Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's jump in first, So if you have your Bible,
because we're going to share some things. If you are
here this weekend, we shared with you guys that for
the next six weeks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We are going in depth into the Book of Ephesians.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
This is the next six weeks that you want to
join us if you want to grow deeper specifically in
your word now here in our ministry, we do really
a multiplicity of styles of preaching. We do what's called topical,
which is important because every person in their life is
dealing with different things.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we like to talk about topics.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We like to talk about theological topics like the Holy Spirit,
like God's Word, like redemption. We like to talk about
topics like family. We like to talk about topics like finances.
And then there's other times where we want to do
something that would be more like into expository preaching or
exposing the scriptures as best as we can and really
(00:57):
just diving into the verses by themselves without the topic
at hand. The verse will drive the topic for us,
and that's really what we're gonna do the next six
weeks is we're gonna walk out of here as best
as we can now if we literally took it verse
by verse by verse, we would be in the Book
of Ephesians for the next six years, you know. So
that's what you could do in the Bible. And so
(01:18):
we're going to best we can each week kind of
summarize chapter by chapter by chapter. So there's six chapters
in Ephesians, and those are the six chapters we're gonna
look at. And so I get the opportunity that I
really get to introduce both the thought of Ephesians and
also the first passages of Ephesians chapter one. So this
is definitely a series as best as possible, that you
(01:40):
want to take notes in, and it's definitely best as
possible that you come with a thinking cap on, okay,
because this is one that's gonna cause you to stretch
a little bit. You may end up leaving these services
with a lot of words that you want to google,
or a lot of phrases that you want to google,
and depending on whoever's on the preaching team for that week,
(02:01):
that may determine what sparks your interest. But I'll tell
you this today, we're gonna try to handle a lot.
So if you would do me a favor, if you
would turn to Ephesians Chapter one. I really think by
the end of this whole series, when you walk away,
you're gonna have a deeper understanding of both God's word
but also who Jesus is to you, because that's what Ephesians.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Is all about. So when we look at the Book
of Ephesians, you can hold your finger there.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
First, I'm going to introduce really what this book is
about and why are we addressing it. Why did the
apostle Paul write the letter to the Ephesian Church, Because
a lot of times in the New Testament, these books
are written to either the person that it's named that
it's written to, so you have first Timothy and Jude
and all these other things, these are the letters that
(02:45):
were written to those individuals, or a lot of times
the apostle Paul predominantly he would be writing a letter
to a specific church in a specific city. And so
that's what we come across in the Book of Ephesians
is this is a letter written to a city named
Ephesus that's in modern day Turkey today, and so that
(03:06):
would have been a massive, massive trades port for all
of Asia minors.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So this was a huge trade port. This was a
letter that was written.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
If you have any curiosity at all, if you want
to know when the Ephesian church was planted, you can
read Acts chapter nineteen.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That's when the apostle Paul plants the church.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He spends two years in Ephesus, training people, grooming people,
preaching the gospel, telling them everything about Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
He would have the Old.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Testament back then, he didn't have a Bible like us.
He would have had, you know, he would have had paper,
but it would have been paper of the Old Testament,
all the predominant books of the Old Testament, so Genesis, Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus.
And he would teach those scriptures and correlate them to
the life and ministry of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And how these.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Scriptures correlate to the gospel and the salvation work of
Jesus Christ. And then today we have those letters by
those apostles that have now been summarized and canonized and
given into his Bible today. And so these were the
people who walked with Jesus, saw Jesus, and were sent
off by Jesus. So we have the Book of Ephesians,
(04:16):
and we have a letter that was written to Ephesus.
Here's what you have to know first about f Ephesus.
Before Paul ever stepped foot on the city of Ephesus,
this was one of the most famous cities in the world,
famous cities in the world. This city had one of
the seven Wonders of the World, so now existing these
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would be part of.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
The old seven Wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
At the time, no one really even knew about the
Pyramids of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
They would have been counted in those.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So today the Great Pyramids for us are one of
the seven Wonders of the world. Stonehenge in the UK
is one of the seven Wonders of the World today,
But back then there were seven wonders of the world,
and Ephesians, or the place of Ephesus, had one of
the seven wonders.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, what was the seven wonders?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It was a temple dedicated to the god of Artemis,
which was a female god. She also known as the
god of Diane, so this was a Greek god, and
they had this cathedral that was built in her name
and honor. You could see the picture this is literally
what it looked like. This was magnificent. It was also
(05:34):
the largest bank in all of Asia.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Minor housed here at this temple of worship.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And so this was to a Greek goddess who was
the goddess of sex, the goddess of fertility, the goddess
of protection. She was quote unquote in their mythology one
of the daughters, but the main daughter to Zeus himself,
and she held in their eyes a lot of power.
And in Ephesis particularly, people would come all around the world.
(06:06):
It was one of the most visited destinations in the world.
You know, in America we have three top visited destinations
in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Number one, the first.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Destination that's visited in New York and it's also the
number one destination visited in the world is Times Square
with fifty million people that visit it every single year.
That's a lot of people. Next up, the number two
most visited place in the world happens to also be
in America as well.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's Las Vegas, which gets.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Forty two million people a year visiting Las Vegas. You
see if those say and the list goes on and
on and on and visit other places. Now comes certain
places in China and other places in other areas. But
when you think of Ephesus, that would be the modern
day Times Square, that would be the modern day Las Vegas.
(07:01):
It would particularly more so be the modern day Las
Vegas because Artemis, she was the queen or the god
of sex, and so in this entire city, it was
a very feminine city. It was a very female led series,
and so roles in that city were often it was reversed,
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so the women were the priests. Here's what someone said
regarding the culture of this temple, and this is where
Paul goes to step in and preach the gospel. The
most religious place in their whole known world is to
worship a woman who's a goddess, and who's the goddess of.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Sex and fertility.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And so it was said in the temple you could
walk in and there would be hundreds of eunique priests,
so priests with their private parts that were cut off.
And then there were hundreds of virgin priestesses that at
a certain time and location they would have their virginity taken.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
As a worship to ours.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And so a man who'd be chosen to be able
to get her virginity was seen as a high level
of society. And then there were religious prostitutes served to her.
So if you wanted to worship Artemis. You could pay
a prostitute. You could give a tithe to the temple
and take a religious prostitute. You could sleep with her,
and in sleeping with her, that would be worship to
(08:24):
the goddess Artemis. And so what would happen is is
in this space there is women who was predominantly led.
The women controlled the temple, the women controlled all the teachings,
the women controlled their worship space. They were adorned with jewelry,
and they were full of sexuality. So I want you
(08:46):
to think about this for a moment because it's important
to know that Ephesus is also the place where First
and Seigo Timothy was written towards Timothy was a pastor
in Ephesus. So you got to keep that in mind
because there's another relarge emerging movement in the Body of
Christ that says women cannot have a platform to preach
the Gospel on any stage or platform because.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Of one verse in Firs Timothy.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, but what you have to remember is Paul is
writing to Timothy, who pastors in Ephesus, where women are
abusing their authority in the Temple of Artemis. And so
he's speaking to Timothy to address some things in that church.
That's why even in that passage he says, tell the
(09:32):
women of your church that they cannot wear the jewelry
and they have to dress modestly. That wasn't a rule
of thumb to say you cannot have a Louis Baton
bag for the rest of your life. It was to
say that in their worship experience, adornments and jewelry were
part of their worship and part of their gloating, and
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it was a part of their culture in worship to Artemis.
And so therefore he addressed that environment, and he spoke
to that environment. And we'll speak more to that stuff
later on, but that's important to note of what's happening,
because now the apostle Paul steps on the map, and
(10:15):
according to Ax nineteen, he preaches the gospel. The gospel
spreads like wildfire in Ephesus, so much so that at
the end of Acts nineteen he's there for two years,
within about a year year and a half and towards
the end of his ministry over there. Because now he
established Timothy, and he established Apollos and a few others.
(10:35):
Because that's what Paul did. Paul wasn't a pastor. He
was a church planner. He planted churches, he made pastors,
he taught pastors, and then he left, he went and
planted more churches.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He was Apostolic, and so that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So what happens is towards the end, because it's one
of the most visited places in the world, where do
you think the majority of their economics is tied to, Well,
it's tied towards worshiping that woman, the Goddess, and so
her figure, her mold her. And so what happened is
is their economy was little figurines of Artemis.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It was little gold medallions of Artemis.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It was little sacrifices to Artemis. So as Paul is
converting this city, guess what happens. No one's buying figurines anymore.
No one's buying the little coins anymore. People aren't going
to the temple as much anymore, people aren't having sex
with the prostitutes for worship anymore. Why Because they're now becoming,
(11:37):
according to X nineteen, spirit filled believers who are being
taught by God, who are going, oh, we're in the world,
but we're not of this world. Okay, So what happens
is is Paul writes a letter to Ephesians to create
what we would call a new God culture, a godly culture,
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because this is known as one of the swaying cultures
of the world.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I mean, if there was.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
A line to cross, they were like ten feet past
that in every way everything that we always turn the
news on and we go, oh my gosh, where's this
world headed?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Like they were there. They weren't headed. They have arrived.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So when you watch the news and you go, oh
my gosh, I can't imagine my kids being raised in
this like they were raised in Ephesis that way.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And so what Paul.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Does is he write Ephesians say say, hey, I know
y'all know how to live that Las Vegas culture, but
y'all don't know how to live that God culture. And
so this whole book six chapters is all about teaching
us what God's culture looks like and what the doctrines
of salvation are because you're talking about people who were
(12:55):
still struggling with the habits of their past. So yes,
they were being saved and they were coming into the
Ephesian Church, but they were bringing their baggage with them.
So a lot of times, these letters that are written
in first and two Timothy and other areas, and even
first and second Corinthians, which addresses some of these things too,
because it's the same Greek culture. So what happens is
(13:16):
these letters are written to say, I know you guys
are saved in church, but some of y'all are just
cutting up a little bit too much, and some of
y'all are taking a little bit too much of the
world with you into church on Sunday. And so he's like,
I need to re establish a new culture, and I
need to teach you the word of God so that
you understand what God's Word says about both your life
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and also the atmosphere and the people you surround yourself
with as Christians. So he speaks to that. So today
we're going to go as much as we can. We
had to introduce Ephesians and Ephesis. So in the future,
as we go through the chapters, if you join us
for the next six weeks, just keep that in your
memory as we're hearing each sermonage week of what this
(14:00):
culture looked like and what this culture was, because it's
really important in Paul identifying what we are as believers
and how we're we're supposed to stand out and not
blend in into culture and society.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So here's the first part.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Here's the foundation, which once again goes into some controversial things.
But we're digging in the word, and you got to
talk about those things when you're doing these type of messages.
So check this out. And Ephesians chapter one read with
me a little bit. It's gonna We're just gonna read
one to fourteen. The rest of the chapter is more
of like acknowledgments. I encourage you to read that after service.
This is the meat of the chapter right here, one
(14:37):
to fourteen. I'm gonna read it. We're gonna dig right
in it. Says this in Ephesians chapter one, Verse one
Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of
God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are
faithful in Christ. Jesus, Grace to you and peace from
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our Godfather and the li Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Blessed be the God of Best, be the God.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places,
even as He chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to
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himselves as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose
of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace
with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him,
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of his grace, which he lavishly
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lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known
to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose,
which he set forth what in Jesus Christ as a
plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things
in him. Jesus unites all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth. In Him.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We have obtained an inheritance, having been.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Predestined according to the purpose of Him who all works
according to the counsel of his will, so that we,
who were the first to hope in Christ, might be
to the praise of His glory in him. You also,
when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of
your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the
promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance
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until we acquire possession of it to the praise of
His glory.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So here we go.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
We can continue and honestly, I can read that nine
times over and some of that still will go over
a lot of our heads.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And that's okay. This is deep stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Is when you really just sit in these passages, you're
like man Paul's using a lot of fancy words. He's
using a lot of big terminology. So we're gonna try
to break some of this down as best as possible.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The first thing to note that's really important.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
It really wasn't I mean, it was up for conversation
for the first thousand years of Christianity, but it wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Big of a conversation.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
But in the past five hundred years there's this theology,
this terminology of two team sides, which which I don't
really like either team. I don't like being identified in
any team. But there's a term called Calvinism and Armeniism.
In a moment, if you go to Bible school, that's
fought about all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Calvinism and Armenism.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's theological ideas concerning salvation in Jesus one basically reads
Ephesians chapter one, when we saw a lot of words.
I don't know if you guys noticed, there were a
lot of words about predestination and he fore knew us
and all.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
These things like that.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, there's one side of things that says, hey, he
basically predestined the individual person to be saved before the
foundation of the earth. Now if you adopt to that, yeah,
and again I'm saying, you can walk away here thinking
either one of them. You still can get saved thinking
either one of these things. Okay, because there's verses for
both sides, But basically that first side says, Okay, there's
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things about being predestined for adoption. Then there's other things
in here about he for knew us before the foundation
of the world. So they say, okay, he predestined for
salvation the individual to go to Heaven.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, the moment.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
And I'll tell you this, I've been on both sides
of the fence of my life. I was trained at
a Pentecostal school and a reform school, so I was
on both sides at one time in my life, really
on on either side. Because I just think we should
just preach the gospel of Jesus and that's enough to
save a person. But that's where I found myself at.
But we got to talk about it here because it's
enough that we have to dress for a moment. So
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there's a first group that says, that's what this says
is before the foundation of the earth, God decided to
save you at some point in your life.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, there's two implications that come with that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Number One then that says he also predestined those that
were gonna go to hell and not get to get saved.
So there's a bit of a dilemma in that statement.
There's also then a dilemma in the statement of then
where does your free will come into play with God?
Because then you know some people will take it far
deep to say.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh, then if there was a certain.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Time he knew I was gonna be saved, and that
means all the sin I did and all this like
he was kind of cool with as long as he
just knew that there'd be a day that he was
gonna save me. So it's got its own dangers in
that sense. Then there's the side this that this would
be more like in where our church lands on. And
you'll notice every time that predestination is mentioned. Every single
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time foe knowledge is mentioned. It also follows up and
it says in Christ or through Christ. So what we
would interpret this as is to say that before the
foundation of the earth, God, through his Trinity, the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, decided that the way they were going
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to save humanity was through the death and resurrection of Jesus,
and the way that he was gonna bring his people
into adoption is by those who, by their free will
chose to follow Jesus, because Jesus was the foundation and
he was the one who was chosen to save the world,
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and it's in being following him you are then receiving
the adoption into salvation through Jesus Christ, who's been there
since the beginning. Okay, So either way, you could walk
away from either of these two things and say no.
I liked what pastors Adam said about the first one
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because I'm one of those people that I wanted to
be the prom Queen and I wanted to be the
prom king, and so I wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Chosen by all my classmates.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
So I liked the idea that God in heaven it's like, no, Adam,
I want him. That may make more sense to you,
or you may say no, I like the idea that
that makes a lot of sense with a lot of
the junk I've seen in the world and a lot
of the sinfulness I've seen in the world, that those
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people definitely chose their sin. And I also more am
liken to think that as God came to convert my heart,
that I made a decision to follow him, He didn't
force my hand on that nature. Now, now, either way,
you really wouldn't be wrong on either side. We'd only
be wrong the moment we showed up into heaven and
God told us what the answer was, because.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
His verses on both sides.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
But here's the important part that for the next thirteen minutes,
this is what we're gonna sit on. No matter what
side you sit on. There's three realities we see in
these scriptures. These are the ones that we're gonna break
down today. So if you're taking notes, you're gonna write
three statements down. Starting with the first statement, we're gonna
break down. It's this, Salvation in Christ is found in adoption.
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Salvation in Christ is found in adoption. No matter what
side of the isle that you sit on, we all
understand and know that we must be adopted into the
family of God in order that we can truly be
saved and have our sins forgiven. What does it say, Well,
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here's the verse in Ephesians one to five. It says
this he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons.
What through Jesus Christ. So how did he predestine us
as it through adoption? Well, through Jesus and according to
the purpose of his will, to the praise of His
glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.
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You see, this is absolutely critical when it comes to
a relationship with Jesus Christ. Adoption into the Family of
God is the utmost importance. Being grafted into the family
of God is necessary in order to have the inheritance.
Because if you remember that God made a plan through
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Abraham to bless the people of Israel. Well, Jesus became
the fulfillment of that blessing. But what happens is in order,
because it was promised to Israel, not to any of us.
I'm Mexican, Spanish and white. So when I read the
Old Testament, I don't see anywhere about Mexico named in there.
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I don't see anywhere about Spain and name there and
wherever all the white people are from.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Right, there's a lot of places I.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Don't see anywhere that that's mentioned too. Even though all
the pictures are white, Jesus is not. So there's nowhere
in there. So when I look at the Old Testament,
I say, oh, all these promises are to Israel. How
do I get those promises? How do I attain that inheritance?
How do I become adopted into that promise and that plan? Well,
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it's important because descripture here in verse five tells us
that the way you can be adopted into the Family
of God is through Jesus Christ, whom he predestined to
be the one to adopt you. I don't know if
you've ever been through the adoption process before. I never have,
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but I've had friends that have gone through it. And
if you've ever talked to someone before who's gone through
the adoption process, it is absolutely tedious. It is a headache.
I have friends that have been in the adoption process
for four or five six years. I mean, they do
paperwork and process paperwork, they do interviews, and they have interviewed.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
After interview, and.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Then you pay this fee to this organization, and this
fee and this fee, and then the moment you want
to adopt out of the country too.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Oh, now you have so much more.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You have getting a new soul because they're from another country,
and you're adopting that child into America. So now you
have to apply for Social Security cards, social Security numbers.
You got to do all these things. But the moment
that the adoption is complete, what happens. That child has
a new name, a new identity, and a new purpose
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for his or her life. They completely come in and say,
I'm part of a family that chose me. I'm part
of a family that loves me. I'm part of a
family that wants me. That's what the gospel is. That's
God's desire. He wants to adopt us. He wants to
give you a new identity. He wants to give you
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a new purpose, he wants to fulfill new calling. And
the way that you can find adoption in salvation, the
Bible tells us, is through Jesus. That's God's plan. You
can't just walk up to a kid and target say, hey,
you want to be adopted by me. I got a
big house.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
He's not gonna work.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And so if you want to be part of God's family,
there's one way to adoption, and it's through Jesus. That's
what Ephesians Chapter one, verse five tells us, is that
salvation in Christ is found in God's desire to adopt us,
to have all spiritual blessings and the inheritance of the
Kingdom of God.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's massive.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And then we come into the second statement that we
see here, and we see this that surrender in Christ
is in the blood.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Surrender in Christ is in the blood.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Oh see, they don't have the sentences, so I'll say
them a little more because it's supposed to be the
full sentence. So it's surrender in Christ is in the blood.
What does that mean. Well, let's look at verse seven.
We just read five and six, seven and eight. It
says in Him we have redemption. What through His blood
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the forgiveness of our truspasses because we need that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We can't stand in front.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Of a holy God without our truspasses, without our sin,
without our failures being completely wiped clean, without it being forgiven.
And so what happens is the forgiveness of our trespasses.
According to the Riches of his grace is by his grace.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's unmerited. You ask, what can you do to be saved?
Is nothing you.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Could do to be saved. It's the richness of God's grace.
It's an acknowledgment that you need a savior from your sin.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
You can't pay for it, you can't pray for it,
you can't there's nothing you can do for it, but you.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Can submit to Christ.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
And then what the forgiveness of our trespasses according to
his riches grace in verse eight, which he lavished upon
us in all wisdom and insight? Why is this critical?
I want you to check this out. And Leviticus, chapter seventeen,
verse eleven. And so for thousands of years, the years,
both Abrahamic and the Hebrew people, they would sacrifice animals.
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And what animal sacrifice would represent is atonement for their sin,
but only for a period of time. It was forgiveness
for their sin for only a period of time. The
next time they acknowledged a sin again, they'd have to
go kill something again.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That was according to the law.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So this was a law given by God in Leviticus,
which is their law seventeen eleven. It says, for the
life of the flesh is in the blood. So the
life in any of us, it's in our blood. You
remove the blood, you remove life. So that's the reality.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it for you on the altar
(28:44):
to make atonement for your souls. For it is the
blood that makes atonement by the life. Okay, So this
we recognize according to the Jewish people that they had
to kill an animal with their blood in order to
make atonement for their sins for a period of time,
(29:05):
now for eternity, just for that period of time, a year,
six months, three months, whatever it is. So now we
jumped to Hebrews chapter nine, verse twelve, and here's what
Hebrews nine, verse twelve tells us. It says he entered
once and for all. This is speaking of Jesus into
the holy places, not by means of the blood of
(29:25):
goats and calves. So Jesus to save us. He didn't
create an altar, He didn't get all these animals and
go This is for Adam, this is for Sharon, this
is for Joe, And like, all right, I need more
goats or because Pastor Nathan's coming up. He's got a
lot of sins, so I need a lot of goats
for this one. That's not what Jesus did. He didn't
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line up animals on our behalf that had our names
on it. What happens is is it says, not by
means of blood of goats and calves, but by means
of his own blood he redeemed, thus securing an eternal,
not a period of time, an eternal redemption. For if
the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of
(30:10):
defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for
the purification of fless, how much more will the blood
of Jesus, the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit,
offered himself without blemish to God to purify our conscience
from dead works, to serve.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
The living God, to serve the living God.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And so if you are looking to be adopted by
God today, then what happens is first you must surrender
to the reality that Jesus sacrificed himself for your sins.
That's the reality is this is this is the apostle
Paul setting a god culture in Ephesus where their thing was.
(30:58):
If you want a God's blessing, go sleep with a prostitute.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Or go pay and worship this person.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And go and buy this doll and set it up
in your living room next to your front door. And
then the apostle Paul comes in and he says, listen, y'all,
God wants to adopt you. You guys are all orphans.
But first, forget all that other stuff you're doing. First,
what you gotta recognize is that Jesus died for you,
(31:29):
and through the adoption, you need a surrender to the cross,
surrender the gospel. And then he says, therefore you will
inherit all God's eternal blessings. They'd all be scratching their
head and going, what in the world. What I didn't
tell you was at the end of Acts chapter nineteen.
People hated Paul's message so much that all of the
(31:52):
pagans in Ephesus came and crowded around Paul and they
were gonna kill him, and they were starting a riot
because they did not like this message didn't sit well
with them. And for people who are not ready to
give their life to Christ or give a relationship to God,
this is an uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Message to preach and to hear for them. So they
were upset.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It wasn't until one of the leaders of the city
came and he said, if we do something with these individuals,
the court basically is going to hold this accountable to
it because they technically haven't done anything wrong. And so
Paul was saved at that moment. He left Timothy to
become the pastor there and he went on to start
another church. And so what happens is now we come
to the last point, as we come to our clothes,
(32:39):
and the last statement is this security in Christ is
sealed by the Spirit. Security in Christ is sealed by
the Spirit. Ephesians, chapter one, verse thirteen. As we close,
it says this in whom you also when you heard
(33:00):
the Word of Truth, which is what we just shared
this word. He said, when you heard the Word of Truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
(33:21):
to the praise of His glory, to the praise of
His glory. So the question is people would make the
statement and say, okay, if all those things are true, Paul,
how can you guarantee it? What's the guarantee? Is it
a thirty day money back guarantee. That's what a lot
(33:41):
of places do in our life today. They say, hey,
buy this, but if you're not completely satisfied within seven days,
you can return it, no questions asked. They add some
type of guarantee so that if for some reason you're questioning,
it's like, here's the guarantee.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Well, the apostle.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Paul gives us a guarantee. He said that what happens
is is that when you receive the word of truth
to be adopted by God through Jesus Christ, only to
surrender to his blood, to know that it's by his
death on the cross that he atoned for our sins,
that he died for our sins, that there's freedom in Christ.
(34:19):
He says, if you recognize that truth and hold on
to that truth, what's gonna happen is there's gonna be
a miraculous thing that's going to occur. Is in that
moment you will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
it is the Holy Spirit that will seal you and
fill you with peace.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
To know that this thing is a sure thing.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That's like, if anyone ever comes to me and they say,
Pastor Adam, how do I know if I'm saved?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
How do I know I'm going to heaven?
Speaker 1 (34:51):
And I said, because people who aren't saved don't ask
questions like that.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That's why.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Because if it is of concern, if it is of
relevance to you, then that means the Spirit has sealed
you with it, and you're just trying to identify with
that seal.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And you need to seek the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
You need to seek God's word in truth to be
able to rest in God's reality that he has promised
you these things. And at the end of the verse
it says who is the guaranteer? The Holy Spirit is
the guaranteer of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
(35:31):
And to the.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Praise of Glory.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So what happens is in the future and even in
this life, as God moves and breathes in your life,
and you take possession in those inheritance with the fruit
of the Spirit, with the future promised, the eternal promise.
Like keepers just shared that our internal redemption is secured
in the hands of the Savior. What happens is the
more you rest in that the more you're confident in
(35:58):
the reality to establish your life in a God culture.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Than the world's culture.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
The more that you can rest in these things to
know who you are, whose are you? That's the number
one thing I can instill in my two sons Thomas
and Matthias, is whose they are. That God has called
them and they are God's They're not even Adam and Ashley's.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
They are adopted by the Father.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
The more I can rest in their identity in that reality,
then when Satan throws his arrows in his darts, he's
gonna have such a confidence. He's gonna have such a confidence.
Because what happens is if you've ever seen someone that's
ever been brought up in wealth and privilege, You ever
seen someone that's always had it easy?
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Don't They just.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Always got their head up in the air to chin up.
You think to yourself, have you ever had a hard
day like that? Hey?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Have you ever had to do anything hard before?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
But just imagine that that could be you spiritually, with
God's inheritance.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You have your head up in the air, your chest.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Out because you know you've been adopted by God. You
know you've been bought with a price when it comes
to Jesus. And so when you go into work, when
you go home with your family, they look at you
and say, have you ever had a hard day? Yeah,
I've had some hard days, some really hard days. But
I have a loving Savior, and I know whose I
am when I when I put my head down in
(37:30):
the pillow at night.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
That's the reality of the gospel. And so as we.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Close today, and there can be continued to be much
and much and much to be said about every chapter.
Like I said, you can spend over a year in
each chapter alone. This is enough to continue to hopefully
drive us to say, I'm gonna read that passage again.
I'm gonna go back and check out Acts nineteen. I'm
gonna reread Ephesians one, and to begin to wrestle with
(37:56):
the word of God yourself, because that's where you begin
to grow, is when you take this message and you say,
I'm gonna I'm gonna make this my own. I'm beginna
read these passages and I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit
speak to me on what this word has to say.
Let's pray tonight, if we can all bow our heads,
even though it was watching online, would you join me
and bounding your head, Your God, as we come before you.
Right now, Father God, I just thank you for this word.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Tonight.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Lord, I pray Lord that over the next six weeks,
we have conversations within your scriptures, and some of them
are ones that we may be familiar with, some of
them may be ones that we're unfamiliar with. We may
hear terms that we've never heard of before, and learn
things we've never learned.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But I pray Lord that at the end of.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
The day, with all of these things, that this is
meant to sharpen our swords. It's meant to sharpen our
fight in the kingdom. Lord, It's meant to keep us
in the game, our hunger for You, Lord, our thirst
for You.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Father.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I just pray Lord that we can come into a deeper,
deeper love and affection for Jesus. And I pray that
the Holy Spirit may fill us with peace around us
every single day, Lord, as we may be put trial
by fire every single day, as we may experience hardships
in our daily life. Lord, we pray that it's ever
(39:10):
more the cause to draw closer to You. And right now, God,
I pray for anyone if there's anyone in this room
who has never surrendered their life to the blood of Jesus.
You have never given your life in this moment, you're
hearing this and say, man, I want to be adopted
by the Father. I want to be adopted into the
(39:30):
kingdom of God.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I've been an.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Orphan, living my whole life my own way, running around
my own way, doing the things that I want to
do my own way. But in this moment, I feel
like God has called me his own. I feel like
in this moment, God is saying I want to adopt you.
And it's in this moment that you must surrender to
the death and resurrection of Jesus, the blood. It's only
(39:54):
by the blood that truly renews us, by the sacrifice
of Christ that redeemed, and it's in the belief of
reservection because that showed that the sacrifice was sufficient that
Jesus was raised three days later. If you're in this place,
you say, man, I'm ready to get my life to Christ.
It's really easy. Romans chapter ten, verse nine and ten
tells us.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
What we got to do. It says, all you have
to do is confess.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
With your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that he rose from the grave, that his
sacrifice was sufficient.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
And it says if you can.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Confess that He's Lord and believe that his sacrifice is sufficient,
and know that he rose from the dead three days later,
the Bible says, you'll be saved. It's a recognition that
Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and the
only way to eternity. And so if that's you in
this moment, even if you're watching online, would you join
me in this simple prayer. It's not the prayer that
(40:48):
saves you by any means. All we're doing in this
moment right now is we're affirming what God is already
doing in your life right now. So would you join
me in this prayer right now, even if you're watching online,
join me, say, dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I
surrender my life. I thank you for adopting me into
(41:12):
the family of God. I confess you as Lord and Savior.
I believe in my heart that you rose from the grave,
and I will follow you for the rest of my.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Days in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Amen. Can we give a handclap for those that may
have said that prayer today? Gave their life to Jesus Christ.
We're so excited for you. We're so thankful as always
from those watching online, those that are in this place.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
We're always so thankful to those.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
That come committed to the Word of God to learn
more of the Word and also have moments of worship
where we can just lay at the altar of God
and worship God. And so thank you so much for
always joining us on a Wednesday. If you said that
prayer tonight online or in the place as you're leaving,
there's a number up on the screen. If you text
next to eight one four one one, we're going to
(42:06):
get you two free books to help you grow in
your faith. We want to make sure that you succeed
in this walk now. We want to make sure that
you don't leave this place and say, well, no one
got anything to me, no one reached out to me.
I just basically, you know, said that prayer, and that
was that. We don't want to do that, and so
the best way we can do that is we want
to text you something right away. It's two books, What
(42:26):
it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
the second one is how to grow in your relationship
with Jesus Christ, now called the greatest invitation
Let's jump in first, So if you have your Bible,
because we're going to share some things. If you are
here this weekend, we shared with you guys that for
the next six weeks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We are going in depth into the Book of Ephesians.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
This is the next six weeks that you want to
join us if you want to grow deeper specifically in
your word now here in our ministry, we do really
a multiplicity of styles of preaching. We do what's called topical,
which is important because every person in their life is
dealing with different things.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we like to talk about topics.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We like to talk about theological topics like the Holy Spirit,
like God's Word, like redemption. We like to talk about
topics like family. We like to talk about topics like finances.
And then there's other times where we want to do
something that would be more like into expository preaching or
exposing the scriptures as best as we can and really
(00:57):
just diving into the verses by themselves without the topic
at hand. The verse will drive the topic for us,
and that's really what we're gonna do the next six
weeks is we're gonna walk out of here as best
as we can now if we literally took it verse
by verse by verse, we would be in the Book
of Ephesians for the next six years, you know. So
that's what you could do in the Bible. And so
(01:18):
we're going to best we can each week kind of
summarize chapter by chapter by chapter. So there's six chapters
in Ephesians, and those are the six chapters we're gonna
look at. And so I get the opportunity that I
really get to introduce both the thought of Ephesians and
also the first passages of Ephesians chapter one. So this
is definitely a series as best as possible, that you
(01:40):
want to take notes in, and it's definitely best as
possible that you come with a thinking cap on, okay,
because this is one that's gonna cause you to stretch
a little bit. You may end up leaving these services
with a lot of words that you want to google,
or a lot of phrases that you want to google,
and depending on whoever's on the preaching team for that week,
(02:01):
that may determine what sparks your interest. But I'll tell
you this today, we're gonna try to handle a lot.
So if you would do me a favor, if you
would turn to Ephesians Chapter one. I really think by
the end of this whole series, when you walk away,
you're gonna have a deeper understanding of both God's word
but also who Jesus is to you, because that's what Ephesians.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Is all about. So when we look at the Book
of Ephesians, you can hold your finger there.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
First, I'm going to introduce really what this book is
about and why are we addressing it. Why did the
apostle Paul write the letter to the Ephesian Church, Because
a lot of times in the New Testament, these books
are written to either the person that it's named that
it's written to, so you have first Timothy and Jude
and all these other things, these are the letters that
(02:45):
were written to those individuals, or a lot of times
the apostle Paul predominantly he would be writing a letter
to a specific church in a specific city. And so
that's what we come across in the Book of Ephesians
is this is a letter written to a city named
Ephesus that's in modern day Turkey today, and so that
(03:06):
would have been a massive, massive trades port for all
of Asia minors.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So this was a huge trade port. This was a
letter that was written.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
If you have any curiosity at all, if you want
to know when the Ephesian church was planted, you can
read Acts chapter nineteen.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That's when the apostle Paul plants the church.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He spends two years in Ephesus, training people, grooming people,
preaching the gospel, telling them everything about Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
He would have the Old.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Testament back then, he didn't have a Bible like us.
He would have had, you know, he would have had paper,
but it would have been paper of the Old Testament,
all the predominant books of the Old Testament, so Genesis, Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus.
And he would teach those scriptures and correlate them to
the life and ministry of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And how these.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Scriptures correlate to the gospel and the salvation work of
Jesus Christ. And then today we have those letters by
those apostles that have now been summarized and canonized and
given into his Bible today. And so these were the
people who walked with Jesus, saw Jesus, and were sent
off by Jesus. So we have the Book of Ephesians,
(04:16):
and we have a letter that was written to Ephesus.
Here's what you have to know first about f Ephesus.
Before Paul ever stepped foot on the city of Ephesus,
this was one of the most famous cities in the world,
famous cities in the world. This city had one of
the seven Wonders of the World, so now existing these
(04:40):
would be part of.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
The old seven Wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
At the time, no one really even knew about the
Pyramids of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
They would have been counted in those.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So today the Great Pyramids for us are one of
the seven Wonders of the world. Stonehenge in the UK
is one of the seven Wonders of the World today,
But back then there were seven wonders of the world,
and Ephesians, or the place of Ephesus, had one of
the seven wonders.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, what was the seven wonders?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It was a temple dedicated to the god of Artemis,
which was a female god. She also known as the
god of Diane, so this was a Greek god, and
they had this cathedral that was built in her name
and honor. You could see the picture this is literally
what it looked like. This was magnificent. It was also
(05:34):
the largest bank in all of Asia.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Minor housed here at this temple of worship.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And so this was to a Greek goddess who was
the goddess of sex, the goddess of fertility, the goddess
of protection. She was quote unquote in their mythology one
of the daughters, but the main daughter to Zeus himself,
and she held in their eyes a lot of power.
And in Ephesis particularly, people would come all around the world.
(06:06):
It was one of the most visited destinations in the world.
You know, in America we have three top visited destinations
in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Number one, the first.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Destination that's visited in New York and it's also the
number one destination visited in the world is Times Square
with fifty million people that visit it every single year.
That's a lot of people. Next up, the number two
most visited place in the world happens to also be
in America as well.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's Las Vegas, which gets.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Forty two million people a year visiting Las Vegas. You
see if those say and the list goes on and
on and on and visit other places. Now comes certain
places in China and other places in other areas. But
when you think of Ephesus, that would be the modern
day Times Square, that would be the modern day Las Vegas.
(07:01):
It would particularly more so be the modern day Las
Vegas because Artemis, she was the queen or the god
of sex, and so in this entire city, it was
a very feminine city. It was a very female led series,
and so roles in that city were often it was reversed,
(07:22):
so the women were the priests. Here's what someone said
regarding the culture of this temple, and this is where
Paul goes to step in and preach the gospel. The
most religious place in their whole known world is to
worship a woman who's a goddess, and who's the goddess of.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Sex and fertility.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And so it was said in the temple you could
walk in and there would be hundreds of eunique priests,
so priests with their private parts that were cut off.
And then there were hundreds of virgin priestesses that at
a certain time and location they would have their virginity taken.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
As a worship to ours.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And so a man who'd be chosen to be able
to get her virginity was seen as a high level
of society. And then there were religious prostitutes served to her.
So if you wanted to worship Artemis. You could pay
a prostitute. You could give a tithe to the temple
and take a religious prostitute. You could sleep with her,
and in sleeping with her, that would be worship to
(08:24):
the goddess Artemis. And so what would happen is is
in this space there is women who was predominantly led.
The women controlled the temple, the women controlled all the teachings,
the women controlled their worship space. They were adorned with jewelry,
and they were full of sexuality. So I want you
(08:46):
to think about this for a moment because it's important
to know that Ephesus is also the place where First
and Seigo Timothy was written towards Timothy was a pastor
in Ephesus. So you got to keep that in mind
because there's another relarge emerging movement in the Body of
Christ that says women cannot have a platform to preach
the Gospel on any stage or platform because.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Of one verse in Firs Timothy.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, but what you have to remember is Paul is
writing to Timothy, who pastors in Ephesus, where women are
abusing their authority in the Temple of Artemis. And so
he's speaking to Timothy to address some things in that church.
That's why even in that passage he says, tell the
(09:32):
women of your church that they cannot wear the jewelry
and they have to dress modestly. That wasn't a rule
of thumb to say you cannot have a Louis Baton
bag for the rest of your life. It was to
say that in their worship experience, adornments and jewelry were
part of their worship and part of their gloating, and
(09:55):
it was a part of their culture in worship to Artemis.
And so therefore he addressed that environment, and he spoke
to that environment. And we'll speak more to that stuff
later on, but that's important to note of what's happening,
because now the apostle Paul steps on the map, and
(10:15):
according to Ax nineteen, he preaches the gospel. The gospel
spreads like wildfire in Ephesus, so much so that at
the end of Acts nineteen he's there for two years,
within about a year year and a half and towards
the end of his ministry over there. Because now he
established Timothy, and he established Apollos and a few others.
(10:35):
Because that's what Paul did. Paul wasn't a pastor. He
was a church planner. He planted churches, he made pastors,
he taught pastors, and then he left, he went and
planted more churches.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He was Apostolic, and so that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So what happens is towards the end, because it's one
of the most visited places in the world, where do
you think the majority of their economics is tied to, Well,
it's tied towards worshiping that woman, the Goddess, and so
her figure, her mold her. And so what happened is
is their economy was little figurines of Artemis.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It was little gold medallions of Artemis.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
It was little sacrifices to Artemis. So as Paul is
converting this city, guess what happens. No one's buying figurines anymore.
No one's buying the little coins anymore. People aren't going
to the temple as much anymore, people aren't having sex
with the prostitutes for worship anymore. Why Because they're now becoming,
(11:37):
according to X nineteen, spirit filled believers who are being
taught by God, who are going, oh, we're in the world,
but we're not of this world. Okay, So what happens
is is Paul writes a letter to Ephesians to create
what we would call a new God culture, a godly culture,
(11:59):
because this is known as one of the swaying cultures
of the world.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I mean, if there was.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
A line to cross, they were like ten feet past
that in every way everything that we always turn the
news on and we go, oh my gosh, where's this
world headed?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Like they were there. They weren't headed. They have arrived.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So when you watch the news and you go, oh
my gosh, I can't imagine my kids being raised in
this like they were raised in Ephesis that way.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And so what Paul.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Does is he write Ephesians say say, hey, I know
y'all know how to live that Las Vegas culture, but
y'all don't know how to live that God culture. And
so this whole book six chapters is all about teaching
us what God's culture looks like and what the doctrines
of salvation are because you're talking about people who were
(12:55):
still struggling with the habits of their past. So yes,
they were being saved and they were coming into the
Ephesian Church, but they were bringing their baggage with them.
So a lot of times, these letters that are written
in first and two Timothy and other areas, and even
first and second Corinthians, which addresses some of these things too,
because it's the same Greek culture. So what happens is
(13:16):
these letters are written to say, I know you guys
are saved in church, but some of y'all are just
cutting up a little bit too much, and some of
y'all are taking a little bit too much of the
world with you into church on Sunday. And so he's like,
I need to re establish a new culture, and I
need to teach you the word of God so that
you understand what God's Word says about both your life
(13:39):
and also the atmosphere and the people you surround yourself
with as Christians. So he speaks to that. So today
we're going to go as much as we can. We
had to introduce Ephesians and Ephesis. So in the future,
as we go through the chapters, if you join us
for the next six weeks, just keep that in your
memory as we're hearing each sermonage week of what this
(14:00):
culture looked like and what this culture was, because it's
really important in Paul identifying what we are as believers
and how we're we're supposed to stand out and not
blend in into culture and society.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So here's the first part.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Here's the foundation, which once again goes into some controversial things.
But we're digging in the word, and you got to
talk about those things when you're doing these type of messages.
So check this out. And Ephesians chapter one read with
me a little bit. It's gonna We're just gonna read
one to fourteen. The rest of the chapter is more
of like acknowledgments. I encourage you to read that after service.
This is the meat of the chapter right here, one
(14:37):
to fourteen. I'm gonna read it. We're gonna dig right
in it. Says this in Ephesians chapter one, Verse one
Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of
God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are
faithful in Christ. Jesus, Grace to you and peace from
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our Godfather and the li Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Blessed be the God of Best, be the God.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places,
even as He chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to
(15:25):
himselves as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose
of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace
with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him,
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of his grace, which he lavishly
(15:47):
lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known
to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose,
which he set forth what in Jesus Christ as a
plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things
in him. Jesus unites all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth. In Him.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We have obtained an inheritance, having been.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Predestined according to the purpose of Him who all works
according to the counsel of his will, so that we,
who were the first to hope in Christ, might be
to the praise of His glory in him. You also,
when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of
your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the
promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance
(16:35):
until we acquire possession of it to the praise of
His glory.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So here we go.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
We can continue and honestly, I can read that nine
times over and some of that still will go over
a lot of our heads.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And that's okay. This is deep stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Is when you really just sit in these passages, you're
like man Paul's using a lot of fancy words. He's
using a lot of big terminology. So we're gonna try
to break some of this down as best as possible.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The first thing to note that's really important.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
It really wasn't I mean, it was up for conversation
for the first thousand years of Christianity, but it wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Big of a conversation.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
But in the past five hundred years there's this theology,
this terminology of two team sides, which which I don't
really like either team. I don't like being identified in
any team. But there's a term called Calvinism and Armeniism.
In a moment, if you go to Bible school, that's
fought about all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Calvinism and Armenism.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's theological ideas concerning salvation in Jesus one basically reads
Ephesians chapter one, when we saw a lot of words.
I don't know if you guys noticed, there were a
lot of words about predestination and he fore knew us
and all.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
These things like that.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, there's one side of things that says, hey, he
basically predestined the individual person to be saved before the
foundation of the earth. Now if you adopt to that, yeah,
and again I'm saying, you can walk away here thinking
either one of them. You still can get saved thinking
either one of these things. Okay, because there's verses for
both sides, But basically that first side says, Okay, there's
(18:12):
things about being predestined for adoption. Then there's other things
in here about he for knew us before the foundation
of the world. So they say, okay, he predestined for
salvation the individual to go to Heaven.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, the moment.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
And I'll tell you this, I've been on both sides
of the fence of my life. I was trained at
a Pentecostal school and a reform school, so I was
on both sides at one time in my life, really
on on either side. Because I just think we should
just preach the gospel of Jesus and that's enough to
save a person. But that's where I found myself at.
But we got to talk about it here because it's
enough that we have to dress for a moment. So
(18:52):
there's a first group that says, that's what this says
is before the foundation of the earth, God decided to
save you at some point in your life.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, there's two implications that come with that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Number One then that says he also predestined those that
were gonna go to hell and not get to get saved.
So there's a bit of a dilemma in that statement.
There's also then a dilemma in the statement of then
where does your free will come into play with God?
Because then you know some people will take it far
deep to say.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh, then if there was a certain.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Time he knew I was gonna be saved, and that
means all the sin I did and all this like
he was kind of cool with as long as he
just knew that there'd be a day that he was
gonna save me. So it's got its own dangers in
that sense. Then there's the side this that this would
be more like in where our church lands on. And
you'll notice every time that predestination is mentioned. Every single
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time foe knowledge is mentioned. It also follows up and
it says in Christ or through Christ. So what we
would interpret this as is to say that before the
foundation of the earth, God, through his Trinity, the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, decided that the way they were going
(20:08):
to save humanity was through the death and resurrection of Jesus,
and the way that he was gonna bring his people
into adoption is by those who, by their free will
chose to follow Jesus, because Jesus was the foundation and
he was the one who was chosen to save the world,
(20:29):
and it's in being following him you are then receiving
the adoption into salvation through Jesus Christ, who's been there
since the beginning. Okay, So either way, you could walk
away from either of these two things and say no.
I liked what pastors Adam said about the first one
(20:49):
because I'm one of those people that I wanted to
be the prom Queen and I wanted to be the
prom king, and so I wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Chosen by all my classmates.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
So I liked the idea that God in heaven it's like, no, Adam,
I want him. That may make more sense to you,
or you may say no, I like the idea that
that makes a lot of sense with a lot of
the junk I've seen in the world and a lot
of the sinfulness I've seen in the world, that those
(21:18):
people definitely chose their sin. And I also more am
liken to think that as God came to convert my heart,
that I made a decision to follow him, He didn't
force my hand on that nature. Now, now, either way,
you really wouldn't be wrong on either side. We'd only
be wrong the moment we showed up into heaven and
God told us what the answer was, because.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
His verses on both sides.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
But here's the important part that for the next thirteen minutes,
this is what we're gonna sit on. No matter what
side you sit on. There's three realities we see in
these scriptures. These are the ones that we're gonna break
down today. So if you're taking notes, you're gonna write
three statements down. Starting with the first statement, we're gonna
break down. It's this, Salvation in Christ is found in adoption.
(22:05):
Salvation in Christ is found in adoption. No matter what
side of the isle that you sit on, we all
understand and know that we must be adopted into the
family of God in order that we can truly be
saved and have our sins forgiven. What does it say, Well,
(22:26):
here's the verse in Ephesians one to five. It says
this he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons.
What through Jesus Christ. So how did he predestine us
as it through adoption? Well, through Jesus and according to
the purpose of his will, to the praise of His
glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.
(22:52):
You see, this is absolutely critical when it comes to
a relationship with Jesus Christ. Adoption into the Family of
God is the utmost importance. Being grafted into the family
of God is necessary in order to have the inheritance.
Because if you remember that God made a plan through
(23:15):
Abraham to bless the people of Israel. Well, Jesus became
the fulfillment of that blessing. But what happens is in order,
because it was promised to Israel, not to any of us.
I'm Mexican, Spanish and white. So when I read the
Old Testament, I don't see anywhere about Mexico named in there.
(23:38):
I don't see anywhere about Spain and name there and
wherever all the white people are from.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Right, there's a lot of places I.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Don't see anywhere that that's mentioned too. Even though all
the pictures are white, Jesus is not. So there's nowhere
in there. So when I look at the Old Testament,
I say, oh, all these promises are to Israel. How
do I get those promises? How do I attain that inheritance?
How do I become adopted into that promise and that plan? Well,
(24:08):
it's important because descripture here in verse five tells us
that the way you can be adopted into the Family
of God is through Jesus Christ, whom he predestined to
be the one to adopt you. I don't know if
you've ever been through the adoption process before. I never have,
(24:30):
but I've had friends that have gone through it. And
if you've ever talked to someone before who's gone through
the adoption process, it is absolutely tedious. It is a headache.
I have friends that have been in the adoption process
for four or five six years. I mean, they do
paperwork and process paperwork, they do interviews, and they have interviewed.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
After interview, and.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Then you pay this fee to this organization, and this
fee and this fee, and then the moment you want
to adopt out of the country too.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Oh, now you have so much more.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You have getting a new soul because they're from another country,
and you're adopting that child into America. So now you
have to apply for Social Security cards, social Security numbers.
You got to do all these things. But the moment
that the adoption is complete, what happens. That child has
a new name, a new identity, and a new purpose
(25:24):
for his or her life. They completely come in and say,
I'm part of a family that chose me. I'm part
of a family that loves me. I'm part of a
family that wants me. That's what the gospel is. That's
God's desire. He wants to adopt us. He wants to
give you a new identity. He wants to give you
(25:45):
a new purpose, he wants to fulfill new calling. And
the way that you can find adoption in salvation, the
Bible tells us, is through Jesus. That's God's plan. You
can't just walk up to a kid and target say, hey,
you want to be adopted by me. I got a
big house.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
He's not gonna work.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And so if you want to be part of God's family,
there's one way to adoption, and it's through Jesus. That's
what Ephesians Chapter one, verse five tells us, is that
salvation in Christ is found in God's desire to adopt us,
to have all spiritual blessings and the inheritance of the
Kingdom of God.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's massive.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And then we come into the second statement that we
see here, and we see this that surrender in Christ
is in the blood.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Surrender in Christ is in the blood.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Oh see, they don't have the sentences, so I'll say
them a little more because it's supposed to be the
full sentence. So it's surrender in Christ is in the blood.
What does that mean. Well, let's look at verse seven.
We just read five and six, seven and eight. It
says in Him we have redemption. What through His blood
(27:06):
the forgiveness of our truspasses because we need that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We can't stand in front.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Of a holy God without our truspasses, without our sin,
without our failures being completely wiped clean, without it being forgiven.
And so what happens is the forgiveness of our trespasses.
According to the Riches of his grace is by his grace.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's unmerited. You ask, what can you do to be saved?
Is nothing you.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Could do to be saved. It's the richness of God's grace.
It's an acknowledgment that you need a savior from your sin.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
You can't pay for it, you can't pray for it,
you can't there's nothing you can do for it, but you.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Can submit to Christ.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
And then what the forgiveness of our trespasses according to
his riches grace in verse eight, which he lavished upon
us in all wisdom and insight? Why is this critical?
I want you to check this out. And Leviticus, chapter seventeen,
verse eleven. And so for thousands of years, the years,
both Abrahamic and the Hebrew people, they would sacrifice animals.
(28:06):
And what animal sacrifice would represent is atonement for their sin,
but only for a period of time. It was forgiveness
for their sin for only a period of time. The
next time they acknowledged a sin again, they'd have to
go kill something again.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That was according to the law.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So this was a law given by God in Leviticus,
which is their law seventeen eleven. It says, for the
life of the flesh is in the blood. So the
life in any of us, it's in our blood. You
remove the blood, you remove life. So that's the reality.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it for you on the altar
(28:44):
to make atonement for your souls. For it is the
blood that makes atonement by the life. Okay, So this
we recognize according to the Jewish people that they had
to kill an animal with their blood in order to
make atonement for their sins for a period of time,
(29:05):
now for eternity, just for that period of time, a year,
six months, three months, whatever it is. So now we
jumped to Hebrews chapter nine, verse twelve, and here's what
Hebrews nine, verse twelve tells us. It says he entered
once and for all. This is speaking of Jesus into
the holy places, not by means of the blood of
(29:25):
goats and calves. So Jesus to save us. He didn't
create an altar, He didn't get all these animals and
go This is for Adam, this is for Sharon, this
is for Joe, And like, all right, I need more
goats or because Pastor Nathan's coming up. He's got a
lot of sins, so I need a lot of goats
for this one. That's not what Jesus did. He didn't
(29:47):
line up animals on our behalf that had our names
on it. What happens is is it says, not by
means of blood of goats and calves, but by means
of his own blood he redeemed, thus securing an eternal,
not a period of time, an eternal redemption. For if
the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of
(30:10):
defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for
the purification of fless, how much more will the blood
of Jesus, the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit,
offered himself without blemish to God to purify our conscience
from dead works, to serve.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
The living God, to serve the living God.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And so if you are looking to be adopted by
God today, then what happens is first you must surrender
to the reality that Jesus sacrificed himself for your sins.
That's the reality is this is this is the apostle
Paul setting a god culture in Ephesus where their thing was.
(30:58):
If you want a God's blessing, go sleep with a prostitute.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Or go pay and worship this person.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And go and buy this doll and set it up
in your living room next to your front door. And
then the apostle Paul comes in and he says, listen, y'all,
God wants to adopt you. You guys are all orphans.
But first, forget all that other stuff you're doing. First,
what you gotta recognize is that Jesus died for you,
(31:29):
and through the adoption, you need a surrender to the cross,
surrender the gospel. And then he says, therefore you will
inherit all God's eternal blessings. They'd all be scratching their
head and going, what in the world. What I didn't
tell you was at the end of Acts chapter nineteen.
People hated Paul's message so much that all of the
(31:52):
pagans in Ephesus came and crowded around Paul and they
were gonna kill him, and they were starting a riot
because they did not like this message didn't sit well
with them. And for people who are not ready to
give their life to Christ or give a relationship to God,
this is an uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Message to preach and to hear for them. So they
were upset.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It wasn't until one of the leaders of the city
came and he said, if we do something with these individuals,
the court basically is going to hold this accountable to
it because they technically haven't done anything wrong. And so
Paul was saved at that moment. He left Timothy to
become the pastor there and he went on to start
another church. And so what happens is now we come
to the last point, as we come to our clothes,
(32:39):
and the last statement is this security in Christ is
sealed by the Spirit. Security in Christ is sealed by
the Spirit. Ephesians, chapter one, verse thirteen. As we close,
it says this in whom you also when you heard
(33:00):
the Word of Truth, which is what we just shared
this word. He said, when you heard the Word of Truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
(33:21):
to the praise of His glory, to the praise of
His glory. So the question is people would make the
statement and say, okay, if all those things are true, Paul,
how can you guarantee it? What's the guarantee? Is it
a thirty day money back guarantee. That's what a lot
(33:41):
of places do in our life today. They say, hey,
buy this, but if you're not completely satisfied within seven days,
you can return it, no questions asked. They add some
type of guarantee so that if for some reason you're questioning,
it's like, here's the guarantee.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Well, the apostle.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Paul gives us a guarantee. He said that what happens
is is that when you receive the word of truth
to be adopted by God through Jesus Christ, only to
surrender to his blood, to know that it's by his
death on the cross that he atoned for our sins,
that he died for our sins, that there's freedom in Christ.
(34:19):
He says, if you recognize that truth and hold on
to that truth, what's gonna happen is there's gonna be
a miraculous thing that's going to occur. Is in that
moment you will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
it is the Holy Spirit that will seal you and
fill you with peace.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
To know that this thing is a sure thing.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That's like, if anyone ever comes to me and they say,
Pastor Adam, how do I know if I'm saved?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
How do I know I'm going to heaven?
Speaker 1 (34:51):
And I said, because people who aren't saved don't ask
questions like that.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That's why.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Because if it is of concern, if it is of
relevance to you, then that means the Spirit has sealed
you with it, and you're just trying to identify with
that seal.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And you need to seek the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
You need to seek God's word in truth to be
able to rest in God's reality that he has promised
you these things. And at the end of the verse
it says who is the guaranteer? The Holy Spirit is
the guaranteer of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
(35:31):
And to the.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Praise of Glory.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So what happens is in the future and even in
this life, as God moves and breathes in your life,
and you take possession in those inheritance with the fruit
of the Spirit, with the future promised, the eternal promise.
Like keepers just shared that our internal redemption is secured
in the hands of the Savior. What happens is the
more you rest in that the more you're confident in
(35:58):
the reality to establish your life in a God culture.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Than the world's culture.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
The more that you can rest in these things to
know who you are, whose are you? That's the number
one thing I can instill in my two sons Thomas
and Matthias, is whose they are. That God has called
them and they are God's They're not even Adam and Ashley's.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
They are adopted by the Father.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
The more I can rest in their identity in that reality,
then when Satan throws his arrows in his darts, he's
gonna have such a confidence. He's gonna have such a confidence.
Because what happens is if you've ever seen someone that's
ever been brought up in wealth and privilege, You ever
seen someone that's always had it easy?
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Don't They just.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Always got their head up in the air to chin up.
You think to yourself, have you ever had a hard
day like that? Hey?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Have you ever had to do anything hard before?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
But just imagine that that could be you spiritually, with
God's inheritance.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You have your head up in the air, your chest.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Out because you know you've been adopted by God. You
know you've been bought with a price when it comes
to Jesus. And so when you go into work, when
you go home with your family, they look at you
and say, have you ever had a hard day? Yeah,
I've had some hard days, some really hard days. But
I have a loving Savior, and I know whose I
am when I when I put my head down in
(37:30):
the pillow at night.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
That's the reality of the gospel. And so as we.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Close today, and there can be continued to be much
and much and much to be said about every chapter.
Like I said, you can spend over a year in
each chapter alone. This is enough to continue to hopefully
drive us to say, I'm gonna read that passage again.
I'm gonna go back and check out Acts nineteen. I'm
gonna reread Ephesians one, and to begin to wrestle with
(37:56):
the word of God yourself, because that's where you begin
to grow, is when you take this message and you say,
I'm gonna I'm gonna make this my own. I'm beginna
read these passages and I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit
speak to me on what this word has to say.
Let's pray tonight, if we can all bow our heads,
even though it was watching online, would you join me
and bounding your head, Your God, as we come before you.
Right now, Father God, I just thank you for this word.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Tonight.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Lord, I pray Lord that over the next six weeks,
we have conversations within your scriptures, and some of them
are ones that we may be familiar with, some of
them may be ones that we're unfamiliar with. We may
hear terms that we've never heard of before, and learn
things we've never learned.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But I pray Lord that at the end of.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
The day, with all of these things, that this is
meant to sharpen our swords. It's meant to sharpen our
fight in the kingdom. Lord, It's meant to keep us
in the game, our hunger for You, Lord, our thirst
for You.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Father.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I just pray Lord that we can come into a deeper,
deeper love and affection for Jesus. And I pray that
the Holy Spirit may fill us with peace around us
every single day, Lord, as we may be put trial
by fire every single day, as we may experience hardships
in our daily life. Lord, we pray that it's ever
(39:10):
more the cause to draw closer to You. And right now, God,
I pray for anyone if there's anyone in this room
who has never surrendered their life to the blood of Jesus.
You have never given your life in this moment, you're
hearing this and say, man, I want to be adopted
by the Father. I want to be adopted into the
(39:30):
kingdom of God.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I've been an.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Orphan, living my whole life my own way, running around
my own way, doing the things that I want to
do my own way. But in this moment, I feel
like God has called me his own. I feel like
in this moment, God is saying I want to adopt you.
And it's in this moment that you must surrender to
the death and resurrection of Jesus, the blood. It's only
(39:54):
by the blood that truly renews us, by the sacrifice
of Christ that redeemed, and it's in the belief of
reservection because that showed that the sacrifice was sufficient that
Jesus was raised three days later. If you're in this place,
you say, man, I'm ready to get my life to Christ.
It's really easy. Romans chapter ten, verse nine and ten
tells us.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
What we got to do. It says, all you have
to do is confess.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
With your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that he rose from the grave, that his
sacrifice was sufficient.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
And it says if you can.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Confess that He's Lord and believe that his sacrifice is sufficient,
and know that he rose from the dead three days later,
the Bible says, you'll be saved. It's a recognition that
Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and the
only way to eternity. And so if that's you in
this moment, even if you're watching online, would you join
me in this simple prayer. It's not the prayer that
(40:48):
saves you by any means. All we're doing in this
moment right now is we're affirming what God is already
doing in your life right now. So would you join
me in this prayer right now, even if you're watching online,
join me, say, dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I
surrender my life. I thank you for adopting me into
(41:12):
the family of God. I confess you as Lord and Savior.
I believe in my heart that you rose from the grave,
and I will follow you for the rest of my.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Days in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Amen. Can we give a handclap for those that may
have said that prayer today? Gave their life to Jesus Christ.
We're so excited for you. We're so thankful as always
from those watching online, those that are in this place.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
We're always so thankful to those.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
That come committed to the Word of God to learn
more of the Word and also have moments of worship
where we can just lay at the altar of God
and worship God. And so thank you so much for
always joining us on a Wednesday. If you said that
prayer tonight online or in the place as you're leaving,
there's a number up on the screen. If you text
next to eight one four one one, we're going to
(42:06):
get you two free books to help you grow in
your faith. We want to make sure that you succeed
in this walk now. We want to make sure that
you don't leave this place and say, well, no one
got anything to me, no one reached out to me.
I just basically, you know, said that prayer, and that
was that. We don't want to do that, and so
the best way we can do that is we want
to text you something right away. It's two books, What
(42:26):
it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and
the second one is how to grow in your relationship
with Jesus Christ, now called the greatest invitation
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