Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning,

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the book of Ephesians, please stand in honor of the reading of God’s word.

(read) (pray)

WHO ARE YOU?

I mean if someone were to speak of you, if you were to speak of yourself, how do they know you?

Would they describe you as so and so’s husband or wife?

Would they recognize you by the type of work you do?

Would they speak of your children, grandchildren, or socioeconomic status?

I mean what makes you.... you?

There are many things that define us, at least from the worlds perspective, there are character traits, flaws, past mistakes, present failures, and even present successes that people point to to identify a person.

That’s Kyle the preacher boy

Scottie the Milk man

Cory the youth pastor

Jimmy the sporting goods store owner

Jan the bus driver

For some these types of identifiers help bring insight into a persons career field but it doesnt define who they are.

These were all positive but there are negative things that take place, where someone speaks into our lives and does some damage to how we view our self...

(my dad)

(the sexual abuse victim)

(The divorced husband/wife)

Forever the thought will run through thier minds:

“nothing you touch will succeed, you destroy everyting”

“Youll never be able to have a normal relationship, men will always hurt you”

“You failed at one marriage why would God give you another?”

Satan will use these negative views of you and he will point out your flaws and failures to discourage you and create a stronghold in your life.

When this stronghold of a poor view of self is created he has won a small victory in the battle ground of your mind.

You now see your self in light of your tremendous failures and insufficiency.

You are trapped in a prison in your mind, you just cant seem to get passed it, then after this struggle within continues for a season with no success the majority of people just accept it, this is who I am… a failure… a abuse victim… greedy.... loud mouth (I just tell it like it is).... lustful…

Thought these things may be true about your life they are NOT who you are!

Consider this...

10% of adults are experiencing symptoms of major depression, and up to 25% meet the diagnostic criteria during thier lifetime...

In a recent study done by Barna research he writes:

“In a typical congregation of 200 adults, 50 attendees will experience depression at some point, and at least 30 are taking antidepressants right now...

This is true because Christians have not internalized vital truth about who they truly are in Christ Jesus!

The L.A. Times reported on a story of an elderly man and wife who were found dead of severe malnutrition, although investigators found a total of 40,000 dollars stored in paper bags in the closet.

There was another case of a woman named Hetty Green she was called Americas greatest miser.

When she died in 1916 she left an estate valued at 100 million dollars, an extreme amount in those days.

But she was so tight with her money that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save on the expense of heating the water.

She was so frugal that on one occurence her son had a severe leg injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated.

It was also said she sped up her own death by bringing on a fit of apoplexy while arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.

The book of Ephesians is written to Christians that are suffering from malnutrition, they are unhealthy but not because they have to be, but because they are neglecting to seek out who God say they are.

These Christians are in danger of suffering from spiritual malnutrition, because they do not take advantage of the great storehouse of spiritual nourishment and resources at their disposal.

The book of Ephesians is written to Christians that are suffering from malnutrition, they are unhealhty but not because they have to be, but because they are neglecting to seek out who God say they are.

These Christians are in danger of suffering from spiritual malnurtrition, because they do not take advantage of the great storehouse of spiritual nourishment and resources at thier disposal.

We do not need to focus on what the world says of us, or what Satan desires to whisper in our ears God in His eternal word has proclaimed EXACTLY WHO HE SAYS THAT WE ARE.

We do not need to focus

GOD DEFINES WHO WE ARE!!

We need to spend less time listening to the voices who seek to inform us of who we and MORE time seeking the Lord to see who He has proclaimed us to be.

The apostle Paul tells us his hearts desire for his congregation, and this is my prayer for each of you, he indicates this for us in

Ephesians 1:16-

Paul’s passion is for these believers to have thier minds lit on fire by the realities that are true for the person in Christ.

He wants them to know that they are rich beyond belief, that thier lives are not rooted here on this Earth, and the very power of God Himself is at work on thier behalf.

As Believers in Jesus Christ we have the riches of Christ, an eternal purpose, and the power of God!

If your minds are set ablaze by these truths it will transform your life!

These truths come pouring out of Paul’s prayer for these believers in the city of Ephesus because they were struggling, Satan was doing a number on them and they were in desperate need of a reminder of Gods goodness and grace towards them.

THE ELEMENTS OF PAUL’S PRAYER:

Praise

Paul begins his prayer by diving straight into a praise session!

.

This is important to note, that when your mind is set on what God has done for you in Christ your hearts overflows with thanksgiving!

Paul praises God the Father

a.

For His work in eternity past!

He zooms in on God as a Father and Jesus as LORD

He does this as well in his introduction

He says listen God the father is in total control of every aspect of your life, do you wanna know how I know?

I am an apostle (sent messenger) not by my choosing but by God;s choosing, not by my will but by God’s will!

Paul says being a missionary wasn’t my idea of a good time, this wasn’t my decision this decision was made for me by God the Father!

God knew before Saul of Tarsus was even born that he would be a missionary to the Gentiles and that he would write most of the NT.

Saul never wanted to do this of his own accord God intervened and broke Saul down, He humbled Saul....

(the Damascus road)

We have all had to some degree a Damascus road encounter, at some point in your life God caused the scaled to drop from your eyes to see who you were living against!

With every decision made by you for you while giving no thought to God you were living against God’s will for your life!

Until that faithful day when God caused you to see that you werent in His will at all and like Saul you cried out for salvation and God redeemed you… bought you out of slavery to sin and humbled you.

It was at the moment of salvation that Saul the murderous blasphemer, was changed into Paul the missionary!

How Paul was identified changed!!

His whole identity was wrapped up in his ability to have CHristians and Jews jailed and even executed, but now through God’s power he is laying his own life on the line for the sake of the same people he was trying to Kill!

He writes now to the saints in Ephesus and he says listen guys if your struggling its because you have no idea who you are in the eyes of God, you dont realize what he has done for you!

You dont realize how rich you are!

WHO ARE YOU IN CHRIST?

BLESSED

to distinguish with favour, confer happiness

Some of you right now are struggling with a poor view of God as Christians.

Some of you right now are livng in an unhealthy fear of God, scared around every turn that you will do something wrong and God is just waiting to strike you dead.

As believers in Jesus Christ you just need to let this sink in… YOU ARE BLESSED

YOU ARE DISTINGUISHED GUESTS IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH, GOD HIMSELF IS HAPPY WITH YOU!

Bullinger, E. W. (1908).

A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament (Fifth Edition, Revised, p. 104).

London: Longmans, Green, & Co.

Right now!!

God could never love more than He does RIGHT NOW!

“With every spirirtual blessing”

SPIRITUAL1

1. πνευματικός, belonging to the Spirit, or determined by the πνεῦμα; influenced by it, or proceeding from it.

“In the Heavenly places”

Dont focus on things of this world, dont store up treasures for yourselves here where moth and rsut destroy!

But store up treasures in HEaven!!!

You already have a treasury in glory!

A storehouse where you can run to and access blessing from God for every moment of your life!

So listen friend take heart your blessed in the Heavenly realms!

But not only are you blessed: