Blessed In Christ - Ephesians 1:1-13

You can be “blessed” in a hundred surface-level ways and still feel empty when the week gets hard. We go straight to Ephesians 1 and camp on the phrase that keeps repeating for a reason: in Christ. That’s where Christian identity gets solid, where shame loses its grip, and where hope stops being wishful thinking and becomes a promise you can stand on.

We also zoom out to why church can’t be a solo project. A body works because it stays connected, and the Christian walk grows best when we worship together, pray together, and keep showing up for each other. From Paul’s prison setting to his relentless prayer for wisdom and spiritual sight, we trace how a real relationship with God forms in everyday life, not just in a sanctuary. Prayer without ceasing becomes practical when you start turning ordinary moments into honest conversation with the Lord.

Then we unpack the blessings Paul names for believers: chosen before the foundation of the world, made holy and without blame, adopted into God’s family, redeemed through Jesus’ blood, forgiven by grace, brought into unity, and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. We talk about what those words mean when you’re carrying regret, trying to forgive, or wondering what your life is for.

If you need steadiness, peace, and a clearer sense of who you are, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review that tells us which “in Christ” blessing hit you hardest.

Transcript

Why You Need The Church Body

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This week and God is calling you to do, you want to know that somebody's in your corner, right? Someone's with you. The Lord Jesus Himself never sent anyone out on the battlefield alone. And I meet up with so many people, it's like, yeah, I do church in my living room or out in the woods. And I'm like, can't really do that because church is a body of believers. And if your finger is over here and your hand is over there, that's not a good thing. One preacher said it's kind of gross, actually. So don't do that. Don't be that one. Come together and join us tonight at seven, and you will uh walk away saying, It was good to be in the house of the Lord. Thank

Worship Thanks And A Higher View

SPEAKER_00 0:38

you, uh, worship team. You brought us into the Lord's presence with your gifts of music, singing, strings. I saw Brother Tom going at it on that bass guitar. And even with the the two strings, the drummer, right? He's got he's got two going, and he was praising the Lord with his drumsticks this morning. Thank you guys. I really appreciate that.

Starting Ephesians And The Phrase In Christ

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I was um brought up to a different place. Uh the Jews have uh three concepts of heaven, right? There's uh the heavenly place, like above the earth, and then there's uh another domain with the stars and the uh the moon and the planets, and then there's a third heaven, which is the place of God's abode, as they see it in the uh Jewish uh writings. But uh the apostle talks about being drawn up into that third heaven at times, and this is the place uh where we are changed. So uh today we're planning to begin a uh a trip through the book of Ephesians together. So if you know where that is in your Bible, it is one of the uh prison epistles of the Apostle Paul, and we'll try to start with chapter one. Uh a while back, or I'm sorry, we we uh first wanted to do just a brief overview of the book, uh, just a few important takeaways uh from chapter one today, and then uh we'll see that there's this list of uh blessings that come to those who are quote in Christ. So uh the title today is Blessed Believers in Christ, and that's the key phrase, because we can be blessed in many ways in this life, but when we are in him, as the Bible tells us, when we are baptized into Christ Jesus, our old flesh is now dead. We are walking as a new person in him, and then all these great blessings come to us just because of who he is, right, and where we are now with him. Uh we did a series way back called the 32 blessings of people in Christ, meaning believers, those of faith in him, uh, who are walking in the spirit and not in the flesh. Um so today we're gonna actually see in chapter one alone, there are at least ten different things mentioned about believers in Christ. Sometimes it'll say in him or in himself, but it refers to the same one that we're talking to and talking about today. So if one of those jumps out at you today, I'd like you to kind of jot that down on your note sheet and carry that with you this week as you're going through your day, through the things and the challenges and the people that God puts in your path. Maybe you're gonna find one of these blessings really helps you. Uh I know I have found great solace in knowing who I am in him, the new creature. Uh so let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, uh, we thank you for sending your perfect Son Jesus, the one who died on the cross for our sins. We thank you that He, the eternal Word, uh, has brought to us not just Himself, but all that He says, all of His truth, so that we can live in such a different way in Him. Please open our spiritual eyes today, each and every one of us, Lord, to behold You and to see you in the pages of your beautiful word today. And I ask, Lord, that you would transform us each from the inside out, so that we would bear much fruit for you, for your kingdom, some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundredfold according to your promise in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Conference Takeaways And People Pleasing

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Uh, we just uh went to a big church conference last week, and uh unfortunately we dragged with us a bunch of church leaders here at CBC. So I want to thank all the folks back there who were holding down the fort and uh stayed here and took took care of uh God's work here at CBC. I wasn't planning to go initially, but I'm like, you know what, my whole team is gonna be down there. I'd better find out what they're learning so I can be on the same uh ship, the same boat with them. And we had a blessed time not only at the conference in Texas, but with the group that came along from CBC. Someone to a youth conference a couple days earlier and then stuck around later for the leadership conference. And uh one of my big takeaways, I went to the uh the people pleasing class, you know, where you learn how to please God and not just people, right? And in you know, pleasing God sometimes he calls you to work with people, which is my job pretty much. But I thought it was pretty funny because uh there were about 400 people in the class. I was like, wow, that was astounding. I thought I was the only people pleaser around. The only problem was none of us could get into the classroom because everyone was saying, after you. No, after you, after you. And then I went to the uh the like the better listening class and nobody said a word. The whole class. Just kidding. So you should have been with us though. We did have some glorious times, right? A fellowship as well. Uh chowing down on what they always had, either Tex Mex or barbecue. That's what you get down there. I personally ate a uh on the menu it said fresh green peppers. So I took a big bite of a big green pepper, it was about this long. I ate the whole thing, one bite. By the time it was going down my throat, I realized this was no ordinary pepper. This was a green jalapeno pepper with all the seeds still in there. And as a lady was sharing her ear, you know, tear-jerking story, I was crying like a baby, and she thought I was just I said no, I was dying over here, and you guys didn't even know it. I could have died right before your eyes. I was stuffing down pita pockets like they were going out of style. And they go, We we just thought you were really hungry, Pastor. Oh my word. So that was my yeah. If you go to Texas, be careful when it says green peppers, they might be different than the ones you're used to.

Ephesians Background And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Um brief overview. Yeah, I promised a very brief overview. Uh Ephesians, uh, one of the, I believe, four prison epistles. Why? Because they were written from a jail cell, and that brings significance to the words as you read them. Like, wow, this guy actually wrote this while he was in chains or he was in bondage, or in certain places he was held uh you know, beyond his own ability. He could not leave, so he was under lock and key, had Roman soldiers visiting him daily, and he saw it as an opportunity to witness to some uh blue-collar guys who really understood what leadership was all about. And so uh the apostle Paul also wrote the uh letter to the Philippians, the Colossians, and a little book named Philemon uh from a Roman jail cell, along with this uh passage to the Ephesians. Just six chapters. I went through and boy, tons of allusions to different things. This is uh the place now called Turkey, uh the land of Ephesus, an important Roman city. Uh it was very important to the Roman Empire because it was a very affluent community, a lot of trade going on there, brought in a lot of uh funds for the Empire. But this letter is one of the few of the epistles that, although it marks the Ephesians as the directed audience, it never really mentions the folks there by name as some of the other epistles, which were primarily directed for situations or problems in that church. This one was what some call a circular letter, so it went around to different churches and they all got to read these these words of the Apostle Paul to the believers and to those in Christ, as we'll see in just a second. But as we walk through uh these six chapters together in the next few weeks, we will see many references to the church of Jesus Christ. These are some of the highlights that you might want to touch on in your own Bible if you mark yours up the way I do. Uh, number two, to the family, which is another one of God's uh great organisms, right, that he designed back in the Garden of Eden. And uh thirdly, uh Paul's random way of just touching on spiritual advice for his uh children in the faith, as we I guess could call ourselves. If this was a circular letter, it's still circulating today. And it's right here uh at CBC this morning. So maybe God's saying something personal to you. And I'll try to pause briefly at certain moments just to give you opportunity to say, okay, how does that challenge me in my uh sphere, in my world, the people that I interact

Praying Without Ceasing In Real Life

SPEAKER_00 9:19

with? Uh the key passage for today comes from verse 15 of chapter 1 and following, and it says, No, this is this is Paul talking about his prayer life, which is a central part of any Christian walk and life, is that connection with the Most High. You cannot be in Christ if you don't even realize he's in you, right? And you can speak to him at any moment, any time, and he's always there, and he never says, sorry, I'm busy, let me put you on hold for a second, right? Isn't that amazing the God of the universe has time for me? You're saying, Yeah, that's right, Pastor. It's really odd that he would have time for you. I'm saying, all of us, right? We can all speak to him. Uh, yesterday I was walking out of the bank and just talking basketball with some guy, and then all of a sudden he's like, Well, what do you do? And I said, Well, I'm a pastor. And then before we left that parking lot, we were talking about prayer and how important it is to speak to God uh. He said, Well, I pray in the morning, and then sometimes I'll even pray once in the afternoon. I'm like, ooh, that's a great start, Burrow. I said, but you're about to pull onto Oaklawn Avenue. It's gonna take you five minutes just to get onto that street because the cars are going way over the speed limit. I said, It might be good to kind of breathe out some prayers along the way, right? Pray always, pray without ceasing. And he was like, ooh. I said, you know, he can hear every prayer. He can hear you, and he is with you. I said, when you get to heaven, you want to make sure he knows who you are. And then I told him, he's not a man with not a lot of hair. I said, he knows how many hairs are on your head. But he might say, I don't know you because you don't know him, right? You're not talking with him uh constantly, continuously. You're not relating to him in a personal way, and you have no relationship with him. But he said, I do pray, Lord, forgive me my sins. And I said, That's a great start. I said, and he said after that, as I forgive the sins of others against me, right? And he's like, hmm. He goes, You are different, aren't you? And then he hopped in his truck and he drove away. I don't know. We had a whole sermon there in the parking lot of the bank, but um this this idea of praying without ceasing, here it is, Ephesians 1 15. Therefore I, the Apostle Paul, also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, uh, he says, and your love for all the saints. And I think this is where we come in, right? And those who are following after Christ, uh, a crazy name for us, right? In uh one church that I know of, they say you're only a saint if we tell you you are. But the Bible doesn't declare it that way, right? All those who trust and believe in Jesus fully with their own heart become uh a member of that category, uh the saints of the Most High God. Uh doesn't mean we're righteous in our own filthy rags, but in his righteous robes we are, uh the saints of the Lord. He said, When I hear about your faith and your love, right? He said, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Paul was remembering them all the time. Now these were part of the people of a church plant, right? He so he founded a lot of churches along his way, and he would write these letters back to them just to see how they were doing, you know. This is like a spiritual checkup, right? How are you guys doing? Now I'm hearing good things about you. You're right, your faith is starting to spread to the community at large, and your love is being spoken of, and it's getting back to my ears, and I'm not even in Ephesus right now. So he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of Wisdom. He speaks of uh the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, and the Spirit. Uh all in one little capsulized verse there. Uh the Godhead is involved in this process, apparently. But here's what Paul is going to pray for them. And he I think he prays that for all the saints as well. Uh it says that he may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Like I said, that relationship is really important. Do we know him? Do we know who he is? Do we know what he is like? Have we examined his characteristics at all? You know, to even know, well, if I do this, he will be pleased, or maybe he will not. We can find that those things out by reading what his will is in the word. It says, secondly, in verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, just like we prayed this morning before opening this word, this passage, that God would not just open our physical eyes to read the screen, but our spiritual eyes to open our hearts to what is God saying to us. And when He reveals something to you, uh your life will not be the same, right? That's where the change occurs. Once you see something, it's kind of hard to unsee it, isn't it? Right? When it's especially if it's something amazing, wonderful, or miraculous, let's not forget. You know, that's kind of the preacher's job. Peter says, you know, I know you know these things, but I'm gonna remind you of them, and I'm gonna do it over and over because uh that's what call God has called me to do. Uh, but you can remind yourself in his word, we sang this morning, uh, right, encouraging ourselves in the Lord. We can be lifted to a different place just by focusing on the one who is in that place, and uh says that you may know what is the hope of his calling. And and Paul goes on to outlay what is what are some of these things we hope for in him. What are we called to as Christians, as saints of the Most High? And what are the riches of the glory of his, he calls it, inheritance in the saints. You know, when you become a child of God, you're an adopted son or daughter in him, and now you already automatically have a royal inheritance, like unto Jesus Himself, right? Who was the firstborn among the dead, right? Who came to life by the spirit of power, right? His own power. And now he lives and reigns, and he is a king, and kings have stuff, like they have domain, they have uh rulership over many things, and in fact, everything, as we'll see in the writings of Paul as well, everything is under his feet eventually, right? Uh even Satan himself, right, who who will be cast out, uh, is in the control of the mighty one. Someone say amen to that. So, what is the glory of the riches of your inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe? Right? That's a key phrase too, to those who are putting their faith and trust in him, not just saying you know him or you know about him. The Bible says, you know, the demons say that, but they don't have any relationship with him, right? They're against him. They're actually they want to know what he's doing so they can fight against it, right? Pray and trust that no one in here is doing that. But I tell folks often in every church service where God is moving, Satan's in the back door trying to get in, right? He's trying to take people down, and he might be waiting for you as you go out. So go with God, right? Don't just come here and visit him for one hour, right? Bring him with you when you go home. He is our rear guard, right? He's our forward protection, he's all around us, he's within us, and guess what? We are in him. That's beautiful. That's called unity, right there. And and it is by ascension, it's by what we understand, what we believe, but it's also what we stand on, right? And if you claim it, you know he said it. Uh it's his word we're standing on, right? He is the truth. And we just said in our Sunday school class, little plug for Brother Randy, if God says it, it is true. Right? Did he not say, Let there be light? And what happened? Right? So if God says it's true, you can count on it day and night, anytime. Uh believers need to have spiritual eyes. Opening, we need to have understanding, as Paul is praying for all the churches here, I believe, not just Ephesus, and all the people of God and all the saints of God, that our eyes would be opened to what the knowledge of God with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, meaning God speaks to our hearts and reveals to us what is true and what is false. And I believe today that's why churches all around here are growing. Because we hear words that are not true, that are greatly false, and we want to know the difference, right? I want to know what to stake my life on. Jesus said, if you stake it on my word, uh you plant your uh house on this, your life on this rock, when the storms come, when the difficulties hit, you will be considered a wise person because your house will not fall down, right? Your life will not collapse as we see many are collapsing today. Why? Because they're building their house on sand, which is something other than the word of God. So if we need to know God's word, we need to hang around God's people, and we need to listen to when God's word is being brought forth. Go to those Bible studies at 10 a.m. We dig into some deeper stuff. Sometimes it takes us a whole week to get through three questions, you know, but there that's because there's some deep discussion, QA going on, and that's where you need to be. If you don't know God's word in here, uh you need to get busy, right? Start moving in that direction. Paul explains that the hope of God's calling is in these next few verses,

Every Spiritual Blessing For Believers

SPEAKER_00 19:15

I believe. He's just gonna list like ten of them for us. So I'm gonna do this kind of like bullet style, but I'll pause after each one just to give you a chance. Is this the one that you really need to know about today? Maybe you need to jot that down and remember that as you leave this place. Ephesians 1 3. I'll jump right into the third verse first. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, that's our title today, blessed believers in Christ. Blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And here's the key phrase, in Christ. Right? You can be blessed for a lot of things in your life. I do believe even if you're an atheist or a pagan and you you take a principle from God's word and you apply it in your life, it could possibly come true, you know, like uh certain proverbs or whatever that are just true because they're true, and God said them. And if you follow that truth, it will actually bring a some sort of blessing to your life. But how much greater to have all spiritual blessings, right? Things that go beyond this planet and this life. You know, someone said, Well, what about in 100 years from now, right? That's a good question to ask. Before you plan out your top three things to do every day, which one of those top three is eternal? Right? Does it have to do with an eternal soul or an eternal purpose, right? That you're doing this. And it could be literally, we said this morning, taking out the trash so that when people come into church, they don't have to climb over the trash. Right? Maybe that's it, that's your way. Maybe you open that door, you say, Welcome, come on in. If the door is locked, you don't get in, right? But if there's a greeter there, you you are welcomed in. Maybe it's someone help you park your car, right? Because you couldn't find a spot and you couldn't get to church. And we've had people pull out, I'm telling you, and go home because they circled around, no parking, you know. But we did have about three feet of snow on the ground that day, I think. But working on that though. This week we're talking about a big parking expansion, so hold on to your hats. You might have some yellow tape around here pretty soon. Um so here he's gonna dig into these spiritual blessings, but he says, just as he, the Lord God, has uh chosen us in him, verse four. Again, in him, uh, number two there, uh repeating of that phrase, in Christ, in him, when before the foundation of the world. God has a plan, folks. He does things way ahead of time, he has it figured out. He's not just tripping along aimlessly, saying, Oh, I wonder if this will happen. He knows what's going to happen because he's the God, uh, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the The ending. He's he's all these things at one time. Uh so he knows where you will be. He knows your new name. He's gonna give you a new name and he knows what it is. You're still trying to find out what that new name is. That's a good hunt, right? That's a good thing to kind of search out. But he said he's chosen that before the foundation of the world, before he even made you, he knew what you were gonna be made for. That's a God of purpose there, a God of order, uh a God that's very wise as well, and very powerful, obviously. So we're learning some things about him today. That we should be, and here's two awesome things, holy and without blame before him in love. So because he cast his love on you, he will also bring his holiness to bear, and he will not call you an account for your sins. You will not be blamed on the day of judgment. Wow. I mean that's if we just stop right there, we can all say hallelujah, jump up and down and run home. Right, let's go. We are without blame before him. Why? He took our blame on that cross, right? He took our shame, he took the sc the scalding whips, he took the insults that were yelled at him. Those all belong to us. Right? We're the ones who fell away, we're the ones who transgressed, we are the ones who have sinned and missed the mark and fallen short of his great glory. But he decided to take it on himself, and we now will stand in him, we stand without blame. We are holy. The Bible says the unrighteous will not stand in the day of judgment. That means they're gonna fall like dominoes because they have no answer. Their mouths will be stopped. When the records come out, they will say, Yep, that was me. I did that. I had twenty-five opportunities to receive Christ, and I never did it. And he will record each and every one. So you will not say a word if you're in judgment that day. But if you have received his son, if he says, What did you do with my precious son? And you said, Well, one day the preacher said, His name is Jesus, and if you call on him, you can be saved. And I did, and my life was transformed. And that's how you get into heaven, right? Not because you know Pastor John or Pastor Andrew or you know, someone on the worship team or whatever. It's because you personally accepted the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ, for yourself. You are now chosen in him before the foundation of the world. You will be holy and without blame before him in love. I mean, that's just a beautiful picture of heaven. Number five, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. This one doesn't say in himself, but it could, I suppose, because we are in him, and that's uh proof positive that we are now adopted into his family. Uh according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, right, not by our own works, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. That's a word for heaven, in the the blessed place, uh place where love abides and there is no sin. In him, verse seven, again, another repetition of this phrase, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, again, according to the riches of his grace. So let's pick these out one at a time, and I'll do a little pause for you if you're writing this down. Number one, you are blessed spiritually, verse three, right? Spiritual blessing, not just one or two, but all spiritual blessing. He said, Every spiritual blessing belongs to those who are in him, because his spirit is abiding in us. We therefore have a new spirit. We are born again into a new life, not the fleshly life, it's referring to our spiritual walk, which goes on through eternity. And that's where your priority should lay now, because you are an eternal creature. You want to spend your life with him forever, not just here and now. But the blessings do begin here. But there are also a lot of trials, tribulations, difficulties. Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble troubles or tribulation. But be of good cheer, because he tells us about the ending. I will overcome the world. One day it will be subsided. He will have it under his feet. Right now he's allowing Satan to roam for a time. I always say it's uh under God's control and he's on a leash. But right now it appears he's just kind of loosened up the leash a bit, right? Satan's getting to go out a little further and roam a little more and show his ugly fangs more and more, right, around us, but he's still on a leash. And God will say, Yep, that's enough, no more, and he will be gone. The good shepherd has a hook on the end of his staff for a reason, right? Sometimes it's to pull a wandering sheep out of the ditch, but I think it's to get the enemy off the stage sometimes too. So hopefully I won't keep you too long. Blessed spiritually. We're talking about spiritual fruit, love, joy, peace. The Bible says it's peace that passes all understanding. Have you ever had a moment like that with God where you felt an undeniable peace that you could not explain, that you have never seen or felt before, and you know, wow, this was something from above. It wasn't from down here, right? Just like forgiveness or grace, or when you offer that to another individual, some of you are taking that forgiveness class now during the week. And boy, when you forgive somebody, I mean really flat out forgive them, and then you tell them that and you share that, there is just something extremely powerful about that that we cannot claim any victory there. It's because he forgave us so that we would forgive others. Like I mentioned to the man in the bank parking lot, you know, when he said, Well, I ask God to forgive me every day. I said, Well, yeah, his Lord's Prayer said, as I forgive those who transgress against me. And um, that's kind of a heavy weight. But once you are forgiven, I told him, it's really hard to hold other people to a higher standard than yourself, right? That's pretty uh pretty bad if you do that, right? But we all have tried that. It doesn't work out too well. But peace is from God. All of the spiritual gifts I think are are uh offered here because it says every spiritual uh gift uh from the Holy Spirit, and he's not lacking in any of them. So when he is in your heart, you have, I would maybe say, access to all of these things, right? And now we all have different callings and the church has different giftings. The Bible says we don't all have the same gifts, and that is, I believe, so we will work together because we kind of have to now, right? Because we're not all a hand or a foot or an eye or a mouth, right? But we all have different functions, and in order to function as his body, uh each one needs to take his or her several parts, right? And do what you are called to do. So maybe that's your aha moment today. What is my spiritual gift? What is God calling me to do? Number two, chosen to be without blame. Verse 4, in him, in him, you are without blame, free to place the load of that blame and that shame and that regret upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who said, Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me. For I am not proud and haughty, but meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. This is all yours in Christ Jesus. Many people come to me and say, I'm just looking for peace. That's all I need. I just need to have some peace. I don't have it. I said, Well, I know the Prince of Peace. You want to meet him? Telling you, folks, there's so many wide open doors for ministry. Our conference this week was called Witnessing. So I've already given out several. They gave us these cool little books of John to hand out, nice little leather covers, and I I'm almost gone now. I might have to steal some from my wife. But I'm telling you, if you have a way, a means, and an idea, and you have the prompting of the Holy Spirit, you you have so many opportunities. But I would ask you, pray, God, open a door today. Just one person, Lord. Give give me that person that I can share some little tidbit. Maybe it's I only get five seconds with them. So be ready, right? Be prepared. The Bible says, to share the hope that's inside of you and do it with meekness and respect, just the way Jesus came to you, right? He didn't knock your door down, but he is knocking at your door. Today, maybe that's you. You got to open the door and say, Lord, I hear you. Come on in. You're the most wonderful, right? You're the counselor, you're the prince of peace. Why would I not let you in? Right? Why would I not lean on you? Why would I not trust you, the most trustworthy, faithful God ever known, right? And yet we hold back. We let other stuff into our house with our TV and our, you know, entertainment and stuff, but we don't let the master in. He wants to come in, he wants to dwell with us. Let him in. He will take away your blame and your regret because he came for that purpose. Number three, adopted as sons and daughters, right? Those who are now called the family of God by Jesus Christ Himself. So he does this great work of bringing us in. Romans 8 17 says it's a legal term, joint heirs with Christ. That means whatever he has, he graciously allows you to have also, right? He's not a greedy master. He's generous in all ways, as Pastor Andrew was reminding us to be. Be generous every day. Do some act of generosity if you can, and demonstrate that you know that you are his, he is yours, and everything he has belongs to you as well. So our kingdom is great, it's large, it is him, he is at the head, of course. But in a legal sense, you have just as much right to those things because the father said so. He said, I'm going to give my son many sons and daughters, many, many who will choose him because he's called them by name, right? The good shepherd. It says he calls his sheep, they hear his voice, and they respond, they follow him. So there's a difference between uh the shepherd and the butcher, right? The shepherd leads from the front and everyone follows, and he just says, Hey, let's go, and everybody goes. Uh the butcher, on the other hand, leads from behind and beats him with the stick into the slaughterhouse, right? Don't want to go there, don't want to follow him. Uh listen to the Lord, be one of his. Uh, enjoy great things with him. Number four was redeemed. I love this word. It means to be purchased back. I think of myself standing on a slave block and they're they're all yelling out numbers. I'll give you three bucks. Well, I'll give you four bucks for him. And Jesus said, No, I'll give my life for him. I'll give my blood for his blood. And he redeems us back, and it looses the chains of evil that held us down because of our sin, and they're broken. We are now paid for. We're bought with a price, the Bible says, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's who redeemed us. And we sing a song now that the angels cannot sing. Those who didn't fall from grace, obviously I'm speaking of, because they never fell. They did not uh denounce who they were in God, but they uh but we did. We fell away, and now we were redeemed back, and we sing the song of the redeemed. Read it, it's in Revelation somewhere, I can't remember what verse, but it's a beautiful song. Like unto the song they sang after they came out of the Red Sea, right? And they were delivered from slavery in Egypt for over 400 years, and now they were just free to do what they wanted. Some of them didn't know what to do with themselves because they were always told what to do before that. Now we're driven by our love for God, right? He's telling us these are the good things to do. Follow in those things. Your life will go very well. Uh you take baby steps in a good direction, I told the man the other day, and you it will lead you to a great destination. But you gotta take those steps. Maybe that's for you today. Have you been redeemed? And I would say, redeemed to what? It's wonderful things in into his kingdom, from slavery into freedom. Number five, forgiven. We just spoke on how that's a real divine word, right? You can give this forgiveness. You're it's a gift from God, it's a demonstration of his grace. You're forgiven means you go from guilty to not guilty. If you're in court, that's a good thing, right? I just got a jury summons and I gotta go be on a jury board. I even wrote a big letter, like, ooh, I don't know if I could do it this time. I've already done it before. I don't know why they call me twice. My wife's like, I want to be on a jury. They never call me. I'm like, well, you can take mine if you want. I've already been there and done that, you know. It was fun. We had some good times. Uh it was tough to convince ten people that uh one person was guilty because there was a poor little person. I was like, oh, we want to help this person, but they didn't really prove that they were right. You know, we have to kind of go with what the judge said here, right? And then everybody's like, yeah, you're right. So then we all voted and we finally came to a consensus. But guilty to not guilty, that's huge. Right? You stand there, you got these parking tickets or speeding or whatever it was, and you're standing there, and he says, No, no, your fine has been paid. You just get out of here, you know, just go. Like, what? Yeah, if the judge says you're not guilty, you're not guilty, right? If he doesn't slap the gavel, you're good. On judgment day, even more important, amen. When we know we stand there, he may even outline everything we did wrong, but then he says, but your debt has been canceled. I really don't want everyone to know everything I did wrong on that day, but you know what? If he says I'm I'm free and I can go into heaven, I'm good with that. You know, I I don't claim to be uh saintly in terms of earthly clothing, right? Our flesh is inherently sinful. The Bible says that we were that way from our mother's uh womb, right? David said that. So we have nothing to claim on our own. The forgiveness is completely top down, right? From the top to the bottom. Just the way the veil in the temple was ripped, the Bible says from top to bottom. He opened up a way into a holiest place for you and me through our goodness? No. Through the ribbon body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It said that temple veil, that was his body, which is broken for us. Opening up a new and a living way, you are forgiven, you are not guilty. Someone say amen. All right, write that one down. That's a good one. Come on. So we don't have to live in fear anymore for judgment. We instead we say, Lord, come, come quick, come quickly. That doesn't mean like come right away. That means when you come, do it fast, I guess in the in the old uh new New Testament, I should say. But uh he is gonna come as a snap, as it in the twinkling of an eye, like a lightning flash from the east to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. So we won't have time to prepare then. Let's get ready now. Amen.

Unity In Christ And The Spirit’s Seal

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Next five verses, we're just gonna see six more blessings and then we have lunch, I guess. Some of you will not. Uh verse nine, having made known to us, listen to this, the mystery of his will. Didn't Jesus say something like that to his followers once? You know, I'm used to call you servants, but I'm gonna call you my friends now. Why? Because the Father is making things known to me, and I'm telling you what those things are. I'm confiding in you with the great mysteries of the past that no one knew, but I know because I'm the Son of God, and I'm gonna share them with you, and now I'm gonna call you my friends. Right? For a friend knows what his his friend is doing, but a servant, not so much, right? The master just says, Go here, go there, do this, but he doesn't always have to tell you why. He was telling us why. It says, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed, here it is again, in himself. This is God making a decision by himself because he is God, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things, and here is our phrase, in Christ. So this is God's uh description of full, complete unity, peace, and harmony when everything is in Christ. There is no schism in the body, there's no separation, there's no time where we have to say goodbye or so long or see you later. We are with him, and he is with us. We are gathered together in him, not just us, but all things, says, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth, in him. And then verse 11, in him. Is there a lot of in him here? Or is it just me? I think Paul's trying to drive something home here, right? Where do we need to be? In him. How do we get there? Really, it's by simple acceptance of the one who's knocking on the door. Right? He said in Revelation 3.20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, that's why we prayed this morning, Lord, open the ears, open the eyes. Paul's saying, I pray without ceasing that he would open the eyes of your understanding, that you might know him. Right? Welcome him in, accept him, do not reject him. The more rejections, the harder your heart will grow. Watch this story of Pharaoh, right? Nine different times. Let my people go. Hello. Right? No, yeah, his heart softened, then it hardened, then it softened, then it hardened. And then at the end, the Bible says, God hardened his heart. Right? He knew he was a heart of stone by then, right? Each time you reject the uh the call of God, this beautiful message of come to me, your heart will either get softer or harder. So I pray today it is getting softer because he's calling with love, with grace, with forgiveness, with inheritance, right? With joint heirship, if that's a word. Uh but here we go again, he's going to mention this again. All things he gathers together in Christ. Picture a perfect community. In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated or 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 again, should be to the praise of his glory. That's the ultimate reason for this decision of God, this mystery that is being unveiled here, that it all all relates back to the praise and glory of God. And the more people come, the greater the praise. We were at a conversation with 2,500 people there praising God. It was a crazy sound. But as I stood here this morning, I think it sounded better right here in Cranston. Why? It's it's not how many, it's what you're praising for and how you're doing it, right? Is it from the heart? You know, Jesus said there's come a time, it doesn't matter if you're in Rhode Island or Texas, it's it's when you're uh praying in sincerity and truth, right? In in the inward person. That's what true worship is all about. Uh when you reach that spot, you know God is there. You can sense it. You know he's in the place. Uh he didn't just show up here, he's been here all along. And anytime a person comes, he's here, right? He's in us. They even said where two or three are gathered. He's in the middle of that circle of three, right? Because that's who he is. That's where he wants to be. Uh being predestined according to his purpose, and it says to the praise of his glory. And then verse 13, here we go again. In him, I'm not making this stuff up. In him, you also trusted. He's going to get into the importance of faith here. After you heard the word of truth, right? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. He had someone has to get up there and vocalize it. That's what I'm doing today. I don't have to be anybody special, but he did call me to do this. I consider it a great privilege. And every week I tremble at the thought of it. I'm telling you, every Saturday I'm quaking in my boots. I'm like, again, Lord, I'm going to do this again. You're going to have to stand me up because I'm getting old. Uh it says, but according to after you heard the word of truth, the gospel. Sometimes you have to tell people what that is. That means good news, right? So maybe don't use that word when you're witnessing to a non-believer. Just say, hey, I got some good news for you. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He calls it the gospel of your salvation. In whom, again, in him, who is he talking about? In whom also having believed, right? Trusted, relied upon. There's a lot of different variations for that word to believe, but it's a thing that only God can give you, and when you have it, you know it. Right? No one can dissuade you. Like the disciples, they went to their death. They said, No, he did not rise. They said, No, we know. He rose, we saw him alive after his crucifixion, and we will not recant. You can tell us to, but we're going to keep preaching in his name because that's who he is. He's the God of all creation. We've seen him stop the wind and the storms. We've seen him bring people back to life, and in in including himself. And he says, and you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Maybe uh this side of heaven, the greatest gift that will ever be given is that Holy Spirit residing within you. He is precious, he is holy. Be sober about that. That's an important thing. We used to sing as kids, be careful little feet where you go. Be careful what games you play. You know, the Holy Spirit is there. Do not squelch him, do not quiet him down. And if he's speaking to you, you might have to turn down the music a bit because you want to hear every word he has to say to your heart. Be made aware of God's will. That's Paul's first prayer there in verse 9. That means welcomed as God's friends into his marvelous plan. And that's including you and the twelve or the eleven that day. One of them, you know, forsook him, of course. But let that not be me. John 15, 15, but I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. Jesus welcomed his disciples into this close circle of confidants. Are you in that circle today? You gotta come out to prayer tonight. That's where we gather. That's where his people come to speak back to him and to ask for his help, his assistance, his wisdom, his knowledge. And he said, And I told them my Father's will. Wow. That's heavy. That's big stuff. Number seven in your list, and I'll just pour through these quickly. Gather together in unity, verse 10. One day all things will be gathered together in Christ, including you and me. At one time and unified in him and him alone. And not just you, but all things, right? Whether there be thrones or dominions or powers, principalities, he conquers them all. For he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and you want to be his friend. Amen. Not his enemy. Don't go against him. No, that will not go well for you. Number eight, promise an inheritance. And this goes on and on. Paul calls this the general thing, right? And then he's listing all these little sub-bullets, but they're all part of your inheritance in Christ. Things that become yours because of who he is and who you are in him. Your new name, if you would. What is he calling you today? What is your call? It's an enter an eternal place at his table. Wow. Right? You can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with him. Remember David doing that to a little kid named Mephibosheth who limped on his leg because he was running from the new king. He thought David was going to kill him, and he had already promised his daddy, if I become king, your family will be my family. He will eat at my table. That's the heart of God right there. He said, I'm going to bring you into my family. You're going to be my son legally, and you're going to eat from my table your entire life. You'll never have to worry about one thing. It will be taken care of. It's a place of provision, a place of safety, a place of eternal bliss that cannot be understood right now, but we are trying. And then last two, a purpose, and these are kind of connected together in the text. Verses 11 and 12. This is the purpose of God. I believe it involves ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ in all of eternity. This is a forever kind of thing. Because his kingdom, according to Isaiah, is expanding forever and ever. He's going to need a lot of helpers and workers, right? He's going to need them, but he's going to want them because that's who he is. This will be a role that we carry out for him and with him. And anything we gain or accomplish through that, we bring it back to his feet and we throw it at his feet as an honor and a glory, as an incense of prayer to him. This is what has been accomplished because of who you are, because of your great name, your great power, and your spirit within all of your people. You deserve all the praise. And this is the last one. A praise of his glory. That's who we are. If that's the only title you get, you better hang on to that one. Amen? To the praise of the glory of his grace. You're not just a member of the praise team in heaven, but you're a shining emblem of his glory yourself because of what he's done in you, through you, when you had nothing. You were nothing. We got to hear the great preacher, uh Charles Swindall at

Living As Praise Of His Glory

SPEAKER_00 48:58

our conference. Came in 91 years young, had a cane, and uh the guy, I mean, he still had his wit. He was cracking jokes left and right, but he just can't believe that he's now like Chancellor of Dallas Theological Center. He goes, Who, me? He he hung up the phone like three times. No, I I can't take that job. I'm just this lowly dude who was once a grunt in the in the Marines. He goes, uh, I didn't have the greatest of education. I did well on my courses, but I came in as a probationary student to the college when I came. He was cutting the lawn and trimming the shrubs, uh, much like Pastor John here. That's what I did, and I loved it. And make it look beautiful on the outside. But you know what? He wants it in here, right? I I really don't really care about the grass now. We're gonna turn it into cement pretty soon. And that, you know, it'd be a great day for our buddy Chris, who cuts all this grass here, uh, just because he loves to, or he loves us, or he loves God, I think. So thank you, Chris. Uh he was out there the other day and it was freezing out there, and he was cutting that grass. I said, just a few more weeks, bro. You won't have to cut that anymore. Be a praise of his glory, be an emblem of his glory, the way you speak, the way you love, the way you forgive, right? The way you honor other people, even if they don't agree with you, right? The guy said, he goes, I knew there was something special about you. There was something different. I didn't say a word, I was just high-fiving him over Robert Parrish or something like that. I don't know. But they're gonna see, you know, even if you're hiding that light, you can't. You can't. You're a crackpot, the light's gonna get out, right? If you really love him in your heart, it's gotta squeak out of there somewhere. It's gonna come out in the way you respond, right? When someone cuts you off or when they yell at you, you don't have the same guile, you don't have that hatred in your heart anymore. Because he wiped it away, he washed it like the driven snow. Let's uh listen to one more chorus here. Please stand with me.