Ephesians 2

Lift Off

Last night I was with a friend that I have known since I was 9 years old, He is like my little brother.

He is 32 years old and has a pretty little wife and 4 kids all probably under the age of 6. He was a a good brother, a good friend. Last night he went home to be with the Lord. And it got me too thinking about life. And how important and precious life is. It mad eme think about the truly important things, the eternal things. HOw things can come and go in the flash of an eye. They found out that he had brain cancer back just last October, and in 9 months it consumed his life, has left His family with an incredible would of sorrow. But you would think that in those times, when it seems like the Lord is silent, He is not answering your prayers the way that you want to. You would think that those would be the times when people would split from their faith. When things do not seem fair, and God seems distant. But what I saw was quite the opposite. I saw a family lean into the Lord, desperate for a healing, desperate for a miracle, desperate for the God of the twelth hour to show up at the twelth hour but remains where He is, you would think that they would wash their hands of the Lord, but I saw the them lean into. I saw people around him singing praises to the Lord, and we took communnion together

Last week we started a New Series called Identity… Today countless Christians are victims of identity Theft. The Church needs to be reminded of who she is. She is sick today, she is suffering from amnesia, from memory loss. And the Apostle Paul knew that, that we as fallible humans need constant reminders of who we are, and not only need to be reminded but we need to discover who we are.

We are continuing that Series Today, This message I have entitle Lift off. Because as I was reading the book of was noticing something , and that it is it is a very short letter, but it is jam packed with the weighty truths. And the picture I got is an F 16 that is Lifting off of a Naval Battleship. Liftoff

So before you have lift off, you must know your identity… You can’t be a fighter pilot with a milk man mindset

Last week we looked at the Christians idenity

And Paul started out the book of Ephesians with a beautiful poem regarding the Christins identity in the Lord.

Chosen, your justified, your accepted, your adopted, your sins are forgiven you, your redeemed, your a child of god. You have an inheritance.....

* 3. Now we have this awesome task of discovering a new way of living, a new purpose and a new Task

You may not be all that the World Says you should be

Beauty

1 Peter 3:4 ESV

4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

riches

James 2:5 ESV

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

A. Now we have this awesome task of discovering a new way of living, a new purpose and a new Task

All these things are a part of your new identity. I want you to know that when a person says yes to Jesus Christ… They have a new purpose in life, that is way better than what you were living before. He has made you his hands and feet. Your life is no longer your own… You have been bought with a great price. The price for your redemption was through the blood, not just the blood of any average Joe… No this blood was the spotless lamb of God. And this Blood has the Power to wash the deepest sin!

Ephesians 1:7–9 ESV

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

Ephesians 1:7-9

And with this blood redemption, this forgivness.... all according to his grace... comes a whole host of other goodies!

He has lavished upon us, wisdom and insight… And he has created a new humanity out of us. That is going to become more and more evident as we work our way through the Book of Ephesians.

So if you are still sitting on this Christian thing like a bump on the log, wondering whats next after you get saved, well now the journey of discovery begins.

You have been upgraded, You have had a lot f new downloads that you haven’t unlocked Yet

UPGRADES

Illustration of the Phone- Nokia VS Iphone

How many of you had one of those old Nokia Phones when Cell phones were really starting to become plentiful?

Now if you had only ever owned a Nokia, and someone spoke to you about an IPhone Xr

Paul is wanting you to know that there is more to your upgrade in Jesus Christ thn just fire insurance plan. OIts not just about the Sweet By and By, its also about the Nasty Here and Now.

Look at

Ephesians 1:15–23 ESV

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

So Paul is prayiing for the believers, Praying that God would reveal to them all of their upgrades. They don’t have access to just a few more flimsy apps, but now they have a whole new operating system. But for many believers they have this new operating system the same way they operated the old system. Stuck in the mud, trapped in the sin. believing the lies, allowing yesterdays failure to be tomorrows defeat. Listen before you were trying to run this race called life in a pinto tht always overheated, and had four flat wheels. Pushing and cussing that thing around all the time. And what Paul understands is that when the Holy Spirit comes inside, he transforms. And now you have a Bugati, that has a whopping 1 million horspower. But for most believers, all they do is crank it uip, rev it up a few times on Sunday morning and then shut it off, and say man that was fun. What?!

He prays, Verse 17

“Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”

That Fathew would give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the Knowledge of Him..... The things that God has for you can’t be pryed out, they can’t be wrestled out.... These truths, revelation and wisdom are given to us. God has to reveal these things to you. He has to show you hwo to put this bad boy into gear. Are you discouraged in your Christian walk? Well quite trying to push this car around, get in the drivers seat and turn on the engine. The Holy Spirit is the power of your Christian walk. Whatever He calls you too, He will see you through. You say well I just don’t have enough will power? Heres a new definition for you Christian, comes with this new upgrade.... You supply the will, He’ll supply the power

WISDOM (SOPHIA) - IS THE CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND, iT CAN ALSO BE TRANSLATED AS INSIGHT- A SPECIALIZED KIND OF KNOWLEDGE.... THAT IS A KNOWLEDGE INTO THINGS THAT THE COMMON FOLD DON’T HAVE.

Insight… In the financial world there is what is called insider trading, where someone has material information about a company and their stock that is non public.... In the World of Sports, there are inside analysts, and agents that know where payers are going before the rest of the world knows.

God has made you and I an insider. We know things that the rest of the World does not know. We have the Spirit of truth living on the inside, we have the Word of God. We understand that the world is living on borrowed time. We understand that there is a justment to come, and a hell to shun, and a heaven to gain. We understand jsut because people are living high, wide and handsome now, they will stand before the King clothed in poverty, guilty before a King who will judge the quick and the dead

Revelation - is the Greek word apokolipsis… And this is the word we get apocalypse from… and it means to bring out into the open, to make fully known, to disclose something.... this is the same word that a prophet used when he prophesied that Jesus would cause the thoughts of many to be fully known. God wwants you to fully know Him. He wants you come to know him more and more and more, He desires for you to drink deeply from the river of life.

Ephesians 2:1-

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.