Exploring Ephesians - Grace and Peace

[Music] [Music] [Music] well good morning everyone and welcome to kings cliff church this morning you know this is our last weekend in winter unfortunately for some people who really enjoy winter that's not me that's i am not a winter person but one thing we are guaranteed of today it's a beautiful winter's day you'd have to agree depending on where you're watching us from though of course here in the beautiful northern new south wales um it's a beautiful day and i'm just so glad that you're able to join us here this morning um you could i would definitely say this morning that spring has definitely sprung but on my mind this week it's been something that brittany mentioned last week and that was it's really weird being sitting here in an empty church but what we do know is that it's not empty because you're joining with us um i wish that i could uh turn the cameras around and show you what it looks like in here uh because it's really it's really unusual for us uh but what we're imagining is that you're actually we're actually sitting or sitting in your home with you and chatting with you and that's what's sort of getting us in that moon that mode of connection with you so we hope that you're enjoying it we hope that you're enjoying being here with us this morning if i could uh go to the next slide unfortunately uh wouldn't it be good if we could if we could interact in that way in your lounge room all together like we would normally in church that would be what we would really want but today instead i'm sort of having to ask you different questions the questions i'd ask you is how are the covered restrictions affecting you you know what's what's it been like for you this week what's it been like for you in your workplace in your family life how is that affecting what you have done this week but you know i'm probably really going to be asking you today are you sitting on a lounge chair are you in your pjs even still because you're that comfortable and relaxed there or are you actually dressed ready for church and sitting there enjoying that with us i hope you took advantage this morning of our sabbath school times for the those of you who are able to join us on zoom for our sabbath school lessons then you might have had the adults who were able to join in on those sabbath school lessons and don't forget you would have had the opportunity to join with lynn for the kids sabbath school classes as well i would like to take this opportunity to thank the sabbath school teachers uh for making themselves available for for running those sabbath school lessons and if that made a difference for you then i'm glad you were able to join a lesson where you would normally not be able to during shutdown i have some announcements that we need to share with our church community and um it starts with our virtual choir last year we had our virtual choir and the song that was performed was the goodness of god now you would have met heard me last week say how widely received and well received that was and uh but i think we have an opportunity this year to do another one now if you didn't see our goodness of god video presentation from last year we're going to play it for you right now and it's going to come on in 3 2 1. but the lord the lord is good good and his unfailing failing love endures forever and his faithfulness faithfulness continues continues to each generation [Music] but that the truth of the true lyrics of your experience in your own life grace and place and peace to you [Music] i love you for your first day [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh will see of the goodness is every day [Music] oh i will see of the goodness of god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] you know it doesn't seem to matter how many times i watch that video it always gives me goosebumps it makes me emotional um and that's uh it's a sad fact for me that i wasn't involved in it last year but it's made me more determined than ever to be involved in it this year so i would ask you if you are interested in being involved in our virtual choir now this is not just members of kingscliff church if you want to be involved and you want to be part of what we are trying to do both online and with our church i would ask you to reach out when you can when it becomes available and linked with us and get involved with our virtual choir we really want to make that another really spectacular event this year and what i really want to uh stress with you is this is that it leads it leads me to what happens for me during the week and that is my bible study and my reading the word and prayer and i wanted to read something that came across my bible study this week and it was from psalm 43 and it says vindicate me o god and plead my cause against an ungodly nation rescue me from deceitful and wicked men you are god my stronghold why have you rejected me why must i go about in mourning oppressed by the enemy send forth your light and your truth let them guide me let them bring me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell then i will go to the altar of god to god my joy and my delight i will praise you with the harp o god my god why are you downcast o my soul why is so disturbed within me put your hope in god for i will yet praise him my savior and my god and you know that doubting doubting is actually a part of the human condition we all doubt but we need to overcome our doubts if you are dealing with doubt god is not your enemy let me say that again if you are in doubt god is not your enemy he is actually your very best friend jesus never expressed hostility toward those who doubted him faith comes from hearing god's word so turn your doubt towards god and trust him so as i was saying before don't miss out on our virtual choir for this year the new song is shane and shane psalm 90 and you can check it out after church not now after church we what we would really like to know is are you connected to kings cliff church we have a range of different ways that you can connect with us via our social media platforms youtube etc but news we have changed our website just recently to make it easier for you to connect with us to our mailing list the subscribe button is now at the very top of our website you'll be seeing an image right now on your screens and you can see right in the middle under the word grow you can see where you can connect to us through our church website don't forget to take advantage also of our weekly prayer meetings we do those via zoom during covert and you can connect with us on a wednesday evening between seven and eight pm or for you early birds this is too early for me but if you are one of those early birds that are getting up and have plenty of time in the morning then between 5 30 and 5 45 it's just 15 minutes it's just 15 minutes to set yourself up for the day you can join those zoom classes and you can have that prayer time where you can set up your day one other announcement about prayer is that we are actually offering a prayer trainer prayer leader training and that's going to be happening this coming friday night that's september 3rd at 7 pm so look out for that now last year we made the very difficult and painful decision to cancel the arise bible training program that was not done lightly we know that the ministry opportunities that have arisen out of that program have been widely recognized not only internationally but in our local community at king's cliff and from the people who have gone out from that program to minister in their home churches the impact is unmistakably grand so if that is you if you are keen to be involved in the arise 2022 program then i would ask you to check out our website google arise australia 2022 and you'll come up with something that resembles this graphic on their screen applications are open from september 1 so in less than a week you'll be able to link up with the arise program my daughter did this a number of years ago and it is life-changing many people will testify to to our rival organizers how much of a difference this has made to their lives so i would encourage you if you missed out last year don't miss out this year of in this nature is dependent on covert at the time so we ask that you engage with us and join with us on that unfortunately part of our church community is that from time to time we lose members from our church to another area or another zone through through movements caused by family or work this week it's a sad week for us where we lose bree and lyndon millest they've been a vibrant part of our kings cliff church community for a number of years now but they have made the decision to move back to perth for work for linden and for family support you know there's there are they are waiting on the very soon arrival of their first child in approximately eight weeks time so while we didn't get an opportunity to to farewell them like we would normally like to do here at kingscliff we will be doing a zoom meeting with them in the next couple of weeks hopefully in a remote location lyndon tells me that they will try and connect with us as they travel across the top end of australia so they're heading back to perth wa so we wish you lyndon and brie the safest journey as you journey back we will miss you terribly from our church community but we wish you safe travels as you journey back to be with family just one more announcement before we begin our worship um today and that is that just a spontaneous decision was to start a women's zoom bible study um i tried to message lots of people to go hey because it you know we kind of decided early on in the week and we ran our first one on tuesday night so we hadn't even had a chance yet to sort of put it through the e-news which it has come through now but i did send messages to a lot of people brit apparently i found out today so if i didn't personally message you i'm sorry i did my best with the numbers that i had we ran our first women's zoom bible study on tuesday night um and it was a beautiful blessing and we invite you to join us this coming tuesday night at 7 30 as we join um studying the book of galatians with open hearts we meet um speaking of galatians one you know we we went through verses one through to five in chapter one and verses three four and five say grace to you and peace from god the father and from our lord jesus christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our god and father to whom be the glory forever and ever amen what beautiful words to start any day with grace to you and peace they belong to us today and because of who jesus is and what he's done we can stand with praise and adoration and sing hosanna in the highest because grace and peace is ours because of who he is will you please worship along with us as we sing hosanna to our god [Music] so [Music] i see the king of glory coming on the clouds with fire the whole earth changes i see his love and mercy washing over all our sins the people see the [Music] in the highest [Music] i see a generation rising up to take their place with selfless faithless [Music] [Music] so and [Music] [Music] heal my heart and make open up my eyes to the have things me break my heart for what breaks yours as i walk from earth into eternity [Music] [Music] is [Music] you know we know our days here are numbered our days are numbered and there are going to be some days that feel really good some days and seasons where you're walking through a valley but whether it's on a mountaintop or in a valley christ is ours today and forevermore and so long as you're able to hold his hand and lean into his strength and his goodness latch onto and experience his grace and peace you can have a fullness of life today and all of your forevermores secure in the hand of christ who has done everything for are us that god has numbered i was made to walk with him yet i look for worldly treasure and forsake the king of kings but mine is [Music] his love is short for christ has paid for every failing i am his forevermore mine are tears in times of sorrow darkness not yet understood through the valley i must travel where i see no earthly good but mine is peace that flows from heaven and the strength in times of need i know my pain will not be wasted christ completes his work in me one with christ i will encounter harm and hatred for his name but mine is the golden shore [Music] found foreign treasure christ is mine forever [Music] fear is gone and hope is sure christ is my [Music] for forever love is gone and hope is sure christ is mine forevermore [Music] our hearts has found its treasure christ is mine forevermore [Music] christ is mine forever [Music] amen thanks for worshiping [Music] oh hi shane it's great to be back learning about the bible again isn't it oh today we have king's kid kyra with us hi kyra hi shane and andy hi kings kids it's really good to have you here today kara thanks how about we pray fast dear god please guide us thank you hey andy what text are we looking up today oh well shane today's reading is found in romans 1 16 and my version says i am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of god that brings salvation to everyone who believes what does your grandmother's version say shane well let me read it for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the jew first and also to the greek hmm what does your say karen mine says i am not ashamed of the good news it is god's power and it will save everyone who believes it is meant first for the jews it is also meant for those who aren't jews hey shane what does it mean to not be ashamed of the gospel well i think to be unashamed of the gospel means well the other day there were some kids saying bad things about jesus and and so i said you can't say that jesus is my friend and you're saying bad things about him so i stood up for him because i'm not ashamed of the gospel and i'm not ashamed of jesus that's great shane [Music] what about you andy oh well i'm a little ashamed because the other day some kids were taking god's name in vain with some bad language and i didn't say anything next time i'll stand up for god oh well that would be great because we've got to be unashamed of the gospel if we want everybody to know about jesus and how he loves us well andy would you like to say your prayer i can do that shane dear god thank you for your word help us to follow you amen amen amen well that's the end of our bible study for today and bye kyra bye kings kids bye shane bye bye shane and andy bye kings kids i'd like you to join us now for our offering time and offering this week goes to mamarafa college now depending on what you know or don't know about mamarafa college it is a post-secondary theological institution that is owned and operated by the seventh-day adventist church and it is primarily for indigenous australians let me just read you a little bit more information about it set in the beautiful bush surrounds of perth's orchard region mammarafa is a quiet and peaceful place where each year dozens of indigenous students connect with god and discover their how to share him with their family and communities in a culturally sensitive way mamarapha college graduates have impacted the lives of thousands of indigenous australians through lifestyle programs community service public evangelism and personal faith sharing initiatives your offerings today will go towards the funding of mamarapha college now you'll also notice on the bottom of your screen a banner with there's a qr code there that you can use with your smartphone if you want to scan that code and it'll take you straight to the e-giving website if not you can always just google kingscliff church e-giving and it'll get you to the same spot as well let's just have a prayer over our offering dear heavenly father we thank you for the opportunity that we have to give to give us we thank you that there are organizations like mamarapha college who can use the funds that we give to translate into evangelism and training opportunities lord we pray that you would impress our hearts through the holy spirit to give generously to this organization if you have the means to help today i pray that you would help to sponsor and the ongoing running of this organization i urge you to give freely lord use our the money that we give use the money that we give humbly for your service in this way and we ask all of this in jesus name amen [Music] i was quite away from jesus i never used to know about jesus much for some music is just a combination of sounds to listen to but for sunil music has a far greater value in his spiritual journey to know christ after losing his job due to an economic recession sunil coped with his situation by learning to play the guitar the recession came in pakistan and i was one of them when i lose my job and i when i lost my job so i used to need some entertainment so i started learning guitar so my guitar you know brought me to the church since music schools are rare and expensive in pakistan he decided to look for a free online music class his search led to an adventist music teacher this online music class started his discovery of so many different things about his life and god's purpose for him he guided me for one year he used to send me the music lessons and also he used to guide he used to guide me from the books of sister alan g white i thought that this faith is different than the other faith you know why these people are worshiping on saturday because the whole world is worshiping on sunday either they are true or they are totally wrong for a year sunil continued his online music classes and at the same time he learned about the bible sunil's guitar teacher realized that sunil is gifted with many skills the teacher had written a religious book that he wanted sunil to translate into the local language sunil was hesitant since he didn't have a background in theology and only a beginner's understanding of the bible i said sir i cannot translate how i can because i don't know even the basics of the bible i don't know about the bible even i don't know how many books in the bible but because of his teacher's persistence and the working of the holy spirit sunil found a way to have the book translated the translation took two months finally the book was completed and after three months it was ready to print after successfully distributing the book in his community sunil was then introduced to the adventist publishing ministries the qasid publishing house welcomed sunil and equipped him to become a literature evangelist even though sunil was not yet baptized he got deeply involved in the publishing ministry he made sure he read all the books that he was distributing and through that he grew to know more about christ sunil continued his passion for music and distributed books at the same time he was invited to hold concerts in churches after each concert he would distribute spirit of prophecy books to all attendees for free after having been involved with the publishing ministry sunil felt a desire in his heart to finally fulfill one thing he knew was lacking baptism and i just tell him sir now i am ready because now i have knew my faith and also after knewing it i am teaching the same fate to the others now it's the best time to get baptized the qasid publishing house was established in 1971 and has been printing millions of publications in the urdu language many have testified that through the materials printed in this institution people were drawn closer to jesus pray for sunil and other literature evangelists who are touched by the holy spirit and are doing amazing works wherever they are for the glory of god [Applause] [Music] it's so encouraging isn't it to see and to know that god is working and moving and ensuring that his beautiful name and gospel is spread throughout the world you know there's just little clips there little snippets but i've been finding this week really easy to be weighed down by the gravity of what's breaking my heart in the world you know the countdown in afghanistan loss and devastation sickness pain and god just trusts us our hearts should break as we look around the world and see suffering god asks us in this moment to be faithful to be his servants in his grace follow me by my grace child follow me that's the calling over our loves our lives today so that his mighty name in the gospel can be spread to all of the earth as we sing this next song let's not do it with an empty promise let's not make it an empty statement let's be faithful and true and by his grace follow our savior [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] me by thy grace [Music] trackless [Music] for me and the old men should forsake thee by thy grace [Music] me [Music] and rejoice to follow thee i will follow [Music] me by the race and i still will follow me i will fall for me and though all men should forsake thee by thy grace i will fall [Music] men should forsake thee by thy grace [Music] life is fragile it's a fact we're learning in real time every day what we once called normal has seemingly disappeared there's uncertainty in the air restlessness in our hearts things we once took for granted are becoming difficult to find our usual day-to-day has evolved into this odd chaos peace is becoming obsolete many have lost jobs security and those they love the pain is undeniable [Music] but what if our fragility caused us to lean harder into god what if in our weakness we chose to rely more on his strength would our outlook change with the peace that passes understanding begin to drown out the noise of this moment would we walk in a quiet confidence knowing our god is mighty to save [Music] we're not promised tomorrow but we are given a simple truth to stand on our god goes before us he will never leave us he will never forsake us yes life is fragile but in our weakness he is strong [Music] good morning once again and welcome to kings cliff online we we are so glad that you have joined us if you're a new person a new member from our church online community we want to welcome you we're excited that you've joined us if you're one of our local community members we're also so excited to have you join us online and i was wondering if in the comment section if you just want to type there where you're from maybe from king's club for the surrounding local area or maybe even internationally just type there where you're from we're so glad that you have joined us um for those of us that are in kingscliff or the northern rivers gold coast area um specifically the northern rivers area or new south wales we know that our lockdown has been extended for another two weeks so the good news is is that we're halfway through we've done two weeks and we have two weeks to go and this kind of reminds me a bit of a bit of training most of the people that know me know that i do a bit of triathlon training and one of the things that i hate about triathlons is actually the running the moment i just really dislike running and every time that i go running the first two kilometers is just the killer i just always constantly thinking to myself man why are you so dumb like why do you keep punishing yourself like this and then when i get over that hurdle then i'm like oh this is not too bad and then i get into a groove and i think if we can just keep that momentum that we're in a groove we're gonna get there the end is not too far um and so let's stay positive uh for the next few weeks for the next eight weeks actually we're to start a new series on the book of ephesians the book of ephesians which is the capstone of paul's theology it is his most mature work in terms of the gospel a lot of people movements of galatians but it's actually ephesians a very short book but definitely not a small book and so i'm going to invite you for the next eight weeks to enjoy and encourage you to come with us as we investigate and explore the book of ephesians and today what we will do is just kind of look at the first two verses and what is in store for us as we explore the book of ephesians so please as we go through this read study encourage you to go through the sermons that you already have something in your mind that you've already dug through scripture that you already have some questions so that it can mean something for you before we start let's just close our eyes for a prayer gracious father we come to you lord we want to say thank you that we can be here lord we pray for our community online we pray for our local community here lord all of us are going through various things in our lives lord and we pray that you will be with us currently we're in a pandemic currently our church is disrupted our fellowship is disrupted but lord we come to you and we pray that you would be with us during this difficult season lord we pray that as we investigate the book of ephesians the book that tells us so much about the gospel and about community and fellowship and what kind of identity we have in you lord that we would be able to not only understand it theologically but experience it existentially lord we pray for our members lord so that they can truly feel the fellowship of the holy spirit amongst them that they truly would understand the love of of jesus christ and of the father lord we pray now that your holy spirit the same spirit that inspired scripture will be the same spirit that illuminates scripture in our hearts and our minds that we would be able to understand the intent of paul as he is writing this letter from that prison in rome we pray this in the name of jesus christ our lord amen i want to introduce you today to a individual and her name is hetty greene mrs hetty green and she is understood by various people to be america or even the world's greatest miser she in the guinness world book of records is this is her title the world's greatest miser she was so shrewd with her money that she didn't like to spend money if she didn't have to she basically wore one dress and one undergarment and literally only changed it when she had to when there was nothing left of it and she had to kind of get something else she didn't have any hot water she refused to pay for for any gas or anything like that because she felt it was just a waste of money so she ate her oatmeal in the morning very cold she also didn't like to spend a lot of money on food so she generally just ate pies that were about 15 cents she went about sometimes walking exceptionally far to go buy cookies that are broken in bulk so she could have that kind of as a snack she was the person that would spend a lot of time finding the best bargains her frugality knew no bounds she actually didn't even have a house when she was an adult she moved from boarding house to boarding house because she refused to pay land tax or any tax to the government that that she didn't have to the height of her frugality was actually seen with her son her son had fallen and had hurt his leg and she kind of put a pulses on and helped him and eventually called the doctor to come and they realized that this poultice was helping or she thought it was helping at some point and then as the doctor came in a carriage she screamed and told people to tell him to not even get out of the carriage he just needs to leave the leg is fine well the leg wasn't fine and the son had some issues and she went to clinic after free clinic after free clinic trying to get help and if they figured that she had a bit of money they wanted some money and she said no his leg will be fine at the end of the day unfortunately he had to have his leg amputated mrs hetty green was what my wife would call a t-rex you know t-rex short arms didn't want to spend a lot of money on anything now some of you might think well that's not that kind of odd she was just frugal with her money she was just shrewd she didn't want to spend a lot of money well yeah true but in another sense it's not true you see she had a lot of money a lot of money into the point that when she died in 1916 she was the wealthiest woman in america she died having a fortune of a hundred million dollars in 1916. to if we had to calculate what it would be today would be something between two and four billion dollars she she grew up in the northeast of america and her father who was a great businessman left her a great fortune but while she was growing up uh her dad taught her a lot about how to work with money how to invest in all of these things she was actually called the witch of wall street and many people think that she was one of the greatest investors during the early 1900s because she was so sure she would invest in certain things and she was just one of the people that knew how to work with money the problem is is that she was so wealthy but she didn't want to use any of that money she was she was a person with immense wealth but lived as a pauper in many ways that is how many christians live their lives they live with this immense wealth that they have in christ but live in this world as purpose and that's basically what paul is doing in ephesians he's trying to get the people in ephesians to understand the great wealth that they have and not to live as christian purpose but to live as these adopted sons of god daughters of god and to live within this wealth that they have and that's basically what the book of ephesians is about right he paul is speaking to us about this idea that we can live in this great wealth of jesus the book of ephesians is one of the books that is extremely dedicated to explain the beauty of the gospel and what it means for the christian living in the life today john a mckay who was at one point the president of princeton university after he had been a missionary for many years became converted through the book of ephesians he was a young boy walking in the scottish highlands one evening and he had the book of ephesians and which is reading and reading through it and through the book of ephesians he met jesus and he got such a connection to jesus through the ephesians many many years later about 45 50 years later he was speaking about the book of ephesians and said that the book of ephesians is like doctrine put to music it is the most sublime and most beautiful and he has this quote where he says the book of ephesians is the consummate and most comprehensive statement of the christian religion the book of ephesians basically wants to ask and answer this question what does it mean to be in a christian be a christian in this world what does it mean and how should we live when we accept jesus as our lord and savior we've accepted the gospel how should we live in this world and that's what we're going to look at in the next eight weeks is investigate this kind of answer and so the book of ephesians just to give a big uh overview of the book of ephesians what does it mean how does it kind of structure itself we'll see that the book of ephesians is structured basically in two main sections the one starting in ephesians chapter one to chapter three and that's the first section and the last the second section is from chapter four to chapter six and it's connected with this word therefore so paul starts off and he explains in the first three chapters the kind of theology of what it means to be in god in jesus in christ and that's where we get the wealth he explains the great wealth that we have because we are now connected to god himself and then he gets to the point and he says therefore because of all of this because of this reality of that i have just outlined to you therefore you will now and then it gets into the practical section of that now you have to walk in this specific way and there's a specific warfare because we we are now fighting against principalities and powers that we cannot see and so we see the wealth in the first section and then the walk in the warfare in the second section we see that in the first section paul speaks about the position that we have in christ and the second section we see that he speaks about the practice we have because of christ so we see that the book of ephesians is not just a book of theology but it's actually a book that is deeply rooted in practical christianity christianity that we can take to the bank christianity that will be seen in the way that we live our lives we also see it in the kind of grammar the way that it is structured ephesians chapter one verse one verse 1 chapter 1 to chapter 3 is indicative it tells us and indicates a reality in our lives when you accept jesus when you have said accept the gospel there's an indicative reality that comes into play you'll have a certain belonging day there's a certain identity there there's certain things that is a reality because of your life and therefore because of this reality because of this indicativeness therefore it will become imperative to you for you to act or live in a specific way in other words paul is explaining in the first section what it means to be in christ in heaven like what is the reality that is beyond this earth what is the reality for the believer and then he shifts his his focus and the last two to say this is how you should live in this earth paul is aware that this world is antagonistic towards the christian and and he he is not unaware of the situation that the christian finds himself in paul writing this is the book of ephesians is writing this in prison he is writing various books is about for them that he writes from prison in rome colossians in ephesians he kind of writes together and so paul is in shackles he knows of the reality of the christian he had been through various missionary journeys he understands what it means to be beaten for the gospel he understands what it means to flee he understands what it means to not have paul understands the plight of the christian in this world he also understands of what the world is about ephesians was a great port city there were many people that lived here one of the greatest cities in asia minor and ephesians is one of the books that we probably know the most up about in the bible if you go to the book of revelation there's a letter written to the ephesians there as well we see great missionary journeys in the book of acts that surround ephesus paul spent most of his time in ephesus but this book this letter isn't just a letter written to the ephesian church because they had a problem or they had a situation a lot of scholars and commentators think today that the book of ephesians was actually written to a host of people in ephesians was the greatest church so they wrote the ephesus but in the earliest manuscripts the word ephesus is actually omitted so it's a circular letter to all christians and telling them this is what the gospel is this is a summary statement the greatest capstone of false theology after years and years of thinking and praying and sharing the gospel paul comes to the summary conclusion say this is what the gospel is and this is what it means to you so if you if you ever wondered what is the gospel and what does that mean to me man just stick with us because that's what we're going to investigate in the book of ephesians so paul starts off this letter with a general way of starting letters in the in the ancient time he says paul speaking about himself paul an apostle apostle means somebody that he sent paul an apostle of christ jesus by the will of god to the saints who are in ephesus and are the faithful in christ jesus now there's two words there that's quite interesting firstly the word saints and this the second word is the word faithful once again we see this in the structure of the book the first section speaks about the saints what it means to be a saint and the word saint basically just means somebody that is called apart somebody that is called to be holy the word holy comes from this idea set apart for specific use paul is not saying that these saints are people that are sinless people that have never committed sin and people that what no no he's saying people that are that are called by god for a specific purpose that's what the saints are and so what he does in the first three chapters is explain what sainthood means biblically what it means for the church to be the saints of god and then he says because you have all the saints because of your identity and belonging in christ therefore you will become faithful if you want to know what it means to be a faithful christian living in 2021 read the book of ephesus those chapters and see this is how we should live and paul continues he says grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ now this is a a interesting way to greet paul uses his quote frequently i think in seven of his letters he uses this a greeting grace and peace it is a play on words in a sense the word grace harris in the greek play is a plain word on the the word for hello in greek the word for hello in greek is the word so if you would walk into the store you would walk into the house or you'd walk in somewhere and you had to greet somebody you would say hello but paul plays on the woods then doesn't use the word but you just do it which means grace and then he uses the word simply the word peace the word shalom which would greet somebody in a from a hebrew culture he would say shalom and so he uses these two words or words that they would know in pop you know a popular vernacular somebody that they were words that they would use every day but somehow paul also knew of the theological significance of these two words grace and peace within scripture specifically within the covenant actually this is a priestly blessing we read in numbers this similar idea we see where the priestly blessing in numbers 6 says this the lord bless you and keep you the the priests are blessing the people of israel and he said they say the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace so when paul is speaking to his church and he's greeting them he's starting something then he says before i start i want to bless you with grace and peace because essentially the whole gospel can be summarized in those two words grace and peace and they follow in that order grace and peace so if somebody ever asks you what is the gospel about what is the good news about about grace and peace and paul speaks about that that's the whole book of of ephesians is basically built around those two words grace and peace the word grace comes from the hebrew idea of khana which means to bend down or to stoop and we see this constantly in the bible this idea of grace that stoops down read for instance in exodus chapter 34 that speaks about this idea and this close covenantal idea of grace it says the lord passed before him and proclaimed this is god's character uh being shown to the people god's talking about who he is and god saying this is what will happen he says the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious that's the word slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love the word the steadfast love is actually the word it's one word steadfast love is one word in the hebrew hasset and that word is sometimes translated as steadfast love sometimes sometimes it's translated as mercy it's translated in various ways but it's always connected to the idea of covenant the steadfast love that god has towards his people because he has made a covenant with him the idea of a covenant is when two people are getting into a commitment or committed relationship with each other and each of them have something that they will bring to the situation the first covenantal thing that we really see god entering into a covenant is with abraham where he steps into a covenant with abraham and how a covenant worked was where they would sacrifice an animal and cut it in half to indicate that if i break this covenant this is what will happen to me and they both parties would walk through the animal that was that was cut into pieces but when god does this when he says to abra abraham cut the animal it is not abraham that walks through but god that does everything god is saying to abraham and it is essentially later to israel and later to us that he will make sure that the covenant will always be kept he will be faithful to the covenant no matter what and so from the beginning from genesis chapter 3 where god gave the first promise of the sea that will come and the seed that eventually came through abraham that eventually became israel that eventually became jesus has always been the promise of the faithful covenant that will be rooted and grounded in this idea of grace we read further on it says he will he's the one that will keep the steadfast love for thousands forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin but who by no means clear the guilty donald barnhouse said that love that goes upward is worship love that goes outward is affection but love that stoops is grace one day in oxford university there were various professors discussing comparative religions and they were trying to figure out what is the unique thing of christianity what is the thing that stands out amongst all religions there's various things that that other religions have as well but what is the one thing and so they were debating and talking and c.s lewis came past and they said to c.s lewis who they knew as an apologist a good christian a writer and so if they said to him see us tell us what is the thing that stands out as the one unique thing to christianity and without even thinking out and he said grace grace you see all the other religions you have to do something earn something we'll come with your merits but in christianity you do not you come vile and broken and by the merits of christ you are saved and when we read the scriptures there is just grace on every page we just see how god comes and he is the one that seeks out adam and eve he is the one that that that seeks out abraham he is the one that looks after his children the israelites and takes them out of egypt looks after them for 40 years in the desert takes him to the promised land grace upon grace upon grace they keep rebelling he keeps sending prophets to warn them they keep doing stuff they keep breaking covenant he keeps reaching out to them and reaching out to them and reaching out to them to the point where he reaches out to them in his son jesus christ god himself garbed in humanity stepping down why because he's a god of grace the gospel can be summarized in these words grace and peace and that's the second word the idea of peace where paul says grace to you and peace from our father the lord jesus christ both of these things grace and peace only come from jesus you know what we generally think of peace we generally think that it is the absence of conflict at this moment we know of various places just yesterday i went on a website that shows you all of the the places where this conflict in the world man if you just go on that website and you look at all the wars that are going on in the world you will be shocked but one that is in the headlines today is this idea of afghanistan where the war that's been ravaging there for you know i don't even know how many years america has been there for 20 years but you know war has been ravaging there for so long and what we think of if we this week with the bombings and all of these things we think to ourselves man if peace can just come to afghanistan if you could just come to that territory but what we think of peace is when we say just drop your weapons down just put all of those things and then that's peace but that's not biblical peace biblical peace goes beyond that biblical peace is the is a more robust idea where the there's not just absence of conflict but there's the presence of something much better wholeness and the bible actually teases this out in the way that the word shalom is used in the bible we see for instance in joshua chapter 31 the idea of the root word for shalom they is used in this verse where it says in an altar of our uncut stone that word gives us the idea that shalom or the root word for shalom is this idea of completeness uncut stone something that doesn't have defects in it something that doesn't have cracks in it something that isn't broken and needed to be fixed is this idea of completeness or wholeness job 5 gives us ideas while of the word shalom where he says and you shall know that your tent is at peace how will you know and you shall inspect it and your fold and miss nothing it's like a sheep heard a seeing all the sheep are there not one missing it's this idea i'm a person that loves stuff ordered and neat and in their place and so one thing that i love to do is go through everything in the house and put everything in their place and clean everything so shalom is when i have done all of those things i've gone through all my books and paperwork and and all my gear for everything and put everything in place and everything nowhere knows where it is and everything is clean and everything is fine and everything is good and i sit down and i shalom is not just the absence of peace but this idea of wholeness we once again see this in the old testament where it says if the stolen beast is found alive in his positions whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep he shall pay double it gives this idea of how shalom is not something that just one person does but we're a community come together and also can work towards shalom this idea of this verse says that the one person has lost something or has done something to another person into to fix the shalom between them that he goes and he pays brings this wholeness of relationship the wholeness that was that was brought about by something that was that was left out or removed so shalom is not merely the cessation of fighting but to work together to create wholeness and completeness jesus this does this and paul knew this he already wrote about this in romans chapter 5 which was written way before ephesians he says therefore since we have been justified by faith we have the peace with god through our lord jesus christ he says because of the justification because of the grace that we have received because we are justified through grace now we have peace with god in colossians he says this colossians and at the same time um as ephesians he writes this he says for in him in god all the fullness of god jesus sorry all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell for through through him to reconcile to himself all things to bring shalom to all things to the earth and to the animals and to the human beings and all of these things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of the cross and once again we see that peace is connected to this isis connected to covenant so peace was connected to it as well ezekiel prophesying about the second or the new covenant he speaks about this idea and he says i will make a covenant of peace with them it shall be an everlasting covenant with them and i will sit in their land and multiply them and i will set my sanctuary in the midst forevermore my dwelling place shall be with them and i will be their god and they will be my people and white has this beautiful way of how she puts these two ideas together grace and peace she says the sin has destroyed our peace you see when we're looking for peace peace is not just world peace where the countries and the governments and the nations are fighting to against each other or tribes fighting against each other or political instability but they can also be a broken shalom within us she says sin has destroyed our peace our peace with ourselves and our peace with other people while self is unsubdued we can find no rest i'm asking you today are you struggling to find shalom in your life do you have this unrest constantly in your soul because of things that you've done because the things that you've done against god or other people this sin that's unsubdued this restlessness the masterful passions of the heart no human power can control you've tried you've tried to control control your human passions you've tried to subdue it you've tried to bring peace in your life and peace in your community but somehow you just struggle we are as helpless here as we as with the disciples to control the raging storm she talks about this idea that when the disciples were in a boat and there was this massive storm they were trying everything they were dropping you know stuff from the boats and they were trying to harness the wind and they were trying to but nothing helped the storm kept but he who spoke peace to the belows of galilee has spoken the word of peace for every soul however fierce the tempest these who turn to jesus with the cry lord save us will find deliverance his grace which reconciles the soul to god quiets the strife of human passion and in his love the heart is at rest here we see she understood the consequence of these two working together you cannot have peace without grace and then when you have grace you will have peace when you understand the grace of jesus when you understand the gospel of god when you accept it not just only by mental ascent by existentially experiencing throwing yourself to god and saying lord i want you to to to to come into my life i want to experience that grace that unmerited favor your sanctification and justification then you will start to experience peace and that's what the book of ephesians is about that is what he is talking about throughout the whole book in various ways he basically just teases out the kind of grace and the kind of piece what it means for us there's a story of karen blixen she is an author danis i think she was danish author and she wrote under the name ivan and i forgot his surname now but she she wrote the book or she wrote various stories and one of the stories that she wrote was babette's feast who became a cult classic very quickly and actually made a movie about it in the 1980s and the story is quite interesting it's about this uh in the book it's norwegian but in the movie it's a danish a small little village a port village very very small kind of a poor and impoverished grimy and in this small little fishing village there was a small lutheran sect that was led by a dean and this dean was a widower and he had two beautiful daughters martine and philippa martine was named after martin luther and philippa was named after martin luther's disciple philip melangton and this dean led his austere lutheran sect with an iron fist all the little bit of of great things and good things that they could enjoy he removed they all wore black they lived a very austere life they only ate cod with a bit a bit of a bit of porridge and um they they just lived very impoverished life for many years they would come together and they would worship on the sabbath day they would sing about jerusalem and go into the beautiful city a lot laden with gold and great pills and the great pleasures that they would enjoy there but they knew that they would not enjoy or indulge in the pleasures of this earth they were looking forward to heaven when philippa and martine who were the most beautiful daughters that you have ever seen people from the village just came to church to see them and and these girls tried to suppress their good looks as much as they could but it didn't do much because they were that beautiful one day when they were in the teens uh and young adulthood there was a man that came a cavalry soldier that came to visit one day and he was just smitten with martin he tried everything that he could to to to get her to marry him he tried everything but she felt no who's gonna look after her aging father she cannot do that and quickly went to her father and said please write him a letter that i don't want anything to do with him the father eventually wrote the letter sent it to him and dejected this cavalry soldier left at the same time there was a great uh um musician that had joined and joined this community for a short while for health reasons and he was known in in france as one of the greatest uh conductors and and uh musicians in in the french communities and he heard philippa sing not only was she exceptionally beautiful but she had the most beautiful voice a voice of a nightingale and he heard her and he came to and he said please please i will do anything just let me teach you how to sing properly if i can teach you to sing properly i can guarantee that the world will be open to you royalty will play good money and stand in long queues just to meet you any place will open their doors for you to come and sing they please let me teach you to sing properly and so hesitantly she said yes and she went for a few lessons but as she was learning these new songs about romance it kindled fires in her and emotions in her that she didn't feel appropriate and one time she was caught in embrace with him and she realized this is not what her dad would be happy about and soon she also left and said to him i i don't want to have any lessons anymore and he too dejected left the village the father not too long after that died and about 15 years later we pick up the story of martine and philippa still in this small grubby little village father had died and they had tried with all their might to keep the community together this small lutheran austere sect but unfortunately it had splintered people were angry about each other one man had done business dealings with another man and there was conflict between them and he says that the man had stolen something so they haven't spoken in a while there's been rumors of a sex affair between some of the members and so that had brought a split two of the ladies had a fallout and they weren't talking to each other and so a lot of people were there but they didn't come to church anymore but every sabbath they still met the songs had lost its luster but they kept on singing these two spinsters still single trying to keep everything together were struggling one night a great storm hit the small little village it was raining everywhere and then they heard a thud at the door martine and philippa ran to the door open the door and just as they opened this door this lady almost fell into their arms she couldn't speak danish but she had a note and she took out the note and gave it to her gave it to philip and philippa opened it up and she saw the name on there was the man that had taught her gave her some lessons somebody she had some romantic feelings for with shaking hands and heart palpitating she opened the litter and the letter said this is babette the bet comes from france where civil war had broken out her husband and children have been killed and she uh she she had fled and she was sent by this uh man to come to this little village and he said to her that she in the letter that she doesn't have any money but she will work and she will do anything through gestures and kind of trying to communicate this lady said that i will do anything i will cook i am a good cook i was a cook in france but they felt a bit uh hesitant to bring this lady in and hesitant to to uh um you know let her cook i mean the french eat all kind of weird things don't they eat horses and frogs and all of these things no no no we are happy with our cod and our little porridge but they said yes and eventually she helped around the house did some chores and eventually she took over all the chores of the house worked diligently for 12 years she worked diligently did what they called it to do never asked one thing she even became that participated in the church service she was a blessing to the community 12 years later she she received a letter and she received this letter open it up and as she was reading the letter philippa and martine came in she saw the letter or that she saw that they saw that she was reading the letter and said to her but what what is that and she communicated that a friend of hers kept on renewing her lottery ticket for years and years constantly updated it and this year she won 10 000 francs and suddenly philippa and martine they started to realize she's probably going to leave she has become such a part of our community we are we love her so much but this is her ticket out this is what she's going to do and and so they said hesitantly to her what are you going to do will you probably go home during this time they were also preparing for the 100th year celebration of their father's birthday they were said leader and so babette actually said to them you know i would love for me to give you a feast cook you a proper french meal they were first a bit hesitant and she said you know what i have never asked you for anything i have been serving you for 12 years i have never asked for something can i please do this and they said yeah well that's true you have never asked for anything you have been diligently serving us sure why not so went to the church and said to the church she is going to cook us a feast don't say anything don't complain don't just just come and so for a few days babette went away to organize for the feast she came back and not long after she came back eventually all the various types of boats started to dock all these weird and wonderful things animals that they've never seen and vegetables they've never heard of and various things that they have never experienced first they were shocked and first they were alone but eventually they said well let's give her a chance let's hear her out and eventually the night came december 15th the day of celebration snow was falling all over the small little village the moon was glistening over the white snow the bed had gone and had scrounged around and found all the china that she could eventually they were sitting there all the church members were there with a few extra guests a general that came the same general was the was the young army man that was in love with martine he had come he had married but he had come again to visit and he was there as well well-known in the army he had traveled all over the world and he was excited to be there and eventually they started to to to give them all of the things the drinks started to flow and the food started to come in and everybody was quiet this was new to them a new experience they didn't understand it different hors d'oeuvres and different soups but only person that was speaking was this general he was tasting oh this is delicious is this turtle soup i've had turtle soup like this but not this good this is phenomenal the drinks he would say oh this was this year's type of wine and he would recall all the good things and say i can remember in france i used to eat this and drink this eventually it came to the main meal baby quails and he ate with such delight everybody at this point were talking to each other and discussing things the the two businessmen started to speak to each other as the evening war worn on and as they started to become more relaxed they started to to speak to each other and there was reparations made shalom came between them the two ladies that were angry with each other spoke to each other and they too started to speak and and forgive each other eventually you could see the community coming together enjoying each other eventually they started to remember the good times remember the deen in the way that he led as they were talking the one person burped by accident and somebody said hallelujah they all started laughing and when they were eating the main meal the the general said oh i've eaten this before i can remember i can remember this was from a famous cafe in france we which was renowned for the female cook ah this was the best i i thought i'd never eat this again and so the meal ended and the story ends with these two scenes the one scene of the the whole church family or congregation or community outside walking together hand in hand laughing and enjoying each other's company and then the last scene of the bet sitting in the kitchen all wrecked cans all over the place boxes all over the place dirty dishes all over the place hey disheveled she said staring out into the distance nobody else had said anything about the meal as they had promised and so martine and philippa comes to babette and they say to her it was a great meal a bit thank you so much when will you be going home and she said i won't be going home and they said what do you mean what do you mean you won't be going home she says i don't have any money to go home anymore what do you mean you don't have money what about the 10 000 francs no i used all of this for this feast shocked that she had used all of her money for this one fee she said you shouldn't be shot this is what it would have cost for a family of 12 to eat at the famous restaurant that i was the head chef i had poured everything out for this community you see that is what grace is pouring out everything to bring shalom revelation speaks about the marriage feast of the lamb we will get together and experience true shalom without any sin we will come together and experience the richness of christ uninhibited by sin but paul writes in ephesians that though we are in this earth still still still struggling with sin around us still in the warfare with principalities and powers that we do not see we can still hold on and experience the great wealth we have in christ we can experience the grace that we have and the shalom that we have because of that grace you the story of the best feast is but a story of grace of one person giving everything for the community to experience shalom but you see that is just a story a fictional story made up by one lady but the story of jesus is not fictional the story of jesus on the cross the story of jesus resurrected the story of jesus alive and well today is not just a story but reality in our lives and it can be a reality in your life are you experiencing brokenness in shalom are you experiencing this idea of unrest we see the world is at unrest we see everywhere we go people are struggling and and they're wondering what's going on let me tell you that the war in afghanistan and all the other places will never come to a halt without jesus this wall will never be set right without jesus you're unrest and your your feelings of discontentment will never come to complete shalom to complete peace without jesus he is the only one that can bring that together he is the only one that can fulfill that and even even in this world where there's still stuff happening around us he can give us a peace that passes all understanding and so as we start our journey in ephesians i want to invite you to join us i want you to invite you to join us to open your bible to go to the scriptures yourself read it up go to it and say lord i want to experience this grace i want to sit at that feast not in babette's feast but at the feast of the lamb i want to understand who you are and i want to know what it means for me to be a christian i want to experience the priestly blessing of paul when he says grace and peace to you from our lord jesus christ and god the father i don't just want to understand that god i want to feel it i want to experience it i want to know you i want to know you that is your desire if that is something that you want i'm going to invite you to join us for the next eight weeks to join us as we delve into the scripture if you have questions about ephesians if you have things that you don't understand contact us reach out to us we want you to experience and know the peace that comes from jesus christ and the grace that comes from his love and great covenant with us let's pray together gracious father we come to you lord and we say thank you thank you for your grace lord thank you for your peace that you bring and only you can bring you are the king of peace the king of righteousness lord the one that can save us the only one that can save us the only one that can reconcile this world lord a world that is desperately broken because it is filled with people that are broken and lord the only remedy is you we have see sought and we have tried and we have done everything but lord the more we as humans try the more we just mess it up and so i pray for each person watching this now lord that they would make a commitment to say yes lord i want to follow you i want to experience this christ maybe i don't fully understand it maybe maybe there are some that are saying i'm tentative i'm hesitant i'm not sure lord maybe be open to at least listen to the gospel message of paul as he explains it in ephesians and as we do as we open the scriptures as we read the verses lord may we understand and know of the great wealth that we have that we won't live as paupers in this world but as kings and queens as you as or as as you have ordained us bless us now in jesus name amen it is our uh custom at king's cliff at the end of her service if you would like to speak to a quentin or one of our other pastoral team or one of the elders maybe this sermon has sparked something inside of you that you would like to talk about or discuss or ask for prayer over we would ask that you engage with us via our online platforms you'll find on our e-news all of the contact details for our pastors and our elders reach out to them there's phone and email and if you're wanting for prayer reach out to that team and they'll can put you in touch with someone who can help you out with that we thank you for joining us today at kingscliff church we pray that your the rest of your weekend is a glorious time time spent with your family that the remainder of the sabbath is beautiful as well as you progress into the week to come we hope that you'll tune in with us again next week as we do church together good night afternoon

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Id: 8-Y-GJzGd4Y

Length: 93min 13sec (5593 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021