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A Church Worth Thanking God For | Ephesians 1:13–16
October 11, 2026 · 38 min
Paul thanked God for the church in Ephesus, and he told them why: their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints. But what kind of faith believes in an inheritance we won't fully receive until the other side?Let's walk through Ephesians 1:13–16, see why the Holy Spirit is our down payment, look at two kinds of faith and what it takes to be saved, and learn to hold on to both faith and love.0:00 What Are You Grateful For?5:05 The Holy Spirit Is Your Down Payment9:24 An Inheritance on the Other Side15:29 Two Kinds of Faith21:17 How to Be Saved: Romans 10:926:33 Faith Plus Nothing30:39 Can a Child Really Be Saved?34:18 Faith Like a Child: Matthew 18We write a personal letter every week, reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. Join the family: https://abidanshah.com/join~~~~GIVE: https://abidanshah.com/give/BOOKS: https://abidanshah.com/books/LISTEN LATER: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearview-today-with-dr-abidan-shah/id1651006506
Series Sermons by Dr. Abidan Shah
Dr. Abidan Shah is a New Testament text critic, author, professor, and pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. His desire is to make biblical scholarship accessible and applicable to all people.
October 11, 2026 · 38 min · Sermons by Dr. Abidan Shah
Paul thanked God for the church in Ephesus, and he told them why: their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints. But what kind of faith believes in an inheritance we won't fully receive until the other side?Let's walk through Ephesians 1:13–16, see why the Holy Spirit is our down payment, look at two kinds of faith and what it takes to be saved, and learn to hold on to both faith and love.0:00 What Are You Grateful For?5:05 The Holy Spirit Is Your Down Payment9:24 An Inheritance on the Other Side15:29 Two Kinds of Faith21:17 How to Be Saved: Romans 10:926:33 Faith Plus Nothing30:39 Can a Child Really Be Saved?34:18 Faith Like a Child: Matthew 18We write a personal letter every week, reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. Join the family: https://abidanshah.com/join~~~~GIVE: https://abidanshah.com/give/BOOKS: https://abidanshah.com/books/LISTEN LATER: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearview-today-with-dr-abidan-shah/id1651006506 ...more Show the full description Show less Paul thanked God for the church in Ephesus, and he told them why: their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints. But what kind of faith believes in an inheritance we won't fully receive until the other side?Let's walk through Ephesians 1:13–16, see why the Holy Spirit is our down payment, look at two kinds of faith and what it takes to be saved, and learn to hold on to both faith and love.0:00 What Are You Grateful For?5:05 The Holy Spirit Is Your Down Payment9:24 An Inheritance on the Other Side15:29 Two Kinds of Faith21:17 How to Be Saved: Romans 10:926:33 Faith Plus Nothing30:39 Can a Child Really Be Saved?34:18 Faith Like a Child: Matthew 18We write a personal letter every week, reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. Join the family: https://abidanshah.com/join~~~~GIVE: https://abidanshah.com/give/BOOKS: https://abidanshah.com/books/LISTEN LATER: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearview-today-with-dr-abidan-shah/id1651006506
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2:11 church. God knew, the Holy Spirit knew exactly when to bring you here. You would be in a bad place in your marriage, in your business, in your health, in your life with your children. You say, well there are lot of
2:22 things that are bad happened to me even after coming here. No, God took care of you by sending you to this place. Never ever ever take it for granted.
2:35 Well, that was a weak amen but I hope we can do better through this message. Let's read Ephesians 1 13. Paul says,
2:47 In Him you also trusted. Talking about Jesus. In Jesus you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
2:58 the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is
3:10 the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Therefore, I also,
3:23 you see this medallion here, this is made here by the way. The apostle Paul, his face is taken from that picture I took
3:35 up in the hills in Ephesus. This is considered to be the oldest image that we have of the Apostle Paul. More than likely he did look like this. It goes as
3:47 far back as 300 A. D. Paul says: Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith
3:58 in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you making
4:10 mention of you in my prayers. The last weekend we concluded a mini series on how the triune God has blessed
4:22 us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has they have all blessed
4:33 us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now Paul adds a key detail regarding the work of the Holy Spirit. Your Bibles are still open.
4:46 We just read verse 14. Let's read that again. Verse 14.
5:06 Lots of words. What do they mean? To start with the word for guarantee, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee is the Greek word which actually comes from a Hebrew word.
5:18 It has the idea behind it of a pledge but it also has the idea of a down payment like a deposit. The Holy Spirit has been
5:30 given to us as a pledge and as a down payment. Of what? Listen to this, of the inheritance of
5:42 our inheritance. What is this inheritance that we have? For which the Holy Spirit is the deposit when you buy a house. You gotta put down a deposit.
5:54 How much you wanna put down? There's percentages. Well, we're gonna, you know, throwing a number up there. 10000 dollars. We're going put down as a deposit. The Holy Spirit has been given as a
6:06 deposit. As a pledge of some more inheritance that is coming. What is this inheritance? This refers to the spiritual blessings
6:17 in the heavenly places in Christ. Paul talked about them repeatedly in his books in Galatians four:seven he says, Therefore you are no longer a
6:29 slave but a son. We're not slaves. Some preachers I really love and admire they talk about now that you're saved
6:41 you are a slave of Jesus and I get what they're saying because a slave does whatever the master says and in some sense we are to be slaves of Christ. Paul talks about being
6:53 a bond servant of Jesus But if that's all you see in your Christian life, I got saved, now I'm a slave. You missed the point.
7:06 Therefore you're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. A slave does not get an inheritance but a
7:17 son does. 1 Corinthians six:nine, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Romans 8 16
7:29 The Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then we are heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs
7:41 with Christ. The down payment of the inheritance has been given as the Holy Spirit but more
7:52 inheritance is coming. When is it going to come? What does it say? Go back to that verse 14. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the
8:04 redemption? That until preposition is not until it's really should be toward the redemption. So, don't miss
8:16 this. You and I, if we are saved, we are guaranteed a spiritual inheritance with the pledge, with the down payment of
8:27 the Holy Spirit but it's not going to come to fruition until our ultimate redemption is that how we are redeemed. We are redeemed, we
8:39 are being redeemed and ultimately we will be completely redeemed. You are not going to get your full redemption until you get on the other side.
8:51 Everybody still with me? The Holy Spirit has been given as a pledge, as a down payment for something you're going to get on the other side. Other side of what? Other side of the
9:03 grave. It's gonna be at the 2nd coming. How many of y'all are excited about that? Amen.
9:15 Yes. Let me ask you a question. You're in church, you're not supposed to lie. We know what an earthly inheritance looks
9:27 like. Land, house, vehicles, money, will. This is an earthly inheritance. If somebody tells you today
9:39 that you had this uncle you never met who left you 10000000 dollars forget that, 1000000 dollars how would you feel? It's like man. Wow. Thank you uncle
9:51 whoever you were. So appreciate that. Man I can pay off my house. I can pay off my, loans. We can forget about the children you know the the college
10:03 stuff that that's a previous generation. We don't do that anymore. We don't we haven't even paid our own own school debt. We can do this, that and the other.
10:15 And then that same person says yes okay here's a down payment but here's the problem. You're not going to get it until you die. How many of you all are still excited about it?
10:28 Yeah, until I die. Means the inheritance is on the other side? It is hard to get excited about something like
10:40 this. I get it. It's it's in spiritual inheritance but it's on the other side. Earthly inheritance on the other side is disappointing but imagine spiritual blessings but you're gonna get the whole thing
10:52 on the other side. How do you handle this? What Paul is saying here is this requires a special kind of
11:03 faith which the Ephesians had. Requires a special kind of faith. Go back to verse 15. Ephesians 1 15. What does Paul say
11:15 here? Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, to believe that we have
11:27 spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ but this is after death requires a special kind of faith which the Ephesian believers
11:39 had. Paul says, Man, I am so thankful for you guys because you have this kind of faith and also love for the saints.
11:54 You know, this is where lost people shake their heads at Christians. You Christians, you believe in this pie in the sky.
12:06 It's even worse. It's pie in the sky after death. And you want us to become Christians so we can get this pie in the sky which you're not going get in this life, it's on the other side.
12:19 Some people say that this is no different than something like the Peter Pan food fight. Anybody remember that? There's nothing in the bowl and then they start flicking their spoon and all of a sudden there's food.
12:32 He said, That's what you Christians are. You believe this stuff? Believe this stuff? Hey folks, listen, I knew that you were not fired up about it. It showed.
12:44 We have this inheritance for which the Holy Spirit is a down payment but it's going to be towards the redemption which is on the other side. To the praise of God's glory.
12:59 Some have called Christian faith fit for the weak and the psychologically disabled. Sigmund Freud called Christianity a fairy tale.
13:12 Friedrich Nietzsche said that God was dead and Christian faith was a religion of the weak, nothing more than a slave morality. Karl Marx claimed
13:24 that Christianity was just a clever way to distract people from the real problems chief of them being economic ones. What I'm telling you is maybe, maybe
13:35 some of you think You're here because you're complying. You're complying with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your family. You're here in this Christian world but
13:47 deep down none of this really makes sense to you. You may even want your children in Awana, in our children's ministry, in Clearview students ministry but really
13:58 truly it doesn't connect with you. You just don't get it. I don't know how all this works but I want my kids to be in church.
14:15 Karl Marx called religion Christianity as an opium of the masses. All this stuff is simply opium of the masses. People cannot pay their bills. Hey, promise them you're going to have a lot of
14:27 treasure on the other side once you die. It will get them through everyday life. Lenin, he said that
14:38 Christianity is a drug that helps people to tolerate oppression. Maybe some of you, if you're truly honest, you wonder, is this all
14:50 real? How can this always all be and why would Paul commend the Ephesians for having such kind of faith?
15:03 So how do we deal with this? How do we honestly deal with this? Let's back up and try to understand what the faith is that Paul is commending because if we're
15:15 not careful we will make this kind of a faith a requirement for salvation. It'll all make sense in just a moment. Go back again to verse 15. What does Paul say? Your Bibles are open, I'm
15:27 assuming. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.
15:38 After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. In a previous sermon I explained that that phrase in the Lord Jesus or in Him or in Christ is found hundred and 65 times in Paul's
15:50 letters. Means that's very important. In just Ephesians, it's mentioned 36 times. In just the 1st 2 chapters of in Ephesians, it's mentioned 20 times. Faith in Christ,
16:02 in Christ, in Christ. To understand what this faith means that you can believe these kinds of things, we need to
16:14 understand what faith really is. We have a very short time this morning. There are 2 kinds of faith.
16:26 The 1st is intellectual ascent. Intellectual ascent has to do with the propositions of the gospel. Intellectual ascent has to do with
16:38 the requirements to getting saved. The 2nd kind of faith is what's what's known as the inward ascent. This is my deep trust in Christ.
16:51 This is where you understand what it means that my life is hid with Christ in God. This is where you understand that you have this spiritual inheritance in the heavenly places in
17:04 in Christ. This is where the inward ascent comes in. Both of them are important. When Paul talks about faith,
17:15 especially here, he is referring more to the inward ascent. 1 scholar said it this way in his
17:27 commentary. He said there are 4 words under this umbrella. Union with Christ. Participation in Christ. Identification with Christ.
17:39 Incorporation in Christ. He said all that is part of my oneness with Jesus. But if you make that,
17:51 if you make this a requirement to get saved, I guarantee it, probably 1 percent of you are really saved.
18:03 And that's not correct. What is needed is this, the intellectual ascent. Let me explain what that means.
18:16 Let's look at what the gospel is. If your Bibles are with you, turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 1. 1st Corinthians chapter 15
18:28 and verse 1. Listen to what Paul says here. He says, moreover brethren. It's good to hear the paper is rustling which means your heart
18:40 is here in the word of God. 1st Corinthians 15 verse 1, Moreover brethren, I declare to you the
18:51 gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you stand, by which you are saved. And what is this gospel
19:03 Paul? If you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you 1st of all that which I also received. It means Paul did not create the gospel, it was
19:15 handed down to him. And what does that look like? That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Proposition
19:26 number 1. Christ who is Christ, God's Son, the Promised 1, the Messiah. He died according to Scriptures
19:38 which means Jesus' death on the cross or His coming was not random. People knew He was coming. Hundreds of prophecies were fulfilled when He came.
19:50 But He did not come to live a life, a long life. He came to die on the cross. And who did He die for? Not for His sins, He died for our sins.
20:03 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. When He hung on the cross He was dying for my sins and yours. He took ours upon Himself,
20:15 but He was pure, the pure perfect Lamb of God. And what happened? He didn't just die... Give His life up there and and and hung there bleeding. He died and He
20:27 was buried. And that He rose again the 3rd day according to the Scriptures. You see all of these things
20:39 are fulfillment of the prophecies. These are propositions. Christ died according to Scriptures. He was buried according to Scriptures. He rose again on the 3rd day according to the Scriptures
20:51 and that he was seen by many. Who were they? Peter, the 12 disciples, and 500 brethren, many of them. Folks, what does that mean? Intellectual ascent. What does it
21:03 mean when you get saved? You are agreeing with these fundamental truths about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He died for our sins on the cross.
21:15 He was buried. He rose again. Now, what do you and I have to do? Well, that's a good question. What should be our response? Romans chapter 10 and verse 9. If your Bibles are there, turn to
21:27 Romans chapter 10 and verse 9. Very important passage.
21:39 Someday your children, your grandchildren may ask you, tell me how to be saved. And show it to me from the Bible. What will you do?
21:51 Here we go. Romans chapter 10 verse 9. Are you ready? Let's read it together if you can. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
22:03 And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You can stop there. Because it says, go on goes on to say, for the heart 1 believes unto righteousness
22:15 and with with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. There's confession, there is belief. Confess with your mouth the lord Jesus. People say, lord means master or or
22:26 something like that and and in some extent, yes but really truly, it is coming from the Greek Old Testament where the word Kurios was used for Yahweh or Adonai
22:38 which meant God. You have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is God. And what else? That He died for your sins? He
22:50 was buried but He rose again. You're inviting Him into your life. This is the intellectual ascent when you agree with the
23:02 propositions of what it means to be saved. What it means to be saved is not I go to a church or I grew up in church or I am a Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Catholic, Anglican.
23:14 That's not what means to be saved. What I explained to you from 1st Corinthians and Romans 10 is how you understand the propositions and how you place
23:26 your faith in Jesus Christ. You trust Him. People say, Don't you need to repent? Yes, repent but repentance means a change of mind. Repentance does not mean a change
23:38 of life. Folks if you start changing your life before you get saved then you don't need God. If you can change your life on your own and then
23:49 like the testimony today that I need to clean up before I can come to God then why do you need God? Repentance that word
24:00 metanoia it has the idea of changing your mind. You say changing your mind about what? That I am a sinner. That you are a sinner. Changing your mind that you need God's Son to die for your sins.
24:13 That's what it means to change your mind. Repent. Believe you're following Jesus Christ. Why? Because this is what He did for you.
24:25 Let me ask you this morning. Have you ever placed your faith in Christ? That's what it means to get saved. You
24:37 can do that right now wherever you are young or old. Are you a sinner? Yes. Can you save yourself?
24:49 No. God has to come down because God is holy. If He comes down He will destroy you. The soul that sins must die
25:02 and if you die then it's over. You cannot die for your sins. I can't die for your sins. Only someone can die for your sins who cannot who doesn't have their own sin and only God the Son
25:14 was sinless. He can take your sins but if He dies and stays dead then what's the use? He has to come back to life and Jesus came back to
25:26 life on the 3rd day that proves that not only did He die for your sins and He finished paying the penalty but He died for the sins of the whole world.
25:38 Can you imagine how many angels God would have to send and say you go die for this 1, you go... Billions of angels die. It's not going to work and angels cannot die for us. So God
25:49 Himself, the 2nd person came and died for your sins, was buried but He rose again. Why? Because He is the King of life, the Prince of life. And you can
26:01 right now, wherever you are, pray and say, Jesus, come into my life and I trust you as my savior and as my king and I'll follow you the rest of my
26:13 life as you help me. That's all it takes. Now what happens is people say, well,
26:25 what about people who get saved and then they go back and do the same things they've always done? Were they truly saved?
26:38 I know so and so man. They walked down the aisle and did that and the next thing I hear he's doing that and she is doing this. Let me ask you a question this morning. After you got saved, did you ever sin?
26:51 Well then you must not be saved. It doesn't work like that does it? It's easy to judge somebody else and say, Oh you must not be saved. So here's what some people have done when it
27:03 comes to salvation. Faith equals salvation but if that faith is true then it's going to result in obedience. And then they put an
27:15 arrow from obedience back to true faith which means this. Listen very carefully this morning. That if you do not obey then you must not be saved. Is there anybody here who is obeying 100 percent?
27:28 You see that's a false proposition. You cannot go along with that. Anytime somebody does that, it's easy for me to say, Hey, I'll tell you what. Me,
27:40 I was just raising a prayer request. I wasn't gossiping. You're gossiping. I was just concerned. I know a lot of Christians that are very concerned
27:52 about everybody else. We judge people by their actions and we judge ourselves by our motives. So, this really
28:04 doesn't work. Some people say, no, it it it's it's a little different. True faith means your loyalty, your allegiance to Jesus. And then, Christianity
28:16 begins and salvation all that. So when you get saved man you understand who Jesus is and how much you love Him. He is the king of the universe. He is sovereign. He Lord of all and once I come
28:28 to Him and commit to Him now begin. And then obedience will come automatically. Again that is false. The heart of our
28:40 faith or salvation is justification by faith. The reformers fought for this. He said, what does that mean? It means this: You cannot add anything to
28:51 faith. The moment you add anything to faith, it becomes works. No matter how you call it, no matter how you do it, it will eventually become works.
29:03 Let's give an illustration here. What does salvation truly mean? The intellectual ascent. Does it mean I'm a slave of Christ? It does. But do I have to become a slave to be saved?
29:15 No. Does it mean that I'm 1 with Christ? Just the way a husband and a wife come together the 2 shall become 1 flesh? Is that what salvation is? Some people think
29:27 that salvation is me being 1 with Christ. Yes but do you have to do that to be saved? No. You simply trust, you simply believe that He has done the work.
29:39 At the heart of our salvation is this. You and I were enemies of God. God's wrath is against you. I mean He on the day
29:51 of judgment He is coming after you. It is His grace that you are still surviving in this world. God cannot tolerate even 1 little white lie.
30:03 He will destroy sin. So God's judgment is against you. You are a prisoner of sin and death but Jesus with His blood paid the penalty for your sins so that you can get
30:15 out. That folks is the heart. Justification as the reformers used to say is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls.
30:27 And the moment we get away from this there will be problems. You say what what what can How does this all work? Can children
30:38 understand this? A child cannot sit there and look at every single proposition. They don't understand what does that mean that
30:50 Jesus became the penal substitutionary atonement for me? For that matter some of you don't know what that means. But as
31:02 a 4 year old I knew this much. My dad had just preached a message on going to heaven when Jesus comes. I was 4 years old and I went home
31:14 to my mom and I said, So when Jesus comes, are you going to go to heaven? She said, Oh yeah, I am. Is dad going to go to heaven? Yes. Is big brother going
31:26 go to heaven? Yes, he'll go to heaven. Or will I go to heaven? And my mom very sweetly kind and she says, I don't know. I mean, do you do you know Jesus as your savior?
31:38 I don't know. I said, well, if you want to right now, you can ask him to come into your Folks, with children, stay with me here, with children there
31:50 is a mixture of intellectual and inward ascent. You know why? Because their hearts have not been tainted by the junk of this life. They are so soft. They haven't
32:02 faced betrayal. They haven't faced lies. They haven't faced people promising 1 thing and delivering something else. So when you tell them Jesus died for your sins and they go uh-huh.
32:14 But now wait a minute. You need to talk to mister Ryan. And the worst 1, talk to doctor Sean. What am I gonna tell the cat? No, you're not saved. You're going to hell, boy. I mean,
32:27 mean, that's not gonna help matters. So, you you you pass me the ball and I'm sitting there going like, what do you... How... You want me to investigate him? Well, it doesn't
32:39 work like that. The heart is soft enough that the minimal proposition, Jesus died for your sins and you can invite Him in your heart. They get
32:51 it just like this. For us, we have to begin with the proposition and maybe 1 day we begin to grow in the inward ascent and understand that you and I are 1 with
33:03 Christ. That's called sanctification. Some of us get it, some of us don't. Some of us begin to get and then we go downhill because we allow the junk of life to get in. How
33:15 many of y'all got this? Was it worth coming to church today? You see, children, go back to that, children are able to understand those things. They they may not be able to sign on the
33:27 dotted line and say, I get every proposition that has been made. Oh, Jesus is lord. Lord means Kurios. Kurios is Adonai in the old. They don't know that but they know this much. He is God. That's
33:39 right. I get it. And I want him in my heart. A lot of people, 1 time a guy showed up at church. I knew him. He walked in. He said, Pastor Shadi, talk to you. I thought something was wrong with
33:50 him. Something bad happened. Pastor Shah, you're telling people to invite Jesus in their heart. I mean you're telling kids that. I said what would you like to do? I
34:02 don't know. I mean give my life to Jesus. I said, okay. Then, what happens? Why belong to him? I said, what else? Well, I
34:14 guess I'm 1 with him. I said, that's exactly what that child is doing. Kids, now turn in your Bibles to Matthew 18 and verse 2 as we close.
34:27 Matthew 18 and verse 2. This morning we're gonna be taking part in the communion
34:40 and I hope you've never given your heart to Christ, this would be the moment you will ask him to come into your life. So what about people who can
34:52 make a decision then go back to doing whatever they do? Well I hope you will make that decision seriously enough that you know what you're doing, count the cost. Jesus
35:04 talked about counting the cost. Know that you'll have to walk away from certain friends. You'll have to give up certain relationships. You'll have to give
35:16 up certain ways and you had and because we've always done that way you may have to walk away from that but you trust in Jesus to set you free.
35:28 But if from the start you're saying, well I'm not going to do that but I'll go ahead and sign on the dotted line you have a different problem. Well listen to me Matthew chapter 18 verse
35:40 2. Then Jesus called a little child to him set him in the midst of them and said assuredly I say to you unless you are converted and become as
35:53 little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is
36:04 the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What is required from us? To humble yourself as a little child. A child does not have to be
36:16 convinced that hey you need Jesus in your life but have a mass murderer sit there and deny all the charges against him. Why?
36:27 Because their hearts are hardened. A child is humble. You have to be just that humble and say God I need you forgive me of my sins. No I am a sinner
36:39 and then I also sin and I need you in my life. Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins and help me to live for you from this day on.
36:51 Now begins your spiritual journey. Now you begin to grow in Christ. Paul was saying to the Ephesians I am so proud
37:03 of your faith in the Lord Jesus. He wasn't talking about this 1 he was talking about is amazing how you understand your inheritance is on the other side. How you understand that the Holy Spirit is a deposit
37:15 on the inheritance that God has prepared for you. And then he also added to that and your love for all the saints. I love that. He was
37:26 proud of them for their faith in the Lord Jesus which is the inheritance and their love for all the saints because when you understand these kinds of things it is very easy to become judgmental of people.
37:41 The balance... How amazing this is the word of God. I wouldn't have written it this way. Faith and love. Faith in Jesus and knowing who you are and
37:52 what all God has in store but I'm not going to look down on you because you don't understand all those things yet. I'm not going to mistreat you because you're not spiritual enough.
38:06 See how the balance is? That is a church worth thanking God for.
Dr. Abidan Shah77.2K followers