The Depth Of Christ's Love Series

EPHESIANS SERIES

EPHESIANS 1:1-6

THE DEPTHS OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST

INTRODUCTION

1. Friends of Jesus, thank you for coming here today. I pray that you will see Jesus today, and know what call He has on your life. I also pray that you will allow The Holy Spirit to influence you to become more like Jesus.

2. Beloved, in the past, we have looked at what we are doing wrong in our lives as Christians, in fact until we are blue in the face, and I have found that it has done very little to effect the changes that we need in order for us to be Christ like. The biggest problem as I see it in my life, is that we are inward focused. We are selfish in our lives and this also flows over into our church.

3. Today, I wish to share with you some wonderful, fantastic truths, right out of the Word of God. We will work directly out of the Word today.

4. As I search the Scriptures, there is one thing that I never find, and that is a church that is focused on programs and entertainment, and things that benefit the members of the Church. NO! the Church of Jesus Christ was, and has always been outward focused, on saving the lost. The mission of Christ and His Church has been to save souls from eternal damnation. The church that is not outward focused and working in the Kingdom is full of selfish, useless dead Christians. They are like salt that has lost it saltiness, of no use.

5. As we begin, I want to establish one point of truth, that the world needs to hear and know. The Creator God is exactly that, He is Creator God, and we need to understand some basic principles that are evident in being God.

I. God is omnipotent - that is He is all powerful.

Ii. God is omnipresent - that is He is everywhere at once.

Iii. God is perfect in every aspect. His motives, His actions, He everything.

Iv. God is all knowing, the past, present and future.

V. God is The Creator and He owns you.

Vi. God is not inward focused, but focused on you.

6. One question, “is this the God that you serve, and are trying to emulate, or are you lying to yourself, only taking to yourself those majestic characteristics that benefit you, so basically allowing you to satisfy the desires of your sinful nature.” Beloved, beware of the lies of the sinful nature, as liars are not allowed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

7. The world is lost and dying, with people crying out for someone to throw them a lifesaver or a life jacket, or a rope or something. I want to liken the church to a ship, crewed by Christians, sailing the ocean of life. All around the ship in the ocean are those whose ships have been sunk, and they are now floating in the ocean of life, covered in the oil of their failures of sin. They are weakly crying out in confusion. Some, because of their confusion are stubborn and angry because their ship has been sunk. As the ship “USS Jensen Beach Christian Church” sails by, we all peer over the rail into the ocean, and hear the cries, and see the pain and suffering, and we know that once we too were in that water. We are now comfortable, and just feeling quite fine. As the ship glides through the water, the bodies of those in the water are bumped out of the way. We stand by the rail and in fact we ignore the cries, the pleading, we shut our eyes and pretend that it is not there. Some ever begin preaching about how it is their own fault and choice that they are sunk and in the ocean. Just by reaching out a hand, we could bring those poor souls into the church, but we might have to actually do some work by extending our hand, or getting their attention. The Love of God is only for certain people, and really I am quite comfortable thank you very much. This is not the heart of the Savior, and it is not the heart of the real Christian.

7. Part of the problem, is that many do not know what they actually have to give to others to save them from drowning in hell.

8. Let us go to the Scriptures. Today, I am going to be reading first from the NIV, and then from the Beck translation, as I like the easy language flow for this study, but you can follow along in your translation.

EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ