Ephesians 1:1- 2

Cornerstone Church

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And I'm gonna say good morning. I'm gonna ask Jeff to open us in prayer in just a minute.

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But I got a question for you to consider. Your personal testimony.

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If you are given the opportunity to share your personal testimony with a relative, a friend, or perhaps at a church you get the opportunity to share a personal testimony, what do you include?

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What are the elements that you include in a personal testimony? Anybody wanna take a shot at that?

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Yeah, Rich. Who I was and what I used to do and who I am now and how Jesus transformed my life.

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That's it. Well, that's not nailed it. That's what everybody was gonna say. Oh, well.

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Thanks, Rich, you didn't give us a chance. Well, you made that all concise in one sentence. I need to be in bed or in jail right now, if I want to be ready to give a word.

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Who I was, who I am now, how the transition occurred, and what difference does that make?

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And how have I grown? And how have I grown? That's the book of Ephesians.

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Okay, that's the book of Ephesians. We are going to have a period of time over the next,

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I don't know how many weeks, to unpack this. Probably if we're only doing two verses today.

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Okay. All right. It's gonna take a while. We have one thing that I think most of us forget or most people give testimony forget is all of that, what

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Rich said, is all because of God. Sometimes we just, it's kind of like what we did along the way.

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We lose that focus. Thank you. That is so well said. Good point. That is so well said.

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And we're gonna see, John, that is, in spades, in the first, especially in the first two chapters, we get things like predestination.

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Oh, he's smiling. I said, yeah, yeah. Not ooh, but yeah. Yes. Well, you know, along with what everybody's saying, if you're gonna give a testimony or proclaim the gospel, they're gonna look at you.

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What kind of life have you lived? And if you're not living by the word of God and you're reckless and you're, how can you proclaim the word and have somebody follow?

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When they're looking at your life and saying. What? So you have to live accordingly to what

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God, the scriptures are telling you. So you're obedient to his word and follow that right on through.

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Stan, you are, you are so, you're teaching this lesson for us. The first three chapters of Ephesians are who you are.

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And the second three chapters of Ephesians four through six are how does that change your life?

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So the people, when they see you, they don't, they don't see it. My brother and I both were raised in a

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Catholic church, not a religious church, a house. But I fortunately had a friend when

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I was at school share the gospel message with me. And that changed, that changed my life.

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My brother went to the University of Illinois and eventually to law school and never had that, never had that presentation given to him, but became overwhelmed with the hypocrisy of religion.

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So he is now an atheist, okay? And Stan, exactly what you're saying, if I'm going to share the gospel message with somebody and they look at me and they go, but you've got nothing to show for it.

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It is an empty, it's an emptiness. That's what we saw so much in Isaiah, where even their prayers were empty,

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Stan. Well, even, I'm thinking of my own life, even when I am walking down that path and proclaiming

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Jesus Christ as my personal savior and living by his word, it does not mean that the people that I'm witnessing to are going to accept the

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Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior. And I am witnessing that right now, that people that I'm talking to, whoa, we don't want your

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God, okay? We want to live the lifestyle that we're living and we're comfortable with that.

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So it doesn't mean because I'm living the way that I should that everybody's going to accept the

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Lord Jesus Christ. You are preaching it, brother. This is going to be a great walk as we go through this,

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Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, exactly what you're saying. Pastor, could you open us with a prayer now?

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So Lord, we are so glad to be able to open your word and begin the book of Ephesians.

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What a gift you've given us in this book. Every word comes from you and we thank you for it.

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And Lord, personally, we know that we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we formerly walked, following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air.

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We were dead, we were not just sick, we were dead in our sins. And you made us alive together with Christ.

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You justified us and saved us by the blood of the lamb. Thank you, Lord, and we pray that as we begin to open this book, that you would continue to minister to us and that this study would be blessed.

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We pray blessing upon the study of the book of Ephesians, that you would change us by it, that our walk would be more consistent, that you would just use us through the training that we get in the book of Ephesians.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I'm gonna just speak to Romans, it's up on the top in between my dashed lines.

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Sandy, you're gonna get 1 Corinthians 2 .14. John, if you would get Colossians 2 .13,

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it's on the sheet there, and John 1 .12, Carol, if you would have that ready. Romans 3 .23 very clearly says, all sin fall short of the glory of God.

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That is everybody. We know that Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, had the ability and the opportunity to walk with God in the cool of the day in the garden, but we know that one day

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Satan, Lucifer, proclaimed a whole bunch of I wills in front of the throne of God, including

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I will make myself like the most high. And because of that, disobedience was banished to earth, and basically at that point in time, he set out on a mission to bring all of humanity along with him, along with a third of the angels that actually believed his lie, and they came down with him, and they're doing his bidding right now.

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Adam and Eve both fell, and that sin is now passed on, for as in Adam, all died.

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The rest of that verse says, but in Christ Jesus were made alive. All of sin in Romans 6 .23

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gives us the results of that, for the wages of sin is death. Then there's that amazing word that shows up so many times in scripture, but.

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Yeah, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. That's who we were. If you're gonna give a testimony, that's who you were.

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You can talk about the fact that I went to church. You can talk about the fact that our family read the

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Bible. You can talk about all this kind of stuff, but until a transformation takes place, that's who you were.

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If you are a believer now, I can make that past tense. 1

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Corinthians 2 .14, Sandy? But a natural man does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.

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As a natural man without the Holy Spirit, even what I'm saying right now cannot make sense to you.

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It cannot impact who you are in the depth of your heart without the illumination of the

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Holy Spirit, because that's who we are. We are dead, trespasses, and sins. You quoted that out of Ephesians.

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Colossians 2 .13, John? When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.

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That is something that should blow your mind. As a believer, you understand it.

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What was it, was it Nicodemus that said, can I go back into my mother's womb? He said, no, you don't get it. What I'm talking about is your spirit.

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What I'm talking about is the transformation. John 1 .12, Carol? But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

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That's who we become. Now, that verse has a couple of important concepts to it.

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It's believe and accept. James teaches us that Satan believes in God and trembles because he doesn't accept

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God. So that's the transformation. Who you were, who you are. You were dead, you are children of God.

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The transformation is this believing and accepting in him making us. It's all by his grace.

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The book of Ephesians does not address a specific issue within the church.

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Like Corinthians talks about sexual immorality within the believing body.

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It talks about believers taking believers to court. That shouldn't be.

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We go into Peter and we read about that in 2 Peter that there are those among you preaching a false gospel and warning us.

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And it talks about the trials and that God is there for you. This is not the book of Ephesians.

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The book of Ephesians is a book about a life that is transformed by God. And it's written to those who are already believers.

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This is not, in its intent, in its initial intent, this is not a gospel message book.

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Although the gospel message is in there and you definitely can use Ephesians 2 as a gospel message.

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But what we're gonna see eventually, yes we will get to the first two verses right, this is written to the saints, to the saints who believe.

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So what is it about the saints who believe that makes this such an important letter that Paul needs to write about?

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Let's first consider the city of Ephesus. All right,

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Ephesus was probably initially established as an outpost, if you would, before the 10th century

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B .C. By the Anatolian, it was an Anatolian settlement. I don't know what that means, except that it's more than 12 ,000 years old.

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560 B .C. it was conquered by Croesus and it was under Persian rule at 546

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B .C. And then Alexander came in and took over in the 3rd century

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B .C. And he basically reestablished it as a major port. It was on a river, it was between mountains and the sea on a river and it provided transportation from the shore inland and eventually it comes under Roman rule.

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And as a major port, it was a huge city. In fact, I think it was like 500 ,000 people.

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It was a major, major place. The river brought silt so that the harbor could not remain as a port of entry for shipping so that it could go.

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They would go to Miletus, which by the way, we know Miletus from Paul's third missionary journey because he stops off at Miletus and calls the elders of Ephesus down.

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That's as close as he could get to it. But Ephesus remains an amazingly important city because of Artemis or Diana.

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Artemis, Diana, originally known as the Anatolian fertility goddess.

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A many -breasted idol, if you would. A very sensuous, very sexual.

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The temple of Artemis or Diana was one of the eight wonders of the world.

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Seven wonders of the world. I thought he was the eighth. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

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Nice. Nice. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It had a large Jewish population.

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Part of that would have been part of the diaspora that occurred through the persecution in Jerusalem where many

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Jews went into what we now know as Turkey and settled. And the letter of Peter, the two letters from Peter are basically written to them.

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But there was a large Jewish settlement in Ephesus and somewhere around 52

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A .D. is where Christianity first came through. Paul came with two individuals that left him there in his journey.

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Do you know who he left? Four of us and five of us. Priscilla and Nicola.

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Priscilla and Nicola. He left them with him there and actually the church started to flourish and we read about that more.

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That is Ephesus. Now why is that important? Because as the gospel message starts to progress through and permeate through the area and as there are believers starting to have the message, there is this old pull for who they used to be.

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And Paul's gonna be writing a letter saying, all right, you might be a Jew or you might be a

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Gentile or you might be this, you might be that and you are living in the city which at one time had like 500 ,000 people.

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It has the Temple of Diana, Artemis in it. It's got a lot of other things going on there. You need to know who you really are.

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And that becomes, I think, so applicable in today's culture. And if we're able,

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God willing, if he uses us at his time, where his grace reaches into a friend and a neighbor and everything else, our identity changes.

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Yes, we still live in the world today. We're still in Mount Laurel. We are still around political debate, a lot of other kind of stuff.

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But his first three chapters are going to focus on a strong message of who you really are and how you became who you really are.

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And so for the people in Ephesus, this becomes an important message.

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It's not that they have had this false teaching yet or even that they're being persecuted and martyred yet, but get them ready because as we get towards the end of it, we start reading about the armor of God.

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What is the armor of God? Let somebody else answer, Rich.

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I know you. Let somebody else answer. What is the armor of God? Protection. Against?

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Against evil. The powers and for, for?

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Powers and something. I can't think of the word. But basically the systems in place of the world.

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Absolutely. Jeff and I were talking about this this morning. When would a soldier put on the armor?

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Before the battle. And then before it leaves. Yeah, we hope. Why before the battle?

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It's gonna be late. Huh? Protection. Be prepared, protection. If you're already in the fight, it's too late to put it on, you're probably not gonna be doing it.

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Isn't there a sword in there too? I'm sorry? I said isn't there a sword in there too? Yes, there is. There's also offensive too.

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That's the only offensive weapon is the sword of the spirit. You're absolutely right Lisa. So Stan, you mentioned that if I'm gonna give a testimony and my life is walking that testimony, that testimony is gonna be challenged as being phony and you're absolutely right.

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And so we get into this, we get to understand who we really are because we have to have that foundation of who we are.

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I love chapter two at the end of it. It says we're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

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This is who we are. Do you realize that we are, I'm teaching a lesson way in advance, we have actually these building blocks that are building up this, and it's on the foundation,

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Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. I wanna teach this whole lesson, I'm gonna stop because it's a great lesson.

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What is a cornerstone? Anyway. Too bad you're not enthusiastic.

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This letter's written by Paul. And Paul has so much validity and so much rationale why he could actually be writing this letter because of who he was, what happened, and who he is.

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Who was Saul? Again, he was a persecutor.

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He was a first -rate citizen. Yes, he was. He was an action man. Yes, he was. So God opened his eyes on the road to Damascus, and at that point, he was converted.

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And from there, then, he became a believer and an apostle of the gospel.

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Absolutely. He, actually, in his letters, he talks about, I'm the chief of all sinners.

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He acknowledges the reality of the world and the reality of his prior identity. I persecuted.

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I had letters. I was zealous in what I was doing, but now, it's so different.

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He has, if somebody like Paul is going to be writing you this letter, he has the rationale to write it.

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You should be listening to who he is. And so now, he's writing this letter to the saints, to those who are believers at Ephesus.

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The question is, how did Ephesus become who they are? And we go into Acts 18 through 20, and we read into his missionary journeys.

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We're gonna read a few of these passages. Barb, I'm gonna ask you to get to Acts 19 and have verses one through four ready for me, please.

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Sir, I cannot remember your name. I met you last week. Will. Will. Would you be willing to get

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Acts 19, verses eight to 10 for me? Okay, thank you. And we're gonna talk through the rest of those passages.

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In Acts 18, we get Paul's first encounter at Ephesus, and he's with Priscilla and Aquila, but he does not stay long.

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He talks in the synagogue. This is important to Paul. He always would start in the synagogue.

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Who's in the synagogue? The Jews. Thank you, the Jews. And he is jealous for his brethren to hear the word of God.

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They asked him to stay, and he said, I can't, but I will return.

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And he leaves Priscilla and Aquila behind to help establish this young church.

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Acts 19, Barb, you have that, the first four verses? Yes. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.

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There he found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, no.

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We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. So Paul asked, then what baptism did you receive?

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John's baptism, they replied. Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance.

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He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus. A couple of things

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I want to bring out on this. First of all, who does he encounter? And what you read, when he got to Ephesus, who is it that he encountered?

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Disciples, we're talking about believers, okay? Important, the sequence of things is you believe in Christ, then you're baptized.

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It's not that baptism brings salvation. And that's what we teach here, that's what we believe scripture teaches here.

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But there had been this period of time where Priscilla and Aquila had followed up on what

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Paul established, so that there were disciples for him to encounter. And having done that, he asked them to take it to the next step.

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He said, have you been baptized? They said, we haven't yet. But which baptism? Well, the baptism of John. And it says that he actually baptized 12 men that day.

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And the church grows through this. But have this understanding that baptism is an outward sign of an inward faith that's the transformation that occurs with you.

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Yes, Tom. This is a general question. Was Paul speaking to these churches in Hebrew or Greek?

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I mean, there's so many cities in the Mediterranean. Is there a universality in the language?

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I have an opinion of that. Do you have knowledge? I would think in Ephesus, he would be speaking in Greek, yeah.

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You can go through the amazing timing of God.

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At the time that this occurs, the Roman Empire has established roads everywhere, so that transportation, but the

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Greek influence had really established a common language, so that the word of God could be common.

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I think if we go into the original manuscripts, they're Greek, they're not

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Hebrew. That's right. And from there, they're translated. In fact, by this time, the

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Old Testament had been translated into Septuagint so that people could read it in the common

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Greek. I was just wondering, since he was going to synagogues. Sure. No, that's...

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There could have been in the synagogues some Hebrew spoken. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, great question.

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Whenever the scripture was given, it was written in that koine Greek, and koine just means common. That's the common form of Greek.

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There was a higher form that was more technical, but the commoner would speak koine, Greek. Acts 19, eight to 10.

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I think, Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God, but some of them became obstinate.

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They refused to believe and publicized mal -ganai the way.

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So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

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This went on for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the

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Lord. There are some huge statements in their proclamations. The last one is there.

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He spends two years. You call it the lecture hall. Others call it the school of Tyrannus.

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For two years so that all Jews and Greeks in the region have heard the word.

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That's amazing. That is amazing. What we do have, though, is not everybody is accepting there are those who are opposing.

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Now, a couple of things happen while he's there. One of them is in verse 11.

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We read that Paul actually performed miracles, even his handkerchief, to the point that people were so amazed and those who didn't understand wanted that power.

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And so they tried to mimic or to imitate that power. Conflict comes together.

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And then we have the big opposition as Paul stands up against Diana slash

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Artemis to the point where it starts to impact the economic trade of the idol makers.

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What good is an idol?

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By the way, who makes an idol? A man, a person? An idol.

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An idol, to be true. That's a very good answer. And so he stands up against the culture of the day.

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I like the way Pastor Jeff says it. Church, church, church, church, church, church, church. We need to be willing to stand up against the culture of the day.

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I like when you say church. I tend to say brothers and sisters. Oh, okay. We need to be willing to stand up.

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Now, the church at Ephesus is established and to the extent that I believe even established with a polity, with elders who oversee the church, but the church is vibrant to the point where in Acts 20,

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Paul, on his way back, lands at Meletus and sends for the elders of Ephesus.

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Lisa, are you willing to read for me, if you would, in Acts 20, verses 28 to 32, please?

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I'll let you get that in a minute. I'll let you get to that in a minute. While she's getting that, Revelation 2, in Revelation, the beginning chapters, we have the letters to the seven churches, and one of them is

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Philadelphia, and part of the exhortation that God has, and he gave to John to give to the church at Ephesus, is that you've left your first love.

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I want you to remember from where you fell, and I want you to do the deeds that you're called to.

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Do you catch this issue here, is that they are definitely a church, the lampstand is definitely there, but there is a danger of abandoning what you've got for some reason, and the call is to get back.

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Remember from where you fell. Remember the glorious life that you have in Christ.

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Remember that and do those deeds. Lisa, do you have that? Yeah. Okay, verses 28 to 32.

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Oh, ooh, you messed me up. I'm sorry. I was looking at the paper. Okay, yeah, it's later on, oh no, it's in my notes.

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It's not, you don't have my notes. Verses 28 to 32. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, whereof the

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Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with that his own blood.

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For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing a fly.

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I'm sorry, to what? To 32. Okay, moreover of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to droll disciples after them.

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Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone on both night and day with tears.

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And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build further and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

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This is Paul's final words to the elders as he's heading back to Jerusalem.

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Take guard, take care, be on guard. And then he writes this letter, which encourages them to take hold with an unwavering faith who you really are.

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As I said, I believe the theme of this book can be captured by the phrase, a life changed by God.

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And Stan, you brought up, and John, I think you brought up, this is not I did it, I did it,

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I do it, I do it, it's God. Everything is about God. Our relationship, it's all because of God.

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Our salvation, it's all because of God. And then what happens because of that is gonna be the second half of the book.

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So the theme is life changed by God, and the first three -verse chapters are our life's identity.

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Our life's identity is changed by God. I have in my wallet,

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I still carry it, I don't know why. But my Liberty University ID card.

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That says if I go on campus on Liberty University, I have an ID card, I have the privilege of being here.

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I've since graduated, so probably should get rid of that. That being said, I have an identity.

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And if you were to look at the paper I just submitted to the Ordination Council, my first words are, my name is

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John Laskin, I am a son of God. That is, I'm a daughter of God, I am a son of God.

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That's John 112, that's who we are. But how do we know that, and how did we get there?

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And what is that all about? That's what we're going to see in the first three chapters.

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Now, verse one, the last part of verse one, as I said, identifies that this letter is written to saints who are faithful.

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What is written in this book will be gibberish to somebody without the Holy Spirit. But as a saint, somebody who is faithful, you've got the

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Holy Spirit. Verse five of chapter one, Rick, if you would get that. And Rich, I'm going to ask you to go all the way to chapter three, verses 17 to 19, if you would have that ready for me.

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Give me verse, chapter one, verse five, Rick. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his love.

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Let's get right down to it. My God is sovereign, and your God is sovereign.

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Okay, now, I get it, we could get into the question of do we have a responsibility to respond, and I get it, we're not going to get into that debate today.

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But I will say that scripture clearly states that he is the initiator. He gives the grace, and he reaches down into our heart.

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He even regenerates our soul, our heart, so that we can respond to grace. And he is a sovereign

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God, and it says there that it's his decisions that we become a new identity.

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To become a new identity, you have to acknowledge that there was a prior identity, and that's what's going on.

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Chapter two gets us into this discussion. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit, the work of the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past.

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But God, those are two of the most beautiful words in scripture.

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I was dead, you may have mentioned that. I wasn't just in trouble, I was dead. And even as dead, now that's my soul, that's my spirit is dead.

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God has the power, the sovereign power to raise me up again. That's the transition, that's what we see.

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And then in verse 10 it says, having done that, Stan, having done that, he predestines who

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I'm to be. I am his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which he hath before ordained that I should walk in them.

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I have a before, yeah, Rick? No, I was just gonna say, it's a gift of God, lest any man should boast.

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There it is, absolutely it is. Paul has a way of writing that. Later on in verse 19 of that chapter, it says, we are no longer strangers.

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You see, that's who we were, and we no longer are strangers, but we are fellow citizens with the saints in the household of God.

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Brothers and sisters, we're sitting here, there's like 12 of us, and going under the belief that the

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Holy Spirit resides in each and every one of us. Do you know that? I don't care what your background is.

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We are sisters and brothers in Christ, in the household of God. Amen.

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Amen. And even if we don't know how to do it, it says the spirit teaches us how to pray, helping us to say

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Abba, Father. That's who we are. Chapter three is this discussion of the mystery, that do you know the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs? And this blows the mind of the Jews, that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs, but if you go all the way back to Genesis 12, it says all nations will be blessed through you.

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And that's the truth of the extent of God's love. Give me three, 17 and 19,

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Rich. 17, 18, and 19. Yeah. I was just looking at it.

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Okay. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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Do you know how this happens, with Christ in your heart? This is his gift to you. We can read in other passages of the gifts of the spirit, and some teach, and some preach, and some exhortation, and some hospitality, but I'm willing to tell you that I believe in scripture, this is a for everybody gift, that Christ dwells in your heart, and with Christ in your heart, the fullness of God dwells within you.

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This is for everybody. Then we can talk about the fruits of the spirit, which are in Galatians, love, joy, peace, love, suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

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This is who you are, and you can walk out of here being perhaps concerned that I fell, and Satan knows my weaknesses.

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He's not omniscient, but he's tenacious, and he'll keep trying, and trying, and trying, until he finds that weakness, and he puts that under there.

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That's a weakness, John's got that weakness. I can go after him there, and he does, and I will fall, but we know that we are children of God, and that we have

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Christ in our heart, and we have the fullness of God in our heart, and do you know what we have? We have Christ, this is in Hebrews, sitting at the right hand of the

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Father, interceding for us. This is who we are, this is the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians.

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Then, what does that mean? Chapters four to six, I label them a life walk changed by God, a life walk changed by God.

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My personal testimony, I was saved in the first Friday of the month of March, in 1970, when a friend witnessed to me, and I prayed, and asked

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Christ into my heart. I believe that is when I was saved.

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I hold to scripture on that, but nobody ever discipled me, and so for two years, I tried to go back to my old walk.

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In fact, when Sandy and I met, almost two years later, I was dating eight girls at the time, and I met her, and I said, that's it.

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How do you go from the best? That was it. It's a good thing you said that.

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That's right. That's right. Yeah, Lisa. You'll get dinner tonight.

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Thank you. Is it like a requirement to know the day, time? No, no.

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Smell in the air, and all that? No, it is not a requirement, except that, I think you need to acknowledge,

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I call it an aha moment. I have spent time with many, many people who can't give the date and the time like I can.

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In fact, it was about 10, 15 in the evening. I can tell you all those details. I was sitting at my desk in my room.

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I can tell you those, but not everybody has that, and I get that, but everybody should have a point in time where they knew that they knew what they knew they knew.

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You have to do it. So I can say, when you were six years old, did you understand

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God? Well, no, I didn't, okay. Do you understand God now? Okay, well, let's bring the goalposts together, closer, closer, closer, and I can walk somebody into that.

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They may not know the date, the time, but they can say, you know what? When I was in college, I knew that I knew that I knew. That's salvation, knowing that you know that you know.

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Without knowing the date, the color, what flowers were outside, having the confidence that you knew that you knew that you knew.

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Of 4 -1, John, I'm gonna ask you to get 4 -1, and 4 -17,

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Stan, I'm gonna ask you to get that. 4 -24, Louise, would you be willing to get that?

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I can't remember your sister's name. Dot, Dot. Dot? Dorothy. Dorothy, Dot, okay.

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Dot, are you willing to read with us this morning? If not, that's fine. We'll go back up to the top. Jeff? Which verse?

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5 -1, Ephesians 5 -1. Jeff, you're gonna get 6 -6, and we'll talk everything else.

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So who's got 4 -1 for me? Me. Yeah. I, therefore, a prisoner for the

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Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

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We're gonna get into this one. This is it. Walk in a manner worthy. This is actually an intentional obedience on your part, because we are going to be pushed into other walks, but there is one walk, and there is one walk that is worthy of the calling of God.

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We're gonna get into that. 4 -24, Stan? And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

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See, we are told to put off the old self and to put on the new self. Again, these are actions that we take because these are abilities that we can do because we have the

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Holy Spirit. And we couldn't do this on our own, but because we have the Holy Spirit, we are given the ability to do this by the

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Holy Spirit, and there's an obedience that goes there. 4 -27,

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Louise, I think you have that? Okay, Ephesians 4 -27. Yes. Yes. Okay.

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And do not give the devil an opportunity. Wow. You want a screensaver to put on your computer so every time you turn your computer on and you have to get through the screensaver, that's not a bad one.

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Give no opportunity to the devil. I'm sure we're gonna have fun with that one when we get there.

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But you wanna talk about a walk? Maybe then we'll turn off the computer. That probably is true. Unless you happen to be preparing a

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Bible study and you have to be typing it in, but you have to keep it on. That being said, 5 -1,

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Dot, if you have that, it goes so well on top of 4 -27. Be ye therefore followers of God and of your children.

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Be imitators of God. Philippians tells us that Jesus came and found equality with God, something he was willing to give up and to humble himself even to the death on the cross.

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You wanna set the bar high? That's a good bar to set. Because anything less than that is less than that.

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That's an interesting quote. We're gonna go from there into a major section in chapters five and the beginning of six.

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It's gonna be wives, submit yourself to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives.

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Children, be obedient to your parents. The structure of the family. That's in there, by the way, folks.

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The structure of the family. God ordained one man, one woman to have children.

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The structure of the family. If you don't have a structure of a family, all of this doesn't make sense anyway.

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But in his ordained sovereignty, he established the family the way he wants it to be.

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If we attempt to live life outside of his sovereign will, we're gonna mess it up.

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We're gonna mess it up. Then we get into six. Six, we're talking about how we comport ourselves in the open marketplace, even as employees.

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Stan, this goes so strongly into what you were saying about a walk that is artificial, does not give credence to the testimony that you speak.

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What have you got in six, six? Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

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We're gonna get into that. And if your heart is devoted to God, if you're making yourself like God, you're imitating

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God, the way you behave, the way you comport, the way you talk to that neighbor that just gets under your skin, don't be a man pleaser, be as it would be doing the will of God from your heart.

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And 610 says, be strong in the Lord. So if you wanna take the other one that says, give no opportunity to the devil, dot, dot, dot, be strong in the

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Lord, now you got a really good screen saver. This is the book of Ephesians, and we are going to see how it starts out with your identity and it goes into your walk.

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Jeff, give me verses one and two. Ephesians one, one and two.

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is everything that we've just been saying summarized in two verses.

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First of all, we have Paul, he is an apostle called by God. Paul, who was

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Saul, who was a great persecutor and zealous for what he did, was changed on that road by the light and is now who

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Paul is, the apostle. Who is an amazing, an amazing person to follow.

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Written to the saints, written to us, written to the saints, those who are already faithful in Christ Jesus because the messages that Paul is going to have to give to you cannot be accomplished without the

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Holy Spirit in your life. We are not of the world, but we are in the world and our identity is changed by God so that we can walk by God.

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And the encouragement he has is grace to you and peace from God the

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are equipped by God. We're not on this alone, we're not in this alone.

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We have actions to take, but we get it from God. Close me off with you again with 19 and 20 of chapter two.

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So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Do you want to pray for me? Yeah. So Father, again, thank you so much for this opportunity to open the word and to hear about who we are in Christ and about the walk that you call us to.

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And so Lord, as we continue to study the word, we pray that we would be transformed by it, that you would make us more pleasing in your sight.

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And so Lord, we fall before the majesty of our great God in Jesus' name, amen.

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Amen, thank you. This is gonna be a great book. And we.