God’s Plan for Unity, Part 1

The Link between Grace and a Gratitude Attitude

What All Christians Need to Know

The church declares the glory of God (Ephesians 3:20-21)!

God the Father has chosen and predestined us according to His sovereign plan. We are redeemed and claimed according to Christ and His sacrifice for us. Those in Christ are part of His bride. By the Spirit’s work, we are sealed until the day of redemption. All of this is to the praise of His glorious grace.

While in this age of distractions, busy, preoccupied, and often interrupted, Ephesians 1:15-23 teaches us how believers need to think. Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians to be thinking about what they should know.

Praise God for Our Salvation, Part 3: Praise to the Spirit.

Ephesians teaches that every spiritual blessing is from God, and the blessing of security comes by way of the Holy Spirit.

Every believer has been sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit of promise (2 Cor. 1:22). This is experienced permanently at the moment of salvation. Christians are warned not to grieve the Holy Spirit by whom they were sealed until the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30).

The sealing of the Holy Spirit secures our salvation, future, and ownership to the praise of God’s glory and grace.

Praise God for Our Salvation, Part 2: Praise to the Son.

In Christ, we are chosen by God and predestined to adoption as sons and daughters. These spiritual blessings are from the Father (Eph. 1:3-6).

Ephesians 1:7-12 explains the role of the Son of God in our salvation and how the church can praise God for His glorious grace.

Praise God for Our Salvation, Part 1: Praise to the Father

Today’s theme mimics a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 20:1-16 about a landowner going out and hiring workers. Although some workers started early in the day and others much later, the landowners gives all the workers the same wage, exactly what he promised to give them. The workers who started early in the day complained, but Jesus said "am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you angry because I'm generous?"

We'll see in Ephesians 1:1-6 that some get more than they deserve, but no one gets less than they deserve. Ephesians 1:3 tells believers that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. The blessings we receive are sourced in Heaven. This means the purpose of these blessings is from God, originate in Heaven, and are given to us.

In this first chapter of his letter, Paul praises the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today we will talk about the Father.

Philosophy of the Christian and Modern Culture.

The Importance of Remembering.

On days of remembrance, the reality is especially poignant that our freedom is never free. In the history of this country, God has not primarily used religious or political leaders to safeguard liberty; He uses the sacrifices of men and women in the armed forces to secure our freedom.

Spiritual liberty, too, was bought at a high price. Jesus Christ paid his life for our eternal freedom.

Paul continues to pray for believers’ understanding of who they are in Christ to increase. As we pray the same for each other, it will be answered because it is the revealed will of God! God is very proud of His Son. He loves and longs for people to know more about His Son, and to keep learning more of Him forever.

Theme: Our Eternal Foundation, Part 4 – Every Spiritual Blessing is In Christ

Paul continues his prayer that we started looking at in verses 15-16. In these verses, his prayer turns from thanksgiving to request for the Ephesian believers, that they would continually understand more of all they were given in Jesus Christ the moment they were saved.

This morning, we looked at 2 of the 3 things that Paul wanted the Ephesian believers to understand:

Theme: Our Eternal Foundation, Part 3 – Every Spiritual Blessing is in Christ

As the introduction to the last section of chapter 1, these verses mentions two practical ways that our riches in Christ are most vividly displayed. This passage is a prayer of praise offered personally by Paul in response to the testimony of the Ephesians.

Theme: Our Eternal Foundation, part 2 – Every Spiritual Blessing is in Christ.

You may not have a million dollars waiting to be claimed by you, but Christ has something of indescribable value with your name on it. Our passage today may be the most exhaustive description of the value of our salvation in Scripture. Though these spiritual blessings are outlined as experienced in the past, present, and future, they all came to us at the moment we believed.

Theme: Investigating our Eternal Foundation, part 1

Why is the church glorious? Because she has a glorious head, foundation, and shepherd – Jesus Christ. When the church is promoted as a marketing tool of social good and philanthropy, she is robbed of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and His power to save. God’s grace is what makes the church glorious.

Theme: Our gospel disposition remains humbly and kindly purposeful.

As we continue to review our responsibility to evangelize the lost, we must remember that the Gospel is not just any good news, but the Good News of the Lord Jesus – eternally the son of God, who was born of a virgin and came for a purpose, who died for our sin, was buried, resurrected, ascended, and is coming again.

We now look at our Personal Humility that should accompany our Proclamation of the Gospel.