God’s Great Plan for Your Life

Sermon from cong readings in Eph 1-5, June 17, 2007 – bk@kluth.org

Our ministry theme this year is Reaching beyond generations & walls

1 - The great blessings

Eph 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

2 - The great moment

Eph 1:7,13 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

3 - The great relationship

Eph 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Eph 3:12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Eph 3:17-18, 20-21 I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory.

4 - The great escape

Eph 2:13 Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Eph 2:1-5, 8-9 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.

5 - The great partnership

Eph 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Eph 4:11-13,16 It was he who gave some to be (leaders in the church) to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ….From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

What is God prompting me to do in response to this message?

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