Enjoying Your Position In Christ Series

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?:

Enjoying Your Position

in Christ

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:1-22

Michael Dell.

Sanford Weill.

Gerald Levin.

John Chambers.

Henry Silverman.

Ever heard of those people?

Do any of those names ring a bell?

They’re all millionaires.

And they are the 5 top-paid CEOs in America, as of this year.

Michael Dell, CEO of Dell computers,

made $235,000 last year.

Sanford Weill of Citigroup: $216,000.

Gerald Levin of Time-Warner: 165,000,

John Chambers of Cisco: $157,000, and

Henry Silverman of Cendant: $137,000.

Henry Saas just missed making the top 5,

I think because the data was compiled

before he started his new position

in the bursar’s office at MU.

But I mention those individuals,

not to make anyone jealous because

those guys are millionaires and you’re not,

but for something they have in common with many people here:

they’re all fabulously wealthy

because of their positions. . . Just like you.

Now, don’t snicker, Daryl Zimmer.

He’s the Chief Executive Officer of Zimmer Tractor--and the King of Brookville, Indiana--but that position hasn’t made him fabulously wealthy...

But that’s okay;

that’s not the position I’m talking about.

No, I’m talking about a different kind of position

and a different kind of wealth.

Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler,

and I want to welcome you all

to Cobblestone Community Church,

a church that wants to love people

into life-changing encounters with God.

And last Sunday we started a new series entitled, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire

(when you can be infinitely rich)?”

And for the six weeks of this series,

we’re going to find the answer to that question

by looking to the book of Ephesians in the Bible;

by the time we finish the series on November 11th,

we will have studied

an entire book of the Bible together.

So, let’s get started;

let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to

the second chapter of Ephesians,

which is the tenth book of the New Testament,

--you’ll find it on page #811 if you’re using one of the Bibles we’ve provided for you on the floor under the chairs throughout the auditeria.

And I encourage you to follow along in the Bible

so you can read for yourself

with your own eyes

what’s being taught up here at the front.

And if you don’t own a Bible that you can read and understand, please feel free to take one of ours home with you, absolutely free. That’s why we don’t put stickers on ‘em or stamp ‘em with “Cobblestone Community Church,” because we want people to feel free to take ‘em outta here and use ‘em at home.

So, having said all that,

please open your Bible to Ephesians 2,

and be prepared to follow along with me

as I talk about how you can enjoy

your position in Christ Jesus,

if, that is, you have experienced new life in Christ- and if you haven’t, you’ll certainly have the opportunity to make that choice here this morning.

Last week we discussed your possessions in Christ, and how “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3, NIV).

We talked about

redemption,

forgiveness,

the riches of God’s grace,

the knowledge of the mystery of his will,

and our guaranteed inheritance,

all of which is ours in Christ.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I wanna impress upon you 3 things this morning that Paul,

the great church planter of the first century,

has to say about everyone here

who has asked God’s forgiveness

and found new life by following Jesus Christ.

And if you’d like to take notes,

we’ve provided inserts in this morning’s programs

to help you do that.

So, I’ll ask you to notice the first thing

Paul says about you, about me, in Ephesians 2 is:

1. My past condition (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Look at what Paul says, in Ephesians 2:1-3:

As for you [he says], you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Let me just take a minute to unpack this. Maybe some of us have been following Christ and enjoying “every spiritual blessing in Christ” for so long that you’ve forgotten your past condition . . .

So let me just remind you.

I’ll boil it all down into four words. Paul says I was: