August 30, 2026 | Our Riches in Christ Part 1

Our Riches in Christ Part 1

2 Corinthians 1:20: For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 

Ephesians 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

1 Corinthians 3:21–23: So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 2:13–14: And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 1:5: He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Romans 8:16–17: The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Hebrews 10:19: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 7:25: Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Ephesians 2:12–13, 19: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ... So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Ephesians 2:4–6: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:13: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

Philippians 3:20: But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:21: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (ESV)

Every promise and spiritual blessing God gives his people is found in Jesus Christ. Because believers are united with Christ, their record of sin has been canceled, and no condemnation remains. They have been adopted into God’s family as heirs with Christ and may approach the Father with confidence because Jesus continually intercedes for them. Christ also brings them into his church, gives them citizenship in his heavenly kingdom, and removes death’s power over them. These riches have already been secured by Christ. They do not depend on feelings, circumstances, or personal merit. Those who belong to Jesus can rest in what he has accomplished and live with the confidence of God’s beloved children.

Transcript of Our Riches in Christ Part 1

Opening Prayer

Isaias Viñales: God, you are so holy. You are so worthy. There is no one like you. And we humble ourself before you in your majestic presence. I wanna join in with my brother's prayer and ask that as the word goes forth, it brings forth healing, it brings forth freedom, it brings forth clarity, it brings forth liberation.

God, I ask that if there's any dear saint in here weak, struggling, discouraged, downcast, ready to throw in the towel, that today would be a day of refreshing, a day of strengthening. That if there's anybody spiritually lame or out of joint, that in the name of Christ Jesus, and by the power of your holy word coming and quickening and making alive, Lord, that they would be made whole. And if there's anybody struggling under the power of demonic oppression this morning, I ask that would be broken in the name of Jesus Christ. And Father, I acknowledge your presence here this morning. Right now, before I even s- open up your word, you are already ministering in hearts. Do what we cannot do. We abide in you. And Lord Jesus, I hang upon your cr- promise this morning that he who abides in you, and you in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Oh Lord, give us fruit that we can taste, that we can taste and see that you are good, that we can taste and see that you are better than everything else this world can offer us. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Please be seated.

Our Riches in Christ

Isaias Viñales: So the standard papyrus roll height of our New Testament letters, okay, was roughly nine to tenches, 10 inches from top to bottom. And the lector or reader would horizontally unroll anywhere from four feet in a letter like Galatians up to 15 feet in a letter like the Book of Romans, okay? And the lector or reader, as they were called, would begin to read the words of an apostle of Christ.

Now, every now and then, Paul writes, you know, with heavy, verbose language. He has long sentences. But there's some simple, short, profound statements and verses that are so profound, I think to myself sometimes, "How did he fit that in that letter?"

Take this simple verse as an example from 2 Corinthians 1:20. "For all the promises of God," how many? All. "For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory." All the wonderful promises of God are an emphatic yes.

Sit with that for a moment. Centuries of promises, every oath sworn to Abraham, every word spoken through Moses, through Samuel, through Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and all the way up to the time of Malachi. A God who kept speaking to a nation who kept wandering and turning aside time and again. This God kept binding Himself by oath and by promise to a people who continued to break their oaths and their promises.

And to every, I would say, rational observer, when you're reading through the Old Testament, the question could rise, "When is He gonna be done with these people? When is He gonna throw in the towel and say, 'I am done. I am finished'"? And Paul says every one of those promises, every one of those threads runs to a single place, okay? And it terminates in a single person, and in Him, the answer is what? Yes.

Then he writes to Ephesus, and the scale of these promises and these blessings grow. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul cannot contain himself as he is beginning to write this letter to this church. He is overwhelmed. He is overcome by the truths and the glorious things that God has done for us, that he begins the letter in a rapturous note of worship and praise, and he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."

Every spiritual blessing. Not many of them. Not the ones that we've managed to earn, because you know as I do we haven't earned any of them. Every.

And to the saints in Rome- In Romans chapter 8, we could read this: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us," can you guess it? "All things." He has given us the greatest treasure He could give in the person of His Son. And so from an argument to the greater to the lesser, he says, "How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"

And then back to Corinth, where at this point in the letter, it's, as though he's, taunting them a little bit with the abundance. I don't know if you've ever read this in Corinthians, but this is striking, okay? Listen very carefully here. "So let no one boast in men. For," right? Why, Paul? "For all things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Brothers and sisters, we are tremendously wealthy people. Most of us have no idea just how good we have it. This morning I wanna lay before you what Christ has already, past tense, secured for us. This wealth that is an accomplished fact, which means before you feel it, whether or not you sense it, entirely dependent of how this week went, and I know some of you have had terrible weeks, these things are true. Next Sunday, we're gonna follow this inheritance forward. We're gonna look at what the Spirit is doing with this, with these glorious things inside of you and I right now, and where every last piece of it is heading. But this morning, we're just gonna count some of these blessings together, and we're gonna progress through six movements, okay?

You Are In Christ

Isaias Viñales: And here's the first one. I'm gonna be in a lot of places, so don't worry about, "Well, where is he gonna say turn open your Bibles to?" Listen to me. The first one is this: That you, if you're a believer, you are in Christ. Listen to this. Paul puts this nail in the first, in, in the wall first for a reason.

Because if you pull this out, if you pull out in Christ, if you pull out union with Jesus, everything else in this message, everything that's gonna follow, it just falls and it crashes to the ground, okay? Two words run through the New Testament so persistently that we could just read past them. In Christ, right?

You're just reading, you're reading, you're reading, you're reading, and you're kinda like sometimes waiting to get, for Paul to get to his point, but you've kinda missed it already if you think that way. Because his whole point is it doesn't matter what he's talking about. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Paul uses that phrase or something very near to it more than 150 times.

More than 150 times. Every blessing he names carries that address. If I wanted to mail something to your house, I need to have your address, right? Well, when God gives us blessings in Christ, it's only found, it can only be received at one address, in Christ. Chosen in Him, blessed in Him, redeemed in Him, sealed in Him, seated in Him, and on and on he goes.

And that's the deepest thing that is true about a Christian. Let that sit with you. You right there where you're at, you're seated in this chair. But if you're, a believer, you know where else you're at? In Christ. In Him. You have been joined to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, grafted in, baptized into Him.

Paul says this about himself in the most strongest possible terms, Galatians 2:20. You know it, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." But was it just Paul? What do you think about the churches? Listen to this from Colossians, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Hidden with Christ, tucked inside of Him. Where the life you are living now is no longer a thing that you hold by yourself. It's in Christ.

That's the first and most glorious truth about you, dear saint. And I call you a saint, and I call you dear because you are holy unto the Lord. That's what the scriptures say about you because you are in Christ. So again, everything that follows flows from that.

The riches are located in a person, and if you have been placed inside that person, you have these riches, which is why these blessings, they shouldn't be separated from Him. You know, oftentimes when someone dies and let's say estate is d- an estate is divided, right, the inheritance, the treasures, what's left is received and enjoyed without the person around, right?

It's not that way in the Christian life. You have Jesus and you have it all. Amen? Amen. You have to believe that if you have Jesus, you have everything. But if you don't have Jesus, you have nothing of eternal weight and value.

So we don't receive forgiveness in one envelope and then adoption in another envelope somewhere. It's just all packaged together in the person of Christ. So you receive Christ and everything that belongs to Him as the eternal Son of God, okay? And it belongs to Him by right because of who He is, becomes yours by virtue of this union and adoption. It's all owing to this oneness, this belonging.

And what about the security of these treasures and these riches? I'm sure there are rich people out there in the world right now who have everything that anyone can ever dream of, physically speaking, right? But they can hardly sleep at night. You know why? They don't know if the investments are secure. They don't know if someone's gonna break in. You know, they're, constantly looking at the new alarm system, security system, or whatever, right? Because if it could be taken away, it's like, what's the point?

So the question then is, how secure are these things? That's really the only question. And the answer is very simple.

It's, well, how secure is Christ? Because where are they? Where are these blessings to be had and enjoyed? In who? In Christ.

So because what holds Jesus is what's holding us in these blessings.

Our Sin Record is Forgiven, Wiped Clean, and Canceled

Isaias Viñales: So let's go to the next movement here. You- you've heard me comment on what I'm gonna say before, but it deserves mention again, okay? Listen to these words from Colossians 2:13 through 14, "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."

So Paul is reaching for a specific image here of a document. think, in s- terms of a legal contract, if you will, and a wr- written record standing against you. It was itemized, and it had legal force to bring about consequences, and God deals with it in three motions. First, he forgave it. That's the word charizomai, an act of sheer grace, a gift handed over freely. Think of the picture of generosity, free generosity.

Secondly, he canceled it. The word here describes wiping a ta- a wax tablet clean so there's no trace of the original writing, not a dot, not a, a iota, nothing. It's just gone, erased. I mean, you look for it, there's nothing legible left.

Thirdly, he canceled it, and the word here to s- excuse me, he set it aside. He lifts it up. He carries it away, okay? Removing the thing entirely from the scene. And of course, here in Colossians, he says, "It was set aside as God nailed it to the cross." As God nailed it to the cross.

So picture the courtroom, okay, with me. With this evidence gone, the p- prosecutor rises to read the charges. The page in his hand is blank. Blank. That's wonderful.

And it's this work that God has done in Christ that makes what Paul says in Romans 5:1 possible. Listen to this, "Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God," peace with God, "through our Lord Jesus Christ." Peace as a settled condition, a state you're living in right now, dear Christian.

And then later on in Romans 8, he brings the gavel down, but the verdict is glorious. There is therefore now what? No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Hear what the word now is doing there in that sentence, right? There is therefore now no condemnation, present tense, this morning. So while you sit in that chair in the middle of whatever you're mid- in the middle of in your life, carrying whatever you carried in here this morning, the verdict on you, if you're a believer, has already been rendered, and it was rendered in Christ.

So this is the first line item. In Jesus, what do you get? A record erased beyond any reading. And if you were to go on Amazon, you can buy a book, okay? And inside the book, you could flip through it. You flip through it, you could flip through it. You could spend a day, two days, three days, five days, a week flipping through it, but you won't find anything in it because it's empty. No words or pictures are printed there.

This is something like what's happened with us, my dear friends. And you have permanent peace with God. There is permanent peace with God for all of those who are in Christ.

We Are Adopted and Heirs

Isaias Viñales: So forgiveness, okay, clears the ground of things that stood in the way between you and God. Just think about that. Forgiveness clears the ground, and while it does so, what God builds on that ground then is a house with a family.

Now, we're going into our next movement here. He could have stopped at pardon. Picture what, that would have looked like. A man walks out of the courthouse acquitted, owing nothing to anyone, and he drives home, but he drives home to an empty apartment. Nothing owed, sure, but nothing owned. No one waiting at the door to greet him happily.

Sure, that would have been mercy for the likes of us. We were sinners. And we would have owed everything to God. But guess what? He went so much further than that, my friends. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:5.

The picture there is, is that of a Roman adoption, where a chosen son received the father's name, the father's standing, the father's estate, and then later on when he got older, this is remarkable, even the father's authority with the full weight, and it had the full weight of the law behind it.

So this is what Paul says about this kind of adoption. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying. Jed prayed it earlier. What's the cry? Abba, Father. The Spirit of God has come into your life, and he's birthed a cry that wasn't there before.

You know, if you could recall back, for some of you I know it was a very long time ago, but try to think what God was like to you before you were a Christian. Nothing more perhaps than a vindictive judge ready to just lash out and strike you. Or perhaps someone you couldn't really know. But that has changed Father. Father.

This is the vocabulary of a son at his father's table, spoken in the tone children use with the fathers they trust because they know how much they are greatly loved and cared for. That's wonderful.

And Paul, what, I love about this is that he doesn't leave out the estate part as well, though. That's also included. "But Spirit himself bears a witness with our spirit that we are children of God," there's the adoption, there's the Spirit confirming our new status and identity as sons and daughters. But now listen to this, "and if children, then heirs," heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Are you serious? Fellow heirs with Christ? See what the size of that? Fellow heirs with Jesus. Whatever belongs to the Son, as I mentioned earlier, by right belongs to you, dear Christian, by adoption.

So you're not a distant relation who has, who's only being remembered with a little tiny token in the will. You are named in it, standing alongside Jesus, receiving what He receives. You are a co-heir with Christ. How el- how else can you say, The world, yours. Paul, yours. Cephas, yours. Life, yours. Death, yours. Right now, yours. Oh, by the way, later on if God should grant you that, guess what? Yours. Because who do all those things belong to ultimately? God. They belong to Christ.

But Paul says, "No." Well, he, actually says yes, but he also says they belong to you, too. They also belong to you too.

And a child who's been taught to cry like this, to pray like this, "Father," because of his great love, oh, we're gonna wanna know him, right? We're gonna wanna to enjoy him. We're gonna wanna walk with him. We're gonna wanna please him. We're gonna wanna come to him day by day. And this is what sonship, in fact, gives to us, of course. It gives us this name.

We Have Access to God

Isaias Viñales: But I also want you to see n- that it gives you and me the door. Okay, I'm gonna explain that here in a little bit. You see a family that can't reach its father. I, don't know if you've seen this. I've seen this in shows and movies, but I've also known a couple of people, or at least by stories that I would hear, where you have this very rich father, right? He's a very successful businessman or whatever, and he makes a whole lot of money. And man, I'm talking about the, the child is, 15, and they're in a yacht, you know? And it's like they've got it made, except guess what? They don't have their dad because he's never home, or he's far too busy, or when he's around, he's like, "Ah, kind of leave me alone," you know?

But what God has given us, brethren, brothers and sisters, is both a title and direct access to Him.

Do you remember the old spy movies? Every now and then a spy would need to, break into a top high-level s- you know, s- vault or, institution or whatever, you know. And he'd have to dodge the lasers, and he'd have to crack the code, and if he or she cracked the code, sometimes, especially in the old movies, there would be this phrase that the little vault would say, "Access granted." Okay? Right, in that robotic voice. That's what you and I hear, "Access granted."

Under the first covenant, talking about the Mosaic covenant here, one man walked behind the curtain once a year carrying blood on the single day appointed for meeting with God and receiving a certain mercy. That whole arrangement of things, guys, it, that, that kept the covenant people in good standing before their God, and it did so for about 15 centuries quite faithfully.

But it also sort of communicated something else, too: distance. Separation, distance. And the calendar, the fact it could only happen one time a year with the same kind of blood under very kind of meticulous prescription. Everything had to be followed to a T. And man, if the guy messed up, if there was one thing wrong, he was struck down dead. Okay? That's how it worked. And it, would repeat again the next year, and the year following that on the very same day until something happened, until really someone happened that would change the world and all of human history forever.

"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh."

That's what happened. Christ, our Priest and Lord, made a way in. He made a way in so that old, thick, heavy curtain that stood between the most holy place and the people, even the priest who could go, and he had to pass through this curtain, that was supernaturally torn from top to bottom.

Now, when I think about a curtain, every now and then when it's nighttime, I hear little strange sounds outside. Has that ever happened to you? And what do you do? You kind of peek behind the curtain, right? You get a little peek outside. It'd be one thing if that's how this is described, but that's not how it's described. That curtain wasn't me- merely moved to the side a little bit. It was destroyed. It was broken from top to bottom. And it was torn through the body of this priest who passed through the other side of death.

So what did that open? Access to God, right? Listen to this, "For through him," Jesus, "we both," Jew and Gentile, "have access in one Spirit to the Father." Do you remember that little analogy I gave of the rich that have everything and the estate, but the dad's never home?

Well, guess what? Your Father's always home, and He's always available. He's always available to you. Did you know that? Do you avail yourself of that? Does that encourage your heart?

Some of you perhaps miss certain people. Maybe they live in another state or another city or another town, but it's somewhat encouraging to know where they're at, right, if they need to be found. Or maybe some of you who have older kids, it's "Come home for the holidays," right? "I wanna see you." Daddy wants to give a little kiss, you know, on the, or whatever. But you know what that's like. We always have access to God no matter what.

Oh, I love when I think about the priest, when I think about Jesus as our high priest, I love this picture of him. You know, one of the differences between the high priests in the Old Testament. Excuse me, the priests in the Old Testament and Jesus as our high priest in the New, when the priests would go in to offer the sacrifices, okay? Remember, it was on a calendar, so he went in, but he had to go back out. Right? He could just go in, he'd h- do his thing, and he had to get right back out of there.

When Jesus entered in, he never left. And those priests, even if they were good men, they were prevented to continue in that office by way of death. So death prevented them. I- it's i- imagine a dear church who had a really good pastor, right? The pastor's getting old or h- he's as young as Jed and fall, not... Lord, please don't let this happen to Jed. And he falls over by a heart attack unexpectedly, right? That happens to churches, doesn't it? Well, that would happen to the priests in the Old Testament. But when Jesus goes in, he stays.

Consequently, here's the word of God, Hebrews 7:25, "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Always lives, continuous, present, unbroken intercession from the moment he entered heaven, what, some 2,000 years ago now. In Romans 8, Paul says the same thing, "Christ Jesus a- is at the right hand of God interceding for us." And he's doing that right now while you sit in this room. He stands in the presence of his Father, alive, holding a priesthood that n- that not even death is able to interrupt.

And your name, and his people, his bride, are in his mouth. I want you to think about this for just a moment. you are known in heaven. Your name, as it were, the church, we're there represented in our, great high priest. Isn't that something?

Every once in a while, at least not so much lately these days, Jed and I are planning a conference next year, but I used to do a lot of traveling for conferences, and mostly I would go with other pastor buddies and friends, but every once in a while, I would go by myself, and it would be in another state, and I would be around people I didn't know. You know? It's not like that in heaven.

How do we know? Do, can we say that with confidence? Yes, of course. There's more joy in heaven over what? One sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous who need no repentance. Sounds like your name is known in heaven, doesn't it? And your name's not only known in heaven, your name's being uttered to the Father in prayer by your High Priest. How encouraging.

Man, when I feel weak and struggling, and I ask for a prayer from a brother in Christ, maybe an older gentleman, and he says, "I'm praying for you," or I get to hear him pray for me, and I, if I think very highly of the man, I go, "Oh, praise God." You know? what blessings are about to happen, or what's gonna happen, or w- what sin am I about to be convicted of, you know? Why? Because the righteous and the godly are praying. How much more the Righteous One.

And becau- it's because that's true, okay, that Hebrews issues a command. Y'all thought this was about blessings. Yes, but listen to the kind of command. We know God is good, right? His promises are good. Can we say amen? Amen. But listen, God's commandments are also wonderful. Listen to this commandment. It is a commandment. You and I have to obey this, okay? But listen to this. "Let us then..." He was just talking about this wonderful Jesus and all this and that. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Confidence, boldness, the freedom of a child who has never once been told to wait outside, or, "Leave me alone," or, "Sorry, but you don't belong here." And some of us knows what that feels like. But you don't never have to feel that way with God.

We have a Father and God, we're sons and daughters, an open door and a table. That is the picture we've been standing in front of for a little while here, and it's a warm one.

We Are Brought Into the Body of Christ

Isaias Viñales: But in all of the, the kind of descriptions that we've been looking at, I want you to notice something. They're crowded. What do I mean by that? They're crowded. Well, you can't have a father and a house with a whole bunch of children without having other brothers and sisters in the room, okay? The adoption that made you a child made a great many other children at the same time and at the same moment. And Paul, he actually makes a note of that. He emphasizes that. Okay?

Listen to this from Ephesians 2:12. "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." We were alienated strangers. That's what we were. We were on the outside of things. Paul is describing people who had, to- spiritually speaking, no, no good country, no covenant, no claim, no company. And then he ends the list with what's maybe the bleakest and most grim phrase in that whole book. He says, "Without God in the world." Okay, so that's Ephesians 2:12. Listen to Ephesians 2:13, the very next verse.

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." And when Paul explains that nearness, he doesn't just stop at the vertical, okay? Our relationship with God. He says Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hosti- hostility, the one that stood between Jew and Gentile for centuries, and made the two into one new man, reconciling both to God in one single body through the cross.

So we have one act, right? Jesus died one time. Single offering is the way that Hebrews puts it. But in that one act, we have two, not just one, two reconciliations. Peace with God and peace with each other that came through that same door at the same hour and said, "Hello. Here I am. Be blessed."

So Peter writes to congregations 'cause of that kind of truth that's full of Gentiles, okay? People whose grandparents had no share in Israel's promises, and he hands them, at time, Israel's own words. Or think about the depictions of the church. The church is called a bride, right? Ephesians 5:25. Excuse me, I think that's Ephesians 5:30. I'm so used to quoting Ephesians 5:25 to myself, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church," and gave Him- so, you know, so have to remember that. Oh, baby, you're lovely. Anyhow.

But guess who was the bride of Chr- guess who was the bride of Yahweh in the Old Testament? Ethnic Israel. Gentiles were not referred to as the bride of Christ. Now the church that is both filled with Jews and Gentiles, praise God, is referred to as the bride of Christ.

Once you were not a people, you see. Now you're God's people. Mercy did that, my dear friends. Mercy took strangers and made a people for God and to God out of them.

One of the things that Paul does is not just say that happened, but he tells us what Christ and God, you know, intends to do with that fact. Okay, so we're a people now, right? We're a church, we're a people, we're in Christ. for what? For what purpose? To what end, okay? Listen to these words. This is glorious.

"And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him." Colossians 1:21-22. To present you.

I'm a married man. I've witnessed marri- many weddings. And as you know, at least as is, the tradition here in the West, everybody would wait oh, just a little too long for the bride, you know? But when she would walk in, usually accompanied by her father or someone very dear to her, a father-like figure usually, right? Everyone would do what? They would rise to attention, right? They would turn. The first thing that they would perhaps notice is the dazzling beautiful dress. Hair did to the nines. Makeup just right. Of course, though, you and I don't see that just yet, right? Because she would have a veil covering her face, and she would walk up as the father presented her to the man who would be her groom. And there would be a moment where she's presented.

And listen. Married men know this to be the case. That moment is overwhelming. You're struck with beauty. There's no spot. You don't, it's just, you don't notice anything but glory. That's what it's like. That's what it's gonna be like, my dear friends, to present you holy and blameless before God.

Jed talked about that being one of the things he's looking forward to the most, being holy and blameless. But it's not simply that you're gonna be holy and blameless. That's true, but you're being presented.

Wow! there's a day, God wants this. That holiness and blameless is not hidden anymore. The world looks at us and we look like a weak people. The world looks at that Christian down the street and, "Ah, I know he's not a perfect guy." But there's a day coming where that's not gonna be in question anymore. We will be presented, you and me, without spot.

And I'd like to think in my own modern you know, vernacular, God's gonna go, "Wow! How beautiful. How Glorious."

And you know what? We are, we will be. That's the thing. This is what this means for us as a church, okay? This room and the people around you are not merely a people you gather with in a room that you meet in to collect your blessings. Sure, I hope when you wake up on a Sunday morning or come out on a Wednesday night, you expect to be blessed. I would hope so, right?

But listen, the church is one of those blessings. The church is one of those blessings. The believer sitting near you this morning was chosen and placed there by the same hand that erased your record, and to the same purpose and end. And neither of you are there because your good works, right? Because you've earned it. It's all by grace, because that's what a family is.

We Are Citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom

Isaias Viñales: So then you are no longer strangers, we're coming full circle here, and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Hear how the Bible talks about us. Fellow citizens, members of the household. Citizens. Right? I hear that and go, "That implies a city, country, something, right?"

Well, let's look at that for a moment here. Now, what I'm about to read at first glance actually may seem like a mistake. You heard me right. Like a slip of the t- the pen in the, in, in the tense, what he's talking about. And you'll see that as I read this. But God... Of course, there is no mistake. All of scripture is inspired and inerrant, okay? But you'll see why I say that.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us, with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's Ephesians 2:4-6. Seated, past tense, like already done.

So besides the people who like to cross their legs, most of us have both feet on the floor in this room. And while it's true your citens- your citizenship, okay, is filled fundamentally somewhere else entirely. Colossians says, "God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." A complete transfer, that means the papers are done, they're signed, they're taken care of. The move has already been made. Philippians says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

Death Holds No Claim Over Us

Isaias Viñales: Which brings us back to where Paul was almost showing off to the Corinthians, showing off to us our blessings. All things are yours. Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future. Think about that inventory. Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future. Comes straight from the Bible.

He lists death among your possessions. Do you view death as yours like that? The last enemy shows up in the column now of your assets. Because death belongs to Christ. I know many of you probably were here several months ago when I preached Christ over the powers, but one of the things I emphasized is that Christ now holds the keys of life and death, right? So because death belongs to Christ, and Christ belongs to God, and you belong to Christ, and remember what I said earlier, what belongs to Jesus by right really does in fact belong to you by adoption. He looks at death and he says, "That's yours. That's yours."

Oh, so good. I like to think about that. Death is mine. Why? Because for us to live is Christ and to die is gain. It's more of him.

Our Riches in Christ

Isaias Viñales: So we have union with the Son of God. So their life is hid inside His. A record of debt erased, p- past reading carried off the premises. Peace with God is a settled state, and no condemnation standing over you this morning. Adoption into the family with the Spirit of the Son o- of God Himself, okay, teaching both your heart and your mouth to say and cry with sincerity and joy and love and peace, "Father," a name placed in the will beside the heir Himself, a torn cur- curtain, an open throne, a living priest who has not stopped speaking your name since the day He walked in, powers disarmed and paraded in public, as it were spiritually, death stripped of its power to enslave you by fear, a completed transfer out of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son, and a seat already occupied in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Every one of them secured. Not one of them pending. All of them yours this morning, whether you woke up feeling rich or not.

See, we're not talking about what you gotta do for yourself here. We're talking about what is true already, what God has done for you already.

So two things, and then we'll pray and wrap up. First, please don't forget this. Notice where all of this is located, okay? Every blessing named this morning carries the same address. All right, it can only be received at this address, and that address is in Christ. Paul says we are accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1:6.

This is not a sermon about your inherent worth considered on its own. That needs to be heard well. It is a sermon about what becomes true of a person joined to Jesus. Apart from Him, none of it holds. In Him, none of it wavers.

So what that means for anybody here under the sound of my voice today who doesn't know Jesus. That you don't have these riches. You don't have these, this wealth, these possessions, but you could. He wants you to enjoy them. Come to him and enjoy this. This is rich fare, my dear friend, and it is for you to enjoy. This is not for the righteous. Jesus said, "I did not come for the righteous, but to seek and to save that which is lost and to call sinners to repentance." You can come today spiritually broke as you are, and leave this place rich as you can be. That's the offer on the table if you're not in Jesus this morning.

But second, what about for us who are in Jesus? Live like the wealthy people you are That's it. Some of you pray. I'm gonna say excuse my French, but I'm, not about to curse, okay? But this feels like a curse, right? Sometimes when someone says something like this from the pulpit. It's like, Pastor, I don't like pastors rebuking me. Just kidding. So some of you pray like beggars at a gate. you are hoping just might open. I pray like that sometimes. When you are sons and daughters with a standing invitation and a brother already inside speaking your name to the Father, and a father's heart's like, "Where's my boy? Where's my girl?"

Some of you carry a conscience that keeps rereading, think about Colossians, that keeps rereading a page erased and nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago.

Some of you still feel pow- fear powers that were marched through the streets in chains and shamed in public before you were ever even born. The estate is yours. Christ secured every last piece of it, and he holds it for you with hands that death and the, the powers of darkness was unable to keep shut. For God was at work in Christ reconciling the world to himself. And please understand, the powers of darkness, they try to do everything they... to keep the hand, the loving, giving, generous hands of God shut and closed. They exercised all their might, the power of Satan and the demons and everything, exercised all of its might to keep the generous hand of God closed. But none of them availed. None of them worked. And even as they were trying to hang on and clutch to his fingers as it were, he just went like this. And it's with blessing in hand, and not even death or sin, anything you can name can close that hand shut.

So next Sunday, we're going to look at what the Spirit is doing with all of these things inside of us, even right now, and where the whole inheritance is heading, okay? Believe it or not, it gets better. When the sons of God are revealed, that's what we're gonna look at, when the earth changes hands, as it were. And this one is whoa, when you and I will judge angels, and reign with Jesus forever. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

So come back for that. Let's pray.

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the nazarene. And wonder how you could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. How marvelous. How marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be, how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

Father, blessed Lord Jesus, living Spirit. We just praise you this morning, oh God. And we marvel, we bow ourselves. Lord, I bow myself before your holy throne.

There is no one like you in all the heavens or on the earth. There is no one who by merely speaking can have galaxies come into existence. There is no one who can come treading and wi- riding on the wings of the storm or walk on the waves of a raging sea. But you can still the storms here in lives and hearts.

Lord, I think of your people, Israel, when you did that miracle and they came out, Lord, from up under that mighty nation. Do it now spiritually, Lord, in this place.

And Lord, I pray for Berean as a church, oh, may we see so much blessing ahead. These things are true, oh God. Your word says they are. Help us to live and walk in them, oh God. Help me to do that, oh God. Help the ministers here, the pastors and elders here to do that, that we would live by example, oh Lord. And that we could say with clear consciences, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

Thank you. Oh, you're so lovely and you're so kind. We bless you now in Jesus' name. Amen.