Ephesians 3:1-13 • Counterfeit Callings
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Would you look with me in your Bibles this morning at Ephesians chapter 3.
And as you're turning, I'm going to say thank you for being here. What a wonderful service. You all have fun when you worship God.
And I believe that the God of all joy intends for it to be that way. That with his holiness, there is the wonderful expression of his grace toward us and lets us remember that joy is strength.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. If we would serve him well and rightly and consistently, it's rejoicing in the wonderful provision he has made for us. I don't know if all of you recognize the way in which your pastor and his wife blessed so many. As the Lord uses their lives, they share with such grace and honesty and sometimes pain of what God has done in their lives. We've had them at our school, and I've been in various settings, where Chuck and Sharon have ministered of their hearts. And you as a church have a broader ministry through your pastor and wife. And I thank you for sharing them with a broader world. At Covenant Seminary, I know what you most hope we are doing, since you support us as a church, is being faithful to the Word of God. And that's where I want to take you this day, where Paul in Ephesians chapter 3 identifies the purposes that he sees for a church to which our eyes are often blind. We think of committing ourselves to Jesus Christ. We hardly ever think of committing ourselves to a church. There are so many difficult people there, you know, and sometimes so much pain.
But Paul sees power here.
And I want to take you to this wonderful place where he expresses his own calling to the church of Jesus Christ to think of what your calling may be as well. The first 13 verses of Ephesians chapter 3.
Paul says, "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. That is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I've already written you briefly.
In reading this then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
which was not made known unto men and other generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets."
This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. They are members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable, riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mercy, of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
His intent was that now, through the church,
the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In him, and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you,
which are for your glory.
He was raised in a well-to-do family,
in a major city, in a sophisticated culture,
attended one of the most well-known churches of his era, was discipled by one of the most well-known religious leaders of his time, and he so imbibed orthodox religion that not only did he become committed to it, he became committed to opposing those who disagreed with his orthodox religion,
until something amazing happened.
He became convinced that the very people he was opposing, though they were small in number and ostracized in that culture, he became convinced that the people he was opposing were right,
and he joined them. He committed himself to a period of prayer and fasting and study, until he himself became an advocate of that cause.
He gave up his career, his reputation,
and ultimately his life to fulfill the calling of ministering to that separate religion.
His name was Jibriel Al-Arimki,
raised in Atlanta, Georgia,
in a major church well-respected with one of the nation's most respected leaders,
until he became convinced that Islam was correct.
He gave up his family, his career, his occupation, to pursue the calling of planting a flag for Islam in other parts of the world, joined the allies of Osama bin Laden,
and died while fighting a holy jihad in Kashmir.
Until I told you his name, who did you think I was talking about?
You thought I was talking about the Apostle Paul.
And it's striking the similarities in those two lives. Both believed that they were called to a special religious purpose, and yet we believe that one of them was a genuine calling while the other was counterfeit. And that scares us because they seem so similar.
It's actually always the nature of a counterfeit, that it seems so similar to what is genuine. And so we have a question to ask, how do you know what calling for us as Christians is real, is valid?
You might think that going to the Apostle Paul would be a poor place to identify what a genuine calling is all about. Because most of you remember how the Apostle Paul was called. He was on the road to Damascus, and what happened? There was lightning and thunder, and a voice from God saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
I'm not asking you to test your calling to see if there's been a lightning bolt and a voice in thunder.
But that was a calling that you do not question. You view that as genuine.
And what I'd like for you to consider is, with a calling that you don't question to be genuine at all, is what were the marks that it left? What are the impressions that come upon a life where there is a genuine calling? Because you and I are called to serve Jesus Christ. We are called to serve Jesus Christ in a church. What does that look like? If our calling is genuine, what are the marks that it should leave upon us that we can identify?
The marks that the Apostle Paul begins to identify is that he, as one called of God, is captured by the goals of the Gospel, and he is enraptured by the grace of God.
Captured by the goals of the Gospel means that initially he is simply willing to die to himself. We see that in the very titles that he is using about himself in this familiar chapter, the verse 1 of chapter 3. "For this reason I, Paul..." Now that wasn't his name originally. Remember when he was struck down on the road to Damascus? I just said it to you. Jesus speaking to him said, what? Saul. Saul. Why do you persecute me? That was his original name. Do you remember where the name Saul came from? It was a king of Israel. "Shosen to be king by the people because he was head and shoulders above all the other in stature and apparent importance." He was big, statuesque, great. And Paul had the name Saul, great and tall before. Do you know what the name Paul means, however?
It means small.
He went from being big Saul to small Paul.
He's diminishing.
He's giving away from himself.
And it's just the beginning. "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ."
Prisoner.
Now why is he in prison? He is in Rome because when he was in Jerusalem, the Jews, believing that he had taken a Gentile into the courts of the Jews, accused him of upsetting their world. He was taken to trial. And remember, ultimately he appealed to Caesar to give him a fair trial.
But Paul doesn't say, "I am a prisoner of Caesar, nor prisoner of Rome, nor even a prisoner of the Jewish authorities." He says, "I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus."
God's got a purpose for me. And I'm even willing to be in chains for that captured by the goals of my God. I'm imprisoned, not to men, they may think they have yet, but I'm in prison to God's purposes.
And he says, "I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of you, Gentiles, for surely you heard about the administration of God's grace given to me." That word "administration," some of your Bibles say "dispensation." It actually means that he is the servant of another. He's a steward, an administrator of another message. That's made even more clear at the beginning of verse 7. "I became a servant of the gospel." The language there is of one who hastens to serve a master.
I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. I am willing to forsake privilege of name, of rank, of freedom, of stature. I give it all up willingly for the sake of another because I am captured by the goals of Jesus Christ. Now it's easy for me to say, but I want you just to imagine that you are the Apostle Paul under house arrest in Rome. And just think to yourself, what am I doing here?
I once commanded soldiers, now I'm chained to one.
I once was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
And now I minister the message of a crucified rabbi.
I was served, and now I am a servant.
What I discover out of one who is called is a willingness so to forsake privilege of self,
that one is even willing to suffer for the goals of the gospel. We don't think of it that way in this culture. We sometimes promise if you will follow Jesus Christ, life will be sweet, everything will be nice, all success will come your way. But the Apostle Paul says, even as Jesus said, "In this life you will face many troubles, and if the master suffered,
what will happen to the servant who follows him?
There will be suffering." You know why I need to say that to you? So that if you're going through a difficult time in life as a Christian, you're not saying to yourself, "What is wrong with me? I thought Jesus was to fix all this." No, sometimes God calls his people to faithfulness in a difficult situation, and it doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong or something's wrong with you. God calls his people to his goals, and at times that means we will go through difficulties for a witness,
even as Paul did, giving up his own privilege for the sake of his Savior. But what's even more curious as the mark of a genuine calling is not simply that we are willing to die to self.
After all, there are terrorists who will put bombs around their chest and go into crowded marketplaces and give of themselves,
but we don't consider that to be a genuine calling. A willingness to die to self is not in itself sufficient as the mark of a calling.
And so Paul says something else. Not only will he forsake privilege, he will deny merit.
I'll do all this, but I'm not claiming it is to my merit. Look how he says it.
"I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of the Gentiles, surely you heard about the administration of God's grace that was earned by me. I studied hard enough and figured, "No, what? It was given to me." Verse 3, "The mystery made known to me by revelation." I didn't figure it out. "It came to me." In verse 5, "Also said again, this message was not made known to men and other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit." Verse 7, "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace."
Over and over again, the apostle is making it plain that he didn't earn this and therefore it is not to his credit. Do you know people at times who are willing to do great things for God as long as to their credit?
We're actually told that those men who did the despicable things of taking the plains into the Pentagon and into the World Trade Towers believed that it was to their credit
so that now awaiting them were palaces in heaven and virgins at their disposal.
But the apostle Paul has a whole different perspective. Yes, these great things are part of my calling. I must suffer for God. But ultimately I recognize it is not to my credit. You know how the prophet Isaiah said it, "Your best works are only what to God?"
Filthy rags. Jesus said, "When you have done all that you should do, you're still an unprofitable servant." Yes, there are matters of your calling, but ultimately you cannot take credit for them. The reason that you cannot take credit for them is if that were why you were doing them,
then there would not be grace real at all.
You'd be working all your life to work your way up to a holy God,
finding all the time he was more holy than you could possibly be.
A true calling says, "I give of myself," without seeking to gain merit by doing it.
What do I do then? I have a willingness to live for others. Paul said even in this dying he did it for a reason, the end of verse 1, "For the sake of you Gentiles." The end of verse 2, "The administration of God's grace was given to me for you."
I give of myself, but it's not for me, it's for others.
That's a very different calling than suffering for self.
Some of you know the name Martin Burnham, the missionary who for a year or more was kept hostage in Philippines by Islamic extremists,
and then in a foiled rescue attempt was killed this past June.
Martin Burnham with New Tribe's mission was taken hostage with his wife
and forced to be a servant,
forced to take heavy supplies over wet and rugged terrain,
forced to serve in some of the most despicable and awful ways.
And yet when Martin was kept with his wife, one of the things that they committed to one another in an evening's conversation we now know was this, "God says," said Martin to his wife, "that we should serve him with gladness.
Let's go all the way, all the way. Let's serve him with gladness." What that meant was no matter what he was called to do, he saw himself as being a witness of the joy of Jesus Christ among his captors. Regardless of what they asked, even when food supplies came in from outside relief agencies, the few meager portions that Martin Burnham and his wife got, they shared back with their captors. When a satellite phone broke that was the way in which their captors kept contact with the outside world, Martin Burnham was the only one who had the skills to fix it, and he did it for his captors.
It got to be so that the people who chained him up at night would argue among themselves who would chain him up, because nobody wanted to do it, because whoever chained him up, he would say, "Thank you. Now let's talk about Jesus Christ."
It was that model of discipleship that the Apostle Paul himself experienced at Ephesus, the people to whom he is writing this letter. Do you remember when Paul came to Ephesus and people began to understand the doctrines of grace by Jesus Christ's work, that they turned away from Artemis, from Diana, that God who wanted the service of works, and their gold statues and silversmiths that used to make statues for Artemis, began to lose their trade. And they started a huge riot in Ephesus. Twenty thousand people gathered in an arena saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians," and screaming for the blood of Paul.
For two hours they called out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." And what did Paul do in Ephesus? He said, "Great. They're all together. Let's go talk to them."
The other believers had to say, "No, Paul. It's dangerous over there."
Martin Burnham was saying, "God has put us in this place to witness to these people. Let's go all the way. Let's serve Him with gladness. We're being chained up. They're so close to us now. Let's talk to them about Jesus.
Whatever I suffer, whatever difficulty I face, I am willing to face for the good of my Savior His glory, but also for the good of the people He puts in my life."
That is a calling that is recognizing God has a greater purpose for me than I can fathom. And I am willing to suffer for His glory, but also for the good of the people He puts in my life, dying to self and living for others. What does that living look like? He actually tells us what His goal is. He is here, he says, to reveal a mystery. Verse 3, "The mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly." In reading this, you'll be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men and other generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets." Oh boy, a mystery book. This will be good. He gets to tell people a mystery, and he kind of relishes that. I know it because now when he begins to tell me the mystery, how he repeats it over and over again. Now, I'm not going to read the next verse to you yet. I'm going to ask you if you can remember what the mystery is. He says there has been something hidden for generations, but now it has been given to him as a called person to reveal the mystery even to his captors. What is the mystery? Now, you're going to say it's the message of Jesus Christ, right? It's the message that He has come to be a redeemer to God's people, not on the basis of their work, but on the basis of what He has done. And that's all true. But if you're only thinking in terms of you, you don't understand the mystery. The Jews felt the Messiah would come for them. Even the Gentiles believed that a Messiah might come to rescue them individually.
But what does the apostle say? The real mystery is that the world doesn't understand, but he gets to tell them. It's verse six. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. Members together of one body, sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Yes, we get to be in Christ Jesus. The mystery is that in Him, robed in His righteousness, not of your own, you're part of God's family, but not just you.
People from every tribe and language and people and nation, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. Do you know that when a Jew wanted to say something for emphasis, he would say it twice?
"Lord, Lord!" They would seek Him. But when they wanted to say something with real power, they said it three times. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." And now Paul emphasizes one word over and over three times in this verse. What is that one word? "Together." We are heirs together. Gentiles and Jews, we're in the same family if we're all heirs together. We are members together of one body. One may be a foot, one may be a hand, but we're actually part of the same body together. We are sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. We are part of the same covenant promise. Now you be a Jew and think how much you would like this message. The Gentiles are unclean. We have been apart from the new generations. "Oh, I'm happy for a Messiah to come to rescue me, but not with them. I don't want them in my church." Now you be a Gentile and you've been told that you're going to be together with the Jews.
With those arrogant people, I don't want to be with them.
And yet Paul saying, "Here is the mystery that God by the blood of Jesus Christ has wiped away the sin of all." Now they are all alike. They are all equal before God. It's the message that he said before in verse 13 of chapter 2. Remember? "Now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."
What does blood do? If you think in worldly terms, what blood does is it stains and repulses.
But what divine blood does is it cleanses and binds. It cleanses people of their sin.
All different races, all different kinds, all different backgrounds. People who've been angry at one another, people who have sinned against one another. It cleanses their sin so that now with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, they can come together, together, together. He says it over and over again. Almost as though he knows people are going to be reacting negatively. Not that person, not the one who did that to me, not the one who hurt my family that way, not those kind of people. That he has to say it over and over again, almost as though he's kind of chortling, "Together, together." This is what Jesus says, he brings us together, together, together.
And it's more than a mystery that's his responsibility to tell. It's almost as though it gives him joy to be able to talk about it. Does it bring you joy? I thought about it recently when I went to a funeral of a woman who's been a benefactor, not just of Covenant Seminary, but of lots of the PCA. Her name Rosalie Castles. Rosalie, in the 1960s, ahead of the wave, became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, a wealthy white Southern Carolinian
who was willing to fight for the rights of African Americans. I love telling stories about her. One of my favorites was when she had an African American in the front seat of her Cadillac, and a young clerk in an ice cream stand would not serve the two of them because she had an African American in the front seat of her car.
And so what she did was, she drove her Cadillac right up to the entrance of the stand so nobody else could come up until they'd serve her.
Now Rosalie Castles is about five foot nothing. And you can just see this little lady over the steering wheel just stop there, not going to move until she gets served and the woman next to her. She was that kind of a woman. She offered her books and Sunday school lessons to African Americans in churches around her. She did everything she could to say, "The Gospel brings us together. We are members together, family together."
"Ares of the promise, together."
And I went to her funeral, and there were about two African Americans in a sea of white faces.
And I thought, "How sad Rosalie would have been."
Until her family came in, and walking with the family, going to the privileged place up front reserved for the family,
where all the dear African American people of her life and their extended families mixed right in with her family.
And I thought Rosalie was up in heaven just laughing and giggling and saying, "This is the mystery that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Isn't this rich? Isn't this wonderful? Look what Jesus Christ does in a world where religions divide.
This is the faith that brings together, and when it is seen rightly, in all the humility that God's Word brings to people who truly know, not by any work in me, but by the glory of Jesus Christ's wondrous work in my behalf, I am made His. And you, and you, and you, that there's this wonderful bonding of sinners before the throne of grace.
When that happens, I will tell you, it is not just capturing us with the necessary goals of our calling as marking us. What begins to mark us as those genuinely calls is we just get enraptured by this. Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this glorious? And the Apostle begins to express it in words that we struggle with a bit, because he first begins to talk about the nature of God's grace toward the person who is called. He says of himself in verse 7, "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of His power." Now almost all of us know what he's talking about. I became a servant by the working of God's power. That thunder was pretty strong. It knocked me off my horse. It knocked me down. It spoke to me. It turned me around. Turned my heart around. By the working of God's power, I became a minister of this gospel of grace. God, even though I was breathing out threats against His own servants, made me His servant. Isn't that a great God?
But that's not the end. That was grace past. He begins to think about grace present. He says in verse 8, "This grace came, although I am less than the least of all God's people." "This grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Now we almost want to argue with Him. Oh Paul, don't talk that way. You're not less than the least of all God's people. That's kind of pious hyperbole. No, no. It's spiritual accuracy. We want to say, no, no, no, Paul. That was the old stuff. Remember, you're an apostle now. You're a prisoner for Christ Jesus now. You're a scholar. You're a missionary. Don't say you're the... You know, that long ago you were less than the least of all God's people. But now you're in pretty good shape.
What are our best works to God? Filthy rags. What is Paul remembering? There was a time when a crowd gathered around a disciple of Jesus named Stephen. And when he lifted up his eyes to heaven to seek his savior, the crowd threw stones at him until he was dead. And the man who held the cloaks of those who threw the stones was Paul. He has in his mind yet the guilt of the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen. And now all he can do is add rags to cloaks. Oh, good works? Oh, I've been a good guy? Filthy rags to God. All I can do is add rags to cloaks.
If he's really in that bad a shape, if his debt is really so great before God that even the good works can't balance it out, man, he is sure dependent on the grace of God.
And it sure better be a lot. It is. Why does he make so much of his great debt? He says, "This grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." When you know how great is your debt, then the riches of Christ become all the more astounding, all the more rich, all the more wondrous. It is why in a church, I so much love your worship here, that people are not afraid of acknowledging their need before God, of saying, "I need this grace because I know my debt." In fact, if you didn't believe you had much of a debt, if you thought life was pretty much okay, you know, you're not perfect, but you're not as...if you didn't believe your debt was great, grace wouldn't be very much.
And so the Apostle says, "Will you look at me?" You may think that I kind of stand head and shoulders above you in my spiritual performance, but let me tell you, my best works don't measure up to God's holiness. They only add to my debt, which was already great because of what I had done. Nobody's debt is greater than mine because nobody needs Christ's riches more than me. And if his grace would cover one like me, think what it can do for you. Do you have that kind of a message to your neighbors, to your community?
"Look how great is my sin. I am unafraid of repentance. I am unafraid of my weakness because when I am able to say to my spouse, to my family, to the people around me, God could save even someone like me." And we know that means something, that the grace of God becomes all the more great and wondrous and needed when we have gone through the days that we know we have not lived up to his standards.
So Paul says, "Look at the grace toward me." And he's just enraptured by it. But it's not just grace toward the called. He goes one more place. He says, "And look at the grace of God toward the church." Can you believe this? He says, verse 10, "God's intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his heavenly purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." For most of us when we hear those words, eternal purpose, God had an eternal purpose, we're thinking entirely individually. God predestined me to eternal life. God had me in his plan. God knew me before the beginning of the world. God had me in my...well, all true. But what is the eternal purpose that is being expressed here? That through the church the manifold wisdom of God would be on display to the rulers and authorities where? In the heavenly realms. I will tell you, commentators debate right and left whether these rulers and authorities are good angels or bad angels. They're angels. I don't know if they're good or bad. But they're angels. And what God is saying is when he pulls together people in the church, that word manifold wisdom is the same word the Greeks used to translate the colors of Joseph's coat. Remember the coat of many colors?
When people get together in the church, different colors, different backgrounds, different levels of wealth, some have been mad at each other in the past, some have offended one another. When they are able by the grace of God to have the righteousness of Christ so cleanse them and bind them, even the angels say, "Glory! Glory be to God! Look at that! Look at the people God got together! The amazing wisdom of our God!"
Do you know why you and I need to know that sometimes? We don't see any effect at times of our lives on our families, on the workplace, even the community around us. Am I doing anything? I'm a called person. Is it making any difference whatsoever? And the apostle lifts our eyes above the earth and he splits the clouds of heaven and he says, "You have a transcendent purpose.
For even when you can see no good here, what you are doing in coming together under the banner of Jesus Christ is you are causing the angels to give glory to God.
The face of Jesus is bouncing off you into reflection and going into heaven where the angels are saying, "Glory! Glory! Glory be to God! Look at what he has done! Look at the wisdom of this Jesus!" Can you believe that? And the angels themselves bow down because you have come together to worship God. Isn't this a great God? Isn't this a wonderful Jesus? He saved you and people just as bad as you and worse and pulled us all together and said we could glorify God. What a God! The Ephesians get scared about this a little bit. No, surely not us. We know our weakness. We know our sin, not people like us. And so Paul concludes by saying, "No, in him, through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my suffering for you, which are for your glory."
The Ephesians know something. Why is Paul in prison? He took Trohemus, at least was reputed to, have taken Trohemus into the temple courts of the Jews. What was Trohemus' hometown?
It was Ephesus. The Ephesians think we're responsible for Paul being in prison. It's our fault. This isn't your fault. This is to your glory. You were willing to pull Jew and Gentile together. And knowing that by faith in Jesus Christ you were one in him. My sufferings, the reasons they're accusing me, and by the way that lets me even speak to Caesar's household.
My sufferings are two years ago. You did the right thing. You did a glorious thing. And now the heavens part again.
And he says, "There we are with God. We have access to Him." So come with confidence now. Because by faith in Him you can know all of this goodness. You have free access. Do you know that? Not because you're good. But you, like people around you with faith in Jesus Christ, can go directly to God. And you know people around you are doing the same thing. And when you say it's not by my goodness, not by my works, but simply the shared blessing that we have of going to Jesus Christ that brings us together, the whole universe says, "Glory, glory, glory be to God." Look at that! Those kind of people can go to Jesus with freedom and confidence and they can know Him and they go together. Glory, glory, glory be to God.
Remember just a few weeks ago in western Pennsylvania when the miners were caught down there in the mine and the water coming in. First of all, they just kind of gave up themselves as they were going out. They knew the water was coming in and they knew the shift that was coming down would also get caught. So they began to scream out to them, "Go away! Get out of here! The water's coming in. You're going to get trapped too."
They first used their own experience to warn others, but then the water did trap them, remember?
And then what did they begin to do? They shared everything they had. Sandwich, soda, what them had, shared that. It was glory when they were rescued, you know. Remember the service stations and the restaurants? "Prayers answered, nine alive." Wonderful. That was glorious.
But there was greater glory when we learned what had happened in the darkness. Yes, shared the sandwich and the soda. Shared body heat. Get close to one another.
Shared the one little remaining dry space, rotating under the dry space so they wouldn't get hypothermia. And then do you remember what they did?
Lest someone float off in consciousness, they tied each other together. We will live or we will die together.
And when the world learned of what had happened in the darkness, how they had pulled together whether they lived or died, then the world said, "Glory! Glory! For the way they held together in the darkness." Do you know what happens when the church of Jesus Christ lives out its calling? It doesn't separate people. It pulls them together.
And in this darkness of our world where we struggle and have pain and have difficulty, where we sometimes have difficulties with one another as well as different races and different kinds of people, when we recognize we are one together in a family, together in a body, together in the promise that's in Christ Jesus, and we pull together in all of our sin and weakness. It's not just the world that says glory. For the heavens sake, glory. Glory! Glory be to God. What a great Jesus. What a great God. What a great Savior. What a great Messiah. How wondrous is the name of Jesus for the grace He has given. Don't you know it?
It's the beauty He has given us. May you rejoice in it and it may be the calling that lead you to His purposes and to His joy.
Pray with me. Father, I thank You for these people whose worship so reflects the joy of Christ Jesus.
May it not be true just of how they sing but how they live as one life after another acknowledges so much the need of the insertible riches of Christ's grace that we are humble before one another, repentant before one another, equal as one another in need of Jesus Christ, and becoming so equal, we become together in You. Reveal to us this mystery and through us show a world what it means to be forgiven and together in Christ Jesus. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.