Ephesians 1:3-14; God’s Great-Gracious-Glorious Plan

Introduction

579 Years: The Milan Cathedral (1386~1965)

Sermon in a sentence: Worship God because of His great-gracious-glorious plan.

Ephesians Introduction

In Eph 1:3–14 Paul blesses the Father for his eternally planned and graciously executed redemption on behalf of all his elect in his Son, sealed to them through the Holy Spirit. The context here is that Paul is opening his epistle with genuine praise and wonder at God’s lavish grace. The subtext is that this praise teaches us these things and how we should overflow with praise as well.

It’s Great

It is from the mind of the Triune God.

The Father chose us from eternity. (v. 4/5/9/10/11)

The Son bought our salvation on the cross. (v. 3/4/5/6/7/9/12/13)

The Holy Spirit secures us. (v. 13-14)

It is cosmic

The Church- Predestination is a common OT teaching. Israel was God’s chosen people. However, notice that predestination in our text is not connected to ethnic Israel. Instead, our text tells us that God’s chosen people are all those who are in Christ! It is the good news for all those who believe - Jew and Greek!

The Creation - God will one day consummate His eternal plan in the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Death/disease/war/famine/suffering will all be done away with. The Gospel is not just I get saved. It is that everything will be made right.

Johnny’s dog.

It’s Gracious

He adopted us into this new family (vs. 5)

He has given us every spiritual blessing.

Remember, the Ephesians we plagued with demons, false gods, and idolatry. (The sons of Sceva, Artemis, Demetrius)

God graciously gives us everything we need to walk with Him. He gives us the Holy Spirit that indwells us! He also gives us the fruit of the spirit to transform us!

We don’t need astrology or horoscopes. We don’t need boards, spells, or medallions. We don’t need omens, signs in the skies, or birds singing to us.

Lesotho - cooper keys to protect from lightening.

It’s Glorious

God’s planned to use us and restore creation to glorify Himself. (vs. 10)

Conclusion

My mother has worked numerous jobs for people in our community. She has been a house keeper, she has been a caregiver, she has been a babysitter, and everything in between. For a couple of years, she was a nanny for this family. This young family loves to travel. They planned to take my mother along with them on a family vacation to Turkey and Serbia. Due to Covid and other things they decided they were going to take a family vacation to Ireland, and bring my mother along with them. My mother has not understanding of directions! We went to eat lunch at Applebees last week after service. My mother saw the Walk On restaurant and thought we were in Louisiana because their sign says “Taste of Louisiana.” So I told her, no we are in Indiana. She said, “Hold on, I thought we were in Louisville.” I said no. We live in Louisville Ky but I pastor in Indiana and we cross the Ohio River to get there. She was all sorts of lost in it all. So you can only imagine how lost my mother was when she went to Ireland with this family. She said they had an itinerary for every day there were there. The husband and wife had planned every detail and made sure every “i” was dotted and “t” was crossed. But my mother didn’t have a clue on what was going on until she got to the next stop that day. But she was so happy to be there and be able to be a part of this whole experience because she had a job to do. Brothers and sisters, isn’t that the Christian life. Most of life, we don’t know what each day is going to look like. We just know the big picture stuff like Jesus will come back and he will make all things new. But the rest of the time, we are along for the ride. As we do that, lets praise God that His grand plan includes you and me. And He was given us a part to play in this grand plan. As we play our part, let us rejoice that we get to be a part of it! Let us worship and praise God for using us, sinners, in his great-gracious-glorious plan.

Application

Sing the Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost