Sermon – Embraced By God’s Grace For The Pleasure Of God

Sermon – Embraced By God’s Grace for the Pleasure of God

Scripture - Ephesians 1:1-15 “This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am 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 because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, 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. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. 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, whom he promised long ago. 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.”

Introduction – Paul’s journey to Rome, after many dangerous and difficult days, set the stage for writing the book of Ephesians. Paul knows the difficulty of living full and free lives in a hostile environment. Reading this book can be ideal for those who long for wholeheartedness and need freedom from past wounds and courage for the future. So many of us are wrestling through the reality that life isn’t easy, even when we are doing the right thing. Suffering and trials can slam into us from left field, leaving us reeling and wondering where is God and does He really care? I pray these lessons from Ephesians will provide a firm foundation to stand on no matter what life throws our way. With an emphasis on who God the Father is, What He has done through His Son, Jesus Christ bringing healing and wholeness to the family of God in Heaven and in Earth. Knowing our identity, We can live fearless, free and full of confidence that we are who God says we are and we can do what God says we can do and can be what God says we can be. We can live with purpose and fulfil God’s plan.

This is what we’ll discover through this lesson from Ephesians. We need to waken to the reality of who we are in Christ, and that we have an enemy who seeks to steal our identity. We need to wrestle with the battle in our minds and bringing our thoughts in captivity to Christ. We need to be strengthened as warriors so that we can move forward in life– not just surviving, but flourishing.

I have entitled this message, Embraced By Grace. Our relationship with God is on the bases of Grace, being grounded in truth while wrapped in the embrace of the One who loves us all completely and without end. The Book of Ephesians is a beautiful revelation of the Church and the spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. What was hidden throughout the ages was revealed to us when Christ came. Paul explains the mystery of the church and gives practical insight into living as believers.

We have been embraced by grace and showered with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have been adopted to sonship, we have been chosen, forgiven, and redeemed. We have been marked with a seal and given the Holy Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance. Then Paul prays that we will have the revelation of Christ so we can know the hope and power we have been called to as His body, the Church of whom He is the head. Embracing the grace of Christ means we have to believe what God says about us in the Bible rather than believing what the world tells us. God says we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16). If our hearts embrace this truth, then we are truly embracing the grace of Christ.