Stewards of the Mystery

We want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning, those of you who have joined us live here, and also those who are joining us online. Would you all stand with us this morning?

Father, we do thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning, on this first day of the week, to worship in song, to study your Word, Lord. Father, as we gather together, would you minister to each of us and enable us to minister to one another? Father, would you be glorified in all we do and say? Would you encourage each of us in our walk and witness for you, Lord?

Would you strengthen us with your might to live for you and to serve you, Lord? We thank you that you are our strength, all we need, and we thank you for that, Lord. We give you praise. And so, Father, we come this morning just as we are, with whatever we bring, and by faith we want to worship you. Not necessarily... Not necessarily how we feel, but by faith we worship you this morning because of who you are, the God of the universe,

who sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross, who raised from the dead and ascended and is up at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, even as we are gathered this morning. We give you praise, Lord. You're worthy of our praise. Worship. Worthy of our praise. You're worthy of our worship.

I'll just blame chemo, praying. Praise God. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to worship. You're so good to us. We look to you.

We just want to right now just praise you. Look to you.

Let them do of your good pleasure. You are amidst us now. By your Holy Spirit, I believe you're touching hearts, Lord. In spite of the way we feel, in spite of what we're going through, you are in control, Lord. And we thank you for that. I ask, Lord, that you would give us each strength this morning. Nothing takes you by surprise. You are holy and worthy of our praise.

He will save. He will rejoice. He will rest in his love and joy where he was seen. Amen. Yes, God is good. Yes, God is good.

What we're dealing with, what we're facing, we're never alone. You're always with us. We can trust you in every area of our life. May we not forget that. We know that you do allow things. You help us remember that. Because you're concerned with eternity more than the temporal. So you work in us to do those things that will draw us closer to you, into your image,

even when they're not pleasant, because you love us.

Would you stand? I worship you.

Yes, my God, that is who you are. Light in the dark is who gets you working. Light in the dark. Light in the dark. That is who.

That is who. So, Father, as we continue our service here, as we have our time of fellowship and Ryan comes up and teaches, leads the service and all that goes on, give us open ears to hear, Lord, eyes to see, hearts to perceive. That way you would have us, too, concerning your word as we yield to your Holy Spirit and the leading and guiding. Anointing by the power of your Holy Spirit to teach your word.

Impart your spirit of wisdom. And the revelation of the knowledge of you. Light in the eyes of his understanding and our suit. And we ask for that same impartation for us, Lord, as we have gathered here to grow in your grace and to give us the strength to live it out then as we leave here. We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you're here this morning. Before we get into what is in our bulletin, Sandra has a quick Sunday school announcement that she needs to make. There we go. Just a quick reminder, you probably already know, parents, this is Promotion Sunday.

So next week, when you sign in your kids, make sure that you select in KidCheck their new age group and the new class that they're going into. Because we have so many kids, we have to. Split the classrooms a little bit differently. So it'll be in there. We have preschool, kindergarten first as a classroom, second and third as a classroom, fourth and fifth as a classroom.

So just be alert. Be aware. Your kids will let you know what's going on, if you wonder. But thank you very much. All right. Some other things that are going on. First of all, everything on the left-hand side of your bulletin is going on this week. So come join us for some things that are going on there. Middle section. Middle section of your bulletin, some things to take note of.

Intercessory prayer is tonight. So if you're able to come out from 6 to 7, we pray down at the other end of the hallway. Just for the things going on in our church, in our community, in our nation and world. So come join us for that. Women's breakfast is this coming Saturday at 8 o'clock at Daisy Mays. So ladies, take note of that. And then, of course, we have a baptism coming up August the 13th.

At Prairie View, 5 to 8, bring a dish to share. It would be a good idea to bring a chair to sit in. And we'll have cover dish first and then have baptism afterwards. And then a reminder that our Grief Share group is going to be starting up August the 29th. If you're interested in getting signed up for that, the info is right there in the bulletin. So those are the things that are going on.

But before we do our responsive reading. Okay, good. I thought you left on me. I was like, oh, great. I lost her. Taylor is going to come up and share with us about. Oh, I guess we're going to watch a video first. She's going to share with us about the mission strip that she took. But first, we're going to watch a little video.

Taylor to come up and share with us a little bit about their experience.

Hi, everybody. I want to first off tell you all thank you for your support in sending me to Guatemala again this year. A lot of people were very generous with helping me to be able to go on that mission, this mission this year. Before I get started. I've been telling you all of our week and what the pictures were like. I want to give a special thank you to Darla Mann.

She's here today for a special dedication. So I get to tell her thank you personally. She didn't know this before she made the gifts to give to me to go to Guatemala. But her gifts were crucial. The girls in Guatemala, they learn how to bake for one of their trades. So it's a handy craft. One of the top crafts that girls learn. And she sewed 100 bags, drawstring bags for people to carry things in.

But she also made me 30 aprons to pass out. So I was able to give 10 aprons to Roxana's Hope, an orphanage that is 18 plus. And they're learning how to bake to live on their own. So those were very useful for those girls. And then I was able to give 20 to the organization that we stayed at, which was ProVay. So the pictures, people say pictures say a thousand words.

And those pictures made it look like a vacation. We stayed really in very nice accommodations. And that was where we've stayed at for the past three years was ProVay. But there's another organization that we work with, which is called God Said Go. And they're a medical mission. And they, I'm not sure exactly how their housing is, but it's, it could be fairly similar.

But the places that we go to don't, the pictures don't show how poor Guatemala really is. So we went to church in Antigua, which is where you saw those pictures of the open church and the volcano in the background. That was our very first day there. And it was beautiful. Antigua is like the touristy place of Guatemala. It's very rich. I think Mel Gibson actually owns a home in Guatemala.

So, but compared in contrast to how majority of Guatemalans live, the contrast is huge because Guatemala is a very poor country. So on Monday, we went and visited a hospital. That you guys saw, this was a new hospital that we just went to this year. So I visited the maternity floor and compared to last year, last year, there was about 10 women in one room delivering babies this year.

There was, there were five. Now, the only reason women go there to have their babies delivered as if there's a complication. So all of the women in there, there is probably 35 to 40 women that we saw and prayed with. They were all C-sections. They normally have their babies in their homes. So that's just a fact for you. So ProVe, the organization that we stayed at, they house us and they run a student scholarship program.

So they have 22 students. Before COVID, they would go into the school and they would tutor kids, encourage them to stay in school past sixth grade. And. Feed families. They would take food and distribute food to the students in school. Well, after COVID, they were not asked to come back. So ProVe fund, they're funding 22 students for right now. So what they do is they go pick up 22 students and they meet their families and they bring them to the place where you saw the nice place.

The students in the uniforms is who I'm speaking about. And they'll tutor them. They'll feed them breakfast and lunch. And then. They're in the school and they ProVe gives them food once a month that will last them about two weeks. What they also do is they will build one house per student a year. So this year we were able to help fund a house for a student named Fabricio.

And they started working on the house in May and they had finished it by the time we got there in July. And what we did. When we got there was we went and painted the house for them and we were able to fund bunk beds and bedding mattresses and things like that. So we went and we put it all together ourselves and then we were able to give them the keys to the house so that that's huge for them.

A lot of the houses that they have are 10 walls, dirt floor, and it's one one bedroom. So the prayer for this house was so that it. For it to be in their family and change their projection into the future for hundreds of generations. So that was that was a lot of fun. On Wednesday, we met with all the ProVe students. They came to ProVe and we did team building.

We did Spanish English games. We did crafts. And then we sat in a big circle and we did testimonies, one from Guatemala, one from Kansas. And we just kept going back. And forth. So that was a really fun experience to like to bond and to encourage them. You know, this is where we started, but God doesn't leave us where we start. God, God changes things for us.

And so that was that was really impactful for me. There's lots of tears, lots of tears. On Thursday, we we worked with the medical mission, which is God said, go. We went into a church and pretty much like put strings. Up and through drop cloths over top of these streams to create rooms and they were to come in. And we just handed out like over the counter meds that they normally can't get their hands on.

And so Tylenol, things like that. We took vitals and getting them to come in to like for a medical mission is our way of, you know, handing out gospel and praying with these people and and giving them clothes and a little bit of medication. So Jeff and Esther. They do about four of those every week. They just they travel the different remote villages and they do those medical missions about four times a week.

On Friday, we took we took the food that they do. So they are doing this all year long. So the week that we go visit in the summer is just a preview of what they do all year. On Friday, we worked with Prove and we we distributed food to all 22 of the students. And their families and then some elderly women. This was my second time meeting that. She was really short.

Do you remember the picture? She was really short and I was up above her. Her name is Valentina and she's 73 years old. So that was my second time getting to meet her. And you guys, you saw the pictures of the storm. So the first day we were there, there was a huge storm on Sunday night and the water was up to the car. Window and there was trees uprooted and we were without power for like three days.

And that normally doesn't happen, although the rain is normal in Guatemala.

They're used to the rain. The power going out isn't normal. But despite the tribulations, we counted it for joy and we had candlelight dinner instead. So it was it was a really great trip. There was a lot of God. God just moves mountains for these families. And. Each year that we go back, I see tremendous progress already. So I just wanted to thank you guys again for letting me be a part of this.

And I hope that you're encouraged to. If your heart is being called and led to missions, this is a really good one to invest in. Thank you. Thank you.

OK. And then at last year, Taylor put me in touch with Jeff and Esther McLaren that run God said go. And so I went and had coffee with them at the end of December up in Kansas City. And so they talked to us about the potential of our church plugging into doing some mission trips as well. And so I put Jana in charge of heading that up. So I'm going to have her come up, talk about that for a minute.

All right. Yes, we are excited here at Calvary Chapel. I don't think we've ever had the opportunity to do a group Calvary mission trip. So we're super excited. Jeff and I have talked. They're actually going to come here. I think in January and speak to all of you and probably give you a lot more detail than I can. But what we have set up is a as a trip. They ask us to keep the first one small so they can get to know us.

We can get to know them. So we have 12 spots. We will leave Monday, May 27th to go to Guatemala and be there until Monday, June 3rd. We'll come back Monday, June 3rd. This is going to be a work mission. They are going to. Well, it could possibly change. But last summer, Jeff and Esther were told about a very remote village in Guatemala that the kids were actually eating paper to try to keep themselves full and, you know, stave the hunger pains.

And so when they found out, they rushed right up there to help. And it turned out, well, now they're now cooking a meal every day for those kids. There's 70 kids in this remote village. What they did was partner with the church. Church in town, very small church that seems to be growing now as this ministry progresses. But they went out the back of the sanctuary and built a kitchen.

That kitchen has a dirt floor. He would like to see us possibly come down and help pour concrete floor and possibly put up a solar panel for them. So that's kind of our our plan and our mission. Now, like I said, there are 12 spots. Cost at this point looks like it's going to be slightly under two thousand dollars. And so if you have a plan, you're going to be able to do that.

If you have a heart for missions and God is telling you to go, we would certainly love to have you join us. It is going to be work. As Taylor said, we don't really know what the sleeping arrangements are going to be. But he tells me that it is comfortable and it is air conditioned and they will feed us well because they know if we're rested, we will we will be able to work harder.

And so we're really looking forward to to the opportunity. So for you guys, some of you know, you know, no, you don't want to go. Please pray. Pray for pray for wisdom in the entire trip. Pray for the funds. We will we'll need to fund that project ourself if we decide to. You know, he decides that would be what he would want us to do. Then he would ask that we provide the funds for the concrete solar panel, everything.

So if you feel led to give outside of, you know, going, that would be a blessing. And then and I will add, don't let that take away from your tithe at all, please. If you want to give for this project, don't, you know, just keep the main thing, the main thing. So they will be here in January, though, and give us a lot more details about the entire ministry.

They they do do medical missions. They do VBS missions. There's a lot of different ways we can go for the next trip. This is just kind of a get started trip. And and so we look forward to a great relationship with them and see what God does with it. Thank you. All right. OK, before we get going, I'm sorry. It's just one of those Sundays. We have one more thing to do.

We have a baby dedication, which is always so fun. All right. So come on up. Derek and Shana had another tiny person. Number four, just number four. I can't keep track anymore. You people keep producing babies. And so I don't know who has how many kids now. But we have Jimmy Jade, man.

Thanks. You'll let me. All right. Let's see. We'll see. I can put lots of them to sleep. I put adults to sleep better than kids, but that's OK. So at Calvary. Oh, she's so cute. We we don't believe in infant baptism. We feel like baptism is something that is a decision someone makes after they've received Jesus and something that they do on their own. However, we do.

But yeah, yawn it out. That's right. We do believe in dedicating our babies to the Lord. And it comes from God. It comes from from first Samuel when when Hannah couldn't have a baby, she came to the temple and she prayed and she sought the Lord and she said, Lord, if you'll give me a son, I'll dedicate him to you. So it's exactly what she did. And so with that as a biblical basis, we just want to give this little baby and this family once again to the Lord.

So if you would bow with me in prayer, father, we come to you and I just thank you for this tiny little life that I get to hold in my hands here. And Lord, for the. Gifts that I know that you are preparing for her, the good works that you have prepared for her. And so, Lord, I lift up Jade to you right now and I just offer her to you. Lord, she's yours. So we want you to work in her life.

Lord, that you would begin to instill within her a love for you, that you would instill within her a love for your word and a desire to know you. Lord, create a spiritual hunger in her and reveal yourself to her. And Lord, I want to lift up Derek and Shana that you would give them the wisdom and the grace that they need. To lead her in you and Lord, I lift up her sisters, that you would give them the wisdom that they need to know how to love their little sister.

And Lord, we just pray that you'd bless them in Jesus name. Amen. Oh, you did so good. Yes. Okay. We lost that. And I'll get her back to you. There we go. Tiny person. Oh, yes. Love you guys.

Those are fun. Okay. For our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 96. We'll be looking at the new American standards so that we sound the same. If you need a copy of that, there should be one in a row around you. And then you can go back to using whichever translation you brought with you. As you are turning to Psalm 96, if you would stand, first of all, to stretch for a minute.

Second of all, in the honor of the reading of God's word, if you are able to stand.

And if you would read along with us, Psalm 96. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord. Made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.

Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar in all it contains. Let the field exalt in all that is in it.

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. And read verse 13 with me. Before the Lord, for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. And father, we come to you. And thank you for who you are, Lord. We do want to sing to you a new song this morning, Lord. A song of your redemption, a song of your praise, a song of your glory.

And so, Lord, as we spend more time in your word this morning in the book of Ephesians, I ask that you administer to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, I am well aware of my desperate need of your gift of teaching to come upon me now. And so, Lord, do your work as you see fit. In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles.

To the book of Ephesians, chapter three. Ephesians, chapter three.

It was a great time at the pastors or at the they call it the Bible conference. Now, I'm going to get that wrong for a while. The Bible conference up in Johnson County. Lots of good speakers there. I want to encourage you. If I can remember, I'll send the link out later. But if I do what I oftentimes do and forget, I want you to write this down. You can go to Calvary Chapel, Joco, J-O-C-O dot com.

And you can look. Look up. They have all of the sessions from from those three days. They have them all online. Would highly encourage you to go to that. Or you can go to their Facebook page. Calvary Chapel, Johnson County's Facebook page. And all of them are on there. If you don't listen to any other one, you should definitely listen to the one by Patty Height.

Because it is phenomenal. Her testimony about God revealing the truth to her and bringing her out of that lifestyle is just it's it will sit you down. It will shut your mouth and it will really make you be in awe of the glory of God and make you want to love people and love Jesus even more. And so I would highly encourage you watch that. So this morning, we're in Ephesians chapter three, continuing on sort of with the section about who we are in Christ, our riches in Christ.

So far in Ephesians, Paul has told us about the riches that we have in Christ. He prayed that we would understand those riches that we have in Christ. Then he told us how we were dead in our sins. But made alive. Alive in Christ. And then he told us that though we as Gentiles were far off, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ and made one with him and made one with each other because he is our peace who has broken down the middle wall of separation and made both groups one.

Well, as we jump into chapter three, the title of this morning's message is steward of the mystery. Because Paul is going to start a thought. That will lead to a parenthetical statement that will take up the first 13 verses of chapter three. And so it starts in verse one of chapter three. Notice what it says. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery as I wrote before in brief.

By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery. The mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit to be specific that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me.

According to the working of his power to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was. In accordance with the eternal purpose, which he carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulation on your behalf, for they are your glory.

Paul starts off in a thought here. He says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. He will pick that exact same thought up. Again, in verse 14. But that phrase caused him to think about something. It caused him to think about the ministry that he had, not only to the Ephesian people, but the ministry that he had to the Gentiles.

And as I've been thinking about this and praying about this, what I've realized is that this reveals for us the heart of the apostle Paul for the people. And so there's three things I would like for you to see this morning. I would like for you to see the steward. I would like for you to see the ministry. And then I'd like for you to see the ministry. We're going to start off by talking about the stewardship.

Again, it starts off by Paul saying, for this reason, meaning everything that he said in chapter two. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. Now, in our introduction to the book of Ephesians, we said that Paul was writing this from a Roman prison. He was actually under house arrest in Rome, chained to a Roman guard.

But he was there for a specific reason. He was there because the Jewish people did not like that. He proclaimed the gospel to the Gentiles. You see, the Jewish people believe that Gentiles could be saved, but they first had to become Jews. And then they could receive salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul taught the exact opposite of that. He said, anybody can be saved without becoming something different.

As long as you come through Jesus Christ, the Gentile. And the Jew share the same problem. Therefore, the Gentile and the Jew need the same savior. And they didn't like that. He taught that. And so when he was in Jerusalem, they saw him hanging out with Gentile people and they falsely accused him of taking a Gentile into the temple. Therefore, the Jews rioted and they tried to kill him.

Therefore, the Romans arrested him, not only to protect him, but to figure out what was going on. But as Paul could tell, he would not get a fair trial. He finally. As a Roman citizen appealed to Rome. And so he was taken to be a prisoner in Rome. Now, it's interesting how Paul refers to himself because he does not refer to himself as a prisoner of the Jews, even though they were the ones that had him arrested.

He does not refer to himself as a prisoner of Rome, even though that's who he was incarcerated by. He referred to himself as a prisoner of Christ. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? His perspective was changed as he. Realized who was ultimately in control. You see, it would be easy for somebody who was sitting in a Roman prison to be a little bit bitter about what was going on and to say, here I am stuck in this prison as a prisoner of Rome.

But he realized that who he was at that point in time, not only as an apostle, but as a prisoner was because of the will of God. Therefore, he was not a not a prisoner of Rome. He was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. You see. It's less important. What? Our. Position is. And it's more important what our perspective is. And I wonder how many of us sitting in here right now have the wrong perspective because you're only focused on your position.

You see, we need to begin to view our lives through the lens of Jesus Christ. And when things happen in our lives, say that was either caused or allowed by Christ for a specific purpose in a specific reason so that I can be used by him. You know, it's fascinating about Paul. Paul would lead many. That he was imprisoned by to the Lord. You know, it's a you know, it's a fascinating.

There's going to be another letter that Paul will write from prison. That letter is known as the letter to the Philippians. You know, the theme of the book of Philippians is the theme of the book of Philippians is joy. And yet he wrote it from prison. Brothers and sisters begin to view your position through the perspective of Christ. He says, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.

I'm here because of you guys. And that caused him to think about why he was there and wanted them to make sure that they understood why he was there and what his role in ministry had always been. He says, if indeed or since indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you. The word stewardship stewardship. Literally. It literally means management.

A steward was known as a household manager. They were put in charge of the affairs of perhaps a wealthy individual. And they had a responsibility to manage the household. They had a responsibility to take care of all of the things that were under their care. Well, when Paul viewed himself as a minister, the first thing he viewed himself as was a manager. Someone who had been given responsibility.

He says, since you understand the responsibility I have, that's been given to me. I want you to take note of the next thing he says, which was through the grace of God given to me. Now, I want you to take note of that word grace, because it's going to be used multiple times. Because as Paul thinks about the ministry that God has given to him, as Paul thinks about the heart of ministry that God had given to him.

There's one word that's at the heart of everything he does. And that one word that's at the heart of everything that he does. Is the word. The word grace. What about this stewardship had to do with God's grace? Well, first of all, the stewardship that Paul had been given was the message of God's grace. He was supposed to carry the message of God's grace to everyone.

That it didn't matter who you were. It didn't matter what you had done. It didn't matter whether or not you were good enough. What mattered is that you were under the grace of God. The grace of God that came only through Jesus Christ. But not only was he entrusted with the message of the grace of God. He was empowered by the grace. He was empowered by the grace of God.

He says, It is God's grace that gives me everything that I need to minister the message of the gospel. To use the responsibility that I have to give the message of the gospel. The message of grace to the people that are around me. He says, If you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you. That by revelation, verse three, there was made known to me the mystery.

As I wrote, I wrote before in brief. What Paul received was a message of a revelation that came directly from the Holy Spirit. This mystery that we'll talk about in just a moment was given to him by revelation through the Holy Spirit. And it was revealed to him the truth that he's about to share with us. So that's the stewardship. The responsibility that Paul was given to give out the gospel.

But the second thing that we see is the mystery. Notice what it says in verse four. Referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. Into the mystery of Christ. Now, before I get into the things that I have written about the mystery here, we need to understand something. Okay. You and I, when we think of a mystery, we think of listening to a true crime podcast, right?

Like, I'm going to help solve the mystery. Now, I really appreciate listening to a true crime podcast because they're pretty interesting to listen to. I like watching crime solving shows on TV. And you know what they say about people? That listen to true crime podcasts and like to watch true crime solving shows on TV? You are the most likely to commit crimes.

Watch your backs. Anyway, so that's not the kind of mystery that's being spoken of here. A mystery in Scripture is something that has been previously concealed and now revealed. And so what Paul says is, I have been entrusted with the responsibility of this mystery. He describes this mystery for us. And the first way that he describes it is the mystery of Christ.

This is a mystery that finds its source in Jesus Christ. It's a mystery. The second thing that he tells us that has been, verse 5, in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. In other words, if you went back into the Old Testament, the Old Testament prophets didn't fully understand this mystery that Paul's about to tell us about. But the third thing that he tells us is that it has now been revealed.

It has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. This is an interesting statement that Paul makes. I think that we need to pay attention to it because this mystery Paul received by revelation. In other words, the Holy Spirit revealed to him this truth. Now, the Holy Spirit did not just reveal this truth to Paul. He also revealed it to the other holy apostles and prophets.

The holy apostles, meaning the ones that Jesus called. The prophets. The prophets, meaning the ones that the Holy Spirit gifted in the New Testament. Now, that tells us something. It tells us that we can trust what Paul's about to tell us because it's not just his idea. You should always be nervous when somebody tells you, God showed me something new and he only showed it to me.

Because God's not in that kind of business. When God reveals truth, he makes sure as many people know about it as possible because he wants as many people sharing it as possible. And so he revealed it to his holy apostles. And now he goes into the specifics about this ministry. Notice what it says. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel.

He gives us the specifics of this mystery. And it's sort of what we talked about last week. That we who are far off, meaning the Gentiles, have been brought close with those who are near. Which is the Jews. And we've been saved with the same gospel. And because of that, Jews and Gentiles now are, first of all, fellow heirs. Meaning that we're all a part of the same crew.

We're in the same body. Meaning we're all a part of the same body. And we are fellow partakers of the promise. And how are all of these specific things true? They are true in Christ. It's an important word. It's an important phrase. It's an important phrase that's used throughout the book of Ephesians. That all of these things are true in Christ. Again, as we pointed out last week, unity is a really big word right now.

Would you agree? A lot of people want to be unified. And I agree. We should be unified. But there's one place that we can be unified. And one place only we must be unified in Christ. Otherwise, we find ourselves building a tower of Babel. You see, they were unified. But they were unified against God. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? We can find our unity in that way. But that's not what God calls us to do. We find our unity in Christ. And so he says, we are all of these things in Christ. He says, that's the mystery that I've been entrusted with. And so we've seen the stewardship, his responsibility. We've seen the mystery that we would all be fellow heirs through Christ.

But now comes the ministry. Notice what it says in verse seven, of which I was made a minister. according to the gift of god's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power to me the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the gentiles the unfathomable riches of christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in god who created all things so that the manifold wisdom of god might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in christ jesus our lord in

whom we have bold boldness and confident access through faith in him paul says i was made a minister and this minister this ministry takes place in three places number or takes place in two places number one through the grace of god number two according to the eternal purpose of god and what you notice what he says of which i was made a minister that word minister is the greek word diakonos it's where we get our word deacon from though that word minister actually just simply means servant that's how paul thought of himself he thought of himself as not only one that had a responsibility but one who was a servant and as he thought about these gentile people that he was in prison for all he could think of was that he was a servant of god and

he could think was all i've ever wanted to be was your servant a minister of the gospel of jesus christ he said of which i was made a minister how was he made a minister according to the gift of god's grace there's that word again the gift of god's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power paul was made a minister according to god's grace now in just a moment he's going to talk about what he was made a minister according to the working of his power about this a little bit more, but I think it's important for us to pay attention to the fact that this is now at least the third time that Paul has used the word grace in speaking of his own

ministry. And it should tell all of us something as human beings. It should tell all of us something as Christians. You are who you are by the grace of God. You are who you are as a believer in Jesus Christ by the grace of God, but you are who you are as a minister by the grace of God. You all know my philosophy. Once you become a Christian, you're all in the ministry.

Some of you will do upfront ministry. Some of you will do behind the scenes ministry, but all of you are in ministry. And you say, Ryan, I'm not good enough to be in ministry. I know. That's why it's a gift of God's grace. Ryan, I'm not strong enough to be in ministry. Me neither. That's why it's the gift of God's grace. I don't have what it takes to be in ministry.

It's okay. I don't either. That's why. It's a gift of God's grace because it is according to the second thing he tells us, his power, because it's according to his power. And to emphasize that point, he goes on in verse eight to say this, to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of God.

Of Christ. Paul makes such a fascinating statement here. He refers to himself as the least of all the saints. The message that I taught up at Johnson County is one I've taught here before a long, long time ago, longer ago than I realized until I started looking it up almost 10 years ago. It's on one of my favorite verses in scripture, Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15.

And the verse says this, that says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in a high place. I dwell in a high place. I dwell in a high place. I dwell in a high and holy hill with him who is of a contrite spirit and a humble heart to revive the spirit of the contrite and to revive the spirit of the humble. Now that word contrite means to be

crushed. We might use the word broken to be broken. Now I bet when you came to Jesus as your Lord and savior, if you really came to Jesus, you were probably broken at that point in time. Either the Lord had broken you over the knowledge of your sin or sin had broken you to a point that you felt irreparable. And so you came to Jesus and said, I just need something. And when you came

to Jesus, you expected there to be healing and there was healing. But the longer you walk with Jesus, the more you realize something, the more that you realize you have to always walk with a limp because the brokenness that took place to bring you to Jesus is the brokenness that will keep you humble before Jesus. That's what Paul shows us here because he, you know, it's kind of interesting about Paul. There's three major statements that are made by Paul throughout scripture. One of the earlier books

that he wrote, first Corinthians, he refers to himself as the least of the apostles. In other words, those 12 called out ones, he refers to himself as the least of the apostles. But then in Ephesians, one of the mid books that he wrote, he refers to himself as the least of all the saints. But then you move on to second Timothy, the very last book that he wrote, the least of all the saints. But then you move on to second Timothy, the very last book that he wrote, the last record

that we have of Paul, do you know what he refers to himself as? The chief of all sinners. Why? Because Paul understood his brokenness in the presence of God. He understood who he really was because he kept understanding even more who God really is. And the more that he understood who God is, the more he understood who he was, the more he realized all he is is a prisoner of the

Lord Jesus Christ, who's been given a responsibility to share his life with God. And he's been given a responsibility to share the truth of the gospel because he's just a servant of the gospel. And the only way he can be a servant is by the grace of God. The grace that was given to him, the least of all the saints. It's the most important place for any of us to come to in our walk. It's the

most important place for any of us to come to in our ministry to continue to understand that I am as much in need of the grace of God today as I am in need of the grace of God today as I am in need of the grace of God today as I was the day that I was born again. And tomorrow I'm going to need it even more. And 10 years from now, I'm going to need it even more. And the day that I breathe my last breath on topside of eternity, I will need it even more. Because as that great writer of

amazing grace said, his grace has brought me safe thus far. And it's only his grace that can lead me home. He says to me, who am the least of all the saints, this grace was given. And what was the grace that was given to do? To me, who am the least of all the saints, this grace was given. To preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of Christ. Why did God give him his grace?

He gave him his grace so that every day he could preach to the Gentiles and anybody else who would listen, the unfathomable, in other words, the unmeasurable gift of Jesus Christ, the riches that there are in Christ. And you know what the best thing that you can do is tell people about the unfathomable riches of Christ, right? And I just don't know that much. Do you know that Jesus saved you? Uh-huh. Then you know the unfathomable riches of Christ. Because you knew who you were

and you know who you are. And you know how much Jesus has changed you. See, I don't think Paul had too much trouble preaching, not just because he knew so much about the Old Testament, but because he knew so much about himself. And he would say, if Jesus can love me and save me, Jesus can love you and save you. Now, let me tell you the other information that I know. Too many people find themselves

hamstrung because they say, I just don't know enough. I don't know enough to tell anybody else about Jesus. But do you know Jesus? Well, then you know enough to tell somebody else about Jesus. Because you should do it through your words. You should do it through your life. You should do it through your reality. You should do it through every avenue that you can. You know

what? Sometimes the greatest witness that you can have, admitting that you're wrong. You know that when you can go to somebody and say, you know what? What I did, that was wrong. I've confessed it to Jesus, but now I need to confess it to you. And I'm sorry. That is the most powerful witness you can ever have in the life of an unbeliever. And I think Paul did that a lot. He said, all I know how to do is preach the unfathomable riches

of God's grace because of the grace that he gave to me. But not only that, notice what else he says he was given the ability to do through God's grace. Verse nine, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery. I bet right now, you're thinking the same thing that I am. Huh? Let me read it to you again. And to bring to light what was the plan of the mystery. Okay, now I get it. The plan of the mystery, which for ages has

been hidden in God who created all things so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and the authority and to the authorities and heavenly places. Let me put it to you in Ryan and Ryan speak. He told everybody what the plan was. And he told everybody that the plan was always God's plan. And he told everybody that the plan was always God's plan.

It's fascinating as New Testament believers, new covenant believers to go back and read the Old Testament, right? That's why you should do it. Because as you go back and read the Old Testament, you start to see all of the plan. Can you imagine being an Old Testament writer? God's like, write this down. They're going, I don't know what it means. He's like, that's fine. You don't have

to just write it down. They're going to get it someday. And they're writing it down. That doesn't make any sense to me. I don't understand it. And then Jesus comes and all of the apostles who saw Jesus, they're like, I don't know what it means. I don't know what it means. I don't know what it is. The fulfillment of the Old Testament and had the Holy Spirit who revealed the Old Testament to

them went, Oh, now we get it. It's Jesus. And they're going back and they're like, Oh, you're not going to believe what it says in Leviticus here. That's Jesus. You know what? Deuteronomy right there. That's Jesus. Sabbath rest. That's Jesus. The whole thing. It was Jesus. And Paul revealed to them the plan because of the grace of God that was at work in him. And the plan was not

just that Jesus would be the savior of the Jews, but that he would be the savior for them. Or everybody as part of the unfathomable riches of God's grace. Notice what he says in verse 11. All the way. I got to say something in verse 10 here. I know I'm running out of time. Hang tight. Hang with me so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to

the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. I want to tell you what that means. That means that the church is the greatest manifestation of the wisdom of God to the rulers in heavenly places, to the celestial beings, to the heavenly beings. Who are the heavenly beings? The angels. That means that the angels look at the church and they're like, that's not how I'd have done it. Not a bad plan. That's pretty wise, God.

How were you going to do that? We didn't know how you were going to bring them all together. Those people all hate each other. And look, you brought them all together as one. And now a bunch of people from different backgrounds, different races, different creeds, different nationalities, different understandings, different genders. They've all come together as one. And one holy assembly, one called out assembly. That's what

the church is. The called out assembly. It's a good idea. But you know what? It's not just wisdom to the angelic beings. It's wisdom to the world. You see, when the church is operating as the church is supposed to operate, when the body of Christ operates as the body of Christ is supposed to operate, the world sits back and goes, wow, how could that ever be?

How could those people from those backgrounds ever come together? If you don't believe me, just think about the fact that Paul, who was a Jew among the Jews, became the apostle to the Gentiles. God and his manifold wisdom. All right, so we go on from there. This was in accordance, verse 11, meaning this plan was in accordance with the eternal purpose, which he carried out.

Christ Jesus, our Lord. In other words, this plan that Paul reveals, it was God's plan. He carried it out through Christ. And through Christ, we have these three things in whom, verse 12, we have boldness and confident access through him. I got to go over these three words real quick. In Christ, we have these three things. Number one, we have boldness. You know what the word

boldness means? The word boldness means freedom of speech. Isn't that great? That means that in Christ, we have freedom of speech. I wonder where the founders got that idea. Number two, we have confidence. The word confidence means trust and reliance. And number three, we have access. Access means to bring another to. I told you the story last week. I like sports. I like

famous sports people. I know a lot about famous sports people. But if you show up in their front yard, they call the police. That has not really happened to me. I don't want you to think that that happened to me, but I bet that's what would happen. But if you know the best friend of a famous sports star, and they said, I can introduce you, then they grant to you,

access, right? That's what we have. We have those things. Let me read this to you in the Amplified Bible. It says, faith in Christ gives us sufficient courage to freely and openly approach God through Christ. Isn't that great? That's what we have. Therefore, do not lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Paul says, therefore, even though I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

I don't want you to be sad that I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, because it's your greatest glory. The things that I'm going through worked out for your salvation, and that's totally fine with me. Don't lose heart in my tribulations. And brothers and sisters, I want to speak a word to you this morning. The word that I want to speak to you this morning is

this. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart at your tribulations. Over the weekend, we had a little bit of time of just waiting on the Lord, and they had several of us pastors come down front to pray with people. And I have to tell you, there was a moment where I was a little bit overwhelmed with the number of

prodigals, broken marriages, broken relationships that people came forward to have me pray for. I have to be honest. There was a sense inside of me that could sometimes think, Lord, it just feels. Like darkness is winning. People that I know and love, whose relationships are so broken, it feels like darkness is winning. And I felt the Lord clearly say to me, no, it hasn't.

Darkness does not win because I'm still on the throne. Some of you are going through similar things. You have tribulations that you're going through in your life. Maybe you're not in prison, but you have those broken relationships. You have those broken hearts. You have those broken places in your life, and you find yourself going, Lord, will this ever work out for good?

Are you ever going to do something good through this? I want you to know, don't lose heart in your tribulations, because God will ultimately work them out for your greatest glory. Amen. Amen. Well, this morning's Communion Sunday, and I'm hoping that my ushers are getting, kids, rounded up and ready to head down here, although I don't see the parade of kids just yet.

So I'd like to invite the worship team to come on up. That laughter would indicate that I am correct. They're not getting the kids yet. They're working on them. Okay, well, while we're waiting for the kids, let's talk about communion. On that last night of the feast, Jesus stood up in front of his disciples, and he took the bread. And the bread that he would have used, he would have used,

it's pretty fascinating. He would have used the matzah bread. It was unleavened, it was pierced, and it was striped. Incredibly symbolic, because Jesus was unleavened, he was sinless and pure. He was pierced, and he was striped. And so when he took that bread, it lends so much credence to the fact that he then broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Have the distinct understanding that the cracker that's inside of here that we're going to partake of, while symbolic, also carries with it the distinct understanding that the body of Jesus Christ was broken for us. And then he took the cup, and as he took the cup, he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And so as we partake of the juice, we understand that while it's symbolic, it still carries with it the idea of the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ was enough to cover our sin. And so every time we do this, Paul tells us, we declare the death of Jesus, because we declare that his body was broken and his blood was shed for us for the remission of our sins. And so we're told not to partake of it in an unworthy manner. And partaking of it in a unworthy manner means a couple of things.

Number one, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning, if you've never come to him to be your Savior, then you need to make that decision first. And if you're not willing to make that decision, then this is probably not for you. In fact, I'd encourage you just to pass it on. However, that one moment of faith, simply putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior will make all the difference in the world. All it requires is confessing your sins and accepting the

sacrifice. And then you belong to him. And this too will be a celebration for you. But if you're here this morning and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's time to allow the Lord to search your heart. Because we understand that this sacrifice was made for the remission of our sins, for the forgiveness of our sins. And so we want to make sure that our sins are confessed to the Lord, that we're not holding on to unconfessed

sin in our lives, that we're not harboring bitterness towards each other in our lives, that we're not harboring bitterness towards each other in our lives, that we're not harboring unforgiveness in our hearts. And so as the worship team sings this song, I just ask that you would allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart. And as he searches your heart, do the business with the Holy Spirit that only you and he can do. So I'd like to invite the kids to come on in before the worship team sings. Let's have the kids come on in because this

is going to take a minute. Parents, if you would keep an eye out for your kids, I'll direct the best I can. Good luck with that. Yeah. I don't know as many of them as I used to. There's too many. Come on in, kiddos. They just keep coming. Okay. All right. So while the worship team sings, the ushers are going to come down to hand out the elements. As you receive your elements, if you would please stand and we'll

partake together. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, your word tells us that by your stripes, we are healed. And Lord, I thank you for taking the thorns, taking the nails and the spear all for us. Lord, I thank you for your blood that was shed for us for the remission of sins. Lord,

that because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we are now made clean and set free. Chains gone. Lord, I thank you that your blood has never failed us yet. And so, Lord, may we all be healed. May we always keep in mind the sacrifice that you made so that we could be made right with you because you are our peace. Father, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's partake. And if you would bow with me one more time. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your word. I thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit. I thank you for the work of the cross. And I ask that you would be with each person that's here this morning. Lord, may we go out of your spirit and may your word continue to marinate our hearts in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

Have a great week.