Eph 1_3 The Everlasting Covenant

Secular:

•   Hope has come…
• Don’t seek it elsewhere
• It is in Christ… Christ alone!
• It is seeing and seeking His Glory
• Ro 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

• We are Saints who are to be Faithful to be In Christ
• To the saints who are in Squamish, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  
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Biblical:

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Personal:

• Passing and fleeting relationship…
•  Unsure outcomes
• Did I sign up for this…
• Trust helps
• Hope helps
• Choosing to Love is not an option!
• We know contract….
• Contract explained
• One-on-one
• Conditions
• Trade-off
• Covenant
• Relationship with God or Before God
• Not just one-on-one
• God’s part is unconditional, He is unchanging
• Not a trade-off… God only has something to offer
•  Everlasting Covenant… beyond death… no fading….
•  Such relationship worth siinging

Bridge:

• The hymn
• Is Worship through singing the attributes of God
• Hymns… not about us
• It is about who He is!
• What He does!
• Hymn singing is worship and revelling in Glory
• Acknowledging and celebrating God…
• It is the natural reaction of those who have experienced God…
• Exclaim God
• Sing God
• Express God
• How could it be anything less?
• From 3-14 One verse… on going…
• It is an extolling of the awesomeness of God.
• Declaring who He is and his Sovereignty…
• His work as redeemer….
•  An everlasting covenant….

Body:

Saints Respond….

Response - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…,

1st - Gratitude

•  Hymn of Thanksgiving…
• Life of singing…
• It is about focus…
• It is about understanding…
• Consistent with other Pauline Epistles….
• Singing and Worshipping are shallow if we don’t know the depths…
• Saints only respond in their lives when they know the doctrine… the truth…. What we know
• Worship is mitigated…. Lessened… by not knowing the worshipee… and by sharing the worship…. (Give it to someone else)
• We respond to the God of our salvation… Our Father… Our Saviour…. Our Strength

2nd Worship Worthy

•  We don’t first worship God because of what he does… though it is worthy….
•  But because of what He has done… we can Know Him, Hear Him, Truly Worship Him!
• And He is Worthy!!
• Re 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
•  Immortal, Invisible, God-only, Wise
• God is uniquely worthy to be praised
•  How great and awesome is He
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…,

The Everlasting Covenant…

Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…,

• Blessings…
• General…
• Matthew 5:45 (ESV) … For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
• Specific
• Spiritual beyond us….

Everlasting Covenant - A) In Christ

• A blessing in our Saviour, Redeemer….
• No Christ… no blessing…
• The blessing is that can know, do know and will know the Father…
• Acts 4:12 (ESV) 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
• What an inheritance…!
• The Gift of Salvation is reconciliation to the Father!
• 1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV) For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
• Covenant… Promise… communion with the Father.
• For the fullness of God dwells in Christ… in Him the blessing is relationship with God.
• Colossians 1:19 (ESV) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
• To be in Christ is to be in Communion with the Trinity…
• Colossians 1:22-23 (ESV) 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,… In Christ… reconciled to God… blameless…
• It is ongoing… its is a covenant… to which God is faithful
• It is incumbent on us to be faithful to this covenant….
•  23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, …
• In Christ
• With God
• Perfect Reconciliation
• Everlasting Covenant in Christ

Everlasting Covenant - B) Spiritual Blessings

•  Who in Christ… the Father in Christ to Us.
•  Receives the Holy Spirit… not our for power…. To Glorify the Father through Christ.
• Spirit…Draws us to Christ… Glorifies Him
• 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16  “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
• Natural man…. Not us
• Everlasting Covenant  - Reborn in Holy Spirit
• That is our salvation… that the Holy Spirit bring the Glory of Christ to bear… this is our spiritual blessing… that our eyes would be open and His Glory revealed!
• gives life ( John 7:38); 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,  ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
• Spirit = Alive              No Spirit = Death
• gives gifts ( 1 Corinthians 12);
• To Minister
• For God
• Not For Self… it can’t be another way
• counsels ( John 14:26); 6 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Word = Meaining….
• encourages ( Acts 9:31) 31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
•  Strength… comfort….power worked
• steps in on our behalf ( Romans 8:23); 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
• Crafts our groanings into prayer
• builds up ( Romans 8:27); 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
• Again our strength
• leads us to obedience ( 2 Corinthians 3:5); 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
• Conscience… obedience… follow
• brings to mind ( 1 John 2:20, 27) 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything—and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you—abide in him.
• Brings word to bear
• Brings truth to mind
• His Word and only His Word
• Not ours… Not Mine…. His!
• energizes and makes effective Acts 1:…(at ascension). 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
• Effective only in Spirit
• Seals us… for eternity! 1 Cor 1:21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
• Guaranteed in God
• Focuses on Christ!!
• Spiritual Blessings
• Everlasting Covenant…. Spiritual Blessings….

Everlasting Covenant - C) Heavenly Places

•  Live the heaven reality
• God promise
• Like being Prepared for a trip
• Excited
• Going Home a reality
• 1 Peter 2:11 (ESV) Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
• Don’t commit treason… live the reality
• 2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV) For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
•  Be strong
• This is your destiny…. Strength… Strive
• 2 Corinthians 5:1 (ESV) For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
• This temporary…
• Everlasting Covenant Focus on heaven
•  Not about this age

• Politics… etc.
• NDP / LIBERAL / CONSERVATIVE
• Not the heavenly Realms
• Union Management
• Not the heavenly realms…
• Worried more about…
• Everlasting Covenant… Heavenly Places

Conclusion:

• Hymn….
• Saints Respond
• Worthy
• Everlasting Covenant
• In Christ
• In Spirit
• In Heavenly Places