The following resource is from desiring God.org.

Well, let's begin today and let's end today by focusing on the wonder of what it is to be vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for

glory, the riches of knowing the glory of God, or knowing the riches of the glory of God.

I want you to see this, you know, whatever we may not fully understand in these difficult verses, which we focused

on last week, whatever we may not understand fully, one thing is really clear, and that is the ultimate purpose of God, the ultimate purpose of

wrath, the ultimate purpose of power, the ultimate purpose of mercy. we know the ultimate goal and purpose and design of God in this

text and in the universe because it says so clearly in verse 23. So that's what I want us to focus on mainly this morning.

God's purpose, his ultimate purpose it says is to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy which

he prepared beforehand for glory.

So if you're a Christian this morning,

if you with your lips confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you are a vessel of mercy. That's what it means to be a Christian.

A vessel of mercy prepared beforehand for glory,

that is to know the riches of the glory of God.

So I ask you, I plead with you now.

Downtown and here, I plead with you,

open your heart to this truth. and here I plead with you.

Open your heart to this truth.

Open your heart to what it means to be a vessel of mercy prepared before the creation of the world and in many clay pounding

ways in this life to be a recipient of the full-orged knowing of the riches of the glory of God.

Prepare your heart. Open your heart to say, all right, if that's who I am, I want to receive that. I want to know and experience the fullness of what it is to be a vessel of mercy designed beforehand to know the riches

of the glory of God. Open your hearts to that as we focus on three things. One, what does it mean to be a vessel of mercy? Two, what does it mean to be prepared beforehand for glory? And third,

what does it mean to know the riches of the glory of God?

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