Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.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,Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
15 sermons cite this verse
… You need her theology. And it's found in Ephesians chapter one, verses one through six. And that's where we're gonna spend the rest of our time. Ephesians 1 through 6. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. We'll come back to that. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. blessed You talk like this? Blessed be the God. So he's writing a letter, and he just breaks into worship in the second sentence. blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places everything heaven can conceivably give to God's children they will have even as he shows us in him come back to that before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him come back to that in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons. …
… Okay? This is saying Paul who in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14, it's a single run-on sentence in Greek. 12 verses are single run-on sentence in Greek. This is the sort of man Paul is. But here, fascinatingly, he confines himself to only 25 verses and less than 400 words total. But what is interesting is that these 25 verses force us to confront three excuses that I think Christians often have when it comes to remaining in unforgiveness. Three excuses that we will often use to justify why we will not forgive someone. And I want to say this too, I'm speaking primarily tonight to those who have been hurt, those who have been wronged. I'm not directing this message towards the wrongdoer. If that is you, you need to repent, you need to turn to Christ, and you need to seek forgiveness from the person you've wronged. But to be honest, I love you. God bless you. You're not really the focus of what I think we need to talk about. I'm speaking to those who have been wronged. You have been sinned against, and you are struggling to figure out how do I forgive in light of that sin. …
… we can go places other people cannot go. Pastor Levi read for us there, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. I wanted to go over it again. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Has is past tense. When we became a believer, God downloaded into our hearts everything we need for living a Godly life. Actually, Peter said that same thing. That was Ephesians 1.3. This is 2 Peter 1.3. It says, by his divine power, God has given us, us believers, he has given us everything we need for living a godly life. He's given us wings. Just let that sink in. Everything we need. Our wings are invisible. Faith is invisible. But friends, you can fly. Dads, you can fly above the craziness of this world with the wings God has given us. And that's the title of the message. You can fly. Dads, you can fly. My whole purpose in the next few minutes is to convince you that you can fly as a dad. You've got this. You know, obviously the title came from Peter Pan and he said, all you need was happy thoughts and pixie dust. And then you can fly out of the bedroom and off into your dreams. But Isaiah tells us, and I like this version better, those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. That's a lot like flying to me. Wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. …
… the forgiveness of sins 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 just as he chose us in him, that's foreknowledge, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, in him. …
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. We should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he has set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven, things on earth in him. Let's pray. …
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he has blessed us, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his the good pleasure or the purpose with which which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on the earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. …
… Grace was already moving before the world. Ephesians 1, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us, God did, he chose us, God at work, in him, in Christ, before the creation of the world. Before you were born, he chose you in Christ. Grace was moving in your direction before you even knew there was a direction. God was already at work to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ in accordance with the pleasure of his will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given to us in the one he loves. It goes on to talk about the riches of God's grace before the foundation of the world. I'm not going to do everything with four passages, but I just want you to see this isn't a verse or two in the Gospels that are about grace and about Jesus dying on a cross. This thread runs through the entire scripture and all of eternity. Second Timothy, he has saved us and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done. Why? …
… that because of the death of christ every issue is settled for all eternity now let's just take a real quick look here ephesians 1 of verse 3 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us make a note there who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So the point is, is Jesus, what he suffered at the cross, put into your account everything you will ever need for all of eternity. Jump down to verse seven. It says, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of grace. Now, most often we define grace as unmerited favor. It's a great definition. It's just, it's just the beginning of the definition of the word grace. Why? Because grace in its nature is the empowering presence of God to enable us to become, not just to perform. It actually changes who we are and it changes what we're capable of doing. So grace would be like the hands of a potter shaping clay. So our skill set, our ability to represent him well, all those things are according to the hands of that potter. In this case, according to the shaping that takes place in our experience with grace. Now go to chapter two. …
… to the praise of his glory. Now, we've been looking at this chapter. We're looking at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to 14. And we've said that it's all about, the whole chapter is the gospel of your salvation. That's a term that's found in verse 13, see? It says, when you were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you heard that and you believed it, you were marked with a seal and you, the promised Holy Spirit. So the point is, the gospel of salvation, the word gospel means good news. This chapter is a kind of inventory of all of the great things that when you become a Christian, you have. It's a little bit like buying a house and going through it to see what you bought, buying a car and driving it to see what you really have there. You bought something, what's really under the hood? and therefore we've been looking at this chapter and we saw in the first four verses, verses four to eight, the first thing God tells us that we have in Christ is adoption. We're brought into the family of God and he becomes no longer our boss or our supervisor or our task master but our father. And then secondly, we looked at verses nine to twelve and we see we not only get adoption but we get a kingdom. We get a God who's in charge of our lives and all of history. He's sovereign, and we looked at that. Now, thirdly, this is what we're looking at now …
For teaching time, we're going to look again at Ephesians chapter 1. I'd like to call your attention to the entire section that we've been looking at, Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14. But tonight we're going to look again, in particular, at verses 9 to 12. It's all one thought, and yet there's divisions in the thought. And I'm going to read from verse 3 to 14, but tonight we're in particular going to look at verse 9 to 12. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. …
at least when I was here we were, I'd like to take a look again at this huge sentence that we started looking at in the late spring and early summer. It's Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to 14, and I'm going to show you tonight that there is a second major division in it, and I'd like to give you an overview of it. We've been looking for weeks at the beauty of the first part of that sentence and what it means that we were chosen to be adopted as his children, to be his sons. And we spent a number of weeks on what it means to be adopted. And I want you to know that I don't know if it helped you, but I wrote most of those sermons sitting in a convent on the shores of the Hudson River back in late May, and it changed my life. Just to think about the first part of the sentence. But starting at verse 9, we have a second part, and I'd like to introduce you to that tonight. Let me read you the whole sentence again. Chapter 1, verse 3 through 14. In the Greek, it was all one sentence, even though the English translators have had to break it up just to make it comprehensible. Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be …
… We said last week that Ephesians 1, which we're beginning to look at, is Ephesians 1, verse 3 to 14. In the Greek original was one long sentence. boy now what am I doing wrong uh it was one long sentence and uh therefore it's a it's a massive build-up it's a statement in which Paul is trying to give us the entire scheme of how God saves us and I'd like to read just verses uh three to fourteen but we're only going to look at verse three four and five here tonight for a minute Paul says praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we also were …
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. …
… it's broken into several sentences. Ephesians 1, verse 3 to 14 is one long sentence in Greek. And I'll give you some reasons why I think that happened. It's not good grammar. It's not, even in Greek, to have a sentence that long is not good grammar. It's not good form or style. But Paul was caught up. Let's take a look at this. Ephesians 1, verses 1 to 14. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, weigh every word. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Christ Jesus in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have …
… Chapter 1, verse 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. You know what that means? He has already planned it, stored it up. It's provided for every single thing you and I will ever need. Our loving heavenly Father is already prepared. Listen to this. Just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, an awesome expression of His love for us, that He chose us. You know why you're saved? Because God chose you. Listen, He says not only that, He predestined us to do what? To become a member of His family, adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ. Now watch this. To Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. You know why He did it? Because He wanted to. When you think about the fact of how He has loved us and the things He's done for us in our life, you think about the fact He says He lavished His grace upon us, that God loves you enough to plan the best for your life and is willing to walk with you through that plan. …