Why We Serve | Casey Trudell | Ephesians 3:1-14 — Casey Trudell

Welcome to the Canyon Ridge Baptist Church podcast. In this message, listen in as guest speaker Pastor Casey Trudell from Faith Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California opens the word to Canyon Ridge So look with me, if you would, at the first couple verses, and then after we finish reading, we'll pray, and you'll understand where we're going. Verse number 1 of Ephesians 3, he says, "For this cause." Now, he is referring to what he talked about in chapter 2 and chapter 3, for context, that the Gentiles have been brought into the family of God. They were not a people. They're now a people. The middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles have been broken down, and there's one family in Christ Jesus now through the grace of Jesus. And he says, "So for this cause, I, Paul-" Now you would immediately expect there to be a verb. I, Paul, gave. I, Paul, preached. I, Paul, served. I, Paul, you know, whatever's gonna happen there.

But he does not give you the verb until way later. So what he's gonna do is start to pack on details and ingredients, right? So read with me. He says, "I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles." So ask yourself the question, I, Paul, did what? Well, you don't know yet. He begins, rather than telling us exactly what I, Paul, did or had done to him, he begins to describe his position in Christ, that he's an apostle and a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. So kinda put that in your bag, if you will, into your basket as we keep going, and we're just gonna add a bunch of things in there before we get to the end. Look at verse number two. He says, "If ye have heard of the dispensat…" He's completely digressing, right?

"If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he hath made known unto me the mystery; as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." Now, let's take a look up here, take a quick breath. That's a lot of ingredients, and we still don't know what we're making. So let me kinda make sense of what's going on. I'll give you the main idea. What Paul is saying is, "Hey, I, Paul, who am a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I've been given a special revelation by Jesus Christ." But for what? To do what? We don't know yet. Keep reading. Verse, number five, "Which in other ages," he's talking about this mystery of the Gentiles being added. He says, "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit."

So okay, what's in the cart right now in our understanding? We still don't know what we're making, but he says, main idea, "I, Paul, as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, who has received special revelation about the Gentiles." And that revelation, this is what he just added in verse five, that revelation was not previously known in the Old Testament. But it is now made known, and I've been made aware of it, and I am now, a, an apostle and a prisoner in that regard. Now verse number six, he says that, "The Gentiles," he's talking about what revelation it was, "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel." So what's the main idea? And I, again, I assure you, I know it's complex, but when you see the big picture, I think it might be your favorite sentence in the book too.

He says, "I, Paul, as the prisoner of Jesus Christ, have received special revelation that God would add in the Gentiles, a revelation not known otherwise in the Old Testament, but now has been made known unto me." That's every ingredient we have in the basket. Verse seven, here comes the verb. Are you ready? "Wherefore I," and you could just add, "I, Paul," like verse one. "Was made," there's your verb, "a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." All right, all right. So let's take everything out of the basket, put the first sentence, or the first start of the sentence, with the actual end of the sentence. Here's what Paul just says. "For this cause," the addition of the Gentiles into the church family. "For this cause, I, Paul, was made a minister. Now, Paul, as the prisoner of Jesus Christ, was made a prisoner for the gospel's sake.

And before we can really see the full picture, most Greek grammarians agree that the verb actually happens in verse 14. So we're gonna skip verses 8 through, I guess it'd be 13, and we will read that in a minute. But I want you to see verse 14 'cause it completes the idea. Verse 14 says, "For this cause I," you can add Paul, "For this cause I, Paul," here's the verb, "bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Okay, now we know what we're making. Let me give you… Let me remove all the parenthetical statements. There's a bunch of things Paul added into the cart, but let me give you the main idea of the text, and then we'll explain why he added all those things. He says, "For the cause of the addition of the Gentiles into the body of Christ, I, Paul, was made a minister, and I willingly bowed my knee to the work that God had forced upon my life." So that's the big idea. So what about all those, like, diverging ideas, Pastor?

What about all those ingredients, the parenthetical statements, Paul's diverting here and talking about this? were those all tangents? No. Those were the ingredients to this big theme. Here's what Paul… Here's what those are. Those are the reasons why Paul would allow God to, make his life a ministry for him, and why Paul, in verse 14, would willingly bow his knee to the overriding work of God. In other words, here's the sermon. We're gonna get to wade into the reasons, those parenthetical statements, of why Paul would willingly become a prisoner and bow his knee to the overriding work, listen, of Christian service. We're about to walk through why Paul would serve Jesus. That's what he said. And I know it's a giant sentence, and it's long, and it's more than just seven verses. It goes beyond that, the big idea.

But what it's gonna do for us, as we examine Paul's list, his reasons, here's the why I was made a minister, and here's the why I would willingly involve myself in Christian service. As we examine his reasons, it'll give us an opportunity to be introspective and examine our reasons for Christian service and our reasons why we might not be serving as a Christian. Christian service is a crucial, integral part of a Christian's life experience with their church family. It is a crucial part of their relationship with King Jesus. And we all have reasons. I think I was talking to Ms. Gloria before service, and she was saying, "Yeah, we all got reasons for why we serve," and those are all good reasons. But Paul's about to give us, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I believe it's five reasons he says, "I was forced to minister, and I willingly bowed my knee to it." And it's gonna give us an opportunity to examine why do we serve?

Maybe more appropriately, why we don't serve, and maybe some reasons to reconsider having a stagnant, uninvolved Christianity. So let's pray, and we'll dive in to those individual reasons that Paul gives us. Father, would you guide us tonight? Lord, I thank you for some clarity. It's a complex idea to introduce, and I hope I haven't lost anybody in the weeds by poorly conveying the truth of what's in front of us. But I pray that as we see it now, we see this big picture, it become more clear as we look at it over again, really just one opportunity to survey it. Now, the incredible opportunity, the nuanced, careful opportunity to really mine through what Paul is carefully, intentionally, and most importantly, by inspiration of the Spirit, saying to the church about why he served. May we examine our hearts with great honesty, great clarity.

May your Spirit search us and try us, and examine if there's anything in us that isn't the right reason for serving, and that we might replace those selfish, self-serving motives with the reasons that Paul gives us right here, these beautiful reasons why Paul would willingly become a servant for your work. God, guide us in our study tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now I want you to pick up back in verse number 1. I'm gonna give you the first reason out of five, I believe. First reason out of five why Paul would surrender to being a minister, why he would surrender to Christian service. Well, number one, Paul was made a willing… And I know those words are kind of, contradictory, made forcibly and willingly. Well, that's verse 7, "I was made a minister."

Verse 14, "I bowed my knee to it." So Paul was willingly made a minister. Why? Because his identity had been arrested by Jesus Christ. look at verse number 1 again. chapter 3 verse 1, "For this cause, I, Paul," and you can just insert verse 7 and 14, "I, Paul, was made a minister and surrendered to it," verse 14, "I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles." Here's what Paul says, "I am in prison," but he doesn't say, "I'm in prison to Rome." He doesn't say, "I'm a prisoner of the Jewish people." They had arrested him in Jerusalem. He didn't say, "I'm a prisoner of Nero." Rather, he says, "I was arrested and incarcerated into the grace of Jesus Christ. He took my life for the sake of the Gentiles." This is exactly what he says in the Book of Philippians. In the Book of Philippians, he says that, "I am in bonds for your sake, for the Gospel's sake."

Jesus was the one who arrested Paul in his life and forced him into this position. Listen, we've heard Paul talk about his arrest, and like I mentioned, I'm not talking about the one in Jerusalem. Five times in the New Testament books, Paul will recount his arrest. He'll say, "I was on the road to Damascus about noonday, and a light shined out of heaven, and the Lord himself, Jesus, appeared to me. And he said, 'Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the, pricks.'" And in that moment, Paul's life was arrested. His entire identity stripped away from him. All the accolades of his former life as a Jewish lawyer stripped away. He says, "Count but dung," and his life was arrested, apprehended into the Gospel. For Paul, listen, it wasn't about surrendering to ministry He got arrested into it. He got arrested. His life was taken captive by his King when Christ saved him.

Now, lest you forget that Paul has some unique, or lest you think, rather, Paul has some unique conversion that mandates us to have some unique conversion where the heavens gotta open up, we gotta go blind for a little while, you understand that at salvation, you and I had our lives arrested as well. Amen. That once we were on our way to hell, we have now been bought with a price. He has taken possession over our lives as our maker and now our redeemer. He tells us this: we are not our own. We should glorify Him with our life and our body because they're His. Listen, we too have the same arresting power, holding possession over our lives as Christians too. The same thing that mandated and elicited his surrender, but certainly started as a mandate, the thing that mandated and arrested Paul's life is the same thing that arrested our life.

But here's the thing, we as Christians don't like looking at Christian service with an obligatory lens. and I get that. Many Christians do not look at Jesus as their captive, or captor I should say, their captor King, whom they should faithfully serve because He arrested their identity. Many Christians will look at Jesus as some form of appendage in their life. Like, "Oh, I've got my goals, and I've got my dreams, and I've got this, and I've got all these things, and I want stuff. And really, He exists to give me the stuff that I want." But not Paul. Paul looked at Christian service and said, " Oh yeah, I'm a debtor." I'll use the word he uses. "I'm a prisoner." You and I have been arrested by the same grace. Now here's the issue in our minds oftentimes. It's not an issue, it's really rather beautiful.

Christ is a gentleman and does not mandate, does not force upon us, does not take over our autonomy and make us little robots that serve Him faithfully, and we get no choice in the matter. But do not conflate His willingness and His love that allows you to choose, don't conflate that with Christian service somehow being optional. Don't conflate that. Because he's a gentleman, and because he's good, and because he wants you to make a choice for yourself, does not mean there's a clear right choice. Well, I guess I could just pick what I want because he lets me. Yeah, he lets you, but he also told you what to pick. He told you that your life has been arrested by the grace of Jesus in the same way that Paul has. Christians should lay down their life in service for their master. Actually, let's use a word Paul uses. Prisoners do not possess the freedom to choose. They must surrender their will to their captor. That's the picture Paul used.

Now again, Paul doesn't say, "I was drug kicking and screaming into Christian service." He says, "No, I was arrested, and I willingly bowed my knee." And we've got more reasons for it, and they get more beautiful as you go. I want you to see in verse number two, Paul gives us his second reason, his second motivator for Christian service. Paul tells us that a special … And don't be weirded out by this word, I'll explain it. A special dispensation of grace was entrusted to him for the sake of lost Gentiles. Look at verse number two. He says, "If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward." So in Paul's second listed reason, he says, "Listen, you Gentile Christians in Ephesus, you've heard," because he already wrote about it in chapter two and three. He says, "You've heard of this special dispensation of the gospel that was given to me so that I could give it to you all."

Now, again, don't be weirded out by that word. Dispensation just means this: a special time in which God clarifies his revelation and does a specific work. So under the law, we were under the dispensation of the law. We were bound by the law. In the garden, we were under that dispensation. So I don't want to get into, like, crazy hyper-dispensationalism, you know, your church has a stance on that and I have no, you know, no vote in that matter. But what he's saying is there is a new thing that God is doing, and truly, when you read the book of Ephesians, he's actually saying God has always been doing it. God has always invited the Gentiles in. God's design was that he chose us before the foundation of the world that we would be added into the body of Christ. And Paul is simply saying this, "God has given me the gospel. What was previously not known, I now know, and I am debtor to give that to you. So why would I surrender to the gospel?

Because I know what the gospel is." He says, "It wasn't understood in the Old Testament that the Gentiles would be added in, but it's now been given to me for your sakes. How could I not surrender to ministry? I know the gospel and others don't." See how the shoe starts fitting us? Well, I wasn't given this special dispensation. Oh, actually you were. You were given the exact dispensation. You were born into the era of what we would call the church age. We live under grace now. The grace has been revealed to us largely through the inspiration that God gave to the Apostle Paul himself. And Paul says, "How could I not? I've been given this gift of grace to give to other people." And I want us to kind of put a pin in that 'cause we're gonna see that unfold a little more. But in verse number two, he says, "God entrust me with this special dispensation of grace for the Gentiles."

Look at verse three, "How that by revelation it was made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words." So that's why he starts this chapter, "For this cause." He says, "I already wrote to you in chapter two and in chapter three about this great dispensation, about God's plan to start the church and bring the Gentiles in. I already wrote that to you." Look at verse number four, "Whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge." You might get what I got. You might become a custodian of what I became a custodian of. He says, "Ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." I hope you catch this because in verse number three he says, "God gave me this mystery. He revealed it to me, and I wrote to you and revealed it to you." So that comes with the same responsibility it came to with Paul.

As Paul became a custodian of the gospel when his life was arrested on the road to Damascus, and the dispensation of God's goodness and the cross was given to him, he became a custodian and responsible for it. And you know what Paul did? He wrote this all in. Click. And he wrote it down for us. He says, "Now you know, and you're responsible for it." And Paul says, "How could I not surrender to this thing? God has given me this great revelation that in past was not known," verse five, "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." I want you to see this big picture that Paul's … It's just, it's taking over his life. It's why he's putting it in the cart before he tells you what he's making. He says, "I gotta tell you, there's this mystery for all the ages in the Old Testament, they didn't know." They longed to see the fulfillment of their Messiah.

They longed to understand the things that he now holds In his hands. And Paul says, "How could I not? I've been made a prisoner. I've been entrusted with the sacred revelation and responsibility of the gospel." And then I want you to see the same ministry exists for us today. The mystery has already been revealed. The mystery has been recorded for us in the Scripture. It's been entrusted to us today. How could so great a cause go unanswered by believers? If the same gospel that saved you could save your friend, why would you not surrender to service, surrender to faithfulness, surrender to outreach, become a willing, knee-bending prisoner of the gospel message? How could you not? I think about the song Isaac Watt wrote, Isaac Watts wrote, "When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gains account but lost. Poor contempt, frustration on all my pride." How could I ever think so highly of myself?

"Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to your blood." Verse number four, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life-" My all. Paul had no other choice. He had been given this gift of grace that for ages in the Old Testament, they longed to understand it. You'll see it in a minute. Even the angels longed to understand what Paul was given in Revelation, and he's been entrusted with it as a custodian. Now let me ask you a question, and I have to ask myself. Is this dispensation of the gospel, the dispensation of grace, this time in which we live right now with a clear record revealed, clarified, codified for us as a church, is that not enough to cause us to willingly become a prisoner for Jesus? I know there's other things to live for. I get that.

I know you've got other plans. I know you got goals, and dreams, and 401s, and a five-year plan, and, "If I could just get to this position, I'd be over here." But can I remind you that your captor king has a claim on your life? Your captor king has a call on your life to accept the ministry of reconciliation. Now, we are all ministers. In fact, that's one of the core Baptist distinctives throughout church history, is that when we look at the Catholic Church and we would say, "No, there is no laity-clergy distinction." As Baptists, we believe in the priesthood of all believers, that you have the same access that I do, that Burnie does, that Pastor Chadwick does. We all have the same access. We are all ministers. I'm not saying we're all pastors. God definitely has the office of a pastor inside of a church, but we're all ministers. That's right. Yeah.

So we all agree that they should go out on all church outreach 'cause they're ministers Same gospel, same dispensation of grace entrusted to you as it was to the pastors. Same dispensation of grace entrusted in your young 14-year-old heart. You know the gospel. Sure, you're gonna fumble through it and forget the references and say Romans 6:23 instead of Romans 3:23. I still struggle with that as a dyslexic person, get my numbers mixed up, but you've been given the same call. You've been given the same ministry of reconciliation, and we believe that every minister, every member is a minister. So again, I think we all agree there shouldn't be classism in church. You know, like, "Oh, the pastoral staff, they're this awesome separate class of people and then there's the rest of us." But if we agree with that all things should be equal at the foot of the cross, that then should necessitate that labor be equal as well. Amen.

I'm not saying office and function is the same. I'm saying that labor and call and surrender and prisonership should all be equal. Paul's giving us these reasons why would I be made a minister and willingly surrender to it. Number one, he arrested my life. What am I supposed to do? I'm a prisoner. Number two, he gave me this thing, this gospel message that before was not known but now has been made known to me. Number three, why would Paul willingly surrender?

Number three, because Paul was given the grace of God. Now, I, you may not know this, and you might have difference of an opinion on this, but it's my persuasion after the study that I've been able to do in this book, that the primary theme of the Book of Ephesians is by grace. 15 times in the six chapters it'll say by grace. "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God." Throughout the book, the working of God by grace. I want you to see it in verse seven: "Wherefore I was made a minister according to…" That phrase according to means by the power of or as a result of. "I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." I want you to understand, I think the best definition of grace, and we've probably all heard different things, God's riches at Christ's expense.

I think the greatest definition of grace is this: God doing in, through, and with me what I could not or would not do for myself. I could not save myself, so I was saved by grace. God did for me what I could not do in myself. then we serve by that same grace. I don't have the ability to do these things, so, God, your grace is gonna work in and then through me in a way that I could not do or honestly probably would not have done. And Paul is saying right here that I was forcibly made and then willingly volunteered to be a minister because God's grace had an effectual power in my life. That power of God's grace in his life bent his knee.

The power of God's will working in his heart and in his life in the areas he didn't wanna surrender, in the areas that maybe he was afraid to surrender, the grace of God came in and tooled what he wouldn't have tooled, and changed what Paul couldn't have changed, and it had an effect in his life to the point that Paul said, "You can have my life. In fact, I'll willingly become a prisoner for the sake of the gospel." So let me ask you a question. Why should Paul surrender to the forcing of ministry on his own life? It's the same answer for him as it was for us. Because grace should have an effective power in our life. We, too, have been given the same grace. Paul says, "Man, His grace overrode me, and it worked in me, and it changed me. How could the grace of God … How could I receive the grace of God and then say no?" It's a good question, Christian. How could we, who were dead in trespasses and sin, be given such grace?

Such grace that cannot be measured, the height, the depth, the breadth, to know the love of God. That'll be in chapter number four. He says it's just, it passes understanding. You can't comprehend how good God has been to us. So I wonder in our lives when we look at ministry, someone asks us, the pastor say, "Hey, can you fill in for a class?" "Nah, I can't do that." You're right. You're a perfect candidate. If you feel like, "No, I can crush that," you don't need grace. But if you're at the position that says, "I don't know. I kind of don't feel like I can, kind of feel like I'm … That's not my you know, I don't have that ability. I'm a little bit nervous. I'm a little bit scared," yeah. God's grace can do in you and through you what you could not or would not do for yourself. Yes. So examine your heart. Are you serving today? In what area? If you miss church today, would there be more empty than just your seat?

Would there be a position that needed to be filled or covered? We ought to as Christians be regularly involving ourselves in this prisonership, this ministry, bowing our knee because the grace of God is working in us. Not because I'm better, and I'm stronger, and I'm smarter now. No, because the grace of God is real, and it's taking over my life. I love what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 13. He talks about how the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, that a woman hides inside of a loaf, and then boom, all of a sudden the entire loaf is taken over. Man, the kingdom of heaven is buried into our hearts, and then boom, all of a sudden, oh, it took over. It took over my Saturday, and it took over my Sunday. And you know what? It takes over my evenings. And I was doing bowling league, but now I got discipleship, and it just leavens the entire lump. Christian service should do the same because grace effectively works in the life of a believer.

Number one, why would he serve? Because he's been arrested. Number two, God made him to know the mystery of the gospel. Number three, because grace had an effectual work in his life. Number four, Paul surrendered to ministry. I think this one's my favorite, okay? Paul surrendered to ministry because he understood he should not have even been allowed on the team. I, man, this should resonate with every single one of us. We don't deserve to be here tonight. We who are not the people of God do not deserve to be called His children, to be heirs together with Christ. Wrap your head around that theology. I don't deserve to be in this pulpit. I don't deserve to have the family that I've got. We were strangers, this is chapter two and three, and enemies, combatives against the holiness of an almighty God. And listen to how Paul captures this idea of ministry. "Unto me," and he's talking about the grace that was given.

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Paul's got a good point here. Paul was a sinner. He had persecuted the church. He was an injurious man to the bride of Christ. He tried to destroy the very work of Christ. He viewed the worship of Christians as idolatry. He saw his countrymen worshiping a carpenter as God. Wouldn't you find that a little bit offensive? Paul did. And Paul didn't just shake his fist. He went to the high priest and got letters, and persecuted the church as far as he could chase it down. And Paul not only here calls himself the least of the apostles. He says, "I'm the most unqualified of the least of the saints. I'm less than the least of the saints." Do you ever feel like that? You ever feel like, "Oh, man, in a church of this many awesome people, I'm just not qualified"?

And you know, and you say, "Yeah, I do feel that way. That's why I don't serve." That's the opposite. That's the opposite. None of us should be on Team Jesus. None of us. None of us have, should feel the right or entitlement to stand in the stead of God with His people. Listen, if amazing grace is given to a sinner like me and a sinner like you and I should definitely bow our knee to it. If God looked across time… You know how it is. You remember elementary school? You probably… Zane was not picked last on the, on the basketball team, or any team for that matter. I was, okay? I'm shaped like a bowling pin. So they would go through, and they'd be like, "Tall guy, skinny guy, fast guy, strong guy, that guy."

And if God would look through time at this kid who didn't grow up in church, grew up in a super abusive home, adoption and drugs and all kinds of awful stuff, and if He would look through time and see me and say, "Casey, why don't you come over here?" What? You want me on your team? Man, we should run to that prisonership. We should run to that opportunity because we're the least of the we're less than the least of all the saints. We shouldn't even be on that team. If He took me as I am, I should take Him as He is. He took me as a dirty, rotten sinner and enemy of God, and I have the responsibility to take Him not only as Savior but as Lord, that He is my God, and as my King, He has a claim on my life, and He's called me to be on His team and wants to bury purpose into my life and make it eternally significant. Duh. Why wouldn't I be on that team?

Now, again, there's probably a Christian here, maybe not, but there's probably some Christian here who's irritated. "Oh, there goes the preacher talking about Christian service again." Could you just reconcile the fact that you shouldn't even be called a child of God tonight? You and I shouldn't. You and I should be in hell right now. You and I don't deserve, one, to be forgiven, to be saved, to be a part of a church, and then to be equipped and called into Christian service. How'd that happen? Because God is magnificent, and God is gracious, and God has made us the righteousness of God in Christ. We've been made heirs together and partners for this glorious cause. Now, I want you to see the fifth reason, and I totally lied to you. I'm sorry, there's six, but I'm almost done. I'm at number five and we just got six. Okay, I just saw my, what I thought was my last point. It's not. I got another one for you.

But why would Paul surrender to ministry? Because he saw it as an opportunity, this one's super cool, to display to all of heaven and Earth, this is the verse that Brother Zane quoted or referenced this morning. Paul saw the ministry as an opportunity to display to all of heaven and Earth the great glorious wisdom of God. Now, that sounds big and maybe a little bit confusing 'cause it's cosmic. It's huge. Look at verse number nine. He says, "And to make…" So he says, "I was made a minister to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery." So that's a lot of what he said already. I was made a minister to make sure people understood this mystery, the Gentiles were invited into the family of God. "Which from the beginning," this mystery, "from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Look at verse 10. "To the intent." Okay. Big picture.

He says that Christ, or God rather, made all things in Christ, and the gospel was hidden in God from the very beginning, and that same God created all things to the That now, follow closely, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Principalities and powers, for those of you in the Navy, it's just talking about rank and order, rank and file. All the leadership where? In heavenly places. Angelic beings in heavenly places. God made all things, started the church, brought the Gentiles in to the intent that all principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church. They might know what? The manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, eyes up here real quick. I know that's big. It's actually quite cosmic. Heaven and Earth are watching the wisdom of God unfold in spectacular fashion as God started the church. Let me, let me give you the big picture.

So the verse in, let me see, what verse was that? Verse number nine tells us that God created all things through Christ, knowing that he would redeem all things from before the world was formed, and he kept the gospel plan hidden from all creation until, what I believe it's chapter one says, the dispensation of Christ. Christ steps into creation. He reconciles or begins the process of reconciling all things back to the Father, beginning a new covenant family, and in doing so, he displays to the audience of heaven the wisdom of God. So I'll kind of explain it maybe in a little bit of a reduced way. The angels in heaven watch as creation is scattered from God at the Fall. They don't understand God's plan to bring Christ into the world and to die for the sins of all mankind.

And yet when Christ steps in and reconciles the world, at least giving them the offer of salvation, and Christ starts the church, and it's the church that will go forth and conquer and spread the kingdom of God, the angels step back and go, "Whoa! You're so wise." You had a plan even before the fall. You knew that Christ would go… You did all of this. And heaven is watching in amazement as the Church marches forward, displaying God's plan of the gospel gloriously to the audiences of heaven. And here's what Paul says, "Of course, I wanna be a part of that." Man, I wanna be on the stage showing the angels of heaven that God knew what he was doing. I wanna show to all of Earth and all of creation itself that God had a plan, and he's so wise in what he does. Don't you wanna be a part of that? Don't you wanna be a part of God's wisdom being displayed, not only for Earth, but for heaven?

Don't you wanna be a part of maybe turning a hotel room into a, you know, an opportunity for worship? Maybe you're out traveling somewhere, and man, you're down there in the lobby and you're having lunch, and then all of a sudden that conference room or that kitchen table or whatever it is down there in the lobby turns into holy ground as a sinner becomes a saint. And heaven looks and goes, "Whoa. God, you're so wise." Don't you wanna be a part of turning a garage into a Bible study somewhere? A workplace into a mission field? A warship into a place of worship? Don't you wanna be a part of turning a high school into an evangelism site? A playground into holy ground? Because every time we do that, heaven watches and goes, "He knew what he was doing. He's so wise. Look at him redeeming creation back to himself through this thing that we didn't understand.

It was hidden, God, and we just watched as creation was scattered, and now he's bringing it back to himself. He's so wise." And we come to our final reason in our text, verses 12, 13, and 14. Paul surrendered to ministry because he saw it as worthy of his life and suffering. Look at verse 12, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that ye," church family there, "faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here's what Paul says in closing, "It's a small exchange to give my life for the one who saved me from all that I had done. It is a small exchange." He says, "Please, Ephesians, do not worry about my present imprisonment. Do not…" And he wrote this from prison, by the way. "Do not worry about the suffering in my body. Do not worry about the hardship that I'm facing.

It is a small price to pay for the glorious one who redeemed me." So as we examine our heart tonight as we go to prayer, why do you serve? Or maybe why don't you serve? You may have a million reasons not to give up a Saturday. You may have a million reasons not to come back to community Bible study on Wednesday. You may have a million reasons not to share the gospel with your neighbor. I'm shy. They're Muslim. the you know, it's a Tuesday. You have 100 different reasons to not do it, but Paul just gave us some really solid reasons to consider.

Number one, and I'll go through these and I'm done. Your life and mine have been arrested by the grace of God. You and I were running from a creator who ran to us, rescued us, and now has claim on our life. Why should we serve him? Number two, because you and I have been entrusted this unique, beautiful dispensation of grace. We know the gospel. They don't. Aren't you glad? I don't know who prayed for it, but somebody prayed about evangelism and said, "God, we are here today because someone who knew the gospel before us gave it to us." And that's what Paul said, "I'm debtor to both the Greeks and to the barbarians. I owe a debt. Something has been credited to me that I owe to someone else." That's the gospel. He says this in Corinthians, "My gospel be hid." It isn't hid from the church. It's hid to them that are lost. Why would we surrender to it? 'Cause we've been entrusted with it.

Number three, why should we serve Jesus? Because the grace of God should have an effective, forceful power in your life. Number four, he surrendered because he recognized he shouldn't have even been on the team. He shouldn't have even called us. He shouldn't have rescued us, let alone made our lives make purpose and sense. Number five, because he wanted to display the wisdom of God. And lastly, because he deemed Jesus worthy of whatever the cost would be.