A Firm Foundation — Ephesians 2-4

0:00 Absolutely. Can you imagine this? I mean, we have the opportunity, to listen to the word of God. What an incredible, incredible opportunity. There's a lot of people in a lot of different countries that don't have this opportunity and they have the if they were to do something like this, the gulag or jail or whatever.

0:27 Praise god. We come in with coffee and, you know, wearing shorts and we're like all this kind of stuff. Right? And there's nothing wrong with that. I don't have a problem with that.

0:37 You know, I don't see a dress code necessarily in here except to be proper. But I look look at I look at this, and I say, man, we got the Bible. We've got the ability to sing songs and to be here. Just amazing. Just absolutely amazing.

1:00 Years ago, I bought I bought a house. It's amazing. Couldn't believe it. Bought a house. Never thought it would ever happen.

1:07 Second house we ever bought was a move that we wanted to make to get the Ezekiel project and and separate in terms of facility. So we... And you guys were a part of that. I mean, Roger and Scott Doinger and all those guys came and helped put windows in in the barn. Do you remember do you remember that time?

1:33 Anyway, we had a... We bought a a property, four acres, and it's beautiful, just absolutely beautiful, nice house. But we bought it for the barn. And I remember Carl coming and Lois, they stayed a few extra days and he laid it out only as an engineer from NASA could do. Laid the whole thing out and then we taped it.

2:03 It was just really, you know, put the... I mean, it was barn about 2,400 square feet, and that was our school. That was our that was our school. It was just really, really cool. It took us four years to renovate the whole thing, get her done.

2:18 But when we looked at the house, we bought it for the barn. We bought a quarter acre pond, 15 foot deep, all this kind of stuff. We didn't do it for that. We did it for the barn. So when we looked at the house, we looked in the basement, it was weird.

2:37 It really was because if you went went to the one wall of the foundation in the basement, it went... It bowed. And I bought it from the builder actually. He lived in it. And I said to him, why?

2:56 What's the big deal? I mean, what is the deal about this? You know, because this could this could wreck the whole deal. You know, we could have walked away from from the deal because of that. This was on an...

3:08 On the inspection. And he said, well, you know, I put the block in. He did it all himself. He put the block in, then he said I backfilled it too early. And it didn't it didn't set.

3:24 The thing wasn't set. And the thing bowed. So we measured it every year. Every year, I had a little... It's in the basement.

3:34 So I marked it on the wall. It wasn't a finished basement. I marked it on the wall. Did it ever move? Was it shifting?

3:41 And praise God it wasn't. But foundations are really important. Foundations are very important. They really are. I I was just wondering if someday we'd be sleeping and all of a sudden we'd be going, you know, means half of the house is falling, you know, type of situation.

4:09 Firm foundation. That's the title of our little discussion this morning and the passage that I've been assigned which I love talking about is Ephesians chapter two. We're going to look at Ephesians chapter two verses verses 11 through three twelve. Okay. So, three twelve and I'm only going to touch.

4:37 I know that you're you're up next with this, right? Yep. Yep. Okay. So, but I'm not going to I'm not going to go super deep into into three.

4:46 Go for it. Okay. Alright. Deep. That's a sovereign will.

4:52 Hard hearted people. Oh, my word. I should never have said anything. Okay. So, you know, you look...

5:00 You you probably have already read this. We'll go through this passage as we go through because of the sake of time. But so what we'll do is we're going to look at this and there's Paul declares two foundations in this epistle which we need to have in our lives. We need to understand them. Okay.

5:44 Incredible. Verses and he's talking about you becoming a Christian and then now, he's going to now he's going to shift gears just a little bit and he's going to talk about what that salvation does to a whole group of individuals that do the same thing. He's talking to Gentiles in the church at Ephesus. He's talking to Gentiles and he's it's going to seem kind of mean. It's going to seem kind of mean.

6:15 He's going to say to them because he's he's he's going to look at them. He and he's going to tell them. Look at verses 11 through 18. He says, wherefore, remember that you being in time past time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision. That which is called the circumcision is a really kind of a fancy way, a theological way, a cultural way of saying, we're Jews, you're Gentiles, you're outside, we're in the inside tract.

6:54 We got the inside tract. We got it. You guys you guys were circumcised and they literally were circumcised. I mean, it was literal. It wasn't spiritual.

7:07 But he's he's, you know, you're going in and out on this spiritual aspect of of this. It says, you guys were not circumcised, they were uncircumcised, literally. And they had... So you guys were uncircumcised, we're circumcised in the flesh made by hands, verse 12, that the time you were without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Okay?

7:39 They had Messiah. The Messiah was coming through Israel. Salvation is of the Jews. This is what was told the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Jews.

7:56 Where it? Okay. Okay. Let's just back up just a just a second. They were it and they failed, bunches of times.

8:06 They were it. What was the job of, you know, we we say about the Jew, right, or Israel and the Jewish nation, the chosen people. What were they chosen for? They were chosen for a task and that task was to proclaim g or not just Jesus but proclaim god, Jehovah god, to a lost world. They thought, well, we've got this privilege.

8:39 Yeah, it's your privilege because your job was to tell the Gentiles and to show the Gentiles how great god is and they failed at that many times. We see how great God was when Rahab, when they... She took in those two guys, you know, and Rahab. And Rahab said, oh, we heard about this. We heard how God worked and I'm gonna trust God.

9:05 I'm gonna trust your God. You know, in Jericho, and all these things. You have Ruth. My God is your God. Your God is my God, I mean.

9:16 And so, you know, all this. And that was their job. And they failed to do the task. And they became very proud in their chosenness, if you please. They became very proud in their chosenness.

9:38 So, they looked on the Gentiles not as potential people who would get right with god. And let us help you do that. No. They looked on the Gentiles with disdain. And this if if you were if we were to capture that, you could start to see how Paul when he writes to the the to the Romans in the epistle to the Romans, you see an unbelievable transformation.

10:09 Because that was he was giving them, giving these Gentile, quote unquote, dogs, which was not a, you know, not not a puppy, you know. No. None of that stuff. They treated them with disdain. So now Paul is telling them what the situation is.

10:32 You Gentiles, you you at Ephesus, and then you Gentiles in the world. There's only two ethnic divisions in the Old Testament. Only two. Not Irish, Scottish, English, German, and no, no, no, Mexican? Yes, Mexican.

10:56 None of none none of those. None of... No. Only two ethnic divisions. Jew and Gentile.

11:06 Paul says this in second Corinthians. He says that the Jew and Gentile, only two ethnic divisions. You are either a Jew or you're outside of Israel or Jewishness, you're a Gentile. Only two. But in the New Testament, we're going to see here, right here, this particular, in this passage, a third ethnic division.

11:33 A third ethnic division is coming not not now. It came in Acts chapter two. It came in Acts chapter two but Paul is going to give us the the doctrinal the doctrinal stuff or foundation of it. Here's what it is. Here's what took place in Acts chapter two.

11:54 Here's what it is. Some hyper dispensationalist will say that the church started here. It didn't. It started in Acts chapter two. And so you have you have here, he's giving them what they were, you're Gentiles, we're Jews, you're outside, you're you're lost, we're it, type of thing.

12:19 And notice that in verse 12 again, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and the strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Do you think that God wanted them, the Gentiles, to know him? Yes, thus Israel. Thus Jews. Yes, he wanted them to tell the world about it and to show his glory.

12:57 And they failed many, many times on this. He says, you are... But I want you to notice verse verse 13. Okay. So you're lost.

13:08 You're done. You're cooked. It's over. But what the Jew failed to understand is it was the same for them. What the Jew failed to understand, if they don't have Jesus as their Messiah, if they don't believe on him, it's over for them.

13:28 We see this in Romans chapter one. We see the whole world is condemned before god. So, each individual, whether they were in Israel, Jewish, or Gentile, they were lost. They were lost. They say, well, you know, you were without hope in the world.

13:50 So were they if they didn't have Messiah, if they didn't believe in Messiah. Okay. So they didn't get into heaven because they were Jews. They get everybody gets into heaven because they trust in Christ. That was the message of verses ten one through 10.

14:12 Everybody can come. You who are lost in your sins and you know verse one, telling us that you know we're lost in our sins. Okay? And then I love I love this. Okay.

14:28 I I I'm getting ahead of myself. I just I just get so excited about this. Okay. Okay. So verse 13.

14:59 But now. The Greek is just so cool because, you know, I don't care one iota about blah blah blah, you know. That's what... One one iota is making a difference. You've got this word now, it's noon and they put a Yoda at the end of it.

15:25 So it's noonie. Right? But now, you know what it's talking about? The emphasis is so strong here of the difference between the two. The emphasis, because they put that Yoda, because Paul put that Yoda, he's saying, but now.

15:46 But now. Whole different ballgame. Whole different choice. Whole different different action. Isn't that weird?

15:57 I think that is so cool. But now... And then he looks and notice what it says. It says, in Christ Jesus, you were once, you who were once afar off, right? You who were once afar off are made near by the blood of Christ.

16:20 You who were once afar off, you Gentiles, you believe in Messiah, you were once afar off, are made near by what? Good works, nicety, all that, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Right? For by grace are you saved through faith, and then not of yourselves. It's a gift of God.

16:46 Not of works, lest any man should boast. Right? He just finished telling us this. But now you are made near. The contrast couldn't be more stark.

16:59 You can't you can't have a greater contrast, but now you're made near. Oh, you mean you mean I get to I get to go to heaven? You mean I get to have a relationship with this God? Yes. How?

17:17 The blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. He has made us near to him. Oh, yes. Fantastic.

17:32 Oh, you know, my whole life, you know, we've we've looked at different passages together through the years. And this one passage in the book of Hebrews summed up my whole life. I got saved at the age of 18 as a freshman in college. And in this passage in Hebrews chapter chapter two verse 14, for as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ himself, likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him. It had the power of death.

18:21 Okay? He had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them. Listen to this. And delivered... This is where people are.

18:30 This is... I don't care what they come across at. Without Jesus Christ, here is where they are. Here is where they are. And delivered them who through the fear...

18:46 Through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, scared to die, petrified, petrified to die. He took not only the nature... He didn't take on the nature of angels, etcetera. But they were terrified. That was me.

19:11 That was me. Now I'm made nigh. I can come near. I can come to him. But now the contrast is so stark.

19:20 Now I get into... And this is... Wow. I'm so glad you asked me to speak on this. I just love it.

19:55 You're looking at an charismatic Pentecostal, went to a Pentecostal Bible College. Baptism of of the holy spirit is that the spirit of God is taking the believer the moment they believe on Jesus and placing them into the body of Christ. Very similar language here. And we look at this and he says to us, he says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once afar off are made near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity.

20:43 This is King James. The enemy has abolished the enemy even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. See, the ordinances, you know, they they had the law and all that, the Jews did, but it never saved them. They couldn't live it. Nobody could live it.

21:03 There was only one who could live it. I've come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. All the law did was to tell them that they couldn't do it, that they could not get right with God. Some people say, I live by the 10 commandments. No, you die by the 10 commandments.

21:21 You don't live by the law, you die by the law. The law tells you that you can't do it. People go, the 10 commandments, I I have really not broken the 10 commandments. Well, there's 613 commandments That the 10 commandments were encapsulated to show what the 613 were all about. If you will break the law once, James tells us in the epistle of James, You've broken against the whole law.

21:50 So the law is not gonna do it. Nobody's gonna do it. Nobody. Nobody's... Everybody stands guilty before God.

22:00 And so he said, you have contained in the ordinances to make in himself. Who's making it? God. Making in himself, actually the Lord Jesus, making in himself one new man. One new man.

22:21 You have just seen the third ethnic division of the Bible. In the Old Testament, Jew, Gentile. In the New Testament, Jew, Gentile, the church. One new man. And I I I looked this word new up, and it's really cool.

22:47 It really... It means something not done before. It means brand new. It means something of a different nature. It's...

23:01 I mean, it's boom. It's new. One new man. And so what reason I emphasize that because the scriptures first of all emphasize it, number one. Number two, we are now seeing the church as that new man.

23:23 That new man. So okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. What happens is this, is there are some people, some theologians that will tell us that the church is in the Old Testament. That the church is found in the Old Testament. We can see pictures of it in the Old Testament, and we can find out in in some guys, covenant theologians primarily, and reformed theologians who are basically covenant theologians who will say that the church started with Abraham.

23:58 It started in Abraham and and then some people will say, well God gave up on Israel. Forget Israel because now we've got the church. And we can see this all the way through. And you know, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say. Sorry, but you can.

24:15 You know, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say. And you got to rightly divide the word of truth. Hopefully, we're gonna do that today. And so we look at this and he says, make him one, one, two, Jew and Gentile, one new man. Okay?

24:34 So making peace. The enmity between Jew and Gentile, over. And then, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enemy or the enmity thereby. And came and preached peace to you Gentiles who were afar off and to them, those Jews, who were near. Peace.

25:09 And it's only through the blood of Christ. It's only through the blood of Christ. And so it came and preached peace to you who are far off and to them that were near, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the father. So I love this because, you know, when people say to me, they say, Oh, you know, you have a corner on God. You mean to say you have direct access before God?

25:41 I go, yeah, I mean to say that. The verses are so clear. So clear. We can come boldly before the throne of grace to find help and grace in time of need. Yes, we have we have direct access.

26:03 Yes, absolutely. I don't need, I have the priest. I don't need a priest to do this. I have direct access. I was raised Irish, Roman, and Catholic.

26:14 So when I'm looking at this kind of of of this, I look at this and I say, I mean, I got direct access before god. That's incredible. That's unbelievable. And so you have this, you have this and then he says, now, therefore you who are no more strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And now he's going into a building.

27:05 And he says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone or the cornerstone. Himself being the cornerstone. Well, I I know we got builders and you know, we we got smart people in terms of the sciences and that kind of stuff. A building in the old days had a cornerstone and that is where most of the pressure of the edifice bore. I mean, that's why Jesus Christ, he bore the pressure, and he still does.

27:40 He's the chief cornerstone. Peter in his epistle tells us that we're worked stones. And this is interesting, Peter, means pebble, stone, not petra, petros, means we're stones. And it's lithos, and it's just not petros, it's work stones. Lithos is a work stone.

28:06 In other words, God works us. Did you ever see those houses? Maybe we could see one over here. You ever see those houses that are worked? You know, they got those stones on the side, right?

28:16 And then ching ching ching ching, you get a mason. In the old days, they would get them from the field and build their house from all the rocks. Boom boom and they'd work it and then they would cement it and they'd put it together and have on there, on the corner there, where generally the corner where they would put the cornerstone. That's why they call it a cornerstone, because it's on the corner. And that's where the whole thing bore the brunt or the pressure.

28:45 Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, the chief shepherd, The chief... The head of the church. Here's the deal. This is why we meet the way we meet. Catch that?

29:07 This is why we meet because there's only one head of the church and that's the lord Jesus Christ. It's not me. It's not the elders are under shepherds. Submitting to the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're really we're really getting into ecclesiology here.

29:31 But notice what he says here. You have the apostles and prophets. This is not the old testament prophets. These are new testament prophets. And they were they were givers of revelation.

29:43 They were givers of revelation. Apostles and prophets. John chapter 14 verse 26, John sixteen thirteen. Who is he talking to? He's talking to the disciples and he's giving them he's giving them...

30:04 Actually, you see in those two verses, the complete New Testament, the divisions of the New Testament shall show you things to come in sixteen thirteen as well as He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. He will teach you as the teaching part of the New Testament. As the old guys would say, the Didache. I love saying that. Didache.

30:30 Sounds so so cool. But that's the teaching. And then you have the remembrance, which is the first five books. First four books, No, five books of... Yeah, that's it.

30:46 Verse five books of the New Testament. That's the historical section. And then the teaching section, Romans through Jude. And then you have the revelation. And that is the revelation.

31:03 Those are the three sections of the New Testament. He gives them the the authority. The the future apostles were those disciples who got that authority to do that. And then Paul is saying, these apostles are the foundation of the church. We have it right here in the New Testament.

31:22 You say, well, we don't have apostles today, do we? Nope, we don't. Not in the technical sense, no way. We've got their ministry, however, right here in the New Testament. And then those prophets also who spoke revelation, which really actually ceased.

31:42 But that's another kettle of fish here that we can talk about. And said, in whom the building fit framed together. See, when I used to build, I used to frame houses, I really did. I know I look wimpy and all that kind of stuff. But I, you know, I used to frame houses and we never went to a we never went to a hole that didn't have a foundation.

32:05 You know, we might have all the wood and all the stuff to build the roof and all that kind of junk, but if we didn't have a foundation, it was over. We went home. That foundation had to be there. So if the foundation was there, we started with the mudsill, etcetera, etcetera. That foundation of the church, apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, and now we're to build on it.

32:28 The household of faith. And we see that in Ephesians chapter four. He gave gave gifts unto men, it says. Some evangelists, prophets, teachers, I mean, apostles, prophets, teachers, etcetera. For the building, for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the saints.

32:49 Four four four, all the building that takes place on, on that foundation. It's a brand new deal. It's not warmed over. It's not warmed over Judaism. No, no, no.

33:09 It's brand new. Everything has changed. They used to do the Sabbath. When I'm in New York City and I'm I'm preaching in the open air in in on Friday in Manhattan, in Midtown Manhattan, I got to tell you something. At one at 1PM and fifty five minutes, it's hustle bustle around 37th Street.

33:35 It's like, boom, everything's moving, going like that. And then, you know, it's 01:58. Everybody's hustling and bustling. It's fantastic. It's in the Diamond District area, right?

33:46 And everybody, 01:59, every hustle and bustle. 02:00, it's like a ghost town. Why? Because they start their Sabbath. It's mostly Jewish proprietors.

34:00 And it's like a ghost town. You can't get into their stores unless they're Arab. And the Jews are... They pack it in and they start their Sabbath and it goes till sun... Saturday.

34:14 When the church started, when was their day of worship? Sunday. First day of the week. Changed the whole thing. I was in Israel on a Sunday and we went...

34:30 We were going to Nazareth to go to an assembly. It's so weird. It was just so weird. We're going right through Jerusalem. It was hustle bustle.

34:39 Cranes were operating, building buildings, all that kind of stuff. But it wouldn't have happened on Saturday. Everything's changed. Everything is different now. And so we look at this and he is telling us, built together an habitation of God through the spirit.

35:12 For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation. Now, translations are different, but it is dispensation. The Greek on this is clear as a bell. It means stewardship, the way he's dealing with us. This is a great word, dispensation.

35:35 And when you look at this, it's the way God is working in a particular way. It's a dispensation of grace of God which is given me toward you, how that by revelation... Oh, these words are so cool. We're so loose on these words. It's unbelievable.

35:57 But this word means something that was never given. You could never find something out. It had to be revealed. That's the difference between revelation and discovery. So discovery is I go find something and I find it and I discover, I look through the wallet, I...

36:19 All this kind of stuff. Revelation is unless you show it to me, I'll never know. God by revelation showed to Paul what the nature or the intrinsic action of the church is. He's showing them. He said, by revelation.

36:39 And then he's gonna use another word here that is just stunning. By revelation, that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. This word is used 27 times, five times in the in the plural, and I think 22 times, 20 sounds fine, okay. Yeah, 22 times in the singular mystery, it means literally, same word, mysterion, it means this, it means this is, this is... Yes!

37:12 Here's what it means. Something that was never given and was only in the mind of God until He revealed it to Paul. It's used 27 times. Look how many times it's used from the verses one through 12. Look how many times he uses it in this in this right here, the mystery.

37:39 It is a mystery. First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 51. And you know, he says, behold I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep. Same word. And it's the mystery of the church.

37:53 The church... And notice what he says. I show... It was revealed, the mystery, and then notice this. He says this, by which you read, as I wrote before in few words, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

38:11 Which in other... Okay, would you catch this? Would you listen to this? Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it now is is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. That verse alone tells us it was never in any other age except right now.

38:39 The new thing, the new man, the new entity is now born. Acts chapter two. And I'm explaining this is all brand new. Never happened before. It's not in the Old Testament.

38:56 Okay, so what's the what's the ramifications of this? If I'm a covenant theologian, if I'm a covenant theologian or a reformed theologian, I'm going to say the church started in the Old Testament. But what does this say? No. It's not in the Old Testament.

39:17 It's brand new. The the the Greek is so dripping with, know, the the power of this. It's unbelievable. It's brand new. One of the problems that you'll experience as a Christian trying to decipher when Jesus is coming again and end times, one of the problems you'll experience is how do I interpret this verse?

39:44 How do I interpret that verse? Is Matthew 24 part of the part of it? Is Matt, you know, I wish we'd all been ready, some taken, some, you know. Is Matthew twenty four twenty five a part of a part of the church and all that kind of stuff? And there's so much stuff.

40:02 Gotta tell you, you will have major league problems. Major league problems trying to figure out what the Bible teaches on the issue of the last things, the doctrine of the last things. If you do one thing, you'll have major league problems if you confuse the church with Israel. From this passage from this passage, it's telling you that you cannot rightly divided, you cannot confuse Israel with the church. It's a separate entity, entity.

40:52 The thing about this one too is that the holy spirit is telling us also by, you know, in the text, it's telling us that god is not done with Israel. Some of the covenant dudes are telling us that god's finished with Israel. So, they have an amillennial point of view. They don't have a pre millennial point of view. They don't have a pre tribulational point of view.

41:19 All that kind of stuff. If you confuse Israel and the church, you will not know what's happening in the future as the Bible clearly tells us. You will not. So when we look at this, he he's he's being very specific and he says, look at verse six, that the Gentiles... What what should happen?

41:45 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel of which I am made a minister according to the gift of the grace of god given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me. Don't let these just be words here, folks. Look at Adam. This is this is 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 and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning to the end of the ages hath been hidden in god. That's a classic definition of mystery.

42:43 Who created all things by Christ Jesus, Colossians one fifteen, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, who... In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wow. Wow. He's the one that put it all together.

43:26 It was in the mind of God for sure from before the foundation of the world, the Bible says in first Peter. But he didn't reveal it until now. Wow. This is... Bro, this is why I was so excited.

43:49 I'm going, yes. This is this is it. This is so powerful for us. The fact that he sent his son Jesus Christ and the fact that he died on the cross and rose again from the dead physically. The fact that when I believe on him, I have everlasting life.

44:44 But the church, what is their ethnicity? Many nations. And by the way, there's no such thing, technically speaking, as a Jewish Christian, as a Gentile Christian. It's just Christian. Period.

45:08 That's it. Just Christian. And that that's exactly what he is telling us. So there's no division here. You got Jew, Gentile, and now Christian, the church.

45:23 And there's no divisions on this. Praise God for this. You know, Will, this is why we're we're so tight. I don't even know if you like the Cleveland Guardians. You know?

45:35 I don't know if you like the Browns. I don't know if you ski. You know, I... So my my basis of fellowship is not whether you like athletics or don't like athletics or I can speak Spanish or I don't speak Spanish. I remember standing in Manhattan and I had an old...

45:53 I had a New Testament, a Spanish New Testament, and I had an English New Testament and we went back and forth to this person who did not know English and we went back and we had a great time just by looking at the scriptures. Turn here, turn here, turn here. And we just went back and forth and we were glowing because of Jesus Christ. Our fellowship is in him and nobody else and in nothing else. And that's our foundation.

46:25 One of the things that we're looking at, I think today in this world is so much disappointment that we have in sports teams, in education, in medical research, and I every everything except Jesus Christ. Why? That foundation is sure. If you're putting your faith and putting your hope and trust, even as a Christian, on other things, you're going to be disappointed. You will be disappointed.

47:09 Eventually you will, sorry. If the Guardians go to the World Series and win the whole thing, they got to do it again next year. They got to do it, the Browns go to the stupid bowl, you know. They got to go again. They got to do it again.

47:27 And you know, you get all this kind of stuff, it just constantly go. And you older geezers and gray tops, I shave mine away, you know. When you older folks, you know, you're thinking, man, you know, I watched you bro. I watched you get up, you know, to give a little thing on the breaking of bread. And I'm going, boy, he's he's like getting up slow.

47:52 You should see me coming out of the car. It's like I got to stand there, get my c legs for three minutes, right? And then I start walking, Barb going, are you okay? You know, you know, it's called the law of entropy. I'm breaking down.

48:07 You know, I'm not getting better. It's getting worse, know, and I gotta do certain things. You know, this is what's happening. So if I'm putting my faith, even if you've got your health, you have everything. No, you don't.

48:39 It's just so, so great what he has done. And that's why we can fellowship. You know, it's so beautiful. I'm sorry, it's a little late. A little late here.

48:56 Your... This assembly is so similar to ours. Even people wearing shorts to come to church, you know? Even even... I mean, I'm I'm serious.

49:11 I mean, we're... We don't care. I mean, people come like that. We... I'm...

49:16 I like that just as I am, you know, without one plea. That's the thing, we don't care. We're so laid back we border on unconsciousness. You know, and so do you. This is such a wonderful warm fellowship.

49:36 I appreciate it very very much. And I wear the tie because Roger Ming will beat me if I don't. No, I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. I don't have to wear a tie.

49:48 I don't have to do that. But the thing about it is this, is it's because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he's the answer. And that's what he's he's built us together. And it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.

50:06 If you know him, you know life. Father, thanks so much for doing what you've done in the person of Jesus Christ, personally and corporately. Thank you. Please dismiss us with your blessing and help us to get home safe and sound. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.