The Christian's Future

Sermons - Part 18

Date
May 22, 2016
Time
18:00
Series
Sermons

Transcription

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.

[0:00] Tonight I would like us to focus on the words of 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4. Just to put these words in context we can read again from the third verse.

[0:14] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And in particular the words of verse 4, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

[0:43] 1 Peter is quite a remarkable letter because you are only a few verses into it. We are only at verse 3 and 4 of the first chapter and we are already being presented with some of the most glorious and wonderful truths of the Christian faith. This first chapter of 1 Peter is so full, so full of wonderful teaching of glorious encouragement and of precious, precious truths. And in particular in this verse that we are going to focus on tonight we are being reminded of one of the most glorious and one of the most wonderful aspects of being a Christian. Our future. We are being reminded about our future.

[1:40] Now very often as Christians we think about our past, we think about what we were, we think about the mistakes that we've made, we think about what has gone wrong in our lives and we think about what God has brought us from. And even when we are not Christians we can very often spend a lot of time thinking about our past. We think I'm too far gone, I've made too many mistakes, there's too much wrong with me. Very often our attention can be drawn to what has happened. At other times we can be caught up with what's happening in the present. We're going from day to day and we're trying to battle on and sometimes we are encouraged, sometimes we are struggling, sometimes things go well, sometimes things go badly, sometimes we do the things that we want to do but far too often we make the same mistakes again and again and again. And the day to day walk of life as a Christian can so often draw our attention where we are always again and again thinking about getting from one day to the next. And so we can be filled with thoughts about the past, we can be filled with thoughts about the present but it is vital that we turn our minds to what is probably the most exciting aspect of the Christian faith, our future. Peter is wanting us to think about our future and that is where we are going to spend our time together tonight, thinking about what Peter is saying to us. And Peter describes our future with one key word and the word that he uses to sum up our future is this word inheritance, to an inheritance.

[3:33] That's the word that Peter uses and of course that immediately turns our mind to the idea of a family relationship. That's why the word is wonderful because it's putting us into the realm of family where children are there receiving from their parents and in particular in this context you would think of a son inheriting from their father. And this is the word that Peter uses and this is our starting point for thinking about our future and I want us just to mention three things very briefly to begin with that this word inheritance reminds us of. The first word is privileges. Our inheritance, the idea of inheritance reminds us that as Christians we now have an incredibly privileged status. If you think about it that's the key point of an inheritance. If you have got something to pass on, you don't pass it on to anybody. It goes to a particular person who is something particularly special. In order to inherit you have got to be something. Isn't that true? And when you look at claims regarding inheritance, maybe you sometimes see celebrities who have a huge fortune and they die and there's a dispute as to who gets the inheritance. It all rests on the fact well is this person who they claim to be? Perhaps somebody had an unknown child or a child who was estranged or something like that and they make their claim and they say

[5:11] I am this person's child. I am something and therefore I am entitled to this inheritance. If you are in line to inherit something you must be something. You must be something precious.

[5:29] And we, our future is an inheritance because as Christians we are something. We are not just anybody. We are something amazing. What are we? We are the children of God. That's the logic that Paul presents so wonderfully clearly in Romans 8. The spirit himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs. It's perfectly logical. If we're God's children then we are heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. By faith we become the children of God. We are born again and we are adopted into God's family and if children then heirs. And in particular this is reminding us of the reality of our sonship in terms of our relationship with God. Now when I say sonship I am not creating a distinction between female and male Christians. When we say sonship it's something that applies to all believers whether we're men or women we are all sons in a particular sense. Sonship is referring to the privileges that we now have as God's children.

[6:56] As believers we are part of God's family and because of that we are in the astonishing position whereby the privileges of being a child of God are now ours. The privileges of being a son are now ours. And if you go to 1 John and we'll be referring to 1 John two or three times tonight. If you go to 1 John you can almost hear the amazement in his voice when he says see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are. It's almost like he has to remind himself of that truth because it is just such an astonishing, astonishing privilege. So that's the first thing to do with inheritance but this privilege status always also brings with it certain promises. An inheritance speaks of privilege it speaks of promises and in many ways that is what an inheritance is. Something that is promised to the child. That's exactly the same as it would be today. If I was to leave my possessions to my children that would be a promise. So what is God promising us? Well there are many many things that we could say in this regard but if we were to summarize it all the overall emphasis in the New Testament is that we are promised that we will enter into full participation in the family of

[8:31] God. It's very important that we grasp that in our minds. That's the promise that we will enter into the full participation of the family of God and if you think about it that's really what an inheritance is. For example you imagine somebody who's built up a large business and property and whatever you would call it portfolio, I suppose that's the fancy word for it isn't it? Somebody who's got a big estate and their child works for them and shares in that but it is only when they inherit it that they become the owner that they enter into full participation of that status. Same with a house somebody leaves that house to their child they know all their life that they're going to get that child but only when they get the inheritance do they become the owner. That's when it's consummated. That's when the full participation is entered into and as Christians we are promised a full participation in the family of God. Now Romans 8 speaks a little bit about this and we're going to just go back to that. If children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided that we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Now that phrase at the very end glorified with him is kind of summarizing what this inheritance is. We are promised to enter into a shared glory with Jesus Christ. Now that of course is what Jesus prayed himself back in John 17, 22. The glory that you've given me I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. Now let's make sure we understand what Jesus is saying here and what Romans is saying. Jesus is the perfect Son of God, the perfect family member if you like, the perfect child, the perfect Son and by faith we are united to him. Anybody who is a believer is united to Christ intrinsically and permanently connected to him. That means that we share his status, we share everything that he is, we share his glory. Now I hope you're staying with me here. The word glory refers in a basic sense to the idea of weight, something that's heavy, but what that is pointing us towards is the idea of worth, something that is worth a lot. The way I think of it is a gold bar.

[11:31] You look in the movies when people pick up a gold bar it's always heavy isn't it? It's worth a huge amount. The idea of worth, this is basically telling us that as we inherit we stand to have the same worth to God as Jesus Christ himself. Now that is absolutely astonishing. We are worth the same to God as his very own Son. That's what we mean by full participation. That's what the word glorifying is pointing us towards that in God's sight we would be worth that much. Now if you struggle with self worth, which I am sure all of you do, because I do as well, if you struggle to see any worth in yourself remember what

[12:36] God is saying here. Remember this word glory. Remember that we stand as God's people to share in his glory to be worth what he is worth to become a complete and full and utterly treasured member of God's family. That is what is promised to us and we are that already.

[13:03] We are born again as children of God. We are adopted into his family but that inheritance will not be perfected until our future. When we enter into a shared glory with Jesus Christ at the end of all time and we will become everything that God wants us to be. At the beginning of this chapter Paul describes Christians as exiles because that is what we are because it is only when we reach glory that we will be home. That is the promise of our inheritance and this whole concept of home brings us to the third element of inheritance the idea of possession. Because again that is what inheritance is. You do not simply inherit the approval of your parents, you do not inherit the love of your parents, you do not inherit their advice, you inherit their possessions. You inherit what belongs to them. This is a key biblical theme because back in the Old Testament the people of Israel were promised the land and it was again and again and again described as an inheritance. Due to the following verse 15.4. The Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance to possess. And this is all pointing us towards the fact that God's ultimate plan is to provide his people, to provide you as a believer in Jesus Christ with a city, with a home, with a place where you will dwell. God is promising us a home that will be our home. We possess a place there, we belong there, we have a right to a place in God's house. That is why Jesus could say to his disciples I am going to prepare a place for you and Jesus says the same thing to every one of you if you are a believer I go to prepare a place for you and the reason he can prepare a place is because that is where you belong.

[15:23] That is where you belong. And it's a wonderful, wonderful reminder that in heaven you will not be an outsider. You will not be on the fringes. How often do we feel like that in this life? We go places and we feel I don't fit in there. We sometimes, I remember in school it was so often the case you would see a group of friends and they were talking and you would just be on the fringes. And it can happen in the workplace, it can happen anywhere. You can feel like you just don't belong. Well you will never, ever, ever experience that in heaven. Because if you are a Christian then you are as much a citizen of heaven as the apostle Paul is, as the apostle Peter is, as every other believer is. Because this inheritance belongs to you. It is your possession. And this is one of the interesting points that arises from Jesus' parable about the guest at the wedding who had no garment. So it's quite interesting to look at this. I'll read the verses here. Jesus told the parable of a wedding guest that people were invited to, a wedding banquet people were invited to.

[16:45] But at the end of the parable he says this, when the king came to look at the guests he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him, hand and foot and cast him into the out of darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. No, it's a very, very, very, very solemn passage.

[17:16] And it is reminding us at the one level of how utterly, utterly essential it is that we are ready. If we stand before God on judgment day and we have not taken advantage of the Gospel, we have no one to blame but ourselves. No one. But we are also being reminded in this verse that nobody will be in heaven who does not 100% belong there. When you get to heaven as a believer, you are coming to the place where you absolutely belong. You will fit in perfectly. You will be utterly at home and you will be furnished and clothed with every qualification and every quality and every standard that means that you belong there. Nobody, nobody will be able to say to you, what are you doing here? Because you stand to inherit a place in heaven. Heaven is our possession, not through earning it but by inheritance. And that's a wonderful thing because it means when you get to heaven, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you will not simply walk into there and say, wow, this is God's house. You will go in and say, wow, this is my house. This is where I belong.

[18:57] That's why Hebrew says here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one that is to come in. So this one word, inheritance, is an amazing word. It reminds us of the privileges that we have as members of God's family, God's sons and daughters in the fullest of senses in terms of all the privileges that that belongs as sons of God. We have the promise of entering into the full participation of God's family and we possess, we have the possession of a place in God's house, in God's city. And so that one word is amazing. And I hope, I hope, I hope it is making you marvel at what lies ahead for all God's people. If you trust in Jesus Christ, you have an amazing future. But we are only one word or two words into this verse because Peter tells us that there is even more. He introduces us to this concept of inheritance and then he uses three adjectives to describe what that inheritance is like in more detail and each of these tell us even more. And so I want us to build on what we've been thinking in terms of inheritance and add the truth that we are told by these three wonderful adjectives, imperishable, undefiled and unfading. What are these teaching us about our inheritance? Well, first of all, the word imperishable. Now that basically means not subject to death or not subject to decay, basically saying that our inheritance is utterly immune and exempt from the power of death and from the power of sin. Now this is almost impossible for us to grasp because everything, everything in our existence, everything in our experience since the fall of man is subject to the power of death and creation itself and every single human in it is born into a state where we are heading in one direction and one direction only. Everything is dying. Everything. But our inheritance is imperishable. Our inheritance is exempt from the power of death. Death cannot touch our inheritance. And the reason for that is because our inheritance is grounded on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what Peter says in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable.

[22:25] And do you see how all this beautifully fits together? It's amazing how theology fits together. Jesus has risen from the dead. He has defeated sin and defeated death on the cross. That means that death has no power over him. Death no longer has a power. Every single other human being who dies is subject to the power of death. We cannot be resurrected as we stand.

[22:50] But that did not apply to Jesus because before he died on the cross and in his dying, he defeated death. Death has no power over him. And therefore he is able to rise. And his defeat of death is demonstrated by the resurrection. He has risen. He is imperishable. And we are united to him. Now when I say united to him, I want you to imagine just being arm in arm with him in his resurrected state because that's what being united to Christ means. It doesn't mean being connected by miles and miles and miles and miles of distance. It means being right there at Christ's level. We are family members with him. That's why Paul says we are fellow heirs with Christ because we are arm in arm with the Son of God. His imperishableness is promised to us. Our inheritance is imperishable because of his resurrection. And Paul speaks of this far better than I can in 1 Corinthians 15. And I'll just read through these verses because this sums it up brilliantly. As was the man of dust, that's Adam. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. That's us in other words. As Adam was going to perish, so are we going to perish. And as is the man of heaven, that's Jesus.

[24:15] So also are those who are of heaven. That's the believer. Just as we have been born, I have born the image of the man of dust, Adam. So also we shall bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

[24:29] That's saying that on our own as we are as descendants of Adam, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you in a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. What's Paul saying there? He's saying that as part of Adam's race, as a descendant of Adam, on our own as we are born into the world without Christ, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But through faith we are united to Christ, to the man of heaven and through that union our perishable bodies become imperishable.

[25:36] Our deadness in sin is transformed into new life in Christ. The effect of the fall is being reversed. That's why Paul makes the wonderful distinction between Adam and Christ because when Adam went wrong and sent us into a path that leads to death, Christ has come as a man like Adam to put it right and to reverse everything. In Genesis chapter 3, we are told that we will surely die and that has been true in every generation since. But if you believe in Jesus Christ, you can say, oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your stay? Because through union with Christ we are delivered from the sin that condemns us. And that means that if you are a Christian, you have an imperishable future. This glorious inheritance is yours and it is guaranteed by the resurrection of

[26:52] Jesus Christ. And again, this is where we see the wonder of the gospel because if you think about it, we all inherit mortality from our parents. If you have children, you cannot but pass on mortality to that child. And we know that that is true. We are helpless, helpless in avoiding the inevitability of death. And that is why we are perishing and every other inheritance in this world is ultimately perishing. But with God it is different.

[27:40] His children inherit immortality. His children have an imperishable inheritance. And I hope I hope I hope that that fills you with wonder. And I hope that it makes you want to be a Christian. We have an imperishable inheritance. But secondly, the second adjective that Peter uses is undefiled. And this basically means to be spotless, to be unsoiled, to be pure, not to be corrupted or spoiled by anything. And our inheritance is free from any defilement.

[28:22] There is no damage, there is no flaws, there is nothing missing. Our participation in God's family will be flawless. Absolutely flawless. And of course this adjective, undefiled, is reminding you and me of the perfection of heaven. Now I want you to think about everything that is wrong with you. Not in terms of your moral character. We are all conscious of the fact that we are sinners. But think of everything that's wrong with you in terms of giving you sorrow in your life. Maybe it's physical pain. Maybe you are sore all the time. Maybe you are ill again and again and again. Maybe you have a chronic weakness or chronic tiredness or chronic physical discomfort that just constantly is there and constantly wears you down. That is an experience of so, so many people. I played football on Friday night for about the first time in six months and I've got chronic pain all over as a result myself. But for many of us it's far, far worse than just the pain of playing football. Physical pain is a horrible reality for many, many people. But in your future as a believer you will be undefiled from all of these flaws. Your body will be restored to everything that it should be and your experience as a member of God's family will not for one moment be hindered by a weak or a sore or an ill body. All of that will be gone. Maybe it's emotional pain that you suffer. And if you think of every worry and every awful thought and every single thing that grieves your heart, you think of all the things that burden you. And I think that as you go through life these things tend to just get worse. When you're young and when you're a child you don't tend to worry about much. But as you get older and older your worries get greater and greater and greater. And I think part of that is because the more experience you have of the world the more you see what a sorry state it's in. And you think of everything that burdens your mind and that breaks your heart. Your inheritance will be undefiled by these things. Because in God's inheritance there will be no more crying and no more tears and no more pain because the former things will have passed away. You will have a worry free and a stress free and a heart break free eternity if you trust in Jesus. Undefiled means that there's none of the awful things that spoil your life.

[32:01] None. And when God speaks in terms of being undefiled you are at the pinnacle of purity.

[32:12] No exceptions. Everything will be perfect. And we are reminded about this by the miracles of Jesus. Did you ever see this that when you go back to see the Gospels Jesus went around healing people. And the reason he did that was to show that the kingdom of God had come. That God was bringing everything together. That the final stage of history was being inaugurated.

[32:47] Jesus said the kingdom of God has come and as proof of that the blind saw and the lame walked and the traumatised were comforted and the broken were healed. And in all of these things Jesus is giving us a foretaste of the new world to come where all of these things will have passed away. And that means that for you and me when we struggle physically and emotionally through our lives we can remind ourselves that we have an undefiled inheritance where we will never ever ever ever be subjected to the consequences of the fall of mankind again. And the reason that we can be sure of that is that as part of our inheritance we will be made like Jesus. Remember what I said inheritance means full participation in the family of God. You are going to become a full and complete perfect child of God of the same value and of the same standard as Christ himself. A co-heir with him. Arm in hand with him as your brother. And we will be made like him. Look at what John writes again in 1 John 3 verse 2. This is the next verse after the one we were in before where he said can you believe that we are children of God? He says beloved we are God's children now and what we will be is not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And Paul says exactly the same thing in

[34:24] Philippians 3 20. Again looking forward our citizenship is in heaven from it we await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. We cannot describe and we cannot take in every detail of what awaits us in glory but one thing we know is that we you will be like Jesus. You will be like him. Now there are two wonderful wonderful things that I want you to grasp in that regard. The first is that by being like Jesus it means that we will be perfect for our Father. Not only will we have a perfect Father in God but you and I will be perfect for our Father. We will be everything that God wants us to be and that means that we can have the deepest closest most wonderful relationship with God the Father and that's amazing because far too often in this life our relationship with

[35:41] God the Father is spoiled and defiled because our own sin mucks it up. How often do you feel like that as a Christian? How often do you go through life thinking God must be so disappointed in me? I don't read enough, I don't pray enough, I don't go to church, I struggle to remember things, I get told things again and again and again and again from God's word and I forget and I am weak and I make mistakes all the time. How often do we feel like that? We all feel like that. Well in your inheritance you will be everything that the Father wants you to be and all of these mistakes and all of these struggles and all of these things that muck up a relationship with God will be gone because your family relationship with your Father will be undefiled. It will be a perfect family. Isn't that what death has done to all our families? Death has defiled our families, defiled your family, defiled my family in the sense that death tears our families apart. Think of every person that means everything to you. Death is a shadow hanging over that relationship, isn't it? Well God's family is undefiled by death and God's family will not be ruined and will never be broken. So we will be made like Jesus, we will be perfect for our Father.

[37:20] That's the first thing. The second thing I want you to remember and to see from this is that we will be like Him, as in the sense that we all will be like Him as God's people.

[37:31] Our inheritance is a collective inheritance. This transformation whereby we will be like Jesus is something that will affect each and every one of us, which means not only will our relationship with the Father be undefiled, our relationship with each other will be undefiled.

[37:50] And that's the Bible's plan, that we will be a collective people, a collective family of God. Our inheritance is our shared inheritance. That's why God uses the family language.

[38:02] It's not just about me in heaven on my own with God forgetting about everybody else. We will be there together as a collective people. And this is incredibly important because this is why we can love each other as God's children. We are to love one another as God's people. Now look back again at John, at first John, this time in chapter 2. Look at what he says here. In chapter 2 he gives this instruction, what not to love. He says, don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, but all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of light is not from the Father, but it's from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires. But then in the next chapter he says, this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Now do you see what John is saying there? He is saying, don't love the world because it's passing away and you won't take it with you. But he says, do love your brothers and sisters in Christ because you will be together for eternity. John says, don't love something you're going to lose, but you can love your fellow Christian because you will never, ever, ever lose them.

[39:28] And this is an astonishing truth and a wonderful truth. And it reminds us of the question that people often ask, will we know each other in heaven? People often ask that question and I think it probably arises from the fact that people assume that our focus will be on Christ so much that we won't be taken up with one another, that we'll just be focused on God. I can see why people think that, but the Bible as far as I can see is utterly clear that we will know one another in heaven. But what I want you to see is something utterly astonishing. Not only will we know each other in heaven, but because our character and our conduct will be undefiled, we will see each other at our very best. And the fact that we are going to be made like Christ, it means that when we look at each other in heaven, we will see Christ shining through each one of us. And so we will be able to look at our fellow Christian with us in glory and we will be admiring Christ shining through each one of us. And so our worship of Christ will not just be an isolated focus whereby we are blinkered and not concerned about the people around us, but wherever we turn and with every conversation that we have and with every moment we share together as God's people in heaven, we will be worshiping the Savior who has rendered us undefiled and everything that we were always meant to be. Our inheritance is undefiled. It will be perfect.

[41:20] The third adjective is unfading. And that basically means unending, permanent, unfading, again and again, ongoing, ongoing. It's a very rare word. We don't see it much in the New Testament. This might actually be the only place where it's used. But the word is used in Greek to describe a flower in perpetual bloom. Imagine that, a beautiful flower that just goes on and on and on and on and on. Now in this life we don't have that because the flowers come in summer and they go. But this word is describing a flower that goes on and on and on. It's reminding us that our inheritance is not just amazing. It will always, always, always be that way. Our inheritance will never ever lose any of its wonderfulness, or any of its wonderfulness. And that's just a beautiful thought, the idea of something being eternally fresh, eternally new, eternally perfect. And again, this is where the gospel message, the message of Christianity is on a level all of its own. Because in this life, even the very, very best of things will fade away. Now we know that that is true, don't we? All the things that we cherish and love are either fading or have already faded. And as Peter said at the end of the chapter, all flesh is like grass and it's glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower falls. Now you know that in your life, so do I. But our inheritance in Christ is unfaded, unfaded, never ever ever losing any of its glory. And that is why you and I should spend much, much, much more time thinking about what God has in store for us. Because the Bible promises us that God's ultimate plan is to create a new heavens and a new earth. Peter himself speaks about this in second Peter. According to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And Paul tells us that creation itself is longing for that moment. And we read that at the very start, the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of

[44:14] God. Creation itself is longing for the day when God restores everything to what it should be. But do you notice what it says there? It says, creation is longing for the revealing of the sons of God. In other words, creation is longing for you to get your inheritance.

[44:32] Creation is longing for the day when your inheritance is consummated and perfected and you entered into the full participation of God's family. And God's family home will be this world, not as it is, but fully renewed, fully regenerated, fully perfect, where it is now unfading in all its beauty and unfading in all its splendour. Jesus said, blessed are the meek because they shall inherit the earth and as a believer you will inherit the earth, not this earth as it is, but the new one, the renewed creation, the imperishable one, the undefiled one, the unfading one. We are heir to the imperishable, undefiled, unfading riches of God's kingdom and God's family. Now all of that is utterly amazing and I feel so conscious that I have barely remotely done it justice in terms of trying to describe it and to think about it. But I think perhaps the most amazing words of all are at the very end of verse four. Because at the end of verse four it says that this inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfailing is kept in heaven for you. All of this is for you.

[46:17] Do you see what God is saying? God is saying, this is what I want to give you. This is what I want to be yours. This inheritance, these riches, this imperishable, undefiled, unfading, glory and splendour and majesty that will go on for all eternity. This is what I want to give you. That is what God is saying to you and that should make us all, all just fall before God in utter amazement at the God whose love is uncertain. If you are a believer, God is saying, all of this will be yours. All of this will be yours. And let us all make sure that we go through every day of our lives remembering that and living in loyal service to the one who has made us his heirs. But if you are not a believer yet, if you're not a believer yet, God is saying something to you as well. He is saying, all this can be yours. All this can be yours if you simply trust in me. That is what God is saying to you. And if you push Jesus away, you are disinheriting yourself of all of this. Why, why would you do that? What, what could be worth giving up, disinheriting? God is saying, all this can be yours. Now all you have to do is simply bow your head and say, Lord, yes, please,

[48:28] I want to follow you. It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. Lord, have mercy on me and save me. Make me yours because I want to be yours. That's all you have to say.

[48:41] There doesn't have to be a flash of lightning. There doesn't have to be anything dramatic happening. There doesn't have to be anything like that. Just lean on Jesus Christ. This inheritance is ours because we are united to Jesus. You are united to Jesus by faith and all faith is, is leaning on Jesus. All this can be yours. Amen.