Ephesians 1:3-6, All Spiritual Blessings

tonight we're going to continue our study in the book of Ephesians we find ourselves at the very beginning we looked at verses 1 and 2 and I reminded you that this book is like fudge when you take just a little bit it's just so overwhelmingly delicious and the first 14 verses of this first chapter might be the most weighty words that have ever been written from antiquity because in these 14 words we find a list of spiritual blessings that are found in Christ by grace so tonight we continue our study and a message I'm in Title II all spiritual blessings visions chapter 1 we're going to be looking at verses 3 through 6 let's pray Heavenly Father what an image that Evelyn's saying about Mephibosheth coming to the altar Lord most of us know the story of this young man whose father Jonathan died and when retribution was thought to take place on his family his nurse dropped him and his feet were broken lord it seems impossible that people so hurt and so broken can ever come to a place of communion a friendship and fellowship but we have all of those things in Christ and so Heavenly Father again we want to celebrate with all that is within us the spiritual blessing that you've provided for us in the person of Jesus Lord we commit this time to you we pray these things in Jesus name Amen a piece of chapter 1 beginning in verse 3 Paul writes blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved Paul began his letter with a call to the Christian he now continues to describe our present possessions in Christ this chapter begins with praise to God for what we've received and then it's going to continue with Paul's prayer to God for what we require in verses 15 through 23 so again the verses from verse 3 to 2 verse 14 is one continuous sentence in the Greek language in the ancient world they didn't have colons and apostrophes that they certainly had periods when you would come to one thought in this one sentence Paul is going to pen our past and our present and our future in Christ it's Paul's understanding of God's master plan this is Christ's blueprint for our election in the past that's verses three through six at the beginning of the verse and then our redemption in the present the end of verse six all the way to verse eleven and then our inheritance in the future in verses 12 through 14 we're going to be talking about words that are going to be difficult to comprehend and understand but let me try to make it as simple as possible when Paul speaks about election he's going to be referring to the past when he talks about predestination he's going to be talking about the future we are beings who live in time we understand that there is a past and a present and the future but in God there is a continual now and so the Holy Spirit is going to pin through Paul a human perspective we might may also say that the passage is going to shift focus from the Father in verses 3 through 6 to the son at the end of verse 6 to verse 11 to the Holy Spirit in verses 13 through 14 even though the sentence is going to be weighty and difficult like fudge we need to be able to take it one bite at a time you probably heard me say over and over again how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time it'll eventually go away and so Paul is going to take us on a journey and the journey is going to take us to the very throne of heaven where Jesus is seated in heavenly places and what is the surprise when we see Christ in heaven Paul reveals were there with him not in the future but now if you are in Christ in some remarkable way heaven isn't just something that you look forward to it is something that's a part of you much of our life is spent with looking around at this present world the physical circumstances I remember long long ago when I was a freshman in college and I took psych 101 we were forced to read Alfred Adler and Abraham Maslow who popularized popularized what every freshman psychology student noses the hierarchy of human needs in Adler's hierarchy there were security needs there were significant needs there were satisfaction through personal power needs some Christians who have abandoned a biblical worldview suggest that physical needs and safety needs and love and belonging needs and self-esteem have to be present if you are going to love God and love others but the Bible provides a different view of how the Christian sees herself how the Christian sees himself how the Christian understands self in this passage we get to ask the question how does God see me according to the Bible the only way a person can have a lasting legacy and eternal perspective is to have a right relationship with their creator with God you probably have already figured it out that if money or fame or sex or human achievement filled the void inside of you you would expect the richest people in the world the most famous people in the world the porn stars of the world the movers and shakers of human government that these would be the most content and satisfied people in the world but has that been your experience that's because it's not true and there's something powerful as we look around in this world as it invites us to find satisfaction and contentment in something other than Christ we live in a world where life has been trivialized into a series of slogans in the ancient times burger king used to say have it your way lore'l used to say because you're worth it McDonald's of course I'm loving it or my favorite Purina Dog Chow all you need to add is love until you own the dog and then the dog owns you so what makes a person valuable it depends on who's making the evaluation how does God value a person apart from Christ we know clearly that people are made in the image of God human beings are created by God for God in the image of God and have intrinsic value yet the person apart from Christ has no spiritual value no standing before God no purpose no meaning in the world he is like chaff which the wind drives away as it's recorded in Psalm 1 4 and so we begin we are blessed look at verse 3 blessed be the god of our Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ we see the word bless blessing blessed and of course the word blessed means happy we might think it's a biblical happiness in terms of contentment and peace and joy again I'm fond of thinking of biblical concepts in terms of a recipe if you were going to somehow create blessing it would have equal parts of contentment equal parts of peace equal parts of joy the word blessing here is singular in the middle of the verse blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ here when it means blessed it literally means a celebration of praise concerning who God is and then when it says who has blessed us with every spiritual note blessing it doesn't say spiritual blessings it's singular and in the middle voice it's the Greek word you legaia it means again to celebrate with praises we have a familiar English word on Monday we had a funeral Bob did a wonderful job at that funeral tomorrow we have yet another funeral during a funeral there's sometimes a portion in the funeral where a person presents what's called a eulogy it comes from that word you lo gaya it means to speak well of or to speak on behalf of it means praise prosper or bestow blessings when David wrote bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name and Psalm 103 verse 1 David was speaking well of the Lord so the very nature of God is love and goodness God is good and God does good things this is why Paul can write that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the singular because Paul is using the word spiritual blessing he's drawing it in a profound contrast I suspect against that which is simply material which is physical and tangible now we might be tempted to just establish an artificial divide between what is physical and spiritual but I'm going to suggest to you that whatever the blessing means it probably incorporates all the physical things that God has provided for you a place to stay in food to eat and a provision that's made for you we Strides quote the expression is a large one covering all the good that comes to us by grace he also writes whether the assurance of immortality the promise of the Resurrection the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven the privilege of adoption he goes on and on I wrote a short list that I'm going to add throughout our study in the book of Ephesians my little short list of blessing in Christ salvation Ephesians 2:8 justification Romans 3:24 victory over sin Romans 5:20 the power to testify Romans chapter 12 verse 3 strength for service 2nd Timothy 2:1 a spirit of generosity 2nd corinthians 8 seven sweetness and singing Colossians 3:16 the ability to stand first Peter 5:12 strength and suffering 2nd Corinthians 12:9 we begin to pile on the blessing salvation justification victory over sin power to test about strength generosity sweetness the ability to stand strength to go forward and now all of a sudden we begin to understand something that Paul from the start is issuing a concrete statement that everything that we have for contentment for peace for prosperity with God and from God who has and you note this don't let it slip by you who has blessed not who will bless in the future or if you wait long enough there's going to be a blessing or he might bless you in some distant land that we call heaven or he might bless you if you're good enough or if you have a day where you go by where you don't sin that's not what the text is saying he's giving a concrete blessing of the God who is determined to bless us in Christ in every way when Paul writes these words I want you to just put it in perspective for just a moment because sometimes we sometimes lose perspective remember Paul has now been saved for about 25 years it's been 25 years since he left Jerusalem and was making his way to Damascus and he had a vision from heaven and a voice from heaven that said Saul Saul it's hard to kick against the pricks or the goads there's the Holy Spirit has been jabbing him reminding him suggesting and to him that there's something wrong in his life and remember he says who are you and it says I'm the Lord Jesus Christ whom you persecute he hadn't persecuted Jesus he had just persecuted the Jesus followers the Paul understood what Jesus was saying that if you hurt when he hurts you he hurts Jesus and so a decade has gone by and another decade has gone by he's made his way on a couple of missionary journeys he's gone back to Jerusalem he's been arrested he found himself in Caesarea he was on trial and he wouldn't get a fair trial so he's made in a appeal to Caesar and he's made his way back to Rome and he's in house arrest when he's writing these words he's getting ready to stand trial there is the severe possibility because he is going to face trial before Caesar Nero and there is the severe possibility of punishment or death it's in that context and under those circumstances that he writes these words and you might be tempted to think well if God is such a good God if God is such a gracious God if God is such a loving God then how do you explain my trouble how do you explain my sorrow how do you explain my pain how do you explain my life why is my life littered with frustration or difficulty or depression in this passage we discover what Paul has discovered that the source of our blessing is the father and the character of that blessing is spiritual liquid it says in the verse who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ we're going to later discover that we're sealed by the Holy Spirit in verse 13 who is get who's been given to us as a downpayment the power of blessing is the Holy Spirit in Galatians 3:14 the promise of blessing comes from the scripture according to Hebrews 6:14 James the brother of Jesus in James chapter 1 verse 17 wrote every good and perfect gift is from heaven above and comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow or turning one translation says no variation or shadow of turning the idea being that no matter which way you look that God is unchanging we bless God who is the source of blessing and then he blesses us with the substance of blessing and now we see the sight of blessing it comes from heavenly places and again this is in contrast to physical places this is the place this is the invisible eternal realm the expression in the heavenly places means in heaven but it means I'm going to suggest to you something way more it means the primary place where God dwells it means the place where Jesus advocates for us binds says it means quote heavenly or everything that pertains to or that is in heaven the Greek word F P in the sense of pertaining to or has something to do with and so Paul describes the present position of believers in relationship to Christ in heaven and by the way the phrases are going to occur five times in this epistle and nowhere else in the New Testament over and over again Lightfoot writes quote the heaven of which the Apostle here speaks is not some remote locality it's not some future abode it is the heaven which lies within and about the Christian he is giving us a glimpse that in some very mysterious way when we are around each other we are near heaven this restrict me because have you ever said or have you ever wanted to say I can't wait to get to heaven Paul reveals in a very real sense you're already there you are already there you're seated in the heavenly place with Jesus we are not promised again every material blessing but we are we are given every spiritual blessing these spiritual blessings come to us from the Father who is in heaven and then it comes to us as we experience fellowship in the son Ralph Earl says quote we cannot have the blessings without him the greatest blessing any can enjoy is the conscious presence of Christ in the heart unquote and this is exactly right this is part of what Paul is saying that anyone who simply pretends to some sort of spiritual blessing apart from Christ is fooling himself or herself and trying to fool you the channel of that blessing is Christ in Luke 24 30 and there's the the story after the resurrection of Jesus many of you remember that Cleophus and a friend have left Jerusalem they've left the empty tomb they've left the angelic testimony they've left the testimony of the women they're walking away from Jerusalem they're walking towards Emmaus and you'll remember Jesus shows up and he begins to speak to them and he he asked them tell me why you're so bummed out and they go heaven did you fall off a potato truck where have you been haven't you heard what's happened Jesus has been killed and we thought he was the Messiah and Jesus began to reveal to them from Genesis and the writings and on this 7 mile hike this amazing Bible study and when you get to the end of the verse it Jesus it says breaks bread it says at the end of the journey he took bread he blessed it he broke it and he gave it to them in verse 31 it says then their eyes were opened and they knew him and then he vanished from their sight there was the spiritual event that took place because of the presence of Jesus sometimes our focus on the trial or the temptation or the circumstance causes us to ignore the source of our blessing the father and the channel of our blessing the son our spiritual blessing is in the heavenlies and in Christ and those two simple words are going to form the foundation of Paul's theology as he begins to express everything that we have in Christ Paul's theology is decidedly Christocentric Jesus is the way to God Jesus is the knowledge of God now this becomes very important particularly for the person who wants to bypass Jesus for the person that you know who says I want to know God but I have no interest in Jesus whatsoever the Bible reveals you'll never really know God and you'll never experience blessing till you know the Sun we cannot obtain spiritual blessing apart from Jesus and so when the New Testament says Jesus is our mediator he is what connects us to the Father it is exactly right clearly Paul declares that we're in Christ the question that I would suggest you ask so what does that mean what does it mean to be in Christ in order to be in Christ you have to be saved to be in Christ means you've experienced regeneration it means that you come to the place where the emptiness and the darkness and the wickedness and the sin that used to mark your life no longer marks your life but you've received Christ you've been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit the next question you need to ask is well how do I remain in Christ well you remain in Christ by abiding in Christ you abide in him jesus said if you abide in me and my word abide in you you will ask what you will and it shall be done there's this sustained abiding in Jesus alone the safety salvation protection peace salvation protection peace it isn't found in church it isn't found just simply showing up it isn't found in this or that it is found in Christ don't get me wrong I'm not I'm not trying to to tell you well go away I want you to be here but I want you to know that every spiritual blessing is found in Christ and blessing comes from abiding in him and note what Paul says we are blessed and we are chosen look what it says in verse 4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Paul praises God because he has chosen us in him the word chosen is AK which means out of and leggo not like the little building blocks that you give your children it's a word that means to pick out or to make a choice for yourself the image is that you've got a lot to choose from and then you pick for yourself now we might wrongly imagine a person who opens up a treasure chest my granddaughter has this treasure chest and in it she keeps little jewels it's the little treasures that she has accumulated precious objects jewels priceless things of matchless beauty but you would be mistaken the Lord doesn't choose us from a treasure trove he chooses us from a garbage dump imagine I take you all to the dump and I go whatever just pick whatever you want whatever piece of trash suits you the reason why I'm saying it that way is because that's what the Lord does he's not he's not choosing from treasure he's choosing from garbage some want to make God's choice some sort of theological riddle rather than what it really is it's a tribute to God's love it's a tribute to God's grace it's a tribute to God's mercy for the person who's left with thee with the impression man you really got a winner when you picked me Pepper's is deceived in the New Testament by the way the phrase occurs 21 times in the King James Version choose choose out make a choice but the adjective derived from eclectus is translated elect sixteen times chosen seven times in verse 3 Paul reveals the source and the sphere of our blessing the source the Father the sphere in heaven in verse four and five he begins to talk about the scope or the magnitude of our blessing we have been chosen in verse four we have been changed at the in diverse four chosen to be changed Spurgeon said if God hadn't chosen me before the foundation of the world he wouldn't choose me now in the great debates of election and predestination people struggle with did God choose me or did I choose him does God's choice make my choice irrelevant some people suggest that you are saved or damned forever because you were saved or damned forever in this passage Bishop Kramer makes this point he says Ephesians 1:4 cannot be taken to imply a division of mankind into two classes according to some divine plan before history began it simply traces back the state of grace and Christian piety to the eternal and independent electing love of God he also points out that this verb is always used in the scripture for quote God's dealings towards men in the scheme of redemption unquote Alford prefers the the idea of selection rather than election in John 15:16 Jesus says you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you the doctrine of election is going to loom large in this book of Ephesians but I want to bring it back just for a moment and remind you we come to God on God's terms God's terms is repentance from thin and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ our coming according to Paul is no accident God knows our nature God knows our need and he still chooses us from before the foundation of the world here's what it says our salvation has been carefully planned by the father it's been carefully planned by the son it's been carefully planned by the Holy Spirit so are we chosen without regard to faith in Christ or are we chosen in accordance with faith in Christ the simple most famous passage in all of the Bible is when Jesus says to Nicodemus for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved we rarely get past the debate to the reason for blessing so that we might be changed the Lord chose us in him in Christ look what it says that we might be holy and without blame before him in love John Phillips rightly says God saves us sanctifies us and sees no blemish in us Charles Hodge says if men are chosen to be holy they cannot be chosen because they are holy and thirdly it follows that holiness is the only evidence of election and this is what's so impressive about the text well how do I know if I'm elect Spurgeon used to say accept Christ and you'll know Spurgeon used to pray save the elect and then Alexa Moore but what Paul says is that the proof of election isn't simple profession it's separation from sin an attachment to God wholly does not mean morally superior it doesn't mean intrinsically better than others holy means separate distinct different but this is a conscious decision to separate from sin and then attach to the Lord Jesus Christ and so when Paul writes and he says just as he chose us in him that is in Christ before the foundation of world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love the expression without blame is an interesting Greek word it's a ma mas it was used in the Septuagint in connection with animals that were offered for sacrifice remember that the sacrificial animals had to be without spot or blemish so here it carries the ethical connotation blameless the idea of being blameless in character and in conduct it doesn't mean sinless it means blameless and character and conduct God pardons us he pardons us in Christ he sanctifies us by the Holy Spirit so the election that Paul describes isn't simply the journey from sinner to salvation the emphasis on the st. and sanctification look carefully at the expression that we should be wholly separated from sin attached to him and without blame before him in love in other words the motivation of the transformation is love but it's not like a gooey sloppy agape feeling of sentiment that's being here spoke enough I'm going to suggest to you love here means in its most basic sense it is the willingness to do what's right towards the object that is being loved God will do what's right towards you the reciprocity comes when you say I'm going to do what's right towards God this is a warning and a consolation it's intended to motivate us towards personal holiness but it's also posed to comfort us in what way that at this very moment that we are before him in love now let's back off again just for a moment do friends and family sometimes find it easy to find fault with you and blame you we know that people watch us don't we friends and family may find it easy to find fault with us and find blame in us but in the eyes of love with the spectacles with the lens of love for those of you who were here on Sunday remember and I asked that telling question how does God feel about the Jew and I said his fur inclination is affection the second is protection the third is preservation God sees us with the eyes of love he watches us with the eyes of love the world does not watch us with the eyes of love so how in the world does God overlook our faults how in the world does God overlook our failures how in the world does God overlook when we are to be blamed it's because God sees us in Christ he sees us in Christ we live in a world that's marked by rejection almost all of us have experienced some sort of rejection in our life we've been rejected by strangers and that's not so bad but it's really hurtful when you're rejected by friends and and when you're rejected by your family when you go to school and they're picking the team and they don't pick you when you're at work and they're picking someone to be promoted and they don't pick you so on what basis does God choose you and me according to Paul he chooses us on the basis of Christ and when he chooses us on the basis of Christ not only does he not reject us but he accepts us the issue of acceptance is over because we're adopted look what it says in verse 5 having predestinated to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will the simple meaning of the word predestined means to know in advance remember elect means know in the past predestined means know in advance in Acts chapter 4 verse 28 the word Pro ribs Oh is the same word that Steven uses in that or that Peter uses into speech in Romans chef excuse me Acts chapter four verse 28 when it's translated determined before five other times in Paul's writing it's translated predestined Romans 8:29 for whom he did foreknow he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son in other words it's a predestination that results in the transformation and the likeness of being like Jesus twice it's used in Ephesians here and then again in verse 11 where it says in him also we've obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the purpose of his will in 1st Corinthians 2:7 it's rendered ordained but the greek word is for ordained that is to decree or to make a declaration in advance the emphasis is on the purpose of the decree not on the subject of the decree here he who is predestined speaks to the issue not just of who is predestined but why they're predestined in this case it's the adoption as sons by Jesus to himself Ralph Earl says quote foreknowledge which is only another phrase of electing love no more changes the nature of the future is incident then after knowledge can affect a historical fact God's grace fits men for heaven but men by unbelief prepare themselves for hell it is not man's non-election it just continued sin that leads to eternal ruin some of our Calvinist friends would not agree with that but I believe that it's always been sin that leads to real ruin and it's forgiveness of sin that leads to redemption salvation and Reconciliation were predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus to himself according to the good pleasure of his will the word adoption is an interesting word in the Greek language it means to place as a son into a family now you've got to understand something that Paul was a Jew who's raised in a Greek culture in a Roman civil system with both Greek and Roman institutions listen carefully adoption was not a Jewish custom adoption was by and large a Roman custom there are hints of adoption in the Old Testament Jacob adopts the sons of Joseph born in captivity and Manasseh and Ephraim have all the rights as firstborn in Genesis 48 5 Mordecai informally adopts Esther in Esther chapter 2 verse 7 but Paul uses the metaphor of adoption again in Romans 8:23 and Galatians 4 or 5 in adoption in that culture it's an invitation to join a family circle sallman writes quote adoption in the sense of legal transference of a child to a family to which it did not belong by birth had no place in the Jewish law unquote he continues quote thus among the Romans a citizen might receive a child who is not his own by birth into his family and give him his name but he could only do so by a formal act attested by witnesses and the Sun thus adopted had all its entirety the position of a child by birth with all the rights and privileges pertaining to that uncoil William Barclay has keen insight into the ancient ritual an application for the Christian in the Roman world Roman law prevailed in Roman law there was a thing called patria potestas it's the Roman civil idea of the absolute right of the Father in Roman culture and law a father had absolute right over his child so long as the child lived and so long as the father lived he could sell his child as a slave he could kill his child whatever land property titles offices it also belonged to the father it's true that in Roman culture a father could call a meeting of all male members of the household for consultation but he had no obligation to follow that counsel again Barclay writes at length and I'm going to quote at length quote the ritual of adoption must have been impressive it was carried out by a symbolic scale in which copper scales were used twice the real father sold his son and twice he symbolically bought him back finally he sold him a third time and at the third sale he did not buy him back after this the adopting father had to go to the pray tour which is a Roman magistrate the principal Roman magistrate and then plead his case for adoption only after this had gone been gone through was the adoption complete when the adoption was complete it was complete indeed the person who had been adopted had all the rights of a legitimate son and his new family in the eyes of the law he was a new person so knew that even all of his debts and obligations connected to the previous family were abolished as if they never existed unquote this becomes important at least for me who studies Roman history and Roman culture in the first century in the ongoing adoption that took place in the Roman culture when you get to the time past Domitian they they have no heirs and so Hadrian excuse me Trajan has to adopt Hadrian who has to adopt Antoninus Pius who has to adopt a Marcus Aurelius and each one of them go through this process in this Roman process of adoption and so remember Paul is writing to the Ephesians who are culturally Greek but who are going to be aware of Roman customs and then he uses this amazing image that you are adopted in Christ the big question is is our adoption complete or incomplete in the book of Colossians when Paul is writing he's writing ephesians philippians and colossians and colossians he basically says in another letter you are complete in him not incomplete complete our adoption is complete we call God our Father Jesus is the Lord does the fact that God is your father is it supposed to inform the way you think the way you speak the way you act and finally were accepted look what it says in verse 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted note our acceptance isn't because you've done something good or because you've done something wrong or because you went to church or because you memorized your Bible or because you let a thousand people to Christ you're accepted in the beloved you know there's powerful powerful powerful cultural forces at work in our culture where we want desperately to be accepted we want to be accepted by our peers we want to be accepted by our family we want to be accepted by the culture but when he says to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved it could say to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves the purpose of election holiness blamelessness and praise we're not rejected in the beloved we are accepted in the beloved and the phrase accepted in the beloved is all one word in the Greek language it's a car a Thyssen the word appears one other time in the Greek New Testament Luke chapter 1 verse 28 where the angel speaking to Mary says thou art highly favoured same word Cara tow from Charis grace it's it's a word that Paul seems to have invented it means to bestow grace or endow with grace or define favor the idea is that God has extended his favor or grace to us in Christ when the angel says to Mary highly favored one it serves as the basis for our acceptance why are we accepted because of Christ the word could literally be translated be graced now again what's hard is when you invent words in order to try and communicate a concept that seems to be entirely unknown in order for us to understand it let me use a different term in Satan we are slimed in Christ we are be graced what Satan touches is slimy what Jesus touches becomes Christ it reminds me there was a young mother she wrote quote I stayed with my parents for several days after the birth of our first child one afternoon I remarked to my mother that it was surprising our baby had dark hair since both my husband and I are fair she said well your daddy has black hair but mama that doesn't matter because I'm adopted with an embarrassed smile she said the most wonderful words I've ever heard I always forget we're blessed were chosen were adopted were accepted we are blessed in Christ were chosen in Christ adopted in Christ accepted in Christ when Matthew Henry was a small boy his father taught him this act of commitment quote I take God the Father to be my god I take God the Son to be my Savior I take God the Holy Spirit to be my Sanctifier I take the Word of God to be my rule I take the people of God to be my people and I do hereby dedicate and yield my whole self to the Lord and this I do deliberately freely and forever what's interesting is the father takes you in Christ the son takes you in himself the spirit takes you and sets you apart making you holy and blameless joined to a group of people brothers and sisters in spirit but this is all the fudge I can eat Heavenly Father we thank you for grace upon grace blessing upon blessing salvation justification forgiveness power to testify strength for spirit for service spirit of generosity sweetness to sing the ability to stand and strength when things aren't going exactly right in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary South Denver

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Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Gino Geraci, Christianity, Bible Study, Ephesians, Spiritual Blessings

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Length: 55min 55sec (3355 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2017