Amen.

Amen.

Thank you very much, Anna.

Well, as Anna said, we're thinking about standing firm.

Um, let me just again sort of frame what it is, uh, we're doing before we get into our topic for today.

It does seem to me that some of our, um, uh, encouragements to fight sin can operate at the level of effort.

Wow.

That then, of course... [airplane roaring] Sorry, I can't compete with that.

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.'"

Well, good evening.

It's really lovely to be with you, and it's my privilege to, uh, open up this, uh, passage, uh, for us this evening.

Um, the church, um, I was at, um, in, in Cambridge, we, we used to regularly have what we called an all-age slot, you know, k-kids kind of talk slot in the service.

And I once did one of those where I got some kids up to help me, and we had a kind of raised platform on, uh, the front.

And I got the kids to come and stand on the platform, and I said to them, the most important thing was that they stayed on the platform.

Whatever happens, don't get off the platform.

[laughs]

I'm very experienced, uh, at sinning.

Um, uh, and it's just worth perhaps beginning there.

Uh, we're talking about how we can stand firm, how we can fight Satan better, sin less.

That is, that is our topic.

That's a good topic.

We need to engage with that topic.

So I guess, uh, the whole thing we both struggle with.

Well, good morning.

Thank you.

Well done.

You're there.

We are thinking about standing firm.

So we're thinking about how Satan works in temptation and how we can then stand firm, uh, against him.

They didn't fully trust Him that they, that He had His best, that they had, that He had their best interests at heart.

Yeah.

in deadness

and so verse three we were by nature deserving of wrath And then comes the change, and it comes using the with Christ language, verse 4.

God, because of his great love, rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.

Even when we were dead, by grace we've been saved.

He raised us up with Christ, co-raised.

He seated us with him.

He co-seated us.

They're actually trying to find out

When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory.

Well, it is really, uh, wonderful to be with you and to speak on this topic of, uh, union with Christ.

We're gonna explore this from a number of different passages.

I've been asked to give a, kind of biblical basis, a theology of union with Christ.

We're gonna be coming to Ephesians one, um, in a little bit.

Uh, what I wanna do to begin with is start, um, kinda more generally, uh, and then, and then kinda gradually narrow our focus together.

I want us to begin by thinking about the concept of union with Christ.