God chose us before the foundation of the world, adopting us into His family through Jesus Christ. This isn't based on our merits, but on His sovereign love and grace.
Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4cwqe6p
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LIFE Church
Ephesians, The Radiant Church Part 1
God chose us before the foundation of the world, adopting us into His family through Jesus Christ. This isn't based on our merits, but on His sovereign love and grace. Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4cwqe6pWebsite | https://lifechurchww.comFacebook | https://facebook.com/lifechurchwwInstagram | https://instagram.com/lifechurchwwVida Music | https://vidamsc.com
- Duration:
- 44m
- Broadcast on:
- 07 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to the Life Church podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information about Life Church, visit lifechurchwww.com. - So glad to be able to do church in multiple locations. And I'm super pumped this Independence Day weekend that I get to start a brand new series that I've been looking forward to for some time. It is gonna be a study of a book in the Bible, the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians, we're calling the radiant church. And the reason we're calling it Ephesians, the radiant church is because of this one verse out of Ephesians chapter five in the NIV translation to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. So here's the deal. Church, start reading the book of Ephesians. We are gonna look at it chapter by chapter. We're gonna look at chapter one today. And you may think, well, why study a book of the Bible? Well, when we study a book of the Bible together as a church, go over a sermon series of a book, we will mine treasures together from the study that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I believe you'll never read the book of Ephesians the same again. So let me give you some background to the book of Ephesians that's gonna really be important for us to understand even chapter one as we get into this study. Paul writes this letter from a prison house arrest in the city of Rome to the people in Ephesus. Now, what is his connection to the people of Ephesus? He first visited Ephesus on his second missionary journey with Aquila and Priscilla and then returned on his third missionary journey and stayed there for three years. So he wrote it to the church of Ephesus, but it really was most likely a circular letter. So it was really to the churches of really Asia Minor. It just got circulated from church to church. Thus, you never find him correcting a particular issue. And that's why, because it was just meant to be a gospel oriented understanding the gospel letter that could be circulated around the churches in Asia Minor. Now, let me tell you about the city and this area. Very large city, wealthy city, about 2000 years ago, of course, had a population of about 500,000 people. It is modern day Turkey today. So similar to Los Angeles, about 75 degrees year round. Here's a picture of modern day Turkey. And this would be the city of Ephesus that Paul writes this letter too. I mean, we're ready to go on vacation together. Come on, let's go. This was a place that people wanted to be. It was incredibly wealthy. You could move here, run a business, start a business, and Ephesus was considered the bank of Asia Minor. So thus, Paul uses terms in the book of Ephesians like inheritance, fullness, filled, a wealth. He uses terms like this. And that's why when he writes to Timothy, who is their pastor, he writes to them about challenge those who are rich in this present world. Because the people here were, it was a really wealthy city. Now, here's something you need to know as you understand as we get into the book of Ephesians. Lots of worship of pagan gods here. 50 different gods worshiped here, but the most well-known goddess of worship here was the goddess Diana or Artemis. And it was the main god worshiped here. And it was really a fertility, known as a fertility god, among other things. Thanks. And the temple of Diana or temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Could have looked something like this. It was incredible, opulent, and Paul is gonna show up here and he's gonna confront wrongful worship. Gets him in a little bit of trouble, but not in trouble with God, just in trouble with the people who worshiped the wrong gods. Paul would spend as much or more time in this city than any other city that he visited. And he loved the church of Ephesus. In fact, the leaders of the church were the most incredible leaders. Imagine this, you have the Apostle Paul as a leader. He hung out there. You've had Timothy as a leader. You had the Apostle John as a leader in this church, some of the greatest leaders of the church ever. And God does something remarkable inside this city. And that's what I want you to understand is we begin to unpack the book together. Now, when did this church, when did the church in Ephesus begin? If you wanna read the beginning of it, go to Acts chapter 18 and Acts chapter 19. And you begin to see where Priscilla and Aquila and the Apostle Paul go to Ephesus and they go there together and they begin to spread the gospel and something incredible happens. Because they worshiped all these pagan gods, they had a lot of sorcery and darkness in this area. And because Paul began to confront wrongful worship, they got convicted. They were like, oh man, they started bringing all their sorcery books, their dark magic books and all this. And it says they burned them in this massive burn. And it said that it gave the totality of what that equaled. Now, if the Greek word that they use in the book of Acts is what we think it is, today's money it would equal around $10 million. Imagine that there's so much wrongful worship that those who are getting saved, they're like, I don't wanna worship that God anymore. I don't wanna worship that God anymore. I don't wanna worship that God anymore and that darkness and they burn it all. They just have one big bonfire. Come on, that's the kind of bonfire you wanna show up to, right? Like I'm throwing that, past in the bonfire, I'm throwing that, sin in the bonfire, I'm getting rid of all this wrongful worship. Now, when the people come out of darkness and into the light, it's important that they know spiritual truths. So this is what Paul wants them to know and you could divide the book of Ephesians up really into three different categories. The wealth of the church, the walk of the church and the warfare of the church. If you've read Ephesians, you know what ends chapter six about putting on your armor and spiritual warfare. And so this is where it is, it's a wealth, the walk and the warfare. Are you ready to get into it chapter one? All right, come on, let's stand up for the reading of God's word today. Ephesians chapter one, verses one through six, says this. This letter is from Paul. Chosen, say chosen. - Chosen. - Chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I'm writing to God's holy people in Ephesus. Now, remember the holy people are all those people who are worshiping wrong gods, sorcery into wrongful worship and he calls them what? Oh, you're a little timid about it. What does he call them? - Holy. - He calls them holy. Tell your neighbor, you're holier than you think you are. (congregation laughing) Next week, we'll talk about how bad you are. But this week, I'm writing to God's holy people in Ephesus who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, the wealth of the believer. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. That would be worth meditating on for the rest of your life because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us. God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear son. God's purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the good news that God saves you and when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit who he promised long ago. Let me ask you a question before I have you be seated. If I got good news and bad news, how many of you wanna hear the bad news first and just get it out of the way? Okay, how many of you just wanna hear the good news first? How many of you only wanna hear the good news? (congregation laughing) Most of you aren't even playing my game this morning. I got good news for you. In chapter one, I have absolutely no bad news for you at all. All I got for you is good news today. And so I wanna talk on this subject out of chapter one is new news, new you. Tell your neighbor, you look good today and have a seat. (congregation laughing) You're looking good today. I got a question for you. How many of you are glad? How many of you are glad that the old you doesn't have to rule your life or overshadow you your entire life? I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for the good news. And so I got three good news for you or new news for you. And then some really obvious in chapter one are proper response to all of what the Apostle Paul is telling the Ephesians, what he is telling that church, what he's telling us today. In this, there's three gospel truths and three obvious applications for us all wrapped up in chapter one. Maybe one of the easiest sermons I've ever prepared because it seems so obvious in chapter one is I've had a lot of time to meditate on it for you, but I'm super excited to be able to download this truth for you. This is gospel oriented foundation, just the foundation of the gospel for us today. Here it is, new news, new you, start here. New news number one comes out of Ephesians one, verse four, which we just read. The God loved us and God chose us. God loved us and God chose us. And here's what I want us to start with is this, God chose you. God chose you. He knew who you would become and everything that you would do before you were born and he still chose you. (audience member speaking indistinctly) I don't get it. I like what Charles Spurgeon said about this thought that God chose you. He goes, it's a good thing. God chose me before I was born. He never would have picked me after I was born. (audience laughing) And that's how we feel, right? I'm glad God made up his mind before the foundation of the world. I'm glad God made up his mind before I was ever a teenager, right? I'm glad God made up his mind before I ever rebelled. I'm glad he made up his mind way back when that he chose me because I don't know if he would have picked me after he saw who I really became. But here's the wonder of the gospel. We already know that God knows the future and he knew exactly the rascal that you would become. And he said that rascal is mine. That person is mine. Now, this is the fact that God chooses is a very deep theological truth that every Christian should wrestle with at some point in their journey. That you should just think about it. And it's kind of like it's one of those theological truths like God never had a beginning and he will never have an end that makes your mind kind of spark and smoke out your ears, right? You just go, no beginning, ah, right? It's beyond your understanding. This is one of those spiritual truths that is beyond our understanding. God knows the future and yet God still chooses us. And well, let me say it like this. If you knew all of what was gonna happen in the next 10 years, how many of you think that over the next few years, your choices would be dictated by what you knew? You would know whether the stock market was gonna go up and down in certain areas. You would know who's gonna win the election in 2024, 2028. You would know who's gonna win the Super Bowl. You would already know the Seahawks are going. You would already know. You would know like me. You would know these things. Your bets would be different. Your choices along the way would be dictated by your foreknowledge. Now, I'm not gonna try to explain the depths of the theology that God chooses you because some people, this bothers them that God chooses because then they think, well, does that mean that God doesn't choose other people? Does he choose them and not them? I don't believe that the Bible teaches that, but I also don't believe the Bible is shallow where it doesn't require some tension that makes your mind get stretched and, but it also makes your heart just get so secure and deep and you begin to fathom the riches of the fact that God would choose you. And some people get bothered by the fact that God chooses, but let me say this. Are you glad that you have the power to choose? You have the power to choose your spouse. You have the power to choose where you went to work. You have the power to choose the church you went to. You have the power to choose the city you live in. And you think that's fair, but you don't think it's fair. Maybe some people don't think it's fair that God has the power to choose. Why would you, why is it fair for you and I to have the power to choose and God not to have the power to choose? That doesn't seem very fair either, but that's as far as deep as I'm gonna go on. That subject really, I'm just saying this, that to appreciate the depth of the gospel, you gotta wrestle with theological concepts, but I'm just here to tell you that God chose you to hear the gospel. The very fact that you are in this room right now or watching online or sitting in a high school auditorium, you're watching this at a future date, tells me this, God chose you to hear the gospel. He chose you to hear the gospel, you're hearing it. Why did he choose you? Why did he choose me to hear the gospel? I really have no idea. I don't know why God chose me to hear the gospel, but I do know this. I wanna wrestle with the responsibility that I have that I've heard it. So I'm in awe that he chose me to hear it. I don't understand why he chose me to preach it. That doesn't make sense. I remember you were thinking the same thing, but it doesn't make sense. I know I don't get it, I don't understand it, but I know this, God is sovereign. God is sovereign, and it's really important that we grasp this, that he's almighty God, and he chose me to hear the gospel, and I gotta do something with the fact that I was chosen to hear it, and I was picked by God to be his kid. And I know what it's like, some of you do. I know what it's like to be chosen, and I know what it's like a junior high. I'm still having therapy as I preach about it. To be in junior high and not to be chosen. I know what it's like to be the last kid standing out there in seventh grade, me and the other child that just broke their leg going, which one do I want? You know, I know what it's like to be chosen. I know what it's like to be rejected, and I know that being chosen feels a whole lot better, and by the end of today, here's what I want you to wrestle with, and I want you to receive. I want you to know that God picked you. You were the first in line. He didn't have anybody in front of you, and he said, I chose you to be on my team. I picked you to be my son. I picked you to be my daughter. I picked you to be someone who heard the gospel. Now listen, if you're new to the faith, or if you're still checking out and kicking the tires, so to speak, of what Christianity is, or if you grew up in religion, but not the gospel of relationship, you think you might be under the assumption that God chooses you after you get your life straightened out. That's religion, my friends. And that comes from the pit of hell. That's not true at all. God picked you and chose you before you got your life straightened out. Should you just tell your neighbor God chose you? God chose you, tell your other neighbor you didn't choose to tell, tell them God chose you too? He chose you as well. Here's the first new news that Paul wants the Ephesian people who came out of darkness, came out of worshiping false gods who burned their books and their paraphernalia. He wanted them to know God picked you. God chose you to be his. Now what did he pick me for? Here's new news number two. New news number two is this. God decided in advance to adopt us. God decided us in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do. Whew, and it gave him great pleasure. Think about this. I want you to think that this letter was written to you not just to a bunch of other people. We read this sometimes and we think, all that's what the Ephesians, yes, but God had it written inspired by the Holy Spirit, pinned by the Apostle Paul for you. This is what you need to meditate on that God in advance adopted you. He chose you for adoption to be a part of his family and it's what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. You give God great pleasure. I told you, I have no bad news for you today. I came happy to church today. You think pastor, you should come always happy. Most of the time I do. But today I really did because the entire chapter is the truth, the wealth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he chose you before you did anything wrong or right. He chose you and what did he choose you for to be his kid? To be his son and to be his daughter. Now, people who have been adopted naturally get this a little bit more. Or people who have chosen his parents to adopt others get this spiritual truth a little bit more. And so I asked some friends of mine, Josh and Cara Reyes, if they would tell us a little bit about their story. Now listen, I got to sit with them, my wife and I did for 30 minutes or more and to hear the whole story and it's absolutely beautiful. But we had to encapsulate it into three minutes. Check out what adoption means to someone who's actually done it. Listen to their story. - So I come from a family of three girls and my two older sisters, I'm the youngest, they were adopted. And so I've always loved adoption. I've loved the concept of it. I've just so it's always been something on my heart. - And so dating, we would meet at Starbucks all the time and have coffee and we'd talk about the future. We'd talk about different things. So then we got married and we tried to have kids. Cara had endometriosis and we just having horrible pain. I tried in utero a couple times. After a couple of attempts, we started talking about adopting through the state, a foster to adopt program. So we took our class and we were all ready and we just waited for a call. - So that was November and we got a call about just little baby in March. She was being fostered out in Prescott. So we drive out to Prescott and we were just super excited and nervous and we walked in. And so I walk and turn the corner and I see this perfect baby laying on this bed and she made our eyes connected. And I instantly, I cannot describe it other than it was like our souls recognized each other. And I was like, that's my baby. - We were in love with Ella from the beginning. - It's like a tangible thing that God's given me this glimpse of his love and that these kids are not somebody else's kids. I don't, they're my kids, they couldn't be more ours. And so when I read Ephesians and I see that we are chosen and that we are part of his inheritance and we have a guarantee call on our life, that's exactly how I view my kids. I didn't get to carry you in my womb, but God ordained us and planned this in Ephesians and talks about how before we were even created, He chose us to be His sons and daughters. And so that's the mindset that He's given me for adoption. - When I read in Ephesians talking about adoption but through Christ, I can see why He would give your life to save them because there's not a thing that I wouldn't do for any of my kids. - Before my babies were born, this plan was in motion. God already had this will. You guys are chosen. You are called. You are part of our inheritance as a family. You're our legacy going forward. (audience applauding) - Oh, thank you, Josh and Cara, for sharing your story with us. Thank you so very much. God adopted you. So I heard a story, a true story about two brothers that were signed up for baseball and they were talking to the coach and he saw that their birth dates were only two months away from each other and yet the same age. And so he didn't know how that was possible. And so he asked them, hey, you are brothers and yet you're only two months different from one another. And he said, how is that possible? And they said, well, one of us is adopted. And the coach asked, he said, well, which one is adopted? And they said, we don't know. They said, what do you mean you don't know which one is adopted? He said, well, our dad told us that he forgot somewhere along the way because he loved us both so much the same. He didn't know which one of us were adopted. I love that story. Listen, I think we feel like God loves them more than them, more than me and I don't fit here. I'm kind of like the black sheep of the family. Maybe I'll squeeze in through the backdoor of heaven and God won't even know him there for a thousand years and he goes, how do you get in? Oh, well, you know, someone vouched for him. You know, you feel like that's it? That's not how it's gonna work. God picked you, he chose you. He chose you to adopt you as his son, as his daughter. No matter how messed up you made your life or how messed up life has been for you. He said, I chose you to be mine. God adopted you and this is all in Ephesians and this is what Paul wanted the Church of Ephesus to know because here's why, because they'd worship such wrong gods and messed up their life so much that I think they struggled with this. I think they wondered, maybe I'm not worthy to be a part of the family and Paul wanted them to get this deep in them as he starts the letter. He wanted them to know, no, listen. It's not about what you've burned. It's not about the stuff where you've been. It's not about that you worship the goddess of Diana and Artemis, it's not about that. Not that you went to the wrong temple or you did the wrong things or you were into all that other sin. That's not it at all. It's about this. God chose you, God adopted you. You're in his family and it gave him great pleasure. Oh man, I gotta preach fast. You gotta listen fast. I got another new news and some obvious application but I wanna take you to another story of Jesus that leads me into this next new news and it's out of this, out of Luke chapter 15 to illustrate the point further. Jesus told him a story, a man of two sons. The younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land and there he wasted all his money and wild living like an Ephesians person. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, so, I'm skipping some other story, he said to himself, like my father has all these hired servants and I gotta go back to him. So he returned home to his father and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, father, I've sinned against both heaven and you. And I'm no longer worthy of being called your son and that's how a lot of people feel and they have a hard time meditating on Ephesians chapter one, that I'm a son, I'm actually a son or I'm a daughter. He loves me, check this out. Here's the truth, I don't have time to show you the scripture, look at it, it's in John chapter 17. God the Father loves you the same amount that he loves Jesus. It's in the Bible, but his father said to the servants, he kind of ignored the fact that he said I'm no longer to be called your son. Quick, bring the finest robe in the house, put it on him, get a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, kill the calf, we've been fattening, we must celebrate with a feast. Here's what I want you to know, I will never know who I am until I know who's I am. For this son of mine was dead and I was okay. I'll never know who I am until I know who's I am. Do you hear me? You'll never know who you are until you know who's you are. You got to know you were chosen by God. You have to know that you were chosen to be his son and his daughter. You have to know that he had chose to adopt you because you'll never really know who you are until you know who's you are. And here's the new news number three, and it's this. When you believe in Christ, he identified you as his own. Your identity is a big deal. He identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit whom he promised long ago. Here it is. God made you belong. He chose you and he adopted you and he made you belong. Have you ever felt like you didn't belong somewhere? Of course you did. We all have felt out of place. Some people feel out of place when they show up to church. But I need you to know this. What out of the prodigal son's story, he lost everything. But he didn't, he lost all his belongings. But he didn't lose where he belonged. (audience chattering) Did you hear this? Belongings come and go, but belonging last forever. You may lose all kind of stuff in life. But there's one thing that Paul wanted the Ephesian people to know and he wants you and I to know. You belong. Oh yeah, yeah, but you didn't see that I actually went to the burn pile and one of my books didn't burn all the way and I brought it back home and I tried to read some of it again and you know, listen, he chose you, knowing all of it. He adopted you and you belong. Ephesians chapter one verse 14 says this, the spirit is God's guarantee. Say this word, the spirit is God's what? - Guarantee. - The spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. We'll get to that sentence in a minute. Okay, Paul wants the Ephesian people to know something. He wants them to know, belong is come and go, but belonging last forever. God didn't save me to let me go halfway through life. God didn't save me so the 10 months later, well, that's all I had for you. That's it, it's not fostering, it's adopting. God didn't save me to let me slip through his fingers six months later. He's like, I saved you to be my kid. Now listen, growing up in religion did a number on me. And religion, listen, we had both of hell's greatest tools in our family growing up. We had all kinds of sin, drugs, alcohol, addiction and we had religion. It was like the devil used all his greatest tools. So I got to see both of them at work in sinners lives. And I don't know which one's worse, religion, which is man's attempt at reaching God. It's not the real thing. Or all this other stuff, drug abuse and all that. I'm not sure which one's worse. I kind of think a religion in some ways is worse because if you buy into it, you don't actually know you're lost when you are. The good thing about all this other brokenness is you pretty much know you're messed up. You're like, man, I need God. Yep, yep, the religionist isn't sure they need him. No, they'd never say that. But they're actually living it that way and their trust is in their own good works. And growing up in religion did a number on me because I believe that if I didn't have time to get back to the confessional booth, to ask for forgiveness of my sins in that way, then I would go to hell. And so I had this mindset that, you know, I gave my life to Jesus and I'm saved. Oh, I just disobeyed my mom and it's not gonna be until next Friday that I'm able to get to the confessional booth whenever my mom can take me there. So I'm actually on my way to hell until then. What a horrible way to live. You know, just like you're in and out all in the same day. Paul wants you to know something. He wants you to know you're not in and out in the same day. He's not so like, hey, I'm saved. Oh, I'm in church. I'm saved. I get out and I, man, is somebody was kind of slow getting out of the parking lot turned the wrong way. I said something I shouldn't have said. Man, I gotta wait 'til next Sunday. It'd be saved again. I mean, you know, the gospel doesn't work like that. It's not like in, out, in, out. Man, that would be so hard to keep track of. Like, hey, they're written down. No, but race 'em. They're written down to race 'em. We're written, we're written down. Use pencil. So he's, this is what the Bible says. He who began a good work in you. We'll be faithful to finish it. Oh, so you mean he's the one who actually started the salvation. Of course we give him credit for that. Yeah, I'm saved because of him. But somewhere along the line, religion wants to get in and goes, now I'm saved because of me. No, no, no, he doesn't change the rules of the game. No, no, no, he who began a good work is gonna be faithful. Well, are you saying you could never lose your salvation? Okay, again, I'm gonna let you wrestle out the deep truths. I'm gonna just preach the gospel today. And here's what I say. I say, I'm not worried about mine. I'm not worried about mine. I'm the spirit of God is my guarantee that he's gonna give me what he promised me. And he didn't call me a son and then call me something else. He's like, I'm welcoming you into my home. So I was afraid living up in religion, all that kind of stuff. Okay, Paul wanted the Ephesians to have this new news that you know what? You can have a security to your salvation. Now next week in chapter two, I'm gonna talk about how do you know if you actually have salvation? We're gonna get into that a little bit. Okay, I wanna talk about this. What you believe affects how well you belong. What are you allowing yourself to believe about God? What are you allowing yourself to believe about the new you? And there's far too many people that are staying in the pigpins of life because they've never changed the way they believe about themselves or about how God said that they belong. And because they identify themselves by where they've been, they keep going to where they've been because they say, well, I'm just a pigpin dweller when really it wasn't until the prodigal son came to his senses. It's when he came to his senses and said, my father, he said this, he's still my dad. And when he realized who his dad was is when he got back home. So you need to redefine who you are by who you are. You need to redefine who you are by who's you are. I don't have much time to preach any more of this stuff. Let's go through all this. Right, belonging, okay, great, good, good, good. That's pretty good chosen there. Okay, here's the deal. Here's the Ephesians application. Ready? Because I've been chosen and adopted and belong, you're gonna do three things, you ready? This is what you're all gonna do. Because I've been chosen, adopted and belong, Paul just basically says this is the response of chapter one. You've been chosen, you're gonna praise God. You're gonna give God praise. Oh yeah, you can give God praise right now. (congregation applauding) You're gonna give God praise and here's why. He said this, all praise to God. This is verse three of chapter one as he begins to unpack all of what he just said to you. All praise to God. The father of our Lord Jesus Christ, not any praise to man, not any, hey, way to go. You made it to church. I'm gonna tell you why you made it to church. 'Cause the spirit of God pulled on you. You're really not a good church goer. (congregation laughing) It's the spirit of God. All praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. So all praise to him, Ephesians chapter one, verse six. So we praise God for the glorious grace. He's poured out on us who belong. So we praise God. So here's what you do. Your first response is we praise God. Second response that we do is we pray for the church. Here's what he said, I've not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you, the church, constantly asking God, the glorious father of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. Here's what he's praying. I want you to understand Pastor Bob Sermon in 2024. Honestly, that was my prayer coming in today. I don't think I preached my best sermon today, but I'm here to tell you, it doesn't matter how good the sermon is. You got to dwell on the truth and God has got to give you spiritual wisdom until you do this, you drop on your knees and you say, oh God, you are sovereign and I don't know why you chose me to hear the gospel, but you did. And God, I don't know why you chose me to be your son or your daughter, but you did. And you wanted me to belong with you. So God, I have no response other than this. I give you all the praise. And I pray that my understanding and those around me would grow and I'd have spiritual wisdom to grasp the enormity of this truth, that you would choose me, that you would take me, that you would adopt me, please help me to understand it. Because it's not about me, it's about your goodness. So pray. And so this is my prayer for you, church. I pray this kind of stuff for you all the time. Oh God, please help them to know you. Help them to truly, truly know you and how good you are. I praise him. I pray for the church. And then I also pray that you'll understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. And then I plant my life in God's house like I belong. Look at this in verse five. God decided to advance to adopt us into his own family. Here's what I need you to know about church. This is in Bob and Cara's church. This isn't somebody else's church. This is God's church and it's God's family. And so you just, instead of coming and wondering if you can show up in church 'cause God's been working in your heart and you're like, I think I need to go to church and God's drawing you and sheepishly come in and hope the ceiling won't cave in. You're like, oh dear God. I hope no one's sitting close to me when the lightning bolt strikes. Now fathers out front in the form of some of these wonderful dream teamers seeing you drive in. You're home, welcome home, home with pig, pin, pods, hanging out your pockets and somebody ready to embrace you to save welcome home. So God says this about himself. He's the lifter of your head. So I'm gonna plant myself in God's family like I belong there. Hey, I'm home, I'm home. Oh yeah, you can give God praise better than that. I'm home, you're home. Welcome, welcome to his family. Welcome to his family. Now listen, he chose you, he adopted you so that you would belong. But all of this was written to somebody who said, I don't want what I've had before. I don't wanna serve all those wrong gods anymore. I don't wanna serve myself. I want this God of which you preach, Paul. I want this Jesus of which you tell me stories about and you tell me about how great he is and that he would love me as his own. I want that Jesus, the one who died for me, the one who bled for me, the one who was crucified for me and rose again the third day. I want that Jesus to be the Lord and the Savior of my life. All of these truths are written to those people who say I want that Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. And so many of you in this room have done that, have made that decision that you're like, he's gonna be my Lord, he's gonna be my Savior. But you might be here today hearing the gospel truth for the very first time or in Pendleton, hearing this for the first time. And I just need you to know for all of this new news and good news to be yours, you simply just need to say yes. You simply just need to say, when he picked you from the lineup, step forward and just say, okay, I'm following you now. Here's what I'd like to do. Let's all stand up together. In Pendleton, that auditorium, let's stand up together, walla walla walla, let's stand up together. Maybe in your living room, let's stand up together and I wanna pray. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes and I'm gonna pray a prayer, two prayers actually. But the first prayer I wanna pray is with and for anyone who is not sure if they are what the Bible says is born again. If they are not sure, if they've given their life to Jesus and asked him to forgive them of all their sins, if that's you, you'd say, Bob, I wanna be that chosen. I wanna be that adopted and I wanna belong. I wanna be born again. Then I wanna know who wants to pray that prayer with me to get their life right with Jesus today. If that's you, would you just look up at me and raise your hand so I can see you and catch eyes with you right now? Will you do that right now? One, two, three, look up at me and raise your hand so I can see who wants to pray that prayer. Awesome, awesome, I see you. Whoa, great, see you back here. It's the best decision you'll ever make. Who else would be here today? Thank you, thank you. (gentle music) Church, you know what to do. Let's pray this prayer all of us after me out loud. Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you today in need of forgiveness, coming to my heart. I wanna be born again. Forgive me of all my sins. Past, present and future. I wanna be your son. I wanna be your daughter. I want you to be my Lord for the rest of my life. I pray this now in Jesus' name. Now let me pray for all of us. Father, I thank you for everybody in Pendleton. I thank you for everybody in Walla Walla and those online. And I pray that you would give us spiritual wisdom and understanding in the gospel truths of being chosen and adopted and belonging in your family. I pray that God that we would live our lives like we belong. We would no longer hold our heads down low, but we'd be welcomed into the family of God the way you have designed us to be. And that is with one big party. I pray a party spirit, so to speak, in heaven, to be in the hearts and the minds of every one of your sons and daughters today. Let a true freedom of the gospel come on this freedom weekend in the house of God. I pray in Jesus' name. And now everybody shout today, man. Come on, give him praise today. We love you Lord. - Thank you for listening to the Life Church Podcast. We wanna help you on your journey of finding the life you remain for. Please visit lifechurchwww.com to take your next step and connect with us. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)