There are many questions you are faced with every day.
We are all searching for answers that will make a real difference in our lives.
It's hard to imagine that these answers might be right in front of us.
Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless Conley.
Hello, welcome to today's broadcast.
We have something very special for you today.
Our oldest son, Harrison preached a brilliant message on the weekend at Cottonwood Church.
And we want to bring that to you.
So if you've got a Bible, grab it you're going to need it.
It's full of the Word, full of inspiration.
Let's go to it now.
Ephesians, chapter 1, verse number 1.
I'm reading out of the ESV version of the Bible, English Standard Version.
It says this,
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, 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.
In the next 11 verses, verses 3 through 14, Paul speaks in one long, unbroken sentence.
In the Greek, in the original language in which this was written, there is no punctuation
whatsoever.
To try and get the full effect of that, take a deep breath in and read those verses in
that one breath.
Very, very hard to do.
And as we read these verses, you will notice a multiplicity of descriptive terms and phrases
and you will see different superlatives that help to amplify and illuminate all that God
has given to us and the vast resources that belong to us in Christ.
Now I'm very grateful for translators that have put punctuation and put, you know, demarcations
of verses in this because I'm not going to try and read this in one big breath.
But, if you would, turn your attention to verse number 3.
And let's read this next passage, this one long, unbroken sentence.
Paul says this:
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 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 (in Jesus) 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 set forth in Christ
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him (in Jesus), things in heaven
and things on earth.
Verse 11:
In Him (in Jesus) 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.
Wow!
Such rich, rich verses there.
I want to just draw your attention back to verse 3.
Paul, in this sort of introduction to this long sentence, he sums it up by saying that
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
In other words, he is saying, God has blessed us, He has given us gifts.
And these gifts have been made available to us in Christ.
Now those two words, "in Christ", are perhaps the two most important words in all
of Scripture, particularly the New Testament.
"In Christ."
In those verses that we've just read, verse 1 through 14, Paul uses that phrase, "in
Christ", nine different times.
Over the next eight weeks as we go through the Book of Ephesians, you will notice Paul
uses that phrases, "in Christ", 27 different times.
In his letters, all his different epistles throughout the New Testament, Paul uses this
phrase, "in Christ", 130 times.
He is trying to tell us something, that the resources of God, the gifts of God, the blessings
of God, they are available to us only in Christ.
They are packaged, they are wrapped in Christ.
That's the only way we are able to access the gifts of God is in Christ.
I don't know about you, but every gift I've ever received, either for my birthday or on
a special holiday like Christmas, it's come wrapped or it's come in a package of sorts.
And half the fun is getting it and judging from the wrap and what's going to be inside,
and then you open the wrapping.
That's half the fun is opening the gift.
And Paul is letting us know that every gift comes wrapped in Christ.
And today I would like to spend just a few moments from our passage, this one long, unbroken
sentence, I'd like to highlight a few of the gifts that God has given us, that God
has packaged up for us in Christ.
And, quite frankly, there's no way we could get through all of the gifts that are listed
here.
So I've just…
I've simplified, I've condensed it down to five this morning.
But if you would, let's have a look at the first gift.
Notice: The gifts of God come wrapped, come packaged to us in Christ.
So that's important to know.
Every gift is made available in Christ.
And the first gift that Paul lines out for us is this, that we are chosen.
It's a gift of God.
We have been chosen by God in Christ Jesus.
Look at verse 4.
God chose us in Him, in Christ.
God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Right now my oldest son, Asher, he's seven.
He plays baseball.
And what that means is we spend, as a family, a lot of days at the ball field.
And who I really feel sorry for is my five-year-old because he has to tag along, and he has to
make do for hours upon end as we watch our oldest at the baseball field.
And he usually does pretty good.
He's fairly self-sufficient.
And he goes off and he plays with some of the other younger brothers that are there,
as well.
And just the other day we were at the ball field, and out of my peripheral I saw Sawyer
standing with a group of kids, and I began to watch them.
And they were going to play a game, and they began to pick people to play the game.
And Sawyer did not get picked.
He was the odd man out, and my heart just broke.
And maybe now because I'm a parent and I'm in that season of life, I'm more sensitive
to that than ever before.
And I wonder if maybe some parents in here, you know what I'm talking about.
And you know that feeling of being overlooked.
Maybe some of you, even at work in your own life, you feel like you've been overlooked.
Maybe when it comes to relationships, you feel like you've not been chosen.
When it comes to recreational activities, you've been passed over.
And we all know that that is a horrible feeling.
But then on the other side of that same coin, when you are chosen for those things, what
a great feeling it is!
The feeling of worth and value and esteem that floods over you in that moment.
Now if you'd allow me, I'd like to go one step further.
It would seem to me that a lot of us have allowed our identities to have been molded
and developed around moments in time where we were either chosen or not chosen.
And Paul would have us know that our identity should not be founded in moments of earthly
choosing; but, rather, our identity should be founded and fortified in the fact and in
the truth that the Almighty, Omniscient, Transcendent, Eternal God has chosen you.
And as we think about this gift of being chosen, here's a little visual to help you remember.
I'll drink to that.
Uncle Sam here: "I want you!"
God, in eternity past, put His finger on you.
He said, "I want you.
I choose you."
You've been chosen by God in Christ.
And I can sense the confusion.
Some of you are going, "Wait, wait!
I thought I chose God."
Well, you did choose God, but only because He first chose you.
In John 6, Jesus said, "No man can come to the Father unless He draw him."
You've got to understand, God is the initiator.
He first chose us.
But then we do have a part to play.
We have to respond to His choosing.
In that same passage, John 6, Jesus goes on to say, "Whosoever will, let him come."
That means it's up to us.
Please understand: There is no salvation without our choosing to surrender to His call.
But when we find ourselves in that place of surrender, we find out that God is actually
the One who started the whole process by choosing us and drawing Himself to us through the work
of His Spirit.
Well I hope you have been enjoying the message as Harrison has been preaching.
And, you know, we've got three kids.
We're as proud as we can be of all of them.
Whatever your kids are doing, may they do it for the Lord.
Harrison happens to be the preacher in our family and we are going to go back to him
in just a minute.
As he continues with his brilliant message that he has been sharing.
So that's gift, number one.
But Paul doesn't stop there.
He lifts out another gift.
And I would just draw your attention back to it.
The gift comes wrapped.
The gift comes packaged to us in Christ.
The second gift that Paul lifts out is this: It's the gift of adoption.
We've been adopted by God.
Verse 5, In love He predestined us for adoption as sons in Jesus Christ.
God destined; He literally preordained us to be a part of His family.
Paul calls it adoption.
And we've been adopted by God.
We've been grafted in, made to be a part of His family.
See, when Jesus, when He was here on earth, He was a Son, the Son of the Father.
And while He was here on earth fulfilling His earthly ministry, Jesus lived with an
intimate connection to the Father.
And Paul is letting us know that that connection now belongs to us.
John 6, once again referring there, Jesus said, "Look, I live by means of the Father."
In other words, the Father is My source.
The Father is My strength.
The Father is My provision.
It's from the Father I get wisdom.
It's from the Father I derive power.
Nothing I do is separate from the Father."
And Paul is letting us know that because of this gift called adoption, we can now live
and emulate this life of intimacy with the Father just like Jesus did, in the same strength
and in the same provision and in the same guidance and power that Christ had with the
Father now belongs to us.
It's ours because we've been made sons in Christ.
The resources of the Father belong to us.
I've got my friends Nancy and Alan sitting here on the front row.
And if they invited me over for dinner one night, even though we're good friends, even
though I feel very much at home with them, if they invited me over for dinner one night,
I'm probably not going to get up from the dinner table when I get thirsty and just go
open the fridge on my own and take whatever I want out of the fridge.
Why?
I'm not a part of the family.
However, if I were to go over to my parents' house for dinner and I sit down at the table
and suddenly I'm thirsty, I'm going to get up without asking, I'm going to walk
over to that fridge, I'm going to throw it open, and I'm going to take whatever's
in the fridge even if it's off limits, even if it's got a little sticky note that says
"Dad" on it.
Why?
Because I'm part of the family, because I belong.
And because I'm a part of the family, the resources of the father belong to me.
And Paul says, "Now that you're in Christ, you belong to the family of God.
You've been adopted.
All the resources of the Father belong to you."
Paul says, "You've been chosen, and you've been adopted."
There's a third gift, as well.
Once again, it comes packaged to us in Christ.
And this third gift, it's twofold.
It's the gift of redemption and the gift of forgiveness.
It's the gift of God.
It's available to us.
It comes packaged in Christ.
Like I said, it's twofold.
Look at verse number 7, if you would.
Paul says this:
In Him (in Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace,
It's not an accident these two are coupled together.
They go hand-in-hand.
They build upon each other line upon line, precept upon precept.
Paul begins with redemption.
That word "redemption" literally meaning the making of payment.
It means to set free or to liberate.
And Paul is quick to point out that redemption comes… it's ours because of the blood
of Jesus.
And just a visual for you to think about as you picture this gift of redemption.
It's a pink slip, a title slip, the title of ownership of a car.
I wonder how many of you have ever gone down to the car lot before.
You've been real excited.
You go and purchase a car, right?
Most of us have done that.
It's a fun process, exciting process.
You go, you look through the hundreds of different cars, you settle on the one you want.
You take it on a test drive, you go, "Yes, this is it."
You sit down, you sign a bunch of papers, you make your down payment, and you drive
off the lot looking fly in your new ride.
You like, "Watch me _____ _____."
But it doesn't take long for it to sink in as you drive off that lot that even though
I picked out this car, even though I'm sitting driving this car, even though I look incredibly
good in this car, this car does not really belong to me.
In reality, that car belongs to the bank.
And until payment is made in full, you are a slave to the bank.
I know this from experience.
But oh happy day when you send off that last payment and in return they send you this little
pink slip and the title of ownership is transferred into your hands… from the bank to now your
hands… and, finally, you in fact own that car.
And in one way or another, that's a picture that Paul is painting for us here.
He would have us know that because of sin, the pink slip of our soul had been relinquished,
once again going back to that story of Adam in the garden stepping out from underneath
the authority of God.
In that moment sin entered the world.
The Bible says that the wages of sin… the wages literally we have incurred upon ourselves.
What we have earned.
The wages of sin is death.
And as a result, hell, death, and the grave held the pink slip for our soul.
But God, two of the most amazing words in all of Scripture.
But God, because of His amazing love, intervened.
And He made the required payment to purchase back our soul.
And please understand: He didn't use money.
He didn't pay with fine jewels.
It cost Him everything.
It cost Him the life of His Son.
The pink slip for your soul was purchased, it was paid in full, by the precious blood
of Jesus.
And now, as a result, even as we've sung this morning, we are no longer slaves to sin
and fear.
We've been made alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Please understand it only comes in Christ Jesus.
We have redemption in Christ.
But God didn't stop there.
He's the baker that wants to add another layer to the cake.
Not only did He redeem us, but He also gifted us with forgiveness.
Forgiveness literally meaning the striking of a record, the expunging of a record.
It means to erase.
The past mistakes and trespasses that caused the pink slip of our soul to change hands,
the residue and the record of those sins, they've been erased in Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:21, "For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for
us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
The righteousness of God.
Righteousness to be holy, blameless, spotless.
Jesus became our sin so that we could, in fact, become righteous, holy, blameless before
God.
Our record was expunged because Jesus became our sins.
And now because our life is hidden in Christ, we stand holy and righteous before God.
The fourth gift that Paul lines out for us in the Scripture once again comes packaged
to you via Christ.
This one has significant impact on us.
We've been made an heir.
We've been gifted with an inheritance.
The Bible says that we have obtained an inheritance.
Look at verse 11: "In Him we have obtained an inheritance."
Please understand: God's plan for salvation, it began for us in eternity past before the
foundation of the world.
And then it continued in the appearing of our Savior Jesus when He came and He saved
us and He redeemed us and He called us.
And now by the Holy Spirit this work, it continues in us as we live out our holy calling.
And the weight of the Gospel will also be revealed in us as we step into the totality
of our inheritance: eternal life with our Savior.
Eternal life.
Our inheritance.
We have the promise of heaven.
What a gift!
And as we get now ready to open the last gift, I'll ask the band to come and join me.
But Paul, as he writes this passage to us, he tells us we've been chosen, we've been
adopted, been redeemed and forgiven; we have an inheritance, we've been made an heir.
And then, lastly, and the most important it's the last gift that he mentions in this passage,
once again, come wrapped up and packaged to us in Christ.
It's that we've been sealed, that we've been sealed.
It's the gift of sealing.
If you would, look in verses 13 and 14.
Let's read them again.
In Him (in Jesus, in Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of
your salvation, and believed in Him, (you) were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it…
We were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee.
That word literally means the down payment of our inheritance.
This last gift that's listed in the passage, it's an infallible hope.
This gift of being sealed, it's a confidence that all of the other boxes, that all of the
other gifts are true.
By way of visual, let me just…
This is a stamp.
It says "I am".
God places His stamp upon our heart.
He seals us with His Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit assures us of our identity.
He's the confirmation that we belong to God.
And please understand something: The enemy… we have an enemy, the adversary, the devil…
he would do all he can to keep us from believing that these gifts are our reality.
He'll come to us, and he'll say, "You are not really chosen.
You are forgotten by God.
God's not working on your behalf."
But because we've been sealed by God with His Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in those
moments begins to whisper and speak to our heart.
He goes, "Oh, no.
You are not forgotten by God."
Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts and I know the plans that I have for you,
to prosper you, to give you a future and a hope."
In those moments where the devil says, "You are forgotten by God,"
the Holy Spirit, He chimes up and He goes, "Oh, no.
Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you.
And before thou camest out of the belly I called thee and I ordained thee to be a prophet
of the nation."
And in that moment, what He does, He seals us, He stamps us so that we say with all confidence,
"I am chosen."
Then the devil, he'll come to us and say, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
You are not a part of the family of God.
You haven't been adopted; you haven't been grafted in.
You're too prodigal; you're not worthy enough to be accepted."
And the Holy Spirit shows up in that moment.
He says, "Oh, no.
You see, My Spirit is going to bear witness with your spirit, and it's going to cry
out, 'Abba Father,' and it's going to let you know that you're a child of God."
Oh, the devil says you're too prodigal?
Let me take you back to that story in Luke 15 of the prodigal son.
The prodigal son.
The prodigal son.
Yeah, he was prodigal in his way, but he was still a son.
And we are all prodigals at times in our way, but we are still sons.
And in that moment where the devil comes and says, "You are not adopted; you are not
a part of the family.
You are not worthy," the Holy Spirit whispers to us and He goes, "Oh, no.
You are adopted."
You know why?
Because it's not about worth.
It's about birth.
You are a son, and we can stand with confidence because of our sealing, because of the Holy
Spirit, and say, "I am adopted."
In moments the devil will come to us and say, "Oh, no, no, no.
You are not redeemed; you're not forgiven.
If God knew what you did last night," and he heaps guilt and he heaps condemnation on
us.
Said, "No, no, no, no.
You're not redeemed; you're not forgiven.
What you did that's so dark, God wouldn't forgive you.
God is disappointed in you."
And in those moments the Holy Spirit comes to us.
He has sealed us, and He begins to speak to us, and He goes, "No, no, no.
You have to remember: There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ
Jesus.
May I remind you: You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."
And in that moment He stamps us and He seals us and we can stand with confidence and say,
"I am forgiven.
I am redeemed."
In moments the devil will come at us and say, "None of this is real.
You don't belong to God.
You're not an heir.
You're sick; you're depressed; you are going to hell."
Holy Spirit begins to whisper and speak to our heart.
He reminds us, "Oh, no.
There's an eternal life; there's an eternal power at work in you.
As a matter of fact, it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and it's
going to bring life to your mortal body."
He reminds us that one day we're going to shed mortality and we're going to put on
immortality, and we can stand with confidence as He seals our heart and we can say, "I
am an heir!
I have an inheritance!
I have obtained it in Christ Jesus."
He seals us.
By His Spirit He reminds us that we belong to God.
In moments where it seems like we don't belong, the Holy Spirit stamps our heart and
He reminds us that God has inscribed us on the palm of His hand.
The Bible says that in the Old Testament that God has your name inscribed on the palm of
His hand.
He hasn't forgotten you.
The Holy Spirit reminds us that your name and my name it's written in the Lamb's
Book of Life.
So when the enemy comes at us and tries to steal our gifts, because of this last gift,
being sealed by the Holy Spirit, we can say with confidence, "Oh, no, no.
These are mine.
They belong to me because I'm in Christ.
I'm chosen.
I'm adopted.
I'm redeemed.
I'm forgiven.
I'm an heir.
I'm sealed in Christ Jesus.
This is what Paul was say.
Paul would say, "This is your new reality.
This is your new identity.
This is who you are."
You are chosen; you're adopted; you're redeemed; you're forgiven; you are an heir.
You have an inheritance, and you are sealed in the Holy Spirit.
Well, I hope that you were blessed by the entirety of that message.
And listen: If you have never opened your heart to the Savior, do so today.
Jesus will change your life and He loves you.
Friend, never forget it.
When I look back, I think of all the decisions I had to make.
Really, none of it was by accident.
There was that time with George and Tim….
Wow…
But that was right when Chris showed up in class.
He was the one that lead me to God.
I spent so much time wondering what to do once I graduated.
But then I saw that Bible verse, and I just knew it was for me.
Such a confirmation!
Right then, the direction I was meant to go became so clear, God had been trying to show
me all along.
When I look back, it was so obviously God that gave me peace about the relationships
I was meant to have and pursue.
So what about tomorrow?
God, You know.
And I have every reason to believe You'll keep leading me.
Did you know that God is interested in every single detail of your life?
Order the 2 message CD or DVD series "How God Cares for You" by Bayless Conley, now.
Just use the information on your screen.
"How God Cares for You."
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley.
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