[SPEAKER_00]: Morning, these wrenchies, as Kurt said, my name is David Foley.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be reading out of the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 1-3-10.
[SPEAKER_00]: His Paul starts all of his letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul and the Apostle of Christ, Jesus, by the will of God, to God's holy people and Ephesus, the faithful and Christ, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grace and peace, to you, from God, our Father,
[SPEAKER_00]: and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: For he chooses us, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: In love, He predestined us for adoption and to sonship through Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: In accordance with His pleasures and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given to us in the whiny loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: In him, we have redemption through his blood, through the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace, that he lavishes the honours, with all wisdom and understanding he is may known to us the mysteries of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposeed in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be put into effect when the times reach their full film, to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where to the God.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks be to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, thank you David.
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys have a seat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can sit right there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can go and open up to Ephesians chapter one.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not there right now, I'm open up there with me and let's pray together as we as we jump in to Ephesians one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, thank you again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, we come to you this morning and I pray for myself and I pray for my brothers and sisters in front of me that we come to you with the proper attitude.
[SPEAKER_02]: heart posture mindset and we come to you in humility.
[SPEAKER_02]: We come to you in a reverent fear trembling before your word.
[SPEAKER_02]: You remind me this week as I read through this again.
[SPEAKER_02]: How good you are.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm undeserving.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am how undeserving we all are of the blessings you have given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a Lord right now, I just asked that you would give me the grace to be able to rightly communicate these blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give all of us the grace to myself included to hear them and to understand them and to rejoice in them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bless you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of our souls, we bless you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we thank you for your goodness and grace and Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was reading some commentaries this week on Ephesians here.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the commenters made this statement that it's always every good theology starts with doxology and ends with doxology.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't know what those words mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what that means.
[SPEAKER_01]: when would theology being our words about God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, what theology means?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just words about God, thoughts about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The deep things of God, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can say all of Scripture is theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's God's word, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: Docsology is praise, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Docsology is words of glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was saying, all good theology begins and ends with Docsology.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is to say this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we approach the word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me see what he's done.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me read it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me pour over it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me study it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me memorize it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me set it in my heart so that I can live it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then let me praise God again.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what theology should be for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Should do to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you just want to praise him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just bless him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave us his introduction.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been over that the last couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: But verse three is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise be to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now some of your translations say blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word praise or blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just depends on the translation that you're reading and the ordering of the sentence may be a bit different.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all the same, whether it's the word praise or the word blessed be, the word is Ula Getsos in the Greek.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's where we get the word Ula G if you've never been to a funeral.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Ula G, a Ula G is a good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Word, you is good in the Greek, logos, word, good word, eulogy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You let get to.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You let get to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is to speak well of someone, to say something great about somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: You let get to us in the Greek specifically, is only used of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is only used of Jesus of God in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaks of His intrinsic worthiness to be praised.
[SPEAKER_01]: that that word specifically, the way Paul uses it here is only used of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could say, you know, anybody can do something that's praiseworthy, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we can all do things that are praiseworthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, a eulogy at a funeral, you know, we're speaking words about somebody that are praiseworthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good things about them, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But God in His intrinsic nature,
[SPEAKER_01]: is the only one truly worthy of this, truly worthy of you to get to us, truly worthy of praise, truly worthy of our blessing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul, in this particular verse, listen, listen to how he phrases it, praise beats to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a different form of that same word, blessed,
[SPEAKER_01]: us, that's Yulage sasi is given us his blessings, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: With every spiritual blessing, right, in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he is blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three times, Paul uses in that one sentence, that one verse, three times he uses that form of that word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's Yulage sasi, that's praise God because he is Yulage sasi is blessed us with Yulage
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we bless God because he's blessed us with blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he says, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he opens this up and he's just, he's just praising the Lord, just lifting up glory to God for all that God is.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's blessing to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want this to be clear from the outset of this message today that God's blessing to us is the foundation for us blessing him, for us praising him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's important.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's actually an important ordering of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want us to get this backwards, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Several years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a song that some of y'all don't know who this person is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chance the rapper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chance the rapper came out with a song.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was the praises go up.
[SPEAKER_01]: The blessings come down.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his, that was the song.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember had students when I was doing Youth Mystery.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they would sing the song a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: praises go up.
[SPEAKER_01]: The blessings come down.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the song.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So they was singing and they'd be like, oh yeah, train the chance the rapper.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a Christian, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying he's not, I don't know this guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know whether or not he's a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: That song, the praises go up and the blessings come down and actually looked it up this week and I saw there's actually a gospel song called, when the praises go up by the Chicago mass choir and that's the same refrain, it's when the praises go up, the blessings come down, the healing comes down, deliverance comes down, that's what they sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the opposite of the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: and I want you to understand why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what Paul says here is not, the praise is go up and the blessings come down.
[SPEAKER_01]: What he says is, the blessings have come down.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, therefore, what our praise is go up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's the initiating actor here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Us or God?
[SPEAKER_01]: God is the initiating actor.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not a labrodoodle.
[SPEAKER_01]: We pet him on the head.
[SPEAKER_01]: We give him a treat and hope that he'll go fetch for us next time.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how God operates.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is the initiator.
[SPEAKER_01]: God bless is God pours out grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: God pours out love.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love because he first what love us First he started it anytime you say I love you to God you really should say I love you too
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he said it first, he started it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He blessed us first and so we bless him.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Paul says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise be to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who has blessed us already?
[SPEAKER_01]: Already done.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God, this is really the way every other religion in the world works, by the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the way, for instance, this is why Islam works.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have five pillars.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pillars of faith, prayer, arms giving fasting and a pilgrimage to Mecca.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they do those five things the right way at the right time in the right order with the right heart and all those things, then Allah is obligated to them if he chooses to be obligated to them to let them enter into heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the way ever religious system in the world works.
[SPEAKER_01]: They obligate God to themselves by the things that they do but not Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're honest about this and we go, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, God is God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the one who started it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the one who blessed me way before I ever thought of blessing him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so faithfully, so justice, so true.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has earned my praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not obligating him to me by me doing something for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's blessings are not the result of our praise and our prayer in our effort.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our praise and prayers and our efforts in our joy and our faith in our obedience are the result of God's blessing to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He started it.
[SPEAKER_01]: God bless us before we bless him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we praise him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul qualifies here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's walk through this a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul qualifies these blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says we've been given every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He calls them spiritual blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to see this, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual blessings are greater than physical blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to know this, and I want you to remember this, this is not just about physical blessings when he's praising God for the blessings we have in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not merely the pursuit of earthly physical blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nor should those things be ultimately our concern.
[SPEAKER_01]: with the physical blessings of the surf.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, should we pray for physical things?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for your health and your healing and your finances and your relationships and your material needs.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we must not rely on those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Paul doesn't say God has blessed us with every physical blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what he says here,
[SPEAKER_01]: every spiritual blessing is different, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So make that note, okay, in your mind, in your heart, in your Bible, or I mean, right, and there's circle that word, spiritual, every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Matthew chapter six.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Matthew six, and if you want to flip over there with me, I'm going to read a little bit of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse 25, therefore, Matthew six, verse 25, therefore, Jesus speaking, I tell you, do not worry about your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: what you will eat or drink.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking to physical blessings here, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or about your body, what you will wear is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, skip down to verse 32.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, for the pagans run after these things and you're heavenly Father knows that you need them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not saying we don't need him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not saying those things are important.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just saying we don't run after those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: People that don't know God run after physical blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just don't run after them.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not spending our life being concerned about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're worrying about them, fretting over them, trying to accumulate those things, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, famous first year of verse 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all these things,
[SPEAKER_01]: will be given to you as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll worry about itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Each day is enough trouble of its own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is always moving people from the physical to the spiritual, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like what Paul says here, we have every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The book of Job.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all know the book of Job.
[SPEAKER_01]: Job goes to great suffering in the first chapter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loses all the physical blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he has no physical blessings left, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: and throughout the book he kind of wrestles with that and his friends come and they struggle through that in Job 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Job say?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that my Redeemer lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sweetie says.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still praising God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still trusting God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He still knows that ultimately though he's lost everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does he still have?
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has no physical blessing but he has spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew 9, 1 through 8, y'all know this story, the friends bring this paralytic guy on a mat and they lower him through the roof down for Jesus to heal him while Jesus is teaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the first thing Jesus says to this guy when he lands on the floor in front of him, this guy who cannot walk and he wants healing, he wants to be able to get up and walk.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is Jesus say to him first, your sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual blessings are greater than physical butt and Jesus even says, what's better to say, get up and walk well like what's harder to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get up and walk or to say your sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which ones the greater miracle?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody can walk in heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we get there not being able to walk, we'll be able to walk them, but what we need is forgiveness of sins now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual blessings, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: John chapter 6, Jesus feeds the 5,000, then the crowds follow him around, and Jesus turns to them and says, why are you guys following me?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know why you're following me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I gave you physical bread, but I'm the bread that you really need, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's always moving people from the physical
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, our life and Christ, our spiritual maturity will grow exponentially when we can get this through our mods that we are not on this earth to acquire physical blessing and let us seek the things that are above and not the things where actually next week I'm going to pause Ephesians and we're going to just talk about the spiritual realities of this of this life that's what we're going to talk about next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he says, every spiritual blessing where, where is the spiritual blessings that in the heavenly realms in Christ at the very end of the verse he says in Christ in the middle there he says in the heavenly realm so
[SPEAKER_01]: praise be to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing where in the heavenly realms, in Christ, in the heavenly realms in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last week we talked about how by faith we are united to Christ, clothed with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are in Christ and He is in us by the presence and the power of the Holy
[SPEAKER_01]: Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So how are we in Christ and how is he in us if he has a and then this is interesting thought right I was really kind of thinking a lot through this this week and praying through this and studying on this again Because Christ think about this Christ has a physical body right now He does Jesus became flesh died on the cross rose again in the body in the flesh now He has a glorified body, but it is a physical glorified body.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a real flesh body still and he is located where is Jesus right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's at the right hand of the father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's located there, like physically there, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is invisible to us in that heavenly realm.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet he is physically so how is he in us?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: How does Christ do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: How are we in him?
[SPEAKER_01]: How is he in us?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just an interesting thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has two natures that are never in conflict, never in mixture, never in confusion, never in division.
[SPEAKER_01]: His two natures are that he is fully human and he is fully divine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Both.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not half and half.
[SPEAKER_01]: 100% yes, both each always.
[SPEAKER_01]: Never in conflict, never in mixture, never in confusion, never in division.
[SPEAKER_01]: We call this the hypostatic union that Jesus is always and forever fully God and fully man.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now his human physical nature remains in heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is located there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are told that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians 1, Philippians 3,
[SPEAKER_01]: And one day, he will return to this earth in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will return bodily, Philippians 3, Acts chapter 1, 1st echelonians 4, 1 Corinthians 1.
[SPEAKER_01]: See all these scriptures here, Jesus will return.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he will return physically, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So in his humanity right now, he's located in the heavenly realm with the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the question, what gift has he given to us?
[SPEAKER_01]: what great gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I would say this is the gift of all the gifts of all the blessings we have in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the gift that we have now.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the gift that He's given to us by which He lives in us and by and through by which He communicates to us every blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that gift?
[SPEAKER_01]: the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told us disciples this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gary John 13, 14, 15, 16, he talks about, I'm gonna leave, but I'm gonna send another, the advocate, the counselor, the helper, and he will come, and he will teach you, and he will advocate for you, and he will lead you in my will, and he will cause you to glorify my father and me, and he will be the one who points you, points you, points you always back to me, back to my glory, back to my gospel, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the Holy Spirit's work in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Holy Spirit, this is just good for us to know, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we talk about the Trinity of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's Trinity, try your nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three and one, try unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Holy Spirit is his own person of the Trinity.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Father is not Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are three persons.
[SPEAKER_01]: in one, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So we call this the Trinity 3 in one.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are so perfectly united in will and purpose and intention and heart in mind that the apostles have no problem calling the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have no problem calling the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ in various scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: The apostles have no problem speaking of Christ living in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how He lives in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we live in Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: First John 3, 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually want to read this one to you too.
[SPEAKER_01]: First John 3, 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what he says, those who obey His commands, live in Him, taught not Jesus, and He in them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is how we know that He, Jesus, lives in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know it?
[SPEAKER_01]: We know it by the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave us, how do we know Christ is in us by the Holy Spirit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy Spirit is Christ's presence in us by the ministry of the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians is actually the most trinitarian book of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we go through Ephesians, you're going to see verses after verses of Father Son Holy Spirit mentioned, even in the same verses at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I not love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Ephesians just really helpful to us in that even as you read through Ephesians 1 here You're gonna see father son Holy Spirit mixed all throughout there, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Holy Spirit lives in us and unites us to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: when we have faith in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He is our last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are holy people, set apart, saints, and Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He is also the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is a spirit, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And He lives in heaven in the presence of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we are in Christ, and we receive Christ, and we receive in Christ every blessing he lives within us to communicate to us all the blessings of Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the Holy Spirit's ministry to put us into Christ, to keep us in Christ, and to communicate to us the blessings we have in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the gift God has given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a great gift this is to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are never alone, never alone, if we are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really believe that the overarching theme of the letter of Ephesians is this verse, Ephesians 13, every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the theme of this entire letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being in Christ really, being in Christ, that's the key that kind of unlocks our understanding of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you can't really understand Ephesians and all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ if you don't understand what it means to be in Christ, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually 14 times in
[SPEAKER_01]: This very section versus three through 14 and Ephesians, 14 times he uses that phrase in Christ or in him or in the Lord or in his beloved, right, 14 different times because Paul wants to hammer that into us.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: As saints, as called out ones, that's only when set apart when we are in Jesus and He is in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so He says we have the spiritual
[SPEAKER_01]: But he says, he says this word, I want to kind of key in on this word as we wrap this up here in a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says we have every spiritual blessing in Christ, every spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not some, not a couple, not a few of them, not a pick and choose kind of thing, not God gives some people some blessings and some people other blessings.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And communicated to us through the ministry and power, the Holy Spirit, we have every spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: These verses again, verses three through 14's, one sentence.
[SPEAKER_01]: in Greek.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no periods where Paul wrote his one sentence because I really think it's just Paul's like he's just throwing up the blessings of God here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he can't help it.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he was writing it or probably saying it to the person who wrote it down, like he's just like I just got to get this out of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: every blessing that God has given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has given us and bestowed upon us in His Son Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's listen to the things that He explains.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really think the rest of chapter one is really Paul just expounding on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just what are these blessings, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are chosen to be His holy and blameless people before creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are loved by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are predestined by His will to be adopted as His children.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are recipients of His free grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are forgiven of our sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are shown the mercy of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The mystery of God's will.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are given hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are here's and believers of the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are sealed in the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are airs of eternal redemption.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are God's own possession.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, that is chapter one of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to the rest of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are made alive and safe from wrath by grace through faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are given peace with God and man.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are made citizens of God's kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are airs of God's promises.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are made the temple of God's spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are shown on searchable riches of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are given free access and speech before God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are given power by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are able to know the width, the length, the depth, the breadth of God's love.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are unified with one another in the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are gifted by the Spirit from ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are given the fullness of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have new minds in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are created in the image of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are sanctified to live lives of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are instructed for fruitful relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are strengthened equipped by God to stand firm against every scheme and attack of Satan.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the letter of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Paul wants to communicate to us in this letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think those are the ones he names in this letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we need to read all the other letters of Paul, because he's going to tell us even more as we go through and I'm not going to read all those, but man, if you read through the New Testament, read through Paul's letters, read through John, read through the Gospels, see the blessings that God lovingly pours out upon His people in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I've been coming back to this point as I'm wrapping up these messages through Ephesians,
[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to think about these people that were reading this for the first time, hearing this for the first time, the Ephesians that those who lived in Ephesus was the opposite of blessing, cursing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the lives that they live.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been over this for the last few weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: The lives that they live before Jesus, a lot of witchcraft, they were very spiritual people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there weren't atheists back in that world.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least not many of them that I know of.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, people were spiritual.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, atheism was a pretty new invention of humanity, but people were spiritual.
[SPEAKER_01]: People understood the spiritual realm, and they lived in it even before they knew Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just lived on the other side of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the darkness, in the fear, in the grotesque witchcraft, in idol worship, in idol making, and all the hatred and the violence, and all the things that they lived in sexual morality, all those things, demonic oppression and possession was common in their world.
[SPEAKER_01]: They probably, I would imagine these are people who literally feared the curses of family members, of friends, of opponents, even of Artemis herself, though the goddess that they worship before Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: They feared the curses that might come upon them because they're now followers of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you get that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does Paul open up this letter this way?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he knows exactly where their minds are.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows exactly what they fear, but his point is not in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not in Christ ever will a curse hold sway over your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just trying to ease their minds and their hearts to understand there is no curse that holds power over your life if you're in Christ, not one.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have every blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interestingly enough, I've actually kind of experienced this in my life recently.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very long story, long story short.
[SPEAKER_01]: little boy that we have adopted or still in the process of doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: His mom, I won't say her name, but his mom has since adopting him from her, she has really done a 180 on us in her mindset and she very much dislikes us now and has made that very public and very clear we've actually, I mean she's been on
[SPEAKER_01]: YouTube sermons on Easterages page like commenting on me and on all of you and all of that kind of stuff She actually spent some time on TikTok last year doing curses Doing curses on me on my wife on our children Calling on she was calling on the name of Jesus and other deities But really literally doing incantations and in all these different curses, but
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you this like what Tara found this and she was actually like, what is she doing like what is it like all these things doing this thing with the evil eye like a symbol like all these weird things And Tara like was shown this to me and you know what my first I promise you my first thought when I saw that was Ephesians one three I don't care
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't scare me, it doesn't bother me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we pray for her, we love her, we want her to know Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I know, we know that, no, she can do what she wants to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It holds no power over my life, over our life.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are covered in Christ by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that is sealed within us, every spiritual blessing, no curse.
[SPEAKER_01]: No curse will hold sway over us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what about what about you guys?
[SPEAKER_01]: What about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: What has been spoken over your life?
[SPEAKER_01]: What has been spoken over your life that you have believed, that's not of Christ, that's not the truth, that's not the blessings that he has given.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not a curse per se.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but what identity have you kind of worn based on maybe something else somebody else has done or something that they've said about, whether it's insults or threats or name calling or mockery or demate some I demeaning your character, your identity, your calling, what evil, what abuse, what violence, what hatred have you experienced that inflicted wounds upon you, your body, your mind, your soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: because I know life, I know life is heavy and life is hard and we all probably have experienced some of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: What generational sins?
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably some of you have looked into that at times, generate, I mean, things that maybe have been passed down in your family, sins that have been prevalent from generation to generation that maybe you know about and you think about, you just go, man, my dad did that, my granddad did that, my great granddad did that, I'm going to
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that for you or maybe just besetting sins in your own life just things that you have struggle with and things that you just can't seem to kind of break the cycle of and mind sets you can't get out of whatever that may be my encouragement this morning would simply be this do not be afraid and do not believe the lie that those things define your identity or your eternity they do not.
[SPEAKER_01]: you believe and you confess that Christ is Lord that He is king of kings over all the heavens and the earth in the spiritual places, Paul said, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: In the heavenly realms ruling, having authority over all of it, you can fest that you believe that yes, you repent of sin and you follow after Jesus as His holy ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is no curse which can cling to you or have authority over your life in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're walking in Christ in the Holy Spirit, do not be afraid.
[SPEAKER_01]: do not be dismayed and do not walk in that identity anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: You walk in Christ and you cling to him in faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to read this one more passage actually from the book of Romans.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this passage says exactly the same heartbeat but different words.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, this is Romans chapter 8.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys know this passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is maybe the pinnacle of all of scripture language right here in Romans chapter 8 versus 31.
[SPEAKER_01]: through 39.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want us to listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to hear these words from Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to listen to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to put yourself into the context of what he's saying about God's love and God's grace over our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to own this truth, own this truth for yourself this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: What Paul says to us about what it means to be in Christ right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 8 verse 31.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, what then shall we say in response to this?
[SPEAKER_01]: If God is for us,
[SPEAKER_01]: who can be against us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
[SPEAKER_01]: How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things, every spiritual blessing we're talking about, every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
[SPEAKER_01]: It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns, Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life, amen?
[SPEAKER_01]: is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written.
[SPEAKER_01]: For your sake, we face death all day long.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
[SPEAKER_01]: We may go through all sorts of things that seem like curse upon us, right, nakedness, danger, famine, sword, persecution, all those things, even the greatest curse.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the great curse of humanity?
[SPEAKER_01]: Death is the curse of all humanity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is Paul's answer to that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 37.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, in all these things, things that seem like curses upon our lives, that when the world looks on and the world sees our Christians live hard lives, Christians go through the same things we go through, but Paul's going, no, in all those things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death
[SPEAKER_01]: nor a life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any power, neither height, nor death, nor anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing in no one ever will separate you from Jesus in His love if you are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have nothing else to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for your love and Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for your grace.
[SPEAKER_02]: to give us every spiritual blessing in Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, if there is anybody in this room, or anybody listening to this later, who just feels like there is a curse upon them.
[SPEAKER_01]: in whatever way that may occur on their family, curse on their finances, curse on their health, curse on their job, curse in relationships, curses, and just things they continue to struggle with in pain and persecution, or whatever, but God, whatever, that you would just speak right now over their lives, and remind them who they are in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm sorry, and he took the curse upon himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cursed, it is everyone who hangs on a tree your word says, that he became a curse for us, that we would only ever know your blessings.
[SPEAKER_02]: No carces, no fear, and praise you God, no death, will end the blessings that we will receive in you.
[SPEAKER_02]: on our behalf, and Jesus, so thank you, God.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We said a minute ago, our archeology should begin and end with Doxology, and so right now, I just say, God praise you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We praise you, praise be to the God of Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly rooms with every spiritual blessing and Christ.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as we walk out these doors today,
[SPEAKER_02]: Let us receive your blessings, and God, please let us go and be a blessing to others.
[SPEAKER_01]: We walk out into a cursed world, let us shine the light of Jesus, let us give the blessings of Christ, let us offer forgiveness of sins in your name, let us offer redemption and adoption in your name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us offer freedom to those in bondage, in the name of Jesus, and stand boldly on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And whatever curse the world tries to throw against us, God let us know that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
[SPEAKER_02]: no weapon formed against a shoestand, because we are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_02]: We trust you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much, God.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for loving us first in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Mube.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, listen, listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got a prayer room right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love to pray for you guys today.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need any prayer, also I go visit the mission and stables out there, guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I go visit the mission and stables.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give to missions as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love you all so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every blessing and Christ, let's go.