Good morning, church. It is good to be back with you. After I was out last week, I was in Abilene, Texas, speaking at a theology conference.

And wouldn't you know it? I show up this morning and I see a guy sitting in the back row back there and I greet him, and he said, I met you last week. And I said, I was in Texas last week and he said, no, I was there in Texas last week and we're passing through town, and we thought we'd come worship with you this morning.

That's fun. And it's great to see all the rest of you this morning. And we've got it's packed in here and also greeting to everybody who is in the great room and that are serving us up here by, by worshiping downstairs. I'd love to have a chance to meet you after the service if you're passing through and I'll try to be back there.

It'd be great to meet you. If you didn't get the announcement via email this week, I want to tell you now: we've got two family meetings coming up. And there was one that was already on the calendar and a new one we added. Both of these meetings are open to anybody who would be interested in finding out more about our church.

So, this is a family meeting for its four members, but it is open to people who would be interested in checking out the church. The first one is October 13th. That's two weeks from today. This one is really important. And the whole day will be a similar theme. So, in the morning, I will do a big picture address, a direction of the church, a vision sort of thing.

And that will put in context the relocation efforts that we've been talking about. So, it's a good reminder to know what are our goals for a church? Where are we headed as a church? And why is relocation something that we've been pursuing? And now I'll put that all-in context. Then that evening at 6 PM we'll do our family meeting, and I will share details with you of our progress of relocation.

And there's a particular property that I want to talk to you about and give you details about that. So please do everything that you can to be there. I heard from. I've heard from one guy who was planning on being out of town that week, had some place to be. And I urged him is there any way you could be here?

And so, he said, I'm going to fly back in town a day early in order to be at this family meeting. So, it's that important if you're, let's say your wedding is scheduled for that day. Cancel it. She will still, she will forgive you. And then come to that family meeting. Seriously, do whatever you can to be here.

I'm sure we'll be very packed in here that day, both upstairs and downstairs, but it's important because that is the problem we're trying to relieve. All right. Then the second family meeting is going to be two weeks after that. The, that'll be our normal family meeting. And we do have some business to attend to.

We need to vote on deacons, and I sent you an email about that. But then if there's any follow-up from. The previous meeting to do, we will handle it at that time. So, it's still another important family meeting on October the 27th. Okay. Let's dig in to Colossians chapter one. And there's, this is another dense paragraph.

Paul has a lot of dense paragraphs, but this paragraph is about Christ's work on the cross and the mystery of the gospel and Paul's ministry as a result of that. So, Paul describes the work of Christ on the cross as something that is like so mind blowing that he's willing to suffer at great personal cost to proclaim it to other people.

And even though that's true as Christians now it's the sort of thing that we've gotten used to and it's very easy to take it for granted. And I'm talking about the indwelling presence of God by the Holy Spirit, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's a phrase that we'll look at in a moment.

That's a distinctly New Covenant reality that is our blessing, our privilege as New Testament Christians. And it was all brought about by the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that's what we're going to look at. We'll dig in Colossians chapter one. We're going to read in study verses 24 to 29 today.

Colossians 1:24-29. Turn in your Bible and I will read it.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, him, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. This is God's word.

Paul's ambition, verses 24 through 26. Was to make the word of God fully known, even at great personal cost. Let's look at this again.

He says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is his church. So, the body, we are the body that he's talking about the church of which I became a minister, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.

To make the word of God fully known the word of God, fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. So, Paul suffered for this calling. He suffered for this ministry and throughout his entire ministry, this was the case for him mentally suffering, physically suffering for preaching the gospel.

And he didn't complain about it. He didn't whine about it. Verse 24 says he rejoiced. He rejoiced in his suffering. So, we rejoiced in it because God called him to do it. But he describes his ministry in a strange way. He uses strange language. You may have picked up on it. He says in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

What does that mean? Roman Catholics have used this text to justify the practice of selling indulgences. As though Jesus’ suffering wasn't enough, and Christians can add to the suffering of Jesus to contribute to their salvation. That obviously is not true. I'll read to you a little quote here from the ESV Study Bible Notes.

ESV Notes, it says, this phrase does not imply there is a deficiency in Christ's atoning death and suffering on the cross, which would contradict the central message of this letter and all the rest of Scripture as well. So clearly Paul is not saying that the death of Christ, his suffering is insufficient to redeem his people.

So, what does he mean? John Calvin's explanation I think is very helpful here. He says this is my words interpreting what he said, but he basically says that Christ is the head, and we are the body, right? And so, when the body suffers, the head suffers. So, if you think of it this way, if you cut your finger in one sense, you'd say my finger hurts, but in another sense, you would say you hurt.

And so, there's a particular part of your body that suffers. There's a member of your body that suffers, but if you're really in a lot of pain, somebody might say, oh, he is in a lot of pain. There's a particular part that suffers, but because the part suffers, then you could say the individual is suffering and we are united with Christ.

And so, if a part of the body suffers, Christ suffers with us. And so that's the way it works here. It can truly be said that Christ also suffers when we suffer because we are his body. We are the body of Christ. So, the affliction that is lacking on Christ's part is the affliction that is suffered by Christ's people and for his sake.

So, Jesus suffering on the cross was not all the sum total of the suffering that would happen for the sake of the gospel. Jesus’ suffering was sufficient to accomplish redemption and justification for us. But the ministry of proclaiming that gospel to other people will entail suffering on the part of his people.

And that is a suffering that Jesus did not experience in his earthly life. And so therefore, we suffer. And as we suffer, Christ suffers. And that is the suffering that is lacking. Paul is filling it up. There is additional suffering that Paul contributes to because even as we suffer, Jesus suffers with us.

John Calvin, here is a quote, John Calvin said, Christ so honors us as to regard and count our afflictions as his own, not for the redemptions or reconciliations or satisfaction of the church, but for our edification and progress. In this case, Paul is suffering for a purpose. And so, he says here's, he is suffering.

He's filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which he became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given him for you to here's a purpose cost to make the word of God fully known. There's another phrase we want to look at.

What does he mean by making the word of God fully known? The phrase word of God, you might notice if you read the Bible a lot, that phrase can be a little elastic. It can mean different things in different places. So typically, whenever Christians talk about the word of God, what do we mean? We mean this, right?

This is the word of God. And that's true. We totally believe that's accurate. This is the word of God. So, we mean often the Bible. The 66 books of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, those constitute the Word of God. However, Paul was writing the word of God that we hold, and there are other books that were yet to be written.

So, Paul could not be referring explicitly to this. He's referring to something that was written in this. So, what was Paul talking about? Let me give you, here's how I think we should think about it. There are four different ways that we can understand this phrase, word of God, and really in the ultimate sense, they all lead to this, but we want to know, how does it get to this?

How does it get to the Bible? I'll show you. So, here's the first way. The first way that we can understand this phrase is all of God's self-disclosure is the word of God. Everything God reveals about himself is the word of God. And the word, is important because it tells us something about God. When God reveals himself, he does not reveal himself as some nebulous divine entity, some aura or ooey gooey feeling.

God is not a vibe or an impulse. God is a person. And he speaks. And when God speaks, he speaks content. He says specific things. So, God created man. So, he created us human beings. He created us with rational faculties to apprehend and understand the words that he speaks. So, this is God's means of revealing himself.

God is a God who wants to be known. God is a God who can be known and his typical appointed means of making himself known is. through words. And so, when God, when he, we say the word of God, we're talking about God's revealing of who he is. And so often in the Old Testament, you will see phrases like this.

There's a formula that is all over the Old Testament that prophets will use. And they say things like the word of the Lord came to me. And what they mean is I'm telling you what God said, God revealed something to me and I'm going to communicate it. And a prophet is God's mouthpiece, right? So that's the first way.

Second way, Jesus Christ is the word of God. Jesus Christ is the word of God. He is the pinnacle, the ultimate of God's self-revelation. He's the ultimate way God made himself known. So, God's word is not merely knowledge floating down from heaven. That's what Mormons believe. That's how the Book of Mormon came about.

There's these magic glasses that Joseph Smith put on and that's the word. And you can't verify it, you can't test it because it was just one guy. Same thing with Islam, Mohammed, like the God supposedly revealed this and it's just one guy and it's just these magic words. And so, it's, there isn't any acts in history that God did and there's no embodiment of God's communication.

And what makes Christianity utterly unique is we say God became flesh. The word of God's revealing of himself was to become a man. And that is the ultimate way God shows who he is to us.

Scripture, John one verses one and two. In the beginning was the Word. Now, John is New Testament, he's referring, it's a very clear allusion to Genesis 1. Where in the beginning in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. John, using that language, transfers it over and he's applying it to Jesus Christ, saying Jesus was the creator.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So, there's a bunch of theology there. What I want to point out to you is Jesus Christ is named as the word, and that's important because Jesus is God's revealing. Jesus reveals, He speaks, He shows us who God is.

Another text, few verses later same book, same chapter, John. And the Word, here it is again, became flesh. So, this Word this revealing of God, it somehow, through God's miraculous power, it became flesh, a human. And dwelt among us, He was a human, one of us. And we have seen His glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I'll give you another. Hebrews. We've been singing this lately. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke, past tense, to our fathers. So, Hebrews, writing from a New Testament perspective, is talking about back in the Old Testament times. Hebrews. God spoke to our fathers, how? Through prophets.

The Spirit of the Lord would rush upon a prophet, and they would say, The Word of the Lord came to me, and they would speak. But, in these last days, He's referring to now in the time of Christ, in light of the cross, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.

So, God's revealing of himself, God shows us who he is, Old Testament by prophecy, speaking words now in the New Testament by becoming one of us and in dwelling among us and being wrapped in flesh. Number three, the gospel is the word of God. The gospel is the word of God. Paul said in verse five before he said of this, you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel that's in the text that's in Colossians chapter one.

But here's a couple other examples. So, Acts chapter 11 verse one, now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So, the Gentiles receiving the word of God, that is a way of saying they became Christians. They were converted. They heard the gospel message, and they believed it and they were regenerate and now they are Christians.

Chapter later, but the word of God increased and multiplied. That doesn't mean. The Bible got bigger or there are more words now in the Bible. He's saying, no, the word of God, the message of the gospel was received and believed by more and more people. And so, the gospel itself, the word is multiplying across different people.

Now, finally, number four, we get back to where I started. The Bible itself is the word of God. It is good and appropriate to speak of the Bible as the word of God. Now that we know all of the antecedent factors that contribute to that idea. Okay. So now the Bible is the word of God. So, the question then is how do we know what the prophet said long ago?

And how do we know what Jesus did? How do we know that God wrapped himself in flesh and dwelt among us? How do we know what the gospel is and how does the gospel grow and increase and multiply? It is because God has appointed a means of transmitting his word through the generations and that is by writing it down.

God is a speaking God communicates, and his appointed means is to speak, and then ultimately for God's revealed inspired speech to be written down with words, specific words that we can read. So now we can take all of the written testimony of God, and we can read it for ourselves. So, you have one of these, there's one in the seat back in front of you, like Wade said, you can take it with you if you don't have one, or you can download a free app.

There's a bunch of them. That is God's word. That is now transmitted in a particular form. Old and New Testament, 66 books of the Bible. So, these are words, sentences, paragraphs, books. Old Testament, New Testament, in the original language, Hebrew and Greek, totally inspired by God, without error in any way.

So, God doesn't repeat His acts in generation after generation. God preserves a testimony, a written record. Of those acts in history, he preserves them for us. And so, when we read our Bible, we can say, I now know what God did. I now know what God said. And I believe by faith that what is contained here is what God has sovereignly ordained to be transmitted to me.

And this is God's Bible. This is God's word. And that is inspired. And I trust my faith. This is the word of God. But now we know what the whole thing is, what God is doing. He is telling us who he is how he has revealed himself. What is the message? How are we saved? All of that is there.

And he bears witness to all of those things in the word of God, the Bible. So, the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the record, the testimony about God, about creation, about Jesus Christ, about the gospel, about salvation, and God wrote it down. And so now whenever Christians, whenever we say things like we preach the word, what do we mean?

We're not preaching something that was conjured by our own imagination. You're not, we're not authorized, nor are we qualified to preach our own opinions about something like whatever we believe should have some justification or rationale that is derived from the word of God, because that is what God said.

We don't just get to make stuff up. And people do this all the time. You've got, 20-year-olds on Tik Tok that are saying here's what God thinks. And I only tell you about God. And they're acting as though they are giving some revelation. And I'm like, you have no right to do that. The only thing that we should be able to say with that sort of authority is what God has already said.

And we say, I know that this is true because let me show you in the word of God, where that is. And I, and if you get it wrong, then somebody else can say, that's not the word of God because here is another text. And now we can sharpen one another to have a better understanding of what God has actually said.

That's how this works. So, we don't get to just make things up. And whenever we preach the word, we are preaching Christ himself. So, it's not Bible lessons. There's a lot of non-Christians that know the Bible better than you. They're in seminaries and they're unregenerate. So, whenever we preach the word, we should always be preaching Christ because what we're talking about ultimately points back to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And Jesus said this himself in Luke 24:27. This is the, there's a long story here on the road to Emmaus, but Jesus made this comment, or excuse me, Luke makes this comment about what Jesus said. And Luke said, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures, the word, the things concerning himself.

So, the word of God is a written testimony, old and New Testament, the entire Bible. All of this is ultimately. Most accurately, a testimony to Jesus Christ. We didn't know his name until the New Testament, but we've always, God has always, this has always been his plan. And he has always been the one that is speaking.

So now back to what Paul said he, his ambition is to make the word of God fully known. That means on every page, of every text of scripture, he is expositing Jesus Christ, this plunging the depths of the word, and he's discovering Christ in every verse. And Paul is looking at the Old Testament.

So, the way that we know Jesus, the way that anybody in this room knows Jesus, and what we know about Jesus is always going to ultimately need to be justified by the word of God.

I'll read to you a here's a paragraph that's from my commentary on the book of Colossians. This is the Bible speaks today commentary. And it says, it is precisely by teaching the word of God that the church of God is to be served. It is by the truth of the gospel that the church is formed and sustained and equipped, but without a satisfactory ministry of the word, the church will either wither and die or assume moral, more or less grotesque forms.

This primary ministry governs all other forms of ministry in the churches. No spiritual ministries can exist safely or fruitfully in isolation from the word without risk of becoming both meaningless and lifeless. That is why we do what we do. That is why we prioritize what we prioritize. We believe as a church, and this is what the church has always believed.

This is nothing novel. We believe that our primary ministry is a ministry of the word. And so, Paul's calling is to make the word of God fully known. That's what he said here in Colossians one, and he would suffer great pain and persecution for it. So now that's what Paul's ambition was to make the word of God fully known.

To what end? What is he trying? He's not just wanting to teach, give lectures, theology lectures. There's an effect. There's a, there's an outcome that Paul is driving at. And that's where we'll turn next. Let's look at verse 27. You He says to them. Now he's verse 26 back here. The word there was saints.

So, he's talking about us. To them, to you, the saints, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So, God has made known something is through his word. He's spoken, he's communicated. And Paul is preaching this message to people who weren't there to actually witness Christ themselves.

He is giving testimony. He's bearing witness to what Paul himself has received from the Lord. And he's telling these people something fantastic and amazing. He's proclaiming the riches. Of the glory of this mystery. I'll talk to you. Hopefully I'll talk to you more about the mystery next week because I didn't want this sermon to go on too long

So, I think we'll be able to get to the mystery next week, but he's talking about the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's an action-packed phrase. And I wanna pull it apart a bit. Seven words. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Those seven words summarize Paul's message.

Paul said, this is what I'm driving at. This is what I'm trying to accomplish. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So, we'll take those two phrases one at a time. Christ in you, that's a blessing of now. Alright. That's something that's true now. The hope of glory, that's a blessing for later. It's a blessing for the future.

So, let's start with the now blessing. The now blessing is Christ in you. So, here's a promise of scripture. Jesus Christ has taken up residence in the heart of every true Christian. We call that regeneration, meaning that you were dead in your sin regenerated, meaning that you were recreated. And that is a work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit recreates you, makes you new. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come, 2 Corinthians 5:17. So, you are regenerated, and he gave you his spirit, and so the phrase, Christ in you, that describes the result of what Jesus Christ did for us. So, Jesus Christ came for this purpose.

He died for this purpose. He was buried and he rose again for this purpose. And then that purpose is applied to individual Christians, is applied to their heart by the spirit. So, he's describing something that goes beyond forgiveness of sins, right? I hope you know this. Being forgiven of your sins is just the appetizer of the Christian life.

That is not like the full banquet. That is not the, that's not the full meal. That is just the B. That is the necessary precondition of all the blessings that God has waiting for you. That God's end game is to bless you in ways that are, that we cannot even begin to comprehend. But in order to do that, he has to first cleanse us and wash us clean of our sin.

That is the thing that's prohibiting it from happening. So, Paul describes something that goes beyond forgiveness of sins and on into something even greater, which is union with Christ in you. And that is you are united to Christ, united with Christ. And then it's the most intimate kind of fellowship.

And so, the Christ's work on the cross brings about this comprehensive sort of grace. We're surrounded by the grace of Christ, and we are indwelt with the grace of Christ within. It begins with justification, where you are positionally justified and pardoned. You are declared righteous by the will of God, and that is when your sins are forgiven.

But then it continues with adoption, where you are relationally united with God. And so you are, you can enjoy fellowship with God as your father. And then it is empowered and propelled forward by the spirit, by, by us being indwelt by the spirit. So, you now being a Christian, you are indwelt by the spirit, and you're given power and freedom to follow God to obey Christ.

Jesus makes oh, I didn't put the text in here. I'll read it to you. John 16:7, Jesus told his disciples, he says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, meaning the spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

That really is a remarkable text because he's saying there's something better than having Jesus Christ here talking to you face to face. Can you believe that? Probably a lot of us would think man, wouldn't that be a dream come true? I'm like, if we could have any wish and it's behind door number one is you get to spend a day with Jesus Christ, drive him around, show him your haunt, what you get into and ask him questions and hang out with Jesus.

That's door number one. Door number two is the spirit of God can indwell you and you don't see him, but you are, you're indwelt by the spirit. A lot of us would be like I want to see Jesus’ face to face. I want to look at my savior. I love him. I want to hug him and tell him, thank you for what you did.

And Jesus himself says there's actually something better. And the only way that you're going to get this better thing is if I am physically removed so that the spirit can come in and dwell you, and that is to your advantage. And this is the new covenant reality that Christians have that old covenant people, old covenant believers did not have.

So, a lot of our Old Testament heroes in the Bible, they did not have this thing that we can't quite quantify that we may not even feel different. Probably most of us don't necessarily feel different, but it is a reality that we have by faith is we're indwelt by the spirit. That is a true blessing. Every, it is true.

And everybody who is a genuine, you're saved, you're born again, Christian. This is true of every one of us. You are regenerated by the spirit. You're indwelt by the spirit. In fact, that is the definition of how you became a Christian. Anybody who is a true Christian, by definition, they have been indwelt and regenerated by the spirit.

So that is the blessing that every one of us has. Now we all have that right now. That is Christ in you. Paul's Paul gave us three words, but we know from the corpus of Paul's teaching what he's getting at. He's getting at all the things that just described to you and you have that now, but there's so much more blessing than even that

As good as that is, there's much, much more blessing than what I've just described, and that is the future blessing, which Paul describes as the hope of glory. What does that mean? Four words there. The word hope, obviously it is a future oriented word. It is something that you desire or anticipate that is not yet here, but you're looking forward to it.

Now, hope isn't a, don't take hope to mean it is some kind of uncertainty. Like I hope the Bengals can win a game this season. That's an uncertainty, right? We're not talking about that kind of hope. We're talking about a hope of something that is absolutely rock solid, definite. There is a glory that is waiting for you, and there's nothing that can stop it because you already have the initial guarantee of that future reward, and that is the spirit that indwells you now, and the spirit will never be taken away from you.

So, what is this future blessing going to be like? Paul uses the word glory, and the glory is what we hope for. So rather than getting into all the theological things, I want to try to describe it. Describe the sort of thing that Paul is pushing out here with different words. So, if you would imagine, take the deepest and fullest and richest experience of God that you can possibly conceive of taking in.

Imagine that. What would that be like? So, if you've ever had maybe some moment in your life of pure bliss. Maybe ever, every one of us will have a moment or two in our lifetimes, maybe more that is just man, I am so filled up, so satisfied, so delighted right now that I just think my heart is going to burst.

And those moments are rare. And that's because we live in a fallen world, but that's imagine a moment where you're deeply content in that way. So one of these rare, ultra rare mountaintop experiences, Now take that moment, and if you could measure it somehow and give it a number, that moment and the number you would describe to it, the most transcended and sublime moment of your life you've ever had, the apex of your whole life, that moment, that number will not even come close to the joy that you will experience on the worst and most boring day in heaven.

It is this experience, this glory of being pure, of being filled, of being satisfied, of being content, of being built up. There's no more insecurity. There's no more fear. There's no more doubt. There's no more sin. There's no more temptation. It is just pure righteousness. And in all of its beauty and wonder, that is what the hope of glory is.

That is what we're anticipating and driving towards. So, the hope that you have, the hope of glory is given to us by the spirit of God who is within us, Christ in you now by the spirit, the hope of glory. That's what we wait for. And the spirit that's within us now is just a tiny little foretaste and appetizer.

Just a tiny little bit of all this rich banquet, this feast that awaits us. Romans chapter five verses one and two describes it this way. Paul says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we already talked about that. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's that you now through him.

We also have obtained access by faith. So, there's an access. Into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So, there's this future reality that we have access to, and we're pointed towards it and we're anticipating it. We're moving in that direction. But it is not fully manifest in our lives at this point.

So, here's a way you can think of that. Think of taking a balloon. So, you have this balloon, and if you blow just a little bit of air into that balloon, technically that balloon is full because once you get it, just the smallest little bit full, the initial little bulb that balloon is technically full, even though it can be fuller, right?

So even though it's full, you can still squeeze a lot more air into it. The more you blow in and the more you blow in, you make that balloon even fuller. Even though once you start blowing at it, there's never a point into which the balloon is empty. The only time it's empty is before you start blowing into it at all.

So, in this illustration, you are the balloon, and the Holy Spirit is the air. That is being blown into you and you're filled. So, we are filled with the spirit. Every Christian upon being saved, being converted, you're regenerated, meaning that you are filled with the spirit. And so, the balloon has filled you and there's never a point at the app from thereafter where you will not be filled, where you'll be empty, but there's no way for us to be empty because we are indwelt by the spirit and there's nothing that will take that away.

And so, the Holy Spirit fills that balloon that is Christ in you. So, Christ in you, that's your now blessing. You are truly filled with the Spirit, but you're filled like that first puff of air. But throughout your life, as you grow in Christ, it's like more air. It's like you're being filled even more.

You're growing, you're expanding. And so, throughout the Christian life, you're always full, but you're always getting fuller. You're expanding. There's more capacity. As you grow in Christ, you're increasing your capacity to receive. The grace of God, the glory of God to expand. It's like there's more glory that you're capable of experiencing and expressing.

But in this side of eternity, we're still in the state of corruption and that's going to limit how much we can expand. There's only so far that we can go. Nobody's completely sanctified this side of eternity. However, the second part of that promise is the hope of glory, meaning that there will be a time when this goes It multiplies by multiple factors that we can't even calculate where we're in this purified state.

We're no longer in a corrupt state, but now our capacity to receive from God is just off the charts, exponentially grown. And in that state, we will be able to, we'll be filled in ways that we cannot begin to comprehend now. And the thing is God made you for this. God created Adam and Eve for this at the very beginning.

And it was lost at the fall, redeemed and restored in Christ. And now we're set back on this path, but it will not be fulfilled totally until we're in eternity with Christ. But God made you for this glory. He made you to be filled in this way, to be built up in this way. And we're in a state of corruption now, but in eternity, that'll be removed.

And so, the hope of glory is hope that in eternity, we will no longer be subject to those inhibitions, those limitations. And so, staring at, so whenever we get there, we'll have this unlimited capacity for glory. It's like a balloon that you can just keep blowing up and blowing up and I'll never pop.

Right? That's it. You'll be the boy that's just constantly expanding and growing middle never pop So starting right now We begin we are we're filled with the Spirit Christ is in you And the hope of glory is that it can expand now, but the ultimate hope is that in eternity our Capacity will be limitless but even then it's not as though the first day It's like you die, you show up in heaven, like, all right, Lord Jesus, I'm here.

It's not as though, okay, now you peak, you max out. Okay. Now's your, this is the most satisfied you will ever be right now. You get it all on day one. No, it doesn't work that way because throughout eternity this will continue because we will be moving from one degree of glory to the next to another degree of glory.

And this is the process and the pattern for all eternity. So even in eternity, your fullness will be massively expanded, but you'll never reach your limit. So, you are always full and you're always getting fuller. You're always expanding. This is what Christ has done for you. The down payment of that is yours right now as we speak.

The Holy Spirit is within you. You are filled with the Spirit. Christ is in you. And yet there's so much more. You can experience a whole bunch of it now in this life. And that is your growth and maturity. As you love Christ more, as you obey Him more, as you grow in godliness, as you express obedience in your life, you're expanding your capacity for glory.

You grow, your balloon expands, but then someday at your death, may the Lord make it many years from now, but someday at your death, you will step into this new reality where the hope of glory is now exponentially grown. That is what awaits us. Let me show you one text about this. This is second Corinthians three 18 and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord.

Are being transformed into the same image. Let that sink for a minute. So right now, imagine like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai at a veil over his face because his face was shining like a light bulb because he had been in the presence of the glory of the Lord. And so, it was like, he was so radiant.

It was like a, it was like a nuclear bomb, walking around. So, they had to put a veil over his face just to protect people from the light. And so, he's okay, we are, as Christians, we're beholding something that, that surpasses what even Moses knew. And so, we're beholding Christ with this unveiled face, the glory of the Lord.

So that's what we're looking at. And we are being transformed into the same image. We're being made like that. So just think about the glory that it took to light up Moses's face like that. God wants you to be transformed into that kind of an image. That is what it means to be the image of God. You have limitless capacity to express and to reflect into and to live the glory of God.

And so, this glory will be on you and you're going to be transformed into that image. But it doesn't just stop. That's not okay. Day one. You've got it and it stops. No, it is ever expanding and increasing because we're transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. It's moving onward, ever onward, further up, further in, C.S. Lewis at the end of the Narnia books. Further up, further in. That's where we're headed. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one who does this, and that is Christ in you. So, for all eternity, we will always be full, and for all eternity, we will always be getting fuller.

That's the promise. Christ in you, the hope of glory, because God never runs out of glory to give. His glory is limitless, and we will never max out our capacity to receive. That is the blessing for every Christian, the most baby Christian, the most unsanctified, immature baby Christian. That's your destiny.

It's already set. It's certain. The spirit is within you. You're regenerate. And so, you need to be transformed even in this life from one degree of glory to another. One more text here. For all the promises of God find their yes in him, that's Christ. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ. And has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So how do you know this is true? It is because if you're a Christian, you have the spirit, and if you have the spirit, you've got the down payment.

And God will pay that bill. God has obligated himself. He's I am going to give this to you, and you can count on it because the spirit of God is within you.

Two more verses. We'll hit these quickly. Verse 28, starting here, him. We proclaim two kinds of ministry, warning everyone, teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So, we've been talking about in it. That's what he's like. I want to warn you. I want to teach you because I'm trying to get you more mature because the more mature you are, the more you're expressing and expanding your capacity to receive.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he works powerfully within me. And that's why Paul said earlier, I'll suffer for it. If I could get more people experiencing this, if I get more people on that path, and if I could plant more churches that are living this way, that means there's more glory.

This earth is just pregnant with glory. It is growing and expanding and widening forever and ever. That's his ambition. So, his ministry is to help expand people's balloons as much as he can in this life, because that will translate into much more in the next. And so, our goal as a church, as an individual, as any kind of ministry, the goal is not merely to get people to make professions of faith.

So many churches do this. Like our, we're here to reach the lost. That's why we're here. You were lost. You've made a profession of faith. Great. We're going to ignore you now. Now let's, somebody, wait a minute, what do I do? Teach me! Warn me! Am I doing something stupid? I don't know! A baby Christian, help me!

No, we're not gonna do that. You're fine. You're in. Barely, but you're in. Now we need to focus on other people. No, we can't do that. It's that is never the goal. Our goal should always be what Paul said here. Don't miss this. To present everyone mature in Christ, everybody. You could be the most hard-hearted sinner far away from the kingdom of God and just barely saved. I'm like, okay, you've got a long way to go. Our aim, our objective is for you to become mature in Christ and you can. We know that you can because there is a spirit, a power at work within you that you did not have before you came to know the Lord.

And so, you are just as capable of maturity as anybody else. Paul says here our goal is we don't want to; we don't want anybody to be infants in Christ by the time our ministry is done. And there's always going to be new converts made. And so that's always going to have to be our goal. So be like a pregnant woman thinking, my goal is to give birth.

And then, teaching and raising a baby and, changing diapers and feeding, that's all. Just getting them born, that's all that matters. Obviously, anybody would say that's crazy. It's crazy, it's absurd. And for Paul, it is just as absurd to have an infant in Christ and to not give them the tools and resources, the teaching and the warning that they would need to grow to maturity.

So, there are those two sides of ministry, and it's very clearly laid out here, warning and teaching. The teaching part is here's what to do, here's what God expects, here's what's happened here's information that you need. And then warning, Is, here's what's gonna happen if you don't follow through.

And we all need that. We all need to know there's accountability, there's consequences if we disobey the Lord. And so, these twin aspects of ministry have to be present for anybody to grow into maturity in Christ. Okay, so lemme just wrap it up here by tying these threads together about Paul's ministry priorities and his methods, the heartbeat of the ministry, what is his driving?

Aim Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what he wants for everybody. Christ in you, the hope of glory, that spirit filled Christian men and women who are always growing and always becoming more prepared for eternity. And then the result of that ministry is salvation. Everyone being mature, leading people to becoming more and more mature in Christ.

And that's people who walk faithfully with God for the, not perfectly, but faithfully for the rest of their life. The method of Paul's ministry is going to make the word of God fully known. I'm gonna hold anything back. And the way that translates for us now that the whole Bible has been written is that we make the word of God fully known.

Paul says in Acts chapter 20, I preach, I did not shrink from preaching to you the whole counsel of God. Genesis to Revelation, I want to show you everywhere how this points you to Jesus Christ. Because Christ in you is the aim, the hope of glory. And Christians will not grow very much apart from an ever-deepening knowledge of this word, which includes positive and negative aspects.

Positively, I want to teach you truth, so you understand, and you know our minds are filled. We all need this. And then negatively, we need to hear okay. We need to be warned. There's danger there. There's danger there. And that's the much less popular aspects of ministry because you have to correct people.

And we don't like that, but that's, that is so necessary. It's an essential vitamin that every Christian needs in their diet. We need to be corrected and shown where errors are. All of this is by the grace of God purchased by Christ in his blood, his death and resurrection on the cross, but now applied to us by the spirit.

And now we have power to live it out. That's the Christian life. Amen. I want to pray and to close out, and then we will celebrate the Christian life when we come to the table, our father and our God, Lord, this is such a beautiful message, a beautiful promise and hope of scripture that Paul proclaimed here of Christ in you, the hope of glory, Lord, I ask you that for every individual in this room, man, woman, and child, that Christ will and dwell our hearts by faith, that we'd be filled with the spirit.

And then for the rest of our lives, we'll be more and more increasingly filled with the Spirit. So that we can expand, and our hope of glory will grow. And then on into eternity, we will reflect the bright radiance of God in our lives. Just like Christ. We'll be transformed into His likeness. Lord, what beautiful truths and promises that you've given to us.

You've written down in your Word. So, Lord, I pray that you will help us as a church to make that our ambition. Help the pastors, help me to make this our ambition. I pray, Lord, that you will help us to be faithful to that, to see ministry fruit from that, that we'll see life change, that we will see genuine conversion and repentance and growth so that more and more people can experience Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And Lord help us to be faithful to practice this ministry faithfully in teaching and warning, to not leave anything out, but to faithfully proclaim the whole counsel of God. And Lord, now, as we come to your table, we're celebrating a small nibble of that feast. The bread of the body of Christ and the wine of the blood of Christ feed us, nourish us, build us up, strengthen us now as we feast on the grace that is prepared for us at this table.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you did to make this possible. May we never be ungrateful. We ask you all of these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.