All right. As I prepared this sermon, I was thinking about campaign marketing campaign that started back in March of 2023. Maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't. But it was run by Heinz Ketchup. It actually started overseas because there was an issue with all these small restaurants who would buy Heinz ketchup because it's the good stuff, and then they would use it all. And then when they would go to refill it, they would buy the off brand stuff stuff, and they fill it up. And Heinz figured this out, and they're like, hey, we must stop ketchup fraud. This is not okay. We have to protect our brand. And so they started this campaign called, is that Heinz? Is that Heinz? What they did is they figured out the exact pantone of the red color of their ketchup. And on the outside of their label, they created this red exterior so that if these small restaurants would essentially empty the Heinz ketchup and fill it up with something that wasn't Heinz, everybody could see it, right? They're like, okay, for ketchup lovers everywhere, this is actually what they said. For ketchup lovers everywhere. We need to make sure that the best ketchup is enjoyed and. And that its value is appreciated in that ketchup is not made a mere commodity. Whoa, that's taking ketchup really seriously. And I. Personally, I hate ketchup. I care less about ketchup, but some people really care nonetheless. I think it's a brilliant campaign because at the end of the day, they're like, hey, we want to make sure that what's on the outside of the bottle matches what's on the inside of the bottle. And as we look at two corinthians three today, we're going to see Paul do something similar here. Of course, not in Kesha, but he is really concerned about protecting the gospel, protecting the witness of the gospel. And he wants to draw a distinction between the external and the internal. He wants to say, hey, it's not just what is seen on the outside, it's what's shown on the inside of that really matters. And this is a man you may remember as we've marched through these first couple chapters as being accused of being a fraud, of being a fake apostle. And he's being accused of being a fake apostle by fraudulent teachers, by fake preachers themselves. And so he is like, hey, I'm going to start my own marketing campaign. And it's not called, is that hype? It's called, is that really the gospel? Is that really the gospel? And I just want to say this is a message that would be really easy for you as listeners to sit and to begin to think, not first and foremost about yourself, but somebody that's not in this room. And I just want to. I just want to give you a word of caution, okay? You are in the seat this morning. You are in the seat this morning because you need to hear from goddess. And so let me just begin with a challenge. To say this message is not primarily for you to point a finger at somebody else, but for you to actually apply a litmus test and say, God, what does this mean to me? What does this mean to me? And I trust that as you consider your own heart, your own life, your own approach to God, that, yeah, you might feel challenged. There's challenge to be out here. But my ultimate goal is not to challenge you, but to actually invite you in to see and behold just a beautiful reality that as you looked at the. If you were to look at the heading of Second Corinthians, your bible might say, ministers of the new covenant. We're going to talk about the new covenant, really the gospel this morning, and I want you to see Jesus with fresh eyes this morning. So I'm going to read the entirety of the text. I'm not going to preach the entirety of the text, but I'm going to read it for us this morning, and then we're going to march through it together. So here's what the word of God says. Two Corinthians three, beginning in verse one. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some new letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ, Lord God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it. In glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is perfect, permanent, have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses has read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Again, I told you, there's a lot there. I kind of want to just talk about, really, the bookends. I'm going to spend a little bit of time unpacking all of the information in between. But if you were to look at the first three verses of two corinthians three and the last three verses of two corinthians three, you get a clear picture of transformation. A clear picture of transformation. That is what Paul is talking about in this chapter and in these opening verses. What he's creating a contrast between is this external letter of recommendation. It was common cultural practice for religious leaders that they were going to travel to a new town and begin preaching and doing ministry, that they would come with a written letter, and this letter would either be written by themselves, which says, hey, here's my experience. Here's my resume. Here's what you should know about me that makes me incredible. Or it would be a letter of a recommendation. Perhaps some other profound spiritual leader who comes with a little more weight or authority would write and say, hey, I am sending or commissioning this person to do ministry among you. And again, these are written with pen on paper. And what Paul is doing to the church of Corinth, is he saying, hey, you don't need an external letter. You don't need a letter that's written with ink, because here's the real letter. You, you, church of Corinth, you are my letter of recommendation. And the most profound thing is, this is not just about external observance, not just about ink spilled on a paper. It is about the spirit of God actually transforming your heart. Here's the proof that my ministry is legitimate. When I preached the real gospel to you, it really changed you from the inside out. If you were to look at one corinthians six, you would see Paul say something along the lines of this, hey, here's what used to be true of you. You guys used to be promiscuous. You were idol worshippers, you were thieves, you were drunks. He lists this long slew of sins and says, such were some of you, but you were saved. You were changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the greatest testimony, and in fact, it is the only true testimony of goddess. The gospel, the spirit of God living inside of you. Paul is saying this. This is his overarching theme. A true testimony of the gospel is a transformed heart. A true testimony of the gospel is a transformed heart. Now, what Paul wants to do over the course of this chapter is really defend the integrity of the gospel. Right. Similar to that. Is this Heinz? Right. Is this really the gospel? And what he's doing is not just talking about this letter of recommendation. That's kind of his launching pad into saying, hey, there's two different ways throughout the history of man that people have more or less approached God. One appears rather external, and one is internal. And you really see the launching pad in verse three when he talks about the spirit of the living God and tablets of stone. Now, maybe you're familiar with this, maybe you're not, but what Paul is doing, he's drawing our attention all the way back to the book of Exodus in chapters 32 34. Now, again, maybe you're familiar with this, but if not, I'll kind of catch you up to speed. I. Moses was to be a messenger of God to the people of Israel. He gets invited up on Mount Sinai to speak with God as though speaking with a friend. And what he is called to do is then march down the mountain and tell Israel, this is what God expects of you. Which, by the way, would have been incredible in their day and age. Common cultural practice of their day is, hey, we have to figure out who God is, because if he has not spoken, we have to try and just figure our way out. Trial and error. What would please God? What would not? And God is so kind to speak to Moses and say, hey, the people of Israel will no longer need to guess who I am, what I'm about, what I expect of you, I am going to tell you. And what you are going to do is you are going to march down the mountain and you are going to tell them what the will of God is. So Moses is about to head back down Mount Sinai, but God lets him know, hey, bad news. The people have grown impatient. And what they have already done is they have turned their back on the living God, and they have started to worship an idol. They have taken all of their gold and molded it together into a golden calf. And by the time Moses gets down, they're literally singing and dancing to a man made statue of a golden calf. And Moses and the Lord are brought to extreme anger. The Lord is like, you are a stiff necked people. I am going to punish you. Moses comes down. He throws the tablets of stone that had the command, the will of God written on it. They shattered. He melts the golden calf and says, you guys are going to drink it. Now, I imagine that didn't tell you. Tastes very good, right? He melts the salt and cap, makes Israel drink it. And God is like, here's what's going to happen. I am leaving you alone, Israel. Go ahead. Go into the promised land, but I am not going with you. My presence will not go there. And Moses is cut to the heart. He is so broken over this. The people are weeping. And Moses does what he can only think to do, which is, I'm just going to pray. I'm going to pray that God would show great mercy and grace and compassion. And so Moses intercedes before God and says, God, we don't want to go to the promised land if you're not there. Please have mercy on us. And God listens to the prayer of Moses, and he says, wow. Okay, let's try this over again. Moses has one ask of God. He says, show me your glory. And God is like, you don't really know what you're asking for, because if you would see my glory and its fullness, you would die. So here's what you can do. All right? You go hide in that rock face over there, and I'm going to let you see my backside. I don't really know what that means. I'll let you guys film it down there. But he says, you can look at my back, but you can't look at my face. So Moses climbs back up Mount Sinai. He sees the backside of God. He sees the glory of God. Even just a glimpse, he catches a glimpse. God renews his covenant with Israel. He reissues the commandments, the will of God. He writes them out on new tablets of stone. And then he sends Moses back down to the people. What happens when Moses comes back down is his face. It says, his skin of his face is literally shining. So much so that the people were afraid to come near him. Whoa. Like God's glory again, just peeking at the bad side of God had made Moses so glorious in and of himself that Israel was like, you have to stay back. They were terrified. It's incredible. But what Moses would do then in order to speak with the people, in order to make sure that he could carry out this message, that he could be a true messenger of Israel, is he would put a veil over his face to deliver the message of God to the people. And then what he would do when he would go to commune with God again is he would remove the veil, because when he was with God, the veil was not needed. He would see God face to face. And for the rest of this chapter, really in the next several verses, what Paul is doing as he looks back at Exodus 32 34, as he says, hey, I will create a, create a contrast for you between the old covenant, the mosaic law, and the new covenant, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm just going to point out a few of the differences for you. And my hope is that this would actually lead us to a diagnostic tool to really begin to ask the question, how are we functioning? Because if the promise here is transformation from the inside out, we have access to that. I mean, many of you, I know personally have been transformed. I can testify that. And, you know, fundamentally the good news of the gospel. But as you just look at some of the distinctions and differences between an old covenant mindset, the new covenant power, we're kind of left asking the question, which 01:00 a.m. i actually functioning in, though. So I'm going to just rattle through some of these distinctions that you can see in the text yourself if your bibles are open. So here's the first. The old covenant was carved into stone tablets, right? God with the finger of God, he carved the law into stone tablets, external rules that could be followed. But the new covenant, again, is not written on stone tablets. It's written on human hearts. This is not just about laws being penned for flourishing, but a human heart that is changed for the sake of flourishing. Secondly, you see that the old covenant, as this text says, kills and condemns it, is the letter of condemnation. You might think, what does that even mean? Well, the problem with the old covenant is it made God's will known, but it provided no power to keep it. So as you look at the laws, the commandments of God, hey, here's what I expected you, you could say, great. Now I know what God expects of me. But you would have no power to obey. There's no real inner change or transformation possible, because all that the law can do is show you you're guilty. Which is why time and time again throughout the old covenant, what you would see people do is they would kill animals as sacrifices to God to clear their conscience and to try and appease the wrath of God, because there's not an appropriate sacrifice yet that can bring real heart change. But that's not the new covenant, is it? The new covenant here says, the new covenant gives life. The spirit gives life. This is not a ministry of condemnation, but one of righteousness. This is not just about knowing God's will, but having the spirit and the power to obey God's will. Paul talks about this in romans seven. He says, for while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. He was like man before Christ came, before the spirit lived inside of us. Here's what the law was doing, showing us we were guilty and helping us actually feel the death we were meant to feel. Verse six. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which once held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Paul is saying, hey, now, it's not just about knowing what we ought to do and not being able to measure up. It's looking at Christ, who fulfilled the law and being changed by his spirit in such a way that we can actually obey him now and that our righteousness is not of our own, it's that of Christ. And, oh, by the way, he can help us pursue real holiness. Thirdly, the old covenant is described as a covenant of lesser glory, which, when you really stop to think about it, is insane, right? How many of you, if you were out, say, at pizza ranch this week, or fairway or Walmart, fill in the blanket, and you saw someone's face shining with the glory of God, would be like, yeah, that's not a big deal. What you would be freaked out, right? And what Paul is saying here is that that old covenant glory that Moses experienced, where his face is literally shining, is not even comparable to that which we get to experience. It's not even comparable, because now it's not just about God's glory shining on moses face. No, this is about God's glory shining in our hearts through the power of his holy spirit. That the glory of God is now, not just outside of you shining on you. It's inside of you shining through you. It's insane. And when you think about lesser glory and greater glory, I think there's several ways that you can think about this. If you think you're handy, right? You're like a handyman at home. But then you hire a professional to do a job, you're like, oh, thank God. They actually know what they're doing, right? You think you're pretty good at cooking, and then you watch Bobby flay on Food network, and you're like, wow, I would have never known to mix those spices together or set the pan on fire, however that works. You know, if you're an athlete, you think you're really gifted until you watch the Olympics, and they're like, wow, I am awful, right? And what God is doing through this text is holding up hate. It's not that the old covenant didn't have glory. It's not that the law wasn't good. It's that compared to Christ, it is brought to nothing. It's not even cruel anymore. Like, look how great the new covenant is. And part of this lesser glory and greater glory is because of the four thing we see is that the old covenant was temporary. It was made in such a way that it says it would be brought to an end, because the new covenant is actually that which is permanent. Now, what I think is sweet is that this was known all throughout the old town Testament, all throughout the old covenant. Moses himself, who was the recipient of the covenant, the mosaic covenant himself, testified in one of his final addresses to the nation of Israel. Here's what he says in deuteronomy 36 and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. He himself is testifying to this reality, that one day a time will come that this is not about mere external observation or rule keeping, but an internal heart change, where God will literally cut you to the heart and give you the power to change that. It will not just be about you acting the right way, but having affections to truly love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul. Keep in mind Moses wrote that 1400 years before Jesus was born. And you fast forward a little bit, 600 years before Christ was born. You see the prophets, right? Jeremiah? Here's what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. But I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with the fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declared us Lord. For this is the covenant that I would make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people again. Ezekiel prophesies. Ezekiel 36. That God says, I will give you a new heart, a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you. I love that. I will cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules. Jesus himself, after his death and resurrection, meets with his disciples on the road. And they don't recognize him yet. And they're like, have you heard what happened? And he's like, no, what happened? And they're like, this Jesus of Nazareth, he was crucified, and these women went to his tomb, and now it's empty. And here's what Jesus says to them, o foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And in Luke 24 27, it says, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he, Jesus, interpreted them in all the scriptures. The things concerned himself. This entire old Testament, this entire old covenant is a bright and shining arrow pointing to the clear person and work of Jesus. And the problem with Israel, it says, even to this day, is that as they understand the law, they're understanding it apart from Jesus. And it brings no life. It brings no transformation. Transformation. All that they see is strict rule adherence. And the only way that can be taken away is through who? Church. Through Christ. It's the last, but perhaps the most important distinction between the old covenant and the new covenant. That the old covenant was made known through Moses. But the new covenant, God's perfect will, is made known through no less than God in the flesh, Jesus Christ himself. And Moses was not just a great leader for Israel. He was a bright, shining arrow pointing towards Jesus. Go look at Hebrews three, that Jesus is the greater Moses. But let me just help you here, Moses. What did he do? He set Israel free from slavery of Egypt. What did Christ do? He set you free from the oppressive enemy of sin and death itself. Not just a political power, but sin and death. Jesus conquered it. Moses interceded for his people by praying for them. Jesus intercedes for his people not just by praying for them, but by dying for them. Moses shows Israel the perfect law of God, which is incredible. But Christ in common shows his people the perfect love of God, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And lastly, Moses as their leader, designed to lead Israel into the promised land, was but a picture of Christ coming to lead his people into the promised land, not of Canaan, but of heaven itself. This is the good news of the gospel church. This is the beauty of Christ. And yet, if we're honest with ourselves, and if you're anything like me, though, you can wrap your mind around some of these theological truths. If you take an honest look at your life, your walk with Jesus might not be marked as much by the new covenant as you would like it to. It might look more like the old covenant, though, in your head, you understand the new covenant. So I have a few diagnostic questions I'd love to ask you, questions that are worth running through to say, is this old covenant pursuit of God, or is this new covenant power that I'm living in? So when it comes to your relationship with Jesus, your walk with him, Bible reading, your prayer, your obedience to the scriptures, does this feel more like a duty or a desire? As you seek to obey God, do you feel like you're striving in your own power or relying on the spirit's power? As you open up your Bible, do you feel like God is inviting you to keep to the pages of scripture or to claim to the person of scripture? Do you feel like your life is marked by the treadmill of obeying laws and statutes, or the paradise of enjoying your lord mistaken? And when you stop at the end of the day and see your sin and you think about what God thinks is, do you think he's looking at you with a pointed finger of condemnation? Do you think he's looking at you with open arms and love? How you answer those questions is actually a really good indication of how you're operating. And again, if you're anything like me, it is far too easy to slip back into an old covenant pursuit of God when God has invited us into something far greater, far more beautiful, far more glorious. I can't help but think of de Racho in 2020, right? These giant trees collapsing in Cedar islands. And I am not a handyman. If you didn't know that about me, now you do. Don't ask me to help with any of your house projects, okay? I don't own a chainsaw. I owned a handsaw, and I don't even think it was the right type of hand saw. I think it was actually made for cutting method, not trees. And our neighbor across the street had significant damage. And so I went over there with a handsaw and I was like, man, there has to be a better way. By the way, I knew what that better way was. It was a chainsaw, right? There has to be a better way. Someone has to have a chainsaw so that I don't have to sit here and use, use my hand saw. And I'm here to tell you, if you're tired of trying harder, of striving, of external rule keeping, of trying to measure up, I'm telling you, there's a better way. There's real power, and it's the spirit of goddess, this real power through the spirit of God to bring about real transformation that's not just external but internal. And you have to now ask this question, how do we get this transformation? Because we're tired. We're tired, we're sick of the treadmill. And what Paul lays out at the end of this passage. These last three verses are the key to transformation. I want to sift together, so I'm going to read them. Two Corinthians three, beginning in verse 16, says, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Three things that you need to see when it comes to transformation. Number one, it starts by turning to the Lord. Turning to the Lord, which means you need to get honest and confess to God. I am tired of trying to measure. I am sick of striving in my own strength. And I need your help to be obedient. That's what it looks like to turn to the Lord. And here's what happens next. Verse 17, you encounter the very presence of God. God will never say no to that first prayer. He will say, here I am to encounter the very presence of God. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The word picture here is that just as Moses, when he got into the presence of God and could talk to him like a friend, he could remove the veil, he could have perfect communion with God. And that is now the invitation that we have through the person work of Jesus Christ, because you do not come in a righteousness of your own. You come in a righteousness that was purchased for you in Jesus. And now it's not just that you get to talk to God as though a friend, though you can do that. God has put his very presence inside of you. I had just heard this last week. I was at a conference in Kansas City. One pastor brought this up. He said, when you think, when you think about love, you have to think about intimacy. And I think about when Ellie and I were dating long distance for a short window of time. It's like, man, I just can't wait to get closer to Ellie, right? I eventually ended up moving to Cedar Falls to be closer to Ellie because I loved her. And when you think about how much God loves you, the distance he would go to draw near to you, he is as close as he could get by putting his very spirit inside of you. That is how much God loves you. That you could not just encounter him on a Sunday morning at church, but you could encounter him any moment of any day of any week, because he is with you always to the end of the day. And lastly, this transformation comes as we behold Christ. That's what verse 18 talks about, beholding the glory of the Lord, that we can now see Jesus in his beauty and in his majesty. Maybe you didn't know this, but this is the primary work of the holy spirit in your life, is not to necessarily gift you, though he will do that. The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to help you behold the wonder and the beauty of Christ. If you were to read John 1416, you get a pretty good overview of what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. To go to the point to say, hey, it is better that I will leave so that the Holy Spirit, the helper, that he will come. And here's what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. In John 1526, he says that the Spirit will bear witness about me. About who? About Jesus. The Spirit is bearing witness about Jesus. And in John 1614, here's what the Spirit will do. He will glorify me. The Spirit will glorify Jesus. There's a book that I would love to be in the hands of every person in this church. It's called deeper by a pastor and author by the name of Dane Ortland. The tagline is real change for real sense. And Dane Ortland kind of unpacks this reality where oftentimes head of this post charismatic movement, the church has become fixated on man, we need more Holy Spirit. And by the way, I would say yes to that. Same thing. We're never going to say no to the presence of God, are we? Like more Holy Spirit. But there's this misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit's role. And here's what Dan Ortland says. The spirit is the effectual cause, your growth, but Christ is the object to contemplate in your growth. I love this analogy. A man does not focus on his brain when he looks at his wife and ponders how beautiful she is. He focuses on her and enjoys her. His brain is what effectually causes that enjoyment. But what would he say to someone who said he's been neglecting his brain by being so white slavery? He would say, if it weren't for my brain, I would not be able to enjoy my life at all. Praise God for a brain. But I don't look at my brain, I look with my brain. That is the role of the Holy Spirit in your life church to help you look at, behold, gaze upon, understand, enjoy, savorous the very beauty of Christ. And as we do this, here is the promise was held in verse 18, that like Moses, as we behold the beauty of Jesus, we will become like him. Pastor author Tony Morita said, if you love Jesus deeply, your behavior will change dramatically. But the love comes first, the beholding comes first, the affections come first. And what is the natural overflow? Obedience, transformation, action. That you would be transformed into the very image of Jesus. But it must start with beholding. And I think what I would rather do for us this morning, morning, rather than telling you what to do, I think sometimes we do that a lot because we just say, hey, here's three good applications points for a church. And sometimes if you're type a, you like that. Anybody with me? I like that. But I think this is a great opportunity for us to just practice together to just behold Jesus. Because you're about to go out this week and life's going to hit and you're going to be faced with the choice, am I going to be obedient or am I not? And you're going to be faced with this internal wrestle of duty or desire. And the only way that you will operate in new covenant powers if you know what it's like to behold the duty of Jesus. And so I want us to practice together. If you're comfortable, here's what I invite you to do. Just close your eyes. Just close your eyes. It's going to help you focus. And I just want to read one passage of scripture over you that can help you behold Jesus. To see the beauty of Christ our savior. Here's what the word of God says. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the former, a time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, and in him. In Christ. We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were to be the first to open Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. And him. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory and God. As I just think about Ephesians one and the beauty of Jesus, so many promises in this text that every spiritual blessing we can ever dream of are rooted in Christ. What we need most is to be satisfied with him, and he has come to satisfy us. Holy because of Jesus, we are declared holy and blameless. Because of Jesus. We belong to you. We have been adopted into the very family of God. As sons and daughters, daughters. We have been redeemed from our sins. We have been set free from its power, where we now can be obedient to you. And when we fail, yes, we will, we can be forgiven of our sins because of the finished work of Jesus. You have made known to us in Christ the very wisdom of God, that we can not just know about you, but that we can know you. And we know, God, that we have an inheritance in you. We have a home in heaven, in John 14, where Jesus said that his father's house has many homes, and he is going to prepare a place for us. But the best part of heaven will be that we get you, God, that we get you, that we will, with unveiled face, see you in full glory. And we will say, this is my God, and you will say, you are my people, God. And as we await that amazing day, whether it be when we die or when you return, we have the beauty and the promise that we don't just have to wait to encounter the presence of God. But you have given us your holy spirit inside of us to help us see Jesus. Behold Jesus. Savor Jesus and give us the power we need to change. Help us never get over this glorious gospel. And God, as we seek transformation, help us to not do it in our own strife, but in your power that you work within us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.