Ephesians 1

Intro

We are starting a new sermon series today

We are going through the Book of Ephesians

similiar to how we went through the book of Philippians

We are going to go chapter by chapter unpacking what is written

before we get started lets talk about the who, the why, and the where

For starters. Does anyone know who wrote the book of Ephesians Paul

Many scholars believe that Paul wrote the letter around 60-62 AD

His letter was written to the church in the city of Where?

For those of you that are geography fans

Here is Ephesus on the map

Yes it is and was a real place

it is in modern day Turkey near Istambul

That being said we have talked about some of the details of the books, but haven’t talked about why yet

Very similarly to the book of Philippians the people in Ephesus were facing persecution

Ephesus was a very mixed bag of cultures, including jews gentiles and pagan romans

Pauls goal in writing the letter was to help the church stay rooted in Christ

many times the book of Ephesians is referred to as the letters of love

reason being compared to many of Pauls other letters, in Ephesians he talks about the love of God

when it comes to Pauls other letters he spends alot of time talking about problems in the church

in this book he doesn’t do that

today we are going to unpack chapter 1

1. God has always wanted us

Ephesians 1:4–5 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

have you guys ever had team captains in gym before?

maybe playing dodge ball, kickball, etc

whenever it came to those games, I was always picked last

im sure some of you have been picked last before too, some of us are picked last in other ways, not just gym glass

maybe you worry about who youre going to sit with at lunch

or worrying about no one wanting to pair up with you for a project

Maybe you even worry about fitting in here in CSM

I think that for many of us we know what this feeling is like

Because if we are honest we live in a world that chooses based off of criteria

We say you can only be on my team if your’e fast enough

Smart enough

cool enough

Whatever fill in the blank

But instead what does our scripture say

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

From the beginning of time God has wanted us

He has chosen us

And guess what

He didn’t just pick out the ones that he thought were super Holy

or Hand pick the ones that are extra good followers

His grace is extended to all of us

Not only that, but it tells us that it brought him great pleasure.

And so we know that God wants us

The only question is

DO you want him?

God in the midst of our brokenness

And sin that we choose to live in

planned to send us his son

Not to just be saved

But this scripture tells us that we are apart of his family

That is the God that we follow

2. God’s love has value

Ephesians 1:9–11 “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.”

How many of you know what this is?

These are called savings bonds

For me I used to get them gifted to me every year

And when you are a kid you don’t really get what they are for

But one day they are worth alot of money

as Paul is writings

He talks about this idea that we are given inheritance

And I think that for many of us we forget the value of what Paul is saying in this scripture

Being in Christ we have been given something truly wonderful. worth more than anything

One Day Jesus is going to reign over all

One day every knee will bow and tounge will confess that Jesus is Lord

And this scripture is saying because we are connected with him

We have an inheritance with Christ.

Here is what I want you hear this morning

God’s love has value because He didn’t treat us like strangers—He treated us like heirs.”

During the time that this was written

You need to know that an inheritance was a huge deal

Especially when it came to those who were royalty

And so for us to even considered worthy of the ineritence that could come from Christ

Would mean that he views us as Royality

And not even just that, but heirs to him

Directly realted in conjunction with the throne of God

I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t look at myself like royalty with Jesus

But this is really how he see’s and values us

3. God’s Love brings wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 1:16–18 “I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.”

Paul continues talking about inheritance from God

And he talks about the prayers that he is praying for the church

And one of the things that he brings up is the insight and wisdom

Now when you guys think of Wisdom or someone who is wise. who are some people that you think of?

Just being honest for me these are some of the people that I think of

Right but when it comes to these movies and Shows what makes these dudes wise isn’t just that they have a bunch of Knowledge, but they know how and when to use it.

And so if you didn’t know there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom

knowledge is knowing the right information

Wisdom is knowing how and when to use it

Here is what I want you to hear this morning

God’s love gives spiritual wisdom, not just intellectual wisdom

When follow the Lord

When we walk in his love that he has for us

We can life with real wisdom

Why does this matter

When we walk in wisdom it helps us navigate the difficut parts of life

Anyone ever found themselves in a situation where you didn’t know what to do?

When we walk in wisdom it totally changes how we respond

Maybe i shouldn’t say that to them right now

Maybe I should walk away from whatever everybody else is doing

Maybe I should pray for that person

Maybe I should stop and help them out, but they have been struggling with XYZ

4. God’s love has all the power

Ephesians 1:19–23 “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”

Just a little bit ago Delaney and I moved to our new house

And I love our house but one thing that I realized that there are so many rooms with no ceiling lights

But there are lightswitches in the rooms connected to an

outlet.

Does anyone else have rooms like that in your house?

So when we first moved in

One of the main rooms that we had this in was the living room

And so me being lazy I wanted to be able to have all the lights on one switch

guess what did

I hooked up 4 lamps to one outlet

Its probably a fire hazard

But i plugged in one lamp, than ran an extension chord

Why am i saying all of this

because for me to be able run all these chords

I had to borrow power

If I wanted all of them to be on one outlet they need to be connected to the same chord

To borrow power from the other side of the room

In our scripture Paul tells us. that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us

We can borrow Power from God

Just how we can power wisdom from God we can also borrow power from God

The redemptive power of Jesus

The Healing power of Jesus

The Chaining breaking power of Jesus

To many of us either are trying to do it on our own

Or we forget that we can call on Jesus for help

We forget our inheritance

That being said if I can leave you with anything today it is to remember your inheritance

Paul sends so much time talking about the impact it makes on our lives when we remember who Jesus says that we are

Pray for each other

What is one thing that God says about me that I struggle to believe