The Blessings of the Believer in the Heavenlies
Roger Henderson · Oct 18, 2015
Specials
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492651834909

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Vern is off on his travels and sounds like he's having fun in Poland. I've seen some emails back and forth. He's teaching there, I guess, probably today, probably already finished because they're about seven or eight hours ahead of us. So Mike and I have the next two weeks to cover.

So I'm first up. So actually, there's a topic which I've talked about in the past a little bit, which I think is just really important and exciting to understand our relationship. to our Savior and understanding our wonderful position in Him, in the heavenlies. And there's actually quite a few verses that talk about that.

And we're going to go through not all of them, but a few of them. Hopefully, they'll be encouraging. And also, we're going to see that God not only conveys the fact that we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, but He also conveys that that's where our focus is to be. And it's interesting, in this world of difficulties and trials, He tells us not necessarily to focus on the trial. He says, focus on who you are in me and the heavenlies and your relationship to me. And that's to give us comfort and encouragement.

And actually, Peter had the same message. Paul had that message. Peter had that message. And they were undergoing severe trials in their time where they were being persecuted and even dying for their faith. But the message was the same message. You have this wonderful place in Christ.

Keep your focus there. Navigate the trials and tribulations of this world So actually I have a picture that I've used in the past it kind of shows what I just kind of talked about Scripture talks about our position or who we are it uses words like in Christ or with Christ talks about our internal unchangeable place in Christ then it talks about our condition as we walk on this this earth and that condition changes, you know our things happen from day to day and Our focus is to remain in the heavenlies where we're we are We're actually going to see that that that's our home. And why wouldn't you think about home? Why wouldn't you you know as a child if you grew up maybe someplace other than Colorado? Your memories are still at home. You still remember back to when you were a child and in a way God is telling us keep your keep your mind focused on your who you are and where you've come from don't get distracted by the things of this world and Okay, so actually I kind of have a little outline here for the first section.

First of all, the position I'm going to talk about may be in four areas. First of all, the blessings we have in heavenly places. And I'm going to talk about our citizenship in heaven. What's interesting is we have a citizenship here in this country, but our citizenship in heaven is so much more important and so much more valuable to us. And also we have a hope laid out for ourselves in heaven. And then lastly, we have an inheritance.

And this isn't an exhaustive list. There are more I could add to this, but this is certainly more than we can probably handle in one morning. So hopefully you'll be amazed, too. So let's start with the first verse that was read. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. And notice – I'm not going to spend a lot of time, but notice – actually I went through this with Vani last night and with Ryan too. And one of the comments Vani has is, well, Roger, explain about that plural places.

And actually, I wasn't really prepared for that comment. Of course, your wife always asks those comments, which you can't ever answer. And if you answer them, they're never to her satisfaction. I'm sorry. I apologize for that. She's your hardest critic. If you can answer her questions, you're doing well.

So anyway, I thought about that. And actually, I looked a little bit more. And heavenly places is used across a wide variety of, it talks about principalities and powers in heavenly places. So there's actually a broad description of heavenly places. But the focus this morning is going to be the abode of God, the third heaven where Paul was caught up into. And that's where we are. We are with our Savior. We're at his right hand, seated with Christ in the heavenlies. It's a plural place, there's more, but we're focused on the abode of God, and that's where we are, and that's a wonderful place to be. Where else would you want to be than with your Savior? So anyway, let's just go on here. the God and Father has blessed us.

And this is just not for some believers, not just for the ones that get up here and talk, or the ones that teach Sunday school, or the ones that you think are super spiritual. It's for every single believer, whether they really understand this verse or not. Maybe they've never even read this verse, or never even understood this verse. This verse is for all believers.

And then secondly, you don't get some, you know, I'm going to give you some of my blessings. No, you get them all. And that's that word Pass I think in the Greek it means all none excluded. There's no exclusions every every spirit every single spiritual blessing There is you have so that's another wonderful thing.

So So what are some of these blessings, you know, we actually have some classes in Sunday school that we go through the listing actually we typically use the riches of God's grace from dr. Schaefer and Chaffer and and actually I listed some of those just as a small and this is an eye chart for you guys, engineers and folks.

So, you know, what you do is when you have a presentation and you want to impress people, you get the smallest possible font you can put on the screen and that people can't read it. And you can be really smart because you know what it says, but they don't. So that's not quite this situation. Hopefully you can read some of this. Okay, so we're, well, yeah, there you go. Actually, that's not too bad, right? Can anybody read that? Okay. All right.

So, first of all, we're redeemed. We're wonderfully redeemed. We're reconciled. We're forgiven all trespasses. We're justified, declared righteous. We're made near. This is one that I always, actually some of the modern translations, modernizing, you know, new American standards, don't exactly bring it across that way. But made near, I think, really brings across the concept of that we were far off. We were far off before we knew Christ. Now we've been made near by the blood of Christ. We've been delivered from the power of darkness. We've been translated in the kingdom of the son of his love, or literally of his beloved son.

Next we've we're on the rock Christ Jesus We're a gift. This one always just blows my circuit. So I think of myself. I'm a gift I mean, I look at myself and I said wow, I'm a gift from God the Father to God the Son I'm so special that God sees me as a that the father sees me as a gift to give his son and I think wow, I Don't deserve any of that. I how am I a gift? It just is just incredible and then we're glorified and Then we're complete in him. There's nothing left There's no more we can do. We can't improve ourselves. We can't add to what he's already done. He's done it all. This is only 11 of the 33 that are out there. So if you have a chance, go back and look at some of your notes from the previous times. And there's just a wonderful list here. Okay, so let's just go back to our verse here.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and look at the location the location of these blessings isn't here on earth We're not looking for a new a new car in the driveway or a new iPhone or whatever it might be whatever the world has out there We're not looking for those kind of blessing these blessings are what I just read there are things that are eternal and they're located Where we're going to see shortly where we are so what is meant by heavenly places and I kind of actually already kind of I talked about that a little bit. Actually, I think the second part of the verse that zooms in on the particular location, it says, is where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

And that's from Ephesians 1.20. So Christ is in heavenly places, and He's seated at the right hand of the Father. And we're going to see some other verses where in Him, and we're seated We're seated as well with Him. So we're there with Him. There's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we're seated with Christ in the same place. And we're in Christ, and that's why we're there.

Okay, so now the second verse, and I have kind of an abridged version here. But God, being rich in His mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus you know very similar phraseology to what we saw in the in the Ephesians and the 120 passage I didn't only quoted part of that but again because of God's great love you know his great love always God's love always has action he doesn't say I just love you he his Action is always behind that. And action in saving us, action in giving us these spiritual blessings, action in so many ways. He made us alive. If you look at scripture, it talks about the unsaved. They're dead. They're not alive. They're dead in trespasses and sins. But we've now been made alive.

And we were co-raised with Christ, co-seeded. And look at where we are. We're with Christ. You know, we're going to see here that we're both in Christ and with Christ, which I think is kind of two different words. In Christ and with Christ. And that kind of reminded me of in John. John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now we're obviously not God, but we're in Him, and we're with Him. So it kind of distinguishes. We're a distinct entity, but we're in our Savior and with our Savior, which is kind of mind-boggling. And it's in these, again, heavenly places. This particular part is where the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are at. And we're in Christ Jesus. We're in this living union with God our Savior, never to be separated. That's that transaction that happens when we believe.

It can't be reversed. And who's maintaining that relationship? God is maintaining that relationship. We're not maintaining that. We're not holding ourselves or keeping ourselves saved. He is doing that. He is maintaining that relationship. And that can't be undone. Okay, now I kind of switched to a little different format here again. And so here's the next verse I want to talk about.

This is about our citizenship. For our citizenship, is in heaven. So once again, we're focused on heaven. We're going to look at our citizenship, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I get into this, just look at the place we're waiting. Let's say I'm waiting from Denver, Colorado. Am I waiting from wherever? Am I waiting from this earth? It says we're waiting from heaven. I mean, that's another one of those things you think, wow, I'm waiting from heaven. How does that work? Well, if that's my home, if that's who I really am, why wouldn't I wait from home? Why wouldn't I wait? I would wait from where I am, where I belong. So we'll come back to that in just a second.

So first of all, this word citizenship. It actually comes from the word for politics. It signifies the condition or life of a citizen or citizenship. And I like how he renders it. He renders it the commonwealth of which we are citizens. So that commonwealth is these heavenly places. And then what's interesting is we have a little different word for is, which maybe is a little nit here. And so actually, I put down both.

Is normally is this word amy, which is the verb of status quo, the state in which something continually exists. This is a slightly different Greek word. And this word is to be in existence. And it has the idea of a condition of both previous to the circumstances and continuing after. So I thought of that as being a condition of permanence. It really adds a little bit different flavor to that.

So we're in this, we're a citizen. Our citizenship is in a permanent place in heaven Okay, so and Also, and so now like I said, we're waiting from heaven right from which we eagerly wait for our Savior and this eagerly wait is the idea to to await or expect eagerly and And I have a couple of verses here.

In Romans 8.19 it says, this talks about creation, for the anxious longings of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. And then in 8.23, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our body. So we're waiting with anticipation.

So what I like many times, I'm really a big fan of Kenneth Wiest. And he has a translation of the New Testament. And so this is his translation for this verse. And he pulls in some of the definitions we just saw. He likes to pull in the original Greek and the tenses of the verbs and stuff like that.

So he renders this verse, Philippians 2.20, as follows.

For the commonwealth of which we are citizens, has its fixed location in heaven, out from which we, with our attention withdrawn from all else, are eagerly awaiting to welcome the Savior, Jesus Christ." I think that's just marvelous. So we've looked at two things so far. We looked at our... We're in the heavenlies. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And now we looked at our citizenship. And after I take a sip here, we'll look at one more, another thing. Okay.

So the next one is in Colossians 1 5, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. So in this verse, it talks about, we have this hope, which is laid up for us and hope is this thing. And in scripture, it's always important to remember that hope is not the way we use hope. We use hope many times. I hope it doesn't rain or I hope I do better, or I hope I, You know, get home on time. This hope, since God is the author of it, is an absolute certainty, because He's promised it. So He says, because of the absolute certainty laid up for you in heaven. That's how it would be rendered. And laid up is to be laid away.

And it's used in Timothy here, in 2 Timothy 4.8.

And it says, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. In addition to having something presently right now being seeded with him in the heavenlies and being a citizen of heaven, a heavenly citizenship, we have things that are planned for the future as well. And this is one of those. We have a hope laid out for us. And it's for you in the heavens or in the heavenlies. And then the last one of this group here is in 1 Peter. to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you."

And actually, if you go back, you'll see that this inheritance that's being spoken of here, this inheritance is called by Peter in the previous verse, a living hope. So we have, you know, we had a hope before. This is a little bit, a living hope. This inheritance is a living hope the believer now possesses. And this hope has three aspects in this verse.

The first aspect is that it's imperishable. And the idea there is that it's not liable to corruption or decay. And then the second idea, it's undefiled, free from contamination. And then the fourth one is that it will not fade away. So three things. It's imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away.

And it's reserved or guarded, preserved, in heaven for you. You know, what I liked is the fact that we saw that in various places in these verses here. We saw that something is in heaven for us and it says, I kind of envision this as it's in heaven, it says it's for you.

So it's like there's a box there marked with my name on it. It's for me. That's for me. Like you might go to a person's house and there's a box with your name on it. Well, these wonderful promises are reserved and it's for you. It's for each believer.

Okay, so far we've looked at just basically information or promises or God's Word that describes what we have in the heavenlies. And we went through those four aspects. We looked at that we're seated with Him in the heavenlies, that we have a citizenship in heaven, that we have a hope laid up in heaven, and then we have an inheritance. But now we're going to see, in this last part here, we're going to see where is our focus to be? And I kind of alluded to that at the very beginning of this. Where's our focus to be? And these verses here, or these set of verses, are going to answer that question, I believe. OK. So Colossians 3, 1 through 5. I say 1 through 5, and I have 1 through 4 as a typo there. OK.

Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above. not on things of the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

Okay, so we're going to kind of step through these verses here, and this is going to give us a focus. This is going to give us a focus for how we're to look at our heavenly blessings. So first of all, It says therefore and that's based upon what what went previously in Colossians there The first if there, you know in the Greek there's there's several kinds of if and this is a one that is assumed to be true or in view of the fact so in view of the fact That you have been raised up with Christ and we've already kind of covered that territory a little bit So I'm just kind of repeating this, you know what we've covered a little bit before here and that's a statement of fact That's the truth. You've been raised up with Christ and then I just quote the verse we just did previous to this. God raises up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Okay, so that's the first piece of information. So now, based upon that piece of information, he's going to give us a focus here.

So the first focus is keep seeking the things above. And the idea of keep seeking here is the idea to strive after with the idea of earnestness. I might not be sure exactly where I picked up this little phrase, but as I went through to study different people looking at this verse, but it's to track down who you are. I thought that's kind of cool.

In a way, that's kind of what we're about when we're studying God's Word. We're finding out about ourselves and finding out about ourselves in relation to our Savior. What He has done and what He has done on our behalf and how we're to respond to that. And the response that we see consistently throughout scripture is that our part is faith, is trust, is belief. It's the same idea. That's the same response we have of God's actions on our behalf, is to believe Him, trust Him. And that's what He asks us to do.

So we're going to see this seeking as part of that whole process. We're tracking down of who you are, which is kind of a cool phrase. So actually, in Matthew, it talks about the word up. This is kind of another occurrence of the word for seeking. And it basically says, the familiar verse in Matthew 6.33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So the question is, why keep seeking? Why don't we just say, yeah, I got that.

I read that. I've heard people say, well, I read the Bible. I read that book. Done. Close it up. I'm done with that. God says we're to keep seeking. We're to keep understanding. And we're to keep seeking the things above. So the question comes down to this. Actually, let's kind of go back. Let's just go back for a second here and think about this keep seeking. It kind of goes back to What are we seeking?

We're seeking a person, right? We're seeking our Savior. We're seeking to know Him. That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. So that all kind of wraps into why we keep seeking Him. And then the object here is keep seeking the things above.

So the question comes down to what are the things above? So when Bonnie and I went through this at home, What are the things above? Well, I cleverly in this chart had kind of avoided it initially. I said, well, what are the things above? I said, well, see part C of the verse. So she didn't like that. I delayed it. I said, well, we're going to do it later. I've forgotten why I did that, actually.

Anyway, I know why. I know why. I know why. Because actually, if you look at the verse, I've chopped this verse up, maybe I lose context here possibly, but this is the B part, keep seeking the things above, and the next part is going to tell us where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

So that's very important in understanding what are these things. What are the things above? Because we're seeking the things above, and the things above relate to where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So just by deduction, well, they have to do something with Christ, right? Because the things above are where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So that's where he is. I want to keep focused on him. Okay, so we're going to answer this question.

Well, he's seated at the right hand of God. So the right hand of God, you know, you think about that in scripture, like in the Old Testament, it says in Psalm 110 in verse one, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So the right hand was where where Christ, where God the Father says, sit here. This is where you'll sit.

And it's a place of honor. It's a place of power and authority. What's amazing is we're seated with Christ right there at that same spot, which kind of boggles my mind. So that's important. So the right hand of God. And the fact that we're seated, too, is also the fact that, in terms of Christ, that his work is completed.

So now, what are the things above? So I believe, you know, looking at the fact that the things are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, I think I see two aspects here. First of all, who Christ is. That's part of the things above. And you think about, well, Who Christ is? Well, there's two parts to that.

There's his person and his work. His person is that he's God. He's righteous, he's holy, he's just. There's a whole list of the attributes of God. And Christ fulfills all those. And his work. He died on the cross for the sins of the world. He died to separate us from our sin nature.

And it could go on. So there's a person of Christ, who he is, and what he's accomplished. That's part one of the things above. And part two, is our relationship to that, who we are in Him. And that comes down, first of all, there's this living union we have with Him. We're in Him. We're with Him. And then the riches of His grace, which we kind of went through at the beginning of this. So I see those two parts, and maybe there's more, but this is kind of what I kind of came up with going through this, is that the things above relate to the person of Christ and His work and who we are in Him. our union with Him, and the riches He's bestowed upon us. That's the things, you know, that's the things above. That's the things that we're to focus on.

Okay. So, if you're kind of tracking with me here, you'll see that we first said, we first said, keep seeking the things above. So now we're going to switch in verse 2. It's going to say, set your mind. So it's like a process. You're seeking, and then you're setting your mind. It's like a two-step process that's going on here. So this is literally to think about. The idea is to direct one's mind. And then a passage in Romans kind of helps here, in terms of setting your mind.

Romans 8.5, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So we're going to see a tension here or a contrast. We're going to see that we're to set our minds on the things above and we're going to see...

The second part of the verse is not on the things of the earth. So there's a focus or there's a positive and a negative. We're to keep our focus on Him and not focus on the things of the earth. And it kind of comes back to the original question about why does God want us to keep our our focus in the heavenlies. When I first became a believer, I heard this expression. I probably won't be able to repeat it exactly here. It's basically, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good.

Has anyone heard of that? Raise your hands. You know, that's absolutely wrong. Flat out wrong. Because, I mean, you could argue, okay, if he goes off in a corner and becomes a monk, that might be a problem. But what this verse says is just the opposite of that.

It says, set your mind on things above. Seek things above. And then you'll be of value. But then you'll know who you are and what you're doing. So it's just the opposite of that thing I learned as a young Christian. It's just absolutely opposite to that. So, you know, cross it out of your notes, wherever you have.

Set your mind on things above. That's where you want to be. So the object of the things above. And I kind of mentioned the tension here between, not tension, but the process, seeking, and then setting your mind. Two-step process. Okay. And so here's the negative part of that. Not on things of the earth. Not setting your mind on things of the earth. And let's see. And Philippians talks about that.

Philippians 3.19 talks about who set their minds on the earthly things.

And that's kind of the idea that... Actually, let me just read that. I actually have that down, the full verse here, because it makes it a little more... puts it more in context. So this is kind of a pretty negative verse. It kind of breaks into a thought here.

It says, whose end is destructions, whose God is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. So what scripture points out is the fact that we kind of know this, you get wrapped up in the things of this world and that's not going to help you in your Christian life. It's going to be a negative. It's not going to help you. But what's going to help you is by focusing on who God is and who you are in Him. That's what's going to help you.

Another contrast we have here, the things above and the things on earth. I saw that in two aspects. One is just the And there's probably more. One aspect is the fact that the world has lots of things, there are lots of toys in the world, lots of things to attract your attention.

And so that's the things of the earth, and that can distract you from the things above. And I also thought, and Peter points this out, trials and difficulties can distract you from him as well, because they can take you away from him, because they're distracting you as well. So you can be distracted by by things that you think are cool, or you can be distracted by difficulties in trials.

We're studying 1 Peter in our Sunday school class, and 1 Peter is constantly reminding the believers there to keep their focus The heavenlies and as he doesn't say that his knew that phraseology But he's saying look at what you'll have what you have when you go to be with the Lord look at your eternal blessings With God his focus is constantly that and they're undergoing severe trials and temptations. Yeah, they have false teachers Nero's, you know has them in their his garden and burning them, you know, it's a terrible place But his focus is on the heavenlies. So there's another wonderful example from Scripture of why we need to be heavenly focused and on the things above.

So the rest of the verse kind of gives, you know, it says, for you have died, and basically it's going to point out the fact that the reason you can keep your heavenly focus is because you're now a new person. For you have died, that's a past point fact. Why did you die? You died to be separated from your sin nature. And when did you die? You died when you trusted Christ as your Savior. So you died or you were separated from your sin nature.

So that's why you can have that focus. That's why that focus can be important and meaningful. And this last part I really love. And your life is hidden with Christ and God. And I always say, boy, reading through that, it always just kind of intrigued me.

So you start looking at your life as hidden. So what life? What life is hidden? Well, it has to be your new life in Christ because if my life is hidden with I'm with my Savior The only life that is compatible with that is my new life in Christ my resurrected life No other life would be compatible with that And what does hidden mean? So I have a little graphic here of your life is hidden and we're it actually means to cover up or to be hidden in something So I think it's such a wonderful You know we talk about being in Christ, but this is kind of the flip side of that We're we're covered up by God.

God is covering us up. He's holding us just like you might hold a child And it's really really comforting and encouraging With Christ in God and then John 17, you know talks about that I'm not going to read all of John 17, you know in those verses but you know just parts in there like in the in verse 21 and John 17 it talks about a that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, that when they be in us, so the world may know that you sent me. And then verse 2 talks about they may be one, just as we are one. And verse 23 talks about I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity. So this oneness with our Savior, this oneness of being hidden with Christ in God, Notice it's always, whenever we're with God, Christ is always with us.

Isn't that incredible? Think about that. So you think, I'm going off to heaven. Great. Fantastic. But I'm not by myself. I'm always with Christ. I'm in Christ. I'm with him. I mean, that's just, wow. I got the one who loved me the most possible, and he's with me all the time. I mean, that's just beyond imagination. Okay.

When Christ, who is our life... Christ, the life of you. How do we know that Christ is our life? Well, there's a ton of verses that talk to us about that. And one of my favorites is Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So that's how I know, because scripture tells me Christ is my life. And Philippians has a couple other ones. Philippians says, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.

And then it says, in the B part of this, it talks about a fact in a future time being revealed with you, revealed with Christ. Christ is revealed when? I think it comes in power and great glory, and we'll be with him. And Revelation talks about we'll come in the armies of heaven.

But I'd like to kind of close here by just kind of going through and just repeating, just summarizing where we've been. So the first part was kind of the facts. Give me the facts. The facts are the believer is in the heavenly position. He's in heavenly places in Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven. We have a hope laid up for us in heaven, and we have an inheritance reserved in heaven for you.

And then based upon that information, based upon that information, we're to do something with that information. And the believer's focus is to be, you know, I found this different, I could say from heaven, or I could say in heaven. Either one I think applies. We're to have a heavenly focus.

And the first part is seeking the things above. We're seeking a person. We're not just seeking You know, some have said, you know, I'm seeking the streets of gold. I'm seeking the sea angels. I'm seeking, you know, whatever it is. And all that's wonderful, but we're seeking a person because we're going to be with that person for all... He's going to be with us 24-7. It won't be 24-7 then, but it'll be eternity. But he'll be with us all the time. So we're seeking a person.

And then based on what we're seeking, we're deliberately setting our minds. And I'm thinking, boy, that's important, you know, because my mind can go off on all kinds of different things. I can go off on, you know, all the things of this world. But he says, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. So that's where our focus is to be. So we have the facts and the focus.

All right, well, let's close in prayer then. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord Jesus. We thank you for the The many blessings we have, we thank you that we'll be with you for all eternity. There'll never be a moment we'll not be with you. We thank you that we'll be seated, we are seated with you in heavenly places in our Savior. And we're waiting, we're waiting for you from that place, Lord. And we thank you so much for that. We ask it in your name. Amen.