Bold Applications of Gospel Ministry

How are we doing? This guy got one answer.

How was it? One person. One person. Good. Good. Good, good, good. Take out your Bibles with me, please.

! And turn to Ephesians chapter 3. See, we're going to be looking at just two verses today. Two encouraging verses, I think.

Two boldly encouraging verses. That are the application of all that Paul's been talking about so far in Ephesians chapter 3.

What do we do with all that he's been telling us about the ministry of the gospel, the mystery of the Christ? How do we apply these things? What is its purpose for us today?

So I want to read the text and then ask the Lord for help and then we'll dig in. Okay, if you're able, please stand with me. As I read from Ephesians chapter 3, beginning of verse 1 through verse 13.

For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.

And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of the Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit.

Excuse me. To be specific, what's this mystery? That the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power.

To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the ministry, which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.

Hidden why? In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose, which he carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.

Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.

They are your glory. So reads the holy word of God. Let us pray. Father, in this time, grant us minds to focus on these applications, hearts to receive it, be encouraged by them, and fill our souls with joy and peace because of these magnificent truths.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. So last week, I called your attention to remember Moses when he asked the Lord to show him glory, to show Moses wanted to see the Lord.

He wanted to see the glory of the Lord, the full glory. Remember? Well, let's remember a different account of Moses, a different encounter of Moses, and we can look at Moses because in the Old Testament, Moses is absolutely unique.

He is unlike any other man because he, without sacrifices, went to speak to the Lord face to face.

Nobody else did that. So he was a unique individual. So he has a unique experience. So I want you to remember, I want you to remember Moses' first encounter with God.

His very first encounter, when God appeared to him in a burning bush. Remember that. And what did God say to Moses when he appeared in that bush?

He said, take off your shoes. Or your sandals in that case. Why? You're standing on holy ground.

Where I am is holy. You're standing on holy ground, which means there's the very presence of God. And Moses' reaction, he hides his face.

And he is afraid. He is afraid. Why does God appear to him that way? Why does God want Moses to have that kind of response?

Well, let's remember also Israel's first encounter as a nation. Their first encounter with the presence of God was at Mount Sinai. Now you might say they had encounters before that with the pillar of fire and the cloud, right, and the presence.

Well, this was a little different. When they came before God on the mountain, remember the mountain, there was thunder. There were lightnings.

There was a thick cloud. There was smoke like a furnace because the Lord had descended in fire. There was a voice like a loud trumpet.

And what was Israel's response? Fear. Trembling. Moses, you talk to him.

We're going to go way over here. What is it like to approach a holy God? The tabernacle, when God set up a whole system for them to approach him, he set up a tabernacle, right, that had a cloth around so you couldn't see in, that had the holy place, and then a holy of holies, right?

There was a progression through the tabernacle where only the priest could go in and then only the high priest once a year. There were strict procedures and restrictions and warnings to be fearful about approaching the Lord wrongly.

The communication of the Old Testament is fear, threat, stay out, stay alive. That was a sign on the fence when I was a youth pastor in Bakersfield where the river, you know, it was a class five river.

Stay out, stay alive, right? And I think that applies to the Lord in the Old Testament. Stay away, stay alive. Or consider Aaron's sons when they began to minister.

And in one incident, I believe it's Numbers 10, they decided let's make this special. Let's make worship a little more special.

Let's add something special to it. We want to worship the Lord, and so let's come up with some new ideas. And so they created something called Strange Fire. And do you remember what happened to Aaron's sons?

They were struck dead. And poor Aaron lost his sons. And what was the Lord's response to Aaron?

Aaron, I will be treated as holy. I will be treated as holy. Which means you approach me the way I say you approach me.

You don't come by your own ideas. You don't make up your own kinds of worship. You approach me the way I tell you to approach you. This is the Old Testament. Fear, threat, restrictions.

How do you approach a God of consuming fire? So in the New Testament, is God different? Is He no longer a God of consuming fire?

Yeah, He is. Hebrews says, our God is a consuming fire. He's still holy. He's still fearsome.

When the disciples recognized who Jesus was after He calmed the storm and the sea, what did they do? They fell on their faces and said, who is this?

Who is this? Who tells the wind to stop? Who stills the roaring sea with a word?

The Creator does. So how do you approach a God of consuming fire? That's what we're thinking about. That's the context of the Bible. Well, Paul answers that here in chapter 3, verse 12.

I want you to remember the context that Paul has been interrupted. He starts to pray, right? Verse 1, for this reason, which he picks up later in verse 14, right?

For this reason, I bow my knees. So he says, for this reason, and then he stops and he says, I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, right? He wants to tell them about this ministry that he has and the importance of the gospel ministry.

He talks about how he was given a stewardship that God entrusted to him to pass on to the church this mystery of the Christ that the gospel was revealed to him by Jesus himself, that this was something that was not revealed in the Old Testament.

It was not revealed before until Jesus came. Everything changed when Jesus came. When the Son of God came, things changed. And so there's this gospel.

What is the gospel? Do we remember that? Remember the gospel has four parts. What's the gospel? What's the first part of the gospel? God. Why is God the first part of the gospel? Because if you don't understand God, if you have a wrong view of God, you will never understand the gospel.

You have a right view of God as this God of consuming fire, as this creator to whom we all owe everything, who has given us all that we have.

So that's the first. And then what? After God, after we know that God is a God of mercy and kindness and compassion, but he's also a God of holiness and justice, then what comes next in the gospel?

Man. And who is man compared to God? Sin. Right? Falling far short. So we're in trouble. We're in trouble. Then what's the third part?

Christ. What's the remedy for our ruin? Jesus Christ. Who is the one that can save us and bring us into fellowship with this holy God? Jesus Christ.

How can he do that? By living a righteous life that no one else has ever lived by keeping all the holy commandments and then dying in our place.

And so he takes our sins and he gives to us his perfect righteousness. And so now we're able to come to God. What's the last part of the gospel though? We have God, man, Christ, response, or faith.

Response of faith. How do we receive this great? We're saved by grace alone. God acts first, right? Through faith alone. In Christ alone.

to the glory of God alone according to the scriptures alone. So faith. We receive it by faith. We don't make it happen.

We receive it by faith. Paul highlights two things in verses 8 and 9. He talks about the message is an unsearchable riches or unfathomable riches of Christ.

And his message also is to give light to this mystery. verse 10 and 11, the purpose. He tells us the purpose, why the mystery was hidden. It was hidden, this is a surprise, it was hidden to now display God's wisdom through the church to who?

The rulers and the authorities on earth and the heavenlies. So that's a mysterious thing. So in other words, the rulers and the authorities in the heavens are watching the church.

which is the body of believers and what they see in the body of believers is God's wisdom. What no one would ever have thought of.

How God saves and brings rebellious sinners into his holy presence through Christ. Including Gentiles.

That's the biggest mystery. We knew Jews were God's children. But he's bringing others who are not Jewish, who are not part of that. They're actually Abraham's children because of their faith.

Not because of their heritage. So, that's where we've gone. Now, what difference does all that make? Okay? Some of that's confusing. I get it.

That's one long sentence. We're reading of Paul again from chapter 3 verses 1 through 12. One long sentence. But what's he getting to?

So, where does it meet the road with us? What difference does it make? How do we apply this stuff? I mean, it's nice to know that, but what is he leading us to? So, two applications, two implications of the gospel ministry.

Paul draws two important applications applications of that gospel ministry and mystery for believers. And both of them have to do with giving us confidence.

First of all, verse 12, confidence to approach a holy God. It gives us confidence to approach a holy God without fear.

Not like Moses' fear. Not like the Israelites' fear. Not like the tabernacle ministry where you can only come so far and you have to go through priests.

But now, here's the great mystery that's revealed is now we don't need priests to go to God. I don't need anybody between me and the Father except Jesus Himself. And guess who helps us through that?

The Holy Spirit. So we know the Trinity. We approach the Father in Jesus' name with the help and encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

So, first of all, and then secondly, we'll see in verse 13, this is different. Second application, we have confidence when we suffer. There's confidence in our suffering because then our suffering is our glory.

That sounds strange, doesn't it? Our suffering becomes glory. So it's a forward-looking thing. So the first one, verse 12, is a present thing we can approach God with confidence.

Secondly, is about a perspective. When we go through trials, we go through afflictions, we go through suffering, we go through hardship, we go through things we don't understand, Paul is saying that that suffering is your glory.

What is happening? All right, so that sounds pretty good though. All right, so we'll get to that. Okay, first of all, verse 12. Believers, Christians, have confidence that Jesus brings us boldly to God.

All believers have confidence, can have confidence, should have confidence that Jesus brings us boldly to God. So I want you to notice the terms here in verse 12.

There's three terms, three robust words to describe this. He says boldness, he says confident access.

Boldness, access, confidence. Boldness. So the boldness can be applied to speech or to action. When it's applied to speech, it means to be outspoken.

You know anybody that's outspoken? You know anybody that's easy for them to speak up and they're absolutely certain about what they say? That's boldness.

Might not be wisdom, but it's boldness. Boldness, it's outspoken. So there's an it's the idea of an absence of restriction. You know, just bold, just go for it.

And so it applied to here coming without fear of rejection. So it's the idea of to boldly approach the Father without fear of rejection.

No matter your condition. No matter your state of mind. No matter how dirty you are. to come without fear of rejection, to come without doubt, to come without hesitation, to come without shame, to come freely.

Okay, wow, okay. Whew. Secondly, he says we have access. The word means to bring to or to be led to.

So this is why I say that Jesus brings us. Jesus gives us access. He leads us to approach God. It's kind of like access is kind of like the right of admission, the privilege of admission.

It's the concept that you are assured of acceptance. So if you go to a concert, say, you go to something, you have a ticket, you know, I got assurance of admission.

I got the ticket. If I go without the ticket, how am I getting in? Right? But I got assurance. I'm not worried about standing in a long line and climbing a long hill, you know, if you're going up to Red Rocks, something, 18-mile trek up there, and then you get all the way up there and say, sorry, no, wrong ticket.

Or no ticket. So, I don't mean to say our access before God is like a ticket, but you get the idea that we have assurance.

Because we have the Jesus is our ticket, in other words, much more than that. Jesus is our access. That's what it means to come in Christ. So what is it that gives us this bold access?

Well, there's two phrases, one at the beginning of verse 12, and one at the end. verse 12 begins with two words. What are they? In whom? Or in him? In whom?

In him we have boldness and confident access. In him. In whom? Crossed. Right? So in whom, that's the relative phrase that goes back to the statement at the end of verse 11, right?

He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. In whom? In Jesus Christ our Lord. In him we have boldness and confident access.

Him. Why? Why in him do we have bold access? So picture the old tabernacle, right? Or the old, say the Holy of Holies way over there and we're Gentiles and we just kind of come inside the tent where they're selling stuff and where, you know, everybody can gather.

It's okay. And then you come to a wall. You came to a wall on that temple mount that said, basically, stay out, stay alive, Gentiles.

You do not dare cross this for fear of death. Now, if you're a Jewish woman, you can cross that barrier. If you're a Jewish man, you can go a little closer.

If you happen to be of the tribe of Levi, you can go all the way to the holy place. And if you're selected like John the Baptist father, if you have the right rotation, you can go inside that holy place and do the candles and do the bread and do the incense, right?

You can go in there. But you don't go through the other veil. There's still one more veil where the holy of holies is, where the, what's in there?

one piece furniture. The Ark of the Covenant, right? With the cherubim above it and the holy, and inside that Ark is the law, the two tablets, and Aaron's staff, right?

Reminders. Significant that the law is inside and the high priest goes once a year and pours blood over that mercy seat, which does not take away sins, it simply covers them temporarily and reminds us.

Hebrews 10 talks about the law does not take away our sins. There's nothing in the law, no Old Testament sacrifice can take away our sins. They only cover them and they only remind us.

There's only one thing that God has given us that takes away sin. And He's not a thing, He's a son. He's a Savior. So, what did Jesus do when He died on the cross?

Remember that wall? He took that wall out. So Gentiles come all the way, but He did more than that. He actually took the veil out.

Matthew tells us when He died on the cross, at the moment that He died, darkness, and the veil was split from top. to bottom.

That's a thick, I don't remember how thick, but it's a thick veil. It's not like tearing paper, which was symbolic that it's open now, come into the presence of God.

I'm going to read a verse in a minute that will talk about that. And then we come with confidence, which that word can mean in the base sense persuaded. I come because I'm persuaded.

I have confidence because I'm persuaded. I trust and rely on something because I'm certain about it. I'm convicted about it that I can approach. I'm persuaded that I can come.

So he says, in whom we have boldness and confident access. We have this persuaded conviction that I have access through faith that I can approach freely and boldly.

And then he says, how do I have that? Again, he adds it on the other end. So at the beginning of verse 12, it's in whom we have boldness and confident access. And we have boldness and confident access through faith.

What? In him again. In him. So it's because of him that we can go and it's also our faith in him. So it's our active faith in him that brings us boldly.

We don't just kind of march in because, oh yeah, I remember I can just come to the father. You know, it's a trivial thing. I can just come to the law. It's not. I come by faith in Christ. Because he has fulfilled the law.

Do you remember the story of Jacob and Esau and when Jacob stole the blessing from Esau? Remember that story? Remember how Jacob, now Esau was daddy's favorite, right?

Because he was the man's man. He was the hunter. He was the outdoor guy. And Isaac really loved savory food. And I think he drooled every time he said, savory food. I said to my picture of Isaac, he's not a real big hero.

Because he's always laying in bed. But, so Jacob wants to come in. He wants to steal. He's the heel grabber. He wants to steal that blessing. He already stole the birthright because Esau didn't care.

He sold it. Now he wants a blessing. The blessing is everything. The blessing of the father to the son is everything. Especially when you're a patriarch like Abraham and Isaac.

So he wants Isaac to pray over him. So how did he trick his father? Remember his father's blind. So what does Isaac do to trick him? Yeah, he gets one of Esau's coats.

It's real furry. Because remember Esau means hairy, red hairy. He's like a I don't know what he's like. He's a hairy guy. Why didn't they call him hairy?

So yeah, so his father can't see but he wants to touch his arm, right? So Esau's got this coat that smells and feels like Esau.

And so his father, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it smells like Esau. Looks, you know, walks like a duck, talks like, you know, and so he gave the blessing.

So that's a great illustration of Christ and us. Jesus gives us his clothes to go before the father.

He's given us his righteousness so his righteousness is like that coat we wear as we go before the father. So when we go, we're not tricking the father, we're just going before the father and he sees Christ in us.

Because of Christ we go. I like that picture because it's like, you know, he's given us this new cloak, this new coat to wear that brings us to Christ.

So Christians can come to the father boldly, freely, fearlessly because of Christ. So here's, listen to how Paul describes it in Hebrews 10, 10, 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

So he's talking about that's a picture of the temple. We can go right into the holy places. Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, through that veil of the holy of holies, that is through his flesh.

So Paul is saying, or excuse me, Hebrew writer Barnabas is saying that the veil is a picture of the body of Christ. So when the body was crucified, the veil was split.

So because of Christ's death, in other words, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, meaning Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.

There it is. So why can we draw near to the Father? We go because of Christ, we go because of his death, we go in full assurance of faith with our hearts having already been sprinkled clean by his death from an evil conscience, and our bodies having already been washed with pure water.

In other words, we're still walking in the light of God through his word. in confession, like John 1 says, we confess our sins, right? And he forgives us our ongoing sins.

Let us, since then, let us therefore hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promises faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love.

That's interesting. First we're approaching God, but then the other part that we must always remember is that we have a ministry to one another because we're a body. It's not just about me and Jesus.

It's about me and Jesus, yeah, but that's so that I can go this way, so that I can go and stir up my brothers and sisters to love and good deeds. Let us consider how clearly I got to think about how am I going to stir up James?

How am I going to motivate that guy? Right? Think through how we stir him up to love and good deeds so everybody, I'm thinking everybody's different, right? So Diane's going to take a whole different motivation than James is and Margo, for goodness sakes, right?

And me, oh my goodness, you've got to pray hard to figure out how to stir this guy up to love and good deeds. Not neglecting to meet together. That's so bottom line, we've got to be together.

We've got to be together to do this. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Focusing on the body. So when you come to God in prayer, do you hesitate? Do you have any hesitation? Do you have any doubts? Do you feel restrained by guilt and shame?

I mean, that can do it mentally for us, can't it? Emotionally. I can feel like I'm so unworthy. Right? The devil, that's the devil's fiery darts, right? You shouldn't come.

You can't come. You're not worthy. You're not holy enough. You don't deserve this. Right? That's easy stuff. That's why we have a shield of faith. No, no, no. No, I can come.

I come in faith. I don't come in duty. I come in faith. I don't come because I'm worthy. I come in faith because Jesus has given me access. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he taught us in the upper room in John 14, 15, 16, he said several times, ask in my name.

Before you didn't do that, but now that Jesus was leaving, he's preparing them how to pray. Pray in my name. What does that mean? It's not a magic phrase that we tag on the end of the prayer, though we do that.

That's not wrong to do that. but actually it would be more right to put that phrase at the front of our prayer. Father, I approach you in the name of Jesus.

Because my name's not, I don't approach God because I'm Bill. I approach God, I approach my father because of my elder brother in Jesus' name.

And that's what Jesus said. Come in my name. Talk to the father in my name. So he taught us to pray to the father in his name with the help of the spirit. That's our prayer.

Is it wrong to pray to Jesus? No, no, of course not. It's easier to teach children to do that perhaps, but theologically what he's taught us is father.

We address the father in the name of Jesus and we're conscious of that's why I can come so freely. That's why I can come at any time. I can come no matter how dirty I am.

No matter how long since the last time I talked to him is. Ever had that guilt? I haven't talked to God for a while. Okay, why bother?

I'm not worthy. Why listen to the devil? So come. I wanted to look at a hymn that we sing sometimes.

It's called Arise, my soul, arise. It's written by Charles Wesley. Who else writes so well? It says, Arise, my soul, arise. I'm stirring myself up. Arise, my soul, arise.

Shake off thy guilty fears. the bleeding sacrifice on my behalf appears. Before the throne, my surety, my Jesus, my sure one, my certain one stands.

Before the throne, my surety stands. My name is written on his hands. He ever lives above for me to intercede his all redeeming love, his precious blood to bleed, his blood atoned for all our race, his blood atoned for all our race, and sprinkles now the throne of God, like sprinkling in the Holy of Holies.

Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me.

Forgive him, oh, forgive him, they cry, forgive him, oh, forgive, they cry, nor let that ransom sinner die.

My God has reconciled, his pardoning voice I hear, he owns me for his child, I can no longer fear, with confidence I now draw nigh, with confidence I now draw nigh, and Father, Abba, Father, cry.

Wesley did incredible work for us to sing. So, Christians have confidence that Jesus brings us boldly to the Father.

So, it also applies to suffering. Not only do we have confidence to draw boldly before the Father, but Christians, believers, have confidence that suffering brings us to glory.

That suffering brings us to glory. This is what God wants. Right? Like Jesus, we walk in Jesus' steps, suffering first, glories to follow.

Suffering now, exaltation after. Look at all the saints. They went through this. Joseph went through this.

Moses went through this. David went through this. They all suffered first before they were elevated. That is the pattern that we walk in.

But here's a different perspective on this now. To believe and trust that we have confidence that our suffering, that the church's suffering brings us to glory.

So note verse 13 now. Therefore, if you have the ESV, I think the word is so. Right? So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, apply this.

Now we have this. So he draws a second implication here. And note that he's going to be coming full circle because the prayer he started in verse 1, he's going to finally get to in verse 14.

Right? So, therefore, as a prisoner, he suffers. Right? Paul is, when he's writing this letter of Ephesians, he's in Rome, he's suffering in that dank, dark dungeon down under where it's damp and dark.

But he's writing letters or he's reciting letters. And as a prisoner, he's suffering. He says, I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Even though Rome has made him a prisoner, his perspective is Jesus makes me because it's whatever Jesus says is what happens. So, as a prisoner, he's suffering affliction, he's suffering distress, tribulation pressures.

And so, he wants his readers to understand. He wants them to not lose heart because here's our leader, Paul, here's the guy that teaches us, here's the guy that brought us the gospel, and he's in prison.

He's suffering. So, that doesn't look good from the outside. Right? So, he wants them to understand. I'm the prisoner, yes, but I'm not a prisoner of Rome, I'm a prisoner of Jesus.

So, if Jesus wants me out, I'm out. So, don't worry, don't lose heart about that aspect, about my suffering. So, he asked them not lose heart.

It's actually an urgent plea here. Don't lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf. See, now, that's where they're probably losing heart because why is he in prison?

It's because of us. He's suffering for us. And I don't know about you, but let me do my own suffering. Right?

It's hard for me to have somebody else suffering for me. Isn't it easier to give than to receive? Right? I mean, I'd rather give the gift than get the gift because you get the gift, it's humbling, and it's, I mean, it's, you know, it's good, but some of us have a hard time with it.

So, so here's Paul suffering on my behalf. Let's go get him out. Right? As if we could do that. Do not despair.

Do not give up. Do not grow weary because of this. Don't be discouraged or lose spirit because I'm suffering for you. There are always going to be pressures that come to gospel ministry.

When you preach the gospel, some, like Jews, will be offended by it. And so they will resist the gospel because they believe in law.

Greeks will, will reject it because it sounds like folly to them. A Christ crucified? All our heroes are in our, what's the, what's the thing where they keep all their gods?

Where's, where's Diane? Anyway. You know, the, the thing where they have all the statues of their gods. I see all our heroes, you know, are only part failures.

so how do we not lose heart?

So here's the, here's the part, all right, the end of verse 13. Therefore, I ask you, do not lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf. Why? For they are your glory.

my sufferings and applicationally your own sufferings are for your glory. What does that mean?

Kind of a shocking statement. He's asking us to trust, to believe, to be convinced that sufferings are our glory.

glory. They are part of what transforms us from glory to glory into the image of Jesus Christ.

Remember, that's the purpose of God. Was it Romans 8, 28? Whenever I do this, I always forget.

Anybody got Romans 8, 28? Thank you. For all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose, which is conforming us to the image of His Son.

So, everything we go through is for the purpose to conform us to the image of Jesus, to make us more like Jesus. So, when we go through hardship and we start complaining, realize what we're doing is, I don't want to be like Jesus, not that much, right?

If we know that, if we remember that that's because it's about being more like Jesus, think through that and meditate on that so that when you go through hardship, that transforms your thinking instead of what we naturally feel.

2 Timothy 2, Paul talks about enduring for the sake of the elect that they might attain salvation in Christ. Paul's whole focus was, right, it's not about me, it's about Christ and it's about others coming to salvation.

salvation so he will endure everything for the sake of the elect. He doesn't know who the elect are, only the father knows who the elect are. It's not like they have a big E on their chest or something, that's a Spurgeon-ism.

So you just preach to all of them, you go after all of them because I don't know who the elect are, but they're going to be there. That's why Spurgeon had so many conversions, he just believed they were out there, they're out there.

And if they're elect, they'll be saved, but they are only saved through the coming of the gospel and through faith. So he's fine.

So do you see trials like that? Sufferings for your glory? Going from glory to glory, in other words, your glory, and your glory is that you're more like Christ.

Christ. So Paul talks about this again in 2 Corinthians 4. This is his own testimony of suffering and how God transforms us to glory through suffering.

Now I don't have a resume like Paul, so this is Paul, okay? None of us really have a resume like Paul. So he says, hey, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're struck down, but not destroyed.

Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. Why does he do that? So that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

See, if I'm dying like Jesus, if I'm suffering like Jesus, then his results, his resurrection, his life comes out through that suffering.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake. Always, Paul? Always? Yes, we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake.

Why? So that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh, in our right now body. So, death is at work in us, but life in you.

I'm dying, but it's for your life. Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, so we also believe and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

For it is all for your sake, Paul tells the Corinthians, it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

All this suffering results in more people hearing about Jesus and more people hearing about Jesus and for Paul, whoo, let me die, right?

Let me suffer because look, here are these souls being saved, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, amen? Our inner self, the real person, is being renewed day by day.

Here's my perspective, says Paul, for this light, momentary affliction, light, insignificant, all the beatings, all the suffering, all the persecution.

It's light in comparison. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us. See, so sufferings have a purpose. They prepare for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look, here's the perspective. as we look, not to the things that are seen, not at the physical, not at the what we can see, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, they're temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

That's what matters. And so we see that by faith. We see that because we trust. We see that because we're convinced that suffering brings us to glory, and it brings us closer to the image of Jesus.

I can be more like Jesus. If I could be more like Jesus, right? How do you fill that in? So Paul's being really honest.

I love the passage because he's just being honest. He truly is suffering. He's afflicted. He admits that he gets perplexed, that he does get struck down. He's not this invincible guy.

He gets beat up a lot and he gets discouraged a lot. But it never crushes him. It never brings him to despair.

It never destroys him. In our dying, God shows the life of Jesus in us.

Have you seen that? When you've suffered, have you seen Jesus? It's not always readily apparent. Do you see Jesus growing in you?

His life for your death? That's what the Holy Spirit helps us in. We focus on the promise.

We focus on the future. How do we overcome losing heart from suffering and affliction? We recognize the inner renewal that is daily because we're trusting in him.

We're trusting in him. We're coming to him. We're confident to come to him. We're crying out to him. And sometimes we don't even have the words to cry out. What do we have? We have sighs. Right?

We have mutterings. Like I can't even put into words. I just, just, just, oh. Sometimes that's our prayer. And that's okay because the Holy Spirit, oh, I know what that is.

He knows better than I do. But I'm, the faith is I'm coming to him. I'm crying to him. I'm groaning to him.

I'm doing the Psalms stuff, right? Because the prayers, I confess that stuff and then it gives me strength to move on. It gives me strength to ask for strength. It gives me more faith to recognize perspective.

Note the focus. The focus is not on the scene, on the temporary, on the physical stuff. And that's what is natural to see. Not on our circumstances. But we look to the unseen.

In other words, we look to with hope, with trust, with confidence that God will get me through this. Jesus will show up in my suffering. And there's a day coming.

There's a day coming. Right? When I have full joy, when I have full peace, uninterrupted peace, uninterrupted joy, not like this.

But this brings me to that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Paul's encouragement.

We thank you that all of this that he does and he shares with us and we don't get it all, but we get some of it, Lord. We get that we're in as Gentiles, we're fully in and that we can come to you.

Thank you, Lord. Help us to love Jesus even more from this, that we recognize what he's done for us, that we come, that we get all of you, Father.

We get Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank you that you give us that much help, that you open the door for us to speak candidly to the Father, that we come because of all that Jesus has done and we can gratefully love him and then we appreciate the Spirit's help and we trust the Spirit to carry us when we can't walk.

So we thank you for all of this. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Thanks, Pastor Bill. Let's stand. Amen. In Christ the long of which our hope is found.

it seems like every time I pray now it's like Pastor Bill said, you don't have to pray that at the end of your prayer. We should be saying that at the start of our prayer.

It's only because of Christ and his blood that we do be able to come to the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Thank you.

This solid ground, burning the air says, brown and storm.

The heights of love, the depths of peace, where fears are still.