[0:00]
Well, I'm hoping you've been picking up on what I've been trying to put down. Working on the assumption that you're best going to be able to love and serve your spouse and the people around you and your church from a place of personal security and that one of the main ways that we can keep developing in our own personal security is by reflecting on the incredible reality that we have in Christ.

[0:30]
Now, with a deeper understanding of how secure you are in your relationship with Jesus, your security will develop. And we had that image of, I gave you that image of the concept of a long, hot soak in the bath of God's goodness. Well, you let these truths wash over you and wrap around you and warm up your core. And I am hoping that, you know, it's been helpful in that way. I've got another slightly different image to give you today, which I don't know, maybe some of you prefer it. It's almost like I want you to come for a walk with me through a field

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and just kind of meander through the daisies a little bit because the whole field is full of the spiritual blessings that are actually yours in Christ and come for a wander. And I'll try and point out a few more flowers to you and you can stop and appreciate them hopefully, maybe even pick them up and have a smell. You might even want to pop one in your hair if that's the kind of thing you do. but appreciate God's goodness to you and try and enjoy the spiritual blessings that you have in Christ.

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We are in an incredibly secure location in him. It means wherever he is, you are. You've been spoilt rotten in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. A couple of the things we noticed yesterday was from a few. Ephesians 1 and you can actually flip back there if you can. Flip back to Ephesians chapter 1 and then we'll get to Romans 8 in a minute. But the three we looked at yesterday were, I just want to remind you of them,

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if you're in Christ, you've been chosen in Him before the creation of the world, which means you can be secure in his decision to come after you and choose you. We talked about how we're blessed. blameless in his sight. If you're in Christ, your condemnation has been removed and it will never be put back on you. So you can stand secure before him in the presence of a holy God.

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We looked at how we've been adopted into sonship. You've been joined to Jesus, who is the legitimate son of God and so you get what he gets, which is favour and position with the Father. You get given his name. name, you get counted as his, and you now have unlimited access to the father. Don't be that kid that just walks past the father who's made himself available to him by lying on the floor. Don't be that kid.

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And we've got a few more to look at today, so let's press on. Have a look there in verse 8, and what I notice here is that what we have in Christ is what's called glorious grace. You've been lavished with glorious grace. Look at verse 8. No, verse 6, sorry? I'll read from verse 5. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with the pleasure of his will

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to the praise of his glorious grace which he's freely given us in the one he loves. This glorious grace is something that's been freely given to us in Jesus. Jesus. We'll read on because he mentions grace again in a minute. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according with the riches of God's grace that he has lavished on us. This grace that's come to you hasn't just been flicked at you or given you, you haven't

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just given it, it's been lavished upon you, just poured out over you in like a fire hose or a big bucket that just actually swat you flat on the ground, which might not be a night. image but it's a beautiful thing. His grace has been poured upon you. And you understand grace is more than mercy, yeah? Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve, you know? You've done something wrong. Someone's about to pay you back, but then they give you mercy by not giving you what you deserve or you're pulled over in your car by a nice police officer because you've been speeding

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and they decide to have mercy on you, which is they go, look, I'm going to let you off. This time I'm not going to give you what you deserve. But grace is more than mercy. It's more than just not getting what you deserve to get. It's actually getting what you don't deserve. Yeah? So, I don't know, it's the police officer that pulls you over and says, I'm going to let you off, but not only am I not only am I going to not let you off, and so you don't get demerit points, I'm going to, I'm actually going to take all the other demerit points that you've accrued in the past. I'll take them on my license.

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so your record gets what, spot free? And I'll pay for the renewal of your license for the next 20 years. And while I'm at it, let me just buy you a new car. What do you want? And I'll give you a police escort everywhere you go from now on. It's kind of that. Like that's, it's like not only do you not get what you deserve, but you get all this stuff you don't deserve, that is God's grace to us. It's lavished upon us. It's ridiculous grace.

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it's next level. In Christ, not only do we get spared condemnation like we deserve, we actually get reward and blessing that we don't deserve it all. So instead of being on the receiving end of God's righteous, wrath and fury, the coming at you full force for all eternity, which is what you deserve, you get instead to be on the receiving end of God's righteous, wrath and fury, the coming at you full force for all eternity, which is what you deserve, ! You get, instead, to be on the receiving.

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end of God's love and kindness coming at you full force for all eternity. Get his face of love forever. Instead of being lost and isolated, orphaned by sin, separated from your God, you actually are given his name and counted as his own and you actually get to step into his presence and belong to him. You don't deserve that, but that's what you get. instead of suffering and pain and torment forever, you actually get a seat at the table

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of the wedding banquet of the lamb. And to get a seat there is to be included into a celebration where you get privilege and comfort and connection and provision like you've never known it. and that's what's coming for us. That's what we have and what's what's coming for us. It's, this grace is lavished upon you. It's glorious grace.

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I love how it's described like, that's amazing grace. It's phenomenal grace. Let that warm up your core. Pop that flower in your hair. You know? Sniff that in. Glorious. grace. We'll read on. We'll get another one.

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Verse 7. Redemption. In him we have redemption. The forgiveness of him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according with the riches of God's glorious grace. In Christ, you get redemption. You get to be redemption. redeemed. The forgiving of your sins there is described as a type of redemption. You've been redeemed and you wait a final redemption as kind of mentioned in verse 14,

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but you get redemption. Now, we know what redemption is, don't we? A person who's redeemed is a person where a price is paid to release them from some type of bondage, some type of slavery so they could be freed. And this is what you've got. Price has been paid. so that you can be bought and released from slavery. The price it was paid there, we're told, is it's by his blood. That's the price. No greater price has ever been paid as a ransom price in the history of humanity than the blood of Jesus.

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But that was paid and it was paid for you. And it was enough that you would be released from slavery to sin, from the power and the penalty of sin. You see, you used to be someone who was under the power. power of a cruel master and that's what sin is. Sin is a cruel master. But you've been released from it. You've now been set free so that you no longer need to obey sin and be a slave to it.

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You're now able to say no. Sin might remain, but it does not rain anymore. What a wonderful thing to be released from slavery to sin. We get to say no. And we get to say yes to God. And this happens because we're in Christ Jesus. Your connection with Him is such that where he is you are. And here's where it gets a little bit trippy. Where he's been, you too are now counted as having been,

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which is how you get released from sin. Because you have been to the cross with him and died with him. Come with me inflictive. Romans chapter 6, which is where you get one of the places we get language along those kind of lines. Romans chapter 6. We'll read from verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace might increase?

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By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? And the word baptism now, I think, you know, the sense is you've been included into, immersed into. So now you benefit from his. You're baptized into his death and you're therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, you too may live a new life.

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You've been, you've died with him, you've been buried with him, you've been raised with him. You've been raised with him. This is what means to be in him. For if we've been in you. united with him in a death like his, then we'll certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

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I mean, there's complexities in this passage you can take forever to unpack, but let me just point out this, that because you're in Christ, then there's a sense in which you were with him when he died and was buried and raised. You were baptized into his death and burial and resurrection. You participated in that the minute you got joined to him. So you died with Christ. You were crucified with him, meaning your old self,

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the old you that was a slave to sin died on that day. So you're no longer a slave. The old youth is now gone and dead. Like it said in Colossians chapter 3 we looked at yesterday, you died and your life is now hidden with Christ, with God in Christ Jesus. You are now raised. There's a new you so you can be alive to God. You can say yes to him. You're able to live to please him.

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What an incredible reality to be redeemed and to be redeemed and to be released so you're no longer a slave and now to be able to be alive and free to be a slave to righteousness to God. What an incredible redemption. You can say no to sin. That's wonderful. Let that one sink in. Verse 9 and 10. Come back to Ephesians with me.

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Verse 9 and 10. Part of being in Christ means now you get the mystery of God's will revealed to you. It's amazing. Verse 9 and 10. He made no one to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment. And here it is. To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. There's a sense in which God's great will and

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purposes for the whole universe have been kept a mystery for quite some time and from a lot of people. But his great will and purpose for the whole universe has actually been revealed to you. Where he's heading with everything, what he's doing with this whole place, what it's all about has been made known to you because you're in Christ. The meaning of life, that very thing that apparently has been the age-old mystery, that everyone in every generation has always struggled to try and figure out the answer to. What is the meaning of our life?

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existence, humans have wondered about it forever. You don't have to wonder. You get to know for sure the meaning of life. In Christ, we've had it revealed to us. We don't figure it out by postulating. No, no. He makes it known to us so we don't get left in the dark. We get brought into the no. You get to be in the know about the most important piece of information in the universe.

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Where it's all heading, what God's doing with this, why you're alive. What an incredible privilege and blessing to be in the know, to have this revealed to us. And he says it there in verse 10 right at the end there, it's to bring unity in all things in heaven and on earth under Christ, which, you know, in my language, it's just to bring everything under Jesus. Everything's heading to a point where it all comes under Jesus where it belongs with him as the Lord. He is the Lord, but he is the Lord.

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There'll be a moment a day when everyone and everything will actually realize that's the case and all creation will be united under him. Some gathered to eternal salvation, some gathered to judgment, but everyone will know they're under Jesus. Yep. We know how it ends. We get to live with the end in mind. How good is it to know the result, you know, before the game's finished? We get to be prepared and be ready. And it's actually in Christ,

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as we've received his spirit, as we find out in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2, that we get to know these things, yeah? It's only by the spirit. It's only the fact that you're in Christ that you get to say, yeah, Jesus is Lord, I know he is, and I know he always will be, and I know everything's going to be under him. It's only by the spirit that you're in Christ that you get to understand what has been freely given to you. It's only by the spirit that you get to catch a glimpse of what God's prepared for you.

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it's only because you're in Christ that you get to see these realities and know the great truths of the universe. What an incredible blessing. To be brought out of the darkness and to know the deal. It's wonderful. And the final one to look at is the big one, the obvious one, is that one of the most incredible spiritual blessings of being in Christ is that you are loved. Yep. You love.

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You can know you are loved with an unshakable love, the kind of love that no one can ever take it away from you and there's nothing you can do to ruin it either. You are loved. I mean, we see it there in Ephesians. He chose us, but yeah, he chose us in love. It's God's affection and commitment to you that caused him to do this. Love's an interesting thing. It's been thrown, it's always been throwing around.

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in every generation. We long to be loved in a very real way. It's like a very deep yearning of our soul to be loved. Unfortunately, we all bear the scars and the disappointment of the fact that all our human relationships, in all of them, were never loved in a way that truly satisfies those longings. None of our human relationships, not the relationship you have with your parents, not with your friends, not in your marriage.

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None of those relationships are going to fulfill your longing to be loved that's been placed there because you'll only ever be loved imperfectly. That doesn't mean we don't make a big effort in our marriage is to attempt to love and serve like we're meant to. In fact, we make vows that we will. We just need to acknowledge that the love that we receive from our spouse will always be imperfect in some way. And so we therefore need to focus on the one place where love can be found, and that is God's love in Christ Jesus.

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I need to soak that in. So let me attempt to let it wash over you. Hear this for a second. If you're in Christ Jesus, you have someone who considers you to be of great worth and value. You have someone who truly treasures you and truly treasures you and truly respects you. If you're in Christ Jesus, you have someone who has someone, you have someone who is absolutely committed to your good and selflessly caring for you

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and sacrificially putting your needs before their own. That's what you got. If you're in Christ Jesus, you have someone who is for you in spectacular fashion. You have someone who is with you through thick and thin. You have someone who is particularly at work for you for you. your good in and through the really rough times. That's when they're really loving them.

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You have someone who will stick by you no matter what, whatever circumstances come, how badly you blow it. And you have someone who has bound themselves to you so that you cannot shake them off and you cannot scare them away no matter how silly you are. You are secure. in his love. Romans chapter 8 kind of emphasizes that for us there, so you might want to just flick there and we'll kind of finish on this.

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Romans 8 emphasizes how this love that God has for us, it's unshakable. And you're never going to get rid of it. Verse 35 asked the question, is there anything that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus, who shall separate us from the love of God? And Paul lists a bunch of troubles he's experienced in his life. Hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, you know, danger or the sword.

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And we can expect that there will be troubles in our life too. Some of those troubles will come particularly because we're Christians. There will be persecution that comes upon us that's unique. We'll get our own special dose of suffering and trouble. But some of the trouble and suffering that comes away is just, because you're human. So there's cancer and there's disease and there's disaster and there's mental anguish and there's emotional crumbling and then there's death. So all that's going to come your way. But will any of that be able to separate you from the love of God?

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Well, the answer is really obvious. Verse 37, he just says, no. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Nothing can separate you from his love. In fact, we're called more than conquerors in him. Not more than conquerors because we're pretty epic on our own, but because we're in him. We're super conquerors. And I assume we're called super conquerors because not only does adversity not take you down

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and ruin you and ruin God's love for you, not only does adversity not take you down, but actually God is doing us good in it. And, conforming us in the likeness of Jesus. That's our ultimate good that he's been speaking about in Romans chapter 8. So you're more than conquered. So no matter what happens, good or bad, it's wonderful for you. Because nothing's going to take God's love away. It's good for you. And that is through Him who loved us.

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He does love us, but it says there he loved us, speaking about God's act of love towards us on the cross. There's something that's happened in history that the, great demonstration of God's love for you and gives weight to our insurance so that your security in his love is not based on any, a feeling of being loved by God at any one particular moment in your day or in your life. It's actually based on the reality of a historical event.

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So you can see clearly you are loved by God because you can see the cross. God's love for you, therefore, is something that you can know is solid and certain. He goes on in verse 38 and 39, just continuing to try to emphasize this point. There's nothing that's going to take it away, you know? He's convinced that neither death nor life, no angels, nor demons, nor present, nor future, to any powers, height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creations. There's lots of theories about what he's trying to do there.

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I take it, I think what he's doing, he's saying, there's nothing. There's nothing in the sphere of time, nothing in the sphere of space, nothing anywhere in all creation can take it away. Not past, present future is going to impact God's love for you. No different location you ever might find yourself in on the earth. It's going to change his love. Nothing in creation can change it. It's a reality and it's going to stick. You can know for certain that you're loved by God and you'll always be loved by God and you can be confident that that that will be the case in the future

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no matter what happens. You are loved and secure in Christ. I mean, Romans chapter 8, it's got to be your favorite chapter in the Bible, doesn't it? You know, he begins with saying that there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus, and he ends with saying, then there's no separation from his love. There's just security in him. And when we let this truth about his love permeate deep and know that we're deeply loved and valued and of great worth to him,

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it's very powerful in your life. It can give you comfort and security in a way that launches you out in confidence and courage to love others. Yeah, it's from that place of secure love that you can love, where you say, I'm secure in the love of God so I can reach out to others, not relying on having them love me back for my own sense of worth and value, but I'm freed up from needing that because I've got it from God. Freed up from needing to chase love and worth in people because I've been,

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I've got that love and worth in God. It allows you to be vulnerable, which takes courage, but vulnerability in relationship is a very powerful way to relate. You're able to serve and not needing to be served in return. You're able to love people who you know are never going to love your back. You're able to let people see your weaknesses. Rather than feeling like you need to hide them from people, you're okay. Because even in your weaknesses, you're loved and secure.

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you're able to take risks and even step out and even fail and then even laugh at your mistakes and failures because it doesn't change the big things and you're secure in the big thing of God's love. It enables you to freely forgive those who hurt you because you understand the love of God. Well, there you go. I hope that's kind of helpful to just soak around and live in and hope it's built you up and encouraged you and have you feeling secure from it

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and can encourage you to continue to take time to keep reflecting on the spiritual realities that you have in Christ and how you have been spoilt rotten. It's a task that we need to give ourselves too is to continually reflect on such things. Like Philippians says, you know, think about such things. So take time to do that regularly and know the comfort and security of what we have in Jesus and keep celebrating that. I'll pray for us. Oh, Father, we are so grateful.

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What you've done with us in bringing us to yourself and what you've lavished upon us that we're now in Christ, it's overwhelming for us to consider. It's so easy for us to see physical blessings and get excited about them. But Lord, we really want to understand and see and appreciate our spiritual blessing. Can you help us? By the power of your spirit, would you help us to reflect and know them deeper as the days and months and years tick by so that we know the security that having you

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and are able to be used by you to serve and love people like you serve us. Please do that work in us, Lord. So people ultimately come to know you and see you. Amen.