Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / Ephesians 2
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: Okay, welcome back to the Accidental Bible Scholar podcast. We're talking about Ephesians 2 today. If you recall, we've talked through Ephesians 1 the last two weeks. One of the assignments was take verses 16 through 19 of Ephesians 1. make that a prayer for you, your family, and those God puts on your heart to pray for. And that among other things, but it was a great start to Ephesians. So let's start chapter two. All right, Randy, here we go. I to do a little bit of a slightly extended intro here, but as you know, Angela and I have been married 39 years, so. I've barely been alive that long. Barely been alive that long. Okay. I know her really well. Seeing it probably knows me better than I know her. put here, put, but Angela's got good traits and I know this will shock you, but she's got a few bad traits too. Some of these bad traits would even make it. You want me to pause the recording here Yeah, pause it for a sec. No, that could make her hard to live with, but here's my point. There's a secret here, a powerful secret. I don't have a list of her bad traits. If you were asking what they were, would take me a second to kind of think through and fair what they were because I just don't keep a list of them. I keep a list of her good traits, but not her bad traits. And I put her image is read. That's not because she is nearly perfect or I am stupid or naive or blind. It's not that I'm lying to myself because I'm not. It's the fact of the matter is that keeping a list of wrongs or issues makes no sense when you want a happy marriage and a happy wife. And so I just choose to let those go in one ear and out the other and don't keep track of them. And I have no such list. So I just dwell on her, on her strengths. So why do I say all this? I want to say this, say this, God does the same thing. He doesn't have a list of all your failings that he's looking over and go, well, Wonder what Jeff screwed up yesterday. Let me just relook at, ⁓ yeah, he screwed that up, messed it up. I hope he does better today, but probably not. he does this pretty regularly. He doesn't have any of those lists, some of us that'll hurt our feelings because the religious mindset in some ways thrives on that idea. But it's just not the God of the Bible. It's not the one true God. It's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would say that many of us, the accuser of their brethren shows up and pulls out of his list, now he does have a list of dumb things we've done. many times we'll credit that to the Holy Spirit, which is a shame that we would take the accuser of the brethren and look at him and be like, that's the Holy Spirit telling me of all this bad stuff I'm doing. Call me guilty, convicting me like a convict and all these things. And you're like, no, that's not him. So let's go to Colossians 2, 13 and 14. And I just want to introduce this because of how wonderful Ephesians 2 is. We go to Colossians 2 verses 13 and 14. Okay. And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive in him, having forgiven all your transgressions. He destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. So according to verse 14, there was a list. of all of our mess ups, but it was destroyed at the cross. And verse 13 is a little bit like Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. says, though we were dead in transgressions and in the uncircumcision of our flesh, he nevertheless made us alive with him, having forgiven all of our transgressions. And he took that certificate of deadness and he destroyed it at the cross. In Hebrews 812, and it's so important, he says almost exact same thing in Hebrews 1017. says, tell my God, says, their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. If you go back three verses in Hebrews 10, Hebrews 1015, we find that that's actually that quote in Hebrews 10 is talking about. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit bears witness. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He bears witness that our sins and our lawless deeds are remembered no more. Looking back, where's that list? I just can't find it. Yeah. Hey, tell the accuser brother and show me the list, dude. Show me where it's written. Right. And he can't because it's been destroyed. Yeah. No. Awesome. Yep. Just as a review from our Ephesians one study, if we could just believe one chapter is one chapter of the Bible blessed with every spiritual blessing were chosen wholly without blemish before him in love, adopted as sons and daughters. Grace has been lavished. on us, redeemed by his blood, forgiven of all our sins by his blood. The secret of his will has been revealed to us and in us. We are God's own possession. By setting our hope on Christ, we are the praise of his glory. We are marked. We are sealed. have spiritual wisdom, spiritual revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Our eyes are enlightened. We are called. We have a wealthy, rich, glorious inheritance. He makes us understand the power of the resurrection, the power to raise Christ and place him at the right hand of the Father. And we're there as well. That's where we will find out. But let's read, we kind of finished up reading the first three verses of Ephesians, but let's just rehack ourselves on that real quick and then we'll get started. St. Corinthians, mean, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. OK, one sentence. And although you are dead in your offenses and sins in which you formerly lived according to this world's present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the rule of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives and the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind and were made and were by nature children of rap, even as the rest. Okay. Dot dot. Dot dot. Hey. We weren't victims of circumstance. Right. Right. We weren't just basically good people that had a bad start, that had no opportunities. No, we were we earned it. We were all in. We were dead in our sin. We followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air wholeheartedly. We were children of wrath like the rest. Sometimes in our flesh can convince us that well, God's lucky to have us and I wasn't that bad. That's not what 2.13 says. 2 13, that's not what this verse right here, which is section of verses we just read, right? are the type of people that's described there, which is you and I, that Jesus stepped on the planet earth in flesh and blood to save and rescue and died. I want to read verse, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Romans four, five, to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares in Godly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. I wanted to back up. This is what the Holy Spirit or God through Paul's pen calls himself. The one who declares the ungodly righteous. Isn't that an awesome name? Lord. And guess what? We all qualify for that, right? We're in God's name. Yeah. And this is so against our nature. This, that one statement is so against who we are and how we think. that we will reject that verse. we have been his faith. Tell me about the person's faith is credited as righteousness. We'll blow that off and we'll just read right past the one who declares the ungodly righteous because how do we do it? We take the godly. We will declare the godly righteous, right? The God calls himself or describes himself as the one who declares the ungodly righteous. Yeah. So don't let that His are not our ways. So don't let the fact that his ways are so different than us that we fail to receive it. So who we are. And then we kind of introduce four and five, but God. So read verses four five there, if you don't mind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love in which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. Okay, thank God. Verses one through three describes us to a T, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, though we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with him by grace you're saved. He stepped in to human history to change the course of human history. We went from doomed to glorified. We went from damned to sons and daughters. God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. That's St. Corinthians 521. And why? Well, because we're so cool, because we're awesome and bright. No, because rich in mercy and his love is a great love. Had nothing to do with us. And we're going to see that as we go on through here. Nothing to do with us. It's all about him. That's why As we read through this, it points us to be Christ-focused, to be Christ-centered, to be Christ-conscious. of today's teachings in the church cause us to be sin-focused, or sin-conscious, or self-focused. If I'm a legalistic or a religious person, I'm always trying to measure up, so I've constantly got to look at myself, and I'm trying to get rid of sin, so I've to be sin-focused. This teaches us to be Christ-focused. And as we're Christ focused, we're not self-focused. Now we become others focused. And the sin just shrivels up and drops away because of lack of attention and because of us putting all of our focus on Jesus Christ. And note here, Colossians 2.13, here, we were dead and now we're alive. Isn't that awesome? Jesus didn't come to make good people better or bad people good, it came to make dead people alive. And that was you and I before Christ. now we are alive. Now are righteous. Now we Christ-centered, Christ-focused, Christ-conscious of it. Because by His grace, by His unmerited and awesome favor, we've been saved. And he's gonna add to it as we go to six seven. Let's read verses six and seven. Okay. he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. All right, notice. Praise of his glory. Notice. Yeah. First chapter one. And. Notice the in Christ a couple times, two times, once in each of those verses talking about us, in Christ. So we're with him. Where is he seated? At the right hand of the Father. At the right hand of the Father. So this is still building on the idea at end of chapter one about the incomparable power of his greatness and the incomparable power with which he raised and seated Christ. We see now that he raised and seated us. So we've been dead, been crucified, buried. raised and seated. Each one of those has its own attribute or thing that it won for us at each ⁓ of those. And he's seated, we're seated with him. For what purpose? It's right here. To demonstrate the surpassing wealth of his grace. Again, it's not about us. And then to demonstrate to who? demonstrate to the coming ages. Isn't that awesome? I don't know how many ages they're gonna be, maybe an infinite number, because we're never gonna end, right? But each age, he's gonna see that guy. He's a picture of my grace. Because if you didn't know, he used to be those first three verses in two, but because of my grace, now he is seated at the right hand of the Father, where he's ruling and reigning. Yeah. That's a mystery that has yet to be revealed of what those ages will look like. Yeah. see. I'm looking through my notes here. I think I've got them all. But let me just end with this. This is our current reality. Try to meditate on it. We're seated with Christ at the right hand of God. We are in Him. He is in us. It's a position of authority. It is a position we're in as those still living on planet Earth to use the authority of being seated at the right hand of the Father, the authority given to us by Jesus in Romans 28, I mean in Matthew 28. And we already looked at it at the last part of Ephesians 1. So now what do we do with it? It's our job to execute, and by execute I mean say, pray, and act in Christ's authority, bringing about God's will on earth as it is in heaven. That's where we are. So when we pray, we're not praying from earth to heaven, we're praying from heaven to earth. We're playing as one who has every blessing in every heaven, from the third heaven all the way down to earth. We're blessed thoroughly from everywhere, and we speak, and we pray. and we act within as one who is. at the right hand of the father. So we got big brother right behind us and our father right to the left of us. So when we speak, anybody that looks at us speaking, they're going to see our brother right behind us and our father right next to us going, he speaks for me. I am in him working through him. Do what he says. Overwhelming, yes. Hard to comprehend, The reality, yes. So we to step out and start acting like it. Alright, let's keep going. You ready? You bet! 8-9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God. It is not from works, so that no one can boast. Good memory verse. I start saying. You say that there. I said a good memory verse, if you hadn't already done so. Just meditate on and plan over your head that it is by grace you are saved through faith. By grace you are saved through faith. It is by grace, in other words, his undeserved, unmerited favor toward us. we're saved by faith, by being fully convinced of His will and His will to save us, right? And it's not from ourselves. It is the gift of God that lines up with grace. It's not from works. So that no one can boast. It's not works. Works as opposed to the opposite of faith. is by faith or works. In Galatians, tells us you can't have those two do not intersect. If it's by works, it's not by faith. If it's by faith, it's not by works. That's what Paul tells us in Galatians. Great memory verse. I think it's great to meditate on. If you were to meditate on this and kind of fully observe it, it would change your vision of lost people. Many religious people will look down on lost people because they think they, yeah, mostly about grace, but I did a little bit too. No, it is by grace you're saved. And so... ⁓ As we look at lost people, see lost people who are in need of a savior, not somebody who is lower than us morally or lower than us in whatever other, or we might judge it, but they're in need of a savior and they need to experience God's grace. It'll even change the way we see ourselves. It takes us off the hook a lot of ways, but then empowers us in the same, in the same breath. It also changes the way that we have a view of God. mean, of God's view of us. You know, it's by works, then his view is going to change minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. But if it's by grace, through faith, not of works, then I have complete confidence in his view of me. I'm in a position of, I'm before him in love. If we went back one verse or one chapter, right? in his sight before him in love. So that's the... And we do boast, but we boast in Him. We don't boast in us. Anything else on that before we go on? No, that's good. mean, you're right. That changes everything. The view of us, others and how God sees us and that is going to affect how we walk. Yeah. Step by step. Verse 10 is walking. Looking outward to walk. Read verse 10. or we are His creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so that we can do that. All right. The four that starts verse 10 ties nine to 10, right? Nine to 10. So just what you just said, changed how we work. Even our works that we do do are the works that He created us for ahead of time and prepared before. He prepared the works and He created us for the works. So we are in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so that we may do them. So I'm not going out there trying to look at something that I may do in order to earn his approval or to earn righteousness or earn holiness or to earn his love. I already have all that as a gift. That's position from which I start. And now I, through my constant every minute relationship with him, I'm tied in, okay, what is it you want me to do? What does he want me to do? And now I'm out doing his works that he's created me for. It's an interesting in our mindset when we understand that our job no longer to go to try to earn his pleasure, but our job is that we already have his pleasure. Therefore, our job is to seek what has for us through surrender. It's not about doing, it's about surrendering and then doing what he wants. I put here who's, what are the implications and whose responsibility? Well, it's kind of his responsibility and ours. Ours is to surrender, but it's to surrender to what he asked for us. It's an invitation to lean harder into him. So to make sure that we're doing our part. I here, I don't know if this is appropriate, surrender and shut up. But what I meant by this is many of us come up with our plan and then present it to him and go, here, please bless this plan. And if you take inventory of your prayers, I mean, for years, that was my prayer, was, okay, I came up with this plan and if it's gonna succeed, I need the Lord to bless it. So Lord, please bless this plan. And when I figured out at some point I need to shut up long enough to hear his plan and then I can and execute his plan. And I basically go, what do I say? What do pray? What do I do? But it's a huge mind shift when you see that part the fruit of the spirit not in that listing, Glacians, but right here is to do the works that he created us for beforehand us to do. All right. For we are his, well, I say workmanship because I memorized that a long time ago with workmanship. This is creative work. They were not an afterthought. He created us he was creative, like in his image, he created us to these things. ⁓ it's well, I'd say we're a big deal, but it's a big deal. He created like he's ⁓ he creative when he made us. to know him, to walk with him, and then to do these things. It's crazy to think about that. Tell your kids, you're God's workmanship. You're just some, well, blob is what the world might say, but you're a masterpiece created by I think it's awesome. Absolutely amazing. It's creative work. Okay. Alright, let's move on. ready? Yes. Uh, versus 11 and 12. I can hear the podcast yelling at me right now. You kind of got jumbled in there. Are you sure you wanted to say all that? AI. You sure you want to keep that in there? Okay. 11 and 12, you said? Yeah. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision that is performed on the body by human hands, that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenant promise, having no hope and without God in the world. All right. This is a little bit like the first three verses of chapter two in that he's telling us what we were before. He's little, maybe a little kinder to us here. But as Gentiles, we were locked out of salvation under the law, and now we're no longer. But he's saying remember, therefore remember this. That's the command. The command is to remember. In verse 11, therefore remember that formerly you and any list he sings, he calls us Gentiles in the flesh, uncircumcised, without the Messiah, alienated, strangers, those with no hope and are without God. That's the before and after picture. That's the before picture. Same as the verse three verses. And our command is to remember. He said, hey, remember, that was you guys. Let's see what the rest of it says. Go to verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. That's part of that remember command, but now. Kind of like but God in verse chapter four. But now in Christ Jesus, there's another. place of where we are in Christ Jesus. You who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. What brought us near? The blood of Jesus. Remember that once you didn't have Christ, now you're in Christ. Once you had no hope whatsoever, you were doomed, damned forever and ever, but now you have Christ. You have a future. To use Galatians three and four term lines, we've been grafted into Abraham. We've been near. There's also Romans one, thing that talks about us that the real Jews are the ones that the followers of Jesus Christ and in back to Galatians talks about we are descended of Abraham and we've been near to Christ. Back to what my opening saying about Anzal and I said, I just said, come on, let that sink in. Quit thinking that God is keeping a list of your shortcomings, that he is disappointed in you or that he is waiting to whack you when you get out of line. Your sin problem has been solved. Now let's go live it. Live abiding in and near to Christ by the work of Christ. Let me repeat that. Let's live abiding in and near to Christ, abiding in Christ and near to Christ by the work of Christ. Do what Romans six says, reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God or free from sin and enslaved to righteousness. It's just time to walk in it. Reckon yourself, meaning convince yourself, right? Convince yourself. Yeah, I think you're a little stronger than that. it is so therefore make it so. Live it out like it's so. It's an accounting term. So if you had $100 in your checking account or if you had $100,000 in your checking account, you're going to live different. So what he's saying is you got $100,000 in your checking account, but you're living like you got $100 in checking account. Reckon it so. Live in the reality of it. Right. Reconciling your checkbook? Yeah. If our podcast listeners wouldn't know. one of the two. We used to do that. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Make it live like it's real because it is real. We're not trying to pretend it's real. It is real. Right. Live like that. Right. Yeah. Let's go to read 14 through 16. For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace and to reconcile them both. in one body to God through the cross by which the hostility has been killed. All right, Jesus Christ is our peace. It is through his body, like I said, nullified in his flesh, the law of commandments and decrees. It's a little bit like the part about Colossians 2 14 is that the certificate of indebtedness has been nailed to the cross. Note here he's talking about two becoming one, creating himself new man out of two. thus making peace. I think probably more than we can comprehend right now is the to use these words, Paul's the hostility between the Gentile and the Jew. And that's what he's talking about here. This is gone. That's what we read earlier. I guess was in the previous podcast, Romans 3, talking about Romans 3.26, 3.24, all of sin. The all of sin are the two categories. Gentile and the Jew, and Paul's point, they've both been, they both sinned, and then verse 24, they've both been saved and made righteous. Here he's saying there is no more hostility. think it's a caution to talk about the wall of partition, partition in the body of Christ has been gotten rid of and we're reconciled into He's also talking about the hostility between God and man. that has been crilled with the cross. So there's peace, horizontal peace. And then there's the vertical piece. So we're at peace with God and we're at peace with others who may look different, who may have a different upbringing, socioeconomic difference, skin color difference, cultural differences, language differences. So, and there he's talking about one new man out of two. Let's keep going and we'll be done. 1722, this will kind of. Finish this up if I'm not mistaken. Okay. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near so that through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. then you are no longer foreigners and non-citizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household because you been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, whom you also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. A lot but he's building off this peace or this hostility has been killed. as in Christ Jesus in the gospel. So he preached peace to all. Remember peace means wholeness, oneness, wellness, prosperity, and we are all members of God's household. no more hostility between us. The thing about being in God's household, I thought of this, if were to come to your house, and we know each other pretty well, so. you would stop me maybe before I got too far. But let's say I just walked in somebody's house, went to the refrigerator, said hi, went to the refrigerator, pulled a diet Dr. out of refrigerator, maybe a sandwich, made a sandwich, sat down on your furniture, grabbed the remote, changed to whatever channel I wanted to, and started watching TV. That would be fairly starling. I mean, you and know each other well, it'd be really starting. If I did it to somebody, didn't know. Right. Can you imagine? You may not make it too far. I not make it. I would probably never get the sandwich. But now this changes one slight change that story. Let's say that now I'm your son or daughter. It changes everything. Right. I come in, I'm expected to go make sandwiches if I'm hungry. I'm expected to pull some out of the refrigerator. You know, and I'm expected to be able to sit on the couch and watch TV or to join in whatever discussions being being done. And what's the difference? One's a part of the household. One's not a part of the household. One's a son or daughter. One's a stranger. One's a foreigner to put it in these in these terms. One was far off and one has been brought near. Yeah, those are all the terms that that he is talking about or that Paul uses in chapter two here. And he's saying, hey, we're part of the household. In Ephesians 4, he's going to say, come confidently before the throne of grace. In Hebrews 4, he said, come boldly before the throne of grace in your time of need that you might receive mercy. There's a boldness and a confidence that comes from being a son or a daughter. And we're not just sons and daughters like a one-year-old son that needs a nanny and needs to put it in. Paul's terms in other books too that has no more privileges than the servants in the home. But we're talking about sons, fully mature sons and daughters that for the father, that do conduct business, conduct family business on behalf of the father, who manage the estate on behalf of the father. You'll go back to the prodigal son, remember he was He was given a ring, he was given a robe, he was given shoes. Those are all pictures of sons, the sonship, the robe would be righteousness. He's in a right standing. So people downtown see that robe, they go, he's in right standing with his father. He's able to do business. The ring is the authority to do business. So when he goes downtown to buy something, he's able to use this to obligate his father essentially with his ring. And then. Shoes is a picture of sonship. It's a picture of availability, ready to go. I'm available. When my father says, hey, we need to go do this, with shoes on, I'm ready to go. All these are crazy things to think about that if we forget, we can start acting like a servant. We can start acting like a second class citizen. We can start acting like somebody that not joined and brought near by the blood of Christ. And certainly we can also start thinking that we're brought near by something we've done and by our works or we deserve it somehow. But that's surrender and understand that we're brought nearby as blood. And then ultimately he's talking about us being the temple there. So individually, we're the holy of holies, but then as together as a church, we are also the temple of God. The temple of God where the manifest presence of God is ⁓ planet Earth. And that's when the church as a body is there. I we are now his household and we express the manifest presence of God on earth. That's what we do in this second part of Ephesians 2. Questions, comments or thoughts on this? No, that's interesting about the suns and acting like, well, acting like we live there. because. Um, there's a lot that goes like all the things you said, kind of want to go, well, that might be leaning too far forward. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, well, you're not God. No, but we are sons and he calls us at not just once, but many, many, many times. Yeah. So if you take that, say metaphor, you take that picture of what a son and daughter does is it's huge. Yeah. And it's really not a metaphor. He's not speaking. Take that picture. Yeah. Or you take the idea of what a son is. Yes. Okay. He is truly our father and we're truly his son. Yeah. And then what that means, let me apply that walk with him. It's different than it is different. guy. you know, well, here's my ticket to heaven. Yeah. See in a while. Yeah. Or here's my ticket to heaven. Right. He's no, no, no. Yeah. Here's a times better than that. Let's go. Yeah. And we'll back off because we think it's presumptuous of us lean into that. But he calls us to lean into that. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, not just it's a comfortable chair, but he's done that because he wants to, as that are on the earth, he wants us to execute the authority so that God's will is on earth as it is in heaven. Yeah, it's not presumptuous. tell you, I'm just, there's many, the labors that I know and see. that will act God is super sensitive and you can't step on his toes. And he's really worried about you stepping on his toes. And he's really worried about you, know, giving him the proper amount of respect. And if you're going out, leaning into this, then you're not showing it. I'm like, I am showing him the respect. I buy believing what he said. John 1 John 4 17, as Jesus is right now, so am I in this world. Ephesians 4 talking about growing up into the full stature of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, when a student is fully trained, they're like the teacher. And there's on and on and on. know, John 14, 12 says the deed, the miraculous deeds that I do, you will do also in greater deeds than these you'll do because I go to the father. then the next verse, ask whatever you want my name and I'll do it for you. These all blank checks that are to his riches, right? Lavished us, they're not blank checks go build our kingdom. They're they're blank checks to go build his kingdom. Right. And we're so scared of somebody abusing that. Then we say, we all just back off. Don't take that checkbook. Yeah. And we see somebody that's willing to lean into that, we start throwing rocks at them. Right. Calling them arrogant. Right. When they're just walking in faith. Right. The arrogance is not to believe what's written here and therefore to stand back away from it. That's the arrogance of it. Yeah. to say, no, I'm just a sinner. I'm not a righteous one. I'm not holy. I'm not set apart. the Bible says you're set apart. says did it and he paid a great cost in order to do that. So why that? he has a purpose for you. He has created works ahead of time that he then created you to match, to go out in the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. fully clothed in power, fully clothed in his righteousness, standing before him in confidence and in boldness to bring lost people's names before him, to bring yours and others' needs before him, to heal the oppressed, to release the oppressed, bring justice. You know, you think of all the things that Christ did, you know. what we're called to do. Yeah, and to step into that is is the ultimate humility Yeah, and ultimate surrender. Yeah, because I'm believing what he said and then letting that change the way I act Yeah and do and speak And let me let him Do that all through me? Yeah, well for created to do good works ⁓ how much work can you do as a son than a Servant. Servant. Yeah. Or an acquaintance. Yeah. Or a neighbor. I mean, yeah. We're called to as well. We're called to manage the family business ⁓ a son would. To the family estate like a son would. And he's us really bold things. These bold statements that can do what he does and go do it. And when it talks about power, the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the power that lives inside of us. So that's power to do something. Yeah. Yeah. do good works as a son. No, it's good. makes you really just say, what got me to what, what do you want me to do, Lord? And then know that as you out, following him, that that's going to be effective. It makes it easier to work when you think you're making a difference. Yeah. If you're just digging a ditch to fill it in at the end of the day and you do that, it's like, no, but what you're doing is effective. Yeah. Powerful. It makes a difference. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? That's it. Randall. You're welcome, sir. Good stuff. 42 minutes.