Grace Messages

Last week, we looked at the ultimate and eternal “GAME-CHANGER” found in two words - BUT GOD…God is excited about His grand plan in Jesus Christ and He is engaged in an ongoing time of SHOW and TELL! This morning, Paul will further expand upon God’s “grace-riches.” We will see this both in salvation, and in God’s plan for the believer post-salvation. If you have ever wondered HOW, WHEN, and WHERE good works fit into God’s overall plan, then this passage will help clarify it.

After burying every man, woman, and child in abject spiritual bankruptcy in the first three verses of chapter 2, Paul now introduces a GAME CHANGER. As it turns out, Paul introduces the only GAME CHANGER that could have done anything about our dark and despicable past – God Himself (BUT GOD…)! God accomplished three things through our union with Christ that He desires to show us, and when we understand these three things, it should absolutely blow us away!

Having just finished on the peak of the mountaintop in chapter 1, Paul now flashes back to where we started. The past for every believer in Jesus Christ is NOT pretty! It is dark, dank, dirty, and despicable to say the least. We have been considering our spiritual wealth IN Christ as believers, and our position in Christ, and this section will flashback to a time when we were spiritually bankrupt!

This morning, we continue to look at Paul's two-pronged prayer request for believers who already have everything. Those requests are: (1) KNOWING God more intimately, and (2) KNOWING what they possess as a result of God placing them IN Christ. Paul strongly desires that ALL believers would fully understand and take possession of everything that is ALREADY theirs IN Christ.

Specifically, this morning, our focus will be on the POWER available to the believer as they live the Christian life.

This morning, the elders of our local church wanted to take time to communicate with our local body about a change in focus and intentionality in our ministry. Our church plans to add a pastoral internship program in the near future, and the leaders wanted to provide some biblical rationale behind the decision and communicate their heart's desire for this program. Ultimately, we want to utilize the resources we possess to have maximum impact for Jesus Christ and the building of His Church!

This morning, we look at Paul's two-pronged prayer request for believers who already have everything. Those requests are:

(1) KNOWING God more intimately, and (2) KNOWING what they possess as a result of God placing them IN Christ. Paul strongly desires that ALL believers would fully understand and take possession of everything that is ALREADY theirs IN Christ.

This understanding and knowledge will deeply impact each believer exactly where they are, and will allow them to live out their Christian lives in a way pleasing to the Lord.

Ephesians 1:17-19

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Speaker: Pastor John Clark

Location: Grace Community Fellowship in Newnan, GA

Grace Community Fellowship is a Bible church in Newnan GA committed to clearly teaching the Word of God through verse by verse teaching. Enjoy expository teaching, from a Bible-based perspective, engaging worship music, and great fellowship at our campus in Newnan, Ga, or experience the messages online!

This morning, we look at the way God "closed us up" IN Christ. Not only did God design His grand plan of placing each and every believer IN Christ when they believed, but He also provided a seal to lock them into this position. The security by which God is securing believers and their blessings IN Christ is the most highly secure position in the universe! As a result of these truths, Paul then launches into a prayer, praying that the believers would fully understand and take possession of everything that is ALREADY theirs IN Christ.

Ephesians 1:13-16

A virtuous woman/wife/mother is very rare according to Proverbs 31. Almost as rare as a sighting of Bigfoot! But, is the emphasis in Proverbs 31 to do all of the ACTIVITIES listed in order to be a virtuous woman? Or, is the emphasis something different?

The overriding principle from Proverbs 31: Women, wives, and mothers need to be more concerned with SOURCE than ACTIVITIES in their lives. The “virtuous” woman does what she does because of the SOURCE from which she is living life.

God the Father had a GRAND plan and that plan was NOT found in a list of steps, or in a certain method, but rather it was found and executed IN a PERSON! God was pure GENIUS in the way He put together how He would save mankind from their sin.

Additionally, not only did He save them from a consequence they deserved (i.e., death), but then He turned around and did something unthinkable – He blessed them with indescribable riches! All of this was done on the basis of His grace…let’s continue to marvel at who God is and what He has done in this section of Ephesians.

Passage: Ephesians 1:4-6

As we come to our passage this morning, confusion abounds in Christianity. One commentator said, “These are the hardest verses to interpret in all of the Bible!” With the confusion and different “takes” on this passage, I can see why he said that.

However, the key to understanding this passage is to understand the flow of the context. Verse 3 of Ephesians 1 said believers have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, and verse 4 describes how God secured those blessings and verse 5 describes one of those secured blessings, which by the way, was pre-determined by God to be a part of our blessings.

Always remember the modifying phrases here – God DID NOT choose us! God chose us IN CHRIST! In terms of predestination, God DID NOT predestine us! God predestined us to ADOPTION as sons THROUGH Jesus Christ. The WHERE is the key to understanding this passage.