Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #14902 - Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing - Ephesians 1:2-4

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#14902 - Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing - Ephesians 1:2-4 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Amen.
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Open your Bibles. Ephesians chapter 1 is where we
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are. We're going to pick up where we
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left off in verse 2 and I've entitled our Bible study Blessed
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with Every Spiritual Blessing. We're starting a brand new,
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we're in the beginning stages of a brand new exciting Bible study
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through the book of Ephesians. It's such a rich and encouraging
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book, breathtaking, inspiring, stirring of our hearts.
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We learned that Ephesus was a Sin City.
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Sin City. Why?
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Because every city is a Sin City.
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Every single city is filled with people.
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People deal with sin, and we have to deal with the effects
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not only of our sin, but of other sin.
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Ephesus was a Sin City. It was actually one of five
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major cities in the 1st century in the Roman Empire.
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Of course, there was Rome, Antioch, Alexandria.
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We mentioned Corinth and Ephesus.
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They were the big cities of the day, and Paul planted a church
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in Ephesus on his third missionary journey.
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He spent three years there, which developed this sweet
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pastoral relationship with the church.
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You're going to hear it come out not so heavy because he's
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instructing and directing, but you're going to sense this love
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that he has for him to stay three years in a place.
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The other place he stayed a long time was Corinth for 18 months.
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For him to stay in a place for a long time gave him the
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opportunity to develop a relationship and serve them and
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love them. One of the themes that comes out
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as he's writing to the Ephesians is that the church is the body
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of Christ, the family of God, a body of believers that Jesus is
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drawing out of the world. And from the beginning, it's
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always been the pattern of God to draw a people out from the
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world for himself. Now not that isn't to remove
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them from the world, but to take them out of their aimless living
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their their life, life in the dark and to bring them into the
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light. In John chapter 15 you can jot
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it down. Jesus tells his disciples then
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and even tells you today. He says very clearly, you did
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not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
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should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain
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God's choosing, which is a topic in our Bible study today.
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God's choosing dates back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve
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and Noah and Abraham. Through Abraham, he calls the
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nation of Israel and the nation of Israel.
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He chose to be a light to the world, but they failed.
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So then through Messiah, through Messiah, God began to draw on
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other people, Jew and Gentile, into a new entity known as the
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church. There are really three people
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groups today of assessing the divisions of the world today.
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You can do it in three ways. Number one, there is the Jew #2,
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there is the Gentile. And then thirdly, there is the
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Church. You go, what do you mean with
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the church? Well, the people group of the
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church are born again, Jews and Gentiles that have been grafted
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in together, Jew, Gentile and the church.
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By the way, this isn't the topic of the Bible study today, but
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since we're touching on it, it's important that I share it with
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you. You need to know that the church
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did not replace Israel in the Scriptures.
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Israel and the church are two very distinct groups that in
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1948, as God is bringing back His people to the land that He
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eternally promised them. The identity of Israel exists
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today until the fullness of the Gentiles come.
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Now, we've studied all this, by the way, and the reason why this
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is important is because it's out in the news and culture today.
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It's one of these popular things when a celebrity or somebody
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says, you know, you hear it, you hear it very loud voices saying,
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saying that Israel is no longer God's chosen people.
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You have to read Romans chapter 8 or excuse me, 9:10 and 11:00
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and I did, we did Bible studies in depth on this.
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I taught through this. God still has a plan for Israel,
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national eternal Israel, that much of Israel's gathered in the
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land that they were promised to today.
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And when the fullness of the Gentiles come and will you go,
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pastor? What does that mean?
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I never heard that phrase. It's a biblical phrase and it
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refers to the last Gentile believer.
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God has turned his attention now to the primarily the church,
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most of this room Gentiles. Why?
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Because of Israel's failure, God turn his attention.
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It's not the Jews aren't being saved today.
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They are. I was just in Israel late
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earlier or late last year, seeing it with my own eyes.
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God is still working. It's not a large group, but he's
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still working, drawing people to himself.
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But this false teaching, I believe, of replacement theology
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is not in the Scriptures, and I make strong cases for this
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throughout our Bible studies here on all the relevant
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passages. By the way, the last Gentile to
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get saved, if you're the last Gentile, would you get saved
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today? Just get saved now.
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So the rapture of the church will take place and the very
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next thing that will happen after the rapture is God will
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turn His attention to the last seven years of human history.
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How do we know that Book of Revelation speaks of the great
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Tribulation period? This is where God's dealing with
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Israel turns his attention back, and much of Israel will get
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saved and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And we've laid all this out. This is the key.
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And you're going to hear this phrase more and more.
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You're going to hear me share. I think this is the phrase of
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the year as we see all these voices out.
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And that is whatever questions you're asking culturally,
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biblically, nationally, whatever questions you're asking, you
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need to tether your answers to the text.
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You have to tether yourself to the Bible because it's easy to
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get off. You have to tether yourself to
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the Bible. Even what I'm teaching, you take
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what I'm teaching you tether yourself to the Bible, Take what
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I'm teaching, test it by the word of God, not by someone
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else's teaching. Well, you know, I learned it
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from this. Now, what does the Bible say?
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The Bible couldn't be clearer. And the issue that we're having
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right now is you don't have to agree with every political,
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governmental decision in order to believe in national Israel
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just as much as in your own country.
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There are times when you like the leadership.
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And then so, you know, super patriotic.
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There's times when you don't like the leadership, when you
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times you don't like the leadership, whether it be your
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mayor, whether it be your governor, whether it be your
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president, whether it be your HOA, you can still enjoy the
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benefits of being a citizen without agreeing with
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governmental decisions. Governmental decisions do not
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mean that reflects the biblical narrative.
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It just means that guys in office making decisions and even
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under the sovereignty of God. Again, I don't, I don't want to
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develop that here as much as I have in all many other places,
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but you need to hear it out loud.
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You need to tether yourself to the scriptures, Not some gal on
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YouTube, not some popular podcast, just whatever you're
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hearing. Come back to the Bible, come
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back to the Bible and I assure you, God will make it clear if
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you have any questions about Israel, Romans chapter 910 and
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11 written by a believer in the new covenant, very important.
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And of course, there's Daniel in Revelation as well.
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One of the things you're going to see in the book of Ephesus
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too, is that the church, the church, we get a strong
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definition of what the church, or better said, who the church
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really is because we've associated the word church with
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a building. I'm sure you got up today
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planning your day, looking at what time something's on and
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where I'm going to go to church and how.
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And you said, OK, it's time to go, let's go to church.
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And what you meant was you're coming to this building.
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You're coming to this address on the corner of Hampton and
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Biscay. I'm not opposed to referring to
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this building as church, I understand, but it's actually
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not entirely accurate. This is just a building.
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It actually is not the church. It's a building.
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Drywall, concrete, windows, glass, carpet, chairs.
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Know the Bible. You'll see in the book of
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Ephesians. You'll see.
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The Bible is clear that you're the church.
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I'm the church. Just like we learned last time,
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didn't we? You're a St.
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How'd you like that this week? Did you go around telling people
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you're a St. Hello.
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I'm Saint Edward, you know, don't use that word.
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You have your own name and you're just like, you know,
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you're a St. It's not some some man made
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doctrine of unapproachable light, you know, and you know,
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you'll never be a St. You're the ain't, you're not the
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Saint. But we learned that the Bible
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says as a believer, you're a St. I'm a St.
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That's your, That's the definition of your life.
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And the definition of church is not a building, not a physical.
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You can meet in a school, you can meet in a strip mall, You
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can meet under a tree in a park. Not today, but you could if you
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want, not in. When we started early today, it
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was 6°. Who does that?
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Why? Why do you know?
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I see people sometimes show up on my camera at my house walking
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their dog at 3:00 in the morning in 5° weather.
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Do you know what the dog saying? No, they want to get their
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workout in before work. But the dogs going, what are you
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doing, man? Like, why'd you wake me up?
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What's going on here? During the week, We're all
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spread out. We're all spread out throughout
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the community, all over different places, different
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houses, different apartments, different workplaces, different
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cities everywhere. And you know what's spread out?
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The church, the building's empty.
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The church is all around town. Yeah.
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It means your cubicle is a holy place under the Lord.
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You drive in a truck around time you drown town, you're driving
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Lyft or Uber. That's a holy place under the
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Lord. Why?
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Because the church is in it. A lot of times we were, man.
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We're praying. And we should because God has
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ordained the gathering. That's one thing that was lost a
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few years ago. It's kind of put into the mind
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of people. You don't need to gather.
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You don't need to gather. You don't need to gather.
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And there's a lot of fear, a lot of.
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Yeah, like the Bible says, you need to gather.
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It couldn't be clear. We're not to forsake the
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gathering of the Saints. We need to gather.
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This is an important part. However, when you think of
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gathering, you, you, you think of I'm going to invite my friend
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to church on my front. And they don't want to come.
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They don't want to be here. And you're like, no, you know
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what God has done? He's taking the church to them.
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And you just keep praying for them.
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You talk to them about the things of the Lord and they may
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never set foot in this building, but God has brought the church
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to them by putting you in their life.
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We'll see that throughout Ephesians.
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Pick up with me. Now let's just start with verse
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one where we were last time and we'll move on to a few verses
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today. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
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by the will of God to the Saints who are in Ephesus and faithful
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in Christ Jesus. And we looked at that in depth
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in our last Bible study, verse 2.
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Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
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Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of
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our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual
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blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
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Mark that phrase. It's used a lot, just as He
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chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we
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should be holy and without blame before him in love.
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A typical opening greeting in a Pauline epistle or a letter Paul
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wrote. You might hear the phrase
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Pauline epistle. It means a letter that Paul
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wrote. This is a typical greeting.
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Grace and peace. In Ephesians, grace is used 12
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times. It's the Greek word charis, and
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it speaks in a general sense of that which affords joy,
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pleasure, delight and sweetness, loveliness.
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It has that those characteristics, charis.
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We know it in a technical sense. When we think of the grace of
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God in salvation, what do we think?
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God's unmerited, unearned and undeserved favor that leads us
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to salvation. None of us earn salvation.
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None of us deserve it. It is God's work in our life.
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We can't add to it, we can't work for it, we can't earn it.
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It's all God we receive and re enjoy.
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When you think of Charis and the grace of God toward man, not
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just in salvation, but every good thing we enjoy, every joy,
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everything that's lovely. When we see it through the lens
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of grace, we're so grateful. As we were singing today, we're
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just so grateful. We're just so happy that God is
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in our life. We're so happy that he saved us
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and rescued us and changed where he, whether he did it by having
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you born in a godly home or he did it like some of us late in
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life, we're just so grateful for what he's done.
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It's so good to think about the work of God in our lives.
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It melts us. And when you understand the
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grace of God, what comes next? The peace of God, it's always in
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that order. You understand the grace of God,
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and immediately your heart's flooded with this peace.
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The word peace here means national tranquility.
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When it's used in the general sense, it speaks of a nation
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that's not at war. But when you use it personally,
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you have this sense of you have a peace with God.
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You're not at war with God anymore, but you also have a
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peace from God or the peace of God where you're just at rest,
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trusting the Lord with your life.
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Grace and peace, the Jewish and the Gentile, greetings combined.
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Of course, peace from the Hebrew Shalom.
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You'll hear that word a lot. This is Paul opening up,
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sharing, and he says, look, this is such a beautiful thing to
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receive the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord
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Jesus Christ. By the way, if you like to write
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in your Bibles, this phrase, the Lord Jesus Christ is used twice
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in these few verses. You see it there in verse 2 and
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also in verse 3. Let's make a clarification on
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what he is saying exactly when he says Lord Jesus Christ
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because we're used to referring to people with first, middle,
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and last names. And it could very easily, you
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could conclude that the name of Jesus is his first name is Lord,
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His middle name is Jesus, and his last name is Christ.
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But there's actually three things being said about Jesus,
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our Savior, our Messiah with the phrase Lord Jesus Christ.
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You can just jot it down. Lord is his title, the title of
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his role in your. He is Lord of your life or not,
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but he is the Lord. He's the King of kings, the Lord
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of Lords. Never forget that.
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Jesus Christ, his title is Lord, His name.
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No other name under heaven by which man or woman must be
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saved, but the name Jesus, Yeshua, that's his name.
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His name is Jesus and Christ. That's not his last name, not at
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all. You know what?
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Christ, Christos in the Greek, that's his mission.
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He came to save, he came as Lord, Lord of all creation
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because he's creator. He's Jesus promised the promised
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one Yeshua God is salvation. He's the Lamb of God that takes
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away the sins of the world and his mission.
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He's savior. This is where why he came.
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This phrase now notice in verse 3 in Christ in Christ is used
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some 35 times in Ephesians. This is the place that you want
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to be. You want to everything changes
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in Christ. Everything changes for the born
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again believer. The absolute safest place on the
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earth is to be found in Jesus. In Jesus we touched on briefly
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the last time things get so hard, so dark, so difficult that
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there's a natural reaction to run away.
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Got to get out of here. That's the solution.
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I got to get out of here the Sin City.
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Sin City I just the solution is to get out of here.
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But really before you ever make any kind of decisions like that,
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the solution is this. Make sure you're in Christ in
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Christ, you know, and even sometimes things that get so
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bad. I had a brother last night that
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shared this things that get so bad, he says just Take Me Out.
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Lord, I got to get out of this world.
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I don't I don't want a new city, new house, new.
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I want to get out of this world. Do you know that I already know
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the answer to that question for you.
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It's like, well, I'm just waiting for God.
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I've been praying. Lord, Take Me Out, Take Me Out.
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I already have the answer for you.
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You ready? Here's the answer.
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No. There you go, Ed, How can you
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say that you're not God? Well, I'm glad you say that.
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Turn over to John chapter 17. Let me show you, Jesus already
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prayed this. He already prayed this over his
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disciples and by extension over us as followers today.
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Notice with me John chapter 17. It's not God's will for you to
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get out of the world or to run to the caves or to isolate
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yourself from this world. God's will is for you to
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infiltrate, not isolate. And here he is praying.
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He's praying out loud. So as he's praying out loud,
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people hear him. And this disciples are hearing
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what he says. And notice what he says in verse
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15. He says, I do not pray that you
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should take them out of the world.
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There's your answer. It is not God's will for you to
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be out of the world. I mean, there is a all of us
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will be out of this world on the perfect timing of God, every
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single one of us. But that escapism or that desire
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just I got to get out. I got to get away.
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No, no, he says, no, I'm not asking you to take him out,
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Father, but would you please keep them from the evil 1?
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Would you protect them in this world?
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Would you protect them in this situation?
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Would you protect them while they're battling and going?
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Would you protect? Don't take them out, even though
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that's one of the things, I mean, there's always been
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situations in our life when we want to get out.
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It doesn't make you a bad person.
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But remember, you want to tether your life to the Word, but more
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importantly, you want to tether your life abiding in Christ.
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You want to make these decisions in Christ.
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Why? Because notice, come back at
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verse 3. Now in Christ is the place of
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blessing. In Christ, blessing literally
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means how happy, how pleased, how satisfied, how content we
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are in him. It's important to remember that
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Ephesians is a prison prison epistle.
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And the reason it's referred to as one of the prison epistles is
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because where Paul wrote it, he's writing these things about
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being blessed with every spiritual blessing.
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He's writing these things that that you are experience.
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You have everything like when he says you have every spiritual
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blessing in my Bible I have. It's the word, every circle.
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Everything I need, God has. He's given me everything there's
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nothing like there might be a lot of wants in my life, but
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there there are no needs left open in my life because God has
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given me everything I need, past, present, and whatever I'm
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going to need in the future. What is that phrase?
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We often say that we don't know what the future holds, but we
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know who holds the future. This is part of it.
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God has given you every spiritual blessing.
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There's nothing you lack. Peter said the same thing.
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Peter says this in second Peter chapter one verse 2.
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Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and
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of Jesus our Lord. Listen as His divine power has
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given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
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Paul says every. Peter says all.
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Those are big words. There's nothing left undone in
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your spiritual life that God has not already provided you with
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the spiritual solution. That's what Paul writes.
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He opens up and says grace, peace, blessings and where is
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he? Well, in our modern day context,
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if we put Paul today, he's not pastoring a multi campus Church
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of 10s of thousands of people with great success.
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He doesn't have millions of likes on TikTok where
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everybody's listening to him and following him and he's got his
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YouTube channel. That's not what he's doing.
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He's not living the healthy and prosperous life.
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He's just living the best life. Now he's in a really bad place.
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He's in prison, he's not riding from a yacht in the middle of
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the Mediterranean Sea. He's isolated, he's restricted.
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He's in one of the deepest, darkest, loneliest moments in
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his entire life. And when he takes his quill in
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in hand and he begins to think about the church in Ephesus and
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the three years that he was there and things that he's open
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for the Holy Spirit to speak to him, to write them and encourage
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them and strengthen them. He doesn't open up complaining.
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He doesn't open up all upset, bad mouthing God.
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You won't believe, you know, just kind of an introduction.
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You won't believe where I'm at right now, guys.
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You don't believe. It's horrible here.
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It's ridiculous. I can't believe it.
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It's so unfair. I can't believe Rome.
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What's going on? No, what does he do?
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Hey, Saints, just want to let you know you're blessed.
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We're blessed. Did you notice that?
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You see you, you got to pay attention to the smaller words
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here that we just read over fast.
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But he doesn't say just you're blessed.
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He says we're blessed. You see in verse three, who has
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blessed us? Us I know there are times where
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we're just crying out, you know, feeling forsaken, forgotten.
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God Get Me Out of this. I hate it.
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Deliver me. But Paul gives us a great
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example to step into difficulties with gratefulness
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and Thanksgiving. Remembering is grace,
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remembering where you came from. I think I'm speaking to many
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today that are imprisoned. That's not unusual.
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I know the Bible studies we go out live into jail cells and and
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jails and prisons around town. I know that, and there are
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people literally in a cell or in a cellblock listening over the
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radio to our Bible studies. I get that.
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But still others are listening, perhaps in a hospital bed,
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homebound. Maybe today you feel like just
23:33
captives to some mental health issues that you don't seem to be
23:36
getting over or some fear that you're wrestling with.
23:39
There's a lot of stuff. I think of grief and pain.
23:43
I think of lingering issues that aren't resolved, the unknown.
23:47
Listen, you need to know this. God is with you.
23:54
He knows you and loves you and in every state in life, just
23:59
when you, not just when you feel happy and you like life
24:02
circumstances, but also when you're sad and you don't like,
24:05
like no, either way, up or down, left or right, you and I are
24:11
blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
24:17
And isn't that the issue? Isn't that often the issue of
24:21
the day where we need to get our eyes back on the Lord because
24:27
the circumstances of life can blind us from the reality of
24:31
this truth And we can just go to the spiritual bank account of
24:34
God and draw. Do I need hope today?
24:36
I can draw on my bank account. Do I need help?
24:39
I can draw on my bank. I can come to the Lord and He
24:42
will give me what I need in the moment, just in the moment.
24:46
I think there's so many struggling.
24:48
I met I I love these testimonies.
24:50
I love they're so good. I can't, I can't like I had a
24:53
whole line here of people waiting for me after service and
24:57
and there were two guys there. One was telling me four months.
25:00
I said, we've started coming to the church here and I'm like,
25:02
welcome, I'm glad you're here. Great church.
25:04
Not a perfect church, but a great church welcome here.
25:06
And this is my husband and he's been sober four years and I'm
25:10
like, yeah, I5 four years and I get to share my testimony.
25:13
I think I'm coming up on 35 years.
25:15
It's great. It's wonderful.
25:16
And these this brother, he's only been coming for a couple
25:18
weeks and and he says, yeah, I've been sober for four months.
25:21
I'm like, whoa, bro, that's enough to break a habit right
25:24
there. Like that's it.
25:25
You're free. You're free in Christ.
25:28
You only got four months. You only have three months.
25:31
You only have three weeks. But you are free as much as I
25:34
have been for 35 years. Why?
25:37
Because you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing
25:39
and sobriety is yours. Peace is yours.
25:43
Hope is yours. You just got to draw on the bank
25:47
account of God and just go make a withdraw.
25:49
You go. But that I've been withdrawn,
25:51
Withdrawn. I don't know.
25:52
I might be overdrawn. No, no, you will never overdraw
25:56
on the spiritual bank account you have with the Lord.
25:59
Never. And that's where Paul is.
26:01
He's writing in prison. He's like, look, man, it's hard,
26:04
it's difficult, but I'm just going to embrace it because it
26:09
just this sense of I just got to move on like you listen, listen,
26:13
the solution is not changing your job.
26:16
The solution is not changing your husband or wife.
26:21
I was an Amen moment. What are you guys talking about?
26:24
Hello. Because sometimes you feel
26:27
imprisoned in a marriage. It's not what you thought.
26:29
It wasn't what it's not ending up like you thought on when you
26:33
came to the altar. You know, maybe some of you
26:34
stood right here with a pastor and so hopeful and so wonderful,
26:39
and we all celebrate with you and the vows.
26:41
It was beautiful and it was wonderful, but it's not like
26:43
that right now. Well, the solution is not
26:46
another husband or another wife. The solution is to get your eyes
26:50
on the Lord. The solution is to trust Him.
26:56
The solution is to know that He's with you.
26:58
It's not the solution even in some of your lives.
27:00
It's not winning the lottery. It's not going to be more money
27:03
that's going to solve this. What's going to solve it is
27:07
being in Christ and enjoying blessings in Him.
27:12
Happy, content, secure, hopeful. We find life in Christ.
27:19
Isn't that how He described Himself?
27:21
I am the way the truth and the life eternal life is in Him.
27:27
True peace is found in Jesus. How is He described in Isaiah,
27:30
the Prince of Peace? So we turn off our phones and
27:37
put down our laptops and set aside the things of this world,
27:41
and we begin to pick up God's love letter to us.
27:43
Reading it, meditating on it, applying it, we become like we
27:48
read today in the Psalm. That tree that's planted by the
27:52
rivers of water, It's just planted.
27:54
It is not moving. It's not going anywhere.
27:59
And I I even as a kid, I had this thought growing up, like I
28:02
would go through these big trees and and I would just think, man,
28:05
I wonder what that tree has seen.
28:08
Can you think of a tree was talking to you?
28:10
And he's like, yeah, I've seen, I've seen some things.
28:13
You know, you look at the rings, you know, how many years but
28:15
sweet. And and, you know, I was
28:16
thinking even last time as I was teaching, I was like, you know,
28:19
we go up every year. We have a Colorado tradition.
28:22
We've done it every year since we moved here.
28:23
We go out and cut our own tree for the.
28:26
So, you know, think about that tree.
28:27
No, don't come to me. Go to him.
28:29
You know, go to him. And we cut our tree down, bring
28:31
it home. But then what we drive up is
28:33
that place, I forget what the name of it is, but that place
28:35
where that big fire was and all the trees are gone.
28:38
Like they're gone, except there's one or two there.
28:40
You know, if we went and interviewed that tree.
28:42
So I've seen a few things. Oh, yeah, I've lost all my
28:45
friends. They're gone.
28:45
You know, it's like, but I'm here and they're starting to
28:48
rebuild and, you know, all of that.
28:50
I have all this pain, all this difficulty because just because
28:52
that Lady got mad at her boyfriend, you guys remember
28:55
that story? That's how the fire started.
28:57
She burned up a love letter because she was mad at him and
29:00
started that whole area on fire and ruined so many lives.
29:04
Trees have seen some things, but you know you as a tree planted
29:08
by the rivers of water. We could come to you as you're
29:11
still standing. And you know what you can say?
29:14
Oh, I've seen a few things that I know you have.
29:18
Why? Because you've been in the word.
29:20
You have. You've let God be your strength.
29:23
You've let them stick, keep you steady when the winds came and
29:27
try to blow you. Your roots are so deep that
29:30
you've endured so much. That man, you've seen a few
29:33
things too. And because of that, it's
29:36
important to share your testimony, let people in on it.
29:39
Let them know what God has been doing in your life.
29:42
You be like that tree planted by the rivers of water.
29:44
Let's pick up as we close here in verse 4.
29:47
Oh, by the way, he says spiritual blessing in the
29:49
heavenly places. The heavenly places is also
29:52
mentioned a few times in the book of Ephesians.
29:54
But but it's not just a location when we think of heaven, it's
29:57
it's almost like a repetition that this is spiritual, that
30:01
you're the main part of your life and mine is spiritual.
30:04
We're spiritual beings. It's the spirit comes first.
30:07
We walk in the spirit, we yield to the spirit.
30:09
The Spirit of God dwells in us. The heavenly places is not just
30:14
a location that our strength comes from the Lord, but it also
30:18
speaks almost like he's saying it twice, spiritual blessing.
30:21
That's spiritual. So keep down our mind.
30:23
Verse 4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
30:29
world. What a wonderful truth.
30:32
God chose you. You and I were chosen and we
30:37
were chosen with a very specific plan and purpose in mind.
30:43
One of the blessings, one of the spiritual blessings we currently
30:47
enjoy is that God chose us. It's glorious to think that we
30:52
were on the mind of God even before it says the foundations
30:56
of the world, which is a mind blowing thing.
30:58
It's hard to understand. This is where Bible students,
31:02
theologians, Bible, you know, people that spend their time in
31:06
the, this is where they get stuck because they try to
31:10
reconcile 2 very powerful truths, the sovereignty of God
31:15
and the free will of man. So let's back up for a minute
31:19
and just understand, let's simplify this kind of one step
31:22
at a time. So number one, God is God.
31:26
Can I get an Amen on Amen on that?
31:28
God is God and God can do whatever he wants.
31:33
And that word we use to describe for you to do whatever you want
31:38
is choice. So God very simply can choose.
31:43
It's his divine prerogative to choose.
31:47
He can choose. Secondly, you and I, the Bible
31:51
tells us we're created in the image of God.
31:55
And in the image of God means we reflect him, we reflect his
31:57
character, his nature. We're not, we are not little
32:00
gods. We reflect him, we reflect him.
32:03
And one of the things that God has given to us is the ability
32:07
to choose. It's an amazing thing.
32:11
You can make choices, but God can make choices.
32:15
God's choice is greater than ours.
32:17
Very weighty stuff, this doctrine of election.
32:20
And it doesn't need to stumble you.
32:22
As you look at the doctrines for what they are and accept them,
32:26
what happens is you try to step into the eternal and try to
32:29
reconcile them. And your goal is reconciliation
32:33
of these heavy weighty terms. And so you will get to the end
32:38
where you feel comfortable with an explanation of putting those
32:41
two together. But I'm asking you to step back
32:44
one step from that, that your goal is not to reconcile
32:47
doctrines. Your goal is to know God, to
32:51
know God. So when you want to learn about
32:54
God, here's one thing to learn about God right now, God
32:56
chooses. And the other thing to learn
32:59
about you, born again believer, this is one thing you need to
33:02
learn. God chose you from before the
33:05
foundations of the world, which means you know it's a reflection
33:10
of God's knowledge. He knows all things.
33:12
He made his choice before the foundation of the world.
33:15
The amazing part for me in this, and we'll touch a little bit
33:18
more in Predestination next week, but the amazing thing to
33:22
me is not that God chooses. The amazing thing to me is that
33:26
He invites me to participate and gives me the choice.
33:30
There is a doctrine that a teaching today that says that
33:33
the grace of God is irresistible.
33:36
Well, an obvious anybody open their eyes would see that many
33:40
people resist the grace of God today.
33:43
And then you can layer it and you can add this and you can put
33:46
this together. But if you just look at life, if
33:48
God simply can choose, man can choose to resist or follow.
33:56
And we studied this in depth in Romans.
33:58
We'll get into a little bit next time, But the question is this,
34:01
today, when it comes to choosing in your life, are you doing the
34:07
choosing or are you allowing God to do the choosing in your life?
34:11
Are you choosing or is God choosing?
34:14
You see, his choices in our lives don't end with acceptance,
34:17
but rather like when we accept Him, we receive the gospel.
34:21
God convicts us of sin, opens our eyes, we receive him of our
34:25
own free will. See, if there's not some
34:27
substance of choice in humanity, then you can blame God for not
34:31
being saved. Well, you know God, you didn't
34:33
elect me, you didn't choose me. And even today you're like, how
34:36
do I know if God chose me? How do I know if I'm elected?
34:38
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll know.
34:42
Reject him and you'll know because in the moment you're not
34:47
experiencing his choice or in the moment you are.
34:53
Respond to the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus
34:55
Christ. You see the beauty of this is
34:58
His desire for our lives is a constant choice of obedience, A
35:03
continual choice. You read it, you see some in the
35:07
scriptures and you believe it and then you obey it.
35:12
This choosing is very important because it sets the course of
35:16
your life and it solves a lot of problems in our minds when you
35:20
understand what God has chosen for you.
35:23
Often times we choose things for ourselves and Paul, when I read
35:28
of Paul, Paul never thought of himself as choosing God, like he
35:34
never looked at that as looking I'm, I'm going to choose to do
35:37
this. And this is because God allowed
35:40
Paul to make choices up to the road of Damascus and they were
35:42
miserable, destructive choices that were literally against the
35:46
church. Paul never looked at himself as
35:50
choosing to do God's work. He always saw and recognized
35:54
God's choice in his life. He's even mentioning it here so
35:58
that the Ephesian believers recognize and know God's choice
36:02
in his life. We read it in Galatians chapter
36:05
one verse 1. He says Paul an apostle, but
36:07
then he says right away, not of men.
36:11
I wasn't chosen by men. God chose me.
36:14
God in the same, maybe in the back of his mind he'd say, well,
36:17
I remember Damascus. I remember the road to Damascus.
36:20
I was ready to go wipe out and God got me and he knocked me
36:24
down and he's shown a bright light of my eyes and blinded me.
36:27
I mean, that's a testimony. How'd you get, say, Paul?
36:30
Oh, sit down, sit down. I got a story to like Paul being
36:34
that tree. I've seen some things and that
36:38
like he has the call of God that he can lean back on.
36:40
Yes, I know. And we learned again, building
36:44
these Bible studies kind of interact with each other from
36:46
last time we learned that ministers, pastors, they cannot
36:51
take the ministry upon themselves.
36:54
Now I'm not saying functionally you can't do that.
36:55
You can print out cards, you can put a website, but that's what I
36:58
mean. It's from the Lord.
37:00
Ministers are called and chosen by God, pastors called and
37:05
chosen by God. But in a broader sense, every
37:09
single born again believer called and chosen by God from
37:14
before the foundations of the world.
37:16
Another mind blowing thing from the foundations of the world,
37:18
but I think it was Spurgeon or someone said, man, I am so glad
37:21
that God chose me from before the foundations of the world
37:25
because if he wanted to choose me afterwards, he wouldn't.
37:29
And we kind of assess our lives like that, don't we?
37:32
Well, I'm not worthy and I'm not listen.
37:34
You've never been worthy of salvation.
37:37
It's always been a work of grace.
37:41
There hasn't been a moment in my life where I have ever merited
37:46
the blood that was shed for me. Never.
37:51
I never deserve it. But I always appreciate it
37:57
because I know where I came from.
38:00
I know where I was headed. I had my own Damascus.
38:03
I was headed to destruction. You can't just decide to choose
38:09
the ministry as a job or a vocation.
38:12
It's a calling of God upon a man.
38:16
You can't take it upon yourself and step into something you
38:19
haven't been called to. But then you'll just struggle
38:21
your whole life. You'll just be miserable because
38:24
it's God's great pleasure to use you as you were designed.
38:29
Now, just to step back for a second and just let's paint the
38:32
picture here. There are very few pastors in
38:36
the world percentage wise. Very, very few pastors.
38:42
There's not many, very few pastors serving very few
38:46
churches. No matter how big the numbers
38:47
are, they're very small based on the population.
38:51
Why? Because in every generation, God
38:52
has kept a remnant. Very few pastors.
38:56
With that in mind, pastoral ministry is not the best or
39:00
highest calling. You know what the best or
39:02
highest calling is? What you've been called to do.
39:06
Like you drive a truck today delivering packages, That truck
39:10
is a mobile church. You've been called to be
39:14
faithful delivering packages. That's what God called you to
39:17
do. And you embrace it because
39:19
that's that's your thing. You're good at it.
39:22
Just think about what God does. He gave you that personality.
39:24
You're connecting with people, meeting with people.
39:26
You're all over town delivering packages.
39:28
You're like, yes, this is amazing.
39:29
Why? Because that's what God made you
39:31
to do. Some of your police officers,
39:32
firefighters, some of you stayed home.
39:34
On and on that list goes you embrace what God has given to
39:37
you. Now, I know there are times when
39:39
you don't like it. I was thinking in my own life
39:41
like I had, I had, I basically, I've had just a couple of jobs
39:44
in my life because I like to stay in one place.
39:46
But one of my jobs in the beginning was just answering the
39:48
phone and dispatching ambulances.
39:50
That's what I did. Answer the phone 2300 times a
39:52
day. I would answer phones 2300 times
39:55
a day. I would dispatch ambulances.
39:57
And you know what, I hated it. I hated that job.
40:02
I wanted out so bad. I didn't like, I hated it.
40:05
But what I didn't know. That 200 times a day and very
40:10
rapid all day, just it seemed like the phone's never stopped
40:14
is I would have to answer that phone.
40:16
Maybe there's a crisis on the other side.
40:18
Calm the situation down, get the information I need so I can help
40:22
them. That was my job all day, every
40:24
day. Four years until I went into
40:26
management all day, every day. You know what?
40:30
Great training for pastoral ministry.
40:34
Great training, but I wanted out.
40:38
I didn't see any value in it because I had yet to learn to
40:41
embrace where I'm at. What God has me doing that He's
40:45
always preparing me for what He has prepared for me both now and
40:50
into eternity. There's great freedom when
40:53
you're living in the design and calling of your lives today.
40:57
Just asking God, God, I know you've chosen me for salvation.
41:00
I received that, but what else? What is your will for my life?
41:05
You know God would love to answer that prayer in your life.
41:08
Lord, give me contentment. Give me that sense of peace and
41:12
grace and where you have me for your Kingdom.
41:17
This is lived out in the life of Jeremiah.
41:19
This very truth of being chosen from the foundations of the
41:24
world. Jeremiah is told in Jeremiah
41:27
chapter one, verse 4. The word of the Lord came to me
41:29
saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you
41:35
were born, I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the
41:39
nations. So what do you think Jeremiah
41:41
needs to be say, a church, a prophet to the nations?
41:44
OK, I'm going to give you another chance.
41:47
I ordained you to be a prophet to the nations.
41:49
What does Jeremiah have to be? Anything else is going to make
41:53
him miserable. He was not called to anything
41:56
else. What did God say?
41:57
You're a prophet to the nations. And Jeremiah had a really hard
42:01
life. If I was sitting in his shoes.
42:04
I'm like, I don't know, maybe I heard that wrong.
42:07
Prophet. I don't know, probably I don't.
42:08
Maybe I heard that wrong. No, he didn't.
42:10
God knew Jeremiah and put a call in his heart that Jeremiah would
42:14
never be satisfied as a human being until he completed what
42:19
that godly hand created him to do.
42:21
That's what it means to be chosen.
42:24
I know it's hard theologically. Sovereignty of Godfrey will man,
42:27
I understand. I've wrestled with that myself.
42:30
But when I wrestle with things, I just need to learn to set them
42:33
aside the harder things and come back to the things that are
42:36
crystal clear. Here's what's crystal clear.
42:38
God can choose. He chose you get along with the
42:41
program, follow his leading, live that full grace filled
42:47
life. He says at the end here, why
42:50
were we chosen? Well, he says that we in verse
42:53
4, we should be holy and without blame before him in love, that
42:59
our lives will be filled with love, that we would live holy
43:02
lives. That word separated.
43:04
We live a life honoring him, looking to him blameless, not
43:09
perfect, but in the old King James, that phrase is defined,
43:13
is used as above reproach. It's used in First Timothy
43:17
talking about elders. Elders aren't perfect, but
43:20
they're above reproach. The idea is that when an
43:22
accusation comes against you, whether it's from the enemy or
43:25
someone, it doesn't stick because your life's above
43:28
reproach. You're not messing around in
43:30
sin, there's no compromise, but you're also stumbling here and
43:34
there because you're not perfect above reproach.
43:36
This is God's will for your life.
43:38
In a world that's dark, God is wanting us to shine the light.
43:42
Not only is it an exhortation, but it's also an expectation.
43:48
Hey, be holy, walk in love and blame this, but also this is
43:51
what's going to happen in your life.
43:53
As you follow His calling, you're going to become more
43:55
holy. You see that already in your
43:57
life. You see that already in your
43:59
life. There are things you used to do
44:02
that you don't do Why? Because God has given you
44:06
holiness in that area. You're different.
44:10
You thought you'd never get over it.
44:11
You thought you'd never be. People see your life.
44:13
Now you go, you're so different. I know so different.
44:16
Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.
44:20
I have my, I don't want to date me, but I guess I have to have
44:24
my 40 year high school reunion coming up.
44:27
There's probably going to be 5 of us showing up, but I hope I
44:32
can go so that I have in the 10 year, they gave me the
44:36
microphone and I shared the gospel and they never gave me
44:39
the microphone again. But I'm a little bit older now
44:43
and I'm not going to wait for them to give me the microphone.
44:46
I want to be able to say, yeah, guys, I'm still alive.
44:49
Yep, I'm still here. Not in jail, not in prison,
44:53
sober, still here. By the grace of God, his grace,
45:00
his peace, his love, his blameless, it's all him.
45:05
I just need to go along with his choice in my life and follow
45:09
him. It's not the simplicity.
45:10
Jesus said, hey, you come follow me.
45:13
Of course you have a name, you're St.
45:15
Somebody. Hey, you come and follow me.
45:18
And you responded, I'll follow you and look at what God has
45:22
done as you follow him and trust him and give yourself to him and
45:29
you won't regret it. Amen.
45:31
Father, thank you for blessing us with every spiritual
45:33
blessing, the outpouring of your Holy Spirit today.
45:38
And even if you allow and just as a church, we'll just pray.
45:40
I just, I don't know why that popped into my mind, but if I
45:43
can go to that reunion, Lord, make a way.
45:46
It would be a privilege to stand there as a testimony to your
45:50
grace. It'd be a privilege to make
45:53
things right with anybody I need to make things right with.
45:56
It would be a privilege to comfort people that have been
45:58
through a lot of stuff in 40 years.
46:01
It would be an honor. And if I'm not, if I can't go, I
46:03
know my friends are going. There'll be a great
46:06
encouragement. But today, God, I don't know
46:09
where you're leading us, where you're taking us, what open
46:11
doors, what closed doors. But let us get along with the
46:14
program that you have chosen us and we choose to follow you.
46:19
You, you, not us, not not a combination of us and you, but
46:25
truly get back. Like Jeremiah, I have called you
46:27
to be a prophet to the nation. That is what you want him to be.
46:33
And whether it's a stay at home mom or it's an Uber driver, or
46:37
it is an engineer or a doctor lawyer, on and on the list goes,
46:42
We want to follow with the choice that you've made for our
46:45
lives. It's not so much our choosing,
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but it's your choosing. And we cooperate in surrender
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and humble obedience. So bless your church today in
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Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
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Call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223.
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To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.