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All right, Ephesians Chapter one. If you have your Bibles to Ephesians Chapter one, we're starting a new book study today, and I'm going to be looking into chapter one. But before I get into chapter one, I always like to give a little bit of history background, particularly today. The context is very important. I want you to hear some of the context as I lay it out, because it has everything to do with why Paul wrote what he wrote and the content that he wrote to the church in Ephesus, which is still relevant for us today. I want us to read Ephesians 1 from the standpoint of this is Paul writing to us, because you're going to see that when we talk about the context of the condition of the culture in Ephesus, it's going to be very similar to our own today. And so therefore, as Paul is exhorting and encouraging the people, the Christians of Ephesus, it's as if he's writing in a timely way to us today to encourage us in the midst of our cultural confusion and chaos also. So here's a little background leading up to the reading of chapter one. Paul wrote Ephesians around 60 to 62 AD from prison. He was in Rome at this particular time, held as a prisoner. And he writes this letter to the Christians, to the saints, to the believers in Ephesus. He had established a church there in Ephesus about five years earlier. And the details of that is found in Acts 19 and 20. And I will be reading a little bit from Acts 19. So we can remember again how this church started and why it started. And then Paul spent more than more time in Ephesus than he spent in any other city to which he traveled. Paul was a missionary who was spreading the gospel from town to town. So when he would share the gospel and some would get saved, a church would start from that nucleus. And Paul would spend a little bit of time ministering to the saints there and encouraging them. But then he would move on. But Ephesus is an exception. He stayed three years there. And I think because of the condition of the culture, which we will talk about in a little bit now, I led a group there from our church a few months ago. It was my first time to Ephesus. We went on this trip, the footsteps of Paul. And when we were there in Ephesus, I took a picture, this is actually off of my phone. I took a picture of this stone with this etching that they have discovered from the first century. And it is the word ichthos I, X, O, Y E. And ichthos is the Greek word for fish. And that became a symbol for the early church. It was code so that early Christians could identify each other and be hidden enough from the authorities in that day, because persecution against Christians was pretty intense and heavy. And so they used the word ichthos as a. And it was the word for fish in Greek as a symbol for Christianity. And you can notice in the. Oh, they already took it down. You can notice in the lower left corner the symbol of the fish, because that was what ichthos means. But they used ichthos as an acronym. And each of the letters I, X, O, Y E spoke about an acronym that translates Jesus Christos Theos EOS soter, which means Jesus Christ, God's Son Savior. So they use the actual letters of the word fish and then the symbol to identify each other. But it actually stood privately for Jesus Christ, God's Son Savior, which indicates to us that the discovery of this stone indicates a very strong Christian presence in Ephesus, first century. And that is all due to what God did through the Apostle Paul. Now, Ephesus was situated along the Aegean Sea, which is in present day Turkey. It was a very prosperous city along a major trade route. And the estimated population of the first century was 200 to 250,000 people. Now, you read some history books and it'll say as much as 500,000. So historians and scholars don't really know for sure, but it's comfortable to say, on average, 250,000 people lived there. In Ephesus, they are still uncovering this ancient city. It is immense, but they have an idea of the population based on all the various structures that they have uncovered. Now, one of the most important things about Ephesus in their day, to those who were polytheistic, part of the Greco Roman polytheistic religious views was the temple of Diana, which was situated there in Ephesus. She's also known as Artemis by her Greek name. And in the course of today's study, I may interchangeably say Diana or Artemis. We're talking about the same one. The Romans called her Diana, the Greeks called her Artemis, but there was a huge temple built to her that was central to life and culture in Ephesus. Pliny writes about its size because today it's not standing. Only one pillar is still standing in Ephesus today. But Pliny wrote that it was 425ft long, it was 220ft wide, and the pillars, 127 of them were 60ft high. And Diana, or Artemis, was the goddess of the hunt and the moon and animals. But in Ephesus she took on a completely different meaning. And again, that has everything to do with the culture of Ephesus and why Paul wrote what he did. That we will read in just a moment. I'm going to talk more about what Artemis, what Diana represented in Ephesus. But for the moment, if I could draw your attention to Ephesians chapter one. I'm going to read the first 14 verses and I want you to notice every time. I'll try to emphasize it as I read it. I want you to notice every time Paul makes the emphasis on in Christ, who we are in Christ. Sometimes he'll say in him or in the Beloved. But he is wanting every believer to understand his or her identity in Christ. We have to know who we are in the Lord, particularly when we're up against a very confused and chaotic and sinful and demonic culture, as they were in the days of the 1st century. In Ephesus and friends, as we are today. We've got to know our identity in Christ. We've got to know who we are in the Lord for our own sakes, to know with confidence who we are, but also so that we can make an impact in the culture that needs that Lord. And if we don't know who we are, we're not going to be able to translate that to an unbelieving world. So that's the reason why I'm going to emphasize this as we read here Ephesians 1. And I'm going to read verse 1 to 14 now for you note takers who like this kind of thing, starting at verse 3 through verse 14. In the original Greek was one long sentence, verse 3 to 14, one long sentence. Now in English it breaks it up. But the reason why it's one long sentence is because Paul doesn't take a breath. He's writing all these different things that we are in Christ. So notice with me Verse one. Paul says, paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus, to the Christians who were there in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus. There's the first one. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has made us accepted in the Beloved. Verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory in Him. You also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. Let's pause there and pray. Father, we thank you for our identity in Christ. I pray that God, as we read through this chapter, we would come away knowing better who we are in Christ that we would understand in a world where identity is so confusing to people that it wouldn't be confusing to us that we would know who we are in Christ. And we thank you, Lord, for this time in your word together. Bless it. We pray in Jesus name. And everyone said Amen. Well, as I mentioned, the worship of Diana or Artemis was central to life and culture in Ephesus at this particular time. And the background of her story is very pertinent, very relative to what we just read and why Paul wrote what he did. And so, just as a way to understand how the worship of Diana influenced and affected culture and society in the first century, particularly in Ephesus. And here's a little historical background. This is a statue of Artemis that was discovered in the first century. It is now located in the Louvre in Paris, France. But this is a statue of the goddess Artemis, and she was again considered to be, in Roman and Greek mythology, the goddess of the hunt. That was her primary role and responsibility. So you can see here pictured in this statue, she has her left hand on the antlers of a deer, and she has her right hand reaching back over her back to draw an arrow out of her quiver, because she's on the hunt. She's the goddess of the hunt. And that is the way that she was particularly seen and venerated and worshiped during this polytheistic time of Roman history, Greek and Roman history. But when you get to Ephesus, archaeologists uncovered different idols and statues to Artemis that looked very different from this one that is in the Louvre. They discovered dozens of these. And here is one that is located in the Ephesus Archeological Museum today, which is in Turkey. And this is Artemis of Ephesus. She was very different from the Artemis that was typically worshiped because in Ephesus she was seen as the principal deity, the goddess of sex and fertility. She was considered the magna mater, meaning the. The great mother of all the gods. And in Ephesus, she took on a completely different Persona. She represented a fertility cult. Now, to understand why she went from goddess of the hunt to goddess of sex and fertility, you have to go back to the period of the Mesopotamians in Babylon. So we're Talking now the 8th century BC the ancient Babylonians worshiped a Mesopotamian goddess called Ishtar. Ishtar was the goddess of sex and fertility. And you can read about some of the exploits in the worship of Ishtar in ancient manuscripts that have been discovered, one of which that was discovered, that dates back to the 8th century BC is a poem that was written called the Epic of Era. E R R A the Epic of Era. And in that ancient writing from the 8th century BC, it mentions Ishtar. And in the worship of Ishtar, she would. Are you ready for this? She would, quote, change men into women. She was worshiped by a group of Sumerian priests who would castrate themselves and then they would adorn themselves in women's attire and they would become effeminate in worshiping. Ishtar now advance a couple centuries later to the 6th century BC and now the Greek Empire is on the rise and they adopt Ishtar into their polytheistic worldview. But they rename Ishtar to Cybele. And Cybele retains the same type of practices that Ish Ishtar did. It was just the same sexual cult, just by a different name. And Cybele in the Greek Empire had also as her attendants priests that were called Galli. G A L L I Galli. These also were men who castrated themselves. And then they adorned themselves with women's attire, women's jewelry, women's makeup, and they even let their hair grow long and they would bleach their hair and they would serve as these transsexuals as part of the worship of Diana and Artemis and it was particularly there in Ephesus. What happened is that the worship of Cybele, because she was the predominant goddess worshiped there in ephesus in the 6th century, morphed into the worship of Artemis in the 3rd century BC. The Romans then adopted Cybele into their culture and they continued the worship. But because Cybele was considered the mother of goddesses and she was the predominant goddess figure during the Roman Empire, when they brought Diana into Ephesus, they merged the two. And that's why Diana is unique in Ephesus, unlike any other place in the ancient Roman Empire where she is adorned. Do you see the difference? If you can look at behind me, if you want to put the slide back up, she totally looks different now. Do you notice all the various. Those are not dinner rolls across her midsection. Okay, what are those? Well, she's the goddess of sex and fertility. So we have another ancient manuscript to rely on to understand what exactly is that that adorns her body. In the third century ad, there was a Christian apologist by the name of Marcus Minutius Felix who wrote a work called Octavius 22. And he wrote this quote, sometimes Artemis is a huntress with her robe girded up high. And as the Ephesian, she has many and fruitful breasts. And so what happened was the Romans merged what was the ancient worship of Ishtar to then the worship of Cybele to then Artemis, where Artemis took on the ritualistic sexual fertility rites. And she was worshiped in Ephesus with the same Galli, these men who became transsexuals in the worship of Artemis in the temple of Artemis. So this is all important to the backdrop because in Ephesus, Diana or Artemis represented this fertility cult served by transsexuals. And she was not just a patron to the people of Ephesus. She was central to their culture and civic identity. Her temple was not just a place of worship. It was a symbol of Ephesus and a source of pride across the entire Roman Empire. Her temple served to be a gathering place for perverted sexual practices. And this whole over sexualized influence and the confusion of identity and sexual identity of all was a part of the culture of Ephesus. Friends, listen, things have not changed. It's just a different name now. Okay? What Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1, verse 9 is so true. There is nothing new under the sun. It's just a different name now. We're living in the same confused culture. Full of chaos and over sexualized culture where people are confused about their own identity. And it's a carryover of the same demonic influence from Mesopotamia in the days of Ishtar, to Sibyl in the days of the Greeks, to Artemis in the days of the Romans. It's just a different name, but it's all the same spirit. And so now we have to understand this backdrop. I think that's very important because Paul comes strolling into Ephesus his first time. He came in 52 AD during his second missionary journey. He didn't stay very long. He assessed everything. He did a recon mission, he. And he came back two years later in 54 AD and he would stay there for three years and he would bring the gospel to this place. Because if there ever was a place that was ripe for the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was Ephesus. And Ephesus is not unlike our own culture. We need a revival here too. And so as Paul brings Jesus into this place of, of Ephesus, this, this very demonic, sexualized fertility cult worship with transsexuals, he brings Jesus into this community. And let me tell you, when you bring Jesus into a community like that, you're going to have one of two things. You're going to have either riot or revival. And Paul got both. And we're seeing both in our own day too. You're going to get both. Because the forces of evil, the enemy, does not like the influence of Jesus in a culture that needs Jesus. And so the enemy will rise up and incite people to do riotous things. But God is also on the move, bringing revival to hearts that need Jesus. Yes, he is. So when Paul brings Jesus into Ephesus, there's a riot and there's revival. And so I want to revisit Acts 19 with you. So you can either listen or go back a few pages to, to the left, go to Acts 19. And I want us to just be reminded if you already know this story and if you don't, well, I want us to look here into Acts 19 to see the story that led up to this riot, but also at the same time, a great revival that broke out. And so here in Acts 19, this is the account of when Paul first comes to Ephesus. With all that background in mind, you can appreciate then that when he brings Jesus into this place, it not only threatens the livelihoods of many people who have made a living off of either prostitution or selling shrines and idols of Artemis, but it also threatens their national pride. Because from Ephesus Diana was known around the world. And so Paul's coming in here preaching, Jesus, look what happens here. Acts 19, verse 23. And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the Way. Now, the Way, meaning Christianity, for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana or Artemis brought no small profit to the craftsman. Like, like, like they were. They were making bank because they were, like, promoting this idol worship of Diana, carving images, selling them all over the world. And so verse 25, he called them together, the other craftsmen, he called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul guy has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship. See, see, he's talking here about our own livelihoods are in jeopardy, but also our national pride, because everybody knows about Diana, about Artemis, because this is the central place of her worship here in this beautiful big temple in Ephesus. Verse 28. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. They're like just, you know, the mob. Now the mob is shouting. And so the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus Macedonians, Paul's travel companions. Okay, so they. They grab these two guys who are traveling with Paul. They're going to go after Paul, too. But first they're. These are the closest guys near to them. So, like, they grab them and they bring them. Where does it say there in verse 29? Into the theater. Into the theater in Ephesus. And I got to tell you, when I was there in Ephesus a few months ago with, with several of you who went on the. On the. On the tour, I was shocked to see the size of the theater that they've uncovered from the first century that the Romans built. And here's an aerial view of it. Look at this thing. It seats 25,000 people. And. And so this is what they've uncovered there in Ephesus. And you can see in. On the platform area, little tiny dots. Those are people. Those are people in the picture. And this is where they bring Aristarchus and Gaius. And. And they seize them. And this. This whole family theater fills up. You got 25,000 people who are chanting, great is Diana of the Ephesians. Let me keep reading. Verse 30. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him because. Because they knew the mob was going to attack him. And then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him, pleading that he would not venture into the theater. And some therefore cried one thing and some another. For the assembly was confused. And. And most of the. Most of them did not know why they had come together. Doesn't that sound like Congress? Yeah, get it together. Get it together. But. But you have people who. They've just kind of, like, joined the mob. And they don't even know why they're in the theater. Why. Why are we shouting? Just shout. Greatest Diana. Okay? And so they just are shouting. But half of the people don't even know why they're there. But this mob reaction, okay, this is the riot. This is the riot. This is the mob reaction to Jesus being proclaimed. Because it threatens the livelihood of people there and it threatens their national pride. Well, the 19th chapter here in Acts goes on. And eventually this official comes in and he basically dismisses the crowd. And he says, look, you know, if you guys have a bone to pick with Paul and his traveling companions, take it to the proconsul. Do it through the courts, but don't kill him here. This is not the way that we handle this. And so the mob was dispersed, and Paul would end up then leaving. But this is the end of his three years that he has spent there in Ephesus. And he leaves on the heels of this riot. But there was also revival that had broken out. And this early church is planted there in Ephesus. And so Paul leaves. But this remnant, this nucleus of believers has planted the first church in Ephesus. The I X O Y E is an indication of the presence of Christianity there in Ephesus. And here's the thing. Paul then five years later, will write back to these Christians living in Ephesus. And again, here's the reason. Because he wants them to know their identity in Christ. Cause they live in a very chaotic, confused and demonic culture. And he says, now look, you guys have to know who you are. Cause the world is gonna try to convince you with their nonsense and confusion about who you are in a different way. He says, I want you to know who you are in Christ. So you gotta get this. And this is why I love the Bible, everybody. Because this is not just an ancient story. This is so relevant for us today. We live in, in a time that is not too unlike Ephesus. The names have been changed, but the same spirit is here. And I mean that in. In demonic spirit. And I also mean the same Holy Spirit is here. And the demonic principalities are trying to do what they do in the culture to stir up lies, discord, confusion, so that we would believe things that aren't true, celebrate things that are false. But at the same time, the Holy Spirit of God is stirring and he's doing something new right now. Can you sense it? He's doing something new right now. The Holy Spirit of God is moving. But you better believe that as the Spirit of God moves, there's gonna be this continual heightened conflict with the culture that is motivated and moved by a different spirit, a demonic principality. And so what's the lesson for us? Well, it's the same lesson that Paul was communicating to the early church in Ephesus. You better know your identity and you better know who you are in Christ for two reasons, so that you can have the confidence of knowing just exactly who you are in the Lord. And number two, because the harvest is. The fields are white unto harvest, like the mission field outside the walls of the church is ripe from the Gospel. And if we don't know who we are in Christ, how will we be of any significance to the world that needs the Gospel? Paul goes into this very confused culture and he shares Christ and many get saved and many riot. And that's just the way it's going to be. But we can't avoid the riot because we're afraid to share the truth. We need people to know Jesus. So we have to know who we are in him and then share him because the world needs Him. Right? So in this first chapter, and I've already basically run out of time, but the game's not till 4:25, so it's okay. But, but I got, I gotta go through this list real quickly and I promise I'm gonna go as quickly as I can. But I want you to notice in chapter one, just in the verses we read, he says, this is your identity in Christ. And here are words that he uses. He says to all of us who are believers, you are chosen, you are loved and you are predestined, you are adopted, you are forgiven, you are saved, and you are sealed. I mean, that's a great list. And I'm going to break it down very quickly. I'm going to run through this. So the first one is chosen. He says there in verse four. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, we are chosen now. Jesus would say in John 15:16, you did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last. He chose us. Paul would write in Romans 3:11, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. Now, what does that mean? I thought we sought God. That's how people come into relationship with Jesus. No, the truth is he sought you and he bought you with his precious blood. You responded to how God initiated His pursuit of you. We are responders. God is the initiator. So he chose us. And that is remarkable because it's not as if God won the lottery when he chose us. Look down your row. But it's remarkable to think about how God loves us so much that he chose us. God stooped down and revealed Himself to us that we might respond to his love. And notice what is also staggering in this fourth verse. He chose us before the foundation of the world. Okay, now some translations say, before the creation of the world. I love Charles Spurgeon's quote on this one. He says, quote, it's a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have afterwards. Now, look, God is eternal, and yet God created time. But he also exists apart from time. He involves himself in time. He's outside time. He's unrestricted by sequential events. He's of another dimension. And so God sees past, present, and future as in the present at all times. Jesus, remember when he identified himself and he talked about himself in relation to Abraham. And he said, before, Abraham was I am. He spoke of himself in the present tense because that's how God sees things. Even in Revelation 13:8, it says that Jesus, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Now, how in the world could that be possible? I thought he was slain around 32 A.D. well, he was. But yet the Bible says he was slain from the foundation of the world. Well, because he was, you see, because in God's economy and the way that he sees things, he has one panoramic view of the world. And time is not something he's restricted by. So he sees past, present, and future in the present. And thus we were already of his choosing before the world was created. Number two. It also tells us here in this list, that we are loved. We are loved. That's the way he ends. Verse 4. We are chosen in him because we are loved. God is in love with us. Jeremiah 13: rather 31:3 God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. And in 1 John 3:1, it says, how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And later, in Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we would grasp the magnitude of the love of God. In Ephesians 3, 17, 19, he writes this. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He loves you. He loves you. Number three. Paul says, we're predestined. That's verse five, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, I'm sure that in the first century, Paul had no idea how loaded that word would be and how Christians would divide over this word predestination. There's a lot of controversy surrounding this word predestination, election, chosen. These things cause Christians some great angst. Look, are we predestined? Well, the answer is yes. The word is used right here. But does that mean that God predetermined some people to be saved and some people to be damned? Will know. And we need to interpret Scripture with scripture. In Romans 8:29, Paul writes, For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. You see, we are predestined according to the foreknowledge of God. He knows those who are his, because he knows all things. Peter would write in 1 Peter 1:2, he wrote specifically to the elect, and he said, we have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He knows those who will accept him, he knows those who will reject him. And the Bible teaches election and predestination, but that those things work in harmony with the free will of man that God has given us. So there is this tension in the Bible between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. And those things work in harmony. It seems confusing to us, but not to God. Revelation 22:17. The very last thing of the whole Bible is an invitation to whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. So God does not violate the free will that he has given us, but he knows in advance those who will choose him and those who will reject him. The main point behind the word predestined is the idea that God has a plan for your life and that he saw you and knew you before time. Also in the list is adopted. We're all adopted. Those of you who are adopted in a family, like right now, or you have adopted children, you are modeling what God does for all of us. God has no grandchildren. We are all children of his, adopted into his family through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the word that he uses here in verse five, meaning that the rights, privileges and position that have been granted to us that otherwise were not ours, were given to us because God has adopted us into his family. I know that people use this terminology when they talk about how we're all God's children, okay? But that's not really true. You're only part of God's family when you're adopted into his family. We're all God's creation. He loves everybody. But strictly speaking, to be a part of the family of God, you can only be adopted into his family through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul writes in Galatians 4. He says, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. It's a generic term. So we've been adopted. Number five on the list. We've been forgiven. Who's thankful for forgiveness? Yes. Amen. In verse 7. He writes, in verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Now John tells us in 1 John 1:8, if we say we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But then the next verse, he says, but if we confess our sins, meaning the word confess in Greek means, if I say the same thing, God does. So if I confess, if I acknowledge my condition is sinful, just like God says my condition is sinful. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise God for His forgiveness. But see, then that leads to number six on the list which is saved. And Paul mentions this in verse 13 when he says, in him, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So we are saved through faith in Him. Jesus said in Luke 19, verse 10, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He's talking about all of us, because we are all lost and on our way to hell, except for the intervention of God because of his love for us when he sent Jesus to die on a cross for us. So we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. We all need a Savior because we are all lost apart from God. But he died on a cross to save us, to rescue us from our sins. And then the last thing on the list is he seals us with the Holy Spirit. Because in verse 13 it says, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee that of our inheritance. And so look, Paul again is writing first century. This is Ephesus. Ephesus was an important port city. There was a lot of cargo that was imported and exported through Ephesus. And, and pieces of cargo as it was exported and imported would have an owner's seal on it. And the way they would seal things back in the day, this is not just for letters, this was also for merchandise. They would take seal soft wax and while it was still soft, they would put an insignia that represented the owner and that would be the seal that marked the identity of the owner of the cargo. And, and thus what God is saying through the pen of Paul here is, I've put my insignia on you. I have given you of my Holy Spirit to mark you and identify you as belonging unto me. And, and that mark of the Holy Spirit is the promise of what is to come. That's the guarantee of my promise which is to come. And thus Paul reminds us here in this chapter, we are chosen, we are loved, we are predestined, we are adopted, we are forgiven, we are saved, and we are sealed. Know your identity, Church, know your identity. And then for the glory of God, when we know who we are in Christ, we can go out into this world that needs Christ and be his ambassadors. Get ready. There will be both revival and riot. But to his praise, he will use us for his glory to advance the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word today. We thank you for who we are in Christ. The world might try to redefine us, but we know who we are, Lord. We know that we are chosen, we are loved, we are adopted, we are forgiven, we are saved, we are sealed. We have all these benefits and blessings because you have lavished upon us your goodness and your grace. May we stand confidently in knowing who we are in Christ. And may you use us like you used Paul in the city of Ephesus. Our culture is not too different, Lord, you know it. And so we want to have the same impact in our culture, too. And we know it will stir up the spiritual forces of evil. There was riot in Ephesus, but the temple of Diana is no longer there. And we pray, God, that as we go forth we might encounter the haters. But Lord, for your glory we go forth. Because we know that your Holy Spirit is sweeping across our country, reigniting a flame, Lord, that has not been lit in a long time. And we pray for a great outpouring of your Holy Spirit, great revival to turn the hearts of men and women and young people to Jesus, and that you would use us as instruments to that end. And we give you all the praise and the glory and the honor in Jesus name. And everybody said amen and amen. God bless you, everybody.