Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] All right.
[00:00:06] Hey, everybody. Welcome to East Rock.
[00:00:08] This fine Sunday, I'm excited again for the chance to be preaching before all you folks.
[00:00:15] Tonight, we're going to be reading more in Ephesians.
[00:00:17] Specifically, we'll be going to be reading chapter three, verses one through seven, which will be on the screen behind me here in a little bit. But first, I just want to talk about.
[00:00:27] Take a second and say, you know, I always get really nervous before I teach or preach, and I have to remind myself that God is sovereign and I'm not powerful enough to mess up his plan. So that's always a plus and a good takeaway to remind myself of. But this is just one of the ways that my anxiety tries to get the best of me. But in this passage that we're looking at tonight, Paul is dealing with hardship as well.
[00:00:51] And it pales in comparison to the hardships that Paul has gone through. But in this specific instance, he's describes himself as a prisoner, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And the phrasing is really interesting because Paul, yeah, he's in prison, okay?
[00:01:09] But at the time of this writing, he doesn't say he's a prisoner of Rome or a prisoner of Caesar or of the Jewish officials that, you know, ultimately got him there. You know, he says he's a prisoner of criminal Christ.
[00:01:26] Paul views his imprisonment not as a defeat, but rather as a divine calling.
[00:01:34] He is firmly in the hands of the Lord, not in the hands of the Lord, not in the hands of the world. And that's what I have to remind myself. And I think it's an encouragement for you all as well, for us to remember that we are not in the hands of the world. We're firmly in the hands of God.
[00:01:50] So the question for you all tonight then is how do you view hardships, interruptions, or invitations?
[00:01:57] Paul sees his imprisonment as an opportunity to speak the Gospel.
[00:02:01] This embracing of the sovereignty of God is just. It's inspiring, really. We should all strive to be so trusting in God's plan that even if I'm thrown in jail, you know, we still know that we're in his hands and moving according to his plan.
[00:02:24] So are we willing to accept hardship and suffering for our faith?
[00:02:29] It's a tough question.
[00:02:31] You know, Christ accepted suffering on the cross for us willingly. As Paul also mimics Christ by willingly accepting imprisonment for the sake of ministry. We shouldn't be surprised then, if we as believers and Christians would be suffering from hardship.
[00:02:49] And when that happens in our lives.
[00:02:51] But it doesn't stop there, right? We have Hope.
[00:02:55] We have ultimate hope. These things are temporary and perhaps are for, as Tim would say, perhaps for your sanctification, which I have to remind myself of a lot. So, you know, what does that mean, though? You know, why is Tim always saying that?
[00:03:10] But the means of sanctification is the process by which we become more like Christ.
[00:03:15] And so God uses those hardships to grow us into being more Christ, like in our character and in ourself.
[00:03:24] So we shouldn't shy away from those hardships either and just remember to trust that we're firmly in God's hand. You know, sometimes I wish God would just like snap his finger and then I would be, you know, perfectly sanctified, which. That's a different word actually. That's glorification. That happens after we die. But sanctification is an ongoing process that. That will be throughout the entirety of our lives. So again, it's not something we should be. We should be surprised by. So, again, welcome to East Rock, where we open sermons with a call telling you that you're going to suffer.
[00:04:00] No, that's real crowd pleaser. This isn't even the main point of the sermon, though, but I wanted to talk about it tonight. It strikes me as so important to note as we begin tonight's reading, how Paul chooses to identify himself to the church in Ephesus.
[00:04:18] Not just to identify himself, but also by his position as a prisoner. Might we all be as trusting as Paul is in his own imprisonment?
[00:04:30] So with that, let's actually get into the Word tonight and focus on Paul's imprisonment. We're not actually going to be talking any more about Paul's imprisonment, I promise. We're going to be talking about mystery tonight, which is going to be fun. So we're going to be in Ephesians. This is chapter three, verses one through seven.
[00:04:52] For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
[00:05:22] This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Of this Gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power, God. Thank you for your word. Please just help guide my words tonight as we try and discuss the mystery that has been revealed here in these passages.
[00:05:56] So what stands out in this passage?
[00:06:05] So there's a lot of repetition of the word mystery.
[00:06:10] And why. Why is that important? Is because it's one of the core principles of biblical hermeneutics, which is just a fancy way of saying how you study the Bible. Right? So how we study the Bible, if we see something being repeated, it's there because it's probably important.
[00:06:25] Remember, this is a letter that was written to the church at Ephesus and likely was meant to be distributed to the churches in the entire area around Ephesus, as well as it's not written specifically as a condemnation like some of the other letters to very specific churches. This was meant to be circulated around. And so it would have been read and read aloud, just as we read just now to a group of people. People. And so they would want to. To be able to hear and understand the most important parts of what you're saying. And so Paul, why does he use this word mystery then? Like, why is that important, the word mystery? Here it.
[00:07:07] I've got more Greek for you, Casey. So this. This one is the Greek word is musterion, and it's derived from the word mu ho, which means to shut the mouth.
[00:07:22] And so that's a neat way to tell somebody to be quiet is just tell them to mu. Oh, but let's not do that too much.
[00:07:30] So the word is meant to convey a hidden thing, though. So mystery, muo. Shut your mouth and keep a secret.
[00:07:36] Right. Is kind of the origin or the etymology of this word, but the meaning doesn't stop there.
[00:07:44] So we know from Acts that Paul was in Ephesus earlier and he talks about there's a bunch of stuff happening, but we know specifically about the Church of Artemis, who. Which is one of the. Or the Temple of Artemis that was there, which was among one of the ancient wonders of the world.
[00:08:04] And he disrupted it with the. The Christian message so much that people stopped worshiping the idols enough that the silver merchants got upset because they weren't able to sell these silver statues or these silver idols anymore. This all happens before this letter to Ephesus. This is in Paul's first trip. Not right now, but it's interesting because Artemis and among those other deities and other mystic religions that existed in the Ephesus area, the word mystery was largely considered as like an initiation or an initial right to A new to a belief system, right? Like there was this mysticism behind the word of mystery, which funny enough is based off that word too. But the idea is that you would pass a trial of some kind and the secret would be shown to you. Right? So if you passed the mystery, then you would be allowed into this mystic belief system of Artemis or whatever the other competing deities that were around there in Ephesus at the time.
[00:09:10] So Paul's words are very specific. When he says mystery here he's calling out a few things, the first of which is that Christianity is not like the other religions and that the mystery isn't like this special knowledge or a ritual that you have to perform that can be something that can be studied or something that revealed through intense learning.
[00:09:37] But rather this is something that God has revealed and it's been revealed as it's been previously hidden by God. So the mystery is not some idea that Paul came up with, Right. Like he's saying, this isn't something that I figured out me, Paul. I went and I studied the text and I studied the scriptures and I came up with this idea that, that there's this mystery. And we'll talk about what the mystery is later. But I mean we read it. Spoilers. It's that the Gentiles are co heirs in the promises of God, but that this idea came from the revelation of God. So our first point tonight is that we cannot earn what God has already revealed in Jesus.
[00:10:23] We cannot earn what God has already revealed in Jesus.
[00:10:27] The gospel isn't something that Paul and the apostles discovered. It was something revealed by God and it's something that we receive. So you know, it's not.
[00:10:43] I struggle a lot with this idea because I want to be able to say, you know, if I study hard enough or I learn the Bible well enough, then I will suddenly understand all the things of God. And that's simply not true. What God has revealed to me and what I pray he continue to reveal more things to me, but he doesn't have to.
[00:11:03] But as I continue to age, he continues to pull back more and more so I can learn more and more about him. But it's a continual process, much like sanctification we were talking about earlier.
[00:11:16] So this is a stark contrast to the idea of all these other religions where there was, okay, well if you just study or you have the special knowledge or you do this ritual, then all of a sudden you're in, you're in the gang, right?
[00:11:31] And so this was a stark contrast to the ideas of the other mystic religions that were popular in Ephesus. And I think it's still very prudent today as we still see some people who claim to have new revelation about God or have divined something special from scripture that has never been revealed before.
[00:11:52] And you know, there's a couple examples I have of this. You know, one time I was talking with my father in law and he was had me watch a video and it basically was about the end times and when the end times were going to begin and how it was secretly coded into the Hebrew in Genesis in the very first passages. And it had to do with one of the letters looking like a mouth that that would chew you up. It was pretty far fetched anyways. But there's this idea, we see this a lot of people saying, well I've had this new revelation or I've discovered this secret in scripture that no one has ever figured out before and we need to be wary of that. In fact, I've been listening to an interesting audiobook recently. It's called the Counterfeit Kingdom and it talks about the new Apostolic Reformation movement. And basically if you guys are unfamiliar with the NAR movement, it's a movement of churches that are run and they have a prophet that leads them and then they also typically will have an apostle who leads them. And the apostle and the prophet together don't necessarily have to agree with scripture. They can kind of say, well this is a new revelation to, to us from God. And so it supersedes that which we have in the Bible.
[00:13:11] It's kind of an interesting idea because it's not the only religion to do that. It's just a little tricky. You know, one of the, probably the most famous NAR church that people are aware of is Bethel Church.
[00:13:22] It's one of the most well known NAR churches these days and they have some interesting ideas that they propose. But also there's other religions that do the same thing. You know, the idea of Islam is that the Bible is corrupted and that the Quran has come and that we can use that because that is uncorrupted. Same idea with the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Mormons. They believe that the Bible has become corrupted and that the Book of Mormon then supersedes that and can replace what is in the Bible. So you can see how this idea of new revelation coming out can kind of be a scary thing. It's a big deal. So the problem with this model in all of these is that they claim that at times they'll contradict scripture. And so I Almost went down a rabbit hole here. And I had a whole section on how the Bible was inspired and inerrant and how the canon is closed. And I was like, this is how we can know that this revelation is true versus these revelations.
[00:14:26] And then I, you know, started writing and writing and writing notes on that. And I was like, this is too much.
[00:14:33] So in the words from one of my favorite movies, in the words of Inigo Montoya, Let me explain. No, it is too much. Let me sum up.
[00:14:44] So the inspired biblical canon comes from the testimony of individuals who either knew Jesus or had seen Jesus as he was revealed, like Jesus did to Paul.
[00:14:55] The Bible itself speaks to its completeness with verses like first Timothy saying that all scripture is God breathed and good for teaching. And by adding to the canon, we would basically be saying that that verse is untrue because the Bible was incomplete.
[00:15:10] So that takes us to our second point tonight.
[00:15:13] While God reveals himself through various methods like creation, God's revelation is complete through Scripture.
[00:15:23] So there's not any new revelation coming.
[00:15:28] God has revealed what he has chosen to reveal throughout Scripture because we see the whole plan now. It starts in Genesis with the proto Evangelion, you know, promising of this snake crusher coming and then ultimately the fruition through David's line. And you see, you know, Christ coming and dying on the cross. And now we see this idea of, of that being not just for the people of Israel, which had been assumed for the longest time that it was only God's people that were going to be able to partake in these promises of God, but rather now Paul's saying very definitively that the mystery is that the Gentiles are co heirs.
[00:16:08] So now that we've kind of talked through the revelation of mystery and how that works, let's talk about what the mystery actually is that Paul is describing. And the mystery is not only.
[00:16:22] It's that not only Israel are heirs of God's promise, but also the Gentiles. And who are the Gentiles? The non Jewish people. It's basically the category of other. The word actually comes from the meaning, a meaning of group or family. And so it basically just means not of the group of family of the Hebrew people.
[00:16:44] So fun stuff there. So it just means everybody else.
[00:16:49] This was literally a revelatory idea Paul claims here. He says this isn't something that he's come up with, but rather a mystery that God has revealed to him in God's own time. You know, he says it hasn't been revealed before to prior generations. He says it's been revealed now. So prior to this, by law and tradition, the Gentiles were never counted as equal inheritors on God's promises. In fact, even during the apostolic teaching, there's back and forth between the apostles regarding the need for circumcision as a sign of the Abrahamic covenant and whether it was needed for the Gentiles to be inheritors of God's promises.
[00:17:34] However, now God's people are identified by the Holy Spirit and not by these ritual purity rituals or by circumcision.
[00:17:41] God's plan of salvation wasn't just for the few people of Israel. The Gentiles are full participants in the promises of God. Paul uses very specific phrases that I like here when he says he calls them fellow heirs, putting them on the same level of the Jewish people of promise. He then goes on to describe them as members of the same body. So there is no separation. This was a huge deal. God's chosen people were being expanded beyond anything that the Jewish people had ever thought possible.
[00:18:17] Gentiles were not to be these second class citizens in this blessing. They were to be full partakers of the promise.
[00:18:24] So where the Old Covenant emphasized the separation of people, the people of Israel from the rest of the world, right, we see a lot of that in the Old Testament. You've got the Israelites and it's typically saying, stop, don't mess with these other people, don't integrate with these other people, don't follow their pagan practices.
[00:18:43] Now we have this idea where they're being told, yes, we need to include those people in the promises of God as well.
[00:18:54] And I think we can learn from this example, you know, that what really is happening here is that when we look to the cross and we see that it's not based on ritual or race or anything along those lines, but it really breaks down barriers, you know, so that way we're united.
[00:19:14] And that leads me to the third point for tonight, which is that God's people were marked by unity in the spirit, not by rituals or race. And again, looping back to this idea of mysteries, right? The mysteries of the other pagan religions, the mysteries of the cult of Artemis, you know, all of these things at the time said that, you know, we're separate, we're better, we're special, right, Than these other people. Paul's coming in and saying, hey, you know Israel, I know you've been special, cool, but you're not the only inheritors of this promise. And they're expanding that out. And it's contrary to this Idea of there being only the elect few. Now, that doesn't mean everybody's saved. I'm not saying anything like that. Don't come at me after the service. There certainly are people that are unsaved. What I'm saying, though, is that the promise is not inherently applicable to only Israel any longer.
[00:20:15] So this doesn't mean that we affirm or accept all things either.
[00:20:20] Specifically, we're talking about the Levitical rituals from the Old Testament. When we talk. When I say, use the term ritual here.
[00:20:27] And this isn't a blank check saying that we can accept all things, but rather it's a warning for us. It's a warning against pride.
[00:20:35] And in thinking that we're better than other people because of our heritage or perhaps even of our salvation, we're saved by grace through faith. Nothing that we've done of our. Of our own works. As Paul mentions earlier in this letter, you know, and the Israelites at the time, and, you know, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees and the like, they were so focused on these ideas of purity or ritual displays of pride that they were in things that were supposed to be humbling. You know, when they would fast, they would, you know, put makeup on and make it look like they were terrible. You know, they would pray and they would pray these really long, intricate prayers.
[00:21:21] And this is something that I think still affects people today a little bit. This is area of pride in.
[00:21:28] In religious practices.
[00:21:32] You know, there's an area where I always feel tension when somebody asks me to pray in public, because I'm like, one.
[00:21:40] Okay, how long does this need to be? What do I need to say? And the idea is, am I just saying it to sound good to make myself look better, or am I trying to give glory to God?
[00:21:52] And it's a real tension. It's one of the reasons why when I pray with my son Daniel, we pray every night before he goes to bed. And I've got a very specific list of things that I hit. So that way I don't get off track. Mostly because I've. I'm done by that point in the day.
[00:22:11] I want him to just go to sleep.
[00:22:13] But, you know, we go through and we. We are thankful. We say things that we're thankful for to God. So that way we stay focused on an act with this idea of gratitude towards what he's gifted us with.
[00:22:25] And then, you know, we pray for him to sleep well because God holds us in his hand, so that way he sustains us. And then we pray lastly for his salvation. I pray for him to want to know the Lord, and I pray for him to want to love the Lord as the Lord loves him. And, you know, it's this idea of making sure that when we are praying that our intent is correct, because that's really what it boils down to, is in my heart.
[00:22:59] What am I doing? Am I lifting myself up by trying to appear better, smarter, more knowledgeable about the Bible? You know, is that my intent to make myself look good?
[00:23:12] Or is my intent to make God look good and to give him the glory?
[00:23:17] So the sub point that you can see up here that we've got is that this is made to guard against spiritual pride. You know, that says that certain people are better or certain people are more in the know than the others. That this falls back again in the idea that we're talking about with the mysticism and the mystery that we see in Ephesus. Again, there's no secret to be, to do, to be beheld. It's been revealed already through the work of Christ on the cross. So this is really an exhortation for you all, too, to read the word of God.
[00:23:54] Don't just take anyone's word for it. Don't take my word for it. You know, go and read for yourselves. We can certainly learn from others. And I'm not saying that you can't learn from others and other pastors. And I hope you'd learned something from me at some point in my life.
[00:24:08] Doesn't have to be tonight.
[00:24:10] I'm saying here is that just be wary when someone claims to have knowledge that has never been revealed before.
[00:24:21] Most of the time it's suspect.
[00:24:25] And honestly, even with the ideas that we see in our culture today about identity and gender politics and these things, they aren't new ideas.
[00:24:36] They're ideas that the church has already typically written specifically answers to throughout history. So we think that we are unique in coming up with new ideas and new challenges to the belief system of Christianity, when in fact we're not.
[00:24:54] They're long, long old heresies.
[00:24:57] If you think, you know, there is a culture in America today that is more debased, we'll say, than the culture in Rome. I would challenge you on that, that they were also equally not saying that it's great here, but I'm saying it's not new.
[00:25:16] Right? So people, as an exhortation, read the word, be in the word.
[00:25:26] People always make mistakes, too. No one's perfect, but the word of God is. So trust in that above people.
[00:25:37] All right, so we've talked about this revelation, we've talked about the idea that the Gentiles are these co heirs in the same body of the inheritors of the promise.
[00:25:48] But lastly, why did we include verse seven? At least that's what I said when I first started studying for this sermon. Because one, it's in the next paragraph. So inherently I was like, why did we do that?
[00:26:02] But it makes a lot of sense once I start digging into it. I love the word that Paul uses here because it's closing this passage and it's transitioning to this next verse. He describes himself as a minister.
[00:26:15] And again, I promise I'm not going to do Greek all night, but this Greek word is really cool because it means servant is what minister means. And so he's saying not only that, he begins this section of Scripture by saying that he's a prisoner, and he ends this section here by saying that he's a servant.
[00:26:35] So again, he remembers where he's at. He's held firmly in the hand of God, where he's at and trusting in his plan.
[00:26:44] So Paul uses the Greek word dikonos, which means servant. Paul remains humble in saying that he's granted this calling not out of his own worthiness, right. But out of God's grace and the working of his power, which reiterates the messages that we see coming from earlier in Ephesians and we'll see later on.
[00:27:06] So this is something also that I always get suspect about when pastors name things after themselves because of the same idea, right? Is that their ministry, they put it after their own name, right? Like the ministry is the Lord's, it's not man's. To circle back to my point during the introduction, you know, God's the one in control. He's sovereign. He's the one with the plan. I'm not gonna mess it up. I.
[00:27:35] I can't think that highly, be that prideful of myself to think, oh man, I am stronger than God, that I can mess up his plan. But it's tricky because that's how my brain operates. It'll be like, yeah, you're really going to mess this up. And then people aren't going to be saved or something ridiculous along those lines, you know, and I'll spiral down and whatever.
[00:27:57] Not going to do that tonight. But, you know, the idea is that I can trust in God and in his plan and in his sovereignty. And that brings me hope, that brings me peace to be able to speak.
[00:28:12] I apologize. My throat's a little raw tonight, so I keep drinking Water, So hopefully it won't crack.
[00:28:19] Anyways, a good reminder for us to remember that Paul, even in all the good he did.
[00:28:28] That leads us to our fourth point, right? That Paul was made a minister by the working of God's power. So what does that mean? Ministry is a gift from God. Ministry is not an achievement or something that is accomplished or something to be boastful of. And when I'm talking about ministry, I'm not using the phrase just for pastors, right? I'm not talking about just leaders in the church. This is for everyone. We are all called to go and make disciples of Christ, but this command shouldn't be our only driver. We should feel so compelled to spread the good news of what Jesus has done for us that we're unable to contain it, right? The good news is that whether Jew or Gentile, we're all sinners and we have fallen short of the glory of the God. However, in his great love for us, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live this sinless, perfect life we could not and offer himself up as atonement for our sins. And, you know, and it restores our relationship with Christ, as Tim will often say. Do you have a relationship with him today? Do you know him today?
[00:29:37] If not, hit me up. Happy to answer any questions or just talk it through. I get it. It's a big commitment and it's a big thing to believe.
[00:29:45] But I'd be happy to share more on it. And so for our believers here today, though, I've got one final point for you all this evening, and that's that we too are called as servants to minister the gospel.
[00:29:59] Not just Brett Casey, myself, John's teaching in a couple weeks, you know, but you, everyone here, every believer is on mission. We should be so overflowing with awe and love of God and what Jesus has done for us that it should just be a natural part of our lives to be sharing him and sharing who he is.
[00:30:20] You know, wherever we are, we can be sharing God like Paul was in his letter to the Ephesians. He's literally in jail and he's still encouraging the church. It's easy for us to talk about a hobby or other interests, at least I know it is for me, you know, But I challenge you this week, and I'm taking up the challenge as well, you know, to be intentional in trying to share this good news with someone this week. It doesn't have to be a full presentation breakdown of the gospel or a full crazy apologetic dissertation on moral ethics or, I mean, if you want it to be, hit me up. I can do that. But it doesn't have to be that. It just simply has to be, hey, you know, there's some good news. And the good news is that we're saved.
[00:31:03] Now, what are we saved from? That's a conversation that you also have to have.
[00:31:10] We have to be saved from ourselves and from our sin.
[00:31:14] But, you know, if we can find time to talk about football, basketball, in my case, hockey, you know, or whatever the latest trending streaming show is, that we should be able to find some time to be able to share the good news or the gospel of our God.
[00:31:31] Charles Spurgeon, he has an excellent quote here that, yeah, we put up on the screen that I really like. It encapsulates this idea and it just says, it cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him.
[00:31:46] Of course, I do not mean by that that those who use the pen are silent. They are not. And those who help others to use their tongue are spread in which others have written, are doing their part well. But that man who says, I believe in Jesus, but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another person about him by mouth or pen or tract is an imposter.
[00:32:10] Man, that's brutal. Right, says imposter. If you're not sharing what God has done for you, I do like that he clarifies, it doesn't have to be by mouth.
[00:32:23] I really like that because his original line was, you know, if you have a silent tongue, and he's like, no, but, but writing is cool too. You can write to people about it as well.
[00:32:32] Remember though, as you guys go out with this, we're not the source of this message. Right. We're simply the heralds of it. I encourage you that you're empowered to speak the truth of the gospel by the Holy Spirit. There's no need to be fearful or anxious. And of course, this one gets me because that's a lot easier to say than it is to do.
[00:32:54] For sure, there is no need to be fearful or anxious.
[00:33:00] Awesome. That is what I will tell myself when I am anxious, is just stop, don't be anxious, Steve.
[00:33:07] That's how that works. No, but what I'm saying is that we can build up and we can encourage one another and we can encourage each other. And this is meant to be an encouragement to you all as well that we have good news to share. Sharing the truth is something inherently good. So, you know, let's us as ordinary people share something extraordinary. This truth that God has revealed to us, just as this mystery has been revealed to Paul.
[00:33:34] So let's go ahead and we'll wrap up a couple of key takeaways.
[00:33:42] The Gospel isn't something to hoard, it's something to share. But it's a revealed mystery to us that we must proclaim.
[00:33:53] I would say too, that the Gospel wasn't an afterthought. It was God's eternal purpose revealed at the right time, which is what we see Paul talking about.
[00:34:03] And he'll actually talk about God's eternal purpose later on in verse 11.
[00:34:08] So next time we'll get to that.
[00:34:11] But the inclusion of the Gentile shows that no one, no one is too far, too foreign, too forgotten, too sinful, has done too much to be welcomed in Christ.
[00:34:26] Everyone can be welcomed in Christ.
[00:34:31] And then lastly, whether we're free, whether we're restricted, whether we're celebrated or criticized again, as Paul's in jail, he's still diligent to be a steward of the gospel. And we are as well. Wherever we're at, we are required to be steward of the gospel and to share that. So let's be faithful stewards of this revealed mystery, whether or not we're free, imprisoned, celebrated, or rejected, which is the harder one?
[00:35:04] But with that, I'm gonna go ahead and I'll pray and then John, are you guys coming back up? All right, cool. Lord, thank you for your word.
[00:35:13] God, just thank you for this mystery that you've revealed to us.
[00:35:17] Thank you that we as Gentiles are co heirs of the same body of the people that inherit the promises of God.
[00:35:28] Lord, this should be an a message. This message of inclusion should be a encouragement to us all here.
[00:35:36] Help us know and trust in your revelation that you've shown to us throughout your Word and through Scripture. And help us be diligent as well as we go out this week to share that mystery with other people that's been revealed to us. Jesus name, Amen.
