Praise my Soul the King of heaven

Praise my Soul

Have you ever walked up a mountain to see a rolling landscape? Maybe you’ve climbed up a cathedral or taken the elevator to the top of blackpool tower.

Have you ever walked up a mountain to see a rolling landscape? Maybe you’ve climbed up a cathedral or taken the elevator to the top of blackpool tower.

I remember climbing snowdon and getting a great view from the top before the cloud descended, but it was climibing Ely cathedral for me which struck me the most. I was in the middle of my final exams at theological college and I was pretty stressed. A friend and I booked a day out in the middle of our revising, to pray in Ely Cathedral. And when we arrived we booked one tourist thing in, to climb the tower.

When we got to the top, it felt like every problem and stress was put into perspective as we looked out at the very flat landscape. In the distance we could see Kings college and the familiar sites in Cambridge. Sites which dominated our daily life, were suddenly small and far off. Suddenly we could see everything from a new perspective, and we could see how the roads joined up the various famous landmarks.

Well the book of Epehsians is like that. It doesn’t delve into everything in the depths that we find in 1 & 2 Cotinthians, or the book of Romans, but it gives us a panaramic view of the good news of Jesus and how we are to live his way.

Over the next few weeks we’ll explore the depths of the good news. Not just that Jesus loves us and came to rescue us, but we’ll explore the mind blowing implications of this good news.

We’ll explore God’s secret plan for the universe from before the world was created, and just what this calling means. We’ll then explore what a mature disciple is called to do. We’ll then break for Christmas and focus on the entrance of Jesus into the world, before picking back up in the new year with how we live out our walk with jesus, particularly looking at seeing him bring light to the dark parts of our lives, we’ll explore how he calls us to order out relationships and we’ll tackle spiritual warefare. So we’re in for quite an adventure. And don’t forget, the book of Ephesians is like looking at the good news from a panoramic viewpoint

Roll the video

This letter was a circular, and sent to all the churches in around Ephesus, so Paul has quite a large audience in mind when he’s writing, and he’s also writing to them from prison.

And he starts with a blessing

Ephesians 1:2 NIV

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he launches straight into praise

Ephesians 1:3 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Praise be to God

I wonder what you’re praising God for today

Often in prayer we jump straight to our prayers of request

Those things which we need from God, those things we want him to transform, but Paul start with Praise

Sometimes in Paul’s writing it feels like he’s filling space. Like he’s packing it it helpful things we need to hear and then continually praising God, or mentioning Jesus. I Paul filling is content with worship. Well it is worship, but it’s not there to fill space. Paul is explaining how each of these things came about, or how it gets into our lives. In short, everything happens through jesus.

I find when I’m reading Paul I need at least 5 read throughs to start to tease out what he’s saying. In fact, this letter was written for reading out in church, and it’s meant to be fully understandable. Back in the day, this was how people spoke and so keep asking the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you, as we read these timeless words in our 21st century.

God is the blessed one who blesses us. Everything good comes from him.

Spiritual blessings are not the same as material or worldly blessings.

Spiritual blessings are not the same as material or worldly blessings.

Remeber the teaching before the summer of moving from an earthly mindset to the kingdom mindset,

the earthly mindset which focuses on the material things of the world; money, wealth, possessions, illness, injustice, insecurity,

and the kingdom mindset which is the heavenly, the spiritual, the things of the Spirit; goodness, justice, peace, wellbeing, graciousness, generosity,

And the gifts of the Spirit, of prophecy, speaking in tongues, leadership, administration, words of knowledge, discerning between Spirits are poured over the church so that we can live kingdom lives. I believe that these gifts are meant to be normal practice in church, and that as we step into using them regularly, we will see an even greater change in the spiritual temperature of Haydock.

Not that You or I will have every gift on our own, but that as a church, as a body, we have all the gifts given to us by God.

God’s children are citizens of the kingdom of God, that’s us. We are called to look at the world from his kingdom perspective, and not from an earthly persepctive, and we are gifted with the gifts of His Spirit, which we are called to excercise ourselves in, to use them in line with his will, and his purposes for this world.

Vere 4

Ephesians 1:4 NIV

4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

Stop!

He chose you, in Jesus, before the creation of the world

HE CHOSE YOU! - before he made the world

How does that make you feel?

The Creator of the Universe had you in mind before he created the world.

It’s a massive part of the good news, and it’s what our friends and families need to know.

We get ourselves into deistructive mindets, thinking that we have no worth, or value, and yet God chose us before the creation of the world.

Why? because he is love, and he loves you, and he is for you. This is what we must share if we love those around us. That they are loved by the creator, and he has a special place in his heart for you, for us.

But it goes on, what did he chose us for?

to be holy and blameless in his sight

Pause...

And yet so often we’re not

It’s a dilema, but that’s why he died for us, right. He calls us to repent, to turn back to him every time we mess up

So that he can make us holy and blameless in his sight

We confessed our sins earlier, and when he washes us clean, as he does every time we truly say sorry, we are made blameless and holy in his sight

The book of judges has a phrase which recurs throughout the book.

(NRSV)

In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

And I think that’s where much of our lives sit. We have things we want to do, desires and longings. But unless they are right in God’s eyes, they are not part of his plan for us, not right for us. Sin which gets in the way. And before the world was created, God chose you, and he chose you to be holy - which means set apart, and blameless in his sight. Not doing what is right in our own eyes, but asking God, what are we doing today, where are we going, who are we meeting.

We’re created to live in relationship with God, which means keeping the communication going.

Run through the 6 slides

Adoption

We were created as the children of God, but through our sin, just like the prodigal, we gave up our birth right, and became children without a home, without a hope and without an inheritance

Through Jesus, the true son of God, through his sacrifice, we are welcome back into the family of God, to be children and co-heirs with Christ

Redemption

The buying back of someone who has been captured or now held by someone else

For us, we belonged to God who created us, but through our sin we became slaves to sin. In Jesus on the cross, the payment was paid for our freedom.

So the good news for us is that we are chosen, we are adopted, we are redeemed. And the good news for our friends, for our families is that the mystery of the saving grace of God is

Ephesians 1:10 NIV

10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Remember this?

10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

The Union of Heaven and Earth IS What the story of the Bible is ALL about

I’d like you to spend some time with the Holy Spirit now asking him to equip you as his children.

How is he calling you to act differently knowing that you were chosen by him as his child, and rescued by him because of his love.