Building the Church God intended
Building the church God intended • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction: Have you ever heard of people that just don’t trust banks for some reason or another, so they hid money in their homes. There was a story of a woman that lived off Cold Spring road years ago that supposedly dies and had all of this money in the walls and in the floors of her home. She didn’t live this flashy life so no one really knew the truth that accompanied the story of the money. Many say she went with out basic needs in her life. After her death fortunes were found that were never touched. Just like many of Christians today that live in spiritual poverty when God intended you to live in royalty. But too often we live in spiritual poverty because of the choices that we have made that don’t allow for us to see the greatness of God and all that he has intended for those that love him and want all of the best for. As we look over the scriptures over the next few weeks we will look at the plan has for his people and his church and how they should look. Many go through their whole lives and never get to enjoy God in no way shape or form because of all the trouble thats going on their lives, so they hoard every good thing that happens to them and think as though this will sustain them. This is not God’s intention for his people. He has a great plan for his people that we all should look upon and learn.
Introduction: Have you ever heard of people that just don’t trust banks for some reason or another, so they hid money in their homes. There was a story of a woman that lived off Cold Spring road years ago that supposedly dies and had all of this money in the walls and in the floors of her home. She didn’t live this flashy life so no one really knew the truth that accompanied the story of the money. Many say she went with out basic needs in her life. After her death fortunes were found that were never touched. Just like many of Christians today that live in spiritual poverty when God intended you to live in royalty. But too often we live in spiritual poverty because of the choices that we have made that don’t allow for us to see the greatness of God and all that he has intended for those that love him and want all of the best for. As we look over the scriptures over the next few weeks we will look at the plan has for his people and his church and how they should look. Many go through their whole lives and never get to enjoy God in no way shape or form because of all the trouble thats going on their lives, so they hoard every good thing that happens to them and think as though this will sustain them. This is not God’s intention for his people. He has a great plan for his people that we all should look upon and learn.
Paul helps us this week as we lay the foundations of the church that God has intended for us as believers to be in. The church of Ephesus was one that he had spent three years with and he understood that was not long enough to get them to where they needed to be spiritually so he sent this letter to let them know of their value and their relationship and its meaning to Christ.
Movement #1 It was planned by God
Movement #1 It was planned by God
EBD
5547 Χριστός [Christos /khris·tos/] adj. From 5548; TDNT 9:493; TDNTA 1322; GK 5986; 569 occurrences; AV translates as “Christ” 569 times. 1 Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God. 2 anointed. Additional Information: Christ = “anointed”.
ESL
93.387 Χριστόςb, οῦ m: (the Greek translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic word ‘Messiah’) a proper name for Jesus—‘Christ’ (). See also 53.82.
Louw-Nida
Χριστῷ Christō
Χριστός ChristosChrist
Χριστος Christos Christ
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
NDSM noun, dative, singular, masculine
G5547 Greek Strong’s
LN 93.387 Louw-Nida
Letter, Community Ephesians
Three things that I want us to take from these first few verses:
Opening 1:1–14
We need a foundation and that is the first layer that goes down in the earth that is not seen but it holds all of the weight that will be placed on top of it.
Prayer of Thanksgiving 3–14
The first is in verse 3 God blessed us with every spiritual blessing!
Spiritual Blessing are from God the spirit is high, you may be feeling bad, depressed and oppressed. It stretches out for weeks and months, but gives us the blessing that we need to pick our selves up.
Adoption, Assurance, Atonement, Blessing and Cursing, Faith, Forgiveness, God: Father, God: Grace, God: Knowledge, God: Love, God: Providence, God: Sovereignty, Gospel, Heaven, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Hope, Redemption, Revelation, Sacrifice, Salvation, Sin, Truth, Worship
These are not the temporal blessing the world offers, these take away our loneliness, it
it wipes away the tears at night. It takes away all of the pressure and the strain of day to day life.
Spiritual blessing only come from God but you have to be in Christ, how do we get there? We have to be in the mind of Christ placing all of our faith in him he will take us on a spiritual journey that we will never forget.
Vs. 4 God chose us before the foundations of the earth were laid. The God of all knew that we would be a mess in be in messes but he still selected us to be his people.
God wants us to be with him no matter what our condition is, the mistakes that we have made the trouble that we have been in, “I still want you!”
God sees you as blameless in his eyes because of His son Jesus Christ.
Vs.5-6 We were adopted as his children: adoption means to be predestined. That speaks volumes as a people we have walked away from God, cursed him, rebelled against him only to see him want to bring us into his family.
God accepts us because we believe and trust in his son. God wants us to have many brothers and sisters who will love and worship him.
God’s purpose in adoption is to be in his presence for all eternity.
Illustration: Have you ever known children who were orphans? They do not have family or a home. In most cases that have been without parents to love and care for them. This must be one of the loneliest feelings known to man. How many of us have had our hearts broken seeing kids from other countries that have not eaten can’t care for themselves and many have been moved to take action. they have packed up and went to this countries to try and save some of these kids and bring them into a better life. But what type of child will take into their lives? One that has not had the normal cycle of influence around them. A child that has been drained of love. A child that had no hope. Yet they had people that was willing to leave life the way they knew it and make a difference in someone else’s life. They took the initiative to give all they had. Like Christ we were people that were separated from him because of our sins but he loved and cared for us enough to come and welcome us to his family.
Movement#2 We were purchased by his son vs.7-12
Movement#2 We were purchased by his son vs.7-12
What Jesus did was: He purchased us through Grace!
The word in vs. 7 is forgiveness which means to send off, to release or to let go. All men stand guilty of breaking God’s laws and the penalty is death, however the blood.....the blood of Jesus has come for fallen man.
God seen his people as powerless and by the blood of Jesus he redeemed us.
It was his Grace that allow God to wipe our slate clean of every sin that we have ever commited.
It was his Grace that allow God to wipe our slate clean of every sin that we have ever commited.
The world that we live in has been enslaved by sin and all of its forces.
The mystery s revealed in vs.9-10 God wants to to gather us as believers together so that we can worship him together.
No more separation in the church not the way God intended it to be as that the body start to come back together.
The church has been fractured, split, torn up God is telling us its time to bring it back together.
The church is to now about to come up under new management and God is now coming back to the forefront.
The house of God is to start to function in the harmony that it has been created to be.
The church is to be an instrument of harmony and peace.
The church is to be outward and not inward. God has resurrected the body of the church to take charge of the mission and not execute.
Illustration: There was an artist that was asked to paint a picture of a decaying church. the the surprise instead of painting some run down church with broken down furniture broken windows overgrown grass. He painted this beautiful building with shiny stained glass windows, you could see this richly carved pulpit, this big magnificent organ in the corner. Within this grand entrance was an elaborate plate that was designed for offerings and missions, there was a huge cobweb over the plate for missions and offerings. What a tragedy to have this great church for everyone to enjoy and worship in and give nothing to spread the gospel to lost world. The picture of a decaying church.
Movement#3 We are preserved by his spirit vs. 13-14
Movement#3 We are preserved by his spirit vs. 13-14
As the believer comes into oneness with God the are rewarded with the Holy Spirt which is our seal.
That seal is placed on our hearts and will not allow
That seal is recognizable to all believers and that we are under the power of God.
We have assurances that we will be with our father when we leave this place.
We are now secured for eternal life! The promise to all that confessed their belief in the Lord.
The process of building the church is having people that buying to what God is selling and follow that all that way to the end.
Closing: How many of us have heard of a lay-a-way plan? You put money down and the product is protected until the item is paid off. Often time we fail to go pick up the items that we have laid away and the product goes back.
In the same since God has a lay-a-way unlike the others this one is guaranteed payment for the believer. We are not allowed to pay anything Jesus makes the the payments for us they are guaranteed no defaults.