Transcript for:
Ephesians 1:1,14 -Plutocrats-(Part-1) Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-12-07

Ephesians chapter one verse one, would you please stand with me as we start the book of Ephesians today? And we'll be able to tackle part two next week, and then we're gonna do a Christmas message as we approach the Christmas holiday. And then after the Christmas holiday, we'll finish up this series, which is a three part series, that of being plutocrats. And so let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy word, and Lord, we thank you for the enriching, just how how rich, how full we are as Christians that we have these spiritual blessings that just overwhelm us, Lord. And I pray more and more that we learn what these blessings are, and that we walk in these blessings, that we not live like paupers, Lord. That we not live like street people who, Lord, are just failing to enter in, failing to enter in to all that you have for us, Lord. And we we cripple ourselves, Lord. We many times, we shoot ourselves in the foot, and Lord, are so defeated and all. But, just as all of us who are parents know, we want our kids to not make the same mistakes that we've made. We want them to enter into all that we have labored and worked so hard for. We want their lives to bear fruit and and we see such great potential in them, Lord, and there's so much available, but so often the enemy rips us off. And, we don't wanna be ripped off, Lord. So be our teacher today. Open the scriptures. Help us to apply these truths to our lives that we would live the fullness of the life that you've called it unto, the life of the spirit. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Oh, let's read it. I'm still thinking about that ham. I I can't here we go. I can't get that big ham out of my head. Man, talk about carnality. Here we go. Thank you, Marlene. If I forget anything else, just interrupt me. You can interrupt me today. I I got a fog in my head. Alright. Here we go. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us acceptable, accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven, which are on earth even in him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who work of all things after the council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted after that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after he believed, you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. So again, father, thank you, for your word. Be our teacher, Lord. Just edify, build us up, strengthen us. Our families need you, Lord. So many so many families falling apart, so many lives, Christian lives falling apart, and Lord, it shouldn't be that way. We have so much to enrich us, so much to protect us, such a great insurance policy, Lord, to protect us from evil and from evil thoughts and evil ways and the ways of this world, Lord. So illumine our hearts and minds, Lord. Allow your word to sink deep, deep within us and help us to apply these truths. In Jesus name we pray, amen. So these 14 verses from verse three to 14, is one sentence, in the Greek language, and so in the Greek grammar there. And so part one is gonna be predestined by the father, and that's what we're gonna look at today in verses three through six. Part two, next week is purchased by the son. So the godhead is involved here, verses seven through 12. And then, part three, after Christmas, we'll pick up preserved by the holy spirit verses thirteen and fourteen. So Ephesians one verse one, the authorship, who wrote it? The apostle Paul, wrote this letter to the church of Ephesus. What are his credentials? He says, as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Who are the recipients? The recipients are the saints. That means you and I. Nine times we see the word saint. As J. Vernon McGee said, you're either a saint or you're an aint. And saints are being set apart. We're set apart from the world. And the saints which are at Ephesus, Ephesus, this is a city in Asia Minor, present day Turkey. This is a city where the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 spent three years establishing this church. And then after the apostle Paul, you know, went to prison, he's writing this letter from prison and Tychicus is gonna deliver it and also the church of the Laodicea and Colossae area. And and this church later had a pastor, John Mark. Many think that John Mark helped out. Also, Timothy helped out. Timothy was killed by an angry mob when Timothy was the pastor there, in that he spoke up against the worshiping of Diana. They had a temple there in Ephesus of unto Artemis, or Diana was a fertility goddess. And so this false religious system with all of their idols and, Demetrius, the silversmith and all, they just got up in an uproar because their livelihood is being jeopardized because the people weren't gonna need these these, silver shrines to Diana. And the prophetesses, the, excuse me, the the harlots, the priestesses, if you will, that would be a part of this. It was a it was a sexual, means of worshiping, you know, the devil basically. And so it enticed a lot of the men, a lot of the women, a lot of the people, unwanted pregnancies, the whole thing, and that was the city of Ephesus. And then later, another apostle became the pastor of this church, John the beloved. And he pastored this church to, the point in time where they tried to boil him in oil and he wouldn't boil in oil. He's about 90 years old, and so they exiled him to the island of Patmos, which is in present day, Turkey. And so that's where he died, but God gave him the book of revelation there. And in the book of revelation, one of the letters that Jesus had John write was a letter to the church of Ephesus. So we have the letter that the apostle Paul wrote with the inspiration of the holy spirit. And on Monday nights, we've been studying, the seven churches, one of which was the church of Ephesus where the Lord said, I only have one thing against you, you've left, your first love. So the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, and so hopefully, that's you and I. The faithful that are in as a key phrase in Christ Jesus. And so the greeting verse two, grace. Grace is the the, unmerited favor, the charisma. So this is the Greek form of Paul's greeting. And then he'll say, peace or shalom. So if you're a Jewish person, you would say shalom, peace be upon this house and upon you. So grace and peace, grace be to you and peace from who? From God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So this letter is written about about sixty AD by the apostle Paul from a Roman prison, again, unto the church that he had planted, three years that he spent that time there, and this is about ten years later that the apostle Paul is writing this letter unto them. The theme of this book is our riches in Christ. The riches that are ours in Christ. The word rich, is the Greek word plutos, where we get our word plutocrat. And so we wanna look at this, you and I being in Christ, we're plutocrats. We may not be on the billionaire band, but, we, definitely our spiritual inheritance, our spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus makes us extremely wealthy for all eternity. Jesus said, store not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust can corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but store for yourselves treasures in heaven. And so it begins with the Lord giving unto us, thanks be unto unto God for that unspeakable gift that he's given us, the gift of his his only begotten son, and we're just so rich being in Christ, Jesus being our portion, forever. So Paul planted this church during his third missionary journey. Acts 20, you can see as he meets with the elders of of the church of Ephesus as he's gonna leave. And, acts 20 verse 31, he meets them a pastoral meeting on the island of Miletus, and he lets them know that, for the space of three years, night and day with tears, I've ministered unto you. And I'm innocent of the blood of every single one of you people because night and day with tears, I warned you. I let you know the truth. I didn't hold back. And, and so your blood is not on my hands. As you look at Ezekiel three and Ezekiel 33, there are pastors, there are false prophets, there are people that are gonna stand before God, and they're going to give an account. The blood of the people is gonna be on their hands because they didn't warn the people. They allowed the people to be deceived by the wolves that would come in. So Paul could see the wolves that were going to come in from the outside and some from within, and, and he's warning these, take heed over the flock which he has purchased with his own blood. You know, these are blood bought sheep, blood bought people. And, so you you guys that are the shepherds, you know, feed his sheep, care for his sheep, tend his sheep, protect his sheep. And so the theme is our riches in Christ in chapters one through three is doctrinal, in chapters four through six is practical. So the practical will be the application. So first, he's gonna give us the teaching, doctrine is important as disciples, we'll get to know who we are. Who are we as Christians? Who are we in Christ Jesus? And then and then, well, what's that mean? How do I apply this? What what's it mean for me? And so we'll come to like in chapter six, we'll come to the the as Paul is being chained to a Roman soldier and he's writing this letter, the Lord gives him a picture of, the weapon of our warfare that we fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air. So he tells us to be strong, to withstand, to be strong, withstand, stand, doing all things stand. And so you stand and then he pictures the armor, that's the application. You're to apply that, you know, to your life. And so, one thing to know, and it's another thing to be a doer of the word. So Paul begins with praise toward God describing our riches, in verse three through 14, which form one sentence in the original Greek manuscripts. And so the blessings given to us are described in three tenses, past, present, and future by each person of the Godhead. So God the father, this is what we're gonna look at this morning. God the father predestined us before the foundation of the earth. In the present tense, we enjoy our redemption through God the son. In the future tense, as Jesus purchased us with his own blood. In the future tense, we'll enter into all of our inheritance because of the preserving work of the holy spirit. So you are eternally secure. You have the help of the father. It's his idea to save you. He's the one that initiated. He's the one that drew you with his love. He's the one that's his idea. It's his choice for you to predestine you before he even made the earth that you would be saved. And for me, that happened in January 1980, when the Lord revealed himself to me. I didn't know him, I wasn't seeking him, I wasn't looking for him, and then he slammed me. He hit me upside the head, and I've never been the same since. And that's the beauty, the blessing of election, the blessing of predestination, and all we can say is why me? Why me? There's so many other friends and and and I like when we're going on Facebook, I I've been on there a few years now, but I I've I discovered so many of my old friends are saved. And it's so exciting to go and visit them and and discover how they got saved. And it's just amazing, just absolutely amazing. Then there's other old friends who are not saved. And so I come away from that going, you know, why me? Why me and Kathy? Why did you save us, Lord? It's just so so amazing to know that God predestined me, that although others may reject me, though some may go through divorces and some may be orphans, you're you're never an orphan with God. Your heavenly father, he accepts you. He's got a plan and a purpose for your life and he predestined it. It's his idea. He predestined us before the foundation of the earth to save us. Preserving work of the holy spirit. So today, we wanna look at the predestination of the father. Verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So this phrase in Christ is very important. You're either in or out. You're either in the ark or you're outside the ark. If you're in Christ and the door is shut, judgment is coming against the world, but you're safe because you're in Christ. 10 times we see this used. The word grace is the Greek word choreus and we see it used 12 times, which by definition is God's unmerited, you don't deserve it, God's unmerited favor for you. So God the father has predestined us to be blessed, to be wealthy. Now the false prophets today, they preach a false gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity. And the ticket is is you have enough faith that you'll have health, you'll never get sick, you'll have wealth, you know, material wealth, and if you're poor, you must not have enough faith. And you're gonna prosper and all. That's a that's a that is a doctrine from the pit of hell, but it sells. It sells. These false prophets have big churches because that's what people want. They want the material wealth now, you know. And and I would say I want it all, you know. I'm not saying being being poor is more holy, but I'm not but I am saying not at the expense of the true riches, you know. So the devil comes along and says, what's your price? I can make you wealthy. No. I'm not gonna sell my soul. I'm not gonna compromise. Not gonna lie, cheat, steal to gain wealth. And and so if if it's God's desire to make a person like Abraham or Joseph of Arimathea or people we see in the Bible have material wealth, great. But not at the point of where the devil takes you and shows you all the kings of the world like he did with Jesus, and you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all these no. No. My I'm purchased with the blood of Jesus. I'm not for sale. And so we'd be willing to, suffer physically in this life, and to be sickly, we're willing. If that's God's will, if it's his plan, if it's his purpose, then we're willing because we know to be asking the bodies to be present with the Lord, and that we have an inheritance, the benefit package that awaits us is out of this world. Right? Out of this world. And nobody can steal and nobody can take it away. And so so God the father has predestined us to be blessed, to be wealthy. He's made us plutocrats. That word riches is plutos or plutocrat used five times. Now, I wanna go through a few verses. Those of you that are note takers, if you can't keep up with me, you can just get the watch it on Facebook later. But you are disciples. We're gonna cover a lot of ground. We're gonna cover a lot of in-depth doctrine. And again, I need to remind you this isn't Sesame Street. I'm not Bird. I'm not Ernie. So you're gonna have to think, and I know you love to think. I know you love to study God's word. And this is pretty heady stuff if you want it to be, or you can just sample, you know, the hors d'oeuvres. There's plenty here for everybody, milk, meat, all of it. So he says in Ephesians one verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. We see the word riches used in Ephesians one eighteen, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians two verse seven, that in the ages to come, what age are you in now, church? Church Church age. Ages plural to come. What's the next age? Tribulation period is an age that we're gonna be in heaven. Right? A 77 of Daniel. The age after the tribulation period is what? The millennium, which lasts how long? A thousand. And what's the age after the millennium? The eternal state. Revelation twenty one and twenty two. So let's read this again. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Ephesians three verse eight, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Man, what a blessing to preach God's word. What a blessing to teach God's word. To receive God's word and then to be able to give it back out. To be entrusted with the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you don't go bury it, and you don't water it down, and you don't say when one third of the Bible's prophecy that it's none of your business when the Lord returns. You go from Genesis one one to all the way to the book of Revelation to the very end, and you line upon line, precept upon precept, the unsearchable riches of Christ. The volume of the book is written to me, Jesus said. Jesus said, you think you have eternal life? You know, search the scriptures. They are they which testify of me. You know? It's all about Jesus as we fall more and more in love with him. And Paul's like, the grace that was given to me that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. In Ephesians three sixteen, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Do you wanna be strengthened? Do you want the riches of his strength? There's a woman in 1916 named Hetty Green, and she's an infamous miser, a very frugal person with her money. She died in 1916 worth over a $100,000,000. Think about that. Before the great depression hit, in 1916, she died being her worth, net worth of $100,000,000, but she lived like a pauper. She lived like a person, a street person. She ate cold oatmeal because it would cost to heat it. She would purchase a newspaper and read it, and then go back out on the street and resell it. Her own son lost his leg because he got it injured, and rather than take her immediately to the doctor, she waited for the free clinic to open, and he wound up losing his leg because of the infection. And Hetty Green, like many Christians, lived as a poor beggar even though she had vast wealth, the wealth of a plutocrat. It's sad when we miss out on all that God has for us, the vast riches. Now you know the Catholic church and many Protestant churches today are the doorkeepers of this wealth, and they keep you from it. They keep you purposely ignorant. They don't want you to know that which is yours in Christ Jesus. They make you man dependent. They want you to depend upon them with their hierarchy and their religious system rather than you getting to know Jesus and have an access to that vast wealth that he purchased with his own blood. So by not teaching the word and you go into mass as a Catholic, you're not educated in Latin. So week after week, they're re, you know, sacrificing the body and the blood of Jesus, and and you get the wafer, but you don't get the wine. They only the priest get the wine. And year after year after year, you don't learn anything of the bible. They purposely kept you ignorant because ignorant people are easily controlled. So you have to go to the pope and hear what the pope says, hey, Friday is a good day to eat fish. You know? And you you do something wrong, you go to the you go to the priest and you confess it to him, it's a little confessional. You know? And when we had the Roxy in my little office there, I had this spot where I could open this door, and it it, had a screen there. And it reminded me when I was a Catholic and I went in this box room, and there's a screen there, you know. And I would tease people, I'd say, well, you gotta bend down and kneel over here, and you can confess to me through the screen, you know. And, I'd let them know they could kiss my ring and stuff. But I mean, think of it. Think of the religiousness of it, of keeping people from the from from the word of God. Tyndale was executed because he was translating the bible into the native tongue of people. The religious hierarchy doesn't want you to have the word of God. The devil doesn't want you to have the word of God. And so if Rick Warren's knocking on doors and he discovers that the majority of people want little sermonettes for Christianettes, then guess what? The sermons become fifteen little minute sermonettes, little cartoons that clowns give. And the people don't get the word of God. So when people don't get the word of God, when the church doesn't get the word of God, then what happens is the people get sick. They have relational problems. They have problems with their kids. They have problems of life, and they don't know how to go directly to the giver of life to discern and to discover and to understand the power of prayer, the power of brokenness before God, the power of the resurrection, the kindness, the fruit of the spirit. They don't know these things. They haven't been taught these things. It's all a charade. It's all for pomp and glory of men acting like they're more holy. That's why every now and then I've just got to pop your bubble. Most of you are there already with me, but, I mean, who would come into the pulpit with a jacket like this? Come on. You know? I mean, I'm not taking myself very seriously, am I? Right? I'm more about having fun. I'm more about substance. What's coming out of my mouth? Where we at today? It's not about Rick being a celebrity and so why would a guy, you know, I got a collar and this collar makes me above you, you know. And really what's happening is you're keeping people from the riches that are theirs in Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. And Hetty Green, she did not use that well for God's glory. She didn't reinvest that wealth in the lives of others. She didn't reinvest that wealth to get the gospel out. She she miserly held on to it herself and and didn't enjoy the wealth that was there. And and God has predestined us to enjoy these riches in him, these spiritual riches. I could be in a prison cell as Paul and Silas, and I've got the riches of spirit that I can sing at midnight after having been whipped to an inch of my life. That's the riches of the spirit. You can't take that away from me by whipping me. You can take my gold, my silver, you can take whatever, but you can't take what's inside of me that God's put within me. You can't take that away. You can't take the joy away. And so, Hetty Green, how how how horrible to have so much and to live on a level of poverty. When our father and the angels, look how the angels might look at us. Do you guys know what he purchased for you? Do you guys know what he predestined you unto? Do you know that in heaven, the streets are made of gold, you know? Do you guys know? Do you have any idea? Do you know what it was like to watch Lucifer coax one third of the stars, one third of the angels to rebel against God, and how they how they were, you know, thrust out of heaven? And you guys are made from the dust of the ground? And Adam, your federal head blew it very quickly? And Eve, you're in Adam, but now you're in Christ. Now you're a new creation. The old things have passed away, all things have become new. And he's predestined before the foundation there knowing that Adam would blow it, knowing that you would blow it, knowing that I would blow it, knowing that we are sinners, and we can't save ourselves. But it's his idea to save us. The father's predestination and appointment to salvation. Verse four, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. This word chosen means to appoint, to select, to invite, to apprehend, to acquire. Now, when we're growing up, if you played sports in the in the school playground, you'd break up all the guys would be over there, they'd choose two captains or whatever, and each side would choose somebody. Right? And it's always fun when you're chosen. It's always fun when you're appointed. Always fun when somebody wants you on their team, know. And it's always a bummer when you're rejected. And, you could be so in love with somebody and then you break up. You're rejected by this person that you love. You so in love that you dedicate your life from till death do we part and this person rejects you. My father-in-law said that when his wife, rejected him, it took a long time for him to get over it because it as the as the rejected one, the one that's thrown away as trash, it hurts so incredibly deeply. And but through that pain, my father-in-law came to know Jesus, and he came to marry my my my wife, Kathy's Kathy's mom, Marlene, and and we watched the family get saved, you know. We watched the family one by one get saved, and they began to enter into the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. It's mind boggling. It's just amazing to watch God save people. To apprehend, to acquire. In acts nine fifteen, Jesus said, Paul was a chosen vessel unto me. God chose him. Now he's the chiefess of sinners, a blasphemer. He's against God. He hates he hates the true and living God. He doesn't know Jesus. He thinks he's doing God's service by trying to wipe out all these Christians and he consented the death of Stephen. And Ananias, the prophet said, man, this guy's a bad dude. You want me to do what? And no, he's a chosen vessel unto me. Show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake. What a calling. God predestined Saul of Tarsus to become Paul to apprehend of Christ. Paul knew God had a purpose and a plan in choosing him. And and Paul's desire was to apprehend that for which he was apprehended. Have you discovered God's plan and purpose of why he predestined you to be a son or a daughter to be a Christian? Are you operating? Are you flowing? Are you serving the Lord in that capacity that he's called you to be? Are you able to rest in that capacity knowing you know that you know that you know that you're doing what God called you to do? God's called me to be a dad. God's called me to be a mom. God's called me to be a brother or sister. Wherever you fit within the body of Christ, there's that rest. There's that peace that God's given you. You're in my perfect will. You're right where I want you to be, and I'm counting on you. I'm counting on you to do to do what I've called you to do. In Romans eight twenty eight, Paul says, and we know that all things, all means all in the Greek, all means all in the Hebrew, not some things. We know that all things work together for good, not to everybody but qualified. To them that love God and we love him because he first loved us, to them who are who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, now this next two verses can be a golden chain of salvation. There's gonna be five heirs tense verbs of completed action, which speaks of your eternal security. So you predestined, the father's predestined you in the past. He predestined you before the foundation of the earth to be one of his. And he's got a calling upon your life. And he's saying that all things are gonna work together for good. Every circumstance, everything you've ever been through, it's all gonna work together for good. And that's why you do not want to be stuck in the past. You do not want to be stuck there trying to figure out the mind of God, trying to figure out why these things happen to you. You have to trust that all things are working together for good. One day you're gonna be able to say with Joseph, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people to stay. It requires faith. You're not gonna be able to reconcile it in your mind. You can't reconcile it. I had a pretty checkered past, and I told Kathy last night, my mom loved me so much. And She looked over at me like, yeah, right. No, she did. I know she loved me. She's a good mom, a lot of years. And then she went through a rough patch, and all of us kids had to move out in order to be able to graduate high school a 100 miles away from where she lived. But I just that's in the past. I don't worry about that. My mom loved me, and those were the circumstance. Those were the and there's so many more. There's so many other things. But you wanna know the person that's hurt me the most? More than anybody else, the person that's hurt me the most is God my father. Wrap your head around that. God has allowed things in my life since I've been a Christian that I can't even fathom. I can't reconcile. Makes no sense to me. And yet he's also the one that's loved me the most. So whatever purpose he has in this, I don't know. I can't reconcile. I can't write a book about it. All I know is I started by faith, I gotta continue by faith, and I'm gonna persevere by faith, trusting him day by day. If I dwell too much on the way I've been hurt, and it's all about me and I and I and I, I can't move forward. I can't grow. I can't enter into the to discovering what the purpose was of how we can glorify him in all. So I have to believe that all things are working together for good for those who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, not my purpose. For whom he did foreknow in his foreknowledge, he knew you and I before the foundation of the earth. He told Jeremiah, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you, and I ordained you a prophet unto God. The apostle Paul to the church of Galatia said that he God had separated him from his mother's womb. Paul didn't know that. He didn't have knowledge of that. I didn't know that. I didn't know I was gonna be a Christian. It's the last thing I ever thought would happen to me. And to be a pastor, that's a real weird thing. How did that come about, you know? I still scratch my head about that one. So I'm called according to his person whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate. So remember, aorist tense in the Greek, it's completed action. It's already happened. God's eternal. In his foreknowledge, he chose you. He called you. He predestined you to be what? To be conformed to the image of his son. You're becoming like Jesus. He's not gonna leave you how he found you. He knows that we're just dirt fashioned from the dust of the ground, that our intrinsic value is pennies, but filled with the spirit. Oh, how valuable we become. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. That he might be the first born among many brethren, Jesus being the first born of priority. Moreover whom he did predestinate, then he also called. Whom he called, may also justify. Notice that justified. Completed action, just as if you've never sinned. Speaks of righteousness. And then he goes beyond even that to glorification. The holy spirit preserving you and I to the point of God completing that work he's begun in us. Matthew twenty five thirty four, Jesus said, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Have we received that kingdom yet? Are we going to, according to the seven mountain mandate, usher in that kingdom? The dominionist, the kingdom now people? No. The father is gonna cause us to enter into the millennial kingdom, and Jesus is gonna lead the way. And we're gonna serve with him for a thousand years as a kingdom of priests. Why did God choose you? It says that we would be holy without blame before him in love. The word love, agape is in the noun form used 10 times, agapeo the verb form used nine times. Now Charles Spurgeon, he's quoted as saying, God chose me before I came into the world because if he had waited until I got here, he never would have chosen me. You ever feel like that? Just studying this this section of scripture this week just so incredibly blessed me. Because the devil brings so much condemnation into our lives. And there's times that we forget these truths. There's times where we're thinking, god, I should've done this. I should've done that. And typically for me, Kathy will tell you, the hardest time for me is Christmas. I've always had a very difficult time during this season, and I don't know why. For some reason, it's almost New Year's, and I'm too fat, and and you're evaluating your life, and you're looking at it all, and and it's just like, I never measure up. Never ever measure up. But when I study these passages, it's like, man, I don't have to worry. God's gonna complete this work he's begun. He's not gonna throw me away as trash. He's not surprised how much I failed him. He's pre he foreknew me, he predestined me, he called me, he chose me, he's justified me. He even sees me already completed, glorified, already in my new glorified body. No longer that old, edemic nature fighting with the new nature, but complete in him. The father's predestination and appointment to salvation verse four. Secondly, an adoption to sonship verse five. Having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So the before the foundation of the world, Jesus was predestined also. Predestined to die for you and me. Foreordained. God knew it would take a plan of redemption. And the first person of the and the Godhead, the first person of the trinity, God the father, predestined God the son, and God the son knew. He knew that's what it would take. That it would require his blood. In first Peter one twenty, Peter says, for ordained. For ordained. It wasn't an accident. When I when I watch movies, especially this time of year of Jesus being crucified, I begin to think of all the ways we could have stopped this. If you guys would have just done this, you know, you're problem solving. If you stupid people who are crying out, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna would stand up for him, but no, four days later, you're crying, crucify him, crucify him, you know. If somebody would have would have intervened, this innocent man wouldn't have had to die. And you know, you're you're you're wanting to end like a good movie, know? It ain't over yet. It's just one part of the story. When he comes, when he returns, as it's been said, he wrote in the first time, you know, a little donkey. It ain't no little donkey show next time. He's coming. He's coming with the sword of his mouth and the brightness of his coming and blood's gonna be as high as the horse's bridle. Vengeance is mine, I'll repay saith the Lord. For ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifesting these last times for you. In acts two twenty three, it says him being delivered by the determinant council, Peter preaching, him delivered by the determinant council and foreknowledge of God. This is not an accident. Pilate says, don't you know that I have power to crucify you? And Jesus said, no, buddy. You have no power except that which is given you from above. He'd said earlier, no man takes my life from me, but I willingly lay it down. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. He said a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. The only sign you're gonna be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah is three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus said, destroy this temple to the religious leaders. In three days, I'll raise it up. And when he was being crucified and then the body taken down, the religious leaders remember what he said and they said, hey, we need to put some guards around that tomb that Joseph Arimathea just, you know, put the body of Jesus in because this deceiver said, in three days he'd raise himself up. They did us a favor, didn't they? Garden that tomb, keeping everybody away from it. And that stone that was rolled away, that was so that Mary Magdalene, that was so the witnesses could come and see that the tomb was empty. Jesus just walked right through walls. Right? He walked right in. He he didn't need that stone rolled away for him. It was for us, it was for others. As I witness testimony. We have taken by wicked hands have crucified and slain. In Revelation thirteen eight, John the Revelator describes him as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Revelation five, he's holding the title deed, the scroll to the earth. Who's worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals? The lion of the tribe of Judah, he's prevailed. He's the alpha, he's the omega, he's the beginning and the end. Right? The self existent one before Abraham was, I am. I'm the great I am. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the resurrection and the life. I'm the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. I am that I am. Before the foundation of the earth, the father predestined you for adoption. In acts thirteen forty eight, as many as were ordained, I like that, to eternal life believed. Predestination speaks of to define, to mark out, to set apart. Jesus said in John six thirty seven, all that the father gives me shall come to me, and him that comes to me, I'll know why is cast out. So there's your Calvinistic Armenian debate. Eternal security, sovereignty of God versus the free moral agency of man. God never ever ever predestines anyone to hell. No. Peter reminds us that God's long suffering, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. If you see yourself unworthy of eternal life, and you reject Jesus Christ, God will say to you over a lifetime of rejecting him, not my will, but your will be done. He doesn't send you to hell, you go to hell by choosing to go to hell. Think about that moment the Lord revealed himself to you. For me, it was so overwhelming and powerful. I don't know if I could have resisted. To resist would have meant to me would have meant insanity. I had it made as an unbeliever, but as soon as he revealed himself to me, it's like all bets were off. Nothing makes sense anymore. I can't resist this love. I can't resist this forgiveness. I can't resist what what he's communicating to me by his spirit. And that was my moment. All that the father gives unto me shall come to me and him that comes to me, I'll know why is cast out. So the predestination of God and the free will of man, both are true. So we are humble enough to teach both. We could act like pseudo intellectuals and I could call myself doctor Dick Bodrey to make everybody think I'm really smart and I could go all the way on the side the extreme of Calvinism, hyper neo Calvinism and everybody go, oh, ah, he can throw out some really good words. Wow. But I would be an heir. I need to be humble enough to teach the free moral agency of man. Because if God is predestinating people to hell, what kind of God is that? That's not a God of love, is it? God gives each and every person a choice. And so we choose to humble ourselves and to teach both. So we, as we are bible students, when we come to election election or or the the sovereignty sovereignty of of God God or predestination, these kind of words, we teach it. Plant our feet all the way. And we're not apologizing for the free moral agency of man. Your responsibility to respond. Both are true. Where do they meet? We don't know. They're like train tracks that go along. Where they I don't know. But both are true. That's the mind of God. That's why we preach the gospel. That's why we share the good news. We don't know who's saved or who's not. We share to whosoever will, let them come. In John six forty four, no man can come unto me, Jesus said, except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. Then he says in verse 47, he that believes on me shall have everlasting life. So I can't even come unto him. I can't even make a an attempt to go toward him, toward Jesus, unless the father's predestined me, unless the father draws me. What's that word draw mean? It's the Greek word hakouo. And it means that God initiates. God is powerfully attracting me, and even the point of dragging me. I'm doing this for your own good. And so we think, alright, I've got free will. Well, let's discuss free will with Jonah. Jonah has free will. He can go the opposite direction. He can fight God, God's will for his life. I'm not going to Nineveh, man. I'm gonna get a boat and I'm gonna go the opposite direction. Well, God can make you willing, can he? How long do you wanna ride in that fish? How long do you wanna live a life of like it's hell as he describes going down the deep parts there, and it's like the seaweed was around his head, and he he was afflicted. He was in hell until he said uncle. Uncle. Oh, okay. Okay. Alright. You're tapping out. Okay. Okay. I hear you now. Can you hear me now? Yeah. I hear you now. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Now, forty days and you're gonna perish. Not a very loving message, but very effective. Greatest revival we see out of the old testament. Right? The whole city. The king on down, including the animals, everybody repented. Very effective. But nobody said when they asked Jesus when Jesus asked him, who do men say that I am? Nobody said, you're reminded of Jonah. No. So God can make you willing, and you can spend twenty years, thirty years in a backslidden condition, fighting against God, knowing you're saved, knowing he saved you, knowing he spoke to your heart when you're a child in Sunday school and at church with your family, and you can go your own way, but you're miserable. Uh-huh. The world doesn't satisfy. It can't fill that void because you've been predestined. I know of guys who mightily use of God and backslide, and then they get cancer, they get AIDS, and it's in their hospital bed, they come to repentance. You see, God seals the deal. He'll give you over to Satan for the destruction of your body, for the saving of your soul. I believe my mom made it into heaven that way. She was defiant. And then the Lord gave her cancer, lung cancer, and it broke her will. It broke her. It softened her to reach out to God, to cry out to God. And I hope and pray that I see her in heaven. Hope and pray that her faith, and that's what God imputes righteousness, it's her faith. Not the body of her work. Gotta be some fruit. Well, fruit there is faith. Trusting once again, wearing her cross, identifying with the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. There's a guy named Harry Ironside, a great writer, and he describes this sovereignty of God with the free moral agency of man by describing a picture they call it the Ironside door. The Ironside door is a picture of a long hallway. Long hallway that you walk down and above the outside of the door that you come to, over the door it says, whosoever will. The doorknob is on the outside. There's a knob on the outside of the door and it says, whosoever will. Jesus said in Revelation three twenty, behold I stand at the door knock. If any man hear my voice and open that door, I'll come in to him and sup with him and he with me. Up above the door on the inside, so you go through that door and you come on the inside, you exercise your will. Now you're on the inside. And above the door on the inside it says predestined, called, chosen before the foundation of the world. Ain't that amazing? We think that we're choosing God. I made a choice that night, raised my hand to receive Christ and I did, but it was all orchestrated. It's like a master chess person backing me into a corner that night. I didn't have a move. There was no move. Checkmate. And as I begin to learn and begin to study and begin to as he was revealing himself to me because I didn't know him. Man, now I know. Man, I'm special. He chose me. And he caused me to come to the place of believing in the son. I'm born again. I'm a child of God. But not only that, now I'm a son of God. Now I'm an heir. I'm a plutocrat. I get the riches that Jesus purchased. I'm a joint there with Jesus. I'm not a loser. Maybe by the world standard, but man, I wouldn't I wouldn't there's nothing this world has to offer me. Nothing. It all pales in comparison to that night where Jesus revealed himself to me. It pales in comparison each and every day to have a measure of faith to walk in fellowship with God. The quality of life. If you gave me $10,000,000, why would I change anything? I love what I get to do. Would $10,000,000 make it so I'm not a pastor anymore? I'm I'm gonna go live on the beach somewhere? I love what I'm doing. I love it. I I love being a Christian. I love serving the Lord. I don't wanna get in God's way. I wouldn't change a thing. Not a thing. Adoption, speaks of an adult standing. And we talked about this in Galatians four, you know, the the pedagogue, the tutor that tutors you while you're young, but then you come to adult age and now you get to enter into that that point of being an heir. So an adult standing, why? There's an immediate claim to your inheritance. Speaks of your position. So the father chose you to become a child to be born again. Nicodemus, you must be born again. How can a man that is old enter a second time in his mother's womb? No. You need to be born of the water, the natural birth, Nick, and of the spirit, the spiritual birth. Not just body and soul, but now you need to be body, soul, and spirit, the trichotomy. Adam, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Death is separation from God. You're dead spiritually, Adam and Eve. You need to be born again. Born of the spirit. And so you were in Adam, you were headed for hell apart from God, apart from his predestination, and the father brings you into Christ. You're in Christ. You're in the ark. You're in the ark. And Noah is a preacher of righteousness for a hundred and twenty years. The only people that got in the ark is his own family. If your life's labor resulted in your family being in Christ, would you be pleased? If each and every mom and dad, their sphere of responsibility was to train their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, do everything they could to make sure that their children would make it. Not the responsibility of public school, not the responsibility of the church, the church's to support, but the primary responsibility lies with the parent. You might hear the Lord say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Because what good would it be to see a 100, a thousand people come to Christ and your own daughters go to hell. You really gonna pride yourself on what a great evangelist you were? My heart would break. Just break. Where did I go wrong? What happened? Why doesn't she see? Why doesn't he see? Lord, are they ever gonna come back? How long are they gonna be gone for? Are they gonna make it? Am I gonna see them on the other side? Or maybe your life, your pursuit is a bigger house, a car. You wanna amass a fortune. At what? At the expense of your children's eternal destiny? You're willing to give that up when God has entrusted them to you? The father brings you into Christ, into the family. You're a joint heir with God's only begotten son Jesus. We call our father Abba. We call him daddy. We call him papa. He predestinated us to the adoption of sons. The father's look at that, I got so much time. Man. Well, maybe not. Watch this. The father's predestination. I can hear your stomachs growling right now. I love I love the scripture here. I love this. I don't wanna gloss over. I I wanna it to wet your appetite me look back. These these are these are some deep truths that we're learning here. Guys write books about this stuff. They argue and fight over this stuff. Once saved, always saved, you know, and stuff like that. The father's predestination, an appointment to salvation. Secondly, an adoption to sonship. And thirdly and finally, an acceptance in the beloved. Verse six. He says, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. That word accepted is the Greek word where it's a derivative of word grace, which is charis. And so undeserved favor, unmerited favor. God puts favor upon you because of who he is. Because he's so gracious. You know, the best way I could think of it would be like a grandma or grandpa. My grandkids can do no wrong. I've never seen them do anything wrong and and they they can have whatever they want. The word no is not in papa's vocabulary. Now it's in grandma's vocabulary because somebody has to keep order, but but, I become one of the kids. And it's chaos, and it's crazy. And there's so much candy at the candy shack, let me tell you. And just, you know, this morning we come in and one of my grandsons dropped the the globe. They were trying to teach people the earth is round, it's not flat, and the globe broke. And so last night, I had a little bit of time watching Christmas story, and the lamp fell over and broke. So I said, Fragile, you broke it on purpose, and started doing all that and playing with them and then I grabbed it and I put it together and they were putting the pulpit up here for me and then I rolled it down the aisle like a bowling ball. And Sean was behind me like, but one time Sean saw me in action with Keith when he was working on my truck and there was a raccoon up in the tree and I went and got my pellet gun and came back and, Keith, you wanna shoot that thing, you know? So Sean's comment after that was, you're the perfect grandpa. Yeah. Because I don't I don't care anymore like a father. I don't I don't have to I'm not worried about is this kid gonna turn out right or not. That's the parents job. They get to be the heavies. I get to just love on them with unmerited favor. Want some more candy? When Isaiah comes over, put a bunch of that down in your pocket now, you're gonna be driving the car. Load your pockets up, man. They run over to grandma's tree, she's got a Christmas tree, and they ran over this morning and they're running over there to get the candy canes that are on the tree. Grandma put them there for them. That's unmerited favor. And the other grandma, bless her heart, she's a sweetheart, Becky, Wayne's mom, she says to Britney, you tell Kathy that she's gonna pay for the dental bill if she doesn't stop giving those kids the candy, you know. So there's the hammer, there's the law, there's the practical, there's the reality of and me, I'm like, God can heal. To be accepted, undeserved, unmerited favor. And yet, what we do in our relationship, we have reciprocal love. If somebody treats me good, I'll treat them good. If I'm doing bad, then I'm thinking I gotta go do good so then God will like me again, so that God will bless my life. I know there's things I want in my life, things I gotta pray for, and I gotta position myself to get in the bless me club by doing all the things he's expecting to me because then he'll answer my prayer, bless me with a bigger house or nicer car, nicer job. And Paul said to Timothy, they air. They think that godliness is a means of gain. You're trying to be godly so you can get more. But godliness with contentment is great gain. So don't play that game with God. Come to him by grace. Come to him based upon his grace. Come to him knowing that he's he's a soccer. Grandpa can never say no. But you start building a case, how you deserve it, you might lose a you might lose in that interaction. Because he wants you to know it's his grace. Says the Meredith favor is, it's his love. So the father has graced us into his grace. We are accepted in the beloved, the highly favored and loved. Our father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Now follow me. I'll make five points here. Follow me. In heavenly places, verse three. All spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Why? That we should be holy verse four. The spiritual blessing of being in Christ verse three, that we would be blameless. We are in him, verse four, before the foundation of the earth, verse four. In love, that we would be sons, verse five. In the beloved, verse six, that we would be accepted, verse six. Why did the father predestinate us? Two reasons. Verse five, according to the good pleasure of his will. And even tells the nation of Israel, I didn't choose you guys cause you're better than all the other nations. In fact, you're you're worse than a lot of them in a lot of ways. You remember when Abraham was there was the Philistines with Abimelech or even when he's there with the pharaoh. You know, you're lying. You're saying Sarah's this knockout woman that she can become a part of my harem. You're saying she's just your sister and all. And Abimelech and the guys were more men of integrity than Abraham and the gang, you know. So it wasn't because you're so righteous. It wasn't because you're the best or the biggest. In fact, you're the least in a lot of ways. It's because of who I am. I took you Abe from Ur of the Chaldeans. I took you from a Babylonian family where your father, Terah, was an idolater. You have no pedigree. No godly pedigree. Where am I gonna go to find a godly pedigree? Go to Matthew one during the Christmas season. Go to Luke chapter three during the Christmas season and watch the lineage that Jesus had to come through. Sworded. Sinful. Why? Because we're sinful people. If you come through Ruth the Moabites, you have to ask yourself, who are the Moabites? The Moabites are a result of Lot having sex with his daughter. And Ruth the Moabites, how is she righteous enough? How is she? Well, she had a kinsman redeemer like Jesus, Boaz. It's because of the blood, because of the Goel price, the price of redeeming her and bringing her into the fold, into the family. Ruth and Boaz begot Obed, Obed begots Jesse, Jesse begots David, and Jesus the root and offspring of David. Only one that gets the glory is Jesus. The only one that gets the glory is God. God could do a much better job with one angel than he can with us. Think of what he could do with 12 legions of angels, Peter. Peter with Hezekiah, when Senecarib is attacking, one angel wipes out a 185,000 of the Assyrians. Just one angel. And you think you're gonna take your sword and cut off Malchus' head? Good thing he ducked. He just got the ear. I put the ear back on him. Peter, don't you know if I wanted to? Pilate, don't you know if I wanted to? I could call down 12 legions of angels. 12 times 6,000? And I I can picture those angels, ready, give the command. I could see Elijah calling down fire. I could see James and John, the sons of thunder, went to call down fire. But that's not God's heart. You know not what spirit you have, James and John. I didn't come to destroy men's lives but to save. To seek and to save that which is lost. Why did the father predestinate us? Verse five, according to the good pleasure of his will. It's his will, it's in his heart. Secondly, verse six, the praise of the glory of his grace. Why does the son purchase us? Verse 11, to the praise of his glory. Why does the holy spirit preserve us? Verse 14, to the praise of his glory. The father's predestination, an appointment to salvation, an adoption to sonship, an acceptance in the beloved verse six. He has made us plutocrats having blessed us with all spiritual blessings. How will we live? So you picture Joshua. You guys choose this day who you'll serve. As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. You got a choice to make. You're gonna live like a plutocrat and join the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus as an adopted son or daughter brought into the family, access to all the inheritance, or you're gonna live out on the street as a pauper? In John 10, Jesus said in verse 10, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, to destroy. The devil wants to take your kids, my kids, my grandkids, and destroy their minds. Destroy them. Take away their innocence. Bring in all sorts of influences that would destroy the potential that we see, that innocence, that beauty, that blessing, that those giftedness that God has placed there To ruin lives, to steal, to kill, and to destroy. In contrast, Jesus said, but I've come that you might have life, and that more abundantly. Not just eternal life quantity, but quality. The riches that are ours right now, not even in heaven yet. Right now in Christ Jesus, there's nothing that Bill Gates or any of those guys have that can even compare to what we have this morning in Christ Jesus. What would a profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? In Hebrews four sixteen, let us therefore come boldly. Come boldly. Not don't don't be afraid. Don't let the devil condemn you. Don't let the devil pigeonhole you to a person defeated and unworthy of being blessed. God wants to bless you. And the greatest blessing is he's your portion forever. Even when Job is wiped down, all of his stuff's taken away, Job still has access to the throne of God. Job is a worshiper and he and he and he says, naked came out in the world, naked I'm gonna go. The Lord giveth, the Lord take it away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And then it gets more intense as his physical health is taken away skin for skin. All that a man has will he give for his life. The devil's able to take away Job's health. And many of you are experiencing this, have experienced it, your health is in jeopardy, an affliction comes against your life for someone you love, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional. You're just a wreck. They're a wreck. What holds them together? How how do they experience that peace that surpasses all understanding that guards their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus? Fellowship. It's through fellowship with Jesus. They have access to come boldly before his throne of not judgment anymore. Not judgment. You're not sick because you did something wrong. You're sick because we live in a sinful fallen world. You're not home yet. Yeah. God's gonna complete this work that he's begun. He made us plutocrats. Let us therefore come boldly under that throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. Mercy is not getting what I deserve. I don't wanna relate with God based upon cause and effect to what I deserve or don't deserve. I want mercy. The Lord's mercies are new every morning. If he gave me what I deserved, I wouldn't be justified already, just as if I never sinned. I wanna walk in that position I have right now. That position is mine. Completed action. It's a done deal. There's now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. I'm in Christ Jesus. And find grace to help in our time of need. Grace is unmerited favor, like an ocean of grace. And we act like, just I'll just go take a thimble, just a little thimble of grace. No. Jump in. Jump all the way in. Bathe yourself in his grace. Your father in heaven has predestined you to be a plutocrat, predestined by the father. Jesus told a story of a father who had two sons in Luke fifteen eleven through 32. And the one son came to the father and he said, father, I want my I want my inheritance. I want everything that's due me. So the father took and separated out his younger son's inheritance. And the son waited a day or two and then he took it altogether and he went into a foreign land. And he lived a riotous lifestyle, A lifestyle that his older brother described as with harlots and such. He's a partier, party animal and he loses all of his money, lose all of his stuff. So he says, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to a certain citizen in this town, and I'm gonna go to work for him, this Jewish boy. And he winds up working on a pig farm, and he winds up feeding pigs, and he winds up eating the husks that were meant for the pigs. Belly's swelling, he's not getting any nutrition at all, losing his mind. Can't figure it out, and nobody's helping him. Nobody's come to help. So then it says he comes to his senses. That's what it's like for many of our prodigals, many of our our kids. There's so much more that God has for them, and we're waiting for the light bulb to go on for it to click finally. And I I've said to my prodigal daughter, and I I'm just crying so hard for her to come visit us for the holidays. For some reason, it's really strong in my heart. I said, Jess, you blew through your twenties. Jess, you've blown through your thirties. You're in your forties, honey. Time to get right with God. God has so much more for you, honey. And she got pregnant again a few months ago, and you know the story, she had another lost pregnancy. And in her mind, I'm sure it's hard to reconcile. It's hard to understand. And she's struggling. And this prodigal son, he's been struggling. A lot of it he brought on himself. And now he's rehearsing his confession to his father. He realizes that at home, there are servants that work for dad that have a far better, they have bread and more bread than they can eat. They don't have to eat pig husk. And he rehearses his his apology, his confession and he turns toward home and that's a picture of repentance. As soon as you make that one eighty, you make that turn toward home, guess what? God's been looking out the window on the horizon and he sees you coming. And this is when God ran. He runs to you. He couldn't go. He we use the word couldn't loosely, but he wouldn't go until you came to the end of yourself, into the foreign land to force you home. I had so many people tell me, Rick, why don't you go to Louisiana and grab Jessica and bring her home? How do you kidnap an adult? How do you force an adult against her will? She has to come to the end of herself. It's hard, super hard watching them be abused and abuse themselves and such. But I believe she's predestined. I have proof that she's in Christ. I know that I know that I know that this girl saved and the father ran to her. And he didn't ask him 20 questions to stimulate the guilt the child was already feeling. He said, go get the fatted calf. Get the robe. Put the robe of righteousness on him. Put the ring that the holy spirit's gonna mark you out. The engagement ring of the spirit. You belong to the you belong to Jesus. Get the fatted calf. We're gonna have a party. We're gonna celebrate. He's got the robe. He's got the ring. He's got the fatted calf. He's got shoes on his feet now. He's coming back toward home, and the father all the father wants to do is celebrate. Celebrate. God wants to celebrate with you. He wants you to enter into all that he's purposed for you. It's a joy and it's a blessing more blessed to give than to receive. That's why we love giving to our grandkids, giving to those we love. We want them to enter in to the joy and the blessing of the gifts that we have in store for them. And then the elder brother who was out in the field, he heard and they were making merry and they were dancing and he came in all indignant and all. He came to his father and his father was like, what's up son? And he said, all my life I've done what you've asked me to do. I've done everything. I I've never violated your your word and none of those things. And you've never went and it really got to him. You never went and killed a fatted calf on my behalf and let me and my friends throw a party and all. And he said, son, you're gonna be with me forever, and all that I have is thine. You're gonna enter into all of it. You're a plutocrat. Your brother, he was dead. Now he's alive. He was lost. Now he's found. That's great cause for rejoicing. Plutocrat predestined by the father. Father, we thank you that your plan is so much better than our plans. As we trust in the Lord with all of our heart, we lean not our own understanding, in all our ways we acknowledge you, and Lord, you direct our paths, paths that you've preordained that we're to walk in. Lord, I thank you for before the foundation of the earth for you, determining to save Kathy. I thank you, Lord, that before the foundation of the earth, you predestined her to be with me, that the two would become one. No accident, no mystery ordained of you. And I thank you, Lord, that you predestined that I would have children, Jessica and Brittany. Lord, when we didn't have a son, I didn't care. My two daughters are better than any son. And Lord, now we have son in laws, we have grandkids, and we get to serve you, and we have a family of believers who are in Christ, and our life is incredibly rich. Plutocrats. Lord, I pray evermore that you help us to finish well, to enter into all that you preordained, all that you have for us, for your kingdom and for your glory, Lord. I pray that each and every one of us here this morning represented here, that Lord our prodigals would come home, that you would woo them, you would draw them, that you drag them if you need be. And Lord, I pray that they be cleaned and sober and in their right minds. And Lord, that they value the life of the spirit more than the life of the flesh in the world. Save, Lord. Save now. Bring them home, Lord. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if you don't have this relationship with God, if you don't have a being born again, being born of the spirit, where you have access to him, to speak with him, and be touched by him, and hear from him, and and know that you know that you know that your name's written in the lamb's book of life, slain before the foundation of the earth. God is introducing himself to you. God the father's introducing himself to you as a son. You're you're the son that he predestined. You're the one that he called. You're the one he foreknew. And he sent his son to the cross to die for you, to purchase you out of sin and hell and death. It's his idea to save you. It originates with him, continues with him, and he's gonna give you the holy spirit to preserve you and to bring you into his eternal kingdom. Anyone here this morning, you're hearing the holy spirit tap on the door of your heart saying, let me in. Let me in. Let me show you what I can do with you. We love you. It's for your tears we died where Jesus died. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hands up. God doesn't want you to suffer. He doesn't want you to suffer in this way as an unbeliever, to suffer as one who doesn't know the thrill and the blessing of belonging and being a part of his family. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna pray for you. Lord bless you there. Anybody else? Just just lift your hand up. Just pray along these lines if you're on Facebook or social media. Pray along these lines. Dear gracious heavenly father, thank you for sending your son Jesus to die for me. Thank you for predestinating me and drawing me, wooing me by the power of your holy spirit. Thank you for delivering me from the chains of death, the blindness that the wicked one had me as a captive. Thank you for opening my heart and mind and my soul as I cry out to you to come into my heart and life. As I turn for my sins and I cry out, God be merciful to me a sinner. Thank you, Lord, for eternal life. Thank you for the future and the hope that I have in you, Lord. Thank you for your love and your forgiveness. Thank you for your grace, for your mercies that are new each morning. Thank you for making me a plutocrat, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen.