Amen. Gotta set up my stuff. You guys still doing well? Thank you, Nathan. You guys probably wonder what's in the box. Anyone ever see that show, Unsolved Mysteries, back in the day? Does that bring anybody back? Unsolved Mysteries, like late 80s, early to mid-90s. I love that show when I was a kid. I know some of us in the room are too young to remember that show, but you know, in today's world, you can go probably watch every episode online somewhere. But if you remember that show, every episode started the same way. The host, Robert Stack, he was this, he had this voice. Like he was just a very deep voice. As someone who communicates for a living, it's a voice I'm jealous of because I have to work really hard to have a deep voice. It's not natural for me. My voice gets higher and higher and higher the more excited I get. And so Robert Stack has one of those deep voices. Every episode will begin with Robert Stack in a trench coat in front of like a lamppost in a park on a very hazy night. And he's actually super creepy looking if you think about it. Like if you're ever in a park at night and it's hazy and you see a dude in a trench coat standing near like a lamppost, you back away. Like, do not interact with that person because they are up to no good, but that's how every show would start. And he would say, Tonight, on unsolved mysteries. And then he would begin to describe three or four scenarios, three or four stories that they were gonna explain. They were gonna talk about, they were gonna let you know about these things that have happened. And there were always this variety of occurrences that were mysteries that no one had ever solved. And usually they fit into a few basic categories. You're gonna have an unsolved murder, an unsolved bank robbery, ghosts, and aliens. That was like every episode, you're gonna get ghosts, aliens, bank robberies, and murders. And so he would say tonight in in Pensacola, Florida, 25 years ago, was it a ghost or just an elaborate hoax? And could aliens have been in? He would go through all these things. And then the music would play, like the intro music for the show. And and it, once you heard the intro music, you were in. Because it was super creepy. In fact, guys, we have this. Go ahead and play the intro music. Yeah. Crank it. Get it up there. It's like it's like the intro to like the Halloween horror movies or something like that. And once you heard this music, you guys can take it down. You are too scared not to watch. You're like, all right, Mr. Stack, I'm in. You know? I loved that show when I was a kid. Because there's something about a mystery that that speaks to us. There's something about a mystery that that grabs a hold of us like few things. That's why, whether it's a cliffhanger ending to a season of your favorite show on TV, or it's a movie that has a twist, and once you discover the twist, you're like either the person that wants to run out and tell everyone, or or you're asking everyone to go see it so you can finally talk about it, because we love mysteries. We actually had sort of an unsolved mystery happen here at the office a few weeks ago. I want to explain it to you. It has to do with this box right here. And I really wish Robert Stack were here to set this up because he would be so much better at this than me. So a few weeks ago, this box arrived here at the church. And you know what? This would actually, this would actually be so much better if we had the unsolved mysteries music playing. Yeah! Alright, alright. I'm gonna do my best. Gotta get a deeper voice. Approximately two weeks ago, this very box arrived at the premise of His Hands Church. It's addressed HHC550 Molly Lane, Woodstock, Georgia, 30189. That is our address. And it came from a location, 1614 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45202. You guys can stop the music. I think it's it's done its thing. Um and so this box arrives, and and Brian, who works in the office here, Brian's our facilities director, he gets the box and he's like, man, it's kind of a weird box. Because it's it's decent size, but very light, only one thing inside. It's not addressed to anyone here at the church, not a person, just to his hands church. And so Brian brings it into the office and he opens it up and he calls all of us together. He says, Hey guys, come and look at this. And we open the box, this is what's inside: a single pink hairbrush, unsealed, not in a package of any kind, okay? No letter saying this is who this hairbrush is for. And upon closer inspection, it becomes very clear that this is not a new hairbrush, this is a used hairbrush with human hair in it, and that's all we've got to work with. That's all we've got. Anyone creeped out? Yeah. Is this key evidence? That's what if Robert Stack were here, we'd say, is this key evidence in an unsolved murder? Or, like, we don't know what to do with this box. So we've just been keeping it in the office, you know, staring at it, going, what is going on? And and and we looked up the address that it came from on Google Maps, and it's super sketchy. I'm just gonna say that. It's it's like, I don't know what's going on. It's an unsolved mystery. And if you do know, if you hold the answer to this mystery, then please let us know so we can sleep better at night. We love mysteries. There is something about our nature that desperately wants to know things. I have children. They ask a lot of questions. In fact, it's really interesting. A lot of times in church, we we hear how we should have childlike faith, and sometimes we associate the idea of childlike faith with, hey, don't ask questions, just do it. And whoever thinks that way obviously doesn't have children because children ask a million questions. So questions for things that don't even matter. They don't matter at all. I find myself as a parent frequently getting so frustrated because I'm explaining something that in my mind shouldn't even need explained. But yet they ask those questions because by nature we are curious. And today we're gonna explore a mystery that Scripture says has been revealed to us through Jesus. So we love good mysteries, and today we have a mystery that, according to the Bible, has been solved. Now, for some context, we're going through Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14. It's really important to us not just to teach with the Bible, but to teach from the Bible, to really dive into Scripture. And so we're going through this section of Ephesians right now, just kind of verse by verse. And uh, and so far we've been talking about the spiritual blessings that come from knowing Jesus. That's what this section of Scripture is about. Paul begins in Ephesians 1.3 by saying, Blessed be God who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings. So that's why we're calling this study blessed. And then he begins to lay out for us what those blessings are. And they're not the kind of blessings we typically think of when we think about the word blessing. They're not like, oh, I had a lot of green lights on my way to work this morning and traffic was really light, or the parking spot at the store that I shop at, the best one was open right when I pulled in. Hashtag blessed. That's not the kind of blessings that are being described. These are spiritual blessings. These are powerful blessings, these are deep blessings that if we actually understand them and if we live in light of them, we live a blessed life no matter what our circumstances are. And I encounter people all the time, it's one of the privileges I have as a pastor, is I encounter people all the time going through things more difficult than the average person in the room could even imagine. And yet they have joy and they have hope. And it's because they have spiritual blessings. And they're living their life with their hope based on those blessings, not on those fading and fleeting circumstantial blessings that come our way but then go away just as fast. So these are very important. To follow Jesus is to live a blessed life. And if you're here this morning and you haven't decided where you stand with Jesus, I want you to know up front to follow Jesus is to live a blessed life, but the blessings may not be what they seem. They are so much better. And so so far we've talked about the blessing of holiness. We talked about the blessing of being made family, being adopted into God's family. Last week we talked about the blessing of grace. And today we're gonna we're gonna dive into the next blessing. And we're gonna start by looking at Ephesians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. Here's what it has to say. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ, which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan. At the right time, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we've received an inheritance from God. For he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. I'm reading this on the His Hands Mobile app. Feel free to follow along there or use your own Bible, whatever you want to do. But he begins by using that word mystery, right? He says, God has revealed his mysterious will to us. And it's it's actually kind of interesting. The word that Paul uses in the Greek language, which is what he would have written in, is the word mooserian. That's the word that we get mystery from. And it's a very specific word because it doesn't mean mystery in the sense of something that's incredibly difficult to figure out. Like it's not like a complex math problem from the movie Goodwill Hunting or something like that, where you just have to stare at it and a long time ago, hmm, what's this about? That's not what it means. It doesn't mean an impossible to figure out riddle or puzzle or something like that. It's not like that box, you know? Like, what in the world is that about? It means something that you're completely unaware of, but once you're made aware of it, it's obvious to you. It's a mystery until it has been revealed, but once it has been revealed, it's like you can't help but see it. It's kind of like an inside joke. Maybe you and a group of friends have have some words that just trigger laughter because those words mean something very specific to you, but they don't mean anything to the people around you. And so you might be talking and you use that inside joke and you're laughing, and the people around you are like, I don't, I don't get it. I don't know what you're laughing about. This doesn't seem funny at all. But it's because they haven't been let in on the joke. But if you let them in, if they were if they were there when that inside joke birthed, then they would laugh too because they know what it's about. It's it's not a mystery to them because it's been revealed to them. An example of this might be something like the FedEx logo, okay? A lot of us are probably familiar with the FedEx logo. If you haven't seen it, now you have. The FedEx logo in marketing terms is actually one of the most expensive logos ever created. It doesn't look that way. It looks like a guy just, you know, typed on a computer in a different font and then changed the colors, and there you go. But this was an incredibly, unbelievably expensive logo that FedEx paid for, and it was it was highly conceptual. And what made it highly conceptual is that arrow that's in the blank space between the E and the X. They paid a lot of money for that arrow. That was the whole pitch, the concept. Hey, this arrow, it's about moving forward. Now, raise your hand if you had no idea that that arrow was there. Okay. Right? But you'll never look at the FedEx logo again and not see it. That wasn't by accident. It's in this the blank space between the E and the X. That wasn't by accident. It was designed that way. It's just that FedEx, for some reason, is like, yeah, we won't ever talk about that at all, or highlight it, or give it attention. And you've probably looked at this logo a thousand times in your life. Packages arrive at your door with this logo on it. You've never seen the arrow before. And now that you have, you'll always see it. I see people pointing, like, no, no, no, no, no, it's right. It's not that hard to see. It's an arrow. It's white, it's in between the E and the X. Come on. Anyone still struggling to see the arrow? Stay after. We'll help you. We'll help you. Now, now, those of you, how many of you knew the arrow was there before I mentioned it? Okay, now another question. You guys are being so great for participating. How many of you found out about that arrow because someone showed it to you? It was revealed to you. Right. How many of you just noticed it on your own? You're the smart ones. Congratulations. You should be up here teaching. What am I doing? No, like it's been there for forever, but it's a mystery until it's revealed to you. Okay? That's like what Paul is describing here. When he says the mysterious will of God, he's not talking about some indiscernible thing that we have to fight to figure out and understand. He says, no, it's like a secret that you would never notice unless it's been revealed. But once it has been revealed, it's as obvious as anything to you. It's plain as day. And he says that this mystery is his will. This mystery is the will of God. It is the plan of God. And then Paul lays out for us what that plan is. Now, in life, there are many mysteries. There are cosmic level mysteries. Questions that have been asked for millennia, right? Questions like, when did all this begin? Like, when did the universe begin? How did the universe begin? When will the universe end? What will cause the universe to end? In today's world, it's how many movies will come out this year about how the universe could potentially end, right? That's like half the movies every single year. Like we have all these huge, mysterious questions that get a lot of thought, that get a lot of talk. But there's never been a mystery as powerful as why. I mean, for all of time, that's been the question. The deepest mystery has always been why. Not not how, not when, not where, but why. What is the point of all this? What is the point of life? What is the point of existence? Why are we here? Like what's what's the meaning of life essentially? And our world spends a lot of time trying to solve the hows and the what's and the where's, but oftentimes the why doesn't get addressed. And what Paul is saying here, the author Paul is saying, is that God has revealed the why to us. God has led us in on the purpose of his will. If you've ever been a person that's asked, what is God up to? What is God doing? What is God's will for my life? What is God's will for this world? Paul's saying, that's the mystery that's been revealed. Now we know the answer to that question. And we'll go back to verses 9 and 10. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ, which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan. At the right time, he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. Everything in heaven and on earth. So what Paul's essentially saying is that the why behind the universe, the why behind all of existence, the why of your life and my life is Jesus. There are a lot of different answers that you can find in the world to that why question. Some will tell you that there really isn't a why, that we just exist. And the greatest why we have is to pass on our genes, that there is no God, there's no greater purpose. It's always interesting to me, by the way. And this is just like a little side note, I promise we'll come back. Okay? So take a mini journey with me. I'm a person of faith. But I actually love science, and I love reason, and I think science and reason help us make sense of our faith very much. But I'm a person of faith. I believe that we're more than flesh and blood. I believe that this world is far more than what we can see. And it's funny to me because as I have conversations with people sometimes who just think that that's nonsense, they'll always appeal to reason and say it's unreasonable to believe that. And they'll say, I'm appealing to reason. And if you appeal to reason, you will find that there is no reason for this universe existing at all. There's no reason for us to be here, there's no reason for us to exist other than just to exist. There is no purpose, there is no deeper meaning. We're just here and we'll be gone one day. Pass on your genes if you can. And that's considered to be the reasonable way to look at life. So it's just interesting to me that those who appeal primarily to reason, the greatest conclusion they've come to is that there is no reason for anything. That doesn't seem very reasonable. Does that make sense? Alright, we're off the tangent. So some will say, no, no, no, there's no reason. The why is that we just are. You know? Just it's funny, even like Stephen Hawking recently passed away, one of the greatest scientific minds in the history of the world, once said that we are the result of cosmic luck. Sounds a lot like faith. Cosmic luck. Now others will say, no, no, there's deep meaning, there's deep purpose in our lives, that we're here for a reason for sure. That our lives do have meaning. The answer to that why question is deep and powerful, like the Dalai Lama, for example. And by the way, I don't know much about the Dalai Lama. I don't know if there's one Dalai Lama. I don't know if there have been a lot of Dalai Lamas, and so it just said Dalai Lama. I don't know which one, or if there is more than one, I apologize to Mr. Lama if I'm incorrect. But he said that the meaning of life is to do good, and if you can't do good, at least don't do harm. Okay? Which is like, yeah, that's nice. You know, the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the answer to that why question is for us to do good. But it's interesting, Jesus would take issue with that answer. One time a guy walked up to Jesus and said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, Why do you call me good? Which, by the way, is kind of an interesting turn to take with that. Like if someone walked up to you and said, Good sir, how are you doing today? And you're like, Why do you call me good? And you're like, whoa, I was just I was just being polite, you know? But Jesus used a lot of normal moments as teachable moments, and so this man calls him good, and he says, Why do you call me good? For only God is good. Jesus is making a point about himself. And he's also making a point about us, is that if if we make the greatest purpose of our lives to do good, well, good based on whose definition of good? Because one thing we've learned from human history is we're not very good at deciding what is good. In fact, some of the things that we've deemed are good aren't. A lot of evil things have been done in the name of doing good. And so there's something deeper. And Paul says that the answer to that question, that mystery of why we exist, of why this world here, it is Jesus. It's Jesus. It's more than just doing good, it's being connected to the source of all good. It's more than just doing a good job, being a good person. It's it's knowing goodness itself. It's knowing God, it's knowing your creator, it's knowing your maker. This is something that Jesus Himself had the audacity to speak about. It takes a pretty audacious person to say, it's all about me, and not be an absolute jerk. Jesus once told the Pharisees, this is in John 5.29, he says, You have, 5.39 rather, you have searched the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me. And this is like a FedEx arrow moment of grand scale, because until you see Jesus in the story, you may have read all that takes place leading up to Jesus, but until you see Jesus, you don't actually see Jesus has been in it from the beginning. Like Jesus is all over the Old Testament. He is all over it. And it's like painfully obvious, but it's kind of like that FedEx arrow. Until someone tells you about it, you don't see it. But then once you see it, you're like, how could I have missed it? For example, the day of Passover in the Old Testament. It's a powerful day. It's still celebrated today in Jewish communities. Passover is the big celebration they have every single year. And it's all about this moment where God rescued the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. And the story, by account of the Bible, goes like this: God sent all these plagues to Egypt. Supernatural things are happening to get Pharaoh to release the Israelites, and he refuses to do it. And finally, God says, All right, last straw. Here's your final warning. Are you sure you don't want to let him go? And Pharaoh's like, No, I'll never do it. He says, Okay. And he sends the spirit of death to claim the life of every firstborn child in all of Egypt. And this would actually include the firstborn of all the nation of Israel. But he says, Look, to protect yourselves against this, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a spotless, blameless lamb. I want you to sacrifice that lamb. I want you to take the blood from that lamb. I want you to paint it on your doorpost. But he gave very specific instructions. He said, I want you to put some blood on the top. I want you to put some blood on each side. And when the spirit of death passes over Egypt and sees that blood on your doorpost, you will be spared. That's why it's called Passover, because the Spirit of Death passed over them, and they celebrated that every single year. It became a major tradition in the Jewish culture. And every Passover, they would sacrifice a very specific lamb from a very specific flock. And it was by the blood of that lamb that God would pass over their guilt. See, it's so interesting because it's a story about Jesus. Like, think about it this way: if you put blood on the top of a doorpost, what's it gonna do? Gravity. It's gonna drip down, right? You're gonna have some, so you're gonna have some pool of blood at the bottom, and you've got blood on each side. Jesus was crucified on the cross. There was a crown of thorns that was placed into his head that pierced his head, and then he was crucified with two nails, one on each hand, and then a final third nail on his foot. And it just so happens that the pattern of blood on the doors of the people of Israel in ancient Egypt just so happened to make a cross. The same shape that Jesus would take on as he died. The Bible calls Jesus our lamb, he is our sacrificial lamb. It's interesting because the special sacrificial lamb that was chosen every year is the Passover lamb, was born as part of a special flock in a place called Bethlehem, a really nowhere town. And Jesus just so happened to be born in Bethlehem. So Jesus comes from the very same place that the lambs that were selected for Passover come from. I mean, the Old Testament is filled with pictures of Jesus left and right. We do not have time to talk about them all, but he's all over it. But it's a mystery until you see him. So Paul is saying that all of history has been leading to Jesus. That everything culminates in Jesus. That if you want to know why you exist, even though it may sound overly simplistic, the answer is actually Jesus. That He is the answer to that question. And the Bible speaks of this in so many powerful ways in Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 20. The word says, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created, and he is supreme over all creation. For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we cannot see, such as the thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. And everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the Beginning, first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. The book of John begins by saying, In the beginning, the Word, and this is talking about Jesus. You could also translate it the truth, already existed, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. What this is saying is that the why is Jesus, the mystery of why this universe exists and what it's all for, and what's the point of all of it? It's Jesus. It was created by Jesus, it was created for Jesus. It's held together by Jesus. Everything's been done through Jesus, and we actually find deep meaning in our lives. We find that we become the people we're meant to be when we know Jesus. He is supreme over all creation. That's the mystery that's been revealed to us. That it's Jesus. That if you want to know what your life is really all about, it's to know Jesus. You know, we have goals in life, and I'm sure you have them, and I have them, and I love like one of the things I love about being a dad is watching my children have these goals, have these dreams. Yesterday, my daughter Lily had a ballet recital. It was awesome. It was so awesome. I don't know anything about ballet, which is great. Like my son plays basketball, my oldest boy, I know a lot about basketball, so it's it's actually really easy for me to like critique it. I don't know anything about ballet, I know nothing. And so I'm just watching it going, yes, I don't know what you're doing, but it seems awesome. I love it. And I I love to watch my children dream about life and dream about the goals that they have. My oldest son talks all the time about what he's gonna do after he retires from the NBA because it's just a foregone conclusion in his mind. Like he's already planning, you know, when I'm done in the NBA, do I want to coach? Do I want to be a pastor? Like he's thinking these things through. And I hope my children accomplish every goal that they have. I hope that you accomplish every goal you have, whether it's business or personal, whatever it is. But know this no goal you will ever achieve will come anywhere close to the fulfillment that you will have from knowing Jesus. It's not, it's just nothing will. Because the point is Jesus. The reason you exist is to be known by Jesus and to know him. The only way that you can experience the purpose and the meaning and the goodness of life according to Scripture, according to Jesus Himself, is to know Jesus. And here's where that gets really cool and really personal. I want to go on and read Ephesians 1, verse 11, the very next verse. We read it already, but this is where we we go to next. Furthermore, because we're united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God. For he chose in advance, he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. Okay. So earlier we read that this is the mysterious will that God has revealed to us. It's the plan of God. So if you've ever wondered, what is God up to? What's his plan? And that plan is to unify everything, to bring all of creation together under the authority of Christ. That's God's will. God's will is that everything would be united under the authority of Jesus. And that's what history is moving toward. But here's where that gets cool. If you follow Jesus, you are already united with him. That's why verse 11 says, Furthermore, since we are united with Christ, what that means is that if you follow Jesus, you are in the will of God. If you have a relationship with Jesus, you are by definition in the will of God. Because what is the mysterious will of God? It is to bring creation to himself through Jesus. So if you're in Jesus, you're in the will of God. Sometimes as Jesus followers, we spend a lot of time asking ourselves if we're in God's will. I grew up in church and God's will was taught to me like it was a tightrope. God's will is this very narrow set of choices that you can make in your life, and man, you better never deviate. Don't take a step to the left, don't take a step to the right, because if you do that, you won't be in God's will. God's will was a very fragile thing. You know, you're you're living life and you're in God's will, but a few mistakes, you're out of his will. And so I lived with this very fearful concept of God's will. It's a tightrope that I better not mess up. And look, there isn't such a thing as doing God's will. And it's possible to be in God's will but not do his will. I recommend that we all do his will. But you need to understand that if you belong to Jesus, you are absolutely by definition in the will of God. Because the will of God is for you to know Jesus. There is no greater will. It's not, it's not the will of God is for you to know Jesus, and then all these other things. There is nothing greater, there is nothing supreme over Christ. So there's no greater will for your life than for you to know Him. Like I said earlier, I want to see my kids accomplish all their goals, but not at the sake, not at the expense of them knowing Jesus. That's what I desire most. That's what I pray over them at night. Lord, let them know you intimately at a young age. Because there's nothing greater they can experience. If you believe in Jesus, you are in God's will. And so you don't need to fret, you don't need to worry about being out of his will because you are in it. You belong to him. That's his whole point. That's the purpose is for you to belong to him. You're in his will. Those ideas we have of God's will being so fragile that they come from really poorly interpreted Scripture. Because Jesus said that, you know, narrow is the path. Narrow is the gate that leads to heaven, that leads to life with God. But he said, wide is the road to hell, and many will go there. Narrow is the gate. And so what's happened over time is people have kind of taken that and they've they've turned that into something that it's not actually saying.

Okay?

Because what Jesus is actually saying is narrow is the path into the will of God. Narrow is the gate into the will of God. And that gate is Jesus. He actually goes on to say, I am the gate. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can know the Father except through me. He is that narrow gate. And you may have heard this phrase before, connected with faith, that hey, you know, we want to follow God. We want to be on the straight and narrow. Have you ever heard that? We want to be on the straight and narrow. And when we hear that, we think, the tightrope. The tightrope that is God's will. The straight and narrow. We got to be on that tightrope. Don't make a mistake, don't mess up, because then you're out of God's will. That's not that's not what it's saying at all. In fact, that phrase straight and narrow, it's a nautical term. A straight and a narrow is a narrow passageway into a wide body of water. The Strait of Gibraltar, for example, is a narrow passageway that opens up into the Mediterranean Sea. And what Jesus is telling us is he is that narrow path. He is the straight and narrow. And it's only through him that we enter into the will of God, which is to be united with Christ. But once you're in God's will, there is freedom. God's will is not a tightrope, it's an ocean. And you have the freedom to choose and do all kinds of different things, and you have the freedom to look at your life and say, what do I want to do? Where do I want to go? How do I want to express to God the gratitude that I have for all he's done in my life? And you've got freedom, so go do things. And stop worrying about being out of God's will because his will is not a tightrope, his will is an ocean. But you enter it through Jesus. I heard a pastor explain it this way once, and it was amazing. I never thought about it like this before, but the Garden of Eden gives us the clearest picture we have of God's will for this world because it's how it was supposed to be. And in the garden, there was freedom. They were told, you may eat of any tree in the garden except for one. But the way we often think of God's will is that God would say, You may only eat from one tree. All the rest, bad. So make sure you only eat from the one tree. That's not what God said. See, His will is freedom. And so if you're here this morning and you've given your life to Jesus, you need to know that you are in the will of God. You're in. So relax. And do things and take risks and go live life. And don't worry about, oh, is this decision going to be outside the will of God or inside the will? You're in the will of God. The will of God is for you to know Jesus. That's the mystery that's been revealed. That's the plan, is for you to know him. There is no greater will. So live your life. Connected to Him. Live your life in light of Him. And know that God has given you freedom, that He would look at you and say, What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What gives you passion? What gives you joy? Pursue it, but pursue it for my glory. It's as simple as that. Stop trying to walk the tightrope because there is no tightrope. Jesus is the narrow gate. We enter through him and then it's freedom. Because we're united with Christ. We're in his will. Number two, not only are we in his will, but he says that he's always working. He makes everything work out according to his plan. And ultimately, what's his plan? Jesus. For you to know Jesus. For this world to know Jesus. He's making everything work out according to his plan. Now here's what's what's beautiful about that. When you step into his will by following Jesus, you're in his will. Well the Bible now says that because you're in the will of God, which is to know Jesus, God is working on your behalf. That's pretty awesome. God is working for you. Yes, you just pay him very little. He doesn't need anything though, so it's okay. No, like God is actually working on your behalf, and scripture's clear about this. In Psalm 138, verse 8, the psalmist wrote, The Lord will work out his plans for my life, for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Romans 8.28 says, We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. So here's where it gets practical. In Scripture we find the powerful, the profound, and the practical. It's awesome. The powerful and profound is that you are in the will of God. Stop worrying about messing it up. Just be in his will. Just be in his arms. I know I'm kind of backtracking, but you know, Jesus said something once in John chapter 10, verse 28. Talking about us, he said, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from my Father's hand. The Father and I are one. The picture we're given there is that we are in the hand of Jesus. He's got us. And then God the Father's hand is around that, and he's got Jesus. So we're safe. We're secure in our faith. That we're secure in our place with God. So we don't have to fret. We don't have to walk that tightrope, just be free. That's the powerful part. Wow, I'm in the will of God. You're in the will of God. Let's rest in that. But the practical part is that God is doing things, God is working. It's not up to you. It's not up to you. We spend so much time and energy trying to be God, trying to make everything happen. And I'm a very proactive person. I'm a doer. It's actually one of my biggest weaknesses is that I think that my relationship with God is about doing and not being. But ultimately, I'm not called by God to do. I'm called by God to be. I'm called to be his son. Not just do his work. It says God is working. God is always working for the good of those who he loves and those who are called according to his will. What is his will? Jesus. His will is that you be unified with Jesus. So if you are unified with Jesus, meaning you've put your faith in Jesus, God is working for your good. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Sometimes it feels like God's taking a day off, or a month, or a decade. Anyone ever have God take a decade off in your life? Felt like anybody? Okay. At least a year. Anyone ever feel like, hey, God set that year out? God is always working. I want you to know that right now, whatever problem you're dealing with, I really hope God gives you the practical wisdom to do something about it. That's great. But you need to have faith this morning that He's doing something right now. That He is solving your problems right now. And as a pastor, I have the blessing of being able to see that happen in amazing ways all the time. So one of the joys of my role is I get to be let in on people's experiences where God is showing up. And I actually want to tell you about one real quick as we wrap up. This last week, there's a family at our church that I'm really close to. This family is awesome. And so there were a lot of things that they'd been praying would happen. And they were in kind of a just a tough situation. The husband is an executive in the business world. His wife does like online sales. She's one of those people, like if you watch TV, the people who go and they buy like junky things that actually aren't junk because they know what they are, no one else does. And then they restore them a little bit and they sell them for a big profit. That's what she does. And so they they often drive and travel and they they buy furniture and all kinds of different places, and then she'll restore them and sell them on eBay, and then he does his business stuff, and that's their life. A few years ago, he left the company he was working with because the person who ran that company was literally just not in the will of God. Let's just say that. And it was really ugly. He didn't do anything wrong at all. He left, he followed every single uh you know, letter to the T of his contract when he left. He didn't go to a competing industry, he had all kinds of stuff like that, because that happens a lot in the business world. But the guy was mad that he left, so the guy sued him. Just sued him. And knew that the lawsuit was frivolous. In fact, frivolous would be like an understatement. But this guy was very vindictive, and this guy just said, you know what, I'm mad at you, and so I know this is gonna cost you a lot of money, and for me, it's a tax write-off. So deal with that. And so this family, paying for lawyers to deal with all this, took two years. Every single time this guy had an opportunity to have his lawyers delay it, he did, just because he knew that would cost them more money. Just trying to ruin them. And so finally, you know, it all came to a head last week. And they were asking me to pray and a lot of other people to pray. And they also had other prayer requests. It was like that their daughter-in-law was struggling to find a job, even though she's incredibly qualified. And so they're like, pray that she finds this job. So we've been praying for that for a long time. We've been praying about this lawsuit, and a week ago Friday, okay, they had these depositions, 12 hours of depositions for lawyers trying to find something to stick, but obviously there was nothing there. And so a week ago Friday, the lawsuit got dismissed. And a week ago Friday, on the very same day, their daughter-in-law got a job. Same day. I get these like double text. Like, it's over, the lawsuit's over. I'm like, praise God. And then I get another text. She got the job. I'm like, praise God. He's always working, right? It was super cool. But see, here's the thing: after that happened, they're still left with the bill. Because lawyers ain't cheap. And if any of you here have not decided what you want to be in life, after learning what they pay per hour for their lawyers, might I recommend the law to you? I'm just gonna go ahead and say that, okay? Like $450 per hour. Per hour! Craziness. And that's probably not even that expensive in the world of law. And so they have this big bill, and we're talking tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars, that even though it's great that it got dismissed, the lawsuit's thrown out, there was nothing there, they still have to pay that bill. And they're like, How are we gonna do this? And so I get a text from from one of them a few days later. This is like literally two or three days after the lawsuit gets dismissed. And she'd been off and she had bought some end tables, you know, and and uh was restoring those end tables, working on them to sell online, and she's trying to open the drawer to one of the end tables, and it's jammed. And she can't figure out like what's God, did I buy an end table that's broken? Now I'm not gonna be able to sell this great. You know, it's 20 bucks, but it's 20 bucks that I don't want to have to add to the total right now. And then she finds this thing, she reaches her handbag and finds that there's this thing blocking the door from opening, and she she lodges it and moves it out of the way and opens it up, and here's what it was. This is what was blocking. It was a box that had a 14 karat gold diamond ring. Like, that's a pretty big diamond. I know it's blown up on the screen, that would be a really big diamond, but like, you know. And she was like, you know what? God, like, will this cover the entire thing? No, but but it was like God saying, I've got this. I'm working. And her faith was was lifted up. But but here's what's even crazier. Very next day, the the the gentleman in the relationship he had a job interview. Uh his company that he works for was bought by another company, and and it's like a company that only owns other companies. Some of you may work for a company like that where the company doesn't actually do anything but own other companies that do things. And so his company that he was working for is one of those companies, and they sold that their companies to another company that owns companies. And so he's having to figure all that out. So the new company that owns companies brought him in for an interview, even though he already works for one of the companies that that company who owns companies owns. You follow me? We're on the same page? It's simple. All right, it's the FedEx arrow. Just stay with. Um so he goes in for an interview, and what he was interviewing for was the director of marketing for one of the companies that this company who owns companies owns. Okay? That's the job he's interviewing for. The director of marketing at one of the companies. And so, you know, they're hoping he gets this job, they're praying he gets this job because it'd probably be a pay increase, and they need all the help they can get to pay off these thousands of dollars, and God has been so good to give them a diamond ring to help, but you know, there's still gonna be a lot more to cover. So they get an email or whatever is a fax, maybe. I don't know how they do things in the business world. So they get notification that the job offer has come in. And this is like the day after the diamond ring happens. And this is, by the way, all within a week of the lawsuit getting dismissed, the daughter-in-law getting the job. It's just crazy. They say, hey, we're prepared to make you an offer, but we're not offering you the director of marketing for the company that we own, we're offering you the assistant vice president of marketing for the entire company that owns all the other companies. Okay? Which is like bigger, okay? And so here's the crazy thing. None of this was through any effort of their own. None of this was through their planning, none of this was through like a scheme. You know, in fact, they were tempted to really get in the dirt with this guy who who was suing them, and they could have like said, no, we're gonna, we're gonna try to get this back by going after him now, because he went after us, and maybe that's how we can recoup what we've lost. But they're just like, God, we need you to do something, and God's like, don't worry, I've got it. I know a guy with diamonds and a guy who's hiring, okay? And he took care of it. God is working, and he is working on your behalf. The Bible says that right now, right now, Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And he is essentially pleading with God on your behalf. Like he's telling God, I know how they feel, I know what it's like to be human, I know what they're going through, I understand their weaknesses. God, they need your help. God is working on your behalf. And the reason why is because you are in his will if you know Jesus. That's a worship team you guys can make your way out. We'll wrap up. If you don't know Jesus, I I have nothing I can say other than he's real, and he's the point. And if you if you live the rest of your life, and I hope your years are many, and you you do many good things, but you never know Jesus, you're going to miss the whole point of life. You're gonna miss it. Because Jesus is the point. Because you were made to know your Maker. You were made to live in relationship with the one who created you, to know that you're loved. Like, what good is accomplishment without love? What good is activity without meaning? Jesus, knowing Jesus, is the most powerful experience you can have. He is the why of the universe, he is the why of your life. It's all to know him, it's all for him. And so if if you want to know him, if you want to give your life to him, it's very simple. It's it's like it's the easiest thing in the world. Because he's the one that's done all the work. It's just saying in your heart, I believe. I believe in you, I want to know you. You don't have to know everything, you don't have to pass a test, you don't have to follow some ritual, you just have to put your faith in him, and when you do that, you are in the will of God. When you do that, you're passing through that narrow path into the ocean of the opportunities that God has for you in life. So give your life to him. Right now, just give your life to him. Right now in your heart, say, I believe. And I look, if you do that, I would love to talk to you. We don't have to talk, but I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to be able to pray with you. I'd love to answer any questions you have. And I'm just gonna hang out over here in front of the stage after we're done this morning. And feel free to come up and we can pray together. And and I would love to share some things with you, but but my hope is that every single one of us would leave here in the will of God. The will of God is not that you're perfect, the will of God is that you don't make any mistakes. The will of God is not that you get every single thing right in your life, the will of God is that you know Jesus. Because it's all about Him. So we're gonna pray, we're gonna worship Him a little bit more. Let's just go out from here, let's live in the will of God, in the freedom that He's given us, and let's wait to see what God is up to. Because He is always working on your behalf, okay? Pray with me. Jesus, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you so much for this group of people. We love you, Lord. We pray in your name, Jesus, that you would fill us with your spirit. As we worship you right now, Lord, we are asking that you would do things in our lives. And Lord, we have faith that you are, we have faith that you're working right now, but sometimes it's hard for us to see it. And so, Lord, we ask that you give us the eyes to see what you're up to, and the faith to believe that you're doing things, the faith to believe that you've got us, that you're working on our behalf, because we are in your will, because your will is simply for us to know you. That is the why of our lives, is to know you, Lord. That's the mystery you've revealed. And so fill our hearts with wonder and joy, and blessing as we've been let on in this secret, let on in this ministry, and let in on it, Lord. I pray that you would bless us as we leave this place and help us be a blessing to everyone we talk to. It's in your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.