Sermon for Nov. 3, 2019

This morning I'll be reading Ephesians chapter 1 verses 11 through 23.

And I'll be reading the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

This letter was written by Paul to the church in Ephesus to strengthen their faith,,, these were Gentile believer's and he wanted to help them see that when Jesus comes back they would receive the same inheritance as the Jews,,, and,,, hopefully we can use it today to strengthen our own faith and be reassured as well.

11 We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.

13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.

15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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As I told you at the beginning,,, Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus to help strengthen their faith and to convince them that they would share in the inheritance with the Jews.

In this letter,,, everything that he wrote is still relevant today.

Hopefully we can take this part of the letter and apply it to our own walk with God this morning.

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In a sermon that I read from Dan Sonnenberg,,, he said: Remember that Paul is seeking to assure Gentile believers in Ephesus that they are sharing their inheritance with Jewish believers in Christ.

So he sets up a comparison of the two groups when he writes, beginning in verse 11:

Paul is saying that we have already received an inheritance in Jesus Christ,,, right now while that we are here on earth,,, this is available for us now!

11 We {Jewish Christians} have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, 12 so that we {Jewish Christians} who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.

13 When you {Gentile Christians} heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Paul is saying here that the faith of the Jewish Christians is the same as the faith of the Gentile Christians.

Gentile believers in Ephesus, because they too had heard the gospel of Christ as taught in the word of God and had believed in him, would now receive the inheritance,,, along with Jewish believers.

They too had received and would receive the promised inheritance.

Since they had received the message of truth,,, and believed in faith,,, they too would receive the promised inheritance.

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Be sure that you hear the part about "believing in Him" because just hearing the gospel in the word of God is not enough.

It must be accompanied by believing that it is true, by placing your faith in Christ for salvation.

That's what Paul is talking about in verse 13: where it says: 13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

says: 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Once you have heard the gospel of your salvation,,, then you must believe that Jesus Christ will save you!

Then once you believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior,,, you will be sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit.

(5:50)

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The Holy Spirit is what makes our walk with God possible.

Without the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me each and every day,,, I wouldn't stand a chance of being good enough on my own,,, and I'm sure it's the same for you as well.

This is what helps each one of us as Christians to be able to say that "we love everyone as Christ first loved us!"

You know how hard that is,,, and we don't succeed at this every day either!

Again,,, without the Holy Spirit guiding us back into a right relationship with God,,, we would be in terrible shape on our own.

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Verse 14 says: 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.

According to my Believer's Bible Commentary,,, the Holy Spirit who "seals" is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

The “deposit” is more than a pledge which could be returned; it is a down payment with a guarantee of more to come,,, for example the first fruits of the Spirit found in .

It's also true,,, the “deposit” of the Holy Spirit,,, is a little bit of heaven in believers’ lives with a guarantee of much more yet to come.

The "deposit" of the Holy Spirit is what gives us the ability we need to resist the temptations of sin as long as we are here on earth.

This allows us to walk with confidence that we aren't walking alone,,, the presence of God is with us each and every day!

And it's when we make a conscious effort each day to listen to the Holy Spirit,,, that keeps joy in our hearts because we know that God is with us and guiding us.

(7:30)

And this is all done for the "praise and glory of God!"

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In verses 15 through 17 Paul says: 15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

In these verses Paul prays that they would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.

That they would know God "better",,, in other words that they would know Him intimately and personally,,, which is what the Holy Spirit allowed them to do then,,, and us today as well.

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Verse 18 says: 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,

First,,, Paul wants the readers to understand that the "hope" of God's calling,,, is a fact,,, even though it cannot be seen now.

Here it's used as an absolute certainty of a believer's victory in God!

Second,,, Paul wanted the readers to know that the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,,, refers to the future.

At the time of the resurrection of believers,,, God will inherit those whom He has purchased at a great price according to the riches of His grace.

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Verse 19 says: 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

(8:58)

Paul wanted believer's to know that the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, refers to the present time.

This means that the power of the Holy Spirit is available to them,,, and us,,, to use right now.

And this power of God cannot be defeated by anyone or anything.

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This is illustrated in verses 20 and 21 where it says beginning in verse 20:

20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

This power of God that cannot be defeated was used to raise Jesus Christ from the dead to live forever and seated Him at the right hand in the heavens.

And He will be there not only in this age but also in the one to come.

That means that Jesus will always be there for us to intercede for us whenever we need Him.

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Verses 22 and 23 say: 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

My Bible Knowledge Commentary says that where Adam lost his headship over all creation when he sinned in the Garden of Eden,,, Jesus was made Head over all creation,,, this will be fully realized in the future.

And the last thing in these verses that Paul talks about is the fact that Jesus is head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit abiding with us each and every day,,, as we enter into the church to praise His Holy name,,, Jesus is with us filling this church up with His Spirit and helping us worship every Sunday together!

(11:00)

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So - this morning during communion,,, and even later,,, when we leave from here to begin our week,,, I want us to reflect back on these verses and remember that God has done all of these wonderful things that we have looked at this morning.

Remember that through the "seal" of the Holy Spirit,,, nothing is impossible for you if God has given you something that He wants done.

And nothing can separate us from the love of God,,, Paul says in that beginning in verse 38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And God did all of these wonderful things for each of us while we were still sinners and did not deserve them!

Praise God for doing this for us because even now if we didn't have the Holy Spirit helping us and guiding us,,, we would still fall short and be left without the inheritance that is insured by the death, resurrection and life of Jesus Christ!

……………..

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So as we sing our final hymn,,, let me remind you that the alter is always open,,,

If you feel God speaking to you,,, don't hesitate to come,,, maybe you just have questions,,, God will answer,,, you just have to ask Him,,, whatever the need may be,,,

As we sing the final hymn,,, come if needed!

Oakdale - Hymn Page -

Seminary - Hymn Page - 382

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Now this morning we will gather at the alter to partake of the bread and cup to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

It's not enough to sustain us physically, but what it represents is intended to sustain us spiritually.

This morning we invite all of you to participate in Holy Communion.

This represents the union between God, ourselves and other Christians.

Eating the bread and drinking the cup shows that we are remembering Christ's death for us and renewing our commitment to serve Him.

We do this by remembering what he did for us by his death and also in remembrance that he is coming again.

In

it says:

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

25 In the same way, after supper He also took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

As we begin, I want to remind each of you that this is the Lord's supper, not ours, and Christ that invites you.

As our ritual puts it: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another.”

We do not refuse any who present themselves desiring to receive. Whether you should receive Communion with us is between you and God.

Let's take our hymnals and turn to number 892.

And we will begin reading the bold print together at the top of the page until we get to the red writing where it says all pray in silence,,, then I'll begin with prayer,,, then we will have a short time of silence,,, to give each of us a chance to speak to God silently,,, then I'll close the prayer,,, then I'll begin reading the lighter print below that and we will read the last line together that's in the bold print.

Then we will come and gather around the alter,,, If you can kneel that's fine,,, but if you can't or unable,,, that's fine also. Standing will be just fine.

Let's stand as we begin reading together at the top of the page - #892

Our Heavenly Father,

Who by thy love hast made us,

And through thy love hast kept us,

And in thy love wouldst make us perfect:

We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and that we have not loved one another as Christ hath loved us.

Thy life is within our souls, but our selfishness hath hindered thee.

We have not lived by faith.

We have resisted thy Spirit.

We have neglected thine inspirations.

Forgive what we have been;

Help us to amend what we are;

And in thy Spirit direct what we shall be;

That thou mayest come into the full glory of thy creation,

In us and in all the people;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Pray in silence) Bow our heads in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father,,, we come to you this morning and thank you for all the blessings that we have received. We thank you for your Son who died on the cross for our sin's and made it possible to come to you in prayer. I ask for forgiveness for my sins and I know that the Holy Spirit will put before you any that I miss. Now we will take just a few moments in silence to allow everyone to speak personally to you, then I'll finish,,,,. ,,,,

(silence)

Most Gracious and Holy God,,, again we thank you for this opportunity to come before you. Now we ask forgiveness as a church family together,,, for any sins we've committed before we take of your Holy Communion. These things and all others we ask,,, in Jesus' name,,, Amen

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

If any one sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

And he is the expiation for our sins,

And not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Thanks be to God.

Now you can come together,,,

When all have received, the Lord's table is put in order.

The following prayer is then offered by the pastor or by all:

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery

in which you have given yourself to us.

Grant that we may go into the world

in the strength of your Spirit,

to give ourselves for others,

in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn 130