Don’t: Walk Stand Sit!

Blessed, honored, privileged, full of joy, the apple of God’s eye, blessed is every man and woman who walks not in the counsel of the godly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful. We’re told us don’t walk, don’t stand, and don’t sit. Don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don’t stand in the way of a sinner’s lawyer, and whatever you do, don’t end up sitting like a person who thinks they know better than God and says, I don’t even think there is a God.

Don’t walk, don’t stand, and don’t sit. But it’s so interesting when you get to the book of Ephesians, you’re told, for goodness sake, sit down. And after you’ve sat for a while, get up and walk. So that when the time comes, you can stand. Don’t walk, don’t stand there, don’t sit. There’s a progression there. Walking where you ought not to be walking. You know better, don’t go there.

But you dare to go where you’re not supposed to walk. Word of God is clear where not to walk. Because if you walk where you ought not to walk, you’re going to become overly intrigued. And instead of walking through, you’re going to pause and you’re going to stand where you ought not to have walked in the first place. Now you’re intrigued and you stand until you’re entrapped and you end up sitting down very comfortably in a place where some time ago you would have never, you would have said I’d be caught dead first. But there you find yourself sitting. But when you get into the New Testament, you’re told, sit down. You begin by sitting.

The progression is entirely different when you get to the book of Ephesians. Sit down first at the feet of Jesus. Before you start running off with the mouth and before you start making proclamations, before you turn into the next Billy Graham, start winning the world for Jesus, sit down and learn. And once you’ve got a grasp on the Word and it’s changed you from the inside and that now works on the outside. As Christians, we always expect the new Christian to act on the outside when the change has to begin on the inside, say amen. So once you have been sitting, learning at the feet of the King, then it’s time to make a move and walk. And the day will come when you need to stand. You’ll never stand if you haven’t sat first.

I was in a church service, April was with me, this is a few years ago, I won’t mention the town. Some of you came from that town this morning. April and I went there and the pastor was away, I’d never met him, to this day I never did meet that pastor, but in his absence there was a tattoo cover, a tattoo covered youth pastor who was wearing what I thought were leotards, tights, and thank goodness he was wearing some kind of a dressy, well it was a shirt but it looked like a dress, it came down a bit this far down, I thought, well thank goodness for that. And then when he delivered from the pulpit, it was shameful, I sat there thinking this kid is all mixed up, where is he going with this? And at the end, he got the young people of that, you know, this church was gravitating, calling in young people, the whole half front of the church, half of the front were young people and this is what he was feeding them, pablum, and then he got them all up to the front because the people had written down what they wanted from God on the back of their bulletin and the bulletins were thrown all over the floor and the young people, the music got writhing, and the young people were dancing all over those claims, those prayers, as though if we can dance over it and celebrate it over it, God’s going to bless us.

I thought, they haven’t sat, the young man hadn’t sat, he hadn’t sat, what he gave them that morning wasn’t even pablum, and another preacher, who I highly respect, he’s now retired, he’s smarter than me, he quit, but he came over and he visited us at our cottage where we were staying and he said, I noticed you’re in that service this morning, he said, I dare to ask you what you thought of it, and I said, I don’t want to tell you. He said, come on Dave, put it out there, I said, I felt sorry for the young people who were dancing all over those prayer promises, I said, I don’t even think they knew what they were doing, he said, quite a crowd wasn’t it, I said, crowd doesn’t mean anything, means absolutely nothing, crowd is not a picture of success, we need to learn to sit and soak it in before we walk, and the day will come when we’re required to take our stand. There are Christians all over Canada, within our own fellowship I’m sure, haven’t really thought through about the lineage of Abraham, when they’re being asked, what do you think about Israel, what do you think about them bombing those Lebanese, don’t you think, these people from the river to the sea, they’ve got a message, these people haven’t even considered what the Bible says about this, but they’ve got a lot to say about it.

And there are pastors all over Canada, PAOC, who have not mentioned anything about the atrocities that were carried out on October the 7th. Why? Well, the answer is, I’ve heard it, the answer is, well, you know, we have kind of like a unique congregation, there might be some people who just are on the other side of that issue, and they’re going to have their feelings heard, it’s all about people’s feelings now. Pulpits are silent, pulpits are silent. So pastors are not taking their stand, they’re going to pay for that. This morning, I remind you that we used to say by times, it’s been engaged in movies, it’s kind of a joke, how are we doing, well I have good news and I have bad news. What news do you want to hear first? I heard this one from a very special friend of mine, we were in Bible college, he came and said, David, I just heard about the Polish army.

I said, what did you hear? He’s Italian, so he could poke at the Polish. He said, this Polish guy got up in front of his big platoon that he was in charge of, and he said, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is, you’re all getting a fresh change of underwear this morning. The bad news is, you change with you, and you change with you. Good news, bad news. There’s good news and there’s bad news in the word of God, and it’s no joke. The bad news is, without Jesus, you’re dead.

Paul says in Ephesians 2, and you he has quickened, you who were dead in your trespasses and sins. Pastor Dave, is that repetition, trespasses and sins? No, they’re different. Trespasses are different than sins. How so? Sins is a very, can I use this term, a generic word for all sinfulness, all failures. We’re all sinners, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That verse doesn’t say all have had murder in their heart.

Nothing is mentioned. Sins is a very broad term to speak about failing to hit the target that God has set. Trespasses are specific failings. Sinners trespass. Trespasses are specific sinners step over the line that God has drawn. So we were dead in our trespasses and in our sins. Because in the past you walked according to the course, the thoughts, the plans, the media issues of the course of this dilapidated, twisted world. According to the prince of the power of the air.

Notice the course of the world is being drawn out and taught and motivated by the enemy, by Satan. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. You know what the word of God calls disobedience? It calls it witchcraft. Witchcraft. Among who also we all had our conversation. I study King James. That’s what’s here.

But King James really throws us off. Now our conversations are wrong. No, that word conversation is speaking of our walk, our conversation. I did try and think about how to explain this and this would be one little thing. You might see a person and you think that’s the kind of person I might want to emulate. That looks like a good person. And then somehow or other you become aware because you weren’t trying to eavesdrop but it just turned out you heard a conversation and out of that conversation you said, oh, oh, I didn’t know that that’s where, that’s the stand that that person took. That conversation told you about that person’s walk, about that person’s selection, that person’s drift, that person’s moral compass if they even have one.

We had our compass all messed up. Our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the desires of the mind. And we were by nature the children of the devil, the children of wrath, just like everybody else. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That’s the bad news. We’re all wasted sinners. I’ve already mentioned the difference between trespasses and sins. We’re all guilty.

And the conversation, we’re told in the Ephesian principles by Paul that we are to walk circumspectly. That’s a word we never use anymore. That’s King James. Walking circumspectly. Circumspectly. Circumference. Circumference. In other words, you can say, I’m walking the line.

I’m walking the line. But are you aware of everything that’s on the left and on the right? Are you aware of where you’re heading? Are you aware of what you just came through? Walking circumspectly means walking your life with your eyes wide open. I preached an ordination service for all the pastors of Eastern Ontario and Quebec. I did this some years ago. Here were all these young men, about 30 of them, about to be ordained in this service.

Jay-Z was just ordained at 11 o’clock last night. That’s a weird time to have church. But you see, it was 11 o’clock our time. She’s in Arizona. It was an 8 o’clock ordination service last evening. Next Sunday, we’re going to make a big deal over Jay-Z, okay? We’re going to make a fuss. Ordination, it’s a big deal.

Why did I go down that line? Not ordination. David, what have you done? Walking circumspectly. Okay, you’re doing pretty good. I’m having a senior moment. Behavior, walking circumspectly, being aware of everything around you. The good news and the bad news.

The bad news is that we’re dead without Christ. We’re dead to God. We’re dead to life. But God, verses 4-7 in Ephesians 2, but God being rich in His mercy because of the great love in which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive. We’re looking forward to the resurrection. We’ve already experienced a measure of the resurrection. We were dead to God. We were dead in our sin.

He’s made us alive. That’s called resurrection. He’s made us alive with Christ. Grace by God’s grace, you have been saved. And you’ve been raised up with Him. When He came out of the grave, you were with Him. When He was on the cross, you were in Him. I’ve gone through all of that so many times.

But we have new people here. My daddy served in the war, World War II. He went in the Navy, went down to the East Coast, and he came home alive. And because he came home alive, I’m alive today. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. David, don’t talk silly. We already know that. No, no, no, wait a minute.

You see, when my dad was down on the East Coast, if you were to have, as the Lord has, observations to look forward in the future, you would know that while my dad was at the East Coast, I was in Him. Pastor, you’re confusing me. How about this one? When God made Adam, even Eve was already, as God made Adam, Eve was already within Him. When God made the man, He used dirt, soil. When He made Eve, He made her out of Him. She was not made of dirt. She was made out of His flesh, His bone.

We used to sing a song, when He was on the cross, I was on His mind. We were in Him. He made us alive together in Him because when Jesus arose from the dead, we were in Him. Because you see, all of that happened. The cross, the death, the resurrection, it was for us. He who knew no sin became my sin. I’ve been thinking about this. A man, the last hanging in all of Canada happened on Barton Street in Hamilton.

And my pastor was there for the hanging of that man. At the end of the hanging of that fellow, who deserved to, he deserved to die. It doesn’t matter about the crime he paid, he committed. Who would have ever stood over his lifeless remains, pointed a figure and say, he’s guilty? He was not guilty. He was guilty before his neck snapped. But the moment life was gone from him, who can lay a charge at him? He’s not guilty anymore.

He paid the price. When Jesus cried out on the cross, it’s finished. You were immediately declared not guilty. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk, not in their fleshly manifestation as they used to walk when they were dead in their trespasses, but they walk in their spirit in the newness of life. This is the beauty of Christianity. You don’t learn your lines like a drama and then go out in the world and perform your line. No, no, no. In Christianity, the word, whose name is Jesus, is imparted to you.

And the more you learn of this, the more of him that is within you, so that you don’t act out your lines, but he acts his life out through you. And you learn to walk circumspectly. Sit and then walk circumspectly. When you’re walking circumspectly, you go to take a step and you hear the Lord speaking, ah, ah, ah, don’t go there, David. Go this way. We need to always be walking circumspectly and listening. I’ve never told you this. Years ago when I launched into world missions, we surrendered up our responsibility at a big church in Toronto.

We sold our house and we were about to move over to Nairobi, Kenya. At least that was my plan. That’s how, well, that’s how the national office of PAOC wanted me to play it out. And another senior moment. What’s happening to me? I don’t know. Lord Jesus, help me. Yes, yes, yes.

If you’re listening in on the internet, just pause your thing for a moment. Yeah, I’ve lost my train of thought. I thought I was going to tell you something important there. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but we’ve been made alive. So that’s number one. Number one of what he has done for us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. It came back, it came back, it came back.

Now I messed up. Okay, well now I’m really messed up. Okay, here’s a story. Walking circumspectly. You’re walking with the Lord. You’re reading the word. You’re preaching and teaching at times thousands of people, 5,000, 10,000. At one point in down in South America, 33,000 people.

You’re being used of God. And as you’re walking along and you believe you’re doing the right thing, all of a sudden something is presented before you and you go to walk in it. And God says, no, David. What was that all about? A man contacted me in Vancouver. So I went to meet with him. He said, I have something for you. You’ve got to come.

I said, you got to come. You got to. So I made my way to him and he said, some people on the other side of the world have heard about you and they want to help you in your ministry. They believe in you and they’re going to give you millions of dollars. I said, this is a joke. Nope, nope, nope. He said, you know me, you know me better than that to think that it’s a joke. He said, the challenge will be that it will be in rubles.

These are Russians. I said, why would they want to help me? Well, he said, they watched you. They’re aware of you. They followed you in your travels and they think you’re the best thing since sliced bread and they want to help you. And as I sat there, what do you, what do you do? What do you, what do you do? Somebody’s offering you a million.

And all of a sudden I felt the Lord. I was walking circumspectly and I felt the Lord say, no, you will depend upon me. Remember when David was offered some property, he was offered something and here you want to, you want to bless the Lord. I’ll give you this and you can offer this unto God. And David said, I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. And that’s the verse that came into my heart in my life. I’ve called you David. And if I’ve called you, I’ll supply your every need.

And it occurred to me a couple of years later, Brian, that if I walked into that, who knows, who knows whose house I was starting to abide in, that there could have been RCMP and who knows what showing up and putting me in handcuffs. You were a part of it. You’re a money launderer. Walking circumspectly, eyes wide open. Go here, go there. Don’t go there. Step over here. Step.

Walking aware, aware. Men who knew the Lord understood the times and what God expected of them. I’m trying to be that man with this whole Israeli thing and, and, and people not standing up and helping the Jews and our own government helping this thing called UNRWA in Gaza. And everybody knows that that UNRWA is filled, it’s infested with, with, with people who have murder in their hearts and our tax dollars is helping them. What are we to do about this? Men who understand the times, who walk circumspectly, and the Lord says, don’t do that. Even something that looks right, even something that looks wise, even if the Lord prompts you and says, don’t do it, don’t make a move. I’ve had so many people say, Pastor Dave, I need to make a decision.

I can go left. I can go right. I’m confused. What should I do? I have said to them so many times, if you don’t know if you’re supposed to go left, or you’re supposed to go right, I really commend you. Don’t move. And leave the trouble, but if I don’t move, but what happens if I don’t even make a move? You leave that up to God.

The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. He has sat at the feet of the Lord. He has studied the word of God. The word of God is like honey to his lip. He loves the word of God. He follows the word of God. He walks circumspectly, and God will direct the steps of the Lord, because the steps of a good man are ordered of God. Thank you.

So you were dead in your trespasses and sins, look here, but now he’s made you alive together with Christ. But the second thing he’s done, this is in your scripture, Ephesians 2 verse 7, he’s not only made you alive, but he’s raised you up. There’s a resurrection. He’s raised you up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I had to work on this one. He made us. Sit down. That word made is not a word about creation.

He enforced it. He raised us up with him, and he seated us, but another rendition is he made us. He seated us with him. And the story that occurred to me very early this morning was the story of Mephibosheth. Do you remember that story? Mephibosheth as an infant during an internal crisis in Israel. He was picked up, and his Nana was running with him. Something happened, jarred her arm, and she dropped him, and he was a cripple for the rest of his life.

He was a son or a grandson of Saul. David became king, and he calls in his wise guys, and he says, I want to honor Saul. I know what he did. I know that God flushed him out, but I’m going to tell you what. He was a man of God to begin with, and I want you guys to search out the country and see if you can find one of his relatives. Now, the men who went looking for a relative had one thing in their minds. They thought that David feared anybody who would be related to Saul, because at that time, and it still happens in different parts of the world, that royalty will marry, they will intermarry within their own family circle in order to not let anybody from the outside get into their family. They intermarry so that they keep their bloodline perfect.

And the thought would be, and this happened again and again thousands of times, that when somebody became the new ruler, he killed those who in any way might present a threat. A son of the former ruler, a daughter, anybody, they’d kill them off, lest they should lose their right to sit on the throne. So, these men who went looking on behalf of King David, for anybody who was related to Saul, thought David’s going to kill him. They found Mephibosheth in certain place, and David had said, bring him to me. They literally had to carry him. He could not walk. His legs were useless. David had him brought into his banquet facilities.

And I’m going just to make up a little dramatic picture for you. Mephibosheth, we’re sorry for what has happened to your family. It gives me great honor to introduce you to you, my sons and my daughters. This is where Solomon always sits. This is his chair, and this is my daughter, and this is this, and this guy is my one of my favorite servants and all around. And you know what, Mephibosheth, right here, that’s your chair. Mephibosheth thought his head was going to be taken off his shoulders that day. Let me tell you something.

When a king, a monarch in such a position says, you sit here, you don’t have an option, honey. When the king says, sit, you sit, because it’s a chair of honor. You know, in Africa, I never turned an African down, a pastor, a leader, never turned them down when he said to me, will you break bread with me and my brothers today? I never said no. To say no is like a slap in the face. You never turn them down. And when you are, by royalty, invited to sit on this chair, you’re made to sit down. You don’t ask questions.

He has redeemed us. And as a prodigal, you said to your daddy, Luke 15, I’m not worthy to be called your son. Don’t even look at me. I feel filthy. Just put me out there with the hired servants. Feed me whatever you want to. Just don’t call me son. And the man refused to listen to that and said, kill the fatted calf.

Do you know killing the fatted calf was the highest honor that a person could do on the food side of it? Kill the fatted calf? Do you know what that thing was worth? He didn’t say kill a goat. He didn’t say behead some chickens. He said, bring the best, the fattest calf, the healthiest calf. This is my son. He’s come home.

No, I’m not worthy. The daddy made him sit down, made him sit down. Jesus doesn’t ask you if you want to sit in a place of royalty. He says, there’s your chair, David. Sit down. But, but, but, but, I don’t want to hear about your but. Sit down now. He made us to sit down with him in heavenly places.

I remember the day you raised your hand, Ed, and we prayed with you. And then I came and visited in your house about walking with Jesus. The day you raised your hand, you prayed that prayer and said, I accept you, Jesus. Whether you know it or not, a name was put on a chair for you. And you don’t go by feelings today. I don’t feel saved. I don’t feel, I don’t, got nothing to do with your feelings. He makes you sit down in heavenly places.

And what’s a heavenly place? It’s where everything is perfect. It’s everything is perfect. You don’t worry about a thing. You’re sitting with Jesus. You’re confident in him. And you can walk circumspectly because he says, you’ll hear a voice behind you. This is the way.

Walk ye in it. You’ll walk circumspectly because the chair that you occupy is a chair of royalty. You’re now called a son of God. Do you think about this, honey? If God were to, if God were to do anything more to raise you up, you’d be a part of the trinity. You’re now called a son of God. And the apostle says, and we haven’t even dreamed, it does not enter into our minds, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. You haven’t got a clue what you’re in for in heaven.

You were dead in your trespasses and sin. He made you alive. And he said, sit by me. Sherry came by to see us yesterday. Our house is a house of mourning. We lost our little girl this week. Her name was Sophie. She had four paws.

So Sherry came to see her mourning mom and dad. April keeps on getting hit. Sorry, Dolly. She puts on her housecoat this morning, came out, put her hands in her pocket, and her eyes filled up with tears. I said, what’s wrong? I just found one of Sophie’s treats in my pocket. Sherry told us about a ride she went on her motorcycle last week. It was called a ride for dad’s prostate.

I don’t know what she knows about my prostate. You’ve heard about this, right? Your ride for your dad. I don’t know. It’s a ride for dads with prostates. Anybody here hasn’t got a prostate? Then the ride wasn’t for you. She said, dad, the person who was organizing the thing knows Bob and I and gave us a call and said, now look, when you show up for the ride, there’s 350 riders, 350 motorcycles, 350 idiots.

You know what the ambulance drivers call us? Mobile donors. That’s what they call us. She says, dad, this person called and said, the who’s who is going to be riding motorcycles. I guess Trump was there. I don’t know. And in a sidecar was Joe Biden. I don’t know.

The who’s who. And she said, dad, we were told, Bob and you, you get to ride in the front. You’re going to be in the little pack that leads the way. She was so excited that she got to ride her motorcycle in front of the pack. There’s something about being told you can sit up here. Here’s what I preached at a camp meeting some years ago. There’s no such thing as, as a Christian. You know, when you go to the bank, you expect everybody, you know, there’s a big lineup.

You expect everybody, the last person come to the door, the line forms at the end. You don’t walk in front of me. I can offer my place to you, but we always form at the end. Have you ever been at a banquet thing? And it was a, it was a, you know, a banquet and you help yourself to the food. And when you got there, the roast beef was all gone. And now you have to have, I don’t know, chopped liver. It was because you got served last.

Now that you walk with Jesus, you’ll never be served last. You always have first place. You’re a priority person. You’re a priority with God. You were dead in your trespasses and sin. When God came toward you, the angels pinched their nose, the filth that we were living in. You know, the angels don’t see in you what God sees. You know, they don’t love you.

They serve out of love for the Father. If they knew what love and what divine grace, divine mercy is all about, they’d be members of the Trinity. They don’t get it. I look in the mirror and I say, I get it. You’re supposed to laugh. Number three, we’ve been made to live together with him. We’re now seated with him in heavenly places. And number three, in the coming ages, why has God redeemed you?

What’s his big plan? How come he’s, how come he didn’t just redeem you and say, look, I’m going to leave you on planet earth. Heaven’s going to work. No, no, no. Come and sit in my royal household. Sit in the best chair. Because why? Because you are an eternal trophy of grace.

Let that sink in. You are an eternal trophy of God’s grace. He’s having you sit in the heavenly places with Jesus so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. His plan is to set you in a place of glory. Now are you the sons of God? That’s today. Tomorrow is going to be better yet. I met somebody yesterday.

I think it was in a restaurant. They said, how are you? I said, a whole lot better than I was yesterday. And you’re thinking, oh, did you get run over by a bus yesterday? But then I finished it. How are you? A whole lot better than yesterday, but not nearly as good as I’m going to be tomorrow. They said, oh, here’s a menu.

And they didn’t know how to deal with that. Day by day, every day with his bounty, he serves us. And I pause for a moment because if you’re anything like me, your mind wanders. No matter how bombastic the nutcase in the pulpit is, he can lose you for a moment because he’s just said his bounty is renewed every day. And somebody thought, but what about Pastor Kuke? We live for the moment. Life is a fast moving clock. We suffer a little bit.

Some of us suffer more. My niece, three days ago, they put her in a hospital in Ottawa and they took a saw to the top of her head and they lifted the top of her skull off. She’s supposed to be getting married. They cut the top of her head off. And it took eight hours to remove an ugly mass that had no business being in there that was killing her eyesight, killing her hearing, and was going to take her life. And I dare say, I believe they probably used crazy glue to put that thing back on. And you know where she is? This only happened three days ago.

You know where she is right now? She’s at home with mom and dad. God has touched her life, but she has suffered immeasurably. There’s trials for all of us, but it’s a fleeting moment. It’s a fleeting moment. And our care for a ball of fur with four paws and a cute little face that gave us sunshine every day, the care that we had for her as we had to say to the vet, do it now. We cried. But it was necessary for that to happen because we had no idea how much that little puppy was suffering.

Sorry I have to bring up about a dog again, but it’s where I live right now, hello? And you know what occurs to me? If I weep over a dog, how much more the Savior wept as he said, take this cup from me, but nevertheless, not my human will, but your divine, eternal will be done. He suffered. He chose. We’re like the grass that grows up overnight and without water and proper care, it withers. And it goes back to the dust it came from. We all suffer.

We go through difficult times and some of us more. I can’t believe all the things that my brothers are going through right now. He hasn’t got a member of his family, including himself, who’s healthy. He’s got a granddaughter that has the mind of a 12-year-old. That girl’s mother, who is my brother’s daughter, has got Parkinson’s. And last week they discovered she’s got some other thing that I can’t even pronounce as a name. She has to go on a routine basis down to the hospital to get shots of morphine to help her to control the pain, but she’s mourning the loss of her husband, Rich. But she’s got a sister in Ottawa who could die any moment and that girl’s daughter just went through an operation on her head.

And now my brother’s wife, just three days ago, got a call from the doctor saying, we did the x-rays on your person and we found some lumps and we got to do some research. I said to my brother, how much more can you handle? And he said, David, I’m leaning on the grace of God. And my reply, you are my hero. Sitting together in heavenly places does not guarantee me a pain-free life. He’s going to show the riches of his grace and his mercy, because you, a sinner, saved by his mercy, you’re a treasure. What God’s done for us, Ephesians 2. 5, when we were dead in our trespasses and in sins, he made us alive together with praise.

He resurrected us from the dead from our sins. The same verse, but God whose riches in mercy, because of his great love, he showered us with his love. Verse 8 says, for by grace you have been saved. It’s nothing that you did, nothing you could do. You’ve been saved through faith. Are you proud of yourself that you exercise your faith? That faith was also the gift of God. You’re in charge of nothing.

That faith is not of yourself. Laurie Price once preached, I was in the audience, he said, I went by old brother Jones last Tuesday evening in the evening prayer meeting, and he said, I walked by him and I heard him praying, oh God, help my unbelief. And he said, I shouted right over him, don’t you dare help his unbelief. We misunderstand faith. Help my unbelief. Don’t you dare help his unbelief. Faith not of yourselves, it’s a gift of God, lest anybody should try to boast. And he’s raised us up together and made us, commanded us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We sit with him. More than that, we sit in him, because we are in him. Verse 7, the culmination of it all. Why has God done all of this? So that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. You know what? Stand with me. Won’t you stand with me for a moment?

Can you read that? Is it big enough to see? Here. Let’s read it out loud together, because this is, why did he do all these things? Raise us up, cause us to sit together in heavenly places. So that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Even faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should try to boast.

For we are, oh thank God, we are his workmanship. This is so rich. You were created by God. Don’t you let an atheist rob you of that. You were created, you were not a polygog. You are his workmanship physically, but now you are his workmanship spiritually. Why did you stop reading? Oh, I interfered.

Okay, okay. For we are his workmanship created in, stop. We are his workmanship created in Christ. When he was on the cross, I was on his mind. We are continuously being shaped, created, oh thank you Jesus, created in Christ Jesus. For why? For good works. We’re not saved by works, we’re saved by faith.

Yeah, but works is the caboose, and your train is not complete without a caboose. Don’t leave the station without your caboose. We’re his workmanship created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk. Don’t walk, don’t stand, don’t sit.

Oh, you’ve given your heart to Jesus, good.

First of all sit, then you can walk, and the day will come when you’ll have to take your stand.

And God will sustain you.

Heavenly Father, so much more to share from these precious, beautiful, where every word is rich.

Every word is rich, and I thank you for it.

And Lord, I pray that what has been shared this morning will resonate.

Lord, I pray, I hope these will open the book of Ephesians and look for walking, standing, and sitting.

Oh, what a joy to serve you.

And what an awesome privilege for me to stand in this pulpit, for I am your workmanship, and these are your workmanship.

Thank you Jesus for believing in us.

Amen.