
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hell, and the grave.
Jesus, the Almighty God, roseup from the dead.
And not only that, but heascended into heaven.
And when he ascended intoheaven, he was seated at the
right hand of God, and he wasgiven the name above every other
name, that every name, everyknee should bow, and every
tongue should confess that JesusChrist is Lord to the glory of
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God the Father.
And how many of you know healso said that if he was to
leave, that he would also returnone day?
And when he returns, he willmake all things new and right.
This is the gospel of JesusChrist.
And yet, I miss something.
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I missed something veryimportant.
Can you think of what it mightbe?
Consider it for just a minute.
Come on.
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The gospel is not a completemessage unless we add that in.
He has poured out the promiseof the Holy Spirit on those who
believe.
We don't have to wait until weget to heaven to experience the
presence of God.
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The Holy Spirit has been pouredout.
He's been given to us as a giftfrom our Heavenly Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I want us to walk away fromtoday's message with a higher
estimation, with a higherunderstanding, a higher reality
within ourselves of theimportance of the work of the
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Holy Spirit, who he is and whathe does, and how he wants to
affect and influence our livesand the lives of other people
around us.
Are you ready to go there withme?
All right, let's do this.
Have you noticed over the lastfew weeks?
Maybe you've seen this patternin the verses that we've read.
Remember, Paul starts this bookout with this run-on sentence.
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He obviously didn't have amother that was an English
teacher like my mom was.
But he just starts talking andhe can't stop himself.
He just lets it, it just flowsout.
He can't stop.
There's a lot of commasinvolved, right?
But Paul, in this run-onsentence, he describes the work
of each member of the Trinity.
See if you notice this orrecognize it.
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In verses four through six, hetalks about the fact that God
the Father chooses and adoptsus.
That's good news.
And then in verses seventhrough twelve, it brings out
God the Son redeems and forgivesus.
And then in the verses that weread today, we see that God the
Spirit seals us and secures us.
(10:59):
He seals us and secures us.
So Paul is praising God for allof the blessings he has
bestowed on his people.
Blessings that are ours becauseof what?
Because of our relationship toJesus Christ and the work that
he's done.
And these things are activatedin our lives by the person of
the Holy Spirit.
(11:20):
There is a reason that Satanfights so hard against the Holy
Spirit in the earth.
How many churches have beendivided over this one subject?
And yet, how can you divide theTrinity?
Father, Son, and Spirit areone.
They are one.
So many people have made theTrinity Father, Son, and Bible.
(11:45):
And Bible is essentiallyimportant.
It is the Word of God.
We don't look to denote it orto denounce it or to put it in a
place that it doesn't belong.
But let's not forget about theHoly Spirit of God.
Paul starts out this passage bysaying, In him you also.
Remember, last week Scottbrought to our attention that
(12:06):
Paul referred to the Jewishpeople as those who were first
to hope in Christ.
But now in this passage, hetraces the step by which the
Egyptians, sorry, not theEgyptians, the Ephesians, and
some Egyptians over time, andthe Gentiles have been brought
into union with Christ.
(12:27):
If you're a Gentile in thisplace, you should be thankful
that Paul is expressing to us inthe book of Ephesians the fact
that Christ has made us one withhim and brought us into the
family.
We have been adopted into thefamily of God.
So who did these, what didthese people do?
(12:48):
How what did they experience?
How did they respond?
First of all, it says theyheard the bot the gospel.
When you heard the word oftruth, the gospel of your
salvation, God has chosen tosave people by using the word of
God to call them.
One of the things that Ipromise you, as the lead elder
of this church, is that we arenever going to move away from
(13:09):
the word of God.
There are a lot of great thingsthat we could talk about that
may be helpful in your dailylife, but I'm telling you, we
understand that the word of Godis quick and powerful and
sharper than any two-edgedsword.
It is the word of God, by theSpirit of God, that does the
good work in each and every oneof our lives.
(13:31):
And we will never depart fromit.
Lord Jesus, help us in Jesus'name.
Romans 10 describes thisbeautifully.
How then will they call on himin whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe inhim of whom they have never
heard?
And how are they to hearwithout someone preaching?
And how are they to preachunless they are sent?
(13:53):
As it is written, how beautifulare the feet of those who
preach the good news.
But they have not all obeyedthe gospel, for Isaiah says,
Lord, who has believed what hehas heard from us.
So faith comes from hearing,and hearing through the word of
Christ.
So the work of God, the work offaith within each of our
(14:16):
hearts, comes by hearing theword of God.
Don't stop reading the Bible.
Don't stop listening to theBible.
Don't stop coming to church.
Don't stop listening to sermonsthat are in line with God's
word.
It's important to us, not justfor salvation, but for every
aspect of our Christian life.
So not only did they hear thegospel, but what else did they
(14:38):
do?
They believed.
They believed in Jesus Christ.
Having heard this message, theycommitted themselves to Christ
by a decisive act of faith.
They put their faith in thework of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus is the trueobject of their faith.
It wasn't their faith in theirown ability to believe, or their
(15:00):
own ability to changethemselves, or their own ability
to follow God.
It was their faith in theperson of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is found in Himalone.
How many of you know you cantalk about God all day long with
almost anybody and never get introuble?
But if you dare to mention thename of Jesus, demons tremble
(15:23):
and people get nervous.
There's a reason for that.
In Jesus is salvation found.
Now, if they believed, itpresupposes that they must have
repented.
Because in order to believe,you have to change something.
There has to be a change.
There would be no need forsalvation unless we needed to
(15:45):
turn away from something andturn towards someone.
Right?
Mark 1, Jesus himself says, ashe proclaims the gospel of God,
the time is fulfilled, thekingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in thegospel.
Repent and believe in thegospel.
(16:06):
So let's just get down to thevery base here.
What does the word repent mean?
Yeah, you're saying it.
It means to have a fundamentalchange of mind, heart, and
actions.
Turning away from sin andanything that separates you from
God and turning toward God.
(16:26):
How many of you can say thismorning that you have repented,
that you have turned away fromthe old way, from your old life,
and have turned toward Godthrough Jesus Christ.
And secondly, believe.
What does it mean to believe?
It means to put your completefaith and trust in Jesus Christ
(16:48):
and the good news of the gospel.
Now, we can't even get pastthis point here without bringing
the Holy Spirit into theequation.
We believe that Scriptureteaches that there is a moment
when the Holy Spirit, like thepaddles that are placed on a
person's chest in order to bringthem back after they've had a
(17:08):
heart failure, we believe thatthe Holy Spirit hits the inside
of us, the spirit that is deadto God, not just sick, but dead,
and awakens that spirit so thatwe can then repent and put our
faith in Jesus Christ.
That awakening is calledregeneration.
That is a work of the Spirit.
(17:30):
Even the faith that we exerciseourselves and the desire that
we have to repent is a gift fromGod.
How many of you tried to fixyourself before God got a hold
of you?
And how did that work for you?
It didn't work so well for me.
We need the work of God.
We are made alive to God inorder that we might believe.
(17:53):
Our willing response is thatrepentance and belief, and that
is called conversion.
That's the theological termconversion, which includes
repenting and believing.
And we also believe that if youlive any longer here on this
earth, that it's good to bebaptized as a part of that
conversion story, right?
So not only did they believe,but they also were sealed with
(18:17):
the promised Holy Spirit.
They were sealed with thepromised Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit seals us,marking us as children of God.
Sometimes I'll ask people, Whatdo you think about Jesus?
And I'll get all kinds ofvarying responses from that.
Well, he he was a he was a truehistoric figure.
(18:39):
He was a great teacher.
It seems like he was some kindof spiritual person.
He was, and then some will sayhe was he, you know, he died or
he was born on Christmas, allthose things that people will
say about Jesus.
And then I'll ask them, whatdoes Jesus say about you?
And that is a determiner rightthere.
A lot of times, where a personis in their walk with God.
(19:03):
What does Jesus say about you?
When a person trusts the LordJesus Christ through the gospel
of salvation, he or she'll sheis sealed through the Holy
Spirit of God.
Every true believer in Jesusreceives the Spirit of God as a
sign that they belong to God andare under his protection.
(19:26):
Are you thankful for that?
He claims us as his very own.
Like the indelible impression.
Think about a king who haswritten a letter and he wants it
to go specifically to someoneelse.
And so he puts that letterwithin an envelope.
He closes the envelope and heputs uh melts wax over that
(19:48):
place where the envelope closes.
And then what does he do?
He has a ring that he wears onhis finger that's called a
signet ring.
And what does he do with thatring?
He presses that into that wax.
And when he presses into thatwax, and then that letter is
taken from his presence anddelivered to whom ever it was
supposed to be.
As long as that seal has notbeen broken and that signet ring
(20:11):
mark is still in that wax, whatdoes the other person know?
That this is a legitimatecommunication that has come from
this king.
And he's marked it himself.
Friends, believers in JesusChrist have been sealed by the
King of Kings and the Lord ofLords.
(20:31):
His signet ring has been built,has been placed upon our
hearts, and we have been markedby him.
We are his.
Don't ever let Satan steal thatfrom you.
Don't ever let him lie to youabout that.
We have been marked.
We have been sealed if we aretrue believers.
(20:53):
When are we sealed?
When we're good enough, when wechange enough, when we uh you
know act right enough when wewhen we've been saved for 10
years, when we've been saved 20years, when are we sealed?
We are sealed at the point ofsalvation.
At the point of salvation, 1Corinthians 12, 13 says, For in
(21:16):
one spirit we were all baptizedinto one body, Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free, and all weremade to drink of what?
Of one spirit.
We have been baptized into thebody of Christ by the Spirit of
God.
We have been set apart, we havebeen sealed, we have been made
(21:37):
holy, and we are set apart forGod.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
This is good news.
Can you understand why we needto make sure that we're sharing
this as a part of our gospelmessage?
This is where the power lies.
This is where the changehappens.
(21:58):
In fact, that's our next point.
The proof of being sealed istrue transformation.
How many of you know that thereare many people who have prayed
a prayer of repentance at somepoint in their life, but there
has been absolutely no change,no sign of any kind of
transformation within theirhearts and their minds and their
(22:19):
actions.
They've spoken words, butnothing has been transformed.
We cannot rely upon that forsalvation, correct?
Our prayer should be a willingresponse to repentance and
belief.
Yes, we need to say the words.
Yes, we need to pray and askJesus to be our Lord and Savior.
(22:40):
Yes, we need to affirm that uhthat the old man is passed away
and old all things have becomenew.
But we can't rely just upon aprayer to be the seal upon our
hearts.
We don't place the seal, Goddoes.
God does.
You see, the the proof of beingsealed is true transformation.
(23:04):
Many times, rightfully so, I'mnot saying this is wrong, but so
many times we focus on theoutward sign of the Holy
Spirit's presence.
We want to see miracles, wewant to see healings, we want to
see signs and wonders, we wantto see demons cast out.
Well, maybe not like in ourhomes, but you know, somewhere
(23:24):
else.
We want to see uh, you know,speaking in tongues, we want to
experience God, we want to feelGod.
How many of you know all ofthose things are good?
They're good, and we shoulddesire those things.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians itsays for us to covet spiritual
gifts or earnestly desirespiritual gifts.
Nothing wrong with that.
(23:44):
We should long for that.
But if that's all that weconnect with concerning the Holy
Spirit, something is wrong.
Something is wrong.
There's more than that.
There's the inward working ofthe Holy Spirit, the work that
he does on the inside of us, thework of transformation, the
work of sanctification, where heconvicts us of sin, where he
(24:07):
changes us from the inside out,where we recognize our need to
change and where we yield tohim.
We yield to him drawing us,calling us, changing us.
Both of these things areimportant, both of these
expressions of the Spirit, bothof these works of the Spirit are
important, but only one of themis eternal.
(24:29):
Only one of them lasts forever.
As we remember in the Sermon onthe Mount that we just finished
coming through, Jesus Himselfsaid that in the last days, that
as people would stand beforehim, that there would be many
who would prophesy and cast outdemons who we would tell to
depart from him because he neverknew them.
(24:52):
They weren't sealed with thepromise, they weren't his own.
Both are important.
Please don't ever stop askingand desiring both.
But don't neglect the work ofthe spirit on the inside of us.
(25:15):
Some of the greatest miraclessitting in this room had nothing
to do with healing of thephysical body.
They had to do about who youonce were and who you are now.
You've been changed.
Don't forget, your testimony islaced with power.
Revelations, it says that theyovercame the enemy by the blood
(25:39):
of the Lamb and the word oftheir testimony, and they loved
not their lives even unto thedeath.
What is the testimony of ourlives?
It's not just that I've castout demons.
The testimony of my life isI've been changed.
I'm not the man I used to be.
(26:00):
I've been changed.
See, the proof of the Spirit'spresence is his operation on the
heart, which produces thingslike real repentance, like
husbands that say to theirwives, I'm sorry, I shouldn't
have said that, I shouldn't havedone that like that.
I'm wrong.
Would you please forgive me?
It's it produces realrepentance.
(26:23):
It produces the fruit of theSpirit.
Galatians 5 22.
Love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness,
faithfulness, self-control.
I think that's all I'll have tocheck with my three-year-old
granddaughter to confirm.
She can quote them like crazy.
But all of those things comefrom the inside.
We can pretend them, canpretend to love, or pretend to
(26:48):
have joy, or pretend to havepeace, or try to work it up in
our own strength.
But how many of you know it'sfleeting?
It's here today and gonetomorrow.
The fruit of the Spiritremains.
And not only does it remainwithin our lives, the nations
come to us and eat from the treeof the fruit that is growing in
our lives.
Holy Spirit's operationconforms us to God's commands
(27:15):
and his will.
He changes our desires, hechanges our passions.
Instead of uh the passions forthe things of this world, he
gives us passion for prayer andpassion for praise, passion for
worship, passion for loving God,and passion for loving people.
This is the work of the Spirit.
(27:38):
This is the greattransformative work of the
indwelling of the Spirit.
And Paul wanted theseEphesians, the the this church
of Ephesus, and all of thechurches that this letter would
be distributed to, to understandthe depths of the importance of
the work of the Spirit in thetransformation of their lives
(27:59):
and of their city and of theirnation.
We cannot change the worldaround us without the Holy
Spirit.
Our Heavenly Father promised usthat the Spirit would bring
about this amazingtransformation.
Look at Ezekiel 36.
(28:19):
And I will give you a new heartand a new spirit, and I will
put within you, and I willremove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heartof flesh.
And I will put my spirit withinyou and cause you to walk in my
statutes and be careful to obeymy rules.
Why would he put his spiritwithin us?
(28:40):
So that we would be obedient.
So that we would be obedient,so that we would change, so that
the Ten Commandments would nolonger be laborious or something
that's difficult for us, but itwould be something that that we
lean into, that we desire.
Spirit of God does work thatnothing else on this earth can
(29:06):
do.
Religion tells you grab abigger hammer and break up the
stones of your heart.
How many of you know that neverworks?
It never works.
I don't care how finely dustedyou create the stones within
your heart, they're stillstones.
They have to be made intoflesh.
(29:27):
And what does God do?
God breathes by his spirit intothat heart of stone and causes
it to be transformed into aheart of flesh where we can live
and breathe and have our being.
Jesus made it clear that it wasessential for the Holy Spirit
(29:50):
to come in John 14.
And I will ask the Father, andHe will give you another helper
to be with you forever, even thespirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because itneither Neither sees him nor
knows him.
You know him, for he dwellswith you, and what will be in
you.
The same spirit that raisedChrist from the dead dwells in
(30:15):
us as believers.
This is the part of the gospelthat we must remind ourselves of
on a daily basis.
All of it, all of it, but don'tleave this part out.
John 16 7, Jesus goes on.
I'm sure his disciples weremurmuring among themselves, what
(30:37):
is he talking about?
He doesn't need to leave us.
We need him to stay.
He needs to stay.
Nevertheless, I tell you thetruth, Jesus says, it is to your
advantage that I go away, forif I do not go away, the helper
will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him toyou.
Jesus told his disciples, it'sbetter for you that I go away so
(31:04):
that I can send the HolySpirit, not just to be with you,
but to live on the inside ofyou.
Now here's the problem.
I'm sure you're all thinkingit.
Evan brought it up as he wastalking about communion.
We live in an already and notyet kingdom reality.
(31:26):
What I mean by that is we knowthat the price has been paid by
Jesus completely for us to walkin freedom from sin and all of
its horrible effects.
The price has been paid.
Jesus defeated sin, hell, andthe grave.
We know this.
Believers in Jesus understand,we can understand in this life
(31:50):
what it means to be free fromthe power of sin.
Sin no longer has dominion overus.
How many of you know we can sayyes to God and say no to sin?
Not preaching perfection, butI'm preaching holiness.
We are to be holy as He isholy.
(32:10):
Our desire, the evidence of theHoly Spirit dwelling on the
inside of us is to have a desireto continue to walk away from
sin and to walk toward God andto be obedient towards Him.
How many of you know also weare now today as believers in
(32:31):
Jesus, we exist in the realitythat the penalty of sin has been
removed.
No longer are we destined foreternal separation from God, no
longer are we destined to uhlive out our existence for all
of eternity in hell.
We have been born again.
(32:52):
The penalty of our sin has beenplaced upon Jesus Christ, and
He's given us as our substituteHis life in the place of what we
deserve.
We have by the ability of againto say no to sin and yes to
God.
We still live in a fallen worldwhere the presence of sin is
(33:15):
absolute.
So we're free from the power ofsin and we're free from the
penalty of sin.
But how many of you know sin isstill around us?
It creeps at our door, itknocks on the door, it's all
around us, it screams at us,sometimes it whispers at us, it
entices us, it tries to draw usin.
(33:36):
But we also realize that whatthe scripture is saying is that
the Holy Spirit was given to usto be able to stand in the evil
day, to be able to stand againsttemptation, to be able to stand
and walk as believers in JesusChrist until the point in time
(33:56):
when Jesus will return.
We'll talk about that.
I don't want to get ahead ofthe story here.
So next, the Holy Spirit is ourguarantee.
He is our security, who is theguarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession ofit.
The Spirit of God is not only afulfillment of God's promise to
(34:19):
indwell his people, but also isa guarantee that he will bring
them to their final inheritance.
Did you hear me?
The Holy Spirit and the sealthat he places upon our life is
a seal of security, it's a downpayment of sorts or a first
installment on our fullredemption.
(34:40):
The Spirit is a foretaste ofthe glory of the age to come.
It's good news.
I used to be in real estate.
One of the things that you haveto have in order to have a
contract is you have somethingcalled earnest money.
Earnest money is a money thatis put forth as a down payment
(35:02):
on a piece of property.
It means that you want them tohold that property for you until
the time that you close on thatproperty.
It also means that you promisethere's more money to come.
How many of you know thatearnest money is not the entire
amount of the purchase ofwhatever it is that you're
buying, right?
But it is saying, I am going tobuy this piece of property, and
(35:23):
here's the proof of that.
I'm giving you this deposit,I'm giving you this earnest
money.
The Holy Spirit of God is ourdown payment.
He is our earnest money.
He has been given as a pledgeand a token that there is more
to follow in the way ofspiritual blessings.
This is good news.
(35:48):
But there's much more to come.
There is much more to come.
You see, those who are trulysealed by the Spirit will endure
to the end.
We will endure to the end if weare sealed by the Spirit.
This is God's work, not ourown.
(36:09):
Aren't you thankful for that?
If my salvation was based on myown ability, you might as well
just give me a ticket to hell.
I'm not even joking, I'mserious.
I can't do it.
I'm not I'm not capable ofdoing it.
But how many of you realizethat we can have blessed
(36:31):
assurance based on the goodnessof God and his ability in us to
do what we can't do in our ownstrength?
Philippians 1, 6 is such anencouragement.
And I'm sure of this, that hewho began a good work in you
will bring it to completion atthe day of Jesus Christ.
God is not somebody who stops aproject before it's finished.
(36:54):
He's the beginning and the end.
He completes the work that hestarts on.
If he has truly begun a goodwork in you, he will bring it to
completion.
Put your faith, hope, and trustin him.
(37:16):
Our inheritance is eternal lifewith God.
We shouldn't be looking forwardto a destination.
So many people look forward toheaven, and heaven is an amazing
place.
And we've had people recentlywho have transitioned from this
life to the next.
And how many of you knowthey're very much alive today?
They're very much alive.
(37:37):
And they're in the presence ofGod in heaven.
Heaven is an amazing place.
It's a wonderful place.
We shouldn't negate that atall.
But as much as we're, we weshould we should look forward
more to be you being united withGod Himself.
1 Peter 1, blessed be the Godand Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to his greatmercy, he has caused us to be
(38:00):
born again to a living hopethrough the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, toan inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, andunfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power arebeing guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealedin the last time.
In this you rejoice, though nowfor a little while, if
(38:23):
necessary, you have been grievedby various trials, so that the
tested genuineness of yourfaith, more precious than gold,
that perishes though it be istested by fire, may be found to
result in praise and glory andhonor at the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Though you have not seen him,you love him.
(38:44):
Though you do not see him now,you believe in him and rejoice
with joy that is inexpressibleand filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, thesalvation of your soul.
This is the good news.
You see, we will be fullytransformed at the time of
(39:05):
Christ's return.
We're talking about blessedassurance.
Some people are going to askthe question does he believe in
once saved, always saved?
Here's my answer to that.
Once truly saved, once alwayssaved.
If a person is truly bornagain, truly transformed by the
work of the Holy Spirit, theHoly Spirit has moved on the
(39:28):
inside of them, taken upresidence within them.
If he has marked them like aseal upon an envelope, they are
we are his.
We are his.
Now, unfortunately, there aremany people who have tried to
jump the line on that, and whohave attempted to get to God on
(39:50):
their own, in their ownstrength, by being good enough,
by doing enough, by prayingenough, by going to church
enough, by whatever it is.
And yet they are their liveshave not been marked, they have
not been transformed.
And here's the reality of allof it God's the only one who
knows.
It's a mystery.
It's a mystery.
(40:11):
So live your life.
Let's live our lives like Jesusmight come back today.
Somebody mentioned to me thatthere was this rumor going
around uh social media, I guess,last week that Jesus was going
to return.
I think it was last Sunday.
And uh, you know, the firstthing I did when I heard that,
(40:31):
Father, I ask that you'd forgiveme for any unknown sins,
anything that I'm not aware of.
I want to be ready.
I want to be ready.
I want to be current.
I don't want to be running fromGod.
I want to be walking with him,talking with him.
I want to be in rightrelationship with him.
Amen.
Let's not test the edges inhopes that we'll be saved in the
(40:58):
end.
Let's come all the way in.
Let's come all the way in.
Let's walk with God and talkwith him.
We will be fully transformed atthe tr time of Christ's return.
1 Corinthians 15, and the theworship team can come on up if
you'd like, and we'll we'll getready to finish this.
Behold, I tell you a mystery.
Listen to these words withhope.
(41:18):
We shall not all sleep, but weshall all be changed in a
moment, in the twinkling of aneye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, andthe dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall bechanged.
For this perishable body mustput on the imperishable, and
(41:40):
this mortal body must put onimmortality.
When the perishable puts on theimperishable, and the mortal
puts on immortality, then shallcome to pass the saying that is
written Death is swallowed up invictory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, andthe power of sin is the law.
(42:04):
But thanks be to God who givesus the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers,be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of theLord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain.
My friends, let's not beexcited about a place.
(42:27):
Let's be excited about aperson.
We're going to get to see himface to face.
And the Holy Spirit of God isthe one who saves us, keeps us,
helps us, transforms us, and oneday will usher us into the very
(42:48):
presence of our Lord andSavior, Jesus Christ.
Paul, in finishing thisrefrain, he can't help himself
but just to say to the praise ofhis glory.
God is the only one whodeserves the praise, the honor,
(43:08):
and the glory for his great workof salvation.
You see, the reality is thatall of us deserve to be
alienated from God.
We deserved to be left undoneand wrecked by sin and guilt and
(43:30):
shame.
We were all condemned to dieand to live eternity apart from
God.
The fact that God chooses tosave anybody is the miracle.
That's the greatest miracle ofall.
What great love the Father hasfor us that he would be willing
(43:56):
to lay down his life, to sendhis one and only begotten Son to
die for each and every one ofus.
As we close this morning, Ifelt led just to ask a couple of
things.
First thing is, if you're herethis morning, and you know
(44:19):
beyond a shadow of a doubt thatyou have not yet been marked by
God, that you have not beensealed by the Holy Spirit, that
you are not experiencing what itfeels like to have the Holy
Spirit living on the inside ofyou, warning you, helping you,
strengthening you, teaching you,healing you.
(44:40):
I'm here to tell you today thatyou're not here by accident.
You're not listening to thisonline by accident.
God loves you.
And he put this word in hisscriptures and in my heart to
share with you today so that youcould respond.
So that you could respond.
Not to me, not to Tyler, but toJesus Christ.
(45:06):
So if you're here this morningand you're ready to recognize
your need for change, to changeyour heart, change your mind,
change your direction, andyou're ready to put your faith,
hope, and trust in Jesus Christand the work that He did and
finished for you.
And you're ready to ask thatthe Holy Spirit of God would
(45:26):
come in and mark you and sealyou and secure you for all of
eternity.
I'm going to ask that you wouldjust stand to your feet right
now.
If that's you here this morningand you're ready for this and
you're not assured yet of thisgreat work being done in your
life, would you just stand toyour feet?
I promise you that all of theother people in this room are
(45:48):
going to rejoice with you.
There's nobody that's going tobe uh talking about you or
whispering.
There's only going to be peoplethat are praying for you and
that are rejoicing with you thatyou have made this decision to
respond to what the Holy Spiritis quickening in your heart even
now.
You're feeling like you're onfire on the inside.
(46:10):
You feel this like this thing,like you feel like you're going
to explode if you don't dosomething, if you don't respond
in some way.
I'm here to tell you, that'snot you.
That's not a feeling in theroom.
It's actually fairly cool inhere this morning.
That which you're feeling onthe inside of you is the work of
(46:32):
grace.
It's the work of God callingyou to himself, calling you to
himself.
If that's you, would you juststand to your feet?
Would you stand to your feetand declare before God and
everyone else, I am ready thisday to acknowledge Jesus as my
Savior and Lord?
(46:53):
Just gonna give you a moment.
Just gonna give you a moment.
There's no rush.
We're not in a hurry thismorning.
We don't have to finish at acertain time.
We want God to do his work.
Lord, would you do what onlyyou can do?
Would you do what only you cando?
Would you change hearts in thisroom?
(47:17):
Jesus' name.
We're gonna leave that callopen for just a minute.
I'm gonna move on to somethingelse as well, but just know your
time hasn't left.
If you're still feeling thatthing on the inside of you, just
(47:37):
respond.
Just respond.
We just want to pray with you.
We just want to pray with youand encourage you.
We just want to love on you andlet you know that we're with
you.
We're gonna walk with you onthis journey.
So this is open to you.
Secondly, I also want toacknowledge the fact that even
(47:59):
though we may be sealed by theHoly Spirit and we may be called
as children of God, there aretimes in all of our journeys
where we find ourselves furtheraway from Him than we need to
be.
Like I said before, coloringoutside of the lines, dancing on
the edges instead of beingclose to his heart.
(48:21):
And so I want to give us anopportunity today to repent of
that.
Repentance isn't a once anddone thing.
It is once and done when itcomes to salvation, but
repentance is a continual partof the grace that God gives us
to clear out all of the thingsthat try to keep us away from
(48:44):
Him.
So if you're ready this morningto acknowledge that you need
to, that you want to step backin the direction of Him, that
you want to turn back around,that you acknowledge your need
for change and to be restored toright relationship with Him.
That's you, would you stand toyour feet this morning?
(49:05):
Just stand to your feet.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's others in the room,would you just stand?
Again, I'm not in a hurry thismorning.
I want to give God all theopportunity he wants to be able
to work within each and everyheart.
Just stand to your feet.
That's you.
(49:26):
I need this day to return tothe God of my salvation.
I want the joy to be restoredin my life.
I'm tired of trying to do it onmy own.
I'm failing and I need somehelp.
Father, I just pray right nowfor all of those that are
(49:49):
standing right now in Jesus'name.
And those that are online aswell.
Father, I thank you that yourgrace is sufficient.
And Father, I pray that eventhis day, that there would be
the ability given by you to beable to turn, be able to turn
back towards you, recognizing,Lord, that you're right there.
(50:10):
You're right there waiting.
You haven't gone anywhere.
You haven't left us or forsakenus.
You're as close as the mentionof your name.
And so, Lord, we call out onthe name of Jesus today.
And we ask, Father, that youwould help each of us on our
journeys to come closer to you,to recognize the desire of our
(50:35):
hearts that the Holy Spirit putswithin us to be close to you,
to be in union with you, torecognize that we are in Christ
and Christ is in us.
We pray that in Jesus' name.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Jesus.
(50:55):
And now if we could all juststand.
Those who are able.
And I'm going to ask one of thethings that I just read the
book of Acts again, and one ofthe things that I love about the
book of Acts is that the samepeople that experienced the day
(51:19):
of Pentecost and were filledwith power from on high by the
Holy Spirit asked over and overagain to be filled with the
Spirit, to be given boldness andcourage for walking out their
faith in a hostile environment.
So I'm going to pray thismorning.
(51:40):
And if this is you and you'reready to receive, I ask that you
would just lift your hands uptowards God and just receive the
Holy Spirit.
A fresh filling of the HolySpirit of God.
Father, in Jesus' name, I prayfor every single person whose
heart is drawn to you right now.
(52:00):
Father, I thank you that yourword says that you desire for
the Spirit of God to dwell onthe inside of us.
And also, Lord, that we shouldbe being filled with the Holy
Spirit, that we should be filledwith the Spirit of God.
And so right now, in Jesus'name, we ask you, anew and
(52:22):
fresh, Lord God, would you fillus with your Holy Spirit and
fire?
Be filled with the Holy Spiritof God.
And Father, I ask that as anoutworking of being filled with
the Spirit, that we would begiven boldness and courage to
(52:45):
preach the gospel of JesusChrist, to stand up in faith and
to put our trust in you.
Lord God, that no matter what'shappening around us in this
world, that our hope is in you,Lord Jesus.
I also ask, Father, that youwould awaken the gifts of the
Spirit that are that you desireto be activated within each of
(53:08):
our lives.
Father, for the benefit of thebody of Christ and also to reach
those who don't yet know you.
Father, stir us up.
Stir us up on the inside sothat we might have a powerful
effect in the outside world.
We thank you for these things.
(53:30):
And Lord, we lift up your name,we glorify you, Father.
And we sing this song ofworship to you because you
deserve it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Let's worship together.
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