A Mystery Clarified - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

Would you stand with me please as we open up God's word? As we continue to dedicate the Sunday service to the book of Ephesians, verse one. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for 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 is not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by this spirit.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of and to bring to light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery hidden to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our and So I So I to lose over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Let's pray.

Father, with this dense text filled with revelation that we can chew on for weeks on end, We ask that in this moment, for we realize how weak we are, we realize how dull the eyes of our hearts are, that you would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation that this book tells us is available to us. May you in this place captivate every heart with every verse and every word that comes from this chapter. May we be lost in the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Lord, we ask that we would leave changed. We ask that, Lord, we would leave here knowing that God has spoken.

And Lord, we long to be conformed to the image of your son. Sanctification of your word in this place, Lord. We thank you, God, that you honor those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And so we come expecting Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

In the may be seated. Think about the different titles. One might give the apostle When you hear the Apostle Paul, when you hear that name, what might come to your mind? Would it be theologian? Would it be missionary?

Would it be apostle? Would it be miracle worker? All those things would be true. But rarely will you hear, maybe ever hear, the label which the Apostle Paul gives himself in this first verse. Prisoner of Christ Jesus.

Prisoner of Christ Jesus. A man familiar with heavy chains, and the sensation of the frigid cold air of that dungeon cell, which he was a frequent visitor of. For it is believed that Paul, throughout the length of his ministry, spent five to six years in such a place. And the reason why he was found in prison for so long at different times in his ministry because wherever this man went, he caused at least two things to happen at all times. One of them is revival and the other is a riot.

Revival or riots. Wherever this man went, there was either a move of God or a move of God in another way, where people were trying to tear him from limb. And limb. And the Jews, the Jewish leaders especially were agitated because whether it was a riot or whether it was a revival, it always brought attention to the God man Jesus Christ. So here he is in prison.

A man who was physically bound and was forced to forfeit his freedom, but one who can rejoice at the same time, for he himself was set free from the chains of sin and from the bondage of inequity. A man who was held captive for declaring the good news that sets the captives free. One who knew that the real prisoner was not him, but the one who did not experience the freedom found in Christ. He had greater freedom with feathers, stuffed away in some man made hell hole than the one who was walking freely in the town square with the blue sky and the sun shining on his face. Prisoner of Christ Jesus.

One might be ashamed of such a reputation, but Paul held that reputation with joy. He bore that title Gladly. He did not say, I'm a prisoner of Rome, nor did he say that he was a victim of injustice. No. He declared that I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

And one might think that Satan had victory over Paul and his ministry throughout those years in prison, being hindered in his cell, not being able to reach the churches, not being able to travel and to minister and strengthen and encourage the brethren. But what we need to realize is that in those times of prison, Paul wrote four prison epistles. Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. That teaches us a wonderful truth. Does it not?

That even in moments or seasons in which we are apparently hindered or limited in our desire to serve Jesus, God can use those moments and use those limitations beyond what we can even imagine. That when we seem crippled, that when we seem like we are not doing much for Christ, when we seem like we have this wanting and desire to go and do greater things for him, in those moments, we have to realize that the sovereignty of God is at work, and he is using those seasons for a greater purpose. Imagine. This is the beauty of serving Jesus and his kingdom, that even prisons have a purpose when we serve him. Prisons even have a purpose as we walk in obedience to him and for him.

Do you think Paul knew that these letters would be read in 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, in a room like this? Did he have that revelation? He had revelation, but I believe he did not know to the extent of where these letters would go. But he did have this understanding that even his imprisonment had a purpose. In his other epistle, in Philippians one twelve, he says this beautiful statement.

He says, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. He pistol where he tells the Christians who are not in prison to rejoice in more than one occasion. I want you to know that what's happened to me, the fact that I'm arrested, the fact that I'm here has served to advance the gospel. Why? Because those in the prison know that I'm here for Christ.

And those that know, the other brothers that know that I am in jail for the gospel, it has given them a jolt of boldness to go out and preach the gospel. What a perspective this man had. That in anything that he faced, he saw it as the advancement of the gospel. But listen, that's not something automatic. That was a perspective he was willing to develop.

That was something that he walked in by faith. I'm in prison? Alright. I'm not gonna whine. I'm not gonna complain.

I'm not gonna sulk here. I'm gonna do something. What can I do while I'm here? Oh, I can write a letter. What can I do as we're gonna learn next week?

Oh, I can pray. I'm on my sick bed. What can I do? I can barely move. Oh, I can worship.

Glory. Identity? That whatever you find yourself in now, you're willing to say, I'm doing it for Christ, or I'm in this for Christ. I'm suffering for Christ. I'm serving in the church at whatever capacity for Christ.

I'm being persecuted for Christ. I'm being hospitable for Christ, for Christ Jesus. I'm in prison for Christ Jesus. Here I am sick, but I'm sick for Christ Jesus. It changes everything.

It changes everything. Paul says, I'm a prisoner of our Lord. And what did he do while he was in prison? Thinking about others. He was thinking about the church.

He was thinking about those that have been converted under his ministry. And he says that in second Corinthians eleven twenty when he gives his resume. At the end of it he says, I have this daily pressure on me. This anxiety that consumes me for the churches. This is the love that possessed the Apostle Paul by the spirit.

He went from throwing Christians into prisons to writing Christians from prisons. You want to talk about a new creation. You want to talk about being constrained. You want to talk about being motivated by love even when he was at the lowest point. Even though he was in this dungeon, this hell hole, he still had something in mind and it wasn't himself.

It was his brethren. How was their faith? How was their walk with the Lord? What are they experiencing? He was so filled that his eyes were not on himself.

They were continually outward. They were continually beyond himself. This is the man that we are reading of here. And each of these letters that he wrote from prison had a purpose. Each had a unique message.

And the book of Ephesians is dedicated to telling these gentile Christians how the gospel relates to them, How this truth is something that is for them. And the verses that we read, there is one common word that is repeated and resurfaced, and it's the word mystery. Mystery. This mystery. This mystery.

This mystery. What we've been reading from chapter one to chapter two, Sunday after Sunday, it has to do primarily with this mystery. And he explains in detail up to this point what this mystery is, and he's about to go over it again. But what he's doing in this chapter, because it seems very personal and kind of random, but it's not. What he's doing in these verses, what we're about to explore, is he's he's giving not only the description of this ministry, in this mystery, he is going to give a reason to have strong confidence to believe in this mystery.

He explained it, and it's glorious. But it's almost too good to be true for these Gentiles that were excluded from the plans of God, and the salvation of God. And so, he comes to say, I'm gonna tell you now why you should believe in it. I wanna tell you why you can have strong confidence that this gospel is in fact for you Gentiles. And so, he moves on in verse three.

Look what he says. How the mystery was made known to me by revelation. This mystery came to me by revelation, meaning that the source of this truth was from the Lord himself. Paul was a man that carried a wealth of revelation. In second Corinthians twelve one, in defense of his apostleship, because there were these false apostles that were trying to creep into the church, he has to hesitantly defend his ministry by telling him the great things that God has shown him.

And he says, here are my revelations. Here are the truths that have been revealed to me. And he speaks in the third person later on and says, you know, I knew a man that went to heaven. And he even admits that because of the surpassing greatness of these revelations, God and his wisdom needed to humble him. And so he put a thorn in his flesh, which speaks of another practical truth, does it not?

That if you and I increase in knowledge, increase in abilities, increase in platform, that also increases the intensity of our fight against pride. So be careful if you're praying for God to reveal things to you. Be careful if you're asking for God to use you in mighty ways. He might, just with that, find a way to keep you low because he loves you enough to not let you go into self destruction because of what even he could reveal to you. So, he says, this came to me by revelation.

This source was God himself, which is very important when it comes to reading this letter. May this stir your faith as it would have for the Ephesian church, that Paul did not come up with this ministry for selfish gain. He did not produce these truths through his intellect in order to give himself a ministry. Proof of that is that he's in prison for this truth. He's suffering for this truth.

Why would any man suffer? If a man was doing this for selfish gain, and he's realizing that it's going the opposite direction, you press the eject button. You say, maybe this isn't worth it. But he's saying here that what you've read from chapter one to chapter two, God has revealed that to me. God has revealed that to me, and I'm making it known to you.

And I like what he says here in verse three in the second part, as I've written briefly. I find that humorous. As to what we've read and studied, these first two and these first two chapters are brief explanations of the glories of the gospel. This is just surface level stuff, by the way. That's what he's saying.

But I've written this to you briefly. And this revelation is given by God. Why is that important? One, because God is not a man that he should lie. But these truths found in the gospel, this mystery, which is not the gospel itself, is true.

And two, we can rejoice because it's a revelation of God's love for all men. It came to me by revelation. I didn't make this stuff up. This didn't come from a conference, and we decided with the other apostles, let's find a way to reach the Gentiles. No.

God spoke to me. What you just read, beloved, are the words not of Paul, but of Jesus. And, you know, it didn't stop there. Not only did it come in Revelation, it came in total clarity. Verse four.

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. He's saying here that this mystery in the past was not revealed to the sons of men of old. It was hidden. Now, we know why it's called a mystery. That at one time it was veiled, but now it's unveiled.

One time it was in the dark, and now it's in the light, which gives us this excitement, at least it should, that what the Old Testament, even prophets had, was a limited understanding of where this gospel would go. Sure, they understood that a messiah would come. Sure, they understood that the Gentiles would receive light and some kind of an influence through this good news, but they did not have an understanding of how Jew and Gentile would be morphed into this new organism called the church. They didn't understand the full implications of it. And Paul says, it's been revealed to you and me.

Even Jesus says in Matthew thirteen seventeen to his disciples, for truly I say to you, hear it. And Jesus was speaking of the fact that these disciples could behold the incarnate Christ, that they could touch him and hear from him and witness his miracles and hear his teachings. And some of us might say, well, I wish I was living in those days. But as we know, we have something greater. Jesus himself said, it's better that I go.

We have the full revelation. We have the full blueprint. We can see it all the way until the end. We can see the shadows of it in the old, in the fullness. We have the full revelation.

What are we doing with it? Paul himself said in Ephesians one seventeen, I we just pray that just before the message, that you would receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you would behold the glories that are found in this. The prophets of old don't have the opportunity that you have. These men of old did not have the privilege that you have and the access that you have as Christians, that you have the full revelation, and you have the spirit to teach you, and to show you, and to reveal things to you. He's saying here it was veiled.

It was a mystery. It was something that was hidden. But look how apologetic he becomes here. Look how he gives this wonderful insight. It was not just made known to me, but it has been revealed to also his holy apostles and prophets.

That's important. It's one thing for a man to claim that he has received revelation from God. It's one thing for an individual to say, God showed me something. God told me something. But it's something completely different when a group of hundreds can claim to that same truth.

It's a whole different claim when many can say, yes, God has revealed the same thing to us. It strengthens the testimony. It strengthens our ability to grasp and swallow that truth, and to be able to digest it with confidence. And this is what he's trying to say. Listen, although I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I want you to know that this truth was not just revealed to me.

But other apostles and other prophets as well can testify that what I'm telling you is true. I want you to explore with me for a moment other worldwide religions that are spreading throughout the West, the East, all over. And consider with me how these, some of these at least, religions began. They all have something in common, that it began with one person that received some kind of revelation from God. Whether it was a dream, whether it was a thought, whether it was an encounter with an angel, this person individually receives something apparently from God, and through that individual revelation from God, he goes and he evangelizes the world with that truth.

Think of Mormonism. The founder, Joseph Smith, who claims that an angel named Moroni comes and visits him and shows him these ancient plates to essentially say that the Bible is not the complete revelation of God. There's more to it. And here's Joseph Smith that takes those things and claims that God revealed it, and look at the mess that millions have found themselves in. Let's think of Islam, the founder, Mohammed, who claims to have received revelation from the angel Gabriel.

But if you really read carefully, if you really study what he thought that encounter was, initially it was a completely different experience. Oh, he claimed that he most likely encountered a demon. And not only that, that he became demon possessed. And he even went to his wife, and it was his wife and her cousin that comforted him and confirmed to him, no, this is from God, and you have been made a prophet. And we're still dealing with that religion today.

But consider the Christian faith. Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. He walks publicly, teaches publicly, does miracles publicly, dies publicly, is buried with eyewitnesses, raises from the grave, and walks in his resurrected state for forty days to teach and to prove that he is, in fact, alive. Shows himself to be resurrected. Ascends into heaven publicly, raises in disciples 12 apostles to lead the charge and to reveal himself to hundreds of others to go into the world and preach this gospel, behold the wisdom of God That he wants to, in that alone, give us strong confidence that this doctrine, that this gospel, that the truths that you read in your daily devotions are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets.

We're not believing some shady truth. This isn't some shaky questionable foundation. God in his wisdom knew who to give it to, how to do it, so that when we even for a moment doubt, we would realize hundreds have seen him walk and talk and raise the dead and heal the sick and give these truths. He himself even says that you need, in the Old Testament, you need the account of two or three witnesses for something to be at least recognized as true, and he gives us four perspectives of the gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What a wise God.

What a glorious God. What confidence this should bring in our faith concerning the things that we read in this text and the whole scripture as whole. This is not just revealed to me. It was revealed to the holy apostles and prophets. And he goes on in verse six to give the meaning of the mystery.

We talked about the authenticity of the mystery, now we talk about the meaning of the mystery. The mystery is not the gospel itself. It's that through the Gospel, Gentiles are what? Fellow members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. Gentiles, you're in.

You're in. And we've talked about this at great length, so we will not go in-depth with it. But Paul gives a different perspective on the church. We explored how we are recognized as a temple of the Lord, being built up into that. But he also says you're the same body.

Members of the same body, joined together, morphed into one. This is true of the universal church, and this is true of the local church. That fingers and hands and everything else, the same way they're connected, the same way that we are all connected, we will not spend too much time into that. But he does something interesting here. He gets personal.

He gets personal. And for a moment, he just pauses, and he wants to reassure and reflect on the fact that he has been given this message. He has been given this ministry by grace. And I love these verses because it reveals his philosophy of ministry. Look at verse seven.

I was made a minister by the gift of God's grace. We talk about the authenticity of the mystery. We talk about the meaning of the mystery. Now, we talk about the minister of the mystery. The minister of the mystery.

He goes, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. I believe Paul believed that in order to come into this kind of a service, it needed to be a call. That though a desire is great, and that is a great indication that the Lord is putting you in this kind of a position, Paul had something. He believed that it was given to him, and that he was made into this minister. In Galatians, he talks about how he believes that he was foreordained for this purpose.

That before the foundation of the world, God had prepared this call for him and that he was to respond to it in obedience. I was made a minister. And he says it's by God's grace, Paul believed that this invitation into the ministry must be extended by the hand of the Lord of the harvest. And he says, I received it. This is given by God, which was given me.

God has a minister and a ministry for you. He longs to give it to you. We explore that in chapter two, that there is this good work that is prepared for you, and he wants to give it to you so that you can walk in it. That's why we believe in asking God to reveal what he has for us. Lord, if you had something for the Apostle Paul, give me something.

Show me what you want me to do. Reveal to me and make me into the man that you want me to be. Make me into the woman that you want me to be, to fulfill what you want me to do, even if it's small in the eyes of men. Lord, I don't want to step into something that's my own idea. Show me.

And I'm willing to, I'm willing to receive it, whatever it may be. He says it's not only by the grace of God, but by the working of his power. It was God's power that saved Paul. It was God's power that called Paul. It was God's power that energized Paul's ministry.

It's his power. It's his grace and it's his power. So whatever the law Lord calls you to, realize this, that he wants to give you something. But not only does he want to give it to you, he wants to energize you to do it. My power that how easy is it?

I know that sometimes this idea of serving God, we see the cost of it. We see that, yes, at times it gets hard. But as we learn about eagle's wings, it's his power. It's yielding to him. It's letting him work through us.

So where's the boasting? There is none. Where's my involvement? This is your involvement. You yield.

You just make yourself available. You empty yourself of anything that would hinder that power to work through you and in you, and you just say, God, I empty myself, even my dependence upon knowledge and experience and what people say and pat me on the back and tell me how great I am means nothing. I need your power. This man gladly said, I boast in my weakness. Why?

So that the power of Christ may rest on me. Because the moment I boast in self is the moment I forfeit his power, and so I'll boast all the more of how pitiful, weak, and pathetic I am apart from his grace. It's his power that works through me. It doesn't even end there. He says, verse eight, to me though I am the very least of all the saints, I'm the very least.

You wrote two thirds of the New Testament. What are you saying? I'm saying, I recognize that apart from his power and his grace, nothing is possible. Not one thing is possible. Though he received revelation, though he received understanding, though he received influence, though he received manifestation, all of that was experienced with the knowledge of his unworthiness.

Paul was not always Paul. Paul first was Saul. Paul was a name that was inherited afterwards. It does us some good to know what Paul means. Paul means little.

One letter changed the meaning of an entire word, small. I'm small. I'm little. I'm insignificant. I'm just an empty vessel.

Whatever knowledge or ministry influence God gives you and me, may we adopt this attitude of this prisoner of Christ that it is by his grace and it is through his power that anything is possible. When you walk in that truth, you can be sure that pride will have a greater difficulty of abiding in your heart, and you can be sure that God is more than willing to work with somebody like that. The authenticity of this mystery, Talked about the meaning of this mystery, the minister of this mystery. Now the purpose of this mystery. Verse 10.

What is the purpose of this mystery? Is it simply for God to express his love for not only Jews, but for Gentiles? Is it only so that they could come to a place where they are now this new entity, and it's a display of God's awesome love and compassion and desire for all men to be saved. No. It does not finish there.

What does he say? He says this, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Also, this new thing called the church does something beyond what we can see in the natural. The church becomes a display of God's wisdom to another realm. Job 30 eight:seven says that when God created the world, the angels were right there singing for joy.

So we look at the Genesis one account, we see that God creates with the power of his word alone, and all these things are coming into existence out of nothing. But Job gives us insight that while he's doing those things, while he's calling the Earth, while he's calling land and sea and animals and all these different things, angels are there rejoicing, spectating, being stunned by the power that comes, all the stars, all those things. People say, why is the universe so big, and why are these planets there that have no life? It's to display his power. It's to show the depth.

It's to show the immeasurable greatness of his creativity and his majesty. And though we were not there to see it, there was a host of angels that were stirred to worship because of it. But at the creation of this thing called the church, Paul tells us that it is as a witness for these heavenly beings. So though they sang at creation, it's as though when the formation of Jew and Gentile coming into this new organism called the church caused the angels of heaven to lean over the balcony of heaven, and to be confounded, almost speechless, to see how God did this. And it left them to a place of really longing to look into these things.

Do you remember that verse? First Peter one twelve, In the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven, things into which angels long to look. Speechless. At what? His wisdom.

How? How? Perhaps an angel would be thinking this, how was the Lord able to take this sinful, rebellious and corrupt human race and transform them into his bride? How was this embedded curse called sin that plagued each human being? How was it reversed by the blood of the Son of God only to make vessels of wrath transformed into temples of the Holy Spirit?

Perhaps angels question themselves and look at one another and say, how is it that the same Spirit that hovered over the face of the earth now abides in the hearts of these jars of clay? How is it that God could take every type of race from different corners of the Earth and through the blood of Jesus, combine them into one body, united by the Spirit, yet at the same time expressing different languages and cultures? How could he create a new race? Through the gospel, through this cross, and perhaps even demons, Different types of authorities, different types of principalities also were taken back thinking that somehow they could figure God out through the prophetic word. Figuring how God would establish his plan.

Yet at the same time, there was something hidden, this mystery, that shamed Satan and whatever wisdom that he boasted in. That though there was a plan for the Jews, now there's a plan for the Gentiles. His plans, Satan's, were squandered by this mystery. And angels are amazed by this. Are you?

Or do angels long to study something that you are not even moved by? Do angels have a greater interest in this gospel? Do angels long to look into these things more than you and I? I'm afraid for many it is true. How they want to unwrap this mystery is something that is clearly through this verse, going through their minds, and I wonder through the minds of Christians today if it's even a thought.

To say, I want to explore the wisdom of God, and I have his full revelation. What are we doing with this word? When angels long to possess the knowledge that is available to us, and not only do they long to do it, they are limited in experiencing it, because you and I experience it, so it's not just information. It's something that we sense in the heart. It's something that sense in the heart.

It's something that we can worship to because we know what it's like to be reconciled. And although they are powerful, although they have been there from the beginning, we have something that they don't. And we are casual. We say I've heard this before, let's just move on to the deeper stuff. It is deep, you just need to take the time to dig in, and really look into it.

Don't let angels be more amazed than you this morning at the truth of these verses here. Don't let angels converse with one another about the glorious gospel more than you. Don't be fascinated by the things of this world. They are not fascinated with anything else. You know, this world is fascinated with the angelic being.

They are fascinated. They are curious about the spiritual realm, and that's proven by our books and our movies and even spiritual practices, but I find it amazing that angels, in fact, are curious and stir to explore. Believers. Believers. They look at you.

They look at me, and they wonder. You are the result of the wisdom of God. You possess the Holy Spirit. You, a rebellious son and daughter of Adam, are seated with Christ in heavenly places. You are a living Mephibosheth, sitting at King David's table, crippled.

Enemy of David because you're a descendant of Saul, the result of a fall, but now able to feast with the king. And angels look at amazement. And he says here that the church is the manifold wisdom of God. The church is bigger than we think, is more holy than we think, is more precious than we think, and we must join the angels in standing in amazement of God's work through his body. We must join them.

Realize that we are the result of the mind of God through the mystery of this truth. So we are a part of his divine masterpiece. We are. And you and I for eternity will be that canvas in which angels will look and behold and say, the wisdom of God, the power of God, the love of God. Look what he says in verse 13: So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

All the truths that were just explored was more than some theological enhancement. It caused him to be able to endure suffering. To realize that he is a part of God's masterpiece, to realize that he has been given grace to serve the Lord, to realize that in all things there is a purpose, he can confidently say, I'm not worried about my suffering, and neither should you be. You know this truth can so get in you, that suffering will have a hard time moving you. That when you realize your identity, we're always talking about identity, aren't we?

That's why most of our messages are bent on self motivation, and how you can love yourself better, and how you can be a better you, and how you can do this, and how you can overcome this. Listen. Criticize me all you want for being simplistic, but I believe in the power of the gospel. That when you realize not who you are, but who he is, you will know who you are. Think about Peter when Jesus says, who do you say that I am?

And he gave the right answer. And when he had the right understanding of God, Jesus in return replied, on this rock. When he knew who God was, God revealed to him who he was in some sense. So when you and I understand who he is, you in return will have the right understanding perspective of who you are. And Paul says, don't worry, don't lose heart over what I am suffering for you.

Don't. Because you are a part of something greater. And we know that Paul says the very same thing, that every affliction is light compared to the weight of glory that awaits us. And that even in your suffering, you are just once again a part of God's story in his plan for the church. And as you persevere, not only are your brothers and sisters watching you, not only is the world awaiting for you to fail so that you can reject this gospel and reject the lordship of Jesus Christ and bring reproach to his name, but there are angels And so we need to step out of this and get into that realm and see that this is way bigger than what even what we understand.

So what are you suffering with this? So what are you suffering with this? So what are you suffering with this morning? I can tell you that when you understand what Paul understood, his theology changed the way he perceived circumstances. His theology changed the way he embraced suffering.

He could look at prison and say, for Christ. He could look at persecution and say, for Christ. He could look at the cross and say, yes, that's Jesus, but it's for me. He did it for me. He loved me and gave himself for me.

He could look at every step in his life and know that it is ordained and it is purposed, and that gave him strong confidence. He says don't even don't even let it be a thing in your heart that I'm suffering, because this is glorious. This is glorious. And as we look at this, this is not for us to just simply say, well that's neat. It's to say, Lord, if you can do it in the Apostle Paul, who is the chief of sinners, how much more can you do in me?

Lord, if you've given the Holy Spirit to Paul to realize the revelation of how this gospel relates to Gentiles, would you give me the same Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit to take this truth and to make it so true and so real to me that it literally affects the way I live my life? It changes the way I see the church. It changes the way I see every Sunday service. It changes the way I see anything that comes against me. Let it be so in me that it changes me.

Let it be so possessive in my nature that I can rejoice in suffering. Let me be able to take anything in my life and be able to attach with it for Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, because of Christ Jesus. Don't let me be limited in my pursuit of understanding. Yes, you're saved by this gospel, but you have to understand something. There is wells of truth within that gospel that are waiting for you to dig and to understand, and angels long to look into these things.

Lord, don't let me pursue your word at a lesser level than what celestial beings long to know. Give me a hunger. Give me a hunger. And Lord, again, let me realize that I am a part of something bigger than some address on the corner of University Street. But I am a part of a canvas of God's masterpiece on an individual level and a corporate level.

I've been redeemed not only to fulfill a purpose, but to showcase to the universe, to a realm unknown that I am treasured by God, loved by God, adored by God, engrafted into God's family. So let all that fleshly stuff and that insecurity and all those other things, let them just shatter to find powder with the weight of that revelation. You can't get there on your own though. You can't get there on your own. Because right now, it can reach your mind, but it is through the desperation and the prayers of one man to say, Lord, let it transfer into my heart, and let it change me from the inside out.

Let's pray together.